Blooming Petals

We have been in Auckland for 11 days now. We are right in the midst of what seems to be an industrial part of the city. Whenever we go out anywhere, we are enveloped in black smoke "coughing" trucks and cars speeding by. To walk to get groceries a mile a way, we have to deal with this. We decided to go to the heart of the city yesterday. Since we don’t have a car right now, we are getting a lot of exercise while inhaling black smoke. We were walking up a big hill in the city and you can just see smoke collecting all across and we WERE IN IT.

We know New Zealand is amazing!!! We just happen to be stuck right in the industrial portion of the city for now. We are going to get 2 months to explore all the luscious parts of New Zealand after this week. Additionally, we are getting the best organic produce right now. I am loving the carrot spinach juice, Organic !KIWIS! and cherries. However, in many ways, it's just like any other extremely polluted city out there.

My nose is pouring mucus, literally from this pollution, and I wake up as if I did a lot of cleansing with blood shot eyes. Sometimes I have a minor sore inflamed throat and a headache. It is nothing that I can't deal with, but it is there. I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE THE CITY!!! Our Raw Food Talk here is on February 17th. I think I found a place to stay outside of the city, which is near the BEACH, within the next week. We'll see.

Hilton Hotema's books go into how the polluted environment effects one's health drastically. When a sensitive child is born, a constant running nose, shows signs of the poor environment. After continual exposure, the runny nose is silenced. My body has been gravitating into eating more meals along with more fatty foods. The more one eats, the less sensitive one becomes to pollution and other toxins. This is a concept I go into in great detail, in Raw Success. I talk about an optimal diet that we don't want to become cleaner than, or it may effect our longevity, due to the compromised environment on Earth. That optimal diet may vary depending on where you live and how polluted your location is.

If I was forced to live in the city here, my longevity would be affected. I would aim for eating more food, to live longer in this type of environment. It is so polluted here where I am at, that if I was FORCED to live here for the rest of my life, I would maybe even eat a wholefood healthy cooked food diet. I am not saying all of Auckland is bad, just where I am at. It seems we are in an industrial area. Additionally, I am not dealing with pollution that has dissipated into the air. I am dealing with fresh black car, truck, and bus smoke, that comes fresh out the tail pipe before it disipates. These are the busy streets I am walking upon to get ANYWHERE.

Thanks for the space to vent!

I always say, it is what you leave out of your diet that heals you and not what you eat. You could eat Raw Foods until you are blue in the face, but if you don’t eliminate the processed starches and refined sugar, then you are not going to progress much. When you omit certain foods from your diet completely, you detoxify. After a certain amount of time, the toxins in the body produced and stored from those processed foods you used to eat, will leave the body.

When I leave this place, I will detoxify from the pollution because I will be omitting the extreme pollution completely from my diet. Every breath I take here has this extra pollution. Whenever my body tries to eliminate it, more is just brought in. When I leave this place and eliminate it completely from my lungs, my body will now have the freedom to detoxify. I will most likely get a runny nose until it is all gone. Raw Success introduces a new concept called "the base of our environment" which is the saturated pollution that has happened on the Earth from man's "wrong-doing". The base of our environment has degraded all across the Earth but it is worse in some places then others, such as a city. I AM AN ALIEN IN MY OWN ENVIRONMENT. I belong on another planet. ;)

February 8th I ate:

11:45 PM
Carrot Spinach Juice – (In my last post, I mentioned I only drank this once in a certain day. It was actually twice.)
1:30 - Meal 1:
3 tablespoons HOME MADE Tahini
1 small handful of mung beans
5 cut up tomatoes
2 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed – That yummy seaweed that tastes like dulse!
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT
5:00 - Vegetable juice
Carrot Spinach Juice
6:00 – Meal 2:
1 pound of fresh fruit – fresh figs, handful of cherries and golden and green kiwi’s
6:45 - Meal 3:
3 tablespoons HOME MADE Tahini
1 small handful of mung beans
5 cut up tomatoes
2 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed – That yummy seaweed that tastes like dulse!
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT

There has been a major drought here in Auckland, New Zealand since last October. It has rained two days since we have been here!

Right outside of our little apartment that we are renting, there is a flower bed with about 10 wilted green weeds coming up from it. The last tenants clogged the bathroom pipes up before we got here and we had issues with the shower and toilets. In jest, I told Angela that I was going to pee in this flower bed. She actually liked the idea. I JUMPED ON IT! I started peeing on all the wilting weeds that were planted from before. Jokingly, I told her that the plants were going to grow back to life. Again, she was like "yep". I didn’t believe it, and after peeing on them for two days, guess what happened, on my BIRTHDAY... They came out to say hello with vibrant green leaves and blooming with PINK FLOWER PETALS. They received no extra water but from me. I’ve decided to never use a toilet to pee again! Well... as much as I can.

I am still on this lemon subject but this is great. Marjorie wrote:

Loving the blog. About the lemon thing. As a child I would eat a lemon before sleep, putting the rind under my pillow, no mouth rinse or anything! As yrs went on and I continued to eat lemons I noticed my teeth feeling the same way that you describe...I actually have terrible teeth, not sure if the lemons or genetic or both! I think the acetic acid works very quickly, IMO the straw is the thing.
BTW getting so much out of both your books. Thx

I got another really great question about the Juice Feasting Article that I did. I love it so much that I am going to save it for my next newsletter.

Today, February 9th I ate:

12:00 PM
Vegetable juice

carrot, spinach juice
2:30 PM - Meal 1:
3 tablespoons HOME MADE Tahini/Almond Butter

1 small handful of mung beans

5 cut up tomatoes

2 teaspoon of onions

1 handful of seaweed – That yummy seaweed that tastes like dulse!

**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl

butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT
6:00 PM
Green Veggie Juice - Carrot/Spinach

6:30 - Meal 2:

Angela made me a blended orange fresh fig soup with cut up bananas

9:00 PM Meal 3:

Watermelon

Nicola Wrote:

o, I forgot, I have a question...
what juicer do you use when traveling?
I was thinking of going to thailand and vietnam, but was concerned about getting enough good raw food over there thanks Nicola

I use the (Samson) Kempo Twin Gear Juicer on the road. It is a miniature compact version of the Green Star Juicer. Another name for the Kempo is the Hippocrates juicer. Besides the Norwalk juicer, the twin gear juicers have the highest nutrient quality because they don’t heat the juice up like the others. I would take it as carry on luggage when you travel, as it may get destroyed otherwise. I’ll go into detail on all the juicers in a future blog post coming soon.

LOVE!

Anastasia Book 8 just came out!!! Click Here.

