:! :@ :# :$ :% :^ :& :8 :_ :+
;( ;-)

<3 This is a heart on FB but it doesn't work here.

So I figured out how to make the sad and smily faces. But I've noticed that some people can make the faces move. How do you do that?

Peace be with you,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com



Humility is our acceptance of ourselves.

I can find on the outside only what I possess on the inside.

theres this one too and

: + D and : + o

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2010 04:30PM by Jgunn.

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while since I've been here. I've been going through another period of strong cravings and falling off the 100% raw food wagon. I'm trying to climb back on. I wonder if it's because I've been eating more simply and missing complex recipes. Or I've been going through a cleansing of those items I've been craving. Or only God knows what the real reason is and I won't be able to figure it out. Does it matter anyway?

What I started doing is making recipes again in hopes to stay between 90%-100% raw again. I figure things like olives, some of my nuts, vinegar, sun dried tomatoes, and little condiments like that aren't raw. Therefore, it's back to transitional food for me.

Yesterday, I made Curried Kofta Balls in Casher Tomato Curry Sauce. The recipe's in "The Complete Book of Raw Food," pg. 244. I really enjoyed it along with my salad. There's enough to last a couple of days. The only thing about eating like this is it's really high in fat. If I'm able to stick with fruit and green smoothies during the day, I think it will be OK. The goal is to get back on track.

The other thing I'm not too keen about when eating transitional complex raw food is that I tend to get a bit smelly from the garlic and spices. What I'm doing is cutting the amount in half. They're too strong from me anyway and a more mild version of these foods are fine with me.

That's it for now. Have a wonderful, joyful day!

Love,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com

The peaks and valleys of my life have become gentle rolling hills.

The power within me is far greater than any fear before me.

SOunds like you have a good plan for getting back on track. Good luck!


My favorite raw vegan

Thanks, Trive.

I'm just getting over some kind of heavy detox. Guess it's from when I went down to 75-80% raw. Anyway, I pretty much slept for a week. OK, not much sleep because I also had diarrhea but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm better, back to 100% raw, lots of greens. I'm even juicing right now. I'm trying to get my intestines back to normal. My appetite has also come back. I fasted for the first 2 days and then I would forget to eat, mostly because I didn't think about it. Energy is returning which is a good thing because I start work again today.

Lately I've been eating:
Green smoothies 2x a day.
fresh juice
salad
something I make from "The Complete Book of Raw Food" (last night I made Chili rellenos on page 236. Very nice)

I may add more to my diet as my appetite returns. We shall see!

Have a wonderful day. Keep posting your diaries!

Love,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com
(I'm on FB, too.)

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

The power within me is far greater than any fear before me.

When I got into raw food, I thought I would detox on occassion, then barely get sick. But I gotta say, I get sick a lot. Not just a one day detox for eating something not raw, but really sick for a week or two at a time. And I've been doing this for 6 years now. I'm drinking more green smoothies in hopes the greens have whatever vitamins or minerals I'm lacking. I got to say, I'm really tired of being sick. When I eat SAD or vegetarian, it's the same; I'm sick most of the time, so going back to what I did before wouldn't work, it's actually worse.

I'm kind of ranting now because I've had a sore throat, headache and have been sneezing for a week and I'm tired of it. Two weeks before that, I had a high fever and diarrhea. Most of the time I've been on these boards, I could swear I had a low grade fever. I'm so frustrated with it all. I've done the sleeping all day thing, and have gotten lots of rest. I eat lots of tropical fruit because I live in the tropics. I eat salads for dinner and make my own low oil salad dressing.

Just wanted to get this off my chest. I get so fed up with people who are new to raw and rave about all the great advantages they are getting like great health with lots of energy, clear thinking and all the other promises that seem to elude me.

I think I've got to re-evaluate my eating habits. I've listened to tons of interviews by the top guru raw foodists and have taken on some of their findings but sickness seems to stay with me. I've experimented with low fat, NH and other things I've gotten from the "gurus." Still, I get sick.

OK, I think I'm done ranting. I'll probably get in trouble for this. I don't think it's the diet necessarily, perhaps it's my genetic makeup. I'm at such a loss that I'm hoping when I get back to the States I can find other raw foodists in my area and learn from them.


Have a wonderful day. And I truly hope that you all have excellent health and great success with this diet. I know it helps lots of people.

Mona

We need to share our problems to find our solutions.

You cannot deal with the alligators until you drain the swamp and get out of the mud.

I'm sorry that you are experiencing so many problems. It sounds like you have tried hard to find out what is going wrong with no results. Have you considered getting your blood tested to see if you are deficient in some way? High fever and diarrhea sound like you are fighting an infection of some sort. I really have no idea what's going on, but wish you the best in finding good health.


