The Case for Juicing

Today I read a smashing-sounding recipe for Sunshine of Your Love juice on www.RawFoodRehab.com. You can find it here. It looked so tantalizingly delicious I literally got right up and headed into the kitchen to make some. I was not disappointed. Nom nom nom!!!!! (Or is that “slurp, slurp, slurp?”)

Why juice? Why not eat all our fruits and veggies? Don’t we need fiber and isn’t this wasting a lot of food?

Well, yes, of course we need fiber. Sometimes, however (and for me that time is lately) our bodies need a break from heavy digestive tasks. Juicing allows the mainlining, so to speak, of enzymes, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals, without taxing the digestive system. My body has been pretty happy today and I think I have the juicing to credit for that.

And while some food could be wasted by juicing, I’ve used the pulp for flax crackers, a salad, or I’ve just put it into the compost pile where at least it encourages the production of more food!

You can read and hear more about the power of juicing at www.rawfoodrehab.com or at www.rawfu.com, as well as elsewhere online.

I strongly suggest you make some of this refreshing, nutritious Sunshine of Your Love as soon as you can, trust me!

Eat well, love well,

Kimberly

Let That Be a Lesson To Us All! or “Don’t eat junk!"

Hey, we all succumb to the siren’s song of cake or pastries from time to time . . .and I hate to tell you this, but the better you eat, the less tolerance your body may have for the crapola foods.

I asked my boyfriend if I could reprint an email from him -- he sent this to me today. He’s been about 60% or so (I’d estimate) raw since last summer. He’s lost about 30 pounds and feels great most of the time.

Nah, I’m not in any way perfect with my diet, far from it, but I, too, feel not-so-good when I eat junk. What’s “junk?” I like Michael Pollan’s definition: If it doesn’t rot, it isn’t food (or something like that.) I figure if it will take weeks and weeks to rot, like that “celebration cake,” then it isn’t very good for me.

Let this email be a lesson to us all! :)

Here’s his email:

Ciao cara,

We just had a brief “celebration” at 12:30. (I had no idea what it was for or that it was happening until after our meeting at 11am) When I went down there it was the entire team … and more people that I didn’t know … to celebrate two people having babies.

ANYway… Someone said, “there’s no lard or anything bad in the cake. So it’s good for you!” Yeah right.

But I had some anyway.

Two things about that:

First, it was cake so it tasted like cake and sugar and all that “good” stuff. But I had a mango about 45 minutes earlier and it tasted so much better than the cake. The cake tasted so … you know… refined. I think our raw and/or natural desserts are way better.

Second, my body reacted almost right away and it’s not feeling too good. So far it hasn’t gotten bad but I think my body is at the point where if I feed it junk it immediately responds with its own version of “Something wicked this way comes”.

That is all.

xo

Listen to Your Body!

So in my last post I was talking about the dark days of my raw food journey . . .

About 2-3 weeks into the high-raw way of eating, I started feeling nauseated at night. I’d feel fine by the next morning. I also started having intermittent upper right abdominal pains. And my skin started itching pretty badly. After a few more weeks of this, I had one day where it all exploded.

I was driving my boyfriend to the airport one morning, and drinking a green smoothie, my usual morning meal. I started feeling nauseated as we drove, then when I dropped him off I was really feeling badly. By the time I got home, a 25 minute drive, I was shaking and in pain. I barely made it in the house and into the bathroom before I got sick. Not fun.

It was so bad, with sweats, vomiting and pain, that I thought I was seriously ill. After a couple hours of that, it finally calmed down enough for me to drive myself to the walk-in clinic to be seen by a doctor. She listening to my symptoms and without really checking anything about my body or asking questions, said my gallbladder would have to come out. I said I didn’t think so, unless there was no way to heal it. She sent me for an ultrasound which she expected to show stones. There were none that were visible on the ultrasound.

