Yeah,yeah...When you tell me your credentials in nutrition,I'll discuss with you again.

The counselor at the grad school tells me I am about 15 undergraduate credit hours short of the course requirements for an RD and I started working on those credits in January. But I also have to do a 1 year internship for it. I might just skip it and get another master's degree.

That's great,Arugula.Congrats,and I mean that sincerely.But I still hold to the opinion that success on raw eating is sometimes marred by people's obsession to immerse themselves in too much scientific information while forgetting that good health is heavily dependent on tuning in to your body's needs and signals and not giving it some specific predetermined amount of food(calories/nutrients).Remember,somedays you eat more,somedays you eat less.And I think that is because the body is adjusting to the needs of the present time.Somedays you feel like eating one thing and the next day another.What works for me is-I eat when I'm hungry,I eat until satisfied and I try to get a fair amount of variety.I don't clutter my life with too much data. I'll give you the last word.

I am trying to find older pictures of me so i can do a b4 and after type thing, but i got rid of so many pix! I'll keep looking though, so i can show how contracted, zit-faced, gaunt, angry-looking I was a few years ago!

I used to think "looks" were set in stone and a gift or curse that you were stuck with. Now i see it differently, that each person is responsible for their own looks, and that it is a reflection of what's on the inside.

For example, what your external skin looks like is a reflection of what's going on with your internal organs (after all, the skin is an organ). Also, how stuck in our anal-retentive belief systems we are, holding grudges, hanging on to the past, etc. can show up in different contraction patterns in the body/face.
Needing to be right often gives me the clenched jaw look for example. Eating salt can make us puffier with water retention. Etc. etc. etc.

To me beauty is not any exact look, but a softness that comes from an inner peace and presence, or a glow that comes from the system running smoothly like a well-oiled machine. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see a "hard" me, other times I see a "soft" me. It usually corresponds to how I'm feeling on the inside.

I have come a long way, but I still am working on self-judgment issues, and can relate to others who feel this pain. We have the power to change ourselves just by loving ourselves the way we are, isn't that weird? I'm still working on this!

Love,
Uma

Uma, you're lovely!! I felt it when reading this last post of yours. And I like your smile. Unpretensious. Open.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha

TroySantos: Thank you! Glad I sometimes come across as open and unpretentious. LOL.

Love,
Uma

Uma,

You are writing some rockin' posts!

I love what you wrote about the physical body and "looks." I think that we are here to perfect ourselves, and that includes the physical body.

And once you understand and realize that, you can appreciate how all the things we do to "work" at perfecting the body are actually very pleasurable: eating fruit, walking, swimming, yoga, bathing, sunning, sleep and rest, and so on.

And it is not, as you explained, so superficial to observe the changes in your physical self. It is fascinating and fun to discover what we are really supposed to look like! (And feel like!)

The yogis talk about the physical body being a "pot of clay" that we have to drag around in this life. But if we can make the body light and luminous and free, the burden will not feel so dense and heavy and we can even enjoy the body.

Thanks for this discussion, fruit friend. . .



Love,
Julie

Julie: Thank you for your feedback!

I know what you mean -- for a long time I thought it was 'unspiritual' to focus on the physical body.. just thought it was vanity. nowadays I'm seeing more and more that without devoting a lot of love to my physical self, spirituality is hard to come by! and yeah, those things that are loving to myself, cultivating peace, softness, doing physical work, getting sunshine, rest, eating FRUIT!!, etc. also cultivate 'beauty'. Maybe beatiful is just the state of truly loving oneself.

I want to experience my full physical potential, like what I'm meant to be capable of if I was a fit animal in the wild. My sense is that is what people like Doug Graham are experiencing.

I used to think having this or that minor complaint was "normal". The more I meet people who are living the 'well oiled machine' and experience any symptoms as a rarity, the more inspired i am that this is possible for me.

Thank you all you inspiring people!!

Love,
Uma

Uma said:

"Maybe beatiful is just the state of truly loving oneself".

I have fortunately discovered this as well, "the greatest love of all" like the song says.

It's one of those key truths that people overlook because they hear it so much.

Like mono-eating is a good thing. I finally hear that!
And I'm going to read Graham's book.


may I be safe,
may I be happy,
may I be strong (and healthy),
may I have ease of being.

My well worn 'love yourself' mantra.