Day 130

Thoughts: Bowel cleanse.

My naturopath said to me once "There is no point eating healthy food if you have an unclean bowel". I was like say whaaaa??? Imagine a bike tyre (your bowels) and stuck to the wall of th tyre is black sludge. When you put food down the pipe, absolutely no nutrients are being absorbed by the bowel wall. So even if you are eating gorgeous fruits and vegetables the black sludge is preventing your body from actually absorbing the goodness. The good news is you can get rid of the black sludge. And yes unless you have had a bowel cleanse, or a colonic (a pipe in your bottom that pumps in water to flush your bowels), or you eat majority raw foods, you can asume you have that black sludge on your bowel walls...and check it out, the Egyptians performed colonics hundreds of years ago in the rivers using bamboo sticks (ouch) for a regular flush. I found some great articles on bowel cleansing...

Many people are discovering great physiological benefits can be derived from completing a thorough bowel cleanse, both in terms of physical and psychological health. Learning about methods for improving your health can give you a sense of empowerment.

Other people live blindly – eating all sorts of harmful foods without a second thought of the consequences. People might know certain foods are bad for them, but might not truly understand the enormity of the intended meaning. For example, a statement such as “bad for you” means to most people you shouldn’t eat this if you’re trying to lose weight or shouldn’t drink that because you have to work the next day. In all serious, if something is bad for you… it’s BAD for you and you shouldn’t eat it ever!

Many people, especially in Western civilization, suffer from a vast array of digestive diseases. A high fat, low fiber diet can leave you chronically constipated, perpetually bloated, and feeling like you can barely make it through the day. Many people don’t know what it’s like to live feeling fresh and healthy because they’re weighed down physically and mentally by the bad foods they eat. At this point, a bowel cleanse is probably wise.

Sadly, the more junk people eat, the more they crave. This deadly cycle of overeating and obesity with severe health consequences is spiraling out of control. These individuals seem to believe eating healthy would mean being “deprived” of taste or quality. A great many people ridicule health-minded individuals, referring to them as “skeletons”, “rabbits” (for eating lettuce and veggies), and “health-nuts”.

There is a growing backlash (encouraged by the junk and fast food industries) against being thin and healthy. People whom don’t have or want the motivation to discipline their diet often refer to models as having unattainable figures or not being healthy because they “don’t have any meat on their bones”. These people are so wrong.

Since when is it weird to take care of your body instead of abusing it? Does it sound more logical to not perform a regular bowel cleanse than to let your colon become all clogged up? Let me tell you something — you were not born with the body you have right now. Whether you are pleased with your appearance or not, you created the body you live in through your actions and choices.

Side effects of an unclean bowel can include:
Constipation
Bloating
Headaches
Stomachaches
Backaches
Skin Blemishes
General Listlessness
Foul Breath or Body Odor

When your intestines becomes dirty, it can lead to illness and negative health conditions throughout your entire body. Your digestive system also houses the majority of your immune system. Cleaning the garbage out of your digestive system can have a huge impact on how you feel, how you look, and how often you become ill.

How do you bowel cleanse?
I'm not going to suggest anything to you. Do your research. and then cleanse your bowel. Your bowels deserve it! And so do you! (hint: I get colonics) ;)

http://www.colon-cleanse-constipation.com/bowel-cleanse.html

Challenges: I would love a colonic right now...I'm not sure they have them here in Florence Alabama since they have just one small organic shop. I can feel when my body and bowels get full and toxic... gotta love a nice flush! hehe

Triumphs: I thought pooping once a day was a good and normal bowel movement...since doing bowel cleanses I poop regulary and I love it!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: A ginger tea. A green apple. An orange.

Lunch: Cooked brown beans mmm mmm perfect for a chilly day in the Alabama woods ;) with avocado and spinach and lettuce salad.

Dinnner: an orange. grapes. Indian food, rice and dahl (lentils).

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: Chocolate balls with walnuts.