Not only were there no stones, but when I did eat high fat meals, nothing happened. It was only greens that made me ill, not high-fat. To this day I’m not sure what happened but suspect a strong detox or a gallbladder function issue, made worse by a lot of raw veggies and greens. After all, I had simultaneously dropped a ton of fat and sugar out of my diet and added an almost 100% raw and healthy diet with lots and lots of cleansing greens and fruit. All that fiber alone could possibly have been too much on my system.

The moral of the story is to transition more slowly if you need to. Some people go 100% raw overnight and are fine. I wasn’t. I should have listened to my body and stopped the high-raw when I started getting ill. Maybe if I’d backed down to around 50% my body would have been able to keep up with the clean-out? I’ll never know!

Listen to your body!!

The Story of How I Stopped Eating A Pint of Haagan Daz A Day.

Or so.

Sometimes I’d go weeks without any. But most often, I’d eat a pint in one sitting about 3-5 nights a week. Sometimes every day. For over 20 years.

By the way, this wasn’t just any HD ice cream. No, no, no . . .I had a 20+ year addiction to Coffee Haagan Daz ice cream. If they were out of coffee, I wouldn’t get any at all. Or I’d drive to another store. But thankfully, nothing else would ever do. I don’t want to know what would have happened if some other brand or flavor would have sufficed.

A year and a half ago my friend Heather invited me to join a raw food and healthy eating web site called RawFu. (A fabulous site to which I still belong, founded by Beth aka Bunny Berry.) I started out there, poking around and learning about Green Smoothies and coconut oil and all things raw and tasty. I started drinking a green smoothie every single morning from about January to May. I didn’t lose weight then, but I noticed I had a lot more energy, better focus at work, and just felt better all over.

My weight had gotten to almost an all-time high, though, and I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t unhappy because of the number on the scale, but because I no longer felt at home in my body. I’d been fairly slim all my life, had gotten down to about 145-150 just 2 years prior after losing-then-gaining post-pregnancy and birth, and here I was again, back to 172-175. (I’m 1/4 inch under 5’9”) We all carry our weight differently. I carry mine on my tummy and my back. Oy vey, the back fat rolls!! bah. There were a good 4 on each side of my back, just mocking me in the Target dressing room back-view mirrors. And I looked about 6 months pregnant in the belly. Niiiiice.

Yoga was even getting more difficult because I was just so thick in the middle it was hard to twist and bend the way I could when I was around 150-155. My knees were starting to hurt. I carry my weight in places I can fairly well hide, and I know how to dress around it, so no one really saw all that weight. But I sure saw it when my clothes were off. And I felt it. My partner, bless him, never said one word as I put on almost 20 pounds from when we met. (When I showed him the before and after photos later, he nearly gasped and said quietly “I never noticed you looked like that” or some such. He’s a sweet, and smart, man. ;) Oh, he’d also been putting on weight. . .but more about him later.)

So about the time I got motivated to drop the weight and get healthier, there was a contributor to the Raw Fu site, Penni Shelton, who was going to be writing a book about raw food. She put out a call for volunteers for an 11 week initiative to dive into a raw foods diet. She created a smaller site which was closed to the public for we “guinea pigs.” The smaller site, and the fact that it was closed to all but those participating in the experiment, meant that a lot of great support and honest sharing could happen. And boy, did it.

We all took “before” photos of ourselves as a condition of joining up. No “before,” no joining! And we weighed in weekly. Too many missed weigh-ins and you were booted! This was serious (and fun) business.

Penni provided inspiring daily motivation through videos and discussion and everyone posted on the forums. I don’t think more than two days ever passed that I didn’t log in and post. It was a determined and encouraging group of people, dedicated to improving their health with living and raw foods.

My other motivators were:

1. My son.

2. My health.

3. RawFu.com

4. My partner. (Who generously offered me a reward if I lost 10 pounds and kept it off for two weeks: a Vitamix blender. I did it. I’ve used that Vitamix daily for a year now and can’t imagine not having it! If you’re hesitating to buy one, don’t. You will not regret it.)

