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"No, but" questions

2/24/2012

1 Comment

 
             Get a little raw… with your food!
          Great food - Great tastes - Great results
               
No gagging recipes, guaranteed
 


 
February 24, 2012

“No, but” questions

LOOK AT ME
Recipes: Diuretic Juice, Butternut Squash Ambrosia Salad
One of my pet peeves with the holistic/alternative modalities is
that most of the time, the promises don’t match results. 
I have spent over 30 years investigating all kinds of alternative
modalities, both as a health seeker, and a Shiatsu practitioner. 
Raw foodies are no exception. 
Many prominent voices in this community promise miraculous healing and a perfect life. I share with you, REALISTICALLY, what I’ve experienced on a raw food regime. So, here is my “No, but” question list.
Do you eat raw and vegan all the
time?
No, but 
 I eat raw and vegan until dinner.  Then I switch to
high quality, locally raised animal protein (or fish) and some cooked veggies. 
Are you pain-free from following a raw diet?
No, but 
 I no longer take ANY prescription anti-inflammatory or pain meds. 
Most days I don’t even take an Aleve. My discomfort level is consistently stable at a 2 to 3, out of a scale of 10 (agony).
Can you manage very aggressive workouts?
No, but 
 I do maintain a five day schedule of yoga classes, competently moving through most, but not necessarily all, of the poses.  I do bike the 16 mile round-trip Buffalo Valley Rail Trail.
Are you at your ideal weight?
 No, but
I am 50 pounds lighter than I was ten years ago. I am about 10 pounds over the perfect weight, at least according to those dreadful charts. I also don’t count calories, carbs, points, etc.  I
LOVE the food I eat, and I eat what I want.
Are you off all medication?
No, but the only medication I take now is for my thyroid. I do not take anything else for high blood pressure, arthritis, cholesterol, or depression - nada, zip.
LOOK AT ME
Whenever someone in the holistic/alternative field tells you
 hat what they know or do is the be all and end all, LOOK AT THAT PERSON!  Do a lot of looking and not as much listening. The person doing all the talking MUST be a walking advertisement for
 whatever it is they are proposing.  So, look at me.  I am NOT
saying this in a boastful manner. I am no stunning beauty or highly accomplished yoga practitioner.   I am almost 59 years old.  I don’t wear makeup other than some lipstick. 
Look at my skin - does it glow? Is it finely grained? Do I have good
color in my skin?  If you see me in yoga class, watch how my body handles things. Am I flexible? Strong? What about
muscle tone and definition? Is my hair dull and lifeless? What about my eyes? Are they clear and bright?  Try to
gauge my energy levels, especially if you see me in yoga. 
Do I keep up? Can I hold most poses? Watch how I walk and stand. Are my movements fluid and open, or do I hunch forward and contract inward? Is my stride open and even on both sides? Am I stiff? Do I get up and down easily and gracefully? Look at me and then connect the dots with what I talk about food-wise.  ALL of this is important, because prior to a raw diet, none of the  above was true.
RECIPES
Most women struggle with some degree of water retention. I drink
one of these diuretic juicesdaily,
but even alternative day schedule works well.  I run this combination through a juicer which separates pulp from juice. 
That’s what I recommend, Personally, I don’t want to slog down a slurry of pulp. I’ll give one recipe for those of you with juicers, and one for those using a blender.
Juicer:  Parsley (I
happen to love the taste, so I use a lot, so personal choice here,) I use stem and all on the parsley, 1 inch piece of ginger, 1 organic apple, 1 peeled cucumber, 1 lemon, 3 stalks celery.
Blender: parsley leaves only, peeled piece of ginger, lemon,
peeled apple, water.  If you want,
use ALL of the juicer ingredients above, but try passing the mixture through a strainer before you drink it. It is the parsley, celery and cucumber that produce the diuretic effects, but they also make a lot of pulp, which I would gag on straight from the blender. 
Raw Butternut Squash Ambrosia Salad
1/3 c each craisins and golden raisins8
c butternut squash, shredded (See note at end of
recipe)3/4 c diced celery1/2 c sliced scallions1/2 c shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/3 c each raw sunflower seeds and chopped walnuts
1/3 c each chopped cilantro and basil1/2 c orange juice (I use 3T frozen OJ concentrate)
2 T soy sauce
1 T minced garlic
1 T sesame oil
1 heaping t cinnamon
Curry powder to taste, start with 1 full Tablespoon and move up
from there.
Just mix all this together in a BIG bowl. 
This makes a delicious lunch, snack, or salad with dinner. 
If you enjoy the taste of Thai food, you’re going to LOVE this! This is also a large capacity recipe
yielding about12 servings.  You
might want to cut amounts in half.

