latest and greatest!

i am on a spiritual bender, and loving it!

reading books by louise hay, listening to poems by rumi set to music, meditating to a deepak chopra cd, and learning tai ji with this amazing man:  chungliang al huang via the magic of youtube videos. 

i've got clean eating going on too, thanks to the rawfully organic co-op, and am fired up to re-start my healing protocols for my gallbladder & thyroid.  starting august 1 i am going gluten-free again, and eating nothing but raw living foods for a month.  going on vacation in september so i'm inspired to get super-clean before then, so i can eat whatever i like during that time.  which will mostly be super-clean anyway! 

also i've begun spending time meditating, doing affirmations & being alone in nature daily, and i feel so very much more calm & happy.  and i have to say, i have the most wonderful books in my home library!  i re-discovered this one the other day and it is truly amazing:  embrace tiger return to mountain, by chungliang al huang.  beautiful and inspirational!

Latest & Greatest

Just watched a lovely little film:
All the Days Before Tomorrow

Reading:
Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko

Online faves:
http://www.regenerateyourlife.org/ - Dan the Life Regenerator-Love this guy
http://rawsangha.com/juice-feast/ - Brother Echo rockin' the juice feast
http://rawsangha.com/ - Brother Echo's original site
http://live-love-raw.blogspot.com/ - Dara Dubinet, cool stuff + her awesome FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/RAW-a-food-and-lifestyle-choice/300828693535
and of course, the ever inspiring raw T:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/RAWTeresa

Leaving you with something fun!:

Co-op Shares

This beauty is a "half-share" box of veggies, greens, fruits & herbs from our local Rawfully Organic Co-op. It's jam-packed with ridiculously awesome food; this time it included:
strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, avocado, bananas, kale, mizuna, lettuce, cabbage, celery, basil, broccoli, cucumber, carrots, apples, squash...many of these are locally grown - all are organic. You can order a whole share if you need more yumminess than this, as well as being able to purchase extra goodies when you pick up your share. And the cost is so much less than if I purchased all this food at the local Whole Foods or even the farmer's market. I am so excited to have found this amazing resource for healthy food...the fact that it is organic and often locally grown just makes it that much better. And the gal who runs this operation is so fun, friendly & vibrant that it's a joy to interact with her. If you're in Houston, definitely check out the Co-op...if not, research co-ops in your area - you'll be so glad you did! Thanks, Kristina! :)
For more info:
kristina@rawfullyorganic.com

I'm Dreaming Again!

Sitting in the sun at lunch, with a little lizard friend you can just barely see in the picture (on the wall, upper right corner), dreaming about going to Integratrive Nutrition school and doing what I love.

:)

Very exciting!

Last night I took inspiration from Katrina Rainoshek's posting about green soups and made the most amazingly yummy soup to have for dinner tonight...threw in carrots, celery, yellow bell pepper, garlic, dill, cilantro, lime, lettuces and baby greens, avocado, and a tomato. Blended them coarsely in the Vitamix. mmmmmmmm can't wait to get home for dinner! I'll garnish it with some microgreens and chopped onion & avocado. Here's Agwe loving dill & green energy soup!:

Sprout Success!!!

My sprouts were a wonderful success! We ate them with dinner and they were so much better than any sprouts I have ever bought at the store. I'm a proud sprouter! Below, the pictorial story of our sprouty evening...apologies for the poor photo quality, I used my cell phone :)

Aloha from Wednesday! ;)

It is a happy day :) This morning I made a delicious breakfast smoothie:

almond milk (soaked almonds overnight)
1 banana
small handful blueberries
1 tsp maca powder
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp flax seeds (ground this morning)
1 scoop Alive! brand supplement
3 Tbsp E3-Live
1 capful flax oil w/ vegetarian DHA
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp hemp seeds
mmmmmmmmmmmm yummy and ridiculously filling.

I used the almond meal left over from making milk on my face, with some raw honey.
I am going to be juice-feasting again starting June 22 - for 9 days. Pretty excited about that! And I'm doing lots of promotion for my event in July: Matt Monarch & Angela Stokes (who are about to get married!) will be doing a talk here in Houston about nutrition and the raw food diet...very exciting!

I just started reading a beautiful book: Tree, A Life Story by David Suzuki & Wayne Grady

I love trees!

A lovely celebration!

We had a wonderful evening yesterday, celebrating love! Got dressed up and went to India's restaurant - truly amazingly delicious food! And immaculate service. Happiness!

