Tuesday, March 31

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!

Friday, March 27

DRINK ME!!!

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So this is how my first green juice looked like and it tasted something like ZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRBURGUMBUNGRZBRUNG! There was not one piece of fruit in it if you don't count lime juice a I could taste and feel its vibrations long after I had the last sip. All I could feel was greenness, cleanliness, spring and regeneration and renewal plus multitude of feelings and thoughts.... but also I kept glancing at my fruit bowl and at the end I went to make juice from a few apples to soften the last of this green goodness. But, although this is a mere wine glass, it is Cooked Husband's wine glass and it is a pint sized one no less. So I got a lot of minerals and vitamins and other goodness and it felt as if every sip made me younger by a week. It does not show - not yet... Can't wait though.

So - Bottoms up! Your health!

Big little helper

I just wanted to show you how magically this machine works when it comes to greens. I am not having as much success with fruits, but for leafy greens it is magic. Well, you can see for yourself - the jug is about 1 and a half pint, and there was just about a small handfull of almost dry fibrous solid stuff. I run the fibre through second time as not to waste a single drop, and I thought that to get this much juice was simply AMAZING!

This was the first juice I have made, and in it was

1/2 green soft lettuce
1 cucmber
1 courgette
1 inch galangal root
juice of 1 lemon

It was very zingy and wonderful. Later that day I made a juice from

5 large chard leaves
1 cucumber
2 apples
1 lime
1 small head of celery

Poor brave Cooked Husband! He agreed to have a taste, but he is just simply not ready for all the goodness found in green juices yet. They are super-power stuf, not for the faint hearted. Not that he is faint hearted, but I mean - you have to taste a straight green juice to understand. He was very happy and impressed with the fresh pineapple juice I made him the next day for breakfast, so I will have to start him softly and sneak in a green leaf here and there, to build his taste buds up to the challenge.

Watch this space!

Thursday, March 26

Oscar!


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So he is here. He has arrived! And as I promissed he is absolutely amazing, super shiny and fabulous, and he is all mine! My new super juicer called Oscar!
I have to confes that he arrived already yesterday, but it was Cooked Husband's birthday and so it was not a day for me to open presents but for him. I will write a post about yesterday as well, but for now I wanted to let you know about our new family mamber. I unpacked him this morning, washed and polished him, and then I got him work. And is he clever!?

My first ever home made super green juice was made out of
1 cucumber
1 courgette
1/2 a huge lettuce head
1 lime
2 cm piece of galanghal root

It had a lot of umphf, so I added a juice from 2 apples to the last third to soften the taste. But still! WOW! Rather strong and zingy and GREEN!

I will blog about what I like and maybe not like about this juicer once I have had it for a while. After the first day I have to say I am very impressed with the yield for leafy and crunchy veggies, absolutelly amazing, but not so sure about those apples, as I got more like a thin puree then a pure juice. But that might be because those apples were a but dry... I know that serious juicy people sometimes have more then one type of juicer as they are better for different kinds of veggies and fruits, but me, for now, I am happy and juicy and celebratory.

Viva le Oscar! Viva la New Moon! Viva le Juicy life!

Tuesday, March 24

These sheep were so hungry they were following us... and I had nothing green to feed them... surprisingly so!



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Everywhere I look there is a baby sheep


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It has been SOOOO many days since I have written! Well, I am sure you have noticed that, but I actually almost haven't...

What happened is that I have been 'unplugged' from the Internet, and the computer for that matter, for a few days over the weekend and then spent some time looking after a friend in need, so I do have some legitimate excuses one might hope people will accept...

So. I went to Wales for the weekend. This trip was a part of the reason why I gave up my green smoothie life for a few days as I could not face hiking and travelling while eating and detoxing in that way. For a while I was a little bit unhappy about the whole trip though. You see, this was supposed to be Cooked Husband's weekend away with the boys, only at the end it turned into a family trip with our friends because some of the boys could not make it. Like I said, I felt a bit 'grrr' about this, as I had all weekend planned, no cooking, lots of juices, maybe even a water only fast.... and at the end I ended up eating chips for dinner instead. Quite a detour from my plan then. But I had so much fun, and I think we were so lucky to visit Wales during the only three sunny days they (apparently) get every year, and so at the end it was worth the detox break. It was even (just maybe) worth the chips. Also, as a bonus, there were baby sheep just about EVERYWHERE!!

I developed a special relationship to sheep almost as soon as I first crossed the Canal La Manche almost 15 years ago. For those who do not know this, you can see these peaceful woolly creatures standing by the road, watching the world go (or drive) by, while chewing on juicy grass. I have not seen anything like this before, as we do not have sheep filled meadows lined roads in the Czech republic very much, and the sight of white dots on green grass makes me for whatever reason illogically happy and jolly.

