Reminder of why I'm making the switch

now read: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/29/new-vermont-gmo-labeling-policy-officially-introduced.aspx?e_cid=20120229_DNL_art_1

What set this whole cleanse thing off for me was GMO's. There was so much discussion of GMO's at the Women's Wellness Conference. I figured if I stayed away from the white stuff and packaged food I would, for the most part, be avoiding GMO's. They are everywhere. This is why I really want to start buying all organic. Yes it's expensive, and I'll be the first to admit I bought non-organic cashews yesterday from Costco. I made the justification for non-organic too. "These are affordable." "These are practical."

I also purchased Houweling's green house grown tomatoes on the vine and I stood there for 15 minutes researching the company so I could justify buying those too. When grown in a greenhouse you don't need soil, therefore they don't get weeds, therefore you don't need herbicides. They're also grown locally, in Camarillo, and are a family business that has been around since 1956. They use renewable energy, solar electric power, water conservation, and are award winning in 2011 for environmental and economic leadership.

Am I trying to make myself feel better? Yes. Did I justify buying the tomatoes? Yes. Did I do research first? Yes. I didn't just blindly buy them. There were three to choose from. The other two options were conventionally grown in Mexico, so obvi they were out.

After all this rampage, I just googled, "Are Kirkland Cashews GMO?" and PCC Natural Markets website came up. They support non-GMO and have a page dedicated to it on their website. This is good.

What's slightly annoying is that my eye only caught the bold print...Contains: cashews. Funny how I completely read over the part that said Ingredients: cashews, peanut oil and salt. At least they're non-GMO, but that is a fine example of how an extremely aware and mindful consumer is just as easily confused as the person that doesn't give two hoots about whether those nuts have been processed.

It's only been a week since being off the white stuff and packaged foods, and I have made great strides. The hardest thing so far is the almond milk. It's just so easy to use the stuff from the box. This is a work in progress but I am happy to say, other than the nuts, this is basically the only processed food I have been using.

On a funny/maddening note, I forgot to mention the goji berries I bought from Whole Foods for the bargain price of 20 bucks a pound...my fiance happened to take a liking to them and started dumping them down his throat! It makes me crazy. He did this before and after eating an entire package of GMO movie theater "butter" popcorn. Which, btw, he bought on a Costco trip solo.

Raw Cheesy Noodles

Monday I work a 12 hour day and I knew as I was driving home that I was not going to be able to prepare anything without having a melt down. I b-lined to Whole Foods and picked up a raw marinated kale and mushroom salad with red onion and bell pepper and a zucchini pasta with lemon pesto. The pasta was  super bland and not my thing but the kale salad was delish. 

On Tuesday I had time to go to Costco to get what organic vegetables they do sell (I'm a budget and yes Costco actually has good quality organic or pesticide free so cal grown veggies) and then a trip back to Whole Foods to spend a million dollars on nuts, zucchinis, sun dried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, 100% pure virgin organic coconut oil (skin, hair and cooking), some jalapenos, Serrano's, and habaneros. 

I had a reality check with myself that if I really want to make this thing work, I need to get on the sauce wagon. Enter Cashew Cheese. I don't want to be a crazy zealot, so I am basically doing what I can do. I did buy cashews from Costco because they were way more affordable than the 16.99 a pound at Whole Foods. They might be roasted but all the ingredients say are: cashews. I'm okay with that. I'm making it work and most importantly, I'm not making myself crazy. If you're a raw food fanatic, be supportive. Don't judge. If you're someone who is trying to turn the train around, let this be a reminder that one choice out of ten makes a difference! Do whatever you can to live a little better. I will never buy these cashews again, but for now they are helping me stay afloat and keeping me away from tortilla chips.

I got lucky on Monday night, when I forgot to write down the sku number for my sprouted almonds. The cashier charged my 3.99 a pound. When I went back yesterday I checked the price: 16.99 a pound.

Raw Cheesy Noodle Sauce:

1 cup cashews

3 cloves garlic (your preference)

1/4 white onion

1 jalapeno (should have used 2 or 1 serrano or habanero)

2 TBS nutritional yeast

pinch of sea salt

fresh cracked pepper

Zucchini Pasta:

3 zucchinis, sliced thinly long ways. stack one on top of the other and then slice again into strips to create "noodles." 

4 small tomatoes, sliced, chopped, however you prefer

2 cups of baby bella mushrooms, chopped

cilantro to taste

Put all of the sauce ingredients into the blender and cover just to the top with water. Blend well. Add more water if you want a thinner consistency. 

