WATER- MORE PROFOUND EVEN THAN OUR RAW FOOD!
Daniel Vitalis is a raw foodist, Martial Artist/warrior who has a sacred and evolved understanding and relationship with water and shares with us some of his amazing insights. I especially love the way he talks about our basic desire as moms to foster excellence in our children! And also how he gives primal insight into what would actually motivate a man to change his dietary ways. ONLY another man could really know…! Thanks Daniel! Also, he is NOT on the ‘vegan bandwagon’ and asks Moms to stay in our feminine wisdom and reclaim our sovereign right to learn and do what our ancestors have done as far as preparing for Birth, or feeding our children. I appreciate Daniel’s appreciation of women, Nature and the basic intelligence of children who are raised with Nature…everything he said makes perfect sense and is extraordinary in his distinctions. My children have enjoyed his fascinating youtube videos where he vortexes water into mini tornados. I actually purchased a 2 inch cuplar from the hardware store to do my own water too, but have so far been unable to locate where to purchase 4L GLASS water bottles. My husband is very interested in locating for us a Natural spring where we can gather our own water, and I know this will happen soon. I encourage all moms to read this interview and begin thinking about WATER at least as much as we do about our children’s FOOD…
Daniel, I find your work to be enthralling and profound. Also, your style of delivery is wonderfully clear, understandable and inspiring. Can you give a brief background so our readers here at rawmom get a sense about you if they are not already familiar with your work.
Yes, and Thank You!
I have had the unique experience of having become involved with this level of nutritional awareness at a fairly young age, half my life ago, when I was 15 years old. I spent many years exploring every aspect of nutrition that I could uncover, and experimented on myself (with what now feels like reckless abandon!) for many years before I began to bring my personal philosophies to the forefront as a teacher.
Much of my work in this area was influenced by the chefs and teachers I met in my travels, and more than anything it has been nature that has informed my worldview. Primarily it was the revelation that the “Elements” of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are not just poetic and arcane principles of our ancestors, but very real and living energies that permeate our experience of reality. My work in the raw community as a teacher began with my bringing awareness to a more complete and whole relationship to the Element of Water, and how we can, by interacting with it in a more sacred and alchemical way, increase our experience of vibrant living and environmental integration.
Being a rawfoodist makes it obvious after a while that the ‘food’ part of raw foodist is only the beginning and once the awareness kicks-in, it opens up passions and insights into seemingly unending pathways.
The chemical pollution affecting our land, air and water not to mention food chain, the mass extinction of species happening rapidly on the planet today, the climate crisis, corporate greed and psychotic-ness, the breakdown of every system from the family, marriages, education, personal responsibility, true health care, being in-tune with the Earth and its wisdom, the rape of Mother Nature, ALL this and more seems to be a SYMPTOM of a CRISIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. And as we know could be positively impacted by going raw…You have become the VOICE FOR WATER in our community. Please tell us why WATER is your mission.
We interact, by accident or intention, with each of the Elements every day. This is by design. To me food, and particularly the kind of food we are talking about, is one way that we interact with the Element of Earth. This is how we feed ourselves. The quality of our food determines the quality of our relationship to Earth, or to the Earth.
Similarly, each day we interact with Water, and this is how we hydrate ourselves, or replace our solvent. We are solvent based organisms (we are a liquid based design).
Just in the same way that our relationship to food reflects our relationship to the Earth, our daily Water intake determines to how we relate to Water in general. Not just to the Water we drink, but also to the Water that covers 2/3rds of the globe.
This is significant when we look at the current water crisis facing our population. It is really a reflection of our own personal water crisis.
You are wise to note that food is just the beginning. We are waking up to the reality that we have been very much industrialized and domesticated. Our water comes from a tap or bottle, much in the way our cats and dogs get their water from a dish or tray.
This is really an issue of personal sovereignty, and a matter of waking up to our true power, right, and majesty as living beings and children of this eco-sphere.
Reclaiming our water is reclaiming our consciousness. It is about recognizing where the source is. In French the word for spring is “source”. Our “Crisis Of Consciousness” as you called it stems from our own personal disconnection from the Source. Reclamation of that connection is reclamation of personal power, dignity, and right to exist free and Sovereign!
Your blood is made directly from the water you drink. When you drink doled out domesticated and chemically treated water, this is what your blood is made from. This is what you are. When you drink well structured, healthy, living water from the source, this becomes your blood, the blood of the earth. You become an ambassador of water. You speak from the Source.
What do you want moms who are going raw raising their families to know about water.
