Day 90: Smoothie Request

Over the past 3 months of so, I've received some pretty peculiar requests to blog about. I've responded to couple and have ignored several!

The most recent request I've received (via a couple of friends) was to include more smoothie recipes. I've collected these recipes from a couple of sources and have selected ones with ingredients easily found in local grocery stores.

Winter smoothie

1 cup frozen berries (any kind)

2 cups fresh spinach

1/4 inch fresh ginger

Water

Choc-mint

2 cups of spinach

10-12 mint leaves

3 bananas

2 table spoons carob powder (found at the herbs and spices shop at any Co-op)

1 cup of water

Yellow & Spice

1/2 head romaine lettuce

1 small pineapple

1 large mango

1 inch fresh ginger

O-mega

3 cups wild purslane (google it)

1 small watermelon

3 limes, juiced

Applesauce

4 apples

1 banana

1 head romaine lettuce

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups of water

Enjoy!!

xoxo

Day 89: Quarterly report

I've marked it on my calendar and I can't help but look at the big NINE - O. But what makes it significant and how is it different than the past 89 days?

Well, I think it may be partially related to my profession. In the corporate world, the end of each quarter is a new beginning in terms of both financial performance and operations. We REVIEW TARGETS set in the beginning of year, COMPARE them with our performance and UPDATE our goals.

REVIEW:

Back in December, I mentioned that I intend to be on a Raw Vegan life style for 365 days which excludes all food of animal origin and all food cooked above 48 degree Celsius.

COMPARE:

So, I maintained that for 86 days before the hiccup, when I introduced cooked vegan food as 5%-10% of my daily food intake. That happened because I somewhat disregarded the importance of including all the necessary nutrients and ended up resorting to intravenous therapy. Overall, I'd rate myself "Below Expectations".

Mama, if you're reading this STOP HERE.

UPDATE:

I NEED to go back to 100% raw because I REALLY want to. I'm expected to have blood work done again tomorrow, and I'll get some supplements depending on my deficiencies.

I could also get check-ups by the end of every month to avoid any future hiccups waiting the happen.

(Sounds like a plan right?)

Aside from that, I think I've done overall pretty good and I love it. Without this quarter of a success, I'm an average Jane; snooze button and all.

Day 88: Chocolate shake

Forgetting about my recent impartiality towards chocolate, I grabbed this on my way to work this morning.

According to Alpro Soya, it contains 3.3 grams of protein and 15% of my daily intake of Vitamin B12. Its also contains a conservative 70 calories.

Sounds like a great alternative for choco-holics out there if you ask me.

P.S I found it at Geant in 360 mall.

Day 87: Protein

Now that I got that off of my chest, I could look forward to the remaining 278 days to come!

In an attempt to focus on my nutritional deficiencies in the 5%-10% of cooked food that I have set to consume per day, I started looking for some vegan alternatives for my deficiencies.

My main focus for now will be Protein. Despite several arguments, it's very easy to meet the protein recommendations per day without consuming animal products. According to the RDA, a person should have 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram that he/she weighs.

I haven't consumed the RDA requirement yet but I did have a cup of oatmeal which is equivalent to 6 grams of protein (not close to enough).

Here's a list* of other vegan alternatives I could have, most of which have to be cooked to consume:

*Click on the image to enlarge

For more information you could check out The Vegetarian Resource Group.

Day 85-86: Hanging from the wagon

Whoever asked for a twist in this 'challenge', you've got it right here:

Over the past week or so since I began my iron IV course, I've been getting a lot of pressure from friends and family and most importantly, my mother, to quit this challenge. I also had several accusations on how I'm not getting the right nutrients, enough nutrients or any nutrients at all.

The reason I say 'most importantly' when I refer to my mother is that she took up certain extremes to impede achieving my challenge. One of the quite hilarious extremes was 'grounding' me until I had something cooked.

So I decided to reduce my raw vegan intake down to 85%-90% while introducing vegan (cooked) additions in the remaining percentage.

I'm sure my mother would like to think that I owe my health and well-being to her (like all mothers do), but my decision was taken as a result of an accumulative of factors.

One of the healthiest factors being; mixing up what I eat. I've been eating almost the same type and amount of food over the past 85 days.

As you've already witnessed in previous posts, I've been having everything from nuts to leaves to fruits to sprouts. My body has been getting used to it and I'm running out raw alternatives.

For this reason (among others), I plan to continue to add healthy cooked vegan options as 0.5 - 0.75 of the 5 small meals I have throughout the day.

And now for the FAQs:

Since I've already shared this update with a couple of my friends, here are some of the questions that I've answered:

What did you first eat?