My favorite raw vegan

Thank you, Trive. The diarrhea and high fever was 2 weeks ago and is over. Now it's a low grade fever, a sore throat and pretty much the feeling of having a cold. I seem to get this a lot, at least several times a year. I'm just really tired of being sick. This is why I went raw in the first place. I admit I'm better in many areas than I was when I started. But I still get these colds all the time.

You know, I'm amazed by how I'm led to hear the right thing at the right time. As I stated above I was frustrated with all my continuous illnesses. This morning I listening to an old interview of Revvel and Alissa and they talked about detoxing. Pretty much, they said that detox comes from all the illnesses we had that we suppressed sometimes decades ago with drugs or herb remedies. Just trust your body to heal and it takes as long as it takes. It was a good reminder for me in patience with my body. I have decades of illnesses stored up, probably got rid of some, but have lots more healing to go through. Dang. As I stated above, going back to cooked food is out of the question, so I'll continue on this path and maybe one of these days I will be healed.

Have a fantastic day!

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com

Lord, I ain't what I outta be, I ain't what I am going to be, But Lord, oh Lord, I thank you that I ain't what I used to be.

Kia ora Mona,
I'm only a newbie to raw food and as such feel a little awkward trying to give you advice or support. Clearly where raw food is concerned you have so much more knowledge and experience than I do. But what we eat is only one very small part of what can make us sick. While I may not have been raw for very long (in fact its been so short a time I can count it in days (9) on my fingers), I have had a life long interest in alternative methods of healing. That is in part what has led me to introducing raw food into my journey. One of the things I have learnt is that sometimes the reason we cant find a 'logical' medical reason or solution for being sick is because the reason we are sick is not necessarily a physical thing. We maybe physically manifesting thoughts, beliefs etc that we have held onto for what ever reason and it is in fact those thoughts, feelings etc that are making us sick, and as such until we address our problems at that level nothing we do on a physical level (like detox, changes in diet, medication etc) will get rid of the problem completely. I recommend checking out books by Louise Hay -shes written several but 'You can heal your life' might be the best, in my opinion anyway. You might also consider trying an alternative therapy like reiki -I practice reiki myself, and its a type of energy healing that is amazing for healing issues across different levels physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It shouldnt be too hard to find practitioners in your area as it is becoming very widespread these days!
I hope that nothing Ive said was offensive in any way, but I share your belief that the body is amazing and can heal often without the need for mainstream drugs and medicine. I wish you the best of luck in your healing journey!
In light and love
Rangimarie

Thank you, Rangimarie, for your thoughts and wisdom. It's funny you should write what you did, because I'm starting a new blog called La Buscadora about searching for health in the mind, body and spirit. More on that later.

It's so easy to focus only on food sometimes. I'm healing quite nicely now and feel much better. I've also noticed that all my previous cravings are gone. I have no desire to eat anything cooked. As a matter of fact, I can hardly eat any gourmet raw at all right now. I made a couple of dishes for the last few nights and could barely eat them. They tasted good, but are too rich for me; even my salad! I couldn't finish them. All I could think at the time was how I only wanted a bowl of fruit. I already cut the spiciness in the recipes because I can't take too much garlic, pepper, chili, etc. Now it seems like I can't handle any spices.

Have a great day everyone!

Love,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com


Even if I'm on the right track, if I don't move I'll get run over

would love to follow your blog, if you dont want to share the url here you can private message me?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jody, thanks for asking about the blog. I've made 2 posts so far, mostly introductions. I'm starting with the spiritual practice of St. Ignatius and his Daily Examen. If you have been to my husband's blog, he posts a lot on the saints whom we both find very interesting. He's interested in the historical aspects and I'm interested in their spirituality.

I do plan on writing about raw food, my experiences and what I'm learning about them. Kinda like what I post here.

Here it is: [labuscadora801.blogspot.com]

Hope you enjoy it!

Blessings,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com
labuscadora801.blogspot.com


The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.

Together we can do what we could never do alone.

How strange that no body but me has posted on this forum since 9/2. Where is everyone?

Here's my latest. Since my illness a few weeks back, I noticed that I can't eat anything with any kind of heat, that is pepper, chili, garlic, onion, etc. Forget the spices. My tongue isn't going for them. They really burn and I can't take it.

So, this makes salads different. I still love my bell pepper salad dressing, but I'm now using less spices in it. I put in a bit of basil and a pinch of salt and that's it. The bell pepper has so much flavor it doesn't need anything else. This is a change, because, before my illness, I loved adding garlic, balsamic vinegar, etc to it. Now I can't even think about it.

So this has me thinking that my last illness was a cleanse and not stress related since my taste buds have gone through this change. It is kind of like when I loved Lara bars then all of a sudden they were too strong for me and I couldn't stand all the flavor in them; they were overwhelming to my taste buds.

