I am continuing to play with the monomeal and its counterpart, the nonmonomeal.

It is remarkable the difference in how I feel during and after the meal and throughout the day.

When I mono eat, I don't have high anxiety while I eat, and i seem to end up feeling satiation before my belly is uncomfortably overfull. In fact, it is amazing and new for me because I can wander off for hours or go to bed, without thinking about food, even though i didn't overstuff myself. Some signal got tripped and I no longer think about food for hours.

But as soon as I mix even 2 fruits together, or even 2 varieties of the same fruit !! like more than one kind of date or tangerine, all bets are off. I feel myself moving back towards the old high anxiety place in eating, and not getting the natural signal of satiation that allows me to stop effortlessly. Rather, I have to either (a) tell myself "you've had enough, time to stop!" which is hard to do or more likely (b) let myself keep going till I don't want any more which usually means my belly is several months pregnant-like and there's a lot of digesting to do for the rest of the night/next morning. It also sets off the patterns of judgment and regret about what I ate.

The stimulation of variety feels kinda fun at the time, but kinda cruddy afterwards, The payoff is not nearly as rewarding as the feeling after I mono eat.

Just thought I'd share my recent experiences with the mono mission.

Love,
Uma





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2007 05:51AM by uma.

Uma,
Thanks for sharing. I actually have similar experiences when eating the different ways you've mentioned.Mono eating is the way to go.
Brian

Hi, Uma. . .

Great post! My experiences are identical to yours. And also, I find that if I receive what I think of as a "good sugar hit" then I am totally satisfied. If the fruit is really ripe and sweet, then I feel like I am getting what I need. It's like it is the perfect key that fits in the lock.

If we were able to eat tropical fruit right off the trees, that, in my mind, would be perfection every day.



Love,
Julie

Hi Uma,

Thanks for sharing! I have experienced exactly the same things!! Eating mono makes me feel so much better, it's amazing! Once you try it for yourself it is very obvious that we are meant to eat mono. :-)

All the best,

Audrey

Perhaps you mentioned this in your other thread, but it seems I am less inclined to stay up later when I eat a mono dinner than when I eat a complex meal. I think this has to do with digestion keeping me up and energized later.

I'm loving how the mono meals seem to give me the most direct line to my body's satiation signal. My mind is a monkey, though ('does two varieties of date count as mono?' 'What about if I blend the bananas instead of eating them straight?') - Agree with you totally that one variety, in its natural state, is the 'direct line'.

I'm finding that it's also a wonderful opportunity to practice being more loving to myself, which might mean sometimes eating the next meal sooner than I thought I 'should' need another meal, or making cannier choices. For example, one day last week I was working outside in the cold all day and ate oranges for breakfast and satsumas for lunch. I ended up getting very very cold and found it hard to warm up when I finally got home in the evening. It would have been more loving on a day like that to have had a meal of bananas or dates, both of which I know help me to stay warm, rather than having two meals of the much more watery citrus.

Here's another thing I've been noticing, though - have you noticed this? - The more mono meals I have, the more 'grounded' I seem to be when I'm eating 'non mono' - I seem to be able to enjoy the meal without getting overstimulated, from a place of satisfying hunger rather than anything else (which also means I'm less likely to get into the spices etc).

love
Ela



seeing is freeing
hearing is clearing
feeling is healing

Yes Bryan I forgot to mention this, I do seem to fall asleep easier at night and sleep longer and better when I do mono for dinner. I have a recent history of not falling asleep easily at night, but this seems to shift when I eat simpler for dinner.

And I agree with Ela, the more mono I am eating, the less anxiety I have when I eat and so even when I eat a variety of foods, it's not as high anxiety as before. But, it still noticably does not feel as good.

I am so glad you guys are sharing that your experience is identical to mine! My own experience and hearing the matching ones of you all is really inspiring me to keep on in this direction. It just feels good! It almost seems... TOO EASY!!

About eating more than one variety at a time -- I guess we wouldn't do that in nature because we'd be up in one tree and wouldn't necessarily jump to a different type of tree for the next piece and then back again! Although i suppose if we ran out we might hop to another variety tree?

Here was our nonmono date dinner last night. It included 2 different barhis, medjool, halawi, amirhaj, black abada, black primo, zahidi, khadrawi, honey, deglet, and an unnamed seedling variety. You can see Doug's 80/10/10 book on the top right corner of the table! (you can see the 10 under the celery.)




