I hate wheatgrass

I don't like the word hate, so let's just say I have a strong dislike for wheatgrass that sends me running from the room screaming.

It's funny how people don't like certain foods, and others do, or is that just me who finds it funny? I guess it's normal. I know someone who doesn't like chocolate, a lot of people who don't like avocados, another who hates milk, and someone else who detests anything with cumin added.

I have my own personal likes and dislikes, and to me this poses the question "Can I be raw if I dislike certain raw foods?" But before I answer this question, I'm going to give an example of 10 year old Felicity's dislikes and likes, and the present Felicity's dislikes and likes.

10 year old Felicity hated:

Asparagus, mushrooms, brown bread, salad, vegetable soup, porridge, tomatoes.

10 year old Felicity loved:
Candy (and lots of it), white bread, crackers, cookies, fried food, coke, waffles, potatoes, sausages, pasta.

As you can see, my former self wasn't exactly healthy... I sure liked my starchy, fatty, sugary food. I don't blame myself, fatty and sugary food appeals to primal urges -- yes. We are programmed to be attracted to that kind of food, because when we were all cave men those were the rarest foods in nature while also being the foods that provided the most sustenance. In brief, we are programmed to go for the biggest slice of cake. Most of my friends ate similarly to me, but it seemed that I was the only one who it reflected on; I was overweight, and my skin was bad from an unusually young age.

16 year old Felicity hates:

Any fast food, white bread, artificially colored food, asparagus (some things never change), coke, coffee, wheatgrass, spicy food, sprouts, blueberries.

16 year old Felicity loves:
raw chocolate ice cream, mushrooms, raw chocolate cake, raw pasta, essene bread, raw sushi, juice, kale, salad, avocados, pineapple, young thai coconuts, walnuts, miso soup, oranges, pears, apples, kiwi, raspberries, strawberries, chia, goji berries.

You'll probably see I dislike wheatgrass and sprouts, what sort of a vegan am I?! This is where the question comes into, well, question. When I first went raw my mum was so convinced I was going to die without all this protein that she made me a lentil sprout smoothie, but didn't blend it very well. I sat at the table crying for an hour like a 2 year old forced to finish my dinner, but in the end I managed to eat and keep down this smoothie. Of course, I don't hold it against my mum, she has my best interests at heart, but I specifically remember her saying, "You can't eat like this if you don't like sprouts." I happen to hate sprouts, they make my mouth taste... like a sprout, which to me tastes like fresh green colored air. Same goes for wheatgrass. I tried some, and my mouth smelt like a lawn for what felt like an eternity afterwards.

Another thing about my list is that I noticed that my 10 year old 'like' list is completely different from my 16 year old 'like' list, which is a lot more balanced and varied. I noticed that when I went raw I was trying more foods that I'd never bothered to try before, and realized that all the time whilst eating a typical diet that I'd never ventured to eat anything other than meals I'd been eating my whole life which usually were comprised of meat, something starchy, and some dead looking vegetables. In other words, I realized that pre-raw I ate the most boring and bland looking diet on the planet.

Another point is that some people don't like certain foods because they were served the food 'wrong'. For example, my best friend hates ALL salad with a passion because she has never actually had a salad that didn't taste like it had already been eaten. Sometimes we hate foods because we were served it up in a disgusting way. The sad thing is that a lot of healthy foods are made wrong! Raw food is so versatile and tasty, but when you see 'healthy' salads and fruit salads at a restaurant they usually look and taste like cardboard. I think better education on how to prepare good healthy food really is required!

But all in all, I think that even if you don't like sprouts (this is referring to me, haha) you CAN still eat a raw vegan diet, there are still millions of other delicious things to make up for a lack of one thing.

Peace,

Felic x
P.S. What foods do you hate?

I'm Back!

Hai!

I know I've been gone for ages, and I'm sorry ):

I have many reasons:

- I had school

- I was working

- The dog ate it

- I ate it

But I have many good newses to share with you guiz!

1. It's summer, we have many many raspberries, strawberries, and the other day a friend dropped over a HUGE box of cherries, YUMMMM.

2. I met another raw teeeeen!! Her name is Ashley, and I had been following her blog, after finding her on some forum that I was trolling for raw teens. I know I may sound like a bit of a freak, but I like to think that I can get away with it because I am 15, not 50. Anyway, she posted that she was coming to New Zealand, and I commented and asked where, and she said she was coming to the city that I lived in! I was so excited and we planned to meet, which we did, and we visited a raw café together and had a bit of a feast.

Mexican Salad which I had

Sushi, and Chocolate drink (formerly known as the Mayan Magic Chocolate)

The falafel that Ashley had

Ashley eating. Verrry... Sloooowly, haha.

Ashley radiated health and positivity, and she had beautiful clear skin.

Read her post about the occasion here, and be sure to follow her blog about her NZ travels here! On a side note, her pictures of New Zealand are amazing and capture it's full glory, so everyone come and visit me!

3. I haven't actually been trying many new raw foods recently, BUT we did buy a spiralizer just yesterday! It is very cool, and we are waiting on our first zucchini to make some damn good pasta!

{source}

4. I told a few people at work that I was vegan, (and I told one of them that I was actually a raw vegan). Anyway, the shop was quiet for a bit, and I sat down and yawned. My co-worker, bless her, asked me if I was iron deficient. If I was iron deficient how would I be able to bike 5.5km/3.4 miles twice (yes, I did look it up) in the sweltering heat? Maybe it was because I mentioned how I was slightly exhausted when I walked in, but it doesn't mean I need a steak?! I'm sure if I went in tomorrow and said that I had decided to eat meat a few times a week she'd leave me alone in a second! I'm not the most sporty person around, I used to be, but I just don't do that stuff anymore. But we don't own a car, so I have to do exercise all the time to get to places. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I ended up proving that I was far from iron deficient: I carried Christmas trees to peoples cars, and as a result, I have stabby stab marks up my arms. -__-

We sell Nutcrackers like these - they are my favorite!

