This blog updates at least weekly on any of the days below with the topics as follows:
On a Monday-Maniac Mondays = All Things that are All Things! Generally thoughts, ideas or tools we think can be useful to the personal or professional life.
On a Thursday-Tumultuous Thursdays = All Things Metaphysical
On a Friday-Funtastic Fridays = All Things Fun! (cartoons, stories about the Purple Elephant and the Little mouse...)
Studious Saturdays = All Things about the craft of fiction writing. Also we will give you little snippets about how our fantasy fiction novel in progress is going. Sometimes this can be told as a cartoon. We will be doing nanowrimo this year as well.

Also our Advent calendar will be happening this year as usual! Look for an interesting and new format!

For My Reincarnation Series

Share This!

Thursday 25 September 2008

On My 3rd Week Raw Food Choices I Gnaw!



All photos by Meady's Musings Production, Copyright 2006-2008

As I head into my 3rd week raw I'm in a much different place than I envisioned myself being...I thought I'd be just waiting to cross the finish line of the 3rd week and probably planning to have something like a big chocolate cake or pizza waiting for me at the end! But instead here I am 2nd week raw and I'm actually thinking I could be like this for much longer? Also I don't always feel hungry...can fruits which I mostly eat all day be this filling? But certainly I'd want to eat cooked foods again and carbs but maybe not as much? Or maybe I can not make it a rule and so live raw but when I really wanted to eat something or there is this event or family gathering I can have some cooked things? Cause I hate having to turn down people when they've cooked for me. Like my mum is itching to feed me dhalpuris!

Hmm...so many choices that are about to open up soon after I complete my 3rd week raw...hmm...I know for sure I'd want to have chocolates...although to be honest I don't care for the sugar in them so much although I can't eat more than 60% dark too cause then it gets too bitter so I must want some sweetness in them. A self proclaimed chocolate connoisseur myself I've found that the European chocs are the fine ones and the American ones are the really sugar crazed ones...I once had this box of French Chocolate Truffles and it tasted almost like cocoa...in fact the truffles were each garnished with a touch of cocoa a top each...mmmm...mmmm...So anyway I think cocoa can be the way to go perhaps in the future...perhaps cocoa instead of coffee...although this would not be new for me cause I've often had a cup of Cadbury's cocoa at night. I make it sinfully delicious if I do say so myself by using lots of heaped teaspoons of cocoa and Nestle's sweetened condensed milk. So it's sweet but maybe better than chocolates? But seriously could I ever live with out those decadent treats? I'm so crazy bout chocolates I even love that game on Yahoo! games called Chocolatier and I wanted to eat the chocs I created in the game so badly! I also loved that it represented a time when cocoa was still exported from my homeland of Trinidad...cool game! But back to the food choices...

I can see myself perhaps giving up coffee but to all my group members on the Hong Wing Coffee group on Facebook don't worry I've not left you and whenever I do have coffee I assure you it will be Hong Wing or at least I'll still think it's made in TT and the best! But I think I'm missing my tea...the herbal tea experience was cool and at least now I know I can do it...but I'm a tea lover...I love tea especially with all the seasonings that is now called chai in the west although it really just means tea in hindi...but yep the last thing I had that was to be not on my raw list was Twinings Voyage Indian Chai (tea)...I had that just minutes before I became raw and I soooo long for it. I also love Dilmah tea. Maybe I can try going to green tea to start with though but we will see...And maybe I'll toss my Splenda and start using sugar again but just minimize my use of it. I know some friends will hug me for that!

So let's see...let's see...I've learned that I can actually live without cheese and so many things taste so much better even without it. But I do miss my milk. I've learned that one big plate of vegetables can be enough to fill me for dinner. I've learned...I've learned...I've learned so much! So here we go one more week until my rawism is complete but then the question will remain what should Babita Dubay really eat? Veges for sure and fruits galore, less cheese and pasta and no more Splenda...

Wednesday 17 September 2008

YAY! I've Made It Through My First Week Raw!


Photo by Meady's Musings Production

The reason I put up the above pic to commemorate my first week raw is cause it's gone by just like that like a little snail crawling! And no it's not cause I've been eating raw snails as some may have thought!

I've not really been hungry this first week raw by 70% or semi-raw or whatever I might be labeled...kinda raw even? Neither do I think I've lost any significant weight so far. However it has made me realize how little we really need to eat and how much we eat just to fill up space. I had always known bout the filling up space part but I never realized how much so...like how much more what we eat can be reduced if we are more conscious of it. How really little we need to eat to survive! I've always been the one to get the eight glasses of water in per day but this raw experience so far has made me realize just how much water our body needs. I think our bodies must need way more water than food! I think it goes with being raw though perhaps as I saw Elspeth's advice to me to get enough water perhaps 3 litres a day! I dont know if I've been drinking 3 litres but I've been trying to keep hydrated as much as possible. Sometimes I get tired to chew another apple but I never can have enough water!