More than anything else, I think Moms want to know how to create and foster the excellence that is inherent in their children. Unfortunately this is not the prerogative of those who create legislature determining our municipal “Water Treatment”. Much of the water coming from our taps, bottled beverages, restaurant foods and drinks, and now even bottled waters contain Sodium Fluoride. This is not, as may of us were led to believe, good for our teeth, and in fact is very damaging. Many experts have determined that Sodium Fluoride can reduce the IQ of a child by up to 20%! Lets put this in perspective. If your child had an IQ of 100, exposure to tap water could reduce your child’s IQ to 80!
Also, in addition to the Fluoration of teeth and bones (which shows up as discolored patches on teeth, which you all have seen), Fluoride also targets the pineal gland, and more than any other tissue in the body! Yes, this gland which is responsible for the production of melatonin, serotonin and a other important neurotransmitters, is the same organ that the Yogis refer to as the “Third Eye”. The pineal gland literally becomes encrusted with Sodium Fluoride, hardening it and reducing its function.
And that is just the Fluoride, I will spare you the equally stunning information on Chlorine.
Many people have switched over to bottled water, which also presents a host of issues that could and probably should be addressed. Most notably (assuming that the bottled water is really “spring” water and not just filtered tap water, which it often is) is the bottle itself.
Plastics as a whole tend to exhibit endocrine system disrupting molecular arrangements that we have come to call “zeno-estrogen’s”. These estrogen mimics are coming more and more into the public awareness, though the media has done its job to downplay the seriousness of the effects.
You see, water is also known as the universal solvent. This is because water has such strong solvent capabilities. In other words, it dissolves things. We use this to our advantage when we make a tea, dissolving the herbs we are using into the water. The same thing happens with plastics, dissolving these zeno-estrogen plastic molecules into the water within the bottle, resulting in a “plastic tea”. This is why you can taste plastic in the plastic bottled water.
This is leading to an epidemic in our environment and in our own bodies that has been deemed “estrogen pollution”, an endocrine system issue in nature that has lead to the loss of secondary male sex characteristics, female endocrine cancers (breast, uterine, ovarian, fibroid tumor, etc) as well as many of the associated emotional states that we have lumped under “Pre Menstrual Syndrome”, a fancy way of describing the psychological and emotive states that correspond to hormonal imbalance for woman.
Men are being equally effected, with sperm counts at an all time low, male bodies that are thin and feminine or big bellied with breast tissue. It also effects the prostate and testicular tissues, leading to increases in cancers of these organs as well.
These are not easy topics to address, as they are not “politically correct” to discuss openly. I think that we can all look around and see the obvious though, no matter how much our pop culture would like to remain in denial.
This is all rooted in our misuse, and misunderstanding of water, of our relationship to that water, and our embededness within a global if not galactic matrix of interconnected water molecules. This may sound strange as we have not really been taught to see it this way, however this is in fact the obvious conclusion for anyone who has studied the science of water, and especially those who have been bold enough to couple this thinking with the more right brained understanding of water that was held by our ancestors.
My personal practice, which has eliminated my concerns about the health and safety of the water I drink, as well as reconnecting me to the sacred and ancient connection to the Water of the Earth, has been to gather my own Water from springs.
I have recently launched a project called www.findaspring.com which is dedicated to mapping springs all over North America. It is a vision that I hold strongly to see all of those who are interested in this idea to be able to easily locate a spring in their area. Please take a second to visit the site, which is still in its early stages, to find a spring near you, and to contribute a spring to the database if you know of one.
Dr Masuro Emoto did some ground-breaking work in Japan and wrote about it in MESSAGES IN WATER and his other books. His message became popular through the movie WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW. Have you thought of being in touch with Dr Masuro to collaborate on a project together?
I feel a deep gratitude for the work he has done, and the influence it has had on me and so many others. At this point we are both ambassadors of Water, and are sharing our message in different though complimentary arenas. Perhaps there will come a day where the overlap brings he and I together. This would be magick.
What can the average person who is living in a city in an apartment building or sub-division do to ensure the safety of their water that won’t seem to extreme as first steps (which could eventually lead to much bolder steps later on)?
Before I answer this, allow me a moment to set the stage. You see, it is easy for us to get into a mindset that says “I am what I eat”. There is truth in this, though it is minimal in relation to the statement “I am what I drink”. Why? Well we are optimally around 65-75% Water. The “what we eat” part is relatively small in relationship to the “what we drink” part. We are far less like a car, which is a solid object that runs on “fuel”, and much more like a fish tank, which is a Water based ecology. We are very far behind, especially in our Western world, with regard to how we see our selves.
