Pineapple with Grape and Lettuce

Here is another grape combo that I loved for a couple days. Grapes are so easy! Only blend up the good ones through. Notice I used a healthy slice of pineapple.

Recipe:

  • 1 thick slice of ripe pineapple peeled and cored
  • 1 branch seedless grapes (about 1 ½ cups washed and stemmed)
  • Copule dates (I wanted this one really sweet)
  • 1+ cup coconut milk
  • 1 bowl lettuce
  • 1 probiotic – Optional

Stack in blender:

And give it a 60-second whirl.

Notice the grape skins don’t break down all the way. It gives the smoothie a peppery look, but make no mistake about it, this one is a sweet dream!

One thing that I’ve noticed when drinking green smoothies is that you want to drink the entire quart in 15 to 20 minutes and you want to make sure you mix lots of saliva with it. The more you chew it, the more your saliva glands respond by releasing digestive enzymes. The more effort you put into mixing the enzymes with the green smoothie in your mouth, the better it digests. Same holds true with eating fruit plan. Don’t just bite off a mouthful and swallow.

Tropical Grapes with Parsley

It’s an emerald infusion of topical goodness, yet, hold the apple. The flavor combination of this smoothie has held up all week. I guess, when I find something that I like, I can’t help but keep it going as long as I can. This smoothie has now been the mainstay for two pineapples and about 10 lbs of grapes! It’s amazing how fast good fruit disappears.

A couple weeks ago, I got another great deal on grapes at Costco. At the same time, I picked up bananas, pineapple; enough so I wouldn’t have to think about it for a while. The greens I left on the shelf for the fall crop is still producing in the garden. I don’t expect it to last more than a couple more days, but it’s been a fantastic run (part of May, all of June, July, August, September and now nearly a full month of October!). Five months of greens in the Seattle area up at 500 feet is pretty amazing. … can’t wait for next spring to start over again!

I tried this smoothie with Lettuce, Beet Greens, Swiss chard and Collards. The Grapes carried the day with each one of them. Here’s what I started with:

Recipe:

  • 1 inch pineapple peeled and cored.
  • 1 ½ cups seedless rich colored grapes
  • 1 banana
  • 5 cubes coconut milk (Or 1 cup coconut milk from the store)
  • 1 bowl greens, in this case parsley
  • Optional: ORMUS supergreens (for light chlorophyll lettuce days)
  • 1 probiotic

Here, the picture shows the fresh young Thai coconut milk ice cubes. I didn’t have the ice cubes every day, so I used coconut milk from Whole Foods. Throwing all the fruit into the blender, you get this:

If you haven’t noticed, I find that starting the blend with just the fruit helps speed up the process. It also gives me a good feeling for the amount that it will make with it’s done. Thus, if I need to add an apple or banana, I can. And, as you can see in this picture, the apple never made it into this smoothie.

In the end, if you make enough it you’ll have breakfast and part of lunch.

Get out and get some grapes. You’ll love them blended with your favorite greens. It’s all about getting the alkalizing green in and enjoying it in the process.

Drink up!

Alignment, Relaxation and Resilience

Is meditation for you and me. It’s the principle of balance. It’s a heightened state of sensory attunement. It’s the clearing of mental tension. No matter how you look at it, it’s your natural state of being.

This little book:

is loaded with lots of simple wisdom. Much of which is right in line with what I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now. The simplest of little dots of color can come together to paint an exquisite painting. When dealing with human sensitivities, Will Johnson has a great little statement to make:

On every part of the body down to the smallest cell tactile sensations can be felt to exist. Even though these sensations are almost unimaginably small in size and are appearing and dissolving with astonishing rapidity, their presence can be distinctly felt.

Yet, so few people ever take the time to feel, amongst casing the thoughts in their heads. If only more people could – stop and smell the roses. It could be that the meaning of life is hidden in that scent just waiting to be discovered.

Sensation and involuntary thought cannot occupy the same space simultaneously.

