~I like the taste of the distilled water I prepare at home. Drink at least 1 litre regularly, try to stick to the classical 2 litres.

~My mum's friend gave her a couple of kilos of dried plums that they'd got somewhere for cheap, and she ate a lot of them at a go. She doesn't think about SO2 etc, and here's the result: she's quite sick, with all the symptoms of intoxication. You'll never get this if you have apples or other really raw fruit.

~As I said I don't feel ready for fruitarianism, so after 3 weeks without the leafy greens I'm enjoying them again. And not only the greens, sprouts too. Bought young sunflower shoots - and liked them a lot! Thick and crunchy.

~Synchronicity:

I've been thinking of ways to wash my hair naturally for a while. Today received a newsletter I'm subscribed to, and there was an interview with a 50y.o. woman who's been living a relatively natural lifestyle for the last 10 years. She gave some tips on several issues, including washing one's hair. Then I read LiveJournal, and one of my virtual friends asked advice on washing his hair.

So, I tried washing my hair with bicarbonate of soda (2 spoonfuls per 500 ml of lukewarm or hot or very hot water) and rinsing it with lemon juice (half a lemon, squeeze, strain, 500 ml of lukewarm water), and I like the result!

March 2010

~After coming back from Thailand I decided to try and continue being fruitarian for some time. My food list is so short right now!

grapes (usually dark)

oranges

tangerines

apples

tomatoes

cucumbers

I know it's all not seasonal in my area and I'm really looking forward to June-July-August-September, when there are cherries, good tomatoes and cucumbers, and peaches, mmm.

I don't think I'm ready to stop eating the greens completely and after just 1 month without them I feel like having some lettuce and dill.

~Since childhood my lungs have been the weakest part of my body, so whatever dis-ease is around, my lungs are affected. From the books by Batmanghelidj I learnt about dehydration and I believed Dr B. So I'm aware of the reason - my water consumption is again very low because all of a sudden I just didn't like the taste. I really hope I'll get used to distilled water.

http://www.watercure.com/

~I came across a great source of knowledge and inspiration on youtube. Starting from here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhDlXhDjjsE It's amazing (well, actually not - everything we need comes at the right time) how my thinking and my view of the world is in line with hers on so many topics. From her I learnt about quantum touch. This is something I'm going to learn!

~I downloaded a film which they say is a good continuation of The Secret. Looking forward to watching it.

~ During the last couple of weeks I walked several times for some 4 hours. At last I walked for more than 1 hour. Good.

~I usually remember to be grateful for everything in my life, I'm working on forgiving, started with myself. Oh, that's so powerful! They say it's a way to clean the emotional body. And I feel changes.

My way to thank the world for the money is basically a mix of Bob Proctor and Jasmuheen's wording. "I am so happy and grateful now that money comes to me readily and easily in increasing quantities, through multiple sources, on a continuous basis, in dollars, euros, pounds, rubles, bahts, francs, yen, pesos etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you".

Guys in shorts =)

I recall some moments from great old days in Holland when I just got acquainted with Owen and heard someone say "ah, that Canadian guy in shorts" =) Living in a northern country, although with a very mild climate, he wore shorts 3/4 of the year (right, Owen? how is it now, in Spain?) That looked weird to me, as in Russia parents tell children to wrap up and the vast majority of kids are wrapped up sooo well that we get used to it and put on a lot of clothes when we grow up.

Now I'm leaving off the habit of wrapping up and I need less clothes to feel fine in the Moscow winter. But I'm far from wearing shorts in a -20C frost. And there are people who do that!

For example, Алексей Мартынов, a raw foodist, singer and animal advocate (in RU), or Jericho Sunfire, now a breatharian, personal trainer (in EN) (well, Jericho hasn't been exposed to such low temperatures, but still he wears shorts when there's snow)

Stages in diet

omnivore -> ... vegetarian -> strict vegetarian=vegan -> raw foodist -> mono raw foodist -> fruitarian -> liquidarian -> breatharian

In this chain, the diet is getting lighter and lighter.

The body goes through intense cleansing during the raw stages, intuition improves, and it will signal you when you are ready to stop eating, but not before the physical health has been gained.

Where am I in this transition? It's somewhere here: raw foodist -> mono raw foodist -> fruitarian

Food/Thoughts/Interests

~ My current food habits

I eat once or twice a day, but I 1)overeat and 2) I eat very late, after 23, when I come home.

The body needs some rest, it sleeps at night, it doesn't work, thus all that undigested food, no good.