Anastasia says that the words written in Vladimir's book is constructed in such a sequence to where it will subliminally creates a positive loving change amongst anyone that reads it. I believe this is true because anyone I know that reads this book gets inspired to improve themselves and our "current planetary condition". I have read books 1 - 4. I only needed to read one to create the positive change and now I just can’t stop.

What did I get out of reading Anastasia?

She consistently talks about the power of LOVE. She has this ray that she uses to see people anywhere on the planet. She then uses this "ray of love" to heal people, calm serious situations, inspires acts of love and much more. IT IS SO SIMPLE! It is all about using the energy of love. From a health standpoint, the more love energy that comes into our beings, the healthier we are going to be. We even have the power to heal others with this LOVE. On the otherhand, when we are feeling "negative feelings" such as anger, resentment, envy, etc. the effect does the opposite of healing. I just sent the feeling of love to my mom, brother, and father right now. Although they may not be conscious of it, their lives have been altered for the positive. They did feel it, most likely unconsciously. Now I just sent LOVE to YOU. Did you feel it in you heart?

It’s just a fact of life that we go through "up's and down's" and we end up at each poll, experiencing both love and other negative energies. After reading Anastasia, this "sequence of words", or whatever it was, inspired me so much to make a goal of mine to exude love always. It is quite amazing how my life has changed. When ever I get awareness and I am not stuck in my mind, I make it a point to create love. Exuding LOVE is my meditation technique. How can I not make this a focus due to it's benefits? It is a goal for me. It made me realize, what is the point of having negative feelings if it has an anti-healing effect? These negative feelings still come inside me but it is different now. I now know that these negative energies are harmful and pointless.

One time I got really upset and my ego didn’t want to leave the situation. It hurt. However, with this new Anastasia Inspriation, it was quite different. The new me was kind of floating up above with the awareness that this is foolish, that it was detrimental to my health, well-being, and everyone else around. So in relatively a short period of time I swallowed my pride and went in the other direction. That point of surrendering and swallowing my pride was sooooo PAINFUL. It was like a popcorn kernal getting hotter and hotter and then !BOOOM! The result, of course, was LOVE! The !BOOOM! was the point to where all that pain built up and where the release of it all happened at the same time. The more I practice this, the quicker the Kernal !BOOOMS!, and the less pain I experience.

Leigh wrote:

Mister Matt!
I am really loving this blog of yours!!!! The responses from readers keeps it so interactive and lively! When folks write their opinion it is a wonderful chance for me to check in with myself and assess where I'm at on my path that day, or if I feel reactive to a response you received, it gives me a chance to check in on why that caused a reaction in me. it' s a beautiful thing! Please keep up and I'll keep "soaking" it up! (hee hee, just some raw pun fun there!! ;) Be well!
xo Leigh

Love it! Well then... Teresa Wrote:

Hi Matt, I just cant resist the obvious, or may be I am really missing something. About the lemon juice, the straw thing is a really great idea, I've used it myself, but what about just brushing your teeth?????

Yes, I do brush my teeth right afterwards. I feel that the damage is being done very quickly if the lemon is passing my teeth for more then a few seconds. I feel this damage happens before I reach the toothbrush, It is weird. After I am done drinking it, if I kind of chew my teeth together, I feel as if the enamel was vaporizing off right there. If I scrape my teeth together, it feels like it is caked on or something. It is hard for me to explain. Brushing my teeth helps but I feel that if I did that every day for the rest of my life, that I would run into problems. I have heard that citrus can cause teeth problems if eaten consistently for years on end. I just feel it.

Raw Allison Wrote:

I am African American and found that drinking citrus juice from a glass every day actually bleached the skin around my mouth temporarily!! I started drinking through a straw and that ended the problem. :-)

Hmmm?! I can't wait to try the glass straw. I'll be doing this when I get settled one day.

February 6th I ate:
1:45 PM Watermelon orange Juice
3:45 PM Carrot Spinach Juice – This just feel so good to me. I am going to be drinking it everyday for awhile. Watch and see!
4:30 PM - Meal 1:
Handful figs
3 tablespoons of Tahini (HOME MADE)
**BLENDED
1 handful of goji berries to swirl in.

7:30 - Meal 2:

3 tablespoons HOME MADE Tahini

1 small hanful of mung beans and sprouted sunflower seeds

5 cut up tomatoes

2 teaspoon of onions

1 handful of seaweed

**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl

butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT

I have really been on this nut butter kick. Tahini is the only Raw nut butter available in Australia. Now that we are in New Zealand, we found out that the tahini was not raw. I was really sad not to have the nut butters. Guess what our lovely Angela did. We went to the health food store and she tried to hide the fact that she was buying sesame seeds and sesame oil. Do you see where this is going??? We made our own tahini! Since I caught our sly Angela in action she let me in on choosing the cold pressed oil. We chose Pumpkin Seed oil to mix with the sesame seeds. We made our own tahini and it was soooooo SO goood. I am so excited. This gave me the idea to make my own hazelnut butter and almond butter and whatever other butter I choose! How lucky am I to have this sweet goddess princess by my side???

Our sly Angela got her hand caught in the cookie jar a second time. I got a few emails from some lovely people wishing me an early Happy Birthday. I had no idea where they were getting this from. Maybe Myspace or something? Then I realized that I didn’t get my "Angela Stokes Blog" for the day. I saw her writing it LAST NIGHT! Hmmmmmm???

One last story about our lovely Angela. She has known me for about 2.5 years now. Do you know that she has only called me by my name, "Matt", once!!! That's it and I don't even remember her doing it. To you, I am Mr. Monarch with his musings. Great! I don't even know what a MUSING is!

Jan Wrote this about KOMBUCHA:

I've been making Kombucha tea for 15 years or so. I might drink maybe 10 ozs. a week and maybe not, but the real benefit and the reason why I go to the trouble to make it is for the skin. I can use it on my skin at night and see the difference the next day. Even though I use a scrub at night, the Kombucha is so full of enzymes that it takes off the dead skin cells and nourishes the face. I have never used any Kombucha that comes in a bottle that's sold in health food stores. I was told you didn't have to worry about the sugar in making the tea because the Kombucha glob eats up the sugar. I started using it on my face after I read about other people's results in a Kombucha newsletter I once came across. Google and see what you find. Jan in Atlanta.

Ladies, there is a sweet beauty secret for you.

Today, February 7th I ate:

1:00 PM
Vegetable juice - Carrot, Spinach Juice!!!

