Raw food vegan provided me a life changing experience!
Quite often I receive the question, what changed, explain?
Well, everything changed!
I’ll try to evaporate them all on this blog, now if you wonder how it influence some subjects that you might wonder and that I didn’t cover yet, please ask and reach out, more than welcome!
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Like explained (here), meditation only really started to make sense for me when I changed my food.
I had been experimenting with it for quite some time, now it never really had provided me anything special. When in 2014 I dramatically changed my food habitudes, it felt like my body got cleaned on the inside and I finally started to really feel what was going on in my body.
Once I felt that, I start really believing that Meditation can in all his forms provide a lot of benefits to me.
It helps me to relax, to get in real connection with myself and to get in touch with my deeper self.
In such a way, that whether I feel good or bad, it gives me such a profound feeling and trust about myself, that I quite often completely understand what my body is doing and why it is doing that.
That is so magical, and there is nothing I have to do for that, just feel and listen, it feels so natural.
With enough practice, feeling a real connection, I really feel so good ‘I get to know the real me with his pro’s and contra’s’.
I also read that;
“If it's torture and you feel bad, freak out or get bored, it means either you have a lot of healing to do on yourself, or you're still a slave to your mind and cannot yet perceive your being beyond your mind.
From the other side, note that mediation is about relaxing and listening, not about performing.
I try to do at least 10-20 minutes a day, I know that is really a minimum I should do and nevertheless I often don’t listen to the knowledge I have.
Now quite often I feel that when I’m not meditating enough, I don’t listen to myself anymore and my mind is taking over. Mediation gets me centred again and really feels like my private personal doctor that is based on preventing and feeling rather than healing by hiding signals like I used to do in the past.
Yeah, right, and if I hold on long enough, I become superman…
Personally, I don’t believe there is anything that I can do that will spare me of getting ill. I know that I cheat too much for that in different area's, not only talking about food here. There are certainly a lot of other areas where I cheat all the time. On sleep par example, quite often I feel that I need more sleep, now sometimes I like so much the present moment, that I don’t want to break it by going to sleep and don’t really listen to my body.
So yes, I still get ill.
What did change is that for several years now, I don’t take any medicines anymore. The connection with my body, the feeling of what I experience is so magical, that even when I have a fever, I’m so grateful to my body of handling that situation so well.
When I was going vegan, I felt that it had a great improvement, now not necessarily healthier. Many unhealthy and processed foods can still be vegan.
I do believe that food is having a big contribution in my health, now I do know that it is definitely not the only one. The way I physically and mentally use my body is having at least and as big influence I believe. It is when I feel in all areas well balanced, that I feel at my best.
Besides food, the practice of meditation and yoga make me extremely well.
So overall I can say that I have to feel my body and try to listen to it as well as I can. I should listen to everything that feels natural, now in the duality of life, I think that being ill is part of nature just like being extremely healthy. It is especially the way how I experience it, that changed completely by eating raw food vegan.
The main reason for this, is because it is a choice, a lifestyle, to eat like I eat, not an obligation like it is probably the case for the majority of diets out there.
I quite often hear when people eat very tasty non-nutritional food around me (e.g. a Crème Brûlée which I used to love very much) and I don’t eat anything (or maybe a very tasty organic whole fruit instead), that it is a shame that I don’t have that pleasure like they have.
From the tasty point of view, I’ve to admit, the current laboratories produce indeed very tasty stuff, that is extremely addicted when it’s in my mouth and making me wanting more and more of it, completely agree with that (have been addicted to quit some of that stuff).
(vegan pizza)
When looking towards that tasty stuff from a nutritional point of view, I realize to my believes that there are close to 0% of nutritional values in there. By having that in mind, it is of course a pleasure for me not having to eat that tasty stuff. I love my body too much to put that in it just for a very small tasty moment in my mouth. After some detox, I realize also that I can get even better pleasurable moments, from a lot of other very nutritional foods and as much as I want, my body will tell me when to stop.