We are like an aquarium, an ecosystem that depends largely on Water. Yes food is required, much like the food or “fish flakes” are required in an aquarium, though far more important to the health of the aquatic ecosystem is the health and quality of the Water. Even the best food is useless if the fish are suspended in poor quality Water.
These “fish” are your cells and the microorganisms that dwell all over you (4 times more of them than you have cells!). They thrive in high quality, well structured Water.
So, the first step would be to take an honest assessment. To ask some real questions and be ready to honestly answer them. Questions like “why am I putting so much time into what I eat, and not into what I am using as the basic solvent, or liquid that I run my “fish tank” on.
What is your Personal Water Strategy? Is it to filter? To buy bottled Water?
If you are filtering with a Carbon Block system, like a Pur or Britta filter it may be time time to get real with yourself. Does this filter really remove Chlorine, or just the taste of Chlorine. What about Fluoride?
Perhaps you are using something more serious like a Reverse Osmosis filter or a Distiller. Ask yourself “does this Water really hydrate me, or does it taste lifeless and/or burned?
“Is there really a plastic counter top filtration unit that I can buy that can recreate what the Earths hydrological cycle is designed to do?” ”Just what do I believe about human technology and its ability to replicate the functions of a living Earth?”
If you are choosing at this time to avoid accessing Water that you can source from within the Earth it may be time to look at why. It may also be time to have a look at ideas around “Water restructuring” and using some kind of vortex, whether you make it yourself (see my youtube videos for more on this) or you purchase a commercial unit that does this for you (like the Vitalizer Plus). Ultimately I feel that there is little in this world as gratifying as sourcing real, living spring Water.
If you have been using bottled Water it may be time to consider and research the effects of plastic on yourself and your children. And due to the holographic and self similar patterning of reality, how the effects on us are similarly affecting the environment itself. Bottled Water hurts us and hurts the Earth. This option is less and less attractive to people everywhere.
There are a few exceptions, and while I am very much a proponent of Water gathered from springs, I have seen many great waters bottled in glass. This can be a more sustainable and viable option for many people, especially those in the urban centers.
It does not ultimately solve the issues at hand, though it is a great movement towards better choices. www.mountainvalleyspring.com is a great resource, and they deliver 5 gallon glass bottles of fresh spring Water to much of the country. Check them out! Find something similar!
What is most exciting is that any shift towards a better strategy will be accompanied by an increased sense of vitality and conscious awareness!
On a more personal note, talk to me about SLEEP- how much do you get, when, and how (mattress, floor, indoors or out, etc).
One of the things that I hear from so many people who choose to walk this road is “Since I began eating this way I only sleep 4 hours a night!”…
I have never really had that experience, except when fasting. I enjoy sleeping, and feel that we would be best served by doing lots of it. We are a stimulant loving culture, whether on a conventional diet or alternative, and most of us use artificial lighting after the sun goes down. We are losing touch with our natural circadian rhythm, and most peoples work schedules prevent them from getting to full recovery.
Sleep is a time to rebuild, and to dream travel. Both are very important.
I have been careful to craft a lifestyle that rarely has need of an “ALARM” clock
When we miss sleep we build up a “sleep deficit”. This is like a bill that we owe, and it will catch up to us eventually. Beauty, muscle tone, and Chi are developed while sleeping. There may be more advanced techniques for those who choose meditative and monastic lives, however that is not most of us.
Where I sleep has been described as “a prison camp bed”. I like to sleep on a firm surface. My bed is about 8 inches tall and is a simple zen-style wooden platform. The mattress is an unbleached Shiatsu futon that is about 1.5 inches thick. This arrangement has served me for some time.
I am not a fan of traditional Western style sheets and pillows. My pillow is buckwheat hull filled, and I have a simple, unfitted sheet atop the futon. Still, I like the simplicity and minimalism of my current sleep space.
How did you come to being raw and who was the biggest influence?
I first encountered “raw” at the age of 15 when a friend of mine intuited it. He began to eat this way by simple revelation. Later that year my tattoo artist turned me on to a book called “The Grape Cure” which was a raw grape cleanse. This was in the early days of the internet, before information and networking were so highly developed. At that time rawfoods was dominated by the thinking of the Natural Hygienists. So much has changed since then.