2 PM - Meal 1:
3 tablespoons HOME MADE Tahini (SOOOO GOOD, I am not even using the Avocado!)
1 small hanful of mung beans and sprouted sunflower seeds
5 cut up tomatoes
2 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT

6:30 PM Meal 2:
3 New Zealand RIPE Kiwi's and a handful of cherries

7:30 PM Meal 3:

2 Bananas

1 – 2 Tablespoons of Home Made Tahini
1 handful of goji berries
1 - 2 teaspoons of maca

1 handful of seaweed like dulse

**All mushed with a fork

Jerry wrote:

Thank You for all the great info! Can I ask you some burning questions please?
1. What are the best enzymes? And do you take the same kind day in day out or are you rotating different enzymes?
2. Are your morning juices 'juiced' or blended green smoothie style. Is not the extra fiber a benefit?
3. Can E3 or Phytoplankton be substituted for green juice?
Healthy Regards, James

The enzymes that I take on an empty stomach are Dr. Fred Bisci's Therapeutic Enzyme Blend which can be seen here. I personally only take enzymes on an empty stomach unless I eat late at night. I wrote an article about the extreme benefits of taking these enzymes on an empty stomach, which can be viewed here. There are a couple of other "over the counter" bottled products, such as Vitalzym and Wobenzyme. I know the formulator personally and I strongly believe/know that Dr. Fred Bisci's Therapeutic Blend are the most powerful enzymes available. I have seen so many people benefit from them with serious degenerative diseases.

I believe that there is no need to rotate enzymes, especially if you are using Fred's Blend. They are the most powerful out there. I do recommend alternating Super Green Foods to get a variety of nutrition.

My morning juice is pure liquid without any fiber. They are not "smoothie style". I rarely do a green smoothie. In the future I will be doing a juicing vs. blending article in an upcoming newsletter. I am just not sure when. They are both great.

E3 Live can be exchanged for a green drink. However, I do recommend two green drinks a day and I also recommend getting variety. E3 Live is a great replacement when you are on the go and can't make veggie juice. Just as I don't recommend making the same veggie juice over and over again without any variation, I recommend switching the E3 Live up with other things. The E3 Live is GREAT. I HIGHLEY RECOMMEND IT! I sometimes take it every day. It is pure chlorophyll with so many vital elements!

Fred and I know the owners of the company really well. Fred went over there and was dumbfounded by the process it is extracted. There are people watching the algae throughout the clock. This is definitely the safest algae product on the market and it is in LIQUID form. Vitamins and minerals in liquid form is most readily absorbed by the body. It is STRAIGHT LIQUID!!! Veggie juice is also liquid vitamins and minerals and is readily absorbed by the human organism like nothing else. Juicing is so powerful that it may give you give you so much vitality that it may create a cleansing reaction in the body. I believe that is one of the reasons why people prefer green smoothies.

AND LASTLY... I had to share this comment from Rosa. It is exciting all the way through, I personally love the VERY last bit about the spider webs. Rosa Wrote:

regarding the examination of ones stools. Yes. We never went to doctors growing up. We always went to my aunt (Tijuana, BC) or someone she knew who could 'cure' (bodywork, herbs, etc). They always wanted to know about/see your stool/urine and like a psychic they could tell alot about what you had been doing! I exam mine every time out of curiousity, but have come to recognize many things about myself too (good & bad).
regarding urine. My mom told me the story about when she was a kid in Mejico she did not own a pair of shoes until she was 12 and had to go to work. So, every now and then her feet would become sore/cracked and her mom would have her stand in a basin and urinate and let her feet soak in it. Problem solved. My father tells the story of being out in some remote orchard (migrant worker) and a co-worker severely cutting his hand. My dad instructed all the men to urinate on this guys hand to stop the bleeding & stop a possible infection. It worked.
side note. When we were kids my mom used spider webs as band-aids to stop bleeding and infections!
Rosa

Food Combining

Am I writing too much??? Look at the size of these posts!!! I am sure at some point I'll slow down a bit so bear with me.

I have to say that there was such an uproar on the Juice Feasting article that I put in this months newsletter. You can view it here.

Doug wrote:

What is the name of the Book that you use to tell what NORMAN WALKER ate for breakfast etc? Thank you

Become Younger has what he ate for breakfast and part of it is repeated in Guide to diet and Salad. They each say something a little bit different. Those two books together will give you a great idea of what he ate all day long. If you study every last one of his books you will get every hint possible. I highly recommend it. To get an even greater understanding of what I feel are the most important concepts about raw foods and how it all works, I recommend reading, Man's Higher Consiousness, by Hilton Hotema, Rational Fasting & Mucusless Diet Healing System, by Arnold Ehret and study the Blood Gas Theory in and out in Raw Success or on my website for free.

Valerie commented:

[When I drink water with lemon in it, I feel that it isn't good for my teeth. I just feel citrus on them.]

Matt, have you tried drinking water and lemon with a straw. Most dentists will suggest that with enamel eating drinks. I am a nurse and when we used to give liquid iron in juice to patients, we would do so with a straw, as the iron can stain the teeth. Just a suggestion! I sure enjoy the dance between you and Angela. It does a heart good:)
Valerie from Virginia, USA

Thank you Valerie for the comment! I am very excited about this and I will try it. I'll get a glass straw so it doesn’t melt it.

FYI... Chia Seeds were talked about on Oprah today!

FOOD COMBINING
A lot of attention in the Raw Food movement is focused on Food Combining. All Raw Foods combine well together if cooked food is not presant. However, if you are eating a massive quantities like the salad I used to eat, then you may want to watch your food combining a bit more. I would never put a granule of sugar with my 3 avocado large salad because I knew what the consequence would be - GAS. When I eat smaller quantities, then I have very little problem with digestive discomfort. For example, I just started eating a "fruit/nut" meal today which is a small quantity. It is the banana meal below at 8pm. This meal is about the size of my fist and contains sugar and nuts. This meal feels so satisfying and good to me. Some people would scarf this meal down in less then a minute and the emotional satisfaction would be very little. This is the perfect type of meal for me to fletcherize because it tastes so good all over my taste buds. My saliva mixing with it makes it even taste better. I never swallow, it just disapears down my throat. Small meals are key for longevity and your body can handle any raw food combination in a small quantity. It is not easy though. For example, even though it takes a great amount of time for me to finish this meal because I am fletcherizing, I start to mourn when the meal is coming to an end. I think this mourning is very healthy as it then turns into habit and makes it really easy.

This is not orthorexia. We are animals. Human's are simply mammals. They did this experiment where they took 40 apes. They gave 20 apes double the amount of bananas as the other 20 apes. The apes that were restricted not only lived longer but had more energy and health. The apes that were aloud to eat more bananas, indulged.

They didn't say, hey, I shouldn't restrict myself so I can live longer. In the past we would have to go get our own food and there wasn't so much abundance. Now that we have evolved into this "tehcnocratic" world, with very little exercise, we have all the abundance of food we want right in front of us. Just like the 20 apes indulged, so has about 95% of the human population. We have the ability to reason, and I cut my food intake for this purpose. OH!!!!... The cleanliness, clean digestion, is ECSTATIC BLISS!

