Amazing Grace

For the last week, I have been reading one of the most amazing, mystifying,  and incredible books that I have read for some time.  I won't review it, because Heidi & JS of Raw Food, Right Now! already did a great job.  Go here to read the review that peaked my interest enough to send me to the bookstore for a copy.  This book is all about becoming the best you ever. Here are a few quotes that really got my attention: Discipline weighs ounces; Regret weighs tons.  Any and every physiological symptom from a toothache to a terminal cancer has its roots in thoughts, words, and actions.  And the best quote ever: Until further notice, celebrate everything.  There are many stories in this book that are incredibly inspiring and some that frankly boggle the mind.  One story that did both for me was titled The Backster Effect.  In 1966 a man named Cleve Backster, who was retired from the CIA and working in NY training policeman to administer polygraphs, was in his office watering his rubber tree when he was struck by a thought that perhaps he might be able to record the increase in the water content of the leaves with the lie detector.  He placed electrodes on either side of a leaf and watered the plant.  No change.  He decided to try the technique that he called "threat to well being" and  dipped the leaf in his hot coffee.  No change.  Next, he decided to get a match and burn the leaf.  The instant that he had this thought, there was a huge change on the graph paper.  The authors, David Wolfe and Nick Good, quote Backster.   "I had not moved, or touched the plant, so the timing of the PGR pen activity suggested to me that the tracing might have been triggered by the mere thought of the harm I intended to inflict on the plant."  

If our thoughts can affect plants in this way, imagine what we are doing to each other and the cosmos each second of our lives.  The authors call this book "the guidebook to becoming a superhero" and so it is.  There is no time like now to leave behind all of the old patterns that haven't served us well.  There is no time like now to recreate ourselves into the super hero we were all born to be.  

Today, April 23, I ate:

8oz water

12 ozs grapefruit/orange juice

1 large cameo apple

8oz water

18oz green juice, spinach, celery, cucumber, carrot

1 raw brownie bite with buttery vanilla frosting made by Mariel

2 sprouted essene crackers

18oz Mango/orange juice/ vanilla/hemp protein smoothie

1 raw brownie bite thingee (Oh, those were good!)

16oz water

For the recipe for the raw brownie bites and other delectable raw desserts click here.

Have an amazing day.  Oh, wait.  Have an amazing life!

Love,

Diane

What's for dinner?

21 April, 2009


People so often ask me what I eat.   It varies from season to season and this fall I undertook a 60 day green juice feast with mixed results.  Now that the weather is warmer and fresh produce is becoming abundant again, I am going to start listing everything that I eat each day.  This serves two purposes.  I generally tend to under-eat or skip meals and this is not what I would recommend to people.  By listing the foods where everyone can see them, I will be more likely to remember to eat:)  Also, I can refer clients to my blog to see what I'm currently doing and save thousands of answers to the same question.  By listing these foods here, I am not in anyway suggesting that this is what anyone else should eat.  This is just for information because people ask.   Whew, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, here is what I ate today:

April 21, 2009

9:00 AM    16 ozs of water

9:30 AM    18 ozs of fresh green juice consisting of kale, carrots, celery, lemon, and a bit of ginger

10:30 AM   1 LaraBar  Cashew Cookie (I don't usually eat these because I don't like them, but I was out and hungry and my daughter had one with her.)

12:00 PM    16 ozs of raw spicy avocado soup, large handful of sweet cherries

2:00 PM      1 tablespoon of raw almond butter

3:00 PM      16 ozs of water

5:00 PM       Mango, orange juice, vanilla bean smoothie with 2 tbsps of Nutiva Hemp protein powder.  Yummy!!!!

7:00 PM        8 ozs water

Wow!  I did SO much better today.  Yesterday was just grapefruit juice!  Thanks, guys!

The mango-orange juice smoothies reminds me of when I was young and would have an Orange  Julius.  For those that don't know what they are, they are like liquid dreamsicles, those creamy vanilla popsicles covered in orange sherbet, and were one of the first smoothies that I ever had back in the 70's.  Anyway, here is my answer to the Orange Julius lover who wants to have it raw:

1-2 cups of frozen mango chunks

juice of 2 oranges

1/2 of a vanilla bean

Blend in a high speed blender and enjoy!

