Alive. Alive. Alive.

Why choose unhappiness?

2009-11-26T08:05:00.001-08:00

Quotes? I love them! They are a great way to get an intellectual piggy back ride from someone much cleverer than yourself. For todays entry I just had to bring up a quote I have found recently:

"We hardly ever realise that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye." - Don Juan Matus, Journey To Ixtlan.

I absolutely love the idea of this. How many people hang onto stuff that just isn't working for them anymore, completely unaware that the only thing stopping them from changing their lives is their limiting beliefs. What about all those people with unremittingly negative attitudes to life. The people people full of resentment and self pity, going through their lives unhappy and dragging down everyone who is unfortunate enough to become entangled. The people so negative that their personalities repel others, even turn others into antagonists. The people who ignore the good and only focus on the bad.

Could they cut the negativity out of their thoughts? How long would it take? My answer to this is that it would take as long as it takes to reach the decision! Don Juan Matus is right. The blink of an eye!

I wish more people realised that they are in control. Their happiness, their life, it's all their responsibility. I wish more people took responsibility for themselves.
I hope this doesn't sound like a whinge on my part! It just makes me sad seeing people unhappy, especialy people who have enough to eat and a roof over their heads. I'd much rather see these people happy. Maybe they don't realise that they are in control and have chosen to be unhappy, nobody ever told them they had a choice.

This principle can relate to everything in your life. How you treat others, how you treat yourself, the thoughts you permit your mind to dwell upon. Yes, even the way you approach your own health and well being.

Everything begins with a thought, and your thoughts are the seeds of everything you will experience in life. Take care to plant positive seeds, then you will reap positive experiences.

Well, if you've read this far, you know! There are no excuses. There is nothing in your life that can't be changed, by you. Everyone needs reminding of this sometimes. All it takes is to reach the decision to take action, and that can be achieved in the blink of an eye...

I love quotes!

Feeling good again

2009-11-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

Ok so since writing my very first blog entry, I seem to have undergone something of a change in outlook. I'm basically finding that I'm much less drawn to foods that I know are gonna make me feel less good than I do right now. Who knows, maybe writing it down and geting it clear in my own mind was all I needed, but at this rate the Alive Alive Alive blog could soon start to get very boring... Endless posts from yours truly going on and on about how flippin' marvellous he feels!!!

Anyway, first news is regarding Sam actually. After just 2-3 weeks of returning to eating dairy produce, milk, butter, cheese etc she has elected to remove it from her life once again. To cut a long story short, she was experiencing pain in her joints since starting to eat dairy again and knew from previous experience that the best way to remove that discomfort was to can the dairy. Easy! Sam & I have been talking about food a fair bit since my last post, and I think she's starting to feel that a lot of cooked food is pretty dissapointing compared to how she builds it up in her mind. Maybe my last postings prediction is gonna come true more quickly than I was expecting. People who've never eaten a high raw or 100% raw diet have nothing to compare their current state to, but once you've lived the raw lifestyle the feelings of aliveness and vitality it brings are always in your memory. Returning to cruddy processed food and the attendant sluggishness will leave you feeling... dissapointed. I think that's where Sam is at right now.

As for me, I'm feeling pretty cool right now, it seems I am back in control of my own mind and body. Once again I can see the health and happiness that is everyones birthright. I'm still eating some cooked food, today I had some gluten free pasta with a big fresh salad for lunch (felt absolutely fine afterwards so I'll be eating that again!) and later on I had a Russian salad - Brown rice with boiled peas, sweetcorn, swede etc. ( didn't feel so good after eating that I must admit, felt heavy and mentally fogged) . Next time I'll just go for a green smoothie;-)

Also today I felt some detox symptoms, a slight headache, a sudden tiredness, feeling like I had a cold coming on. It passed after about an hour, I know lots of other people have it much worse when they begin eating more cleanly, I'm quite lucky in that I've been a relatively healthy eater for a long time (my coeliac thing has left me no choice in that, funny how a serious autoimmune disorder can be something of a blessing too eh?) Anyway, those symptoms have passed and I'm right now feeling like I never want to eat anything fried ever again, and I have no interest in alcohol at all. Last time Sam had some wine it smelled awful to me!!!