I got underway with a 3 day cleanse of green drinks and smoothies. I lost several pounds that first week as my body slurped up the nutrients and I finally said “buh-bye” to my Haagen Dazs addiction. My raw food adventures were not without some dark days and difficult moments, however. No, this was not some Sunshine and All Rainbows All the Time Dealie here. I’ll post about the dark times in my next post, and about other parts of my journey. . .

love always wins,

Kimberly

Loving & Feeding Update!

Well, it’s been a while since I posted anything here. Believe me, it isn’t for lack of eating and loving. ;) Mostly, I’ve been focusing my energy on my business/work life. And my home -- as in, decluttering on a fairly massive scale.

It would be difficult to understate how important my physical space is to me. I feel down, sad and frazzled when it’s very messy or just has too many objects in it.

So several months ago, I started giving away a lot of things, then had a massive yard sale, which forced me to clear out more. And I’m still not near completed but it’s getting there. I can’t help feeling like until it’s all decluttered and streamlined to the maximum, I won’t make a lot of further progress in any other area of my life. Maybe that isn’t true, maybe it’s just an(other) excuse to live less large than I know I’m capable of in the present. It feels true, though. Doesn’t mean it is.

My eating has been up and down. When I look at it, it’s fairly radically up and down now that I think of it. Like yesterday, I had a large fruit and spinach smoothie for bfast which lasted me until after noon. Then I was out and about and ate . . .a tiny, tiny bag of Cheetos. Yes, I said Cheetos. Then for dinner I had a delicious mango/avocado/celery salad. Just those things and a little sea salt. deliciousness in a bowl. After dinner I had vanilla ice cream (hey, at least it was the gourmet kind without crap in it) with fresher-than-fresh strawberries from my neighbors patch, almonds and freshly concocted chocolate syrup made from agave and raw cacao.

All in all . . .nom nom nom!!

Bottom line though: It’s been almost exactly one year since I went high (for me) raw and lost 20 pounds. I’m within 3-4 pounds of the weight I was then and when things tip too far up, I know what to do and I do it. It usually involves giving up one very fattening thing for a while, not too hard. Smoothies and raw eating are permanent ways of loving myself though -- this I know. (She said, after pausing to slurp down some banana, spinach, strawberry, hemp seed smoothie.)

How are you loving yourself today?

xo!

p.s. The photo is Chocolate Avocado Pudding with the famous Neighbor Strawberries! nom!

Olive Penguins!! HOW did I NOT KNOW these existed? :)

These get the award for most adorable food!

If you subbed a seed cheese for the cream cheese, these could be made totally raw, too!

I am so making these for Thanksgiving.

Here is a great photo of them.

Here is a better tutorial.

enjoy! I squealed with delight when I saw them and hope they bring squeals of delight to your day too.

love,
Kimberly

p.s the image of these adorable edibles is from Andrea Spark's blog.

Kimberly's Excellent Adventure or Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Great news! I made it to Boston yesterday!

So the story:

Got up at 4:30 a.m. to get on a 6:30 flight to NYC. Got to airport, no problem, through security, no problem.... then to the gate. "Ladies and Gentlemen, for those on flight 4356 to New York's La Guardia, I've received a call from Crew scheduling -- the crew is delayed and will be here, but I don't know when. I'll keep you updated."

I know that this crew overnights in Des Moines. So either one of them awoke ill....very bad because they'd have to fly someone in to replace them, or one of them overslept the alarm.

After 30 minutes, the crew arrives.

Turns out the flight attendant overslept.

"Ok," I thought, "I still have probably enough time to make the cab to Penn Station for my noon train... IF there isn't too much traffic in NYC and IF we don't have to circle LGA, as is often the case."

"And there's always another Acela express train at 1:03."

Fly to LGA, no circling, great! My plane ended up being 45 minutes later than the scheduled arrival time. It's about 11:00 now. Train leaves for Boston at noon. I might make it. Maybe. If traffic isn't too bad. I hope. Maybe.

Land, go to cabs. Get into cab. Feeling physically ok.

