Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

The Good Ole Days of Raw Food.

2»

Comments

  • Hi Chris,

    The largest contributing factors were practicing food combining and cutting out most of the raw

  • Chris, it’s nice to read what you write and feel understood too!

    Thanks AKAAuburnEyes.

    Anngoingraw: I am a professional comedienne/actress and am currently working on some “raw humor” for my standup act—so just you wait!

  • anngoingrawanngoingraw Raw Newbie

    WOW! Great news!!

  • Chris, Great Post… I guess what you talk about is what is basically wrong with todays fast-paced,negative, self-centered, money driven society. Its a shame that some of the pioneers of raw food have succumbed to the almighty dollar, chasing profits and cashing in on a way of life that can help sooo many people. Also, you are so right that you have to get your head straight first, before the body will follow. I have had a difficult time going 100%, but strive to every day. Often, I allow day to day things (long work hours, stress, etc..) impact my food choices and grab too many nuts or cooked rice and fish instead of a simple smoothie. But the problem is still myself, justifying that I deserve a cooked meal, or dont have the time to make a salad..(funny considering steamed brown rice takes over an hour.) I think what is great about your post is that it creates an awareness.. and awarness can create the right mind set to action. I had a great affirmation of my 85% raw lifestyle just yesterday. I went for my yearly eye exam to get new contacts and glasses…Guess what… My eyesight has improved!. First time in 28 years that my perscription has gotten better.Coincidence? I dont think so.I have only been on the raw foods since April. So I cant wait till next years exam to see where we have gone. It is this type of “small miracle” that pushes me to get 100% raw, and stay there… Other small miracles have been the 40 lbs lost, and the blood sugar stabilization, not to mention the overall “glow” i seem to have -so much that every single person I see that I havent seen for a while starts out with “you look great!” So I guess what I am saying is—Chris, you are right on the money here.. Raw food is about health,spirit,mind,body and can work for everyone. Those who want to cast a negative spin on it or cash in on it are missing the picture…Too bad for them. As long as we have champions like yourself out there keeping the message alive from time to time with posts like this, The newbies will get it! I know I do. Thanks to all.

  • Thanks Chris, great post. I really think people need to relax and realize that everybody needs to do what works for them without criticism from all the experts. When I first started over six months ago I was convinced that I just had to get a cooked cup of beans in everyday for my protein but that did not last long and I figured it out. Then I really got into trying to do food combining but that was just too stressful and confining for me. Now, as my body has cleaned up a little bit I have found that I just sort of go with what I really want without allowing my body too much craziness (like three avocados at a sitting). I notice if I eat too many nuts I don

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    Wow, some amazing stuff being said here!!!

    “you have to get your head straight first, before the body will follow.”

    “Often, I allow day to day things (long work hours, stress, etc..) impact my food choices”

    “justifying that I deserve a cooked meal, or dont have the time to make a salad..(funny considering steamed brown rice takes over an hour.)”

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Chris,

    What a perfect time for me to read this! I’m coming up on my first raw anniversary and I’ve never been so confused. I thought things would become easier and more clear with time but my brain is so muddled with opinions and advice that I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Your dead food list is on my mind all the time, challenging me to look at what I’m eating. I try to follow my instincts when I’m eating and shopping, I try to respect my husband and my daughter’s needs, I try to enjoy life, but I’m still not where I want to be physically after every cleanse, eating experiment, herb, supplement, superfood out there! This week I started really paying attention to Tim VanOrden’s youtube videos and the the success he is having as a raw athlete, and the simplicity of his diet, and now reading this, I want so much to embrace 100%! Now that I’m ready to kick off year two with a new determination, I’m wishing there was a more complete dead food list – foods and products and brands that I can trust to be raw. Is there such a thing? I realize the simplest thing would be to stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, your desert island approach, but if there is a form of cacao, etc. that is truly raw I would like to know!

    Thanks for your inspiration.

  • I love this thread.

    I am new to raw. This is my forth month or so, with some serious cheatin’ episodes here and there. For me, it’s been trial and error. The first week of raw I thought I needed a dehydrator, a high speed blender, a this, a that. As a single mom who works two jobs to make basic ends meet, I couldn’t afford any of those items. And in a cruel twist of fate, my basic blender shattered when I followed some cockamamie advice and tried to blend a whole avocado – pit and all.