I know I said in my first post that I wouldn't go on about the physical aspects of eating raw, but a couple of things have happened to me in the past couple of days that I'm quite excited about. Both of them are things which occured last I did this time too: 1.My eyes have become a brighter more vivid colour, almost like I'm wearing electric blue contact lenses. Quite different to the usual grey / hazel colour. 2. I need much less sleep now. I can stay up late and still be awake at dawn, feeling good when I wake up too. Quite a contrast to my cooked food life when I needed 9 hours sleep at least and never ever really felt fully rested. 3. My coeliac disease ridden bad skin is actually starting to look pretty damn good, I'm very happy about that indeed!

... Actually, I thought it might be a good idea for me to state here and now exactly why I am writing this blog. Basically, I think that by writing this down, I am helping myself sort out my own feelings about what I am doing and helping myself stay focussed. The act of publishing it for anyone to see acts as a moderating influence to me. No lieing to myself, no talking rubbish, I have to stay true to the facts, and thoroughly check the things I am going to say to make sure they are true and not just kneejerk reactions. So there you go. That's me.

Not sure what else to add today so I'll just say "Over and Out!"

Rick

Changes!

2009-11-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

Changes to the blog!

Actually there is only one change really and that is the fact that I have taken it over. Every post written before this point was the work of my girlfriend Sam. Everything after this point is me Rick!

So why the change?... Well as you can see, Sam hasn't posted anything in ages. The main reason being that she is no longer following the raw food lifestyle. She's decided to eat a primarily cooked food diet, meat and dairy included. As to why she's stopped the raw lifestyle, I'm guessing she swung too far towards raw food at a faster rate than she was ready for emotionally. Crisps and bread can have quite a hold on people, and right now the emotional satisfaction they give her cancel out the negative effects they have on her. She's a naturally enthusiastic person and reading her posts may make you wonder why on earth she'd give up feeling so good with raw food in favour of the dull lethargic feeling that comes with the baggage of cooked food. In reality, only she can answer that, we all move through life developing at the pace that suits us. I have a feeling she'll come back to the raw lifestyle in time... Maybe in a few months, maybe in a few years. She'll get the wakeup call in whatever form it takes, and she will know what to do.

Until then, that just leaves me! All alone in the house, the sole raw food person.
In all honesty, with Sam doing all this cooking I've been eating some cooked stuff too. Veggy stews, baked potatoes, chips etc. I've even discovered some gluten free pasta which I can eat in one of the local shops ( I have coeliac disease). It's been interesting to say the least. I've seen a direct correlation between my last meal and how I feel. I eat a raw meal and I feel energised and positive, I eat cooked food and I feel groggy and miserable. I think my Coeliac disease is partly responsible for the severity and speed at which the way I feel changes, but I make an interesting case study!

Right now I'm in the process of consciously trying to eat more raw, less cooked. I'm going to lay it on the line here because this is a struggle which anyone who is trying to improve their health will face.

I feel more drawn to cooked food than I do raw food. Given a choice between a raw smoothie and a plate of chips (fries for you USA folk out there!!), I'm drawn towards the chips!
This doesn't entirely make sense as when I do eat the chips, they don't actually taste that nice, they are something of a greasy dissapointment, and to top it off they leave me feeling heavy, bloated and tired. When I have a smoothie, it tastes genuinely nice, fresh, vibrant & sweet. I enjoy it immensely and feel like I could just go and grab another one, no problems. On top of that, the smoothie leaves me feeling energised and ready to face anything.

So why does this crappy cooked food have this hold? It's got to be something emotional, cause my body sure as hell doesn't want it!

That's my situation right now! I know exactly what the right course of action is. It's in direct opposition to the habits of almost my entire life. It's in direct opposition to the habits of almost everyone around me.

