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Greetings friends
i think this is one of the most common things about the raw diet, but i cant find any info on it.
i did 90% raw for a while(its winter though) and found i felt reallly nice and kind and clean but i got weak.. sort of slow and weak and blissful. i can see how this would make me live longer(slower) but i am working and need to have more energy. i feel like eating more firey foods would help.. any advice?
i think this is one of the most common things about the raw diet, but i cant find any info on it.
i did 90% raw for a while(its winter though) and found i felt reallly nice and kind and clean but i got weak.. sort of slow and weak and blissful. i can see how this would make me live longer(slower) but i am working and need to have more energy. i feel like eating more firey foods would help.. any advice?
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Re: not enough energy
Fri, February 13, 2009 - 6:30 PMHallo
check out Frederic Patenaude's latest blog entry : www.fredericpatenaude.com/blog/
i think what he says is brilliant!!
all the best -
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Re: not enough energy
Fri, February 13, 2009 - 10:14 PMi hadn't heard of him before. It sounds like he's recommending the 80-10-10 plan.
Do you know about that, Anahata Das?
That might help you. I don't follow it strictly but i'd say the proportions of what i eat daily would fit into that plan.
Here is an article with Doug Graham about it: www.naturalnews.com/022837.html
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Re: not enough energy
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 4:38 AMWhat do you typically eat in a day? -
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Re: not enough energy
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 4:23 PMhello friends
I really have enjoyed the article. i have been doing close to what frederic says.
heres what happened. i started maybe 50 days ago eating raw foods (60-100%raw). its winter here and its cold. it was going well i was juicing greens and fruits, eating lots of apples,pears, oranges, some coconut, lots of salads, some nuts(which were really hard to digest) i had not much guidance other than reading the inspiring book by matt monarch "raw spirit". but a few things were happening. i was feeling a great energy, present, blissful, very still, energetic blockages are open in my body now, but i was feeling sort of weak, slow, not sleepy, but kind of slower.. which made me feel like i am living a slower, longer life. but i am working at its not so easy to be slow always.. i did the epsom salt , grapefruit, olive oil kidney cleanse.
then one day i ate 3 bars of not raw dagoba chocolate. i got sick for about 2-3 weeks with something in my stomach. i ate some bread, some cooked soup and felt pretty awful.
with this sickness i would get lots of diareah. i noticed i was over eating alot(fruits, anything). its like i coudlnt feel my stomach or something.
i have been studying ayurveda more and realize i need more fire, like ginger, garlic, onion, spices, so i have been craving heavy indian foods.
but i have been overeating way too much. like just eating way too many dates and feeling awful. alot of heavy indian food and feeling bad.. just like frederics article says 'binging' on sweets and cooked foods..
i feel like i need a water fast day or two to correct my system from the chocolate incident and the insuing troubles. today i ate carob almonds for breakfast(not again they have bad ingredients), salad for lunch(sprouts, red leaf lettuce, avacodo, hawain sea salt). but then for dinner i ate about 30 dried dates agggg, then pistachio, caulifolower curry pate, then some more dates and then stuffed grape leaves...
part of me feels like completely cleaning my system and the other part feels like all these cravings are for more balance(carbs i believe based on frederic's report).
the last 4 years i usually eat breakfast late at 10 or so and its fruit. the last 3-5 days i have been eating heavy foods(lunch type foods) for breakfast, nuts, spicy food, trying to give my body the most time to digest it. i feel like i need some more fats and spices for winter, but also maybe more fruit for carbs..
thanks for listening and thanks alot for the article -
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Re: not enough energy
Sat, February 14, 2009 - 4:46 PMi am feeling like a slow transition and moderation are needed here.
i want to take 1 spicy cooked meal of some rice and veggies and onions and garlic curry then eat the rest raw with juices. -
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Re: not enough energy
Sun, February 15, 2009 - 2:46 PMwhat you are describing might call for a more spiritual prescription than a dietary one.
part of what changed in my life as a result of being 100% raw for nearly two years is my relationship to food and the concept of feeding myself only what is needed to support my whole being. I have come into a place of genuine gratitude for the foods that the earth provides, and when i get cravings for things my body really doesn't need, i can put that into perspective by bringing myself back into that state of gratitude. For example, i used to go and fill my fridge full of lovely organic veggies and fruit, but then take my kids out to a Mexican restaurant and want to pig out on that instead. I had to ask myself what it was i wanted to feed, when i had everything i needed at home.
