I'm back

It's been so long since the last time I wrote here and a lot of things happened. My health is always better and I seem to be getting onto what might be my path into food and drinking. I'm not a true fruitarian yet but I'm getting closer and closer to it. My belly is finally not sore anymore but still a bit fatty, still better though. What I'm learning here is that this is a long process and it takes a lot of patience (I'm really not the right person to talk about patience) but if you'll endure you'll be rewarded. Most people quit way before time and that's a real shame because they miss the opportunities that come with this choice. They only pay a very dear price and go home with nothing but complaints and excuses like "this is not my thing" or worse: "don't do it, it's all bulls**t". Again, my suggestion here is to give it a lot of time, maybe a couple of years, start slowly and gradually move to raw.
Back to my experience I'm almost done with my country house and I might be able to move in by the end of the month. It took me longer than I expected (again!!) but now I see the light at the end of the tunnel. As soon as I move in I will be more free and able to get back to what I like most like playing, singing and running. I'm also going to start a raw food recipe book on this or another blog, I still haven't figured that out. I only have a few recipes and I can't wait to share them all with the world. That's all for now. Have a nice (raw) day!

Raw is good, fruit is better

One year! It's been one year of raw food and it's been a hard year, I'm not gonna lie about it. When you leave your traditional diet behind and you change it so dramatically it's hard to stay strong and go on. And I had a lot of doubts in the process and a lot of times I have gon back to just vegan. But in the end I overcame all the problems and I feel better every day. My suggestion, if you want to try this too, is to go slowly and take your time to give up all the cooked/processed foods. Start taking off from your diet the most poisonous elements like sugars, coffee and salt and then move slowly towards vegan and raw foodist. I didn't do it and I felt very bad for the first 3 months, slightly better the 3 months after that and then it was all ok. All but one little problem: sore belly. I started worrying about it and tried everything to make it go away. The problem is that I stressed my body (and mind) a lot with fasting or semi-fasting and I fell into bulimic instincts to overcompensate. I ended up eating tons of dates and almonds (or any other dried fruits and nuts) but my belly started growing a fat layer and so I felt bad about it and tried to fix it with more fasting. This led me into a spiral and I was really worried about it. I went back to vegan for a couple of weeks but it didn't help, it only made things worse so I started looking for answers on the web and finally I found out that my sore belly is probably due to addiction to cereal and it will take some times to get rid of it so I'll try and be patient for a few months. My bulimic instincts, as I said before were overcompensations due to food deprivation. The solution proposed was eating as much fruit as I want. Yeah, seriously, just that simple! Now I've been doing this for a week and I feel so good, like never before! I'm fixing my problems in the guts and everything looks better. I even feel better mentally because I don't have to worry about food and hunger and overcompensations. It's all easier now. So I guess I'm going to be a fruitarian rather than just raw foodist. I find it an easier solution, more natural and it makes me feel better so why not? The only exception is with potatoes which I like to cook in a conservative way but I might as well get rid of them in a few months. The only problem is when I'm going out with friends to have a beer... I will probably choose wine (for the cereal issue). This is very hard for most people because our society looks badly at people who do "extreme" choices like this one but I guess the real extreme choice is to eat unnatural, cooked, refined food which is unhealthy and makes you tired and unmotivated. I know everyone is used to it now but this doesn't change the fact that our body is not made for that. We poison ourselves with drugs everyday and when they tell us to get rid of them we say that we like them and since everybody does the same there is no need to worry. As far as I'm concerned the idea of being addicted to something makes me feel sad because I want to be as free as possible, it's not just about health and energy, which of course are important to me. However I think that everyone should find their own path in this life and this includes food choice. But there must be a choice, you can't keep doing things just because you were tought so or because everyone else is doing the same. I guess we need to question things in order to find what's good for us. Otherwise we're just robots doing what they're told. I don't wanna be this, I wanna question everything, including myself, with all the consequences that come with it. Yes, because if you start questioning everything, in the beginning, you'll be weaker, doubtful and insecure, but in the long run you'll find out what is true about yourself and no one will be able to change your mind. No one but you, of course. So come on, give yourself a chance to choose!

