thanksgiving and beyond–raw food

well, another thanksgiving has come and gone. i had a fabulous time with my veggie friends in brooklyn! after we ate, we danced and danced and danced. what fun! the kids are now certified party animals. “we got the funk!”

that was a week ago. here’s how it went:

– i knew i couldn’t stay raw for the holiday, so i ate more cooked food pre-thanksgiving.

– on thanksgiving morning, i prepared all 3 dishes:  1. broccoli with EVOO, garlic, rosemary, and sun-dried tomatoes. it was delicious as usual. (my arms are long, so i have no problem patting my own back.) 2. vegan black-eyed peas. i’m so proud of this dish because it’s not easy getting southern-style dishes traditionally seasoned with meat to really rock. well, these peas ROCKED! 3. jennifer cornbleet’s amazing raw southern greens dish embellished by yours truly. this was the first time i prepared this dish for our veggie dinner and it was a huge hit! thank you, ms. cornbleet! raw kale never tasted so good.

– i hadn’t had tofu in a while and nik-nik’s barbeque tofu was hard to resist. so i didn’t. took some home and fnished it on friday. hadn’t had any tofu in over a month, but friday i felt fine.

– i started craving rice macaroni and soy cheese, so i found out how to make the cheese sauce and i gave in. that was saturday and i had the rest sunday night. but sunday is when i acknowledged that i was sluggish. the sluggishness continued all week. i knew it was going to be able to quickly go back to raw, so i gave myself until the end of the week to work on it.

– today was mostly raw and i had a lot of energy in the morning after my green smoothie. i’m glad to no longer feel like i have to indulge my every cooked food fantasy. hopefully i’m back to eating mostly raw until i leave for the holidays.

so it’s now clear to me that eating cooked veggie food opens the door to more cooked food cravings. this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but i hope to be able to get back to a mostly raw diet quicker next year. maybe that way i can avoid the dreaded sluggishness.