I'll be doing a 6 (or 7)-day Banana Island starting today! (Sorry for the short notice.) I've been eating quite unhealthily in recent months - more processed foods, sodium and fat. Not just during the Taiwan trip, but also before and after the trip! My digestion is the worst it's been in 2 years - and I can tell because I've had that acid reflux thing (vomit coming up throat ewwww) twice in the past month, when I never used to get that! Also, I usually have something light within 2 hours before going for Bikram yoga. I used to be able to handle 6 bananas (and I even start to feel hungry midway through the class), but now even when I just have an apple I feel nauseous during class. -_- And I'm starting to understand why some people don't eat breakfast  - because there's leftover food from the night before in their stomach, so they don't get hungry! For as long as I can remember, I woke up hungry, but nowadays I don't because of my sluggish digestion. :(

So, I'm doing this to 'reset' my digestion and tastebuds (it's so much easier to stick to eating healthier and more raw after), and feel more motivated to exercise!


Here's a list of answers to questions I was asked previously.

1. I'll eat spotty-ripe bananas (NOTE: bananas shown above aren't ripe enough for eating yet), medjool dates, raw carob and organic cinnamon, and maybe add in tender greens (spinach, romaine etc.) and cucumber at dinner. I plan to consume most of bananas frozen. Btw, if you've not tried it, bananas + dates = heaven in your mouth!
2. The most important thing is to EAT IN ABUNDANCE. I'll make sure to consume a MINIMUM of 2500kcal daily! It's essential even if you're short petite like me. I'll count calories using Cronometer to make sure I get enough! 
3. If you're wondering whether I'll work my butt off to burn off those extra calories, the answer is NO. I'll probably do light exercise and then catch up on some reading/kdrams & complete my to-do list (which I'm 3 days behind because I procrastinate everything -_-). However, it's likely that you'll be more motivated to exercise as it gives you energy!
4. I'm not an expert on this, so you can find our more from these lovely people from Instagram: @freeleethebananagirl (watch her vids on YouTube!), @kalecrush and @rawkorean.
5. By the way, this won't give you a sugar high, nor a potassium overdose (to get that you'll need to eat 400 bananas in 30 sec). I didn't get diarrhea or constipation either!
6. The only difficult thing (at least for me) about this is that people who think that you've gone bananas! (Pun intended) All you need to do is to block those comments out, because you don't need such negativity in your life. ^^
7. Oh yes, your house might stink of ripening bananas too ._. You'll get used to it.
8. I buy my medjool dates from Mustafa, and it goes at $3.90 for a 1/2kg box, which is half the price of what's sold in regular supermarkets! Previously I bought my bananas from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market at $25 for an 18kg box, but I wasn't able to get bananas there this time. I got bananas from Sheng Siong at $30 for 15kg, and I might buy more later this week.

Hehehe people were staring.

I weigh and label boxes of sliced bananas before I freeze them, because from my previous experience, I often forget how many there are in each box hehe :x

You can view these links to see my previous raw weeks and 3-day banana island experience, and view the hashtag #sereneeatsraw on Instagram. :)

• Raw Vegan 80/10/10 Week!
• Another Raw Vegan 801010 Week
• 3-day Trip to Banana Island!

I went to Banana Island for 3 days! Well, not the real island (there is one!) but it's a kind of a detox where you just eat bananas*. (I hate using the word detox though, sounds so fad-diet-y.) It's part of my second Raw Vegan 801010 Week. I believe that every vegan/plant-based eater/801010-er would've heard of this! If you've not, I suggest that you view Freelee the Banana Girl's post (and her YouTube channel) and this post by one hungry mami. The posts have been quite helpful for me! :)

*Not exactly just bananas; tender greens, celery, cucumber, cinnamon and vanilla are allowed. 

As for me, I had baby butterhead lettuce, romaine lettuce, medjool dates, organic raw carob powder and organic cinnamon powder (and water of course!) in addition to bananas. (..And a few berries in one meal.) 

I'll be eating raw vegan 801010 in this upcoming 1 week, from tomorrow (Monday) to Sunday! It will be my second time doing this :) I've realised that many of my non-recipe posts are really messy and random, so I'll do it in a more organised, 5W and 1H way. The following info is to the best of my knowledge! Correct me if I'm wrong please.

The past week (23-29 Sept), I've been eating raw vegan, 80/10/10. And it was great! Not as difficult as I thought it would be, and I'm glad that preparing meals was much simpler. I've also eating a whole melon for a meal for the first time! It was a hami melon, and it was soooo super sweet and delicious!