Lentil Soup.

How did it taste?

Like nothing, my taste buds are long gone.

What else did you try?

A piece of vegan (dairy-free) chocolate. I think my addiction to chocolate has been cured.

Are you going to continue your challenge?

Yes, I plan on going 100% raw most days throughout the year.

Why aren't you stuffing your face with cooked food?

Because I'll get sick, I don't feel like it, I'm not craving any cooked food and I think I'm now used to eating only when I need to 'fuel up'.

And that's about it. I'll be sharing more questions whenever they arise. Feel free to ask questions yourself!

Day 84: Save our planet

On my way to work today, I produced around 2,370 gallons of CO2 emissions.

Now imagine how much greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the hundreds of thousands people going to work this morning in Kuwait alone. Must be a lot right?

Well, according to the Paul McCartney Foundation, meat production is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions- more than transport.

For that reason, environmentalists and campaigners are urging people to eat less meat using the slogan "Less meat = Less Heat".

Check out recent coverage on the campaign and accusations by clicking here and here.

All a better reason to go vegetarian (or even vegan) if you ask me.

Day 83: Malnutrition (continued)

After an insightful comment from LJ, I decided to continue researching for possibilities of malnutrition while going raw vegan.

As mentioned by LJ, I'm probably not having a sufficient daily allowance of Vitamin B12 because its sources are mainly meat, chicken, seafood and dairy products.

Deficiency in Vitamin B12 can result in macrocytic anemia, elevated homocysteine, peripheral neuropathy, memory loss and other cognitive defects. It can also cause symptoms of mania and psychosis. In rare extreme cases, paralysis can result.

Not wanting develop any of those symptoms (or an extreme case of those symptoms), I decided to look up the sources of Vitamin B12 and possible supplements.

According to the National Institute of Health, the Selected Food Sources from Vitamin B12 are as follows:

Food	Micrograms (mcg) per serving	Percent DV*
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice	48.0	800
Clams, cooked, breaded and fried, 3 ounces	34.2	570
Breakfast cereals, fortified with 100% of the DV for vitamin B12, 1 serving	6.0	100
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces	5.4	90
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces	4.9	80
Trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, 3 ounces	4.2	50
Beef, top sirloin, broiled, 3 ounces	2.4	40
Cheeseburger, double patty and bun, 1 sandwich	1.9	30
Breakfast cereals, fortified with 25% of the DV for vitamin B12, 1 serving	1.5	25
Yogurt, plain, 1 cup	1.4	25
Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces	1.2	20
Tuna, white, 3 ounces	1.0	15
Milk, 1 cup	0.9	15
Cheese, Swiss, 1 ounce	0.9	15
Beef taco, 1 taco	0.8	13
Ham, cured, roasted, 3 ounces	0.6	10
Egg, large, 1 whole	0.6	10
Chicken, roasted, ½ breast	0.3	6

*DV = Daily Value. DVs were developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help consumers determine the level of various nutrients in a standard serving of food in relation to their approximate requirement for it.

Since most these sources cannot be served raw and aren't vegan anyway, I decided to look at supplements. All B vitamins (including Vitamin B12) are available in supplements at supermarkets, health centers and natural food centers but what really came to a surprise was finding B vitamins in energy drinks!

Apparently, "5-Hour Energy contains an astounding 8333% of the recommended dietary allowance of Vitamin B12 and 2000% of the RDA for Vitamin B6. Red bull offers 360% of the RDA for Vitamin B6, 120% of B12 and 140% of Vitamin B3."

Not that it's raw but Red bull anyone?

Day 82: Malnutrition

In defense of myself and recent allegations against the raw vegan lifestyle, I've decided to look up the 'other view' on raw veganism. I've spent a good hour searching any leads on raw vegan 'malnutrition' or 'unhealthy' and I couldn't find a spec of data.

I did, however, find some falsified claims on a family that fed its newborn only raw vegan food. After their baby died, the couple were initially accused of manslaughter by starvation of their baby. It was later discovered that the baby had died from a birth defect.

Although irrelevant, you could read up the topic by Clicking here.

So, if any of you out there have hard evidence against this lifestyle, please let me know.

Day 81: Intravenous therapy

When I discussed my blood work results with my doctor sometime last month, I was prescribed some iron injections (Click here for my results).

My doctor had mentioned that I should try eating more greens and resorting to injections when necessary. Well, I made the mistake of sharing that information with my mom and she insisted that I go take them right there and then.

Today, I went to the International Clinic again and found out that these so called injections were more like a standardized aqueous alkaline solution of Iron to be inserted by I.V over a course of a couple of hours.