My early rawfood experiences were very dogmatic, and I lived for several years as a fruitarian, and for 10 years as a vegan. Today I see both of these approaches as great ways to cleanse, both physically and Karmicly, though I would say (after 15 years of experience) that both approaches are dangerous long term.
We have seen many changes, and the introduction of so called “SuperFoods” is just one of these. The ideology has shifted significantly, both for better and for worse. It is exciting to see so many folks making such wonderful strides towards better eating. It is unfortunate to see it so dominated by eating disorders, confusion, empty utopian philosophies, and pseudo experts.
Rawfoodists would benefit from taking a step back from the frenzy and hype, and getting real about a few things. Simply eating food that is not cooked will not bestow immortality, heal all ills, and produce spiritual enlightenment. It is, in its modern form, not even a complete or well formed diet as of yet.
What is great about it is the way it gets us to look at food and ourselves, the opportunity to detoxify many of the Water soluble and fat soluble toxins that we have ingested and encountered, as well as taking us back to the basics so that we can restructure a diet that makes sense.
My sincere hope is to see this community shed the dogma and religiosity that has been dominating it. Especially its unfounded and poorly thought through obsession with veganism and breatharianism. I think these ideas are hurting us. Again, I say this having met many of the “leading minds” in this “movement”, as well as the two most prominent ”breatharians”.
What do you feel moms need to be aware of when trying to transition their young families?
Great question. This one is delicate, and as a man I appreciate the opportunity to share. Everything I offer is from my heart, and I in no way can know what it is like to be a pregnant or developing mother, or to raise a family.
Here goes…Moms have a unique responsibility, in that they are not just experimenting with themselves, but also with their children and their families. I would suggest, rather than looking to those whose dietary self experimentation comes from having read a few books and having a website, looking to our ancestors whose wisdom about sustainable reproduction was tested by thousands of years of tribal experimentation.
For instance, many tribal and indigenous peoples would prepare a mother-to-be nutritionally for at least a year or two before conception. This was done to ensure that she could provide all she would need to for her developing child in addition to coming through healthfully on the other side. There was also a taboo on having a second child without a similar re-feeding process.
Mothers today are most often nutritionally bankrupted before and definitely after birth. There are very essential nutrients that are passed from mother to child, and if these are missing in the diet (and usually are, raw or not) will be stripped off of the mothers nervous system. This leads to emotional and physical issues after the birth. We have names and diagnosis for this, though we seem as a culture to be unaware of how to address it. Our ancestors understood this well, and took measures to compensate. We would be wise to study their indigenous ways rather than trusting the newest theories or “superfoods” that hit the market or literature, alternative or conventional.
Moms, be sure to get enough long chain omega 3’s. By this I am talking about DHA and EPA. Also know that circumcision is an ancient ritual marking and very traumatic and unnecessary. It is an affront on male sexuality, and is no different to what we call “female circumcision” in some Muslim cultures.Also, there is no substitute for your breast milk. Period. Many wonderful mothers have come to find this out after the fact. And this is ok. Forgive yourself, and begin to take measures to feed your young one in ways to compensate.
Keep your children from the doctors and dentists. If there is Mercury in any of your family members do the research and get it out. Avoid pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries like the plague! They are useless and harmful except in the rarest of emergencies. This may seem extreme in the beginning but is the obvious conclusion over time and from experience.
There is so much to say here, but I think that we can draw conclusions by looking to our ancestors and to nature.
In transitioning your families and children it is key to remember that good food tastes better and is more satisfying. Be careful not to set up a confrontational situation for yourself. Go slow, and appreciate others rights to choose.
Know that schools will seem to work against you. Be realistic. And ask yourself, why are my kids in a school to begin with. Maybe it is time to begin educating them at home!
Be well informed before trying to push children into veganism, and be sure that what you are feeding them has been time tested. Become informed about what foods are most hazardous to their endocrine systems, including soy, flax, and many other seeds. These phytoestrogens are just beginning to be recognized by our community and are reeking more havoc on children than adults.
Encourage relationships to nature for your children, and take them to springs and farms. Children love to forage, so sign up for herb walks or get them out into the woods.
Are you trying to indoctrinate your children into a cult of diet, or are you looking to develop their communion with the natural world of health and healing. This is an important distinction to make!
As a guy, do you have any tips for ladies trying to win-over their partners whom may not be all ‘raw, raw, raw’ over the idea of giving up their meat and potatoes?
Yes! I think that there are a few things that can really help. It is important to understand the underlying motivations of this archetypical “meat and potatoes” man you describe.