Yoga has helped me immensely with staying centered and high on life. When i stray from the yoga, the cravings increase because i lose my center and forget my connection to spirit. Without the spiritual connection strongly urging me onward, i can fall prey to lesser indulgences that don't serve my highest purpose. I have had days when i just want to stuff whatever i can get my hands on into my mouth--so i know what you're describing, it's not that you're really hungry or actually _need_ those foods, there is some other hole you are trying to fill. -
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Re: not enough energy
Mon, February 16, 2009 - 7:23 PMi dont know really
im learning how to eat all over again in some ways, and its alot of 3rd chakra energies of self control and control manifesting in my life right now. the imblanace is a good thing because it means things are coming into balance.
as for Yoga. I am Infinitely grateful to Yoga. what more can be said, too much talk gets away from the center.
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Re: not enough energy
Tue, February 24, 2009 - 10:26 AMI struggled with the raw food diet until I discovered raw chocolate, and other superfoods like the goji berry. I am done with trying to succeed on raw foods with the traditional old school approach of using fresh fruits and vegetables even organic with are picked unripe therefore being acid forming, grown in terribly de-mineralized soil making these foods fairly empty in terms of minerals, excessively high in starch and hybrid sugars which cause all kinds of problems due to grafting and hybridization, picked and then stored or shipped long distances to people in cold climates like me in Minnesota making them other than fresh since after a day vegetables have already lost of of their bio-photon activity and nutrition so please don't waste your time fooling around with that nonsense. I struggled with that approach for years and not I am living on 100% superfoods only. Buying produce in the health food store is cool and I like some fresh organic berries when in season, some nice peaches perhaps or some other things buy don't kid yourself into thinking you are going to be getting the real nutrition you need. I think that trying to be a successful raw foodist on store bought produce is more a matter of entertainment, sort of like modern medicine, while nature takes it's course. It doesn't work. Our soils are terribly de-mineralized and you will be too if you grew up on a Standard American Diet as I did for the first 20 years of my life and fresh organic produce is not going to be enough to correct that. There is really no disease that is not linked to a mineral deficiency at it's root cause, and that is simply a fact. Minerals are the most important thing in nutrition as that is where out focus needs to be first. Superfoods are the answer to this because they are the most mineralized of all foods, the most nutritiously dense, and the most powerful foods in the world. I have 92 minerals in my diet, and that is no joke. We have 4,000 different enzymes in each of our cells and they are all run on different elements. Without these elements, we cannot function at out optimum potential. Apples and oranges and lettuce is just like sugar, water, and fiber mostly and that is not going to cut it long-term. Pick up a copy of 'The Sunfood Diet Success System' by David Wolfe are that will get you on the path very quickly and easily. Also, check out my site: www.superfoodempowerment.com/ for an opportunity if you would be interested in sharing the most powerful raw, organic, vegan, superfoods in the world with others you care about! Together we can touch many lives in positive ways!
To your success,
Jeffrey -
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Re: not enough energy
Tue, February 24, 2009 - 8:05 PM"I am done with trying to succeed on raw foods with the traditional old school approach of using fresh fruits and vegetables even organic with are picked unripe therefore being acid forming, grown in terribly de-mineralized soil making these foods fairly empty in terms of minerals, excessively high in starch and hybrid sugars which cause all kinds of problems due to grafting and hybridization, picked and then stored or shipped long distances to people in cold climates like me in Minnesota making them other than fresh since after a day vegetables have already lost of of their bio-photon activity and nutrition so please don't waste your time fooling around with that nonsense."
this is the longest sentence i think i've ever read.