Ok on the health & nutrition front: I found a new cookbook at Border's last week that I bought so I can appease J's sweet tooth: "Babycakes", a vegan, gluten-free & mostly processed-sugar free cookbook of amazing-looking baked goods by the Babycakes bakery in NYC. Can't wait to get started! We tried a few new things over the weekend: almond butter from Living Tree Community, which is prepared in a special way; nama shoyu, which is raw soy sauce, and Quite Cheesy kale chips, which are crazy-amazing-good and truly taste cheesy. All 3 were wonderful! We ate brown rice, sauteed mushrooms & asparagus for dinner Saturday night, and used the nama shoyu as a dip for the asparagus. Yummy! I soaked pecans overnight and made a really nice raw "porridge" Sunday morning from my Cafe Gratitude cookbook "I Am Grateful"; it featured pecans, apple, strawberries, coconut milk, vanilla & cinnamon. J. added toasted flax crackers with melted almond butter & a drizzle of raw honey, and voila, a truly lovely "raw" breakfast! I also made a batch of almond milk, which I am currently enjoying in a smoothie I made for Monday breakfast. Next up I will try making ice cream using the rest of my almond milk & some frozen strawberries, and I have recipes for a dill & hemp dip and vegan nachos in the lineup. :) I'm super-excited!

Ah, cravings!

(That's Boyfriend kitty in the garden)

All this time with no food cravings, but 10 days in and I got 'em, big-time...for veggie meatloaf and mashed potatoes! And last night, for no apparent reason, for refried beans. My whole life I was crazy for carbs. Nothing's more comforting than processed simple carbs...right?! After I went veg, I pretty much lived on processed carbs. That was something like 25 years ago! I only really started eating vegetables and fruits in any appreciable amount about 2 1/2 years ago, and now, on my JuiceFeast, I ONLY shop the produce section. It's the most wonderful revelation. And yesterday I missed my cooked carbs, but not enough to want to change anything. This adventure just keeps getting better! The benefits of the JuiceFeast are amazing: I have lost almost all the extra weight I have carried since I was 15, my skin glows, my crow's feet & some of the extra lines on my face have disappeared, I'm eliminating waste from all the years of SAD eating (Standard American Diet), I'm loving learning about the diversity of incredible vegetables & fruits, and about nutrition and health...my hair is thick and oddly, getting curly?!!...I feel light and, when I get enough sleep, energized. I've had NO trouble with my gallbladder, and I've reduced my thyroid meds. And I'm only 10 days in...I can't imagine going back to my old ways. I plan to eat an 80/20 vegan diet when I end my fast. That's 80% living foods ("raw") and 20% cooked (like, vegetables, brown rice, quinoa). I've got incredible cookbooks with amazing recipes for totally healthy treats, so I won't have to do without desserts :) Every recipe I've tried from raw food sites & blogs and my recipe books has been truly wonderful.

Ok enough about the wonders of JuiceFeasting. Juices today:
*spinach / apple
*rasperry / apple / grape / watermelon / ginger
*carrot / mixed lettuces / watercress / radish / pear / celery / cucumber
*lettuce / tomato / basil / carrot
MSM water w/lemon

No add-ins other than E3-Live...didn't feel like having anything extra or any spices.

ps: JuiceFeasting ROCKS!

It's definitely a Monday

long day at work yesterday, detox symptoms last night, woke up late this morning! BUT, managed to juice:

apple / grape / lemon
kale / mixed lettuces / carrots / celery / cucumber / ginger / parsley / bok choy / apple /
red bell pepper
watermelon / cherry / blueberry
& the usual add-ins + msm water

today, just not feeling like drinking anything :(
in better news, i'm in love with the most awesome man on the planet :)

ok to wrap this day up: i drank all my juice! yay. detoxing away today, but that's a good thing. and it's a beautiful day here in houston, so all is well! going home to do a brief workout & visit the steam room & hot tub...and dream about all the lovely live food creations i'll be concocting soon! last night i had out my cookbooks...ani phyo, cafe gratitude, gabriel cousens....can't wait!

Wow, I can't believe it! Day 5! And things are going SO well :) J. is breaking his feast today, but said this morning that he can't imagine going back to life without these juices...YAY! I am feeling incredibly good - and my skin is amazing...I keep staring at my hands when I'm prepping vegetables, thinking, wow, how can there be such a difference? Courtney Pool has it right..."Radical Radiance" for sure! Many things are changing for me; I'll do a detailed list soon. My scientist brain hesitates to get excited too quickly! So, I'll keep JuiceFeasting for a while to get more proof ;)

Today's feast:

tomato / basil / cilantro / romaine / celery / jalapeno / garlic / spices ... mine juiced, J's blended

for feast-breaking

romaine / heirloom lettuce / celery / cucumber / bok choy / dandelion / beet / carrot / broccoli
sprouts / sunflower sprouts
oranges
pineapple w/ core MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM crazy good

