Just Thought I'd Say...

I almost forgot how great Alissa Cohen was... I FINALLY got around to watching her Living On Live Food DVD (see below) and was happy to see that she used the food processor for 95% of her food prep. I've been thinking about #4 of my 'Things I've Found Difficult' list... I like that the food processor is one of those things that isn't too expensive, if at all, and yet is so versatile. Mine was less than £20 and comes with a citrus juicer attachment(among others, hehe) AND a rubber spatula, hehe *woohoo!* I REALLY want to try her mock tuna with the sprouts... I would just like to get a hold of some raw Kelp powder... Alissa makes everything on her DVD look so easy and after watching it I don't understand now why I thought RAW was difficult, lol..  I did make a 'something' the other day, don't know what to call it, but it was 2 carrots in the FP, 5-6 sprigs of parsely, garlic, onions and sun-dried tomatoes and I WISHED I had some lettuce to wrap it in, but I just ate it out of the bowl *teehee* It was GOOD! Saying that, I must admit I haven't been very good today because we do need to go shopping... I've got lots of bananas and apples, dates, raisins, parsley and cilantro and onions... there's only so much you can make with that :/... ;) and I'm over carrots right now... I've tried processing bananas & apples together, and, well, did I like it? .... not so much, lmao ... I still ate it, I hate wasting food ;) I did, however aquire a sprouting jar which my lovely sister-in-raw gave me(Thank you!!) and I've got some alfalfa sprouting in it already!! You can see the teeny root feet coming out of the seeds, lol.. I can still make a smoothie, although I am out of Maca :((( ... sorry, I just LOVE the stuff!! I've been through 1 1/2 kilos of it since December!! I'm telling you it's amazing!

Well, that's it for me for tonight, gonna watch a flick with mah hubby! ♥ U!

Part 3...

 Finally, the 10th difficulty on the list:

10. Living/working/socialising with non-RAW-foodies!

•  This can be the major trip up(for lack of a better term, lol..) for most starting out on a raw diet. I consider myself lucky because my husband is supportive, but I have had judgemental comments and a lack of  support from some (but not all) members of family & friends... usually from those who have a cosistant diet of meat and bread... not that I'm judging, of course ;)  

    I've heard "If God wanted us to be vegetarians he wouldn't have made animals out of meat!" or "Your body NEEDS meat!" and "Well, where did you get that from? How do you know if that's true?"... (personally I think they thought I was still just a kid believing everything I hear because it sounded good, not realizing that I'm very much into doing my own independent research as well as being a 35 year old woman with a family of her own, lol! BUT... I'm not bitter ;) Anyway, there is pressure, but you HAVE to stick it out. You are the only one who keeps yourself on or OFF the wagon, no one else! Choose health or choose dis-ease. If you find yourself in a debate, instead of arguing about nutrition, don't say a word! Show them! If anyone asks about your clear skin tell them RAW foods! If they ask about your new svelt body shape, say RAW foods! You get the idea.

   Well, there you have it... the things that make it kinda difficult for me on the RAW, but I am perservering(sp?) !!! The key is motivating yourself... listen to podcasts, watch the movies and documentaries, have a raw food party, lol... mp3's and putting the movies on while you clean the house is what I do a lot... even if you can only get involved on a forum on the net you're still getting involved! Remember you don't HAVE to have the most expensive appliances, you just have to be determined! Really, all you need are your hands and mouth... your MOUTH is the BEST JUICER IN THE WORLD! And... it's FREE! Think about it... want some wheatgrass juice? Chew on some wheatgrass until all the flavor's gone and you've had your wheatgrass juice for the day! If you've had the same difficulties I have, do something about it, don't just give up!

There is a way around EVERY obstacle! So FIND IT!!

Be happy and 'Have the 'Best Day Ever!'

♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥x♥

-The Raw Panda

Things That I've Found Difficult Being on the Raw Path and What I've Learned..... PART 2

 Cont'd...