Put pasta ingredients into large mixing bowl, cover with sauce and stir well. I let mine sit out on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving. It was amazing! 

This morning's smoothie:

5 rainbow chard leaves (saved stems for broth)

2 clementines

2 small handfuls frozen mixed berries

almond milk - maybe a cup

1 large handful ice

blend well. 

IT'S SO GOOD! 

It's All About the Gynostemma

http://www.dragonherbs.com/prodinfo.asp?number=601

I am a huge tea lover. I practically drink tea for a living. My latest craze was with the Kusmi Detox, but I'm fresh out and on to the next. In order to drink this tea properly you need a thermos and a cup, or two cups. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, try to pour water over this tea bag and drink out of the same cup. Over steeping this tea (it steeps for 3-5 minutes, BUT, one bag brews three cups) causes it to be extremely strong and may make you feel a bit nauseous. Yes, I am speaking from experience. 

How to Brew Gynostemma:

Steep in cup or thermos

Pour into mug.

Pour only what you need for that one cup. Pour it all in your cup. Then, when you are ready for your next cup, steep fresh water. You can do this three times. I do it all day. 

Gynostemma is an amazing Chinese herb used for longevity. At the Women's Wellness Conference I was at, everyone spoke in length about the gynostemma and Chinese Herbs. After learning about all these herbs: dandelion root, milk thistle, horsetail, schizandra, black shilajit, tree mushrooms, astragalus, cat's claw. etc. etc., I mean the list goes on and on, Truth Caulkins gave a presentation and delivered what we needed to hear. He said, "If there are only two things you can afford to buy, get the Dragon Tea and the Shilajit." 

Keep in mind all these crazy herbs from all over the world, organically grown, and harvested using only pure raw natural spring water are expensive! I was incredibly thankful he said that because I was so overwhelmed trying to figure out what the heck I could tangibly walk away with at  the conference. Truth is pretty groovy. He opened the first tonic bar in LA. If you looked up "far out" in the dictionary you would see his picture. Along with David Wolfe's. They truly are fascinating people.

Back to gynostemma: it's all about longevity! It is a super potent herbal formula in a tea bag that is 5 to 10 times stronger than just a blend of chopped herbs. I think it's amazing. Still need to try to shilajit.

Quick Snack

So, you're probably thinking, "What the hell is that?" That is what I call a super quick snack. We had a killer day in the garden; everyone ate In In Out while I slaved away pretending it wasn't happening, and quickly came home before heading to Manhattan Beach for dinner with friends.

Raw Food Tacos:
First, I rinsed the romaine leaves. Simple.
Then, I opened up the snapware container that had the chopped celery in it from last night that wouldn't fit into the cup I had put the rest of the celery in.
Sidebar: if you put celery in just a touch of water and keep it on top shelf of fridge, it will stay fresher longer. You need a wide cup, hence 3 sticks not fitting. And celery is on the Dirty Dozen List, mind you, so be sure you get that ish organic.
http://vegan.sheknows.com/2011/06/14/the-new-dirty-dozen-and-clean-15-fruits-and-vegetables/

Mmmk, so then, I quickly marinated the celery. By quickly, I mean squirted some dijon mustard directly on top of it (yes, I know it's a prepared food, thank you) along with some ACV (that's short for apple cider vinegar, remember that) quickly sliced shallot, salad sprinkle http://www.frontiercoop.com/products.php?cn=Salad+Sprinkle&ct=spicesaz (if you don't know, now you know) and one green bean and one cayenne pepper from the vinegar jar from my dad's girlfriend. Same jar as last night, which has totally been neglected since before this raw food thing began. When all you're eating is cheese you forget about everything else, or at least I do.

Put lid back on snapware and shake so mixture is "marinated." Add more ACV if needed. Oh, I forgot pumpkin seeds. Always add some kind of seed or nut for good measure.

Shake, shake, shake the water off those romaine leaves, set them on the plate with stems intact.
Squirt mustard on each leaf and spread with spoon...it takes two seconds, I swear.
Then scoop celery mix onto each leaf. Sit down at the table.
Take the left side of the leaf and roll burrito style, using stem for added crunch. Am I making any sense? If it were a burrito, you would tuck the bottom part of tortilla before completely folding. This is not a flour tortilla; it's lettuce. See the far left side of the leaf above? It rolls easily, covering the mixture and then you snap the stem toward the top. Super crunchy, super satisfying, and yes I ate all four. You got beef? I don't.