I am really excited about this banana meal below. I believe that you will be seeing it on my menu a lot now. The flax and almonds grinded together, mixed with the banana is divine. The flax starts to thicken from the moisture in the banana. YUM! To get variety, I will be changing the Almonds up with other nuts. Wow, I am excited! I love BALANCE!

Lastly about food combining. Every Raw Vegan Food combines well. However, some foods may cause a bit of extra gas then others. Veggies are fine with anything and the fruit and fat combination may cause a bit of gas. If you become strict on these combinations, your body will demand it as you become cleaner. Smaller quantities are no big deal with food combining. Many of you have heard my Raw Summit interview. I talked about how I was crazy and fanatical about it all and I was scared to even go to a Raw Food Restaurant. I also used to be scared to mix fruit and fat together in the same meal. I just wouldn’t do it. I was also eating two large meals a day instead of two small ones. The first one was a good amount of my favorite fresh sugar fruit and the second was that large avocado salad. Imagine eating 2 or 3 pounds of ripe figs or persimmons with nuts or avocado? Or my 3 large avocado salad with dried figs? If you are interested in food combining books or a chart, you can click here.

February 4th I ate:

11 AM Orange Pineapple Juice
11:30 AM Vegetable juice
Carrot/Cellery - Norman Walker did this juice a lot too (we also added a bit of watercress and two kale leaves that we had to finish up.
2:00 PM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds MUSHED
1 small hanful of mung beans and sunflower seeds
5 cut up tomatoes
1 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT
6:45 PM Vegetable Juice
Butter lettuce, celery, cucumber, watercress
8:00 PM - Meal 2:
2 bananas
1 handful of Almonds and 1 handful of flax grinded up
2 teaspoons of maca
1 handful of goji berries
1 dried calymyrna fig
1 small handful of seaweed - similar to dulse
**All mushed with a fork

Wangamaud wrote:
Many hygienists believe that examing our stools is a good way to monitor our health. What do you think about that. Would it be too gross for you to share that part of your experience?

I personally don't examine my feces. I wouldn't even know what to look for. In habit I turn around from afar to see what is there but that is about it. I do have to say during my liver cleanse I was a bit more curious. On a side note, if you drink beet juice, it may look like you are bleeding internally when you expel feces. It is even cooler when it looks like you are urinating blood. (I hope everyone can stomach this... eek!)

While I am at it, let’s discuss my views on Urine Therapy. I have never done this and I never will. My gag reflex pops into action when I witness someone doing this. I once had a meeting with someone that practiced urine therapy. They smelled like urine. I think it was coming out their pours.

The benefits from urine therapy come from the fact that you are recirculating your antibodies. They are then used by the immune system to work against bacteria and viruses. You can also use it topically. My brother did that once when we were younger. He was advised to urinate on his toe after he got bit by a jelly fish. Click on my brother’s picture and you will be brought to his myspace account. He is 37, knows and believes in the Raw Diet because of me but doesn’t practice it, and is good looking and SINGLE. How cool would it be if a Health food eater started dating him??? I see his transition happening as we speak.

Today, February 5th I ate:

12:00 PM
Vegetable juice –carrot, watercress, celery, parsley cucumber (we are running low on veggies!)
2 PM - Meal 1:
1 DURIAN!!!!
5:30 PM
Green Veggie Juice
8:00 PM - Meal 2:
2 bananas
1 handful of Almonds and
1 handful of flax grinded up
2 teaspoons of maca
1 handful of goji berries
1 dried calymyrna fig
1 small handful of seaweed - similar to dulse
**All mushed with a fork

Pauline wrote:

What do you think about Kombucha? Specifically Synergy? They say that it is 100% raw - but I hear that it's made with sugar. Any thoughts?

Generally, all Kombucha tea is made with sugar. The fungus of the Kombucha lives off of the sugar and totally absorbs it, dissolves it, and changes the structure of it to where it supposedly has beneficial effect on the system. Someone once told me that Robert O’ Young says that Kombucha Tea is very acid on the system and that you might as well be drinking a beer. Dr. Fred Bisci says it is ok to drink, including the Synergy brand. Also, remember, it is what you leave out of your diet that heals you. If you are eliminating refined sugar and processed starches (the two most damaging food to the human organism) and partake in Kombuch Tea, this is a good thing.

I personally don’t drink Kombucha tea. Due to how sensitive I am, I feel DRUNK on it. I do LOVE THAT feeling but I tend to have other issues when I drink it also. I remember the first time I drank it my nose started pouring mucus out for hours. Then all of a sudden it stopped and the pathway was REALLY clear. Maybe I needed to cleanse that out and the kombucha helped. So I started drinking Kombucha every day and it just didn’t feel good to me. Paul Nison did this experiment too and had the same results as me. We both don’t drink it.

Emotionally Satisfied

Just like the distilled water, my precious Angela is on another rebellion. Today was the first morning I was going to start with just a few veggies at a time. I decided to start with my favorite most nourishing juice, carrot and spinach juice. My heart melted as she pouted away at the shock of sudden change from juicing 10 veggies at a time to just two. I guess I have to try to wean her back into this routine. We had to start with Dr. Norman Walker's Potassium Broth juice which is four ingredients - Carrot, Spinach, Celery, & Parsley. I did use a lot of spinach and my body was so happy about that. I could feel it.

I am also coming back to almost duplicating Dr. Norman Walker’s morning routine... well... every part but the water and lemon in the morning. When I drink water with lemon in it, I feel that it isn’t good for my teeth. I just feel citrus on them. Dr. Norman Walker would wake up and drink hot water with lemon in it. He says it is great for flushing out the liver and gall bladder (I WANT!). If you do cold water with lemon, it will help the peristalsis if you are feeling sluggish that morning. He waits for 15 – 30 minutes for that to digest and then he drinks a small glass of orange juice to get vitamin C. He says Vitamin C is necessary for our connective tissue and our body doesn’t create it so we HAVE to get it from outside sources. He then waits 15 – 30 minutes for that to digest and then he has his vegetable juice. That is his breakfast.

I am back to just a bit of citrus before the veggie juice to get some vitamin C. I do either orange or grapefruit juice. There is less sugar in the grapefruit juice so I feel like I can get away with a bit more. If I do a heavy run, I love to drink a great amount of orange juice as I can get away with it.

If you ever do massive exercise and are sweating away, you have a 45 minute to where you can eat a good amount of sugar with out an insulin spike. In the past I would squeeze lemon in just a bit of hot water so I could just shoot it and not have to deal with sipping it and getting it all over my teeth. At some point I’ll be doing that again, just not now.

