T-Minus Two Days

We've decided to officially start on Monday. In the meantime, we've been easing into our diet, experimenting with products* and recipes, and emptying our fridge of things we don't want tempting us during the next thirty days. I've been focusing a lot on guacamole, salsa, smoothies and dehydrated bananas. At the moment, we're enjoying the things we'll miss the most. As I sit here slogging down an ice-cold Surly Furious**, Kelly is bartering for a bottle of tonic water at the corner convenience store.

*One of those products

**Perhaps what I will miss the most. Goodnight, sweet prince.

All that aside, I've realistically been about 80-90% raw for the last few days. On a couple of those days, my only cadaverous, non-living food has been some whole wheat Saltines to go with the tomato salsa I made in the super blender.

I've noticed a couple things: 1) My appetite has gone down and I feel pretty good after my morning smoothie; and 2) Later in the day, I feel like I used to feel every time my parents brought me to a rodeo at the Met Center when I was a kid. People and objects appear as distant mirages, and I can't focus enough to really read and comprehend anything (as a child, the problem was more about just not knowing what the alphabet was yet). I'm lightheaded and disoriented.

I have no idea why I'm feeling off, but my guess is that I'm either: 1) Just taking in fewer calories than I'm using now, so my body has abandoned the higher brain functions in favor of basic tasks like keeping my heart beating; 2) Just missing a key nutrient that I was getting before; or 3) Going through some weird detoxification transition as conspiratorial chemicals are flushed away by fruits and vegetables and I metamorphosize into an uberhuman cherub who will begin aging in reverse.

I think I'm probably just not eating enough, and to counteract that, we're going to continue to experiment with more substantial recipes. We're also on a hunt for containers so we can begin sprouting***. More later.

***A sprouting container

-Nathan

Background

When Nathan wrote in the tagline that I've "always had a thing for fruits and vegetables", he means since around the time he met me, about 2 1/2 years ago. I grew up never thinking about what I ate, which was pretty much a standard American diet. In college I didn't know how to cook and don't even remember what I ate, but it had to be mostly pre-packaged. I remember being amazed when I studied abroad in Budapest and my Israeli roommates effortlessly made spaghetti sauce from scratch - they were amazed that I would ever buy it in a jar. Up until recently I had only a vague idea what kale was.

There's no point when I drastically changed my diet, it happened over time after reading numerous articles about the benefits of eating whole, unprocessed foods, and realizing that I don't want unpronounceable crap made in a lab going into my body.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no food elitist. I don't like strict rules. I love egg and cheese sandwiches. I believe a strong whiskey manhattan is a cure for pretty much anything. More than a few people have heard me rave about White Castle's chicken sandwiches (especially after a long night at the Otter). We're real people with normal desk jobs who are just ready for a change and hopefully a fun and beneficial month long experiment.

p.s. these pics of us were taken May 2007 at an incredibly yummy cafe in Germany.

Before meeting Kelly, I was a 30-something law student who considered Burger King comfort food. I've always been fairly active: I worked as a firefighter for a number of years, and I lift weights periodically. Now, I'm a 34 y/o desk-jockied attorney who is sucking in his stomach in photos for the first time.

I love beer (Surly Furious) and I'm always willing to prove it. I prefer motorcycling to bicycling. I eat whatever is available. It's a mere coincidence that Kelly happens to stock our fridge with things that don't come with warning labels.

I get that all of this is a problem for a guy who is going through that next great bodily tranformation that occurs 20 years after puberty. If I let things head where they are trending, I'm not sure I'll be able to stop the gelatinous inertia. Let's just say I'm in the sort of neurotic physiological mindset that leaves me more open than usual to major lifestyle changes.

This raw food diet was her idea, but I like what I'm reading, and I'm optimistic. She wants me to live longer, and I want to leave as attractive a corpse as possible. So, here we go. Gentlemen, start your blenders.