Wow! I haven't written in this blog since July!
Let's see...
Since my birthday in October I've been avoiding gluten, soy and excess sugar. I've lost 20 lbs so far! I'm about 220 right now. My goal is to get BACK DOWN to 180 (like I was in 08).
In the past... oh... month or 2 I've REALLY been getting into
Ann Wigmore. She was a pioneer in the raw and living foods movement. You can pretty much thank her (and
Viktoras Kulvinskas) for the
raw food movement being what it is today.
Anyway, I attended a sprouting and juicing class a couple years ago where the instructor talked about Ann Wigmore and showed us how to make some of the key items in Ann's "
Living Foods Lifestyle". Well, I didn't really take that info in at the time. About a month ago I was going through some of my old video footage I shot of that same instructor talking about what I just mentioned and it re-sparked my interest! Since then I've been reading and watching anything by Ann Wigmore I can get my hands on.
I have to tell you that she knew what she was talking about! She had cancer in the 50s and that's how she eventually got into raw (living) food. She was advocating a raw (living) diet throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s when she died (from smoke inhalation due to a fire). People carry on her work and teachings at the
Ann Wigmore Institute in Puerto Rico and the
Ann Wigmore Foundation in New Mexico. I would love to visit them someday!
Ann Wigmore was all about
wheatgrass, sunflower greens / buckwheat lettuce,
sprouts,
energy soup,
sauerkraut etc. Basically, the Ann Wigmore "Living Foods Lifestyle" centers around LIVING food (not just raw food). You can definitely thank her for the use of
rejuvelac (sprouted grain fermented soak water) amongst raw foodists.
So, what does all this mean? It means Ann Wigmore is pretty much my role model when it comes to diet. There's a lot of self proclaimed "gurus" out there with different ideas and opinions, but Ann Wigmore's teachings really resonates with me. Now, I'm not going to blindly follow everything she said, but I'm going to try to eventually model my diet after her... not really "program", but teachings I guess you could say.
Now, there are a couple things that I do or don't do. For instance, Ann used honey and I don't because I'm going into this as a vegan. Also, I'm an avid
kombucha fan. I'm not sure how she would have felt about kombucha or if she even knew about it (it wasn't big in the US until the mid 90s).
Okay, so, I'm probably going to spend a lot of time in 2011 working on transitioning to the Ann Wigmore "Living Foods Lifestyle". I'll probably never be 100 % raw, but I would like to be close to it - maybe 80% in a couple years.
I've been interested in the raw food diet since mid 07, but I need to focus on LIVING food. What's the difference? Raw food is something that has not been heated at high temperatures. Living food (also raw) is alive. What does alive mean? Here's an example: You can go to a health food store and buy raw... ...let's say alfalfa seeds. Okay... they are raw, they haven't been cooked - that's great. Why can seeds (and beans and nuts) sit on shelves with no preservatives for a long time? Because nature gave them a preservative called enzyme inhibitors (this protects them in nature). Now, if you take those raw alfalfa seeds and soak them in water over night that will release the enzyme inhibitors. Now, the life force inside the seed can grow (sprout) - a tail will form and if planted, greens will grow. That is how seeds, beans and some nuts are meant to be eaten! The life force inside those seeds / beans / nuts are dormant until you soak and sprout them. Cooking them kills that life force and then you're just eating dead (and harder to digest) food.
* So, like I said, Ann was really into wheatgrass (soaked / sprouted / planted wheat berries), sunflower greens (soaked / sprouted / planted sunflower seeds) and buckwheat lettuce (soaked / sprouted / planted buckwheat groats). She used A LOT of them. So, I'm going to have to get into a routine of growing them. I'll probably have to have a few trays growing (in organic soil) at all times.
* She also used rejuvelac A LOT. I'll have to have an endless supply, but luckily you can get like 3 gallons out of a hand full of grain. All you do is sprout a grain (Ann preferred soft winter wheat berries) and then pour water over the sprouts (in a jar) and let the water ferment for 48 hours. You can do this 2 more times, but it only needs to ferment for 24 hours those 2 times. So, what's the point of this? Well, the fermentation creates living enzymes (we need enzymes to digest food). It's basically a enzymatic / probiotic all around good for you drink. She also used it in recipes such as sprouted sunflower seed yogurt / cheese.
* During Ann's later years she heavily relied on what she called "energy soup". Energy soup is a raw soup made with rejuvelac, sprouts / greens, dulse (seaweed) and a little fruit (like apples). There's many ways you can make it, but those are the basic ingredients. It's basically what she called a "complete meal" soup. She also had "complete meal" salads. From what I've read, she pretty much lived on energy soup the last few years she was alive. Apparently they serve it at every meal at the Ann Wigmore Institute. I haven't had the pleasure of making it yet because I need to grow the sprouts / greens first. But, trust me, I will definitely try it and hopefully it will become apart of my regular routine.
* Sauerkraut = fermented cabbage and is very alive. What is fermented? Fermenting something is when you let it sit for a period of time while good bacteria pre-digests it. I made sauerkraut once, but I need a little more practice.
So, that's what I'll be busy working on in 2011. I'll try to post in this blog when I can, but I sometimes forget about it or just vlog on YouTube (it's a lot more time consuming to write). Also, I'm guessing not a whole lot of people even read this, lol! I've lost my .com site... and I only post it on my FaceBook wall or send a link to people who actually care.
Oh! And speaking of people who care! I have a raw food friend named
Carol Pruitt who knows TONS about Ann Wigmore and her teachings. Every time I see her at a raw food meetup I talk to her for hours on this subject, lol. She's happy to tell me and I'm happy to listen. I know 3 people that visited the Ann Wigmore Institute and she's one of them. So, THANKS CAROL for your vast knowledge you always share with me.
Speaking of raw food meetups, I'm still meeting up with the
meetup.com group at
Georgetown Market. We just had a pitch in last Tuesday, actually. Rachel went with me for the first time!
Here's the food we had
Here's a group pic
Carol Pruitt also runs a raw food meetup group that just had a meetup on Saturday (I didn't get pictures). It REALLY helps talking to other people interested in raw food.
So that's it, for now! Gonna transition to an Ann Wigmore type diet and keep going to meetups!
Oh yeah, I mentioned getting back on Methotrexate for my psoriasis in my last post. Methotrexate wasn't really doing anything for me this time, so I've starting taking Enbrel.
