Saturday, January 31, 2009

A smoothie for breakfast. Surprise!

1 banana
2 cup of strawberries and blueberries
2 ribs of celery (I know, in previous posts I've said stalks, but I mean ribs)
1 half lemon, peeled
2 beet greens
1 gala apple
as much lettuce mix as I could shove in the remaining space
1 cup of water. I eyeballed it.

The result is a purple smoothie packed full of green goodness, with only a hint of celery.

It's a beautiful sunshiney day out there....

Friday, January 30, 2009

Missing my sandwiches and burritos tonight... perhaps I will invest in a good dehydrator so I can make buckwheat breads and pita pockets and tacos instead of crying myself to sleep.

I want to make this. Spinach and mushroom something-or-other.. I want to eat it all up. I wonder if there are places in Vancouver that sell raw sprouted outsides for the creamy insides I can make with the vita-mix....
This morning's smoothie tasted greener than usual:

1 banana
1-2 cups of green salad mix
1 big beet green
1/4 cup strawberries
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup water

Delicious. I had the weirdest dreams ever last night... not sure if that's related. Today I feel like I woke up in a different dimension.

Rest of the day: 3 salads with 3 avocadoes, a carrot, a fruit smoothie, some pineapple.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Beet Sauce

This morning I had a swig of water and a brazil nut while I made another green smoothie similar to yesterday's. This time I used two beet greens, a banana, a handful of strawberries and blueberries, a cup of orange juice, half of a lemon, and that's it.

I turned the power on HIGH this time for 5-10 seconds. Sometimes 5 seconds feel like 10 seconds. Sometimes 10 seconds feel like 5 seconds when you're looking into someone's eyes and then you realize you're staring but not before they've realized it.

Moving along.

The smoothie has no trace of strawberry seeds. Impressive.

I'm eating less than usual yet I'm not hungry between meals. I was really hungry last night though, after walking half way around Stanley Park. I came home and ate some mixed nuts while letting my hands thaw so I could make my usual tomato-lettuce-avocado salad. I'll make some fancier stuff soon but right now I have other priorities I want to focus on. Namely attracting good things by being a good thing. Haha. And I have lists of things to do today (some ultra-corny): clean out my room/environment and keep only that which supports my vision + review my goals aligned with my values. Next, act with the end in mind. Repeat for each goal. Fun times. A recipe for success.

My energy level feels pretty high. I'm feeling restless though and kind of weird and I have so much energy that I don't know what to do with myself. I want to jump the gun and make all these changes at once before I've decided upon the exact changes to make. So the impatience is showing up. A mildly uncomfortable state but also one that gets me thinking. I'm hoping it comes to a peak soon so I can take some inspired drastic action. That's always fun. I think I'm being sarcastic but sometimes my delivery is in earnest and I can't tell either.

Bike ride time!

For lunch I'm making a savory-ish smoothie:

1 banana
1 beet
2 celery stalks
half a lemon
1 gala apple
1 cup of my patented carrot hummus
2 cups of water



I stored most of it in a plastic container in the fridge and am drinking a glass right now. Except for the garlic undercurrent this tastes like beet-apple sauce. It's bloody brilliant.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Raw Carrot Ginger Soup

There are a few promising recipes for raw carrot ginger soup, but none looked like something I really wanted to make, so I've combined a few into this new experimental hybrid creation. It might be the best thing ever or it might have two heads and 4 unblended potato eyes. Anyway, this is what I'm putting in the blender:

5 big carrots
1 avocado
almost half a lemon
1-2 tsp. chopped ginger
3 little nugget potatoes
2 celery stalks
3 cloves garlic
2 cups of water

I didn't measure the ingredients exactly so that's a rough estimate of what I'm blending for tonight's soup.

And here we go.

Okay done. I ended up putting in about half as many carrots since mine were so big, and I didn't add as much water -- maybe a quarter of a cup. I stopped the blending because it smells so good and I'm hungry.

Um. I'm going to name this recipe Carrot Hummus. It tastes like Carrot Hummus. A bit strong on the garlic. I'd skip the water next time and the potatoes, and instead add some lime or a whole lemon, and maybe sunflower seeds. Wait; I have sunflower seeds. I'll add those and see how this tastes (added 1/2 tablespoon of sunflower and pumpkin seeds).

