This is What Confucius Would Say.

On the recommendation of the doctor I saw a few days ago, (refer to previous posting), I picked up, "Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition," 3rd. edition, by Paul Pitchford. It's huge, and from what I can see does a very good and thorough job of looking at the subject of nutrition. 

For now I'm going to stick with the raw food approach. Within this domain, however, I can also concentrate on foods this book recommends for people with dampness related issues:

• Carbohydrate-rich veggies like carrots, parsnips, turnip, garbanzo beans, black beans, sweet potato, peas, yams and pumpkin....   
• Pungent vegetables and spices like onion, leek, (dried) ginger, cinnamon, fennel, garlic and nutmeg.... cherries and dates....    
• According to TCM, other foods that dry dampness are: rye, amaranth, corn, aduki beans, celery, lettuce, alfalfa, kohlrabi, raw honey and all bitter herbs, like chaparral as well as chamomille.

The doctor also suggested I start by reading the section on the Earth Element which is related to the Late Summer season. (Rightly or wrongly, I take that to be the equivalent of our Indian Summer.)

• Recommended foods for people of this type are mildly sweet or yellow or gold in colour, such as: millet, corn, carrots, tofu, rice, sweet rice, chestnuts, filberts, apricots and cantaloupe.  

It is a time of transition and dishes should be simple and everything, preparation to presentation, needs to done in moderation.

That leaves me with a fair bit to work with -and think about.

What would Confucius Say?

Back in October, just before I embarked on this raw food experience, I had some blood work done. One of the tests showed the amount of inflammation in my system. I was thinking that, more than 3 months into this process it would be good to see if the inflammation had gone down any.

Note: An acidic environment leads to inflammation. A raw food diet, which is basically akaline,  should lessen the acidity in my body and therefore the inflammation as well.

Back in October, 2009 my blood work result was 935. 
Normal is less than 120.
In February, 2010 (using a muscle test) my "reading" was ((correction) 545,
which suggests that the raw food diet is quite effective. 
(If your not into behavioral kinesiology, i.e. muscle testing, I will be getting the regular blood work done once I get back to Edmonton in April and we'll be able to compare apples to apples.)

I met with an MD, whose has decided to pursue Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) full time.  She was very helpful and explained that TCM has a very different philosophy from Western medicine. This modality sees things in terms of various concepts such as chi; the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water; excess and deficiency; cooling and warming foods; dampness, or heat..... 

She said that I was damp and that I should be eating more cooked food (for the heat), and lots of grains, which are a condensed form of food, (that have more heat qualities.) I was confused as this is virtually the opposite of what my current health practitioner was advising.

With some exasperation, I shared that information with my sister. It turns out that my naturopath studied TCM for 3 years and agreed with the doctor's assessment of my condition. His point was that it boiled down to a question of priorities, and dealing with the cancer is the priority at this time.  

In the short term, getting my body to an alkaline state trumped dealing with dampness, because cancer can't live in an alkaline environment. Because most grains are acidic, he suggested avoiding them. Once the cancer is gone, then modifying my diet to deal with the dampness would be an option to consider. 

Makes sense to me.

Overall, I'm glad I got a second opinion. There's no doubt that getting advice is diametrically opposed can be frustrating. The trick is to see beyond the language (and baggage) of each modality, and try to make sense of what is being said. 

Not easy. Certainly it takes time and effort, and the willingness to deal with ambiguity. Most of all it takes a certain level of confidence in whatever decision one makes, balanced with a willingness to remain open minded about any new information that may come along.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it -until something that makes more sense comes along.

Week Fourteen Summary

Being on a 100% raw food diet for 14 weeks has been an interesting journey. It continues to be.

In that time I've lost almost 40 pounds of excess fat and, in the words of my naturopath,  "tissue that doesn't contribute to my well-being." Although I'm the first one to admit that I'm a little on the thin side at the moment, it does feel good to not be carrying any extra weight.

