Well, we all learn in grade school that getting our veggies is an important part of eating right. Some people go one direction and go vegetarian, then go vegan, then go raw. At first, I thought raw was essentially just an extreme form of being a vegan. But instead it’s just a very souped up version of living super duper healthy. And yeah you can still eat meat (and it can be cooked! No thank you, raw chicken.)
When I was in college, a book that I thought looked amazing by the cover was one in the Jamba Juice of The Block (the outdoor mall I worked at/frequented.) It was a book on Raw cuisine, and while the idea of of going raw intrigued me even more than 2 years ago, I didn’t buy the book. (Of course part of that can be attributed to the fact that in college with money being scarce, 25-30 dollars was hard to scare up.
When I got my new Blendtec blender (bought because Eric & I had wanted one forEVER to make awesome soups, smoothies, and the most to-DIE-for milkshakes), I bought two books that were recommended by Amazon, Green For Life and Green Smoothie Revolution.
Victoria Boutenko relayed her amazing, amazing recovery from her and her husband being practically near death due to various illnesses. Both of her kids also had sicknesses that are hard to grow up with – her son had diabeties, and her daughter had asthma.
After switching to an all raw food lifestyle – and then additionally, later, adding in green smoothies – the WHOLE family got better. Literally. The son doesn’t have diabeties, the husband who had been told he had 2 months to live is healthy, the daughter no longer has asthma, and Miss Victoria herself, aside from the health benefits of losing over 100 pounds, also gained (pardon the cheez, folks) a second chance of living, free from her ailments.
Honestly I won’t lie, part of me is in it for the weight loss. Just from a brief foray onto Chat Roulette (I’ll write another post about THAT hilarious beast later) it’s obvious that the average person still feel’s it’s okay to make fun of, belittle, and generally be disgusted by a fat person. While I myself am not disgusted by myself, quite the opposite (I’ve gotten past my sad self-loathing days-a-thank-yew), there are physical things that I just cannot DO because I feel physically trapped by the body I’m in. I manage to make do for Joshua Tree rock climbing, the main thing I’m DYING to do is parkour.
My fiance is pretty thin, but he isn’t really strong enough to do parkour things as well, hence why as I switch myself over to this lifestyle, when he’s at home I work towards making him healthy as well. While I do have the strength to do it, I don’t have the stamina, nor the sleek physique to squeeze through tiny spots. The strength is limited when I have to deal with an extra 100 pounds more than the average person does.
At first I had planned on just making green smoothies, which I tend to drink mostly daily. (I’ve skipped a day or two here and there, but overall drinking them for just more than a week has made me feel better and I plan on drinking more of these.) But the more I look into eating raw, and the more I learn about the health benefits, I eventually had to ask myself this question.
If, in 20 years, I had cancer and was going to die prematurely… and I found out that I could have prevented all of it by simply learning how to properly eat right, what would my future self think of my current self?
What if I was told that I could have skipped having all these diseases? I don’t think at this point enough long term studies have been done in a scientific setting to make complete scientific proof that we should all live this way for perfect optimum health, but I think that between all the people who have switched to this method of eating (and by switch I mean go somewhere between 80% and 100% raw), not only do they get healthy, they also manage to stave off other sicknesses as well.
The main trend I see with raw food is “first I started it for a whim/to be healthy for a detox period/just to test it for 30 days (or) 100 days” but then it turns to “and it made me just feel so healthy that I just kept doing it.” This is what I am striving for as well. My main thing right now is, if I can replace it with something made in a raw food method, than I might as well because it’ll be better for me overall. Of course, provided it can be eaten raw. (No raw rhubarb or raw kidney beans. Cause, you know. Poisonous.)
Parsnip rice, teriyaki shiitake marinated mushrooms, this is my new favorite recipe.
Honestly I made that between last night and tonight. The mushrooms marinated for 24 hours (Eric and I meant to eat this last night but we filled up on salad), and made the parsnip (slash pine nut slash macadamia nut “rice”) last night as well. Tonight was feeling peckish and remembered I had the ingredients for this. And omg this is GOOD. This is actually my second round of it because the first one was a wee bit loose and not picture worthy (although I nommed it down anyways.)
