Raw Culinary Wisdom

I know this is a site about raw food, AND I cannot share my wisdom without telling ALL.  I spend the majority of my time in my kitchen testing and experimenting with food, sometimes WAY too much time and I get mono focused and keep plunging into exploring the new dish or whipping out several batches of kale chips without a break.  I usually try and start my day with a 90 minute dance class and used to think that was it for the day as far as exercise.  The last couple of winter’s I had a re-bounder in the next room from the kitchen. The living room actually, and  I would crank up some dance music and bounce away for 10 – 40 minutes throughout the day. I was feeling pretty good about my exercise routine and would include a 2 hour hike  about twice a week as well. However, I still had some stubborn belly fat that just would not let go even though I was eating the best of foods and exercising. So along comes Dr. Rita Marie Loscalzo.  She lives in Austin Texas of all places and has a great online presence to assist people in optimum health. She is also a dedicated raw foodist which is a rare find in the medical industry, in case you haven’t noticed. Although, I am still holding the dream of doctors that prescribe kale smoothies over Prozac!

So I hear about this program called B4 B Gone and it got me curious as it explained the B’s as Belly fat (check) Brain Fog (check sometimes) Blood Sugar (no idea what this is for me) and Burnout (not really).  Well  1 1/2 out of four is good enough for me to  sign up and away I go  with 140 + women and a couple of men across the country to launch into a three month support program with LOTS of lectures and resources about things I never thought I would ever need to know.  First thing she suggest is to get some supplements, Chrominium Polynicotinate, Omega-3 DHA, also Magnesium with Calcium and other things depending on your individual health condition. This is the thing that really almost stopped me from continuing… A Glucose meter!!! I was really resistant to this one as my sister is diabetic not me, and ironically, I actually worked at a meter company back in my  days as a Human Resource consultant. I was sure I needed nothing to do with that kind of medical intervention. Boy, were my hackles up and my resistance was full power.  Then upon waking one morning when I  have time to reflect and asked whatever is so  intimidating must be something powerful for me to look at. Perhaps I was not wanting to look at blood sugar levels because there might be something I didn’t want to know.  So of course I went and bought a meter and was shocked at the price of test strips and thinking what a rip off for diabetic people condemned to life to use this stuff. BTW amazon had test strips for less than half the price from the local drug store  $50.00 for the test strips for a $10.00 meter!!  So true to my kicking and screaming I had high blood sugar, at least high for this group. We were to try and reset our blood sugar levels to never be more than 110 even after we ate.  Mine would spike to 125 after smoothies and some meals. (I found out that most M.D.’s don’t even consider it a problem unless you are consistently at 140 after fasting!!) Then we tracked everything we ate and what time we ate it and what our blood sugar was several times a day including upon rising and just before going to bed. I now had sore fingers to fumble with but they  soon were not an issue when the information was so impressive. We received  great guidance and bi-weekly conference calls to quickly discovered our problem foods, mine was the mangoes that beckoned to me since being in Thailand earlier in the year. But also, I was spiking too high with just arugula and blueberries in my smoothie!! So that meant to eliminate whatever fruit or any carbohydrate food that raised the blood sugar and to allow the body to reset back to “normal”.  Some people were doing a light cooked animal protein diet and some were raw and many levels in between. She also had recipes books for us (50 plus recipes!)  to get us used to preparing low glycemic foods. It took about 3 weeks of  adding Ceylon cinnamon to my smoothies and waiting five hours between meals, eating Greens, Greens and more GREENS with lots of variety and sauces to start seeing consistent results. The other really important element to the program was Burst Trainings which is 30 seconds of intense workouts several times a day. And the ability to calm the mine to not let stress hijack your system and mess with your blood sugar. So I was now suppose to do rapid jumping jacks first thing in the morning and throughout the day and before going to bed??? Whaoo this was getting crazy.  BUT whenever my blood sugar went beyond 110 I would do either stair climbing, running in place on the re-bounder, or jump rope for 30 seconds then I would retest and sure enough within 10 minutes my blood sugar would drop as much as ten points!!

This was starting to get really fascinating as it was not just food that made a difference but how my body handled stress, sleep and even specific types of exercise not just my usual dance  class and hike but really intense aerobic short burst. So after doing crazy stair climbing and jumping jacks I settled on jump roping to find my groove.

The other truly astonishing find was the difference in the body when it gets to register true hunger between meals. Being in the kitchen and around food non-stop this is still my biggest challenge. It seems that this was the most important key in Dr, Rita Marie’s program than any other blood sugar program. I have always heard to eat a lot of small meals throughout the day to keep weight down but this was just the opposite. When you think of it giving the body a steady stream of food  it dose not give a chance to completely digest the last snack and it has a constant supply of sugar which it stores as fat since there is no other place to store it. There is a lot of other very technical reasons why this works but that could take three months to explain. Just know it DID work.

The holidays came right after this program  ended and I was in my skinny jeans all the way through to New Years!! Wahoo!  the weight fell off of my belly like I never ever had it there, I didn’t even think about it! I was so focused on getting my blood sugar under control because I learned that it effects every single organ and is so critical in long term health. I am now able to tell without testing if my level is starting to rise, I get fuzzy and jittery and unfocused and think how scary it is for  diabetics testing over 140 to be operating a car! The rest of the group all seemed to have their own great levels of success, for some it was just being able to sleep at night that made a huge difference as the program gave tips and meditations to calm the mind. One lady actually lost over 50 pounds but I was just as delighted with my new found knowledge and even deeper health.  It is important to know I did not diet all during the holidays but used my tips of lots of extra cinnamon on almonds for snacks and continued bursts. One  beautiful sunny San Francisco day we stopped at the end of the Golden gate bridge to get out and stretch our legs and I started walking… and it felt so good I just could not stop and went to the other side and back by the time my husband  was half way across. It just felt so darn good to move and move fast that I could not stop myself. Don’t worry my husband had someone to talk to and keep him company going slow. But this is a new side of me that is very different and exciting. I might have to find other adventures for this movin and grovin body to expend energy.