Being raw isn't half bad though. Although there are times I sure wish I could eat a big, full, fancy meal like earlier this evening...I was sure missing food! And it didn't help that my mother has been consistently making dhalpuris ...next big session since I've gone raw! But then by the time I got to eating my two small bowls of yellow dhal today and some left over water melon and paw paw from the fridge and a few nuts I snacked on in between I was quite filled!Makes you realize how much the need to have this big dreamed up meal in my head was not a real need of my body but perhaps more a projection of my mind's idea of what my body needed...maya...it's all illusion!

I don't know if I lost any weight but I'm not doing this to lose weight although I need to lose some. But this experiment is not about weight loss. I feel much lighter and my breathing is very much like how it gets when I'm exercising regularly...I've not been exercising this week and don't plan to until the end of the three weeks only cause I'm not sure if I know what I'm doing well enough in terms of the raw stuff cause I figure even with the nuts I'm not getting more than 1000 calories a day but then I'd have lost weight although I don't weigh myself so I don't know for sure. Anyway it might not be the best for me, not exercising but in terms of the experiment this way I have only one variable. Cause I've not been exercising for a while now as I was involved in several additional activities outside of work for the past two months prior to this that made my available time for exercise much less than normal and I decided to just catch up when those things were done. So to exercise and become raw would have been two changes so two variables would have entered into the experiment. So I plan to restart exercise post raw.

But back to the health effects of my rawism. Yep I feel much lighter in a way if only in spirit and there is so much less weighing down on my digestive system I guess. I really do feel like how a car's engine must react to being given unleaded gas finally when it was built for that and was being filled up with leaded gas instead! All my fuel injectors are now unclogged of lead! So breathing is that much easier! I'm also decaffeinated now and I think this must be the reason or just the foods I'm eating as a whole but I also feel so much more at peace and restful and also able to sit and meditate even more now. I feel more still is what it is and more centered so I can just sit still in silence for much longer more easily I find.

And yes folks my not so pearly whites that were the ones who guided me to be raw...well they are feeling so much better! Poor things aren't being corroded anymore and they are so at peace with themselves now :)

So it may not be easy being raw but it's good being raw so far! Two more snailing forward weeks to go!

On The Eve of My First Wk Raw(70%)

All pics are copyright of Meady's Musings Production


Tomorrow will mark my first week of being about 70% raw. Those of you following my blog will know what I mean when I say raw. If not you can catch up on my past postings to see what I mean.

I will give a full breakdown of all the details of my first week on the journey tomorrow but for tonight on the eve of the first week's end I thought I'd share with you two of the meals I've had instead of dhals or soups for dinner. Basically they are slightly cooked salads. So they fell into my 30% cooked category but really were semi-raw I'd say. I can tell you I've not been following all the 'rawist rules' and I can tell you I find those rawists remind me of what happens with religion. You are on a search like the Buddha... a nice thing someone trying to find his path... his way in the world and what's right for him and not so he can see the light. Then Bam! and Boom! somebody decided religion...rules...a rawist can do this but not that...So maybe just like with religion here I have to say maybe I'm not even a food rawist or raw or 70% raw even. Maybe I'm just a girl trying to explore different ways to eat in the world. Maybe I'm just experimenting for three weeks about what to eat or what not to eat. This is my main goal here not... to be or not to be... a rawist that is...I'm more an experimenter. I'm using these 3 wks to experience the best eating habits for me and how it improves how my body feels and reacts to food. Then I plan to incorporate this in the future in the best way I can when I'm no longer in this closed and guarded experimental mode...so I'm learning how to live life that is by looking at it more closely in these 3 weeks at least the eating aspect of life that is. Perhaps it is like putting one's own self into a rehab of sorts while still living in the world and doing your normal things! It might be interesting to do it with other aspects of our lives too...perhaps experiment this way with all the seven deadly sins of the Bible :)- lust, greed, sloth ...to be honest I don't know all seven! But you get the point. So here is my kinda semi-raw dinners I had the first one on Sunday night (14 Sept 08) and the 2nd one was tonight. Both basically are light sautes of veges in Extra Virgin Olive Oil or as my niece tells me EVOO as Rachel Ray calls it!

