So I've been getting some phone calls and emails which has spurred this little review of a few things I've come to realize on this raw journey so far. Hopefully it will be helpful to you. It's a bit of stuff I've learned which has been distilled over the past 7 years. ALSO please read the little ditty about almond pasteurization. There is a call for more letters by January 31st!

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OK, here's the few things I've learned SO FAR (there's always more to learn) :-)

1.) Calories is calories. If someone tells you that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want on raw food and still lose weight, I say, "Don't believe the hype - it's a sequel." It's true for some - maybe even for a lot, I'm not sure. But listen, if you tell me I can eat whatever I want whenever I want so long as it's raw, I'm going to take that to a new level. I'm going to test that theory and see if that's true because I'd sure like it to be! Yes folks, I found a way to gain weight on raw food! How funny is that. In the beginning, just the change alone with more fiber and unprocessed, uncooked foods helped me to drop about 17 pounds pretty easily. I was stoked. And then I just continued to eat and eat and eat. "So long as it's raw" - Well, I started to gain weight. So you know what I did? I went on http://www.fitday.com and signed up for their free membership. I started entering in what I ate each day and holy s*&t I was eating a lot of calories each day! No wonder! If it helps you to get a base line to know what you are doing, then do it. Key in your food each day and see what your eating looks like in calories (and fat and carbs and protein and fiber, etc.)

2.) You have to shake your a$$ each day. Shake it like you mean it. Sweat. Mix it up, have fun. I started spinning poi because it reminded me of my flag twirling days as a teenager. I just bought a bellydancing tape because I've always wanted to learn and I'm too damn crazy busy to take a class. I also put on some of my favorite tapes that I used to listen to and suddenly my body remembers the dances, yoga, stretching and aerobics I used to do in my teens and 20s. Fabulous! I also ride the stationary bike but that's too boring. I want to have fun. And forget this nonsense that every few days is good enough for exercise. Your body was made to move, so move it!

3.) Low(er) fat raw food diet is good. While I believe that eating an avocado is MUCH better than eating fat from say cheese or meat, it's still quite a lot of fat to eat each day. One Haas avocado has 279 calories, 27 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbs and 3 grams of protein. Get this: a Florida avocado with the green skin has 489 calories, 47 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein. That's a lot of fat for your body to work through each day. Add some nuts to the mix and WOW - you've got a high fat raw diet. Remember a serving of nuts/seeds is 1 ounce - that's nothing. What is that like 10 almonds or something crazy? Doug Graham talks about eating 1 ounce of nuts or some form of fat each day. To me, that is damn hard some days and feels so much like a diet that I'll want to reward myself with a raw cheesecake for a week of ascetic living. :-) Now we need some fat and what I'm about to say next is just my opinion based on my own experience: I tend to want a bit more fat at some certain time during my monthly cycle. I tend to want less at other times. I see that my hubby rides a different wave. He can tend to eat a lower fat diet more consistently than I can. This may change. I'll keep you posted. I like to get my fat from olive oil, flax seeds/oil, hemp seeds/oil. I will eat nuts but the longer I do this, the less nuts I tend to want believe it or not. Essential fatty acids are good for the skin and hair. I can tell when someone isn't eating enough good fat. I also feel a difference when I've had more fat in the day than I really need. It doesn't feel so good. Let's shoot for a low fat raw diet, ok - but let's keep things in balance and harmony.

4.) Water yourself. This has been interesting for me. I am a water drinker. That's the only thing I really drink if I drink anything during the day. But when you eat raw foods, there's more water in the foods (unless you are doing lots of dehydrated foods obviously) - so I found that I went from the 64-80 ounces of water a day to barely drinking about a quart or liter a day. I felt fine but let me say that what also increases in your daily intake with raw food is fiber. And water helps to keep things moving. So remember to drink water, mm-kay?

5.) Protein is in everything you eat. Did you know that there is protein in everything? This was a shocker to me. I really was on that kick of "oh I gotta have protein - I have sugar issues and I need protein." Well I read that there is a little bit of protein in everything. Cool! So I'm getting enough protein in everything I eat. Nuts and seeds have protein, yes. So does fruit (only a little. did you see what I wrote for that avocado above?) Veggies have more protein than fruit. Seaweeds have protein - spirulina has a boat load of protein. Grains have protein. Legumes have protein. So awesome! And you know what else? It's actually amino acids that your body needs to make protein. Did you know that an edible weed growing in your backyard has a beautiful supply of amino acids/protein? So cool.