~My current food preferences

bananas !!!

tangerines !!!

parsley !!!

apples !

red pepper

green onion !!!

lettuce

buckwheat

No juice. It's not that I'm against it, no. But somehow I don't need it now.

~ Water: OK, 2 l a day

As I eat in the evening or at night, I can drink water whenever I want during the day, and I do.

~ Bronnikov

*This week, 8.02-12.02.10, I took part in a training to improve my sensitivity to energies, to give an impulse to developing the right side of my brain. It's a very short training, 4 hours a day, 5 days in a row, but even in this very short period I've experienced so much and I'm so grateful for that!

*Of course, I want to be able to see without eyes as can children in the video, to control my energy fields, to heal, but my current abilities are very far from these powers. The other trainees were more sensitive than me in the majority of exercises, my energy channels are seriously blocked :(. I'm happy I started to feel something, but with the help of visualisation while the exercise is on mere feeling. A lot to work on.

~ Physical exercise

I want to do something! Not that I know I should, I want to do it! A qualitative change.

~ Death

*I'm reading a book by Dr. Michael Newton on the life of souls after death of the physical body. He hypnotically regressed his clients to a point between lives--after death, but before birth. He shares the knowledge he got from years of research, i.e. of his hypnotherapy practice, in several books. Maybe they're popular in the US, but it's the first time I've come across them. Very interesting. And one of his patients told him an old but simple truth - the only important thing in this "material" world is our way of life and how we treat each other. Our social status, our circumstances don't matter at all, what matters is compassion and acceptance of others.

*According to the Vedic beliefs, everything natural has a soul - a human; an animal, a reptile etc.; a flower etc.; a stone etc. And depending on the 'sins' and necessities of each soul's development, the next time it's on Earth it chooses the right type of body. Well advanced souls don't return to the Earth. In Buddhism an advanced, enlightened soul frees from the Saṃsāra wheel of suffering (i.e. frees from being born on Earth again). So there's a goal in life - to become enlightened.

I believe in reincarnation, and so Newton's book is lying onto a well-prepared ground =).

~ 2012

I'm really interested in the "mystery of 2012", but I'm not afraid because I share the view about the qualitative change in (human) consciousness and appearance of a new human (the next level of our evolution, so to speak), which actually is a gradual process and is already happening (all the indigo and crystal children, more people awakening etc.). I hope there won't be any planetary alignment-specific natural disasters etc. on our planet, but I like the idea of the survival of people with higher levels of consciousness. Thus, spiritual growth is the path.

~ Animals and animal communication

*My dad read some books by Blavatsky 10-15 years ago, and I read several pages. It was very interesting but hard to understand. Later I was trying to understand the differences between man and animal (in all aspects) and found her essay "Have Animals Souls?". Much later I read different theories/beliefs, and now I believe everybody has soul.

*I've just learnt about animal communicators. It's amazing. The story about horses impressed me a lot. I'd love to be able to communicate with animals!

~ Dreams, sleeping, visualisation

*I've read a lot about the essence of dreams and the potential of using dreaming to change one's life. There're different theories and different ideas on that. Nevertheless many psychologists, psychiatrists, modern brain researchers, astral travellers, healers agree on the fact that something's going on there when we sleep, not just resting.

*Well, the body needs rest, of course. Those who experienced different unfavourable life conditions say hunger and thirst are not comparable with sleep deprivation. My personal record of staying awake is about 36 hours, and I felt really bad then.

*However, there's another important function of sleep. [B]est current hypothesis is that human require sleep to properly accumulate and apply what we learn. We need it to process all the new information we receive during the day. And information isn't just numbers or words, it's virtually everything - sounds/noises, movements, gestures... - all the signals from the world that we notice.

*Many say when you sleep your soul/astral body travels to different places or even different worlds, and one can learn to do it. I've read a book on how to start but I'm afraid to do it without personal assistance and support from somebody experienced. So I leave it for now.

*Then, they say it's the period of time when you can plan your future, receive answers, solve problems. If you want to learn a poem by heart, do it before you go to bed. If you're thinking over a problem all day long, you might get an answer/a solution in your dream or next morning or at one of the many microsleeps we have during the day. It works.

*Recently I've learnt one nice technique - instead of repeating affirmations (which don't work under many conditions) simply make a special why-question out of this affirmation and ask it yourself before falling asleep. For example, I am healthy becomes Why am I healthy? Our subconscious part will find its reasons and as a result you will become healthy with due time. I'm going to practise this one.