First, lets be honest, this man does not see the “new ideal” of the metro-sexual yogi vegetarian male as much to strive for. Trying to push or persuade them with weight loss, cancer, anti-aging, etc are not very effective.
What is most important to this kind of man is his perceived masculinity and feelings of being an able provider. It is his performance.
As I have been mentioning throughout this interview, veganism is not likely to be very attractive to this kind of male. It might be wise to drop this from your approach and instead to guide by implanting ideas that lead towards an increased sense of maleness.
For instance… If the average man understood that the hormone altering affects of many of the foods in his diet were leading him into premature andropause (ie, soy or vegetable oil, found in almost all processed foods) and therefore a loss of his precious sexuality and performance, he would likely begin to see things differently.
Also, what about the hops in beer? They turn out to be one of, if not the most, estrogenic food substances consumed by humans… This is why they create a physique that looks more like those ancient goddess statuettes than a chiseled Greek god!
That the hormone altering affects of plastics or the pharmaceuticals that are showing up in the municipal tap water are leading to a diminished production of androgens (male sex hormones) and causing them to lose their “edge”, their vigor, and their well… Things get a bit flaccid if you know what I mean.
Your partner may get excited about herbalism when he discovers effective natural “viagra” like substances. Yohimbe comes to mind. Believe me, this one is effective. Not just some claim like we hear about foods like maca… This one gets you there… Like a rock.
It may pique his interest to know that herbs, like Ginseng allowed the Taoist sages to live long lives, beyond what modern man believes possible, and to have active sex lives even into their very late years! Herbs like maca and nettle root can prevent prostate enlargement and keep serum testosterone from becoming estrogens!
Herbs like Pine Pollen actually contain Testosterone, and can be used much like a natural steroid!
He might want to know that de-mineralization will cause his hair to go grey early.
This is how you motivate a man. Not by badgering, scolding, or trying to convince him to auto-emasculate through the consumption of flax crackers! Men can sense this a mile away, and will run in the other direction…
Raw meats and eggs (look at ideas like the “primal-diet” or “instinctive eating”) can be just the thing that get him motivated and keep him vital. It is likely that he is not seeing many role models within the rawfood world that are displaying what he would like to have!
And then there is the effect on the taste of his…………..
Like myself, I know you are into Martial arts. Tell me a little about your discipline. What else do you do for exercise, say, outdoors?
Great question!
First let me say that what we are talking about here is making a serious and clear commitment to Survival. No matter what. Always. That is the point of martial training. It is the art of staying alive, of having what it takes to confront your moment of truth.
But, we throw around terms like “martial arts” pretty lightly in our culture. Lets have a closer look. Martial comes from the word Mars, and Mars is the god of war and warfare. Therefore “martial arts” are martian or war arts. There are very few of these left, and most are sport versions of the arts that they stem from. This is wonderful and timely.
It is not very good table conversation today, and especially in our subculture, to discuss war and its strategic application. What I will say is that the martial studies exist in perfect balance to the study of healing. My personal philosophy is that the study of war, which is destructive or disassembling in nature, better informs ones ability to understanding healing, which is constructive and assembling in nature.
The study of both, and the mastery of both is a worthy, albeit uncommon pursuit. One issue that I think many of us perceive in modern exercise methods is that they are physical expenditures of energy that seem to have no purpose other than the tonifying of our bodies and burning away the food we have just spent our money and labor on. Martial arts are fantastic forms of physical culture and purposeful learning. They are functional, and do not (assuming one finds a valuable art) produce the mediocrity that treadmill types of exercise encourage.
I will keep my “art” personal and allow you to take a guess. I will offer this… Any true warrior art includes every aspect of physicality. Therefore all experiences in nature feed back into the Way of the Warrior, whether walking through the forest or climbing a sheer cliff. Swimming in the ocean or cartwheeling through a park… All physical endeavors and experiences of nature are part of my training. They are also part of my healing… How perfect. Remember that it is about training for Survival under any circumstance.
What kinds of training would you do if you were literally training to be prepared to Survive anything? How much Fun would/could you have with this?
Also, a good friend and fellow Warrior/Healer once said to me “one who knows how to break a bone should also know how to heal one”…This is the way of the Warrior. The Evolution of the Warrior Path is the Warrior~Mystic…. The Warrior~Mystic does more than simply Survive… They SurThrive. They know that they are the creators of the reality they experience, and therefore can Thrive no matter what the circumstance. To me this duel path, the martial arts coupled with the healing arts, breeds the Warrior~Mystic…
How do you keep yourself motivated? What is your spiritual practice?
