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Eric Farris
35, Male
Seattle, WA
United States - Share
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Eric Farris's Groups
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Raw In The Pacific Northwest
33 members
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Raw and Ripe
34 members
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Raw Frisbee
20 members
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For Raw Men Only
25 members
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The International Raw Freedom Festival 2009
66 members
Eric Farris's Page
Profile Information
- About Me:
- Raw since 2000; vegan since 1988; vegetarian since CONception, with a brief EXception. Let me explain.
Before I "launch in" to personal details though, I would point out that, in so describing myself, to some people I may come across as egotistical, arrogant, or something like that. However, that's not my experience of myself, and not what I've heard from those who know me well, except here and there when they're frustrated/annoyed with me. ;-) I really do try to balance my appreciation of myself, with natural humility. I do hope that that is apparent and that no one "gets the wrong idea" from how I put my words.
As GITMR is raw-focused, I will center most of what I say here on dietary and overall health.
I am blessed to be living "extreme" healthiness--"extreme", that is, compared to the average person of the Western world. I started out life at an already high level. For one, I was born into a family where my parents raised my brother and myself vegetarian. My parents were vegetarian themselves as well. (There's even more great stuff about my family's health background which I'll mention momentarily.) Thus neither by brother nor myself have ever even *tasted* red meat, poultry, or pork. (Not that we ate seafood growing up; I just omit that because I did try a few seafoods experimentally for maybe a year at one point in my life--early adolescence.) Yet other early life health circumstances I'm eternally grateful for are that my parents chose to neither immunize nor circumcize my brother nor myself. Plus our mother breast-fed us until we decided on our own we wanted to stop. Our parents didn't give us drugs or medications or take us to alopahtic doctors or hospitals either, except for a few times here and there when we had health crises come up. So, as I said, I got an excellent head start in life on my health. What an extreme blessing to me! I consider myself very fortunate. I know hardly anyone who had such a supportive beginning.
I'm so glad to have such an extensive background of healthy eating/living not just in my nuclear family, but also in my extended family. The vegetarian lifestyle goes way back in parts of my family. My great grandmother, grandmother, mother, father, aunt, uncle, brother, and sister-in-law were/have been all vegetarian for a significant part of their lives. The ones still alive are all vegetarian. The latter two (the youngest of the group) have also been vegan for many years. It's really supportive to me that so many of my family are/were this way (that is, more advanced than the general population in diet/health). My grandma Rue knew or knew about lots of major health movement people from "back in the day", like Arnold Ehret, Martin Praetorius, Anne Wigmore, and Viktoras Kulvinskas to name just some of them.
I remember that the first time I took my own personal initiative in gaining knowledge about health, it was inspired by hearing my grandma talk about food combining. I looked at some of the books she had on health. Around age 14 or 15 I read Fit for Life, and thereupon decided to be vegan. I also chose the focus of eating mostly fruit, mostly organic, a large amount of the time mono, and also significantly observed food-combining guidelines--all of which I've maintained ever since--never "gone back", only forward. That is, ever since that age I have had an interest in maintaining but also progressively improving my diet more and more. I read more books that my grandma had, by authors like Wigmore and Kulvinskas. So my next big evolution started with the idea of the raw diet, which made a lot of sense. Starting in the year 2000, I pursued an education about that on the internet and then in person with the local Seattle raw community. I did eat raw inconsistently on my own from the beginning of 2000, but really went raw solidly starting at the end of 2000, when I "hooked up" with the local Seattle raw community.
You may have heard of Natural Hygiene, "The 80/10/10 Diet", or 811RV (RV = raw vegan) which is pretty much what I'm doing. I'm not *fully* there yet, eating some prepared foods from stores, restaurants, or at potlucks now and then. But eating how I have, my diet has done such wonders for my life, very significantly more compared to my previous generic raw vegan diet. The clarity, focus, energy, access to my emotions, presence, and general "high on life" feeling are unprecedented in my life. My energy level stays up consistently, allowing me to tackle the neverending set of important tasks I have on my grand "to do" list.
I would like to point out that although I've made my dietary choices mostly out of health concerns, even if I were to not consider the health ramifications, I would still eat the way I do for ethical reasons, or solely for the environmental impact. I care about all sentient beings and the planet as a whole. I like to start with myself and live as an example of the way I would like others to live.
Here are some great effects of special notice that have happened for me personally, that I believe result in large part from my diet and health background and practices:
It's been rare that I've been told I have bad breath or body odor, even in morning time or soon after waking. Over the several years I have known him very well, my good friend and roommate Jonathan Marcus told me that he can't even remember one time noticing any BO from me.