5. My school year has ended for the year, no, that has nothing to do with raw foods, but I'm pretty stoked about it.

6. I was wondering, if anyone has any suggestions about topics for me to post about, PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME! I am looking for inspiration, and you may have noticed I have not posted for awhile. Sometimes I am not always financially able to post about recipes that I have tried, so if there are topics that you think I should talk about, let me know!

And that's about it I think.

Peace and raw food,

Felic Pear x

Exciting Updates!

Recently, I sort of lost my love of creating raw food at home. I still loved trying other people's raw food though. Just me, personally, had lost the excitement. There will always be good and bad people in the world, and I just have to try to not let them influence me. I shall explain further.

When I first started being raw I would eat cake and ice cream at every meal. I hadn't eaten that sort of thing in a long time, due to not eating sugar for 5 years. It may have been slightly unhealthy, but at the time I was new to raw, and the food tasted so good and was so good for me! I was feeling alive, happy, well, health issues went, and loving the fact that I could eat cake and not worry, because in fact I was losing weight!

Then I logged onto the internet (as you do). Big mistake. I felt like I was being shouted at by a million different raw food 'gurus', being told that what was feeling so good to me was completely wrong, and that I was going to die a slow and painful death (or words to that effect).

Of course, there were nice people online too, telling me that whatever I was eating was good because it was raw, and that everyone was different, and what may work for others was not specifically for me. But I couldn't shake other people's negativity.

But recently something great has happened! I'm back to my old self! I don't even know what it was, but suddenly I have that feeling in my stomach, a fluttering, that just makes me feel like that good things are going to happen! I've got that love of creating food back, and I have major plans!

So with this new positive mind, I logged onto Flikr, and created an account. Here is the link. I also spent my morning looking through the millions of raw recipes that I have, and decided on a few which I would like to create.

Today is also my best friend Josh's birthday, and I have decided on a great present, which I think he might possibly like. For those who don't know, Josh has been an amazing support during my raw journey, and is surprisingly open minded to raw foods. I'm lucky to have him as a friend, as a bonus he is hilarious. Happy birthday, Josh. :)

And even more exciting news, I tracked down the website for my favorite (ever) chocolate bar, ordered some bars, and I am going to review them when they arrive. If you want to order one or two feel free to email me at felic.pear@gmail.com. More information on that later though.

I would actually just like to do a review of one of my favorite blogs at the moment, Really Raw by Raederle. Her blog has so many features, a recipe section, articles, polls, q & a, etc! I really like it because I think a lot of her opinions she voices very fairly, but still comes to a healthy conclusion which supports raw living. You should definitely check it out!

I have found so many beautiful recipes that I would love to create within the next few weeks. So what if some of them are nut-based? You only live once, you may as well enjoy it.

Being a teenager is horrendous.

But being a Raw-Vegan teenager is even more horrendous, lol NAH it's not really.

I've been quite used to rejecting other peoples food, because I haven't eaten sugar in 5 years, but this is just a new level of... eating.

I'm going to my friends place for a sleepover next Friday. So of course I started to freak out. What was I going to say? Her family is Indian, and love food... was I going to offend them all by turning their food down?

So what did I do? As difficult as it was, I called my friend, and explained in the simplest most non-descript way possible about my new eating habits.

Me: Um, you know the way I, um, you know, eat a bit strange?
Her: Yeah? Why?
Me: Would it offend your mum if I brought my own food to your place on Friday on account of the fact that I have health issues and cannot eat any other food except meat free, dairy free, egg free, sugar free, wheat free, and uncooked?
Her: Well I'm sure we could cook you something...
Me: No, it's fine, I'll bring my own.

So as awkward as it was, it made me feel a bit better. I'm planning on bringing fruits for dinner and breakfast... not very conventional, but she doesn't even eat breakfast, so meh.

I think people think I'm a bit strange with my Raw-Vegan eating. Especially because of my age. I should be out drinking and smoking. But it is honestly incredibly unappealing to me. I think people pity me a bit as well. But really, if I were them I wouldn't waste their pity! My menu today? Breakfast was Stylishly Strawberried Sorbet, Lunch was Chocolate Wonder-cake, with Fudge sauce, Dinner was a Green Smoothie (But in camoflage, because I added a lot of cocao). As you may have guessed, I have a bit of a Chocolate Addiction.

I have been 100% Raw for quite sometime now. At first I tried rather feebly to eat cooked food, but now I'm just 100% everyday. Cooked food is a drag, and doesn't taste as good as it once did. But I know a lot of people love cooked food, and don't really believe Raw Food, or the lifestyle.

That's another thing, people think it's waaay too difficult to stay Raw-Vegan, all day every day. It's not really. I get freaked out a bit when I think of the future. But the one saying that calms me down everytime is "Take it ONE DAY at a time". I dunno, that just puts it in perspective. In the mornings I plan what I want to eat. (Yes, what I WANT to eat). I don't plan any further than that. So tomorrow for Breakfast I'm having Cream o' Buckwheat, Lunch is Chocolate "Soup" at the Raw Vegan Cafe, and dinner is Chocolate Cake at home. And lots of fruit in between. But if I think any further than that, it starts to get scary.

Anyway, I'm going to post about how to Sprout if You're Cheap (Like Me). Because Sprouts are a great healthy option. I admit, I don't exactly salivate when I think about them, but if you throw them into a smoothie or cake, you get the goodness without the sometime revolting taste (though surprisingly they sometimes do taste good).

Felic Pear x