Groundhog Day? Why not leave these creatures in peace come February, come any day? Pobrecitos!

Cereza translates into cherry, but this cherry found on the island year round is quite different from the wild cherry I was familiar with, nor does it seem to relate to the sour cherry. Lighter in color, softer in texture and with an open seed inside, these cherries lack sweetness until they are really ripe, and even then, it's just a touch, similar to the sweetness in a pepper or ripe tomato. People say they are very healthy and loaded with vitamin C. Of course, the way many people prepare cherries here is in a "juice," assaulted with sugar. When I first got here, my host Doña from heaven used to make me cherry juice without the sugar. She thought it was weird that I drank it like that, but it was refreshing, cooling and she kept making it so I kept drinking it. Fruits like these are a low-glycemic advocate's dream. They offer the quickness and portability of fruit without the sugar.

Angelitos is the equivalent of Secret Santa where I live. Ignoring the fact that I don't celebrate X-mas, I was lured into participating when someone asked me to reach my hand into a mysterious plastic bag. And so I was stuck. Little did I know that this version of Angelitos was going to have three different parts spread across three weeks.

Week 1: I was assigned to get fruit for my secret person who was my school director. I bought her some green apples (a fruit associated with the holidays here) and a couple of bananas and called it a day. I had requested vegetables because of my low-glycemic experiment and ended up with some cucumbers and peppers, perfect for blended soups!

Week 2: I didn't exactly understand what was going on during this phase. I was still trying to comprehend that this version of secret santa had multiple parts. I was told to get something for around RD $200 (about U.S. $6) that a person could wear. Lucky me as I had no time or desire to shop I ended up randomly stumbling into a shirt on sale that I thought my school director would like (which she did) on the way to my painting class. I ended up receiving a pretty butterfly key holder which I now have hanging on my wall.

Week 3: This Angelitos got increasingly more expensive as the weeks went on, week three being the culmination. This week's selection served as part of the inspiration behind my article/attack on alcohol featured in the winter solstice edition of Concourses to Radiant Health. People made a list of the things they wanted which all ended up being alcoholic (and expensive imported varieties on top of that, no Ron Brugal listed here!) I was borderline about to just give my school director the 400 pesos instead of the bottle of Bailey's she requested, which I really should have in retrospect, but I felt pressured to get her what she said she wanted. My purchase of alcohol for any consumptive purposes for anyone at all comes to an end in 2008 though.

I ended up being the only one of the group who did not request alcohol. I wrote down that I wanted vegetables or anything from the heart besides alcohol. By week three I felt like what is the point of asking someone to spend money that they probably don't have on me? I ended up receiving this humongous basket of fruit and vegetables that I had to get help carrying up the mal-hecho staircase that leads up to my apartment, which, of course, I really like but doesn't mesh completely with my low glycemic stint. The peppers and cucumbers are great (I felt bad because these kinds of peppers are particularly expensive here, my santa could have just gotten me the criollo ones). I got rid of the pineapple and the papaya, but the WATERMELON! I rarely buy watermelons because they are inconvenient to carry home. So watermelon is a real treat for me and even though it goes against my low-glycemic diet, I did have a little bit and gave part of it away. The nuts are awaiting a nutcracker (although I recently received an impromptu demonstration of how to open nuts with a hammer, which will go in the book right alongside learning to open a can with a knife and a meat tenderizer). Thanks to Julia, the newest teacher at my school who ended up being my angelita.

While researching Spanish-language vegetarian and animal friendly materials, I came across this resource and wanted to pass it along. It's from La Asociación Hondureña Protectora de los Animales y su Ambiente (AHPRA) (trans. The Hondurean Protection Association for Animals and their Environment), con el apoyo de la World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) which is offering free Spanish-language materials about animal rights, protection and environmental conservation (solicitor covers shipping costs). Animal rights and natural resource protection issues are a crisis everywhere, but the history and present state of Latin America with all it's colonial use, abuse, depletion and ransacking deserves special attention and will require a lot of work to overcome. It seems that this is a step in the right direction.

La Asociación Hondureña Protectora de los Animales y su Ambiente (AHPRA), con el apoyo de la World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), está distribuyendo materiales gratuitos (afiches tamaño tabloide con imágenes de animales silvestres, marinos, granja y de compañía, calendarios de mesa 2009, calcomanías y trifolios) en apoyo a la campaña mundial ¨Los Animales me Importan¨, la más grande e histórica iniciativa que busca la aprobación de una Declaración Universal sobre el Bienestar Animal (DUBA), que será un conjunto no obligatorio de principios que reconocen la importancia de la capacidad de sentir y percibir de los animales y la correspondiente responsabilidad que todos tenemos de defender estos principios. La DUBA se refiere al bienestar de los animales con capacidad de tener sensaciones, experimentar dolor, angustia, sufrimiento y placer. Esta Declaración representaría un reconocimiento internacional de la responsabilidad ética que tenemos en el trato hacia los animales, y animaría a los gobiernos para que implementen o mejoren sus estándares de bienestar animal. Los interesados en obtener los materiales señalados, deben enviar su solicitud al correo: ahpra_honduras@yahoo.com. Es importante mencionar que dado que la AHPRA desde su fundación (mayo, 2004) hasta la fecha se ha logrado sostener ÚNICAMENTE con las aportaciones de dos de sus miembros fundadores, no podemos asumir costos de envío.

Atentamente,

Abgda. Karla Johanna Duarte Tercero Presidenta/fundadora Asociación Hondureña Protectora de los Animales y su Ambiente (AHPRA) Lomas de Jacaleapa, II Etapa, Bloque T, Casa N 01, Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. Honduras, C.A. Teléfono: (504) 228-93-44 Fax: (504) 228-93-43, Móvil: (504) 9973-80-24 http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/Ambassadors/Webpages/Honduras.asp Campaña Mundial Los Animales me Importan : http://www.losanimalesmeimportan.org/

Hmmmmm... well, Ms. Thinking Woman , I am finally getting around to proliferating this tagging assignment. Write 6 things about myself and tag 6 other bloggers?...here goes.