There. Now I have a bowl (1L) of interesting carrot hummus.

First Breakfast Smoothie



Experimental Green Breakfast Smoothie:

1 banana
1 whole organic gala apple
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup strawberries
half a peeled lemon
1 celery stalk
the rest of my kale (half a cup-ish)
2 big beet leaves



I included the celery -- I wanted to enjoy its benefit without having to taste it. Celery is another one of my not-favourites, yet I've read that celery is high in the good kind of sodium and contains pthalides, active compounds that help relax blood vessels and reduce stress response. I don't know.

Also threw in some beet leaves mainly because I'd used up all my kale, and also because the beets aren't easy to fit into my fridge in their present full-glory state.

So now I'm going to run into the kitchen to turn it oooooooon.

Okay definitely needed some liquid. Added maybe a cup of orange juice and a cup of water.

Now it looks like a smoothie.

It's still a bit thick, [insert self-deprecating comment here], so I like it like that. It'll remind me to chew. Now chewing... the smoothie has a pleasant, sweet scent of beets with a fruity green taste. I think next time I'll leave the blender on a bit longer, to really blend all the materials to tiny particles, but this is still a delicious result.

I'm getting those energized shivers.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My New Toy

And of course Choices Market has my favourite ice cream on sale this week....

I ate the same salad as yesterday plus two organic gala apples, a mango, some cashews, a brazil nut, some more orange juice, lots of water, and I think that's it. I had some naps too. All the Vita-Mix excitement tired me out.

Yes, my Vita-Mix arrived today! Twice. The first time I had stepped out for under 10 minutes when the CanPar guy came by. He'd left a sticky note on the building door saying he'd be back on Tuesday. I was really hoping he meant Tuesday as in today. So, as I was expecting him at some point today, I stayed in my room and talked to my Mom and Grandma on the phone for 3 hours. The Vita-Mix showed up mid-Mom conversation and so she got to share in my excitement. The older delivery guy was very nice and genuinely pleased that I was home to receive my much-anticipated blender. I like people like that.

The blender came with a manual and a recipe book to showcase all the types of foods the blender owner might want to try if they ever get around to it. The sections:

Appetizers
Soups
Beverages
Sauces
Fondues
Salad Dressings
Syrups & Batters
Pureed Foods
Desserts

Most of the recipes are for people who eat everything including dairy and meat, so I'll use some of these as a guide and just make some tastier substitutions. I went through the recipes that looked good and made a list of the produce I want. Then I ventured out into the crisp night air and walked down to Safeway with my headphones in my ears and a "no, sorry" on my lips to the guy who asked for change at the store entrance. I always feel slightly ashamed when I say I'm sorry, 'cause I'm really not sorry (it's just the glaring incongruity between my thoughts and actions that bugs me).

La la la. I've noticed that my breathing is better and my lungs feel strong. There's no hint of that childhood asthma I was supposed to have. Lots of heart palpitations though...not a recent development... I think it might be that mitral valve prolapse. I don't know what my resting heart rate is these days. I remember that in highschool I was so out of shape during the running tests (where we had to measure our heart rates before/while/after running for 12 consecutive minutes, then report it to the teacher in front of the class), that I lied about my resting heart rate and said it was 60 bpm when it was probably 120 bpm. The teacher measured one kid's HR herself and his was 49 bpm even after doing a few suicides (running exercises). I never understood how my heart could be working so hard compared to everyone else when I was more active than other people in my class and they all had lower resting heart rates. Or maybe I never learned how to count. Or I need(ed) magnesium. My highschool diet consisted of french fries and pizza every day with ketchup and mayonnaise. Oh yeah. My heart is palpitating just thinking about it.

Wait! It occurs to me that today I was having a craving for cashews -- and my body is a smartie... so on a hunch, I did a search just now for "cashews magnesium" and found this:

The cashew nut's high magnesium content also takes the credit for its healthy heart qualities. In their raw form, cashews contain 82.5 milligrams of magnesium per ounce, or 21 percent of the daily recommended value of the heart healthy mineral, which also protects against high blood pressure, muscle spasms, migraine headaches, tension, soreness and fatigue.