The secret for me has been to understand what the source of motivation truly is. It is Pleasure and Pain. If we perceive something to be more pleasurable than painful we will continue forward with it. If the pain becomes greater than the Pleasure we will discontinue. We are really that simple.
I have learned (to some extent) to manipulate my behavior with this principle. Lets imagine that you wanted to begin a new exercise regimen. Likely the thing that has kept you from it was the perception that it would be painful.. Either boring, laborious, tiring, time-consuming, etc… The perceived pleasure is dulled by the perceived pain.
What if you could amplify the pleasure that you believed it would offer. A better looking and feeling physique, a pain free body, looking better in and out of your clothes, self confidence and the feeling of more time in the day. What if you amplified the perceived pain of not beginning this regimen? The pain and discomfort you presently feel in your body, the little aches and pains. The tiredness that comes from sedentary living. Feeling the lack of tone and metabolic fire that comes from avoiding exercise. The Fear of weight gain and its associated dis-eases.
The real secret to this is to feel the pain and pleasure. Simply thinking of them will not work. This must be felt and experienced.It works very well when attempting to eliminate a food that we may have had an addictive pattern with.
Who in the raw community is exciting to you and personally inspiring?
I am inspired by the integrity and wisdom of the new generation. Those who have not yet picked up the mantle of teaching. The generation before mine paved the way for me, and I and my generation are clearing the way for those to come. They are far more real and integral than I can yet conceive. They are the evolution of our ideas and response to the stimulus of our modern environment. These are your children Moms! The improved models!!!
Are you in a relationship? Is she raw? Would you ever be with someone who wasn’t raw? Does she have to be as raw as you? Any thoughts to how you will raise your children one day?
Hahaha. Single White Male, Enjoys the Elements, Consciousness and Cacao Beans.
There are so many wonderful women, and I do not measure them by percentages of “rawness”. Any woman who would occupy that sacred space with me would have to have incredibly high standards about what she chooses to be built from. Not just because I would want her to, but because to function with me at the level that I choose to, she would have to.
What type of woman interests and excites you? What qualities do you look for?
What most entices and enthralls me are women who have tread a similar path. Those who embrace their femininity and mastered their own bodies. Those who understand their moon cycle and the magick of their intuitive ability.
I am not very attracted to mere mortals. I appreciate goddesses, women who can embrace their full potential and independence. I am most attracted to women who have learned to differentiate reality and possibility from the story book “find your value through your prince charming” fantasy stories of their childhoods.
I am not attracted to Barbie dolls and high heels. I like natural Elven Princesses and Queens. Those who know the herbs and animals and the power of their dreams.
What is your idea of a ‘perfect day for Daniel’?
Every day contains the possibility of enlightenment! The days that I enjoy most are the result of remaining in the flow of creative energy and anabolic expression. Perfect days are the result of loving myself and embracing the possibility of all I am capable of. When days are less than perfect I know I am letting fear, futility, and contraction rule me.
It is less about “good days” and “bad days” and more about mastery of cycles. Everything is cyclical. The natural result of a high is a low, every wave crest is followed by its trough. The full moon is followed by the new, and the Summer Solstice is the balance of that of Winter.
What is more valuable than trying to stay “high” and avoid “lows” is to know the place, purpose, and usefulness of all things. The pursuit of this kind of mastery is meta-fulfilling and, I feel, a very noble and worthy pursuit.
What does a ‘typical’ day look like for you in terms of your diet?
This is a loaded question… So, I am excited to answer it!
First, let me be clear, there is no place that we ever “get to” with regards to what we eat. This is, like so many other pursuits, an ever evolving and changing quest. I remember attending a lecture, when I had been 16 times around the sun, with a prominent rawfoods educator. He mentioned that he had been on his diet path for 14 years, and then proceeded to explain what he was “working on” with his nutrition approach. I remember thinking “after 14 years you don’t have it nailed down yet???!!!
Today, after a decade and a half of intense nutritional education and experience, I am still always developing and shifting my approach.
I no longer subscribe to any one idea, so things like Veganism, Rawfoods, Superfoods, and the like no longer hold the powerful sway they once did. I have come to understand that all approaches contain seeds of value, though each on has its inherent limitations, and can only take you so far.
Lao Tzu said that if you lean on any one idea too long it collapses. I have found this to be consistently true (and I am sure it is true for this saying as well!).
