Raw Coaching With Karen Knowler -- Part Two
[ 25 April 2008 ]
Karen Knowler coaches Gala Darling (MP3)
Last night was my second raw coaching call with Karen Knowler, & just like last time, it was spectacularly helpful & eye-opening.
Things had changed quite a bit since we last spoke. In our first phone call, I was in the so-called “raw honeymoon phase” — really excited about the changes that were happening in my body & mind, experiencing an elevated mood & loving the extra energy. But since then, I had been to New Zealand & fallen off the raw wagon in a big way, & was struggling to get back on.
Our call went for 45 minutes, & we covered a lot of ground, much of it centred around working out why my enthusiasm was low & how I could get it back on track. She gave me lots of “raw homework” to complete, which was all amazing.
If you’re going raw as part of the iTC, idly considering it, or are already mostly raw, I think you’ll gain huge benefits from listening to our call. It was really interesting to me to discuss all my feelings about going raw, & then after the call, sit & think about what we had discussed. Everything she said made perfect sense, & it gave me lots of perspective.
Karen is a raw Wonderwoman, with infinite tools at her disposal. She should have a cape, with a big cabbage sewn on the back of it! & a parade! I am truly indebted to her for making my raw transition so much easier, for giving me lots of things to think about, & for helping me see my change in diet in a more holistic way!
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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Yay Yay Yay!
I was just listening to your first coaching call with her yesterday! I’m not going raw, but I think a lot of the ideas that she talks about are helpful to me, because I’m seriously thinking about becoming a vegetarian!
I haven’t had a moment to listen to your latest ‘cast yet, but I’m wondering:
What do you use in lieu of soymilk (aka calcium & the liquid I use as a base for smoothies)?
I’m not sure about Gala, but I usually use a mixture of crushed ice flavored with lemon or rosewater (when you freeze the water to make the ice, add some lemon, orange, POM, whatever kind of juice you like, or some rosewater. It’s great) and almond milk. The almond milk tastes a little weird at first, but the ice helps neutralize that while the milk gives the smoothie that nice creaminess it needs. Hope this helps!
I don’t understand something about eating raw. Eating raw is good for you, yes, but how can steaming your vegetables be bad for you? It is still eating healthy and unprocessed. o_0
Eek, I mashed up two lines as “raw Cabbagewoman”!
I don’t think that it’s as “bad” as it is “not as good.”
Applying heat to foods can alter the compounds found in them which can in turn diminish their effectiveness in the body. Or I could also be completely wrong!
However the argument of what constitutes “healthy” is another thing in itself. I doubt that there exists something called “healthy” in the same manner that pi or absolute flat surfaces don’t exist. Much in the same manner you can have approximations that depending on succession are more towards the ideal concept of said ideas. Which I guess would imply that the closer you get to the ideal the better off you are. However the ideal can never be reached within the realm of logic.
What does all of this mean? Ehh.. I just tell it to myself to justify eating cooked food from time to time! :D
Thanks, Renee! Also, raw cookies and cupcake things make me scratch my noggin. I want to say, “Cook those things—there’ll all sugars anyway!” :P
Maybe that shows what I [don’t] know… ;)
Annie – raw doesn’t really make sense to me, either…except for the obvious – eating veges, fruit, etc raw! I don’t understand how baking doesn’t count!? What else doesn’t count?!
I want to give raw a sort-of go, & I am making a stirfry tonight which I think is healthy… and have decided to leave out chicken (even though I only buy free range organic meat) but I still don’t think that would constitute as vegan raw? ARgh! It’s all so confusing! A lot of the stuff I find online seems like really timeconsuming (hard when you work full time & travel 3 hours a day!)& has weird ingredients I haven’t had any luck finding :P
Lol, Natasja, surely life is too short to constantly strive for perfection. Healthy is healthy. And it’s also good to indulge now and then… ;D
Eep! Sorry, Gala—just call me the snake in the garden! ;D Hehe, at least apples are raw!
Hey Gala,
Not that long ago I decided to educated myself in rawisim and try it out. I thought I’d share some of my experiences.
The more you eat raw the more you get to feel your feelings. It really opens up your mind and lets you truly express yourself. It sounds like a joke but I swear what I’m saying is true. Keep on going Gala you can do it!
Although not the most appetizing, raw green juices have made my skin glow and really helped with cravings. When I look in the mirror in the morning I’m not the puffy eyed chipmunk of my former self. That physical affirmation has really helped me.
One of my problems was snacking on non raw foods. I always wanted to get chocolate from the bulk bins while grocery shopping. I decided that obviously that was a craving and I didn’t need the chocolate and it wasn’t a big deal not to have it. But realizing that was one thing, getting over the habit was another. So what worked for me was bringing an alternative healthier snack. I bring a bag of peeled baby carrots with me when I go shopping. Problem solved! The thing I love about rawisim is that it gives me such a clear mind that I can learn how to solve my problems (!)
