51 Days

As you can see, from the title of this entry, it's been 51 days since I went raw. It's hard for me to believe that I've really done it! Other than a few little bites of cooked foods, I've been nearly 100%. I'm learning when it's ok to have a taste versus when it's better not to go there and risk backsliding. Eating raw has been a someday goal of mine for such a long time, but one of those goals I never quite got around to doing. Well, here I am, finally doing it.

So, I've been keeping my meals simple: lots of green smoothies (a quart a day) and salads with seaweed and sauerkraut. I have my daily maca nutmilk drink, which definitely gives me energy. I have a little manna bread here and there. I've had a few days of craving sweet things (it's worse when I don't get my greens) and imbalanced meals, like tonight, when I had a big bowl of strawberries with chocolate avocado mousse for dinner. Not typical,but sometimes you have to feed your soul, as well as your body.

I'm finally starting to see some progress, energy-wise. I think the combo of raw, acupuncture, maca drinks and Chinese mystery herbs are beginning to work their magic. Let's not forget my new favorite thing- qigong. Talk about magic! I can feel a big difference each time I practice it. I've had more energy this past week than I've had in a long time. When I went and had electro-dermal screening the other week, even though my thyroid still tested weak, my readings were the best they've ever been. So very gratifying!

I'm still working on getting the level of restful sleep I need. I'm not there yet, but it's also improving. I have to say that my favorite physical change is losing some rather stubborn body fat, especially around my middle. I had a goal in the back of my mind that I wanted to be in better shape in my 30's than I was in my 20's. I've already accomplished it with more ease than I imagined, although I still need to tone things up a little.   I've lost about 6 pounds, which doesn't sound like a lot, but on a thin-framed person like me, it makes a big difference. I'm actually not dreading wearing a swimsuit this summer- how exciting! I'll need to get new pants soon...

-Erin

The energetics of food

It's week five for me and I'm still going strong!  I still have many low energy days, due to low thyroid hormone conversion. Even though I'm not there yet, I feel like I've found some important keys to my personal healing process. Let me tell you more.

Many people go raw assuming that they can eat anything, as long as it's not cooked, and that their body will magically find its perfect balance and restore itself. This does, indeed, work for many people, and some of them go on to write books, extolling the virtues of whatever their particular regimen is. Well, it's just not that simple. I suspect that for every one of these people, there is another person who just isn't feeling all that great, or, even feeling worse! This is where digging a little deeper comes into play.

For me, that deeper digging came in the form of going to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner. So, I went to see a sweet little Chinese lady named Dr. Sheng, who was one of the top TCM practitioners in Shanghai, before moving to the U.S. At my second appointment, she shook her head and said "I'm not going to treat your symptoms; I need to completely rebuild you. This takes six months to two years" Wow- no wonder I'm not "better" yet!

She also told me that some of the foods I was eating a lot of were directly contributing to some symptoms I'd been experiencing. I learned that for me, right now, spicy things like ginger, garlic and cinnamon, were connected to excessive dreaming and even nightmares I had been having, because they were adding too much heat to the heart meridian, where there was already a buildup of heat. They were also making my skin break out. So, I cut them out and I noticed a big difference within days.

This inspired me to really dig in and learn more about the energetics of food. I've had a great book- "Healing With Whole Foods" by Paul Pitchford, for a few years and I'd learned a lot from it, but knowing exactly which  imbalances I was dealing with allowed me to gain a new level of knowledge from it and to adjust my diet, accordingly. I now know which foods nourish "kidney yin" (which I'm trying to build) and which foods clear "damp heat", which I have a buildup of. I now also know how to look at my tongue and get clues as to what's going on in my body.

Let me tell you, it's so empowering to know what's going on inside of your body and how each food affects that balance. Every food has a different energetic quality that can work with or against what you're trying to accomplish. I can see the effects of this, already. I'm excited to see how much progress I will make, now that I understand what I'm doing. Beyond just what I eat, I've learned what lifestyle practices will best support me and which ones do me the most harmed.

 I encourage everyone to take advantage of ancient constitutional medicine systems like TCM or Ayurveda. You will learn a lot of practical, self-empowering info.

Knowledge is power, baby!

-Erin

Poo Smoothie

Sorry I don't have a picture for this one but I don't think it would be pretty anyway! I have a new favorite green smoothie and I wanted to share the recipe!

Poo Smoothie (this name comes from the way it looks....just don't think about it too hard!)

