RAW: Days 2 and 3

Prompted by dinner with my grandmother last night (she's half-deaf, slightly senile, and loves me to death), I have decided that raw food rules do not apply in the following situations:

• Special family meals (because there's a special circle of hell reserved for people who turn down food prepared by doting grandmothers)
• Holidays and birthdays
• Race days
• Girl Scout cookies

You think I'm kidding about that last one. I'm not.

I figure even with these exceptions, I'm still in great shape; if nothing else, I'm still well ahead of the 80/20 curve (you know, eat well 80 percent of the time, drink beer and eat oreos after the race--I mean, the other 20 percent of the time). Which led me along the following line of thought: I don't really care about raw eating. I respect people who are raw vegans and who find all kinds of creative things to do with dates, almonds, a food processor, and a dehydrator. But when it comes right down to it, I don't have the kind of spiritual connection with the idea of raw fooding that it takes to give up so much that is totally normal (Girl Scout cookies, anyone?).

Which pretty much parallels my attitude towards Ironman. I respect people who do it. I think it's awesome and bad ass. But I feel no compunction to go out and do 140.6 miles of work in one day.

At least, not yet.

There's the kicker--as sure as I am that I don't want to do Ironman right now, that it's not my thing, that I lack the emotional and spiritual desire to go out and push myself through that kind of journey . . . I know that it's only a matter of time. It might be in two years or in twenty, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will someday finish an Ironman race. I will. It's written into my future; it's part of my destiny. And I'm sure that I'll find the strength for the journey--the emotional and spiritual connection that I currently lack--as I travel that road.

And maybe that's the way it'll be with raw food, too. Yeah, I don't really have the emotional or spiritual conviction that raw eating is the way to go . . . I'm not even sure about the biological basis of raw eating. But I know that I want to see if I can go the distance. And maybe as I test my limits with endurance and discipline in eating, I'll find some connection to this lifestyle that pulls me in and makes me want to give up Girl Scout cookies.

Fortunately, I'll still have these recipes . . .