Although the skin test I had before I took the I.V stung like a bee, the full dosage into my vein didn't hurt at all. I'm also expected to take the solution a total of 5 times, every other day before my iron level stabilizes.

In the meantime, I'm indulging on lots of greens including spinach, lettuce and rocket leaves. I'm sure the solution is not required and this just a course of intervention from my mom.

I'll keep you guys updated if any other 'hiccup' arises.

Day 80: Boom boom.. what?!

A while back, I mentioned that I joined a friend and several members of her family for lunch at L'Entrecote. I thought that being at that restaurant (with the fixed menu of a refillable plate of steak and crisp french fries) would be a hell of a challenge.

Well, you wouldn't guess where I had dinner this evening.

Being the world's best daughter that I am, I accepted my mother's offer in joining her for dinner with a couple of her big shot lawyer colleagues. Since they're seemingly old school or something like that, they choose the 'Boom Restaurant' at Radisson SAS for dinner.

The restaurant (pictured above) is an old ship (aka. boom) turned into a restaurant that exclusively serves premium sea food and steaks.

Now imagine for a second how it feels to join complete strangers, that you're supposedly trying to impress, for dinner. Above that, you can't have most of what the restaurant serves AND you have to explain your choice of order.

Fortunately, they had a salad bar and I decided to fill my plate with a mountain of spring mix lettuce, some cucumbers and carrots. I'm glad I know my lettuce.

Happy mother's day mom!

xoxo

Day 78-79: Weekend Hiatus

I have no idea why I do this to myself sometimes. Just as I feel unbreakable, I go on and watch something that really shakes up my faith.

Over the weekend, I watched Julie & Julia (2009),which was playing non-stop on Showcinema 2. So it was practically unavoidable. For those who haven't seen the movie, let me tell you what it's about. The movie combines the stories of two different individuals in completely different times and countries:

The first, portrayed by Meryl Streep, was Julia Child, an American who moved to France with her husband and decided to take up cooking and create a cookbook out of boredom and the love of food.

The second character was portrayed by Amy Adams, Julie Powell is lost sole and tele-officer that works in cubicle and lives in a shoebox. Julie finds salvation from her boring life by taking up a 365 day challenge to cook all of the 540-something recipes from Julia Child's cookbook and blogs about it.

Some of you out there may think that I was able to "connect" with Julie and the movie itself given the 365 day challenge and so forth. HOWEVER, those some of you are greatly mistaken; the movie captured recipe after recipe, sizzling dish after sizzling dish.

At that moment(s), my light and delightful mixed leaves and pine nut salad didn't seem to satisfy; the entire movie was a drool. As the movie ended, I quickly went and blended some carrots to muffle my non-existent taste buds.

Normal people out there, count your blessings and go get some pie.

*photo taken from Kitchen Wench's photostream on Flicker

Day 77: Eat out!

What a day today!!

Work, lunch, more work, home, some family time and I'm out again with HH!

For the first lunch, I had a salad from Salad Creations with none other than the faithful fan, Dina Almutawa. I think I made the yummiest creation ever; I had a junior creation with spring mix lettuce, sunflower seeds, sprouts, mushrooms and mandarin oranges. I highly recommend that EVERYONE tries it! I would've licked the salad bowl off if Dina wasn't sitting in front of me.

My second outing, was to Baking Tray (very predictable, right?). I ordered my favorite Avocado Gardens salad, without the croutons and with extra pine nuts and tomatoes. I also had a mix of fresh orange and carrot juice.

Every time I'm at baking tray, I must admit that my faith is shaken up a bit. The way they showcase their food is so appetizing, my tummy is growling right now just thinking about it. (sigh, how many days do I have left?)

After dinner, The Baking Tray's staff were kind enough to offer us a complementary piece of cake to share. Fortunately for HH, I don't eat that fat stuff. According to her, it was good but was a bit too heavy for dessert.

Day 76: Add to wishlist

Late 2009 when I first went vegan, Dearest Nada and I were planning to go to the Early Bird for breakfast. Since I knew my options were limited, I decided to contact Bianca, a co-founder of the venue, and ask about other vegan possibilities.

Back then, she mentioned that she understood how challenging it is and that she, herself was raw vegan once upon a time.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to contact her again and see if she had any tips for my current Raw Challenge. She recommended this book: Raw food/ Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow, and I've added it to my wishlist and plan an ordering it soon.

Day 75: Sweet and fresh

After a long day at work today, I had dinner with HH at none other than our usual Prime and Toast.

I had one of my favorite raw vegan salads, the honey goat cheese salad (without the croutons or the goat cheese). By the time I got my order, a couple of friends walked in and it was quite surprising how they were checking my dishes and what I was eating.

