One of the perks of growing up LDS, was the concept of the Word of Wisdom and the idea that the body is a temple. The Word of Wisdom gives some guidelines around food. I personally haven’t found all of its suggestions to be completely accurate (such as more grains, less meat), but it instilled a thought process around what I consumed. It’s one of the reasons I was never really interested in drugs or alcohol.
I remember realizing as a teenager that we probably shouldn’t be drinking caffeine (in our house, Pepsi), and I requested that my mom start buying me Sprite. The adult-me finds this incredibly amusing – as if any high sugar content soda was a good option. But, making a choice that was different from what the rest of my family was doing was significant.
In my family, I’ve often been considered a little different. My dad would introduce me as the “weird” one. I suppose I read unusual things and wrote strange stories. My imagination has traditionally been a little “out-there.” One time my mom gave me permission to paint a mural on my bedroom wall and I draft-painted it (never finished it) and it apparently gave my younger sister nightmares. (How to describe it? On the right was the top part of a humanoid figure with long, flowing hair and a head with a dandelion growing out of it. The face was painted to look like bark with no other features. The body flowed down to become a rock facing – like the edge of a cliff. The left side of the mural was a wave forming and heading towards the rock facing. I only got as far as mapping it out in white – with the bark of the face in browns and the dandelion in whites and yellows. So, yeah, nightmares may have been appropriate. Sorry, Spink!)
Anyway, I was pretty accustomed to not being like everyone else around me when I became a raw foodist in my thirties. My whole life changed during that time. I moved to North Carolina. I would drive to the Mt. Vernon Springs in Pittsboro every two weeks and collect enough spring water to last me around two weeks. I got a juicer, a Blendtec, a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator, a food processor. I grew sprouts to eat. I fermented cabbage. I tried a whole bunch of raw recipes – some good and some disgusting.
Admittedly, it was a little extreme.
I ate 100% raw for nine months. It helped reset my body in a way I couldn’t have imagined. Everything normalized (my cholesterol had been rising, weight loss, etc.). Maybe I would have done it longer, but I found myself missing out on some shared experiences with people that centered around sharing food. So, I adapted. It actually did my muscle mass a lot of good.
I tried experimenting with raw food again in 2012 for a few months. I also have a few recipes that I still like to have every now and then (mostly desserts like raw banana ice cream, raw brownies and cookies made of nuts and dates and such).
I don’t really have an interest in going that extreme with my eating habits again, but I do feel pulled to do some things differently.
My husband and I mostly prepare our food ourselves from whole ingredients. We’ve been making our own kombucha for years. I was thinking, though, that maybe it is time to start growing sprouts again. Perhaps I can add fermented cabbage to my weekly food prep.
I have had a sourdough starter going since late last year. My husband likes to eat bread and I think me making it from a fermented source is probably a better option. I eat it, too, but only from Thursday to Sunday. It may sound a bit odd, but it is part of my latest experiment: I fast from dinner on Sunday to dinner on Monday. I then eat a paleo-style diet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Thursday to Sunday, I don’t have any rules (but we still eat pretty well, regardless).
I’ve been following that pattern for the past month or so. It’s going pretty well. Still, I might change up as the seasons change. I love trying new ways of doing things to find what might work better.
Why am I being unusually focused on my diet?
Ideally, I would love to reach a place in my development where I could consciously adjust the chemicals in my body for optimal performance and energy with just my will and intent. I do believe that is possible. I do believe there are yogis and monks that can do this already. I’m not there yet.
So, I keep experimenting. It’s fun for me. I thought I would share since it is the dominant thing on my mind this week.
In an ideal scenario, I would be growing more of my own food as well. In time, my friends. In time. 🙂