Exercise: A plyometrics workout! Ever done it? My first time today! I loved it! Google it ;) I had so much fun running and jumping around the town! (Florence, Alabama) Hehe :)

235 days to go!!!

Day 129

Thoughts: We all bleed the same colour.

What one person can do, anyone can do. What's within one of us, is within all of us. We bleed the same colour. There is no reason to think I can do this Earth Diet and you can't.

I get emails from people saying things like 'It would be awesome to do the Earth Diet but I can't because it's too hard'. Some people think being healthy equals suffering. If you want to challenge yourself, or feel an abundance of health, inner peace, joy, vitality, energy, love for yourself, connection, then take on the Earth Diet. Create a plan to what suits you, and also make it challenging. Even if you commit to one day a week eating only foods naturally provided by the earth. Challenge you. I guarantee you will experience aliveness :)

A quote by Gandhi "Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more
effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment."

Challenges: Dis-empowering thoughts.

Triumphs: Knowing that I am not the disempowering thought.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Apple. Ginger tea. Orange.

Lunch: Cooked brown beans (not exactly sure what they were, but they were brown and grounding and warm mmm mmm) Chocolate balls with brazil nuts and walnuts.

Dinnner: Indian Dahl (lentils) and white rice.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: A kiwi fruit. Half an orange.

Exercise: Working on set makin the movie "The Man In The Maze" www.themaninthemaze.net

236 days to go!!!

Day 128

Thoughts: Earth Diet reader Nick Dale suggested I do some research on food dehydration!!! Wooo wooo :)

Dehydration of food is one of the oldest methods of preserving food for later use. It can either be an alternative to canning and freezing or a compliment to these methods. With modern food dehydrators, drying food is simple, safe and easy to learn. Dried food is great in traditional cooking recipes and can save you a lot of time in the kitchen during meal preparation time. Dried foods are also ideal for camping and backpacking as they take up little weight or space and do not require refrigeration. Kids really love fruit leathers too, which make a healthy nutritious snack food. It sounds like a good idea for somewhere like where I am now, in Florence, Alabama USA (filming The Man In The Maze). It is cold weather so there aren't as many fruits and vegetables in season and the supermarkets are importing fruits and vegetables. So if they dried fruits in the summer, they could still eat them in the winter.

Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms and hinders quality decay. Drying food using sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been practised since ancient times. Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation. Bacteria yeasts and moulds need the water in the food to grow. Drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food. There is, however, a loss of vitamin A and C in dried foods due to heat and air. It usually takes vegetables 6-16 hours to dry, and fruit 12-48 hours. One can dry fruit and vegetables, and make jerky and fruit leather.

You can dry: (for a full list visit the link below)
-seeds
-herbs
-fruits (you can make banana chips)
-meats (jerky)
-seeds
-popcorn
-vegetables

How do I dry?
-Choose Which Drying Method is Right For You
Sun Drying This is rather difficult because you need three to four sunny days of at least 100 degrees in a row.

Oven Drying Oven drying is an acceptable method of drying food, but it isn't very energy efficient, and foods aren't very flavorful in the end. If your oven cannot obtain temperatures below 200 degrees farenheit, use another method for food dehydration. You will need to prop open the oven door to maintain air circulation during the drying process.

Electric Dehydrating This is the best method of dehydrating food. An electric dehydrator is energy efficient and can be operated at low temperatures needed to maintain nutritive values in the food. Your electric food dehydrator should have some sort of heat control and a fan to maintain air circulation during the drying process.

What are other uses of a food dehydrator?
Besides being used during peak season to preserve food, a food dehydrator can be used for proofing breads, making yogurt or cheese, drying seeds, curing nuts, de-crystallizing honey and drying crafts.