Dessert was a highlight! You know how I've been complaining on how saggy and plastic fruit salads are in most restaurants (and cafes) in Kuwait?

Well the assortment of fresh fruits I had from P&T was absolutely delicious! They were fresh and sweet! Even HH, who's an active omnivore, enjoyed a break off the usual pudding and had some.

The assortment contained kiwi and orange slices, pieces of pineapple and chopped apples.

*Picture courtesy of HH and her BB.

Day 73: Eat more plastic

As I mentioned earlier, I quite often forget to get any food from home on way out to work. Those days, like today, tend to be the days I feel like I'm going to die from hunger.

Being the problem-solver that I am, I decided to order a moderate breakfast from Casper and Gambini, one the most ideal restaurants for raw vegan choices.

I ordered the 'Seasonal Fruit Salad'; seasonal fresh fruits- crisp, light and refreshing. And believe me when I say it was as far from refreshing as possible.

I don't understand why restaurants, till this day, are incapable of serving a 'good' fruit salad! Don't get me wrong, Le Notre had an amazing one the other day with their Lychee, but what about other restaurants?

If we want a healthier and fitter Kuwait, we need restaurants to provide fresh, healthy and finger-licking salads and fruit salads everywhere!

What's the point of serving fruit salads when they taste like plastic? If I wasn't raw vegan, I'd probably go for that Halloumi sandwhich instead.

I SAY BETTER FRUIT SALADS FOR A HEALTHIER KUWAIT!!

Day 70-72: Taste-of-Kuwait

Over the past four days, March 10-13*, a handful of Kuwaiti entrepreneurs have joined ideas, time and effort to create one of the biggest, unique and most brilliant food exhibitions I've ever been to.

Led by a good friend of mine, Noor Al-Shebli, along with her friends and family, Taste of Kuwait was a huge success.

The concept is basically assembling a bunch of restaurants with a unified, comprehensive menu into a huge hall with awesome interior and on top of all of that, supporting a good cause.

The event is planned to extend to other countries in the region, having an annual presence with 2010 being its first year.

The participants for 2010 are: meli melo, saso, the kitchen, medierraneo, the baking tray, Fondue melt away, Q cafe, Athba's bakery, salad boutique, the living room lounge, the little oven, sushi club, scoop-a-cone, ayyame, melenzane, toot & mishmish, eighty6 bistro, pizzetta, meqarmesh and cafe meem.

The food, the menu and just being there was mouth-watering at the least!! You guys have no idea how many times I contemplated quitting (or just getting off-the-wagon) for a mere hour just to indulge on all the appetizing dishes they were serving. *sigh*

However, being the determined, disciplined person that I am, I had a salad, a smoothie and some (hopefully raw) vegan dessert.

I ordered the Y salad from the baking tray (without the cheese, palmito and with a different dressing), the mango tango from toot & meshmesh and the rosewater sorbet from scope-a-cone.

Additionally and due to high demand, the exhibition is going to extend for another day (Sunday, 14 March 2010) and I advice you all to go since my words serve no description of how fabulous it really is.

For more information, check out their website and join their facebook group.

Day 69: Eat spinach like Popeye

Recently, the fridge at home has been loaded with some fresh green spinach and like Popeye, I've been lovin' it!!

Since I'm too lazy to look up any spinach salad recipes, I tried remaking The Baking Tray's The Y salad. But I didn't, mainly because the dressing is yogurt and it has palmito which can't be served raw.

So I just mixed some spinach with rocket leaves, added pine nuts and black olives and Viola!!

P.S I got hungry earlier in the day and ate my toppings before 'lunch time'

Day 68: Eating plastic

Starbucks is almost everywhere in Kuwait, and it can be your savior when you're absolutely starving. Along with that, there are lots of appetizing items to choose from, providing you with delicious grilled paninis, wraps and even cakes and muffins...

... but not when you're raw vegan..

My only choices at Starbucks seem to be the 'fresh' orange juice and fruit salad (upon availability).

And if that wasn't enough, has anyone tried the fruit salad?! It tastes like plastic and it looks OLD!!

That's one "salad" I'll never have again.

Day 67: Green Leafy Salads

As many of you have witnessed on almost daily basis. I'm a leaf-eater. I love leaves and they seem to be the most effective bread alternative while I'm on this raw vegan challenge.

Out of curiosity and pure research, I've found this table that obviously advocates leafy vegetables and salads. It summarizes the nutritional information of 4 types of salads.