2 healthy fistfulls of Kale
16 oz. Water
1 large or 2 medium sized Bananas
3 T raw sunflower seed butter (or other raw seed or nut butter)
2 T raw honey

Blend all in blender adding in as order listed. YUM!!
I find with Kale it can be really bitter so a lot of fruits just don't cut it but since bananas are soo sweet and the sunflower seed butter has a lot of texture it makes for a really tasty smoothie (not to mention lots of protein!) that just happens to look like, well, you know!

~Rose

Do the right thing

This week has been all about lessons for me. After several days of eating a lot more cooked food than I had in the past month (I was limiting my cooked foods to condiments for the most part!) I am happy to get back to RAW. It was interesting to compare the differences in myself with cooked food after nearly a month of raw. To summarize what I noticed eating cooked again:
1. Not nearly as much energy. I have had a much harder time waking up in the morning, I haven't wanted to go to the gym at all this week or even take my dog for our usual 2 mile stroll around the lake.
2. Needing more sleep, not sleeping through the night, harder time falling asleep and waking up.
3. ACID INDIGESTION!!!! Need I say more?
4. Blood sugar highs and lows. On my former diet I experienced a lot of low blood sugar moments and had to eat every few hours. On RAW, I never experience low blood sugar and I'm amazed at how little I need to eat to sustain myself.
5. Less bowel movements- more bloated.
6. Body odor! Ok, I'm not smelly or anything but when I was eating all raw I stopped wearing deodorant most days but I can't skip it this week! I tried and it wasn't pretty : )

So I think eating cooked foods for a few days was good because it really reinforced why I'm doing this and that I'm doing the right thing! We need to love ourselves to love our bodies enough to love our food and DO THE RIGHT THING! EAT RAW!!
~Rose

Not quite

So I have actually decided NOT to fast, but instead, jump back into raw after my lost weekend. Fasting is very natural (animals instinctively fast when they are/getting sick) and SHOULD be fairly easy. Today has not been easy at all so I have decided it must not be the right time. Also, I realized it wasn't fair to my body to load it full of crap and then put it through a major cleaning. It's a lot easier to clean your house when it's only slightly messy rather than thoroughly neglected. Same with our bodies! So I made a small salad with the rest of my bibb lettuce and homemade kimchee. Possibly a new favorite salad! Why did I not think of this before? I added a little olive oil and pieces of nori to the mix YUM!
Speaking of Kimchee, I wanted to share the recipe I use. I have made it about 4 times now and don't really use a recipe anymore, but this is a good guidline. It is from the Living and Raw foods website (http://www.living-foods.com).

Kim Chee recipe

1 napa cabbage, chopped
1/4 cup or more rock salt (Use Korean rock salt if you can or else rock
sea salt)
2 inch piece ginger root, peeled & grated
1 bunch green onion cut into 2inch pieces
8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 handfuls (or more) Korean ground red chili pepper (you can use Mexican
but it should be a coarse grind and the pepper must not be smoked, just
dried)

FYI: Korean ground chilis are about the size of the chili flakes you put on pizza but Korean ground chilis do not include the seeds.

Place cabbage in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with a liberal rock salt and pour the water of it. Let stand for 2-8 hours, stirring now and then.
Drain and squeeze out excess water. If you're worried about the salt you can taste and rinse if needed. Then squeeze and drain once more.

Put cabbage back in mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well with your hands. using your clean hands, pack kim chee into clean screw top jar and cover with lid. Put in a warm place (like your kitchen counter next to stove) for 24 hours then store in fridge for up to 3 months. We never add vinegar. The cabbage makes it own liquid.

In my version, I omit the garlic entirely and add more ginger. I am a huge garlic fan but I think it is highly over used. Kimchee has a great flavor on it's own without the help of garlic! MAKE SURE you use enough salt I cannot stress this enough. The cabbage will soak up a lot of the salt, but you can rinse the excess off. Undersalting can result in your Kimchee molding and/or being mushy. It should have a crisp texture when done properly. Don't be afraid of salt! It is your friend : )

~Rose

Green Smoothie Sisters go where few dare to go....

