We Like It Raw - Raw Food Goodness

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Speaking of Faith interview with Eckhart Tolle

Long time readers of this blog know how big of a fan I am of Eckhart Tolle's work. Tolle's work deals a lot with learning how to use your mind as a tool and not have your mind use you. When it comes to any goal, raw food or exercise or what ever else, this is some of the deepest advice around.

Here is a fantastic new interview with Eckhart Tolle that I hear this weekend on public radio's Speaking of Faith.

Highly recommended.

Related

• Eckhart Is My Homeboy T-Shirts

Natalia Rose videos on iVillage

Natalia Rose, the raw food author who loves keeping it real, has some fantastic videos on health-for-beginners at iVillage.com

Check the lovely Natalia Rose out here

Also, here's a great interview with Natalia by Sarah Remington and poshorganix.com

Related

• Raw Food Detox Blog, by Natalia Rose

Requesting your help to put Raw Food on the map

I do my best not to ask for much from the readers of this blog. In fact I've only reached out for support when I've deemed something to be a worthy cause, (like the CreVax issue). Well today my friends, I have a worthy cause that I'm requesting some assistance on.

VegNews Magazine, the most popular vegetarian print magazine, is currently hosting their annual Veggie Awards. And this year there are over 6 raw and raw friendly businesses, authors and website that are up for an award in their category, including We Like It Raw.

Honestly, we could care less if you vote for us specifically, but we are requesting that you help put raw food on the map by voting for both the raw nominees officially listed and writing in your favorite raw nominee where appropriate.

Winners get prizes, but here's the deal... We'll give away any prize we get from this contest to one of our readers. Maybe setup some sort of fun little contest of our own.

You can vote online today by clicking here (voting ends August 31st)

Let's bring some thunder to the world of Vegetarian and Vegan living! Vote for any raw food author, business, website or crew that you feel is really doing there thing big.

Here are some of the categories where raw food nominees are present:

Favorite Veg Blog
* welikeitraw.com

Favorite Cookbook Author
* Ani Phyo

Favorite Athlete
* Tim VanOrden

Favorite Vegetarian Restaurant
* Java Green (Washington, DC) (raw friendly)
* Candle 79 (NYC) (raw friendly)
* Chicago Diner (Chicago) (raw friendly)
* Or you can write in Pure Food and Wine

Here are some of the categories where writing in a raw food nominee might be appropriate:

Beliefs and Briefs on GI2MR

Give it to me Raw (GI2MR) is out community site. It's a place for people to have intimate discussions about raw foods and the raw food life style.

Today I want to highlight two very interesting conversations taking place in the forums section.

Firstly: What do your beliefs have to do with anything?
A conversation about the nature of beliefs and how they tend to limit the growth of discussions. I started this conversation last night after seeing the word "believe" thrown around on the comments section of WLIR and in a few discussions at GI2MR.

I always smile when I see people on health forums throw the word "believe" around.

"I don't believe in supplements. I don't believe in eating meat. I don't believe in cacao. I don't believe in juicing. I don't believe in taking B12. I don't believe kids should be raw. I don't believe in this or that..."

What the hell do your beliefs have to do with anything?

First off: The nature of a belief is that it is inherently limited. Beliefs are based on individual experiences, yet people use them in an attempt to blanketly define the experiences of others.

Let's take the following statement: "I don't believe in taking supplements."

Read the full post here

Secondly: What do your briefs have to do with anything?
A funny conversation created in the Raw Humor group by GI2MR Member Pete Vincent about deciding what briefs to wear when you first wake up in the morning. Pete has a great sense of humor and it's post like this that make sure we don't get too serious at GI2MR. I'm not saying I'm deserving of some credit for inspiring this discussion, but briefs does sound a lot like beliefs. : )

Every morning we are all faced with the same kind of problems. Waking up, getting out of bed, finding the bathroom, and then comes the biggest decision of all. What briefs do you wear. Briefs dictate the kind of mood that we are in for the rest of the day. Do you choose the daring kinky red silky ones that kind of guarantee that you are going to get yourself into some kind of trouble during the day. Do you wear the tight G string that persistently draws your attention to your base shakra area causing you to continually redress yourself like Michael Jackson dancing on stage.

Read the full post here

Much love to all the members of GI2MR. They've created such a support structure for one another that I just can't but to smile.