Nutrient	Watercress, Spinach & Rocket Salad	Herb Salad	Tatsoi Salad	Crisp Mix Salad
Vitamin A (as beta-carotene equivalents)	44%	80%	40%	10%
Vitamin C	20%	12%	9%	15%
Vitamin E	15%	7%	4%	1%
Folate	74%	34%	28%	21%
Iron	13%	10%	7%	4%
Calcium	28%	12%	10%	5%
Magnesium	9%	7%	5%	3%
Zinc	3%	2%	1.5%	1%

For more information, go to Bring on the Salads!

Day 66: ZAIN (the rip-off edition)

On an average Thursday afternoon, I got one of the usual messages that I receive once a month from my ex-dearest Zain (formerly known at MTC).

My average bill ranges between KD 43-45 per month, which to me, makes sense. I pay KD 28 for some saving subscription, KD 14 for my Blackberry service and KD 0.5 for MissU services.

My phone bill is also deducted from my bank account on a monthly basis, where I never have to worry about delayed bills or any of that drama.

This Thursday afternoon, the SMS from Zain indicated that my bill was a whopping KD 208!!

After much argument, complaints and physically going to Zain Head Quarters, I discovered that I was charged KD 120 for the 5 hours that I spent in UAE, transiting to Kuwait.

The KD 120 (around USD 420) was for Internet Roaming during 5 hour stay in Dubai.

*take a moment to dwell on it*

Now what do YOU suggest I do?

Boycott Zain? Boycott BB? Do absolutely nothing? Complain some more?

Day 63-65: Vegan at the Meat Co.

Another weekend post..

For those of you that don't already know, The Meat Co. is a South African steakhouse with international presence in around countries.

Steakhouse being the key word here.

I had the rocket leaves, walnuts and apple salad with a glass of fresh pineapple juice. They were quite hospitable and they served the walnuts raw as per my request.

Here's a picture of what my plate looked like as opposed to what my Dearest Nada had.

P.S Nada is an active carnivore.

Day 62:Bring your lunch from home

The very first thing I learned from the very first day of my very first full-time private sector job was to..

*drum roll*

.. bring my own lunch from home!

Why?

Because when you're working in the Private Sector, you're working very long hours. While office hours are officially 8-5, you end up staying in the office till 7pm!

Over the first couple of weeks, you'll unintentionally order a blueberry muffin and coffee from the Starbucks across the street every single morning.

Then for lunch, you'll order a good meal from Royal Cafe, Kei, Lorenzo, Buongiorno, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway or any other place within proximity to your office.

For dinner, you'll go home exhausted and stuff your face with whatever you find quick and ready.

Within a month, you'll be surprised to have gained so much weight that your shinny new work clothes don't fit anymore!!

Sounds familiar? Of-course it does! That's what happened to me 2 years ago.

I instantly boycotted the muffin, but quickly found as fattening alternatives. I then started to look at the source of the problem- timing, proper nutrition and money.

If you're spending over KD 300 on take-out every month, here's how you can start saving.

Golden rule: Eat every two hours

It goes a little bit like this (for the raw vegan):

(Water)- Banana- (Water)- Assortment of veggies- (water)- Full Salad - (water)- Nuts (water)- Oranges

Now stretch all of that over a 8-5 workday and you won't be hungry, you'll have your average dose of vitamins and all that AND you'll save you're take-out money for a trip to the Maldives over your next annual leave!

Don't know how to pack all of that? Get a lunchbox! I found this adorable lunchbox at Zara Home the other day.

*Disclaimer: I don't necessarily do this everyday. I don't necessarily get ALL my food from home. Sometimes I forget to tell my Dearest Edita to make me something for work the next day. Most of the time I'll wake up late and run out the door without getting any food for the day.

Day 61: A good salad

.. take a moment and admire the size of these mushrooms.

Then, remove the roasted pine nuts and indulge..

Day 60: Two month anniversary!!

It's officially been two months since I started my raw challenge. And do you know what that means?

It means that I've got 10 more bloody months to go! Yahaay! :|

On a sentimental note, I didn't think I could make it to the end of Month 1, let alone Month 2! I really hope I don't give in when certain friends want to stuff cooked food down my throat.

In event of this anniversary, I pledge to:

- decrease the amount of nuts I consume per week;

- practice yoga with an instructor instead of in my living room;

- find a dehydrator in Kuwait (and if I don't, I'll just order one on Amazon); and

- complete more items on my 101 list.

What else do you think I should do?

Awareness event: WALK

On March 06 2010, Kuwait Autism Society will be holding a walkathon between 9:30 am to 12:30 pm from Kuwait Towers to Souk Shark on the Gulf Road.

Participate in the event and raise awareness about children with Autism.

For more information, join the Facebook group Reach.