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So far we’ve only been at the cottage for 14 hours…which included 8 hours of sleep. While others around me are eating hamburgers and bacon and eggs, I hardly know where my next meal is coming from! Last night I ate tomatoes and 3 raw corn cobs for dinner. The hamburgers were sitting right in front of me. They smelled aweful and I didn’t want one bite of them. Blah!
I spent 24 years eating burgers and fries, so sometimes the feelings come right back, like I should be eating them with everyone else. I am pulled in 2 directions. Because, there is that other part of me that remembers the animals, and what they must have endured in their short little lives. I’m not perfect. I cave sometimes. Sometimes I feel terribly guilty, and sometimes I’m so far caught up in the memories that I feel no guilt at all. It depends on the day really.
Sometimes I’m starving, yet won’t even touch processed food. At breakfast yesterday, I had nothing because there was only crap on the menu, but later on I indulged in some rice crackers and red pepper dip because I was so hungry again! I need to start better preparing for being out of the house, but sometimes you just want to go with the flow instead of preparing meals for 4 whole days of being at the cottage.
The easiest thing would be to go to the cottage with other raw foodies! But I enjoy hanging out with my family! So sometimes I may have to compromise a bit, and I am ok with that at this point in my life. If I wasn’t, I guess I would be lugging around a large cooler full of raw food with me everywhere I go!
So, I will strive for balance at the cottage. Mostly raw, a little cooked, and the reassurance that I am always in control.
Treadmill Trainer Volume 2
I just got in from an accidental run that turned out to be my fastest, happiest run to date!
Sitting at my computer enjoying some raw chocolate pudding and a fabulous green juice, I simply had too much energy to sit still. So I got out my ipod, downloaded Treadmill Trainer Volume 2 onto it, and set out for the boardwalk.
This is the first time I’ve finished the entire workout, and I seriously had a smile on my face the whole time! There are 2 spots where Yuri says you can stop, and I’ve taken him up on his offer times before, but I was in the zone and feeling like I could just kill the workout. And I did! I even ran home after I finished stretching!
I love his workouts and the way he talks to you as if he’s right there beside you. I even talk back to him and answer all of his questions out loud! For example, when the workout was over he asks: ”How are you feeling right now?” Amazing! “How did you feel 10 minutes ago?” Amazing! “How did you feel when you woke up this morning?” Umm…not this good…no. (I had to talk myself into going to yoga this morning) Then I patted myself on the back (because he told me to) and congratulated myself on running 10 k in approximately 45 minutes…and I’m not a runner! For comparison, I ran a 5k in April and my time was 29:41…and I was dead tired and wanted to throw up…a lot. What a difference!
I just recently started running, and I’ve only run two 10 k’s before tonight. I ususally just do 5 k’s because I get bored of running after 30 minutes. But since I signed up for a half marathon 5 months ago, and put off training until pretty much right now, it’s time to get serious…hence the Treadmill Trainer series of workouts being downloaded to my ipod. After tonight I feel certain I am going to have a competitive time in the run, and I really can’t wait to do it! I think I’m going to do intervals during the run. I’ll just listen to the Treadmill Trainers even then. That would be funny. The motivation he gives during the workouts is priceless. I’m seriously going to listen to the training audio when I run the race.
For more information, click the image above!
I should definitely add: I highly recommend Volumes 2 and 3 plus all the hill running stuff, but only get Volume 1 if you are JUST starting out. It involves walking and running, perfect for beginners, but you may find it too slow if you have any experience. That being said, Volume 2 will kick your a** no matter what level of runner you are! If you disagree and think you’re some big time runner, then you HAVE to try it. It’ll step up your game so much and you’ll be thankful for the challenge!!! Happy running 
- Durian Pudding
I fell in love with the durian about a year ago. You never forget your first. I brought it home from china town and plopped it on the kitchen table. The next day, our whole house smelled literally like crap, and I hadn’t even opened it yet! I’m pretty sure our house smelled bad for an entire week. Lesson learned. Now when we bring home durians - they sleep outside!
I just made what I call Durian Pudding – quite possibly my favourite food in the entire world. And all it simply is, is durian fruit mixed with a spoonful of raw almond butter!
Durian Pudding
1 cup durian fruit
2 tbsp raw almond butter
Just throw the ingredients in a bowl and mix it up with a fork! Instant custardy goodness.
I came across this picture on wikipedia from Singapore:
Since some people find the smell so offensive, durian isn’t allowed on public transportation in some areas! Hilarious and weird, because I don’t mind the smell anymore – I guess it’s because I know how yummy it is!
