Sugar Shock

  Gasp! A blog post about resolutions! How original.

  While I won't exhaust you with a list of all that I hope to change, achieve, accomplish in 2011, I am working on a project that I think some may be interested in. In my ongoing effort to improve my health and fitness and to satisfy the science nerd in me with an experiment, I am choosing to spend the month of January on a diet of raw food. This is more of a detox plan than any sort of weight loss initiative but, having been curious about eating raw for a long time, and with my insane travel schedule finally dying down for a while, I decided that January was as good a month as any to give it a shot. There are a lot of books/articles written on the health benefits of going raw. If you're curious about some of them and what eating raw means, click here.
  I've had a bit of an obsession develop in the last year or two. I love reading about food! I find this amusing because I am not a "foodie" and could really care less about what I eat or how it tastes, which I think evolved when I was rowing crew and began to see food more strictly as an energy source than something to be enjoyed for it's appearance or even flavor. This has been a good thing in that I am perfectly happy with just about anything set before me. It has also led to my eating more junk/refined sugars that are just convenient rather than being completely thoughtful about where I'm getting that energy.
  I have now been a vegetarian for a little over three years and have really come to appreciate the effect that change has made in my life. I have more energy, spend less time worrying about calories (meat dishes are often the same ones with think sauces/high fat content) and it takes an awful lot of food for me to get "stuffed." I suppose that I am now in a process of finding the next diet shift to improve my overall heath.
  Raw may not stick beyond this month. I anticipate that eating out will be nearly impossible and that I will need to be carrying more food with me for dinners with friends and cravings. I would suppose I'll find myself eating constantly as roughage doesn't fill for long BUT I am really excited to discover what, if anything, will change in my body. Will I have more energy? Will I be a better athlete? Will my body "crash" coming entirely off processed foods and refined sugars? Will I actually die from giving up coffee (this may be my biggest concern)? Will my grocery budget need to double in size? Will I even be able to find all that I want/need to be eating for a balanced diet up here in my small mountain community?
  In our world of toxic environment...chemicals in water, air, land...and growing cancer rates, infertility rates etc, I feel food is one of the last strongholds that I have a choice in. I am choosing what goes into my body (sorry for about 20 of those years, body). Thankfully, I have not dealt with many health maladies to date but that doesn't mean that I'm immune to them and won't someday have to stare something scary in the face. I guess I'd like to look back and know that I did everything I could to take care of my body before something goes wrong.
  So, I have a few friends who lived this diet for a while and am anxious to solicit their input and support. I will also be reading the following books over the month in an attempt to round out my education (no book is the end all-be all but they're a jumping off point):
The Food Revolution
Sugar Shock
The Raw Food Detox Diet