[photopress:dried_goji_berry___photo_5.jpg,full,alignright]It’s been 10 days since I’ve gone back to 95%+ raw and I’m feeling great. It’s really kind of a relief to deny myself the option to “cheat” regularly..I don’t even have to think about it nor battle the continual cravings that would come more and more the more I cheated. I do allow myself to indulge a tiny tiny bit now and then….like when I go to potlucks with platefuls of cooked food I am generally pulled towards the raw food anyway…I went to one the other night and wanted nothing more than a couple of oranges which drew some funny comments. However I was drawn towards a bowl of chips later on (always a weakness) and allowed myself to have 3 of them (that’s what the remaining 5% is for…a little tiny bit of slack!)

Overall though I definitely have the raw power back…I can really feel the difference going from 80% to 95%…perhaps I will go a month truly 100% sometime in the next 6 months. One thing that has helped a lot is allowing myself to buy all kinds of wonderful food. I bought 3 jars of raw coconut butter..wow!! I take two tablespoons of that, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, one small tablespoon of raw cacao powder and a bit of maple syrup and it mixes up to a lovely fudge mousse. My refrigerator is broken or I would put it in the freezer and it would turn into lovely fudge candy!

I also bought a 5 pound bag of Goji Berries care of Wilderness Family Naturals. This is the cheapest place I’ve found for Goji berries…$11 a pound if you buy 5 pounds and even cheaper with more quantitiy (compared to $19-$22 average at health food stores!). It feels so rich to see that huge bag of goji’s every morning. I put a handful in my tea every day and they plump up into a juicy treat. The energy that I get from these little berries are amazing. I feel so energized and find that I eat quite a bit less other food because of them. They are worthy investment for anyone, raw foodist or not. Wilderness family also has the cheapest prices for raw cacao that I’ve seen. Their delivery speed was excellent and I recommend them.

I also bought some pink himalayan sea salt which has tons of rare minerals…it’s also still avocada/mango season so we are enjoying these in abundance. 69 cent mango’s means I can eat as many as I want! Hurray!

It’s been almost 5 months since me and Kala have set out on our raw adventure. The first couple of months I was totally excited and bubbling over with newfound energy, health and delight. We were at 95%+ raw. At Christmas time I ate a small bit of cooked food at a christmas party…I felt slightly ill, but I made it a point to not eat much so it wasn’t bad. Since then I’ve had “cheats” almost daily. The inner raw food nazi in me demands adherence to the raw code of conduct. My addiction to cooked food keeps me indulging on the side..it’s a struggle and one that I don’t like and didn’t miss when I was 95%+….I didn’t indulge too much though. I’ve stayed at around 80%-85%+ and some days more …

It’s gotten to be pretty funny. We were in town the other day and meeting someone for dinner. I was hungry and decided to just get cooked food at the restaurant. Just thinking about thai food….brown rice, steamed vegetables and tofu with coconut milk…yumnmm..but this seemed like real junk food to me and we laughed at the thought of that. Brown rice as junk food? When we got there and I ordered I decided to try the soup of the day: African Curried Yam and Peanut. It was quite good! I enjoyed it but after I felt sooooo heavy. It felt rather like I had been poisoned..and this from one bowl of soup!

And so it has gone…if I have a tiny bit of cooked food it’s not too bad, but if I eat a larger potion…especially if it is a mixed food with lots of ingredients I feel bloated and poisoned afterwards. By becoming constantly aware of this is has made me want to go further with the raw. I have been very glad to have settled at the 80% mark..much better than going up and down all the time. But still it is not the same as 95%+.

With that 15%-20% I’ve lost some of the shine. I still have great energy. For example, it’s past midnight now and I’m going strong. My health is excellent, my life is excellent, I look well and I feel positive overall. But I want more! So I am going to be taking a 6 month raw challenge starting April 1st. This will take me through the growing season here and where I go from there I’ll decide when I get there. I am in a blessed place living right across the street from an ecovillage that grows organic food and shares with the neighborhood. We can get organic veggies from them for $25 a month! I am also going to try to eliminate some of that last 5%. We’re going to start making raw granola and other goodies to eliminate the oats.

So I’m strapping in. With the rush of new energy and excitement I am sure to be posting more on here more as well. I’ve been taking a break due to a high workload and moving. We have moved to a lovely little town in Western Mass and enjoying it greatly. I will write more about that as well.