Somehow this body reality is also affecting my emotional reality. What thoughts, beliefs, ideas, am I carrying that "don't contribute to my well-being?" I suspect there are quite a few.

For some time now, I've been thinking about a course called Psych-K. (Basically, it utilizes muscle testing to look at eight or so areas of one's life and corresponding beliefs.) As providence would have it, it is being offered here on the outskirts of Victoria this coming weekend. I registered this afternoon. We'll see how much "weight," read baggage, I can lose.

I've also noticed that my weight loss and the feeling of being lean is making its presence felt in the area of material possessions as well. Some time ago, circumstances provided me the opportunity to radically pare down what I owned. What little I didn't need on a daily basis, I stored in my brother's basement.  (Thanks bro.)

It's not that much really, but I'm feeling the need to go through what's left and let go of whatever "doesn't contribute to my well-being" anymore.  I'm looking forward to seeing how much stuff I can eliminate and -more importantly- how little I really need. A couple of months in Montreal, and almost that long here in Victoria, has shown me that it is surprisingly little.

A little "spring cleaning" seems to be in order.

The stats for this past week:

                             01/31/10             02/07/10           Change

Weight              124.9 lbs.               125.5                   +0.6 lbs.
The first increase in weight since I began in late October. It might be an anomaly or a sign that I've bottomed out on the weight loss. Either way the coming weeks should tell the tale.

Body Fat           14.7 lbs.                 15.1                    +0.4 lbs.

Interestingly, this modest increase in weight is mostly fat. My diet hasn't changed a lot, so I'm curious about where the fat is coming from.

BMI                     19.6                       19.7                     -0.4

A reflection of the weight.

Body Fat           11.8%                     12.0                     -1.0%       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                64.4%                     64.3                     -0.1%

Virtually unchanged.

Bone Mass        6.3%                       6.3                        No Change.

A bit below normal, but acceptable in the short run.

ReBar Restaurant

Yesterday a few friends, mostly from Edmonton, decided to get together for a visit. We met for supper at the Rebar Modern Food Restaurant, a funky, unpretentious, restaurant with great service and fabulous fresh food that caters to the health conscious crowd.

It's located at 50 Bastion Street, in the heart of downtown Victoria between Wharf and Government Street. My friends quite enjoyed the atmosphere, service and food. If you're ever in the neighborhood, it's certainly worth a visit. There isn't much to indicate the restaurant, other than the lineups at meal times, so come early.

Given my all time low weight, I decided that this was an excellent time to take my naturopath's counsel that cooked food from time to time would be fine. 

I went with the Monk's Curry, a bowl of oyster mushrooms, Japanese eggplant, greens, red potato, organic tofu, scallions and fresh herbs, wok-fried in a homemade green curry-coconut sauce served on organic brown rice. It even sounds good. I savoured every morsel.

I'm not sure if it was the meal or not, but for the next two days my stomach felt a little tender and I was significantly more tired than usual. Given my 3 months on raw food, the cooked food -although delicious and nutritious enough- may have been too much of a good thing. 

(Since then I've spoken to my sister whose studying to be a naturopath and she agreed. She also pointed out that when the naturopath suggested a bit of cooked food, he meant the same greens I'm eating now, lightly steamed -not carbohydrates like potatoes or rice.)

Ya learn something every day!

Week Thirteen Summary

Week Thirteen and I feel like I'm back in the groove. I'm remembering to take my drops most of the time and I'm taking my carrot juice more often. I confess I did have a helping of sushi rolls this afternoon when I was feeling particularly tired and hungry. On the whole, however, I'm sticking pretty close to the 100% raw diet.

My weight has gone below 125 pounds for the first time in decades, probably not since Grade 9 or 10. I don't see how I can lose much more weight. If fact, I'm looking quite Gandhi like! I'm thin enough that I've put off doing a fast this month. I'd like to see my weight stabilize first. If it goes below 120 I will definitely be calling the naturopath to discuss the matter.