For a whole list of fruits and vegetables that you can dry and how to do it for each individual item go to http://www.canningpantry.com/dehydration-of-food.html

For a recipe to make a fruit leather see below. (mmm mmm yummy snack!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drying_(food)
http://www.canningpantry.com/dehydration-of-food.html
http://farmgal.tripod.com/Dehydrate.html

Challenges: No challenges today on the Earth Diet :)

Triumphs: Sophia a beautiful princess working on "The Man In The Maze" and she came back from set today and told me that she ate a salad today instead of her usual lunch. She said it's only a little change, and I said A LITTLE CHANGE IT A BIG CHANGE!!! Love it :) Good on you girlfriend! ;)

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Orange. 1 avocado.

Lunch: Indian, rice with spices, tumeric, onion, potato, corriander. 1 avocado.

Dinnner: A salad with green lettuce leaves, spinach, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and a squeeze of lemon.

Dessert: chocolate balls with brazil nuts and walnuts.

Snacks: 2 apples.

Recipe: Fruit Leather is easy to make if you have a blender of food processor. The fruit leather is like a "fruit roll-up" and is made out of pureed fruit. Applesauce works great for fruit leather since it is already in puree form. Overripe fruits can also be used since these are easily pureed. For an added flare, you can add coconut,raisins,poppy seeds,seasame seeds, or sunflower seeds to the fruit leather. If you add any type of garnish to your fruit leather however, you will have to store them in the freezer or refrigerator. Otherwise, you can store fruit leather in an airtight container. Just roll up the fruit leather into a roll after it has dried, wrap in plastic, and store them altogether in an appropriate container.

To make fruit leather, puree your fruit. Apples, pears, peaches, and nectarines should be cooked before pureeing. Pour the fruit puree about 1/4-inch deep on special fruit leather drying sheets, or drying trays that have been lined with plastic wrap. Since the center does not dry as quickly as the edges, Only pour the puree 1/8-inch deep towards the center.Dry at 135 degrees Fahrenheit until pliable and leathery. The center should also be dry and have no wet or sticky spots.



Exercise: 50 minute spin class and 20 minutes working on abs and then in the steam room to sweat it out and stretch it out :) Yes I have a day off filming today and am loving warming my core at the gym ;)

237 days to go!!!

Day 127

Thoughts: WHERE IS THE EAGLE - GONE

I read this in a small diner in Alabama. Chief Seattle wrote this to President Franklin Pierce in 1855. As I re-wrote this just then for this blog, for you guys, I was moved and touched, and water came out of my eyes, it's called crying hehe, as I realized how insane us human beings are. And it's not good or bad or wrong or right, it is what it is, we have created the earth as it is, and we can re-create it however we want it. How do we want it?

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy or sell the sky- the warmth of the land. The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air, or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.

We know that white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it he moves on. He leaves his fathers graves, and his children's birthright is forgotten.

There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am savage and do not understand the clatter, it only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whirppoorwill or the arguments of the frog around the pond at night.

The whites too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than the other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket - gone - where is the eagle - gone - and what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt.

THE END OF LIVING and THE BEGINNING OF SURVIVAL.

Chief Seattle
To President Franklin Pierce - 1855

Challenges: An insane species. The Earth provides us with everything we need as a species to survive. And we are destroying our planet. It is dying. Harsh, but true? We are provided with the freshest fruits and vegetables and yet we still create factories to produce cardboard foods that provide us with NO nutritional value what so ever. The majority of human beings are sick, un-present, depressed, and surviving. Merely exisiting.



Triumphs: Knowing that we can make a difference. We created this and can re create anything. Being able to make a difference. Being cause in the matter. Creating transformation.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Green apple. Avocado.

Lunch: Grilled salmon. Walnuts. Brazil Nuts. Raw chocolate balls with coconut and goji berries.

Dinnner: 2 Avocados with walnuts. Brazil nuts. 3 orangies

Dessert: Chocolate balls.

Snacks: 4 nectarines.

Exercise: 1 hour pump class. 20 minutes in the cinema room running at Gold's gym in Florence, Alabama. The steam room mmm mmm! Oh guess what it was snowing this morning! I woke up and it was Christmas outside...snow flakes! So special!

238 days to go!!!

Day 124

Thoughts: The Importance Of Soil.