Oh and Happy Ostara to everyone! (that’s pagan for Happy Spring!!)

photopress:hemp_washington.jpg,full,alignright]I just read a sad report of a dying woman with lots of medical problems who is being denied access to medical marijuanna: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=65293 This is just pathetic.

Right now there are tens of thousands of people in jail for selling or in some cases even just using this herb….and that is what it is…an herb….one that has been respected by healers for centuries and should be available in herb stores. As the late great Bill Hicks said “Doesn’t the idea of making nature ILLEGAL strike you as somewhat paranoid?”. Most people who have used this plant medicinally would agree to it’s powerful medicinal benefits. Many many western medical doctors would also agree.

The real issue here is the pharmaceutical companies grip on the law. Anyone can grow marijuanna. If it was legalized, there would be many many people growing it and it would be everywhere and would greatly cut into the pharmaceutical companies profits due to people using it for many different conditions. I know people that have given up prozac because smoking a little did it for them.

Another factor is that western medicine/science cannot deal with any potential inaccuracies in dosages with any kind of medicine. Unless THC is extracted and put in pill form (which they are doing now to some degree), many doctors/scientist would not even consider it. All of this for an herb with 0 fatalities reported from its use in its entire history!

As a strong advocate of people taking charge of their own health and bodies, I am very much at odds with the illegality of this plant. Many people put forth the “think of the children” defense in support of these laws..To this I saw why don’t we think of the children and make alcohol and tobacco illegal? These are both substances that kill millions every year! The fact that alcohol, a deadly poison, is legal while marijuanna is not is ludicrous.

If you’d like to find out more and get involved in Cannabis Law Reform visit NORML at http://www.norml.org/
I’d also recommend the movies Hemp Revolution and Grass. Also see http://www.ccaj.org/

Wow what a busy couple of weeks its been! Me and Kala have moved to this lovely neighborhood in Western Massachusetts. As the weather has been arctic (single digits!) pretty much all week we haven’t had much opportunity to really explore the place and meet neighbors. It’s still hibernating season up here in the Northeast but it promises to thaw out soon.

One radical health thing that has been happening to me is that I have been passing kidney stones..yikes! At the advice of Carrie, I bought several bottles of Chanca Piedra tincture…this is a rainforest herb that is used to break up and expel kidney stones…well I can say without a doubt that it works! I have passes at least 5 in the past 3 weeks since I started taking it (and maybe more that I didn’t feel). This hasn’t been as bad as it sounds as the herb breaks up the stones so they will pass and they are smaller and so not so painful….In fact it might’ve just broke up one big one into tiny pieces that have been passing for all I know. But I have counted 5 seperate instances of either uncomfortablness/minor pain or that sharp jab of pain right at the end of my urinary tract while peeing (yow!).

If you are predisposed to get kidney stones I highly recommend getting yourself on this herb. I am going to continue taking it twice a day for a couple more weeks, then I plan on using it twice a week as a preventative measure. Thanks Carrie!

-John

I realize that it’s been a while since I posted about raw food. I think this is because it’s become such a part of my life that its now normal and so its something I don’t think much about. Me and Kala used to joke about how much we talked about raw food that first month. We were reading, thinking and talking about it constantly. I believe this sort of obsession is important (at least for me) to make that kind of radical change. Now it’s become normal…something I just do automatically. Still not 100%…more about 90%. I plan on going truly 100% this spring/summer when it will be warm and I’ll have lots of fresh organic veggies for free (or very cheap as we are moving across the street from an ecovillage!)

Now though I feel in a state of stasis about it. I am not particularly inspired to make new creations or read about it (plus I’m REALLY busy with work). So I am eating mostly my staple foods: salads (with yummy greens..not just romaine), olives, avocados, nut pates and fruit (particularly oranges and mangos!). We have the odd treat dish here and there but those are my main foods. I must confess that it is a bit dull when I am not putting my creative juices into it. But I am still enjoying good health and lots of energy…I can still stay up really late no problem to work. I have also had a lot more cooked food cravings lately…perhaps part of this is because of the cold spell we’ve been having up here. I am looking forward to a renewed enthusiasm for raw food in just a little bit when it thaws out….

