Temperature and food today

35.6C in the afternoon, 36.5C in the evening.
A banana, salad (leek, tomato, Chinese cabbage Aichi, green onion, cauliflower, small radish, carrots, parsley, rocketsalad/rucola/arugula; Maastrichtse kruidenmosterd); walnuts, hazelnuts, pecan, almonds.

This mustard is made of mustard seeds, natural vinegar, brown sugar, herbs, spices, salt. I don't eat vinegar or sugar, haven't added salt for more than a month, so the mustard is one of the few bad things I consume these days.

Temperature and food today

37.2C in the afternoon, so high! 36.8C later

Oranges and tangerines, salad (spinach, lettuce, parsley, red onion, green onion, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, yellow paprika, tomatoe, cucumber, marrow, ground cranberries, lemon juice; Maastrichtse mustard without additives), melon, kaki.

By now

It's about one month that I am on the almost fully raw food diet. This "almost" was baklava several times, halva twice, cooked rice once. 

By now I have noticed two changes: the perception of the air temperature and the sense of smell. Several days ago I entered a shop where I had been before and this time the air inside and near the shop disturbed me so much that it could be seen on my face. The smells in the supermarkets are very strong for me. I had to pass through sections with beer and pets food - very unpleasant smells.

I still need many hours of sleep, don't have a lot of energy. I became addicted to fruit, will eat more vegetables.

Temperature and food today

36.7C in the afternoon.

Melons, oranges, tangerines, chirimoya, bananas, nuts.

Today the wind is just fabulous! I walked in the neighbourhood and enjoyed it! And yesterday at night I walked around the town for about an hour. It's a small town, 20 minutes on foot from the southern border where I live to the centre. The air was very nice at night. But there were no stars unfortunately. 

Temperature and food today

36.3C in the afternoon

Pineapple, kaki

Temperature and food today

34.9C (!) in the evening, 36.2C at night.

3 melons (it's going to become a habit :) ), several oranges for breakfast; salad (spinach, IJsbergsla, lettuce, dill, parsley, paprika, tomato, cucumber); even a small package of physalis. 

I hadn't eaten citrus for a long while, but last week tasted Moroccan tangerines and liked them a lot; ate some 2 kilos. And then I bought a net of Fair trade oranges from South Africa and I fell in love with them! Today I have been to a small grocery store where they have a machine for making juice from oranges, and the nice thing is that customers do it themselves and can drink the freshly squeezed supertasty sweet juice right away! So did I. Now don't have any oranges left and really want to eat them before going to bed :(, tomorrow will go for the South-African oranges.

Temperature and food today

35.8C

3 (!) different melons (galia, gele and cantaloupe), several very small pomegranates, strawberry, even a small Brazilian mango. All eaten with pleasure

Temperature and food today

36.0C

Bananas, melon, mango, pomegranate, kiwi... Too much in one day, but what a pleasure.

Temperature

36.0 after a day on water due to food poisoning. 

Ufff

On Sunday I was walking with my friends in Antwerp, Belgium, when we suddenly saw a Russian shop. I couldn't resist and bought a package of sunflower halva. I used to love it a lot and missed it in the Netherlands, although liked the Turkish sesame halva sold in Turkish shops in Tilburg. In the evening I ate some halva, too much actually. I started to feel bad in some 20 minutes. I am writing this now still not recovered. I won't describe how I felt, but this experience taught me to stick to raw food until my body fully renovates and is able to overcome this kind of food poisoning and intoxication not hurting me that much.

Temperature and fasting

The last couple of times I took temperature it was 36.3C. And when I didn't eat anything during the day I felt fine with air temperature of 17-18C in my room.

I remember how badly I felt on ekadashi in summer and it's so good, light, now. I realised I ate a lot of cooked food the day before ekadashi, so the body had to work hard to neutralise everything. Now it has no problems because even when I do let myself eat some rubbish, it's only a small percentage of my day food consumption, the rest being fruit and vegetables.

Temperature

When I was shocked to see a low body temperature I decided to take it regularly.

A couple of days ago in the evening it was 36.8C, today in the afternoon 36.3C.

Fasting

The only way to cure oneself of all ailments when one is aiming at raw food diet is a short or long fast, depending on the illness. I felt a bit sick yesterday evening and decided to go without food and water today. It's amazing how easy it has been for me to fast today, especially in comparison with the ekadashi in August! Enough energy, no fixed idea about eating something. Walking in the centre seeing cafes and people with food didn't influence my internal stability. Nice.

Spices

Yesterday I recalled that I used to like adding cinnamon to my breakfast. And I did add some to a peach. Ufff, what a bad experience! I never thought cinnamon has such a strong taste!