Raw veganism is where people eat plant foods that aren't heated above 46 deg C (115 deg F). From what I understand, under raw veganism there's two distinct categories - 801010 and gourmet. 801010 refers to there 80% of calories consumed come from carbohydrates (mainly fruit), 10% from protein and the remaining 10% from fat. Raw vegan food sold at restaurants (eg. raw cakes, nut cheeses) tend to fall under gourmet raw vegan food (though they're fine in small amounts under 801010). The gourmet raw vegan diet is much much higher in fat, sometimes having 60% of calories from fat! Though it's 'good fats' and all, it's best to not exceed 10% average caloires from fat. If you'd like to know more, I highly recommend Dr. Douglas Graham's The 80/10/10 Diet. Which I'm actually still three-quarters through reading (somehow I don't have much patience for reading non-fiction :x ).

801010 can also be done as a cooked 801010, where part of the carbohydrates come from starchy plants such as sweet potatoes, potatoes or pumpkin etc., though raw vegan 801010 is said to be the optimal diet for health! So that's what I did. I also exercised nearly every day the past week (except lazy Sunday) because since I was being healthy, I might as well just be healthier! :) AND GUESS WHAT. My menses came!!! :') (okay kinda weird to share this here) But I was super super duper happy!! :') I've not shared about this before but I guess I will now. I took Progyluton (hormone pills)  from mid-2011 ('O'-level year) to May this year, because my menses didn't come. I was counting calories and lost some weight back then, so my already irregular menses stopped coming since January 2011. So mum brought me to the doctor (KK Hospital) and there were blood tests (ugh), an MRI scan, womb scan, bone scan and other yucky, expensive stuff. The doctor said that I wasn't eating enough and all (I really wasn't, but I seriously thought I was eating too much) and my body didn't trust me & was shutting down some functions to conserve energy so she asked me to gain weight and I had to take pills. I gradually, reluctantly gained weight (by the way, I wasn't vegetarian then). Okay back to my menses. They came fine when I was taking the pills (eat 1 pill every day for 3 weeks, then during the 4th week my menses will come) (I loved the predictability). But then when I stopped the pills in May (the doctor thought that it was long enough, and I've maintained my weight well), it didn't come anymore :( Only spotting during the next month. And I lost all hope and was considering just getting a test kit for ovulation and accept the fact that it would never come. BUT NOW it's back!! :'D YAY. Usually people lose their menses on the raw food diet, especially on 801010 (it's fine as long as you still have ovulation), but somehow it was the opposite for me! It came on Tuesday, the second day eating raw. Okay, perhaps other factors play a part - I was at one of my heaviest weights measured, and the daily exercise. But this must have played a part. Though isn't it amazing that I chose to do this Raw Week at the correct week?! Such joy! :D I never wanna eat those pills again! I don't expect my menses to come next month, so perhaps I should do this Raw Week thing once every three months? ^^

My parents were like all disapproving of my Raw Week, but with my menses coming it's like hah! my body LOVES this!

I weighed myself before and after this week, and my weight, percentage body fat, skeletal muscle and subcutaneous fat (I use Omron KaradaScan) hasn't changed. Which was slightly disappointing because I've been excercising much more than usual. But I'm glad to know that I'm eating enough! I used the Cron-o-Meter to measure my energy intake (to make sure that I'm eating enough), and I ate extra to make up for the calories burned during exercise (measured using a Polar FT4). I didn't really see any change in my energy levels but I guess I was happier (probably because of the endorphins produced because of exercise, and because my menses came haha). Actually I think I shouldn't have been expecting much because it's only one week after all.

My average calorie breakdown for the 7 days was 88.2% from carbohydrates, 4.9% from protein and 6.9% from fat. My overt fats this week came from a dinner at The Living Cafe (raw burger & raw cake; I just did a rough estimate), 1/4 avocado and a few hemp seed sprinkles. Overt fats are the fats that you can tell are in foods, including oils, nuts, seeds, avocado (and of course meat). While covert fats are the 'invisible fat' found in non-fatty fruits and vegetables (this info comes from The 80/10/10 Diet). I used to think that overt fats just refer to those in oils and solid fats!

I was super excited to to have oats for breakfast today, and I'm looking forward to having sweet potatoes later! :D And I didn't eat any spices or strong smelling foods (garlic, onion) the past week so I'm looking forward to tasting them better.

Though I'm not continuing this, I believe that I'll do this raw vegan 801010 thing again. And perhaps I'll do raw-before-4 a few days each week. Oh yes, by the way it's my holidays so I'm able to eat and exercise the past week. I know that it's possible to do this during the school term (FullyrawKristina has videos on this on YouTube) but it'll be difficult... For there might not be enough time for a big fruit breakfast and I can't imagine lugging 1/2 a watermelon or a bunch of bananas to school for lunch! And it will be weird. Bringing my own lunchbox is different enough already lols.