February 2nd I ate:

12 PM Citrus Juice
6 oz Grapefruit juice
1:00 PM Vegetable juice
Carrot/Spinach/Celery/Parsley - Norman Walker’s Postassium Broth
2:00 PM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds
1 handful of MICROGREENS
1 small hanful of mung beans and sunflower seeds
5 cut up red conventional tomatoes
1 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Cabbage and butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT
6:30 PM Vegetable Juice
Carrot/Beet/Cucumber – Walker’s combination for cleansing the Liver and Gall Bladder. We added a few sprigs of Watercress to get the beneficial nutrients
8:00 PM - Meal 2:
3 Medium Apples
**Blended into Apple Sauce
4 tablespoons of flax
1 handful of almonds
2 teaspoons of maca
**All three ingredients Ground up to powder
1 handful of goji berries
**All mixed in a bowl - YUM!

It seems to me that if one is not emotionally satisfied when adhering to a “cleaner” diet, then they will not succeed. When I first went 100% Raw, every night I would eat a HUGE salad consisting of a LARGE head of Romaine Lettuce, 5 – 15 Large Heirloom tomatoes, a HUGE handful of dulse, other veggies and 2 – 3 ENOURMOUS avocados. For about 4 – 5 years this meal emotionally satisfied me every night. That is how I succeeded!

I got away with eating so much food for so long because this type of Raw Food diet was much cleaner then my previous Standard American Diet. As the years went by and I became cleaner, this huge salad started to take its toll on me. I would be out of energy for the night and I would wake up in the morning with masses of mucus coming out of my nose. My body was tell me to take my diet to the next level. I did this while at the same time figuring out what would be emotinoally satisfying to me. I was still emotionally satisfied with less avocado in the same meal.

So here I am about 8 years into raw and I just didn’t like doing an entire avocado any more because it was taking it’s toll on me. I found that using the nuts, seeds, and nut butters, in place of a great portion of the avocado was a step to a cleaner diet... which in turn TOTALLY Emotionally satisfied me. I LOVE eating it every day! As the years go by I will eat less while being emotionally satisfied. I feel that it ALMOST happens automatically.

Today, February 3rd I ate:

1:00 PM
Vegetable juice – cabbage, zuchini, carrot, watercress (random to get nutrients)
2 PM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds
1 handful of MICROGREENS
1 small hanful of mung beans, sunflower seeds and pumpkin sprouts
5 cut up red conventional tomatoes
1 teaspoon of onions
1 handful of seaweed
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Cabbage and butter lettuce to wrap the above in and EAT
5:30 PM:
Green Veggie Juice - Carrot/Spinach/Celery/Parsley - Norman Walker’s Postassium Broth
8:30 PM Meal 2:
2 pounds of cherries

Kelly Wrote:

I am curious to know how active your lifestyle is. For the most part I work and live in the backcountry, carrying heavy backpacks and hiking many miles through tough terrain. Essentially exerting a lot of energy. Since I have been raw I have been injured and not backpacking. I am wondering what a raw life style would be like on a raw diet and wanted to know if you had any recommendations for foods. Lighter is better I suppose. Also I am curious as to what your activity levels are like. This is all new to me so I am trying to absorb as much info as possible and you and Angela have been very helpful. Thanks so much!

Some days my levels of activity are extreme and others I don’t do much activity at all. I like to do yoga and run good distances. I also sometimes go out and just walk 10 miles. The more someone exercises, the more energy they exert and the more food they need. This doen’t change the fact that as the years go by that your body becomes more efficient and requires less food to maintain. For example, If I walk 10 miles, I’ll just eat a more sustaining meal then I would have. I may do that fig meal I did the other day as it consists of a lot of calories. If I really exerted myself, I may eat a third meal the same size.

When I first went raw I would have masses of energy and then after I ate, I would have virtually no energy. It takes a great amount of time to get used to eating this way. Once you get past the confusion, you will learn how to utilize your body like you never have before.

If I were you I would try to do the heavy activity on an empty stomach and then eat afterwards. If you are doing activity all day, then eat when you are TRULY hungry. Try to stay away from EATING ALL DAY LONG. The masses get into this habit which ZAPS a lot of energy and causes great digestive discomfort. When you eat food and then eat again before it digests completely, you are interupting the digestive process which will result in excessive fermentation and energy loss.

I would just look at my daily meals to get ideas of what to eat. If you go back to the very first post where I talk about dried fruit combinations, you may find that as being great food options.

In terms of healing from you injury, a lot of people don’t understand that the detoxification process is an ongoing thing. If you don’t cleanse the colon, even if you are on a 100% Raw Diet, you will create an acidic condition in the body. People endogenously detoxify while having poor eating habits(overlapping meals, binging, overeating with bad food combinations, etc.) These endogenous toxins COMBINED along with excessive fermentation from these poor eating habits will most likely create an unplesant acidic condition. Colon hydrotherapy is key in succeeding on this type of lifestyle. These gases will travel throughout the system and will sometimes effect the place of greatest weakness the most, which may be your injury. I have literally had an injury or soar muscles, and then I did colon hydrotherapy which pulled out masses of gas and I experienced immediate relief and bliss throughout my entire being.

Covering All Grounds - Variety

Yeah! The end of the last blog post WAS powerful!!! Thank you so much for your lovely comments.

We are now in the "city projects" of New Zealand. I have travelled all around the world and I have never in my entire 8 years of eating Raw Foods found it difficult to get quality food. I was forced to eat Conventional Vegetables for the first time. I have eaten Conventional fruit in the past but I am strict on my veggies.

January 30th I ate:

11 AM Juice
Pineapple, Cucumber, Alfalfa
1:30 PM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of Tahini
1 big handful of MICROGREENS (I love them!)
1.5 ounce of alfalfa sprouts
4 cut up red conventional tomatoes
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Cucumber sticks to dip the above in and EAT
6:30 PM Meal 3:
4 tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in water
1 handful of goji berries
4 dried cut up Turkish figs
1 – 2 Tablespoons of Tahini
1 small handful of Blueberries
1/2 of a banana cut up
3 spoonfuls of Angela’s Papaya
**All mixed in a bowl - YUM!

I always talk about how I eat almost the same thing every day. It is the same kinds and quantities of food. Norman Walker seemed to do the exact same thing. The goal for me is to switch up all the foods to get a variety. Each nut, vegetable, and fruit has a different composition of nutrients. He would eat the same things but switch cabbage for celery, almonds for walnuts, mung beans for lentils, etc. When Angela and I finally get settled back in the US, I am going to partake in the same thing. I’ll switch up all the different nut butters we have.(Pine Nut Butter, Hazelnut Butter, Brazilnut Butter, Sunflower Seed Butter, Pumpkin Seed Butter, etc). And of course I’ll do the same thing with sprouts, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. They don't have any other nut butter besides tahini out here in NZ and Australia. I have decided that when we are done with this last jar of tahini, I am going to switch to different Raw Organic nuts that are available around here in my meals.

