Storm's view on supplementing and B-12

[Sharon in Colorado]

http://www.rawveganforever.com/

This is from a 30+ year raw eater

[rawpriestess]

YES, I agree, and yes I did not use to suppliment, I was avidly against it, I still am, once you've cleaned out and are assimilating your foods.


I tried B12, and probiotics and enzymes for a couple of weeks, I didn't see any difference. I wasn't losing any weight, and thought that maybe I wasn't digesting things well, etc.

but I saw no difference in my weight loss or my digestion, or anything.

so I stopped.

I think we are capable of receiving all we need from our foods, YES, I know that our food is not natural all the time, and we have acid rain, and poor quality soil and all that, so I only eat the food that really calls to me.

if the food in front of me doesn't feel alive and happy and excited to be part of my body, then I don't eat it.

[Apasaraw]

Raw Priestess, I really love the way you have been talking about how the food calls to you or doesn't and says "eat me" if it is ready for your body. So in tune! I have wondered why I am drawn to items one minute and not the next and you have really opened me up with your insight and wisdom. THANKS so very much!

[rawnpawgirl]

I have been 100% raw (eatingwise, that is) for about 40 days, but I am really wondering why coffee is STILL calling me over and over again.

I am ready to give up the battle against it. Is it really all that bad to "supplement" with a cup of coffee in the morning?

I am totally justifying, but I cannot deal witht this battle. It is so easy for me to eat raw and not cooked but this coffee thing is torturing me 24/7.

I only ever had 1-2 cups/day and still this addicted. I just love it and it is almost worth it to me to take 10+ years off my life or not be at my top notch health to keep this in my life. I am so discouraged. I have tried every single coffee substitute out there and nothing has helped.

I know this is really a completely different thread, so I apologize. Keep talking about supplements!! Just had to get that thought off my chest.

BTW, I do take a B-12 supplement, but that is it. My digestion is not all that regulated yet.

[rachelmh]

Now I am concerned about the B12 supplement I am taking. Can it hurt me? Should I stop? And do I have to stop gradually? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, confused!!!!!!!!!!

[Sharon in Colorado]

I have been 100% raw (eatingwise, that is) for about 40 days, but I am really wondering why coffee is STILL calling me over and over again.

I am ready to give up the battle against it. Is it really all that bad to "supplement" with a cup of coffee in the morning?

I am totally justifying, but I cannot deal witht this battle. It is so easy for me to eat raw and not cooked but this coffee thing is torturing me 24/7.

I only ever had 1-2 cups/day and still this addicted. I just love it and it is almost worth it to me to take 10+ years off my life or not be at my top notch health to keep this in my life. I am so discouraged. I have tried every single coffee substitute out there and nothing has helped.

I know this is really a completely different thread, so I apologize. Keep talking about supplements!! Just had to get that thought off my chest.

BTW, I do take a B-12 supplement, but that is it. My digestion is not all that regulated yet.

It's proabably the addiction. I have read where long time raw fooders (we are talking years) still get cravings for their old favorites and even old addictions.

I am just amazed at the health and peacefullness of Storm's family. I love to show his photos to doubtful men and those who think they need cooked protein.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Now I am concerned about the B12 supplement I am taking. Can it hurt me? Should I stop? And do I have to stop gradually? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, confused!!!!!!!!!!

I have also bought some B-12, primarily caution-based from reading too much information. I don't know if it can hurt you or help you. But it can't be any worse than a SAD diet. I may use mine up and just move on.

[konmai]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I've been so concerned about the whole b-12 issue & so far have taken them maybe 3 times. :( After reading the blog, I'm just not going to worry about it anymore. There have been people who have told me I didn't need to take b-12, but reading that blog has solidified the pts. for not needing to take b-12 much much more. :o

When I did take b-12, it seem that I had a huge craving for cooked food. No matter what variety of raw food I took in for the day, nothing seemed to satisfy that craving. :mad: Although really, it did help w/ the mosquitoes. :D

Thanks again for sharing that site. Another one to look into & learn from!