So I'm going to attempt to document the changes I go through. The psychological impact of changing your diet. The physical effects of eating raw food are well documented all over the web: Lose weight. Cure diabetes. Improve skin. Improve eyesight. Reverse signs of ageing. etc etc etc yada yada yada... You can read all about that stuff elsewhere. I'm gonna be the guy who writes honestly about the emotional struggles of someone making changes. Every tantrum, every moment of self pity, every moment of clarity. You can read about it here!

How do you put on weight on raw food?

2009-07-20T04:45:00.000-07:00

My partner is worried about losing too much weight, he does not look bad at all but his 28" trousers are falling down! so I am on a mission to help him bulk up a little the raw food way.

For breakfast I made us a huge and I mean huge smoothie it was probably about a pint and half each, I was so full but it was really good.

Huge breakfast feast smoothie

2 apples
2 bananas
2 kiwi fruit, skinned
2 peaches
good handful of greens, beet, kale, spinach
juice of 2 large oranges

Chop everything and chuck into the blender, add a little water if needed and blend until smooth

Serves 2 to the max!

Lunch was a raw green soup

1 apple
1/2 avocado
3 tomatoes
handful of greens, beet, kale, lettuce, mustard greens

Chop everything and blend with a little water, add more of needed.

With all the extras we usually have like salads and snacks he should be fine and start building up again, but this could easily become a problem and I have noticed that if your looking online for info it is really difficult to find and pretty much none existent.
I guess I am going to have to research a lot more and come up with some more recipes for this type of thing.

Busy Bee

2009-07-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for a bit and I am sorry about that, I have had trouble with my wisdom teeth and so have not felt much like eating or working on any recipes.
The good news is that I am all better now and am ready to get cracking on some stuff again!
I have been in the garden a fair bit recently and have got ridiculously over excited about the development of my Honeydew water melons, it is the first time I have ever been able to grow them and now they are taking shape I had to take a picture.

My partner has been busy too, he made a lampshade out of some twigs and paper!, it is a bit mad, but we think it is fun and that is what counts here!

Why eat raw food? 10 Reasons

2009-07-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

1 You will have more energy

2 You will reach your ideal body weight

3 You will reverse the signs of aging

4 You will feel sexier and happier about yourself

5 Your eyes will sparkle like never before

6 You will be more resistant to disease and allergies

7 Your skin will glow

8 You will care about what you put into your body

9 You can have your cake and enjoy it

10 You will live longer

Creamy tomato soup

2009-06-22T03:05:00.001-07:00

The thing I love most about raw food is that it is so easy to get great tasting results without a lot of hassle, this soup which I found the recipe for from here is a perfect example.

I tweaked it a little as I love experimenting with things and it came out really well.

Creamy tomato soup

6 Tomatoes, chopped
2 Cloves of garlic
1/2 an avocado
10 Basil leaves
pinch of sea salt

Place everything into a blender and add a little water then blend until smooth and creamy.

This was enough for 2 generous servings.

Enjoy

Hard work pays off

2009-06-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

It is brilliant my partner has worked so hard and now The beautiful ones have a record deal with Sunset connect Finally all the hard work is paying off and their album Grandio City is going to be released for download on August the 4th!!

Since joining forces in late 2008, Syeed. & Rick under the banner of the beautiful ones have succeeded in forging some of the freshest sounding music you are likely to hear anywhere at this point in history. The band is made up of two creatively powerful yet complementary forces, and with influences taken from such disparate fields as Electro, Indie, Funk, Classical, Punk & Soul, they have created a massively diverse and yet instantly recognisable signature sound, totally unlike anything else out there. At once catchy, danceable, dramatic and new.

Look out for the album Grandio City it will be available from loads of places to download and also you will be able to get the CD on demand at Amazon!

Raw cashew ice cream

2009-06-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

I made raw cashew ice cream for the first time today, I have been wanting to try it for a while but I was put off by not having an ice cream maker. Ha me of little faith! I found a method thats works pretty well and my partner and myself thoroughly enjoyed the results.