Sunday's Dinner

serves one
1 tin bean sprouts (sorry true rawists I just grabbed a tin no time to sprout my own)
1/8 medium red cabagge
1 cup broccoli
1/4 large red onion
A handful of mixed nuts (I didn't realize the tub of nuts I bought on planning this was salted and slightly roasted so...and like true rawist would I have not soaked my nuts in advance...I know I'm such a disappointment to Elspeth!)
1 tsp of EVOO
few dashes of chilli pepper seeds

All of this sauteed in a hot iron pot (or other suitable) for about a minute using a tsp of EVOO and adding a few dashes of chilli pepper seeds. And below was my result...absolutely delish and a cousin passing by me eating this on my porch thought I had noodles in there and I said no! It's the bean sprouts!

Tonight's Dinner
Serves 4 and I'm happy to say my mum and niece ate it and loved it and one serving was left over which my mum plans to eat for lunch with rice tomorrow.

5 medium fresh mushrooms
1 small green pepper
2 cups broccoli
1/4 medium red cabbage
1/4 large red onion
1 small cauliflower
1 tin channa (chick peas) was from a tin in brine (I normally rinse out the brine)
1 tin of corn (sorry I used from tin again!)
3 dashes of chilli pepper seeds
3 dashes of black pepper
3 dashes of italian seasoning (a mix of spices in a bottle)
2 handful of mixed nuts (same from first recipe)
1 tbsp of EVOO

Same cooking method as first recipe and below is how it looked! Also tasted lovely! And this time my mum and niece loved it too. My niece of course had to go sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top of it. Said niece is in withdrawal as I've not cooked pasta or used cheese for the week and so she has not been able to eat any of those offerings from me all week! She is most distressed!


For those of you eager to know health effects which I will share more of tomorrow what I can say is imagine a car using unleaded gas and one using leaded gas! That's how I feel raw versus not! More tomorrow!

Thursday 11 September 2008

My First Day Raw (70%)

I don't think I was fully prepared for the journey as a number of things that was suppose to be put in place before re food supply was not done...but there were seven apples in the fridge...medium size and I ate two prunes (not sure if considered raw but then I'm 70%)on my way to grabbing out five of them. I ate two apples while driving to work (I know what I'm doing I eat in spots when there are stops etc.) Then when I get to work I eat another one leaving two for lunch time.

But my office tends to be very cold for me (about 18 deg C) and because it is a shared unit with a few other offices there is always conflict as to how to control the temperature so I just wear a sweater if I need to which is usually often. Normally the sweater is left in the office but for all of this week and last I keep forgetting to bring back any sweaters since I took them home to wash. Anyway so I quickly eat two apples for lunch and I drank lots of water through out the morning but I was going crazy at lunch time...cause I was cold and bored...what do you do while others are out eating the cooked! You see right there I was experiencing major cultural, societal and habitual shifts.

I walked across the base to the other building to keep warm and meet with some of my colleagues but wait none of them back from lunch yet! So I'm cold...especially since it rained a bit today. So I decided I'm not missing coffee as for a long time the Nescafe thing I try to mix up in work was irritating me anyway cause I tend to get the proportions wrong often...but on the whole for sometime now I've not been able to stand the bitterness of coffee (this is why I like Hong Wing the best as it is not as bitter although strong) and I often find myself swabbing coffee off my tongue surface to get rid of the after taste and thinking...ugh yuck! But normally in rainy weather especially I love having tea. I have so many different boxes of tea in my office accumulated over the years. I know I'm only 70% but I don't want to introduce Splenda, caffeine and evaporated milk into that 30% not raw. So what to do?

...I recall having one box of herbal tea in the office that remained from many years ago when a colleague used to often visit my office to work with me but only drank Camomile tea...I use to look at him with some reservations back then but hmmm...so I look up on the web if herbal tea is permissible in rawism and it is..it seems...esp since you can't kill nutrients in herbal tea anyway! It was interesting in checking this I realized I made the right choice in keeping some warm food on my menu cause others were saying the same bout needing soups especially in winter months. Of course I'm in the tropics but I also feel chills especially in my office so...I'm one of those who need some warming dishes winter or not. So who would have thought I had camomile tea with nothing added just plain tea...and guess what I loved it! Now I know I didn't have enough raw foods with me and I contemplated on several occasions if I could have one of the Ferrero Rocher's that I have in a gift box given to me last week or so. But I didn't want to do it just out of temptation. Cause I don't want it to spoil and I'm raw for a few more weeks I might eat one a day to finish off the last seven or so in the box. I don't think one is enough to tumble me off the raw feel etc...like not enough refinded sugar to impact much etc.

Anyway but for today I had my camomile tea and to be honest I didn't feel very hungry although cause of the coldness in between I craved huge bowls of steaming pasta with heaps of tomato sauce...but it was more associated with the need to feel warmth...