I am meeting more and more long-term raw food eaters who are running into Marginal Deficiencies. The key to covering all your grounds and avoiding marginal deficiencies is to juice a wide variety of VEGETABLES each day and cleanse the colon on a periodic basis. Like Norman Walker, I like to just choose 2-4 vegetables at a time to dose on those nutrients. Switching those veggies up for each juice is key. Additionally, I don’t like to put any fruit in my veggie juice. I have heard that digestion works two ways; one for fruit and one for veggies. Supposedly, the body will choose the fruit "digestion path" over the veggies and we won’t get as much nourishment from the veggies. Veggies are the nourishers (Which are key) and fruits are the cleansers.

Since being in Australia, I have been using apples and using masses of different veggies in each drink. I am going back to my old ways of no fruit and using only a few veggies in each juice. This will ensure that I get great doses of individual nutrients at one time. I use carrots to sweeten the juice. I also like to juice carrots over apples because they are more nourishing to the body. Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices, By Dr. Norman Walker, go into great detail of very beneficial combinations. He’ll also tell you the benefits of those carrots, spinach, beets, and every other nutrient. Raw Success goes deeper into the "why's" with Juicing and Colon Hydrotherapy with succeeding in the long-run.

Lastly, to make sure all the fiber is gone in the juice I use a nut milk bag to strain it. Even with the juicer that provides the highest nutrient quality, which is the twin gear juicer, pulp is still left in the nut milk bag. We switched the brand of our nut milk bags up about a week ago and we finally got a sample mailed to us in New Zealand. OMG! These are the BEST Nut Milk Bags. It is like a pillow case, nothing gets through and they don’t rip and they are soooo easy to work with and EASY TO CLEAN. LOVE THEM! We sell them in our store of course and we get them from this nice Raw Wonder Woman from Vermont who makes them herself. It all happened so naturally as we were exchanging “hello, nice to know you’s.”

Ok... Moving right along... I knew I would find Organics by the second day. I would have taken a bus if need be or walked across the country. However, many Raw Friends in New Zealand Came to the rescue and took us to a bunch of Organic shops and farmers markets just a few miles away. Amazing!

Yesterday, January 30th I ate:

1 PM - Meal 1:
Prepared Whole food WILD Green salad with spinach cucumber avacado dressing
**We were guests
5:30 PM Meal 2:
Green Veggie Juice (I'll start listing veggie juice ingredients when I am back on track and doing just 2 - 4 ingredients)
6:30 PM Meal 3:
3 tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in water
1 handful of goji berries
1 handful of dried Turkish figs
1 – 2 Tablespoons of Tahini
1 SMALL Banana cut up
2 tablespoons of fresh blue berries

Today, February 1st I ate:

11 AM:

Green Veggie Juice

(I'll start listing veggie juice ingredients when I am back on track and doing just 2 - 4 ingredients)

1:30PM - Meal 1

1/4 Avocado

2 - 3 tablespoons of tahini

1 small handful of sprouted sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons whero pea sprouts (Angela calls them popcorn sprouts - 1st time we've seen these)

1 small handful of Karengo seaweed (this is like dulse but saltier and BETTER. only from NZ. Wow!)

2 tablespoons of Wakame seaweed fronds (if you don't soak them and eat them hard, they taste like salty pretzels. I have seen these in NY before)

4 - 5 diced heirloom tomatoes

**All mushed with a fork and put in butter lettuce leaves as a wrap

5:30 PM Meal 2:

1 handful of dried Turkish figs

3 Tablespoons of hemp seeds

**Blended together (Muscle building meal! and yum!)

added a couple more cut up figs to it to chew

Elaine wrote:

Not too long ago, you mentioned about giving up all salt. The attached email is from
Dr. Robert O. Young, who has been educating me about the function of acid/alkaline
as it relates to health and disease. Dr. Young is very strong in his belief/knowledge
about salt. He believes that the non use of salt is a huge miss in the health system.
I am just trying to find the truth about this issue. I am using Dr. Young's product of
ph-salts, and measuring for the resulting ph of the urine.
It seems that my raw eating habits, about 90%, is helped by using the salts Dr. Young
recommends to stay alkaline. Would you please think about this information, and maybe even consult with Dr. Fred Bisci and Dr. Young and post something either to
your blog or to me personally. Love you much.

In my opinion, If you are doing the 100% Raw Food Diet successfully and correctly, salt is not needed at all. Many people on the Standard American Diet with so much obstruction in their cells will probably benefit from these natural salts. However, when you become 100% Raw, there is less obstruction in your cells, your body becomes more efficient and it needs less fuel to maintain and you can nourish yourself successfully with Vegetable juices. Celery Juice is a great juice for the natural sodium and iodine. Raw Success will tell you how to do a 100% Raw Food diet successfully but a brief overview I will site here. Drink a variety of Vegetable juices, cleanse the colon periodically so you keep up with the obstructions leaving your cells, eat seaweeds to get minerals, and use some sort of ocean water (clean tested) supplement for minerals. (Oh, I am opening a can of worms here.) In a future post, I will talk about ocean water and the supplements I use as it is quite lengthy. For now, if you want to keep on track, put a few drops in your water or veggie juice of Ocean’s Solution from OceanGrown.

I don’t want to mess with Robert O’ Young. He is great! He is Mr. Scientific Man. He uses microscopes and does blood testing and other things. There are a lot of scientific studies done today that show certain things hold true to the mass of human beings. Some examples are Blood type, Body Type, and Doshas to name a few of them. Additionally, they say it is important for someone who has a thyroid issue, for example, to eat certain foods and other things like this for the rest of their lives. If a 100% Raw Food eater gets a blood test (which is extremely important) their levels can be lower then a cooked food eater and that is completely natural. They even go as far to say that certain body types can’t eat 100% Raw Foods. Many people use that as an excuse not to go 100% Raw. When someone is truly doing the 100% Raw Food diet correctly the rules change because there is less gas and obstructions in the cell. Here is a great excerpt from Raw Success (You are going to have the entire book here in this blog before we know it!).

Every single person is an individual and there are over 1,000 variables going on in the human body at one time. By no means do I assume that everyone’s diet should look the same. If someone is, for example, thriving on two meals a day, and they are instead told to eat many meals to suit their body type, this can actually be detrimental for them. People cannot be grouped so crudely. Each person is unique and food needs will change based on lifestyle and personality. For example, an extreme amount of emotional anxiety speeds up metabolism, possibly creating a need for more nourishment. This is not due to “body type”, but stress management. Others medicate themselves with food all day, justifying their habit with reasons of blood type or even astrological sign.