Raw cashew ice cream

2 cups of water
2 cups of cashews
1 cup of honey
juice of 1/2 lemon

Place everything into a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a freezer proof bowl and cover with cling film then place in the freezer.
Every 1/2 hour remove from the freezer and stir it up really well to break down the ice crystals that form, I did this about 4-5 times after that leave to freeze and you will be able to have lovely ice cream whenever you like.

I topped it with mashed up strawberries.

You could add vanilla or chocolate and any number of things to make great tasting ice cream.
Experiment and have fun!

Keep smiling

2009-06-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about how raw food effects your teeth and I have read quite a bit about how some raw foodists have really bad teeth they suffer from receding gums and tooth decay, I don't know about you but I am sure I do not want any of that so I have been scouting about for ways to prevent bad teeth and promote good dental health, It seems quite easy really if you follow simple rules your smile will continue to dazzle and shine!!

1 Eat more greens

2 Brush your teeth, regularly

3 Do not eat too many nuts and dried fruit

4 Avoid overconsumption of acidic fruits

Eating greens actually helps to rebuild your teeth and tooth enamel, they are also important for eye health and so it is very important to get lots of them into your diet, the best ways I find is to add them to juices and smoothies as well as eating them in salads, in fact if your clever there are lots of ways to add more greens to your diet and it won't just be your teeth thanking you either.

Heres to a dazzling smile and sparkling eyes!

Lemon and lime pie

2009-06-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

I made this yesterday and it did not last long at all, in fact it was hit and miss whether it would be around long enough to have its picture taken!
I made the base with sunflower seeds as nuts are a bit on the pricey side and this is a cheaper way of doing it, it still tastes nice though.
It was pretty easy dessert to make and tastes lovely.

Lemon and lime pie

Crust
1 cup of sunflower seeds
1/3 cup raisins, soaked for 10 mins or so
teaspoon of honey

Filling

3 bananas, chopped
1/2 avocado
juice of 1 and 1/2 lemon and 1 lime

make the base by wizzing the seeds, raisins and honey in a food processor, maybe adding a smidge of water to get it all together.
I line a pie dish with baking parchment and then press the crust into the bottom.

In a blender place the bananas and avocado and juice and blend until smooth.
Pour into the pie dish and put the whole thing into the freezer until it has set.
Enjoy!

Keeping your cool.

2009-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well summer is here with intense style here in Bulgaria, It is very hot and sunny most days now and apart from spending the vast amount of time watering the veggie garden every morning and evening, I am currently enjoying making my own cool and refreshing lemonade.
It is just what is needed when the heat is on and it is so easy to make that I can always have some ready and waiting in the fridge.

Refreshing Lemon Drink

Juice of 1 or 2 lemons
half fill a blender with water
Honey to taste

Blend it all up to combine everything really well, pour into a large jug and serve over ice.
Perfect for all occasions.
Enjoy!

Raw pasta and pesto

2009-06-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the pasta and pesto we had after the lovely strawberry and tomato bliss salad, it was very yummy and really quite easy to make too.
The pesto recipe is already on the site and the pasta was made by using a vegetable peeler to get thin strips of carrot and courgette and then stacking them up and slicing them into thin strips with a knife, pretty simple really.

I made the pesto in the pestle and mortar and it was really easy, I put a few bits of mint in it and a little squeeze of lemon for added flavour and it turned out really well.
It's funny really I always used to think pesto was hard to make or something and had never tried it for ages and now I think nothing of wipping some together and really enjoy the process too.
I honestly think it is easier to make it with a pestle and mortar than using a food processor or blender, you have less washing up and it is easier to experiment and add new things and see how it all comes together.
Try it sometime, you wont regret it!

Strawberry and tomato salad bliss

2009-06-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

As the weather is hotting up quite nicely here in Bulgaria, I have been eating more fruit and loving juicy tasty salads. With the strawberries ready in our garden now this is a really nice and pretty low cost salad to make.
This salad really hits the spot on a hot day and is a great starter, juicy sweet and very easy to get hooked on. We had it as a starter before serving up carrot and courgette pasta with basil pesto.