My diet goes through cycles and changes. Last year a typical day looked like fresh spring water in the morning, an Elixir in the early day, and a raw vegetable meal in the evening with seeds and nuts, and sea vegetables. At that time I was eating a lot of my daily calories from sugars in the form of honey and agave. This winter my diet contained more steamed vegetables, quinoa, and raw, grass fed dairy products. I also began a fairly intensive exploration of raw meats, and this allowed me to significantly reduce my sugar intake.
Right now I find a rhythm with spring water early in the morning, sometimes with MSM, shilajit, and other “supplements”. I like to have some calories by noon, and this is almost always in the form of an Elixir. This will often contain things like fresh teas made form herbs, medicinal mushrooms, barks, or flowers. Added to it are things like coconut butter, chia seeds, cashews, spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, etc…
I have been sweetening with powdered stevia leaf (not the extracted kinds) lately, and really reducing my consumption of mono- and di- saccharides. I also like mesquite, different salts, cacao butter, chlorella, etc…Lots of berries (of all types), and of course cacao! Nibs are my favorite for drinks, though powdered cacao is also on the menu.
These drinks are often half of my daily food intake. I like to balance them with an evening meal of raw or steamed vegetables, with olive oil, salt, and lemon or vinegar, as well as herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil, sage, oregano, etc… Often my evening meal will be raw meats, bone marrow, or other animal foods, either as is, or with a bit of spice, like salts, cayenne, peppercorn (a berry), chipotle, coriander, etc… I tend not to mix animal and vegetable foods too often.
I also enjoy fermented condiments with my evening foods, often sour krauts, kim-chee, or kombucha… These aid in digestion, lower stomach pH, and feed us abundantly with vital organisms that we call probiotics. As I mentioned, this is ever changing, shifting, and evolving, just like me. I hope that your approach does too! Eating the same foods for too long leads to at best boredom and at worst allergy and malnourishment! For many of those reading this, our diets have become a sort of “Hero’s Quest”. This means that the pursuit of refinement is a purpose unto itself. As it should be.
Anything else you would love to add, dear?
Just some closing words. You are an expression of the infinite divine. Both darkness and light emanate from the same source. Embrace all that is, and know that you are projecting the reality you are experiencing. If there are things you would like to change in your life, look within. The source is there. If you struggle to change the outside world you will be forever lost in illusion.
Change is the nature of all things. This situation that we face today on Earth feels frightening and confusing. It is a cycle of change so vast that we can barely conceive it. Be patient and remember that you are here for self-mastery. Even the ability to love and relate is born of self mastery. Use this experience, this lifetime for all it is worth. And embrace the change. It is inevitable! Thank you, Shannon.
As we will explore the timeless Wisdom of Ayurved, we’ll learn new ways to keep balanced throughout the year, restoring Harmony in our Lives by being more in tune with Mother Nature and Her Cycles.
I have been studying under the guidance of world reknowned teachers, although I consider Mother Maya (Swamini Mayatitananda of Wise Earth Ayurveda) the Warrior Goddess and most Beloved Guide.
It’s September and the routine is in an uproar. Kids going back to school, new activities start, a whole new schedule is settling in. It’s easy to let self-care and fitness go in the midst of it all.
Walk 10 minutes in the morning, 10 at lunch and 10 in the evening. While you’re waiting to pick your child up, why not take a walk? Or, do a cardio circuit while your watching TV. You can jog in place, jump rope, and do squats and lunges anywhere.
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It’s so easy-peasy there is no excuse not to try it. I love to grow delicious broccoli/garlic/lentil/alfalfa micro greens. I used to grow ’sunnies’ and buckwheat greens and wheatgrass with the trays of soil, but my smaller house doesn’t permit the space required, so we buy those now. Also, simple and nutritious sprouts that I regularly grow are buckwheat and oat groats that make beautiful raw porridges with fresh berries, and cinnamon. Also, I do sunflower seeds and almonds to germinate them and make them more digestible. We also have a garden for our greens and tomatoes and herbs and garlic. I’m no expert, but every year we are learning a little more, and it’s a great way to supplement our grocery budget for all the salads and green smoothies that we consume.
I really couldn’t just experiment on myself…Over the years I have gone on many wild walks with herbalists and dear friends like Shantree Kacera and David Wolfe, reading and studying their works along with Susun Weed and taking courses here and there, plus buying some helpful books and field guides…so I am feeling more confident.