Love,
Uma





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2007 04:53AM by uma.

I'm also discussing this on another board so I thought I'd add some of my post from there too:

I did raw for a few years, all the high fat and salt and spices and tons of supplements and cleanses and flushes and Cousens and then Hippocrates and yada yada. I eventually got sicker and sicker and got down to 80 lbs and went back to 1/2 cooked for a couple years while gradually eating more and more fruit.

Since I've been playing with raw again for the past year, I've been following low fat, high fruit with no salt, spices, etc. except the occasional restaurant meal. Yet my healing seemed to be limited because I had constant anxiety around eating and getting enough, I seemed to overeat to the point of pain every day, and have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night with poor quality sleep and not being able to sleep in even when I had the time.

It is only within the past few weeks that I have seriously been playing with mono meals. I had done it for breakfast or lunch in the past but always ended the day with variety and a lot of it. Since doing mono for dinner as well recently, things have started shifting. With my anxiety around food, my ability to go for longer without snacks, my ability to fall asleep earlier. I have started being able to sleep for longer periods of time when I have the chance, 10-12 hours.

I know someone who, early on in their raw experience, took 4 months off of work and slept 16 hrs a night the first month, 14 the second month, 12 the third and 10 the fourth, or something like that. I have often felt that in order to move to the next level of healing, I need more sleep! And it feels like mono is a start in giving my system less work to do so it can rest more.

Love,
Uma

Uma....i totally agree with you..since i was very young like 8 or so i have not slept well at night...i stayed up and only would sleep a couple hours 2-4 a night and function on it...since starting raw 2 1/2 weeks ago i find myself sleeping for long periods of time...at first i was concerned about this...but reading your post it helped me realize it is my body's way of healing...they say you are rebuilding our system when sleeping so it only makes sense that my body craves more sleep lately to help heal itself after all the years of junk.....21 years of damage and now i am healing so good to be raw!!
love sachelle
xoxoxoxoxox

i did 11 days of mono banana eating...it was really great....

i really knew when i was hungry and when i was full....i did not really want or have any "other" food cravings....i felt light and bright...had great workouts...

the whole thing was not bliss by any means...the first 4 days were really hard because i was coming off of my caffeine addiction...and some detox as well....

i am really committing to 80 10 10...the "best" that i can....i am an athlete...pretty intense...and i know 80 10 10 makes sense and feels right to me...it completelely resonates with me...although i still make some bad choices...its funny what i think are bad choices at this point....

anyway, from day 12-20 (which is today) i have been adding in greens and more/different fruit...celery has NEVER tasted this good...the mono eating has definately stimmulated my taste buds...i do very well when i eat simple...and when i do the program alone...what i mean is when i go out socially...i tend to make some bad choices...not horrible ones...but not total 80 10 10....i went up north with some friends this weekend and went to Cafe Gratitude...i had never been there...well...the went my mono eating...but today is a new day and i will
stick with banana and celery today to get back on track and focused...

i trulu enjoy mono eating and feel so balanced and centered with this type of eating...once i add more things...this is where it gets a little fuzzy for me...but i love learning about myself in this way...getting totally honest...pushing myself...and knowing i am really able to do anything if it is truly what i want for myself...i have s strong sense of committment and focus..sometimes i just don't feel like doing it....but then i don't feel as well afterwards...so what's a girl supposed to do?? i am having fun with all of this...

I've been eating mono meals of fruit during the day. In the evening I will eat lettuce, cucumber, celery, tomato salad. Do you think there would be a change if I kept that simpler?

Sachellel, thanks for sharing about your sleep exploration. I've heard that sleep is where the cellular regeneration occurs. And if we are just getting enough sleep to make up for our activity the day before then how can we heal further back in the past? So it makes sense to me that deep healing would require more sleep or at least rest. But I don't have a lot of experience here yet.

Meinleben, that is so inspiring! I have been considering the week of bananas-only for a while now. Did you have any greens during that week? Thanks for sharing about it.
I know what you mean, since I started playing with mono I don't always feel like doing it but then I don't feel as good afterwards! I'm trying to let it unfold naturally, not forcing myself to go too fast. But already I have lost interest in smoothies for the moment, which I used to drink every day, in favor of a banana meal.

Connie Boo: Well for me I notice when I have a salad at night I get stimulated by variety but then again my salads are more complex than what you are describing! I'm not sure what to say about that, anyone else?

Love,
Uma