OK… let’s talk about the raw butternut squash. 
First of all, don’t even think about buying a whole one and peeling it
yourself.  Look for it peeled and
sliced in the produce section. 
Last time I made this recipe, there was no squash, but there was a
container of diced sweet potatoes. 
I used them and the salad was great.  You MUST put the raw squash in a food
  processor to shred it.  It’s gross
if you just leave it in pieces. If raw squash or sweet potato seems icky, use carrots.  The point is to use an
orange vegetable.  Oh, and by the
way, neither the raw squash NOR the raw sweet potato have any taste, other than a hint of sweetness.  I was
skeptical too, the first time I tried this.  It was another“close your eyes, eat it and hope for the best” moment with that first bite. 

Next week I’ll be talking about increasing your fat intake in
 order to lose weight, eating through the color chart and some dessert recipes.
Raw desserts are some of the most intensely flavored, wonderfully satisfying
I’ve ever had.  Trust me. 
Thanks for reading!
Nancy

1 Comment

Green Goodness

2/18/2012

4 Comments

 
Get a little raw… with your food!
Great food - Great tastes - Great results
No gagging recipes, guaranteed.
February 17, 2012
As promised, today is my big “Grand Opening” post in favor of a daily green drink.  I don’t want to belabor the benefits, if you really want in-depth data, just google “green smoothies” and you will have plenty of reading material.  In short, these are, in my opinion, the five top reasons to drink a green smoothie every day:
1.  The raw greens alkanalize your blood, which is a very good thing.  Our normal diet of dairy, protein, sugar and carbs makes our blood chemistry highly acidic.  Acidic blood ph encourages inflammatory responses such as arthritis, cancer and acne, to name a few. 
2.  Green drinks are a powerhouse of micronutrients, live enzymes, phytochemicals, and fiber.
3.  Green drinks pump up energy, give a wonderful cosmetic free radiant glow to the skin, strengthen the immune system, destroycravings for sweets, lower the body’s internal inflammatory response, which means less pain and regulates digestion and elimination. 
4.  Green smoothies are an excellent meal replacement when combined with a little protein powder.  They make an awesome lunch.
5.  Since these green drinks improve digestion/elimination, contain lots of protein and knock out cravings and energy slumps… ta da!  They work VERY well in a weight loss program.
The “How to” part is easy!
1.  You need a blender.  Forget high priced juicers (for now.)
2.  You need to learn about fruit and green combinations so you don’t gag.  This is important.  My first green drink consisted of kale, spinach and a beet.  It was horrible.  It wound up down the drain.  I’ve learned a lot since then!
3.  You need some protein powder.  I use a raw vegan product from Sunwarrior. Whey based protein also works fine.  If you’re not a vanilla fan, try Banana or a Tropical Fruit flavor.  I’ll list my favorite brands/sources for these at the end of this post.
MILD greens:  romaine lettuce, the green leaves of bok choy, and baby spinach. 
STRONG greens: kale (recommended), parsley, mustard greens or anything in the cabbage family (go carefully here.)
*** Pair MILD greens with mild fruit: berries, melon, grapes. I buy a frozen “mixed berry blend” in large bags at Sam’s. 
***Pair STRONG greens with SWEET fruit: mango, banana, pineapple. I buy the mango and pineapple in large size containers at Sam’s Club and freeze the fruit.  Peel and freeze the bananas.
RECIPE (this easily replaces an entire meal!)
2 c water, almond or rice milk
1 scoop protein powder
2 handfuls greens
1-2 frozen fruits, or 1 c (this fruit part is really personal choice for sweetness)
3 ice cubes
-----------------------------------------------------------
Here are two of my absolute FAVORITE green smoothie recipes:
Spinach, almond milk, frozen dark cherries, protein powder
Kale, frozen pineapple (I like a lot), protein powder
 Here are recommendations and sources for protein powder.
Raw and vegan:  Plant Fusion at Plantfusion.net or Raw Vegan Protein by Sunwarrior at Sunwarrior.com
Whey:        Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey.  I LOVE their Banana and Tropical Punch flavors.  Best price and delivery are from dpsnutrition.com.
A few closing ideas: 
Frozen bananas make ANY green smoothie thick, creamy, sweet.
Don’t drink the same greens every day.  I cycle through kale, spinach, romaine and parsley.
Buy the darkest, leafy greens you can find.  Go organic, especially on the spinach, kale and romaine.  However, organic kale is a hard find around here.
Always add 3 ice cubes to your smoothie.
Drink one every day.