I have a real passion for cooking (and un-cooking) and a love for chocolate. What I love for chocolate cravings is this truffle recipe:
6-8 medjool dates (not the dry weird cooking ones)
around 1/3 c raw almonds
a dash of cinnamon
a dash of salt
tiny bit of flax oil if needed
2 tablespoons more or less of raw cacao powder
1. grind the almonds in your blender (I don’t have one yet so I use a coffee grinder haha) until nice and powdery!
2. put almond mixture in a bowl, add the cinnamon, salt, cacao powder and stir well.
3. take the pit out of the dates, chop them up a bit.
4. now mash the dates into the almond cacao mixture. It’s going to be dry, if it isn’t then that’s ok too but just mix it until its nice and moist. Use your hands if you want and if it’s way too dry add a little flax oil. I make this recipe more by eye than by measurements. You can add more almonds or more dates…it’s all in theory but that’s what makes it fun
5. wet your hands with cold water. Make grape size balls of the mixture and roll around in some cacao powder.
6. chill in the freezer for around 20 minutes or eat at room temperature. I like them cold with a glass of almond milk :> My boyfriend helps me eat them because they’re so rich and filling!
If you want something REALLY sweet you can add some stevia to the mixture. I do sometimes but these truffles are so rich they’ll knock your socks off. Cacao is an appetite suppressant so you get your chocolate fix and don’t binge. It also has a lot of really good properties and IMO much better than eating standard cocoa powder.
good luck with your raw journey gala :D
Wow, while listening to this conversation with Karen I had a huge breakthrough in figuring out one of my major emotional attachments with certain foods. Thank you so much for posting this, Gala! Another thing that really clicked with me was the idea that eating raw doesn’t have to be seen as limiting, rather, it’s a vessel for transformation and to be more spiritually aware of oneself. And to me that means my negative emotional cravings are the real inhibitors, preventing me from knowing myself and moving beyond past issues.
Thanks again for all your inspiration!!
Stay positive! :)
I’m confused about raw, well more on the fence really, on one side humans have been eating cooked foods for 1000’s of years, and some foods are better for you cooked, like carrots are easier for the body to digest when cooked
the on the other side i can see the attraction yet i question if it is all it says it is, like all the detoxing diets out now about how you can detox in 6 weeks, which is unrealistic seeing the body has its own system for detoxing
gala how do you stay fully nourished when statistically speaking raw food eaters are the most undernourished of all eating plans?
if i come off as negative I’m not trying / meaning to, rather curious and you seem like one of the best people to ask as you are going through it
knowledge is power after all, cheers
I just tried that truffle recipe, and it was fabulous! Thanks, Cheyenne.
Gala dear, I wonder if you have any suggestions for a supplement/vitamin? I know that you are just beginning this, but maybe Karen has mentioned it? I’ve Googled, but haven’t found anything practical – it’s all about raw diets for your pets! I’ve read concerns about a raw diet not providing you with enough B12. Do you take B12 supplements? Are there any other vitamins I should worry about not getting enough of?
You are a fantastic encouragement to living life to the fullest!
Some interesting reading about vitamin supplements (from the Guardian;
www.guardian.co.uk/science/200…
www.guardian.co.uk/society/200…
Lou – in place of soy milk, you can make your own nut milk :] I did it the other day & made almond milk & it was delicious.
it just seems like raw food is about saying no to everything that taste divinely good, like another form of eating disorder,,... its like life long diet of which you are bound to fall of and just binge..i mean i dont diet, french women don’t diet, mediteraneans and sauth americans dont diet, and sophia loren looks fabulous in her 70ies after living of pasta all her life! Life is about enjoying good food with flavor, being active, drinking wine, and enjoying yourself.. not waking up grumpy and feeling like its an effort to eat raw… I mean admit it to yourself most of the time its a struggle…If you constantly forbid yourself stuff you’ll just want it more. .....and honestly how is chocolate powder raw??? and how does putting that “raw” powder in your boiling water makes it raw?
to russian girl’s comments, I do admit that personally, I feel good when I eat chocolate, but I realise that the high definetly becomes a low in which I have to eat another one to amend my blood sugar levels. For everything else, cooked food and meat becomes so much less appetising when I read about how unnutritious it is. Just because we can eat it, and just because it’s geared to wow our taste buds, doesn’t mean it’s what is best for us or will make us happier in the long run. I don’t think the raw food lifestyle is about deprivation in any way, sure some people think eating any cooked food is like a sin or something, but most recognise it’s a journey towards making your body and your mind as healthy and conscious as possible. Instead of treating it like machine that needs 5 portions fruit, a portion of meat, a portion of dairy each day. And also treating everyone the same… It’s more about treating your body as a living system that is much more complicated than something at which we can approximate our nutrional requirements and rely on the makers of processed food for. (Any typos or misunderstanding of previous comment is due to me feeling tired after eating a gorgeous haloumi lamb shwarma at my local lebanese restaurant)For me new food experiences are more enjoyable than me feeling ‘completely’ energetic all the time, so I balance it out :)
with regards to the articles from the guardian
www.naturalnews.com/023034.htm…
Apparently they looked at over 400 studies and then only picked the ones where people died…
Interesting journalism there.
