Another change in my diet

Ahha, i know that i’ve jumped around a bit with what i wanted to do with my diet so i’m not going to say that i’ve “stabilized” at anything yet. There is still some uncertainty between the optimal diet because there are indeed many, many aspects of food such as protein,carbohydrates,fats,sugars,minerals,calories,vitamins, toxins, and then all the various chemistry changes that may take place due to oxidation, water, heat, discussions on the “natural” diet versus the “realistic” diet.

But first, let me tell you my change in diet. The change is now to include cooked foods! Wowie what a roundabout rollercoaster vroooom! But of course, i have my reasons for it.

I was again reading about raw foods when i came across this website that tackled the main problem i had. Hunger cravings, not being able to eat enough to sustain my energy usage. The following will further elaborate and explain the problem.

This afternoon, i went shopping and bought 11.30 dollars worth of produce and thought about how sustainable it was on a raw food diet, I’d have to have lots of calories, which will probably come from bananas and the few calorie-dense fruits because most fruits don’t provide a really huge amount of calories. It ranged from 600 dollars to 400 dollars a month, including raw vegetables of course, and whilst that isn’t a lot, i’m not working yet so my mom will be the one taking the burden on.

Another problem is the availibility of raw food outside of home. The school canteen sells a small piece of fruit for 40 cents and i’m guessing it provides maybe 30 calories? I’d have to spend 4 dollars to get 300 calories which isn’t even close to meeting 20 percent of the estimated 2500 calories i probably need.

Throughout the latter part of my raw food diet, i had the throat and chest sensations of hunger nearly constantly, which i guess, contributed to my craving for nuts since nuts are very caloric-dense. But the information i read and explained previously will tell you that fats aren’t a very healthy source of calories.

So there’s a bit of a paradox. I need to eat large amounts of fruit in order to sustain myself and although it may be the ideal diet, it may not be very feasible. I’d have to carry bunches of bananas everywhere i go! However, i was still thinking of continuing with this diet until i came across another website that compared cooked food versus raw food and the gist of it was that

1. Cooking foods does reduce the nutrition value, but not as much as the raw foods community suggested

2. The toxins produced by cooking foods is highly dependent. Steaming provides little extra toxins whereas frying and grilling are more toxin-producing.

3. Cooking food can actually improve the nutrition value. Starches are more digestible, things that inhibit digestion of vitamins and minerals are eliminated, toxins eliminated (some nasty foods become edible after cooking) etc.

4. Cooking food is an adaptation that may or may not be for the better.

5. Raw foodist arguments are sometimes exxaggerated and unscientific.

Of course, i’m not 100% in agreement with what the website says, but it did give me a different perspective. All in all, it boils down to having the most ideal as well as most feasible diet. The feasibility part was a bit lacking in the all raw diet, mainly due to the lack of calories.

As such, i’m going to put in these changes in my diet.
-Reintroduction of grains and wheat (Rice and noodles) (mainly for calories)
-Cooked vegetables (a lot more feasible than raw for me now)
-A 50-50 approach. I’m considering going half raw, half cooked food.

However, i’m not planning to go back on my old cooked food diet. I’m going to cut down on meat, salt, and see for healthier methods of cooking, healthier starchers, and heavily cut down on processed foods (chips and shit).

I learnt a lot of all these by going through these websites. I’m going to post it here so you guys can take a look and explore if you want. You can also see how my thought processes were modified since i’m posting them in chronological order.

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/introduction/
http://drbass.com/
http://www.rawguru.com/i11.html
http://www.beyondveg.com/

Cheers!

Cooked food break

As you guys know, i had a 2 day cooked food break and i’m now almost all the way back to my raw food diet. I still ate some sweets now and then but i’m probably going to eliminate them soon. Mooncakes are still thumbs up (:!

My return to cooked food had some pretty radical effects. First thing, i couldn’t eat as much. I took a longer time to eat, chewing a lot more thoroughly then in the past. Also, my stomach didn’t really agree with it, and there was a very mild, very bearable ache, like it was struggling to digest the food or something.

Another thing was that i shat a lot more. I think i shat like 3-4 times on Ssunday. I’m guessing that the raw food diet before that strengthened my body so i digested and cleared the food quicker and faster than before. I also had a recurrence of a pimplish thing near my nose which was absent on the raw food diet.

