Meditative Juice

Tuesday brought to my home as usual my great friend Denise, the Green Queen. As it is my day of work these days, I appreciate her arrival in the morning even more; there is no better reason to jump out of bed early then meeting up with your girlfriend and doing something you enjoy. This is especially vital if you have over-combined and overeaten your food the previous evening and you feel like had two bottles of red... Do you know this feeling? It happens as our bodies get used to the cleansing, simpler diet; as soon as we regress back to badly combined cooked or even sometimes raw but heavy food, our body lets us know that (s)he does not like this. I am very happy to observe though that there are things my body has learned to expect and it does ask for them. One of them is my daily morning glass of water with MSM and lemon juice. It's a great way to rehydrate the body after the many hours spent sleeping, and I also see it as some kind of internal shower. It refreshes and sort of wakes me up; I feel immediately ready for some San saluting. This morning I immediately followed up with a small glass of super green juice, which works wonders for me. I cannot get enough of the stuff. It has strong alkalising effect on our bodies, and so is great for as most of us are over acidic from eating too much processed or sugary foods and drinks. This morning, as I suffered from my morning-after-the-night-before-over-indulgence I felt better with every little sip I took. I salute the juicer! If you are feeling inspired by my enthusiasm, go for it. The only warning I give is in case you are on any kind of medication - then I recommend consulting a medical practitioner, preferably one who knows and appreciates the healing effects of proper (raw, vegan,green) nutrition. However, if you are (relatively) healthy and want to feel MUCH better, fresh green juices are waiting! If this is your first time with fresh juices, start with more fruity ones and slowly add your greens, that way you will get used to the green taste better and will end up enjoying them more.

Denise and I left out yoga this morning and spent an hour with Nadabrahma meditation instead. This meditation is based on ancient Tibetan techniques and was brought to us by Indian mystic called Osho. It is a very calming one, and after half an hour of humming and then some quiet sitting in inner reflection we were almost too sedated to talk. So we went to spend some more quiet time with the juicer and made us an amazing breakfast juice. Green,of course, what else?!

1/4 cucumber
1/3 butter lettuce
1/2 celery
leaves from 10 radishes
handful of parsley
handful of lambs quarters
3 pears
2 passion fruit, because it is Denise's favourite fruit, and because it smells heavenly

At the end the taste was surprisingly sweet. I bought some pretty green pears, but as they sat in our fruit bowl, they ripened and became lovely and sweet, and the passion fruit added a tropical touch.

I was not so good later in the afternoon when I met with another of my friends and ordered a cappuccino. Unfortunately, or should I make it fortunately, they didn't make it very well, the milk was a bit off and it tasted so bad I left most of it behind. I had to ask myself again and again when will I learn? When will I stop ordering stuff I only want because that's what everyone else is having? I don't enjoy it, it makes me feel bad and I end up being annoyed with myself... I know it is a question many transitioning raw foodist asked themselves before me and at the same time I am not the last one to go through with it, but I so wish I could be 'perfect'! I am going to do my best and follow my own advice - what happened has happened and with every next decision I will be a step closer to my own version of perfection... be it a vegan, 100% raw vegan or something in between.I have met a few individuals, who were able to stop eating everything they realised was bad for them overnight, but it is not an easy way, and it most definitely is not for everybody.

Dinner for me was another green juice and a Thai inspired salad from shredded red cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, mung bean sprouts, tamari marinated mushrooms, sunflower seeds and sun dried tomatoes marinated on herby olive oil with a very spicy dressing based on tahini and lime juice. Yum!

Parsley Wednesday

I am happy to share with you that the headaches are gone, not troubling me any more. So that is not too bad - considering how sensitive I am to caffeine and how much of the stuff I had last week.

I started the day with a pint of water with a teaspoonful of MSM (nutritional form of sulphur) and juice of half a lemon. MSM is an amazing substance, that should be naturally present in our food as it falls down as part of rainwater. The reality is that most of our food is grown in greenhouses or ripened in special warehouses, and so we are lacking this important substance. Generally MSM is celebrated for its ability to make our bodies more flexible and it is often enjoyed by yogis. I am honestly not sure if it can work within 2 days, but my yoga practice this morning felt different, very bouncy in a way, as if my body developed a few secret springs! So hail the MSM. It is also great for healthy radiant skin and shiny hair, as it is a sulphuric substance, and our hair, nails and skin love sulphur. The other quality of MSM is that it allows our cells to absorb all the other important chemicals we get in our food - vitamins, minerals and things we yet do not have a name for. This is great news, because most of us are defficient in many nutrients, and so is generally the food we eat, which is often grown in depleted exhausted soil. To make every little bit count is a bonus. At the same time it allows toxin and waste products to leave our cells, which keeps us healthy. As the time goes by I will be upping the amount up to a heaped tablespoon every morning.Lemon juice is added mostly to help us to adjust to the taste, although lemon juice first thing in the morning has many benefits on its own - I will enlighten you about this another time.

Breakfast:

6 small pears

1 small banana

bunch of parsley
water

Work was a little bit intense today and so I have to confess to eating a huge square or raw chocolate as a result of this behaviour today. Well, as a result, I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling rather shaky, as two days on green smoothies made my body a liiiitle bit sensitive to this kind of stimulation. But I enjoyed it, and it helped me keep my cool. Note to self - start practicing some protective meditation, as there will be strictly no solids next week. It was my last chocolate in the office drawer as well, which will help next time. The hand might reach, but it will not find...

Lunch:

3/4 galia melon

small bunch of parsley

small bunch of spinach

water

I ate some of my lunch at work, but as I was stresses and also shaky from that chocolate, I brought most of it back home and ate is as a soup with some hemp seeds on the top. I am not sure if I am 'allowed' nuts and seeds, but I am taking it easy, being nice to myself. Jut as important as getting enough greens!

Dinner:

leftovers from previous two meals

in a lovely glass bowl

sprinkled with a few blueberries

I have had a really nice day, despite stress at work. I am feeling good, and was told I look good, too, but this will be courtesy of the still lasting alpine tan and freckles; even green smoothies cannot work that fast! Or can they?