My Raw Diet: Week 1

I suffered an unfortunate ankle accident over the Fourth of July this year and was on crutches for a good portion of the summer. I couldn't go outside and I couldn't exercise. For weeks I stayed insided, cooked, ate and when it was all said and done I gained about ten elbees.

Now it is fall and already the weather has cooled down. When I go to work early in the morning for my baker's shift at 5 am I wear a sweatshirt. My ankle is healed and I can exercise again but I need to change my diet if I really wanted to get some weight off. Enter the raw diet experiment.

I lost a lot of weight in college due to a dramatic change in diet because of a medication I was taking. I wasn't drinking and I was exercising a few times a week and the pounds melted away quicker than foie gras in a hot pan. Not being able to drink in college was brutal and my driver designation had me swearing I'd never give up the sauce again.

I had read a little bit about raw diets before and I always thought it was a cool idea. 'Eat only living foods' sounds like a pretty good mantra to me if that's your thing. I've been a carnivore my entire life and have known to kneel to the awesome power of bacon but I am committed to losing some more weight and this trial diet time of one month won't be so bad.

I had to outline some parameters if I wanted to do this right. Here's my mission:

a. If a meat loving, beer drinking, overweight chef who not only loves cooking but makes his livelihood from it can not only stick to but enjoy a raw diet for one month then anybody can.

b. What I hope to gain is an appreciation for raw ingredients: fruits and vegetables in their natural state, from the ground to my mouth. I think it will not only give me a greater appreciation for food but for nature and our closest connection to it in the way we eat.

c. I hope to lose weight consuming entirely raw vegetables and fruits through a radical change in diet. Most people don’t stick to diets because they cheat and do not deviate enough from their own food habits put in place from years of eating a certain way.

d. I hope to not only improve my physical health but my mental health as well by strengthening my resolve and testing every food choice I have ever made.

e. This diet will be a test of my culinary mettle as well to see if I can make raw ingredients edible simply by cutting and combining them. No heat allowed.

These are the rules:

a. Nothing cooked can be consumed for thirty (30) days beginning September 1, 2009 and ending September 30, 2009. No cooked meat, no cooked vegetables, fruit, or starch.

b. No bread or pastas. No cooked potatoes, rice or other grains. No cooked eggs, raw egg yolks in salad dressings are okay. No cooked packaged products. No sauces or condiments that have been cooked.

c. No sodas, packaged drinks, coffee or hot tea. No canned or frozen fruit or vegetables. No ice cream, though sorbet is allowed. No processed white or brown sugar. No cereal or oatmeal. No fast food.

d. Yes to (unsmoked) cheeses, milk, yogurt and other dairy. Yes to uncooked vegetables and meat (carpaccio or sashimi). Yes to cured and/or dried meats like charcuterie and jerky. Yes to raw vegetables and fruit. Yes to honey. Yes to raw nuts. Yes to oil, vinegar and fruit juices.

e. Because I will not be able to cook any of the food I will be eating I will seek out the best tasting ingredients and that means what is in season, what is fresh and what is probably locally sourced.

f. Each week I will document what I have eaten as well as how I feel about the diet and how it is affecting my body and life in general.

This week I ate:

Hazelnuts, prunes and strawberries. Mangoes, an avocados, some cantaloupe and watermelon at work. Salad with tomatoes, tomatillos, corn, Florida avocados and habanero goat cheese. Tomatillo, goat cheese and flax stuffed zucchini flowers on a salad. A banana and peanut butter smoothie. Stuffed peppers with spicy corn salad was the best meal all week but tonight I've got sliced fluke. My first taste of animal flesh in four days.