Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Day 34 (Tuesday): Win, Place or Show

I never usually get involved in work-related "special" days (like "Fashion Show at the Office" and such), but today the firm celebrated "Staff Appreciation Day" and hosted a horse race/betting table sort of event, using three trivia games, the first being for "win" and the second and third games being for "place" and "show." A buddy here talked me into being on one of the teams (of 10) and we (or rather our "horse," who we named Big Red) won first place. Each of us received an envelope with $30 cash in it. Earlier they gave us $25 American Express gift checks -- so today I was blessed with fifty-five dollars I hadn't counted on ... a pleasant surprise.

Now I can go buy more FRUIT!

Speaking of which, this morning I had a banana and my green juice power "scrub." I felt like I wanted more cucumber, so I asked the juice gal to put in two whole cucumbers. Used apple instead of carrot to cut the bitterness of the kale, and it was very good. At the "continental breakfast" table provided by the firm I had a few fresh blackberries and strawberries, and succumbed to two mini cranberry scones (one of few times in the past month I've had white flour). For lunch I had a medium salad, and for dinner I had my usual zucchini "pasta" with raw sauce made from tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, pine nuts and lemon juice.

For exercise, I walked from the train station this morning, and made sure to walk a couple of "laps" at work (one floor in my office building is huge ... at least an eighth of a mile if you walk it square, I'd guess.) I'm easing into walking again because I'd hurt my knee in an ice slip not long ago (totally wrenching a weak knee from a previous injury), and only now is it feeling its old self again. Must be all those nutrients ... it was taking its sweet time healing up until about two weeks ago.

What I've noticed on this raw food experiment of mine -- now it's gone beyond mere experiment, truth be told -- is that my world has sort of "shrunk" as I focus loads of time on learning all I can about the subject (nutrients, raw food preparation and such). To that end, I've been amassing quite the reference library: I've ordered and am in the process of viewing "un-cooking" instruction videos and lectures on DVD by all sorts of people (Dr. Fred Bisci, Paul Nissan, Alissa Cohen, and a couple of cool women from the UK, Karen Knowler and Angela Stokes, whom I met at a lecture here in NYC recently); have secured a few classic reference books, my latest being the quintessential Complete Guide to Vegetables, with stunning photos and illustrations, showing nutrient density, etc.).

I've read the works of Gabriel Cousins and David Wolfe, and am reading anything by the old timers I can get my hands on too -- people like Arnold Ehret, Ann Wigmore (just finished her autobiography -- she founded the Hippocrates Institute -- what an amazing woman!), Bernard Jensen, Norman Walker and Viktoras Kulvinskas. I also subscribe by email to several newsletters and blogs by folks like Nomi Shannon, Storm and Jinjee Telifero (The Garden Diet), and Frederic Patenaude and have downloaded several volumes of his magazine, Just Eat An Apple, which has terrific articles.

  • Brief interview with Angela Stokes - Lost over 100 lbs.


  • Some Notable Raw Foodies


  • I feel a bit obsessive, yet I know that I need to focus sharply in this manner so down the road it'll be a way of being for me rather than simply something I'm "doing." I'll be intense in this kind of learning mode for at least another six months, I figure. By then I hope to be in a rhythm and flow where I won't be obsessive, just informed and aware. The reason is that I want this to be a way of life for myself, not just something I do to reach optimum health, and then once there, say, "Okay, I can eat this again, I can eat that again." Because it's the eating of all the "dead" stuff that had gotten me unhealthy in the first place (not solely, but primarily)! And I'm not ever going back to that place.

    Kinda like when once you've really longed for the truth about something and discovered it ... there's just no going back.