If you aren't a member yet, have no fear. Membership is 100% free. Just go to giveittomeraw.com and click "sign up".

Measuring for health success

What is one of the secret to health success? Knowing what to measure and why. Because when you know what's off, you know where attention is needed. And when you know what's on, you know what to keep doing.

The trick is learning what to measure and understanding what those measurements mean. It's also key to learn what measurements really deserve your attention and what measurements aren't as valuable.

Let's take the standard indicators for health. Here are the two things the most people look for when determining whether or not they are "healthy":

• Absence of an alignments or disease
• Absence of obesity/excess weight

There is a challenge with the above indicators though. They are indicators that show up way too late in the game. It's like being on a basketball team and having to wait for the final score to see how your game is going. Or selling a product via a business but having no way to account for money in and out until the end of the year.

That sounds ridiculous, but it happens all the time. How many people do you know that think they are healthy because there is an absence of cancer or heart disease or diabetes or obesity.

The raw food life style at its best will present you with an entire new set of indicators to measure. It will help you keep score earlier in the game so you understand where attention is needed. It will also help you become more sensitive to indicators that you previously didn't even know existed.

When you start eating live foods, foods that are less taxing on your system and provide you with levels of nutrients that your body hasn't experienced, you'll be able to measure indicators that previously didn't register. When your system starts to cleanse your internal sensitivity to the daily subtleties that take or add to your health becomes much stronger.

As an example, when you move towards a diet rich in raw fruits and vegetables all of a sudden the word "energy" has an entirely new meaning. The side effects of drinking that occasional cup of coffee or glass of wine register much earlier. Foods and habits that never seemed like they were contributing to your internal turmoil start to show their true colors much earlier in the game.

A cleaner system = a greater sensitivity to what works and what doesn't.

If health success is about measuring then the key to transformation is knowing what's deserving of your attention. And just because you've "gone raw" doesn't mean that you automatically know what to pay attention to.

An example of an indicator that many people new to raw foods tend to overlook is gas.

When you eat a standard processed diet gas is quite normal, expected even. So even though many folks new to raw foods notice that they regularly have gas, they don't do much about it because they are quite use to it. They also tend to feel so much better on raw foods, compared to what they were previously eating, that they just accept gas as part of the digestion process. I've seen many people who eat a high amount of raw food live with gas as status quo for years.

The gas comes from eating complex-gourmet-raw-foods daily. The foods that make up the meal are technically "raw" and very nutritious individually, but they are so complex that the body has a hard time digesting them properly. Now, as the digestive fire and stomach acids strengthen over time, you maybe able to combine foods with more complexity, but eating complex meals daily is not a sustainable practice. Gas will continue to be a by-product of that lifestyle.

So if gas is one indication worth measuring, what does it mean? And what should you do if you notice you have gas regularly?

First, before you take action on any indicator, it's important to understand why it matters. Why is this indicator worth your attention?

Most gas is the by-product of fermentation. When complex foods that remain undigested enter the intestine they attract undesirable bacteria and fungus. The bacteria thrive on these foods, especially carbohydrates, and create gas as a by-product. The longer the bacteria sit with the un-digested food in the intestine, the more the gas builds up. Along with the gas, acid is also created as a by-product. The way the body deals with this accumulation of bacteria and waste is through the vehicle known as mucus. As Natalia Rose puts it, the mucus and the fermented foods, "build up in the intestines and push their way into the body through the tissues of the intestinal walls."

The side effects of all this bacteria, fermentation, gas are:

• Excess mucus, even for seasoned raw foodies
• A heavy burden on the intestinal tract: the harder your organs are forced to work the sooner they'll burn out
• Energy deficits: even if you've been eating raw for some time you could notice a similar feeling to old days of "food comas" after heavy gourmet meals

You may want to look at your current food regimen and ask your self if you are experiencing any of these issues. If you are, gas might be one indicator that you start measuring. How often do you get gas? What meals or food combining cause it to take place? Natalia Rose has some great pointers on how to reduce gas.

Mucus is obviously a good indicator too look for as well, but it's often a tertiary indicator because it takes significant time to build up and release.

The point of this post isn't to have you all worked up about gas. It's to bring the idea of measuring to the fore front. Because after all, raw food isn't about "believing" in a particular way of eating. It's about getting real results. And since everybody reacts different to different foods, measuring is the only way to get a true understanding for how foods effect you.