Here's a look at what I've posted on Instagram last week:

This was almost all of what I ate on the first day. Breakfast was half a large yellow watermelon (about1.5 kg, without skin), lunch was 2 bananas blended with 1 medjool date, topped with 2 more bananas, grapes and mint, with more bananas at the side. 3 oranges for a snack and a salad in the empty watermelon bowl for dinner. The dressing for the salad is made of 1 large medjool date, 1 small banana and 3/4 tomato. I kept it simple for the first day and tried my best to follow all food/fruit combining rules!

 

 Banana, yellow watermelon, strawberries, pear, grapes, pomegranatem frozen blueberries and figs. Probably my prettiest fruit platter to date! :) Though it really breaks many food combining rules, such as: melons should be eaten alone for they digest very quickly, and sweet fruit (bananas, grapes etc. are best to not be paired with acid fruit (pomegranate, strawberries etc.).

Acai-banana Smoothie Bowl. made with 3 medium bananas, 2 baby bananas (all frozen), one scoop Sambazon freeze-dried acai powder and a squeeze of lemon. Topped with another baba banana, pomegranate, blueberries, frozen strawberry, green grapes, mulberry crumbles and mint. You can tell that I didn't really care about proper food combining anymore :x

Veggie Platter with a yummy Caramel-Apple Dip - made with 3 large medjool dates, 1 small apple and enough water to blend.

Papaya Smoothie Bowl! Topped with frozen blueberries, banana slices, strawberry chunks, green grapes, mint, lime, hemp hearts and papaya seeds. Yes, papaya seeds are edible! They've got a mild peppery taste and are good for liver detox.
This was supposed to be a gradient smoothie (or more like puree for I didn't add any water) from red (papaya, banana, beetroot) to orange (papaya) to yellow (banana) but you can't quite see the orange part under the fruits!

Tropical Sunset Smoothie. From bottom up: Papaya + beetroot, Papaya + lemon, Papaya + banana, Banana, Mango + papaya, mango. Topped with frozen banana chunks, pomegranate, papaya seeds, hemp hearts cacao nibs and mint. In total, this has 1/2 large papaya, 2 bananas and 2/3 mango. So very yummy and filling!!

Also, usually I get a stomachache after eating more than a cup of papaya, but this didn't happen at all! So it must've been the other foods that I ate before the papaya that gave me the stomach ache. I also didn't get diarrhea after eating whole melons or a large amount of fruits or veggies.

Raw lasagne. I've got a blog post on this here.

Another fruit platter! Strawberries, grapes, pear, two tiny tangerines, two bananas with date paste, pomegranate and blueberries, with hemp hearts and mint.

Do consider trying out Raw Vegan 801010! It's really not that difficult (especially if you love fruit and are already vegan) and maybe wonderful things will happen to you! :)

Raw Zucchini Lasagne. Green and yellow zucchini slices layered with tomato slices, Spicy Banana Marinara, Mango-Avocado Cream and Not-really Pesto, topped with pine nuts, and cauliflower & purple cabbage sprinkles.

 

This was inspired by The Living Cafe's Raw Zucchini Lasagne and FullyRawKristina's Raw Deep-Dish Lasagne! ☺ This was super filling and so yummy!

 

It was quite a chore to make because I dont have a mandolin, so I had to carefully cut each slice. o_o I 'weaved' two slices of green zucchini and two of the yellow zucchini for each layer, in a square shape, and cut off the excess every few layers.

 

It's the second last day of my Raw Vegan 801010 Week! I've been having a salad almost every day for dinner and only now do I realise how important a dressing is!! Especially if all ingredients are raw! I've been using the Spicy Banana Marinara for most of them and I can't get enough of it! ♡_♡ The Mango-Avocado Cream is so simple but so good. It's light and not too heavy, and mango seems to go so well with zucchini! The Not-really Pesto was kinda weird, I must admit. But the texture was not bad. I froze the leftover juice and maybe I'll use it in a smoothie next time.

 

I tried to keep this as low fat as possible so it still fits into 801010. The only overt fats come from the avocado and pine nuts ☺

 

There isn't any specific way to make this, so just get creative and layer it any way you want! Actually I'll just throw all the yummy ingredients into a bowl next time :x Until I get a mandolin.

 

 

Raw Zucchini Lasagne

 

Main layers: 2 large zucchinis, sliced lengthwise thinly. 2 medium tomatoes.

 

Spicy Banana Marinara: Blend 1 small banana, 1 medium chili, 1 large medjool date, 1/2 medium tomato.

 

Mango-Avocado Cream: Blend 1/2 medium-sized mango, 1/4 avocado, 2 tsp lemon juice. Add a tsp of psyllium husk if you're piping this.

 

Not-really Pesto: Blend 1 cup mixed raw greens (I used romaine & coral), 1/4 cup zucchini, 1 medjool date, 2 tsp lime juice and enough water to blend. Leave to strain and use the pulp. Drink the juice!