Strawberry and tomato salad bliss

2 lbs of strawberries
3/4 lbs tomatoes chopped
1 lemon
2 tablespoons of honey

Wash strawberries and remove stems, cut into quarters and place into a bowl with the chopped tomatoes.
Squeeze the lemon and add honey to the juice and stir until well mixed, add this to the strawberry and tomatoes.
Serve straight away or leave in the fridge for an hour.
Serves 6

With a hop, skip and a jump

2009-06-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

I have decided I do not get enough excerise and have started skipping, I found an old bit of rope in the boot of the car, hows that for cheap equipment!!
I can only go for about 3 mins at the moment and it really was a suprise to me how out of shape I was.
Skipping is an excellent way to trim your hips, thighs and bum and will give your heart and lungs some work too as I quickly found out.
Apparently 10 mins of skipping can burn between 70-110 calories, depending how hard and fast you go, something I will need to build up to.
I intend to skip everyday before breakfast and see how quickly I can build up my time.
You never know I may get good enough to try some nifty manouvers like double unders and hop jump!
wish me luck :)

Getting juicy

2009-06-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

I love juices but of late I have been neglecting them a little, so as of today I have decided that for breakfast and lunch I will be having a large juice (about a pint) I thought it would also be a great way of using the radish greens and nettles I have in abundance at the moment.
I think I will do this for a week and see how I go, it is a little like a mini juice fast, but not really!
Todays juices where:-

breakfast
2 oranges and 2 apples.
Lunch
5 carrots, 1 apple, handful altogether of spinach, kale and radish leaves, 3 pea pods, 1cm of ginger root.

They went down pretty well and I am looking forward to tomorrow, I think I will don the gloves and get me some nettles.

For dinner I am going to have some mixed sliced veg( carrot, courgette and aubergine), guacamole and salsa with some salad wrapped up in lettuce leaves, I like to get plenty of greens into me it always makes me feel better.

Basil the herb of love

2009-06-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Basil
There are many rituals and beliefs associated with basil. The French call basil l'herbe royale. Jewish folklore suggests it adds strength while fasting. It is a symbol of love in present-day Italy, but represented hatred in ancient Greece, and European lore sometimes claims that basil is a symbol of Satan. African legend claims that basil protects against scorpions

Preserving Basil
one method of preserving all the flavour of basil is to layer the leaves in a jar, and lightly salt them. Cover the leaves with a layer of olive oil. Seal the lid tightly and place in a cool, dark spot or refrigerate. Use the leaves as needed and reseal each time. This will keep up to six months. The oil soon becomes infused with the essence of the basil, making it ideal for use in dressings or in pastas.

Basil pesto

1 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh spinach
½ cup pine nuts
3 large garlic cloves
½ teaspoon black pepper, fresh ground
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Place the basil, spinach, pinenuts and garlic into a food processor and pulse a few times to mix and chop everything.
Add the salt and pepper then slowly add the olive oil whilst the processor is going.
Add extra salt and pepper if required.

Variations
You could use walnuts instead of pine nuts, chop these up a bit first.
Rocket could be used instead of the spinach and basil for a different flavour

Growing up the wall

2009-05-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

I came across a story here about vertical gardening
The idea was created by Patrick Blanc a french botanist and artist, what a clever person he is too! The idea of growing plants up a wall was I thought limited to vines and ivy, but no this clever chap has created beautiful vertical gardens with all sorts of plants in London and Paris.
Wow what a way to liven up some really dull facades and also create some real beauty and harmony. I really hope it becomes really popular, as I am sure there are lots of places that would look stunning with this sort of thing.
You can get kits to make a small version for your own house, I bet it would add a new dimension and talking point to your garden and house. I hope I can get one!

Snack attack

2009-05-24T03:26:00.000-07:00

I am sure I am not alone when it comes to needing a snack every so often, this is one of my faves as once you have made the Moona it is simple to put together and really rather tasty! It is also a great way to use carrot pulp from your juicer.