Enter mid March in Wales, the home of sheep. I was in a sensory heaven; enjoying fresh air, healthy dose of walking, catching up with my girlfriend and enjoying her children's company as well, and, as a bonus, walking through field after field full of mother and baby sheep. I especially enjoyed observing the close relationship between the mama sheep and the baby sheep that we could see everywhere. First, the mothers were extremely protective of their babies. Sheep are very shy and generally, if you approach them, they walk or even run away. Not when a baby sheep is present. The mama would stare at us, rather directly, and Baa loudly, in a deep voice, to scare us away. The other, even more amazing behaviour, and very natural indeed, was that every time any of the lambs strayed from the mama, as soon as the mama Baa-ed for them, they galloped back as fast as they could and immediately had a little cuddle and a little drink of milk. Now some of these lambs were bigger and were happily grazing on the grass, and the milk drinking was a quick one most of the times, more like a comfort blanket, like making sure the mother was really there. I loved this, it felt so caring and, well, natural. It made me sad in a way though as I thought of cows and their babies, who get taken away from the mother cows too soon, so that we, people, can steel their milk and drink it instead, while we feed the calves some human made stuff... It is really sad and makes me really want to be strong enough so that I can give up the white stuff for good. This subject will most certainly develop into another post about dairy, the whole industry built around it, what it does and does not do to us and our health, books to read on the subject and much else, but not today. This is now a rather long post, so let's just stay with the memory of the woolly happiness of jolly sheep.

As far as the food goes, I will only mention breakfast. It was interesting for one reason, and that is that I actually got organised enought o write to the B&B we were booked into and asked them to prepare a raw vegan breakfast for me. They had the usual menu of cooked Welsh breakfast, all about sausages, eggs and bacon with toast and cereal, and I knew that sitting there sipping hot water with lemon while Cooked Husband was munching away would leave me feel unsatisfied. So I wrote to them explaining that I did not eat any cooked or processed food and would they be willing to make me a fruit salad. And that is what happened. I was told that they actually had the fruit special ordered for me, and my breakfast was made of lovely ripe kiwis and strawberries with other crunchy fruit and bananas. It was yummy and even Cooked Husband tucked in. Admitedly, the lady who served us in the mornings was a bit worried about how I was going to survice the day, but it was beautiful, colourful and lovely. The perfect start to my day! I am writing about this to encourage you to speak out for yourselves. Too often we feel that because we are different we might be judged and people will not want fulfill the special request we make, but the oposite is true. And by asking for the food we like to eat, perhaps we might spark an interest in people. Imagine that every time we do this, ask for a fruit salad for breakfast in a cooked hotel or ask for a large raw salad for dinner in a posh restaurant, we could make one person think about eating more raw fruits and veggies. Would that not be great??

I leave you with that for tonight.

Good night, and remember to count the sheep before you fall asleap. There are far too many for me to be the only one to do so!

Wednesday, March 18

Salad day



OK, it's become incredibly busy in this household. How grateful I am that I can only work part time! My day definitelly needs to have more hours... but I know that if I eat carefully and simply then I sleep less... so it is a no brainer!

Breakfast:
simply just fruit, cut into pieces and enjoyed as it is
1 pear
1 asian pear
piece of fresh pineapple

Snack at work:
green smoothie made from
1/2 pineapple
handful of rocket and watercress
water
GREEN SMOOTHIE TRIVIA: rocket and watercress add a lot of umphf to your smoothie and are not for the novices, I would say. Start with softer tasting leaves such as spinach and various lettuces, lambs quarters, yummy herbs such as corriander and mint etc, but remember to ROTATE your greens. Do not stick to only one or two. Also if at all possible go for ORGANIC.

I was definitelly going through some coffee cravings today and the image of a muffin was swimming aluringly in front of my mind's eye. As I was going to my favourite health food store to pick up some raw goodies for the forthcoming hiking trip to Wales I was having a little discussion with myself about giving in and having what my mind wanted, reasoning that at least it was organic. Somehow, when I got there, I went straight to the salad bar and got a large selection from all the yummy lovely fresh goodies. I did not think of that coffee/muffin scenario until I was on the tube on my home, looong afterwards. A very interesting experience. And I am glad I did not give in. Every day that I resist the pull of the old brings me closer to the health and vibrant energy I desire. Lots of coffee does maybe bring longer days in the beginning, but there is a price to pay later on. Eating living energy giving healing food will make my life longer, so who cares of I sleep a bit more every day.... wink wink

Late lunch:
salad in a health food store
mixed salad leaves
grated carrot
lots of sprouts (not brussel sprouts, but sprouted growing seeds of watercress)
few cubes of roasted sweet potato
few roasted herbed mushrooms
few pieces of roasted red and yellow pepper

Even as I was picking this up, I was dreaming about getting a dehydrator or kitting my owen at home so that I can make dehydrated veggies, and so I can get the same taste and texture as if they were roasted without exposing their heat sensitive goodness (enzymes, vitamins) to the high temperatures. This is a change in thinking, and a very welcome one. I even designed in my head a change to the owen so that I can make it work. Now I just need a clever handyman, and we are in business.

Dinner:
2 large handfulls of kale
stripped from tough stalks
massaged with
a glug of yummy cold presses olive oil
and a few pinches of pink himalayan salt
which makes it wilt and soften
add
handful of baby tomatoes
few semi sundried tomatoes marinated in herbs and olive oil
chopped half a cucumber
finely chopped chilli pepper
scatter sunflower seeds on the top

Not the simplest salad but LOOOVELYYY! I learned about massaged kale salad about a year ago and I seriously mourned when its season here in UK finished. It was one of the things I looked forward to in winter! Does that make me sad?

Oh, by the way... are you there? Is any one reading this? LET ME KNOW!