On top of the nutritional side, so how I believe it affects my body, there is also of course, how it affects animals, our planet, our relations…
Keeping all that in mind, knowing how I feel today, for me there is no way back and there is really nothing that I miss.
Btw, as a side note, for almost everything there is to eat, I can find at least a vegan, if not a raw food vegan alternative. These help, of course, for moments that I’m rather emotionally eating, then because I’m hungry… I still eat Pizza today, the raw version of course.
What if there is nothing with my nutritional values to eat?
Really, no organic raw fruit, no raw vegetables, where the hell did I end up!
Then I just simply go for a small fast, which I strongly believe I have to do regularly in any case.
A general note before starting, especially for this one, which is of course true for everything on my blog; “everybody is different, I can unfortunately only talk about my experience”.
A little recap, I was looking to feel better, more in sync with the nature, the real purpose of life and the raw fruit and vegetables had for myself a huge contribution to it!
My experience started with vegan (75% raw food fruit & vegetable) since beginning of 2014, 99% raw food fruit & vegetable vegan since beginning of 2016 and for me it is such an overwhelming great discovery.
Was the complete process so great since 2014? Not really…
At some point in the process I came across “fear” and had to learn about it rather than trying to ignore it like before.
The losing weight was probably the biggest “fear” to get over, in the complete process.
Where was that fear coming from?
Since 1996 I’ve been 1m85 tall, weigh around 80-81 kg and in 2013 that were still my numbers.
For me it was like my predefined biological weight, it’s in my genes, there is nothing I can do about it (of course I ate still +- the same as I used to eat in 1996).
I do quite some sports; basketball, running, swimming, snowboard… and at some point in 2014 while playing basketball, I received a signal that felt like a gentle stop, saying; “you are going over your current body limits”.
Having never felt that before, I was quite worried (“fear” again) and decided to go to a doctor in order to reassure me. We started with a blood test (which was enough for me to remove my “fear” in this stage) and it showed that it was better than ever.
The only thing that had changed, was my weight, I was at 72kg (even till 69kg in extreme detox). When explaining my changed life style to the doctor, all behaviours were more than normal. Now this has gone completely against my belief of my predefined biological weight. I have to admit that I needed some time to accept and believe that.
This opened my eyes so widely, that I started to look to the world with even less prejudgments than I had before. It felt like, wauw, really everything is possible.
I’ve never really eaten a lot of fat, that was like culturally known as not good for me. The sugar from the other side, I ate way too much of it without really knowing it. It was in drinks, bread, pasta… and when I removed all that, just keeping the sugar from fruits and the good fat (I believe) from vegetables, well I lost almost 10 kg.
This phase felt like a sort of cleaning phase looking back to it today.
For me after I realized, I get really skinny, feel bad, then it stabilized, and then I gain naturally again, stay at my same weight and feel awesome!
This process took for me 1-2 years, with ups and downs (some link to the duality of life?).
My food was thus, whole raw fruit and vegetables. Those I liked the most and as much as I wanted. Over time it felt more and more natural. I also feel more and more what I needed depending on the activity that I do.
When the raw food is processed in vitamix or so, I can indeed eat more (I’m pretty sure that can help to keep a certain mass if I would want that), now not sure my body really needs that and I don't have any natural feeling in that case anymore. So I limit it.
From Yogi Bhajan, I also read,”You are a human being. You are suppose to have simple food. Not food that is tasty but food that can be digested and come out of you in twenty-four hours.” Yogi Bhajan 9/9/1995.
Like I said, in this whole process, it is indeed frightening to be thin. Personally for me, especially because the outside pressure, comments that make you doubt and set you in fear.
Looking back to it, it’s so ridiculous that I’m afraid of remarks from people that eat processed, artificial, in a laboratory created food without any nutrition, are in most of the cases, overweight and can make you feel frightened about the whole food that you eat, which is coming directly from nature and used in the medicines… Of course everybody has the liberty to express himself and all respect to that.
