Hi Eve,

I just wrote my weekly shopping list on another thread. In it are 3 bunches of organic celery bought through wholesale. I usually get a box of 8 huge beautiful organic celery for about $39. Again this week they look amazing.

I have been told the same by someone selling organic on a market. Not sure why they say that... It is very true that celery is one of the worst things you can buy conventional, so I stopped doing that. I remember seeing one celery for $10 in Macro Wholefoods once. Just insane prices. I think perhaps organic celery is just very seasonal.

I do bulk organic too through my food coop. This week:

13 kg bananas $39
18 kg oranges $38 (shared with Sandy)
6 paw paws $30
12 kg biodynamic pears $66
1 watermelon 2.40 pr kilo
3 celery $10.20
1 Cauliflower $3.50
3 bunches spinach $7.80
2 bunches kale $5.20
box 8 cos lettuce  $15 (shared with Sandy)
2 bunches chinese greens $4.40

So in total about $200, but the pears should last more than a week. I guess I average maybe $150 a week.

I don't spend money on much else than my rent and my food and travel. I would much rather spend the extra on organic, and this is only really possible by bulk buying with the quantities we eat. If you can get a buyers group together, usually organic wholesalers will let you buy from them.

Note, the bananas come to $3 per kilo, which is cheaper than most conventional supermarket bananas at the moment. When bananas are in season, $13 kg organic cost about $26. We have sometimes been lucky to get boxes for $8! These are usually Coles organic ones, which have been overstocked. The wholesaler then unwraps the Coles ones, and puts them in boxes. Once I got such a box, and saw the exact same bananas for $7 per kilo in the supermarket. That is nearly 10 times the price. But of course that is only in special cases, when you get extremely lucky.

After seeing the supermarket documentary this week on ABC, I am even more happy to be rid of Coles and Wollies. Just no way I would want to support that industry.   

Here are two film clips from the Vibrant Living Expo from Kevin Gianni. One even has Grant running in it. Looks like it would have been amazing! Did anyone here go?

http://renegadehealth.com/blog/vibrant-living-expo-2008-highlights/
http://renegadehealth.com/blog/more-from-the-raw-food-vibrant-living-expo/

Warmth,
Lou

Wow! Permaculture rocks! Thanks for sharing. There might be hope for Australia still.

Eating raw, plus being aware of the things going on in the world has made me interested in growing my own food, going 'back to the land' and the importance of community and having a connection to the earth.

I feel my belief in the power of the earth has increased. I feel much more of an intense connection to plants, and have complete faith in Mother Earth regulating herself, even though this might ultimately mean destroying humanity as it has come to be. 

Just wanted to tell my little hair tale. It's been a month now since I last washed it with shampoo, and I'm not looking back!

I had been meaning to try it for a while, but didn't have the courage, since my hair is extremely fine/thin, and has been since I was a teenager. I have been washing it with shampoo every single day pretty much since then because it would look greasy instantly if I didn't. I used 'natural' organic shampoos, but still…

Anyway, last month I went on a 5 day trip to Melbourne, and forgot to bring shampoo. I decided not to buy any, and since it was cold, I could just wear a hat. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my hair did not get particularly greasy, and washing it just with water seemed to do the trick. So when I got home, I just kept at it, and my hair very quickly started looking thicker, and wasn't greasy if I rinsed it every day. My hair looks healthier and thicker, and I am happy! I was expecting to go through a horrible period of terribly greasy hair, and hat wearing, but that didn't happen yet. Fingers crossed!

How is everyone else's shampoo free experiment going? FreedomB, still at it?

Thanks for the input, people.

Interesting… I will try to eat the other half of my watermelon slower. Possibly blended with a spoon will do the trick. I usually don't mix fruit and fat, so not sure about the chia. But seems you haven't had a problem with it, kebbster.

Will let you know if slower solves the problem. Would hate to have to give up eating watermelon, especially once summer comes around.

I just ate half a watermelon for breakfast, and again I got really bad pains in my abdominal and also upper body. It lasts maybe 15 mins. I have had this before after eating watermelon. I don't get this from anything else.