The programming of “all food is good if it is raw” has been radically shifted to all greens are good and even better when eaten 5 hours apart with protein upon an hour of rising. I used some Warrior Blend protein powder for a while but now don’t need it with enough greens in the smoothie. This was the first time anyone has done this type of blood sugar program with out using animal protein and I was sure impressed with how it worked for me.

So I invite you to find your inner movin groove and try some or all of these ideas and if you feel you want the full monty of support go to  www.  B4BGone and tell Dr. Rita Marie that Eva from Nevada City said Hi.

I  have observed so many variations of “Raw Foodist” from the ultra purist “highest” raw where no processed anything can be put into meals to the occasional smoothie drinker who declares I am raw when the weather is nice or basically whenever I feel like it. I have learned a lot from everyone I meet and have actually stopped caring what people eat unless they ask me for guidance.  Which amazingly, happens very frequently, even to the point where people confess to me in the produce section that they ate something that was cooked or animal protein and felt so bad.  Sometimes people tell me they have cancer and want to eat better or they have a friend with diabetes that wants more information on what to eat to improve.

Interestingly, I never had anyone say I am doing fine but want more optimum energy. So I am concluding that we as humans need to be quite uncomfortable to make any changes in our diet. I have heard it stated that people are more willing to change religion than to change their diet!! Yikes, no wonder there is so much fight to keep the status quo and not look at what is really in processed food or how the dairy  and cattle industry was created by our addictions to acidic foods. We blindly accept whatever is written on labels as accurate and refuse to believe someone could actually plot to benefit from massive disease. If you want to save time and money at the supermarket  first: STOP READING LABELS  second: NEVER BUY ANYTHING WITH A LABEL OR IN A PACKAGE!   The  organic produce and bulk sections keeps life and your health easy breezy.

How about you? Are you just humming along and think that if you don’t get sick but  maybe only once or twice a year that you are “fine”.  Perhaps, this is where you define health as the absence of illness.

My definition of health is a body running on all cells vibrating full power, ALL systems preforming optimally along with reversing any prior damage. Think of  a healthy baby full of energy,  laughter, soft skin, flexible joints, bright and  curious mind with determination to reach goals.  Health is about  NOT  ”Aging” normally and accepting the belly fat, thinning skin, foggy brain, chronic stress, sleep deprivation, slowing down, achy joints with a yearly cold or flu.

After you are eating a diet full of  raw plant based nutrients and start to feel fantastic with W -A-Y  expanded energy your standards of doing fine are radically shifted.  I talked to a few people over the holidays that mentioned they were 100% raw food for a time in their lives.  When I asked them how they felt during that time the reply is always “Never Better”.

What makes people stray from such a positive outcome?

Usually it has something other than the food to look at what caused them to let go of what was working. Could be underlying digestive disorders, or  a thyroid issue that was never remedied, or food allergies. Sometimes they get so fixated on eating the same foods that it becomes a stress on the body and  their lives become rigid and judgemental then they loose all their friends. Also, it is great to get blood tests for any nutrient imbalances even if you are eating what you consider perfect. Did you know your cells can not absorb adequate minerals with toxic metals in them??  Did you know it is extremely common to have high levels of toxic metals living just about anywhere!  So unless we actually absorb the nutrients we are not getting them in our food.  How to get rid of Toxic Metals  is  a subject  for another blog.

As humans we  are meant to eat what is in our environment and to get the nutrients from the soils where we live. That’s why when I hear about a “Raw Foodist” eating 15 bananas for a meal I cringe, if they are not living in the tropics. When I first started eating Raw, bananas went into every smoothie and that’s how I got my veggies down. Currently, I use less and less fruit in general and  what is in season within 150 miles.  I say mostly, because if I occasionally get seduced by organic berries for Christmas I just enjoy them fully. It is just as important to not be stressed by your food selection as it is to be not be overly stressed about anything!  Our thoughts are extremely powerful and if you think that wheat grass is disgusting and horrible tasting it will do nothing to alkalize you due to the cortisol spike of getting it into your mouth. But you have to “prime the pump” and educate about the merits of healthy food to get the mind to desire them to assist in your health. The best way to “alter” your taste of greens is to educate your mind on the benefits and what their potential for healing imbalances truly are. Just Google the benefit of one vegetable or green a week and eat it with awe and reverence at it’s magical powers to heal.  Gradually you need less and less sweets to get greens down and your cells take over and create cravings for greens without any effort on your part. Eventually you can actually put your favorite fried food next to a beautiful salad and there is no temptation, to what was once a painful and powerful craving.

I have a great example of stressful thoughts and how it effects the body. I was in the middle of a green juice cleanse and testing my urine Ph regularly throughout the day and one afternoon I needed to pack for a trip I was going on the next day. Just thinking of my ” To Do” list and not changing what I was consuming changed my system from alkaline to acid!!  This was a trip I was  excited about and looking forward to as well!  So even positive stress can effect our system. It is impossible to be constantly alkaline in an environment that is surrounded by EFM’s from electronics, car fumes, off gassing of carpets and furniture or other people’s emotional leakage. If your green juice is surrounded with anxiousness of how to pay for it then it will be far less effective. You will still get  vitamins, minerals,  fiber to clean you out and give you a clean and less bloated feeling, as well as start moving gunk out of your system.

However  DON’T give in to cravings because you are stressed!! A highly acidic meal with environmental  and mental stresses is DOUBLE TOXINS in your already overloaded system that can make you feel less and less likely a to turn it around (ie: depression). It’s  now like you have to fight quicksand to get out. This is when a radical juice or smoothie cleanse is in order to stop the landslide and head in a positive healing direction.