I love reptiles and amphibians because they look slimy, cute and eat insects.I have a Vata Dosha. If you read a description of this ayurvedic constitution, that's me in a nutshell. Find out yours with this quiz.My artistic talents are painting and visual expressions of all sorts."New York is what is funky." (Kool Keith said it, if you didn't know it before, you do now!) But like Kool Keith, I'm also bicoastal. I value things about all seasons, but I fall head over heels in love with nature during autumn.Almost no one knows how to pronounce my real name correctly besides my mother and others whose tongues were formed on the Spanish language.And I'm supposed to upload the 6th foto from the 6th album on my computer?

It's a building somewhere in the beans. I had hopped the Fung Wah to get some air, scenery and to meet up with a few friends and wanted a record of some of the city's pretty architecture. This foto shows my favorite shape, the triangle/pyramid in an ascending neon pattern.

My tag roster is as follows:

CB'S Allah/Black To Nature: Adventures of an Urban Raw Foodist

Yayoi/Watermelon Sushi

Vida/Dysfunctional Diva

Brother Omi/Books, HipHop Culture, and Everything Else In Between

Janine/Plantfolk

Lazarita/Lazarita

xoxo,

Cy

One positive side effect of my low-glycemic raw experiment is that fewer mosquitos are biting me. This is a good thing, not only because it lowers my risk for getting Dengue a second time but also because it means I don't have to use repellent. Mosquitos used to love me to the extent that I could be someone else's mosquito repellent just by sitting next to them; the buggers would all come to me! But now I see there is a connection between the amount of sweetness in my bloodstream and my delectability to the mosquito palate.

"...a low-glycemic diet is one of the key components for good health, optimal gene expression, a healthy living colloid field, stable blood-sugar levels, and a quiet mind." ~Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Spiritual Nutrition

I am embarking upon a 30-day low glycemic raw food consumption experiment, as advocated by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. This is an experiment of the self to see how eating only low glycemic foods affects my body, energy levels, fitness capabilities, emotions, sleep, and other aspects of life. This diet sub-type goes contrary to many views on appropriate raw food intake; essentially it is the counterpoint to the fruitarian perspective. I am the last one to preach a one-diet-for-all approach and the first to acknowledge/embrace the need for individual food relationships with a holistic consideration of all factors impacting diet. Eating a sweet fruit focused diet puts me completely out of balance whereas non-sweet raw vegetables, especially when they are green and non-sweet fruits are the most balancing to my makeup. Essentially I will be eating anything raw, vegan and non-sweet, in proportions suited to my constitution and needs which in my current setting comes down to raw vegetables, non-sweet fruits, nuts, seeds and oils. Examples of foods I am looking forward to including this month are:

ZucchiniMushroomsPeppersAvocadoesAuyamaCauliflowerTomatoesBroccoliRadishesLettuce

It's only 30 days and now is perfect timing before mangos come in season again. Still, some things I will probably miss in the beginning will be:

DatesRaisinsMandarinsPearsOrangesBananasPineappleFigsGrapesCorn

I have met very few raw foodists who work from this perspective and am interested in learning as much as I can about low-glycemic raw eating. Another thing I'll be doing during this time is attempting to up my allaround fitness (strength, flexibility, endurance, energy) and getting in gear to start running again, something I haven't done in about 2 months. The slight chill that sets on the island along with a single coldwater tap are motivating factors.

"Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are." ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

peace/health/radiance,

Cy

Late Fall/Winter is mandarin orange season in the Dominican Republic. Here's how I eat mine: I start off by carefully separating a piece of the skin from the "belly button" of the mandarin, then disconnecting it from the white veins conjoin it with the interior fruit. I usually put the peel on my lap or on a table next to me so it can function as a zero-waste seed receptacle. Next I see if there is anyone around and offer them slices. It's so easy to divide up, it's a fruit that's meant for sharing! Then I eat whatever I have left over, biting carefully into each piece so as not create a mandarin orange juice watergun effect. I think about the quantity of pure, refreshing liquid that bursts forth with each bite. When I'm done, I toss the leftover peel, rind and seeds back to the earth for autoregeneration. How do you eat your mandarin orange?

in front of my apartment

is pretty.

“Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.” ~The Bible

or limones dulces, as they are called here are a variety of lemon that are green in color, but not bold like a lime; more a delicate green analagous to the color of a honeydew's interior. These aren't something that are really sold on the island as far as I've seen. They are one of those fruits where you have to know someone who has a tree. A friend of mine in the community who owns some land just south of the city perimenter gifts them to me from time to time and I appreciate it. If you've never experienced a sweet lemon before, they are kind of a play on the tongue and mind. One expects sourness to some extent from almost anything in the citrus family. The citrus texture tells the brain to expect sourness, guards the tongue and purses the lips in preparation, but all that flows from these is a juicy, pure sweetness.

Sweet Lemon (C. limetta Risso)–a general name for certain non-acid lemons or limettas, favored in the Mediterranean region, In India, they are grown in the Nilgiris, Malabar and other areas. The fruits are usually insipid, occasionally subacid or acid. The seeds are white within and the tree is large, resembling that of the orange. One cultivar, called 'Dorshapo' after the plant explorers, Dorsett, Shamel and Popenoe, who introduced it from Brazil in 1914, resembles the 'Eureka' in most respects except for the lack of acidity. Another, called 'Millsweet', apparently was introduced into California from Mexico and planted in a mission garden. It was reproduced at the old University of California Experiment Station at Pomona. Neither is of any commercial value. (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lemon.html)

