Divine Raw

[GlimR]

It's been about two months since I started the raw way of life. I had been transitioning over several years from a high protein/low carb diet to whole foods, veg, then vegan and finally to raw...felt like a very natural and sane progression to me. I've had a few ups and downs over the last 2 months but overall know that this is the way I want to live for the rest of my life.

I am thrilled and awed by the selection and choices that we have to make in deciding what we will eat. When I first learned about raw I thought, how limiting, how can I do without so many things. It amazes me how my perspective has changed and how my tastes have also.

Six years ago there were days on end when I never really ate any real food, fast food, soda for breakfast, take out crap. I wouldn't touch a soda now if you paid me.

I look around in my kitchen and the wealth of things I have chosen to surround myself with is such a joy. Food is a joy...no longer a temptation, a chain around my neck and heart inflicting guilt, shame and weakness.

I have oat groats sprouting, almonds soaking and portabello mushrooms marinating. On the counter is a jar of apple slices I dried yesterday, flax crackers of assorted flavors and enchilada wrappers. I made two quarts of almond milk this morning, a jar of date syrup and a fresh batch of raw chili. I peeled and froze 10 lbs. of ripe banana that I got for $1.00. I have a fresh pineapple and two kinds of melons, new apples and pears on the counter.

I am surrounded by abundance.

There is nothing limiting in any way when you choose a raw food lifestyle. There is only richness and plenty. I feel more connected to life and to my own heart, spirit than I ever have. A better steward of this earth creating less waste. I had to rave this morning. The food is great but there are so many other non-food gifts that we give ourselves when choosing to live this way...as sweetgoddess said yeaterday it is the ultimate gift of self-love and even beyond that, love of life itself.

[cactus]

You are so right, isnt it wierd how you can look at something now that you may have looked at years ago with an entirely new outlook, years ago, when I had vegetarians over for tea, I would get all anouyed and not know what to cook, then my son became a vegan and that blew me out the window, I thought it would be impossible to cater for his needs, yet now I am all those things and one step further in being raw and I find it the most natural way in the world, if anyone had told me a few years back I would be living this way I'd have laughed, and told them it was way to restrictive, yet its not at all, infact I never knew there was so many wonderfull health giving things to eat, a light bulb has gone on in my head and I see life entirely differently, and I love it.

[ebonysea7]

Beautiful sentiments, GlimR. Despite the challenges of freeing myself from the SAD, cooked diet the rewards, as you so eloquently illustrated, are more than worth the effort.

/gfj

[Ariannah]

GlimR, I echo your sentiments exactly. Oddly enough my transition to raw parallels yours as 3 years ago I went on a controlled-carb diet (ala Hellers), after having been cooked vegetarian/vegan + junk food for a good 20 years, which led me to dig more deeply.

I was thinking today how wonderful raw is, and how I can eat anything I want. I don't even have to work hard... just grab my fruit and go, for the most part. I love smoothies, I love sprouted grains, I love my greens! I love how satisfying eating is now.

Thank you for starting this thread. I was going to start one myself, and thankfully found this one.
Ariannah

[lodestar]

Thank you for the boost! A very positive, thankful thread.

[ReneeSC]

Today I awoke out of a melatonin stupor I'd accidently put myself in last night. I took a 3mg tablet of Melatonin ( a natural hormone that regulates the sleep area of the brain). Well, I've been so sensitive to "medications" and even some suppliments that I became frighteningly ill last night and way on into this morning. I had heart palpatations, dizziness, feelings of extreme pressure building in my head, stomach pains.. it was AWFUL.

No more melatonin. I'll sleep when I sleep.

I went to the farmer's market today. I bought a lot of things. :) Too numerous to say, but... it was okay. I was telling one of the men that I was only buying things that could be eaten _raw_. He wondered about the Southern pole beans ( which I used to grow, as does many a backyard farmer down here ), because he thought they need to be cooked. I told him we eat them raw, too. His eyes bugged out. :)

I then skipped over to the hfs - to forage. I tried to find hemp powder. I think I missed that in the suppliment section. Oh well. I grabbed a decaf ( almost gone now! ) and sat down to read my favorite two books to read there: Conscious Eating and Raw Power. I wrote down a few things out of Cousen's book to research on my own... about kirilite photography and electromagnetism of the body ....
I love fascinating studies. I'm on a quest to find out why my body is responding to things they way it is.... am I at a higher "charge"..and is that why "medicines" just go pinging off of the walls of my body?
I bet I find an electromagnetic link....or a conjuction at the very least.
The decaf didnt' like me either.. I felt even more nauseous.

I find that FABULOUS! That means I'm REALLY detoxing!!! That means my body is REALLY responding!! That means I'M HEALING at the cellular level!!

I'm SO EXCITED! ( now, you know you're a raw foodist when you get excited about feeling awful over something you ate! )

I walked into the hfs today.. thinking of Ariannah's ( RawnNatural ) and GlimR's posts about Divine Raw, and I found myself wanting to tear and cry a bit. True, I've been in heavy emotional detox, so.. I could be a bit weepy from that, but ... It occurred to me how BLESSED I am to have been shown how to heal my body - walk in a more sacred way, and learn how to heal others as well.
I could feel the cells in my body literally BUZZ.

NOW I UNDERSTAND WHAT ALISSA WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!! I got the BUZZ!!!

I'd been feeling it for a few days, but didn't know what it meant. Now I do... Your body DOES resonate at a level you can actually FEEL!

There goes that electromagnetic charge link again! Studying this will be fun.

[Ariannah]

What kind of parallel universe is this? Today, I've been feeling quite emotional (good emotional) thinking about raw, this thread, and everyone I've become acquainted with.

[sweetgoddess]

GlimR, how very beautiful. And it is your own beauty and abundance you are reflecting. I have only one thing to say.

Can I come over for breakfast???? yummy!

[ReneeSC]

I agree with SG - GlimR .. your kitchen sounds so fun. ( Do share with us your date syrup recipe! After I went through the last of the true Maple Syrup, I went looking for it's raw alternative )

Ariannah - your quote from Paul Benheim... those last 5 words are where I am. I'm stunned, a bit, at the discoveries I'm head-long into...

I understand the connection between spritual fasting and a renewed source of energy, of sacredness, power, peace, and deliverance.....

but.. on another level, I'm experiencing this my eating this way everyday; perhaps not totally as for a total abstainance fast, but.. this is sort of a different sort of fast - and the results ............... can they be named?