So in summary about thoughts and stress “GIVE PEAS A CHANCE” and mellow out …grow some sprouts… and enjoy the gifts plants offer us.

Blackberries Outside My Garden Fence

Somehow with the value of Organic getting all the attention and the high cost of food going steadily up we might look in our own backyard for our next meal.  When I first arrived in California twelve years ago it was about this time of year when school was just starting up. As we walked the route to the school bus for my kids I remember the awe and wonder why there were so many blackberries all along the road and no one was picking them. Since they tasted delicious I could only surmise that they were too common and people thought of them as weeds. If you have ever had the challenge to move a Blackberry patch you will know it is definitely is a game of tug of war with it’s roots. Those buggers go deep, real deep and they are strong. In my herbal studies I found out that the red outer coating of the blackberry root is an excellent tonic for diarrhea which can result from eating too many of the berries. Isn’t nature brilliant to give you the cure for overindulging in the plant in the same plant! I decided that the Blackberries would have to share some of the sun with my other garden crops and tugged a lot of roots, so I got to create the tincture by peeling the young spring roots and putting the outer red “bark” into alcohol and kept it for a couple years,  just in case, and sure enough  my daughter had a very bad case of diarrhea for several days and nothing was helping, after just one dose (about 2 dropperfuls) it was stopped for good. Potent medicine for sure. The berries are packed with anti-oxidants and make great tarts, they go well in smoothies or just a little nut milk over them in a bowl. I usually get a full belly and purple fingers and lips just from picking them! I have used a new method to preserve them that I will share with you. Place them in the blender and pulse till liquid, then press through a fine sieve and pour the puree into ice cube trays. This makes a quick and easy smoothie addition without the seeds finding their way in your teeth throughout the day.

So much wisdom is right in front of us and the plants are trying their darndest to communicate with us. Recently I heard several farmers complaining about the Hugh amount of purslane taking over their farms.  ”How wonderful I exclaimed you should sell it!”  Sure enough, it was bundled up into small bundles at the next weeks Farmer’s Market with people showing off there new and nutrient dense wonder plants. I think it is showing up to protect our over harvested oceans for fish oil.

This blog is after six weeks of being home in California and looking back to my trek to 16,000 feet up the Mardi Himal route in Nepal. Not the typical tourist easier route.
The experience of taking on such an idea came to me after eating mostly raw for nearly two years. The fact that my body felt so good as to not be intimidated by such a journey is a testament to my diet at the age of 55. However, the fact that my husband, Jason( at 67 years old) and our two daughters and my eldest daughter’s boyfriend (James) decided to join me is just plain mind boggling. My husband eats somewhat as I do when he eats with me, with some exceptions of cooked oatmeal almost everyday and lots of deviations when he is with his friends and mother. Both my daughters have never embraced my dietary lifestyle and my youngest, Kate (20 years old) has even made it her own personal mission to be as opposite as possible from a raw plant based diet. My eldest, Christina (23 years) has attempted to integrate more smoothies and juices into her urban bay area lifestyle and even did a 21 day smoothie challenge with me before we left. James has never had any experience eating solely vegetables and has been raised on the S.A.D. diet and his job has him at the mercy of a chef on a tug boat ship that feeds middle aged meat eating hungry men. So we all journeyed half way across the globe to try a plant based trek with a group led by “Dr T.” (at ecopolitarian.com) that has been doing these trips for many years. We had a total of 14 of us mostly other women between 25 and 60 years old including a blind woman from Israel that did not speak much English as well as a mother and her 16 year old son from Minneapolis, MN. The rest of the group had various degrees of plant based eating but most of them only dabbled in the concept with the exception of an alternative animal doctor from Florida that has been eating raw for quite some time.
Think back to all your camping trips and after an invigorating day in the fresh air how much you looked forward to eating high calorie foods to fill up and keep you warm. Most of this food was probably canned and consisting of preserved meat. Things like jerky, hot dogs, bacon and beans, s-mores, chili etc. etc. I have memories of camping in Northern Norway years ago and being so cold that I ate two hot dogs with glee and thought they never tasted so good as that moment as being outside over the flame. There is something very primal (and carcinogenic ) about roasting  meat over a fire. So I was a bit nervous on how the rest of the family would react to the food but they certainly knew this was what was being served when they signed up.
When we started out eating in the hotel and having to make our own choices I observed that people would choose foods that they were already familiar with and ate often.  After a few talks from Dr T. people started to make more effort to make sure there was no dairy or meat with their meals. The hotel had hosted many events for Dr. T. and even they had a hard time complying to the no dairy concept especially for hot breakfast cereal which had to be returned a few times to get it right.
Once we were on the trail and our Sherpa and guides took care of everything for us and made sure we were never hungry or deprived in any way, old patterns just faded away. I have a vivid memory of walking in a slight misty cold rain and it was mid morning and we just had a tremendous breakfast of buckwheat pancakes, hot porridge and  fruit with a mug of tea being delivered to my tent and enjoying it while still in my sleeping bag along with  a warm pan of water to wash. I was walking alone and out of the damp moss covered  forest of trees comes this smiling beaming man with a cup and a pot of hot juice to warm me before lunch! Yes, we were definitely very well served. We never carried anything but our day packs! The local diet was mostly dal bat or rice with lentils and a few vegetables. They were very creative to use as much local organic vegetables as they could and made them as appealing as possible for our group. One night (I wish I thought to get a picture) they created veggies wrapped in pastry that were shaped like the mountain peaks we saw that day. The only thing missing for me was the elimination of gluten. We were served homemade panfried breads and pastas. Greens were not always readily available but potatoes and pumpkins were abundant. Amazingly, we seldom  got dal bat as a choice, probably they thought it was too common. We had large and ample portions so we did not need desserts. But, Somehow magically one night they produced an incredible tasty apple cake to honor my husband and my 25th wedding anniversary!
As the altitude started to getting higher and the air thinner the chef  was told NO beans along with the usual no dairy, caffeine, meat, alcohol, refined sugar restrictions as most of these release nitrogen into the blood and can block the absorption of oxygen.  We did come across some tea houses that serve westerners and even at 15,000 feet we noticed coke, snickers, and whiskey for sale!! So you could give into cravings and I am sure one or two did.  The highest peak was a rest or climb day and I was really surprised to find some of the group not feeling up to the extra couple thousand feet. The hardy ones were all members of my family including James the boyfriend and the other raw foodist from Florida. I was proud that my family was so eager to not let a little fatigue and cold stop them from going the distance and keeping up their spirits when conditions were rough. It was COLD for most of the journey and that was a surprise as the weather was suppose to be mid 80 degrees! So we packed for both conditions but all of us would of liked more warm clothes.  As we descended the weather cleared up and we got to sing local songs and dance with the nearby villagers. We even got to stay in homes of villagers and were greeted by a lively band that insisted we dance and be served more delicious food. We ended with a 2 day  stay in a beautiful retreat near a wild game refuge that was like being in the movie “Out Of Africa”. It included elephant riding and tiger tracking!
Truly an unforgettable journey that is continually unfolding for each of us every day. We said goodbye to Kate (the 20 year old) in Kathmandu as she decided to stay and volunteer at one of the schools we visited to teach English  to extremely impoverished children for 6 months! We met her host family who is so loving and excited to embrace her as one of their own. Christina came back and signed up for a PhD program in Psychology so she could help more people! James is trying to eat more and more vegetables so he can keep up with his girlfriend. Jason is pursuing ‘fine tuning’ his health to take it to an even higher level by detoxing his cells from radiation exposure as an airline pilot. Stay tuned for more details to follow.
I am forever grateful for every plant I eat for the life altering gifts it brings my body to be able to say “YES!!” to adventurous escapades that might of always remained only a dream.