The sprouting experiment began with some research, reading about the process and preparing for it. Mason jars and cheesecloths, mason jars and cheesecloths. This almost became my mantra. Nothing is simple here. I don't know of any store where you can go in and say "I need mason jars and cheesecloths" and expect to get what you are looking for. How would I even translate this into Spanish? ¿Tarros del cantero y toallas de queso? Hmmmm.... Not sure how far I would have gotten talking like this. Prep: It didn't help that prior to becoming a raw foodist, I was for the most part a complete blockhead in the kitchen to the extent of both humor and personal injury. This is partly how I know raw food and me are meant to be. The second you take the fire element out of food preparation, everything clicks into place. Still, I am learning bits and pieces of what may be obvious to someone who grew up with greater culinary exposure. I knew what a mason jar was but was clueless about cheesecloths, so I looked at a bunch of pictures to get a better idea. I found two large glass jars with secure fitting plastic tops that would hopefully work as mason jars at La Sirena. For the cheesecloth I was at a loss and on the verge of going to the pharmacy to buy strips of gauze when I ran into some dish cloths that were approximately the texture I was looking for. Even though they had printed designs on them, I figured I would give them a shot. Procedure: I tried one jar of garbanzos and one jar of lentils which I purchased dry at my local supermercado. I filled the mason jars about 1/3 full with the legumes and then topped them off with about double the amount of water. I let them soak overnight and then in the morning I secured the cheesecloths on top with rubberbands. I rinsed and drained the legumes about 4 times the first day at and about twice the second day at 4-5 hour intervals, storing them almost upsidedown to let the moisture drain out between rinsings. I noticed the lentils sprouting on the second morning. After I removed them from the mason jar and put them in the fridge, they continued to sprout. I left the garbanzos out and rinsed and drained for another few days but they never sprouted and started to get rancid so I had to toss them. I figure something was wrong with the batch, like maybe they had been pre-cooked. Maybe I will try with a different brand? The next question was, what to do with all these lentils. What I thought was a small scoop sprouted into over 4 cups of beans. I found a recipe for a hearty lentil soup. It wasn't bad but I can't say I would do this recipe as-is again. it seemed to be missing much of the character of what I consider lentil soup, maybe some additional vegetable tastes like carrot and celery. Also, being cashew nut-based, i found it heavy. Nevertheless it came out pretty, edible and was an enjoyable process that may lead to an improved lentil soup recipe in the future.

Then I decided to try a lentil-based hummus. This was fairly easy and although the texture is a lot firmer than the soft hummus based around cooked chick peas, it had the flavor essence and made a good vegetable dip.

xoxo

“The most dangerous implement in the arsenal of the human race today is the table fork.” ~Howard Lyman

Of all the things I craved during my recent juice cleanse, salad might have been the most overwhelming. Many times I desired the crisp textures of fibrous lettuce and cabbage varieties. In order not to stray to solids, I opted for some vicarious salad exposure and looked up some great salads that I would try out at completion. Finally the time came to get some crunchy leaves going in my system. What better way to do it than to top it with a fresh raw dressing?

I'm not a fan of dressings with heavy nut components, and moreso those that call for large quantities of nuts in addition to oils. This has both to do with the high cost of nuts here as well as some kind of a stomach clash I've experienced in the past, perhaps an improper food combination? I also do not have access to raw vinegar right now so the dressings I tried out ventured in other directions.

1. I found a delicious sprout dressing recipe on The Daily Raw Cafe which I modified slightly:

Sprout Dressing

3/4 C Fresh Bean Sprouts

1 T Parsley, chopped1 T Cilantro, chopped1 T Dill1/2 t Cold-pressed olive oil1/4 t Sea Salt1/4 t Lemon Juice1/4 C H20Dash of Black Pepper

Prep: Blend and serve

Results: I really enjoyed the light texture and punchy flavor of this one. Putting sprouts into the salad itself as well made for a pleasant intermingling. The original called for sunflower sprouts which were nowhere to be found. I tried it with both bean and alfalfa sprouts as well and favor the consistency and flavor provided by the bean sprouts as suggested above.

2. Another dressing I tried comes from a recipe by Paul Nison, and was a flavor knockout. Paul Nison is a great resource for any aspiring or practicing raw foodist. I really appreciate the simplicity and health-centered quality of his recipes. It reminds me of the integrity of whole foods and how just by throwing a few pure earth comestibles together, you can achieve resplendent tastes.

Tomato Basil Dressing2 tomatoes1 clove garlic½ lemon, juicedHandful of basil

Prep: Blend and serve.

Results: Delicious atop a bed of simple greens. I used greenish tomatoes and added just a shake or two of sea salt and a dash of black pepper to this already dreamy dressing.

3. One of my favorite recipes is based on the genius of Rhio, a brilliant raw food artist. She creates living foods and flavors like no one I know.

Papaya French DressingBased on a recipe from Hooked on Raw by Rhio

1 C Fresh Papaya, peeled and chopped into chunks1/4 C Fresh squeezed orange juice1/8 C Cold-Pressed Olive Oil1 small garlic clove, minced1/2 t raw pumpkin seeds1/2 t ground thyme1/4 t sea saltdash black pepper

Prep: Put all ingredients into a blender and blend well.

Results: I made a few modifications in this one. The original recipe called for agar-agar flakes. Good luck finding those in the Dominican Republic (please let me know if you do!). Loosely remembering the function of agar-agar being a thickening agent, I figured pumpkin seeds would serve a similar purpose while adding some great nutrients into the mix. Another adjustment I made according to my tastes was adding about a teaspoon of raw Dominican honey to the mixture. Blending in a pitted date would achieve a similar effect. However, if you use typical Valencia or Florida oranges instead of the less sweet Dominican variety (naranjas de jugo) I included, adding sweetener isn't at all necessary. This mimics French dressing to a tee, but is inherently better because of the higher quality and flavor of living food ingredients as well as the fact that it is comprehensible to the human body unlike packaged, processed and sugar-laden supermarket-bought frankendressings(1). With this recipe in the mix, I can take full advantage of the comparatively low cost and freshness of the gorgeous papayas which flourish here year round.

I love salad and am content eating salads as a staple dish. However, besides lime juice and cold-pressed olive oil, I had never made my own salad dressing from scratch before this week. I now realize that while I am content eating leaves solo and that my love for salad is not contingent upon any dressing, carefully considered, it has the power to change the whole context upon which it stands.

(1) This recalls an incident I experienced at a commercial supermarket in a low-income predominantly Hispanic/Latino area of Brooklyn in which out of half an aisle full of dressings, I could not find a single one that did not contain added sugar.

Be sure to check out my salad poll on the sidebar through Nov. 30.

Please visit fellow raw foodist C'BS ALife Allah's wonderful web project Original Thought Magazine. Filled with lots of mentally and physically nutritive content for expansion and enhancement of the self /community, be sure to get your fill of it's dynamic and holistic contents. Register and gain full access to the site contents including a piece I contributed called Healthy Learning Through Radiant School Nutrition, which presents an educator's perspective on enhancing learning and overall wellness amongst schoolchildren.