[D'vorah]

I have been 100% raw (eatingwise, that is) for about 40 days, but I am really wondering why coffee is STILL calling me over and over again.

I am ready to give up the battle against it. Is it really all that bad to "supplement" with a cup of coffee in the morning?

I am totally justifying, but I cannot deal witht this battle. It is so easy for me to eat raw and not cooked but this coffee thing is torturing me 24/7.

I only ever had 1-2 cups/day and still this addicted. I just love it and it is almost worth it to me to take 10+ years off my life or not be at my top notch health to keep this in my life. I am so discouraged. I have tried every single coffee substitute out there and nothing has helped.

I know this is really a completely different thread, so I apologize. Keep talking about supplements!! Just had to get that thought off my chest.

BTW, I do take a B-12 supplement, but that is it. My digestion is not all that regulated yet.

Coffee is incredibly addicting. The caffeine is physically addicting. All aspects of the drink have some component of familiar, the warmth of the cup, the feel of it in your hand, the texture of the drink, the color, the aroma, the feel of it on your tongue, the social situations in which it is consumed. . .

I was horribly, horribly caffeine addicted. I tried many times over to get off, only to go through withdrawal yet again.

I finally ditched it last year during a Master Cleanse. I used a fruit-flavored fizzy tab thing that I bought from think geek dot com. I would mix it up and add it to my morning juice. Each day I would take out a very small amount and replace it with just water or juice. It took over a month, decreasing very gradually, but I got completely off without the withdrawal pain. I get tortuous take-me-to-the-emergency-room headaches from withdrawal.

Now I still love the stuff, and occasionally will have a little latte or something, decaf, and I only drink a little of it. I can do that once in a while without re-addicting. But I can’t have it every day, so what do I do about that?

Stressful situations are hard, I was just in Florida helping my dad during a very difficult time, and while there, almost let myself get re-addicted, it was so tempting to just have the whole thing and every day, it would have helped with the stress, I'm sure of it, and the stress was through the roof. But I kept reminding myself just how hard it is to get back off of it, and used extreme discipline to allow only a little bit and not every day.

Now, on the other hand, there's nothing against smelling, and I just LOVE the smell of coffee, so when I'm in the grocery, which has a Starbucks, I make sure I fully enjoy the richness of the aroma. I find that if I'm fully focused, I can enjoy the smell, imagine the temperature and texture, the feel of it in my hands, every aspect of it except the actual purchasing and taking in of the product. It's a little trick that can satisfy. It takes resolve and focus to stop there, though.

This works for fresh baked breads or other offending items just as well. It only fails to the extent I fail to practice it.

I want the coffee, or bread or chocolate, or whatever. I experience the desire as something much more powerful, I experience the desire as *need.* Without this food or drink that I desire or believe I need, I experience life as being less than complete. *I* am incomplete. The food completes me. Only it really does not, it just seems to in my thinking.

Remember the scene from You’ve Got Mail where Joe Fox’s big-box-Fox bookstore is in the process of being built and he says that they will be selling “legal addictive stimulants”? Later in the movie he’s talking about Starbucks and it shows a person making one of those complex orders that involve several different steps and ingredients to make his drink. Joe says that one goes into the store and makes ten choices to order one cup of coffee and they walk out with “an absolutely defining sense of self.”

It’s true.

If I eliminate that coffee, or fresh bread, or whatever my addiction is, then I lose something of that defining sense of self, or rather, the illusion of, and I experience myself as incomplete.

So, is the problem the coffee? The physical addiction? The desire? Or the experience deep inside of lacking, of being not-whole without this thing?

I’m driven. I MUST have this thing. I experience some sense of deserving it. It in some way seems to make up for the losses in other areas of my life, and after all, it’s just one little cup of coffee.

