Over the last fourteen years that Rex and I have been eating raw and living foods, out diet has changed considerably. As many of you may remember from previous posts, when we first got started in 2001 there was an emotional need and an attachment to cooked foods such as rice, quinoa, pasta, beans, potatoes, tofu, grilled veggies, simmered soups, toast, stir fry, bread, and more. To allow us to move forward while experiencing as little discomfort as possible as we received all the benefits of raw cuisine, I created three-course raw food meals that included a salad, entree, and desert, which we greatly enjoyed.

Even though we were excited and felt strongly about setting out on our raw food adventure, there was resistance. It came from a subtle, underlying fear about really changing, letting go, and taking what felt like a big leap of faith—and from a feeling that we would be deprived of our favorite foods. Fortunately we overcame the fear and resistance, and started a journey that has changed us profoundly. We also found that most of the food cravings quietly dropped away over the years, although not completely—maybe they never really leave for good. Do we still eat cooked foods? Yes, on occasion—life is to be enjoyed!

Now, when a new level arrives it’s cause for excitement and celebration, because we know that our bodies are ready to take another step, and that our food choices will be moving up a notch. The biggest shift for us in the last few years has been the inclusion of sprouts—true living food. We’re eating about twenty different kinds of sprouts now—from green sprout mixes, sprouted grain mixes, sprouted legume mixes, and we love them! This provides a dynamic range of nutrients for our daily fare, and high quality protein.

Our Daily Fare
I thought it might be helpful to share our food choices for a typical day at "Chez Doane’s". In our early raw food days, I intensely studied the raw food gurus to learn as much as possible about what they ate, trying to emulate their diets as best I could. Early inspiration came from Alissa Cohen, Storm and Jinjee of The Garden Diet, the Boutenko family, and David Wolfe (before he got into marketing products). Raw food was not as popular as it is now, with an abundance of information everywhere. Yet sprouts still elude most people, and we hope this will change, because they contain amazing properties including plant growth hormones that are very beneficial to humans for cellular rejuvenation, as well as enzymes, phytonutrients, and so much more.

So here’s the lineup. Note: You can take the general food, say Green Smoothie, and go into the archive and type that in to find recipes for green smoothies. Same for soups, salads, pasta, and so forth.

Morning Meal—any one of the following:
* Green smoothie with tons of spinach, romaine, other greens, etc., and fruit. Sometimes we add a tablespoon or two of Healthforce Nutritionals Spirulina Manna or another green powder such as Best Organic Wheatgrass that uses both the tops and roots of wheatgrass. It’s grown hydroponically, dried at a low temperature, and in our opinion is an excellent product with extremely high energy and potency. Comes in handy packets that are so easy to take to work or when traveling. And it tastes good too.
* Fruit smoothie of blueberries, bananas, Black Mission figs, with some hemp seeds, optional.
* Sprouted grain smoothie made with strengthening Amber Waves of Grain, or Oats & Groats, from the Sprout People, with bananas, mangoes, and Calimyrna figs. (Food combining charts say that sweet fruits combine well with sprouted grains.)
* Fresh juice.
* Fresh fruit.

Lunch—any one of the following:
* Sprout salad.
* Green salad.
* Nori roll stuffed with green sprouts (French Green Mix from the Sprout People), shredded cabbage, green onions, goji berries, and a little avocado.

Dinner—any one of the following:
* Zucchini pasta.
* Green salad.
* Blended warmed soup—spicy, or herbed.
* Fresh juice.
* Smoothie.
* Blended fruit puddings.

If raw food is calling to you, then begin! Start like we did with one raw food meal a day and watch the changes happen—they can be miraculous! Add in more raw food as confidence and understanding grow. This has everything to do with intuitive eating and food preparation, and the transformation process that the body-mind-spirit experiences, such as an amazing lightness of being!

Listen to the subtle suggestions the body gives, to ideas that pop in through the intuition and imagination, and proceed with trust, knowing that a delicious, healing, energizing meal will soon be manifesting before your very eyes! Once the inertia is overcome the energy begins to flow and inner guidance comes through. "Bad days," when detoxification happens, either physically, mentally, or emotionally, are the releasing of the old patterns and toxins, so be gentle during these times. Take extra care with self love. The "old you" is leaving so that the new you can begin. Go slowly, and move at your own pace. It’s taken us many years to get to where we are now. Some people move quickly, while others, like Rex and myself, have taken a slower route. It’s all good!

I want to share with you my new book, One Flower Many Petals! Last summer, Rex brought home a beautiful bouquet of dahlias to celebrate our anniversary. They were so lovely, with colors that radiated like the sun, I snapped a few photos to commemorate the special gift and our day.

A month later the phrase, "one flower many petals," dropped into my mind with accompanying goose bumps, and I wondered what this could possibly be. It had a feeling that a new book had arrived, and that it might be a collection of spiritual poems, something I’d wanted to do for quite some time.

As I contemplated on the title I wondered if I had a photo of a flower that I could use for this yet-unformed collection, one single flower image to turn into a series of crops using Photoshop so that every photo would look different—yet would create a visual continuity throughout the book.

You guessed it—the photo I took of the bouquet proved to be the one, a gem. I got about ninety crops from it, and chose the best to use for the book. Teaming the images with poetry was an intuitive process and I had the most wonderful time—it was pure joy.

Now it’s a commemorative book to celebrate the love that Rex and I have shared for so many years, and something you might like to share with friends, or mothers, who love flowers and spiritual poetry.

May all blessings be!

Here’s a poem from the book. (Available at Amazon.)