This time I can't even eat my favorite olives because I can't take the strong taste. Yesterday I made what I thought was a mild version of Mediterranean Black Olive & Walnut Tapenade (pg. 288, "The Complete Book of Raw Food", second edition). I've made this many times mixing some green olives in it and loved it. However yesterday, I could only eat small amounts on the lettuce wrap instead of the big globs like I used to enjoy. It never occurred to me when I started eating raw how much my taste buds would change.

What changes have you noticed in yours?

Blessings,

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com
labuscadora801.blogspot.com

Isolation is the dark room where we develop our 'negatives'.

Is the life I'm living the life that wants to live in me?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2010 05:20PM by Mona.

haha ! lol everyone kinda goes awol over the summer it seems it usually picks up around here once fall sets in

i love olives too but lately they just seem really i dont know kinda gross must be changing taste

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I've been posting at least once a week since 2006 and I don't remember it ever getting this slow. Oh well....

So now I'm still having a lot of issues with anything that has spices added to it. I made a gazpacho last night and left out most of the ingredients. I kept the veggies but no salt or herb, just a little onion powder and garlic powder. I think I liked it better before I added them.

Because I read and trust Ehret's work, I think his test of "The Magic Mirror" is a good representative of my heath. My tongue was coated when I started this ( I didn't have to fast to get the coating) and now it's really nice and pink. Therefore, my taste buds are functioning really well. See page 42, where the chapter on "The Magic Mirror" begins in his book "Mucusless-Diet Healing System."

I guess I'll just start eating more simply. My salad doesn't need salad dressing anymore especially if I add an avocado to it. I still eat black olives but the green olives or other olives I used to love are too strong for me. They seem to add all the sodium I need on the salad.

I'm still eating at least 1-2 green smoothies a day. Soooo good.

That's it for now. Have a wonderful day!

Mona
padremickey.blogspot.com
labuscadora801.blogspot.com

Happiness and peace of mind are always here,open and free to anyone.

F E L L O W S H I P =
Faith, Empathy, Learning, Love, Openness, Wisdom, Self-worth, Hope, Identification, People.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2010 12:40PM by Mona.

I want to let you all know about a Meditation e-course that Sylvia Boorstien is teaching at [www.spiritualityandpractice.com]. It's called The Liberating Promise of Mindfulness with Sylvia Boorstein and I think will be fun to have some of you in class with me.

Mona
[padremickey.blogspot.com]
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]

It is not always the quantity of good things that you do, it is always the quality that counts.Above all, take it one day at a time.

What a great day! I'm taking a mindfulness class and had a great 20 minute meditation this morning. I'm working up to a half hour. The class is wonderful!

Food wise, I got some mustard greens for my smoothies today at the farmers market. Right now they're my favorite. Fitday.com says they are high in protein and other good nutrients. Plus, they taste great with pineapple and papaya.

Still practicing Liangong regularly. My thighs are getting stronger, I can tell because some of the positions are getting easier.

So, take care and my you all have many blessings.

Mona
[http://www.padremickey.blogspot.com]
[http://www.labuscadora801.blogspot.com]


Trust the process.

We surrender to win; we give away to keep; we suffer to get well; we die to live.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2010 03:21AM by Mona.

It's been a long time, because my Camino browser says this site has a virus. Yet I can get to it at my school and on Foxfire. So, here I am.

I'm still drinking lots of green smoothies and eating salads in the evening. I've noticed Raw Gourmet recipes are getting too strong for me, so I'm always toning them down. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's part of my emotional eating and I really don't need them anymore.

I'll keep looking into it.

Also, I was wondering if anyone would like to be my rawfood buddy? I would love to have like a person to chat with off site about keeping raw. I'm going through another emotional eating binge and think some of it has to do with lack of local community. I was hoping to be in the States by now, but not sure when that's really going to happen. Just thought I would put it out there and if you want to try it, send me an email and we can support each other via email, skype, or FB chat.

Have a great day and I'll write more next time I have a chance. In the meantime, feel free to check out my blog, la buscadora.

Love you all,

Mona
[padremickey.blogspot.com]
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]

Hope is knowing the good in us will overcome the bad.

Our perspective will change our perception. Our perception will change our experience. Our experience IS our life.

It's been a while since I've written!

I've been fighting urges to eat cooked. Seems like this is just what I'm going through for the last few months. I don't want to say I'm back on track, because every time I do, something happens. To avoid cooked food, like the other day, I just tell myself, "I choose to eat raw food." I keep postponing eating the cooked food and before I know it, I'm out of the situation where I'm around the cooked stuff.

I'm still concentrating on eating lots of greens through smoothies and salads. I still eat plenty of fruit and nuts.

Good to be back. Hope all is well with you.

Much love,

Mona
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]
[padremickey.blogspot.com]

Once we clear a hurdle, it doesn't seem so high.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

happy holidays mona, hope you have a great new year ahead of you

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Thanks, Jodi! May you have a Happy and prosperous New Year, too.