Wanna come on the next veggie powered trip??

O.k. I am typing this from a hotel in Kathmandu that has electricity only 8 hours in a 24 hour day  at different times each day.  I have been on the road for over 25 days traveling to three different countries in Southeast Asia.  I have been able to stay about 90 percent plant based without feeling deprived of local experiences.  Most dishes in Thailand can be made without meat and the dairy is usually coconut milk which is fantastic for me. I can easily live on local fruit and am careful to peel it. Avoiding deep fried food is also easy even though it is every where on the street. I take pictures of fried cockroaches and frogs and smile with a deep thank you to the vendors and experience without consuming.

Here is a picture of Fried Frogs for sale.

I increase my anti-oxidants to fight the free radicals from the rancid oil fumes..  I have found organic food and even one spa in Mae Rim Thailand had a juicer in the room with an organic farmer’s market with enormous carrots and delicious greens to juice. “My Paridise in Paradise”. I even found an organic cafe in Kathmandu that served “Health in a Bowl” that was a very large bowl of vegetables with broth with a bit of rice and shiitake mushrooms. Bliss in a bowl and very filling! They have a vegetarian sampler plate of Napalise food and I have returned 3 times! More cafe like them to explore.

We met up with the rest of our trekking group this morning, someone commented their surprise that I was traveling for so long and looked so “perky”.  The rest of my family has been tempted to feed old habits and addictions and is showing more fatigue.  We had our first meeting with Dr.Tel-Orin and he explained about dairy that is produced under unsanitary conditions and not stored under proper refrigeration causes a double wammy on our system. First the extra bacteria introduced into our guts and second the lactose allergies that most of us carry genetically causes mucus build up for the bacteria to cling to. Dairy also neutralizes our stomach acid that is responsible to  attack bad bacteria.  If we add a bit of alcohol, like an afternoon beer, the alcohol prohibits the lining of our intestines to build good bacteria to fight the bad guys.  Alcohol also enables the lead in the air from pollution given off from the cars to quickly pass the brain blood barrier and stays in the brain and causes much more damage then without alcohol.  Every where we have been even Cambodia has had pizza and beer places to eat. A lot of westerners think they are eating “safe” home familiar foods are really inviting stomach illiness that may not show up for years!!

As we prepare for  our journey to the mountains the main foods to avoid are all meat products due to the decay factor  and unusual parts of animals used as well as how it is stored.  Sausage is just scary anywhere and especially while traveling. Yet it is served with every western breakfast. Dairy and alcohol is to be eliminated also as mentioned above. I also add gluten, sugar and soy to that list for my own diet.  Every culture has a bowl of rice and a few vegetables to live on and I am happy with that.

I have encountered constant waves of grace and magic watching our journey unfold. Asking the violet flame to eliminate anything that dose not serve my journey has been tremendous, and easy! We have had great weather even with days of downpours occuring only when we were in route.

I was separated from my family at a very large and confusing market in Kathmandu for a few hours and was not afraid but simply silently asked for a “ guide” back to them then let the thought go. A little while later I smiled and said Namaste to a nice young man and he asked if  I had been to the Buddist temple a short way from where I was. I had not, and he walked me to there and shared about the life of Budda then showed me his art school where he was learning to paint mandalas.  Within 5 minutes I learned my husband and daughter were at the same art school 10 minutes earlier and just left to  go back to the hotel! I was guided back to  to join them. I am so blessed with great profound love from the universe and I love manifesting with only a thought!

Dr T. has taken my daughter Kate under his wing and will have her assist guiding a blind woman from Israel joining us on the trek and staying on at a local school to teach English to young children!! We have a film maker creating a documentary about the blind woman’s journey and will have a total of 15 people joining us including a 16 year old boy. This is already an incredible exploration into ourselves and I am so excited to share with you whenever electricity and a computer happen at the same time!