This week's bounty

http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php

Yesterday on the way home from work, (by the way, five people showed up for the presentation on diabetes and one woman said she learned more at this meeting than any she's ever attended), I started thinking about making a smoothie. Then I started thinking about almond milk. Then I realized almond milk comes in a carton. Then it hit me: almond milk in a box is a...dun dun dun...processed food! Ahh! No! How can this be happening?! 

I spent the better half of yesterday afternoon by the pool perusing google for "what is a processed food?" I mean really? I'm a health educator. Get it together. Do you really need an article from huffington post to tell you what a processed food is? I think not. The good news: almond milk is so easy to make, I am fully prepared to take on the task. The bad news: we just bought a six pack of unsweetened unorganic vanilla almond milk from Costco. Oopsies.

The best news of the week though is that we survived our first sober Friday. Neither of us even metioned alcohol, cocktails, wanting a cocktail or even admitted to thinking about cocktails. I had nearly convinced myself (secretly of course) that a cocktail wouldn't be so bad if I just had a salad, all the while reading my new book "Live Raw" by Mimi Kirk. Ay ay ay. Let it go. Let it go. 

We have some really nice organic wild rice so I decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to steam it with some onion and garlic. That's not a processed food right? I mean when it comes down to it, aren't almonds a processed food? I'm not the one that crawled up into the tree, picked them, deshelled them, rinsed them, bagged them, shipped them, etc. This could borderline make me crazy, so I am doing my best. And by the way I feel and by what the scale is reflecting, I am doing a good job!

Back to dinner. As you can see above, we have some beautiful rainbow chard, kale, onion, etc. etc. While the rice was steaming (it took extra long because I kept the heat reeeeeeally low - - justify, justify) I rinsed the rainbow chard, chopped up the stems, sliced each leaf down the middle, put half on top of the other, rolled it burrito style and sliced away. I threw the ends of the chard in with the rice and it was absolutely beautiful. I then de-stemmed the kale and ripped it up into small pieces. 

Here's the fun part: I had no idea what I was going to do next so I got a large bowl and threw the kale and the rainbow chard in it. I squeezed lemon over it...sprinkled some salad sprinkle on it...okay now what...I have some apple cider vinegar in here, threw that on top of it, oh! cayenne peppers in vinegar from my dad's girlfriend, chopped two of those up and threw that in there, and of course, added a couple dashes of ground cayenne pepper, just for good measure. The rice was just about done so I  turned off the heat and put half of the vegetable mixture over the rice to steam it just a bit. I put the other half of the vegetable mixture in my bowl and scooped just a bit of the rice and vegetable medley. Holy heat wave. It was so delicious. Rumil had mostly rice, I had mostly vegetables, and in this household, that's what we consider a win win.

We had some strawberries for dessert and a couple nibbles of this amazing raw chocolate that my raw foodie chef friend made and sent to me. The one on the bottom right tastes like flipping cookie dough. For real. Amai Health, people. Get your fix on! It's so rich you only need a nibble. 

http://www.superstevia.com/amai.html *She is also the one that makes Super Stevia and Brackers.

It's Saturday morning now, and someone is making bacon. I don't even eat bacon but the smell gets me sometimes. Today is techinically our day off, but I am going to do my very best to stay the course as much as possible...we're heading to my sister's to garden and then having dinner with friends (albeit very healthy friends) in Manhattan Beach, but I know the red wine will ensue. If we can prevent it from being a purple haze, we''ll be golden. We'll see how it goes! 

What is this about?

Day two of Lent was yesterday, and we went to my fiance's parents house to visit with his mom who just had shoulder surgery. When you're fasting, it's important that you have your time alone. As David Wolfe just said at the Women's Wellness Conference: don't eat, hide, sleep and turn your phone off.

I was hesitant to go over there because he said they were ordering pizza, which just so happens to be my favorite naughty food. So I sucked it up, grabbed an apple, a lemon, and the salad fixings for today's lunch, just in case. Turns out, all I needed was the lemon for some warm lemon water, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

When we got to his parents house, his brother's were there along with a bottle of tequila and a 12 pack of Pacifico. My fiance asked me if I would be mad if he drank...hmmm...this whole fasting, Lent thing is not supposed to be about me getting mad at you for not following through, oh on day two. So I let go. That's right. I'm on day two of 100% raw food and I let go. It felt good. Today I feel amazing. I have a presentation at a doctor's office this afternoon on diabetes education and if more than three people show up, I'll be psyched.