When I was after all this, on the gain of weight, from my side, I felt that it is not necessarily the quantity that makes you gain again. After the 1-2 year’s process I had the feeling that my body adapts. If I eat a lot, my body is lazy in taking what it needs out, if I eat less, my body is working more selective to get the good things out. Resulting for me, that after the detox period, I didn’t have to eat that much to gain. I would say that I rather eat what feels good healthy for me in whole food fruit and vegetables.
Today, I eat:
3-4 pieces in total, of maximum 3 different whole fruits in the morning (6h)
4-5 pieces in total, of maximum 3 different whole fruits at noon
A handful of nuts somewhere during the day, at least 1h away from my 2 fruit meals above (sometimes processed in a house made dessert with the vitamix, together with typically dates)
A salad with every whole vegetable I like in the evening
Every 2 days also a raw soup if it is cold
If on top of all this you need some further reassuring during your tuff skinny time of what I call detox, I've personally been inspired by this 80+ year old lady, stayed 4 days at her premises and this movie is a summary of it, it's french, now with CC you can set English subs. It explains quite a lot of things about the raw food fruit vegetable life style:
When it comes to food, instead of saying I just eat fruits and vegetables, I often use the term, raw food vegan.
Basically because it is how what I eat is best described.
Now I find vegan such a statement, such an etiquette and not always in line with my thinking. Although I try to think about it for every purchase I do, I realize that I get trapped quite often.
Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.
From 'junk food vegans' to raw food vegans, and everything in between, there's a version of veganism to suit everyone. Yet one thing we all have in common is a plant-based diet avoiding all animal foods such as meat (including fish, shellfish and insects), dairy, eggs and honey - as well as products like leather and any tested on animals.
My personal intake was mainly to feel better, healthier and way more connected with myself than I was. Raw food had a big contribution in that.
Via the raw food, I felt much in sync with everything that was about nature, about the vegan and that's how it’s linked to me and I started to use it.
Although on top of in my eyes the healthy side, I do everything I can to act like what vegan is all about, now instead of saying vegan (which I find so black/white, 0/1, you are in or you are not....), I would rather prefer to say it with the words of Iréne Grosjean (who was a true inspiration for me); “I’m engaged”!
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - quote Theodore Roosevelt
At some point on my discovery road in the other direction, the food was getting my attention, as a factor that might bring some answers, which it definitely did for me!
My interest in what food might do with me, started pretty stupid.
In fact, in 2013-2014, Pascale Naessens was pretty popular in Flanders (Belgium) for her view on food. When I read about it, I found the rejection of any processed food a very interesting approach.
Processed food feels indeed too far away from nature. If I would make it myself with all my whole food ingredients, it’s probably ok, now for the majority of processed foods when looking for the ingredients, there is 80% that I don’t know what it is…
So to stop drinking and eating those, really made a lot of sense to me.
Of course it didn’t stop there, I started digging deeper in all that, resulting in the following steps follow each other in the following order;
Stopping to eat processed food.
Increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables that I ate due to the proven good influence that it has on the cells of which my body is composed (breakfast was only raw fruits and lunch was only raw vegetables with olive oil).
Stopped to eat meat due to bad influence animal proteins has on my cells.
Stopped to eat fish due to the awareness that fish aren’t necessary and I torture these living creatures for my culinary pleasure.
Went Vegan (excluded eggs and milk as well). Eggs because of the way I torture chickens and milk because it is just meant for the veil to grow fast and become a cow. Just like is breast milk for the baby!
Discovered the non nutritional side of normal pasta, rice, bread and potatoes and start reducing them. These are just a bunch of processed sugars, making me wanting more and more of it.
Learned that cooking removed a lot of vitamins out of what I eat, resulting in me going from 65% to an almost completely raw food lifestyle.
This whole process took +-2 years, from the beginning of 2014 to the beginning of 2016.