For added nutrients, I use Nutiva's Raw Hemp Powder.  

It is yummy and does up the protein a bit for those "where do you get your protein" worriers:)

Love,

Diane

Global Juice Feasting!

1 March 2008

Today is the first day of the global juice feast.  Lots of people from all over the world are going to be juice feasting together for up to 92 days!  Juice feasting is a great way for most people to cleanse their body of excess toxins and get control of their health.  It is a way for us to get control of our appetites and to get enormous amounts of nutrients in.  Here are just some of the many benefits of juice feasting:  

• mental clarity and freedom from brain fog
  
• freedom from physical pain and discomfort
•  more self confidence
• become the correct weight for your height
• eliminate the need for prescription drugs
• be rid of excess mucus,common colds, headaches, and flus
• have radiant skin, and clear bright eyes

Who doesn't want to experience all of this? To read and learn even more about juice feasting click here to see David Rainoshek's website.  If you decide to join in (come on, you can do it!) click here to see what others are doing and to find more answers to your questions.

I am anxious to get home so that I can start too.  I plan to start March third or fourth.  It's never too late!  Educate yourself and  jump in!

One Month Down!

29 February 2008

Wow, One month has gone quickly!  I have been on the road working, so have gotten far behind on this post.  In one month of eating 100% raw I have: lost 15 pounds and gotten rid of a whole lot of those nagging symptoms I listed in the beginning.  Some will take longer, but there's no hurry.  One of the symptoms I listed was a nagging tail bone pain due to a fall in Costa Rica last year.  I was down in Costa Rica interning at a water fasting retreat hosted by Doug Graham and I fell while out jogging and broke my tailbone.  It had continued to bother me for about a year when a miracle woman came into my life.  Her name is Linda Tingle and she is a craniosacral worker, massage therapist, and just general magic worker.  She did some work on me and all of the pain is gone.  My drives to Maryland and New Jersey used to be exercises in excruciating pain, but now, nothing.  While she was working on me I swear I felt my tailbone move.  It was most extraordinary as I have had much work done in the past and I never felt anything.  Then I felt a sudden pressure in the left side of my head and then it was gone and with it the tailbone pain.  She told me that I had fallen more on my right side and the trauma had moved out through the top of my head on the left side and as it was releasing it retraced it's original path.  This was amazing as I hadn't told her the details of my fall, but my right buttock cheek was black and blue for months.  If you are in the Virginia Beach area you might want to look her up.  She teaches at the Cayce/Reilly Center of Massotherapy (click here for more info) and is also in private practice.

Happy Valentine's Day!

14 February 2008

Most of us have many happy memories of a sugar shocked day with large red candy hearts making our pulses race in more ways than one. This Valentine's Day I have eaten only wonderful juicy and green things. It hasn't always been so.....I remember one particularly infamous Valentine's.  I had always been very health conscious as an adult, working out and eating well.  I had just gotten married and my husband was a real foodie.  He would eat just about any thing if it was rich and fatty.  For this Valentine's Day, I told him that I would make him anything he wanted.  Well..he wanted hot wings and huge servings of enchilados and a cheesecake. Undaunted,  I prepared all of the food. He ate all of the mexican food (I helped him with the wings).  Then we started eating the cheesecake. Later in the day he  brought out a 5 pound bag of peanut M & M's!  He was on his own there.  As he was eating the M & M's, I gave him a one pound box of chocolates that I had purchased for him.  It was one of those shiny red heart shaped boxes. He went into the other room and came back with FIVE one pound boxes of candy also in lovely red hearts. (One for me and one for each of our four daughters.)  We actually sat and ate most of the two pounds of candy!  That night, when two of the daughters hadn't shown up, he decided that we should eat their candy too!  Oh, the agony of it all.  I was used to my barley grass and my brown rice and salads.  At the end of the day, I prayed for death I was so miserable.  He, however, didn't feel all that bad.  He had gotten used to being overweight, feeling stuffed and being lethargic.  His idea of exercise was to turn on the TV manually if he couldn't find the remote.  I didn't care; I loved him anyway.  As the months went on, I continued to work out everyday, drink lots of fresh vegetable juices, and eat well.  He continued to love his Whoppers.  One day, out of the blue, he looked at me and said, "I want what you have."  So began our healthy journey together and it has lasted ten years so far.  Neither of us are perfect, so ups and downs have occurred, but at the end of the day my last thoughts are still always of him.  The point of this story is that we can't control or change anyone.  Let's face it; we can barely control ourselves.  If I had nagged him about dieting and exercising, he probably would have refused and we would have had ten years of misery.  Instead, I showed him the possibilities just by doing it myself.  By accepting him for who he was then, he is now my biggest fan and my best friend.  He also shares health information to anyone who will listen (my apologies to all of his co-workers:-) and is a strong advocate for raw food.  The following poem by Pablo Neruda is dedicated to him on this day of love.

