Wishing fiercely

You know that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for"? Forget that. Don't be careful at all with your wishes, wish wildly and fiercely and wish for more than you think you can ask for, and make your wish with the song in your heart that you will be singing when your wish is granted. The only thing you need to be careful of hesitating to accept the gift when it arrives. Accept it wholeheartedly with gratitude, you have waited a long time for this, and now you get to live your life with one less thing holding you back.

the raw truth, straight from the gypsy's mouth

One of the reasons I bailed on the 100% raw food diet was that I found it more and more absurd consuming large amounts of non-local foods (like cashews & other nuts, cacao, coconuts, agave, avocados) in order to recreate raw versions of my favorite comfort foods. Sandwiches, cheesecake, ice cream, pizza and so on. The carbon footprint was one issue, and forcing my body to derive 90% of its nutrients from food that grows on the other side of the world was another--not only is a raw tropical diet unsustainable for those not living in tropical regions energy-wise, it's totally inappropriate for our bodies. Add to that the sheer silliness of $80 raw pumpkin pies, $20 raw lasagna, desserts made with more cashews and coconut oil than a human should consume in an entire week, and then there was the pettiness amongst the global raw community, lashing out to attack those who chose to include animal foods in their diets for health reasons and condescending pretty much everyone else...well, the whole thing started to look like a circus to me.

If you like cheesecake, have a goddamn piece of cheesecake once in a while. And if you're on edge all the time, nervous, easily agitated, weak, frail and have deteriorating teeth, please, put down your raw food bible and listen to your body. I was once a proselytizing raw vegan and I have holes in my teeth to prove it. Raw milk and grass-fed meat saved my life, I believe. Eat as much raw food as you can, as much of it local as you can, but please don't do what i did and let dogma be your dietary guide.

Raw Gypsy is NOT VEGAN. Here is why

Those of you following this blog may be wondering where I've disappeared to. It's been an intense few months of contemplation and self-discovery. As a result of this, I have had to take a break from the 100% raw diet I was on for three years. It is important for me to be honest about this part of my journey and share the details with readers who may be experiencing similar things. Above all, I want to encourage each of you to listen closely to your guides--tune out other voices if you must, and trust that your body has an innate wisdom of its own.

By April of last year, the wonderful, clear, high energy I had felt for the previous three years had declined and I was starting to feel crappy. I was eating about 70-75% fruit most of the time, with occasional raw fish or raw cheese. I live in Seattle where the winters are not harsh, but it does get quite chilly here and the cold always bothered me when I was living on tropical fruit and nuts. Still, I kept on with my diet because it had brought me to such great health and peace. But I couldn't help but notice that I wasn't feeling as good. Last summer (2010) I stayed raw even though I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. By September I realized I'd been having extreme head rushes when standing, had just gotten used to them, but they were getting worse and much scarier. I was getting numbness and tingling in my fingertips, heart palpitations, and moments when I felt like my nervous system was "forgetting" how to keep me alive--like things were shorting out. At one point in the fall, I had a head rush in the morning that progressed to complete nervous collapse and I fell in the bathroom. Luckily I was not seriously injured, but it was scary for my kids and it was a wake-up call for me to make some immediate changes in my diet.

After extensive researching, since I had no money to get bloodwork done, I concluded that I was suffering from a B12 deficiency, among other things, possibly B6 as well. I had bought into the myth that the trace amounts of B12 on the surface of fruit was enough to supply me with what my body needed to function. I never took any supplements while raw and mostly vegan, because I believed that I was getting everything i needed from fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and seaweed. I was obviously wrong. I had thrown myself way out of balance, perhaps by eating so much non-indigenous fruit in a northern climate, perhaps because my B12 just ran low after I stopped getting the trace amounts that are fortified in breads and cereals, it was probably a combination of things. But my heart and soul told me that I needed to eat some red meat immediately, or I was going to die.

