After a week of Gourmet Cooked - Return to 90% Raw

[Fullcrum]

To get into this fascinating tale that should leave you no doubts about the power of raw fruits and vegetables, I should tell you a little about relevant background. My mother is Pakistani, I look Pakistani, and I am much closer to the Pakistani side of my family than to my father's White side. This is probably because my mother is much closer to her family than my father is to his.

So I went to Toronto from last Wednesday through Monday, driving 8.5 hours each way on each day. While there, I, with my thin frame and racecar metabolism, gorged myself on what I believe is the most gourmet food on the planet - Pakistani food. A dish will easily have 10-15 spices in it, take a full day to prepare, and require hours of cooking and preparation. Truly a feast for a king. In fact, the old kings of the Moghul (not to be confused with Mongol) Empire that ruled Persia and India through the 1500s and 1600s ate the gourmet food that I, a common American, eat today. They left a gourmet legacy of the most complex foods on Earth. I've had gourmet from every continent except Antarctica (fresh penguin anyone) and Australia, and I do not believe anything compares in complexity.

Anyway I probably topped 3500 calories a day gorging myself on this stuff. A dish would probably include, by list of ingredients: chicken, canola oil, chili peppers, chili powder, coriander, cumin, garam masala (a blend of 9 or so spices), star anise, coriander, and probably more, all cooked for over an hour. Damn, that stuff tastes good!

But I'm not really here to tell you how good it tasted. Here's the health effects:

• Back pimples, somewhat dormant and in recession, exploded to life. My back was often itchy and they spred all across my back past my shoulders onto my upper arms on both sides.
• More tired throughout the day.
• Craved more heavy foods.
• Slept later. I'd need like 8 or 9 hours of sleep.

This is all quite interesting because when I'm on vacation I go wild with my cousins. They're a cool bunch of people. In the past, my energy would spike over these vacations, but this time, though my enthusiasm for fun was greater, my actual energy was less.

Want to hear something more remarkable? Monday night I get home, drink one quart of green smoothie, have an immediate bowel movement, and go to sleep. I wake up 2 hours earlier the next morning. I went back to sleep, not because I was tired, but because I was trying to lucid dream and I've never had a single truly successful dream. It's coming soon: I can tell. The fact that I remembered my intention was cool - I often forgot the intention while on my 5 day vacation.

The next day, today, I eat one banana, go out to a diner, eat a buffalo burger with a tomato and tons of fries and bottled water, get home, and do not feel much different. Maybe slightly more tired. However, since we had just stocked up on $200 of produce (just in time for my arrival haha), I decided to go crazy.

I think I've drunk 2 quarts of green smoothies so far. Here's noticeable changes HOURS after consumption:

• 2 bowel movements. On vacation, I had maybe one a day, sometimes once every two days.
• I had the sudden and inescapable urge to do 30 pushups, randomly. This was a record amount of mine like 3 months ago, so now it's like nothing. Just a random energy upwelling that had to go somewhere.
• I was standing infront of my fan (I love wind) and suddenly felt quite euphoric. I was almost afraid to come into contact with people because my euphoria might just weird them out. Haaha, sounds stupid now but that's how I felt.
• I had the sudden urge to clean my room. Will be sparkling tomorrow morning.
• No more acne itches. The pimples that had developed on my face and upper shoulders are almost gone. They were white-tipped with pus a couple days ago.

BTW, I also had some fun with superfoods. So I put in some maca powder, cacao powder, and goji/inca/mulberry trail mix along with the bananas, oranges, kale, and other stuff.

So, we come to the end of our tale. Am I telling you to

• Be super strict about your diet when in the company of family members who spent all day cooking gourmet food from the country of your heritage?
• Drink green smoothies all day?
• Brag to your friends about your amazing health and try to sell them your next greatest interest?

No. Well, maybe the second one. But, this is illustrating the POWER of raw foods and not only how fast it acts to heal the body; this is also here to inspire you people who mess up and fall off the bandwagon. "Oh well. Back to amazing health!" Your body WILL heal itself if you "mess up" your diet and there is no reason to worry about it or beat yourself up.