6. The Detoxification Process

• Now, the 'Healing Crisis' is a little hard to take... but as long as you keep taking your mineral supplements you won't have to worry and assume that what you're feeling is a mineral or vitamin deficiency or that you're dying, because you're not! I've realized I can get through it if I keep myself mineralized and get a colonic or, if you're poor like me, eat lots of organic fruit like apples... apples have LOTS of pectin and helps your body clear out the waste products in the colon...  If you don't clear out your colon the best you can during this process then those waste products from your liver can end up in your blood and thicken it into something almost like a sludge... this happened to me. That's why I kept feeling my extremeties getting numb, I could also feel 'things' flowing in my blood... that may not have been the case but that's what it felt like.  I believe the order for cleansing is: Colon, Kidneys then Liver. I am NOT an expert, I'm still learning, and doing so by experience. You can find out more about the healing crisis here, and here and here.

7. Getting off of Wheat and/or Bread!!

• This is, I believe, the HARDEST thing to try to do. Almost everything is made of bread or wheat. It's just WHEAT WHEAT WHEAT(and corn and soy) all over the place! I never knew how when, before, I could eat so healthy and yet be fluffy in the middle with that womanly 'pooch' on the stomach... since cutting out wheat and other grains(as well as sugar)  I've gotten rid of the pooch, the air bloated-ness and have felt clear headed and actually 'awake'. I believe this also maybe due to candida... There is a whole lot of info about candida, just google it(or use scroogle.org if you can't stand google) or even watch some youtube videos on the subject (which google is slowly ruining)
• So, why the wheat thing? Grains have been so inter-bread and hybrid-ized to a point that they're easy now to harvest(un-naturally with machines) and yet without the nutritional value they once had, if any. Gluten intolerance is SO MUCH MORE widespread than we think... I think at LEAST 80% of humans are suffering from gluten sensitivity and don't even know it!

Articles about wheat: RawFoodExplained, guardian.co.uk, celiac.com,

 
8.Getting off SUGAR!

• This one's a doozy... Getting off of it is one battle.. but finding a suitable replacement is entirely another! Sugar itself can be ok in certain forms.. Organic Blackstrap Molasses is good because it's chock full of minerals, that is if you can still eat sugar. On the other hand the replacements of the past have turned out to be horribly toxic... Splenda(or sucralose), Aspartame(now renamed 'AminoSweet' and can now be labled as 'natural', so beware!), Saccharin(just, eeeww..), High-Fructose Corn Syrup (commonly genetically modified with an even bigger EEWW!) and whatever OTHER wool they try to pull over our eyes... baa-aa-aa... if it's made by a pharmaceutical company, or immediately approved by the FDA, I usually don't trust it. Agave used to be great, now there's a controversy about that, too! What's left?! Well, Stevia leaf and Stevia extract is still on my list as ok, (it's 30 times sweeter than sugar so you don't need to use a lot at all) Stevia isn't a sugar, or rather, the molecule doesn't end in '-ose'. Then there's Yacon Syrup. Yacon syrup is made of fructooligosaccharide, which cannot be absorbed by the body and is a prebiotic, meaning it feeds the good probiotic bacteria in the gut (WOOHOO!)

Well,  I have some house cleaning to do so I will see you cats later!  =^x^=

Things That I've Found Difficult Being on the Raw Path and What I've Learned

1. Location

• ... not necessarily WHERE I am, but knowing where to get the things that used to be easy to aquire while living in Florida... There was a locally owned whole foods grocery store called Native Sun that had almost everything organic you could think of... (even daipers and toilet paper, hehe) not that I don't like where I am living, I guess I just took it for granted because I can't just hop in the car and go pick it up anymore, lol... I'm having to improvise! The interwebz is invaluable for this.

2. Getting to know the seasonal veggies.

• Things change ALL the time! It will be root veggies for a while, then greens then herbs... sometimes I can find cilantro, sometimes I can't (and it's called coriander over here... both the seed AND the leaf, not just the seed, lol) Anyway, you should know what the seasonal veggies are... eating seasonally is important!

3. Eating raw foods sometimes WITHOUT exotic ingredients!

• There's the whole superfood thing, which is great to supplement your more 'normal' veggies, but if you run out of Maca you gotta use normal food... I know it can be boring but we've got to get into the habit of eating normal veggies and then supplementing with the exotic, not the other way around... I'm guilty of it because smoothies are my thing... you can put anything in a smoothie and I have a habit of using Maca and spirulina in EVERY smoothie... maybe I can cut down to a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, lol, otherwise the rawfood lifestyle gets expensive! Although I do think these things should be more 'normal' and more readily available... We should be able to have a tablespoon of Maca or other superfood everyday BECAUSE they are so nutrient dense, but it's not finacially feasible for those of us starting out. Save up some money and get a bunch of superfoods at one time, or ask for them for birthdays or xmas.

