Yoga Head To Toe

I have been committed to a raw food diet since the first of the year and am happy to say I have stuck to it pretty consistently and actually fairly easily. I have noticed some interesting changes in my body and my mind that I definitely attribute to the diet. Physically I absolutely have more energy, or more correct would be to say that I don’t get tired throughout the day like I used to. At 10am I’m not jonesing for coffee or a sugar fix to give me a pick-me-up, nor at 3 or 4 in the afternoon either. My skin is clear, and this may sound funny, but it also looks alive and healthy. My hair is growing quicker, thicker and stronger (and I not sure but I think I have less grey hair). Internally my digestion is much better, which in turn I am sure relates to a whole host of other positive things happening inside my body. The changes in my mind and demeanor are significant also. Probably, to the outside world, the most obvious is no (or should I say very few) mood swings, I’m much more even keel and calm. I also think clearer and in a more productive fashion, my mind isn’t always wandering, slowing down, forgetting……..

I would encourage everyone to give a raw food diet a try. If you can make 60% of your food intake raw you’ll being doing yourself a great favor. People always ask why is there such a strong emphasis on “raw” food and why not just “healthy” food. There are several reasons but mainly whenever we cook a natural whole raw food, we alter the chemical structure of that food. It loses or gains components that generally make the food a lot less healthy, nutritious and vital for our bodies. So what are raw foods composed of?

• Enzymes – these naturally occurring “electrically charged protein molecules” are necessary for every process in the body. When we cook food over 115 degrees we destroy their enzymes and therefor consume enzyme-deficient food. If our body is not replenished with live enzymes from our foods it will rob them from other systems in the body, wearing down the body and making it vulnerable to disease.

• Nutrichemicals and Phytochemicals – these elements are found in raw and living foods that the plants manufacture to ward off disease, think of it as the plants immune system. They are extremely high in antioxidants which our bodies need for combating free radicals that cause to body to age and eventually break down.

• Oxygen – our bodies function much better when it is oxygen rich, we feel energized and our minds are clear. Cooking foods alters the oxygen content leaving much less available oxygen for the body to use.

• Hormones – these photochemicals and nutrients exist in plants to strengthen their immunity to disease and external stresses. We can incorporate many of these naturally occurring hormones into the cells of our bodies resulting in health and vitality. Again, heating food often alters the hormones to the point where the body can no longer use them to the degree it could when they were “raw”.

• Vitamins and Minerals – These are found in all foods and are especially plentiful in raw and living foods. When food is cooked much of the water and fat soluble vitamins are destroyed, leaving very little nutrition. The minerals are still present but without the enzymes to transport them into the cells, they too get lost, leaving the body in a demineralized state.

Raw, organic foods are the best source of enzymes, nutrichemicals and phytochemicals, oxygen, hormones, vitamins and minerals. That is just the way it is and so a diet that is predominately raw will give your body the “ingredients” it need for achieving optimal health.

Another great book on raw foods is The Raw Transformation: Energizing Your Life with Living Foods by Wendy Rudell. Check it out.

I have always had skin prone to small break-outs now and then. It was nothing more than an occasional annoyance that I was able to control with over the counter acne creams and soaps. But a few months ago something changed and wow – all the sudden I had acne worse than a 15 year old boy. Obviously something had changed in my body or my life to have caused this and I needed to find out what it was. I also need to find something to help clear the acne and that turned out to be a much harder than I thought.

I’ll be honest; I am still not sure what caused the flare up of acne. I have speculated a few things. One was hormones. I’m in my forties and my hormones at times seem to have an agenda not quite in sync with the rest of my body. Maybe I had some sort of surge of androgens and the result was this really bad acne for months. Then I thought maybe it was my diet. I‘ve always been a healthy eater but began a transition to a raw food diet on January 1st. Maybe the food was causing my body to detox and acne was one result. A few weeks before the flare up I started drinking wheat grass juice so the thought crossed my mind that maybe I was having a reaction to wheat-grass or if not the wheat-grass maybe an allergic reaction to something else. I swim in a public pool maybe I picked up a bacteria or fungus from the pool water. And there was the thought that about a week before my face broke out I was in yoga class and a lady stepped on my mat about three times and in that class, as in almost any class, I had my face on my mat during certain poses………….you get the idea. I did lots of journaling when the acne started, trying to correlate one thing to another but never could come up with a clear picture of the cause.

Here I was with this really bad acne /rash all over my face that would not go away with my regular “face washing routine”. So I did what most of us do now days, I spent hours and hours on the internet (and in my case in the library) researching solutions to acne and rashes. I was determined to find a natural solution to this problem. I did not go to the dermatologist because I was pretty sure s/he would prescribe an antibiotic and I did not want to go that route if it could be avoided. It was frustrating wading through all the information out there especially since most of the acne information out there is geared to teens and young adults. As I did the research I tried almost everything that seems plausible. I detoxed my liver, changed my diet, tried apple cider vinegar, baking soda, tea tree oil, fungus/bacteria shampoos, drinking lots of water, zinc, MSM and many of the acne treatment out there.

Finally I found something that worked. One day I sprayed Colloidal Silver on my face after washing it because I thought why not (a bit cynically)! Nothing else is working and this stuff is supposed to kill bacteria and I know people who have used it for all sorts of stuff and swear by it. To my great surprise my face actually started looking better and clearer. Over the next few days I actually figured out it was the Colloidal Silver in combination with the 2% beta hydroxy acid liquid that would work the very best. Once I discovered this I washed my face about 4 times a day and applied the two products and I am happy to say that within a week my face was pretty clear. It has taken another 3 or 4 weeks to get my face back to almost normal.