This idea about thought and sensation not being able to occupy the same space at the same time really struck me as being meaningful. I have witnessed many times people I know getting so caught up in their thoughts that they completely tune out the rest of the world. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. Their conscious activity of thinking so consumes their Being that there is no energy left over to sense anything else.

The following was probably my favorite part of the book:

The first thing that you may notice as you begin to observe your movements through life is how much of the time you spend lost in the inner monologue of your mind. If you pay close attention, you will also come to recognize that when your internal voice is particularly active you have very little conscious awareness of anything else that is occurring: the sensations in your body, the sounds, sights, smell, and  tastes that surround and penetrate your. You will further come to realize that the unbridled momentum of the inner monologue is itself dependent on the specific bodily posture or attitude. You may only be able to come to recognize this retrospectively,  because when you are lost in your mind, you really are unaware of the rest of sensory reality, (In truth, most of the time when our inner monologue is particularly active we have little awareness of the monologue as well.) In any case, as you become more sensitive and able to monitor what is actually transpiring you will become aware that the internal monologue of the mind is dependent on the condition of explicit holding and tension in the body. This pattern of holding is almost completely opposite from the posture of meditation. The alignment of the body is compromised. There is no real relaxation and very little resilience.

The holding of tension occurs during thought. Thought and tension go hand in hand. Tension hardens the affected areas of the body so as to override the natural sensitivities that would normally be active in a relaxed person.

Take a moment to relax and see what happens and a burst of energy hits you – like a excited dog bark in a nearly silent room. I’ll let you answer the question – is the bark more or less intense?

May you have a wonderful day!

A warming experiment

Everyone that I’ve talked too that’s tried sticking to a raw, and living foods diet has stopped because they didn’t like being cold all the time. It’s extremely discouraging when your hands feel like ice and you can’t wiggle your toes for fear that they’ll break off! I’ve found myself getting cold just trying to stay raw until dinner. That’s right, just a few hours of detox leaves me searching for answers on … Google!

That’s right. I queried “How to stay warm eating raw foods” to see if I could find some help. Knowing that there are some foods that provide more of a cooling affect on the body and others that give off a heating sensation, it must be that I’m consuming too many cooling foods that has thrown me out of balance.

Even though the people I’ve talked to believe that the only way to stay warm is to eat some cooked foods, I have to say that there is precedent for staying warm while staying raw. About nine months ago, I came across the following video of Matt Monarch where he interviewed a couple outside in cold weather. He dressed lightly compared to the people he interviewed and he didn’t turn blue!

Note that this video was posted in November and there are no leaves on the trees. The episode is also called “Who Says Raw Foodists Can’t Handle the Cold???” He makes his comment 2:45 into the video where he asks the people that he’s interviewing what temperature it is. They say it’s in the 40’s. Matt’s comment is that he’s not cold.

I’m sure the video doesn’t show ALL the truth, but I have no reason to believe otherwise. I would seem that he’s found some way to stay warm in just a t-shirt and light pants.

Yet, I’m not raw and I’m sure that I haven’t cleaned out all the toxins from my body. Maybe that’s way I’m … cold. Lol.

I figure that there might be something else to it. Maybe it’s the type of foods that I’m eating that’s causing a cooling affect rather than a warming affect on my body.

So, now back to the Google query. One of the first articles that I read (after the query) was titled Body Warmth on Raw Foods and it’s on the Raw Living Food Success website. The article is in response to someone complaining about getting cold when eating raw foods. Here is a bit of it:

CORIN’S RESPONSE:
In the first few years raw, I too used to get cold. This is common when you are detoxing and cleansing, and is mostly a circulation/lymph issue. Your body will be detoxing for the first year as the blood thickens and the circulation slows, and there is an increased flow of blood to the internal organs that are finally getting a chance to try and heal. My experience now though is that I get colder when I eat a cooked soup or steamed vegetables because it somehow makes my body more sensitive to cold. Amazingly, by eating all live “cold” food, and after being balanced with many years with the lifestyle as well, I am much less sensitive to extremes in weather and adapt faster than I ever did as a cooked-foodist. I feel like a superhero who can withstand any temperature now, and my fitness abilities have also gone way above and beyond what they used to be. I remember always being cold as a cooked-foodist, as many women often are. Now though it is the opposite, I am either on the warm side or totally comfortable most of the time, even in cold climates. I love it!