So Jeffrey, you feel that supplying the body with the essential minerals is more important than giving it living food? I agree that we all need more minerals--i learned a lot from Dr. Cousens in Spiritual Nutrition about the role of minerals and what happens to us when we don't get what we need. But to tell people that they are wasting their time eating organic produce and that they should instead switch to "superfoods" (which they can purchase from you) is not only inaccurate, it smacks of MLM brainwash.
We make choices every day for our health. We can eat vegetables from a can, the freezer, a plastic bag, a mainstream market, a natural foods market, a farmers market, or our own backyards. If we had to make the choice between living entirely on superfoods and living on canned green beans, clearly the superfoods provide better nutrition. However, in my experience, nothing beats living, enzymatically-active, organic food. Superfoods are supplements. Yes, there are some wack jobs out there claiming that they live on nothing but raw cacao for years and eventually they report back that they went crazy and had to start eating something else. And yes, goji berries are an amazing source of nutrients and anti-oxidants--but they are dead when we eat them. Even if the organic produce at Whole Foods was picked a week ago, if it's not wilted and still has all its color, it's got to be better for you than something that has been highly processed and stored in a jar for months on end.
In the two years i have been more or less 100% raw, i've been through several phases of understanding what my body needs to thrive. At this point, i feel that i've come into more balance, which entails the inclusion of raw foods, living foods, and superfoods. Sometimes i eat a bit of raw cheese or raw fish, and sometimes i live on just green smoothies for days. Sometimes i eat more fats, and sometimes i eat more fruits. Something really important i've learned about myself in this process is that extremism goes against the organic nature of the raw/living foods diet. I learned this while i was weak and shivering in December when it snowed a foot in Seattle and i was stubbornly chugging my green smoothies, in denial that i felt like shit and needed to change my diet with the season. My whole life feels more harmonious when i listen carefully to the needs of my body and soul, and flow with my environment. Growing my own food has become such an imperative that i can't recommend it highly enough--talk about superfood, sprout and grow your own in mineralized, organically fertilized soil--it doesn't get any more super than that.
Anyway, i will get down off the podium and see if anyone else has something to say in response to your agenda. Have a beautiful day. -
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Re: not enough energy
Wed, February 25, 2009 - 8:45 AMYes, we need more orchards, gardens, greenhouses, and people using dilute seawater to give the produce the potential 92 minerals available in ionic form. An entire culture of living on the land and close to nature, while being appropriate technology savvy, is what is emerging in its early stages. Superfoods are a great stimulation when living foods fall short of energetic needs, but I'm very wary of the idea of long-term living on superfoods alone, as they do lack a living essence. Spectral aetheric-watery life essence as basis, ... and mineral-rich raw foods to supplement with judicious attention to effects. Fruits have the potential to be divine in qualities, even if that potential is generally only realized in its 5-25% range, .... I have sometimes experienced ambrosial fruits that are indescribably delicious, flavorful, and energizing.... unlike anything else.... and which one does not tire of eating, yet is not consumed with uncontrollable desire for more, as being satisfied thereby and brought into balance. The living ecstatic essence of such fruit Becomes you (if you let it), coloring your world, effortlessly awakening an inspiration to live closely with that experienced life radiance (by facilitating culture supportive of fruit gardening and garden planet) ..... living in beauty. -
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Re: not enough energy
Sat, March 7, 2009 - 6:20 PMi am doing much better now and experimenting with different variations in my diet. thanks for everyones wisdom and support
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Re: not enough energy
Sun, March 8, 2009 - 6:18 AMwhat a great post madame7!
Some day I would appreciate hearing you speak on this issue. You know a lot. Changing diet is not easy.
