Disqus - Latest Comments for Rawdiant

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:22:40 -0000

" if my body craves something that's a whole organic food, I won't make a big deal about it if it's cooked every once in a while."

Yes! That's how I feel, too. It's affirming to hear of others who have felt similarly -- especially w/ respect to beans and lentils. Whatever I said about beans here goes double for lentils. I do love them also. I think I talked, above, about loving dahl & figure that might be a good (occasional) food in the winter. I really do want to keep this as more of an occasional thing, though. (I could easily see this as seasonal. Who would want dahl in the summer, anyway? On the other hand, dahl IS an Indian dish, and it gets quite hot in India.) :-)

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:17:24 -0000

Thanks, Errigal ;-) And you're absolutely RIGHT! That WAS a Whole Foods salad. Wow, your photo-discernment abilities are phenomenal -- either that or you really get to Whole Foods a lot.

I don't know... there's something weird going on w/ me lately. I'm craving new things, and some of my old standbys are no longer agreeing with me. Like... I'm getting a belly ache from grapes lately. I mean, what???! I can usually eat a few pounds & feel awesome. Why the belly aches? Cashews... I used to eat way too many cashews, and they never bothered me as long as they were raw. But, on one of my 801010 kicks recently, I gave the up again. Then last night I ate a bunch of them & got a HUGE stomach ache. I just didn't understand it. Wendi said maybe it was the beans from Sunday, still lingering. I thought about it, but really think it was the cashews -- threw the rest right out. On the other hand, we just had a equinox... who knows...?? lol.

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:11:34 -0000

TRACEY commented:

"Great article, Jim! That salad definitely reeks of Whole Foods! Looks like what I get when I am shopping there and enjoying a dinner beforehand! I have experimented a bit lately, too, and find certain foods do not agree with me and others are okay for that time.....but then happy to get back on my raw food things. Also, happy that I can enjoy something different for a just a change and can go back and forth. Happy Trails to ye! Errigal (AKA Tracey Anne Miller)"

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:09:44 -0000

Thanks, Mindy. Sorry our Disqus system is messed up. It's been an area of frustration for us over the past many months, and they've been unable to fix it.

I like Ani... she's really cool! Yes, I believe that's likely true. I wish my own rationale were as admirable as that. I never hit the "go, go, go go" stage being 100% raw. I think I did hit the "go, go go" one, though. But, I want all FOUR "go's" -- know what I mean??!! So, I'm finding what's right for me. But YES, I've definitely heard of such things. I think in Gabriel Cousen's book "Spiritual Nutrition," he mentions a practice in Ayurvedic medicine in which they actually recommend certain foods in order to sort of bring people back down to earth a bit more -- even meat in some cases. I mean, can you imagine that -- Dr. Cousens recommending meat??!

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:05:27 -0000

Comment system is running screwy tonight... User "MINDY" posted this comment:

"Interesting post, Jim. We're all experimenting and trying to find what's best for us. I remember reading an interview with Ani Phyo a year or 2 ago. She mentioned after 7 years of being "100%", that she now occasionally eats a little vegan cooked food. One reason she mentioned, is that her energy level remained so high on all raw that she would just "go, go, go, go" and she accomplished a lot and never got sick, but she still felt she was depleting her body somehow by not resting enough. She feels that the cooked food is somehow grounding for her, facilitating her ability to rest and slow down. Sounds like her own way of putting on the brakes a bit. Anyway, given we're
out on the edge of diet ville, it's always interesting to see what's up with others. Thanks for sharing."

Re: Experimentation: The 95% Raw Salad… A Good Idea or Not?

Jim Dee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:04:01 -0000

Yes, the raw cravings are super! I find that they're a key to becoming in touch with intuition and opening a dialog with the body at perhaps the cellular level. Wendi is so much better than me with respect to that particular skill / gift / ability. You may be onto something about the weather and season. With Fall here, and with my being cold so much lately (actually, I'm *always* cold!), perhaps I finally got the big message. (Although, the beans I ate were cold -- probably just from a can and rinsed.) But, definitely... the warmth aspect could be part of what I'm craving, which isn't so much dietary as it is physically soothing. Being cold is *awful*!! I do drink tea more in the winter, but it lacks the substance that I suppose I might be wanting. Perhaps seeking this in some semblance of a healthy way (using these foods that I'm terming "neutral") is, well, healthy. Beans, rice, maybe some steamed broccoli... I don't think that's a sin. I want dahl this winter. If I could have dahl once/week in the winter, I think I'd be a-ok. We'll see, though. If I feel worse for it, or if my own self-measurements of various physical health indicators fall into zones of concern, I'll revisit all of this PDQ. But, again, we're really only talking about a small percentage of my very high-raw existence.