The Guardian is just reporting the result the Cochrane Library’s research came to; it has absolutely nothing to do with scare tactic sensationalist journalism at all, it’s reporting the findings of one particular, albeit very thorough and very scientifically valid paper. Whether one chooses to believe these scientists, or NaturalNews, or neither, or whatever is up to them.
(Personally, I think the point they’re trying to communicate is the fact there exists a delicate, intricate and very complex balance in the natural chemistry in different kinds of foods; singling out a particular vitamin or nutrient and manufacturing this into a poppable supplement might not have the same desired effect on the human body as eating a carrot would, as scientific reports have concluded beta-carotene is, in fact, poisonous on it’s own. Or in other words, if you eat a varied diet of raw foods, you would not need to take a supplement. Or in other other words, it’s all common sense, really.)
hi Gala! Just wanted to let you know that I LOVE your amazing blogs. I read it like a bible. Haha. Anyway, I thought you had updated with another entry but I guess not. Well pretty much, I can’t wait to read the next one! So I hope you update it soon!
MUCH love, Kimmy.
I was wondering how people that eat only raw cope in winter time. I can imagine eating raw in summer but think I would have a hard time when it gets a bit colder..
For the people wondering about how cookies and baked goods can be raw…well, they’re called cookies or whatever because they’re similar to the baked versions, but they’re NOT actually baked. They don’t use the same egg-flour-milk-baking-soda-etc combinations as baked goods, and they DON’T go into the oven, ever! They’re made with things like mashed dates, bananas, and lots of other creative raw ingredients so that their consistencies work, but they don’t require heat to be edible and delish.
Make sense?
I have definitely been considering going more raw, especially with Gala’s glowing reports, but I do get such comfort out of WARM foods! I love love love a yummy veggie stew or a grilled eggplant dish, and I’m not sure what I can develop to substitute for that warm-comfort feeling…but I love reading about others’ experiences while I ponder. :)
to russian girl’s comments: Being raw isn’t an eating disorder at all, it’s just trying to live healthily. It can be VERY VERY hard to retrain your tastebuds and body to not need all the fake flavour that is pumped into every day food. I know people who have raised their children raw and they just don’t crave the same things I do. And I have lived all over the world and I can say that your comments about other countries not dieting, well that’s silly. In France, they don’t even have half of the insane foods Britain and America have, so they don’t have the addiction to them. Plus, since it costs 15 euros for a plate of pasta in a resturaunt, well my guess is that they eat less and cook more at home purely because it costs too much to eat more! In Italy, no, I just saw people eating as they pleased, but they also looked exactly like my mother and father (also Italian), and both of them have severe health problems (my dad has had two bypass surgeries and my mother is so heavy that she has trouble walking and her knees are messed up). True, in the North Italians are thinner, but in the South, no, not so much.
I don’t eat a 100% raw diet…I am Italian and love pasta so much I will never give it up. But I try very hard to eat as well and as vegan as possible because I see the health problems in my family (heart disease, three people dead from cancer, one dead from diabetes) and I want to spend my life running around, being with friends and family, and not having to lay in bed, in pain, at age 55, like my Aunt who recently died after a liver transplant. I’m 26 and I have lost more than half of my family to poor health choices. I think maybe people who have not had such a family history don’t think to take care of themselves because death is not so on the forefront. But I do believe their new American style diets killed them.
To Material Girl: I don’t know how much I trust other things she says, but Gillian McKeith recommends lightly steaming fruit in the morning before eating it, so it will be warm. She also peels apples and pears and steams them until quite soft and then mashes them up into a warm ‘porridge’. I’m freezing all the time here in the UK and I started doing this and it has really helped. There’s a juice bar by me as well that will warm your juice for you as well with a steamer. I haven’t tried it yet, as I think maybe the heat would destroy the nutrients, but it is an interesting idea.
Ooh, Laura, that is interesting. Even if heating the fruit does alter it somewhat, I still think it’s less of a giant cooked mass than, say, a bowl of stew where everything has been simmering for hours. Plus, being fruit, it’s inherently better to eat than some of the other traditional warm things, so I’d still be coming out ahead. Thanks!! xo MG
NeatO ConvO!
I really liked Karen’s suggestions about adding seaweedy goodness to your salad for additional sodium & trying to make Raw more fun. Made me think of going out on a crazy straw shopping spree so that every simple & healthy thing I drink has some zazzy fun. ;)