Nor is getting the combinations of foods and nuitrients easy to do.
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Re: not enough energy
Mon, March 9, 2009 - 7:15 PMi'm trying to get myself to sit in one place long enough to launch a blog entirely devoted to Living Nutrition. I need to do this as part of my Raw Lifestyle coaching practice, and i also hope to land some professional writing gigs so having an online blog of a non-personal/emotional nature is a good idea.
I have been on green smoothies for the past six days and only yesterday did i eat something else--a huge green salad. I have had more energy than ever before. I danced on Saturday night at a party and am still blown away by my endless supply of energy--i was fully launching my body into the air and jumping all around, spinning and thrashing and i went on like that for five hours. I didn't even really get tired until about 8:30 in the morning. All i'd had to eat for the five days prior to that party was green smoothies which contained, more or less, the following:
various combination of fruits including: apple, pear, pineapple, papaya, orange
banana and 1/2 avocado
cashews or hemp seeds (not a whole lot)
cacao nibs
as many leaves of collard, kale, chard or spinach as i could fit into the Vitamix
water and a splash of apple cider
Every morning i make a full pitcher of this stuff and pour it into 16 oz. glass Synergy (Kombucha) bottles.
I take three of them with me in a cooler, and drink a pint for breakfast. At the end of the day, sometimes i've only had two of those bottles. When you live on smoothies for a couple of days, as long as they are balanced with the right combination of fruit, protein/fat and greens, you assimilate the nutrients so well that you don't need much at all to feel satisfied and energized. Gabriel Cousens advocates a calorie restricted diet for maximum energy and regeneration. I lost two pounds after dancing all night, so i know my caloric intake was low in relation to my energy output--this was not water weight, i checked the body fat scale and had lost 1% in two days.
Weight loss is not a goal for me in and of itself, but it corresponds to how much energy is available to use in my activities. Having less fat on the body, translates to less body to maintain, meaning that more of the energy you take in can go toward other applications. I learned this through dancing and yoga, how food is fuel, how the body uses that fuel, and how efficiently it does so.
I'm not saying that having excess fat on the body is always the reason why some people suffer from low energy. I'm sure there are plenty of very thin people who have low energy too. It requires an intimate understanding of your metabolism and what feeds it best, and this seems to be a trial-and-error process--at least it has been for me. -
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Re: not enough energy
Mon, March 9, 2009 - 7:52 PMvery good food for thought
thank you
and I didn't mean to make a pun.. it just happened. -
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Re: not enough energy
Tue, March 10, 2009 - 11:43 AMi just thought of something, in regard to thinner body types having low energy. Many naturopaths and other holistic doctors will recommend that extreme Vata type people eat some meat when they are feeling weak or lack energy. I don't know if i agree with this--in Ayurvedic theory, it makes sense. But from what i know of the raw food diet (i have only my personal experience to speak from so far), raw plant foods should be able to supply us with all the energy we need. I have talked with some Vata type people and many of them claim that during certain periods of their lives, they did need to eat some meat to feel healthy. None of these people were on a raw diet, mind you. I would love to find out from some 100% raw folks who eat raw meat whether or not that helps give them the energy they lack. Since this is not the raw vegans tribe, we can safely talk about this here and i hope the conversation won't degenerate into an argument of ethics. I will also pose the question in some of the raw networks i'm in. (www.goneraw.com and www.giveittomeraw.com)
about once a month, apparently coinciding with the couple of days before my moon time, i crave raw fish. I sit with this craving for a few days to observe it, and see if i can get by with other protein sources. I don't crave it for lack of energy, i can't explain it--my body just compels me to eat a bit of raw fish and salad, and then i feel better. I haven't wanted it in quite a while, so i'm just going on with the smoothies. I would prefer not to eat any flesh, and ultimately, no dairy either. But i'm being patient and kind with myself, and observing without judgment.
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