Cab takes off from curb. No, no....cab LURCHES from curb, then SLAMS on breaks, skids.... cab honks, swerves, stops, lurches to a start, stops, lurches, swerves left and right... ALL THE WAY TO PENN STATION . ..about 45 minutes in heavy traffic.

I have to open the window. I don't get car sick. I almost got car sick.

I've ridden in cabs all over the world. I know cabbies tend to drive very aggressively.. but this was more than I'd ever experienced. I thought of asking him to drive more slowly because I wasn't feeling well, but frankly, I was a little afraid if this man. I didn't want to antagonize him.

I'm looking at the clock... it's 11:44 and we pull up in front of Penn Station. *exhale* I pay the cabbie the $35 for the honor of almost being killed on the streets of NYC, and RUN into the station. I've never been there, have no clue where I'm going or how large this place is.

And I want an iced latte. ;-)

I quickly discard the latte idea... now that I was actually there, I didn't want to risk missing my train to Boston and having to wait another hour, especially still feeling a little woozy from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

I run, my eyes searching up and around for clues to the Amtrak train departure tracks... oh, and I still have to find these "Amtrak Kiosks" where I have to scan the bar code off a piece of paper -- this will then spit out my actual ticket. Why Amtrak can't let you print your ticket when you buy it online, like the airlines do, I have no idea, but whatever.

Finally I see the "Amtrak" signs. I run. I run carefully, swerving this and that way to avoid knocking people over. I'm thinking "Damn! I hope I make it" alternating with "If I don't, though, this is a cool place, and I bet I can get decent food and a latte here."

I see a kiosk near the "Acela train waiting" area. I scan my bar code. It's 11:52. Success! Machine belches out my ticket!

Grab ticket, run over to Man at Desk. Ask Man where I board train. Man points "over there, see that long line of people going down that escalator?" Yes, I see them. "Get in that line."

I do. It's a long line. I'm SURE I could make it to that Dunkin Donuts for an iced latte, but I'd rather have a Starbucks one. I don't see a Starbucks though. Hmmmm. Get out of line? Hmmmm. Nah, don't want to miss train. But 3 hour 30 minute train would be more pleasant if begun with iced latte.... much more pleasant.

Nah, don't risk it.

Board train. Very few seats left. No windows. None. There goes my idea of sleeping. I can't sleep unless I lean against the window. Oh well.

Find seat next to nice friendly young man reading a Big Classic Novel. He seems like a good choice, I will at least have quiet. He seems shy. I am right, he smiles but says nothing the whole way to New Haven, where he disembarks.

The trip goes quickly, I read a book and listen to music. I stare out the window at the Northeast coast, one of the first nice days, families on the beach, old seaside towns, former whaling villages. I adore the Atlantic Ocean and its history.

Arrive at South Station in Boston. Beautiful GORGEOUS spring day, warm, slight breeze. I am overjoyed to see the city I love so much in Spring Bloom yet again.

Only one more mode of transport left to my home on the North Shore. The C & J bus.

I have no idea where to get it here. I ask at info counter, they point: I run!

My eyes dart around South Station as I run... is there a Starbucks here? Nope. Damn. lol

It's 4:47 now anyway, the bus leaves at 5:00. It's Friday evening so it may already be full. I abandon thoughts of anything but finding my bus. I get to the ticket counter and am sold a ticket, good sign. I get the 4th to the last seat!! YAY!! Woo hooo!!

I stumble on to the bus, get the last of three seats in the last row in the back and am thrilled to have it. I get a window this time, so there is leaning! There is dozing!

An hour later, standing at the bus depot, I see my partner's car pull into view. *sigh* He steps out, smiling at me. My heart swells up as I smile back. When did he get more attractive? Has he always been this gorgeous?

We embrace and I am suddenly home again, a different --- but similar home to the one created by the embraces of my son and I. My two homes, the arms of my son and the arms of my partner.

And that was Kimberly's Excellent Adventure, Friday April 24, 2009.

The End.