In the meantime, I continue work at bringing some variety to my meals. I came across a search engine, Food Blog Search, that searches over 3000 food blogs. I just type in "raw+ whatever vegetable I have in the fridge, or want to work with that day" and see what comes up. (Omit the raw and you'll find some great recipes, they just won't be raw.) Either way,  a site worthy of putting in your "Favorites" folder.

I still consider myself a newbie, and consequently gravitate to the recipes that are the simplest. Using this approach, I haven't had a tossed, green salad in weeks. I've recently prepared a spinach, a zuchinni, an asparagus,  a Greek salad (minus the feta cheese) and so on. I will post one of them in the coming weeks to give you an idea of what can be done to make eating raw more interesting.

I also dress up the meal with baby carrots, radishes and/or snap peas, in combination with avocado dip. This approach has made food preparation -and eating- much more interesting.

The stats for this past week:

                             01/24/09             01/31/09           Change

Weight              127.2 lbs.               124.9                   -2.3 lbs.
Another couple of pounds again this week. I continue to feel healthy and because I'm interested to see where this leads, I will continue.

Body Fat           16.3 lbs.                 14.7                    -1.6 lbs.

Once again a significant portion of the weight loss is body fat. Although I don't know where it's coming from as I'm not carrying any extra weight these days.

BMI                     20.0                       19.6                     -0.4

A reflection of the weight loss.

Body Fat           12.8%                     11.8                     -1.0%       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                63.6%                     64.4                     +0.8%

The increasing water content continues to surprise me, particularly as I'm not making any particular effort to drink more water. I keep repeating this, but it's true.

Bone Mass        6.4%                       6.3                        -0.1

Another very slight drop in bone mass. I'm below normal, but not by much. I will continue to monitor the situation.

Site Issues

A glitch in the template this evening forced me to redo the site using a different template. Fortunately, none of the posts were lost or corrupted.

I took advantage of the situation to make a few additions, including a number of raw food related articles on the lower right, courtesy of Googe Search.

Week Twelve Summary

Week Twelve and I'm hanging in there.

The drops that last week were so hard to remember to take are starting to be a habit once again.

I was able to pick up a 25lb bag of carrots early on in the week and did my first batch of carrot/apple/celery juice. In Edmonton and Montreal the bags were typically $25 each.  LifeStyle Markets, a large, organic grocer on the edge of downtown Victoria, has them for $30. Serendipitously, I was able to pick up a bag at a local grocery store, a one-time special of $20.

I was going to buy a twin-gear Green Star (link) juicer like the one my sister has. It's a top of the line twin-gear juicer, but the $550 US price tag made me pause. A conversation with a friend of my sister's led to the recommendation of a Lexen (link) unit.

It uses a single auger, isn't as robust, or high quality, but they've done a great job of getting decent performance at the price point of $150 US! That's the one I ordered and have been using. The pulp is a bit wetter than I remember with the Green Star, suggesting that it isn't quite as efficient.

However, for someone on a budget, or unsure if they're going to be using a juicer on an ongoing basis, I would say this is a great machine to start with. One can always upgrade down the road. (There are other machines as well. I will be doing a more in-depth comparison of various machines at a later date.)

The stats for this past week:

                             01/17/10             01/24/10           Change

Weight              129.0 lbs.               127.2                   -1.8 lbs.
A similar weight drop to last week. I'm somewhat surprised that I continue to lose weight. I continue to feel strong and healthy, however, so will continue with the raw food.

Body Fat           17.2 lbs.                 16.3                    -0.9 lbs.

Exactly half the weight loss this week is body fat.

BMI                     20.2                       20.0                     -0.2

A reflection of the weight loss.

Body Fat           13.3%                     12.8                     -0.5%       

Same as above but as a percentage.

Water                62.9%                     63.6                     +0.7%

The increasing water content continues to surprise me, particularly as I'm not making any particular effort to drink more water.

Bone Mass        6.4%                       6.4                       No change.

The bone mass seems to be holding its own.