I’m guessing that’s my body’s way of saying you should go back to raw food so that’s what i’m goin to do.

MAF AND BREAK FROM RAW FOOD DIET

Today was MAF. Coincidentally, i also decided to let myself just enjoy the occasion and take a break from the raw food diet. When i reached home, there wasn’t much fruits left, so i guess i’ll give myself a two-day break.

Anyway today was fun! Played in the past versus present competition which was a real work-out after a relatively long period of inactivity. After the first game in which we won 3-0 thanks to a hat-trick from fabian and incredible defending from yours truly, my hamstring felt tight and i could feel the lactic acid in the muscles already. The sun was pretty damn hot too. In the next game, i didn’t really feel good playing. I think the sun got to me but i got a bit sick of playing so i just did my role without trying too much. I also didn’t have the motivation to command my team.

We lost 2-0 in the second game and, eeeeww, there was some pretty rough play going on. This malay player was really rough, worse than KONG which is pretty bad already and the other teams were pretty pissed at the malay player. Note, most of the players were seniors who came back from NS and were very aggressive and strong. They kicked rather often in a bid to tackle, not really caring whether they bruise anyone, and all of them paid 5 dollars to play. So…it takes some additional violence to be considered unacceptable in the court…

And then we had a 6-6 thriller against tag’s brother’s team, Incredibles, i think it was 2-0 to them, then 2-2, then 3-2. then 3-3. then 5-3, then 5-6 (WE CHEERED LIKE MAD), and then 6-6 with about a minute left. Wooow. Strangely i felt better for the third game, had more motivation and fire to play even when we were 5-3 down. But the last game was pretty miserable. My soles were aching just from walking, i had a pretty big bruise on my right shin that hurt when i walked, and my legs felt heavy and sore. I felt a bit sick in the head and couldn’t really play in a proper state of mind. I wanted to muster some fire into my play, tried a dribble and got tackled, and couldn’t stoke it up. And so, with the last game we lost 3-1, ending our last game and hopes of qualifying for the knockout ):

It was really pretty fun even though the court was a pissifyingly small size (and we still scored 12 goals within 15 minutes!) The team spirit was good too, everyone encouraged one another, but after the first game, i didn’t really feel like commanding the team and our formation and shit became a problem. Also, we had plenty of shooting chances but it just wasn’t our day, with clear shots straying wide or straight to the keeper(i think if we had aran we would have breezed through)

Okay okay, so by now, word had spread around about the roughness of the malay and kong and people who had gathered to watch were pretty unanimous about it. I didn’t see the quarterfinals, but the semi-finals wasn’t a pleasant affair. I think most of us were rooting for the other team but kong’s team edged through through penalties. More tension!

And then the final! I believe nearly everyone was rooting for aran’s team (him zheng wei zenghao iype fok wincoln). Ahhh unfortunately fok bundled in an own goal early in the game much to the crowd’s dismay, and nearly scored another own goal moments later. Tension builds up as aran shows his displeasure at the malay’s antics and the crowd also voices their displeasure! Still, the score was 0-1 and after a few minutes, kong’s team seemed the more threatening one.

ENTER IYPE! A ball that wincoln completely misses his kick rolls to a black boy named Iype and with a swing of the leg, the ball rockets into the bottom corner!  AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!, cheering at the 1-1 score. Kong’s team seems a bit stunned by it, but the same sort of non-threatening play continues due to the small size of the court and another goal seems unlikely.

ENTER IYPE! AGAIN! With a surge up the center, he unexpectedly toe pokes the ball, sending it zooming under the goalie and the CROWD GOES WILD!!!WILDER THAN EVER!!! Now kong’s team really looks stunned but the momentum has clearly shifted. The rabid dogs that go by the names of aran zeng hao iype, zheng wei and wincoln nipped and charged around the court, hounding every move of the other team. Their attack suddenly seems toothless and aran’s team creates a few chances with zenghao missing an open goal from 2 metres.