Magnesium also works with calcium to support healthy muscles and bones in the human body. [http://www.organiccashewnuts.com/cashewbenefits.htm]
Also, I had a mango -- I never eat mangoes -- and mangoes are a close relative of cashews. I'm the only one that finds this fascinating.

This post was going to be about the Vita-Mix but as I haven't done anything but stare at it and place my pineapple and fruits around it as in its publicity shot, I will post more tomorrow.

Monday, January 26, 2009


Today I had some orange juice that my roommate gave me... and throughout the day I ate this salad with lemon, kale, avocado, tomatoes, various kinds of heirloom lettuce, herbs. Two bananas. A carrot. I'll diversify soon.

I felt increasingly more electric throughout the day and more myself than usual. It's a good thing I hope.

Green for Life

Today I read Victoria Boutenko's well-researched Green for Life.

In her book she discusses the importance of increasing the amount of greens consumed -- greens are the perfectly balanced foods, she says, and greens are the food we (if we're raised on sweets and junk) prefer/consume the least. So if you don't yet have a daily hankering for a dandelion and kale leaf salad, she suggests giving your body time to adjust to wanting what heals, by introducing more greens into your meals. Hah that rhymes.

Green smoothies are the easiest way to give your body the living nutrients and enzymes it needs to break apart carbohydrates/fats/proteins into their respective glucose/fatty acid/amino acid components (animal proteins are more work for the body to digest and contain garbage the body doesn't want). Plus greens are a complete, high-quality protein. I'll write about that another time.

Greens are not starchy vegetables; therefore, they can be combined with fruits and made into smoothies for easy and tasteful absorption into the body. Most people don't chew their greens into the creamy consistency required for proper digestion, plus a surprisingly high percentage of people who think they suffer from high stomach acidity are really suffering from insufficient levels of HCL which means they don't have enough acid in their stomachs to prepare food particles for absorption -- and guess what? Consuming more greens restores the body's homeostasis and thus its ability to assimilate the nutrients it needs. I'm not going to footnote all the references -- just read the book or try it yourself or both. Or I'll try it and write about it.

There are lots of interesting tidbits and fascinating studies and overlooked knowledge collected in this book. If you've read Secrets of the Soil, you'll know what I mean. How can people NOT know this stuff if it's been around for ages? Oh right, there's no money to be made in feeding people lettuce and promoting alkalizing activities over acid-forming ones.

Acid-inducing factors: Any stress that leaves acid residues in the body.

Alkaline-forming factors: Any activities that are calming or relaxing.

Factors that potentially make us more acid include hearing or saying harsh or bitter words, loud music and noise, being in a traffic jam, feeling jealousy or wanting revenge, hearing a baby crying, overworking and over-exercising, beginning or finishing school, going on vacation, watching scary or stressful movies, watching and listening to tv... [reading this list...]

Factors that potentially make us more alkaline are: giving or receiving a smile or a hug, laughter and jokes, classical or quiet music, seeing a puppy, hearing a compliment or blessing, receiving a soft massage, staying in a cozy and clean environment, being in nature, watching children laugh and play, walking and sleeping under the stars and moonlight, working in the garden, observing flowers, singing or playing a musical instrument, sincere friendly conversation, and many others.

...

Today we have an ocean of confusing information as well as articles in which different experts state many different reasons for illness. However, I think the main reason for illness was stated very clearly in 1931! Over 75 years ago Otto Warburg was awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery that cancer is caused by weakened cell respiration due to lack of oxygen at the cellular level. According to Warburg, damaged cell respiration causes fermentation, resulting in low pH (acidity) at the cellular level.


The rest of the chapter explains how the cell behaves in anaerobic (lacking oxygen) conditions and how the lactic acid produced by the fermentation process lowers the cell pH and destroys the ability of DNA and RNA to control cell division. The cancer cells then multiply around a core of dead cells, etc. etc.

A lot of conclusions drawn and questions asked from this book's perspective reminds me of Bruce Lipton's work and his Biology of Belief lectures. And Candace Pert's Your Body is Your Subconscious Mind.

"Create the conditions for health."

"The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a major breakthrough showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking."