MSM water w/ lemon

add-ins: hemp oil / flax oil w/DHA / kelp granules /Vitamineral Green / maca powder /E3-Live

Day 3

Pic is of a park in Big Sur, California. :)

Wow, ok....spoke too soon! Detox mania last night. I won't list everything ;) but suffice to say everything they say happens in detox, happens in detox! I'm proud though to say that I didn't throw in the towel, I'm determined to keep going and get past this into the wonderfulness. I know I have a few days to go in this phase, too...patience.....THANK YOU David & Katrina Rainoshek, Kris Carr, & Angela Stokes for providing so much information & knowledge...without them I would definitely not be trying to achieve my best health. Inspiration is a great thing! Other fantastic resources for me have been Tony Robbins, Matt Monarch, David Wolfe & Mike Adams. Wonderful people! Check out their work when you get a chance. So, last night I juiced oranges after I picked up my car from the shop, then ran errands. Felt pretty bad, so made the last juice of the day a comforting one: tomato / green leaf lettuce / garlic / basil / cilantro / pinch of sea salt / pinch of cayenne with Earth added in. Yummy! Then a cup of Good Earth tea.

This morning, we made way more juice. 2 quarts of red leaf lettuce / green leaf lettuce / carrots / watercress / celery / cucumber / red bell pepper / radish / kale / apple / pear with maca powder, Vitamineral Green, kelp granules & hemp oil added in. 1 quart spinach / apple. And the most exciting (& expensive) juice I've made to date: raspberry / watermelon / lemon / ginger / apple mmmmmmmmm can't wait. MSM / lemon water & a cup of green tea started the day.

I've just read about an exciting adventure on Kris Carr's blog...a 28 day Adventure Cleanse to start within the next couple of months...sounds wonderful and perfect timing for me, coming off my Juice Feast! Kris ROCKS. Check out the posting at www.crazysexylife.com

Global Juice Feast

:)

I'm on day 2 of my Juice Feast; if you haven't heard of it: http://www.juicefeasting.com/. I am Juice Feasting to "go further"! I have a couple of major health concerns that I want to address in the feast: a large gallstone from a lifetime of eating SAD (Standard American Diet) that the only offered treatment for is surgical removal of the gallbladder, and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (autoimmune disease of the thyroid), which is conventionally only treated with medication to sustain hormone levels. I believe this feast, if done long enough, and subsequent lifestyle changes will re-set my physiology and give me the gift of perfect health. And the cosmic consciousness doesn't hurt! :) I plan to eat mostly a living foods diet after the feast...I've been building up to this way of eating for a couple of months and LOVE it!

Here's my post from day 1:

Day One of my Juice Feast! My guy is feasting with me too, for a few days - yay! Yesterday we went to Central Market and loaded up on veggies...I have never seen so many vegetables in a shopping cart in my life. We made a lovely farewell dinner of portobellos, asparagus, avocados &....tater tot crowns! Well, we wanted to eat them before feasting, so they wouldn't call to us from the freezer! Ate way too much and ended up feeling really happy that the feast was about to start ;) This morning we drank our MSM water w/ lemon and juiced about 3 quarts each...we will make our fourth quart for dinner, after work. Used a vitamix and nut milk bags. It took only about an hour, which surprised me because I really didn't do enough prep work. Here's what we created: celery / cucumber / parsley / romaine lettuce / red leaf lettuce / carrot / apple / lemongrape / applecelery / cucumber / parlsey / romaine lettuce / red leaf lettuce / carrot / apple / tomato / beet / radish / cayenneSo far so good; I am having herbal tea to combat the enticing smell of coffee here at work, and J. reports turning down breakfast tacos & strawberry shortcake at his office. Woot!

And about today:

Things are going really well. Last night J. and I juiced oranges after work, had a great workout & hit the steam room, went home and had a last juice of celery, apple, spinach & carrot (with 1 tsp. Earth added in)...and a cup of Sleepytime tea. I did a lot of prep-work before bed, which made this morning SO much easier. Which is good because we had to take my car to the shop! So today's juice for the workday is: 2 quarts each of celery / cucumber / tomato / apple / pear / romaine lettuce / red leaf lettuce / kale / / radishes / carrots, with hemp oil, E3-Live, maca powder, Vitamineral Green & kelp granules added in. Also 3/4 quart each of pineapple juice. And of course, we had our MSM / lemon water while juicing. Some detox symptoms coming up, but fairly mild so far. :)