4 Comments

Get a little raw… with your food!

2/12/2012

1 Comment

 
                     Great food - Great tastes - Great results
                          No gagging recipes, guaranteed.

February 12, 2012
Welcome to the first post on Lewisburg Yoga’s blog about the benefits of raw food.
Four years ago, the osteoarthritis pain in my body was unrelenting and steadily worsening.   Traditional treatment was an ever-increasing pharmaceutical regime of anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers.  I was swallowing these in addition to the 4 Aleve I was taking every day.  Still I had A LOT of pain, decline in quality of life and stomach issues from the drugs. 
When we need a breakthrough the most, it usually shows up, in unexpected ways.  One of my clients had stabilized Fabrys Disease symptoms with a raw food diet. So, I began reading… and reading… and reading.  Having been vegan for years, the concept of just not cooking my food didn’t seem too terrible.
I bought a juicer.  I bought carrots - and ginger, and organic apples and lemon.  I figured out how to put the juicer together.  I ran all the above through the juicer, produced a HUGE glassful of bright orange liquid, held my breath and drank.  I was AMAZED at the taste!  I made some more.  Drank it down.  Started doing this every day.
Well, one month later, I cut out all prescription meds.  Got down to 2 Aleve a day.  Went back to walking and cycling.  Started juicing green things, and actually did dump some of those concoctions down the drain.  But I kept at it, perfecting the green veg and fruit combinations until I looked forward to these green drinks.  Digestion improved. Pain still lessened.  Regularity improved.
Went on vacation not thinking my body would miss the raw juice and veggies.  By day 3 of vacation, I was hitting every vegetarian restaurant/juice bar in Key West to get some raw juice in me.  I drank plenty.  I felt satisfied again.
So, there is the Cliff Note version of my journey into an 85-90% raw vegan food way of life.  It’s kind of like yoga… some changes are huge and noticeable right away.  Other changes are subtle, hidden, but profound.  We change our bodies a little bit at a time through yoga and the raw food.
I will be offering a weekly post with some personal observations, lessons learned (trust me, you will want to pay attention to what NOT to juice together…) some recipes, some helpful websites, etc.
Keep an open mind and try some of these food ideas.  Wonderful surprises and changes await you AND your body.
I also do a daily FB post with food ideas, you can check in there as well.
Next week, I am going to Ground Zero of the raw food philosophy and talk about GREEN SMOOTHIES.  I promise, anti-gagging recipes guaranteed.
Namaste,
Nancy Giuntini
    

1 Comment

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