Rethinking Raw

Hi everyone, Rose here :)
As I last posted I was doing a juice fast which I'm happy to report went well for what ended up being a 2 week duration. I did the Blessed Herbs Colon Cleanse while on the 2nd part of my fast. It really helped accelerate what the juice fast had started and any bloating I had was GONE! My stomach felt so flat and I felt good. Overall, I would say the colon cleanse didn't meet my expectations and it tasted so horrible it was WORK drinking it every day, but I would over all still recommend it.
Erin and I both have NOT been eating raw for some time now, but are exploring other routes. I still am a GREEN SMOOTHIE SISTER though! I am working towards more of a high raw/paleo diet and am very interested in gluten free eating. My goal for 2010 is to improve my mental and physical health through diet and supplements. Erin has a lot of great info and things she's working on I'm excited for her to share if I can get her to post. I hope to start posting on more of our health endeavors including, HCG, Primal Diet, Natural Beauty, and more!

Fasting and the art of colon cleansing

It has obviously been awhile since our last post on Green Smoothie Sisters. Even sadder, it has even longer since I could really call myself a Green Smoothie Sister! My husband and I opened our own little cafe last spring and have been chasing our tails ever since. After a lot of stress, illness and crappy eating, it was time to get back to basics. Time for a cleanse!
I used to make a habit of doing a juice fast/cleanse yearly in order to clean out, rebuild, detox, and give my body a much needed vacation. It has been nearly two years since the last time, and my body has been protesting quite a bit lately!
I've always found it best to listen to your inner voice, get a feel for what you need, and go with the flow. Fasting should never be difficult or painful, and so far things are going great. I just finished my second day of juice fasting and have also started preparing for stage 2 of the Blessed Herbs colon cleanse. This will be five days of drinking nasty ginger flavored stuff mixed with apple juice (freshly made of course with my trusty Champion Juicer).
I'm not going to lie, this stuff is best taken with a plugged nose, but it is HIGHLY effective. Already I am expelling quite a bit of yesteryear's wardrobe in my "colon closet". My stomach is less bloated, and I have started detoxing. This too shall pass (or I should say, the zit apocolypse that is appearing on my chin will give way to clear glowing skin in a few days).
So far it is also feeling really good to be getting so much fresh juice into my body, also taking time daily to journal, read, do lots of stretching and anything else that is nurturing. My motto at the moment is to remember that everything we have, we are creating with our thoughts, we are what we think. And I am creating a spectacular future with a little help from my juicer.
-Rose

51 Days

As you can see, from the title of this entry, it's been 51 days since I went raw. It's hard for me to believe that I've really done it! Other than a few little bites of cooked foods, I've been nearly 100%. I'm learning when it's ok to have a taste versus when it's better not to go there and risk backsliding. Eating raw has been a someday goal of mine for such a long time, but one of those goals I never quite got around to doing. Well, here I am, finally doing it.

So, I've been keeping my meals simple: lots of green smoothies (a quart a day) and salads with seaweed and sauerkraut. I have my daily maca nutmilk drink, which definitely gives me energy. I have a little manna bread here and there. I've had a few days of craving sweet things (it's worse when I don't get my greens) and imbalanced meals, like tonight, when I had a big bowl of strawberries with chocolate avocado mousse for dinner. Not typical,but sometimes you have to feed your soul, as well as your body.

I'm finally starting to see some progress, energy-wise. I think the combo of raw, acupuncture, maca drinks and Chinese mystery herbs are beginning to work their magic. Let's not forget my new favorite thing- qigong. Talk about magic! I can feel a big difference each time I practice it. I've had more energy this past week than I've had in a long time. When I went and had electro-dermal screening the other week, even though my thyroid still tested weak, my readings were the best they've ever been. So very gratifying!

I'm still working on getting the level of restful sleep I need. I'm not there yet, but it's also improving. I have to say that my favorite physical change is losing some rather stubborn body fat, especially around my middle. I had a goal in the back of my mind that I wanted to be in better shape in my 30's than I was in my 20's. I've already accomplished it with more ease than I imagined, although I still need to tone things up a little.   I've lost about 6 pounds, which doesn't sound like a lot, but on a thin-framed person like me, it makes a big difference. I'm actually not dreading wearing a swimsuit this summer- how exciting! I'll need to get new pants soon...

-Erin

The energetics of food

It's week five for me and I'm still going strong!  I still have many low energy days, due to low thyroid hormone conversion. Even though I'm not there yet, I feel like I've found some important keys to my personal healing process. Let me tell you more.

Many people go raw assuming that they can eat anything, as long as it's not cooked, and that their body will magically find its perfect balance and restore itself. This does, indeed, work for many people, and some of them go on to write books, extolling the virtues of whatever their particular regimen is. Well, it's just not that simple. I suspect that for every one of these people, there is another person who just isn't feeling all that great, or, even feeling worse! This is where digging a little deeper comes into play.

For me, that deeper digging came in the form of going to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner. So, I went to see a sweet little Chinese lady named Dr. Sheng, who was one of the top TCM practitioners in Shanghai, before moving to the U.S. At my second appointment, she shook her head and said "I'm not going to treat your symptoms; I need to completely rebuild you. This takes six months to two years" Wow- no wonder I'm not "better" yet!

