Advice to the hosts and guests on Thanksgiving!




It has come to my attention, as it does every year, that many people on a raw or vegan diet are now cringing about going to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. And many people hosting traditional Thanksgiving dinners are now cringing about having to prepare something for the vegan or raw foodist coming to your dinner.

Firstly, let us all remember what this holiday represents.

We give thanks for the freedoms that our forefathers worked so hard at attaining.

We also give thanks for everything we've been blessed with and those we love and cherish.

We also give thanks for having food on the table.

Are we specific about the kind of food? No, we are just thankful that we have food to eat!

So here are a few words of advice to the host/ess:

1) Please don't feel offended if one of your guests won't eat the food you've worked so hard at preparing.

2) There is no need to ask why they are eating this way, where do they get their protein or calcium, or pressure the person not wanting the food. Maybe they don't care for the food, maybe they have an allergy, or maybe there's a health reason behind it, but don't allow it to bother you!

3) Be sure to offer fresh food, at least a nice green salad with fresh vegetables (things like croutons, meats and cheese would be better on the side), and at least some fresh fruit. This way everyone at the table can enjoy the food.

4) There's no need to obsess over a guest who might look like they are not eating enough. Trust me, it is much more uncomfortable for the guest who is made the center of attention because their eating choices are different from everyone else's.

And here are a few words of advice to guests:

1) Ahead of time, casually let the host/ess know you eat mostly fresh fruits and vegetables. The word "raw" confuses most people and the host/ess may try to make some kind of elaborate raw dish which may not go over well.

2) Offer to bring a big salad or a fruit plate to share.

3) Do not make comments about how unhealthy everyone else's food is.

4) If someone asks you the protein question, Dr. Doug Graham suggests just telling them you feel great and you really never thought about it. The last thing you want to do is get into a big debate. If you get questioned a lot let them know you'd love to talk about it later.

Above all, just enjoy one another. When everyone is happy and relaxed the tension will be eased all around.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you feel like you are deficient in something?

A look into deficiency vs. dependency.

I feel led to address this very issue because it's a concern I see so often when people are ready to embark or are starting out on raw, fresh foods.

Usually it goes like this:

"When I stop eating meat, I feel like I need to eat protein, so then I eat some meat and immediately I feel better."

"If I stop using this special oil or supplement I feel terrible, I have pains, and I'm weak, so I need to keep taking the supplement so I don't feel this way, which I know is a deficiency".

"I have to eat an egg every day otherwise I don't feel right".

When something cooked or not particularly natural or fresh for human consumption is removed from our diets that we have probably been eating for most of our lives, and especially have been eating on an everyday basis, we will experience heavy withdrawal symptoms.

Take coffee.

If you are a heavy or daily coffee drinker and remove it from your diet, what is usually going to happen?

You are going to have a withdrawal symptom from lack of coffee consumption, usually a very bad headache.

Why is this?

Because your body has become dependent on the substance and it actually requires you to coninutally eat or drink it in order for you to feel like "yourself" which is actually a lie. The body becomes accustomed to what its been given. You have conditioned your body to feel normal or even peppy by drinking your daily cup of joe.

Now, you know how to get rid of that headache immediately? Of course! Have a cup of coffee and your headache will be gone. Does that mean that your body was deficient of a nutrient?

Of course not!

Maybe it was deficient of COFFEE...but that isn't an essential nutrient you need in order to live, correct?

In the same way, taking away cooked food, animal products, grains, refined sugar, chocolate, alcohol or even certain supplements that you were once using daily is going to cause a withdrawal symptom. Maybe a headache, maybe nausea, maybe dizziness.

"But I just know I'm deficient because I just feel like I neeeeed this substance in my body because it is giving me SOMETHING my body needs", you may say.

Here are a couple of sure-fire ways to find out the truth if you absolutely think that your body needs something:

1) Take a blood test to see if you are really deficient in the said nutrient.

2) Take the substance out of your diet for 3 weeks. See how you feel. Actually record it so you remember how you felt the first 3 days that you stopped ingesting it vs. the end of the 3 weeks.