Re: Music Notes: Digitizing Your Music Collection – Part 1

Jim Dee — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:11:50 -0000

Digitizing has proven time and again to be a rewarding experience and habit. I started with 500 or so CDs & digitized them all. Now I've digitized and organized about 4,000 CDs. It's SO awesome to have them all at my fingertips whenever I want. Lately, I've been working out a plan for backing it all up in a more organized way. Having that much data can be challenging to manage, mostly because backups take up so much time and hard drive space. I do have a turntable that I run into a line-in jack on my desktop soundcard, and have digitized a bunch of albums. But, I've been a little lazy on that end of things, as it's more time consuming.

Re: Is Raw Food Good for Pets?

Jim Dee — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:20:32 -0000

Well, Ani Phyo's book gives amounts for the pate. We also fed her a good deal of raw meats. For example, she really loved raw chicken wings. I'd usually give her 2-3 of them at a meal (depending on the size of the wings). It it was red meat, I'd usually give her a half pound or so, as memory serves. But, a lot of that would depend on your dog's metabolism, appetite, weight, etc. Sometimes we'd mix the meat in with the nut pate. She seemed to like that a lot. Our dog had a HUGE appetite, and always remained very thin. At 4 years old, your dog is a full adult, and may not require as much. Just play it by ear & see what happens. But, a raw diet definitely worked for ours. Good luck!

Re: Jim’s $75 Salad: Staying Raw @ Haute Cuisine Destinations

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:07:38 -0000

I probably should have added to my initial comments not only the sheer physical craving but also the social pressures of fitting in and so forth. But, in either case, you addressed my questions. I think your experience dovetails well with what I was just starting to explore. Subjectively, for you, it was just coming from another angle. Where you might have been tempted from a perspective of deprivation, another might have felt tempted from a perspective of equating that food with a feeling of accomplishment. I think the two are somehow connected, though in somewhat opposed ways. But both view the food as valuable. I'm fascinated by this, and think there could be a book in it. (Now I'll add this to my ever-expanding lists of future projects.)

Re: Jim’s $75 Salad: Staying Raw @ Haute Cuisine Destinations

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:14:22 -0000

Thanks, Mindy. That's true... "Be the change," right?! As a matter of fact, two others did ask me some questions about diet that night. One guy said, almost apologetically, "You know, I could do without red meat. I really don't crave it. I just eat it at these dinners." That remark was actually in my mind when I wrote, "they eat that way because they feel that that’s the way adult businesspeople should eat."

I like that term "in the closet," by the way. I think there are probably a lot of closeted vegetarians. Perhaps I'll do a blog post on that sometime & will cite you as the inspiration for it. :-)

Re: Jim’s $75 Salad: Staying Raw @ Haute Cuisine Destinations

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:09:33 -0000

Wow, so it was actually an *economic* issue for you more than it was a physical craving issue? That's an interesting spin to me, as I would think most people would have more trouble surmounting the sheer desire to experience the taste of these tempting foods, without regard to their prices (e.g., a cocktail party that serves cheap, yet highly aromatic hors d'oeuvres, the smell of which might seriously stimulate your appetite). So, would you say that, by "deprivation," you meant that you equated the food's cost with its quality and therefore felt deprived of experiencing something so valued? I find these notions interesting because, as I wrote, I do sense some highly interesting psychological phenomena going on in these scenarios. Perhaps some grad student will happen by here and take this up as a thesis topic.

Re: Jim’s $75 Salad: Staying Raw @ Haute Cuisine Destinations

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:55:51 -0000

Yeah, I don't mind so much when it's the company's dime. Personally, I would rarely shell out *premium* dollars for raw food, though -- unless it was ultra-gourmet. (Never dined at Pure Food & Wine, for example, but would definitely go there!)

Re: The Coolest Mistake Ever!