Someone who thinks they have blood sugar issues may be told to eat six times a day. On this frequent feeding, they start to feel better, and assume their blood sugar normalized. Truly it all boils down to levels of toxicity. The endogenous poisons released during detox may cause shaking, fatigue and cravings. Constant eating stops this challenging detox and people feel more comfortable.

A drug addict, who snorts cocaine twice a day, becomes accustomed to his/her typical amount. If they cut back to once a day, withdrawal symptoms such as low energy, moodiness, and cravings for “a fix” will inevitably follow. This is not because their blood sugar went down. Do you see the inaccurate justification for what is really a system going through detox? With the help of a reliable alternative health practitioner, listen to your body and let it run its course for your healing.

As soon as you refill the stomach with food, THE ELIMINATION IS STOPPED and you feel better!
(Arnold Ehret: The Mucusless Diet Healing System, Pg 156)

It Will Happen Naturally
The truth of the matter is that when someone is truly 100% Raw, as the years go on, they will naturally evolve to need less and less food. No matter what your gender, body type, or blood type, any individual can reach this proposed optimal food intake over time, just as anyone can become a Liquidarian. My recommendation is not to go further or reduce your food quantity below this Optimal Diet, as the adverse conditions of the environment may affect your health in the long run.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

It's quite amazing how the Universe works. I was feeling kind of down about my blog yesterday. After I posted the blog, I felt people may interpret where I was coming from in a way that wasn't intended. I was kind of losing the drive to go on AND... The next day I got a mass of unexpected emails from what seemed to be people reading my mind and responding. I now see where Angela gets her drive to continue like this and I am BACK BABY!

Look what Jerry wrote, WOW!:

[He almost died after being convinced by a friend to do 16oz of food.]

i almost died just reading about it ! !

thx for the blog -- good idea : when a book or a speech is over, it is over -- but having the chance to follow "a real" raw-ster gives an apt dimension -- it makes a nice rhyme with what we already have experiences and read you about and provides answers in our new territory to questions we haven't even thought to ask

a good sort of concordance through the days -- it's nice of you to put some yourself in the blogs by telling your own thoughts

i hope you keep it simple enough that it doesn't become a burden or a repetitive drain -- to me, it will be nice to hear from you on the blog and nice to know that it's not bogging you down doing it

keep good

Thanks so much Jerry! You have taken all burden off of my shoulders.

January 28th I ate:

11 AM Green Vegetable Juice
(It was soooooo nice to drink green juice again!)
1:30 PM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of Tahini
2 teaspoons of cut up green onions
1 handful of Mung Bean Sprouts
1.5 ounce of alfalfa sprouts
2 handfuls of cut up small tomatoes
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Romaine lettuce leaves to wrap the above in and EAT
(Oh, it felt soooo good to eat my staple once again!)
4:30 PM Green Vegetable Juice
5:30 PM Meal 2:
2 green sapote
8:00 PM
Watermelon

Selene wrote:

Could you please list the ingredients in your favorite Green juice (the one you believe to be the most beneficial and hopefully delicious) and also the ingredients of "Tahini" for those of us who don't know exactly what this is (the stuff you mash with a fork along with your other ingredients listed). Do you suggest we make it ourselves or buy it, or both.

I believe the most nourishing green drink is Carrot Spinach juice. It is great to strenghten parastalsis and for the entire digestive tract as a whole Many of you know that I am into Dr. Norman Walker's work. Carrot Spinach juice is the number one juice he drank the most. When I am at home, I get the best spinach and carrots from the California Farmer's Market. I literally drank that carrot spinach juice every day for years as my first veggie juice of the day... and when I am back in the states, I am going to drink it everyday again. My favorite tasting juice is to make the base carrot and romaine lettuce. As crazy as it sounds, it tastes like chocolate milk. Do an entire head of romaine lettuce with SWEET carrots and add a bit of spinach to make it creamy. You can even add a stalk of celery to give it a salty taste and a really SMALL BIT of fennel to give it a chocolate twist.

Dr. Norman Walker's book, Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices has a mass of the vegetable juice combinations he says is the most nourishing to the body. I choose many of my combinations based off that book. All his books actually reference to these juices and of course colon cleansing. Become Younger, by Dr. Norman Walker is the book that got me to jump into a 100% Raw Food Diet overnight.

As for the tahini, I just buy an organic source in a bottle from the local health food store. More power to you if you can make it yourself. We carry Artisana’s Tahini which is excellent. I use that when I am in the US.

My Tahini desire is brand new. It reminds me of Peanut Butter & Jelly from my past. When I was growing up all I ate was PB & J. I was repulsed by meat. My family always tried to get me to eat it as a young kid but I wouldn't so my mom would put HEAPS of Peanut Butter on my sandwich to make sure that I got enough protein. I wasn't on a special diet or anything, I just couldn't stand it. Then highschool came around. I was hitting puberty late. When I look back on it, I think that everyone was just hitting puberty early. I feel that it was the food they were eating which includes hormones from meat that accelerated their puberty. I went to the hospital to see if something was wrong with me and they offered me some sort of cow's hormone to speed up my puberty. Thankfully, my mom and I rejected the treatment and we just waited it out. We later found out that people that took these hormones were running into problems and that some were even dying. In high school I started introducing "Subway Sandwiches" into my diet. Then I went to college. Now I really wanted to fit in so I ended up working out massively at least 3 days a week... and... I was eating anywhere between 2 – 6 Double Double Hamburgers from In-N-Out Burger a day. Now I am 100% Raw with some slight injuries that will come and go for the rest of my life due to lifting heavy weights like that. This little skinny body of mine was benching over 300 pounds! It’s so crazy what we do to ourselves.

We just got to NZ and my body is begging for a break from Air Planes.

Today, January 29th I ate:

11 AM - Meal 1:
1/4 avocado
3 tablespoons of Tahini
3 sprigs of parsley
1 handful of Mung Bean Sprouts
1 handful of alfalfa sprouts
1/2 cucumber diced without the skin
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Green outside part of the cucumbers to dip the above in and EAT
4:30 PM Meal 2:
1 pound of cherries
6:30 PM Meal 3:
3 tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in water
1 handful of goji berries
1 small handful of dried mulberries
1 – 2 Tablespoons of Tahini

Anonymous wrote:

isnt that extreme. like your taking the joy out of raw food by eating strict amounts of food. no longer is it about quality, your questioning the quantity of your food. sounds anorexic to me. Have you heard of orthorexia. its when the obsession with eating cleaner and cleaner takes over. you plan your meals and get upset when you 'slip up'. matt i think your great but your taking it too far. you call it 'inspiration' to get back on track. but things like 12oz. meal once a day..thats getting crazy! it sounds like anorexia to me. enjoy raw food..graze. by limiting yourself and planning ur meal sizes ur setting yourself up for a binge. thats an eating disorder my friend. i think you need to sit back and observe ur obsession. i care for you. Angela dosent go that far/ she just enjoys her food...without strict habits. Raw food is going too far nowaday. its sounding like an eating disorder rather than a happy lifestyle. I was anorexic before and I had the same habits. Isnt life about no boundaries than restrictions. Ask yourself, are you more free and happy? I would think not. Just think about it okay.