You'll know based on the blood test, or how you feel at the end of 3 weeks if you are really lacking something essential.

Natural, whole, fresh plant food in its raw state are going to give you the PERFECT amounts of optimal nutrients in their optimal state for your body. Nothing else can or will. Supplements that have been extracted, concentrated and processed may not even be recognizable or useable in your body.

Just knowing that your body can function optimally without the need for supplementation or other products can really save you a lot of money and peace of mind.

When life gives you snow....

We had a huge snow storm just a couple of days ago. I woke up to a snow covered view outside my window. It continued to snow all day long. And we couldn't leave the house as the snow was just too deep for our little car.

I think in my SAD (Standard American Diet) days had we run out of bread or an animal product like milk there might have been panic.

Oh no, there's no milk, there's no bread, whatever will do? I can just imagine being the thought of concern.

Even though the family is not totally vegetarian like myself, they are accustomed to having fruit meals and many vegetarian meals, that running out of something like that is no big deal. In fact, creativity occurs at a higher rate when there is a limited selection of food in the house.

My son put a large bowl outside and collected some fresh snow. We had some great snow cones with strawberry sauce. Made me think of the saying - "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"... so when life gave us snow, we made snow cones!

The next day it was 68 degrees F again and most of it melted off. The kids had a blast sledding and making snow people on the rooftop.

The moral of all this is, don't only make the best of what you have, but have fun with it. I think people often feel like they are "settling"with what they have been "given". We create our own environment, really, so have a blast and enjoy life, whether you've been given lemons or snow.

A life of abundance is possible in any circumstance. Who is to say a family living on the street feels any less abundant than a family living in a Bel Air mansion?

It is all in the perception of how fulfilled and thankful you are, not what you've been given.

Here's the best fruit smoothie ever!!!


And the easiest to make.


I make enough for my family of 5.


Sometimes I make a whole quart for myself, so I'll double the recipe. Then everyone's glasses get filled all the way.

Sometimes I will add a handful of greens like parsley, spinach, or baby greens.

I started to get burnt out on the green smoothies, so I've been doing lots of fruit lately.

Fruit Smoothie

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
4 ripe bananas
1 bag frozen strawberries
2 cups frozen mango

Blend. If you don't have a high speed blender, partially thaw the frozen fruits before blending, so you don't burn your blender out!

Fear!

Going into unchartered territory is always scary. You hear about how wonderful it is, but since you have never tried it yourself, there is a fear of leaving your comfortable existence even though the path ahead will only get better.

Why is this so? I believe that most of us are not risk takers, but dreamers. And it is so much easier to dream in our comfortable places without having to make an effort to make our dreams come true.

We may be afraid that we will fail, and then what do we do? How do we explain to others close to us who see us fail?

But most of all, I believe that we really fear succeeding, more than failing. When do we ever NOT fail? Most of our failures have brought us to a better place, because we've bettered ourselves from the learning experience.

Yet succeeding. Succeeding can be scary, because what will be expected of us when we are so much bigger and better? We will be out of our comfort zones of "perpetual failure". Or we do not want to appear better than others because it will make us appear un-humble.

The good news is, you are worthy of success and what your heart desires. There is no 'elite' who deserve anything more than you do. Instead of figuring out why you should feel this way, it is better to persue what you want. Because in the time it takes to learn that you are worthy, you can already be taking your first steps to acquire it.

Taking the first steps up makes success not seem so scary. Push through the mental block that is stopping you from moving ahead. Just push it out of the way, and it will make your future steps to succeeding so much easier. There is no trick to doing it, except to start.

Take the first step now.

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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson

Where is the proof? Where are those studies? I need scientific evidence!

These are questions and demands often asked by folks who are usually hesitant to give up their favorite foods.

Perhaps the drive isn't hard enough to just put it into gear and go.

Or perhaps there is too much conventional medicine in a person's past to trust something so basic.

But many times it's people who are "hemming and hawing" actually using it as an excuse not to start down the raw food path.

