Raw vs Cooked Food - Eat to support your yoga practice

Me on a diet of 90% Raw 10% Cooked - happy and healthy

When I was twenty two or twenty three, my boyfriend at the time introduced me to Organic food. Shortly after, through a mutual friend, we were introduced to the concept of eating purely live foods, or a raw food diet.

The concept seemed foreign to me at the time, especially paying extra for 'organic' food when I could just buy normal produce for a lot cheaper. But as I started to integrate Organic and live foods, I started to see the effects on my body as well as the mental clarity that came over my mind (particularly helpful for beginners in yoga and meditation) and I was hooked.

I started eating a 100% raw diet very quickly and since I didn’t have all the fancy blenders, food processors and juicers, nor the knowledge, I simply ate raw food. Everyday, I ate 5-6 bananas, 3-4 apples, some kale leaves, a handful of nuts, a few dates, and whatever else I could find at the local Capers. I simply ate it the way God grew it. After a few weeks and months, my skin glowed, my body was firm and strong, my hair shiny and everyone who met me for the first time would comment how radiant I looked.

At the time I was living in a $1200 a month beachfront apartment in downtown Vancouver. My lifestyle was not as humble or basic as it could have been given the fact that I wasn’t making much money back then and most of my days were spent cold calling in efforts to generate funding for my spiritual films and working on my scripts.


My mind became so light and clear from the raw diet that I found most of my days spent wandering the seaside leisurely and in the produce section at Whole Foods. I was burning through fruits and veggies fast but somehow I seemed fuller than when I would eat purely cooked meals. My reasoning was that the nutrition and enzyme content was higher in live foods and thus I needed less to feel satisfied.

Yummy raw breakfast of fruits, avocado and dehydrated banana pancakes

After some time I started to integrate juice fasting, another idea introduced to me from my boyfriend at the time. As my body became lighter, my mind naturally followed and I went much deeper into the realm of all things spiritual. My music changed, my dress changed and so did my friends or lack of at the time.  Leaving the house to go out and socialize never even entered my mind and most people just stopped trying to call me because I rarely answered my phone.

At that time, the thought of making money seemed to me like a minor detail which would work itself out on it`s own. I was focused on `more important` things. I started to call in sick to my part time job as my level of joy was so high I thought that I could barely contain myself around my employer. I wasn`t even if sure at that time, if I could work.

My perception of the normal material world was shifting dramatically and I became extremely sensitive to vibration, especially that of those around me. To practice getting out of myself and my fear of absorbing others negativity I would take my daily stroll and practice smiling and sending love to everyone I passed on the street. People seemed incredibly receptive and the times that I forgot to smile, people would naturally smile at me anyways.

I started having experiences with a heightening of my intuitive abilities and sometimes I would hear the thoughts of others, particularly the people in the apartment above me.

Occasionally I would attend a local yoga class and my heart would open so wide couldn’t help but silently weep into my yoga mat. A few times walking home, I walked passed by several parked cars and immediately the alarms would sound. I couldn’t help but wonder if the bliss I had growing inside had somehow caused this electric reaction.

The vibration of the city closed in on me quickly and my little, open heart started to feel the heaviness. I was afraid if I went out of the house I wouldn’t be able to hold it together and after awhile, I just stayed in all the time.

I have always been an extreme person and sometimes this has been the catalyst for much growth and healing in my life, in other cases, it has taken me down the hard road. 

Material reality finally caught up to me and for the first time and I wasn’t able to pay my rent. My raw food boyfriend bailed and I was left on my own. My conclusion was that the raw food path was too light for me and too intense for a city living. Groundedness and worldliness seemed to be the key to success and I was far from either.

I was also frightened of the depth and speed that I was being pushed towards spiritual things and ultimately, God.  I was not in tune with myself nor in a place to trust myself enough to let go and surrender. I concluded that this was not the right path for me, raw food was ``too extreme``.

I did not understand Jesus words, ``Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you``.

I am at a different point in my path now after experimenting with many different ways to approach the spiritual life. I`ve done an all cooked diet, 'the-whatever-is-given-to-me-I’m-a-yogi-diet',  'the-I’m-too- poor-to-afford' food diet and most paths in between. Most recently the ``vegetarian`` Filipino diet, which consists of fish and whatever is available at the local market.

Finally after five years, live foods have once again resurfaced in my life after taking part in a healing retreat this past weekend.  Bahai Kalipay, an incredibly integrated and conscious community of raw foodists and healers, right here in Palawan, Philippines.

Raw lunch at Bahai Kalipay: Lasagna, Pad Thai and Pineapple

Four days on raw food with a solid meditation, yoga practice and service (work) in the world. I felt like a bird in flight, just soaring.

When I arrived home from the retreat, I immediately made a pot of local red rice for some grounding and a large salad. When Jo and I were about to eat I noticed how the frequency of the pot of rice felt compared to that of the salad and my intuition immediately told me how I would feel from each. The rice was thick, dense and heavy and the salad light and airy. I did feel my feet come down to touch the ground after eating the rice and waking up the next morning felt heavy and I could barely get out of bed.

So the next day I tried just raw and I felt very energetic, in tune, loving and clear. I gave in half way through the day and ate some chocolate which had sugar and I passed out about 10 minutes later and awoke feeling emotional and tired.

I swear by raw foods once again, I just needed to integrate in a more balanced way. Listening to my body and what it craves is more important to me than following any pre-set rules. Some steamed veggies, warm broths and tea seem to help at night to make the transition from cooked to raw easier.

My lunch  in Palawan: Fresh young coconut, salad, and avocado

Ayurvedic medicine tells us that we each have a specific vehicle or body type that has special needs for maintaining it in the most harmonious way. I am a Vata body type, which is mostly air so I tend to need grounding, warm, smooth and oily foods combined with a diet of fresh and raw foods.  

Pi Villaraza, a baylan (Philippine shaman) discovered the Inner Dance (a healing movement that is spreading across the world like fire) through raw foods. He began his spiritual quest on an all coconut diet for two years. He states in his book, Conscious trance: “The lighter our bodies and minds become, the more we are breaking away from the trance of everyday life. The trance which Buddhist call Maya, and which modern culture now calls the Matrix, is primarily a set of beliefs that we are limited beings living in a limited reality. We are led to believe that “we can’t do this”, “we can’t have that”, “there isn’t enough of this”, “we have to be afraid of that.”  When our rigid mindset starts to loosen, we begin to let go. Our bodies start to relax and it becomes easier to heal ourselves of sickness and physical weakness. We open up more to the realm of infinite possibilities, we begin to transition towards the Light.”