Tuesday, March 17

Struggle resolved


The truth is, I have struggling with this green smoothie and juice regimen for a few days now. I must acknowledge and publicly say that the fault is not in the program, as surely as the proof is not always in the pudding. After all, I have attempted to follow a juice feasting program, and I still don't even have a juicer! Every day I have been eagerly awaiting my new shiny super duper juicing machine, but it has been, yet again, delayed, and is not coming till the beginning of the next week. The juice feaster's guide calls for 4 litres of freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juice, with a big emphasis on juice from green vegetables; it also advices you that if you still feel hungry after you had those 4 litres to have more. And what have I been doing? I have been having a pint of green smoothie for breakfast and then about a litre of mostly fruit juices during the day, with some Master Cleanse put in for a good measure, and maybe, but only a maybe, a green smoothie for dinner if I was really hungry. This is not a feast but a fast and I have been almost consistently hungry for a few days now. And I don't mean having a sweet tooth. I really mean rumbling tummy.

Don't get me wrong. I feel great, and I am loving the weight loss. My ribs are happily sticking out above my waist, from which I have lost 5.5 centimeters. In just over two weeks! My face is more defined, my skin looks more toned and healthy despite a few very discreet detox bumps and spots, and my eyes are much clearer. Cooked Husband is dropping praises and so are my girlfriends, and I am happily basking in them. But I cannot sustain this any longer while living a normal life in busy, loud and poluted London. I would need to take this kind of program somewhere pristine and clean and calm and quiet, with time for journalling and reflection. And at the moment, I don't have that space. So after many days of pondering about it and about how people are going to be disappointed and let down (and some of them no doubt satisfied), I am going to start eating again. But only until the juicer arrives, then I will have another go at the real juice feasting!

There, I said it.

Breakfast:
3 pears
2 apples
1 banana
closed fistful of parsley
1 courgette
1 handful young rocket
1 handful baby red chard

I drank this on the patio, in the sunshine, while chatting with Denise about life, how it is now, and how we would like it ot be in the future. We talked about how we both love meeting on Tuesday morning for yoga and green breakfast, then doing some blogging, writing and translating during the day, working from home. No boss to shout at us, no tube to ride to the office, no given time for a break, just enjoyment and happiness. We both wonder how realistic this is. For me, at the moment, Tuesday is a day of work, because I am not needed at my office, and for her, this is her second months trying to make it on her own, freelancing. So we do not know how long it will last. What we do know is that we would like to live like this. And that there is no reason why we shouldn't. We want to work, we just want to do it in the way that fullfills us. Is it too much to ask? I am sure everybody out there, even the biggest workaholic, has a little dream inside them, that wants to come out and become a reality. Reality, that would make that person much happier and balanced, and in that way a much nicer person to be around, in many a case. And this is my vision for the future of the world. Don't you think that if everybody is doing what they trully believe in the world will become a much better place with a much more optimistic future? Let me know your thoughts!

Lunch:
1 mango
gel from 2 inches fresh aloe vera, which we were given last week while visiting the Earthship in Brighton
large handful of kale
water

I had a pint of this and my stomach felt empty in a couple of minutes. So I took the leftover pint and blended it with two bananas - now THAT was filling.

Snack:
a few brazil nuts

A note of causion here. I have not been strictly juice feasting, and so I feel quite ok to eat some dried fruit or nuts, but still I shall not over do it. If you are reading this blog as an inspiration, but you have been only drinking juice for a few days, you must break the feast properly, slowly and carefully. Have a look at Juice Feasting website for help.

Dinner:
salad from
baby tomatoes
cucumber
red and green pepper
few raw olives
soaked arame seaweed
olive oil and lemon juice

During the day I drank two large mugs of fruit tea and about a litre of water. I feel much better now... are you glad to hear it?

Sunday, March 15

Le weekend struggle


So I have reached the point now when I want to eat some 'normal' food. It is my first real crisis, as I would call it, and my first reaction to it is that it is not really real, that it is something else going on. Emotional stuff? I also suspect that I haven't been drinking enough of my green smoothies and juices every day to get enough calories in me, as I have been feeling really quite hungry for most of the day, but I was somehow lacking any motivation to go, squeeze some fruit and consume the scrumy juice. What is going on???

We spent the weekend with Cooked Husband's parents and perhaps the change of scenery and not being in my own space threw me out of balance a little bit. I did not sleep very well and I felt cold, and the whole Sunday I felt tired and de-motivated. I ran out of maple syrup and forgot to buy lemons, so I could not make Master Cleanse, my savior and my inner heating helper so far. In short, a lack of preparation has caused me a lot of grief this weekend... What can I say? Learn from my own mistake and try harder, that's what I say!

Just a short post today due to all the reasons mentioned above. Have to go and immerse my body in a bath full of steaming hot water with some yummy smelling salts and then will eat a huge plateful of fresh juicy sweet watermelon, my most favourite food in the whole world!

Thursday, March 12

Bright Brighton


This was such an unusual and adventures (and coooold) day. Thursday is my day of work and it is most often spent doing yoga, poking around the internet and maybe doing a liiiiitle bit of work or studying from home. Today was completely different and it's soooo late and i have to go to bed because I am so very tired and cold.... so I will tell you what I ate and what I did and what I will be blogging about soon.

Breakfast:
1 banana
3 apples
large handful of kale
water

My first time blending kale, and it was wonderful. Loved the taste of the smoothie, and my body was singing.