NAMASTE  to all of you on your daily journeys of self discoveries towards health.

So many habits can be put on hold while you travel and enter a new routine. The simple act of getting clean water to hydrate is one that every single human being needs. After a visit to Cambodia and reading that 85 percent of the population does not have access to clean water, I am humbled and grateful for my gifts of clean water. The river that we rode on was so dirty with debris and mud, it was a no-brainer to abstain from the fish that came from there during my four day visit.  I learned that Cambodians grow veggies to trade for fish that the Vietnamese control from the river by paying off the police to keep Cambodians away. The idea of having the true gold in the vegetables is not something the culture can understand because the river has always provided their food. The concept of the fish being contaminated is also not conceivable to them.  It is just what they have always eaten.  Old habits and traditions are hard to break.

The best water purification system in nature is through plant cells. I have been drinking a coconut a day since I arrive in Thailand and Cambodia because imagine how much filtration occurs from the ground to the top of a coconut tree? It is some of the best hydrating and electrolyte filled nectar on the planet! I am sure I could live on coconuts for quite a while and be very happy.

Real Coconut Water!

However, they are hard to travel with and carrying a large  knife to open them in the airports is generally frowned upon. So it is easy to justify plastic bottles for just a short time. However as I see the unreal amount of plastic coming from one single flight,  we have to start somewhere.  I am traveling with a Steri pen that I bought on line (from Steripen.com I think) it kills all waterbourne bacteria and viruses with ultra violet light. This is suppose to clean even better than most tap water in the U.S.  I carry two stainless steel water bottles and treat them in under two minutes.  The taste can be funky and it dose not take out heavy metals so I add a dropper full of ADYA CLARITY (can be purchased through this site at the link to rawfoodworld.com click on the blendtec link to the right and type in adya clarity in the product search) This neutralizes any heavy metals and adds extra minerals to the water to make it very healthy. Check out the website on ADYAwaterpurifiers.com and educate yourself about this great product. If the taste is still not tolerable I will add some ENDURA which is a ultra electrolyte re-placer (a healthy Gatorade).  I bought that from Dr T”s web site ecopolitian.com or go directly to nutradynamics.com.  I also used oregano oil in the form of Carvasol from the same source and have never experienced any gastric discomfort the entire trip. Yes, I sample lots of fruits and veggies and I peel the fruits and eat cooked  vegetables for added caution. It is also a must to have the best immune system when you change climates   and I have been boosting with a product called Immune Support and Colostrum in capsules as well, from Nutradynamics.

With this system I figure a family of three traveling for 10  days will keep around 90 bottles from the landfill. We will be traveling for 39 days  at about 3 bottles each a day and  that adds up to 351 bottles!!! Yikes a big impact on the oceans that are already covered with “Plastic Islands”  So every time you reach for a plastic bottle start keeping tabs and check out how many you can save.

So what is so bad about plastic water bottles?

Well imagine them being shipped in trucks that are hot and set in the sun or hot warehouses  and the plastic heats up and starts releasing all the petroleum they are made from and it is absorbed into the water that you drink. Remember the warning about not microwaving any food in plastic because of the increased cancer risks? The same applies to water bottles.  Some people buy huge volumes from big discount stores and store them in the garage thinking that they are prepared for a disaster.  Well, the disaster starts with drinking this water. The off gassing from the plastic produces a substances similar to estrogen and it gets filtered through the body and gives the thyroid a signal that there is an abundance of this hormone so the thyroid is thrown off and creates an imbalance in our system and we have a drastic surge of thyroid illness.  Our bodies store this non-food substance in our fat cells to protect us. There have even been studies that indicate that our fat cells are reproducing their own estrogen !! Have you had your thyroid tested lately? An unbalanced thyroid  can have symptoms of not being able to regulate body temperature, mood swings, over eating and numerous other symptoms. The little butterfly shaped gland is located in front of our throat and is the Master gland that keeps everything running smooth. It is like the Mother board of our computer, not easy to do without!

With the recent tsunami in Japan, and the temperature plummeting around the globe it is easy to think you are addressing your fears with a quick fix to buy and hoard water in plastic bottles.  But, you may look for other creative and innovative ways to be able to drink what ever water is around without the plastic. You don’t have to wait for a trip to change habits, in fact it is difficult to change environments and change your diet.  My 20 year old daughter is still ordering cheese burgers and my husband is still eating bread as comfort food because everyday is a new experience. You can’t change yourself just because you change your environment. Start within now, then it dose not matter where you are, to eat healthy!  I am able to be about 60 to 85 percent raw and try to sample as many local fruits and vegetables as possible. The spices are amazing and I love the green papaya salads!

Wherever you are, Eat Local And Eat Green!

Tomorrow evening my daughter and husband and I will fly half way around the world to Bangkok. Family vacation you ask?

Yes and a whole lot more. You see my pesky curiosity got me again and I  was searching the ecopolitarian.com site ( the one that links from here on the right) to see what Dr T.  was up to when I spotted this adventure. Imagine asking anyone who can walk for a couple of hours straight to come and walk in the Himalayas for 15 days at 6-8 hours a day. The altitude will be about 10 – 16 thousand feet.  AND you offer to feed them only plants to sustain them. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?  Well last time I checked in with my body it could certainly walk and even uphill if I asked but the duration and extreme situation still had me give it some more thought.

How about you? Could your body  readily say yes to this challenge?

I e-mailed the itinerary to both of my daughters and husband and  told them I was going and invited each of them to join me and then I waited. Everyone had to answer the question of how healthy they were?  How much is just enough health to get by and  can you say, sure,  I can get my body to whatever level of fitness I want.