I like Lipton's illustrative anecdote about the intrinsic causal connection between an organism and its environment: cancer cells were removed from somebody and placed in a petrie dish for study. But soon the cells were healthy again. Why? Well, organisms adapt to their environments, and these cells were no longer in a stressed out, sick and damaged body. That's why one can't truly understand the thing without studying the context and environment in which the thing exists. When you're really depressed, you can either kill yourself, or change the conditions (maybe more options...)...and conditions reflect what's going on inside you, so the cure is to allow an attitudinal and emotional adjustment by living an imagined ideal of what you want in life. I'm getting preachy.

Enzymes are Neat.

Here's an enzyme primer youtube video or two by, who else, Tim VanOrden. I should start his fanclub.





Soil Enzymes are Neat. Back to Boutenko's Green for Life:

We cannot successfully feed soils with chemicals because 'biology does not equal chemistry.' In other words, chemical fertilizers are missing live enzymes which contribute to the most unique qualities of all soils. According to the abundance of research done in different countries, soil enzymes can transform one element into another if such 'biological transmutation' would benefit the plants that grow in this soil.


The chapter continues with supporting evidence that, "nature makes magnesium out of calcium (in some cases the reverse takes place); that potassium can come from sodium.... The time has come to recognize that any chemical element can turn into another, under natural conditions."

More notes: Learn the pH (alkaline/acid forming) index of foods you consume; we can't accurately study the vegetables without studying the soil in which they grow; chlorophyll is liquefied sunlight; review the 'unbelievably' positive testimonials of those who incorporate even one green smoothie every other day into their routine without changing anything else. I'll stop now before I reprint the entire book. It's worth a read.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I Have a Feeling I've Made a Decision

Last night my espoused eating convictions were on hiatus so I ate: some mushroom-like snails; some veggie-like crab cakes; and some chocolate, like, ice cream. It was fun. Oh, and hot cocoa.

The Vita-Mix should arrive any day now.

I know, I should have read the raw research and gone all vegetable and fruitful from that day forth (like I did 5 years ago, then stopped when I stopped loving myself). But I didn't go 100% from the get-go this time. Oh well. So the first few entries are neither raw nor technically vegetarian. And I feel it.

the ice and mountains and trees and clear sky at the lost lagoon near the stanley park entrance
Effects: I slept a lot today and felt kind of buttery and puffy. The good news is that I woke up early and rode my bike to Stanley Park to snap a photo of the ice and show proof that there is a sun in Vancouver. I wasn't dressed properly for the chilly weather, or I would have continued over the bridge to North Van. (Note to self: next time don't bike in pajamas.)

Today in reverse chronological order: I had some more heirloom variety lettuce leaves with avocado and a carrot.. another carrot or two.. organic corn chowder.. another salad.. and a steamed egg & hashbrown burrito from Steamrollers for breakfast.

More reminders for myself. My primary experiment and interest in eating raw is to see how I feel before/during/after the transition. I want to feel my best. I'm not sure how that feels, so this is going to be fun! In 50 years I'll wake up one morning and look over fondly at the deep leafy green vegetables resting on my pillow, and smile to myself in deep appreciation for how excited I am to experience such a great thing in my life now that I've allowed it to become an integral part of my lifestyle. Point being that this is a life-long commitment to living a long life of feeling good... and feeling better than good... and possibly, hypothetically, likely, definitely even feeling my best and seeing how that feels. And living what my best self likes to do with itself. Woohoo!

Speaking of exciting, I went to the community garden meeting today. We reviewed the Terms of Use licence that the gardeners will eventually sign once everybody agrees on the details. The plot is randomly assigned, 40 sq. ft., and the target date for completion of the garden design and getting the planting underway is sometime in April.

Article 2.1: Gardener's Covenants
(f) not to permit any illegal substance or plants from which illegal substances can be made to be grown on the Garden Plot;

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Tim VanOrden



From Tim VanOrden's Running Raw Project:

Questions:

• What happens when you combine a raw vegan diet and athletics?
• Would this diet give you greater endurance and strength?
• Would it allow you to recover faster?
• Would it remove age as a factor?
• If all of this was possible, would other athletes take note?
• Would other athletes consider fruits and veggies over steroids and doping?

Mission:

• To see what's possible. To be what's possible.
• To unite people in a global effort to create a better world through sport.
• To promote health and ecological stewardship among athletes of all ages and abilities.
• To scientifically prove that an organic, plant-based diet, consisting of uncooked, unrefined, and unprocessed whole foods yields the highest performance for the human body.
• To get other high level athletes to consider the advantages of this diet.
• To get those athletes to endorse and promote the idea of whole food nutrition to the youth of America, who are in desperate need of dietary transformation.

