See Ya Later, Maggie

In the beginning of August, I gave up sugar.  A couple of days later, I began eating a raw diet.  I continued to eat a primarily raw diet for a few weeks.

Someone recently asked me, "Are you still on that crazy diet?  Do you still not eat X, Y and Z?"  How it has panned out for me is this:  Eating raw was great and I loved what I learned about it.  I bought into the concept that uncooked food contains healthy enzymes and nutrients which are not destroyed because they are not cooked.  After doing it for a few weeks, I definitely felt better.  But it just wasn't realistic for me to eat like that all the time.  I like to eat out at restaurants with friends and family.  Sometimes I just want to eat something cooked.

What eating raw did do for me is to get my body used to and craving, yes, craving vegetables and fruit (before this, I rarely ate a piece of fruit).  I eat often throughout the day and it is usually vegetables, fruit and nuts during the day (ever had a Lara Bar?  take a look at the ingredients).  Absurd amounts of fruit.  I eat other things I want to eat, but what winds up happening is that I don't choose to deprive myself of certain things.  Instead, I eat things that I want and make me feel good.  At dinner, I eat cooked food, veggies, fish, chicken and I have had less and less cravings for meat (I rarely ate meat before, but I loved a good burger).

Basically, right now, I am eating what my body tells me to eat.  I went to Le Pain Quotidien the other day and had a decaf soy latte, fruit, smoked salmon and bread.  That's what I wanted so that's what I ate.

One thing I do resist is sugar.  Being off it, though, I don't really need to "resist" it.  Usually, I find I want it more out of habit than anything else.  Despite my earlier aversion to agave, I eat it now.  Couple that with cacao powder, coconut, dates and nuts, there are some pretty good brownies out there, believe it or not.

So, in my old neighborhood, I started walking by my favorite cupcake shop, Crumbs, without too much pain.  Now, it's Magnolia.  Maggie for short.  See ya later, Maggie.