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!