It's amazing how fast the perception of taste is changing. I used to add a lot of cinnamon to my breakfast kefir and barely felt it.

Open market day

Last Saturday I found a market stall with dried fruit including apricots. There were both standard and quite dark ones, as the naturally sun-dried apricots should be, and I bought a bit then. Today I had a chance to ask not the girls who sell this but have no idea what they actually sell (they start talking about sugar added when there is no sugar for sure), but a man who seemed to know. My question was if there was sulphur dioxide or similar used to preserve the dried dark apricots. Unfortunately, the answer was positive. He said there were preserving agents added to all their product line (which was considerable).
At a bio stall I saw some organic dates and asked the same question. I was surprised that people who own a bioshop don't know such details important for their, quite particular, customers.
I searched for information on dried fruit and found this. A lot of facts on food and medicines additives with a focus on kids and asthma and allergy, but it is really impressing. And here is a bit on salicylates.

Food, not raw again

I listened to Вершитель реальности once again, the part on raw foodism, and again thought that it is really necessary to change food habits more gradually than I am doing. If one makes himself do something, he will fail one day and do what he really wants to do. So first of all, my tastes must change, and I still miss some cooked meals. But my body reacted in a bad way when I cooked rice. At the same time the gut organisms can't have changed that much in just a week; usually it takes one year. Maybe it is quantity that matters in my case... After a week on raw food, and mainly mono diet, I will eat a bit of dead food again, something I used to like a lot.

Body temperature

I learned about the body temperature of raw foodists at the early stage of their new diet and decided to take mine before going to bed. And I was shocked. 34.8C! The lowest I have ever known for me! So my perception of the air temperature has changed together with or even due to my own body temperature.

Something interesting:

Usually our temperature when taken under the tongue is between 36.5 and 37.2C. Body temperature is strictly individual, so what is a norm for one person can mean something new is happening in the body of another person.

The temperature when one needs immediate hospitalization is 41C. When it is only 27C, one would slip into a coma. But down to 32C is not a serious danger, although one would start to shiver or even shake.

Source (RU): http://sportzal.com/post/280/

When I read that, I calmed down.

Sleeping

I sleep on a big matrass directly on the floor, head to the north. There are a couple of thin pillows on the matrass, I sometimes use them. But I can relax better if I sleep on the back without a pillow. I heard a saying "the higher the pillow, the poorer the health", чем выше подушка, тем больше болезней.

Air temperature perception

It's been only several days that I am on a 100% raw food diet, but one amazing change is already here! The perception of the air temperature. I used to feel cold when others were ok. Now I sleep with an open window, dressed as usual. My room thermometer shows +17.4C and it was as low as +14.7C yesterday. Just a week +22C was a norm for me not to feel cold.

I think such a rapid change is a result of the withdrawal from hot food and especially drinks. I used to drink several liters of hot tea a day, what a shame.

As far as I know from forums, many people feel cold when they switch to the full raw food diet, and they feel it deeper than they used to. So I guess at one of the stages I will pass through this as well.

And walking barefoot on the October grass is sssoo good! It's still a bit cold for me. 

I recall the Africans and Arabs living in Paris. They wear flip-flops in winter. Of course, winter in Paris is very warm, +2+7C in recent years. But still for me it was strange when I first saw them, dressed in coats but wearing flip-flops. A Russian saying goes like this: держи ноги в тепле, а голову в холоде, keep your feet warm and your head cold. Now I think there is something wrong about it.

Fasting

Since July I keep a fast on ekadashi. I am young and of delicate constitution, so a couple of days per month is enough and good for me. Fast in the Vedic tradition means no food, no drinks, not even water; being awake the night to dwadashi; meditation and praying; listening to saint and wise people more than usual; doing more good than usual, give alms, help etc. They say if you do all this, your sins will be forgiven and in the next life you will be born on higher planets.

I am very interested in the ancient eastern philosophy and beliefs. I respect beliefs, ancient and more modern, but myself I am far from any Ecclesia. So a fast for me is mainly no food, no drinks. I chose to keep a fast on ekadashi because I felt the need for purification and cleanup in both physical and spiritual ways. And I believe that when many people believe in one and the same thing, they create a very powerful image of it, and the image influences everybody. Thus, together with giving rest to my body, I do something good to the spiritual part of me as well.

Coconut

They say it is better to eat what grows in your area. I agree but am only in the beginning of my way to the best eating habits =). I love bananas which can't survive in the northern countries, and sometimes I am curious about exotic fruits. Several weeks ago I tried something for what I don't know the name. It has a very bright pink and green cover and tastes neutral (The nasty-looking brown thing is tamarind, produce of Thailand, it's sweet-sour.)


