The Raw and the Cooked

In The Raw and the Cooked, Claude Levi-Strauss discusses the structures of myths as basic frameworks by which to understand cultural relations. The theory goes, that you can understand the structures of a culture by understanding the binary oppositions present in the culture’s mythology. In a simplistic reading of the title of this book – raw is associated with nature and cooked with culture.

Which brings me to today. I have been struggling with the anti-social (read, away-from-culture) nature of being raw. The difficulties going out to dinner as a “normal” (read, member of my culture) person only to get wilted lettuce, tasteless tomatoes, and the discomfort that comes from being dissatisfied while everyone else at the table is enjoying their cooked (read, part of culture, society) foods.

So I’ve been experimenting eating cooked foods. And I feel like crap every time. I get bloated, puffy, congested … so the challenge question is, how to develop some sort of continuum, a conversation within the binary system that enables you to remain raw (natural, healthy, feeling good in your body) while participating in the cooked world. What types of ccoked foods enable you to share (to break bread together – a symbol of friendship, connection, and trust) without making you sick … ?

Juice feasting

I feel like the juice feast was a great opportunity for me to focus on myself. To get a hold on what goes in (and what comes out), and how each bit affects how I feel. It enabled me to clear my head, and to be aware of what I want in there (my head, that is) and how to make that happen. But every time I juice a cucumber I just want to bite it! I feel like, for me – for now – the combination of juicing all day and a salad at night is ideal. I will stick to the spirulina/lemon/cayenne/himalayan crystal salt/hemp seed oil dressing on lettuce and (of course) cucumbers as my salad for a while. Probably will mix in other greens as the weather (hopefully) warms up (it is really cold for LA these days) and see how that works for me. I feel good about the decision, as the juicing was becoming quite tedius for me – and not in that way that it is part of the journey, more in the way that if I continued it wouldn’t be good for me. So, another day I am sure I will cut the salads and start again. Until then, I feel like raw works best. Challenging as that, too, is – but much less antisocial than just juice … xx

New Year’s Day

It is New Year’s Day, 2008. I have never been one for resolutions, but this year I find them spontaneously blossoming. First, a decision to return to one of my many career iterations and abandon this crazy unfulfilling pursuit I’ve been on. Second, to begin a 92-day Juice Feast. I have to say, the only things holding me back right now are the 43 pieces of raw chocolate that I made last week, the 1/2lb of raw goat feta I purchased at Rawsome on Saturday, and the sundried Peruvian olives I marinated in water, Himalayan Sea Salt, and a touch of apple cider vinegar …. well – those are really it. 45 reasons to postpone. But then I realize there will always be something tantalizing in my fridge until I make the commitment. And 2008 is the year of the commitment.