At the train station it suddenly hit me how MANY coffee and muffin stands there are. No wonder we all eat it all the time! Determined as I am at the moment to eat only raw, my mind was reeling from all the cake pleasure-land! I did, however, and surprisingly, found one store that sold FRESH smoothies! I really did not see it coming, and it just shows that I should have more faith!

Train station snack:
strawberries
fresh orange juice
smoothie

I packed a green smoothie with me for the trip, but now I was SOOOOO full and happy from the pink concoction above, I thought I would not need it. However, I carried it with me through the day and its time came later on...

Lunch:
hot apple juice with cinnamon
and
apple
celery
and ginger
juice
in a juice bar in a bright hippie area in Brighton :-)

We spent the day wondering around the town, visited the Earth Ship and then 'hiked' accross the town for Angela Stokes' talk in Manna cafe - the first 100% raw cafe in Europe, apparently. WOW, that must be my most-linked-sentence to date... And they are all very worthy links, too! Anyway, I will find time to blog about all of them in the next few days; for now, here is the rest of my food of the day:

Afternoon snack:
home made and all day carried smoothie
3 peaches
large handful of baby spinach leaves

Dinner:
GREEN JUICE!
I mean GREEN, no fruits in it!
celery
cucumber
spinach
kale
lemon
ginger

This was my FIRST EVER seriously GREEN juice and it was AMAZING! You can see I am still buzzing from it with all these capital letters, but I had to let you know. I loved it. It was tingling and slightly bitter and juicy and it made you take just small sips at a time, which is the perfect way to eat or drink anything, and it just filled me with peace and pleasure. GREEEEAAAT, now I just need my juicer to arrive so I can start making my own! Absolutely cannot wait, but wait I must... The universe knows what it is doing, maybe I am not ready for daily green juices yet and need to stay with the green smoothies to slow the detox. All right then, shall go with the flow....

How are you all? Have you tried a straight green juice yet?

Wednesday, March 11

Determination


Sooooo, I have to say I have been teased quite shamelessly yesterday, on my first juice feasting non eating nor alcohol drinking outing, especially when it transpired I have actually brought my own bag of fruit tea. But hey - I needed a hot drink and mulled beer is not my favourite!

I thought about this a little bit, about the strange place you get into when you start doing something new, unususal, or just completely weird like juice feasting. People are quite used to vegetarians these days and will just about tolerate vegans, but I am sure most people would be terrified to have a raw vegan coming to their dinner party. They might just not get invited, to keep the matter simple ;-). And so I thought about people's reaction to my juice feasting, and how this puts a kind of mental mirror in front of me. My colleague at work, for example, who acually is a vegetarian herself, said very clearly that she thought I was crazy. I came to realize that I am quite glad for all these comments and reactions. They are what I need to strenghten my resolve to keep up with the plan and let the results speak for themselves. Glowing skin, better figure, shining health and lots of positive energy might even motivate people to follow in my steps. If I gave up half way it would be the doubtors who would quickly say it was all just a bit overstretched anyway, and if I can't do it, then they won't even try. So not just for myself, to see that I can do this, I can heal myself to a great level of health that will show on the outside, but also for all those who are not sure what on Earth I am doing and why, I stuck with it and had another wonderful juice and smoothie day today. Thank you all.

Breakfast:
1 mango
1 pear
2 handfuls of mixed salad leaves
YUMMY

I had to go back to the Master Cleanse and fruit teas at work, so far it is prooving a great solution while the juicer is (hopefully) on his way. Especially good is the maple syrup, which calmes my hunger feeling in seconds, and the drink as a whole makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Loving it.

Late lunch from Crush
juice from
kiwi
pears
apples
spinach
celery

As I walked down the street sipping on this vibrant green drink, I got a smile from a handsome stranger. This is fun as it is, I am a girl after all, but it is also great because of the green stuff in my hands. This shows me that people no longer look at you in disgust because you are consuming something very very weird. This is a step closer to a recognition that it si normal, that green food and drink are not only good for us, but jsut good. What do you think? Use the comment link, talk to me, people. Tell me I am strange, if you like, or tell me what you put in your smoothie in the morning!

Snack:
breakfast leftover

Dinner:
half a small watermelon

Dinner number 2:
juice from
a few oranges
1 t Nature's Green Superfoods
1 t powdered barley grass juice
1 T flax oil
blended

I was feeling hungry quite a lot today and so I really found it hard preparing dinner for Cooked Husband this evening. It all smelled lovely, my belly was quietly rumbling, and I was planning to sneak a little taste in. But something happened and I did not do it. I told myself this was not the last time I am cooking and that I would regret breaking my juicing day with cooked stodgy food, however lovely, and somehow, unbelievably, it worked. I am very proud of myself right now!

PS: The picture today is my organic fruit delivery box, full of sunshine, radiance and optimism! Smile!

Tuesday, March 10

A little bit about many things


I feel very lucky for having so many wonderful, generous and loving friends in my life. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who have thousands of 'friends' on Facebook or Twitter. But all those that are there have a very firm spot in my heart!

Well, that is it for today's philosophy...

I really just wanted to express some gratitude for a lovely morning I spent yogaing and chatting with my friend Denise. I am very much aware of how important my girlfriends are for me, what a difference they make in my life. And man-friends, of course, if such a word exists - and is not rude, that is.