It's been a while since I've been here. My husband has taken over the computer so I don't have much time online anymore.

I'm still doing the same old thing: lots of green smoothies, great salads in the evening. I'm eating nuts regularly, too.

I'm still doing my exercises and loving it. I got new weights yesterday and used them today in my arm and shoulder work out. They made a big difference.

Here's a link to my favorite salad dressing this week:
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]

Let me know if you try it and what you think.
Mona
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]
[padremickey.blogspot.com]

Abide without praising, with the mind inwardly at peace.

May I avoiding both the repulsive and unrepulsive abiding with equanimity, mindful and fully aware.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2011 06:44PM by Mona.

hey im gonna try the recipe tommorrow sounds yummy !! ive been just blending a couple of avos withsome water and a garlic clove for a creamy garlic dressing ive been craving lately

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

That sounds good, too, Jody. I love avocados. Sometimes we have really good ones and sometimes not. Panama is a funny country that way.

I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to go to this sight lately.

Temptation keeps following me around. I tried dry fasting again, but there's things about it I'm not too keen on. So right now, after relapsing one meal with Indian food, I started 80/10/10. So far, so good. I quickly got results but still feeling like I'm cleansing quite a bit. That's what happens.

Any of you near Fresno, CA? Berkeley, CA? I'm taking a 9 day vacation in March, 8-16. If you're live in or near Berkeley or Fresno, let me know. I would love to meet you.

Mona
[padremickey.blogspot.com]
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.

We know what to do, but do we do what we know?

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've posted. I've been traveling and working. Then for a while I couldn't get online. Living in a foreign country does have its internet disadvantages.

Life has been great in spite of the fact that my cravings are as strong as they were since my last post. Gotta admit, sometimes I give in, sometimes I don't. My attempts for doing 80/10/10 always end within a week or so. I still love my daily dose of smoothies and will continue with those.

I'm not sure if my cravings are due to detox or due to a lack of certain vitamins or minerals. Will investigate.

Have a wonderful day, everyone.

Mona
[http://padremickey.blogspot.com/]
[http://labuscadora801.blogspot.com/]

We surrender to win; we give away to keep;
we suffer to get well; we die to live.

Hello dear!!! Remember me?!?! I just spent forever catching up on your journal!!! I miss being active on this site daily!! I am ready to be on more often!!! How is life?!?
Love earth angel
Xoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Hey, I just came here (meaning the diaries forum) after a long time too, and for some reason went straight to Mona's thread.

I remember you Earthangel! Hope you're well.

And you too Mona!

Sometimes I feel kinda like you feel Mona. Not cravings exactly, but wondering if I'm getting enough nutrients. The reason I wonder is because I tend to overeat sometimes; and of course, I don't like that. But my experience with cooked food was so so so bad, that whenever I think about possibly experimenting with that again, I just can't. I know that my overeating on raw is absolutely nothing at all compared to how it was with cooked!

I'm never sick thank goodness. I guess we all have our individual struggles to go through.

Sometimes I consider maybe eating some raw fish or something. But I just can't do it, because it's an ethical thing for me now. Nope, it's raw vegan or nothing, and that's just how it is!

Today I read a comment from a news site, unrelated to food, where the lady said she ate: biscuits, gravy and eggs for breakfast, and ice cream for dinner. Hey, we've got it good!

I remember very well a strategy for cravings that you wrote about before: Postpone (or Delay?) Good one!

Hi, everyone. Gee whiz it's been ages since I've been here.

Earthangel, I remember you and wondered where you disappeared to. Good to hear from you. Hope you're still around.

Suncloud, Great to hear from you. I'm still struggling with overeating. I'm eating more gourmet and wonder if that's got something to do with the cravings. I didn't have as many when I ate more natural hygiene. I think it's great that you never get sick. I still get sick even after 7 years doing this. There's something I'm doing that's not quite right then. Not sure what it is.

I decided to vote for the 5 in 5 hot raw chef video contest. It was a lot of fun watching all 49 videos. The vote ended yesterday. I hope my person wins, but you never know. I posted one of the best recipes I tried on my blog: [labuscadora801.blogspot.com] Hope to post more later.


Peace and health to you all,

Mona
[labuscadora801.blogspot.com]
[padremickey.blogspot.com]

Faith is a lighted doorway,but trust is a dark hall.

Hi Mona,

I hope you and the Padre are well. How did the hot raw contest go?

I checked out the padremickey blog. Wow! A lot of stuff there! Who is the pretty little girl? Is she your grandchild? And where did that dance picture come from? Looks like early '60s to me (My best guess). Am I right? The guy in front looks like he has a Beatles haircut.

Hope the cravings are dissipating by now....

Best to you!