We recently drove three hours to the bay area to meet up with Dr T after, one by one they individually came on board. The ball got rolling when my eldest daughter’s boyfriend who works on oil barges and knows only the standard American diet said that he would love to come and learn a totally new lifestyle. After that any other excuses were pretty much invalid. Dr T gave a lecture on cell death and how important it was to balance out health. Think about the death of a cancer cell and what would happen if we didn’t find a way to program it to die. Perhaps supply an environment of oxygen to make it hostile to the cell. Vegetables are mostly water with some vitamins and water is of course H2O and you get the picture. However he said it with lots of humor and stories the were engaging. I took about 4 pages of notes on just a short 45 minute talk. Imagine spending 15 days of being able to ask any question you want.  O.K. I am ahead of myself since we haven’t even left the ground.

I wanted to share some of “the Wizard’s” recommendations for flying and preparing for the trip. As anyone who has taken a vacation knows getting ready can be very stressful. With stress come illness and that is not a good idea before starting on a trek.  So here is a list of  ideas and supplements for anyone who is getting on a plane:

1. First and foremost HYDRATION: start drinking increased amounts of mineralized purified water the day before your trip. I have heard people say that they don’t like to pee in public restrooms so they don’t drink while traveling. OMG what a dis-service to your cells. One trick I do to get more water in me is a put a few chia seeds in my water bottle and I get to chew on them swollen and they hold several times their weight in water and help with keeping you hydrated. To stay hydrated during the flight, drink ONLY water. Bring empty water containers (not plastic) and have the flight attendant fill them often.  Drink 30 minutes before a meal and not before 30 minutes after a meal. This is important to not dilute your stomach acid. It takes a bit of an adjustment to not have any beverage with a meal but my family is starting to catch on by not setting glasses on the table. Some will still bring a glass of water out of habit to help soften the food that is not properly chewed to go down faster.  After you are done with your lovely airline meal, by the way I was able to pre-order raw vegan on Thai Airlines, how cool is THAT! Next thing is Don’t eat chocolate, sugary snacks, salted baked dry snacks, concentrated juices or anything with caffeine as they will make you even more dehydrated. Anything with sugar weaken your immune system. This includes of course alcohol even if it’s complimentary! Carbonated soft drinks will also dehydrate you more.  If you have a fancy cloth hankie now is the time to show it off by wetting it and covering your face to keep in moisture and add humidity to your air, and keep your mucous membranes moist, and reduce aerosol exposure. You can get  great colorful cowboy hankies as well.

So how dry is it?  Actually the driest in the world about  1-5% humidity!! Yikes your are worst than the Sahara dessert  up there and they give you alcohol!!  Then we add on the cosmic radiation, electromagnetic pulses and harsh ozone, with the pollution and infections plus it is  Low in oxygen. I now understand why the international pilots looked about 20 years older than the domestic guys when my husband flew for his domestic route. It is tough on our cells even if we have reclining seats  and ice in our drinks with lemon wedges we are still taking a tremendous beating on the insides.

Just before the flight put a dab of coconut oil inside your nostrils to resist infections and to keep the delicate mucous membranes moist. Dr T even recommends to avoid speaking when you don’t have to to conserve moisture and putting added stress on the vocal chords. This is where the hankie over your face come in handy when you are next to a chatty nervous neighbor.

There is some new inhalers that look like the small vicks inhalers that are packed with great Scientifically-Validated Fractionated Active Oils. You just keep them in your pocket and inhale when needed to keeps the nasty microbes at bay. I got a set of these for all of us and Christina the older daughter couldn’t wait and has been using hers to help with allergies and she is in love with how quickly they help her breath!  You can these on line at Plant Extracts International or on the ecopolitaian website.  We bought them when were heard Dr.T in Palo Alto. As far as I can tell it is like essential oils but even better. You can buy your own refills too so you won’t run out. There is one that smells very nice called travel another one called balance, breathe, and anti-oxidant. They are subtle and can be easily used with out much fuss at all. I also like to travel with my rose essential oil for  a delightful ahhhh and balance.

Now onto the supplements:

1. Dismuzyme (Superoxide Dismutase) for cosmic radiation and free radicals, empty 2 caps in water every couple of hours during flight.

I will be bringing my Real Raw chlorella and spirulina tablets  by Ultimate Superfoods to munch like peanuts on my flight  to help detox  the radiation and get highly absorbable  plant protein. I like to much before eating an apple that  helps clean my green teeth. I also bring sea palm crunchies with almonds just in case the food is just terrible.

2. Ultrapotent -C 1000 (highest bio-availability Vit.C formula); the powder is the best but the tablets are more convenient  for travel. You can take 2 tablets every 2 hours if your system is o.k. with this amount.

3. Oxygenics (broadest- spectrum, superior antioxidant formula) 2 tablets every 3 hours of flying and for any stressful polluted situations.

4. F’rst Defenze Gel is a great hand sanitizer and also a great toothpaste!  It has peppermint, thyme, rosemary and neem with some grape seed extract. Don’t try brushing your teeth with that nasty super germ making hand sanitizer that you find every where else.  Some  products like this can be hand made with a good herbalist around.

5. E complex 1:1 (improves circulation/blood vessel integrity- reducing the risk of clotting in suseptible individuals. If you are concerned with deep vain thrombosis during flight than this is for you!

6. Multivitamin-mineral (Multigenics Intensive Care without iron)

7. A super great probiotic that I can’t seem to find the name of but if you ask at Nutrition Dynamic they could recommend one. This is where 80% of your immune system lives. A strong defense is your best offense.. wow, I think I heard that from some football guy and it stands the same to build up good bugs to keep the bad guys down.

You can get these through ecopolitarian or call Nutrition Dynamics website  directly at   (800) 444-9998 and if you use Dr T’s account number #100746 you get a discount for the retail price. He is sharing this with us so I am sharing with you as well.