A few other common examples of indicators that a lot of raw foodies never measure are:

• B12 levels
• and Teeth sensitivity / teeth health
• PH levels

I'm sure there are a bunch more and we'll certainly expand on this topic in future posts.

Questions

• What are some examples of indicators you measure for?
• Why do you measure for these indicators and what do you do with the information?

Related

• WLIR: Steve Pavalina on measuring energy gains

Juice Feasting pointers from Philip

Philip has a great Juice Feasting Wrap-Up video that includes a few pointers that everyone will appreciate.

In the video Philip covers...

• his total weight loss and gain (and re-gain)
• surprise experiences related to energy
• some challenges he experienced transitioning out of the Juice Feast
• and who he does and doesn't recommend a juice feast for

You can check it out Philip's video here at the Loving Raw blog

Upcoming Raw Food Events

And here's what's happening in your neck of the woods...

Have an event that you'd like to add to the list? Just fill out this form.

You can also subscribe to this cal via RSS or iCal

Happy Birthday Angela Stokes!

On behalf of the entire WLIR team, we wish a special 30th birthday to the lovely Angela Stokes.

Normally it's considered rude to call out a female's age, but s**t, when you raw... you know you look good!

Check out Angela and all her goodness at the Raw Reform Blog.

Alaska - The Final Frontier

I have wanted to visit Alaska my entire life, so when I got invited to fly over and speak at The Conscious Living Festival I jumped at the chance.  Dreams of seeing glaciers, icebergs, and drink real pure water, I was literally vibrating with excitement.  I was even looking forward to the 10+ hour plane ride over, and that is miracle in itself.

Blue Green Waters
Standing in front of the ice-cold blue green water was truly a sight to be seen.  I really resonate with this color as it’s how I often view my heart chakra, and is very comforting for me.  As I stood there in awe of icebergs floating in the water and glaciers on the surrounding mountains I wondered to myself if there was any other place on the earth that was so serene and pure. 

Sure there are wonderful vacation spots and many places of beauty, but this felt so untouched, so pure, so right.  I think as a nation we have forgotten about Alaska to an extent.  Maybe people opt for cruises in the surrounding waters with an occasional excursion, but what percentage of people actually spend time right in the middle of Alaska?  So many go for warm climates, which is nice in its own respect, but there is something magical about being in this cool refreshing weather.

Light
During my visit I got to enjoy the ever-changing light cycle as well.  It was pretty light out until around 11pm, and never really got completely dark at all, no matter the time.  This is great for late night hikes through the woods (yes, I saw my first wild bear), mountain running uphill, and just working and playing right outside in your back yard. 

It could be strange to adjust to, as I feel that my body wants to sleep at a certain point, no matter now light it is outside.  But, I did slowly adjust.  It did get me thinking how much more productive we could be as a people if we all lived in that environment.

Real Water
The event that left the greatest impression on me was a simple one, drinking water.  My friend Kristi was nice enough to take me to this amazing water outlet on the side of the road, often overlooked by even the locals.  My first thought was that it was a natural spring, in which case I of course wanted to taste the water.  When I found out that it was actually water from a melting glacier, tunneled through the side of a mountain, which has literally been there before pollution... to say that I was ecstatic to taste it would be an understatement. 

So after pouring myself a glass I first looked at the clarity in the water.  No floating sediments or objects, really pure.  Ok, ready to taste it.  It hit my lips and was ice cold.  Then I noticed that the water was really silky smooth and went down easy, no after-taste at all.  But what really shocked me, and what I had to drink many many glasses of water to confirm was that the moment I poured the water into my mouth it felt like it disappeared.  My description isn’t doing it justice by any means but somehow someway it just disappeared.  I drank a large glass of water in seconds, and didn’t even feel the water going down my esophagus.   I noticed the water fill my mouth, and then it felt like it just turned into light.  All I know was that it put a smile on my face, did an amazing job of hydrating me, and made me so happy.  The idea of this magical water excited me so much that I have decided to host a retreat there next year.  Are you ready for your glacial activation?

Thank you Alaska.
Thank you Gaia for the amazing water.

We are blessed.

Love,
Philip

ps.  Click here for more Alaskan Pics

Related

• Loving Raw, Philip's Personal Site
• WLIR: Philip Old Posts
• GI2MR: Philip's Profile / Twitter: Phlip's Tweets