According to Wikipedia, Sapote or tzapotl is a Nahuatl term meaning soft, edible fruit. Evoking the texture and taste of a soft, very sweet raw yam, the orange colored or "mamey" sapote of this slightly stringy fruit is to be found almost year round in the Dominican Republic.

The mamey is the cornerstone of Cuban holistic medicine. It is used extensively as a veritable panacea for gastro-intestinal maladies. In southern Cuba, the mamey is also used to treat headaches and venereal diseases. There are numerous accounts of the mamey being used as an antiseptic during the Spanish-American War. (Wikipedia)The first time I ate one of these fresh, peeling back the dry crackly skin to take small bites in order to pace the sweetness, I got some very strange looks and comments to the effect of "How can you eat that like that?" More common here is combining the mamey sapote with milk and sugar, drinking it as a milkshake or "batida." I've created a few nutmilk based raw batida recipes. Nevertheless, I very much enjoy a fresh mamey zapote from time to time.

Mamey sapote are a tricky fruit to pick out. It takes a strategic fruit fondler, or perhaps years of experience in sapote selecting. Too hard and you've got yourself something that tastes like yam flavoured deodorant. Too soft and you'll find mold and fur growing where moisture collects from which you are lucky if you are able to salvage any part of the fruit. It's a sensitive fruit that has a brief edibility window seemingly rooted in part in the fact that the mamey sapote doesn't completely encapsulate it's shiny black seed and can take on a deflated appearance. My experience with this fruit is that it is almost on the level of papaya in it's eliminative abilities.

It took me months of checking and re-checking various markets to finally get a hold of sun-dried tomatoes in the Dominican Republic. So once I found them, I decided it was time to make raw zucchini spaghetti and marinara sauce. I love zucchini and have had success with it in other recipes so I was eager to try this simple staple raw dish.

I had about 5 different perspectives on how to do it in my recipe box and merged them to create my own. For me, this is the beauty of home food preparation, the ability to tailor food tastes to the individual and family. This kind of synergistic relationship cannot take place in the presence of pre-fabricated/restaurant foods whether raw or otherwise.

One of the recipes I read used only sun dried tomatoes, none fresh. I love the taste of crisp, juicy, red-green tomatoes and the thought of eating them exclusively sun dried initiates a gag reflex in me. The same recipe, however recommended a tablespoon of olive oil which I did include. Other versions called for sweetener with honey which is strange to my palate as sun-dried tomatoes are already very sweet to me. I got a good herb combination going through various recipes. I'm not into cayenne or extra hot red and chili pepper-based spices in italian flavorings; it's a fusion my temperment finds strange. So I switched a cayenne recommendation for black pepper and threw the rest together like patchwork. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients

2 green zuchinni

2 large tomatoes

6 half-pieces of sun dried tomato

1 T olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 T parsley

1 T Basil

1 T Oregano

1 T Cilantro

1/4 t Sea salt

1/2 t Black pepper

Prep

I used a potato peeler to slice the zucchini, a beautiful vegetable from beginning to end. Then I chopped up the tomatoes and herbs and put those along with the remaining ingredients into the blender, blending until saucy and assisting the mixture as needed. I poured the marinara blend over the zucchini, threw a few spare zucchini rounds and sprinkled some oregano on top and ya! Tiempo para comer! It came out just like a traditional marinara sauce but with more clearly defined flavors than in the cooked version. Delicious!

Video: Butterflying by Cy, 2008. Soundtrack by Amir

Dates: 9/26-10/21

Length: 25 Days

Starting Weight: 104 lbs.

Ending Weight: 90 lbs.

Type of Cleanse: Fruit and Vegetable Juice to Detoxify

Cleansing Agents: Cold Showers, Senna Leaf, Psyllium Husk Powder, Physical ActivityInspiration: John Coltrane. I named my cleanse Rebirthing Coltrane. I have trouble reconciling such creative genius with such demise and so I dedicated my treatment of self during my cleanse to him.

Intake Spectrum: Tomato, Lemon, Garlic, Carrot, Coconut Water, Cucumber, Canteloupe, Apple, Parsley, Mandarin, Oranges, Mangoes, Spinach, Pineapple, Raw Honey, Water, Lemon Water

Physical Activities: Daily Walking (at least 1 hour), Yoga, Crunches, Strength Training towards the end

Memorable Books Read During Cleanse: Mating by Norman Rush, Spiritual Nutrition by Gabriel Cousens, Towards the African Revolution by Frantz Fanon, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Startup: Getting started was tough and took about 5 attempts & was delayed for over a month.

A Typical Day: Lemon H20 in the morning, senna tea at midday, pineapple juice, psyllium husk powder and water, two glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice at night, a teaspoon of raw honey.

Atypical Day: Sipping lemon honey water concoction throughout the day, exploring unknown terrain to find mandarins for juice at noon while traveling.

Fave Juice: A tie between Apple Parsley and Canteloupe

Blech!: Genetically engineered carrots where the taste of the pesticides are extremely evident. I threw these frankencarrots in the garbage with a swiftness. Huacala!

Pass the Time: I stuck to my normal routine pretty much, took 1 or 2 days off from my responsibilities when I felt my body needed to rest, prayed, journaled, listened to music, drew, painted, read.

Lessons Learned:

The hardest part is getting started. Once you are several days into a juice cleanse, cravings cannot be acted upon without total system upset. For instance, during my mango cravings, I couldn't have possibly taken one in because I would have just thrown it up. Eating food I know my body is going to eject with projectile force simply isn't appetizing. Lemon H20 is better than straight water for cleansing.Be delicate and patient with the self. Respect the signals it gives you. Don't push the body beyond its limits and sleep as much as you need to. Easing out of a cleanse is essential, and it's what the body asks for. Go along with it.

Challenges: The first week, Low energy, moodiness, dizziness, sugar hi-lo from the fruit juiceCravings: Mangos, Non-sweet foods, very strong cravings for cooked vegetarian soy barbeque and brown rice, soy hamburgers and strangely a Big Mac which I haven't eaten probably in 15+ years!