And today I opened a coconut, the first time myself. It took some ten minutes, next time it will be quicker. There are many tips on the web on how to crack a coconut (for example, http://www.wikihow.com/Open-a-Coconut). This is how I did.
First, I made holes in the 3 black spots at one of the ends of the coconut using a screwdriver. Then I poured the juice; I had some 100 ml. Thirdly, I placed the coconut on a flat surface, held it with one hand and hit the central part with the non-sharp end of a big knife several times, but it didn't work out as the knife I had was not heavy enough. So I used a nutcracker - it was the heaviest thing I had, and it opened. Btw, the juice was very tasty and not extremely sweet.



And I am becoming a fan of freshly harvested walnuts.

Time and meals

According the Vedic knowledge it is extremely important to eat certain products at certain time or I would say not to eat certain products at certain time. Fruits are governed by the Sun, thus, they must be eaten in the first part of the day when the Sun is active during several hours after the meal to have enough time to digest it. For example, at 6-8 o'clock for breakfast. Vegetables are governed by the Moon, thus must be eaten for lunch at 11:30-13:30 and dinner at 17-18. They recommend cooked vegetables for dinner because fresh food gives too much energy, not necessary in the evening as it prevents us from falling asleep. It is recommended not to eat after 20.
From the personal experience of raw foodists they can eat at any time of the day without feeling discomfort in the stomach, and some 5-6 hours of sleep is really enough for them.

Time and sleeping

There are many proverbs, sayings and wise men quotes in different languages that reflect the importance of living in accordance with biological rhythms. An example in English can be Franklin's "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". A quien madruga Dios le ayuda. The early bird catches the worm. Кто рано встаёт, тому Бог подаёт/к тому счастье придёт.
Today on the RU TV channel Vesti 24 an interesting film on time was shown. There is a modern branch of science called biochronology which studies the rhythms of individual cells and organs. Actually they believe they know much more than it was described in the ancient manuscripts of Tibet and India. But those who have knowledge from Tibet or India know that it is absolutely necessary to respect the cycles of the Sun and the Moon in their food choice and sleeping habits. Only since recently our modern scientists say it is good to go to bed at 22 and wake up with the sunrise.
It is important to sleep at night because only then (when one sleeps and when it is dark) the melatonin is produced in our body. In the end it influences the ageing, if one doesn't respect the circadian rhythms, or recovery, if one does respect them.
Thus, on the way to health one should sleep from 22 to 5-6. I am far from this rhythm but will be doing my best to make it my way of life. But they say it will come easily and naturally after just a year on raw food. People I read in the web on raw food forums wake up at 5 with a lot of energy and wish to live a full life.

Open market day

When I asked for raw peanuts the seller said that people buy them for their birds... I found fresh, i.e. yellow, dates. They taste strange, I am used to the dried variant. There was an offer of yellow-and-red pears 1 Eur per bag (more than a kilo there), and my dinner was predetermined :)

Memories:

chestnuts min 2.95 Eur per 1/2 kilo

walnuts min 2 Eur per 1/2 kilo, 3.50 Eur per 1 kilo

raw peanuts 1 Eur per small package

brown dried apricots 3.25 Eur per 250 g

no sodium dates 2 Eur per package (454 g)

chirimoya 2.50 Eur per 2 pieces

coconut 0.50 Eur per piece

Fair trade bananas 1 Eur per kilo

Nuts and similar

Walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame - grind everything in a blender, mix with a spoonful of honey! This is the basis. Carrots - grind separately! This is the cover. Cinnamon powder as the final touch. Enjoy!

The second dessert I made was a puree from well ground walnuts, hazelnuts, sesame, sunflower seeds, bananas, with coconut flakes and cinnamon.

I tried a chestnut, the first time not grilled. It is so sweet! Simply delicious.

The season of walnuts has just started. It's the first time in my life I had a chance to buy really freshly harvested walnuts! They are not firm inside, they are almost white. And the shuck is quite wet and oily to the touch.

For future reference: RU/Latin/EN

грецкий орех/Juglans (nux Gallica)/walnuts
пекан/Carya illinoinensis/pecan
фундук/Córylus/hazelnuts
кунжут/Sesamum indicum/sesame
стружка кокосового ореха/fruit from Cocos nucifera/coconut flakes
семечки подсолнуха/Helianthus annuus/sunflower seeds
кешью/Anacardium occidentale/cashew, caju
фисташки/Pistacia/pistachios
миндаль/Prunus dulcis (Prunus amygdalus)/almonds
кедровые орешки/seeds from Pinus/pine nuts
каштаны/Castanea sativa Mill./sweet chestnuts (maybe marrons, not sure )

арахис/peanuts

курага/dried apricots

Switching fully to raw food in the end

My yesterday's experience with cooked rice was negative. I prepared it as usual, but my body already reacted, after just several days of pure raw food. So I guess, I won't change my diet that gradually. Instead I will eat it raw but mixing products first, trying to follow the compatibility rules. 