Earth Diet reader Yvonne Dale sent me the link for the Organic Guide (www.organicguide.com). It's brilliant. Especially this article on the importance of soil...

The life sustaining ability of soil is best understood by appreciating the complex cycles of decay and erosion. Its natural formation occurs in a series of layers starting at the surface but gradating down to the deepest bedrock. The surface layer is where active decomposition begins. Exposure to atmospheric elements, surface warmth and moisture helps to break organic matter into loose mulch like material. At the microscopic level, this layer is teeming with a diversity of bacterial, fungal and algal life forms. In combination with larger organisms like beetles and worms they provide the additional recycling activity to enable minerals and nutrients to be retrieved from the decaying organic matter and returned to the soil. Another family of soil based micro-organisms are involved in relationships that enable plants to absorb nitrogen from their roots.

Ideally the layer directly beneath the surface will be humus rich topsoil. The quality of this topsoil will depend on the amount of organic material available near the surface and the activity of the recycling organisms.

A coastal rainforest provides almost ideal conditions for the creation of richly fertile topsoil. With increased temperatures and humidity an abundance of organic material reaching the ground begins to decompose almost immediately. It is then broken down by organisms which thrive under the conditions. The entire process is accelerated resulting in a generous layer of finely blended topsoil.

A descent through deeper soil layers will reveal gradually decreasing quantities of humus before reaching the substratum of bedrock. Deep layers contribute to the surface quality of soil by providing mineral particles and compounds through erosion. The deep layers also support the structure of the soil by providing its foundation and drainage characteristics.

A technical analysis of structure can isolate the important layers of soil, their relationship to each other, aeration and drainage characteristics along with the mineral components characteristic to a particular location. It can also indicate the comparative rates and efficiency for recycling organic material. Information about structure will assist the serious gardener to predict how soils behave under varying seasonal conditions.

Soil type is a classification based on the major particle constituent along with the average pH reading. The most typical examples of soil type are sand, clay, and silt based. In some respects this information has limited value because soils tend to vary significantly across regions even when described to be of similar type. This is where an understanding of structure will provide a clearer picture.

From the perspective of the organic grower, good soil structures need to be protected. This can be achieved by minimising digging, replacing disrupted layers in their correct order when necessary and renewing surface layers by providing a supply of organic material such as compost and manure. The addition of organic material will improve the water and nutrient holding ability of the soil.

http://www.organicguide.com/gardening/basics/the-importance-of-soil

Challenges: Our soils have been so depleted that even eating fruits and vegetables are stripped of vitamins and minerals compared with eating them in different soils 50 years ago. People what are we doing to our soils???!!!

Triumphs: Day 124 on the Earth Diet yeah baby!!! So many things have opened up for me since starting this Earth Diet including connecting with myself and my body and nothing beats that feeling of being proud and in joy in myself when I got to bed at night. After all it's only me who has to live with me 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I better be my own best friend! The Earth Diet certainly has provided me with this. Especially being able to write this blog everyday, and this section "Triumphs" gives me the opportunity to think of something for the day that I can be grateful for :)

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 2 nectarines.

Lunch: A salad with green lettuce and spinach and a squeeze of lemon. Chocolate balls.

Dinnner: 2 pears. Raw cauliflower (lovin my white curd friend ;))

Dessert: Chocolate balls.

Snacks: Damiania herbal tea ;)

Exercise: We had a day off from shooting today so I worked out at the Gold's Gym in Florence Alabama...mmm it was bliss ;) 20 minutes running on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the stepper in their cinema room, Tomb Raider was playing so I got to check out Angelina Jolie during the whole workout wooohooo! Hehe! And did any one else notice her ridiculous lopsided bra she had to wear that made her boobs look lopsided?!? And I went in the steam room ;) I am not usually excited about working out in the gym, butt it's so freezing here, so I'm either freezing cold on set, or I'm warm sitting in my room with heating, so to get out and sweat it out was amazing! Thankyou Gold's Gym!

241 days to go!!!

Day 125

Actor Erik A. Williams starts the Earth Diet tomorrow! He is ready for the challenge and to give up his life long diet of frozen and deep fried foods!

Thoughts: Actor Erik A.Williams is starring in "The Man In The Maze" and today on our way back from set he declared that he wanted to start the Earth Diet tomorrow which will be March 1st! Wow! I was so excited! To hear a human being making a stand for their life, and their health and wellbeing makes me glitter with joy! So I want to acknowledge you Erik for taking this courageous step into a new way of being...and get ready for an abundance of health...and the challenge of eating foods naturally provided to us from the Earth :) Good on you Erik! You are an inspiration :)

So I chatted with Erik about starting the Earth Diet...To watch our video interview go to.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxF_eASTbfU

What would you eat in your "ideal day?"
For breakfast I would eat blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. Pizza for lunch. Steak for dinner. Chocolate ice cream for dessert.

What did you eat today?
No breakfast. For lunch I ate chicken strips (frozen then deep fried) and french fries (fried) and a milky way (chocolate bar).

What foods have been regular in your diet?
I eat pasta, pizza, pork chops, chicken liver, fish squares, food that is frozen deep fried and quick, milk, cheese, chips, cakes, chocolates, candy and bread. When I work on a film set I eat fast foods. I have been eating like this my whole life.

What are your favourite foods?
Fried chicken and pizza.

What about fruit?
I've had one piece of fruit in the last week (a banana). If I eat more fruits my skin usually breaks out (the fruit would be detoxing all the crap out of his system). I have never had an avocado. I have had kiwi fruit probably 3 times in my life.

What about vegetables?
It's been a week since I ate vegetables.

Why do you want to do the Earth Diet?
I want to experience happiness, peace, feeling alive, vibrant, being energetic and being a powerful human being! To be honest I am scared to death about doing this Earth Diet, but I am not one to miss opportunities.

We are going to implement fruit into Eriks diet and he enjoys strawberries, pineapple, watermelon and kiwi fruit. Erik will be eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and salads to fill his body with nutrients and vitamins. His body has been starving of this for years. Even if you just change one thing a day, eat one extra piece of fruit, or a raw vegetable, into your diet you will notice a difference! We will do regular blogs so you can follow his transformation ;)

Does Erik inspire you? This is a human being that is saying here is what I have been eating my entire life, I'm not ok with it anymore, and I'm ready to experience an abundance of health, vitality, energy and inner joy and glow!

Erik is swapping his favourite fried chicken for fresh fruit, vegetables and salad.

Challenges: When I was doing Erik's interview and he was telling me the food he has been eating for his entire life, I was shocked, and thinking we are going to have to retrain his whole entire life of eating from frozen, fast and fried foods, to fresh salads, fruits, vegetables, nuts and organic meats. This may be a challenge for Erik depending on how much he is craving a healthy body, and also for me in that I am working with a person here who has been eating certain foods for so long, now what can we do to make this work?

Triumphs: I love it when another being takes on the Earth Diet because they are up for a healthy, vibrant, exciting life! Wooo go Erik!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Purple grapes. 1 nectarine. Ginger tea (I boiled ginger in water...perfect for warming the throat and killing any bacteria in your body). 1kiwi fruit.

Lunch: Cooked white beans and salad (carrot, green lettuce, celery, cucumber). 2 avocados with walnuts.

Dinnner: Raw cauliflower and 3 nectarines. I know, strange combo...but I am reading my script and writing this blog so I wanted something scrumptious and easy peasy maconeasy! wooo woo thats a dumb ryhme of mine if your wondering (its not a food!)(although maconeasy sounds like a yummy food!Hehe!).

Dessert: bed time!

Snacks: Chocolate balls with walnuts. 1 apple.

Exercise: Up at 5:20 am for hair and makeup then shooting "The Man In The Maze" in the cold Alabama woods...keepin my body warm is an exercise! Hehe!

240 days to go!!!

Day 126

Today I chatted with the beautiful being named Stephanie Long Lomenick who does acting and is starring in "The Man In The Maze". Stephanie is taking on the Earth Diet, by making her food from scratch and not buying food already in packages.

Thoughts: The Earth Diet really is your own creation. For me it is a lifestyle to only eat foods naturaly provided from the earth. For Stephanie she is swapping purchased packaged food to making food herself from scratch. So instead of buying cakes, corn breakds, cookies and chocolate, she is taking on making it herself!

Check out our video interview today while we were on set...we had to be quiet because they were shooting lead actor Andrew Roth's scene but we still managed to get a chat in about the Earth Diet!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ugMOIX3AQ

What would your ideal day of eating look like?
I would eat ice cream all day. El fudge cookies, a Big Mac for lunch, pizza, and mexican foods.

What did you eat yesterday?
Breakfast I had a pop tart and powdered donuts, for lunch I had a bacon, tomato and lettuce sandwhich. A side salad with italian dressing. For dinner I had mexican, taco salad with chicken lettuce, sour cream and cheese. For dessert I had 2 girl scout cookies. (If Stephanie was eating only foods provided from the earth, the foods she would cut from this day would be the packaged processed foods for breakfast, the bread for her sandwhich, the italian dressing, the sour cream and cheese and the girl scout cookies. It is possible to make your own cookies and breads from scratch without chemicals and additives.)

What are your favourite foods?
Desserts! Chocolates, sweets, cakes, ice creams.

What do you think are the consequences on your for eating these types of processed foods?
I feel sluggish, I eat too much, I get allergic reactions, spots on my face and I swell up. Half the time I feel healthy, half the time I feel terrible.

How many times do you poo a day?
At least once.

What challenges will you have on the Earth Diet?
Availability of fresh organic foods here in Florence, Alabama. Me being consistent. I don't like limitations, if I know I can't have something I want it more. Cooking for my husband. I always compare myself with other people. Sabatoging myself.

Why do you want to do the Earth Diet?
To feel better, to feel alive, so I'm no just surviving I'm actually living, to be present, better skin, body and mind.

What are you going to do now?
I'm going to make my food from scratch, chocolate from scratch, no reheating in the microwave, I will make cornbread from scratch, I will buy dried beans and cook them instead of canned beans.

"People think that healthy equals suffering".

Challenges: No food related challenge today...filming in the frezing Alabama woods in a singlet was ahhh challenging and also a good opportunity to connect with the Earth when I was laying on the ground in the scene :)

Triumphs: Wooo I am so excited and inspired by Stephanie for taking on the Earth Diet and love the commitment she has to herself, her health and body :)

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 2 nectarines. A pear. A kiwi fruit.

Lunch: Cooked white beans. Salad with lettuce and cucumber and carrot. An orange. A kiwi fruit. A apple.

Dinnner: Indian...back beans with chilli and Indian spices and rice with tomato and spice :)

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: 2 avocados. A nectarine. Chocolate balls (2 times!!!)

Exercise: Filming "The Man In The Maze" out in the cold Alabama woods...keping my body warm feels like a workout!! hehe

239 days to go!!!

Day 123

Have you seen that movie "Into The Wild". Well today I met that EARTH MAN...although unlike the movie he didn't die, he is alive. He survived 8 years in the mountains. Alone and living entirely from the Earth. His name is Tom. He is the cook for the cast and crew for the film I am working on "The Man In The Maze" here in Alabama, USA (www.themaninthemaze.net). I had the privellege of meeting him and chatting with him about his experience...

Thoughts:

Tom grew up New York and when he was 19 years old he left the city for the mountains where he spent 8 years with just himself and the Earth. He started off with a knife, a tent, a flashlight and some clothes including a pair of boots. That’s it I asked? "That’s it" he said. He said "human cruelty" made him want to leave the busy life for the mountains. He started off in the mountains upstate New York, then went into New Hampshire, Vermont and then Virginia. He saw 4 people in 8 years. These supplied him with shoe laces, boots, batteries for flashlights. he lived with no deodorant, no tv, no internet, no heating, no air conditioning, no supermarket, no phone. AND he had himself and the earth. He lived purely off the land.

In a typical day he would gather firewood and water. And then go out and look for food...

"I hunted rabbit, dear, racoons, squirrel, oats, wild carrots, dandelions, nuts (acrons, pine cones), berries, bark, milk thistle, lichens. Food varied. I sun dried meat to make a jerky. When I got sick, like stomach viruses, I ate charcoal, took it right out of the fire and ate it. It filtered my stomach. I made pots from clay to cook my food. And I made fire with string (from animal tendons) and sticks. Every 3 days I always moved around. It’s all about intuition out there. I was pooing twice a day at least."

"If you eat a poisonous plant, try to remember what plant you ate, and look around the 3 feet diameter around it and there will be a healer. That’s how mother nature keeps it in check. If a plant is toxic, mother earth puts plants around it to keep it from spreading." Fancinating.

Tom on meat eating...

"The human body was made to eat meat, but not in excess like we do. Maybe once or twice a week. You know people have meat for breakfast, meat for lunch, and meat for dinner. I had meat twice a week, maybe 3 times in the wild. If you get a deer, there is only so much time you can carry your deer. You eat when you can as quick as you can. If not, I would spread it around for other animals. And if not it will go back to the earth and give nutrients for the trees."

Do you think food provides us humn beings with existence?
No, it’s not the food. It’s the energy that gives us existence.

But if we didn’t eat we would die?
No we wouldn’t.

What about anorexic people? If they don't eat, they get sick and die?
They don’t know how to gather energy from the land without eating. I don’t feel like food is essentially life. Energy is life, food is only part of our being if we don’t know how to get it otherwise.

What was your favourite to eat out in the mountains?
I don’t have any favourites. I keep myself open.

How did you clean yourself?
I made soap from oats and animal fat. I boiled it into a soup and then it solidifies. He made it into a soup...with animal fat and oats. Cooked it together and then it solidifies.

How did you hunt the animals?
By making a bow and arrow out of a deer or better a elk bones, vertebrates. You take the tendons (the hard part that hold the muscle to the bone) and strip them down and melt it down into a glue, and take the shaft into the center of the vertebrates and fill up the center of the vertebrate and half of the shaft sticking out the top and half out the bottom. Then let it sit over night and then take the ribs, 4 ribs, take out the center of them and then take tha tendoin boiled down like a glue, and then take one rib put it over boiling water, straighten it out, then take the tendons and put it on the shaft and then that glues it. Then straighten another rib and put that on the bottom of the shaft. Take another rib with a curve, and place the curve facing away from you, and you would use that tendons to make it as a glue. Set that all aside and let it dry, and then take the tendons and put it all over the bones and that makes it a shalack and now you have a bow. Also hold back some of the tendoins that you have pulled off at the beginning to make your string, and make a 30ft length of string. That way when I have a bow I can go ahead and give it back to the earth when I’m done with it.

"Be kind to the Earth, be kind to the animals and be kind to the humans."

I am going to have more from Tom in tomorrows blog...and if you have any questions for him please let me know :)

Challenges: I wonder how long I would last in the forrest? I really don't think I could kill an animal. I would enjoy finding water, gathering wood, and picking nuts and berries. Not sure how to start a fire though!

Triumphs: Today I got present to that I have not had any sugar or chocolate, chips or lollies for 123 days! and that is liberating!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: A punnet of gorgeous blueberries. A ginger tea with a squeeze of lemon.

Lunch: 2 avocados with walnuts (mmm I love putting the walnuts in the avocados and having the creamy avocado and crunchy walnuts in my mouth). A nectarine.

Dinnner: Potatoes. Indian Dahl (yellow lentils cooked with Indian spice and herbs) with rice and cabbage.

Dessert: Chocolate balls with walnuts.

Snacks: No snacks.

Exercise: A walk to the gym in the fresh Alabama air to the gym for a stretch in the steam room ;)

242 days to go!!!