*One morning last week I woke up with a clear understanding of how to call myself when I want to communicate with the real I. Olen'ka. That's so sweet =) (it's a pet name for Olga)

*I haven't learnt to meditate yet, but when I close my eyes I start seeing many vivid pictures, one after another, or films or cartoons, in bright colours. I like it very much. But as I learnt at the Bronnikov centre training, there's a problem - I don't usually control it, it just starts. So I'm going to learn to give orders myself and stop it if I don't have a full control.

~ Aims and goals

The importance of having a goal in life has been talked over here and there, but still not everybody understands what he really wants to achieve - it's really hard to hear what your soul wants! I haven't realised what they are by now, but I have invented some nice goals for me =) and I'm happy about that =) But 1) I forget to think about them regularly and don't have a plan of how to achieve them, so the steps I'm taking may not coincide with my optimal path. 2) My goals are in the field of spiritual and physical development, I don't want to think about money while I have to.

get prepared to give birth =)

saint

Got a piano! Rönisch.

My 1st post in 2010

~ С Рождеством Христовым!

~ I got hooked on buckwheat sprouts. Yesterday I had no (raw) buckwheat left and ordered some on the web. Today I went to meet one of the assistants of that online store www.i-mne.com and while I was texting him on my way my fingers felt really cold - the first time this winter, finally! And it's only -15C.

~ I was given a CD of Rapid Portuguese Earworms (Musical Brain Trainer) as a present, tried it and couldn't listen to it. My reaction to music has changed a lot, and there are many examples (pieces of music, genres) I can't stand. I start feeling uncomfortable, and if the music doesn't stop - then really bad (emotionally). An unexpected thought came to my mind: we must have a right to quietness! And I'm not talking about housing areas from 23 to 7 (Moscow law)! But near the majority of Moscow metro stations one can hear several songs of different genres, usually very loud, and there are no rules about it, and nobody seems to care. I never cared, until now...

Russian Frost

It's the third day of real winter here in Moscow, snowy and rather cold. -23C in the afternoon going down to -28C at night. But neither my hands, feet nor my nose feels cold, and this is amazing! I remember very well our trip to the Vologda and Kostroma regions last January. It was -17-20C, and my hands and feet were cold in a minute or two, although I was wearing both gloves and mittens. It didn't help. These days I'm wearing rather thin gloves and it's absolutely enough for me.

It was a busy day. Used the underground many times, walked some 20 minutes to my aunt's workplace, talked to her for 5 minutes, then 20 minutes walking back to the metro station, 5 minutes on the metro, 15 minutes walking etc. And let me remind you, it was -23C...

I've just talked to my mum about my new perception, and she said she was going to tell me the same thing! Her nose used to get red very quickly, but not this winter. And both of us, we were enjoying every moment of walking in the street.

It must be the result of the blood vessels cleansing thanks to fruit and green vegetables during the last year, at least I don't see any other reason. Anyway, I like it!

December

~My list is growing less:

parsley !!! (some 200-300 g a day)

bananas !!

tangerines !

avocado!!

dill

green onion

garlic

lemon (juice)

coriander

green lettuce (4 different types)

pomegranate

dried apricot

sprouts

apples: would love to find some nonwaxed apples, but with this frost I go shopping to the supermarkets only

~

water-water-water

~

Ekadashi

~

Went to that yoga centre and found out the prices and timetable. There is something for me there!

~

14/12/10 -16-20C, but I wasn't cold!!! Dressed properly, of course, but even my nose didn't feel cold... This real winter is going to last a week or so. He-he

~My second birthday with my raw foodism ideas. I'm more tolerant than a year ago. Last year it was friends at my place with only raw food (salads etc.), this time it was in a café, I invited them to fresh juice (it was a must :D ) and to whatever they would choose. The only exception was alcohol.

~Parcel from Uzbekistan received (dried apricots, almonds in shells)

~I'm more sensitive to noises and music. In my everyday metro journeys a pair of good headphones Sennheiser is an absolutely necessary thing due to the fact that I really need noise insulation... It's all too loud for me. Even at the cinema! o_O Among all the pieces of music I've got my preferences currently lie in music for the piano and/or symphony orchestra.

~There's a new yoga place not far from where I live! Want to pass by and learn the prices and timetable.