Here's the thing though...this is not about getting mad at your partner when they decide to fall off the wagon. This is about you (or me in this case) and our personal decision to commit to something and follow through with it. I am off of processed foods for the next 38 days and if this doesn't bring me closer to God, I don't know what will. I am letting go of control. Letting go of trying to get someone else to do something that maybe they really don't want to do. He said he would give up alcohol and at the first temptation he gave in. I can't dwell on that.

I made a bomb ass smoothie this morning with two handfuls of spinach, an orange, half a banana, almond milk, and ice, which I will be nursing all morning.

Restore, Revitalize, Regroup. This is about me.

Lent Day 2

So my deal with the cleanse is no packaged foods, mostly raw foods, so my friend and I went to Raw World in Santa Monica last night and it was pretty good. Would it be terrible if I said I liked Cafe Gratitude better? I appreciate both business entirely but that shake that tastes like cookies and cream, the spring rolls and the kale and almond salad at Cafe Gratitude really can not be beat. So yesterday was a great day of staying on course, and getting closer to Jesus. That's the whole point, right?

My friend just so happens to be Catholic (or was Catholic or whatever) and he said they don't take Sunday's off. Well after a little googling around, I have found that most people do take Sunday off (it's a mini-Easter slash day of feasting -- news to me) so we will stick with the original plan. BTW, did you know the Pope himself will be tweeting once a day about #lent? http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-pope-twitter-lent-20120222,0,6561776.story

Back to Lent, giving things up, taking a day off, etc...my dad's girlfriend had to switch gardening to Saturday instead of Sunday because she has to meet with her AA sponser. Via text she said, "Once you get in a recovery group, it seems that you have to relinquish a lot of control over your own life to have any peace in the program. Like Zombies. I'd like to just run from everything."

She plays in the band though and she does love that. But imagine, giving something up FOREVER. Lenten FOREVER. You're an addict and you can never ever ever ever have one single drink again. I assured her that although it must be difficult they are really just looking out, and that really, everyone wants to run from everything when there is a problem. That is the problem. This is reality. Dealing with reality. Living in your reality.

I had several clients in SF that were part of AA and one of them said to me once that sugar was his first addiction. It took all this time, eating sugar as a kid, drinking and doing drugs, going through recovery, being sober for 10 years and then coming into my office to realize that his childhood is where the addiction began. Sugar. That white poison that ruined him for several years of his life was only manifesting itself it different forms...FOR YEARS. And it will continue to manifest itself and rear it's ugly head forever. You're not drunk off doughnuts or high on bagels...or are you?

It's Lent!

It's been awhile but Lent is here and that can only make me think of one thing: another cleanse!

We're not Catholic, but let's get straight to the point. Lent is a great time for people to jump on the healthy lifestyle bandwagon. It's very similar to making a new year's resolution, however, when you throw Jesus in the mix, things get a lot more serious. So give it up! Whatever it is!

My fiance and I are giving up alcohol. We don't really eat sugar in other forms, so this should be interesting. One of my clients informed me that "they" (the Catholics that is) do six days on and Sunday off...go figure. So we're on that bandwagon, you know to keep Jesus happy. We're taking Saturday off, but that's a different story.

I just attended a Women's Wellness Conference by David Wolfe, a major raw foodie, so I am also giving up the few processed foods I do still indulge in...read: cheese. tortilla chips. more cheese. more chips (they're organic tortilla chips, mmmk?!) I think it will be great and I am feeling very inspired since I was just surrounded by the raw foodie crew. Also, a great friend of mine (who I first dabbled in raw foods with) is already on the wagon, so that will be of great help and support.

When I asked my fiance if he wanted to do another cleanse, he said he can't because he doesn't want to lose any more weight and he already bought his suit for the wedding! Come on! It's all gravy though. It's all raw gravy. Made from mushrooms I suppose. So he's not into, and I'm okay with that. Better to stay focused on just giving up the alcohol.

At my last post he was at 185ish and now he's down to 180. At 6'3", he's right. He really can't afford to lose any weight. I believe I was trying to recover from our SF trip where I gained six pounds. I am now down to 120 and loving every minute of it. It's a far cry from the 163 I once was. Even a far cry from the 143 I thought I was doing so well at. And I'm eating! That's the best part!

Anyway, the moral of the story today is, get a buddy, set a goal, give something up for the next 40 days and be thankful you're not fasting in the desert for real. It's just you. And Jesus. PS. Don't wait until next Monday. B E G I N !