Living Yoga: Yoga and raw foods for radiant health and energy

The Living Yoga Newsletter 09

Welcome to another edition of the Living Yoga Newsletter,
your source for the reliable information and support you
need to reclaim your health and energy, naturally.

In this edition you will find:
Classes & Happenings
End of Winter Recipes
Feature Article: 11 Essential Facts & Fallacies of a Raw Food Diet
Yogic Inspiration
A Breathing Exercise to Stabilize Your Energy

I hope this newsletter will boost your spirits and help you
gracefully navigate these last few weeks of our Michigan
winter! Staying on your healthy course can be seriously
challenging at this time of the year, so be extra sure to
keep up with your yoga classes and raw food potlucks - keep
your health support network vital. Read about my exciting
new 8-week diet and lifestyle course in the "Classes &
Happenings" - there are just a few seats left! For those of
you too far away to come, I hope to offer the course in
teleseminar format soon.

The feature article about facts & fallacies is another that
I wrote in an inspired period of my fast in Costa Rica in
January. In it I have succinctly addressed the 11 most
frequent concerns I hear about raw diets. I also give you
some favorite late-winter recipes. Last but not least,
I've presented some yogic inspiration, and a simple and
powerful breathing exercise to help you stay centered and
strong on your journey to radiant health.

Stay tuned - in my next edition of the newsletter I will
share Part I of the full story of my recent fasting journey.

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Classes & Happenings:

NEW! "Learning and Living the 80-10-10 Raw Vegan
Diet and Lifestyle": 8 Monday evenings in Ann Arbor

from 7 - 9pm, March 31st - May 19th. Space is filling
fast! Register now by calling 995-0875, or email
ellen@livingyoganow.com. Visit www.LivingYogaNow.com
for more details.

Yoga Classes: Wednesday and Friday mornings, 9:30-11:00
in my home studio, see www.LivingYogaNow.com for details.
Also Sunday mornings at A2 Yoga, 9-10 am. www.A2yoga.com.

Potluck: This Sunday! March 16th, 1 - 3 pm
1801 Avondale Ave. Call 995-875 for details or visit the
website.

Ellen's monthly talk at Arbor Farms: Fruit! Our real superfood,
Thursday, March 20th, 7 - 8:30 pm.
We'll talk about why fruit is your best dietary staple, and we'll
address concerns about blood sugar.
Please pre-register now by calling the store, 996-8111. $10.

The Great American Meat-Out: Sunday, April 13th, 12-5pm
Living Yoga will have a table! This is a great, well-attended annual
event put on by VegMichigan. Visit www.VegMichigan.org
for all the details and directions.
Takes place at Ferndale High School, 881 Pinecrest in Ferndale,
Michigan

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End-of-Winter Recipes

Sweet Cucumber Pasta
How to make the "noodles": No worries if you don't yet own
a Saladacco Spiralizer (makes delicate angel-hair pasta) or
better, a Spirooli device which makes heftier, more
substantial noodles that hold up better. A $5 veggie
peeler will do just fine. The best kind has rows of little
"teeth", and shreds a whole row of uniformly thin strands
at once. Going the whole length of a large cucumber, you
will get fairly long noodles.
(For the Spiralizer, go to www.LivingNutrition.com. I'm still
researching a new source for the Spirooli.)

Two large cucumbers will give you enough noodles for 1 - 2
people. Allow the noodles to drain in a colander while you
make the sauce.

The Sauce: (serves 1 - 2)
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water for several hours
1 medium tomato (plus extra for making chunks)
½ red bell pepper
1 - 2 stalks celery (to taste)
½ - 1 medium avocado (optional, adds nice creaminess)
½ - 1 cup chopped mango, pineapple, OR orange, to taste
(plus extra for making chunks)

Blend all, then stir in about ½ cup each of chopped tomato
and the fruit you chose.
Spoon over the noodles and gently mix in.

Colorful Papaya Salad (serves 1-2)
2 cups papaya chunks (or more)
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes
1 orange
handful of cilantro or parsley (optional)
1 lb. mixed greens

Mix 1 or more cups of papaya chunks and the tomato with the
greens. Toss with the dressing: 1 cup of papaya blended
with the flesh of the orange, pulsing in the herb last.

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Rozi's recipe for self-esteem:

Be connected. Develop your uniqueness. Learn to wield
your power. Get what you want from the people who have it.
Replace expectation with aspiration.