Cool things: If you want meat, you can have meat. Just pair it with other meat, not with a starch, or else it makes the digestion process longer (also don’t pair with nuts or fruits). Also try to get the grass fed kind when you can, if you can, because it has better nutrients from the chlorophyll from the grass versus the sugar/fats/blahs from cooked over processed corn. If you want starch, pair it with another starch. Have a sweet potato (I have a pretty decent looking recipe for maple sweet mashed potatoes that are raw, going to have to make that soon), and some bread. You can also eat veggies with most groups just not with fruit. Fruit, when starting out, is best by itself, and you’ll want to try to wait 30 minutes before you eat something else. Actually, I’m gonna let you go check it out for yourself – The Raw Food Detox is Natalia Rose’s book on basic way to move yourself towards eating raw-er and healthier. Some people do go all the way raw, I’m going to ride this out myself and see if I like it, and where I want it to take me. Can’t wait to make some dehydrated sprouted grain cacao crepes.
Oh my – I don’t plan on being terribly busy, but this blog does go by the wayside when crunch time comes in. Either way, we’re not heavily pimping this site out, so if you’re reading this, you’re one of the few! ;)
So Aryiel and I have both upgraded to awesome smart phones, she has an iPhone and I have a G1, the prime carriers of that being AT&T and T-Mobile – ha.
Oh, so, get this. Aryiel went to ER – I have exciting footage that will be cut together sometime soon to show you the epic night of nights. Seriously. What happened was better than any of the video skits we wanted to try to do! As soon as it’s done I’ll post it, bwahaha. Until then, my friends, have a good day, night, whatever.
Aryiel: “Harumph. Just harumph to Valentine’s Day”
Amanda: “Yeah. I was thinking about opening a vein using the thorns off of my dried roses from exlovers and drowning in a pool of my own blood and tears.”
Setting: Aryiel is eating dinner in her room when Justin comes a knockin’ at the door, eating tuna out of a can with a fork. She looks at him, laughs; he asks “What?” to which she replies “Are you a cat?” To which he shrugs, “Maybe.” Upon which he looks at her, looks back at the can of tuna, puts the fork down and slowly starts for the can with his mouth. “No,” she says, “Don’t do it. It’ll be too adorable.” Upon which Justin proceeds to lick the can of tuna clean, followed by licking his “paw” and running it across his head. And just when she thought it could not escalate, he looks her dead in the face and lets out a wide-eyed “Meeeoooowww.” Of course, all of this prompts Aryiel to say “You know, you’re the second guy I’ve seen do that this week. I dunno what this new power of mine is but it’s kindof awesome.” To which Justin hesitates for a moment and then triumphantly announces, “That’s easy. You turn strong-willed men into pussies.” And Aryiel smiles and says, “I can live with that.”
The End.
Phew. It’s exhausting and weird to write about yourself in the third person.
I leave you with this! Have a lovely weekend darlings!!
While that title probably perked up your ears and got you thinking “holy shit, is this some crazy, bohemian chick who wanders around in cemetaries drunk, thinking that the alcohol sharpens her oh-so-keen senses so she can contact the dearly departed?” the answer is….no. No that is not it at all. But thanks for giving me so much credit. :)
Last night I went to go see two of my friends perform (the same who I was just performing in New York with). All I was told is that they were performing at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary and that there was a full absinthe tasting bar. I really did not need to hear anymore. Would you?
We drove up into the cemetary and they allowed us to drive all the way up beside the strange lake that is so serene and beautiful during the day; but at night with everyone dressed in black 20s formal wear, with the moon large and almost full behind the mausoleum, everyone and everything that reflected on the lake became instantaneously haunting and gorgeous.