Other great tips from Dr T is to keep moving during the flight any small movements will help (raising your feet for instance) and find any excuse to get up and walk around which you won’t need much excuse if you drink all that water you should be drinking. I will be bringing three 20 oz. stainless bottles and rotating through them regularly. I tell my husband drink till you know you will float away and drink some more. He is terrible about water. One small glass and he says “but  I just drank a WHOLE glass!” Nothing like being fully hydrated to be energized.

Avoid eating flesh, dairy, anything heavy like a lot of nuts and fats. Not just to be a cool plant eater but get this… your internal organs swell up 20% and are congested the last thing they need is a heavy meal to work through! Your poor little tummy, be gentle and kind to it to avoid bloating and gas.

When it is sunny stay outside to reset your internal clock.

All these are  educated  suggestions, use your inner guidance and any advise from your personal doctor to do what is best for your individual body. For example, if you sleep well then certainly don’t wake yourself up every two hours to take something. But keep as hydrated as possible and take what you can and rest, restore, and relax from the stress of getting to the airport and  through security!

Well that’s it ,….We will board  tomorrow, Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. out of Los Angeles and will have a 19 hour flight non-stop  into Bangkok!! Yikes when we land it will be 6:30 a.m. on Friday!  We will hang out in Thailand for 23 days (hey, It is snowing here and there is mangos and coconuts over  there so why not?) Then we all head over to Katmandu to begin our trek. I will keep blogging about how we progress or digress and check back when time permits. I am not bringing my laptop so we will experiment on the fly so to speak.

Hope you enjoyed these travel tips.

This is the time of year where we get to see how strong our resolves really are! Almost everyone has health on their priority list after the “sins” of celebrating. Speaking of sins and lifestyles… I went through the Holidays with lots of amazing desserts and chocolates to share and started a “tradition” of having English Trifle for Christmas dessert. Here is where all the chef training paid off, remember we really eat for visuals and texture and flavor. So regular trifle is basic yellow cake soaked in rum with instant vanilla pudding and lots of whipped cream. This is the exact dish that was served at a local B&B and was so popular, Yuck!
So I took the idea of the visual layers being colorful and attractive and made a cake or Genoise as they say in the culinary world. Here is the recipe for future use:
Genoise

1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups soaked cashews
1/2 cups macadamia nuts soaked
1/3 cup date paste
1/ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
Add coconut to the food processor and blend till finely processed add nuts and process to a coarse meal add vanilla, salt and orange zest and drop date paste by the spoonfuls until mixture holds together. Lightly pack into a square spring form pan and cut into 2″ squares. refridgerate for 24 hours then cut into 2″ squares and brush lightly with the grand Marnier on both sides.

Use colorful fruits like raspberries and blueberries and kiwis for between layers

Lemon cream filling
1 cup cashews soaked for 8 hours
1/2 cup almond cream
1/2 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup coconut nectar for sweetener
8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon turmeric for coloring
1 Tablespoon lecithin
1/3 cup liquid coconut oil
Blend all ingredients except lecithin and coconut until smooth then add lecithin and coconut on low speed until incorporated and smooth. refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Whipped coconut cream

1/2 cup irish moss paste
3/4 cup coconut nectar
3 tablespoons lecithin
2 cups coconut meat  from young Thai coconuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
3/4 cup coconut oil
Blend all ingredients adding the lecithin and coconut oil last refrigerate overnight.

Assemble by placing the cake pieces domino style on the bottom of a glass trifle bowl and layer with fruit and then lemon cream and layer two more times then let set up in refrigerator over night. Just prior to serving pipe coconut cream on top and garnish with berries.

When I brought this to Christmas dinner my 92 year old mother-in-law insisted we all gather round and take a picture with the trifle. So, what was once my “fad” diet and considered very weird to my family has now become a welcoming addition to the traditional Holiday dinner table. I also brought a raw mushroom stroganoff and colorful kale and cabbage salad. I have lessened my disgust with the ham and fatty gravies and just bring extra dishes to share.  I notice as I lessen my judgement against their food my food disappears faster! This is just who I am rather than something outside of me that I am trying out.

A diet is something that deprives me and I am dying to get it over with. A lifestyle is something that  I embrace with creativity and use all of my skills to make it a growing part of me. So when did it happen? The SHIFT from what I ate to creating within family traditions? I know it was the plants that became an integral part of my cells and I started acting from this new life force. It is now very difficult to eat “dead” food, my body just doesn’t feel well after eating say something like bread or even a veggie cooked meal. The vitality and oxygen in living plants gives such energy and an incredible yum factor it is hard to resist. I read that some say it takes 3-5 years to fully embrace a raw life style so give yourself what ever time you need to let your cells adjust and it happens without trying. Keep whatever you eat raw, delicious and appealing and soon wheat cooked pasta becomes some foreign concept that you can’t imagine yourself ever eating.

After all those desserts I have been doing cleansing like the rest of Americans BUT I get to have awesome smoothies with fabulous variety and look forward to my divine, delicious, daily detox without the olive oil liver flushes and harsh cleanses. Just by eliminating nuts I have easily dropped my few extra holiday pounds and am loving the extra energy for more exercise.  My new motto is keep it simple and just adding a smoothie a day and working up to more soups and salads to get as many greens as possible into me. Spinach is seven times less nutrient than just a few years ago because the soil is far less nutrient dense. So a small serving isn’t enough to give the body all the healing properties it needs.