It may take you a few tries at eating it before you like it, and no two durians taste the same, so I suggest you give it a few tries. I never knew when I first tried it that I would ever declare it my favourite food ever, so you just never know how you’ll react!
Raw Enchilada
Last night we had the best dinner! It was super easy too! But, a dehydrator is a necessity. So if you don’t have one…it’s time to invest in one! Honestly though, if you don’t have a dehydrator you could just throw the indredients (plus some fresh corn kernels) in a bowl and have an enchilada salad! For the corn tortillas I used a recipe from Purely Delicious Magazine, which can be found here.
Next, I made a simple guacamole for the filling:
Guacamole
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 avocado, cut into smallish pieces
2 handfulls cilantro, diced
juice of half a lime
Then I put the food processor to work on the red sauce!
Tomato Sauce
1 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 red pepper
dash cayenne
To top it all off I made the tastiest cashew cheese ever! I just transferred the above tomato sauce to a bowl and threw in the cashew cheese ingredients (no need to wash until the meal is done, I say!). I blended it well and then added some water until I got the consistency I wanted. This time I let it sit for an hour before we were ready to eat, and blended it again….it gave the cashews time to get nice and creamy. I bet it would have been velvet if I’d thrown it in the Vita-Mix. There’s always next time!
Cashew Cheese Sauce
1 cup cashews
1/2 yellow pepper
2 tbsp Braggs
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp turmeric
To assemble, I just chopped up some lettuce (there I go sneeking greens in again) and tossed it on the corn tortilla. Then, layered it with guacamole and rolled it up! We splashed on the tomato and cheese sauces and quickly took a picture (which is obviously not too artistic) just before our ravenous stomachs got ahold of it!
- Our fridge
As I was putting away our latest organic market finds, I looked in our fridge and thought - what a long way we have come in the last 4 years! The fridge is overflowing with fruits and veggies and other yummy healthy foods. It shocks people who come to our house. I love it.
Being one who tries desperately to avoid dairy products, it is unfathomable that others would even consider drinking a glass of milk. There are so many reasons to avoid it that there isn’t a chance I can share all of my reasons why right now…you’re going to have to wait for the book to hit store shelves!
I am currently doing research for the aformentioned book and I stumbled across a study done at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, which is just an example of all the ridiculous studies out there that are so horribly designed that they’re just wasting time and money that could be put to much better use!
This particular study looked at the effects of drinking milk on exercise, which could have yielded some terrific results had it been designed correctly. The researchers had its participants drink either water, a sports drink, 1% milk, or 1% milk with added sugar before and every 10 minutes during exercise. They concluded, and I quote “exercise time to exhaustion was not significantly influenced by the drink ingested but there was a tendancy for subjects to exercise longer when the carbohydrate-electrolyte, milk, or milk plus glucose was ingested compared with water.” No kidding geniouses!
Their bodies are already swimming in crap assiciated with all the milk and ice cream, etc. over the past few days. A better study would have lasted weeks and had the participants eliminate all dairy from their diets, look at exercise with glucose and water, and then introduce dairy over a few days and look at exercise again with dairy and glucose. The re-introduction of dairy would probably make them too ill to exercise!
It’s so frusterating when most studies are designed by people backed by the dairy industry…of course they’re not going to design a study that sheds the light on its horrendous effects on the human body!
It's time to use your brains people - cow's milk is for baby cows!!!
I was in a wedding yesterday, and it the whole entire day was amazing! I found myself in hair and make-up at 7am, and got home at 3am the next day! I have to say though, among the many highlights of the day was a moment at the salon. When I sat down to get my make-up done, the make-up artist thought I was already wearing make-up! No, I said, not even moisturizer!
That is the power of living food my friends - you just can’t help having flawless skin! Just two weeks ago my skin looked terrible. I looked 10 years older than I was, and was a little depressed about it…just a little though, because I knew exactly how to improve my complexion. And so I went back on a primarily living foods diet.
My skin is also dramatically more soft, and it was incredibly soft to begin with… Oh! I just realized how much money I am going to save on skin care products! Brilliant!
- The Night Before I went Raw
- 2 1/2 Weeks Later!
The difference is amazing!! So, you tell me if the food you’re eating affects your skin – um, yeah! Want to learn how to eat for energy and amazing skin? Just click on the link below, and start your own healing journey today! (or in a few days…once you’ve cleaned out your fridge and declare you’ll never, ever, ever eat mayonnaise or milk products ever again!)