Fighting stress

There are many reasons for staying away from what we like, what we want to do and what we are trying to do. Stress is one of them and in my personal experience it has kept me away from a lot of love and passion. I had let stress get the best of me. But then something in me changed. The more I got stressed the more I kept running away from what I wanted to do because I felt too tired to do it, because I thought that those feelings of fatigue and stress were going to be temporary. Well, they were not. Because without the things I love I am an empty shell. I realized all of this and decided to change things. There are times in life when I feel too tired and depressed to go on and other times that I get sick of wasting my life and decide to be active and try to make a difference. This is one of those times. So basically, what are my passions? I love singing, I love travelling and I love sports activity. I love languages and new cultures so I thought that I should start over from what I love and in order to do so I had to get rid of the activities that were causing stress. I've been member of a band for 7 years. I put up the band in the first place and guided it until last year. Then I talked to one of my guitar players and we both realized that we had been led astray from what we really like in music. We began playing some genuine, natural and instinctive music and we had some great experiences with that, we played in front of 500 people a couple of times and we saw our band grow in a few years. We found a label, a producer and we thought we were going to play at a higher level but we were wrong. We let those people tell us what to do and how to do it. At first they came up with suggestions but in a few months we ended up playing some silly stuff in order to meet a target, to please them, to fulfill their expectation. As a result some of us, me included, didn't like our own music anymore, didn't like playing it, listening to it and rehearsing was a stressful job instead of a creative playtime. Because in the end music is fun and it's a form of art. I felt like I was working in a factory with no wage. So me and my friend decided to call it quit. We both felt better and in a few months we decided we were ready for a new band together. Now I don't know what the result will be but I know that this is what I want to do, so I'll get committed somehow. Then comes travelling. As I said before I love travelling. I thought I couldn't do it because I work in a store and because I couldn't afford to travel around the world because travelling is expensive. But my attitude in life is that if you really want to do something you'll find a way to do it, no matter the cost or the barriers that you may find on your way. And so I started thinking and decided to take some time away from my job to travel around Europe next summer. I'm stil working on the plan but the idea is to leave in late May and travel counter clock-wise. I expect to come back in mid October. As for the money I intend to save some every month and play my handpan (I'm still waiting to have it but it will be ready in a month so I have a few months to learn how to play it) while travelling. I will couchsurf, sleep in my car and go to hostels depending on my resources. I will put a more detailed plan in the next blogs as soon as I have one but I will probably change my plans while on the road. I know it's a bit crazy but I really need to see what's out there and as time goes by it will get harder and harder to do something like this because the older you get, the more you get linked to things like work and family and you can't just get away and get lost. But now I can because my store has just been started and we're still paying debts so my income is almost none and I will give it up for a few months. Plus I have no choice because this place and this job don't feel good to me. This job is now the biggest source of stress in my life but I can't quit to find another stressful job, it wouldn't be senseful. I have to build something that I like so maybe being a street artist could be a good alternative to what I do now.
I want to end this post with a controversial thought: what if the only purpose of life was death?
What if this is all just a test. We are born, we grow and we get addicted to life day after day because in this world there are beautiful things that make life worth living. Take travelling and music for me, the stunning view on top of a mountain, the ocean glittering at dawn and all the things that make you want to go on when you're in darkness. But what's on the other side? What do we get when we die? Is there anything else? What if there was a guy waiting for you right after you pass out. "Hey, you finally did it!"? Maybe it's really just a test, maybe you can choose to enjoy this life for a while but it's only just a game and when it's over you get to a better place where you don't need to stuggle anymore, where everything is free and abundant. Yeah, I know it's a bit childish to think of heaven like this but what if it was true?

My voice is coming back

After about four months of poor harmonics in my voice I can finally see a change. I realized that I was drinking too few and now I have reversed this behavior. I was used to drinking a lot of water before, from 2 to 3 liters every day but then I read  some opinions on this matter from people who said that so much water wasn't necessary when you eat 100% raw. Some others said that water is always important no matter what you eat. I had to understand so I tried to do all of my daily tasks with no water or a couple of glasses throughout the day, except when fasting because in that case you necessarily have to drink a lot of water. In my experience water is necessary and it doesn't matter if my food is raw but I guess anyone has to try for themselves in order to understand what solution fits better. I believe that every person has to find it's own way to deal with things, what's important is to question everything all the time, if you want to know the truth. Plus I am still in the middle of a long detoxing process which will take at least a couple of years so things like hydration and bio chemistry in general might change considerably during this process. Another problem I'm dealing with is compulsive eating. It feels like bulimia but it's not quite the same thing. It's just sometimes I can't stop eating and I feel frustrated about it. I never had this problem before and I still haven't figured out why I feel like this. It might be the detoxification I mentioned above or something else, I don't know. Unfortunately here I'm gonna have to control myself which is something I don't like because I like when things are natural and simple, at least when it comes to primary needs, but I can't allow myself to be bulimic, especially when on a path to find more health, both physical and mental. But yeah, my voice is back so I can sing instead of eating. Or I can play bansuri or didgeridoo or all of the above.