    So here I sit, with just a cutting board, a knife, and not a whole lotta pocket change. I haven’t read all of the books, haven’t read about Sunfood, Superfood, Cacao. I don’t have money for spirulina or mail order nuts. I’m just eating fruits and veggies, the basics, in whatever combination suits me.

    I want raw food to heal my back. I want raw food to heal the secret internal ills I can’t see. I believe it can. I have seen incredible leaps in my own health – I lost extra weight, my eyes are shiny and clear, my skin is regaining its youth. I’m 42 years old. I’m no spring chicken. I want to feel young, to be able to run, to feel as sweet and juicy as a watermelon.

    Something about the way fruit and veggies feel when I eat them, the way I can feel them travel into my gut, filling it with electricity, with joy, makes me know that these foods do heal. I believe that nature, that the universe, that our own combined consciousness wants us to eat this way, to eat the abundance that the land raises up to feed us.

  • Beautifully and passionately said, Chris, for a way of life that is just as lovely and full of spirit. Thank you!

  • lzhptlzhpt Raw Newbie

    Littlebirdie—I love that post:) There was one long ago floating around about raw recipe disasters and funny things we’ve done in the name of staying raw—there were many stories of equipment disasters and I nearly posted again last week while staring into my food processor while it was running and making jalapeno corn chips! AAAAAARGH! My eye!!! You are one who is already healing and what better time of year to eat from the soil you’ve created from composting!

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    This post is worth reading again and again.

  • troublesjustabubbletroublesjustabubble Raw Newbie

    Thank you lzhpt!

    Chris, it’s funny how you mention you’re glad that you became raw before all that. Well when I went raw I had no idea there were people out there who did it or that there was a community I could join. I just knew it worked. After a couple months I discovered this site and have learned alot but any negativity out there didn’t affect me at all because I had already seen the miracles. It does sort of make me sad that people think there can be a ‘failure’ in raw food. I mean, if you don’t have energy, eat more! If you aren’t losing weight fast, be patient! You’re so right about attitude. It seems that if they have a bad attitude they just decide to find something that will allow them to feel okay about eating the crap.

    I had no negative influence when I went raw and so my life was perfectly clear. I listened to my body not to any raw guru’s and because of that I”m happier, thinner, healthier and more energetic than I have ever been! 6 months and counting!

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    exactly

  • ras-saadonras-saadon Raw Newbie

    Big up Chris, wise words, I’m new to raw, 1 month+a week, and since I started reading about it and researching I read so many different things, some say this&that is poison, some say this&that is a miracle food, 80/10/10, no nuts, lots of nuts, food combo, and the list goes on, but I come to realize that its as simple as eat raw and listen to your body, your body tells you he wants tons of greens and very little fruit do so, it says other way around do so, something doesn’t taste good or make you feel bad then don’t eat it.

    “We think we are improving our food, but how can we improve nature?” exactly..

    Jah Bless, Ras Saadon.

  • ungratefulungrateful Raw Newbie

    What a beautiful thread.

    I found Survival into the 21st century by Victoras in 1988. I was living on a mountain top at the time so I read it and lived it. there was no one there but my hubby and his son so no one to tell me that I couldn’t do it. I ate sprouts and ran the mountain trails and drank spring water and felt wonderful. I wish I could go back to that time and make a couple of different decisions, lol, that’s not really funny, lol.

    I fell out of it for years, due to poor choices and drug addictions. Now I am back and, yeah. The internet changes everything, but the truth is still the truth.

    Raw food is a fad, but it isn’t. I’m not saying that right. Me not got pretty words. It’s a trend. a healthy trend and I hope more people start eating right, for real. However there will always be people who don’t want to research, they just want someone to tell them what to eat. Healthy AND easy? just what I’ve been looking for. Wrap it up, I’ll take it.

    I think in ten years time it will be a LOT more mainstream which is a bad thing. Just like punk rock, it will turn into a marketing tool.

    We will begin to see packaged food that screams RAW from the shiny, toxic packaging and television commercials will blare out RAW mantras like they blare SUGAR mantras now.

