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| Tidbits About...Well Us! |
To reiterate: If you are looking for a website that TELLS you if this is for you, this is not the website for you.
Our philosophy is that each individual is distinct and unique and we do not believe that there is a one size fits all. We do believe that each person needs to look within themselves to ascertain if they are ready or need to detoxify themselves at their current place in their life. This page was created as a part of our journey in that process.
The easiest thing is to be told what to do.
The hardest thing is figuring out if it is right for you.
You already have the answer.
You just need to listen.
Since, both Akom and I are embarking on this process together we will impart our experiences side-by-side but simultaneously. We think it will be interesting for you to see how this effects two very different people from two very different walks of life and up until now, very different life philosophies.
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| Current Lifestyle |
| Taz | Akom |
I am a 31 year-old female who currently leads a very sedentary lifestyle.
My day begins between 5:30am - 6:00am at which point I either get up and prepare lunch for Akom or go to my computer to check email. I do suffer from headaches, and if it is one of those days I tend to lay in bed till 7:00am. I recently resigned from my job in NYC and have my own consulting company and am in the process of opening a raw vegan restaurant in NJ. My life has been sedentary for the last 9 years. I have had a desk job since 1998. While I worked in NYC I did walk 1.5 miles a day and depending on the day may have walked all over midtown with 10 - 20 pounds in heels. However, it was still a desk job.
While working at home I sit most all day. I used to sit on a bouncy ball when I worked in NYC and I think I need to go back to that practice. I only get up to walk 20 feet to the kitchen for lunch or downstairs to watch TV for a break. My life is the antithesis of 'active' - not to be confused with 'busy' - because almost everything I do is somehow related to the restaurant or the consulting company.
Unlike many women, I actually accept my body the way it is - and it is in no way perfect - but do acknowledge that some movement would be beneficial. I don't feel unhealthy, and would have to say, that I have been remarkably disease free (knocking on wood while I type this) for the past 12 years.
I recently started exercising at home for 30 minutes a day.
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I am a 30 year-old male who compared to Taz leads an active life but based on my perception, still a sedentary life.
My day also begins sometime between 5:30am - 6:00am at which point I have no choice but to get up because I do work in NYC and need to catch mass transporation. I generally get a chance to do a 1 mile jog and I do some pull-ups and similar exercises in the morning, after than I spend 1.5 hours on train or bus (I tend to stand) and then walk half a mile to the office.
At work I sit most of the day (though I sit on a yoga ball, much to the amusement of my colleagues) and only get up to go to the cafeteria. I do not consider this an 'active' lifestyle, but it's enough to maintain a certain level of activity. For years now I've had this notion of what is 'normal' for me, things like cayaking, biking, etc - despite the fact that I don't do these things. It's a weird sort of disparity of perceptions.
I don't feel a need to go to a gym, nor do I feel like I need to lose weight or make any of the traditional 'self-important' changes in my life, but I do feel like I can make improvements.Back to top |
| Eating Habits |
| Taz | Akom |
My eating habits have varied. My staple diet up until 6 months ago has been fast food or things that are thought of as unhealthy. I have lived on eating out for almost every meal. Breakfast would consist of either bagel and cream cheese or some sweet cereal such as Sugar Pops, lunch would be a sandwich, take-out chinese, or some other fast food type meal, or a frozen meal, dinner would be a restaurant of some sort, Indian, Thai, Italian - and yes - all of that eating out is expensive.
However in the last 6 months, I have begun eating more vegetarian dishes and much less fast food. Also eating out for dinner decreased significantly. Since I left my "steady" income job - 6 weeks ago I have been living on granola cereal for breakfast, peanut butter jelly sandwiches for lunch and whatever I can find in the fridge for dinner. Of course old habits die hard, so Akom is kind enough to pick me up some restaurant food on occaision or I just run out to Subway. Finally, Akom's very sudden change into eating raw vegan has changed the selection of foods in our house...but that is a totally different website (coming soon).
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For the first 23 years of my life I've eaten home-made food almost exclusively. It was cooked, but was 'healthy' as the average goes, certainly not raw. In my high-school and college years I added a fair amount of fast-food for a while, but I quickly became disinterested in it and have largely avoided it since.With the widespread adoption of Organic and Natural concepts I came to re-evaluate what and how I eat, and I started to prefer the 'healthy' things. Unfortunately, I did this purely mentally, based on what someone else has declared healthy or unhealthy. While this may have had some benefits anyway, they were not overwhelming or overly obvious. I've been vegetarian for about 2-3 years, I lost count
I've been 100% raw since the beginning of 2007, I eat mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. Since we are experimenting with menu items for the restaurant, I do eat a fair share of prepared (by us) foods, but I am quite content with eating nothing but whole fruits. I also grow sprouts in an automatic sprouter I built, and that basically completes my current diet. I take no supplements and thus far I feel fine. I do feel that I have addictions that I am not over - I grab things that are sweet, I like chewing so I can keep eating something that I enjoy to the point of severe sickness. Oranic or not, raw or not - I am living proof that there can be too much of a good thing. I occasionally feel weak but I am not certain that this started with me going Raw or earlier, and if it has anything to do with meditation or lack thereof (when I get lazy)
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| Food Philosophy |
| Taz | Akom |
| I'll fill something in
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Once I started yoga/zen/meditation practice (my 3 word summary of what I actually study), I came to identify the other side of food - quality. Rather than looking at purely the physical aspects of what I eat - ingredients, whether it was deep fried or not, etc - I came to ponder its energy. As any item gets passed around from person to person (as food does in a restaurant, for instance), there is a certain connection that happens with each person. Each person's energy will have some effect on the food, be it 'positive', 'negative', or neither - these are of course subjective.
I came to notice how this affects my life. Since for a number of years after I moved out of my parents' house we ate out almost every day, I got some practice monitoring foods' effect on me. For example, there were times when I would walk out of a restaurant feeling great, and others when I'd feel 100 pounds heavier than when I came in. Times when I'd feel sleepy or energetic, angry or depressed, or not affected at all. And all these different things could happen from eating the same dish in the same place! Most of us have experienced this but not necessarily connected cause and effect, and neither have I until someone taught me how this works.
Overly simplified - the chef's energy is in the food you eat. The waiters' energy - also there. The guy who delivered the food, the one who kicked the crates, the guy who was cursing them for having to deal with deliveries on a snowy cold night, etc - it's all in there. That is what you eat. It was only when I started to be aware of this energy that I began to be less affected by it. I was now taking charge by... well, charging the food. Just as I would like to decide whether my food has preservatives, etc in it - I can decide what energy it has as well.
That said, uncooked foods have an obvious advantage for the lazy. If the food has gone through fewer people, or it was entirely prepared by you, it most likely won't have any 'hidden' problems. The past 2 sentences were crafted entirely by my ego and are an expression of laziness and an attempt to externalize the solution that I know lies within me
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