Food Friday - Inspirational Food

Food comes in all different forms.  There is junk food, healthy food, food from God.  There is solid food, liquid food, spiritual food, mental food, emotional food, food that is just good for the soul.  Today, instead of reading what I have to say, I want to share with you the inspirational story of a friend of mine that just competed a 21 day juice fast.  You will read his why, how and what story of the fast.  Click here and enjoy!

Picture from 80 Breakfasts

I used the above picture as inspiration, but did not follow the recipe or make the yogurt...since I was making a vegan meal.

Roasted Eggplant with Sweet potato and Beans:

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
Sweet potatoes
Onion
mushrooms
Swiss Chard
Pinto beans
Minced Garlic (1-2 cloves)
Coconut Oil
Kosher salt

First I cut the eggplant in half long ways then scored the white flesh diagonally both directions being careful not to cut through the purple skin.  Brush on a little olive oil or coconut oil and sprinkle with a little kosher salt.  Place on baking sheet skin side down  and put in a preheated 350* oven for 45 minutes.  Once roasted this is our Main dish.  Just scoop out the eggplant squared with a spoon...yumm!

While the eggplant is baking I prepare my steamer and cut the sweet potato in 1 inch rounds and steam on high for about 20-25 minutes.  This is our 'veggie' part of the dinner.

While those two are going I prepare a skillet with a little coconut oil, minced garlic (I like a lot), and a little kosher salt.  I then sautee' the onions, mushrooms, Swiss chard and pinto beans.  This is our warm salad part of dinner.

Try to time everything to finish cooking together, serve up warm and enjoy. 


PS - Don't throw away any leftover eggplant or the skin.  Next Friday I will show you how to make a good dip/spread with them.

Wisdom Wednesday - Do a Cleanse

Photo from One Step At A Time

Ever wonder why that new thing you are doing is just not working?  Like the healthy eating, juicing, all natural and pure supplements and exercising are not kicking in the way you would like?  Sure, you notice a difference, but where is the WOW factor in this new lifestyle?

It is quite possible that your body is so bound  up with toxins and junk that you need to do a cleanse, a fast, a detox (or whatever other name you want to give it) before you will really see results.  It is a lot like hitting the reset button on your electronic device.  Everything is cleared out and you get to start with a clean slate.  That is what 'cleaning out' your body does, it resets everything. 

Looking at your past and current lifestyle will depend on how long you need to hold down the reset button and how often you need to reset, again.  If you have been eating clean for quite some time then simply doing a few meal replacements or a short 3 day fast could work for you.  On the contrary, if you eat out a lot and drink fluids other than water, fresh juice (made at home) and herbal tea then you probably need a week long fast or longer.  If you are dealing with heavy food addiction, smoking and alcohol you probably need to start with baby steps (replace 2 meals a day with juicing) then go into a longer fast.

If you have health issues it is always advisable to seek a doctor's permission before beginning a new or strict program, and it is always good to note that this blog is not intended to diagnose illness or provide cures.

What does a fast or cleanse do?  I'm glad you asked! 

• It helps to retrain your taste buds (out with the junk, in with the fresh)
• Helps your body to remove addictions to artificial food preservatives and additives (and possibly other addictions as well).  Things such as MSG, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, caffeine...
• Removes daily toxin build up from living in a world full of chemicals
• Cleans out your colon so you can absorb ALL the good nutrients you consume.
• Improves mental clarity
• Improves skin tone
• Increases energy
• Allows the body to alkalize and fight disease
• Give the gut a rest from digesting food all the time
• Jump starts weight loss
• Jump starts weight gain in an underweight and malnourished individual.
• Jump starts building good muscle tone for those exercising (don't train during a fast, but after the fast is over you can hit it hard and see the results)
• Help men experiencing issues in bed to be reawakened
• Aids in overall well being

Now don't get me wrong.  Fasting is not easy.  If your body is particularly bound up with toxins you will experience some detox symptoms the first few days.  But somewhere along the way you will begin to feel better, then feel great.  That is the point where you can be sure you have detoxed your body long enough, but feel free to go longer, or just detox more often!  Some do a 1 day detox monthly, others a 3 day detox quarterly, and still others a 10 day detox annually.  You decide what is right for you.

