Brave New Vision Quest

Wow, it's really been a while since I've blogged here.

Without looking to anyone to validate me, I've decided to say some things.

Without further ado, here goes:

As great as flirting with mini-fasting has helped me in equally minature ways, it's time to pull the trigger on doing it all out.  I can't very well have this blog and what it represents if I'm not willing to do that. So, there's that.

Feel free to check in and laugh at my miserable musings in the future; I'm going until there's a major shift in everything I am. Until every last molecule turns itself inside out, or something like it, there will be no getting any protein from anything other than fresh organic fruit and vegetable juices. 


It's come to that time where I'm stagnating in the stench and filth of processed food-hell, and I can't stand it  a nanosecond more. Starvation would totally feel sooo much better than this!

It was alright at first. Let's see, around 2005 when I first got in a relationship with someone pretty overweight,  I have to admit I was actually fascinated with the hows and the whys of becoming overweight without being pregnant.  I thought it looked kind of cute, 20 extra lbs. or so on my build and height. ("So, thaaat's how that happens, okay. First my middle gets thicker and then my face, etc. Interesting...." )  What was unexpected was I'd never been hit-on by so many men in my entire life as then! Didn't see that coming at all... Part of it was - I'm certain - to force me to not resort to stripping for a living to pay the bills.  Hehe, it worked!  :) While I have no problem whatsoever with nudity - it just wasn't a big deal in our home growing up, I knew that if I was at my fighting weight, so to speak, it would be an easy option I could fall into. With all I'd learned up to that point, I just wasn't going to let that be an option I could settle for. After a couple years or so, I could see where my metabolism was shifting, and then it wasn't long before I was on the fast road to mega-syndrome x.  Not good.


I've since left that relationship, or as Dane Cook calls it, relation-shit, have acquired some mental space I needed to clarify  a few things, and while it's been difficult starting over from scratch (aka getting on a Greyhound bus, riding across the country with only the clothes on my back, leaving everything behind, including my most beloved dog Lila ) it's been totally worth it! The plan was to stay in a shelter for homeless families - where they drug test eveyone and keep the number of people small on purpose - I'd corresponded and secured this ahead of time, save some money away while living there for free, hopefully buying a car while avoiding car payments, I just wanted to figurre out how I could add value to any of the former companies I worked for in Santa Barbara til I could launch yet another of my own businesses.

Instead of sticking to the plan, I stayed with the friend who picked us up at the bus station, and while I did get the exact car I wanted (I'm a Volvo person), paid it off ahead of schedule, and live exactly in the only city I've ever wanted to live in, I've made some careless mistakes made along the way.  Anyway, I'm now in said shelter, getting "3-hots-and-a cot," I'm ready to go in a new direction....

Despite the psychological reorientation required to thrive in a new environment, or at least a place I haven't lived in in years, I've done fairly well.

The most difficult thing is having to do these sort of mental gymnastics and contort my beliefs to actually be employed and stay that way. I think from the instant I read Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant, I knew I could no longer be happy being an employee. That was well over a decade ago.

Now I'm ready to put in the work to do my own thing.

To do it for myself only. In a way it's freeing to be in this unique position, because it feels like there's nothing left to lose. All I'm noticing right now is the freedom to go in any direction I want. I'm just thankful it's a good one. A brave new vision quest is what I'm after, like the early Native Americans who would go off into the woods fasting as a rite of passage. I was always a really late bloomer. It's exciting to be in that space, aware.  To apply everything I've learned up to now, which is a whole lot. And see where it takes me.

That's it for today.

Wish me luck, or just send me hate-mail. Either one's fine.

Stay tuned...

Best Practices

When starting out raw it's tempting to eat a bunch of common fruits and vegetables... till you want some variety in your meals.

Some best practices that really helped me are as follows:

1.  Farmer's Market:  Go to your local farmer's market, even if you're not sure what to buy.  Once you get there, let yourself be inspired by the amazing variety there. Speak to the people who grew the food, and they're always happy to tell you, sometimes in great detail, how it was grown, where, and give you some great recipe ideas.