Music/ Dreams / Fast / Diet

I've been to a concert where my classmate Tatyana Kolesova was a soloist. She played the famous Tchaikovsky's Concerto no.1. The other hour it was Dvorak's cello Concerto, and it's the first time I've heard a cello solo not recorded. At first I didn't like it, but after some 5 minutes I felt something in the stomach area - the area which I perceive as the solar plexus chakra and which is the part of my body that gives me signals when I visit a sacred place. And there was a moment when I felt tears in my eyes... Who could tell me a couple of years ago I would enjoy classical music??? Well, I liked several pieces of music like Grieg's Morning mood but I wouldn't digest a classical music concert. "For the times they're a-changing", and I'm changing, too. (btw, I love this version of Bob Dylan's song)

I haven't learnt to meditate, not yet, can't organise, can't concentrate. But the images I already receive/see when I close my eyes while listening to some quiet and/or harmonious music or thinking good positive thoughts, - these images are great. Sometimes I can direct the stories, but usually I'm just passively watching and enjoying them. Sometimes they are full of colours, sometimes there are only a few colours, very seldom I see it in brownish&greyish&whitish. Usually the speed of actions is the same as I'm used to, ie not very high, but once in a while I receive images that alternate extremely quickly. Sometimes a new understanding of familiar ideas comes to me during this cartoon-watching experience.

My dreams are a bit different now. Sometimes when I wake up I physically, with my skin, feel what I was doing in the dream, for example hugging. It kind of surprises and puzzles me but for now I like it. =)

I can't fast more than one day :( The second day I feel too bad in the morning and a classical remedy glass of water doesn't help. But drinking 2-3 litres of schungite water a day is no longer a problem!

I tried eating a lot of nuts in the evening (mainly cashews that I ordered from London and pistachios, a bit of hazelnuts and walnuts) and yes, you can gain weight eating raw!!! (the question is Do you want to?)

99% of what I've been eating recently is:

-different sorts of apples (!!!)

-grapes (!!!)

-dried apricot halves (!!) (finally found a good supplier, untreated apricots)

-cabbage (!)

-carrots

-dill (!)

-parsley (!!!)

-green onion (!)

-melons (!)

-pomegranates (!)

-tomatoes

-cucumbers

-nuts

-lettuce

-persimmon (last year this month I was eating tonnes of persimmons, this year I've had maybe 5 pieces...)

Buckwheat, wheat, chickpea are bought for sprouting in winter.

Not about food

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I didn't feel the need to talk about food any more. I don't initiate a conversation on "healthy lifestyles". Despite being absolutely sure about the necessity of switching to raw diet when fighting cancer, among other things, I don't promote raw foodism. It's actually quite hard to stay calm and not to react sometimes, because one of the people with cancer I know is mom of my best school friend, and at the same time my mom's good acquaintances are orthodox doctors who work with cancer patients every day and try to help them with chemotherapy. I don't even start talking about my views on cancer and treatment and what human beings shouldn't consume with them as they wouldn't want to see me or my mom again after that. I do answer questions though.
So food is not an issue any more. I think I got used to this diet =) although still only on my way to proper mono raw diet + drinking water. I'd need a couple of years of that way of life to see my physical body and health improve.
Now I'm focused on the part of myself which is not the physical body. I can't find the right words for it. It's not "psychic", it's not "soul", it's not "thoughts"... Non-material part of me, maybe?
One author who influences me most now is Wayne Dyer. Many of the ideas similar to those he touches upon or discusses in his books are not new to me, but somehow I tend to forget them and need to be reminded time and again. I am grateful to him =)