So far this journey has been one of ease, sunny days, plenty of places to rest along the way and a lot of support. But as with all journeys, I have hit a few speed bumps along the way. It started saturday with a restaurant outing with my mom and husband. I ordered a scrumptious greek salad (sans anchovies) but thought it would be fine to take a bite of my husband's reuben. I am after all THE expert in this particular field of sandwich. Or I WAS before raw food. Well he got full and I wasn't so a bite turned into half a sandwich. It was so good! Half an hour later I was miserable, my belly so bloated I looked pregnant. "I'll never do that again" I scolded myself. WRONG! I made the same mistake the next day! This time as a result of being out and about and needing to grab something to eat at an odd time of the day. My husband wanted to try out this new place near where we were already at "I'm sure they will have a salad bar" he assured me. Well, iceburg lettuce, poorly cut cucumbers and lots of ranch dressing they did have. Satisfying it was not. So in addition to my lame salad I consumed cooked to death collard greens (I won't lie they did taste good I love collards!), sweet potatoes, and 1/2 a biscuit.
I think it was the biscuit that did it. I'm convinced that wheat is the gateway drug of food. Come monday morning I had every intention of putting the weekend behind me and starting over. Easier thought than done. I started my day with a juicy mango and a "seaser" salad. As the day crept on I had this nagging urge to eat carbs. And I caved. One peanut butter sandwich, and later 2 pieces of toast and popcorn! OY VEY! I truly felt unlike myself. I had reactivated an intense life long sugar/wheat addiction all with one seemingly innocent 1/2 of a biscuit.
But each day is a new day, a new opportunity to make healthy choices, to forgive ourselves, to do the right thing. So I am begining a gentle juice cleanse today. I figure after abusing myself for 3 days in a row my body deserves at least a 3-7 day rest. So wish me luck! I will be writing updates about my juice fast including one of our favorite subjects....ENEMAS!!! You truly cannot safely cleanse without the help of those internal baths. Stay tuned. ~Rose

Checking In

Looks like the Green Smoothie Sisters have been the blog slacker sisters, lately! Time for a little update. It's been nearly a month since we went raw, and oh, how the time has flown! I'm amazed at the smooth transition I've had. Not that there won't be challenges down the road, but I think that, on more than one level, I was just ready to do this. 

I've definitely had a minimal amount of physical detox symptoms. I think that's due to the fact that I was already eating a vegetarian diet with anywhere from 40-70% raw for awhile before I started. I've noticed some emotional detox, though. Things that need to be dealt with are bubbling up to the surface, which can be a little hard at moments, but very necessary. I think it really is true that food toxins keep you dull and in denial.

I'm really liking the benefits I've reaped, thus far. My complexion is starting to look clear and smooth. My belly is flattening out (yes!). My muscles feel light and more full of energy.

The next step for me is to super-charge things. I ordered some Maca Extreme powder to add to my smoothies. I've been hearing good things about it, as far as rebuilding the whole endocrine system, and, lord knows, mine could use some rebuilding. I love trying new things and being my own guinea pig.

Let the experiment begin!

-Erin

Introduction #2

Hello, I'm Erin, the other sister.

I recently had one of those "enough is enough" moments. After years of educating myself, eating "healthy" and taking supplements, I realized that what I was doing just wasn't cutting it. I had no energy and sleep problems, my hormones were out of whack, my thyroid and adrenals were still under functioning and I had just been diagnosed with low ferritin and macrocytic anemia- even though I was eating my greens, taking my iron and my B12. 

I felt like "what gives?!"-  I was doing all the right things and my body still wasn't responding! Talk about frustration! 

So, I decided that it was time to really start over from the ground up. Time to go raw. That was nearly three weeks ago and I haven't looked back. I was determined to do it, even if I was the only person I knew eating this way. Imagine my delight when when I called Rose to tell her, only to find out that she had also made the same choice. Things happen the way they're meant to. We had several excited phone pow-wow's and this blog is the result.

I can't say yet that my ills are gone or that I'm bursting with energy, but I know that regaining your health is a process that requires patience and, above all, kindness to yourself.

I have started to see some improvements, though.

On days when I don't get enough sleep, I can still function. I feel lighter and more at ease in my body. My dreams are more vivid and several of them have had important messages to tell me.

I will continue to share my thoughts and improvements and hopefully, some of you out there will be inspired by our stories and recipes. 

There's always a better way, and if you open your heart, you are sure to find it.

-Erin

I'm in the mood for thai...

