Wednesday, June 29, 2011

On Raw Food Diet: Organic and Fresh

Back in College, I used to dorm in this building that has an atrium in the middle. A bit similar to a condominium that has several studios for students to have a home away from home but at the first few months of my first year I stayed in the west wing of the oldest dormitory in the University I graduated in.

I met a girl in one of my social studies class, we were both irregulars, meaning we don’t have the same folks with each of our dreaded classes. We became friends forever and it turns out she lived in the university condos.
I frequently visited her room and her roommates loved me, countless sleepovers were made followed by weekly dinners with the girls. They had this roommate whom they didn’t really like, I didn’t like her either, she barely slept in the room and to top it all off she preferred to be called ‘Sexy’ when in fact she looks so hideous I couldn’t even begin to remember how she looked like.
Eventually we used voodoo and witchcraft to kick her out of the room to make way for – well, you know who. We used the witchcraft technique found in Bible Black and miraculously it worked!
(If you have the complete copy of Bible Black please message me, we never get to see how it ended and we would be thrilled to watch it)

Moving on, we became roommates forever, at least for the rest of our four year stay in the University. It’s been 2 years since I’ve graduated and we still get to have dinners and see each other.
Every summer I would visit one of my roommate’s home in Olongapo. It was a three-to-four hour travel by bus and I didn’t mind, up to now I still do it. Any minute or hour less than that is a piece of cake, it won’t ever faze me, I wouldn't even begin to call it traveling.

This friend of mine is also vegetarian and last time I visited which was a month or so ago, her mom was vegan, now – she’s a raw foodie. Her mom held a workshop for her fellow yogis when I came there and I joined in the preparation of raw food.

I can eat pretty much eat anything I want, that was before when I wasn’t a vegetarian but now that I have a different eating lifestyle than the rest of the population, picking up what to eat can be quite a challenge. Learning how to cook became a requirement and choosing wisely where to eat out is a necessary skill.
I’ve been a vegetarian since college with a minor lapse after graduation but now I’m back on loving vegetables.

When I visited Olongapo, I was a vegetarian raw foodie for a few days.
A raw food diet is based on the belief that cooking food steals their enzymes and nutrients away while leaving them uncooked retains their natural enzyme and health enhancing attributes.

The benefits one can get from a raw food diet consists of
Increased Energy
Clearer Skin
Weight Loss
Reduced Risk of Disease
Less Trans Fat and Saturated Fat
Low in Sodium and Sugar
Delay the Progress of Aging
And More
It may seem very appealing to some but the thing is, it takes vast intangible amounts of determination and discipline to incorporate that in our daily lives, especially when meat and savory animal meals are plastered on billboards, tarpaulins, at the back of a bus and other forms of advertisement in our urban life.

According to my spiritual university: In heaven, people are vegan raw foodies (or at least vegetarian.)
And in the practice of a strict spiritual life (I try, as much as I can to follow) as a student of Brahma Kumaris, I must turn back to my previous self – the one who lived in heaven and disregard the five senses of my present life in order to transcend into heaven.
 -Just one of the reasons why I don’t eat meat among others.

Everyone wants to be healthy but don’t have the will to start that day for themselves and they are slaves to one of the five senses of the body – taste. That is the reason why a lot of people can’t give up meat, to my opinion, not all meat products and meals taste good. What a waste of a perfectly good animal life.
In the rarest time that I would deviate from my diet and eat meat on my accord I am filled with regret that would last a while. Of course I always forgive myself and easily brush away the feeling, unless I want to beat myself up for it.

Her mom holds raw food workshops regularly and she also has her own blog and so does my friend. My friend studied Broadcast Journalism but has a catering business in Olongapo City, she’s a great cook and I can easily request what I want for breakfast, lunch or dinner when I visit and she does it with a smile too!

If you live near the city you can join one of the workshops and pay a fraction of what you would when you join a raw food workshop here in Metro Manila.
I learned how to extract milk out of nuts and make delectable dishes with a blender! Goodbye George Foreman Griller!!

Talking to a round eggplant and waiting for it to talk back while slipping a chunk of pineapple in my mouth
Dunia making faces with the eggplant


A raw food diet is healthy and is a good alternative if your stove ran out of gas or if you don't have one.
Preparing raw food is very simple and there are thousands of recipes and instructions over the internet.

Enjoying a piece of dehydrated vegan raw nacho


Take a look at their vegetarian/vegan/raw foodie useful food blogs!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Sloth


That’s the word…
The sin… (Click the word "sin" for definition)
The emotion that most of my contemporaries are prone to experience and commit, for the rarest time in my life I am under its spell.
Or the animal, which is considered to be the slowest moving mammal in the world.

I don’t remember what happened in the past few weeks but I’ve travelled quite a lot which ironically made me feel so idle. Or I am once again procrastinating?
Although I’ve made a pledge to write more and start some of my projects, once again, my well calculated scrupulous schedule sank down the drain. No surprise there.
Since a friend of mine will leave for Australia for half a year, my friends, terrified of not seeing her for a long time, panicked and have decided to see each other more often.
If once a week wasn’t enough. As the youngest of the group (All of them at least 32 years old) I took it as my duty to schedule our meetings, dates, adventures and even ob-gyne and dental appointments. Emergency meetings also seem to fall under my department…
But recently I’ve abandoned the responsibility so they’ve been trying to organize things by themselves since I’m awfully swamped with other things to do.