2.  Stick to the basics.  At first, I went salad-crazy.  This was territory I was familiar with and so it was fairly easy to build up my knowledge from there. By simply incorporating things I'd never thought of before, such as adding cilantro to a bowlful of greens, I was able to venture into bigger and slightly more complicated things like how to make a filling salad without using meat, then without using lettuce.  Spinaches and kales became the base, and it was much easier from there to stay experimental.

3.  Start juicing.  Every raw foodist will recommend to you their favorite brand of juicer and mixer.  You'll love having these as you go further along. However, in the beginning I found it nice to use the one I had from my local department store. These type of centrifugal force juicers that are smaller and designed for occasional use came in handy.  It was best to use this rather than not to have juiced at all.  In this way, you quickly alkalinize the body, and feel the difference immediately. What was really surprising was how quickly people noticed.  They may not have guessed I'd gone raw but they commented on how something was glowing, better and fresher about my aura and general overall appearance than anything else.  Plus you can usually find some sort of greens around the house that need to be used up, and you won't have to dread just having salad, salad and more salad.  You may be surprised at how quickly you can use up what you already have on hand in your juice recipes.  Great starters are

kale + spinach + bananas, even overripe ones. 
carrots + oranges
apples + spinach + bananas
kale + cucumber + cilantro works really well, and you can add one or two apples to a two serving glass to balance the "green" taste. These were some of my favorites when I first really got going with it, and they were even better when combined with...

4.  Mini-fasting.  At first I couldn't imagine even thinking of undergoing a few-hours-fast, much less anything worse.  It seemed unreasonable, like I would have to sign up to some far away camp or health spa to even dream of it.  Happy to report, it was a great best practice to commit to fasting one meal a day, usually lunch since I could easily distract myself with errands and other things to do.  I'd make a lot of juice beforehand, and carry it with me in a plastic container with a lid, and kept it in a cooler.  Whatever juice I was drinking for the one-meal fast had to have lots of banana.  I found my blood sugar wasn't as spikey and I was much less shaky about the whole thing when I followed that one step.  Sometimes I'd add purified water, and other times I'd make a green veggie or fruit smoothie, and with all that ice, I could maintain my strength and energy for hours and last until dinner.

5.  Being patient.  If there were a day or time when I hadn't much time for preparation, then I'd know I could always fast from dinner and that woul be that. No worries.  The neat thing was that this launched me into thinking that now I could go further and fast from today's lunch or afternoon snack, (usually around 4 pm) till the next day's lunch or dinner.  That's when you and other people really start seeing the results of your body's alkaline state.  For some reason it just felt easier to juice fast breakfast and lunch after going to bed with only a 3 or 4 vegetable juice dinner.


By adjusting these best practices, I hope you're better able to find what works best for you and your family.

Don't Kill Yourself

In your quest to discover raw and living foods, in your journey to working out how you can eat more healthily and still get your protein, don't kill yourself if you can't get a 100% raw day in, every single meal and morsel of every single day.

It's a change. It's different. And it's hard.  Actually you get to the point where you don't think it is at all after a while.  That's when it get fun. Coming up with different salad, juice and meal combos for dehydrating take on a whole new dimension once you've alkalinized your body. 

It's weird, I never cared at all about sitting and reading recipes intricately and poring over cookbooks, but now there's hardly anything I enjoy more than intently reading and thinking of the wonderful recipe combos other raw foodists have put together.

So go easy on yourself, take it one meal at a time if you have to.

If I'm not in a position of having prepared my dehydrated snacks, or to juice a dozen carrots, it's no big deal.  It's what you do the most that counts!

The Cure for Virus

Now that I've come to, I remembered the total and absolute cure for yesterday's post (this coming down with an upper respiratory infection twice in as many months) : the cure for any virus is quite simple actually, it's the humble miracle coconut oil.

