On Sat, 9 Aug 1997, Lynton Blair wrote:

> I got a big surprise several days ago when I smelt an apple: I couldn't
> believe its musty, strange smell.  Almost all apples smell like this to me
> at the moment.  The first time, I was so sure that "it would do me good"
> that I ate it: the taste was quite weak compared with "normal apple" taste.
> Since then I've had a case of flu/cold or suchlike.  Not too severe though
> I'm still recovering.

Well, allow me tell you a little story then too.  I've been eating melons
for the past few months, first thing in the morning, every morning. I
usually buy a piece large enough to last me two or three morning meals.
Yesterday morning was a *third* morning meal I was having with the same
melon, and I spit it out right after I put it into my mouth.  This has
nothing to do with overeating obviously; I think three days for a melon
is too much, even if I never noticed it before.

> The other surprise was last night: I had eaten some food, and after a little
> while I was still feeling that I needed to eat something.  So I began eating
> some bananas.  I thought as I went on eating "I should stop now", but
> anyway... (they tasted good...).  Suddenly I noticed the next one had a
> completely different (musty, unappealing) smell !  And they all did !!  Help !!!

Bananas are my weak point, and I'm not sure what might be the story with
them. In fact, it's midnight now; I went to sleep around 9pm (after
having two delicious egg yolks - the shell was okay, but hard on my
teeth; and I didn't like the white too much.  Btw, two didn't satisfy me
-- I could have probably taken in 2-3 more yolks -- but I stopped out of
fear of overdoing it with this new raw food; I prefer to wait around for
the reactions first, on the two yolks I did eat); and so, I am up now and
just finished eating a third, large banana.  Feel much better now, but
not satisfied.  I wonder if one can easily get a "stop" from bananas.  It
happened to me only once so far (earlier today).  It kept smelling kinda
good, still, but in my mouth, the edible part tasted *exactly* like the
skin (yep, tried the skin too once).  It was that specific, and very
difficult to describe taste (try the skin to find out exactly what I mean).
I had to give on the rest of that banana then and had not craved any up
until just now or so - again, for the first time ever have I had no
craving for a banana.

> ;>)... Am I becoming an Instincto without formal decision ?  What fates
> await me ??  What can I expect now ???  Will the CFP come and take me away
> in the dark of the night ????

I am left with very similar questions.  In addition to an unprecedented
desire to get out of my house and into the "nature"; get away from my TV;
breathe fresh air; be away from people who can't understand what the heck
I'm going through; eat the highest possible quality of foods; and the
list does go on - the usual stuff, that I'm sure I'm not the only one to
be experiencing.  All this after a few months of all-raw, and a few days
of instincto experimenting.  The questions I am seriously beginning to
ask myself now are: what will I do when my desire to really get out of
the city becomes difficult (read "impossible") to handle and cope with.
I am starting to consider my options here, and I sure hope I'm not going
nuts.

I spent a good part of the day, yesterday reading the archives on
whatever had the word instinctive in it (and the "rawtimes" website).
I came across Zephyr's book's review, and found the excerpts quite
interesting.  I think I'll start with Schaeffer's material though, as it
is the only one of the books that is currently available to me at a
bookstore, without my having to wait for it to be order and such.

> Am I being realistic?
> (Oh, BTW, Tom - your post has enabled me to redefine my goal:  now I would
> be satisfied with 99.9%Raw, "perfection is unattainable" or "to be imperfect
> is perfectly satisfactory".  With the 0.1% I feel that I need to choose my
> cooked _very_carefully_ so that I can get the most benefit from it (whether
> enjoyment or nourishment, social acceptance, etc).  Right at the moment I
> can't think of anything that attracts me cooked...

How about creating an "instincto camp" somewhere where there is no
winter? Gosh... how I seem to fear winter now.