Food and Exercise Log 6-24-17

Food:

Fresh squeezed orange juice

Longan
Banana

Coconut water

Papaya
Mountain apples

Half of a large pineapple
Some of my apple, date, celery dish from a few days ago
A little broccoli and cauliflower **

Exercise:

Darrel and I went to the Mayor-A-Thon today. It was fun! :)

It's a community events put on by the county, and heavily sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, Gieko, and local businesses.

It's not a race, more like a fitness and social family event.

You pick the length you go: anywhere up to 8 miles. They have turn around points marked for various lengths.  You can run, walk, bike, roller blade on the cement path that goes along the shoreline.

We walked and ran this time...I think it was 4-7 miles, not sure...didn't pay attention to length, was noting time to turn around in order to get back for prizes and zumba. We were out on the path for 2 hours. They have contests like hula hoop, cooperative group teams, etc for prizes...and drawings for other prizes...and zumba... and food served (yes, including fruit usually).. all free.

Pretty nifty. I got and ate the longan and banana there. I had the OJ on the drive into the event.

Then we went home and changed clothes for fieldwork at the refuge. I drank some coconut water then. We were out walking the field solid for a bit over an hour. There were no sick or dead birds, so it was a good day. :)

Then we went home again and I had the papaya and mountain apples.

**At dinner Darrel and I split a large pineapple, and he steamed some frozen broccoli and cauliflower in one level and frozen spinach and almonds on another. I ate my apple, date, celery dish while he had his food with mustard. He had about a cup or two of broccoli and cauliflower left that he hadn't served yet, and was too full to eat it. I ate it. Yes, that's right, I had some non-raw broccoli and cauliflower. Yes, not my ideal dietwise, and not 100% raw 100% of the time like I had been for over a decade. It is a long story how I pierced the 100% raw thing, and I will do a YouTube about it sometime.

Suffice it to say: I still believe 100% raw is probably best for me, and I have experienced the best health and vitality when doing so. Diet is only one aspect of health though, and I have other things I am focusing on more right now. Given the way my life is right now, this feels like the best balance for me. I prefer all raw and am working to get my life balance such that it works for me to do so. In the meantime, I do have some steamed veggies or dehydrated things at times.

I have never been convinced that dehydrating food is actually what I would consider raw. I have always felt better when I eat fresh foods, not dehydrated, not frozen, and that's how I ate for many years successfully. I am not certain that lightly steaming things for short periods of time is much different or worse than dehydrating them for longer periods of time.

One of the reasons raw is so good for us is the water content contained in the food naturally, so perhaps eating something more wet from steaming is actually better in that way than something dried. Yes, there's the temperatures involved, and certain vitamins are destroyed by heat... however I'm eating veggies primarily for their minerals. As far as I know, minerals don't get destroyed by heat.

There's the proteins and carbs that get messed with from the heat too, but I am wondering how much that comes into play with steaming vs dehydrating... and if the water content benefit helps offset it. I really don't know.

The main point here is: seems to me there's no doubt eating things entirely raw is better healthwise for me, but whether dehydrating or steaming are all that different than each other..or whether they can be healthy too is not clear to me. So, whatever the case, I try to avoid dehydrating and steaming, but will do one or the other now with vegetables at times when quality fresh raw vegetables and greens in the quantities I like are not as available to me, and haven't been for long enough. The video will explain this in relation to my life and go into this more.