So, now, instead of having the coffee, I deeply enter into enjoying the smell. I take it in. I “taste” it without actually tasting. I hold the experience inside of me. I fully experience it in the moment. So, now, I find that I don’t have to have it, hold it, own it or even actually drink it in order for it to be part of my experience or enjoyment of life. I don’t actually have to have the food or drink. I can have all of the sense of enjoyment that actual consumption would have offered me.

I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but it’s one of the things that I learned during a forty day Master Cleanse. If the family went out to eat, I went too, only I would carry my lemonade drink with me. They would be eating foods I had previously loved. I wouldn’t. But I could smell it and taste it no less. And the funny thing is, when I reintroduce food, many of those things no longer appealed to me. Unfortunately, some things still do.

So, I can apply this practice to any food or drink that is offensive to my understanding of healthful living. If my daily circumstances aren’t too stressful, I can stay on top of it, if I’m really focused and committed, I can make it work. If I refuse to give myself excuses, I can stick with it.

For me, it works now on coffee, because I am also acutely aware of the intense, extreme physical pain that will result in re-addiction. It isn’t so successful for me yet with other foods, perhaps because I’m not so in tune with the long-term price I might pay for indulgence. But if I keep at it, maybe I’ll find myself a successful full-time raw-fooder yet.

And maybe, just maybe, if I practice that often enough, even the false sense of need will fade and the lies that I am incomplete will no longer hold sway over me.

:-)

Deborah

[bittersweet]

Now I am concerned about the B12 supplement I am taking. Can it hurt me? Should I stop? And do I have to stop gradually? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, confused!!!!!!!!!!

Gabriel Cousins writes that he feels as though taking a b-12 (or any vitamin/mineral supplement) can decrease the body's ability to extract said vitamin/mineral from food, or make it itself.

[meinleben]

rawnpawgirl...
i hear you....its hard....i say drink the coffee until you are ready and truly want to give it up...i have been battling this as well...i must say that the longer i go without it...the easier it does become...when i make deals with myself...like ok...only every other day...or just half a cup...it gets crazy for me...when i am ready and really want to...i will give it up and i will be fine...i really believe it...

as far as the b12...yes suppliment...the raw gurus...who study things scientifically say do suppliment...there is not enough evidence at this time that we get enough b12 elsewhere....so i take a b12 every few days...and i feel so dam sharp....

[Gosia]

Storm is the proof that raw vegans do not need supplemens, and in particular that any claims that B12 cannot be obtained by raw vegans it totally false (since he's been raw vegan for over 30 years, he could not possibly use any stored B12 in his body, it must come from his diet). I say scientists have a lot to learn from nature yet. Just to be safe, I do not rely on them, but on the nature. :)

Gosia

[GreenPrince]

So, now, instead of having the coffee, I deeply enter into enjoying the smell. I take it in. I “taste” it without actually tasting. I hold the experience inside of me. I fully experience it in the moment. So, now, I find that I don’t have to have it, hold it, own it or even actually drink it in order for it to be part of my experience or enjoyment of life. I don’t actually have to have the food or drink. I can have all of the sense of enjoyment that actual consumption would have offered me.

I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but it’s one of the things that I learned during a forty day Master Cleanse.
Deborah

It's funny. I have a similar experience but in a different way.

This began with a discovery a few years ago. I was in a big city, got hungry and went into a food market to find something to eat. Walked around and looked at the food which attracted me.

Suddenly I fell into an alternate state of consciousness, and began to breathe in - not only the smell - but the shape, color and energy of the food. To my astonishment I was immediately satisfied and full of energy.

In the beginning of practicing this, I felt a little bit guilty, like stealing the energy out of food without paying a cent. Now it's more like copying something into a CD or my USB-memory. The original is still there. This is against the laws of thermodynamics. Your can't copy energy. Weird, isn't it?

[lissomllama]

Not only do I agree with Storm, he is amazing looking. What a handsome and healthy man and at 57 years old, that is awesome. Get ready all you rawfoodists to live for a LOOOOOONG time. I hope we all have stuff to occupy our time with!