I WANT TO….BUT, BUT, BUT I REALLY DO. BUT…….

OK, well, now the tummy is full of all that good stuff and the brain is ready to think a bit further.

The day I heard about this diet which started with raw food, I went out and bought myself all the raw food which I liked and which was on sale or atleast not so expensive.  I refuse to go bankrupt on account of any diet, no matter how good it is for you.  I even, googled some sites for raw food recipes and rightly proceeded to ignore all I saw.  The nice thing was that one raw foodie made a very good point – KISS (keep it simple stupid – I am not sure the stupid needs to be there but then I didn’t make up the acronym and am even willing to just go with KIS! But , whatever.))  - because very often these recipes can be quite complex in their preparation.  AND I , being one who likes simple when it comes to food and food preparation, decided to take his advise full force.   I even substituted cow’s milk for a commercial almond beverage  which at first I thought was rather tasty but later, so as not to waste it, found ways to use it but mask its presence (maybe homemade might taste better but another time).  So much for good!

I can’t say that I have completely turned my life to raw food but  have certainly given atleast 80, and maybe even 90, percent to rawnessland.  I do believe that I stated one time before that I do feel that my energy level is up.  Also, there seem to be less problems with the stomach in general – acid indigestion has certainly left my life.  I’m not going to get into all the benefits because really, it is such an old person and fanatic thing to obsess about one’s bodily stuff.   Unless it is your own body, who really wants to hear about it all that much!  Wouldn’t you agree?

As for how I put together all the fruits ( there were not too many of them on sale so not many of them came home with me)  and vegetables, I really stuck with KIS.  I took one large bowl as my measuring “cup” and just threw together whatever vegetables I had a fancy for that evening’s meal.  I made up some kind of weird concoction of a salad dressing with whatever I thought to be “healthy or good for you” as I understood whatever I heard from others and even remember for myself and ate away with joy.  But you see what the problem is?

If you are not a vegetarian from early years, you are too lazy to read oh so much about it (how to do it right and everything like that), you do like having meat from time to time or most times, all these different variations of problems and many more, the question becomes – how do you get your protein?  Now I have heard that there are vegetables that do have protein (peas, I do believe is one of those vegetables).  Why, just as an aside, there are even vegetables that have calcium.  One person told me that peanut butter has more protein than a serving of meat.  Is it true – I don’t know but I am willing to believe it because I like peanut butter.

Of course, raw eggs don’t follow the strict  category of RAW FOOD as foodies define raw – raw is fruits and vegetables - but they do fall under the general category of raw food.  They are a source of protein but how many people do you know that like raw eggs.  I don’t ….. however .. when I was just a wee tike, so to speak, my ever so sneaky mother did from time to time feed us raw eggs AND we were ever so happy to drink what she presented.  AAH, the suspense!!!  How did she do it?  Well, it was actually very simple and we may have even watched her do it for all I know (but can’t say that I remember).  First she got us excited at the idea of having a milkshake!  Then she cracked a raw egg or several into a bowl, poured in some milk, added some chocolate powder, whipped it all into a froth, poured some into a glass for each us and served it to us with great glee.  We loved it!!!  Drank it with glee!!  AND what is maybe strange to think - like with the idea of Santa Claus – the truth about the milkshake, even today, does not dampen my likeness for my mother’s milkshake.  How do you think I managed to rid myself of the commercial almond beverage?

Now you may ask yourself things like – what if I don’t feel full from eating all these raw fruits and vegetables?  It’s like eating Chinese food.  You eat, eat , eat and several hours later feel hungry.  Well, this is a very good question but so far I have not felt that great hunger after several hours.  Of course, I do not eat raw in the morning and I have kept my coffee with 10% cream.  I do eat a few -but only a few – other foods besides raw fruits and vegetables.  Once I even ate a full McCain’s pizza (very burnt because I forgot about it, but I ate it all at one sitting).  Once I added canned tuna into my salad but I do have to admit after eating my big bowl of salad with tuna added to it, I felt like I had REALLY overeaten!  There are other nonsense things I did but let’s not get to “old” and “fanatic” here.

The bottom line is – sorry to harp on it – KNOW THYSELF!!!!!