This guy has a whack of helpful raw food videos on youtube.  I found his green smoothie offering and had to know more about this guy.  So then I watched his post-workout smoothie video.  

I'll try to find the link to his story...

P.S. Kale really does grow well in the winter months.  I had a little raisedbed garden in Strathcona in 2005.  Raw kale isn't my favourite, but now that I can blend it into something tasty, I have motivation to plant my old heritage seeds that have been sitting in my closet for 4 years.


His story:




Me again. I went raw vegan overnight for about 4 months at the end of 2003/2004 after reading some eastern mystic books and osho, haha. I had been feeling like crap and sleeping all day and had no motivation to do anything with my life. Anyway, I felt better right away and some fantastically odd yet exciting things transpired in my life. Namely, my inner resolve and strength of mind. Since there were a few things happening in my life, paralleling the raw food changes, I didn't initially credit the diet with my burst in energy and a renewed sense of purpose -- but perhaps it's worth sticking to.

One more:


Thursday, January 22, 2009

In October 2008 I was fortunate to catch the Rawkathon series of interviews online.  The Rawkathon featured all the big names in the Raw/Living Foods community or whatever you want to call it.  My favourite interview was with Karen Knowler; I think it's the best intro anyone can have to the raw foods thing, if they are interested in learning why people do it, the benefits, the craptacular parts, and how to get started.  Karen Knowler's website has lots of info and recipes and stories too.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Only 1-7 days until my Vita-Mix arrives!

Carrot, Kale, Lemon

Today the living foods featured in my blue dish were pieces of organic kale, a whole organic carrot, and some lemon juice.

Preparations involved: I washed the kale. I washed the carrot. I squeezed some lemon juice on top.

It was gross.

But in a healthy way.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Subcookie

ew

This is part of what I ate today. A subway sandwich, two cookies, two carrots, salad... I'm so full. I think this photo will make a good before-and-after photo as the 'before' part. I'm really excited about my Vita-Mix. According to an automated e-mail, the thing was shipped last night and should be here within the next week or two. I bought some vegetables and fruits in anticipation of my blender's safe and speedy arrival. I know, I could eat my fruits and veggies to the exclusion of junk right now, but it's more fun to wait for the blender and credit it with the magical nourishment of my body. And soul I suppose.

[Edit:  Looking at this photo the next day, it turns me off.  I ate that?!  (I'm good at judging -- hell, I went to Sunday school for years as a kid.)]

Monday, January 19, 2009

Sugary Sweet Filler With Spring Herb Mix Salad Again.

I haven't been posting about what I've been eating lately.  The reasons are several and unconvincing, so I'll talk about cookies instead.  

I like to walk to Choices Market down the street for fresh chocolate chip cookies which I hand out to my favourite people at work (my fun Canada Post work).  By the time I get to work, I usually have fewer than 5 cookies remaining out of the dozen.  That's okay though; it makes the competition for the prize more fierce and sets former friends against each other.   It's like a real-life reality show with the facial expressions and looks and scarcity mindset and everything.

Anyway I will venture out to the grocery store soon.  I've been telling myself that I don't have to start this blog until my Vita-Mix arrives since all that I'll be making will be made with that blender.  

In the meantime I've been thinking flippantly about my online image.  My brand.  The Big Lie.  And wondering if it is important since I don't plan on working for anyone other than myself.  Well, perhaps the deliberate portrayal of someone I respect can't hurt.  

This is Paul Scheele paraphrased yet in quotations:  

"The willingness to tolerate the ambiguity of a situation, to tolerate the uncertainty of not knowing the answer, is the beginning of positive learning experience.  Learning means playing with possibilities and positively projecting the outcomes you want.  Excellence means you've learned how to learn.  It's not a static point or a final step of achievement. Excellence is a dynamic state that continues lifelong learning and growing.  Central to allowing progress in any area in life is the willingness to make an internal shift from frustration to curiosity... If you believe in your ability to do that, you will always have a way to reach your goals."