This was extremely hard for me. I was vegetarian for 16 years, 8 of those vegan, then only ate fish and eggs occasionally until I went raw in 2007. Then I was almost entirely vegan for three years. The idea of eating meat was heartbreaking to me. But at the same time as I was going through this, I ran into one of those primal diet people in the natural foods store. He had a lot to tell me about raw milk and raw meat, some of which I accepted, and some which I rejected at first. I went home and started reading more about this, and what I discovered is that MANY raw vegans experience the same extreme symptoms I did after more than a few years on the diet. My research turned up the truth that quite a few of our leaders in the raw food movement are no longer vegans--they simply could not keep their bodies functioning optimally without some animal protein. This has caused a huge debate in the raw food community, which has escalated to a virtual war between vegans and non-vegans. It was a very difficult decision for me to make, but knowing that my children were so worried about me, and knowing that I need to be safe and healthy in order to care for them, I had to at least try it and see if it would help me. The afternoon of the day I collapsed, I went to the butcher and bought a piece of grass-fed tenderloin, learned how to make Steak Tartare, and ate about 3 ounces of it wrapped in a piece of lettuce. I fully expected myself to hurl while eating this, but it really wasn't all that bad--not much different than sashimi. I ate that and waited to see how i felt. The most immediate results were a flushed feeling of warmth that began with my face and spread over my body. Then I didn't notice anything else until the following evening when I realized that the extreme fatigue I used to feel at 10pm was completely gone. At the advice of my new primal friend, I ordered some raw milk and started adding that to my smoothies, to give me the phosphorous I believe I was lacking, and the fats that my brain needed. I decided that I would eat raw beef twice a month and drink the milk a few times per week and see if I felt better in a couple of months.

Well, within a month, the head rushes had completely stopped. I could go from lying down to jumping up with only a normal amount of orthostatic hypotension but not a blinding, catastrophic brain fart. The heart palpitations also stopped. I didn't feel cold anymore. I started eating liver as well, just to be sure. This was not easy, eating mostly raw liver. I seared the outside and choked it down. I told myself that I had to do this for my health, and that it was temporary. Meanwhile, I continued with my green smoothies most of the day, salads, and increased the amount of fermented veggies I was eating. I decided that I needed to back way off on the fruit until the weather warmed up. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how dumb it is to live on pineapples and mangos when you live in Washington state. I have shifted to a more local diet by eating apples and pears, kale, chard, and now I'm only about 60% raw because I thought it would be good for me to eat some root vegetables like parsnips and some winter squash which I don't believe are digestible raw. Overall I think i made the right decision for my health, but I consider this an experimental, transitional phase, because other problems have cropped up.

Going off of 100% raw has caused me to "cheat" and eat stuff like bread, pastries, corn chips, cooked beans/lentils and grains like rice and quinoa, I even had a grilled cheese sandwich once. I guess you could say I let myself party because I had been so deprived for three years. Of course, I put on 20 pounds in a hurry, which made yoga difficult and I eventually stopped doing it. At this point, I am somewhere in between--still feeling that I need the meat and milk occasionally, but doing yoga again and wanting to get back to 100% raw as it gets warmer because a) I feel extremely sluggish at this point, b) I am about 10 pounds over my ideal weight (I think I was 10 pounds under when I was raw vegan), and c) I am starting to look/feel my age (!)--seriously, that youthful glow is gone, my wrinkles are showing, and I just feel older. I do still believe a raw diet is the diet intended for humans, but I was doing something wrong. I wish to approach it differently this time, and by April I do intend to be 100% raw again.The animal products i will have to monitor closely to determine how much/how often i need them. One thing that has changed is my attitude toward eating animals--I have been connecting lately with indigenous elders and shamans and feeling compelled to stay close to the land and environment I'm living in. I feel best prioritizing local food over veganism. I'm not so into the idea of eating raw eggs, but I'm learning that they are a very healthy food for humans. It's something I'm still contemplating.

I found that during my first two years raw, I liked my peaceful new self better...but now what I like about my changes is that I am more adaptable, more tolerant, more forgiving of myself and others. I don't think it's useful to be harsh/extreme. I seek peace, balance, and clarity. I want my glow back. I want my energy back. I need a juicer immediately.  I'm certainly not "happy" about eating meat, but i am approaching it consciously, as ethically as possible, and being compassionate with myself. One thing that always struck me about the hardcore vegans I knew is that they had compassion for animals, but not for humans. If you're going to live like that, resenting and hating people for their personal choices, then go live in the jungle with the gorillas.

Needless to say, I am backing way off from giving anyone raw dietary advice until I feel 100% up to speed myself. Every body is totally unique and needs a different combination of nutrients to function optimally. I feel that it's most important to eat foods that were grown and raised in the same climate and environment you live in (provided that it's not a toxic place like next door to the Chernobyl field). But it's also crucial that we monitor our health and nutrition intake on a regular basis because things do change. What works for our bodies one year may not be enough the next. I met a woman on Facebook named Jamie Marie Koonce who has a nutritional consulting practice and is able to work with people remotely. If you are in need of some health/diet coaching and are open to a non-vegan, nutritional typing approach to reclaiming your health, please visit her website, SuperHero Healthcare.