- Rozalind Gruben-Graham

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Feature article:

11 Essential Facts & Fallacies
of a Raw Food Diet

1. Fact: A healthy raw diet is simple, exciting,
deliciously satisfying, and fun!
Fallacy: You need cooking, spices, salt, and herbs for
food to taste good, and you will miss and crave the old
diet.
Raw fruits and vegetables are beautiful, colorful, and
naturally flavorful. They are fun to eat, easy to digest,
and satiating. Cooked food needs spices to give it flavor,
and our taste buds have been altered to expect unnaturally
strong stimulation. Once you adjust to an all raw diet you
will appreciate more subtle, natural flavors, and you will
love the clean, light way you feel!

2. Fact: A low fat raw, plant-based diet is the optimal
diet for human beings.
Fallacy: As long as it's raw, my diet will be healthy.
Science has shown that humans are biologically designed to
be frugivores. We are not by nature carnivores,
herbivores, or omnivores. This is determined by observing
anatomy, physiology, empirical evidence, logic, and common
sense.
It is also important to note that not all raw food diets
are the same! A healthy raw diet is based upon whole,
fresh, ripe, raw, organic plant foods. Some nuts and seeds
may be included, but a healthy raw diet is fruit-based, and
low in fat.

3. Fact: A properly balanced raw vegan diet supplies all
essential nutrients needed for our health.
Fallacy: For insurance, we need supplements and
"superfoods".
When you live a healthful lifestyle with an adequate
fruit-based raw plant diet and regular vigorous activity,
there is no need for supplements. By eating a variety of
raw fruits, vegetables and leafy greens in sufficient
quantity you will be provided with the vitamins, minerals
and nutrients you need. More is not necessarily better,
and supplements and so-called superfoods supply nutrients
in a concentrated form. Consuming these processed,
unnatural substances will invariably cause imbalances in
your body. In special circumstances supplementation may be
warranted, but it is always best to work toward correcting
diet and lifestyle practices.

4. Fact: A healthy diet gets no more than 10% of its
total calories from fat.
Fallacy: It's okay to eat lots of plant fats as long as
they're raw.
While it's true that raw plant fats are healthy for us to
eat, fat is fat no matter what the source, and in excess,
dietary fat of all kinds is a major causative factor in
disease. Too much dietary fat reduces our body's ability
to uptake, transport, and deliver oxygen to all of our
cells, and reduces the number of healthy red blood cells.
Americans' average fat intake may be as high as 40% of
total calories, four times what we actually need! Many
raw-fooders consume even higher amounts in an attempt to
get sufficient calories and a sense of satiation, when what
they need to do is increase their fruit consumption.

5. Fact: Our basic protein needs (no more than 10% of
total calories) are more than amply met on a raw vegan diet
of sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables.
Fallacy: It's important to eat lots of nuts and seeds to
get enough protein on a raw diet.
It's a myth, perpetuated by segments of our financially
driven commercial food industry, that humans need lots of
protein to be strong and healthy. Protein is used by our
bodies for growth and repair. As with fats, protein intake
beyond our basic needs creates emergency conditions in the
body which lead to toxicity and disease. While athletes
will need extra calories, even they do not generally
require extra protein. It is actually difficult to consume
insufficient protein, as long as you are eating enough
food! All plant foods contain some protein. Most
protein-related disease is concerned with an excess of
protein.

6. Fact: At least 80% of our calories best come from the
simple carbohydrates supplied by whole fresh fruit.
Fallacy: Fruit sugar should be limited in the diet.
As long as you are eating a low-fat diet, the natural
sugars in fruit (even "high-glycemic" fruit) are able to
move easily in and out of the bloodstream and fuel our
cells, and there are no problems with high blood sugar. In
fact, it is difficult to consume too much sugar from eating
fresh raw fruit - your appetite will shut off before this
happens. Too much dietary fat, not fruit sugar, is the
culprit in blood-sugar problems.

7. Fact: Sodium is good for you when it comes naturally
packaged in whole plant foods.
Fallacy: Celtic sea salt (and any inorganic table salt),
strong herbs and spices, and other stimulants are good for
you.
Strong substances overstimulate and deliver toxins to the
nervous system, irritate the sensitive tissues of the
digestive tract, and distrupt delicate nutrient balances in
your body. They can be described as "excitotoxins". In
fact, these substances often cause your body to produce
extra mucous for protection. Extracted sodium chloride
(salt), in any form, is especially caustic. You can get
the organic salts and other minerals your body needs (in
just the right amounts and combinations!) from eating a
variety of fruits and vegetables. Celery and tomatoes are
especially rich in the natural sodium which our body can
use.