Dave knows about health! He was totally wiped-out as a teen, then went through a decade without giving up, to find his way back. What I love most about Dave, besides his heart-felt conviction and dedication to helping others, is his generous networking spirit. He was one of the first to publish my writing in his magazine, VIBRANCE, the world’s most-read raw food lifestyle magazine. He loves to share everything he knows, including introducing people so the community feels more connected. For example, Dave told Karen Ranzi about me years ago when she was first writing her book on CREATING HEALTHY CHILDREN, and so Karen asked me to write a chapter. Now Karen is contributing to rawmom, thanks Dave! Dave is now Dr. Dave with a Phd as a Hygienic Doctor and a certified Nutrition Educator in health. His book, which I found in my public library and loaned to a friend who was suffering from Crohn’s disease, is called SELF HEALING COLITIS & CROHN’S. Leading people to health independence is David’s passion.
The next day I threw away the medicines, divorced myself from all medical intervention for good, gave up all meat and dairy forever and started a 3-day juice cleanse. By the second day I was coming back to life. On the third day I was feeling better and better and my enthusiasm and joy drove my family and friends crazy! My gut was feeling soothed and I was rejuvenating. I set myself free of illness, doctors and medicines for good, and my bowels were working better and better!!
I had the unexpected pleasure of running into Natasha at my local Health food Store this summer while my boys and I were popping in to do a little shopping. I had met Natasha on Facebook, and knew she was on a book tour. It was a great meeting! She gave me a copy of her book and I devoured it. It is full of simple, straight forward and up to the minute, yet, timeless nutritional advice on a proper detox. I am inspired again to make rejuvelac- but now instead of making it with wheat berries, I am using her cabbage recipe:
The modern world is a toxic place, and we’ve all become less healthy because of it, whether it is from the air that we breathe or the foods that we eat. Natasha Kyssa is a raw foods chef and lifestyle coach, and her company SimplyRaw helps people improve their health and wellbeing by integrating simple, natural-based guidelines into their current lifestyles. This informative and useful manual outlines Natasha’s twenty-eight-day detox program, which includes only raw and “living” foods (i.e., those that have been soaked, sprouted, or fermented). It is a gentle, effective method to cleanse the body of toxins and to provide optimal nourishment for healing. The author believes that we can heal ourselves naturally to mend the damage done to our bodies due to unhealthy environments and improper food choices.
Sometimes being a raw mom feels like double-duty- doing everything on top of making everything we eat from scratch, and then trying to get our brood to eat it! I can say from experience ‘been there done that’ so I can honestly say #1 IT GET’S EASIER and #2 IT’S TOTALLY WORTH IT! First of all, it pays of in so many ways: I literally haven’t had a sick child in YEARS! They are both crazy active, and completely free of any health complaints. Next, EMOTIONALLY it is the difference between night and day between raising a child on the Standard American Diet with an over emphasis on protein and cooked foods not to mention all the processed food like ‘pizza’ or worse, junk food which is mostly just chemicals as opposed to simple, natural, real food. Poor kids. They get a bad attitude because they feel sooooo crappy, and then they get low grades in school and have socialization problems, and just cannot function properly. It has happened that during holidays or other times when we would ‘fall off the wagon’ for a party or celebration, and naturally go overboard on sugar and cooked options, we all notice the difference immediately. We all become agitated and restless and bored and moody- not natural for us usually. In fact, its ridiculous how calm, caring and fun to be around both the kids are when their diet is excellent and we are all just enjoying life. By the way, Moms, this works best as a lifestyle and not just a diet per se. So, ensuring enough exercise and outdoor time and enough rest/sleep and the right kind of stimulation out in Nature and not too much media, etc., makes a BIG difference too. 
The amazing thing to remember is that kids LOVE to help, to be involved and to participate in whatever is happening. I have made it really clear that although I take-on most of the shopping and food prep, that I am not running a hotel or restaurant and their help is needed and appreciated. It’s a family or team spirit to makes sure that Mom isn’t overworked or feeling really resentful and tired. I consider children after the age of 5 to be great additions to the ‘workforce’ within the home. A household just doesn’t run well with ONE PERSON doing all the work! It isn’t fair or just, and no one would be able to feel good about it. Having chores and looking after our home together is a bonding experience and a great skill to learn. LAUNDRY, FOOD PREP, TIDYING, VACCUMING, SWEEPING, DUSTING, FILLING SPICE RACKS, everything is an opportunity to contribute and make a difference. Let your family know all the different daily and weekly chores, and start asking for input from everyone on a regular basis. Moms are precious and important too! And kids whom are given real-life opportunities to contribute and be involved are proud of their efforts and feel good about themselves.