As always, I welcome any and all comments here.
Raw Gypsy

Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days

 If you haven't yet watched this Documentary film i highly recommend you do, and pass on the link to friends and family. It's as potent as "Supersize Me" in its message that you CAN make dramatic changes in your health with diet alone. Here is the description of the film from the website:

"Simply Raw" is an independent documentary film that chronicles six Americans with diabetes who switch to a diet consisting entirely of vegan, organic, uncooked food in order to reverse disease without pharmaceutical medication.

The six are challenged to give up meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soda, junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, and even cooked food for 30 days. The film follows each participant’s remarkable journey and captures the medical, physical, and emotional transformations brought on by this radical diet and lifestyle change. We witness moments of struggle, support, and hope as what is revealed, with startling clarity, is that diet can reverse disease and change lives.

The film highlights each of the six before they begin the program and we first meet them in their home environment with their families. Each participant speaks candidly about their struggle to manage their diabetes and how it has affected every aspect of their life, from work to home to their relationships.

Green powders and supplements

young coconut meat and water, mango, banana, cashew, Pure Synergy powder--YUM!

 Many people tell me that they started including smoothies in their daily diet, which gets me really excited--we really are creating a revolution with the way we feed ourselves. And I notice that most people begin with using green "Superfoods" in their smoothies, instead of using fresh whole greens like I usually do. I would say that this is primarily due to the marketing of superfoods and how prevalent they are in nutrition centers, natural food stores and online in advertisements. Also, green powder supplements can be added to any drink made in any blender, while a heavy duty appliance such as a VitaMix is needed to process whole greens smoothly. So my take on it is that superfoods are a great place to start, as you transition into getting more and more of your nutrients from whole foods, and even then, it can't hurt to continue using them.

 Pure Synergy Superfood
 is the green superfood I started with and enjoy.

complete description of ingredients

Once I started consuming kale, chard, collards or spinach daily, I no longer felt the need to use the powder. However, this particular blend contains so many incredible nutrients that I bought another jar and use it whenever I've run out of greens or am too lazy to go out to the garden (the rainy, dreary Seattle weather can do that to you). I used it today because I ate a lot of greens yesterday and felt like it was good to take a day off. Victoria Boutenko recommends that we rotate our greens and not eat the same kind every day, because the leaves produce low levels of a toxin that prevents animals from nibbling them completely off the stalk. Each type of plant produces a slightly different type of this toxin so as long as we are rotating and using different types of greens throughout the week, we won't ingest too much of each one.

But back to green powders, there are so many on the market, it's hard to decide which one to use. I chose the Pure Synergy one based on the intent with which it was created, the impressive list of ingredients, and the testimonial by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. I would suggest doing your own research and let your heart guide you. Raw Vegan Source has many options to choose from including their own brand. They are great people who provide a great service to the raw community and beyond.

Ultimately I wish to stress the importance of eating as much living food as possible. Raw is good, living is best. That means freshly-picked organic produce, unwashed if possible so you get the benefits of the naturally-occurring b-12 and beneficial bacteria on the plants, and also sprouted and fermented foods. Consider your green powder the back-up nutritional source to your plant-based whole foods diet and then rely upon it when traveling or low on fresh food. The smoothie pictured above was made with 100% fresh fruit and coconut, with cashews added for protein, and a teaspoon of Pure Synergy powder. It was delicious and filling, and I didn't have to go out in the rain.

Keep it simple

Most of us were raised eating complete meals. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks were the little things like fruit, nuts, chips, that we ate in between or if a meal was late. As recently as three years ago, I insisted that I was a "meal person", and couldn't feel satisfied by grazing. I always marveled at the people I met at festivals and camping trips who could eat trail mix and celery all day and not feel the need to sit down and have a big burrito for dinner like I did. I weighed 40 lbs. more then, and those people were always at a perfect weight.

New Years Day brunch I shared with a friend

Like many of you, I tried dieting to lose weight, many times. What always killed it was the hunger and anxiety of feeling like I was starving myself. I tried my first diet at age 12 when my mother told me I was fat. Now, I wasn't fat by any standards but her own, and she was anorexic. But I decided she must be right because she was my mom, so I decided I was only going to eat salad until I got thin. This lasted one day, until we got to my grandma's house and we had spaghetti for dinner. I couldn't resist that urge to fill myself, perhaps learned from my father's binge eating and insistence that we eat everything on our plates whether we wanted it or not. Imagine the confusion of these unhealthy messages about food: "you're fat, don't eat so much", and "eat everything on your plate, we paid good money for it". No wonder I ended up with an eating disorder in college and to this day worry about my weight every single day.

