Gourmet Raw Food... Sustainable?

The comments here were meant for my Facebook friends, but it is a bit long so I’ll place it here for all of you to enjoy and place the link on FB.

Here we go....

I sit here reading what everyone’s (by everyone I mean the raw fooder's) is eating this morning and ask why?

When I began my journey many many years ago (OK 1967 smiles) the point was to eat simply, to return to nature, to eat real "food" as it is... Today I see things like banana cream this, and taco that, and raw pizza, mock cheese cake, etc...

As for me I would prefer just having a banana, some nuts, juicing some veggies, eating some sprouts, chewing on some wheat grass, and if I want cheese cake, once a month go to a good restaurant and have a slice of the real thing, it won’t kill me and it tastes soo much better...

I can see the substitution deal as a transition diet for those with little will power to cross over, or for a fun treat, diner party, etc. but to have to make every good thing mock the crap we used to eat, the SAD mode, is foolishness and keeps the mind locked into a pattern that makes it easy to return to eating poorly again..... for many will say, "I don't like this mock stuff, i want the real thing."

I believe something goes on in the mind when we eat things that look like food, that there is a primal message offered when we see a living thing, kill it (yes vegan do kill) and eat it... and the message the mind offers the body is “here come X, do this to use it”... If you reject that, then let me ask, has your mouth ever watered when you've looked at or even thought about something you love to eat? This is your mind preparing your body to digest...

I know many of my sweet friends are vested in this gourmet raw food thing, some because they like it, some because they are making a business out of it, but please, let’s not think this is a way to live, and let's not make others believe this is how it “must” be to be raw, vegan, healthy.. It’s not...

Believe me, this is discouraging for the majority of the population, for most people just do have the willingness, time, or ability to live this way; for it is very time consuming; as anyone who lives the life can tell u.

If we are trying to be helpful, live and eat well, we must get real... this is not a sustainable lifestyle for the “average” person.

Smiles....

I Came Back.. You Can Too

It took me four years full time to get well. What I did was the exact opposite of what I considered (through much meditation, asking, and honest introspection) had brought me to my knees.

The day after my diagnosis I closed my business, went on a fast, joined a Zen group, and literally turned my world upside down. Coming from a technical background where I had trouble shot $60K pieces of video gear day in and out, designed studios, etc. I said to myself "if I can fix them I can figure out what's killing me and fix it too."

So I took my skills and went at my body; researched, asked, busted balls, spent all my money, then begged for free help, went away on retreats, fasted again and again, and in the mist of it signed up for a full load at college which dismayed my friends and relatives for in their minds I was dying and what the fuck thinking going to school. They thought I should go have gone to Europe, Costa Rica, and laid on a beach and died. Instead I studied, sat on my pillow meditating, became close to a qigong master traveling the country to find the best teachers. One time I had to be emergency airlifted home from Boston after four day class arriving at my acupuncturist near death, scarring the life out of him. They all thought I had lost it, but I knew in my knower what I needed to be doing. I knew it was my mind that required healing, that my state of being had become sooo fucked up. IN order to heal I needed to rebuild myself from the inside out. To literally become a new creature.

I ate the wildest shit. I was raw for two years, lived on wheatgrass and sprouts, became soo thin I could hardly stand and knew I need to be nourished. I found a man who told me about the primal diet. A raw diet that included all foods... Meat, eggs, lots of raw butter, goat milk, cream, and raw greens. After 2.5 months eating this way I awoke... (let me say that for years I had bled every day. I’d awake with blood on my pillow, my nose clogged with it, my bed soaked with sweat from night sweats. I would sleep on beach towels to absorb the sweat, changing them many times each nite) that morning there was no blood in my nose and my bed was dry. I thought... hmmm oh how interesting... I will continue.

This was the beginning. In the next two years I worked on my spleen (it was huge), rebuilt my body, continued my schooling and received my Masters in Oriental medicine (April 2010). Today I am well, whole, educated, and positioned to offer hope and help to all those who are willing to any length  to find their healing. Considering my quest, what I was willing to endure, I have little patience for those who whine and cry, saying "I don’t like to eat that, do this".  Fuck them! Let them die (he says with a Buddha’s compassion) I say this for "it's up to us what will happen," personal responsibility is of the utmost importance. Too many people want things to be done "for them," few are willing to do for themselves..

So that’s a thumbnail of what I did. The particulars will take a book, which btw is in the works... All is well dear ones. All is well. So be it...

Smiles... gabriel