Snacks!! and an update..

My goodness, I haven't written in nearly a week because I've been so busy! I did feel that it was important for me to address something though, in regards to calories. On one of my past posts I mentioned I was only getting about half the calories I should have been eating...and that's bad! I would never encourage anyone to eat that little of food, but I wasn't feeling very well that week, so I wasn't very hungry. I think that it's hard for a lot of raw foodists to get in the daily nutrients/calories (unless you're eating cocao butter pie), so I thought I might post some snacks that are easy and tasty, to help meet those needs. I should say, however, that when we're eating the foods that are the best for our bodies, calories shouldn't be first on our minds, rather, we should be focusing more on eating enough of these good foods.

Good snacks!: (these calorie counts are all approximate)

Stalk of celery, or 6 baby carrots with 2 TBS raw almond butter - 210-230 calories

6 average whole wheat crackers w/ 2 TBS almond butter - 310 calories
(if you choose to eat raw crackers I don't know the calorie count, but it won't matter much because they are healthier)

6 whole wheat crackers with slice of tomato, avocado, and 1 olive - 160 calories

Sweet potato chips (1 sweet potato, sliced thin, dehydrated with 1 Tbs olive oil and salt) - 180 calories

1 sliced apple with 2 Tbs almond butter - 250 calories

1 tangerine with handful of walnuts - 360 calories

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I also invented 2 new recipes today! I know, me invent recipes? That's unpossible! I will test them and share if they end up good!

Anyway, an update on how things are....well, I wanted to list some benefits that I've noticed so far, after being mostly raw for 3 weeks:
- Skin is softer and more supple
- No insomnia
- I am not depressed, my mood is balanced (even despite the fact that it's mid-winter!)
- digestive upsets are gone, no gas or indigestion
- eyes are brighter, teeth and gums healthier
- not tired during the day
- improved memory
- not stuffy when I wake up

Also, 2 strange things happened to me yesterday. First, I actually got a "happy buzz" off eating a carrot! Usually I only feel that way after eating chocolate chip cookies, but I swear, when I was eating my salad my body had the same "yay!" reaction. It was odd! Another strange thing is that I found out I really truly like spinach! Who would have thunk it? I am starting to crave vegetables, and I want them more than fruit even. I haven't even thought about chocolate lately, my carob powder keeps me satisfied! It's so weird because I used to be able to eat a bucketfull of sugar every day, but now even sweetener like honey is too strong sometimes. I've found that as much as I love fruit, I really can't eat a ton of it without feeling way bloated. Also, I don't like eating it past lunchtime either, it just doesn't seem appetizing. Weird! Lots of weird (I like that word) things seem to be happening to me, when I really think about it, but overall I still feel pretty much normal!

I feel like my body is cycling through my addictions, getting rid of each, one at a time. My first one was caffeine, which wasn't too hard to get over, and I really don't miss soda at ALL. It's much, much too sweet for me, and I won't touch aspartame. Next was sugar, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, thanks to natural sweeteners, fruit, and my friend carob, lol. Now that my need for sugar has pretty much passed, I think my body has moved on to salt. It seems like I still have to put salt on most everything just for it to taste good, and not bland. I am going to try experimenting with herbs and spices so that I can get lots of flavor without the need for salt. I've already avoided much of it by not eating packaged and processed food. I wonder if there is such thing as a fat addiction? I read somewhere that when people crave meat they are most always just craving fat, so maybe there is such a thing. I wonder if that's next for me?