4. Not having the right tools

• You don't HAVE to have THE Vitamix... there are others out there that will do just fine for you untill you actually NEED a Vitamix... You don't HAVE to have THE Champion Juicer... the same goes for this thing. You don't HAVE to have THE Excalibur Dehydrator... Through the magic of my own cheapskate-ness, I have found plans on how to build a dehydrator with cardboard and masking tape and a little screen, with the help of the Sun(for summertime) or the radiator(for the wintertime... no, the radiator in your house) these other machines are all 200-300 dollars/pounds a piece!!! NO WONDER there are people falling off the wagon and not eating raw because they can't do the MAJORITY of the recipes that are out there... Just IMPROVISE! :))  If you start small and work your way up you'll be better off for it. When you get the hang of the raw food lifestyle, THEN you can invest in THE machines... And, really, you can only get the hang of the raw food lifestyle if you work with what you DO have.... That's why I've had to start from the beginning, think about what I can do with what I got and go from there.

And also, if you don't know what to make other than a try of veggies and some dip, then get the right BOOKS! The BEST ONE for beginners is 'Raw Food Made Easy'. What this book has that not many others do is a shopping list... Basically what you should have in your kitchen.. (for the recipes, too)

This wasn't supposed to turn into a book review, lol, but I just find this book great for being the first one on your shelf to use while you're researching the next step... the many superfoods in existence, that is.

5. Getting the trace minerals your body needs from doing 'RAW' wrong....

•  Even if you're eating organic foods you are still not getting the proper minerals you need. Make sure you have a good trace mineral supplement and that you are absorbing the nutrients you are getting as well as eating those foods in the right combinations

Well, the hubby is home from work so I will continue this later :)

To Be Continued...

Liquid Iron..

   Happy February everyone! It's the month of love and you don't need a significant other to celebrate love in all of it's forms! <3 Let's celebrate love by taking care of our hearts and giving it the oxygen and mineral rich blood that it needs... we do that and it will give us, and others, the love we need! So, about MY blood, as you've seen in a previous post, I've gotten a liquid iron supplement which seems to be helping immensely. It's not vegan because it contains honey and it's not from raw whole foods, I don't think, but only because I can be finacially challenged at times... which, since I only have 2 teaspoons per day, I don't think it really matters if it's made from whole foods as long as it is a higher quality supplement. I'm not going by the 100% RAW rule, because if I start with rules that are, in my head, made to be unbreakable, then I will fail... and I refuse to fail, so I am not going to set myself up to do so! HA!

   Anyway, the iron supplement is called Feroglobin, and it contains iron, zinc, vitamin c, and B-complex... it has made a remarkable difference because it also contains some trace minerals that also help with blood formation. That time of the month, when Aunt Ruby visits, is a LOT more tolerable and the panic attacks are getting fewer and far between, and with shorter durations and milder symptoms... so it IS working. WOOHOO!

   Iron supplement PILLS have not been as effective for me.. Their benefits are barely noticable. When I ran out of the iron pills my doc gave me I felt the low iron and attacks within about 48 hours, but when taking this stuff and then running out, it took more than a week to feel the effects of low iron again, and by that time I got my package in the mail. I will be eating iron and mineral rich whole foods still and taking the 2 teaspoons per day as long as I can until my iron stores are back to optimum levels... not just good enough, but OPTIMUM levels. We should never settle for "good enough". Saying that, I am still looking into getting this Angstrom Iron as well as the Angstrom minerals because anemia is a deficiency and getting minerals is extremely important, but this will do for now and it's much easier on my wallet really, lol..

Heal yourself in 15 days by transforming your blood (part four)

Haven't been around because the computer died, lol... New computer, new post! This article is one of the most important in this series because it has to do with the blood... a very important article if you're anemic like me.. enjoy!
Heal yourself in 15 days by transforming your blood (part four)