[RawFoodGrl]

Hi Mati!

Lots of great questions!

Let's see ....

I think for me it really started before birth - my parents were of hippie age, and the consciousness of the late 60s and early 70s between the "flower power", the focus on nature, energy conversation, and the gas rationing had a large part of it. Also, we were fairly broke when I was little, so our "entertainment" was often museums, picnics in the park, hiking, camping - things that were inexpensive or free, and we had pets.

So today I carry all of that with me - the love of nature, the environment, the desire to preserve as much natural earth as we can, the fact that in a sense, a cow or a chicken is no different than a dog or a cat, they all have their own personalities (as I learned from my dad and visiting my grandfather's farm for the cows, and from the chickens we had in the backyard). I mean, they have PERSONALITIES. I had tarantuals a while, and they have personalities too!! Different interests, different tastes, different ways of approaching the world.

That made them no longer a "thing", but a true living being with it's own consciousness.

Once I got to that realization, how could I eat my pet chicken? How could I eat any other chicken or other animal, for that matter?

From that point it became about figuring out HOW to be vegan, in a way that works for my body and tastes. My vegetarian friends ate a lot of bread, pasta and cheese, and since I'm lactose intolerant and too sugar sensitive for bread or pasta, they couldn't help me figure out what to eat. (There's better whole grain breads now, but 15+ years ago, there were fewer options.)

I'm still figuring out how to get enough protien and iron for me - I still have times, between my own unique body chemistry and recovering from this injury, that I really crave meat. But my approach is always to try to find a vegan way, if that doesn't work, try a vegetarian way, then go up the animal food chain starting with eggs, to line caught fish, etc. getting things that are as free range and organic as I can.

But I'm learning, and I'm eating less now this year than last year, and that's the important part. I know some people get on me for that, but I'm in a learning curve, and better I figure it out now and not eat meat again then to give up trying to be raw vegan altogether and eat meat for the rest of my life.

I think you're right about the consciousness - what we do has an impact on the world around us, and the more we learn, the more we grow our own, the more connected we are with the whole process.

I think the community is different too - I'm on other websites/bboards for health & diet & exercise, and they're all about how much junk food they can eat, trying to eat real food (I'm including meat in this) so they can have their 0% food chocolate pudding or cookie snack packs, not to mention all the crap they eat in the forms of processed and frozen foods - "for convenience, because it's quick and easy". I'm laughing hysterically because it would take less time to make a green smoothie than to make one of their frozen dinners, and be healthier too! It's just a whole different way of thinking - as if eating junky food has nothing to do with their inability to lose weight.


Ok, so when I became a raw foodie - I wanted to be for about 10 years, but I had a tremendously difficult time with it because I would go into a horrible blood sugar crash that was just devestating to me physically as well as emotionally by noon. It took a lot of research, a lot of years, a lot of food festivals, asking a lot of questions, doing a lot of research, to figure out what my particular problem was. So once I FINALLY got the last big question answered (excluding the meat occasionally / when pain is severe issue) in November, I started going 90%+ raw in December 2007. Though from about June 2007 I started trying new raw food recipes to find things I liked and to increase my options. Also, I wanted to be at least 50% if nothing else, and always eating raw food before my cooked meals. If nothing else, I could at least do that. So I guess it's been 11 months now.

I don't work right now, actually. I was injured on the job a few years ago, disabled, unable to work, so for years I've basically been homebound, getting out as best I can (though it's difficult). But honestly, going raw has made a DRAMATIC improvement.

I've been reading a lot about chronic pain, including things like arthritis, and there's always an inflammation issue. Cooked foods are treated like an inflammation in the body, so there's just more of that, more stress and strain on organs, more inflammation in the body, the blood, the tissues, from eating cooked foods. Research in the chronic pain area talks about the importance of eating lots of whole foods, fresh produce, fruits, grains, and eliminating processed foods, refined foods, and getting a lot of leafy greens, and also having at least some vegetarian meals every week.

So I find it interesting that a similar kind of thing as a raw diet - and then of course raw foods decreases inflammation in the body, makes the body work less hard, is less stress on the organs - so my body can spend it's energy healing itself instead of dealing wtih food. Since I've been high raw, my functioning has gone up DRAMATICALLY.

But in my "ordinary life" when my body works right and I don't have pain, I do love going out in nature, hiking, camping, backpacking, I love active things like yoga, aerobics, weight lifting, frisbee, sailing, swimming, gardening, and just going and doing things, seeing the world, experiencing everything I can around me.

And when I can work a lot, I will be very busy, working for myself and helping others. Right now I'm busy just trying to get the basics handled .... like food, showering, and the like.

I hope that answers everything! Time to go plan my meals for the week!