Агент 108 - Мой сосед кришнаит (RU)

I am not a Hindu, but I like this song and the video:

"My neighbour Krishnaite" by Agent 108 

Tempering the body with cold water

The winter is coming, closer and closer. They say this one will be much colder than the previous one. And soon I am moving to Moscow, so I will enjoy the real cold this time, brrr. But I am happy, have been missing my winter the last 3 "winters"!

I was searching for different health-related issues and today decided to start practising body tempering with cold water. Now I don't have a bath, so I will keep the habit of rinsing with cold water in the shower. At home, in Moscow, I have a very good bath and I will make use of it ;-)

Sports in my life

There is not much sport in my life. Thanks to living in Holland, for a while already, my everyday routine is biking, biking everywhere around the town and to the countryside.
Several months ago I was invited to play frisbee. A friend of mine is crazy about it, and he uses a Google group to invite his friends in town to play on the small grass field at the university campus. I liked it so much that go and play every time he organizes the game. There are not many people who want to play, but the field is small, so 4 by 4 games are nice. I am bad at it but feel how I am improving :D
Some 7 years ago I used to practice Iyengar Yoga in Moscow, not very intensively, but with pleasure. Half a year ago a friend of mine invited me to a class at her place. The instructor is her friend who, in addition to her main job at Tilburg university, is going to become a yoga teacher. She is finishing her several years studying in Amsterdam and suggested that she could teach us. Now she even found a well equipped place to rent for yoga classes, and I go there every Tuesday.

This is pretty much about my physical activities. I know that many raw foodists have a lot of energy and do a lot of exercises. I guess when I turn to that diet making it my way of life I will be more active in this respect.

My food preferences in short

I used to eat everything that those around me ate. In France I did try the stereotype frog legs. In Spain I did enjoy the jamon serrano. I never thought about the violence and ill health related to eating animals. I did believe in God, even was baptized of my own free will when I was 8 or 9, but didn't associate this with vegetarianism. I didn't even know that somebody doesn't eat meat. I never met vegetarians until my dad decided to become one when I was 12 or 13, but he didn't succeed. Then a classmate became vegan a couple of years later. But both of them didn't have much influence on me. Only half a year ago, at the age of 24, I felt I could no longer eat what was not intended for human alimentation as I understood it then.
At the end of April 2008 I stopped eating meat, fish, eggs, etc and derivatives. Then I learned about gelatin in yogurts, rennet in cheese and found yogurts without gelatin and cheese with vegetarian rennet. Then I stopped drinking coffee and black tea.
In early June I read a lot about yeast and quit standard bread, found non-yeast bread. Being a sweet tooth I used to eat a lot of chocolate, but already in June I noticed my choco consumption reduced considerably.
In July I stopped eating canned stuff, although with 3 exceptions in August.
I never drank much, but could enjoy good red French wine and good beer. In late August I drank my last alcoholic drink, it was Guinness.
In late September I decided to follow a raw mono diet. This would be a really drastic change because I always cooked a lot: rice, pasta, beans, pumpkin, zucchini etc, used a lot of Indian spices; drank a lot of hot rose hips and herbs; and I still respect cow milk. I even started this way for a couple of days but then read and recalled that it is better to do everything gradually, step by step, because the microflora, the gut organisms need to adapt, and it takes a while. The change from cooked food to fully raw food is even more serious than that from meat-eating to being vegetarian, and my aim is even more ambitious: the mono diet, which means one type of food at a time as a meal, no matter if 1 piece or 1 kilo.
So since now I add more and more raw vegetables and different fruits, nuts to my diet, reduce the quantity of processed stuff. I don't eat or drink hot stuff any more.
I decided to continue eating honey when I find a good quality option. Because of E220 (sulphur dioxide) I am reducing the amount of dried fruit almost to zero till I find brands I can trust, those that dry the fruit naturally.


This is the current state of affairs. This blog is intended to reflect the changes in me - my physical health, my energy, my mood, - that will be happening on my way to the raw veggie mono diet. I'll be happy to read about the personal experience of other bloggers.

=)

Welcome

Good time of the day and welcome to my Google blog!

I have a Livejournal blog in Russian about my everyday life. I guess this one will be mainly in English, about my new lifestyle, mainly about food and exercise.

So let's start =)