Going raw helped me to heal those negative messages about eating. After trying a low-carb diet once and losing enough weight that I actually didn't feel right (125 lbs is not a healthy weight for me at 5'8" and a strong, well-muscled build), I learned that many people reach their ideal weight on a raw diet because they are finally eating food the way nature intended it. My first month on 100% raw, I felt the need to eat constantly, but because I was eating only nuts, fruit and vegetables, there was no reason why I had to limit myself. I discovered that the myths about fat were untrue, that I could eat cashew butter and avocados every day and still lose weight, and that it was the bread, pasta and starchy potatoes that made it so hard to lose weight in the past. Also, my metabolism has always been somewhat slow, and eating those large meals with long periods of inactivity afterward made it even slower. Letting myself eat whenever I was hungry, but only eating what I needed to feel satisfied, not only felt right but caused me to lose 20 lbs. in 5 weeks. I adopted a practice of having a conversation with my cravings, asking them what they really wanted. Was it comfort? Hunger for a memory, nostalgia of something I used to eat as a child? Or did I need protein? Listening carefully and answered only to the cravings for true nourishment totally transformed the way I feed myself. No longer did I need to sit down and have a large meal to feel satisfied. I felt amazing and so grateful for everything the earth provided for me to nourish my cells and help me do the work I've come here to do.

Some days I feel like snacking all day. I notice that this corresponds with the times when I have nervous energy and don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. I literally distract myself by making another snack. Other days, I don't think about eating until I feel a true need for it, and then it doesn't take much more than a piece of fruit or a smoothie to satisfy that need. I have let go of the "shoulds" of eating and just respond to what IS. The only time I start craving something like a full meal is when I've let myself overeat or eat something that has upset my blood sugar. It took me over three years to fine-tune my body and mind this way, but it has been worth the wait. I have a lot more energy available for other things now that feeding myself is simple. It's very inexpensive, too.

If you wish to include fish in your raw diet, try making ceviche.

A raw and living foods diet is a commitment to a complete lifestyle overhaul. However, you can begin with making a smaller commitment to simply detoxing and getting in touch with your body's true nutritional needs. Even if you don't stay raw through the winter or year-round, you will have addressed the root causes of eating disorders, dysfunctional ideas about food, and discovered which foods give you more or less energy. I highly encourage anyone to at least give it a try and see what changes. I had to gently remind myself during the first few weeks that cheesecake wasn't going to vanish from planet earth just because I wasn't going to eat it for a few months. After I had established a new diet plan for myself, I was able to safely sample favorite foods in very small amounts, which actually gave me a much deeper appreciation for the artful, sensory experiences that food can provide. It also taught me how to make a scrumptious cheesecake out of fruit and nuts that is every bit as delicious as the cheese and egg concoction that did nothing good for my body. I am not missing out on anything. My life is rich and exciting and vibrant. Macaroni and cheese is a very strange substance once you avoid it for a few years and learn to eat what makes you thrive instead of what slows you down and dulls you.

Please do contact me if you would like more information about my raw coaching services. I have several options depending on how far you wish to go and how much you want to participate in creating a new life for yourself. I also offer catering services including consulting for chefs who wish to add gourmet raw items to their menu. This is a great time of year to go raw, for life.

Spiritual Nutrition

I am a huge fan of Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Reading Spiritual Nutrition when I first began my living foods journey helped to keep me aligned on the path to wellness and I still consider that book the living foods Bible. It took me beyond the concept of diet to embrace holistic wellness, which helped me overcome many of the base urges like food cravings and nostalgia for old habits that undermined my goal of optimal health.

last summer I foraged for about 80% of my food.

Not everyone approaches a raw food diet with spiritual pursuits in mind. I had no idea how my life would change on the more subtle levels by simply changing the food I ate, but the results have been astounding. I can say with certainty that my psychic abilities have increased since going raw, and my capacity for grasping and relating to metaphysical concepts has also increased. Meditation comes easy now, and in my sleep, I have this very "awake" feeling that is hard to describe--it feels like I am able to consciously make changes in my waking life from the dream world. Some nights in the summer I don't feel much need to sleep. It is more like my body shuts down for regeneration and repair, and my mind switches to a different level of consciousness. Feeding myself has indeed become a spiritual experience as my mind, body and spirit are so integrated that they communicate with each other fluently. Those of you just beginning to shift to a more whole-foods diet may still be in the physical changes stage, but I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of Spiritual Nutrition so you can better understand all of the reasons why sticking with this diet will change your reality for the better. One of the best reasons is that you become a beacon of light and positive change for others, as I have. Vibrant goes viral when you activate your highest potential.