I am regular, and can truthfully say that my sh** don't stink, literally. ;-)
My urine is pretty clear much of the time.
All my bodily fluids test pretty alkaline (I used pH testing tape strips).
Jonathan (again), who has massaged literally thousands of people, including myself, asked me which personal skin care products I use, but I never have used anything at all. He said nonetheless he has never felt or seen skin as smooth, soft, unblemished, and healthy as mine. I was surprised and a little incredulous, but he insists he is certain about it. It does jive with a lot of other people who have felt and/or looked at my skin.
I have almost endless stamina.
My sex drive is quite alive and well.
I don't feel the need for as much average daily sleep as I have at other times of my life.
I generally feel quite alert and "present".
My moods are mild, not erratic--I can get excited, or sad/mournful, but I don't have big or sudden swings, and I have no physical discomfort from any emotion; all my emotions feel pleasant to me.
There are also more spiritual benefits that are important reasons for me to keep eating in the healthiest ways I know how. One is that eating otherwise can bring about serious drains on my spirit, attitude, outlook, emotional state, ability to be present, and connection to my guidance. It can separate me severely from myself. I am much more able to stay in touch with and feel my feelings when I eat almost entirely water-rich foods. It's my strong desire to stay in touch with myself, so I choose to eat accordingly. And my energy stays high to assist me in all the achievements I choose to accomplish. I am much more able to serve the world when I am at my best at the fundamental level of diet and health. Therefore I am fully committed to eating in very supportive ways.
Besides diet, exercising has been another important aspect of my health through most of my life. I did a lot of running around the neighborhood and playing with my contemporaries growing up. My mom ran a daycare at our home, so many of the kids came over to my house from the Montessori school I attended. Among all my kid friends and my dad and other playful adult friends and family, I sure got my share of roughhousing in! :-)
I played and ran around a lot outside in elementary school too. I hung out in the main outside playground during practically all recesses and free times. After school I went to a local Boys & Girls' Club. I played games on the basketball courts and other games like ping pong, pool, foosball, "carpet ball", and others. I also remember liking to go to water parks with slides, and swimming in pools and other bodies of water during much of my growing up. And then there was hide-and-go-seek, frisbee, running around with our dogs, flying paper or wood airplanes, even an Iyengar yoga class my mom introduced me to!
In high school and college I took up rowing for a while, and weight training. I spent a bunch of my free time in the high school and college gyms resistance training. At university there was a super cool facility that I would work out at early most mornings, and sometimes in the afternoon or evening; it was one of my main "hangouts". I also used a home stationary recumbant bike on many a morning while I was in college. My mom now has it at her house.
I've continued exercising into my current days. I've tried out different styles of yoga over my years. One major one was Bikram yoga. I took the "Bikram challenge" that a raw friend of mine told me about, doing a local Bikram class virtually every day for 90 days straight. I continued it after that as well, for a year or two. I heard controversial things about it, so I haven't been determined to take it up again since. Rebounding for around 10 or more minutes on most days has been a running theme in my life ever since my late high school days. I read a bunch of stuff about the great benefits from the forces of gravitation and acceleration/deceleration, and it's fun too! Since March 2007 I've been using the Cellerciser rebounder model. A diverse exercise program I took up recently is called P90X, short for Power 90 Extreme. I went one round of 90 days, repeated that, and started a third round October 2008. It incorporates cross training, including weightlifting, yoga, martial arts, and plyometrics. I've done a bit of some Turbo Jam aerobics routines in 2007. Also, since mid October 2006 I've been "ecstatic dancing" a lot--once a week on average, for over an hour at a time. I'm one of the--if not the--most vigorous/motionful and long-lasting dancers of the group, sweating probably more profusely than anyone else there. I've been going to some other dance events now and then too (Oracle Gatherings, for example) when they happen. And I have walked or biked around my neighborhood from time to time.
- How can the community best support you in your journey? (moral support, transition advice, fitness tips, etc)
- Anything you'd like to share or ask.
- Relationship Status:
- Single
- Favorite Raw Food or Recipe?
- Fresh figs
- Favorite Quote:
- Namaste/Aloha/I love you
- Facebook Profile:
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=729064770
- GI2MR Oath: I promise to do my best to keep this community drama free. I will not name call or throw around personal attacks. I pledge to be respectful even if I do not agree with another member's opinion. When possible, I'll try to smile : )
- Yes! I accept the GI2MR Oath.
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And speaking about "The Pianist" movie :
Yes, it was great seeing you again as well at Raw Spirit.
I enjoyed the conversations and good fruit we shared. Hope
all is well with your investing endeavors.
please stay in touch,
Samuel
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