However, at 2-1, there is still the chance of a comeback so there’s still tension in the crowd. The malay does a few more rough antics that gets the crowd riled up as a chorus of “OI!”s are heard. And then, whilst chasing for the ball near the wall, zhengwei strikes him at the knees, sending him crashing against the wall. A chorus of cheers erupt again, although this time more muted as the crowd doesn’t exactly approve of that move although they were probably hopin to see it happen.

Then with a trademark shot from nowhere, aran makes it 3-1 and a win is nearly certain now. OH AND WILSON FOK IS UNLEASHED! With his lengthy leggy limbs, he gets in a few hard tackles and he seems more aggressive than his usual calm and composed self. But anyway, the malay is subbed off for kong, and kong being a much less skilful player, means that the team has nearly nil chance of coming back. And indeed, aran’s team continues to dominate, with aran scoring another to put the game beyond doubt at 4-1(more cheers!)

Mmm, so it was a satisfying result, with the good guys winning the bad guys! A happy ending for this story with IYPE being the hero.

Okay soooooooooo MAF! wAS OKAY-OKAYISH, the song and dance sessions was okay but not really high-inducing. But we had fun making fun out of the video of the council at work for MAF. Ahha, we were saying no one wants to watch the video of them and this was their moment of fame, so on with the guai-lan shouts! I went “NO ONE WANTS TO WATCH THIS!” and “ENOUGH LA!”, and then when the video finally ended, we did a “ENCORE! ENCORE!” Ahh those were the really fun moments!

RAW FOOD DIET TO PROMOS (8)

DAY 11

I feel like i’ve gone past a hump. Oh yeah man, a hump. I read and listened to more information with regards to raw food and i know i’ve jumped around here and there but i feel i’ve finally settled on an optimal diet. The optimal diet is about 50/50 fruits and veggies and a minimal amount of fats. I got his info from an inerview with a raw food coach and its making a lot of sense to me now.

First, our body needs calories. Veggies provide minimal amount of calories but are very nutrient-dense. So the choice is between fats or carbohydrates(sugars). Nuts are pretty hard to crack open so its unlikely that we subsisted mainly on them in a natural environment. Fruits on the other hand are delicious and easy to get. Furthermore, the energy is a lot easier to get than fats. I’ve also never heard of someone subsisting solely on nuts before. Fruitarians do exist! Also, the human digestive system digests fruits far quicker and easier than fats and proteins, which nuts are mostly made of. In any case, fruits seems to be the way to go for calories.

But then, what about all the problems mentioned in fruitarians? I have a feeling that its because they didn’t consume enough veggies to privde the mineral balance for the sugar. Also, veggies provide loads of vitamins and nutrients! I also heard that fruits will tell you when enough is enough. I’ve experienced that myself. After eating some furuits, i just felt i couldn’t eat anymore and either hrew it away or put it in the fridge. In this case, fruitarians who have problems probably over-consume fruits, resulting in their problems.

Anyway, i’ve also decided that the reason i find the lettuce at home foul is because it DOES taste foul. Another pack of cabbage, different variety with much darker leaves tasted very palatable to me and i could eat it with no problems. The problem-lettuce probably happened to be a bitter lettuce.

Reading all the raw food recipes have been tempting but i havent been able to do any of them because all i have is a juicer. But hey, if i can complete 11 day with only a juicer, surely the next 20 or so days wont be difficult when i get a food prcessor when my mom comes back from cambodia!?

transitioning

Sometimes its weird when i feel a lot of saliva as if i was supposed to eat, but i dont find the fruits tempting. I read a few websites and they suggest that its a transitional phase where my body is getting used to the new ‘requirements’. Maybe this is why i have a craving for peanuts, which i’ve consumed a lot today and yesterday!

I’ve also noticed some changes in my body. I seem to have lost some body fat around the midsection which is interesting because i was pretty lean to begin with. Okay, tomorrow is MAF, got to prepare some foods for the entire day im going out

Raw food diet to promos (7)

Wooohoo

Okay i’ve decided to make some changes after some MORE READING, some of the information contradicting the previous one.

It’s about fruits. From what i’ve read, fruits, especially the acidic ones, leech minerals from your body, hence many fruitarians end up having teeth decay and the shit. Also, a lot of the apes who are closely linked to us eat only small amounts of fruit. Yeah, i know, i’m not really explaining why and all but if you’re interested, you can google dr stanley bass. I was a bit put-off when i saw that he experimented with mice since i had the impression that mice may have different food habits from humans but then he said that humans responded equally well.