    There will always be people who want to make money off of the ignorance and suffering of others and those are the ones we need to educate ourselves against.

  • This was a good post and many good points were made. But I would like to point out that the RAW Diet or Lifestyle is not too different than other diets or lifestyles in that you still have to do the proper research and not assume things or go on wild claims. I have been doing RAW for 10+ years, I have read things from RAW making your fillings pop out and your teeth growing back, to curing cancer, diabetes II and IBS among many different things. Some of it is true, some of it may not be, but you should do all the research you can and get facts. Food and ingredients all have certain benefits but also have pitfalls and dangers, we all have different body types, caloric needs, activities, live in different climates and environments. Like Eskimos cannot go Raw Organic Vegan in their harsh environment they have to eat their current animal diet to survive so we cannot say RAW is good for everyone all the time and it is not the Miracle Cure All, but we CAN say it CAN BE GOOD FOR MOST PEOPLE AND CAN BE THE CURE ALL if you do the proper research into your body type, yes your blood type, if you avoid high mycotoxin raw organic ingredients, I know it is much more fun and funny to say clever sayings, believe certain slogans we all love that and it is entertaining and funny too. Humor is always a good thing, but at the same time when it comes to your health and well being wouldn’t you want all the medical, scientific and spiritual advice you can get?

    Well I can’t talk for everyone but would like to share what I have learned and benefitted from that is Gabriel Cousens MD’s 2 amazing books: Conscious Eating and also the new The Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine. If you read those 2 books COVER TO COVER then you will know so much about what to avoid, what is most optimal and why. Those 2 books covers it all, from high mycotoxin ingredients that are yes raw organic, what to avoid, what to enjoy and why all in scientific, medical and spiritual reasons with lab reports for me this is truth and real research I can believe and go on, often times people just want to go on sayings, slogans, believe what they want to believe maybe that works for them but the human body is made of elements, chemicals, compounds fact is they react to other chemicals, minerals, elements found in food so although mind does play a role over matter it can only do so much we are what we eat this is fact, our bodies assimilates food and minerals, vitamins, but also toxins, mycotoxins, and it is not just in certain foods or ingredients it can appear in all foods that are stored too long, etc. but just read the books and get some facts you can use and benefit from.

    I know this info is not super popular but I am so glad that Gabriel Cousens MD cares enough about us and the RAW Community, he is 100% Raw for 15+ years and is 67+ looks like 47 so is doing it right, he has cured thousands of people using RAW but did it correctly and wants us to know how…

    I just want to share this info and my thoughts, I am not here to make anyone mad, upset, judgemental, I just want people to have facts, proof, evidence, and awareness the rest is up to them…

    Keep on RAWCKIN’ I think this post was very thoughtful and good Chris brought up many good points and nostalgic ones, if you go farther back 10+ years ago there is even more to be nostalgic about…thanks for sharing Chris you brought out many good topics and ideas I hope I was able to add to that…

    All the best, Bryan Au http://www.RawInTen.com

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    This is a beautiful post Chris. I completely agree! I think raw wasn’t meant to be so complicated, it shouldn’t become so negative. Raw and exercise promote longevity, take the Himalayan Hunzas for example! They eat a diet of mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, with very small amounts of meat and I believe grains. They by all means had no perfect diet, and still cancer and disease were unheard of. They lived to 120 years. But it just goes to show you that people need not worry so much or be so pessimistic; raw food is healing and it’s as simple as that.

  • I just got off the phone with my friend and totally funny true story: She is in Phoenix, Arizona on a business trip she is raw and loves to try to find raw organic foods in cooked restaurants if she can’t find a raw or vegan restaurant. She was super happy to find a salad type of place and when she saw the green peas she wondered and aske the waiter if it was “RAW”. He looked at her and said “Why yes it is RAW! We just opened the can and poured it out into the salad bar, we didn’t even have to cook it!”. :D Totally funny true story that happened today, I laughed SO SUPER HARD that was like the most hilarious thing I ever heard, because it was not frozen, or because they did not have to microwave or “cook” it the waiter considered the peas to be “raw” from the can….

Sign In or Register to comment.