Such excellent taste has directed us to visit the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo City.
I’ve been dying to go to that Museum for weeks, there was also an earlier schedule of me going there with other friends but was tragically cancelled due to laziness, also associated with sloth.

 
After an art and culture filled weekend the next weekend was spent in Olongapo City where I thought I would be able to work on my projects and writing backlogs.
I spent it eating and preparing raw vegan food, which isn’t really a bad compromise but the progress of my work is of course on halt.

Seeing different set of friends is sort of exhausting… I miss myself.
I think I need to be isolated.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Keeping up with the Markarian 739s




Yes, this sort of news interests me so while looking at what the internet has I saw this: Two black holes found in neighboring galaxy Markarain 739, both active.

There MAY be two black holes at the core of a nearby galaxy according to a new study to be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. (Please take note of the disclaimer)

The Milky Way, another nearby galaxy; has super massive black holes at the center but in this case with Markarian 739, it’s rare to find two black holes so close, approximately 11,000 light years away. 
I'm not exactly sure about their proximity but they might just be too close they might start sucking each other and start massive black hole collisions - putting an end to the Universe and our puny existence.

A study using NASA's Swift satellite and the Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a second supersized black hole at the heart of an unusual nearby galaxy already known to be sporting one.
The galaxy, which is known as Markarian 739 or NGC 3758, lies 425 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Only about 11,000 light-years separate the two cores, each of which contains a black hole gorging on infalling gas.
-NASA
It’s very interesting yet, pretty much useless. They said that these two black holes are both active perhaps from a collision of two galaxies.
I’m still thinking about how to apply this sort of knowledge to my daily starving writer lifestyle… 

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Cool wet morning

The rainy season is really here, cool nights and cool mornings are always welcome but I don't like carrying an umbrella and walking in the rain. I don't like getting wet especially by the rain.

This song from Copeland, an indie band, was perfect for my morning today.
Choco butternut donut from DuDo, Vegetarian Pancit and Fruit-Veg juice for breakfast.

Rain rain rain on my mind
I've got a secret life
Wipe wipe wipe it away
Nothing can make me dry


Or during these times I would like to listen to something from Ryuichi Sakamoto




Then play it at the same time with this video

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Ken Breaks Up With Barbie

Click Photo to go to Ken's Page on FB


You said it Ken! I just received my Greenpeace newsletter and this was the news. It seems that the most famous couple are breaking up because Barbie is annihilating one of the most precious part of the planet – the forest, particularly in Indonesia.

What I like about Greenpeace is that they really target big companies to straighten up their acts with nature. I thought if I quit writing for this company I’m working for, I would apply for Greenpeace Europe, Coral Cay or the Asia and Europe foundation. But alas, I have to stay here since I have to focus on my writing career.
I didn’t bother with volunteering in Greenpeace Philippines because I’ve been to their office and well... I guess what they wanted was financial donations instead of my time. A college student such as I was back then, has only her time to give, it didn’t really seem worth it but a year ago when Zeus Bascon and I were hanging out at Alabang Town center, there was a Greenpeace booth seeking help and for new members (by member, someone who donates monthly or someone who donates, doesn’t matter how many times) the thing is, they don’t accept cash and since I have a sort of disorder that lacks the ability to say NO to anything, I gave out my credit card number that their organization don’t really accept. But they said they were going to see if it would work.
Unfortunately it got declined several times and the penalties that came monthly in my bills were enough to bury me alive.

So I discarded the old one and got a new one. No, I don’t hate Greenpeace PH for that. I just wished I’ve said ‘No’ back then, it would have saved me the trouble. Since it is in the past, I’ve buried it to where it belongs, six feet under the depths of my mind’s forgetfulness.

You too can help out and sign a petition for Mattel to stop destroying forests just to pack Barbie in disposable cardboards. Click here!

Deforestation speeds up Global Warming and makes it worse, not only that but 2012 is coming and the whole world might just explode to pieces, at least if the world ends on 2012 we'd have great forests and a tiny little bit of fresh air.



Don't forget to get your Angry Ken Profile Pic on his Greenpeace FB Page or the Unlike Barbie photo.


I think they are going to get back together and I shall count the days it will take for that to happen.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Dear Photographer,

Marius is looking at you with hypnotizing eyes...

I know you took photographs when I went to Mercato Centrale in Makati. You were there and if you would be so kind enough to share the photos you took especially the ones that had me in it, I would be eternally grateful.

I sent you a message a few weeks before, asking for the photographs and I haven’t heard from you since then. I am reaching out to you again, this time in a public domain, I know for a fact that you read my blog.

If there is anything you want in return, I can cough up coffee, a designer white chocolate mocha perhaps or yogurt? … I can’t think of anything else but if you want something, you can simply ask, hopefully my starving writer lifestyle can afford it.

Wishing you a great day,
Veronica