breakfast

-1 cup buckwheat groats, covered in water, soaked for about 30 mins
-1 golden apple, roughly chopped and cored
-1 tablespoon date paste (or one large date, or 2 small dates)
-cinnamon to taste
-sea salt (optional, to taste)
-4 large mint or spearmint leaves, more if smaller
-1 teaspoon slivered ginger, skin peeled
-filtered water, to blend

breakfast usually looks like this for me: a fresh green juice with lemon, then sometimes a piece of fruit or a green smoothie. pretty light.

i've been experiencing some pretty heavy feelings of detox of late though (cloudy thinking, tiredness, slight moodiness), and i woke up wanting something a little heavier to start my day. it was delicious! all minty and sweet and sort of "cozy" feeling.

detox is an interesting thing. sometimes i push myself to go a little faster than my body is willing to go i think and then i have to pay for it. until yesterday i was pretty much subsisting on fresh juice, fruits, and light salads. i was all very proud of my progress and how i thought this was a sign that i needed less food.

well, i was doing great on less food (which is a step up from before i must admit, where i would have been fainting). but the transitioning body is a storage house of pent-up junk. i forgot about that attic full of 23 years of cooked, non-vegan food! and all of a sudden i expected to be able to thrive on fruit and juice. a little naive... but we learn. ;)

it will take years to gradually clean out my body, and sometimes i get a little frustrated with the mountain of work ahead... then i remember i have to enjoy the process. and that i'm never going to achieve PERFECTION. but i can allow space for infinite growth.

that's something i've been contemplating a lot lately: infinite growth. what parts of my life have a binding "end point" and which ones will grow and develop with me, always challenging me, and always teaching me something new?

peace,
porter

my journey to raw

july 2007 i decided to bite the bullet and "go raw."  immeasurably inspired by my visit to NYC's pure food and wine, i figured it was worth a try. 

things i had already given up before going raw:

beef

dairy

refined sugars

packaged foods

things i was still eating that i needed to give up:

fish

eggs

cooked food

alcohol (wine at that point)

it wasn't easy and it wasn't simple.  

it was certainly worth it though.  

for all that i "gave up" i gained things that were so much more important:

1. no more colds or sore throats

2. no more hypothyroidism

3. no more anemia

4. no more apathy/sense of "lack of purpose" on earth

5. no more mood swings

6. effortless weight loss

7. increased strength and endurance

8. unexpectedly marked spirituality

9. a completely new positive outlook on life, awakening to its infinite possibility

in fact, it all happened so fast i got a little scared and went back to eating cooked food for dinner for about 5 months before i was ready to really embrace all that i was being offered.  

my goal is to inspire others to embrace this lifestyle.  it is not a fad diet.  it is common sense that exposing something to heat would destroy it.  our bodies, like all living bodies, were not designed to take in denatured, processed and reconstituted pseudo-food.  but don't take my word for it, see for yourself!