OutcomesLow Glycemic Eating Focus - Changed Direction in My Raw Approach Project Focused, what I'm going to do and what I'm not going to do the rest of my time in the Dominican RepublicWeight LossFat LossPinker TongueClearer skinSofter SkinMuch Lighter Period with Reduced Discomfort and No Pain Medication UsedMental StrengthImproved Self-KnowledgeGreater Depth in JournalingEnergy ReconnectReduced AppetiteGreater Clarity in DreamsSweeter BreathHigher Vibrationsraw babaganoush and 1/2 cucumberTransitioning: I'm still in the transition process. I ended my cleanse with a raw red-pepper and tomato gazpacho and some raw babaganoush mush. The next day I introduced small solid portions, about half of a cucumber and a few bites of salad along with raw tomato soup. Raw soups and smoothies are what feel most comfortable to my system right now so I'll wait to see when it is ready for more solids, avoiding nuts for a few more days. What's Next?: A week or so of eating any raw food my body calls for, a weekend of ocean air; then I am planning a 3 month low-glycemic raw eating period on the advice of Dr. Gabriel Cousens. This is an angle of raw foodism that feels right to me. I have to experience and evaluate it on my body landscape. I wont be doing any more long juice cleanses while I am on the island though I do plan to do a week-long green juice therapy cleanse and a water fast of at least 3 days sometime before I leave. I am going to focus on fitness in November as a means of energy restoration and muscle re-development (I had a thyroid condition and lost some muscle and energy in the course of it that I would like to get back). I'll be experimenting with the gamut of raw recipes I have been collecting, moreso the ones on the low-glycemic side and enrolling in a living foods home study course.

"Yo traje un jugo natural, un jugo de mango riquisimo! Nada mas mango, agua y un chin de azucar. Es completamente natural. Yo eche un chin chin de Mango ya! nada mas."

Transl: I brought in a natural juice, a really delicious mango juice! It's just mango, water and a little bit of sugar. It's completely natural. I put in a tiny little bit of Mango ya!, nothing else.

After inquiring, I learned that the mangos were green and therefore sugar "needed" to be added. Also, to clarify, Mango Ya! is a cheaper version of Tang that comes in flagrant imitations of so-called tropical flavors. It is sold in envelopes in powder form around the island. Clearly there are many problems with this scenario. My biggest one is the labeling of something as natural which contains a wide spectrum of unnatural ingredients (white sugar, frankenmango flavor, artificial color) which the speaker doesn't recognize and treat as unnatural in her vocabulary. Another problem is that this is even called juice at all (the same problem exists in the U.S. where sugar waters, as long as they contain a minimum of around 10% fruit origin somewhere along the line can be labeled as juice).

The dictionary seems to understand the concept of juice defining it as:

ˈjüs: A fluid naturally contained in plant or animal tissue. Some may choose to drink the liquid of animal tissues, but let's focus on the plant side of things.

Thus when additives enter the picture, we enter the category of non-juice. Thus, such items containing things that are not the liquid emerging from plant tissues should not use the word juice at all.

As a raw foodist, I believe it is important to model this distinction for others and to call out sucrose water and artificially colored and flavored sucrose water out for what they are. When people merge the concepts of juice and non-juice/imitative substances that do not occur in nature, a public health danger exists. If adults and children pass through life not knowing how to distinguish juice from non-juice to the extent that we conflate the two in our speech and combine the two in the same pitcher to be served as if they were one and the same, nature from anti-nature, we have reached a nadir, an impasse in our ability to exist as healthy human beings.

I greatly appreciate the preponderance of creative styles and approaches to raw food preparation. Illiterate in kitchen for most of my life I am now learning how to use it in a variety of ways to prepare healthy living foods and many have guided me in positive directions. Lately, I have been experimenting with many of the recipes on Goneraw and the wonderful step by step explanations and fotos frequently posted by Terrilyn on The Daily Raw Cafe blog. I also love Paul Nisson's recipes in The Raw Life: Becoming Natural In An Unnatural World. During my explorations, I have also encountered a series of recipe patterns and features which provoke a sense of frustration or which are just plain unnecessary. To the creative forces behind the raw recipes I have successfully implemented in my kitchen, thank you so much for:

Providing clear, step by step instructions.

For posting clear, didactic and beautiful fotos.

For taking pride in your raw food creations, for presenting them in ways that are aesthetically pleasing and fotographing them clearly and with integrity.

For including complete recipes that explain each and every component and process required, appropriately pacing the more complicated parts.

Most of all for being generous and sharing your recipes with the rest of the world. This is time consuming but the health of many has improved because of your work =)My rant list is a little bit longer. I don't mean to idly complain so think of these as suggestions for improvement:

Using vinegar in every recipe, or treating vinegar as if it's the only thing that can possibly give flavor to a salad. Not everyone uses or even likes vinegar, nor is raw organic vinegar a readily accescible item in most of the world. While I find substituting lemon juice useful at times, mostly I just ignore such recipes.

The same thing goes for liquid Braggs and Nutritional yeast. Recipe makers that create pattern dependencies on these items leave one lost when they aren't available or desired.

Sweetening everything with dates, honey, agave nectar and/or stevia. Similar to in cooked food preparation, taste buds are a range encompassing the pungent, bitter, spicy, sweet, salty, sour and possibly more. When I come across series of recipes where every item is sweet augmented it become excessive. Most recently, I was looking for recipes for mustard and almost everything I found was sweetened. How about catering to some of the low glycemic raw eaters in the world? Or perhaps using the natural sweetness that occurs in other fruits and vegetables. I think the trend of adding to sweetness to everything tries too hard to replicate the industrial "food" practice of adding sugar to almost everything (motivated by the fact that sugar is a cheap filler and a preservative agent). Instead of replicating this trend, let's work on some raw recipes that reorient tastes away from these excessive sweetness inclinations inherited from the processed "food" world.