Besides the many personal testimonies of healing on raw food, there are plenty of individual studies and experiments here and there that will appear on the news, a medical journal or on a website.

Here are some sites, info and studies about the benefits of a raw food diet.

http://www.iowasource.com/food/lenkastudy_0806.html


http://rawveganproof.blogspot.com/

Agave Nectar vs. Honey....

What someone new to the world of raw food may be wondering - what is the difference? Which one should I use? Is one sweeter than the other? Do I use them in the same amounts? Is one more healthy than the other?

This is my experience using these two sweeteners in raw food preparation:

Before I start with the comparisons, I would like to note that the optimal way to use these is in a raw, organic state. Cooked sugars react differently in a body just as all cooked foods do.

Buying raw agave nectar and raw or uncooked honey is your best bet. Honey may need to state "unheated" or "heated at low temperatures" as often the honey needs to be warmed for processing, but not cooked. Buying them organic whenever possible will insure that there are no pesticides or chemicals in your product.


Agave Nectar

Agave nectar is a very fluid, very sweet, clean tasting sweetener. It tastes just like cotton candy to me. It will not overpower a recipe, or give it a heavy rich flavor. It's purpose is solely to sweeten, just as you'd use sugar. However, agave nectar is extremely sweet so you may find that you do not need to use quite as much as you would honey or regular white sugar. You may only need to use three-fourths the amount of agave nectar than you would honey.

What I particularly like about agave nectar is that it can be stirred into cold liquid without it hardening, it dissolves almost immediately. It also is not sticky like honey is. According to the Madhava company, agave nectar has a lower glycemic index, so it can be used by those with sugar related problems more than other sweeteners, like honey or sugar.

More information on Agave Nectar: http://www.madhavahoney.com/agave.htm



Honey

Honey is an age-old sweetener, used for thousands of years. Honey has a rich full bodied flavor. Since it will harden when cold, it is great to use in frozen recipes or puddings which require a thick, dense result. It is wonderful in certain ethnic recipes when used with heavier spices and seasonings.

I often use honey when making hot tea as I find it more soothing than agave nectar. I have used it many times to sooth a sore throat.

I like to buy my honey locally. There are a couple of sources near me that I find have excellent quality. This is a brand I often use, which is heated at low temps: http://www.madhavahoney.com/ambrosia.htm

I also use "Really Raw Honey" from un-local sources which is a thick creamed-like honey in a wide mouthed jar which is scooped out. I have often used this medicinally.

Here is more information on honey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

As far as if one is healthier than the other - I tend to think that honey is a whole, natural food while agave nectar is more of an extracted product. The agave nectar I use states "100% pure agave" and "not heated above 115". I have read on many medicinal benefits of honey, but not of agave nectar.

I personally do not regularly eat honey or agave nectar straight to promote health other than using honey for a sore throat on a few occassions. So I find that one is not "healthier" than the other - rather they are both useful as sweeteners.

My husband informed me that the State of Colorado can now sell local spinach.

Now that it is available, I'm not prepared to purchase it as I have so many other greens! That is the good that has come out of this whole fiasco - I bought tons of parsley, green leaf lettuce, bok choy, kale, collards, etc.

I think I was over-dependant on spinach. I would buy it in little organic bags, and it was so easy to throw into a smoothie, and so mild tasting I hardly knew it was in there.

It is tragic that so many people got sick and even died from this. Fortunately I was only inconvenienced by it, but from the inconvience I upped my green variety in my diet.

For the last few years I have learned to discover the good outcome in something that seems so terrible at first.

We wouldn't be on this beautiful piece of land in the foothills if we hadn't lost our home.

We wouldn't be living in this gorgeous city if my husband had not have been laid off 3 years ago.

If I didn't have high cholesterol, I never would have done so much research on health and healing.

If things weren't so tight financially for us, my recipes would still be sitting in a notebook gathering dust on a shelf.

If I didn't do mindless and selfish things, by golly, I'd still be doing them and never learn from my mistakes!

