Raw Journeys

July 2008

Well…finally….have started blogging! What a word ‘blog’! So heavy and lumbering. Doesn’t sound very pulsing and living does it?

Pulse and passion… vibrant, verdant passion – it’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

The Personal

On a personal note, it has been a few years of dancing with this raw lifestyle; I have been spun about, waltzed then teased, embraced and challenged! And what a dance it has been!

The first three days I committed myself to being 100% as an experiment, I felt as if a great giant hand had stretched my eyelids open - and when I carried on for another two days, I was a happy and curious alien that had gently landed on Earth. Then….no…I wasn’t the alien, I was very much a part of the Earth – everyone else seemed alien –like!! ;-)

After that, I knew there was no going back on this raw dance; yes, there were moments where I had to sit and catch my breath, trip over new steps – but there was no going back! Even now, with the challenges I face trying to be raw andpregnant, to give up on this lifestyle is no longer an option. There is too much magic awaiting. There is too much pulse and passion.

Plosive pie

Winding Back……

Flitting through my early raw journals, I have scooped out a few of the inner sensations I felt in the hope that any of you attempting the raw dance for the first time will also be inspired to go ahead and try and hopefully feel these too.

*aliveness

*calmness -mood changes are amazing!

*purified

*senses heightened – especially eyesight

* great mental clarity

*compassion (no road rages like before!)

*control over emotions

* attracting wonderful synchronicities

* excited about each day upon waking - motivated to work and play

* cleaning up/ de-cluttering other aspects of life like the home

And the physical changes:

* hair strengthened with less knots (alongside cutting out commercial shampoos)

* clearer skin (note I say ‘clearer’ not clear as I have what I call my teen ‘battle

scars’)

* much easier bowel elimination

* eyes sparkle

* effortless weight loss – even face shape changed around the jowls!

* stronger nails

Of course, starting points are important – and if you already are a vege/vegan this may come a great deal easier than for someone who is a fast foodie cookie!

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After 2 months, I was high raw, but still eating a little cooked food like pasta.

Here are reflections on these early challenges:

* difficulty cutting out coffee (even after I cut it out, still loved that coffee bean aroma!) It got to a point where the stimulus of coffee was too much and I no longer wanted it.

• When heavy food was eaten like pasta, cheeks were puffy the next day
• Other sweets easy but chocolate hard to give up (this was before I had heard of raw cacao)
• Sometimes hard to be organised mentally and practically
• Trying not to be ‘all raw or nothing’ – achieving balance
• Social challenges – eating cooked food at restaurant/person’s house because it was there!
• Curious comments/ unwelcome ones.
• Becoming preachy about raw food
• Dealing with old cravings – even meat.
• Dealing with old emotions that were surfacing
• After the first year

• Jan – April of that year my dance slowed down – when something very sad in my life occurred. Went back to pastries, sweets and cooked food . What followed was lack of energy, weight gain and feeling ‘withered’ (that’s what I wrote in journal)
• Resumed 80% raw Easter of that year and what a difference! Cells sparkled and ignited with life force!

Following that:

• Complete lifestyle overhaul – for the better
• plunged into more and more raw home study
• used myself as a guinea pig and foraged in Cypriot fields for wild edibles like wild purslane and malva (glystiritha and moloshes to you Cypriots!)
• Stepped it up a notch with juice fasting and more wild greens
• Made a dedication to raw and invested in proper juicer, dehydrator, saladacco etc …’cos if you’re gonna really dance, you gotta wear the gown!
• Got married and even had a raw wedding cake!
• Heard and saw David Wolfe in all his raw glory in Athens (my, that does sound nicely obscene!)

With Gina ‘The Raw Greek’ at her stall at David Wolfe seminar in Athens

• Whirled and twirled with raw, without effort being 95-100% for months
• Raw Journeys set up

Rapassion!

RAW JOURNEYS:

For Raw Journeys, it is coming very close to a year of setting it up and in that time:

• the website has gone up, along with the online store with its superfoods, books and raw cosmetics
• have held a few raw -living workshops with my nutritionist friend Barbara Karafoka
• great potluck by the sea in Limassol – but by the time I got to my courgette ‘pasta’, it had all gone!
• have given experiential guidance to raw -curious people
• been part of two Mind Body Spirit exhibitions where we served Cacao Truffles, Rainbow Curry, Raw Pizza and Mango/Rocket Salad. My raw buddy Gina Panayi (www.therawgreek.com) also helped us out invaluably in November ’07 at the Nicosia Hilton Park

Ok…that’s enough for now….will be writing more about my 9 day juice fast which isn’t much by Angela Stokes (www.rawreform.com) standards, but still worth doing. And of course...will also tackle raw pregnancy and all its delightful tumultuousness!