Confessions on raw food

I've been eating for some weeks more and more living, raw food. I travelled for couple weeks, so I ate a little unusually for some time, but am back to basics now. I do eat some cooked foods, but try to maintain mainly raw foods. I'm hoping I could transfer more and more to living foods.

I have noticed, that in the last six months, I have been more often sick than in many years in total. One factor is that I've worked with children, but I just can't put all the blaim in that. I know that emotional and spiritual state has it's meaning, but I've been eating a lot of dairy products, bread and sugary foods. It's almost like a slip back, before I've been quite mainly vegan. But the result is quite noticeable, definitely!! Energy level is lower, I gained some weight (even I wasn't in any ways fat, but it felt like over my ideal weight, and I think you should feel good in your body and come to terms) and felt quite bloated almost all the time. And the feeling of real hunger was rare. I just ate in the rhythm of the work, and felt like I wasn't hungry but had to stuff in food, because it was been offered. And then felt more stuck and bloated. Like there was no time for my metabolism to work, so it just got stuck. And dairy products develop definitely mucus for me.

Now I just have made the promise with myself, to listen to my body and what it would like. I've been struggling with the thought, that if everyone else reads dairy and bread without complaining, then why don't I? But if I don't feel good eating that way, then why should I. I thought that I should just "eat anything and be happy", but noticed that was not working.

So, now I've been changing little by little what I eat. For the first weeks when I shifted, I would feel lot of symptoms of toxins being released. Some days I would feel really fatigue or powerless, having no energy at all. Or then I would feel really cold. I had some headache in the evenings, and then in the day also - but it disappeared, when I did yoga. And for some time my stomach was a bit unsettled and mixed.

But now I'm starting to feel like on the better side, my energy level has started to rise phenomenally, and I feel much lighter and my metabolism works. I sleep less easily, my skin is better, and my breath doesn't feel so smelly in the morning!

I don't feel like I should be all about raw and eat nothing else. I am quite happy to eat cooked foods now and then, but leave dairy products out and eat mostly organic food. I just don't want to stress about food, that is the least thing that you should be obsessed about. It's about feeling good, not being boring and stuck to some opinion.

In the morning I usually make myself orange juice with lots of pulp, and drink some green or ginger tea. I have my breakfast smoothie in noon, when I feel hungry. Now when blueberries can be picked just couple meters away from home, I've been doing blueberry smoothies like below, with a hint of star anis.

Sprouted hummus

Ingredients:

about 2 dl dried chickpeas

2 cloves garlic (or more, less to your taste)

1 tsp tamarind paste / lemon juice

sea salt

virgin olive oil

water

Soak the chick peas over night and sprout for 2-3 days, rinsing with water few times a day. Boil the chickpeas in water for 5-10 minutes, let cool. Put in a blender with seasonings, mix, add gradually some oil and water until makes a fine, creamy paste. Serve as a dip, with salad, bread etc. Store in the fridge.