Why not Economics any longer

Listen to yourself. What is it what you really want to do in life? Not those goals imposed by the society or even very caring relatives. I'm still struggling with my mum, she has her own vision of my life, she still thinks I belong to her when I can belong to myself only. My university mates are buying flats in Moscow and good Japanese cars, and my mum wants me to make a lot of money as well. But my view of the world is different, I don't want to be striving for money all my life, I am grateful to and for what I have now.
Do I want to be an office rat? Work long hours inside concrete buildings with poor ventilation stare at a PC? Or work for a company that is one of the leaders in doing harm to the Earth? No. The first step is to realise what I don't want. Done. The next step is to realise what I do want. I started to move in this direction. I believe that doing something with languages (translating, teaching) will minimise my own negative impact on the environment.
There're many books by those who realised 1) how beautiful the world is 2)that we human beings are (supposed to be) its co-creators 3) that abundance is here, we must only see it 4) that the power of our thoughts is limitless, and dreams&wishes do come true, with a lag in time 5) that love and gratitude do miracles 6) that giving (love) is better than taking (love) 7) that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience, etc etc etc ........ Many authors are of the late XXth century, still alive and writing more. Many cite Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, the Bible, the Qur'an. Many cite other modern authors, usually healers, naturopats, psychologists. I've read quite a few. Many books are very interesting, well-structured and the ideas are so simple and I've heard them so many times, that it's surprising how come I've never really processed, so to say, those thoughts myself.
It takes time and effort to become aware of the negativism of our thoughts, the many stereotypes we automatically absorb while growing up. But once you start tidying up your mind :) you find it very exciting! You gain that independence in thoughts that many of us really dream of. In my life only the last couple of years brought me this new perception of myself, so I am quite new to this self-improvement field. But those several gleams I've had so far were really amazing! I absolutely agree with somebody who said that if you recall only one prayer a day let it be "thank you". Being grateful not only in words, but really feeling it is a marvellous inner experience which opens doors to abundance in the physical facet of our world as well.
Economics is about decisions on allocation of limited resources. In Microeconomía by Michael Parkin (I have a Spanish edition) I read: "Todas las preguntas de la economía surgen de un hecho sencillo e ineludible: no siempre se puede obtener lo que uno quiere. Vivimos en un mundo de escasez". And this is exactly the idea I don't support any more. The universe has everything a human being might need, and it's a matter of time to receive it (let's not think of what time is for now). How much time is needed depends on the person's qualities, openness to the abundance etc. But beware! Be careful in wishing something! You will get it, and what will you do then? ;)

June

The entire month of June I was very busy, slept less than I needed, spent almost all my time inside, was nervous because of lack of time - not really a healthy way of life. Strangely enough the monorawfoodism aspect was ok. I ate small portions of fruit and vegetables during the day, so the absolute majority of my meals were fine from the mono perspective. But in the evening I couldn't avoid mixing everything. Now that I'm quite free again I eat a lot again and mix even fruit with vegetables, uff. Drinking water is still a big issue, just can't drink it.

I read one monorawfoodist's diary. He's mono since some 8 months ago and he's tried mixing stuff recently. He says he felt the difference in clarity of his mind although the body reacted ok. As my reasons for rawfoodism are related to both physical and non-physical (spiritual, mental) aspects of life I'm even more convinced to switch to a 100% mono now.

It's the season of sweet cherries now. I'm a big fan of those and taking advantage of good prices at the Preobrazhensky market. 3 kilos of dark, pink and yellow sweet cherries a day? Easily! And with pleasure =)

Linden trees are in their full blossom now. They smell so good that I enjoy my morning walk to the metro station as there are a lot of linden trees on my way.
Good olfaction can cause some inconveniences as too many people smell bad and the air quality in many parts of Moscow is really poor.

Soaps / Sesame / Ekadashi / Mum

Soaps:
I like natural soaps, love to choose them for presents =), but it's not easy to find one without animal fat or glycerin. So I am happy now as a wonderful savon d'argan artisanal came to me as a present from Morocco (soap with argan oil by Coopérative Marjana, à 14 km d'Essaouira sur la route de Marrakech). If you have never tried it you don't know how pleasant a soap can be!

Some recent changes:
The colour of my skin is getting whiter and pinker. I noticed it only today looking at my hands and I really like this change! Since several days ago I have been feeling cold. I know this is usual for many people who just start switching to raw foodism. In my case I felt wonderful in September-October, slept with a fully open window with 13C. But now it's 20C in my apartment, and I am wearing a sweatsuit.

My weight is low but stable (obviously, the BMI shows I am underweight). My mum's weight has changed considerably but gradually and smoothly, minus 10 kg since December (~5 months). She didn't limit the amount of food nor restricted the number of products. Just ate everything she wanted, raw, with a bit of salt, then sea salt, black pepper, some oil; during the last 5 months she had, besides raw food, some thin Armenian pita (лаваш), bread, several times she ate boiled potatoes, braised vegetables, stchi (Russian cabbage soup, щи) and puff pastry patties (слоёные пирожки), some cheese, milk, coffee. It was a drastic change in eating habits for her, but she feels much better with her current food preferences, which makes me happy as well. She perceives it as a temporary diet, but how suitable is the word "temporary" when she is going to keep to it for the coming year for sure? =).

Sesame seeds:
Read they are all treated with some alkalies in order to remove a specific taste of their hull. I don't know if to trust this info, but yesterday I put some seeds to soak to see if they are alive. By now none has started to germinate.

Ekadashi:
Still try to follow it twice a month. Yesterday it was ekadashi, but I did eat, so I am having a dry fasting today, on dvadashi, instead. My mum joined me today.

