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Transition to Real Living!
August 8, 2008
Visualize yourself in a perfectly healthy body. There is total freedom of movement, no pain, the body is the perfect weight; it is the ready, tireless vehicle for your every desire.
If you are young, you have that body already. If you are a seasoned raw vegan, you have that body even if you aren't so young. If you have or don't want to get the aches and pains, extra weight, restricted movement and lack of endurance common among those who eat cooked foods, visualize yourself having and keeping the body of youth. Remember when you had boundless energy, and every physical exertion was fun? What did it feel like to inhale after a brisk run? Remember the joy?
What habits do you think you will have to change in order to regain that body? What obstacles will you face?
Alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, illicit and prescription drugs are the number one obstacle to vibrant health. Aren't you glad that you don't have any of those habits? If you do, those demons will only come out with much prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). Here is a prayer you might use:
O my Lord! Make Thy beauty to be my food, and Thy presence my drink, and Thy pleasure my hope, and praise of Thee my action...
Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Prayers, p. 144
Fasting means consuming nothing but water for a period of time. What is the longest period of time you have gone without eating recently? The wisest approach to fasting is to try to stretch it just a little bit. For instance, if you went 11 hours without eating, try going 12.
Can you have the new body you want and eat your cake too? Well maybe, if it is a raw cake made from seeds and dates. If you're a pastry lover, you can't expect yourself to change overnight. First transition from refined grains to whole grains. I know, they're more expensive, don't taste as good, and you have allergic reactions to them. What do you think causes those allergic reactions? You're getting more fiber, so it disloges some older crud, you suffer some unpleasant effects, and your symptoms stop when you go back to the brand you're used to. How do you feel about cleaning out all that old crud? Does it bother you when the floor's dirty? What about the insides of your body?
Rose says, "I probably need a thorough internal cleanse but I don't want to think about it right now. I'm afraid that a delicately structured social fabric will come tumbling down if I change one thing about my diet. Being fat is not as bad as being viewed as a health fanatic. If I start fasting and cleansing it will require a lot of down time. I don't have time for it. I can't afford it. It might make my health and energy level even worse. That's not a chance I can take. Even if the eventual payoff is a slimmer body and more energy, the immediate effects will be feeling lousy and not being able to get out of bed, which for me will probably last months. Who needs that? Anyway, I like the taste of the foods I eat. I don't care if they clog up my arteries and make me fat."
Is there a way that Rose can control her cleansing so that it happens in small increments that don't interfere with her life very much? Some people find that a vegetable bristle brush massage helps bring cleansing reactions under control. Although there are health spas that offer this massage, it is normally done by one's self. Brush the arms and legs firmly with strokes toward the trunk of the body, then the face, neck, front and back toward the intestines. This stimulates the lymph, which helps carry toxins from the body. Exercise is important. Walking is a perfectly adequate form of exercise. If she doesn't like to walk outdoors, mall walking is fine. Also, if she concentrates on eliminating one dietary culprit at a time, her progress will be slowed but meaningful.
Eliminating trans fats would be step number one. Surely family and friends would understand the need to eliminate artificially hydrogenated oils from the diet. If they don't, there should be support available from groups such as Overeaters Anonymous. Almost any doctor would agree that trans fats should not be consumed by anyone wanting to reduce weight or lower blood pressure. The bad news is that practically everything at the grocery store that contains several ingredients contains hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, or may contain hydrogenated oil. However, there is a growing movement to eat foods free of trans fats, so there are some available. Margarine is definitely out. But isn't margarine better than butter? Oil is better than either, and no condiment at all is better than oil. However, for this step, butter is a better choice because, although it does contain cholesterol, saturated fat, and greater levels of pesticide, does not contain trans fat. We could debate the relative detriments of trans fat vs. animal fat, but remember, people have consumed butter for thousands of years. Trans fats have only been around for a hundred years. The current levels of obesity and heart disease are correlated with the widespread consumption of trans fats in the modern lifestyle, as well as more dairy products, so it is a tough call. Better not to go overboard on butter either. You may have trouble finding French fried potatoes free of trans fat. Some restaurants use canola oil though.
The second step would be to eliminate refined sugar from the diet. Few packaged foods are left after eliminating trans fat, so this should be easier. This is not a time to switch to artificial sweeteners. In fact, artificial sweeteners, if consumed, should be eliminated from the diet as well as refined sugar. Agave nectar, honey, raw cane sugar, maple syrup, malt syrup, stevia and dried fruit are some of the sweeteners still allowed at this stage of diet transition. But it is still better to eat fresh fruit when something sweet is desired.
Step three, of course as alluded to earlier, is the elimination of refined grain products from the diet. You may take it slowly and eliminate one refined grain product at a time as you search for a wholesome product to give you the same carbohydrate kick. I used to enjoy baked potatoes when I was at this stage in my transition. They were good with olive oil and a little miso. I also added olive oil, miso, a little curry, and diced raw vegetables to cooked brown rice. Corn tortillas are a whole grain product, but I used to read the ingredients to make sure no preservatives were added, lime is ok. I used to use a bread machine to make whole wheat bread and pizza dough. (2 tablespoons olive oil, 1-1/2 cups water, 3 tablespoons raw sugar, 4-1/2 cups, whole wheat flour, 1 package baking yeast.)
These three steps may be enough to bring you to the level of health you desire. Certainly a comfortable plateau of whole foods cuisine can be attained that is enjoyable, only slightly different from the crowd, and relatively healthy, to last possibly years. Animal-derived foods may begin to be cut back on gradually, and certainly no protein deficiencies need be feared since whole plant foods contain adequate protein.