As a result, several things happen to me;
I lost weight (basically get rid of a lot of rubbish that I used to carry in my body, detox).
I felt much better what happens to my body in different circumstances. Way more natural.
Of the food (fruits and vegetables) I eat, I can eat as much as I want, my body will tell pretty naturally when I have to stop, so overall everything feels much more natural than it used to before.
My body tells me much more that I know what is good for me, rather than that everybody has to learn me everything around such a basic thing such as eating.
When I see what is good for my cells, I learned that all other living creatures (including all animals) are built of those cells as well, and that we are all the same, united, unity, one!
It gives me more respect and make me realize that when I kill any kind of creature not for self-protection and just for my own pleas, it is something that cannot be acceptable in a normal way of living in harmony with nature.
When I started to work in my early 20’s, I quite fast discovered how stress influenced me and how the feeling is quite often not comfortable.
It made me start to read about it, talk with people about it, open my ears and eyes, all in trying to find solutions to get rid of it.
Distractions, the exercises and especially sports worked well.
On my road, I also discovered things like yoga, meditation…
Now, for one or another reason, yoga, meditation, relaxation, mindfulness…and such, they were nice, just not bringing the result I had hoped for.
At around the age of 35, when I started to eat more fruits, vegetables and less other stuff, it made like a ‘click’ and it was like if the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
Everything like yoga, meditation, relaxation, mindfulness…started to have much more sense.
What I realized I found after 35 years, was myself.
I saw that in fact I create everything that I live and experience. I create my stress, just like I create calmness and like I create happiness.
As a human being at first, the stress was of course, always more exciting than the calmness. At some point I get used to the stress, which becomes a habit and I start looking for more stress and excitement.
Until I came to a point where my body was giving signals about the stress and that it obliged me to look in the opposite direction.
Really on the inside of myself, rather than on the outside, the others and external factors.
I realized that what has passed can’t be changed, I can’t predict the future, I can only live in the present moment and decide on how I experience things in the present moment (including predictions in the future and memories from the past).
It took quite some time, now when I understood that I create everything, I also came to the discovery that I create a lot of things for others and should change that point of view as well.
How might they think when I say that, will they find my clothes beautiful, will they be impressed with my new car, what might they think when they see that… and in fact the only thing important is what do I think about it.
If I’m fine, peaceful and calm with it, then everyone around me will be as well.
From the early days I have always blamed others for my issues, there that I had the solutions in me, now I never looked that way. Was way too busy…
I have the feeling that the world is today, so focused on an outside direction, the full stress side (I have to be busy, I have to…), the materialism and the always wanting more (the giant marketing around that’s not really helping) that there are only very few that look to their inside. Their real me!
Like I said, food (fruits and vegetables), so today the raw vegan one, made like a ‘click’ for me and it was like if the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
I’m pretty sure the ‘click’ will for everybody happen in a different way, I hope the information on this blog might help with it and I wish everyone in the world can find their direction (a happy road of discovery) for themselves!
From an early age, it caught my attention that I was overwhelmed with messages, saying that we used to live longer and happier in this modern life.
Personally, I had difficulties believing that.
Longer, probably due to the new medical inventions, happier, I wasn’t so sure about that.
I still saw my grandparents die at the age of 80+ due to oldness and my parents are still today, having a very happy life as well, so where did that feeling come from?
Well, I saw a lot of illness, cancers…catches my attention and probably made me afraid.
I was even wondering if with such a modern way of living (stress, individualism, environmental pollution, electromechanical waves, bad food…) I in this generation of kids, would even one day make it till 40 or 50 years.
The medical side confirmed this with a big ‘YES’, they can hardly replace anything on my body, so no worries there…
Does this means that I live longer and from the age of 40 (or even earlier), I might be quite often ill and have to replace things in my body?
Live and nature didn’t mean to make it that way should they?
For myself a discovery road to less stress, better connection to myself and others, and simply a nicer happier way of living started!
