Raw Summer Long

I'm going raw for the summer. That's right, summer is here, the old birthday is right around the corner, and I feel the need to challenge myself a bit more. I've never been much for New Year's resolutions, but in recent years I have taken on my own version of this idea at the summer's onset by challenging (and/or rewarding) myself with projects that are geared towards, in essence, building a better Joe (apologies for the third person reference; I usually don't think of myself in that way). The benefits that motivate these "gifts" are pretty simply & apparent: I want to be healthier, and do better things for the environment.

In order to be considered raw, one must consume at least 75% of a raw vegetable based diet, meaning only 25% of your intake can be processed & cooked above 118°F (48°C). As a vegan since the age of 15, most would assume that I'm already near that point anyway, right? Not exactly. Nowadays, it's all too easy to be lured into being a disengaged vegan, I don't mean a cheater who surreptitiously eats chocolate covered bacon (it exists!), but maybe a lazy one, who subsists on "junk-ish" foods that, sure, don't contain animal byproducts, but probably aren't the best things to offer your body. This is where we get into the growing popularity & convenience of meat analogues (i.e. veggie burgers, Tofurkey, & such), baked goods, & rice (navigating through the rocky balboa waters of vegan Japanese cuisine just got a bit trickier, eh?); even coffee beans are roasted, which means it's blacklisted like a suspected communist sympathizer during the McCarthy era, or at least relegated to the 25% section of the diet. By doing this experiment I'm rethinking the way—and indeed the why—I am vegan. So how strict am I going to be for this experiment? Probably pretty lenient, hovering, like a hummingbird sipping sweet nectar from the supple yellow pedals of an evening primrose on the fly, in the 70% vicinity. Regardless, it will still remain an interesting challenge to undertake. 

Sometime last year I picked up Thrive by Brandon Brazier, which is not entirely a raw vegan diet, but it's close, and specifically addresses the nutritional needs of athletes. There's a lot of interesting tidbits to be found about the benefits of consuming various nutrient dense plant-based foods, with a raw state of mind, and even a bunch of recipes that are pretty easy to follow. I'm not so much a fan of the meal plan section of the book, but I can see how some might find it nice to have a suggested guideline for how he would eat over the course of 12 weeks. I would have preferred it to contain photos of the prepared meals, but that's just the visual section of my mind craving aesthetic satisfaction, like putting  together LEGOs when I was a younger (notice I didn't say "kid"; 恥ずかしい), I like to prop up the box to see what I'm working towards. To be fair, some of my favorite cookbooks, like Veganomicon* & Vegan Planet, don't reserve much, if any, space for photos either. Probably most important for beginners, he urges a more graceful transition into going raw (or just whenever changing your diet), rather than a Eyes Wide Shut cannonball dive into the deep end when you're not exactly sure how to swim, and the lifeguard is busy playing Angry Birds on his smartphone. 

I am curious how this shift will affect my distance running. Obviously, I'm hoping for an improvement, but since raw tends to have a lower carb intake than I'm used to, I'm going to have to proceed with careful consideration if I notice any drastic decline in my performance level, but I have a feeling this won't be a problem if I'm eating right. Ladies & Gentlemen, let the great experiment begin. 


Footnotes:
*Also worth checking out is Vegan with a Vengeance by coauthor Isa Chandra Moskowitz.