Breakfast for two yoginis:
1 pineapple
1 pear
little bit of fresh mint
big handful baby spinach
fresh juice, oh what a treat,
which Denise made at home
and brought with her,
made from apples and celery

I have shamelessly spent the whole day hidden at home, reading, blogging, writing and searching the Internet for new inspiration. My new favourite website is the freshly new Czech raw foodists forum Freshness.cz, started and run by an amazing young Czech man. He did an excellent job and I am very proud to be a part of that community. I created a link, just in case you are a Czech speaker, or, of course, just in case you are curious!

Lunch:
juice from
3 red grapefruits
5 tangerines
blended with
2 t powdered barley grass
1 T flax oil

I had to decorate this with a bright orangey-pink strawberry, because that colour is plain weird, but it tasted quite alright. Really rather yummy. But then again, I AM a heath nut, as someone commented on Twitter recently!

Many mugs of fruit tea and Master Cleanse filled my afternoon, and then I had the breakfast green smoothie leftover for dinner. I had to have a lot of energy for the Tuesday Pub Quiz, mentally and physically. They serve sandwiches (and yummy lettuce leaves, that other people think are decoration but which are - possibly unsurprisingly -my personal favourite) during the break, and I wanted to be sure I would resist them. So I packed a fruit tea bag in my handbag, as I suspected they would not have this in a pub, and hoped for the best...

Monday, March 9

Girls only, sorry boys


After the up and downs of yesterday, I was rather spaced out this morning, but I would think this is not because of the juices but rather the after-effect of the painkillers I had to take at night. I am sorry to announce this in public space, although virtual, but I am sick and tired of my extremely painful periods! I can't wait for my body to heal enough to stop hurting so much while something really quite normal and natural is going on inside it. I know that eating drugs is the last thing a juice feaster should do, but no amount of hot water bottles and tender loving self care would make any difference in my situation, plus, I did have to make it to work, at least for a short while.

I have decided to carry on with green smoothies for breakfast until my sparkling new super juicer arrives - hopefully at some point this week - as I want to make sure that I consume enough fresh greens and keep my energy balanced. I think it did the trick, as apart from the pain followed by drug induced spaciness I felt pretty good all day ;-) .

Breakfast:
3 apples
1 banana
5 strawberries
2 handfuls of baby spinach
water
very very smooth and loooovely

At work today. As hunger and belly emptiness arrived around 11 am, I made a half litre mug of Master Cleanse with hot water. It made me feel good and warm, and the hunger went away for a short while. I also had a mug of fruit and a mug of peppermint tea, before having another mug of MC, all this while cradling ahot water bottle in my lap. There is at least some advantage to working in female only environment.

I sadly had to take two more painkillers as I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. Anybody out there has similar trouble? I have been suffering from bad period pains for years, and the only advice I got from the medical people was to take a painkiller... Well, thanks! Very helpful and insightful. Ever since I have been reading about raw, though, I came accross some super success stories that gave me hope. One of the recommended things for general hormonal balance is Maca, the great peruvian radish, which we can buy in Europe in its powdered form. It is supposed to help with the pain as well. For me it was a question of taste (I did not like it to begin with), but as the promise of no pain was very aluring, I did take it religiously for about a month before my previous period - and - success. I was not without pain, but the amount of nasty tablets I absolutely had to take dropped rather dramatically. I have unfortunately fallen of the wagon and have not taken it almost at all last month - and - here we are. In pain. So, ladies, I definitelly recommend investigating this amazing plant. If you blend it with some bananas, cacao powder and nut milk, you won't even know it is in your shake. If you really cannot stand the taste, you can buy it in capsule form, but remember that this means much harder work for your stomach.

Late lunch:
juice from
beetroot
carrot
cucumber
with some spirulina
from Crush juice bar

I felt very powerful and light this afternoon. Supplied my body with another pint of hot MC, then had a lovely juicy dinner:

2 white grapefruits

3 oranges

1.5 t Nature's Green Superfood

0.5 powdered ginger

1T flax oil

made a lovely almost creamy juice



Sunny Stormy Sunday


Woke up today feeling OH SO ACHEY from the yoga yesterday. It is the danger of a slow motion class, I reckon, as it lours you into going deeper into your postures and it pulls you out of your cocoon and then ... AUCH! But it is all for a good reason, nothing that a few stretches and perhaps a hot bath would not take care of, and in the long term my body will be all the more flexible and well oiled in the future (or so I am telling myself while feeling a bit like an invalid).

While I was expertly cooking a typical English breakfast for Cooked Husband and our Friend, I manage to squeeze juice from some plump tangerines for my own breakfast. It was like a liquid sunshine, it smelled almost intoxicating, I LOVED every little drop and really felt sunny inside. It was also sunny outside, but windy like crazy. Before I managed to make it outside, it was raining and thundering - a real April weather a month too soon.

My body unfortunately reflected this. My sunny feeling was replaced by unquenchable hunger, I was feeling very cold and shivering despite wearing woolly socks and a sweater. As I do not have a juicer, I was filling up on mugs of Master Cleanse diluted with hot water and I think it was all this sugar from the citrus and the maple syrup that gave me totally up and down energy. I could carry the world in my arms one second and then you would find me collapsed on the sofa the next. Eventually I created some citrus juice with powdered greens and flax oil to slow down the metabolism, and then promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours on the above-mentioned sofa. Thanks goodness today was Sunday!