Moona

1/4 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of walnuts (you can also use pumpkin seeds or almonds)
1 small onion chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of water
3 cups of carrot pulp

Place everything except the carrot pulp into a blender and blend until smooth.
Place the carrot pulp into a bowl and pour the contents of the blender over the top.
Mix it up really well and if you like add some chopped fresh herbs.

It will keep in the fridge for about a week.
I have also made this with just sunflower seeds and it is just as good.

I love it on top of sliced tomato with a ripped up vine leaf on top.

By the way the basic recipe is usually known as mock tuna but we thought it was so good it needed it's own name so Moona was born!!

Tomato salad

2009-05-24T02:05:00.000-07:00

Tomato salad with spinach cream

Rick my partner whipped this together yesterday and it was pretty tasty!

To make it you just throw some salad leaves and greens, Spinach, vine leaves whatever you fancy on a plate.

Slice a couple of tomatoes and arrange on top, sprinkle some chopped spring onion and a couple of chopped radish.

For the spinach cream

A handful of sunflower/pumpkin seeds
juice of half a lemon
1 clove of garlic, chopped
small handful of spinach leaves
pinch of salt

Place everything into a blender and add enough water to make a creamy consistancy.
Pour over salad and enjoy.

Curry dip recipe

2009-05-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

Ok here is the curry dip recipe I used with the veggie bites.

Curry dip

1/2 Avocado
Juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup of Olive oil
1 tablespoon Curry powder
Pinch of salt

Place everything in your blender and blend adding water until you get a smooth and thick dip!

Making Beautiful music

2009-05-20T01:59:00.000-07:00

Ok I may be a little biased here but I really think you should check out http://www.thebeautifulones.org/
They are making great music and the singer is really amazing, they have just released their first single and it is available for free....Yes free download! It is well worth a listen and you wont be dissapointed!!
Rick and Syeed have worked really hard to get this all together and need all the love and support you can give them.

Check them out and let them know you care.

Veggie Bites recipe!

2009-05-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time to start adding some recipes to my blog, after all it is about raw food!
So here is the first...

Veggie Bites

For the bites

1 and a half cups of Corn (I used frozen)
1 cup each of grated Carrot and Courgette
1 small onion finely chopped
2 tablespoons of Olive oil
1/4 teaspoon each of Garlic powder, Curry powder, Chilli powder and Salt

In a food processor, puree 1/2 cup of corn with a small amount of water if needed.
Place all the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and add the pureed corn to it, mix well.

For the coating

1 cup of ground flax seeds
1/4 teaspoon each Garlic powder, Chilli powder, Curry powder
Salt to taste

Mix the ground flax seeds and seasonings well and spread onto a plate.
Take a tablespoon of the mixture and carefully roll in the coating, Place it onto a dehydrator sheet and shape as you desire, repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Dehydrate until they are firm enough to handle turn them over and continue dehydrating untill they have reached the texture you desire.

Serve with your fave dip or sauce and enjoy!

Quick note, I do not have a dehydrator myself I use my oven on its lowest setting, which works very well for me so I am unable to give more precise instructions on the temperature or dehydrating time, I can say that they took me about a day and a half to "cook".

Hope you enjoy them

Getting fruity in the mornings!

2009-05-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love a fruit salad for breakfast every morning, it is an easy way to get a jumpstart on the calorie intake and is easy to digest on an empty stomach, also tastes lovely!
I usually have an apple, banana and a couple of oranges but it all depends on what looks good when we go shopping.
I love adding Kiwis and peaches or whatever is in season, it really fills me up and keeps me going until lunchtime.
I love fruit so much I somethimes think I could just eat it all day.

My first rant!!!

2009-05-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

We were watching Donnie Darko the other night, excellent film which always sends my brain to jelly when I try to figure out what is actually happening and why!!.... Anyhow it got me thinking about Patrick Swayze and his struggle with cancer, I really hope he pulls through and gets himself well again, but with the medical establishment as it is, I am surprised anyone gets through it at all.

