Sunday, May 11, 2008

Thank you and goodnight

Today is the last day of our 30-day raw-food diet.

First, to all my colleagues who predicted I'd quit halfway through, thbbbbbbbt!

Seriously, though, I've learned a lot over the past month. Raw food is more than just twigs and berries, for one thing. In fact, it can be delicious, and was especially so Sunday night when we three went to Pure Food and Wine in New York.

But it wasn't cheap. The diet as a whole isn't cheap. Raw foodists say the food bills normalize once you get a better sense of what, and how much, you'll be eating. But the diet just really isn't for me.

As I said at the outset, I like cooked food. Giving up meat and dairy (and bread and so on) for 30 days was definitely an interesting experiment in getting by. But I did it. Eventually, I even gave up coffee, though that was mostly because I ran out of beans before I had a chance to buy more. (And no, I don't feel more energetic or alert.)

I'll be incorporating all those things back into my diet, though I'll be much more watchful about how I do it. Making most of my meals at home, from natural ingredients, let me know exactly what I was eating, and I like that enough to not forswear it just for the sake of a cheeseburger. Well, not every day, at least.