And as this almost-hackneyed tidbit relates to everything, I thought I'd throw it in my salad mix and chew on it for awhile.

Daily Postings?

Hi there.  


... but you can call me every day.

My name is Sonya; you may recognize me from such online excitements as ___, ____ and ____.  Those are my embarrassing sites that I don't want to discuss until I fix them in a lasting way.  Why not?  Because I am aware of my tendency to blur the artificial lines between my professional and personal life.  I don't see that as a bad thing on principle, but I'm not sure I want people to know more about me than I've reflected upon just yet.  This is also why I don't tell people about my blogs.  Sometimes I remember that people other than people like me can read the stuff I post and so in a fit of long-term projection I go back and delete all the swear words or posts that make more sense than I've meant for them to.  At other times, I leave those posts up, because the thought that someone might read something I've typed and take me seriously in the wrong way (and most ways in which people take me are not the ways I'd prefer) and be offended is worth the fleeting entertainment.

My point.  My point was that I DO post here every day, but some posts have been deleted in my more sober moments.  The posts that recommend oral sex for protein, for example.  It must be true; I read it on the internet:

"I ate falafel and listened as the panel addressed, among other things, one of the most interesting vegan concerns: the nutritional benefits of vegan oral sex. Apparently a vegan’s vaginal secretions and semen contain more Vitamin B-12 than human blood." - Nora Casey.
So this means that only the nerdy vegans are vampires.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Ideal Compromise


So yes, 90 days to the fully raw lifestyle.  Or more accurately, 90 days are how many days I'm giving myself to transition smoothly and with ease into living the 90-100% living foods lifestyle.  And to write about it. That seems pretty easy.  To make it more interesting, I'll add another focus: 90 days to living the millionaire lifestyle.  I'm good at that already, too.  So I'll add another focus: being a loving, deeply satisfied, connected millionaire in actuality.

Today I went for a bike ride over the Lionsgate Bridge at 10 p.m.  It hurt a little.  That's what I get for sitting around eating non-dairy icecream all day.  And salad.  And black bean & vegetable soup.

Friday, January 16, 2009

So I Bought a Vita-Mix

that's right; you too can own a white blender with its own fruit and veggie harem. call today.

As I am a big fan of prepaving the way and writing down all the positive aspects of any project I'm getting myself psyched up about, here're some thoughts I'm having about my recent purchase: a Vita-Mix 5000.  In white.  It cost as much as my return flight to Toronto. 

Pros

This is my first blender.  I invest in the best.  Anyway, so now I get to make smoothies all the time!  And not only mindblowingly excellent smoothies, but soups and purées and we'll see what else.  

I can more easily eat raw living foods.  Not so many salads.  I don't have to use plates ever again.  Oh the freedom.

If I feel like eating meat or fish or a piece of wood, I can just throw it in the blender with the rest of my blueberry-banana-kale mix and no one will ever know.  And if I had the recall of a goldfish, I wouldn't know either.  (Yes I would.)

Cons

Someone might want to marry me just for my Vita-Mix.  It IS a sweet deal.

I Have a Plot!

This is the e-mail:


Good afternoon! 

Congratulations! This letter is to inform you that you have been allocated a plot at the new Davie Village Community Garden. 

On January 25th, the Vancouver Public Spaces Network is going to be holding information session and orientation for the Community Garden. This meeting will be a chance for you to learn about the garden, establishment of garden committees, the history of the site, ask any questions that you may have, and of course allow you to meet your fellow gardeners. This meeting is mandatory for all potential gardeners, however, if you are unable to come to the meeting please let us know in advance so we can make alternate arrangements. 

Davie Village Community Garden Meeting
When: January 25, 2009 - 2:30 – 4:30pm
Where: West End Community Centre Auditorium, 870 Denman Street

We will be providing more information regarding the sub-leasing and assignment of plots before the community meeting. Thank-you for your patience and enthusiasm – we look forward to meeting you! 


Best regards,


Community Garden Coordinator
Vancouver Public Spaces Network 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Setting the Bar Low to Start

Today's menu consisted of Spring Herb Salad Mix throughout the day with two avocadoes, a pineapple cut into chunks for snacking, 2 bananas.... ummm... some soda biscuits (I know, I know -- they were left in my cabinet so I had to get rid of them via digestion) and I think that's it.  Oh, and two cans of Amy's organic soup.  Pre-cooked vegetable and lentils, low in sodium.  I guess I didn't really eat that much today.  Mostly living foods!  Woohoo.  Not too shabby, yet acres of room for improvement.