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:51:39 -0000

Oh, you definitely look like a 20-something, Carlos! lol... We should start a "20-something" club for people who are *technically* over 29, but feel like they're still 20-something. Or, more to the point of my post... for people who actually still *believe* that they're 20-something. Feeling 20 and believing you're 20 are both great, but they're distinct - -and I think the latter happens to raw people all the time.

Re: The Coolest Mistake Ever!

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:45:18 -0000

Agreed! And, how exciting to be starting over, Elizabeth! I'd love to hear more about that. :-) Do you mean an entirely new field?

Re: The Coolest Mistake Ever!

Jim Dee — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:39:06 -0000

I'm convinced of it, Terri! Raw is the fountain of youth.

Re: The Coolest Mistake Ever!

Jim Dee — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:21:30 -0000

He may have casually thrown around a few ideas, but definitely no conclusions. Indeed, this is one of the caveats of live blood work... conclusive findings versus general health indications. We'll definitely be talking more about that. In any case, based on what I know now, I have no concerns in that area. Rarely, yes, I do take a B12 supplement -- just kind of for good measure. But, it's not a big concern for me. I have a lot of notes on B12 -- quotes from numerous doctors and raw nutritionists -- and am planning on doing a special post for that at some point.

Re: The Coolest Mistake Ever!

Jim Dee — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:18:17 -0000

Hmm, I don't recall any indications of needing B supplementation based on that. I did try to increase my antioxidant intake for a while, though. However, in retrospect, I don't see anything of concern in my live blood at that time. We're going to be talking more about live blood in the coming weeks as we discuss Nadi Balance some more. We've seen a lot of blood now, and have a better understanding now than we did then on many live blood issues.

Re: CD Review: World Is India

Jim Dee — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:22:45 -0000

Awesome. I'll definitely pick up a copy. After all, there are like 400 Starbucks around here, too, so I'm sure I'll find it. Wendi and I have quite a lot of Indian music. :-)

Re: The Friendly, Mellow, Raw Groove of San Luis Obispo

Jim Dee — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:25:41 -0000

I know... Tough to be alliterative with a town like San Luis Obispo, though. Maybe I'll get back to that when we get to "Vegas" (leaving off the "Las" part). :-) Time Is flying by... It's been more than a month already!

Re: The Friendly, Mellow, Raw Groove of San Luis Obispo

Jim Dee — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:22:31 -0000

LOL... yes, deb!!! However, I got SOOOO incredibly swamped at work today that it's going to have to wait until Monday!!! (Sorry!) But, what a fab way to start out the week!

Re: The Friendly, Mellow, Raw Groove of San Luis Obispo

Jim Dee — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:21:38 -0000

That's a toughie, Suzanne. There's probably no easy way, really. You could try friending Shivie on Facebook, and asking for some basics. However, if memory serves, I think some of those were experimental. I would add that Shivie will be featured in an upcoming segment of Makin It Monday. So, stay tuned and you might get a wonderful raw food prep instructional vid from her!

Re: Pure Jeevan Perceives Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity in Populous Portland!

Jim Dee — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:51:36 -0000

Definitely!! :-)

Re: Pure Jeevan Perceives Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity in Populous Portland!

Jim Dee — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:01:05 -0000

Yeah, I'll love all of the natural amenities. But that gas station thing is just *weird* to me. Maybe it's because I've pumped my own gas for 25 years now, but... I mean, to protect *landscaper* jobs, are you not allowed to mow your own lawn? To protect *chef* jobs, are you not allowed to cook your own food? (Um, not that we would, anyway -- lol). That law strikes me as misguided. But, I'll come to love those idiosyncrasies in time, I'm sure. I know Wendi's always hated pumping gas (she's sensitive to the smell of gasoline), so she'll love that one.

Re: Pure Jeevan Perceives Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity in Populous Portland!

Jim Dee — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:53:08 -0000

OMG, ANY time you want to go berry picking, just drop me a line!!! I'm sure that's one thing I will NEVER tire of, as far as living in Oregon goes. Wendi said they're like weeds there. Seems like easy pickins' for us raw foodie peeps.

Re: Pure Jeevan Perceives Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity in Populous Portland!

Jim Dee — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:51:56 -0000

Thanks, Terry! I've been to Denver & liked it a lot. I can see how anyone would really love it there. I especially liked the mountainous areas to the west a bit (Boulder, etc.). We strongly considered Denver early on & still think it's a great place. We just feel more drawn to Portland. :-)