Walking inside felt like a dream. Tombs all aound us, I wafted in in my brand new red, polka-dotted black dress I manifested yesterday (I’m not kidding!! :) HIPPY-DIPPY SECRET TIME!!! I was just telling my friend Sarah yesterday how I wanted a new dress, a halter dress, with a banded waist, …..and polka-dotted would be awesome too, since I love them. And yesterday I just happened to pull into a random store after I got off set, and as I was looking at bras….there it was. Just lying out of place with the bras. I grabbed it and looked at the tag. “Awww, this isn’t my size” I thought. It’s a 6 and I’m normally a 7. But I figured what’s the harm in trying? Honestly? It fit absolutely perfectly. It looks like it was tailor-made just for me. And hey, awesome news I can fit into a 6 now. :) But I digress……) …..where was I? Oh yes, after thinking about how awesome my dress was :) I decided I need a glass of the beautiful glowing absinthe and a cigarette…naturally. We walked through the halls, down the long tomb-encapsulated corridor to the bar where they had light pillars with hors de oeuvres on top of them. “Thank God!” I said “I always say that food is better when lit from below” (By the by, that’s just another example of my oh-so-charming sarcastic wit. I actually have no preference as to how my food is lit, unless it’s lit on fire, and then (unless it’s creme brulee) I do have a slight problem….Stay tuned for the next installment on my thoughts about food lighting).
Now I had called my friend at the last minute to see if he wanted to go with me to this lovely event. He was on the 405 and just hopped right on over because let’s face it, if you’re on the 405 and someone says you have an hour to get somewhere, you’ll barely make it there. Lesson: 405 = death. Anyways, he wasn’t so dressed up. Just jeans and a shirt (and a jean jacket which I made fun of him mercilessly for. Sidenote: Guys? Xnay on any and all forms of jean jackets. Honestly. It’s not 1992 anymore. Girls? it’s still sortof ok for you to wear them still, but I mean…..come on). So we met up with my friends performing, Tara and Mitchell, outside as we were walking in and Tara and I started talking burlesque (as we always do since she was in the Velvet Hammer troupe. Jealous) and I told her I was making my solo debut the 24 of November and so was my guy friend who was with me. Right after that, she looked him up and down and said “Oh……comedy?” Not meaning to come off like it did, but it did, he laughed and made fun of the fact that it was a hilarious notion that he might be doing burlesque (he’s actually an accomplished magician and will be doing such on said night….not stripping……at least Idon’t think so……). As we walked away from the absinthe bar we were standing around looking at the tombs after being rejected by the bartender (only cash accepted? Where’s the blasted ATM in this cemetary?!) and this girl came up to the bar, looked him up and down, and said “So…how’d you get passed the semi-formal dress code?” (which I had no idea about, mind you. Otherwise I would have told him. Come on, I’m not a completely heartless bitch). Again, she didn’t mean it the way it sounds but we laughed again (I think he was laughing to stop from crying) and to help heal the wound she offered to buy us a round of absinthe (I drank both. What? He doesn’t drink. I was just trying to be economical. Jesus. Soon you’ll all be calling me a lush too. (I love that I’m having a comversation with myself right now)). We walked around, swing danced to the lovely 20’s singer that we had seen previously at the Cecada Club downtown (if you guys have not been there, GO! It’s completely like stepping into another world. It’s all very 20’s but 30’s and 40’s are usually there too. Full bar, absinthe is a big hit, lots of dancing….it’s gorgeous. And no cover charge! Just valet your car and hop in!! :) ) then we saw my friends perform. It was a mime satirization (which is actually SO MUCH cooler than it sounds, I swear!!) of the Nosferatu movie. Tara was the victim-turned-vampire, and Mitchell was Dracula (duh).
They were fabulous, the venue was fabulous, the food was fabulous, the absinthe was fabulous, the night was fabulous.
And Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall was there. Awesome? Answer: yes.
Oh, and I would just like to say thank you to the amazing woman, Lisa, I met outside while filling ourselves with a lil bit o cancer: You dropped into my life at the perfect time and said some incredible things that I truly needed to hear right now about…well…..yeah. For that, thank you. And, as she said, “Thank you absinthe”.
And for you three I was there with, all I have to say is…
normal viewwwww, Normal Vieewwwww, NORMAL VIEEEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
For those of you who get that, thank you and I love and cherish you. For those of you that don’t, fuck off and die.