There is some great on-line support programs that have 21 days detox with green smoothies that give daily e-mail support and menu planners. I tried one with the greensmoothiequeens.com and they are a fantastic group of women in Canada with freat educational and a heavy dose of “keeping it fun”. To my shock my oldest daughter wanted to give all this good food a try and joined me. She told me over Christmas she feels better eating my food even if it is for only three days! So she got my old vitamix when I upgraded to a Blentec blender and off she is going to a new slimmer healthier body with one button meals.
Another shock hit me is when I invited my family to join me on a raw vegan trek in Nepal in March and to my shock they all said Yeah!  Even my daughter’s  meat loving boyfriend is excited to come trekking with Dr T.from Ecopolitarian.com and learn more about eating just plants.  More of this story to come…
Plant your own seed within you and watch the miracles unfold in your family just add lots of patience!

I am writing this as large fluffy flakes of snow keep falling on top of the few inches already snuggled on top of my garden of kale.  So what’s for breakfast?  A nice warm almond chai to start. You can make your own from scratch using Rooibos organic tea for super antioxidants and put it into a herb ball in a pot of water that has boiled and is now simmering on the stove. Add some warming spices to the tea/herb ball such as a broken up stick of cinnamon, a few cardamon pods, a few slices of ginger, a few whole pods of allspice, some whole cloves, whole fennel seeds and a few black peppercorns.  Keep this on low and let the tea steep until the aroma fills the house. Make some almond milk with less water for extra cream and add as much as you want and top with a sprinkle of fresh nutmeg. For sweetener I add vanilla stevia or add extra dates to the almond milk for sweet cream.  My new favorite immune boosting yummy drink would be to add a heaping teaspoon of  14 mushroom Blend powder (from mushroomharvest.com)and a pinch of licorice powder to this chai and I am feeling fantastic! Feel free to add hemp milk instead of almond for a quick and easy cream as well. My husband is a hot chocolate lover and just can’t let go of this habit.  So I make him up a hearty healthy chocolate drink that he loves. In the blender add hot boiling water about a cup and a half, add a heaping tablespoon of carob and a heaping teaspoon of mesquite another heaping teaspoon of lacuma or yacon powder for sweetner then I add rich coconut meat or oil or hemp or almond cream whatever is handy. The next ingredient is so much fun it is Medicine Flower Dark Chocolate extract from the Raw Food World Store (link from this site) add just a few drops and you have this heavenly chocolate smell without the caffeine stimulant from cacao. I also got the coffee flavor and hazelnut to mix and match and make great mochas without coffee!  This morning I  added a banana and some coconut cream with a spoon of vitamineral green to give an extra boost as he was heading out to survey the damage from a bear entering our cabin in Tahoe last night. Just blend until warm in the blender and it tastes great and warming. If the green color of the Vitamineral green is too much just put it in a thermos cup and they will never know you snuck in some vitamins into the yummy smelling chocolate

For cereal I make  Fruity Buckwheaties which is sprouted buckwheat with coconut flakes and added dried fruit held together with some chia and date paste. Experiment with your favorite fruits and spread onto a dehydrator sheet for 12 hours and break apart and store in glass jars. I add some divine tasting blueberry coconut yogurt on top or warm nut milk of your choice. Very filling and  sustaining energy. Despite the common name and the grain-like use of the crop, buckwheat is not a cereal or grass. It is called a pseudoceral to emphasize that it is not related to wheat.  Russian athletes swear by it for powerful energy, and actually threaten to boycott an olympic event if it was not served!

Another breakfast option is oatmeal using the whole oat groats that have been soaked and rinsed 3x for 48 hours and blended with hot water and cinnamon and cardamon with some hemp seeds.  Add diced prunes or currents and enjoy!  What happens is you let the oats soak and get all of the nutrients available without the steamroller smashing them into flat lifeless things that “Quacker Oats” has sold us as good for us. Less processed is ALWAYS better and cheaper!  So you can still have your oatmeal just keep a steady supply soaking and rinsed.

Another fun breakfast is Chia pudding that is made the night before by adding 1/4 cup of ground chia to a couple of cups of nut milk with warming  spices like the ones used in making chai.  In the morning I add a banana or chopped apples with walnuts and raisins. You can bring this to room temperature or place your bowl in a larger bowl of hot water and stir till warm.

I still do green juicing but I usually take it with me to dance class and drink it after my body is warmed up. I  Always add ginger to my cold weather juice to give my digestive fire a little help.

Green Veggie soup is a breeze to make and preserves much more nutrients than cooked soup. I was making a veggie broth for my daughter who had a stomach flu and she could not handle anything raw and I actually found myself apologizing to the carrots and kale for putting them in such extreme heat conditions!  O.K., so I discovered I am getting WAY tuned into my veggies and it is another level of awareness.  There is  a great soup recipe on Elaina Love’s site PureJoyPlanet.com where she uses hot water in a blender full of veggies to get warm and delicious soup within minutes instead of  the usual roasting, sautéing, baking and pureeing of cooked veggie soups. It is so delicious to add sprinkles of chili peppers or cayenne pepper to give it an added zing. No pots to clean just one button “cooking” and a quick rinse of the vitamix container and you are done. This works great with raw butternut squash as well just chop squash into small cubes add a half of tomato or some soaked dried tomatoe with a 1/4 cup pine nuts and a 1/4 teaspoon powered rosemary and a little salt and yum in less than 4 minutes! Have the squash cut up ahead and keep in a glass container for even faster prep.

I serve the soup with pumpkin seed crackers made with sunflower seeds and veggies from the juicer with chia as a binder with herbs and spices. I am experimenting with fermenting the mixture before dehydrating and they have a nice zing like the “Salt and Vinegar” chips my daughter loves. She was thrilled to like the new crackers!

Be sure to warm up any entree in the dehydrator for 10 -20 minutes with the Excalibur dehydrator turned all the way up as the food will not reach a high temp for quite a long time and you get warm delicious lasagna, spaghetti sauce, enchilada or what ever you gourmet tendencies take you to.

Happy Healthy Warm Winter Season!