Having eliminated all animal-derived foods from my diet years ago, I've become a little extreme in my view.
The best way to treat animals is not to eat them, not to take their babies' milk or their unhatched eggs, not to wear them nor walk on them, not to use pouches or straps made from them, not to use pharmaceuticals or other products that were tested on them, not even to beat on them! Is this too extreme? Do you think there can be an animal agriculture that has the right balance between care and utilization, between cultivation and exploitation? The fact that people are healthier if they don't consume exploited animals is a clue. Some people do need a small amount of animal food (animal-derived food), but exceeding a very small amount is not healthy. Recently, I found that I do better with a little raw fish once a month or so, but if I overdo it I'll get a cold like I used to get before I eliminated dairy from my diet. It is kind of nice not ever getting sick.
I used tempeh and tofu during my transition from meat and eggs, and soy milk and coconut milk during my transition from dairy products. I ate a lot of tofu and whole grain bread sandwiches, and it helped me get away from hotdogs and hamburgers, but now I don't miss any of it. Deep fried tempeh sticks were my replacement for fried chicken, but now I can't believe I ever ate either. Beans were great in corn or whole wheat flour tortillas instead of meat, but now I'll take the guacamole and salsa and eat it over a green salad. There is a version of pizza for every stage of diet transition, and I used to eat a lot of the various whole foods versions, but now I'll take the tomatoes and nuts raw in a salad with a sprig of fresh basil.
People seem to want alcohol, bread and meat. There is an attraction to consuming those things that is hard to overcome. Those who desert the dessert, wine and flesh add years to their lives. But are we adding life to our years? We're out of place in a bar, or anywhere with drinkers or the unruly. Does that mean we're sticks in the mud? Would you keep your belly, your drunken laughter, and your sexual disfunction rather than become a health nut? We have wine that you don't know about, unless you have chosen this path, and it doesn't come from the fermentation of sugar-spiked grape juice.
I'm calling raw recipes the fifth stage of a diet transition. I won't write a raw recipe book because I never got hung up very long in that stage. Now I just eat simple raw food: fruit, salads and nuts. No dehydrator, no food processor, no blender, no juicer, no noise, no fuss. I used to make a lot of flax seed crackers, and I ate them with a lot of sesame butter. Now I make raw pinole with seeds such as flax and sesame once in awhile, but more often in winter than in summer. Just soak the seeds and eat. If you didn't start them soaking (which happens to me a lot) just grind them in a coffee grinder, then add hot water, stir and eat. Adding some spice seeds such as cumin and dill makes an interesting taste. My favorite seed for pinole is oat, which is a technically a grain. The other apparatus that is used in my cuisine is a sprouter/salad grower. It has several deep shelves and a door, and is covered in shade cloth. It sits in the patio connected to a hose with a timer. It has misting emitters inside that turn on several times a day to water sprouts on the upper shelves and salad greens in large pots on the lower shelves. I use strawberry baskets with squares of velour to grow sprouts. I just spread a layer of broccoli, onion, alfalfa, chia, or flax seeds (etc.) on the velour and put it in the sprouter. To have a continuous supply of sprouts it is necessary to start more seeds every few days.
Oil, maple syrup, agave syrup, vinegar, sea salt, miso, soy sauce are some of the things used in raw recipes that I don't feel belong in the diet of one who has completely transitioned to 100% raw foods. Oils naturally occur in avocados, nuts and seeds. The diet of whole raw foods contains adequate oil without adding more extracted oil to salads. It is hard enough to reduce dietary fat to the recommended 10 percent by cutting back on avocados and nuts, let alone adding extra oil.
The only vinegar I consume is that which naturally develops in natural ferments I make. Not all natural hygienists approve of ferments, but there are some fermented products that I make and enjoy. Salt (sodium) is contained in many raw foods (such as celery) and should not have to be added to the diet, however sauerkraut may be difficult to make without some added salt. I enjoy sauerkraut but rarely make it because I probably need a better recipe. My favorite ferment is a kombucha-like drink made from pressed fruit. I press seasonal fruit in excess of eating needs, add a little water, and some finished ferment if available, place in a glass gallon jar covered with a cloth held in place by a ribbon or piece of twine tied around the neck of the jar. It is ready in about 3 days. It has far less alcohol than commercial wine, but does have some. It has an abundance of natural yeasts, and also a sour taste because of the presence of vinegar producing organisms. The best ferment is fairly fresh, so the sweetness of the fruit is still discernable. If it goes too far it is still good for cleaning dishes or laundry, washing and conditioning hair, and a little will help start another batch. Yeast is a super-food that people take as a supplement. I don't believe in swallowing supplements in capsule or pill form. I like to taste what I am taking into my body. I appreciate the nutrition from the yeast that grows in my ferment. The brewer's yeast was removed from commercially available wine and beer. This is unfortunate because many drinkers might actually be craving the yeast which traditionally was present in alcohol-containing ferments.
If you try raw foods and it doesn't seem to work for you, you probably need to go on a fast. I can't recommend that you try fasting on your own even though that is the way I did it. I also had 2 home births, but I can't recommend that either. Fasting can be dangerous just like child-birth can. If you don't absolutely have the confidence to do it on your own, it is best to find help. However fasting for up to 48 hours at a time on your own is probably ok. Break the fast with several small meals of fruit by the 3rd day, then the 4th day you can eat normally. It may take many 1 or 2 day fasts to cleanse enough to enable you to be successful on raw foods.