hi there.. it's been a little while since I last posted here.  The
activity on this list never seems to decrease, but the same cannot be
said about my free time unfortunately, and so reading all the messages
here isn't very realistic for me any longer.

In either case, I've recently done some experimenting and here are a few
interesting things that came out of it.

A little recap: I've been on all-raw for about 6 months, the last 3 were
instincto, with little RAF though; and the last 3 weeks or so were fruit
only.

Certain problems started to arise during my fruit-only period.  I would
be hungry much of the time rarely getting that "satisfied" feeling I used
to get with IE before.  The main problem I think was that I would feel
very cold most of the time (temperatures outside are about 5C now, here
in Montreal).

So about a week ago, I basically decided to try some processed, cooked
and junk food.  I've been eating anything at any time I felt like it for
the past few days.  Every single time I sat down to eat (mostly bread
with butter, salami, pea soups, Carmilk chocolate bars, etc), I ate until
I was so heavy I could not get up from the chair.  So I've proven to
myself that processed or cooked foods don't give me stops - okay.
Furthermore, probably 80% of all the foods I ate during that time ended
up coming out.  I'd like to think that my putting my finger in my mouth
and vomiting it was an instinctive reaction, since I did feel rather bad
after my meals (overate) but I noticed that I ended up forcing myself to
vomit even after small meals which did not leave me necessarily feeling
heavy but did leave an unpleasant an aritificial feeling in my body.
I suppose I should conclude that vomiting whatever one overeats on may be
a good (only?) way to control and make sure that one does not in fact get
too much of any processed/cooked foods, but if that is indeed the only
way then I'm not sure it'll be good in the long run.  And besides,
overeating, while being a major problem, is not the only problem with
cooked foods.  They lack any kind of "life" in them, are thus much more
of a burden to the body and are also made up of chemically altered
substances resulting from heating and processing.  So the bottome line I
suppose is that they take a lot out of you to eliminate properly.

In any case, my pigging out on refined and cooked foods is just about
approaching its end.  I find that finger technique for getting rid of the
stuff very very effective and completely painless, but betrying the body
and the hunger controls in this way may prove to be a bad thing in the
long run.  In fact, can anyone comment on what may be happening when one
attempts to vomit by forcing food out with the "finger" method for
instnace?  What is the mechanism at work here and what may be the
problems with over doing it?

Conclusions: being a strict fruit eater failed miserably for me once
temperatures began to drop where I live, it did seem okay in the 15C
region and more.  My experimenting with junk foods was an instinctive
step I think to make me realize that fruits alone won't work anymore for
me, and I need to eat something more concentrated to retain proper body
temperature.  All of my junk food or cooked food meals ended up in
overeating.  I could not stop before I felt full, heavy and unable to
move.  Cooked and processed foods do not "Feed" you per se, that is why
one eats without an end.
I'm going back to instinctive now, and I think the answer to my problems
will be in begining my meals with vegetables (lettuce, brocolli),
necessarily organic, following with fruit and ending with some protein
(preferably nuts) or minimal amounts of RAF, if still hungry.  But the
true solution should be to eat vegetables untlil feeling no more hunger
or finishing with fruit otherwise.

There is much I've learnt about what my food needs through the
experiments I've done.  Too much to discuss here, but please do not
misunderstand me as saying that this works for everyone.  The one thing
I've also learnt is that the food needs change drastically as one's body
cleanses and so the latter requires different foods in its different
stages.  Ultimately though, at the instance the body is free of any
previous toxic accumulations, the needs in food DO become very minimal
and very very small quantities of the CORRECT food (which I truly believe
now is in the vegetable family) will sustain it perfectly and indefinitely.

Comments are welcome.