So I come home and for dinner have about 1.5 cups of yellow dhal prepared in Trinidadian styling- geera, garlic, bits of pepper, salt, oil and very thin in constituency so a very light soup. I spot some almonds in a container so eat about ten in the course of the evening and two prunes. And now I'm off to bed. I think I've eaten too few calories today but not sure...think will need to eat more fruits tomorrow and later on see if I can get more organized to have some smoothies etc prepared too. But I really do feel like a bird! Very light and sprightly! It's interesting being raw...and I'm looking forward to experiment with it in the next 20 days! And I'm sure to keep letting you know how it goes! I'm sorry for not having a picture today but was too tired to take photos for any part of this story but will try to do so for my next posting. Good Night and God Bless!

Wednesday 10 September 2008

I'm Going Raw...at Least 70% That Is!



Photo by Tyron Waterman 2006

There comes a point in life when all the signs line up. I've often wondered bout some of the things I eat...and over the years have changed what I eat. It's not a consistent process and I think really for me I don't want it to be. I think if we reach to a place of listening to our bodies it knows what it wants and this changes from time to time. Of course given the demands of society and all its pressures we don't always listen to our bodies. Either cause we can't hear its call cause we have so shut it out or we hear it but simply don't have the resources-time, money, and availability of the correct foods at the correct time, to carry it out. Or we want to make the change but don't cause of what others will think or about their feelings when we can no longer partake in the same meals as them. It may sound trivial but really societal pressures are a very big part of this dynamic. And it is also economic...what we can afford and what others want us to buy so they can make profits. So most of us cave in and don't always eat what our bodies really want to eat.

Sometimes we move so far away from our bodies calling, the worse happens and the body manifests its neglect in the form of serious illness. I’m not making light of people's ill health and diseases and saying that people who are sick deserve it or anything like that. And for sure I empathize with the diseased as we all suffer from some disease to some extent at least at some point in our lives so I'm hardly in a place to point fingers at anyone. This is about my own journey of self-discovery. I believe we all come on earth to learn lessons through exploration and one of those marvelous expeditions we can have here on earth lies in the exploration of gastronomy. So the world of food and drink is spread before us on the table of life. It's up to us to choose!

I made choices early on or you can say they were made for me as I was born into a family that practices your typical Indo Hindu style of vegetarianism where we ate dairy products but no eggs or fish. I know there is a label for that but I couldn’t be bothered to state it here.But later on I think I embraced it cause I really am repulsed by meat products and the idea of eating dead animals sounds like a horror film to me so on this trip to earth it's not an avenue I can see myself traveling thus far.


But here it is my path has been taking a very slow and gradual turn..for years and years I've known that carbonated drinks irritate my teeth and are obviously corroding (pardon my engineering term as I know it must not be the proper medical one) my not so pearly white enamels! Poor teeth! And really I don't know why I've not decided to stop drinking Diet Coke a long time ago! Cause I've recently realized I don't even like it anymore...it can be nice if in a can and cold, but on ice and from a glass, to me it tastes bad and somehow just exacerbates the corrosion to me! And on many occasions I've felt while eating apples that it would be nice to just eat that all the time and especially nice I felt it would be too if I could just drink something that was just the taste of the water that was left on the apple's skin mixed with the subtle taste of the apple. Hmmm....I guess the closest thing must be those flavoured waters these days but really it must just be my longing to only drink water. So I've always had these feelings...I've also always felt the idea of eating flower petals like some people do a tasty sounding idea but always too radical for me to try. So I've always had these yearnings...


Then I start following Elspeth Duncan's blog on http://nowiswowtoo.blogspot.com and she becomes raw (you know what I mean of course) and I thought how lovely but I could never do that! Then I'm reading a series of books on reincarnation and I start to read about how the writer became raw (you know what I mean) to support his son's effort to become raw as part of a health vow that a healer gave him. So there I'm thinking all these raw things coming up again and my teeth killing me and I feeling like I could be good raw. So I said yea the time has come as I said in my beginning line all the signs seemed to have lined up.So yep the time has come and I'm going raw...well at least 70% that is!


I've researched that you are considered to be a food rawist (there I used the correct term instead of saying people are becoming raw! hehe) if you eat at least 70% only raw foods. So I decided I'll start with the minimum setting...I don't think I'll ever get to 100% or do it long term but you never know. But I can't say it is even my intent currently since I feel that kinda eating is for the birds man! Also based on my fairly busy lifestyle and the availability of options where I work I was concerned about getting enough protein and I don't want to become a bird and harm my body more in the long run. Also I think I'd miss having a warm meal at some point...so I decided on to eat dhals for dinner and vary the dhals as much as possible daily. When I can't vary the dhals I will have some vegetable soup with green peas (from frozen pack) in it.

So here I go in less than an hour's time I become raw!