So for the past few days (today being day three) I have been on a diet of only fruit to cleanse my body and my mind. Since we started walking so much again and I have felt more energetic and peaceful, I have also felt the need to detox and cleanse my body to feel even lighter and more peaceful.

We used to be big into juicing, but I found that with juicing I get to feel pretty tired after a while. If I juice in the morning I find that I feel very tired by the afternoon and will even get a headache and become cranky. With the fruit fasting, I feel light and clean and energetic throughout the day. I am still able to do all that I need to do in my day without getting tired and cranky (so important when you are a mom).

When I was pregnant I would eat fruit for half the day, everyday and after Serafina was born I continued to eat a lot of fruit (about 70% of my daily food intake) fruit until noon and then again before bed. I believe that this helped a lot in my pregnancy, giving me more energy (enough to walk for 6-8 miles a day) and especially for my delivery and recovery, both of which were very easy and peaceful. Fruit fasting also does not shut down your digestive system the way that juice fasting does, which I like. It is a gentle way to cleanse and detox and it is enjoyable too! Fruit is so delicious, sweet and juicy!

I am also drinking water (I know some people don’t feel that they need to when fruit fasting) but I have always been a wateraholic. I feel really great and am enjoying a more meditative period for now. I am especially enjoying walking! I love breathing in the fresh air, feeling the warm sun on my face and my feet hitting the ground. I love the sound of the girls playing their make believe games and hearing their little giggles all the while we walk. I love the time spent with my thoughts, to get inside my head or with husband, just relaxing and being in each others company. Sometimes I feel like I could never stop. I would walk forever if I could, I love it that much.

On the topic of fruit fasting, I was looking it up on the internet and came across this documentary called Pure Fruit. This documentary is about a couple who are fruitarian and live solely on fruit alone and do not even consume water. I watched this yesterday and again in the evening with Craig too. Mango also has a blog Mango The Raw Vegan Fruitarian.

At first I thought that this was weird and thought even about shutting it off, but I decided to let go of the judgments that I had and just watch it with an open mind. I actually quite enjoyed this film. Whether you are for or against how these people live or think that they are completely crazy doesn’t really matter. What I love about this so much is the fact that there are two people who are living the way that they believe in their hearts like they should be living, unafraid of what other people think about them. Fearless. Peaceful. Happy. Free.

I always like to keep an open mind and not pass judgement on others and basically keep my nose in my own business, my thoughts and choices. I found that I can agree with a lot of things that Mango says and believes and some other things I do not necessarily believe or agree with. That is the beauty of life really, we are all different, yet we can all relate to each other on some level.

I agree that I am also here for a purpose and that there is definite karma attached to the way that we live our lives. Mango was asked at the end of the film if he hates the world because he lives his life as though he wishes that he were not in this world. I used to feel that way a lot, like he said he could see the harm that we were doing to animals and our earth and wondered why other people couldn’t or didn’t even want to know about it. I felt that everyone should know and care, but I realized that it is not my job to try and change people. I can only change myself and in doing so I may inspire others to want to change themselves too.

I am also a very sensitive, quiet, shy person, especially since I have become vegan. I am very sensitive to other people’s opinions and thoughts. I feel like if I am around more domineering or negative personality type for any length of time I become influenced by them. I like to keep my consciousness sheltered from T.V and news and the like because I find that most often it just disturbs me and makes me hate the world more and develop an aversion, rather than acceptance for all of life.

I used to think that this was maybe bad to do, but have learned that sheltering myself from it helps me to know myself better and concern myself less with what others are doing and instead focus on myself and the life that I want to create for myself and my family and share with the world. I also believe that it is best for my children to not be too engaged in media stimulation and instead be free to just be kids and use their imaginations. Craig is not affected by things like news, media and advertising the way that I am and so he still follows it and I still get to hear things from him.

I also appreciate the character Ian in this film. I think that he knows a lot, but like he says, we are all lost because we are so far removed from our natural state. He also says that the world is a killing machine and that he doesn’t like it, but realizes that he can’t escape it. Whether we like it or not, our world is imperfect and so are we. All of us do harm and will continue to do harm with our actions and thoughts to our planet, the animals and each other until we die.

Still, I believe that we can choose to do less harm and to feel good about the fact that we are helping to make a difference in our world, even if it is only a small difference. I really, truly do believe in the power of one and that if enough ones come together than the difference can be that much greater. I think the attitude of hopelessness and carelessness, (believing that things are bad anyway so who cares) is powerless and weak. We can do something about it! We can make a difference and we should! Each and every one of our choices has profound impacts for better or for worse, affecting not only our lives or the lives of this generation, but many generations to come. Yet it seems as though most people would prefer to act as though they are completely powerless or remain unconscious to this fact.

One thing I have heard a lot when people ask about our veganism is that the meat is there anyway, so they feel like if they don’t buy it than they are wasting it and the animals died for nothing. But if their were no demand for meat and people stopped consuming animals or buying things that they don’t really need, none of this stuff would need to happen. There would be far less animals or people losing their lives, less rainforests being destroyed and less global warming. I am sure of it. The choices that we make do have a voice behind them, we do vote with our dollar. Sadly, most of us are voting for death and destruction and we are all reaping the benefits of our choices (OK now I am getting riled up).

We can look at these people as crazy or weird for not being ‘normal’ but I honestly totally believe that these people are not any more crazy than fear-driven people who put artificial foods into their bodies day in and out, fill their consciousnesses with media and external stimuli and basically live an artificial existence, never giving any thought to they actions, choices or thoughts. I appreciate that these people desire to do what is right and live a conscious life, even if to some it may seem extreme.

I have always said that I would ideally love to eat a raw or mostly raw diet, but have never fully made that switch because I have a family and I do believe in staying grounded and a part of our society as well. I feel as though being vegan is alienating enough and that connection with others is an essential part of our existence. I do fasting and cleansing and also balance that with our vegan meals, which are fun and tasty using more natural ingredients. I want my kids to not have to feel alienated because of our choice to be vegan and raise them as vegans so I make it my mission to come up with recipes that are familiar and kid-friendly. I do believe that food should still be fun and would never force my kids to eat an all raw diet. Even with veganism we are not vegan nazi’s. If our kids are at other people’s places or (like grandparents or friends) or invited to a birthday party, they are welcome to eat the foods that are there. I do not believe in scaring my children or forcing my beliefs on them either.

I totally believe that I could be a fruitarian, but I also agree with what Ian says in the film about feeling very “airy fairy” and spiritual. The fruit is so light and very yin, so it does make you feel high in a way and very spiritual. I like the feeling that I get from this way of eating, but I don’t know that I would like it for a very profound period of time. It is also very cooling and for where we live it is not ideal for the cold winter months.

So those are some of my thoughts on fruitarianism, raw foods and cleansing. Just some stuff I thought I should write out, since it has been on my mind lately.

There is also The Frutarian Michael Arnstein, a frutarian marathoner as well as many videos on youtube that are interesting to check out.

Basically, I feel that being vegan is the most balanced way for our family to live. I feel that we can still enjoy our food in a healthy way without going to either extreme (consuming too much processed foods or the most purifying, often expensive and hard to find ‘superfoods’). The meals that we eat are delicious and appealing to even people who are not vegan. I enjoy creating vegan recipes to help people who wish to take this step to leaving a lighter footprint on our planet or live more consciously or compassionately and feel that if people would even try to consume more plant based foods, we could see a huge difference in our world.

Any thoughts on fruitarianism, fasting or cleansing? Do you do any cleansing or fasting?