She also told me that some of the foods I was eating a lot of were directly contributing to some symptoms I'd been experiencing. I learned that for me, right now, spicy things like ginger, garlic and cinnamon, were connected to excessive dreaming and even nightmares I had been having, because they were adding too much heat to the heart meridian, where there was already a buildup of heat. They were also making my skin break out. So, I cut them out and I noticed a big difference within days.

This inspired me to really dig in and learn more about the energetics of food. I've had a great book- "Healing With Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford, for a few years and I'd learned a lot from it, but knowing exactly which  imbalances I was dealing with allowed me to gain a new level of knowledge from it and to adjust my diet, accordingly. I now know which foods nourish "kidney yin" (which I'm trying to build) and which foods clear "damp heat", which I have a buildup of. I now also know how to look at my tongue and get clues as to what's going on in my body.

Let me tell you, it's so empowering to know what's going on inside of your body and how each food affects that balance. Every food has a different energetic quality that can work with or against what you're trying to accomplish. I can see the effects of this, already. I'm excited to see how much progress I will make, now that I understand what I'm doing. Beyond just what I eat, I've learned what lifestyle practices will best support me and which ones do me the most harmed.

 I encourage everyone to take advantage of ancient constitutional medicine systems like TCM or Ayurveda. You will learn a lot of practical, self-empowering info.

Knowledge is power, baby!

-Erin

Poo Smoothie

Sorry I don't have a picture for this one but I don't think it would be pretty anyway! I have a new favorite green smoothie and I wanted to share the recipe!

Poo Smoothie (this name comes from the way it looks....just don't think about it too hard!)

2 healthy fistfulls of Kale
16 oz. Water
1 large or 2 medium sized Bananas
3 T raw sunflower seed butter (or other raw seed or nut butter)
2 T raw honey

Blend all in blender adding in as order listed. YUM!!
I find with Kale it can be really bitter so a lot of fruits just don't cut it but since bananas are soo sweet and the sunflower seed butter has a lot of texture it makes for a really tasty smoothie (not to mention lots of protein!) that just happens to look like, well, you know!

~Rose

Do the right thing

This week has been all about lessons for me. After several days of eating a lot more cooked food than I had in the past month (I was limiting my cooked foods to condiments for the most part!) I am happy to get back to RAW. It was interesting to compare the differences in myself with cooked food after nearly a month of raw. To summarize what I noticed eating cooked again:
1. Not nearly as much energy. I have had a much harder time waking up in the morning, I haven't wanted to go to the gym at all this week or even take my dog for our usual 2 mile stroll around the lake.
2. Needing more sleep, not sleeping through the night, harder time falling asleep and waking up.
3. ACID INDIGESTION!!!! Need I say more?
4. Blood sugar highs and lows. On my former diet I experienced a lot of low blood sugar moments and had to eat every few hours. On RAW, I never experience low blood sugar and I'm amazed at how little I need to eat to sustain myself.
5. Less bowel movements- more bloated.
6. Body odor! Ok, I'm not smelly or anything but when I was eating all raw I stopped wearing deodorant most days but I can't skip it this week! I tried and it wasn't pretty : )

So I think eating cooked foods for a few days was good because it really reinforced why I'm doing this and that I'm doing the right thing! We need to love ourselves to love our bodies enough to love our food and DO THE RIGHT THING! EAT RAW!!
~Rose

Not quite

So I have actually decided NOT to fast, but instead, jump back into raw after my lost weekend. Fasting is very natural (animals instinctively fast when they are/getting sick) and SHOULD be fairly easy. Today has not been easy at all so I have decided it must not be the right time. Also, I realized it wasn't fair to my body to load it full of crap and then put it through a major cleaning. It's a lot easier to clean your house when it's only slightly messy rather than thoroughly neglected. Same with our bodies! So I made a small salad with the rest of my bibb lettuce and homemade kimchee. Possibly a new favorite salad! Why did I not think of this before? I added a little olive oil and pieces of nori to the mix YUM!
Speaking of Kimchee, I wanted to share the recipe I use. I have made it about 4 times now and don't really use a recipe anymore, but this is a good guidline. It is from the Living and Raw foods website (http://www.living-foods.com).

Kim Chee recipe

1 napa cabbage, chopped
1/4 cup or more rock salt (Use Korean rock salt if you can or else rock
sea salt)
2 inch piece ginger root, peeled & grated
1 bunch green onion cut into 2inch pieces
8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 handfuls (or more) Korean ground red chili pepper (you can use Mexican
but it should be a coarse grind and the pepper must not be smoked, just
dried)

FYI: Korean ground chilis are about the size of the chili flakes you put on pizza but Korean ground chilis do not include the seeds.

Place cabbage in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with a liberal rock salt and pour the water of it. Let stand for 2-8 hours, stirring now and then.
Drain and squeeze out excess water. If you're worried about the salt you can taste and rinse if needed. Then squeeze and drain once more.

Put cabbage back in mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well with your hands. using your clean hands, pack kim chee into clean screw top jar and cover with lid. Put in a warm place (like your kitchen counter next to stove) for 24 hours then store in fridge for up to 3 months. We never add vinegar. The cabbage makes it own liquid.

In my version, I omit the garlic entirely and add more ginger. I am a huge garlic fan but I think it is highly over used. Kimchee has a great flavor on it's own without the help of garlic! MAKE SURE you use enough salt I cannot stress this enough. The cabbage will soak up a lot of the salt, but you can rinse the excess off. Undersalting can result in your Kimchee molding and/or being mushy. It should have a crisp texture when done properly. Don't be afraid of salt! It is your friend : )

~Rose