Anyway, i’ve also found that i’m a bit put-off by eating. LOL. From an empty stomach, now i just feel like eating minimal amounts of food. Fruit, very delicious and attractive at the start, is beginning to be a bit nausea-iinducing. I’ve found peanuts (which are not really nuts) to be far more satisfying.

Also, what i’ve read is pointing towards the direction of more and more vegetables! And indeed, the thought of tomatoes does seem pretty attractive to me right now but unfortunately there’s no tomatoes in the house. Instead, there’s lettuce and green pepper. When i bit into the lettuce, it tasted like gasoline (i’ve never tasted gasoline but the smell and the taste…they click) and i just spat out most of it. Maybe this batch of lettuce sucks. The other time when i ate lettuce with mixed nuts and dried fruits, it was pretty dam satisfying.

The green pepper in the fridge…i didn’t really like eating it raw although it didn’t make me spit or gag like the lettuce did. The solution, it seems, is to eat some green seedless grapes i have at home so that’s what i did. I’ve read that eating vegetables with sugary stuff will somewhat offset or reduce the bad of sugar…i’m thinking of doing that for MAF. LETTUCE IN ONE HAND, MOONCAKE IN THE OTHER.

I’ve been thinking…what the freak why do i still have eye shit coming out of my eyes? And i’m wondering if its to do with the sugar…Also…perhaps my palate will change in time so that i’ll enjoy vegetables rather than be turned off by them…perhaps the reason why my tastebuds haven’t adapted yet is because i went from a standard diet straight into a raw food one.

Questions, questions. But hey, this is DAY 10!

Raw food diet trial to promos (6)

Today is day 9!

Some things to note. It came on gradually, but my gnawing hunger is gone! My stomach feels pretty empty most of the time but it doesn’t feel like hunger anymore.

Not much cravings today; in fact i haven’t eaten the chocolate which i allowed myself to yet.

One of the funny thing about going on a raw trial and this being coincidentally the september school holidays is that i can’t escape from my mind. Most people, when they feel bored or restless or uneasy, use food to distract themselves. On raw food, its IMPOSSIBLE because if i don’t feel hungry, the piece of fruits/vegetable is very unappetizing and i don’t feel like eating it.

As a result, i’m forced to stay present and become aware of how “un-present” i normally am. My revision plan has been going pretty konkily. I’ve nearly complete doing history notes and i’m left with econs and math. Tutorials and revisions, i have to accomplish. Hmm.

Oh yes, because work isn’t very appetizing, i prefer to not do anything, which also allows me to see how present i really am. Hurhur!

Oh yea i had an insight today on life purpose. My previous goal in life was to be a liverpool footballer but after my catalysmic (PRO ENGLISH) but i think i spelt it wrongly) encounter with the power of now, i realised that was a very poor life purpose indeed. For a while, i thought my life purpose was to stay present and be enlightened.

But during these holidays, that didn’t seem appetizing. Sit around and be silent? Doesn’t sound right. So i looked through steve pavlina’s discover your life purpose, read through some of this meaning of life articles, and as i was listening to an interview of eckhart tolle, it hit me!

A life purpose, even though its tailored to be the individual, should be one free of self-seeking. Meaning, not seeking to be “someone”, not seeking to have an identity like a liverpool footballer. That added on to my criteria of enjoying the life purpose. After more thinking, i realised it also had to have a creative and contributing element to it.

So for a clearer life purpose criteria and also career since career is highly related to life purpose, its

1. Enjoyable
2. Contributing to others
3. Creative
4. Non self-seeking (Focused on others, the world)

Some of the career options i browsed through were the military which was a very safe and secure job. But it seems lame to be a soldier just to earn money, knowing that your contribution is to help propagate the illusion that singapore has a defense force of any significance.