It just so happened I was out of the stuff. You can buy it now in a convenient capsule form, or it can be eaten raw right out of the jar.  It's quite alright on toast. I recommend buying the capsules since they usually come in doses of 500 milligrams or higher. You probably wouldn't want to eat that much toast.

Personally I support the brands that contain nothing but pure coconut oil, and they have to come from the Philippine Islands.  In our family we like to take them every day, around a capsule or two in the morning, and then again at night. Prevention is far better than the cure, but in case you're in the midst of a viral attack right now, you can start taking them 2- 4 at a time.  It's up to you, but I've never heard of anyone taking too much. Yes, coconut contains fat. However, this is the only oil of its kind that contains medium-chain fatty acids, rather than short or long chain. This is commonly referred to as the good kind of fat, and has benefits beyond just disseminating viruses.  Medium-chain fatty acids contained in coconut oil, along with other components can postitively rev the body's metablolism and casue the body to stop fatigue and increase the feeling of energy. For this reason it makes an excellent cure for underactive thyroid.

The reason this is the one and only cure ever in the history of the world is this: lipids. Coconut oil contains elements that, when in contact with any and all viruses, completely disintegrates the fatty sheath the virus is enclosed in.

So, moral of the story, when everyone and their brother is upset and afraid of the so-called "swine" flu, you'll know what to do.


Happy viral assassinating!

But... Why Did I Get Viral - Again?

So I made the familiar trek to the ER again today, after being knocked on my ass - again - by yet another URI. Upper Respiratory Infection, and it's (round of applause) viral. Good for videos, bad for people.

Ok, so - my question is, why?

All the raw foods I carefully consume each day.

All the garlic - raw and tabs - I faithfully take every day.

All the enemas I painstakingly administ... nevermind!

Or even all the acai I drink, daily... begs me to ask of the universe: WTF??

I feel like Jesus: Truly I say unto you: "I resent having to take this... this is bullsh#*!!"

If you have any helps in this area, by all means let me know. Granted my son can't help bringing home a certain amount of germs, bacteria and viruses in that petri dish known as public school, but still. (Yet another great reason we homeschooled).

It's pissing me off, really.

Whatevs. Hit me back.  I'll be the one wearing the mask, except it won't be to pay homage to Michael Jackson. It'll be to honor my... GERMS!!!

lenieford@rawfoods.com

(919) 584 - 3532

I call this picture... "Thrilled."

Dandy Lions

Today I had:

Carrot Juice w/ 2 braeburn apples, 2 oranges, & 2 bananas mixed in

Almond butter cup treats
&
Dandelion salad topped with raw parmesan.  It was good, but I also know now that I prefer to drink them. 

The name Dandelion is literally from the French words Dent de Lion (tooth of the lion) seeing how the leaves look like lion's teeth. Now one of the most common "weeds" aroung, people don't seem to fully realize the value this plant  has to offer.

The entire plant is edible.  The roots used to be popularly ground for coffee, by brewing them to a strong finish.  Can't say I've tried that yet, but in time I'm all about  drinking some fresh brewed dandelion coffee.  The leaves make great salad, but I find them easier to juice and drink. The easily identifiable flowers make a bright addition to salads, tasting slightly tangy, and the health benefits are truly astonishing.

The humble dandelion contains more vitamin A than almost any other vegetable, and is just as surprisingly high in potsassium and calcium.  And to think people mow them down like they aren't chock full of goodness!

I mainly got into dandelions as a liver tonic a few years ago, after quitting smoking for the zillionth time. They can be purchased in capsules, but you can also obtain it powdered, and buy your own capsules if you want. Anyway, they are one of the best things you can take to tone the liver and bring overall health to the body.

For variety I mixed the greens with baby spinach leaves, grape and beefsteak tomatoes, a splash of lemon and fresh ground black pepper.  With my parmesan recipe, you can really enhance the cheese taste that goes nicely with the tomatoes and the greens. It's delicious!