Oh No! I Swallowed a Fly!

Nothing is more important than that I feel good.

The food I eat serves this purpose.  I'm not going to let food run my life nor will I become militant about what counts as raw vegan goodness.  The odd cooked thing is nothing to stress over; the whole point of eating living foods that are in harmony with my body is so that I feel more in tune with myself.  And stress is out of tune.  A little stress that is part of the restructuring of a glorious work into a magnificent masterpiece lends the whole creation some character, though.  I'm into the Big Picture.  I'm into .. the Holistic approach.  So I'll be writing more about this Big Picture and my daily routine which complements my strange eating behaviour.

As Michelle suggested, I'm doing this 'return to the simple lifestyle' blog experiment every today for 3+ months to see what happens.  Well, to see if this daily health habit becomes an unconscious way of life, for my conscious benefit.  And to annoy everyone I have dinner with in a restaurant, or at Thanksgiving, or at any family gathering.  They'll likely assume that I just want attention.  And they'd be mostly right but I want more than that.

So I'm using this blog as a way to maintain focus and be accountable to myself and to the imagined readers who happen to find this place.  Perhaps you, the imagined reader, can join me on this adventure and offer some words about your own experience.  Consider this your invitation to dialogue avec moi.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Politics Can Eat Me

I don't care what you eat.  Half the time I don't care what I eat.  Okay, I eat what I feel good eating, and I like to research (or read the research) to see what counts as fuel that my body probably likes best so that it might more easily function at its best.  I think you'd want to interact with a clear-headed individual, right?  So unless we're on competing teams in a televised debate, I think it's in our mutual interest that I eat happy alive food.

Generally I'm not interested in discussing the why of my how.  It's irrelevant and also it sounds kinky.  I simply don't care to justify to you my thinking, and also I don't know a lot of words to really make you understand what I mean.  Maybe if I hold you in a certain way and look crossways into your eyes and signal with my nonverbal drool you will understand what I cannot say.

Sure, I get that when achieving a goal, to maintain the momentum it helps to have some reasons for wanting that goal.  "If you know the Why, the How comes easily."

So I'll offer you some insights into my motivation:  What excites me in life?  Well, I only do things for loved ones, or for fun.  Not necessarily in that order.

My real reason for choosing to eat plants all day is that my enduring vision of myself is that of a flourishing, fully alive, joyful person who is asked by concerned people, "Oh, dear... But what do you eat for protein?" 20 times a day.

I'm on a Jim Rohn kick these days.  I choose this goal for what the living of the goal makes of me.  It makes me vegan.  It makes me a self-disciplined, confident person who doesn't want to talk about my decision to eat what I eat.  It makes me skip periods.  What's not to like?!

Today is the Day

So. I'm a devoted fan of Michelle's food blog and I am proud to admit that I enjoy peering through that virtual window into her kitchen to enjoy her dinner with her on a daily basis.  So to give others that same creepy thrill, I'm copying Michelle's idea, but I'm doing it raw in a vain attempt to be an original individual.
This is a record of the living foods in their raw vegan deliciousness, that I have for dinner.  Or throughout the day.  I'll work out the exact logging as I go.  Essentially, this is a method to help me focus on transitioning to the best nourishment for my body, and sticking with it by the time 90+ days have passed.  And if this is fun, I may continue it... so this blog may take awhile to complete.  But I will persist, one day at a time, to fulfill my duty; and, before I know it, I will be the gayest living foods vegan ever who likes to stick commas all over the place.
And there's no better time to begin than today on the 13th!  Beginning on this day gives me further confidence in the auspicious outcome of my undertaking.
Counter-intuitively, a word my elementary school teacher used to describe how I arrived at solutions to math problems, I was vegan before moving to BC.  But, since everybody here is all about yoga and eating only organic vegetables, my contrarian nature compelled me to revert back to processed crap.  I mean carp.  I eat fish again.  Will I be eating fish for much longer?  If ever again?  Does anyone really care?  Stay tuned.  I like to feel good about what I put in my body.
Pay attention, boys.