By the evening I was feeling weird, shaky and headachey, and so I gave in and had some yummy green smoothie for dinner. Much better. Short but very valuable lesson: I need some fresh greens. I would happily live on fruits if I could eat them whole, but pure fruit juice is just too much for me, at the present moment anyway. So I decided that until my super maxi awaited juicer arrives, I will have green smoothie for breakfast, and then follow this up with the rest of the day on juices. Let's see how that goes...

Breakfast:
7 fresh tangerines
squeezed by hand

Elevenses and lunch:
Master Cleanse (MC) by Stanley Burroughs
6 - 8 T lemon juice
6 - 8 T maple syrup / raw honey / raw agave syrup
1/10 90.000 Heat Unit Cayenne pepper
1 liter of water

You can adjust the sweetness / sourness of this and also the heat to your taste. Start carefully with the cayenne, as it is very powerful. I was overheating after the first mug so much I had to go and wonder around the garden for a while in the close to hurricane wind...

Snack:
2 grapefruits
4 oranges
juiced and blended with
1 t Nature's Green Superfood
1 T cold pressed flax oil

Dinner:
2 apples
1 banana
handful of baby spinach leaves
decorated with strawberries
= life saving for this juice feasting novice

While looking after my body physically like this, I must be good and remember to do some 'self care' for my mind, soul and spirit. As the evening was spent talking and planning trips and holidays with Cooked Husband, this mission was accomplished for today. Very nice indeed, dreaming... And all the travel talk brought back some memories from the round the world trip we did in 2007, and so here I share with you picture of me savouring one of my first Dragon fruits in Krabi, Thailand. If you have lots of time to waste and want to see some fun pictures from round the globe, look at http://www.davidandblanka.wordpress.com/

During the day: 1 liter of water and two large fruit teas



Saturday, March 7

Peaceful Saturday


I woke up early again today, despite not sleeping very well last night; I felt cold for what seemed like hours. Must remember the hot water bottle tonight for the feet. I also woke up feeling very hungry. And dehydrated. It is quite difficult to make sure I drink enough water while my food is liquidy as well, as it seems to me that I am drinking all the time. I must remember to have enough pure water every day.

I made a lovely fruit salad for Cooked Husband's breakfast - apples, pears, plums, blueberries and as a special treat a dragon fruit - and then I whizzed my half with a bit of water in a blender. I strained it through a nut milk (very fine mesh) bag, which resulted in the loveliest pinky coloured juice. Love in a glass!

Breakfast:
Pink juice
a few tiny pieces of dragon fruit

I went for a yoga class later in the morning, and it was one of the best classes I have ever took. Focussed on deep breathing the entire 90 minutes, it left me deeply peaceful, content and calm. I left envelopped in a protective bubble that lasted the rest of the day. As I write this, I am still feling very serene, almost too much so to type. I picked my lunch in the local branch of Crush juice bar. It was called Green Goodess. I planned on sipping it slowly, but it was so delicious, it disappeared within a few minutes.

Juicy lunch:
cucumber
apple
kiwi
spinach
aloe vera

The rest of the day passed in a whirl of the usual Saturday at home activities of cleaning, supermarket shopping and then helping Cooked Husband actually cook dinner. We have a friend staying and so he was making his signature dish, veggie chilli sin carne. Unfortunatelly for me, it was just too good, and I ended up having some. I am very sorry to all my readers (so far to the one, actually) for stepping of my chosen path so, and I will endeavour to not do it again. I want to experience the power of living without solid food, the cleansing and rejuvenating effects, and also the feeling of lightness when my stomach does not have to work hard on digesting things like beans. I want to experience it for myself and I want to be able to write about it here.

So here is to the new beginnings, I am rising a mug of fruit tea to you.

Friday, March 6

The view from my window this afternoon...


Well, I thought you might be getting bored by all those green artsy fartsy smoothie pictures, so here is a golden sunset one for a change. The view from our terrace warms my heart as it could almost not be in a huge city... One can dream, and also hope that dreams will one day become true, and I will be living by the sea. But for now, I am loving my house, and the almost spring like sunsetty mood that London created for me earlier today.



It's Friday


Well, something is definitely going on in my body because I woke up feeling not so great today. Quite yucky, actually. My back and the joints in my hands were achey and stiff, my head felt like it was cracked, and my mouth felt bleagh! I got up early just so I could clean it with my beloved tongue scraper.

Have you heard about this amazing thing yet? If you haven't and you do not have one, don't worry. There is no need to go hunting for one and spending money (unless you want to, of course) as you can also use a large spoon. Basically, before or after you have brushed your teeth, just stick your tongue out of your mouth - and look at it. If it is reddish pink with nothing on it, I would venture a guess that you are either a small baby, or you have been eating and drinking and living extremely healthily for some time. For the rest of us, there is a layer of usually white-ish substance that tends to cover the surface of the tongue. Mmmmm? - I know! Grab your tongue scraper or the spoon, and just draw it alongside either side of the tongue from the back forward. Rinse mouth, rinse tool, done. It takes literally about 5 seconds to do, and you are going to feel sooooo much betteeeer!!! You might also accidentally become more kissable! And don't get scared if you do this in the evening and you had a green smoothie for dinner beforehand - of course it is going to be GREEN!