Then came teacher, hypnotist, psychic, hypnotherapist, healer, lucid dreamer, and a teacher and trainer of these fields. Nope. I would contribute and it may or may not be self-seeking but I wasn’t going to enjoy it! What was the poin of doing something others had done when you’re probably going to do a sub-standard job? Yes, its feasible that you can do so as a ‘part-time” thing but it shouldn’t constitute your life purpose/main focus of career

I had an idea hit me whilst doing ‘How to find out your life purpose in 20 minutes or less” exercise on stevepavlina’s blog. I could, through novels, stories, plays and literature, communicate and spread eckhart’s teachings! That sounded enjoyable to me! I needed to be creative in order to entertain, inspire and share! The thought of that was very enjoyable, it certainly had a big contributory value, and i wasn’t seeking my self in it.

So yes, that is a possible career path.

Perhaps i should post this on a separate part. Yes i will

Raw food trial to promos (5)

Freak i estimated that i began this trial about 7 days ago and am nearing day 8…but it feels more like day 15. Strong cravings for heavy foods today that only went away at night after a juice drink…

Today and yesterdya, had quite a bit of mucus coming out which is a definite sign of detox..

No big fluctuations in emotions…felt somewhat unmotivated and unenthusiastic…felt uneasy…in the morning to afternoon but after being present for awhile and going to do my revision, the feeling went away and i regained my motivation for life…

My mom’s going overseas and hasn;t bought back any mooncakes…this means that im likely to only be able to enjoy mooncakes during MAF and after…that is not very pleasing news….so i shall let myself indulge in small pieces of chocolate…yes.

Breaking the addiction – Raw food diet trial to promos (4)

No one really knows this but i’m about to reveal a secret. I have a serious addiction to a drug. That drug is cooked food.

Mmm after the last post i’m just ate two bananas, fruit-veggie juice, and now am munching on lettuce with mixed nuts/dried fruits. I never knew celery tasted so salty until i drank the fruit-veggie juice and found it pretty salty. After eating, all feelings of weakness disappeared.

MM anyway, i read steve pavlina’s posts on his raw trial and it struck me how much my addiction to meat and cooked foods is similar to the addiction of smokers or drug abusers.

MEAT ADDICTION

i remember when i tried to stay off meat. It worked for awhile, but there were just so many temptations. Chicken, beef, pig, duck…brr…I decided to take fish…

then my mom bought a whole pack of duck meat and i decided it was a waste to let them rot

then i decided since i already ate duck, what the heck, lets take the rest of them. So down went chicken and pork. The only meat i’ve avoided since that time was beef because of all the horror stories i’ve heard about it and it was easy to substitue it with chicken.

Then i had my three day fast. I had an addiction to eating. I ate for appetite, not for hunger. During my three day fast, i broke it here and there with a tiny bit of fruit and honey, but the cooked foods were really tempting. After the fast, i immediately went back to eating cooked foods, as well as gorging on chocolate buscuits and snacks. And during the doughnut sale in school, i probably ate 10 donuts or so within those 3-5 days.

Right now, cooked food and common snacks are a similar addiction. My class is a really very generous class, and keep sharing sweets and snacks. I love them for it but hate them for it. I now understand the true meaning of a love-hate relationship.

This is a challenge isn’t it? Smokers and drug abusers probably have the same addictions. They probably experience the same cravings, and probably worse withdrawal systems. So cool, going on this trial will give me an idea of how they feel, and how hard it is for them. Its really similar. Imagine a person trying to quit smoking and compare him with me.

Both of us experience detox (withdrawal) systems. Holy mama, my thigh just had a really obvious vibration

Both of us have cravings

Both of us are tempted by the things around us

Both of us must have significant willpower

Both of us can use tools around us to help us. Nicotine patches, juice processors.

All addiction-breakers! I’m with you!

Thoughts about Raw diet to promos (3)

This is my third update and i’d thought i’d share some more insights i’ve gleaned.

One thing to do is to always take things with a pinch of salt and that’s what i’m planning to do. The Natural Hygiene discounts other alternate healing modalities which i disagree with. Their interpretation that dreams are primarily the “guardians” of our sleep, making sure we get the rest even when external noises distract is also plausible, but my experience with dream interpretation and lucid dreaming tells me there’s a lot more than what they think.

However, after reading the relevant parts of the website (i skipped the parts on teaching other people how to fast, lessons for various diseases, extremely long explanations on why meat is bad etc), i’ve also gained more insight with regards to steve pavlina’s raw food trial.