Excessive use of gourmet, rare, expensive and/or difficult to find ingredients. I have a great deal of respect for gourmet and high-end food preparation. There is a lot of creativity that goes into it and benefits to be gained from expanding the spectrum of raw foods that we eat. But when I am home, I am not always in the mood to track down ingredients like noni juice, chili peppers that only grow in Thailand and rare kelp varieties unique to an island outlying Japan. Either provide some assistance on where to locate ingredients or make room for substitutions. That way the gourmet lot can be content along with everybody else.

Entire raw food preparation books which require the use of a dehydrator in every single recipe. Not everyone has a dehydrator or time to dehydrate all the time. Further, not everyone has regular electricity. Let's get a little simplicity into the mix so that raw food can function in almost any context.

Recipes that don't give measurements. A review of procedural writing may be in order here.

Recipes that have 35 ingredients, 16 of which you probably wont use until next time you decide to prepare the same dish.

Recipes that take longer than 48 hours. I know that good things often take time, and I thoroughly appreciate the sprouting process, but perhaps a warning or a clearly designated prep time for half-week long food preparation projects could be included in bold print at the header along with these recipes. That way I can store these recipes in a seperate file and not mistake them for something I can have that same day.

Insufficient use of spices and flavorings. I find recipes that are along the lines of lettuce, tomato, onion, lemon juice and sea salt BO-RING. Substitute the sea salt for sodium chloride and this becomes an item that could be purchased at a McDonald's and I like to think that's not what raw foods are about. Let's season it up!

Single ingredient obsessions. If you author a recipe book, just as in any type of writing, variety is key. Every recipe should not have almonds in it or any other singular ingredient for that matter.

Immodesty in sweetness or saltiness. When writing recipes, start with a modest allotment and give people the option of adding more to taste. I often find myself cutting sea salt measurements in half and have tasted many a raw dish where the sweetness was way overboard.

People who write raw recipes but who know little to nothing about raw food preparation and who have little interest in learning. People who make cooked food recipes and insert footnotes on how to make it raw but then brush the raw version to the side as if this is something inferior or not worthy of their time. Take the time to write a fully raw recipe or stick to cooked food recipe writing but don't stratify the two on the same page. Oftentimes the raw "version" doesn't end up even being raw for the lack of thought put into it. The worst case of this I've seen involved a recipe which called for Sugar in the Raw as a raw ingredient. Seriously now!

Using psyllium husk powder as a food ingredient. Something grosses me out about having a piece of raw coconut cake topped with the very substance that is going to force my body to evacuate it. It's the equivalent of blending senna leaves or cascara sagrada into a smoothie and I find it nauseating.

Salad overkill. I love salad a great deal. A salad is a meal to me, but a recipe book with 100 recipes should not have 75 salads in it.

Carob does not equal cacao. If you are going to use carob in the recipe, please don't use the word "chocolate" in the name of the dish. I also don't quite get using carob and cacao in the same food composition.

As I come to the conclusion of what will be a 25 day juice cleanse, I look forward to furthering my experimentations in raw food prep, especially on the low-glycemic end. Cleanse report forthcoming.

xoxo,

Cy

newly discovered cleansing delight, light, low on the glycemic index, hydrating, another perfect fruit of the earth.

“When diet changes, everything changes[1]”

Intro

The idea of experiencing a new cleanse has recently and spontaneously, perhaps astrologically come into focus as a step towards the furthering of my progress as a raw foodist and holistic nutrition and health promoter. The post-summer solstice sector of the year always brings new vibrancies to me, sort of like a reverse spring. Perhaps because my earth day falls in almost the exact middle of it, but for whatever reason the lessening of the daylight seems to enable me to illuminate more from within.

Cleansing Background

In 2003, I did a 22-day Master Cleanse, sometimes referred to as the Lemonade or Lemon Juice Diet, a technique authored by Stanley Burroughs. I did another 20-day Master Cleanse in the spring of 2004. Then, I did a month long cleanse on fresh juices in 2006.

My system favors juice cleansing over the Master Cleanse program, though I have drawn some elements of the latter into my repertoire. Looking through my family history and reflecting on my unique food responses, the concentrated sugar found in maple syrup, particularly in liquid form is excessive. I feel intuitively that I have a sugar sensitivity (something approaching pre-diabetic) and take caution with sweets. I also find the Master Cleanse harsh on my system, causing a lot of high-lows and evacuation discomfort. What I value about the Master Cleanse is not the maple syrup (whose raw form which I am not even going to try to track down in the Dominican Republic), but latter two ingredients, lemon and cayenne pepper. Lemons are the most cleansing fruit on the earth expelling toxins and breaking down mucus/bodily waste. The taste element of spice, for me, seems to accelerate the process[2]. I do not limit myself to cayenne, but any preferably fresh piquant substance from jalapeño to ginger root.

Fine Tuning and Contextualizing I have to “localize” my cleanse, adapting it to the availability of local fruits and vegetables. This island is a beautiful, rich blessing, a spattering of divinity amidst a vibrant archipelago, and the most abundant and diverse producer in the Caribbean region for its high, rain-generating mountains and vast fertile central valley. For me it is cheaper and easier to get fruits and vegetables here than in New York. Fruits like papaya and pineapple are inexpensive here compared to in the states where I recall a small organic papaya costing upward of $6. Further, the majority of what’s out there is fresh and doesn’t taste like it’s been picked too early and/or shipped and trucked long distances. I’m planning to balance sweet fruits, nonsweet fruits and vegetables in more or less equal proportions, run them through my homely but quasi-functional juicer and flush the toxins out.

For all the pulchritude and productivity of the land, cleansing here is no easy walk[3] Most of the food and substances people consume on a daily basis are land abstractions, heavily processed, denatured, and/or never meant to be grown here once divorced from colonizing ideas. Another challenge is that food sharing is a major part of the culture and you can downright offend someone by not expressing enthusiasm and indulgence in food that is offered to you. I am sure I’ve unintentionally offended some with my uncommon dietary lifestyle, but I consider it more offensive to desecrate the human body with toxic substances and to reinforce the idea that it’s okay to do so for the sake of politeness. Plus people come to learn from my “alternative” food habits even if they think I am strange at first. They see that people can eat in ways that go beyond the scope of the island everyday, that sugar doesn’t need to be added to everything, that, in fact, it doesn’t need to be added to anything.

