One concept I try to encourage people to think about in my talks, is WHO you are listening to in terms of guidance for your food choices. On a larger level, this might be thought of in terms of listening to family, friends, partners, doctors, mainstream nutritionists, the media and so on...and on a more intimate level, we might think about which part of our beings we are taking our cues from, in terms of what to eat, when and how much...
This more 'personal' level is what I'd like to focus on here. It seems to me that most people listen primarily to a combination of their taste-buds and their minds, when determining 
when and what to eat...and yet, food is essentially fuel for the physical body, rather than the mind...and the physical body tends to work towards optimal physical health... Your body wants to be healthy, rather than in a state of dis-ease...however, while your body might be yearning for leafy greeeeeeeeens, small portions and lots of fresh juices, your mind and tastebuds may have a completely different agenda ;)
Most of us reading this quite likely grew up in circles of processed food sugar/fat/salt/additives/colourings addiction frenzies...and we may have plodded along that kind of path for a few decades before considering a change in direction...so, with this kind of background in mind, it is understandable that our tastebuds may be more than a little 'perverted' in their desires, especially when we initially switch to eating more raw...
As for our minds, well...if we have any kind of emotional 'stickiness'/dependency around food, our minds may surely be calling for food for any and every reason - because we're happy, sad, lonely, upset...or we feel like we 'deserve' it, we're celebrating, we're stressed, anxious, miserable...you name it ;)
Seldom do we seem to eat because we're genuinely physically hungry...indeed many people do not ev
en seem to recognise what true physical hunger even feels like - it's like a pulling in the stomach, which intensifies if left unfed...
So when we feel an intense pull to eat, we might do well to ask ourselves WHERE this desire is coming from - is this our mind and tastebuds asking for entertainment, or is it actually our body asking for some more nutrition? So often we seem to listen to the whims and demands of the mind and tastebuds over the genuine concerns of the body...yet we can only ignore the body for so long though, before issues start to show up in the form of illnesses, sluggishness, excess weight and so on...
If we want to side-step these sticky patterns, we might do well to ask ourselves a few QUESTIONS as and when we feel the pull to eat...questions such as: when did I last eat? Have I fully digested that last meal yet? How much water have I drunk today? ...and so on...take a few moments to inquire of yourself around these ideas and then, if you do decide indeed to go ahead and consume something, there are three questions I love to encourage people to consider first about their food choices, all of which could be grouped together under the idea of 'could I be making a better choice right now...?'
Here are the three ideas to consider:
*how could I make this meal lighter? (e.g. instead of grabbing a handful of nuts, or a heavy nut+dried fruit bar, how about whipping up a greeeen smoothie in a few minutes instead?)
*how could I make this meal greeeeener? (Search for ways to get more leafy greeeeens into you - juices, smoothies, salads, soups, greens hidden in salad dressings, green powders sneaked into desserts, cookies and so on ;)
*how could I make this meal more nutrient/mineral-dense? (e.g. how might you be able to add seaweed into a meal - kelp sprinkled over a salad, dulse in a soup, salad wrapped in a nori sheet? Instead of grabbing just a banana, how about blending that nana up with some yummmmy nutrient-rich kale or parsley and topping with a few goji berries...? ...and so on...)
I hope these ideas have given you a little extra 'food for thought' when it comes to making food choices...so many of us seem to 'automatically' reach out for food in any given situation, following the promptings of those monkey minds and twisted tastebuds...well, perhaps now you'll feel the desire to listen more to that beautiful body of yours and get lighter, greener and more nutrient-dense by the bite ;)
On May the 29th I enjoyed:
1 quart water
2 cups water mixed with honey, orange oil, chocolate/vanilla extracts = WOW :)
water of a young coconut mixed with phytoplankton and chocolate extract drops
2 cups greeeeeeen smoothie made by the Monarch
2 cups water
a dragon fruit
2 cups greeeeen juice blended with coconut water, honey and lime juice :)
bowl of chai chia cereal mix with chopped banana and almond milk
mug of reishi/shilajit/ormus tea
2 cups water
One RawReform reader, Vera in Burbank, California, would love to let you butterflies know that she has an almost brand new Green Power juicer for sale... It is a Green Power KPE-1304 Twin Gear that she has only used about 15 times...she'd be delighted to receive $250 for it...(usually around $450)...if you're interested, you can contact Vera on: Sophie5378 (at) aol dot com to work out the deets - enjoy :)
on May the 30th, it was my 8th Anniversary of the day I went raw and I loved:
1 quart water
2 dragon fruits
shot of green juice at the market, water and jelly-meat of a young coconut
2 cups greeeeeen smoothie with Mr. M, topped with a few black and white mulberries :)
2 cups water
1 cup *amazing* smoothie: almond milk, banana, orange oil, vanilla and chocolate extracts, 20 chlorella tablets
shared cucumber salad meal with Mr. M, followed by a raw 'apricot scone' from Cosmos Cafe in Vilcabamba
mug of reishi/shilajit/ormus tea
1 cup water
on May the 31st, I enjoyed:
1 quart water
2 cups greeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
2 cups greeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
2 dragon fruits, 3 mandarins
2 tbsp bee pollen
water of a young coconut
cucumber salad meal with leftover 'taco' shells, followed by three almond/orange 'yumballs'
mug of reishi tea
2 cups water
On the subject of bargain juicers, tonight is the last night to get your mittens on the out-RAW-geous juicer and blender bargains over at TheRawFoodWorld.com - below is a quick recap and you can read more HERE...
Aside from receiving a hefty discount on Hurom Juicers and/or any Blendtec Blenders, you ALSO get 12-15% OFF anything else ordered alongside these items, which is all pre-programmed into the coupon codes explained below:So you get these great deals, PLUS 12-15% OFF anything else you order alongside the appliances, which is all automatically calculated and deducted by the store checkout - yay :)
If you want to read more about all this, you can see Mr. M's last newsletter HERE...
...Or you can jump right in and order the Hurom HERE and/or Blendtecs HERE... enjoy :)
Laaaaaaaaaaaa alalalaalaalalalaaaaaaaaaa...
...it's all done with mirrors...and love... :)
A. C. Stokes-Monarch. xxx
