I'M ALIVE!! ALIVE!!

*pic from movie "Young Frankenstein"

Hi Beautiful Ones,

Going back to my journey of eating a high raw/vegan diet, I’ve reintroduced the green juice back into my life.

I’m telling you. If you want instant energy then guzzle down one of these. I had totally forgotten this until I had some the other day. I drank my juice down and, unlike when I drink coffee (Yes, I still do), I felt immediately awake & energized. I'm convinced that the more I increase my green juice intake, the sooner I'll be able to ween myself off the coffee. Or at least drastically down. ;)  I know. It's a personal process.

Turning your nose up to the thought of it? Add an organic granny smith apple (or 2, if needed) and a lemon. Yummy.

So far, I love mixing greens like kale, green lettuce, red lettuce, romaine, a Granny Smith apple and a lemon for my juice. I've delved into adding an herb like parsley or mint. Haven't tried any others just yet. And I'm looking forward to adding garlic to a juice, and trying the darker greens like collards & chard. And yes, ginger definitely puts a little zing into your juice.

I happened upon a pretty straight-forward site on juicing called, The Juicing Book.  I found this site to be quite easy to navigate. And I really love the way they break down all the benefits and components of the vegetable (or fruit). It's definitely worth taking a look at.

Fresh green juice does the body good in so many ways.

• It is full of live, unpastuerized enzymes, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.
• You get to take in more vegetables by drinking them.
• Digestion & absorption of the nutrients and other goodies is immediate since your body doesn't have to break down food particles.
• Helps to alkalize (healthy pH) the body.
• Delivers chlorophyll to the body which is powerful antioxidant, awesome blood builder and cleanser.

You can read my other posts on green juicing here and here.


Cheers,

Post Title → I'M ALIVE!! ALIVE!!

COMMITTMENT PHOB??.... MAYBE

No, it's not what you think. ;)

For awhile now, I’ve been contemplating wanting to do a juice-fast…. of some length. And when I say “of some length”, I mean for a full week. Hell, at this point I'd take three days. I see so many people out there doing a juice fast of some sort but for some odd reason I am having such a difficult time committing to it. If you really know me, then you’d know that I’ve done fasts before. At one time, I was pretty regular with it. Like a week, or at least a day, every other month or so. The only difference between then and now is the knowledge that I have. Then I was going straight to juice isles in the grocery stores and getting any old apple juice, orange juice, etc. Now, I feel like I can do it right. I have a juicer and know to go to the Farmer’s Market for some great veggies.

But lately, I’m having a hard time settling down to do one.

I would love to do 7 full days but I can barely wrap my mind around doing 1 full day. What da heck is up with that? I should really be over the “what I’ll be missing” phase. It’s like I’m afraid of being constrained or having to adhere to a strict regimen. Anybody have pointers or input on this?..I know it’s totally mental. But I will say that I’m being moved and inspired more everyday to go for it.


I’ve been watching videos of Dan McDonald (aka youtube’s Liferegenerator) making juices. Now keep in mind that I’ve been watching his videos. He’s hilarious and such a positive ball of energy. But for some odd reason, it just clicked in me to just go for it and drop some leafy greens into my juicer (Breville Juice Fountain Plus). It’s not the juicer that I want to juice my kale, lettuces and other leafy greens but it does a pretty good job. Dan seems to be working it quite well with his Breville. Now this does not change the fact that I still want a Hurom Slow juicer.
This baby is still on my list for this year.

Here’s a juice that I just put together the other day:
My First Green Juice (leafy green)

It consisted of kale, spinach, parsley,a Granny Smith apple and a lemon. It was as good as I expected it to be.

I also have a couple of books on juicing to help guide me.
The Juice Fasting Bible. Sandra Cabot, M.D.
The Juicing Book. Stephen Blauer

Although I must honestly say that I've been winging it with my concoctions, I still need some help on committing to a juice fast.
Any suggestions out there?....

Post Title → COMMITTMENT PHOB??.... MAYBE

JUICING {RELOADED}

Freshly juiced vegetables (also referred to as fresh green drinks containing ingredients such as cucumber, celery, spinach, lettuce, sprouts, kale, pak choi, broccoli, cabbage, parsley etc.) give your body an instant boost of nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals in a form that the body can easily assimilate, absorb and digest – in fact, studies have shown that the nutrients from juiced vegetables are within our bloodstream within 30 minutes of consumption!