Sometimes it takes something stressful, painful, scary and freaky to happen in our lives in order to have something wonderful and beautiful happen. I believe it's all in the Lord's plan, and His timing in our lives.

Salads and salad dressings -

Now how good does this look?

It probably took me 5 minutes to throw together.

It is important to have things ready, like greens washed, onions already cut and bagged, etc. the avocado of course needs to be cut fresh, but most of the fixings can be pre-cut and stored ahead of time.

It just makes it a lot easier to put a nice salad together.

The only "unraw" thing here is the dressing - in a hurry I used Annie's Goddess dressing - now I normally don't do this.

Often people ask "what can I use for salad dressing?". It is so very easy to get in that mindset of having to eat bottled dressing, for whatever reason. What most people don't realize is that the best dressings out there are usually the simplest to make.

Some folks need to slowly get away from the idea that their greens and veggies need to be drowned with a fatty, rich blanket of sauce.

Dressing is really easy to make - The very easiest one was squeezing the juice of an orange over my salad - look out for the seeds - that's it!

Other ways to make dressing is a simple oil and vinegar dressing - just a slight drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of vinegar.

If you don't want to use oil and vinegar here is a really great one - avocado and orange juice.

Dr. Doug Graham has often discussed using a natural fat and a natural acid, meaning instead of using oil which is a concentrated fat, you would use avocado, or nuts, or olive as the fat.

And then instead of the vinegar you use an acid straight from the tree, such as lemon, orange, lime, tomato, etc.

See?

So here are some great combinations:

+ Avocado -and- lemon or lime or orange juice or tomato, etc.

+ Soaked cashews -and- lemon or lime or orange juice or tomato, etc.

+ Almond or tahini butter -and- lemon or lime or orange juice or tomato, etc.

+ Olives -and- lemon or lime or orange juice or tomato, etc.

Now you may be thinking - that sounds booooring. Well, no it isn't at all. Because every combination is very different from the other. If you use a different combination each time the varieties will seem endless!

And if you are just starting out on raw foods, and not ready for the straight-forward flavor of simple combinations, then go ahead and add a little of this and that to it to give it more zip:

~ Fresh garlic or garlic powder

~ Fresh onion or onion powder

~ Dill

~ Basil

~ Oregano

~ Mint

~ Poppy Seeds

~ Sea Salt & Pepper

~ Honey or Agave nectar

~ Soaked sun dried tomatoes

~ Ginger

Anything that looks good.

Now the very best thing I've found to mix up a small amount of dressing is a Magic Bullet. There are many other personal size blenders around, but I like this one the best as it comes with a number of containers, solid lids and lids with holes, and two different blades. I don't use the blender or juicer but who knows, maybe one day I might.

Another tip I have for salads is to get the leaves washed right away, and keep them in plastic bags so it is easy to put them together. This is a huge time saver. I cannot fathom how much lettuce I've let go bad because I was too lazy to fuss around with washing. So then I would buy the pre-packaged, pre-washed lettuces, and now they are all supposedly not recommended for eating (talking about the big E-coli scare in the news) - besides the loose heads of lettuce just taste fresher than the packaged kind.

When I make salads, I try not to over-do the additions to it. I try to keep my extra additions down to 2-3 so it doesn't get too boring. By additions I mean:

• Bell peppers (I don't use the green kind, which are just under-ripe peppers)
• Tomatoes (fresh or sun-dried)
• Onions
• Parsley
• Olives
• Nuts
• Shredded Carrots
• Shredded beets
• Jicama (kids love this)
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Zucchini
• Corn
• Mushrooms

Happy Eating!

Owww...but pain does have its rewards.

This past weekend we had our promotion to brown belt and I broke the boards effortlessly - back fist and jumping front kick.

However, I discovered a big welty bruise on my knuckle. Well this time I decided to take a snap shot of it - it doesn't look as swelled up or purple in the picture, but it was pretty swollen. And, my hand came out kind of old looking!

Looks like I have elephant skin!