It turned out that my camera really WAS only malfunctioning due to battery related problems, so now it is working just fine again, yay! And since we all love food porn, that's what you get first.
I think this is just the most gorgeous salad I have ever eaten. It looks so bright and colourful and alive!! If you're interested, it is dandelion greens, corn, tomato, carrot, celery, parsley and the tiniest avocado I've ever seen, with orange juice squeezed over as 'dressing.' Mmmm I want another one right now. (I think I know what I'm having for dinner!)
This picture is not great, I don't think it caught the true vibrancy of the fruit, but I wanted to show you a little portion of what I hauled home from the organic growers market. In addition to this fruit I got loads of bananas and a whole tray of persimmons (YUMMMMMMMMM!!!)And also there was celery, kale, silverbeet, rainbow chard, parsley, sweet corn, a cucumber... I think that's it.
Now, onto 'sharing my secrets' and answering the questions all you wonderful people left me:
From Erica -
I am curious, are you still 100% raw? How long has it been now? I slipped off the wagon for awhile but now am back up to only one cooked item per day (unless I'm at a social function).
AND
I realised last night I am also curious about your experience with the "raw high", if you have/had it, and also if you feel connected to the universe/get messages from it, as they say happens when you're 100%?
My Response - I (very excitedly!) celebrated my 1 year raw anniversary just last week. For the first few months of that I still ate dried fruits that were probably dried above a 'raw' temperature, as well as eating not 'truly raw' cashews, but aside from that I have been 100% raw the whole time. Oh and I don't eat those things anymore.
REgarding the raw high... I'm not sure. I am happy pretty much all day everyday and that is still, even now, a bit foreign to me because I suffered depression for about 4 years before going raw thanks to harassment at school etc. So yes, I think I do get the raw high, but I don't feel connected to the universe. I am not religious or spiritual at all so maybe some people would say that is because I'm not open to communicating with the universe, but whatever.
From Anne -
I haven't been reading your blog for very long, so this might be redundant:
How do your parents feel about you being raw?
My response - No question is redundant here. I don't know whether I've talked about this much on my blog or not, actually. Anyway, I have absolutely fantastic, amazing, incredible parents. I love them more than I could put into words. They always support me 100% in what I do and I appreciate that so much. After I went vegan age 15, my mum decided she wanted to go vegetarian - due to food intolerances she had already given up dairy years earlier so is now almost totally vegan. Last year I became the official family chef, cooking for my parents 5 nights a week, and my dad happily eats whatever I cook, which is always vegan or vegetarian. Just recently he has started eating an imitation ham product (instead of the real dead pig kind) in his lunch rolls, so now he only eats meat twice a week instead of 14(!!) times, yay! And also, he now usually gets a vegetarian option if he eats out somewhere, which I think is excellent.
So, in summary, my parents have no issues whatsoever with me being raw!
From Bazu -
Here's my question for you, since I'm food obsessed: what are your biggest food cravings? What "naughty" food is your downfall?
My Response - I think I am very fortunate, as lots of people who go raw struggle with lots of cooked food cravings but in a whole year of raw I haven't craved a single specific cooked meal. I tend to crave texture more than taste - the texture of plain tofu always really did it for me, kinda soft and squidgy (I know I know, I'm weird!) and a few times I've really missed that, but I found mushrooms (which I used to hate) really did it for me there. I don't really crave anything other than fruit now!!
Hmm... 'naughty' food... what's that? :-) Ahhh, the beauty of being raw. There are no naughty foods! Nothing I eat is a 'downfall.' It is all fabulous, delicious and amazing, I can eat it all day long and never suffer a thing for it! Yay!
From Melissa -
hi
ive been reading your blog for a while now and always loved your recipes...
i always felt like i could relate to you because i was anorexic for years and am just starting to feel better (mentally) since the last 6 months (up 25 lbs yay...used to be 80lbs at 5'8...)
i am vegan and although i dont eat all raw, i still eat raw as much as possible...
one day i decided to go 100% raw... the reason why i stopped eating raw wasnt because i didnt like it or didnt feel good but because part of my recovery was recognizing where i had lied to myself... i then realized that i had only become raw as a way to (subconsciously) be able to refuse more food and/or control yet another aspect of my life (or try to...)
Is that how you became raw?
Now, i would like to be more raw (at least 75%) but im scared that i would be doing it for the wrong reasons again... any suggestions???
My Response - Thankyou for sharing so much about your recovery journey Melissa! I can totally see how raw would be an easy way to refuse more food and thus fall back into the anorexic cycle. I went vegan while I was in the midst of my disorder and while it was 100% motivated by my compassion for animals and NOT by a desire to turn down food, it did make it a heck of a lot easier! Thankfully, finding raw was like an awakening for me - I suddenly felt that I could connect myself back to nature, however, in nature I knew I would not feel the way I did as an anorexic. Suddenly, after 3 years, it was gone. By 'it' I mean that feeling of worthlessness that meant I had to starve myself in order to be anything special. I'm not saying I recovered overnight - it still took months and months before I let go of all the old obsessions, but the most important change in mindset was almost instantaneous. That is unfortunate in a way, because it means I can't really offer much to people like yourself in terms of a way to overcome those feelings, since mine kind of overcame themselves. All I can say is to keep working on it - wake up every day and tell yourself you ARE worth it, you CAN do it. And if you feel you can make it to 75% raw without becoming more ill again, do it - I promise you, after a few weeks you will feel like a new person!
If there is anything else you think I can offer to help with, please, just ask!
Thanks to everyone for your questions, if anyone has more don't hesitate to ask!
Have a smashing day!
posted by Freedom @ 11:22 am
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