At the most basic level, juicing allows us to add so many more vegetables to our daily diet, and to up the amount of raw food we consume giving the body energy and boosting the immune system and the body’s cleansing process.

A quick summary of why juicing is so beneficial:

- Green juices contain lots of chlorophyll which is incredibly effective in detoxifying our bodies. Chlorophyll can help make our bodies strong, detoxify the liver, can purify and help to rebuild our blood cells (as the molecular structure is very similar to haemoglobin which moves oxygen through our blood), remove mold, parasites and myco/exotoxins from the body and (as many, many studies show) can help prevent and remove cancer cells.

- According to macrobiotic.co.uk – one of the biggest health benefits of juicing can be summarised in one phrase: cellular cleansing. According to Steve Meyerowitz (the Sprout Man!) all changes to a persons health should start at a cellular level by oxygenating and cleansing the system of toxins and other damaging foreign invaders. This is known as creating and enhancing health and fitness from the inside out. The cellular environment is the environment where all of the cells in our body live, including the lymphatic system, digestive system, and cardiovascular system. This could be a whole article in itself, however, it is important to remember that fresh vegetable juices are massively beneficial to the body’s efforts to cleanse its cellular environment.

- Raw, fresh vegetable juices are extremely alkaline. We have several other articles on the importance of alkalising your body, however, very briefly – it is highly beneficial to ensure that your body does not become over-acidic and that an alkaline balance is maintained in the blood & tissues. Over acidification is the common theme and cause of almost all conditions of ill health!

- As mentioned, raw vegetable juices/ green drinks are an excellent source of vitamins & minerals, trace elements, enzymes and nutrients which supply essential elements required for the body’s healing processes and cell regeneration.

- Vegetable juices are rich in natural medicines, vegetal hormones & antibiotics. For instance, certain hormones needed by the pancreas to produce insulin are present in cucumber & onion juices and freshly juiced garlic, onions, radish & tomatoes contain many beneficial antibiotic substances.

- Easily absorbed organic minerals such as calcium, potassium & silicon are contained within fresh vegetable juice. These minerals assist the body in restoring the biochemical & mineral balance in the tissues & cells, which helps to prevent the premature aging of cells & disease.

**info from energiseforlife**


Just wanted to share a couple of the juices that I've made in my juicer. I really enjoy them.

The Acidity Buster by Sandra Cabot

1/2 grapefruit, peeled
1 lemon
2 stalks of celery, leaves removed
1 cucumber
1 red radish
2 inch slice of pineapple
1/2 inch ginger root


The Oxygenator by Natalia Rose

1 lb of carrots
1 medium beet
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger
1/4 tsp fresh Serrano chili

For my juices, I stick with organic foods. Also, the juicer that I have is the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. And yes, I enjoy this juicer! I hope to purchase a Greenstar juicer one day, so that I can juice leafy greens really well.

Juice recipes came from the following books:
"Raw Food Life Force Energy" by Natalia Rose
"The Juice Fasting Bible" by Sandra Cabot, MD

Cheers to vibrant health!
ChocolateOrchid

Post Title → JUICING {RELOADED}

HEAVENS TO MURGATROID!!! MY PEE IS PINK!!

Hi Beautifuls!

A couple of weeks ago, I tried a delicious and naturally sweet juice Here’s the recipe:

2 medium carrots, trimmed
4 oranges, peeled
3 medium beets, trimmed

It was wonderful! And I knew it was super healthy for my body. What I didn’t know or expect was that it would turn my pee pink...ish. You can only imagine my thoughts when I first saw this. Especially, since I’m normally a “clear”…... pee'er. Anyhoo, after I calmed down and dismissed any and all wild thoughts about UTI’s or internal bleeding, I knew it had to do something with the beets. So I hit up the internet and sure enough it was there in abundance.


Beets can turn your pee pink! This does not occur in everyone. I REPEAT: THIS DOES NOT OCCUR IN EVERYONE. It happens in about 1 to 8 people. This occurrence has been coined as “Beeturia” and can indicate an iron defiency. This is not surprising to me because I was told years ago that my iron level is low. As a matter of fact, when I was pregnant w/my daughter that was the first thing the doc recommended me to begin taking. You can read more about “Beeturia” here.

So you know what this means... I’ll be incorporating more green smoothies and juices in my diet and including bee pollen and b12. Definitely making a high raw/living foods intake my lifestyle.

Just so you know.
Smooches,
CO

Post Title → HEAVENS TO MURGATROID!!! MY PEE IS PINK!!