Habits/Affirmations

It's so hard to change habits. For example, I want not to feel anger anymore, but the society has been showing me that a right reaction to certain circumstances is anger. So all my life I have reacted accordingly. Now I want to stop being influenced that much and want to think myself. It's such a new idea to me =)

While wandering in youtube I came across a nice interpretation of positive affirmations. Check this out:

My mango experience %)

Wow! I already eat much less than a month ago! For example, today I had 2 apples for late breakfast, 2 apples for lunch, 3 ripe bananas when I was in the centre in the afternoon, "super intense salad" (tomatoes, dill, red onion, green onion, a lot of squeezed out garlic, a bit of lemon juice - what a mix! just wanted something bitter) for dinner, a small Thai mango for late dinner, a glass of water during the day. Yesterday it was just several big apples and about 1 litre of water and "infusions" during the day. This is a change, the next step =)

I got a small sum of money quite unexpectedly and, to pamper ourselves, I went to the most expensive supermarket (can't help but mention that their website is so badly translated into English) and bought 3 small Thai mangoes. They are sold only at one chain (to my knowledge) and are expensive (~200 RUR each, 1 EUR ~ 44 RUR). I'd been wishing to taste the Thai variety since I first saw it in a supermarket in winter, but the price ... Now, done! It's delicious! very soft and exquisite, with almost no fibres. The colour is nice, entirely yellow, with no green or red parts. The next variety to taste on a special occasion is Australian (there are not many Australian varieties on the Moscow market, so I am generalizing). I saw it the first time today, in the same supermarket. It is ssso big! and it is even more expensive than the Thai one (850 RUR a kilo, so 1 item would cost ~500 RUR). Mmm

Closer to the raw mono diet/ On the path to becoming the master of my life

I am starting to move away from making salads and mixing everything. Can eat oranges and tangerines together or avocado with dill and parsley, but already half of the "meals" consists of one type of product.
I am reading the 3rd book out of the 4 on the role of our thoughts and intentions in the creation of our worlds (plural, yes) by Sinelnikov (in RU only). Very similar to transurfing, but less selfish, focused on the idea of the necessity to change oneself in order to change one's world - the same idea as in the Vedic tradition. I think Sinelnikov's books and books on transurfing nicely supplement each other.
Choosing the main goal in life is not easy.
Great changes await.

Several links on raw diet and similar

I've been reading everything I can find on natural living (including diets) but it used to be mainly in Russian. It was intended for me, it's easier for me to be persuaded by something in my mother tongue =) But now I want to share my views. So I found something in English. Especially for you =)

Ah, those pots and pans! Or how and why I became a raw foodist
War in vain. Why we get sick and what for
Immunity. Do we really need it?
Cooking for slow death
Where to get protein?
Do vegetarians and raw foodists risk?
Eating bread one gains not just weight

And one last link for now about menstruation. I haven't read the entire blog entry, but I read something similar in Russian several months ago and I was shocked. Well, as a child, when I learned that every girl will start having it regularly one day, I didn't understand why human females have menstruation while animal females don't but I didn't even think about looking for alternative views on the nature of menstruation then. Hm, the fact of having it in the future (and having pain while giving birth) was the reason why I wanted to be a boy then =))) Now I don't need to worry about menstruation and I perceive the ability of giving birth as a heavenly gift.

Winter/Fasting/etc

This winter in the Moscow region and where I have travelled was sometimes what we call "real", -20C, white snow everywhere. After 3 winters in Western Europe I was a bit nervous about how I would survive any temperature below 0, but it turned out to be quite fine. So I don't see any obstacles to be a raw foodist in the cold period of the year as many say.
But I must admit I was not a raw foodist myself because of my very strong psychological dependence on bread. Now I am finally changing this habit.
Being quite thin and slim I would have never thought I would go for a fast longer than a couple of days. But I did. Starting on the 2nd of March, coinciding with the Orthodox Lent (Great Fast), 7 days, finished today with half water-half freshly squeezed apple juice. It was really hard for me, I felt extremely weak in certain moments, the stairs were a nightmare so I didn't go out the last 4 days (I live on the 2nd floor without an elevator). I did it till the acidotic crisis which happened yesterday in the evening and although I then all of a sudden felt strong and thought to continue for several more days today I woke up too weak to move my arms. I guess this is when the real cleansing process starts, but I wasn't ready for this so I crawled to the kitchen to prepare the juice. Still a great experience!
Hopefully I am becoming a real raw foodist today. Understanding the negative issues of bread and having lived without any food for a week I guess now I am able to do this.
=)