I feel like Hayti[4] has helped me reach a nutritional-social turning point. I used to get nervous about hanging out with others, feeling like I couldn’t stick to my principles in shared contexts, like I had to be some hermetic escapist who hid out in my bat cave during la comida[5]I was inspired by something I read in a back issue of Satya magazine.

Our positive example is the greatest voice we have. Our movement has moved beyond the point where anger, slogans, and soundbites serve any further constructive purpose. In many cases, the animals won’t be helped by hatred and chanting. We must realize and accept that we are in a public relations campaign…becoming angry only robs us of the happiness and pleasure each of us deserves from life. I firmly believe that each one of us, in our example, actions, attitude our entire existence is changing the world. Living consistently and compassionately as a vegan is an affirmation of life, a means to fulfillment and joy; these positive aspects of veganism are what we must embrace for ourselves and communicate to others[6].

I extend this sentiment to a concurrent health-centered living foods lifestyle. Being raw is really a joyous and self-seeking process, a cultivation of my highest person and there simply is nothing to be hostile, fearful or secluded about. Besides, I have found that sharing of pure raw earth-based foods has been a great inroad into discussion nutrition.

Cleanse Structuring

“I think fasting is good if people do it in an unattached way and in the absence of ego. One of my problems, again with people that get heavily into hygiene, is they use fasting as if it were a championship belt. They say things like, “I did a forty day water fast, did you?” There is too much ego attached to the length of time people fast[7].” Gil Jacobs

I’m setting my intention on an untimed juice refresh to derive more benefits from my living foods intake by flushing out the icky stuff of yesteryears. This is an ideal time because it’s my power segment of the year, progressing into virgo domain; also because I’m not planning any complicated outings for at least a month. In the case that I do have to be away, I’ve discovered a few portable/out options. One is an outtake of Stanley Burroughs concoction using fresh squeezed juice oranges, which are a nonsweet variety found on the island. They aren’t bitter but rather taste like an orange without the sugar. These are amazingly hydrating, cleansing and don’t tamper with blood sugar levels. I can cut them with a bit of lemon juice, add spice or leave it as is. Another option I learned is soaking tamarind flesh and seeds in water overnight and then straining to get a full, punchy liquid. Tamarind is a fruit I find to be peerless and cleansing, helpful in eliminative processes. Fresh coconut water is readily available at fruit stands and carts and then there are the batidas I spoke about in a previous blog. Anything else I can juice while I am home (provided that there is electricity).

The difficult part of this cleanse will be access to a wide variety of fresh greens. Here I am limited to spinach, celery, parsley, broccoli, iceberg lettuce, occasionally green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, very rarely arugula and a few other local bitters. I can make a day trip to Santiago or venture to Santo Domingo to expand my options slightly. Historically, day 1 is a breeze, days 2 through 6 are a challenge and then it starts to level off. Around day 10 I start to obtain some clarity, cleansing becomes routine and solid food, a backthought. Non-sweet and green juices always seem to balance out any hi-lows.

Cleansing Literature and Media

If I have a book, an article, a podcast, something to reinforce my path, noise/temptations that go contrary to what I am doing affect me less. I pulled a stack of what I consider to be cleansing and healing literature and media to read/re-read during the cleanse. These include:

° Toward the African Revolution by Franz Fanon ♥

° The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah

° Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

° Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men by Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes[8]

° The Collected Poetry of Aimé Césaire ♥

° Spiritual Nutrition by Gabriel Cousens

° Re-reading parts of Queen Afua’s Sacred Woman

° Checking out wonderful health information and performances on CD/DVD by my friend Professor Spira ♥

° Listening to Stahhr the Femcee’s ♥ prolific new album Almost Neva Was

Physical

I started exercising at a higher intensity level about a week ago. I am never inactive, walking at least an hour every day, but something about my system, perhaps my energy type requires more concentrated sessions, more jostling. Perhaps it’s an inner need for a heightened stimulus to my lymphatic functions? So I began higher intensity aerobic activity every other day for 30 min (running, jump-roping, aerobics, cycling) and a self-weighted strengthening routine. I also do a short series of yoga poses every day and stretches. The way diet and exercise complement each other is astounding. Eating living earth foods strengthens capacity for physical activity while physical activity mandates correct nutrition. I am ever inspired by a statement I once saw at a fitness hub once which said “exercise means turning energy into strength.”

Co-fasters (shoutouts to my hermana Aura, we walk the same line), comments, prayers, encouragement and positive energies, telepathic or concrete, are welcome and appreciated.

xoxo,

Cy

[1] Joshua Rosenthal of the Integrative Institute for Nutrition.

[2] I do not believe everyone is predisposed to consuming spicy foods. They seem to irritate and even rupture some systems. Perhaps the individuals should use a milder pepper, ginger or eliminate the spice entirely.

[3] To quote the book title of brilliant photographer Helen M. Stummer, whose work inspires me.

[4] One of the original names given to what are today the Dominican Republic and Haiti by the indigenous Taino.

[5] The big meal of the day on the island and found throughout Latin America, usually between noon and 2pm.

[6] Ball, Matt. “Being Vegan, Living Vegan: The Challenges and the Potential,” Satya. August 1996

[7] From an interview in Nison, Paul. The Raw Life: A Guide to Becoming Natural in an Unatural World/A Guide to the Raw Diet and Lifestyle. West Palm Beach, FL: 343 Publishing Company, 2004

[8] I learned of this resource through reading Crow Dog’s wife’s remarkable autobiography Lakota Woman.

Lament at the ending of mango season and celebrating newfound raw food preparation skills, first time innovations and kitchen alchemies.