Back from Barcelona

Yeah, I'm back but I wish I wasn't. Barcelona was beautiful and I had a great time there. I wish I was still travelling, not stuck in Barcelona but on the road. Now it feels a bit dull to be back home but let me tell you about my trip. First thing we noticed was that the sun never seems to rise over there. 8 a.m. and it was still dark, I gueess that's why they wake up later in Spain. But Barcelona is beautiful both in the morning and in the night. As soon as we got there I saw plenty of fruit stores. I was already watering eheh. The fruit there was awesome and I had a lot of great food. I also had some rice at the Wok to Walk on the Ramblas. I know it's not raw food but it was an acceptable exception considering it was vegan. Plus I had some of the best fruits and smoothies and a lot, really a lot, of olives. I love olives and I love them better in Spain! So here are a few pics I took there:

On the last day, before leaving, I woke up early and went runnin from my hostel to the Ramblas. It was a 5km run and it was fun because I could see a lot of things that I missed the days before. Here's a picture of the city at 8 a.m. As you can see it's still dark and the sun isn't up yet.

After Barcelona we went to see Dalì's house in Cadaques. Unfortunately we couldn't get in because we should have booked a visit but the landscape was awesome. If you happen to be nearby and have a chance make sure you go there. Here are a few pics of Cadaques and Portlligat:

Now I am on a 4-day fasting (I've been fasting for about 36 hours now). I have done this before and now it really seems to be easier, I guess it's because I'm detoxing less and less (because most of the toxins have gone already, so I'm "cleaner") and  so I guess I might find it easier to go on without food in the next few months. Why fasting? Because it helps the body get rid of all the junk that you put in it mainly. It's a simple explanation, if you're curious about it I'm sure the web can help you understand it. That or Herbert Shelton's books. Anyway it's helping me feeling better because every time I do this I feel stronger and  healthier, not to mention the cleanliness of my mind. Just be careful if you've never done it before because it can be dangerous if you took a lot of drugs, meds or had a bad diet, if you're overweight and so on. Gather a lot of info about it before you actually do it. Again, Herbert Shelton's books are great for that, Arnold Ehret's ones too.
As I was writing this blog I received my bansuri flute from this site: http://www.ananddhotre.com/
if you need a bansuri this is definitely a good place to buy. Great instrument, great service and super fast delivery! This made my day. Here's my beauty:

On my way to Barcelona

Ok, Christmas is gone and I keep hearing people complaining about their lunches and dinners because they had too much food but "hey, it's Christmas, you have to eat until you burst". Well, no! You don't. I mean, you have to do so many things you don't like in your life all through the year, the holidays should be an important moment when you rest, spend time with your family and finally get to do what you like. How can you let things get between you and your freedom even when you have a choice? I don't get it.
I spent 4 days fasting during Christmas and I liked it. No regrets, no pain and no complaints. I am so happy of what I did that I'm going to do it again in the next few days but not before I come back from Barcelona. I mean, I'm going south towards a wonderful city where I'll find some of the best fruits and veggies in all Europe, how could I be fasting? Food has got to be a pleasure and fasting too. So I'm about to go now, me my friends, my car a didgeridoo and a disco armonico (like a hangdrum). I'm really happy to go because I'll be doing what I love most (playing and travelling) with the people I love in a fruity European capital city. I'll be posting some pics, promise! Ta-da

Anise sprouts and pizza

Today I spent a very relaxed day and I made pizza. It wasn't 100 percent raw because I'm still waiting for a food dehydrator I bought online so I did something acceptable for my standards which was a very thin pizza with whole wheat flour, cooked for a few minutes at 120ºC. After the base was ready I put a layer of raw tomato sauce and over that sliced eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, olives and herbs all raw and fresh. The result was this:

I found it better than ordinary pizza but my taste has changed dramatically in the last few months so I can only suggest you try it for yourself, I can post the whole recipe upon request. Then I went to visit my grandparents and when I got back home I saw that the anise seeds are finally sprouting after 3 days. I went there to throw them out because I thought they would be rancid and with great surprise and pleasure I noticed the first sprouts so I gave them water to encourage growth. I hope they taste good but here is how they look in the jar: