So I should apologize that this post actually has nothing to do with Queensryche.  Sorry.  But it does contain some information that has been profoundly life-changing for me, which is the understanding of our bodies’ pH balance. 

Now I use the term “understanding” loosely because as we all know I have a tiny brain, but I’ve gleaned enough information to know how it affects me personally, and it’s amazing.

Here’s the Barry Breakdown®:

• Our bodies range from 1 (most acidic) to 14 (most alkaline) on the pH scale.  The optimal range for “us humans” is 7.4, which helps our blood stay healthy and distribute oxygen to all of our cells, as well as carry away acidic waste.  We want to be more alkaline than acidic.
• An acidic body (Acidosis) is a welcome mat for sickness, disease, retention of fat cells, and tiny trolls.  An acidic body has to work MUCH harder to heal itself and fend off the junk.
• The biggest factor in our ph Balance is the food we eat, but it is also affected by stress, air quality, exercise, and sleep.  Zorp.

I drink coffee.  A lot of coffee.  I love the entire ritual…scooping out the aromatic grounds, listening to it percolate from the other room, mixing-in some milk and sugar, putting it in my mouth, feeling it go down my throat, sensing it swish around in my stomach, thinking about it a few hours later, writing about it in my blog that 5 people read, and so on.  BUT coffee is acidic.  DOUBLE-BUTT, that doesn’t mean I can’t have it.  The general dietary belief is that we should eat 75% alkalizing foods and 25% acidifying.  So I can have my delicious coffee…so long as I off-set that with lots of water, fresh produce, and maybe some kombucha or veggie juice.  The stuff to really avoid is processed food, refined sugar, too much meat…ok, there are actually lots of things to avoid…

As soon as I started leaning more toward alkalizing foods I felt a huge difference.  I feel lighter, I have more energy, people look me in the eyes, it’s amazing.  I’m probably still somewhere in the 50/50 range because it’s just expensive to eat this way…but slow, steady improvement is fine by me.  The main thing for us to focus on:  MORE FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 

Now a lot of information on this topic seems to be contradictory, mainly as to which foods fall into which categories.  One person says Quinoa is alkaline, another acidic.  The same goes for raw milk.  And blueberries.  I don’t really get it.  I’m attaching a chart that seems to be the best one I found so far. The they have more info HERE.

Thanks to Tony Robbins for turning me on to this topic, as well as wikipedia and my favorite new website name www.dontdieearly.com.

Do any of you pay attention to this already and have some helpful tips?

I’m new to raw milk.  For one, I thought milk had to be pasteurized or I would die and/or get sick.   For two, it’s expensive.   For three, where do you even find it?  For four, I think that three reasons are enough.

My roommate Josh has been drinking raw milk since we moved-in together in October, and I haven’t seen him die once.  Josh is actually way further along on the Path of Freshness® than I am, so I usually trust his lead.  He cooks with coconut oil (which is supposedly the best of the oils), he makes smoothies with carrots and beets and kale and strawberries, his chocolate is always dark (ladies…), and he knows about the molecular chains of fatty acids and how our bodies react to them.  Boooooring. 

So why is raw milk good for us?  I would suggest reading the FAQ on the Organic Pastures page, but a Whitman’s Sampler version would be:

• Raw milk is alkaline, meaning it helps offset the acidity in our bodies, which is essential for fighting sickness and disease.  Pasteurized milk is acidic.
• Milk was originally pasteurized in the 1800s because dairy farms were GROSS and unsafe, lacked the proper tools and refrigeration, and their cows were fed terrible diets and made to stand in their own manure.  Any food would be dangerous in that environment.  Millions of people died from rotten milk.
• Raw milk is full of helpful bacteria that actually strengthen your immune system… and for that same reason it’s much better for people who are lactose-intolerant.  Raw milk contains the living enzyme lactase, which helps to breakdown the lactose. Pasteurization kills lactase. Even though some people can’t drink any kind of milk, the majority of those who can’t drink pasteurized milk are fine when they go raw. 
• Raw milk tastes gooooooooood.  (That should sound like I’m mooing.)

The difference in taste is undeniable.  I bought my first quart of raw milk last week at the Hollywood Farmers market and it was milky-smooth and amazing.  And I’m not dead yet.  I think.  Right? 

The main sticking point for me is the price; it’s around 9 bucks for a half-gallon. Zoink. Although I’ve been realizing that the higher-quality my food is, the less I eat in general, so it sort of evens out.  When I was eating crap I always needed more and more crap to feel satisfied, at which point I had to ask myself “Why am I eating crap in the first place?”

Raw milk is only available in a few states, so we’re lucky here in LA to have it available at Farmers markets, Erewhon, and a handful of other hippie joints.  If you live somewhere else I suggest googling where to find it.  Some states have made it illegal to purchase raw milk…which I find insane.  I’m planning on visiting the Organic Pastures farm to see how their grass-fed cows are treated, and then comparing that with a visit to some factory farms that treat their animals poorly.  Also, and this is the coolest part, the owner of Organic Pastures does in-home Raw Milk Parties.  He comes to your house, shows a film, answers your questions, gives out samples, cleans your bedroom, files your taxes and does whatever other raw milk-related tasks you need taken care of.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  

Until then, check out their site, try some raw milk, and let me know what you think about it.  And me.  What do you think about me?  I will totally help you break-down lactose.  I promise.

PS  - I realize that I didn’t give much of a counter-argument to drinking raw milk, but I don’t feel that I need to.  I’ve been drinking the counter-argument for years, very often with mild stomach aches.  Real food is real food, and the more discoveries I make in this area, the more I realize how so much information is given through the filter of giant food companies with huge budgets, who can market and lobby the government and lie and take our cash at will.  I think that’s why I’m doing this whole thing in the first place….

Some of you may have caught me Barefoot Ridin’® recently, and I gotta tell you guys, it feels great.  My friend John Alford used to walk around barefoot all the time (and considered a dip in the ocean as good as a shower) and it used to seem so strange to me.  Growing up everything was no shirt/no shoes/no service that it almost felt illegal to walk around barefoot.  The Grand Realization was that it only means you can’t go inside certain places.  And who needs the inside when you can be outside?  It feels GREAT goin shoe-free every now and then.

Now about 80% of my dog walks around the neighborhood are barefoot.  It makes me feel more connected to the world somehow, even if I’m walking on cement.  I mainly stick to walking on grass, although then I do have to watch for dog turds.* 

If you live somewhere that’s not full of broken glass and syringes, give it a go.  You’ll feel just like Huck Finn off to chase some toads. 

Give Barefoot Ridin® a try and let me know how it goes for you.

Barry

*I’m very aware that I’m lucky to be in a nice neighborhood where dog turds are the biggest threat to Barefoot Ridin’®.  I used to live in Koreatown and if I tried this back then I would have stepped on one or more of the following: Condoms, broken pieces of old toilets, dead things, glass, and one guy who must have fallen asleep while taking a piss because he was passed out on the sidewalk with his wiener in his hand. 

Hello America

So I’ve changed the title and purpose of my blog to match my current mission…making a funny variety show about living fresh.  How did I get to this point?  I’m so glad you asked…

I used to work for a company called Evolution, which makes delicious vegetable juices among other things, and my job was to stand around in supermarkets and give people samples.  At first I was bored out of my mind.  Standing in a supermarket for five hours is dreadful.  But the more people I talked to, especially in Whole Foods, the more I became interested in what is unofficially called the Fresh Food Movement.

As a side note about talking to people in supermarkets, I was forced to have conversations with some of the strangest and most interesting people I’d ever met.  And because I was stuck at this little table with tiny cups of juice, I was the perfect captive audience for the sick, the lonely, the old, the smelly, the craaaazy, and of course the thirsty.  One gentleman drank my juice samples for 45 minutes while telling me how his mom just died the night before, sweating and just pounding dixie cup after dixie cup.  Then we talked about the Vietnam war.  Two different ladies tried converting me to their religions.  One old man in a motorized wheelchair spit out my juice, called me an asshole, then zipped away…leaving his companion standing there apologetically holding a 3 oz cup filled with watermelon juice.  One old man with three teeth, crutches, and a cast on his left leg (who was also named Barry) talked to me for an hour about movies from the 80s and then asked me to join him to the cinema sometime.     There was always a nine-year-old boy who would politely ask for juice, leave, then come back ten times in a row politely asking for more juice.  One girl talked to me about how she just had a successful operation for skin cancer, and is now on a very raw and extremely healthy diet to prevent future cancers.  She loves the food, but the shopping and preparation take up so much of her time, although a part of that has been good for her because she’s finally slowing down.  She used to work herself to death, just to make money so she could keep working herself to death.  The beginning of a life change like that must be rough, especially when it’s dropped on you out of nowhere.  But like a lot of the people I talked to, those who changed their diets to back to eating REAL FOOD are now living much better lives inside and out.  Oh, and one time I found a loaded handgun in a Vons bathroom.  That was awesome.

Ok, back to the Fresh Food Movement.  The more health-minded people that I talked to, the more I learned about how messed-up our current food system is.  The amount of money spent on food vs. health care is upside-down.  Farm animals are treated so poorly that beyond just being an ethical nightmare, this situation creates food that is unhealthy.  The FDA is swayed too easily by the millions of dollars spent on “Big Food” lobbyists.  Processed food is very bad for us.

Then I saw Food, Inc., read Omnivore’s Dilemma and saw Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and my life changed.   I’ve always been interested in healthy eating and living…but I never realized how simple it all is.  Give yourself some exceptions, but for the most part just eat REAL FOOD:  Apples, nuts, vegetable juice, real chocolate, grass-fed beef, thousands of delicious things…fresh and energizing and incredible.  Selling food is BIG BUSINESS…and for most big business all that matters is money.  Not our health. That goes for the companies selling processed junk food, the ones marketing it, the scientists and nutritionists creating new food-like substances full of health claims but barely resembling actual food, and the health care industry that makes millions of dollars on all of the surgeries and pills for people who have eaten themselves into heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.  Why is hospital food so unhealthy?  A friend of mine was in the hospital for 5 days and the only green vegetable he was given was iceberg lettuce a couple times.  I’m not saying it’s all a conspiracy, we just happen to live in a society that is ruled by money.  But we can take personal control of how we eat.  As I (very) slowly become more and more conscious of what I put in my body, I’m focusing more, I’m happier, I’m healthier, I have lots of energy…it’s amazing.  

I want to help change laws about food.  I want to turn people on to the wonders of eating a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables.  I want to expose companies that are hurting our health, our animals, and our land, and I want to celebrate those who are doing the exact opposite.  I want to make a How To guide for living fresh, and I want it to be funny and entertaining.

I would love your help on this journey.  Maybe you’ve got questions that would be good blog or episode topics.  Perhaps you have a friend doing something amazing who I should talk to.  Maybe you need me to babysit your kids for a few hours while you and your loved one go see a Pink Floyd laser show at the Planetarium.  In any case, let’s do this together…because the more people that get involved, the better chance we have of making a difference.  Like Michael Jackson said in Man in the Mirror, “It’s gonna feel real good, shamon!”

(This is my submission for Maximum Freshness to an Oprah contest.)

So I got to perform with The Remainers last weekend at the Silverake Jubilee and it was amazing.  These dudes are tight.  Tiiiiight.

Check out the song Blessing In Disguise on their Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/theremainers

The picture’s a bit blurry, but you get the idea.  Or do you…?

I’m performing today with The Remainers at El Cid at 1pm and would loooove to see your beautiful face in the audience.  I’ll even come down during the show and give you a hug. 

It’s only $5 to get into the festival, and then all of the shows are free.  Come see some amazing local music and entertainment.  Especially us.  Give yourself ample time to find parking.  Ample time!

The flyer below shows stills from a new project from Barry Holiday & Sweet Tony Beans that I can’t wait for you to see.  It also advertises Tony Beans at today’s show, but that is a lie.  Sorry for lying to you.  But I had to.  Keep your peepers peeled for more coming soon about The Showiest Show….

So a few weeks ago I was scheduled to perform in a living room in West Covina for a very nice arts-loving couple, Joanne and Ed Baines, and about 14 of their friends.  I decided to try out a new idea: Perform an interactive game show.  Since I’m looking to become a game show host, why not do a little field testing?  The games consisted of trivia interspersed with physical challenges, including Hide the Hedgehog, How Many Peeps are in this Can?, Ball-Force 5000, and Turds in a Bucket. 

Some highlights:

• A giant pheasant-like bird (their pet) wandered around the whole time
• Jell-O shots in actual syringes
• One of the “contestants” had recently survived a skydiving accident
• I showed some of my Nuggets, then took suggestions for audience Nuggets. We voted on the best one, which I will eventually produce.  The winner was a nice lady named Audree, whose Nugget involves her Red Hat Society ladies
• They fed me delicious dinner
• The evening ended with a pinata that was full of candy, disposable lighters and tiny bottles of liquor.  Ka-Blammo!

Pictures can be found here. 

I’m excited for our variety show shoot tomorrow.  I’ll have some pics and behind the scenes videos for you next week.

What are YOU doing this weekend?

Barry