Almond Pate on Romaine

In addition to the French-hijacked Bon Apetit (sp> Buen Apetito), more common here is the expression "Buen Provecho" either before or after a meal which translates literally into "Make good use of your food," "Benefit from your food," or "Take advantage of your food" all of which hone in on the essential purpose of raw earth-based nutrition. The meaning itself almost requires that the food over which it is said be nourishing; if not it loses it's value. This concept extends over to praying over food or giving thanks and blessings at meals. How strange it is to thank a creative force for foods that she/he/it did not create and/or intend for human consumption. The act of blessing a meal mandates that that meal be one of integrity, one which can coherently be traced back to a naturally creative force as opposed to the mad science and profit driven agenda of a corporation and/or machine.

the fruit market ¨mercado bendición¨ closed in this photoI recently added a blender to my raw kitchen and have about 25 raw recipes in the lineup to try. Prior to this I was using only cutting utencils, hand mixing and a low-key juicer that sometimes throws things like carrot and beet shards back at you if it's in a bad mood. These next few months are about expansion and creativity, sharpening up my living foods practice/reportoire and a few specific goals. 1.To reduce fruit/sweet food intake: My raw diet has always varied between about 20-80% fruit, and while I won't speak for everyone, I know that fruitarianism overall or the intake of a large quantity of sweet fruits is not aligned with my system and is not the format of raw foodism I want to practice. I want to expand non-sweet, vegetable-based options; creative salads, blended soups, sauces, salsas, pestos, dips, dressings and beyond. I want to observe how reducing and even restricting sugars affects my system. This will help me decide upon a more appropriate and personalized vegetable-fruit-nut-seed-oil ratio and also help me to eat better quality and less-sweet fruits (like guayabas/guava and papaya).

2.To do a vegetable juice cleanse: This will be a first for me, and a challenge as I've only done fruit juice cleanses and high quality green vegetables are few and far between here. I would like to read Gabriel Cousens Spiritual Nutrition and The Autobiography of a Yogi, the latter of which has been highly recommended to me by two friends during this phase.

3.To do an extended juice cleanse in August (using vegetables and fruits): I'm aiming for a full 30 days with this one, topping my previous juice cleanse maximum of 23 days. It's not a competition against the self or anyone else though, I'll adapt and adjust by what my body wisdom directs me to do.

4.To know how to prepare 20 new raw dishes by summer's end. I've been recently inspired by a slew of wonderfully simple raw recipes from a variety of sources (from Paul Nison to online to a suprisingly newfound food prep sensibility to inspirations from the extremely fertile land around me). I'm thankful for this because I'm not fluent in kitchen and I frustrate when I see a recipe that looks really good only to realize that it calls for 22 steps, obscure food processor attachments, dehydrators, spiroolis and ingredients from 6 continents.

5.To enjoy spending time alone: These past few months I've been out of my site on and off visiting people, translating, at conferences, meetings and other outings so I'm looking forward to some me time in and around my home as well as some intra-regional travel. I only have about 9 more months of service and so I want to luxuriate in the relatively unstructured days and the consistent sunshine and warmth here.

Being raw while traveling around the Dominican Republic takes a little getting used to, but with a little creative thinking and communication, one can transform what may at first appear to be a land saturated by crack rock sugar and other processed nonfood substances into a place that works for you when you need it to. A staple item in most Dominican kitchens with at least part-time electricity along with many sandwich, snack shops and restaurants is a blender for making milkshakes. By request, most people will make fruit and water based "batidas." Even if they look at you funny, just reiterate the no sugar, no milk deal, even if you have to emphatically declare that you have an allergy and will get deathly ill if you eat these things.

Blended juices have a different character than juicer juice. Most fruits require added water in order to blend successfully into a juice and thus sweeter fruits transform into light, refreshing beverages with a creamy consistency, an aftereffect of the whirling action of the blender. I've tried papaya which didn't work so well because it's already very watery and low-sugar, but throw a pineapple in there and you've got a dreamy, smooth and cooling drink, less dense in sugar than a juiced pineapple. Things like ice and bananas can always be thrown in the mix for a thickening effect to get more of a smoothie consistency.

“The stains aren’t bloodstains, but tomato juice.” ~Ernesto "Che" Guevara

Tomatl tomate

fresh from the tree

golden flecked and juicy

Living foods constitute a healing space for me, an inner-outer sanctuary. Here is a constantly growing list of results I have obtained from practicing a complete living foods diet.

Raw Food Outcomes

1. Faster hair growth2. Longer hair3. Hair that is more moisturized from within4. Longer nails5. Stronger nails6. Correction of sleeping problems7. Increased dreaming8. Increased vividness of dreamspaces9. Weight loss10. Fat loss11. Radiant, glowing skin without using any products12. Zero cavities13. Auto-vision correction14. Increased energy15. Greater flexibility to structure and distribute energy16. A lighter feeling17. Stronger spirituality/renewed relationship with great creative force through direct, unaltered contact with earth substances.18. Greater sensitivity to cold19. Elimination of the effects of seasonal affective disorder20. Feeling cleaner inside and out21. Regaining natural appetite22. Elimination of addictive food relationships23. Re-intuning with body wisdom24. Greater concern for the environment25. Greater regard for living creatures26. Enhanced mental organization27. Improved eating habits of those around me through food and knowledge sharing28. Increased personal knowledge about health and nutrition, expansion of my health repertoire29. Learning how to prepare some raw foods30. Taking greater residence in my own body31. Altered taste buds, cooked food doesn’t taste edible, strong sensitivity to salt, immediate body response to cooked and/or unnatural foods (i.e. nausea, vomiting, headache)32. Greater support of local and independent farmers, grocers and businesses33. Primordial healing34. Eyes more inset, less protruding35. Younger appearance36. More even skin coloring and texture37. A positive relationship with food38. Inspired to promote living foods and holistic health39. Greater concentration40. Improved balance between commitments and self care41. Whiter teeth42. Whiter eye whites43. Resignation of car ownership/car culture and opting to walk or use mass transit44. A slightly greener thumb45. More stable heart rate46. Natural reduction/elimination of corns

"Their eye was still in love! Like mine!" Frederick Franck

Spontaneous graphic art enabled by raw foods. It's an interesting exercise to just draw and see what comes out. Here, a lot of focus goes to the eyes because this is one of the first places in my body where I observed changes. I experienced eye retraction and the rejuvenating or "greening" of the undereye area. Hair abundance, extended vision and the development of third eye sensory capabilities are also implied.

During a workshop given by an educational psychologist, I learned about an evaluation used on children called "La Figura Humana" or The Human Figure in which the teacher or therapist asks the child to draw a person. Interpretations are then made based upon the depiction. A reoccurring area in my work is depiction of humans without mouths, which I am told signifies communication inability or shyness.