8. Fact: Enough quality sleep is critical for all people
on any diet.
Fallacy: Raw-fooders need less sleep.
It is true that a healthy raw food diet requires much less
energy to digest than most other diets, freeing up energy
for other activities. However, most people on a high
fruit, low fat, healthy raw diet naturally want to engage
in vigorous physical activity. Proper recovery from this
energy output requires sufficient rest and sleep. Food
provides the body with fuel, and sleep recharges our
batteries and gives us energy. In addition, for most
people, beginning a raw food diet puts in motion a
cleansing and healing process, which warrants extra rest
and sleep. The amount of sleep required depends upon many
factors, including diet, activity levels, stress levels,
and overall health.

9. Fact: If I eat a raw vegan diet, my friends and family
may think I'm weird.
Fallacy: I won't find how to fit into normal society
eating this way.
Your raw diet will definitely get you noticed! People are
often uncomfortable when someone does things differently,
and may feel as if their own way is being challenged or
confronted. With time, practice, and a little ingenuity
and planning, raw food eaters can not only fit into normal
society (when desired), but can also become a positive
inspiration for others, helping them to challenge and
question parts of our society that do not serve us in
creating health and well-being.

10. Fact: Over time, the body will naturally, safely
cleanse itself on a clean-burning healthy raw diet.
Fallacy: Colonics, enemas, and special "cleanses" are good.
Your body is an intelligent, self-healing organism. Given
supportive conditions, it will always vector toward its
natural state of perfect health. Colonics, enemas, and
cleanses can be harsh, unnaturally forceful, and even
dangerous. Allowed to detoxify naturally on a high fruit,
low fat, raw diet, your body will release and eliminate
toxins in the safest way, over time.

11. Fact: Eating raw is easy, quick, and clean, though it
may take time, study, and practice to learn a healthy raw
lifestyle.
Fallacy: A healthy raw food diet is difficult, and time
consuming to prepare.
Many people mistakenly believe that a raw diet requires
lots of juicing, sprouting, dehydrating, and otherwise
manipulating foods in complex ways. These practices can be
a small part of a healthy raw lifestyle, but need not be a
focus. In fact, the healthiest diet comes straight from
nature, in its whole, unadulterated form, as in whole
fruits picked and eaten right from the tree! Because our
society has strayed so far from its natural diet, it may
take time and practice to learn (or re-learn!) a more
natural way.

To find out more about these facts & fallacies, join our
exciting new course:
Learning and Living the 80-10-10 Raw Vegan Diet and
Lifestyle
In Ann Arbor, 8 Monday nights from 7-9pm, March 31st - May
19th. See details at www.LivingYogaNow.com .
Also read The 80-10-10 Diet by Dr. Douglas N. Graham, and
The Raw Secrets by Frederic Patenaude. Both are available
by calling 734-995-0875.

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*Can you handle the raw truth*?
In order to experience a greater level of health using the principles
of raw foods, there are certain key concepts to know and pitfalls
to avoid. This is the subject the best-selling e-book, The Raw Secrets.

For more information, go to this website:
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/cmd.php?Clk=1999274

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Approach everything as if you really, really mean it!
- Doug Graham

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Yogic inspiration from: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,

translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda:

"Sthira Sukham Asanam:
Asana is a steady, comfortable posture.

Asana means the posture that brings comfort and steadiness.
Any pose that brings this comfort and steadiness is an
asana. If you can achieve one pose, that is enough. It
may sound easy, but in how many poses are we really
comfortable and steady? As soon as we sit in a particular
position, there is a small cramp here, a tiny pain there.
We have to move this way and that. Continuously we are
reminded of our legs, hands, hips and spine.

Unless the body is perfectly healthy and free from all toxins

and tensions, a comfortable pose is not easily obtained.
Physical and mental toxins create stiffness and tension.
Anything that makes us stiff can also break us. Only if we
are supple will we never break."

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Ocean-Sounding Victory Breath (Ujjayi)

borrowed from Yoga for Depression, by Amy Weintraub

"This breath can be practiced in a seated position as above,
or lying down. Once you learn Ujjayi, practice it throughout
your posture sequence, bringing a fresh supply of oxygen to
the cells. To begin, inhale through your nostrils with a slight
constriction of your throat, making a snoring sound.
Maintain the slight snoring sound on the exhalation, and
imagine that you are actually breathing from the back of your
throat. I like to think of the sound as a wave gently rolling
across pebbles. Breathe slowly, expanding the belly, the
rib cage, and the upper chest. As you exhale, pull the
abdomen in and up to empty your lungs completely. Let the
breath be like a lullaby to yourself."

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Imagine yourself in the future, as who you want to be, and
ask yourself how you did it, how you got there.
- Doug Graham

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To your radiant health and energy,

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