I believe that what we eat totally affects our health in the short and long term, if you are feeling crap it is usually down to what you have eaten recently and how you have( or have not) looked after yourself. To say there is no cure for something is to miss the point entirely, after all if you are living a healthy life and eating the things your body needs to support you there would be no need to really be "cured" of anything, drugs and more drugs most certainly do not cure anything they just make the symptoms go away, unfortunatly people believe they have been "cured" and go right back to whatever it was they where doing before they got ill in the first place thus ignoring and ignorant of their bodys cry for help and change.

No wonder there is so much cancer, obesity, and diabetes in the world, everyone living highly stressed lives with no real idea that what they put into their body is exactly what they will get out, a quick snack at a fast food joint and your setting yourself up for a crash and a half, it really is ludicrous that people are not more aware of this.

Everything that is wrong can be changed for the better and raw food is a great way to start, once you get into eating raw food you feel so much better and it has made a great difference to my life, I have better skin and it is lovely to no longer be overweight, I have more energy to do the things I need to do, and I do not spend loads of money on crappy prepackaged fake food just to make me feel better, I feel great and have no need for it all as I once did.

Probably one of the hardest things for a raw food eater is watching others on a path towards self destruction while knowing that your own experiences and opinions are an unwelcome truth. There is a famous quote somewhere which says something like "It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet". Watching others get ill, especially those you care about, is very difficult indeed when you know that their problems could be solved with a simple change of diet. Ultimately though, people must be allowed to make their own decisions, for better or worse. I may be ranting a little here, but in real life very few people at all even know about my diet. Once people catch on that another person is eating something different, they tend to get very defensive about their own diets, and will fall over backwards trying to find holes in yours. Why? I really don't know, but I have no desire to make others feel uncomfortable, so I try to keep my lifestyle choices to myself.

As I say though, it's just difficult at times watching people hurting themselves...

Well that's my rant for the day over, hope you all don't mind!

Have a great day
Sam

Yummy Veggie wraps

2009-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

These are the very yummy raw veggie wraps I made, so good I really will have to make these again soon.
In them I put some sliced veg which I had marinaded in a little lemon juice, dried garlic and a pinch of salt, topped it off with salsa.
Very good and quite filling.

Vegetable bites and curry dip

2009-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here is the picture of the vegetable bites that we had on Saturday, I decided to make a curry dip to go with them and I must say they tasted really good.
Not too much trouble to make either, we will be having these again.

Foods I cannot live without

2009-05-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have noticed since being raw that there are some things I always have in the kitchen, for example:-

Tomatoes
Carrot
Courgette
Spinach
Lettuce
Avocado
Apples
Lemons
Oranges
Bananas
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Walnuts
Flax seeds
Honey

With these ingredients I can make any number of yummy dishes and it does not take much effort at all, in fact it is much easier now than it was when we ate cooked food.

Living in Bulgaria does make finding some things difficult as a lot of the things you take for granted elsewhere are just not available here. For example I really wanted some sundried tomatoes for a Ketchup recipe I wanted to try but as yet have not found anywhere that sells them, I guess I will have to wait till my tomatoes have grown and sun dry my own. You learn quickly here that if you want something you should grow it yourself or do without, that is why most Bulgarians have huge gardens and grow an amazing amount of food for themselves, it is a great idea and it is one of the many reasons we moved here in the first place

I could buy things over the internet but it would make everything very expensive and I am quite happy to live without a lot of things that most raw foodists would have you believe you cannot live without, I find that if I have my basics I can add whatever I like to it if and when I want to.
Eating a raw food diet should not be an expensive and complicated experience after all what is more natural than picking up an apple and taking a big bite?

Gardening and uncooking!

2009-05-09T04:02:00.000-07:00

Today is a lovely sunny day, perfect to get out and do some much needed gardening. It is amazing how the weeds seem to grow about three times faster than anything I plant myself.