Yum Tum Noodles (I named this creation such b/c of the ginger)

recipe is ROUGHLY (I didn't write it down until after I made it):

Sauce:
1/4 Cup Oil (I used an olive/flax mix)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 T Bragg's liquid aminos
2 T agave nectar
1 T raw tahini
1/8 tsp cumin
1 T curry powder
1/2 tsp coriander
pinch cayenne
salt to taste
(adjust the amounts to your liking- more cayenne if you want it spicier, more agave if you want it sweeter or extra Bragg's for a savory taste)

5 zucchinis peeled into "noodles"
1 carrot peeled
1/4 Cup chives
1 T fresh grated ginger
1/8 Cup fresh shredded (or dried) cocnut

pour sauce over "noodles", throw everything else in and stir with lots of love and good thoughts! Add extra chives and coconut on top for a beautiful dish. I put wasabi peanuts on mine which aren't raw, but very nice looking! Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Easy as pie

I'm constantly surprised how easy it is so make good food when you have good ingredients. When you have raw ingredients, everything is good! I finally finished the last of a raw pie I made the other day. I call it a breakfast pie b/c it's really good for breakfast! I didn't measure anything so these are only estimates. The rawcipe is as follows (roughly):

Crust:
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup dried coconut
1/2 cup soaked raisins
2 T agave nectar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sea salt

mix and blend briefly, fit into pie pan

Topping:
10 strawberries sliced
1/2 mango sliced into small strips or squares (as long as they lay flat)

layer topping in crust. drizzle with additional agave nectar, sprinkle with coconut. EAT!


The fruit combo could be switched to whatever you have. I really just threw this together thinking "we'll see what happens!" and it turned out beautiful and delicious. I have been eating it for breakfast and it is so satisfying.

Raw food and sleep

We have heard stories of raw foodists who comfortably run on 3-5 hours of sleep a night. They talk about how great it is to have extra time for creative endeavors. We think that sounds pretty swell. But we're also very much in love with our beds.
Last night I experienced what I can only explain as the effects of eating a raw food diet. I went to bed around midnight feeling tired and comfortable. We had been talking all night about exciting things and I found my brain would not shut off! It wanted to create raw food and write and talk and do do do.......and I lay there trying to meditate and shut my mind down a bit.
I eventually fell asleep and popped up about 6:30 am (VERY rare for me!) feeling just as excited about life as I had the night before. I snuck off to the gym for about an hour and returned home in time to take my husband to work. I had some juice and a piece of cake from the night before and headed off to take the dog around the lake for a couple of miles.
Usually by the end of this walk we're both pretty worn out. Not today! As my dog's hips sank lower to the earth with each step I found myself bouncing right along like little miss sunshine! The only explanation I can think of is the power of raw food! I'm sure the fresh air and beautiful sunshine didn't hurt either.

Introduction

Hi I'm Rose, or if you prefer, "Rawzee" my raw food nic name. Along with my sister Erin "Erawn" I am starting this blog to chronicle our journey into raw foodism. We are on a quest for health, happiness, beautiful glowing skin and sky high energy. And hoping to find some killer "rawcipes" along the way.
By sheer coincidence, or divine guidance some might say, we both simultaneously began a full force dive back into raw foods recently. We have both dabbled with raw food several times over the last several years and were raised as granola kids, even adapting vegetarianism in our teenage years, but still that has not been enough. Through a mostly raw diet we are aiming to gain optimal health, longevity, immunity and peace! So far things are starting smoothly!
Tonight I juiced for the first time in months. I had some carrots and grapefruit I needed to use up. I couldn't believe how good fresh juice tasted and what a rush it brings! Personally it has the effect on me as some would gain drinking a shot of espresso. There is no crash at the end though!
I had all this lovely carrot pulp I couldn't bring myself to dispose of so I made a cake! I love whenever people ask "So what CAN you eat on a raw food diet?" and telling them cake and pie always brings a surprised/confused look to their faces.
I modified the following recipe from the sad to raw website (http://www.sadtoraw.com):

4 Cups of carrot pulp (from juicing)
1 Cup Walnuts
1 Cup fresh or desiccated coconut
Two thirds cup of dates
Half cup of raisons
Quarter cup of ground flax seed
Cinnamon & Nutmeg

Mix all the ingredients together and then pass the mixture through a juicer using a blank screen, The homogenised mixture can then be molded into shape by hand or in a cake tin.
Once this is done you are ready for the yummy topping.

A little fresh orange juice, a little grated orange rind, raw tahini and dates, blend all ingredients together to make a scrumptiously, delicious, whippy cream - decorate as desired.

- from Anastasia, Harmonious Living

I omitted the topping and since I didn't have dates or flax seed I substituted figs and sesame seeds. The result was incredible and beautiful with a dusting of elegant coconut on top. Let them eat cake all they want.....as long as it's RAW!