Here are some good juice fasting resources:

• Watch why Kristina started a fully raw diet.  Short and very informative.  Click here.
• Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead website with fasting info and healthy eating guidelines.
• Watch the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Hulu for free (with commercials) or get it on Netflix.  Film is all about juicing and follows people's lives.
• Watch Forks Over Knives on Hulu for free (with commercials) or get it on Netflix. and check out their website  Film is about plant based diets and gives a ton of great info.
• Check out Fit Life.TV

And so much more. 

Juice Fast recommendations:

• Breakfast meal replacement only
• Lunch meal replacement only
• Juice breakfast and lunch then eat a healthy dinner
• 3 day juice fast only
• 5 day juice fast only
• 10 day juice fast only
• 21 day juice fast only
• Juice for 3 days only after traveling or a stressful life event

By-the-way, only juice organic fruits and veggies.  And juice veggies WAY MORE then fruit.

Try it, you just might like it, and see some real health benefits!

My Old and New Nutrition Love - Juicing!

As a kid I remember my parents buying this huge clunky juicer, a big back of carrots, a big bag of apples and us drinking fresh juice.  It tasted great, was healthy and was fun.  I loved it, after all, what was not to like.  I remember mixing and matching fruits and making my favorite, green grapes and apples, a lot. 

Actually, if I remember correctly, a lot of our church really got into juicing at that time and a few of the adults drank only carrot juice and their skin began to turn orange.  Seriously, I'm not joking...they were ORANGE!  If you are reading this, you know who you are.

But now that my family and I are juicing again I can see how someone may have turned orange.  It is addictive...in a good way.  Once you start juicing you begin to crave more and more of it.  Just don't drink all carrots all the time and you will be OK; at least you won't turn orange.

Juicing has come a long way since then.  With the Internet, e-books and health consciousness we now know that juicing is a wonderful art that can lead a person into extremely wonderful health, plus it tastes good.  Some juice blends have the ability to give sustained energy throughout the entire day...bye, bye coffee.

A few juicing tips:

• Juice vegetables


• Only juice fruit on occasion.  Rather, eat your fruit.  The fiber helps to regulate your blood sugar so you won't store fat.


• You can juice some apple or pear with your veggies to give it a sweetness.


• A little lemon in the veggie juice cuts bitter taste.


• Carrots are good for your eyes.


• Beets are good to cleanse the blood and good for the heart. (by the way, beet tops are tender and sweet.  Great in a salad if you don't juice them.)


• Green juices are amazing for sustained energy and for juice cleanses. 


• I love kale.  Just a few leaves in my juice and my 20/10 eyesight gets even better!  All Day Long!  Seriously. Sharp. Vision.


• Use organic produce only (you don't want to juice herbicides and pesticides)


• If you plan to do a juice fast get the facts.  I like the Alpha Reset program.

A few juicing recipes:
(These recipes come from Fitlife.TV and Rawfully Organic)

• Lower Cholesterol
  
  
  1.       Thumb size slice of ginger
  
  
  2.       1 apple
  
  
  3.       3 carrots


• Morning ‘Coffee’ Replaces your morning coffee as Energy Drink and alertness.
1. Handful Parsley


2. 5 Carrots

• Green Gulp (Yummm!  I love this one, but usually add carrots, spinach and celery)

1. 3 Kale leaves


2. 1 Granny Smith Apple


3. 1 Cucumber


4. 1 lemon


5. 1 inch ginger

• Detox Juice (great for fasting)




1. Handful parsley


2. Handful cilantro


3. 2 carrots


4. 1 apple w/out seeds


5. 3 celery ribs


6. 1/2 beet with green tops


7. 1 inch ginger (or less until you get use to the kick!)

I literally have dozens and dozens of more juice recipes.  I have enjoyed all of the ones I have tasted. 

By-the-way, there is NO COMPARISON to the taste of fresh juice vs. the store bought juice.  With fresh juice you get all of the vitamins and nutrients since there was no shelf life.  The store bought stuff is glorified sugar water that has lost all of it's nutrients, that is why they ADD vitamins and nutrients to it!  Food for thought.

So get out there and start small if you need to.  You may just find that you too have a new love of juice.