Breakfast:
6 small pears
large handful of baby spinach
water

I realised this morning that I no longer feel self conscious about drinking vividly green coloured stuff in front of Cooked Husband, and he seems to have accepted the situation as well. Needless to say, he is not exactly asking me to make him one! (Not yet, anyway...)

Lunch:
2 apples
2 bananas
2 large handfuls of baby spinach
water

This was a yummy smelling smoothie, very creamy and light and clean and fluffy. I enjoyed it tremendously. It is a sad fact that I did succumbed to the lure of a cappuccino, when I met my friend Louise for a girlfriends' catch up, accompanied by blueberry muffin. Well, I am guilty as charged, but at least I enjoyed it. I am having a green savoury smoothie dinner and lots of water, so I am already back on track. I am very positive that these 'slips' will happen less and less in the near future, because once I start seeing the effects of this fresh green diet my motivation will soar! I am also telling everyone I know that Juice Feast starts tomorrow, so hopefully they will all be supportive.

Dinner:
1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
small bunch of watercress
small bunch of parsley
only a little bit of water
to make soupy consistency
finely chopped red onion for decoration

Thursday, March 5

Strange Thursday


I have noticed this morning that ever since Monday I have been waking up at the precisely same time of 6.39 am. This is rather early for me, as I am a very lazy person, I love the warmness of the bed and the softness of the duvet, and I like the relative safety of sleep. No decisions to make; that is, until it is time to wake up - then the decision has to be made - is it time yet? This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I bet I am not the only one who feels that way. We linger and close our eyes for a few more minutes, just revelling in the small universe that we in are at that moment. My guess is that people who jump out of the bed in the morning with a grin on their faces and joy in their heart are people who are, in one way or another, living their dream. I am not sure it is me. Not just yet. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, at least enough to make it there when I am supposed to and not get fired. But it is hard for me to believe that I am in this word to BE an (at times un-appreciated) administrative assistant in a recruitment office. It just won't do. And so this is what my day was filled with today - pondering about my destiny, dream job, responsibilities and fulfilled heart.

Breakfast:
1/4 galia melon
3 soaked dates
spinach
watercress
rocket
1 T coconut butter
water

This was delicious, almost too sweet, so I poured it back into the blender and added some more spinach and water. It was yummy though, and I had enough to eat for lunch as well. I am working from home today, and so I was able to create a lovely drink mid morning.

Elevenses:
3 juiced tangerines
1 t powdered Nature's Living Superfood greens
served in a martini glass.

Quite classy, actually, but a bit powdery. I am not big on the powdered greens, but I know they have their place in the raw and healthy food world.

Lunch
as breakfast

I have given hard time to one of my friends this afternoon for not having enough greens in his life. I guess, as I have been thinking all day about the possibility of becoming a raw food coach, I was in the mood to tell someone how to improve their health, and he got the handful. I hope he is still my friend... the email is very silent. All this mental trauma (the thinking about my future) had me craving some comfort and so I gave in and made a (non-green) Cinnamon Maple Pecan Milk from Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis. This is my all time favourite raw food book and I have actually made several of the recipes, rather then just looking at the pretty pictures while chewing on a carrot.

I have really enjoyed the luxurious creaminess of that drink, but now I feel all yucky, bloated and ... well, very very full. I had just looked in the book and it clearly says the recipe will serve up to 4 people. Well, greedy me, I had over half of it!

I am sipping hot mint tea as I write this and I as it is already after 7 pm I am not sure I will be in any mood for dinner, which is a shame because I was going to experiment with a savory green smoothie today. But there is always tomorrow - the last green smoothie day before the Juice fiest officially starts on Saturday!

Wednesday, March 4

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?

Tuesday, March 3

Juicy yoga Tuesday


Recently my Tuesday mornings became filled with yoga and juicy breakfast, both shared with my wonderful friend Denise, aka the Green Queen. I was going to introduce her to Kundalini yoga today, but as my dvd player went on strike, we found a couple of podcasts on line and went with that. It feels SOOOOO good to stretch and expand with yoga in the morning, I cannot imagine starting a day without it. Afterwards, we were both ready for some sustenance:

Breakfast
1 large mango
2 small bananas
three handfuls of baby spinach
water
Deeeliciouuuss!

Lunch was at Denise's, after a brief visit to a Celia Hammond Charity Clinic. I am a real cat person and for years now I have been without one. I decided it was time to take an action to amend this situation. I have brought the subject up with Cooked Husband and was very surprised as, without even letting me go through all my reasonings and arguments why it is the best possible idea ever and we almost have a moral obligation to adopt a needy cat, he happily agreed. So hopefully we are about to become cat owners once again. As the rain is slashing against the windows, I can't imagine a better thing then to have a purring creature sitting on my lap as I type. Of course the reality will be that the said cat will be walking all over my keyboard making it pretty much impossible to do anything else then to pet her, but - well, we all feel needy sometimes... and it is a small price to pay for all the pleasures attached to having a feline friend around!

Lunch
Larfe jug of fresh celery, apple carrot, cucumber and zuccini juice
1 avocado
1 or 2 bananas
= absolutely lovely creamy dreamy juicy smoothie.

I drank it while Denise's cat purred madly next to me - double heaven. Having said that, I offered some to my new furry friend, but he didn't even sniff at it! Cats, hey?