Thank you for your comment, your concern, and for sharing your viewpoint. From my perspective, for where I am at, two Raw Food Meals a day like this is not a restriction but feels more than adequate. I am stabilized out at a different diet than most. Eating any more than these typical amounts leaves me sluggish and I generally have no desire to eat more than that. I don’t feel any sense of limitation in my being and I am grateful for that. Additionally, I am happy to say that there isn’t any remorse from eating figs on that day. It was my intention to share this experience in a fun and animated way, through this blog.
Yes, I am aware of the condition known as Orthorexia. I don’t consider myself to be experiencing Anorexia or Orthorexia. However, there does seem to be an occasional OVEReating disorder that I am currently examining and that is where you are my inspiration. I will say, dipping those wet honey syrupy figs in tahini brought me back to that PB & J Sandwich as a kid. The fig filling tasted just like the jelly and the tahini like the Peanut butter. YUM!!!

In the next Post I will respond to Elaine. I love you much too Elaine!

Elaine wrote:

Not too long ago, you mentioned about giving up all salt. The attached email is from
Dr. Robert O. Young, who has been educating me about the function of acid/alkaline
as it relates to health and disease. Dr. Young is very strong in his belief/knowledge
about salt. He believes that the non use of salt is a huge miss in the health system.
I am just trying to find the truth about this issue. I am using Dr. Young's product of
ph-salts, and measuring for the resulting ph of the urine.
It seems that my raw eating habits, about 90%, is helped by using the salts Dr. Young
recommends to stay alkaline. Would you please think about this information, and maybe even consult with Dr. Fred Bisci and Dr. Young and post something either to
your blog or to me personally. Love you much.

My Precious Figs...

As you have seen from previous posts, many of my meals recently have been fresh picked figs. I have been eating a pound or less each time because that is how much has become available from the tree on a daily basis. Then we went to the Farmer's Market and guess what was there! Yep... You guessed it! Fresh PERFECTLY RIPENED wet Figs dripping with honey desire. And yes... available in mass quantities!

Before I go on, let me tell you a little story about my previous relationship with my favorite fruit; The Fresh Fig. A few years ago, a previous partner of mine used to get jealous of figs when they came into season due to how much I cared for them. She observed my body getting possesed as I hoarded the figs at any farmer's market or grocer while I lost all perception of every living being surrounding me.

Perplexed she would say, "I can’t believe how much attention you give to your beloved figs," as she witnessed me arranging the figs in an orderly fashion in the refrigerator caring for them as if they were my children. In short, my relationship with figs was a bit obsessive. I have grown leaps and bounds since then, yet I am not perfect.

Back to the Farmer's Market story... Fresh PERFECTLY RIPENED wet Figs dripping with honey desire. And yes... available in mass quantities for the first time this year! As soon as they came into my vision, a possesion took place. In a MAD-RUSH I took every last ripe fig in vision which equated to 4 kilos (8.8 POUNDS!) My first, and I ASPIRE to be the last, slip-up.

January 25th I ate:

9:00 PM - Meal 1:
3.5 Pounds of Fresh PERFECTLY RIPENED wet Figs dripping with honey desire
4:00 PM - Meal 2:
1.5 Pounds of Fresh PERFECTLY RIPENED wet Figs dripping with honey desire
DIPPED INTO TAHINI! YUM!!! I needed some fat for the day.
7:00 PM
Spirulina
7:30 PM - Meal 3:
2.5 Pounds of Fresh PERFECTLY RIPENED wet Figs dripping with honey desire

Before I went 100% Raw, I never ate a fig in my entire life. I didn't even know what one was. After becoming raw in NYC, I came across dried calimyrna figs. OMG! I found heaven on earth! I ate them every single night. One of the reasons why I loved dried figs so much was because when I was little I used to ALWAYS eat Fig Newtons and this totally reminded me of them. Thereafter, I soon realized that fresh figs existed. I waited with ANTICIPATED DESIRE for months, for them to come into season. I intuitively knew that Fresh Figs were going to be my favorite fruit.

I have been feeling so CLEAN, balanced with an ongoing "HIGH" since eating very consistently lately. I believe feeling this good is the way it is supposed to be. Being out of consistent balance from constant plane flights and stress, alongside with "Matt Monarch Fig Krpytonite", created an eating emotionally situation. From past experience, one slip-up on food can knock me out of consistent balance completely. My stomach would stretch, keeping me lingering for more food the next day while taking on bodily discomfort such as a headache, extra mucus, and gas.

The cleaner a person's diet is AND the longer a person is adhering to a "TRUE consistent diet", the harsher the effects will be during a slip up. In Raw Success, I mention how Hilton Hotema talks about a man who ate one 12 oz meal a day for many, many decades. He almost died after being convinced by a friend to do 16oz of food.

Inspired by you... I am back on track!

January 26th I ate:

11:00 AM
Prepared salad from friend with very little fat
(Mainly veggies with an olive or two and sprouted sunflower seeds)
4:00 PM
2 teaspoons of Green Food with water
5:00 PM
2 green sapote fruits
8:30
watermelon

Today, January 27th I ate:

2:15 PM
6 Soaked Dried Turkish Figs with water
1/4 Pound of Canistel Fruit
3 Tablespoons Tahini
(All crushed with a wood plunger)
6:30 PM
2 Tablespoons of Macadamia Nut Butter
2 Tablespoons of Tahini
1 Small handful of alfalfa and sunflower sprouts
1/2 Teaspoon of cut up garlic
1 Tablespoon of wild greens
4 medium diced up "red" Tomatoes
**all the above mushed with a fork in a bowl
Nori and Wild Sorrel to wrap the above in and EAT

I have learned so much in just a few months from a new website I came across. Ted.com consists of a bunch of 18 minute (on average) free presentations from various experts in each field. It seems that the main focus is always based on how we can improve our planet with science, technology, coming together, and much more, all in a sustainable way. The caption of the website is; "Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers." Everytime I have lunch, I just pop on an 18 minute video and I learn leaps and bounds.