Going Raw for Milano City Marathon - Day 1

Next month is the Milano City Marathon (yep, that's Milan Italy, totally psyched).  So Sharon and I decided to prepare by going on a raw food diet, a diet based on uncooked and unprocessed food.  No item can be cooked above 104 degrees.  

Our plan was to cleanse our bodies, lose a couple of pounds (which we will most definitely pack during our trip to Italy) and in general discover a new (although temporary) way of eating.  We both have friends that have tried them before and decided to give it a go.  (If any of them reads this, please feel free to offer some recipes.  That goes for you Tim.)

Literature on this diet is plentiful on the internet, and there is also opposing views as to whether animal protein can or cannot be included.  Most sites include a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, nuts, raw grains and legumes, free of alcohol and caffeine and that may include eggs and milk products (as long as unpasteurized) as well as raw fish (sashimi, ceviche) and are meat (carpaccio, tartare).  Of course, chicken is out :-)

What I like the most is the challenge.  It really forces us to look at food completely differently.  A trip to the grocery store is very different when you can skip most of the aisles.  As we were planning it, I headed to Whole Foods for some help.  Almost by accident and right at the entrance I found a whole shelf of raw products.  Power bars, flaxseed crackers, granola, sweet potato chips (dehydrated rather than fried or baked), nut products and even cookies (made with dehydrated fruits, pressed nuts and carob).  I loaded on those at a pretty penny, but for sure the idea was to use those as a treat, to make it fun.  The full intent is to focus on fresh produce as well as lots of fresh fish and some raw beef tartare.

The cheese shop at Whole Foods was conveniently labeled indicating what cheeses had been made with pasteurized milk.  The selection of unpasteurized cheeses was small but sufficient.  We have been drinking almond milk for some time now, so we are good there, but were completely unable to find yogurt made from unpasteurized milk (I will confess that that is the one item we decided to cheat on... I was not ready to give up having a little bit of plain yogurt with berries, honey and granola after dinner.)

Day one was good.  Fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch and found a good recipe for Raw Zucchini Pad Thai (pictured below).  This was actually delicious.  Shredded zucchini, bean sprouts, red bell pepper, chopped almonds, cilantro, lime, olive oil, salt and pepper.  We will make it again and probably add some jalapeño.  

Raw Zucchini Pad Thai

A good start, but certainly challenging in that it is very limiting.  More so for us that will eat just about anything and enjoy eating out.  Will we last three weeks as planned?  Stay tuned.