[Rapid]

>>>>
Back pimples, somewhat dormant and in recession, exploded to life.
...
More tired throughout the day.
Craved more heavy foods.
>>>>

Ditto. I had the same symptoms the last couple of days due to poor eating (birthday dinner, availability of junk/cooked foods, craving of junk/cooked foods due to an increase in stress level).

Returned to eating raw today with exception of dinner (veggie burrito from a restaurant - a bit too cheesy).

Added:
By the way, I went to a raw food lecture given by Craig Sommers on Sunday. I learned that it's normal (at least for some people) to eliminate after each meal on the raw food eating style.

[beautyscientist]

I can feel the benefits of simply increasing the amount of raw in an otherwise normal diet.

The best thing is that it almost completely kills off the urge to snack between meals.

[Honeywith4bees]

That's inspiring Fullcrum! Thanks for sharing that story.

Problem is now I don't know whether I want to rush out for some Indian food or a green smoothie!!!!

[Fullcrum]

If I think to myself "I want taste" then I'll be more likely to go for some healthy cooked food. Or gourmet.

If I think to myself "I want energy" then I'll definitely eat some goji berries or make a green smoothie. Every morning, the answer to that question is obvious. Later in the day, I might want more fat, though.

[marty]

Hi,what kind of green smoothie do you make? Is it all fresh produce or can you use some kind of superfoods?ie.is it a powder or ...?

[Fullcrum]

I usually use cheap fruits and green leaves and brita filtered water. That's totally fine and probably provides all the nutrients you need.

But the last couple of days I have been playing around with super foods and stuff. The super foods tend to be in powdered form, but I had cacao nibs.

Some recipes. Should make around a quart.

Simple:

2 bananas
juice of one lime
massive handful of baby spinach leaves until the smoothie turns a dark green.

This one is good for newbies.

Another:

2 bananas
1 orange (peeled, with all the white pith)
1/4 of an average sized pineapple
5 stalks kale

This one is strong. It may burn the back of your throat and remove excess phlegm. I enjoy the sensation - it's like hot peppers only not spicy to the tongue!

Add nuts. Add flax seeds. Add cacao powder. Have fun with it.

Complex superfood mania:

1/4 pineapple
2 bananas
1 peeled orange
handful of goji berries
teaspoon of maca powder
2 tablespoons flax seeds
1 tablespoon cacao powder
Coconut water and meat

This was more like pudding so I added water and ice to make about two quarts. Tasted sweet and fruity - but like nothing I've ever eaten. The maca and goji have very strong flavors.

Full of goodness, but really, you don't need to do this. But feel free to splurge and see how you feel. That's the point. See how you feel when consuming these expensive "superfoods". If there is no noticeable betterment of your health, you can discontinue the expensive superfoods. Personally I'm trying them out to see if the hype is real.

[Rapid]

Thanks for the inspiration. My second attempt at making a green smoothie (this morning) was successful: 2 bananas, baby greens, a few strawberries, a few cherry tomatoes, water. Tasted pretty good. My stomach felt like it almost could explode.

I made the mistake of ordering a cooked dish (instead of a salad) while eating out at a vegetarian restaurant today. I wanted to try "fake shrimp." I've been craving for cooked food for the rest of the day. I think I need to clean out my palate!

[Fullcrum]

Eat whatever. This is a diet of inclusion. So include more raw foods and the other stuff will naturally phase out.

Eat the fake shrimp, feel the lower enegy or however you feel after that stuff, go to sleep, wake up somewhat groggy after a full 10 hours of sleep, then make a massive green smoothie and drink 1.5 quarts.

"Hangover recovery."

[Lenie]

Originally Posted by Honeywith4bees

That's inspiring Fullcrum! Thanks for sharing that story.

Problem is now I don't know whether I want to rush out for some Indian food or a green smoothie!!!!

[Hyperchiller]

Thanks Fullcrum for the inspiring post.

I've been meaning to do more green smoothies. I just really like the idea of consuming so many enyzmes in one go.

I've been learning from an audio program about health called the "Perfect Health Program" by Dr. Doug Graham and he was talking about the six parameters of good health:

1. Eat whole foods
2. Eat ripe foods
3. Eat raw foods
4. Eat fresh foods
5. Eat organic foods
6. Eat plant foods

I just thought these parameters summarise the raw food health movement quite well. You can use these to persuade others with common sense logic that eating raw foods is the way to go!