I usually do mono for breakfast, so it was the first thing I ate, and not combined with any other fruit.

It's not about quantities either, because I have no problem eating loads more of other fruit.

Any ideas??? Anyone experienced this? 

Hi Klein. Doug Graham recommends 2 or 3 meals. He says at one point in the book that one of the reasons for failure is continued eating throughout the day. Maybe another question for Doug? The reasons for him recommending fewer but larger meals.

I found it hard in the beginning too, but the trick is to make the green smoothie as large as you can handle. I usually have about 2 litres in one go (don't guzzle it down, though  ). I also tend to eat/drink my breakfast meal later. Like 10 am, then the smoothie keeps me full for a long time.

Klein, I highly recommend getting the book. It helps a lot if you are trying to follow 811. I also found these great films on youtube http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WrWihaTBSAI&NR=1. They are great for inspiration. Also check out the videos by Doug Graham's wife, Rozalind Gruben, on emotions and eating.

RawGreenGoddess, thank you for your generous compliments!

Klein, where do you live? A good idea is to bulk buy organic. You can either make a deal with local suppliers, or start up a buyers group in your area. IM me if you are in Sydney. Organic is not only healthier, better for the environment, but tastes so much better, which makes you want to eat it more, which makes it easier to stay raw
I don't always manage to get everything organic either, but usually bulk buy at least bananas, oranges, spinach, celery, tomatoes and lettuce which are my staples. The most important to get organic is indeed greens, celery, and any fruit where you eat the skin.

Freezing is not optimal, but I guess better than throwing away. I do it in the summer to make yummy banana ice cream as a treat.

Wow! That's an amazing transformation! Well done!

Yes, the social is hard, and I can imagine if you have people around you who live a very different lifestyle it is much harder. Fortunately most of my friends and family are pretty clued in, so that helps a lot. The hardest remains dinner parties and restaurants. I usually try and order a huge salad if eating out. Sometimes I slip up too though. But the main thing is not to beat yourself up about it after. The way my body feels is usually punishment enough, without my brain giving me a hard time too.

I would definitely recommend the 80/10/10 book. Reading it helped a lot. Not to say it isn't still hard. I sometimes treat myself to gormet raw, but afterwards I feel so physically terrible, that it isn't a treat at all. Often a low fat cooked vegan asian meal will have much less consequences for me than a high fat raw meal. But I guess we are all different. Maybe that's just my body being sensitive to nuts.

I usually eat mainly mono meals during the day (e.g. only oranges for breakfast, only bananas and lettuce for lunch) and then a salad or dip with celery etc. for dinner. I never ate one type of fruit for a whole week straight, so maybe someone else who did can advise you. I would say that a week of green smoothies might do the trick as well. I think the main idea is that if you eat only one kind of fruit (maybe with greens) your body can digest easier, and therefore has a chance to deal with the candida.

Nice visual breakdown of the world's eating habits. Not surprising, but still interesting. Looks like the U.S. and the U.K. are clear winners on processed food! The book where these photos come from ('Hungry Planet: What the World Eats') is from 2005, so the prices are probably a little dated.

http://www.fixingtheplanet.com/one-weeks-worth-food-around-our-planet

An interview and a breakdown of prices:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005952

I also had candida (which I had been fighting for ages) when first going raw. Mainly digestive problems. I believe I have pretty much kicked it. Though there are some foods I just can't eat like nuts.

Yes, if you really want to get rid of the candida, you the best is probably to go completely off cooked, especially any fats, and starchy stuff like potatoes, which converts to sugar anyway. Any fats will mean the sugar in your bloodstream from fruit etc cannot be quickly absorbed, giving the candida time to munch. That is why the conventional candida diet is no fruit. I know, however, that I felt completely miserable, and saw no candida improvement from staying away from fruits. And I feel very happy with fruits.

I believe the easiest and quickest way to get rid of it is to only eat one kind of fruit for a week, and nothing else. I believe some people on this forum had success eating only mangoes for a week, right?

Hi guys,

Is this event on every year?

It looks amazing, but guess I would need to save up for a while.

Any ladies out there who have been to one?

Warmth, Lou