After going 30 days raw, he found that he experienced symptoms of nausea, fever, mental fogginess and that he stank really badly of onions. WHen i first read the trial, i brushed it as the effects of the sudden transition but it makes more sense this time. His defenses went extremely high during the raw food trial and when faced with the toxins in the cooked food, it could quickly and effectively eliminate all those toxins. Normally, our defenses are probably suppressed and weakened, allowing the inake of those toxic foods. Feelings of nausea, fever, and all those were his body trying to prevent him from eating and directing its energies to healing the body.

His trial also had some similarities. He felt itchy!

Some of the things i feel now are tingling in some parts of my body, itchiness, and a feeling of emptiness. As time goes on though, the feelins of itchiness and tingling are more obvious whilst the emptiness less so. I also have an increase in dream recall without trying (except for perhaps intending), and had a few lucid dreams which hadn’t occured for a few weeks. Also, yellow-ish mushy-mucus is coming out from my right eye a lot more often; possibly a detox symptom. Oh and my sexual urges have subsided greatly. Partly because i feel weaker than normal (raw foodists say its a detox symptom), but in my lucid dream i didn’t have a sexual urge too.

I thought about the possibility of having another fast, but decided against it. I’m plannin to eat mooncakes and a fast may be inappropriate in terms of transitioning. Also, after the september holidays, i don’t think i want to feel weak while studying/playing soccer. When i eat my raw fruits/vegetables, the weakness goes away. However, to allow greater detox during the holidays, i’m limitng the food intake. My body has more than sufficient food stores anyway. In short, its a mix between a fast and raw foods diet.

I was wondering if my eyesighr would improve with the raw foods and some synchronities occured. Steve pavlina reported his eyes looking clearer and less bloodshot, somethin i didn’t remember the last time i read it. I also came across some articles that talked about vision improvements after goin raw. Interesting, more motivation to continue this trial.

Today i ate less than usual. Just two bananas, a quarter-watermelon, some nuts,dried fruits.

Raw food trial to Promos (2)

Yesterday and today, i experienced some minor detox symptoms. Some parts of my body began to itch for a bit. Also, this morning i had mucus in my nose even though i didn’t have a cold.

The website i came upon states that the intake of water should be minimal; on an as need basis, if i’m on a raw fruits/vegetables diet. The reasoning is that fruits and vegetables contain very high water content 80%-95%. However, people who eat meat, salt, sugar and all those condiments do require the recommended 8 glasses of water because they need the fluid to flush out all the toxins in their kidneys. fruits and vegetables have no such problem.

So i tried it, and didn’t feel thirsty. I realised that a lot of my drinking is because my stomach feels empty and i try to fill it up.

Another thing i learnt is that the reason people have body odor, have stinky shit and pungent pee, is because of the high concentration of toxic wastes in their body and wastes. the meat and flesh that people eat usually decay and putrefy to some extent because the body doesn’t digest them quick enough which is probably why my sister’s shit stinks up the toilet for a half hour or so whenever she goes in there.

The first few days of the diet, i often felt a gnawing hunger. The website talks about the difference between appetite and hunger and after the three day fast, i can see how most of what we think of as hunger is actually appetite. A few days into the trial, i’m not really affected by the empty feeling i my stomach as i used to be. The “empty” feeling actually signals that the food has left your stomach, meaning digestion is quick and efficient. Heavy foods on the other hand take a lot longer to digest which is why we feel “full” for a long time when we eat them.

My mom is finally feeling the effects of years and years of unhealthy eating. She’s felt an itch over her body which went away after she consumed fresh (home-made) fruit juice. The commercial fruit juices do more harm than good because after concentrate, fragmentation and processing, much of the nutrients are wiped out. Then, additives like sugar, preservatives colorings flavorings are added in and all these add to the burden on your body.

Another thing i learned was how our tastebuds are very much drawn to foods we like. Naturally, we like fruits, even the most hardened of meat eaters likes fruits. But what about meats and soups? We don’t really like those. We only “like” them because of all the condiments one puts in and condiments are just that. Condiments are not food and in fact, toxic to the body. No one eats a tablespoonful of salt/sugar/garlic/soysauce/whatever! Its only made palatable when we mix it with other foods. Furthermore, these meats and soups have undergone processing. In their raw state, no one would find raw meat palatable.