I Don't Love you as if you were a Rose

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:

I love you as one loves certain obscure things

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose

from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don't know any other way

              to love,

 except in this form in which I am not nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

For more information on Pablo Neruda, or to read more of his poems, go here.

Classical Rocks!

13 February 2008

I read a great article today affirming that listening to classical music does have positive effects.  Some of those listed were greater cognitive ability, mood improvement, faster healing of strokes, epileptic seizures, and other neurological problems. My husband works with learning and behavioral disordered children and has found that playing classical or other positive upbeat music prior to a test helped students improve their scores.  To read the whole article go here.

Yesterday I woke up with a tingling on my lip and nerve pain all the way up to my eye!  I have had one cold sore in my life up to this point.  It was in 1995 after having a nightmare dental procedure.  The dentist did not wear gloves and the office did not look all that clean.  I went to this dentist because he claimed to do alternative dentistry.  I was having a porcelain crown replaced with a Belle Glass crown.  Well, I got the glass crown but he was rough to say the least. After tearing up my mouth, he threw a few arnica pellets in.  Ugh!  I now know that cold sores are just our  body's way of detoxing.  The skin is a great way to get stored up toxins out fast.  This outbreak is similar to that one, but mild.  By late afternoon it had all but disappeared. 

I have not been eating enough as one can plainly see from my food lists.  Each day I am determined to increase my calories and each day goes by and I realize I haven't.  I'm going to put on some Baroque music and ponder my options;)

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast,

To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

...William Congreve

Fudgy Heaven!

11 February 2008 

Today I received the best goodies in the world. A delicious box arrived UPS from Glaser Organic Farms. It contained 12 packages of their wonderful raw carob fudgy treats!
While I have made many different raw fudge treats in the past, nothing can compare to these. The texture is just right. And the taste..well:) I can heartily recommend some of their other goodies too, such as their temple balls and their delicious Essene Breads. To see all of their goodies click here.

Speaking of Essenes, this is the time of year when I always re-read Professor Edmond Székely’s wonderful books. As many times as I read them, I never tire of the timeless messages found in them. I am currently reading his Search for the Ageless: Volume One, which tells of his wonderful travels while seeking out groups of ancient peoples such as the Hunzas. All of his books , including his most famous, The Essene Gospel of Peace, are available from I.B.S. Internacional, Box 849, Nelson, BC, Canada, V1L 6A5, which is so capably run by his wife Swallow. Write for a catalog today!

Food for the day:
18 oz grapefruit juice
carrot/celery/kale/lemon juice
1 tbsp of almond butter with smidge of raw honey
smoothie of pineapple/orange/lime/blueberries
¼ fudgy carob brownie☺
2 large pecans

Wow, I went back and looked at my original list of symptoms. And I considered myself healthy:) I am happy to report that in addition to the stiffness being gone, I am also rid of the pancreas and gallbladder pains, oily skin with large pores (my skin is smooth and normal already), and finally the depression and brain fog that has haunted my nights and days for the last year has left! Also constipation, which has been plaguing me for several years, is gone. It’s hard (no pun intended) to be constipated on fruit and veggies!