The routine was after I washed my face (Paula’s Choice Normalizing Cleanser) I would use a 2% beta hydroxy acid liquid (Paula’s Choice) all over my face and then right after I’d spray on Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm on my face. And that was it. Occasionally I used benzoyl peroxide but nothing else. The 2% beta hydroxyl acid has properties that pull the liquid silver way deep into the pores where the Colloidal Silver bacterial and fungal killing properties really help clear up the acne or rash. As my face has finally cleared I use the liquid silver much more sparingly but any time I have a break-out the above combo clears it up almost immediately.

You may ask what yoga has got to do with all of this. Well, I also increased my inverted yoga poses and forward bends during this time. I really worked on stimulating, messaging and balancing my endocrine system hoping to reduce the effects of any hormonal changes my body might be experiencing. In looking back I am sure the effects of the yoga on not only my hormones but on helping me stay calm and clear headed was a tremendous help in solving the problem – and who know maybe it played a bigger role that I think.

This is the brand of colloidal silver I used and I found the best price here on Amazon Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm

I used this spray bottle to spray the colloidal silver on my face and then refilled it with colloidal silver from a larger bottle which brought the cost down. Again I found Amazon to have the least expensive price SPRAY Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10ppm

I just discovered a great magazine called Body & Soul. I was at our local library browsing the shelves when the title of this magazine caught my eye. I picked it up and didn’t put it down until I had skimmed most of the issue and had read at least half the articles – I loved it. The magazine, which is geared towards a natural healthy lifestyle with a bit of spirituality thrown in, was well written with interesting, relevant information and the lay-out, photos and organization was really, really nice. It wasn’t until later when I skimmed the cover again that I noticed it was a “Martha Stewart Publication”. I have actually never read her other magazine and even watched her TV show but I do know she has a reputation for quality and I think, at least for my tastes, she hit the mark with this magazine. I have gone back and read three different issues and enjoyed all of them – interestingly each issue had an article about yoga (I read in one issue that M. Stewart practices yoga daily). I think this reviewer described the magazine best “This is not a magazine for the fashion-conscious, nor does it tout much other pop-culture, rather it encourages readers to value themselves, and treasure their bodies, and think about what they eat/practice/do.” Check it out at your local library if they have a copy and if you like it as much as I did give a subscription a try.

Subscription through Magazineline.com $14.95 Body & Soul

Subscription through Amazon $14.95 Body & Soul

I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of the year to try and live by those great guidelines yoga offers. One of those guidelines or principles of yoga is respecting yourself which also includes respecting your body. I am trying to take the “your body is a temple” quote to heart, so along those lines I have made some changes to my diet. I have been working towards “Conscious Eating”. For me, after reading and studying up for several years about nutrition that meant moving towards a raw food diet.

One of the questions that inevitable comes up when there is a discussion of a raw food diet with family, friends or even acquaintances is how you can get enough protein eating only raw foods. We tend to think that our main and some think our only protein source comes from meat. But in reality there are many other excellent sources of protein in other foods that the body can easily digest and assimilate that provide for excellent health. According to the Journal of Clinical Nutrition we need approximately 2.5% of our total calories to be protein which is about 18 grams (1 pound ≈ 454 grams). Of course each of us is unique and our needs will vary, but in general for optimal health our bodies probably need less protein then we have assumed or even consume on a daily basis. So where does a vegetarian and we’ll go as far as to say a vegan get their protein? According to Gabriel Cousens, MD in his book Conscious Eating complete vegetarian proteins, those with all eight essential amino acids, are available is various concentrations in almonds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, soybeans, buckwheat, peanuts, potatoes, all leafy greens and most fruits. David Wolfe, in his book Eating For Beauty, list the best sources of protein as spirulina, chlorella, blue-green algae, bee pollen, Incan berries, goji berries, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, olives, durian, sprouts, green vegetables and powdered grass. It is fairly easy to see from the lists above that on a diet consisting mainly of raw vegetables, fruits, sprouts and nuts that getting enough protein is usually not a problem. A more important topic of discussion might be about a higher protein versus lower protein intake, myths, risks and benefits.
To each his own. I have found in these early stages of living on raw foods that I actually have more energy than when I ate meat protein products. There have been a lot of great improvements in my health, but I won’t deny there have been some crazy, uncomfortable detoxing and transitional issues I have had to endure also (I save those for another blog).

I really like Gabriel Cousens’ book Conscious Eating. He is a vegetarian and raw food advocate but feels each of us needs to find a balance for what our body needs, whether that includes meat, cooked food or raw food. Excellent book.

Also check out David Wolfe’s Eating For Beauty. An easy, quick read with lots of great information.

Victoria Boutenko’s book 12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food is an excellent source with her personal experience included.

Love yourself, but not egotistically. Be like the sun, which shines its light and warmth on all life, without judgment or separation. Love everything, as all things are made of God. You are divine and owe it to yourself and all life to get yourself healthy and happy. Be good to yourself and all life. Robert Morse. ND The Detox Miracle Sourcebook: Raw Foods and Herbs for Complete Cellular Regeneration