To KNOW THYSELF is not only a psychology thing.  You have to KNOW THY BODY!  You have to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!  If something feels wrong, then it is wrong.  Just as you don’t take medicine just because some doctor told you that it will help you, so you don’t eat food which some expert or other or some foodie told you that it would be good for you.

There is no magic formula for all peoples.  All you can do is experiment and listen for the reaction to the experiment.  If the results are favourable, then continue on your chosen path.  If there is some negative result, find out what it is and cut it out of your diet.  Remember KIS!

OK,  enough for now.  Maybe next time I will actually have come to the actual diet part of the diet presented by the doctor of this site.  If so, I shall disclose what I learn.

I WANT…….. PART 3

Well, here I am again.  I am not really sure how many of those 20 or so have gone but I have to admit that I do feel more energized and less tired in general.  Maybe I am actually getting younger and do not realize it.  Oops, oops, oops what did I say about KNOW THYSELF?  Oh so long ago in the last post?

On the site I mentioned once, oh so long ago and will eventually  get around to “revealing” so to speak, the doctor said that the first thing before starting the diet that he proposes is to eat only RAW FOODS for two weeks but not to worry because after 2 weeks, one can return to introducing other foods into the diet again.  This eating of the raw foods means NO CAFFEINE BEVERAGES, NO DAIRY PRODUCES, NO ALCOHOL, NO SMOKING.  You see where this is going , don’t you.  RAW FOODS means RAW FOODS!!!  The stuff you find at the front of the grocery store in the fruits and vegetables area.  That’s it!!  He suggested you go on line and there you will find myriads of sites with recipes for raw food.  Experiment, explore, enjoy.    For drinking – water without chlorine and other chemicals and water with a few grains of sea salt and water with freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Any fresh, raw drinks you find the internet – for sure.

So there is your start for the next two weeks.  Not too complicated, I would say.  I think it will all give you enough of a run for your efforts as any other.

I will leave it there for now.  I’ll let you know how it goes for me as time passes by and what I think of this notion in general but for today, I can say I am tired of thinking anymore in general.  Enjoy the start of your adventure and we will see you again soon in the future.

I WANT TO………………..CONTINUED

OK, so here I am again.  Ready to continue with my new adventure into the loss of 20 or so.

I mentioned that doctor, expert in the last post but still do not have further information about him but , don’t worry, eventually I will find out and pass on the information as it surfaces again.  You see, the problem is that that computer is temporarily out of town!!  Yes, more excuses.

Now another interesting fact that we skimmed over while subscribing to the site mentioned, was the notion of stuff that had nothing to do with food.  Stuff that resided in the realm of psychology, housecleaning and life experiences.  Having studied psychology in university and always been interested in it, I set my mind to thinking about what they could possibly say about it and here is my thinking:

What is more important to your well being in life than anything else??  Good question and here is what I think that the answer is.  The old philosophy notion:

KNOW THYSELF!!!!

Pretty easy, eh?

Not!

Just to be “honest” with yourself is a feat and a half!  To even stop and have a look at yourself is hard enough but to actually have a relationship with yourself is pretty mind-boggling.  There is so much to overcome especially when one starts to look at the side one doesn’t want to see, never mind acknowledge even exits.  Then there are all those life experiences , interactions with others that weren’t the most pleasant and developed inside feelings of insecurity, low self-esteem, self-loathing and the list goes on.  Added to that could be all kinds of anger and contempt for all those “others” out there in the world who are continuing to make life miserable for the self.

Psychological stuff are so numerous that one would think that they are never ending and it might not be  a bad idea to go to some professional.  In some cases it might help or atleast be a kick-start to breaking the ice with the self.  In other cases, it might just all be a waste of time and money, never mind problem producing.  Here again, KNOW THYSELF!    What is the best course of action for you?

OK, so let’s say that you have opened the channels to a good relationship with yourself and are ready to move forth with a new plan of action in your life.

You look at you house or apartment or living space in general.  What state is it in?  Are you satisfied with it?  Is this the first time you even took the time to look at what is around you?  Ooops, maybe it would be a good idea to make some order and try to maintain it!  Who knows, it is possible that the general state of your environment might influence your general state of mind and well-being!?  Many experts and feng ju’ers will say that indeed it does.   AND I have to admit that from somewhat, maybe, limited experience, I would have to agree.  EVERYTHING IN LIFE NEEDS ATTENTION!!!

If you are a house owner, a businessperson, a careerist, a writer, a diligent anyone, you already know this to be the case because after all, “How do you get anywhere if you do not take care of things?”   But wait a minute, here.  What about all those people who do take care of their surrounding environment and still carry too much weight? or are sickly?  Yes, what about them?  And what about the ones who care so much about their health and well-being and still are sickly?  Oh, the pondries of life do go on!!!

KNOW THYSELF!!!!  Where are your excesses?  You insufficiencies? Your obsessions?  Your disbalances?

Life experiences – learn from them but don’t get stuck in them.  That is the trick.  If you were small and had no control over your life when you were a child, the trick is to remember that you are no longer a child and your circumstances have changed.  Very often we get stuck with all the bad feelings surrounding all the awful things others have done to us but rarely we remember all the horrid things we did and the horrid feelings others may feel as a consequence of our actions.  Of course, we were always right in what we did.  We were good people surrounded by cruds.  Life is sooooo unfair when it comes to us that how is it possible to turn out a totally “healthy” grown-up?

KNOW THYSELF!  Yes, it is a hard process.  Yes, it takes a long time.  Yes, it is heart-wrenching.  Yes, only you can do it.  Yes, change sucks but it is a fact of life even if you never see or acknowledge it.   Of course, in some way it doesn’t really have to be oh so difficult.  For some it will be more difficult than others.  Some will have to work harder than others.  Oh, truly, how unfair!!!

KNOW THYSELF!!

ACCEPT YOURSELF!!!  Pretend that you are some stranger that you just met and instantly took a liking to, wishing to get to know.  Do you not, upon first meeting someone new, just accept that person as he or she is?  And why not grant yourself the same liberty?

Why not indeed!!  So much of life depends on how we are able to accept things, how we look at things, how we react to things, how we feel about ourselves at the time things are happening…..  In some ways, everything seems rather complicated but what if we turned that 180 degrees  and actually saw how easy everything is?  Break it down to its smallest component.  Backtrack to the start.  Look through our child’s eyes, maybe even our teenage eyes.  Where is our sense of wonder?  Our sense of adventure?  Our sense of awe?

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!

Stuff happen.  Sometimes terrible stuff happen.  Sometimes wonderful stuff.  Everything is a learning experience for the best.  FOR THE BEST!!!  You ask any wild animal, insect, bird, fish or reptile and he or she will tell you the same.  IT IS ALL A LEARNING EXPERIENCE to help you learn to live on this earth with your fellow beings.  Include here all plant life, rocks, waters, air, minerals, microbes and so on and so on.  They will all tell you the same thing.  EVERYTHING WHICH HAPPENS IS JUST A LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!!  The value placed on the experience is placed on by you and you alone.

KNOW THYSELF!!!

OK, enough for now.  The food stuff will continue next time again.

RUSSEL JAMES, JAMES OLIVER AND OTHERS I HAVE YET TO DISCOVER

I am not fanatic about anything and never want to be but I do think that some things are worth taking note of.

Russel James (russel@therawchef.com) and others of the same thinking are certainly worth listening to because it really does seem like the world has gone mad and if we are not careful the only food available to the masses will be made from cardboard and plastic or some other form of artificiality.

As I write this James Oliver is calling upon the world to join his food revolution (jamesfoodrevolution.us).  You can find his talk on http://www.ted.com/talks/jamesoliver.html   .  It is a call to “attention peoples!!” because something is going horribly wrong here.

I am not a fanatic, as I stated before , but I do believe that the commodization of food on the stock market is taking us down some wrong path into the land of artificial foodland.

Everything needs care.  Everything needs some kind of vigilance.  I begrudge no person to make money but I do believe some things do not belong on the stock market.  The money made from food has to primarily go to the farmer and partially the supermarkets which sell the food.  Yes, there are all those who produce canned goods, dry goods and artificial goods and good luck with whatever money they make.  They do the work, they get the money BUT speculators and stockmarketers  don’t belong in the picture!!!

FOOD IS AN ESSENTIAL !!!   Without it even the fat cat can’t live!!

I WANT TO. I WANT TO, BELIEVE ME I DO……!!!!!

Oh those famous last words.  How they can stick in your throat when you think back when last you uttered them or some variation of them.  That horrid New year’s resolution is again looming over you – not as a roaring success but as a monstrous failure.  Why?  Why?  Why?

Best to get off this band wagon.  Make a 180 degree turn and look at the whole thing from a new angle.

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions so many years ago that I can’t even remember the last time I made one.  Instead, sometime in December my mind turns to general review mode.  The last of the year because every few months or so and sometimes more regularly ( this depends how “bad” I have been) my mind takes stock of my behavior/attitudes/actions/thinking in general.  This keeps me on track in regards to the goals I have set out for myself for the next year or years.  If I repeat a goal from year to year, it just means I have more work to do.

I haven’t in the last few years written down my goals as diligently as I used to (no excuses) because I think I am still working on previous ones and they have become pretty internal  You know – like every time you hear your mother’s or father’s or grandparentss’  or somebody important to you’s voice .  You can’t get the voice out of your head and you can’t ignore it, so you deal with it and get on with the business of doing what you must.  I guess one could almost say that all of life is just learning to be human and your internal voices (and I am not talking about the ones which direct you in the direction of evil, harm to others or any criminal activity or just general craziness) help you stay on track.

But never mind all that.  What is the point here???

Today’s point is FOOD!!!!  Losing those oodles of pounds or just a few or simply what they call the “tire” around your waist.  Of course, one could stress out about it.  It is a path you could follow but I think , as many have discovered, it is a rather futile path to follow and often equals more problems than it is worth.

I confess, I can’t say that I have oodles of pounds to lose but did start at 50 pounds over my normal weight.  That was 10 years or so ago.  Now I just struggle with maybe the last 20 or 25 of those excess burdens.  I don’t know why but they just do not want to go.  No, I’m not going to go into any excesses about huge amounts of reading, dieting or searching for solutions that I have or may have ventured into.  I haven’t done any of that in any case.  I can almost sat that I am too lazy for all of that.  Not only that, but I know that none of those things work in any case so why bother??

So you may ask – where are you going with this?  What has changed?

The short answer is – I HAVE!

I know – or maybe just believe – that the answer for a relatively good health (and note that I did say ”relatively”.  I said it on purpose and I will get back to that momentarily.) is with FOOD.  Exercise is important too or maybe it is not necessarily concentrated exercise but just movement in general.  In any case,  MOVEMENT is important.  Now to the “relatively” stuff.

The most important thing to remember is that WE DO NOT LIVE IN A PERFECT WORLD  and as we speak there are those who are working hard and furious to make less of one by busily modifying, processing, pasturizing, and so on and so forth – never mind making it all some commodity in the stock market – to the point that one may even begin to wonder about the value of any of the food that we eat at all.  Plus you might notice that we do all LIVE ON THIS DEAR EARTH  so even if something is packaged as “organic” (a term I find a bit funny since I always thought that all food was organic anyways!!)  the rain that falls on this ORGANIC  (chemically free fertilized) land is the same, the air which blows over this land is the same  and the chemicals and beings which lie in this soil are the same.  In other words,we pay for the label ORGANIC , not the fact!  This is one point regarding “relatively”.

The second point is that OUR HEALTH HAS ALWAYS BEEN RELATIVELY PERFECT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!  Just being born into the world has been an experience and a half for our souls.  To get used to the environment here (even in those early days of the earth’s existence, I think) has always been challenging , to say the least.  There is so much we do not understand and there is ever so much more to learn.

The point is that the only being on this earth that we will ever REALLY know is our own.  We cannot delegate this responsibility to anyone.  We can gather information from those who have been more studious or have more knowledge  or are on the expert side of life BUT in the end these people do not know US or our bodies or how anything will react in our bodies.  Only we know that and only we can do something about our bodies!!  In the end we have what we have and we have to work with what we have to the best of our ability.

So from this premise, I start my renewed effort to lose that extra 20 or so pounds.  My friend came upon some site – right now I don’t have access to that site as my mind wandered a bit upon mention of the name and it was on a different computer and, and, and (your know how it goes) – where some “expert” kind of doctor stated that the way to good health starts with RAW FOOD.    The start of his diet started with raw food only for 2 weeks.

But hold on.  Before you go crazy and all out with this notion, stop and think what this means and who you are as a person in general.

I will come back in a bit while you chew on that a bit.

 

SPRING IS….

Clouds and flowers!!!!

SPRING – MAYAN PREDICTION REVISITED…….MAYBE WE GOT IT WRONG!!

Not so long ago and again recently, I read a most interesting blog by Ann Male at  http://annivymale.wordpress.com  and it inspired me to write and rewrite the following thoughts:

I sometimes catch myself looking at some movie about the future – mostly out of curiosity as to how someone may look upon it.  I would say that 99.9% are better not looked at or contemplated over because they are just fear mongering, end of the world mongering and hopelessness mongering.

If one was to truly believe that this could be possible, what was being shown, (and in some way, I suppose it is) I would say that 1. there really is no point in living any further and 2. if this is the case then anything in the present is a go and there is no point in holding back one’s desires – even the deepest and darkest ones.   BUT I don’t think the vast majority of people believe that it is possible.  God did not create us to desire death over life.

Each being has a purpose, a mission in life.  This includes Mother Nature over whom we have very little to no power because she is the ultimate decider of natural events.  Over our own lives, we do have control.  Maybe not always individual control because we do, after all, live in groups – family and society – but the decisions made in those groups we, as people, have made up.  If we make one decision, we can always make a different one from the original.  Yes, it takes time because we all have a tendency to get stuck and enamored with our own decisions (status quo syndrome) thinking they are the only correct ones or to change is  too scary, giving way to all kinds of terrible things.

Terrible things do happen in life.  A lot of the terrible things are man-made events.  Over these events we have a lot more control than most of us think but very often FEAR  gets in the way of action.  The other terrible things that happen are way beyond our control and dwell in the realm of Mother Nature.  For her and the rest of natural life, her events are just events as they should be but for us they ,  at times,  seem scary because we don’t understand what is happening, we can’t control it, we don’t know what  will happen to us and our loved ones, we feel helpless, we are no longer in tune with Mother Nature and hence have lost the ability to come along with her.  Then we come to the Mayan prediction – what do we understand about it??

The Mayan prediction could be under the control of Mother Nature – in which case there is little we understand about it or can even do about it.  It could be under the control of the universe, the stars – again Mother Nature.  It could be a human thing – in which case we have to examine what we are doing, how we are doing it and what we have to change.  It could be a soul thing – making it again not completely a human thing because we are not the only souls upon this earth.  All souls upon this earth are looking to survive here as best they can.  It is not always easy to understand the self, the universe, life or morality.  It is an every day struggle.  Although in some way, I would say that it seems that most of the disruption created on earth is man-made, man alone cannot fix it.  The blame game may seem like a good tool for action-taking in the short term but is certainly not so in the long term.

It is possible that everything is as it should be.  It may seem like the issue in general is bigger than us, hence making it seem too big to deal with but then again maybe it is not as big as we think for when we, each of us, start to work on our small little corner of the world to effect the changes we know need changing – very often, starting with ourselves first – we may find that change is not so bad and is even pretty easy!!

I think the next frontier for us all lies in morality!!  Maybe it has been there all the time and is a part of everything we seek to understand but like very often the case, when we are seeking to understand something – we look  everywhere but right under our noses!!

The Mayan prediction may have not gone as we thought – or some thought and maybe even wanted – it to go but this does not mean we have to become complacent.  Our work, the task of all humanity and all souls, is still resting upon our shoulders.

Spring has arrived and very often SPRING is the symbol of new life, renewed hope, renewed efforts to forge forward and create a better world for us all.  We are all children here upon this earth, so gracious and so wonderful.  Maybe not everyone believes in a higher being or God but I do believe that each of us believes in a power greater than ourselves , whatever we may call that greater power.  So, let us celebrate these days of spring and set our eyes upon ever higher and nobler goals.

TO YOU ALL I WISH A MOST GRACIOUS AND WONDERFUL SPRING!!!