Afternoon snack
remaining smoothie from breakfast
topped with a small handful of blueberries
(in the picture above)
eaten with a spoon, purrrrr

The wind outside is howling, the windows are rambling, rain drops are hammering on the glass roof and my taste buds are calling for some warm and warming food... I chose to ignore their un-welcome request and have made a lovely mug of tea instead. My favourite of the moment is Spiced Apple with Cinnamon, which is almost Christmassy - too late for that it may be, but who says that Christmas only happens once a year in this house? (In fact, it always happens twice!)

Dinner
6 ripe pears
bunch of corriander
sprinkling of hemp seeds

Monday, March 2

Green smoothie Monday

Green smoothies, for those who do not yet know, are a super-powerhouses of nutrition made very yummy. They are also very simple to make. The only thing you need is a blender, the stronger the better, and you are ready to go. Take your favourite fruit, add a handful or more of any green leaves, splash of water to your liking, and blend blend blend. Mixing greens, which often taste bitter, with ripe and sweet fruit makes them much more palatable which allows us to consume much more of them then if we had to chew our way through handful upon handful. Blending them also breaks the tough structure of the leaves, making them a bit easier to digest. Sergei Boutenko from The Raw Family does with an enviable charm much better job at teaching you about this wonder-food in his short video.


I started the day with a pint of water with teaspoonful of MSM and juice of half a lemon, followed by a short yoga session to stretch and open my body to allow it to b r e a t h e .

Breakfast
1/2 galia melon
+huge handful of baby spinach
with a splash of water
= about a pint of yummy fresh potion

My colleague at work can't stand watching people drink smoothies or juices, and so out of courtesy to her I waited for her lunch break to have my lunch smoothie, as she is then out of the office (I only work part time so do not get a break, poor me). I managed to drink two huge mugs of fruit tea to stop feeling hungry and by one o'clock I was ready to tuck into this:

Lunch
1 large banana
5 small pears
lots and lots of baby spinach
+enough water to make 1 liter
= very sweet and filling concoction

Started feeling a bit spaced out and headachey in the afternoon and had a rather complex conversation with my inner self about having, or not having a latte to make my head feel better. (Whatever excuse for an addict, right?) At the end I promised myself a cup of tea once I got home instead. I figure I will have to get through the coffee withdrawal migraines sooner or later anyway. I do have to confess to being weak though and taking a couple of painkillers and a handful of pecans, as I started feeling a bit too ill. Lesson learned? God knows!

Snack:
1 large mango
very full handful of flat leaf parsley
large glass of water
= a tropical treat served in a tall wine glass

Just served dinner to Cooked Husband and had a huge mental fight with myself, this time about licking the spoon from his mashed potatoes. It is a bit weird serving food you didn't taste, but I won, and now am feeling very smug about it. Every little victory counts!

No dinner for me, just a large mug of mint and fennel tea.

Sunday, March 1

First words


So...

A few hours ago I landed back in UK after spending a week skiing in the French Alps. I was supposed to work on the first blog post while there, but instead I spent all days outside, gliding down beautiful white hills, grinning madly because the sun was shining and I felt happy and exhilarated and free. I figured there was enough time for blogging when I got back to polluted London where I am more then happy to hide at home with a green smoothie at hand.

As for this blog and it's name... My experience with raw food in the past year was often anything but graceful. I had two or three a-few-weeks-at-a time-long experiences on purely raw vegan food and I felt AMAZING. At the same time, there were many bowls of rice pudding and starchy pasta followed by wondering why, but WHY!? have I left the 'raw' wonder behind yet again. There were headaches and stomach upsets and moments of clarity and moments of despair (mostly with myself). But I tried not to make myself suffer more then is necessary, especially in a world where others do it for us often enough. And so I forgave myself, and moved on - which really means I allowed myself to eat cooked and starchy and diary laden food for long enough to remember how bad it makes me feel, and then slowly gathered the strenght to start eating raw again (at least for a while). All this back and forth started to make me feel like it is the stuff in the fridge that holds the rains of my life rather then myself.

I followed several raw food blogs last year including a few raw foodists who decided to join the Global Juice Feast to detoxify and cleanse and regenerate their bodies by eliminating all solid food and living only on fresh vegetable and fruit juices for up to 92 days. Although Juice Feasting sounded rather amazing, I was not sure I would ever be motivated enough to try living just on juice, even if there was to be A LOT of it. Somehow, one year later, it is exactly what I am about to do. I will start tomorrow morning with a few days of green smoothies, and come next Sunday I will be there with my jug and fat straw in hand, ready to rock and roll (and juice for England).

So this is the plan. My commitment to myself is to Juice Feast for at least 40 days, as I still do not feel ready to go all the way to 92 days. As a kundalini yoga practitioner I believe in the power of number 40 - it takes 40 days to break an old habit and begin to create a new one. I see this experience as a chance to reconnect with myself, to relearn to listen to my body, to what it wants, what it needs. It is a new start. I very much hope that by the end of the juicing experience I will no longer be a slave to every (taste)whim of my mind.

Of course all this will be made more interesting (and harder) by the fact that my husband will still need to be fed, and I think I did mention that he is no raw foodist! But I really do feel READY for this challenge. I feel like I need it, and I am looking forward to it.

I will keep a food - or rather a drink - log, and I will share with you what is going on during this time - as honestly as I can. Join me if you like, read about the challenges and successes and crazy stuff if you like, and tell me what you think - just use the comment link.