Hi all, Another 6 weeks have passed. Perhaps time for an update. - I didn't lose much more weight. I actually gained back a bit. I'm comfortable with the result. - With time I found that the cramps due to the cassia became less severe. I don't seem to have a need for cassia either. I do take a few disks (4-8) to stay in "maintenance" mode, and would probably shift to using more if I sensed that a detoxination phase approached. - Inspired by Bruno, Denis and the other French pioneers contribution to this list. I tried to go "pure instincto" and made a few interesting discoveries: I realized that I HATE VEGETABLES. They were palatable in their raw and cooked forms when they were smothered with tomatoes and other taste disguises. I HATE THEM IN MONO-MEAL FORMAT. I also found that on a "pure instincto" diet, I tend to consume enormous quantities of fruit. I also start to get cravings for cooked food (or my previous mixed raw diet.) I don't think I could remain instincto if I didn't have the psychological safety net of being able to revert back to my previous mixed raw diet. The "veggies" that I can still tolerate are all actually fruit or tubers in a strict sense. - Qualitatively, on a "pure instincto" diet, my health and my mind appear to be doing even better. - I tried an experiment dehydrating chicken, and the result was pretty good. I don't think I will find fresh raw stuff appealing in the forseeable future, but the aged result is pretty good. - I dropped all the cooked stuff like Miso and barley green. I did purchase a kefir starter and am close to the point of getting kefir out of raw, unpasturized milk. I'll start with small quantities and watch the effects. - I still feel really, really good. My body feels relaxed and my thinking is really clear. I wish I had gone raw in grad school - it would have reduced a lot of mental pain in my life during that period. Regards, Roy ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Successful raw experiment Author: [log in to unmask] at SMTPGATE Date: 2/14/97 8:58 AM Hi all, Though a strong believer in raw, I have been living on a mostly cooked diet. This is because after a few days in raw land (about 4-6), my breath becomes a lethal weapon (causing my wife to joke about my "instinko" diet, and make half-joking threats to sleep in another room, since the whole bedroom reeks of my mediciny breath.) In the past, I tried everything possible to counter this: massive quantities of chlorophyll, pranayama, speeding detox, waiting it out, etc, but with zero luck. This time I started taking massive quantities of cassia every morning. (Started with one disk, then worked my way up to 15). Though my diet is not instincto (I do things like blended salads), I follow the guidelines of taking cassia early morning, then avoiding food till an early lunch of fruit. The cassia works very predictably: after about an hour and 15 minutes after I eat, my stomach starts feeling cramped. About an hour after that the bowels move (rather dramatically.) And when you go, you really HAVE TO GO! (So I arrange my schedule around this.) Anyway, I'm approaching 6 FULL weeks of RAW, and by breath is still normal! The cassia also appears to have prevented the other symptoms I normally get when I go raw, such as fatigue/lethargy and mild skin problems. The stomach cramps when on 15 cassia disks can be rather severe, so I have now cut back to about 5. I'll up the dosage if there are any symptoms of mediciny breath. The disks are really tasty, and I fear that if I kept eating till a taste change, I'd probably consume most of my stash. I got my initial stash of cassia from a friend who smuggled them in from Pangaia. (Apparently the US Agriculture Dept. frowns on imports of fruit from Hawaii.) When I ran out, I got Manis to "de-pod" and bottle some. It turns out that if you ship the disks in a bottle, then they don't constitute fruit, hence don't risk getting confiscated. The other change I made in my raw experiment this time was the addition of RAF (egg whites and sashimi). This seems to have made a difference as well. On my previous vegan raw diets, after a few days I get a light, disconnected feeling, which is pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. It seems that the RAF has a kind of "grounding" effect. i.e. routine aches and tensions are still draining out, yet I remain comfortably connected with my body, if that makes any sense. The only downside :-( is that yoga is less pleasurable, since there is a lower delta between the post-work-pre-yoga stressed-out me, and the post-yoga relaxed me. I was inspired by Zephyr's book, and by Kirt, to give the cassia a shot, and I'm really grateful. A couple of things still bother me: Eating just the raw egg whites and risking the B deficiency, or including the yolks. (My cholesterol was extremely high even when I was a vegan. I don't want to take any risks till I have more facts than just a passing reference in Severen's book that whole raw eggs will not hurt.) I also think that the RAF is preventing that perpetually hungry feeling that I used to have in past vegan raw experiments. My strength levels have increased. ( I gauge them by the amount of time I can stay in a handstand. I had left off for about 4 weeks after being into raw, then went into a handstand and found I was able to stay up significantly longsr.) My stamina has increased. (I measure this by the number of sunsalutes I can do.) My thinking and concentration have improved significantly as well. Furthermore, after about 10 hours of almost-continual staring at my monitor screen, my eyes don't appear to bother me as much. One thing that bothers me is that I'm starting to look too thin. I'm normally 6'2" and 190-200lb. I was about 180lb when I started the experiment. Now I'm down to about 175 after six weeks of raw, and I don't want to get any thinner. I don't think I'm losing any significant muscle mass, but for my own vain reasons, I think I need to gain more muscle to compensate for the fat I'm losing. (I'm losing it everywhere else except around my stomach :-(). I have raw egg-whites, barley green powder and fruit for lunch (try to stay in the zone.) Actually, I have two lunches at 10/11AM and 3/4PM. At 8PM have sashimi or egg-whites, followed by a creative salad of sprouts, veggies, avocado, seaweed. Finally fruit. (I have been adding brewer's yeast and miso - I wonder if this violates raw.) I'm really excited about getting over the hurdle of detox bad breath. Six weeks on raw is even better than I thought it would be! This may sound silly, but I think the de-toxification has a similar cathartic effect on the mind and emotions: I feel I'm calmer and happier. Maybe it is because my body is less tense. WOW! all this stuff in 6 weeks! I thought it would take months of detox pains first. I think cassia is awesome! My flexibility doesn't appear to have improved though, and my Yoga is about the same (a bit less pleasurable as I described earlier). My martial arts training has improved as well, due to my stamina improvements. I also get less frustrated from lack of progress. I'm also a lot more alert in the evenings and mornings, hence it helps my attempts at meditation. Regards, Roy