6.) Calcium doesn't just come from dairy products and calcium isn't the only thing you need to have strong bones. Calcium also comes in the form of leafy greens, seaweeds, sesame seeds, to name a few. You also need Vitamin D for your bones. Here's a little quote from my nutrition action letter that I get every month: " Fruits and vegetables, which generate alkaline residues, may neutralize the acid produced by grains (breads, cereals, pasta, rice, and baked goods) and protein foods (meat, poultry and seafood.) If you're low on fruits and vegetables, your body has to dissolve bone - it's largest alkali reservoir - to neutralize acid residues. .... And if some of those vegetables are leafy greens like spinach, kale, collards, or salad greens, their vitamin K may also strengthen bones. .... [and finally, getting back to shaking your tail feathers] Exercise also matters to your bones. ... Just about any weight-bearing exercise will do. That boils down to walking or almost any activity except swimming or bicycling." (Nutrition Action Healthletter, January/February 2008)

7.) Raw food has put me on a fast track for getting to know ME better. And to be honest, I sometimes have some cooked food to slow that pace down! :-) I gave myself 10 years to get 100% raw. I did it in 5 and now I'm enjoying going with the flow inside me. So if I'm out and someone made something beautiful to eat and I check in and all of me says yes to it, I'll have it and enjoy it. I linger at about 95% raw I'd say. I don't profess to be a purist and I'm learning to love this as a journey - a life to live and enjoy - not one that needs to strive to some perfection.  I can't tell you how many years I said I hated my legs. What the hell was I saying?? They are wonderful legs - holding me up, letting me walk and dance. I can feel them stretch and sit and wow, they've taken me so many places! How they faithfully serve despite my hatred of them. So now I look at them and I love them. No more guilt and shame - time to make room for loving acceptance of oneself.

8.) Get the mind on track and the rest is so much easier. I want to end with this one although there is soooooooo much more I could write. We reap what we sew. If we sew negative thoughts, we reap negative experience/emotions. This week I've heard a record number of comments that really have focused on what a person doesn't want instead of what they do want. What you feed grows and what you starve dies. Alissa Cohen's co-teacher Elaine taught me that one and it's brilliant. It's not even that you are starving out the negative thoughts - it's that you are so full of positive thoughts that there's no room for anything else. And it's not that negative thoughts never happen either. But this new habit comes in that goes, "Well, we're just going to think differently about that." I grew up in NJ, right - and so many of us would say things like, "I'm just waiting for the other axe to fall" when something less than stellar happened. Now if I find that I'm floored by something that would normally shake me off course, I do something different to physically take myself away from that and usually that is enough to have a new way to think about it. Sometimes I'll do some meditation. Sometimes the most that I can say is, "what can I learn from this?" Thankfully it takes less time to get out of negative thoughts and thankfully the peaks and valleys are not as crazy tall/deep as they once were. So I practice each day to have positive thoughts. Practice practice practice and it's different practice too - I mix that up just like the exercise.

*whew* thank you for letting me share that. It's been on my mind for several days now. Good to get this out so I can move on to other things.

KEEP ALERTING PEOPLE THAT WE WANT OUR RAW ALMONDS RAW!

The folks at Living Tree Community have sent a notification to their peeps about almond fumigation. Here's the latest and please do write and get involved.

"The fight continues against the fumigation of 600,000,000 pounds of almonds with a carcinogen and military explosive. There will be a public meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Advisory Committee of the USDA on Feb 7 and 8 in Washington, DC. This meeting will be primarily for the "fruit and vegetable" industry, but as a consumer you can write in to say that you believe the almond "pasteurization" rule is wrongful and unjust. At the very least, organic almonds should be exempted. E-mail Mr. Andrew Hatch at: andrew.hatch@usda.gov or fax to (202) 720-0016. This should be done by January 31.
For inspiration, we suggest that you read our Press Release. .... We have got to let every American know that Big Almond or Big Brother can not arbitrarily "pasteurize", "sanitize" ,"engineer", fumigate or irradiate our food. "