The red salad and rocket are doing very well and we have a whole heap of spinach (which I love) still waiting for the Kale to get going and we have the first flowers on the Peas! The Strawberries are going to be ready real soon and there are quite a few goosberries on my little goosegog bushes, it is all so exciting watching everything develop and grow.

Whilst we were cutting and weeding the Vegetable Bites I had decided to make up yesterday were finishing dehydrating in our oven on low. I never thought to buy a dehydrator as my oven goes low enough to do the job and cost a whole heap less!!

I have also got some corn tortillas in there for veggie wraps later on, Mmm that is going to be sooo good.

I will put up some pictures of everything soon so you can see just how good they are ;)

Have a nice day

First post!!!

2009-05-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, and welcome to the ALIVE ALIVE ALIVE blog!

My name is Sam (short for Samantha, female btw!) and I have been living on a raw food diet for 2 years on and off. In that time I have seen and felt many exciting changes in myself, both physically and emotionally.

1 year ago, my partner Rick and myself upped and moved our entire lives from the UK to Bulgaria, where we now live permanently. We bought an old house with a huge garden in the country and are now growing as much of our own food as we possibly can. We are both 100% raw and are enjoying the incredible feelings of vitality and focus that such a lifestyle choice brings.

Seeing as this is my first blog entry, I thought I'd explain a bit about our decision to go raw in the first place. For myself, I had found that my body was conforming to the UK national norm of going up one dress size for each decade I was alive, and so found myself in my early 30's as a size
16! Not a great size for someone of my stature at 5'1"!!! Although I was not incredibly overweight by modern standards, I was certainly not happy.

My relationship with food was very bad, I would binge on junk food, then feel guilty and will myself to follow an incredibly restricted calorie controlled diet of some sort. Sometimes I would lose a little weight, but it would always return with a vengeance, often within weeks. I had come to a place in life where I was starting to accept that I would never be the slim girl I was in my teens again, and all that was in store for me was a gradual ballooning in size, until finally I had to be lifted out of my own house on a crane and taken for weekly NHS subsidized baths at the local
swimming pool...

My partner Rick had entirely different reasons for needing to make changes to his diet. He was unable to put on weight no matter how much food he consumed (much to my annoyance!), he suffered badly from mood swings, seemed to have days where he had so much excess energy he couldn't relax, then had other days when he barely had the energy to get out of bed. Add to that painful stomach cramps and a very distressing spotty rash all over his face, which had grown steadily worse over time. It seemed that almost everything Rick ate had some sort of adverse effect upon him, and even though he had stopped eating the foods that had the biggest effect (meat and dairy produce mainly) he was still not in a good way healthwise. After experimenting with living on nothing but steamed veg for 2 weeks and finding that his health problems all but dissapeared, he started to suspect that his problem was something to do with wheat products. One trip to the doctor later it was confirmed for him that this was partially the case. He was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, which in simple terms meant that he couldn't eat anything containing gluten. No bread, no pasta, no cakes, no biscuits, no beer, no malt vinegar, the list of things he couldn't eat seemed endless.

Between my constant weight gain, and poor Rick's incredibly expensive but mind numbingly boring gluten free diet, it was clear to both of us that a big change was needed.

After looking around online at various approaches to food I started reading about the raw food diet. Even though both Rick and I were vegetarian, it seemed awfully extreme. No cooked foods, just fruit, veg, nuts and seeds. The people doing it did look incredibly healthy though, there were many reports of larger folk losing vast amounts of weight and not regaining it, and it was also naturally gluten free and very nutritious, just the thing for Rick so we decided to give it a try.

At first we just gradually introduced more raw food into our diets, although it only took a month or so for us to transition to being completely raw. Once the decision was made the transition was honestly very easy. If something makes you feel FANTASTIC, it's easy to keep on doing it...

So there you are, that's how it all began 2 years ago. I'll be using this blog to document our ongoing experiences as raw folk in Bulgaria, novice gardeners, experts in easy weight loss and Coeliac Disease beaters!

Hope you enjoy reading.

Sam
XXX