I was just looking through a lengthy list of health symptoms and what they could mean. It seemed a bit alarmist but it’s good to learn to listen to our bodies. I come from a lifetime of ignoring symptoms and hoping for the best. It’s worked OK so far but as I age I am tuning in to my body more. Most often serious illnesses come on over time with plenty of symptoms if we are aware of them. Our culture routinely tries to suppress symptoms, which are often the bodies way of dealing with the illness. From antacids to cold medicines, many are designed to just ease the discomfort and pain so that we can go on doing the same things that brought on the sickness in the first place.

When we learn to listen to our body, we can effectively use the gentler methods of holistic health to prevent future serious illnesses. Herbs, yoga, reiki…these are all wonderful healing methods, but they work best as preventative medicine. I am trying to deal with some kidney issues I have now. I ordered a tincture of an herb called Chanca Piedra which is supposed to break up kidney stones and be a general tonic for the kidney and liver. Will post up what happens.

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. It’s been a tough few weeks that began with a bout with strep and led to a bladder and possibly a kidney infection. I am well now, but it’s been a journey.

Throughout all the pain and discomfort and malaise, I was aware of how all of this that I was experiencing were old wounds resurfacing to be healed. Particularly with respect to the bladder infection as several years ago I dealt with a year of chronic infections. I was able through the use of herbs, diet and ritual to stop the infections from asserting themselves. But I had thought that I had left that all behind. After the intense discomfort and illness I felt this week, I realize that the issue was still inside me, although it had been hiding.

All week as this sunk in, I have been watching my thoughts, my memories, my dreams and have discovered how emotionally the condition heralds back to my teenage years. Anger and hurt that I stored deep inside because I could not then deal with or express it. I have begun a process of fleshing out these feelings. Tonight I allowed them to come in through my art and made pictures representing my pain. Already, in coming to the realizations I have come to and by allowing myself to begin the process of expressing and letting go of my pain, I feel less tense, relaxed, which is a good place to be for healing.

Thank you to all those who have helped me in this process of discovery. It is not over, but I am closer to letting go than I was before. And thank you particularly to my partner who held me and stayed with me and took care of everything for the past few weeks. I not only felt your deep care, but was able to truly let myself trust in that care and settle into it as I have not done since I was a child. And thank you to the Earth, the Water, the Fire and the Air. And thank you Spirit. For the insights, for the healing, for the Love.

Here are some fascinating videos of of two people who lost tremendous amounts of weight on the raw food diet. Wow!

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I live with an extremely vibrant, well fed 9 year old boy. He is my partner’s son and being the child of a highly conscious individual has afforded him some real advantages in the realm of nutrition, as well as socially, emotionally and spiritually. I’m sure that for him this translates at times as less than positive. When he wants to eat candy or not eat his greens. But we try to point out to him how healthy he is compared to other kids because he eats so well. And he admits that he sees it too.

What I’m talking about it that when I look at the kids who he plays with in a local boys and girls club, I see so many kids that look pale, even sickly, without the vibrant luster that I see in my partner’s son’s eyes. The vibrancy of health and well-being. It makes me sad to see kids who are not being given the advantage of being fed healthy foods and being taught a healthy life-style. Kids who somehow survive on Mac and cheese, hotdogs, cheese curls, pizza, hamburgers, fries and perhaps an occasional pesticide laden apple.

I envision a world where kids are given and who demand fresh vegetables, fruits and whole foods. Where raw fruit pies are a regular staple. Where kids snack on raw nuts and raisins and oranges. And I see kids with bright faces, shiny eyes, clear minds and open hearts from being fed perfectly healthy food from day one. What a gift for the children! A good exchange for gracing our lives with their own.

Is there anything more delicious than creamy white decadent coconut butter? Tonight I mixed it together with raw tahini, cacao nibs and coconut oil for a truly fatty snack. After three months of eating live foods, I am still finding new and exciting foods to rave about. Lately, it has been all about raw organic coconut butter. What makes this so delicious and nutritious? It is made from whole coconut flesh and thus is creamy and rich with flavor, and contains all the nutrients from the whole coconut: oil, dietary fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. This is truly food of the Gods. According to Artisana, the company that provides it, it can be made into smoothies, salad dressings, energy bars and sauces. As well as mixed with coconut oil, cacoa nibs and agave for amazing frozen candy. But all I really need to enjoy it, is a very large spoon.