I find it truly amazing that she states something similar to Matt. And, I have to admit, the logic behind it does make sense. That is, the slow moving lymphatic system has to clean out. If it’s full of half digested proteins or broken sticky molecules, it may take a long time to drain. At the same time, if the body is so toxic that it has wrapped everything in fat molecules, all those fats will need to find their way out and, in the process of doing that, the toxins that they encapsulated will run their full cycle as they leave the body.

In the article, Corin goes on to say:

If you are still having a problem in the heart of winter in a cold climate, then what you are lacking is your Omega Fatty Acids and other healthy fats.

You need to get David Wolfe’s Sunfood Diet Success System, and study his Sunfood Triangle. In it, you will learn that your Cholorophyll:Sugar:Fat ratio needs to be around 20:40:40 if you are eating to warm the body. Fats and Potassium rich foods warm the system, which is why you crave fish/flesh because it is a high potassium, high fat food. More heat is produced upon the breakdown of fats then with the break down of carbohydrates, but there are many fruits that are very rich in potassium. Nuts and seeds like macadamias and sunflower seeds are both rich in fat and potassium! The warming, high-potassium fruits include avocados, dates, durians, persimmons with seeds, prunes, pumkin, raisins with seeds, and sun dried apricots.

Finally, sulfur-residue foods warm the body. These include cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, garlic, onion, and durian fruit. David says that by eating a meal rich in sulfur, potassium, and fat, you will notice a heating reaction within 45 minutes, and will become greater as you become more purified on the diet.

So, it’s a Chlorophyll – Sugar – Fat ratio that needs to be looked at…. hmmm…

I figured that before really doing anything else, I’d take a couple of the food sources that she mentioned, add them to my diet and see if I could keep from getting cold. This is where the incentive for the Red Bell Pepper Hummus recipe that I posted the other day came from. It had a mildly warming affect on my afternoon, but I’m looking for something a little hotter!

Thus, I poked around a bit more on her site to see what she had to say about fats. As it turned out, she’d got an article titled Choosing Healthy Fats. Her list of Healthy fats includes:

List for Choosing Healthy Fats

•  Avocados
•  Raw Olives
•  Cacao Butter
•  Coconut Butter
•  Soaked Nuts
•  Soaked Seeds: Pumpkin, Sunflower, Apricot Kernels, Flax, Chia, Hemp, and Sesame.
•  Virgin Olive Oil
•  Tea Oil from China
•  Coconuts
•  Raw Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
•  Raw Extra Virgin Palm Oil
•  Hemp Seed Oil
•  Flax Oil
•  Borage Oil
•  Evening Primose Oil
•  Black Currant Oil
•  Any Raw, truly cold-pressed Vegetable/Seed/Nut Oil
•  Virgin Grape Seed Oil
•  Vpure Omega 3 Vegan DHA from algae

I’ve bolded the items that went into the Red Bell Pepper Hummus. Cacao butter is also pretty amazing, but simply too expensive to live on. Soaked nuts are ok, but they generally don’t rock my boat.

Did a quick Google search for “Plant foods rich in Omega 3 fatty acids” and found the following:

•  Canola oil
•  English walnuts
•  Flax oil*
•  Flax seed (ground)*
•  Hemp beverages (hemp “milk”)
•  Hemp oil*
•  Hemp seed / hemp nut (ground)*
•  Olive oil
•  Leafy green vegetables (small amounts, but a good omega-3 to omega-6 ratio)
•  Pumpkin seeds
•  Soybeans
•  Soybean oil
•  Supplements

The two things that look interesting to me that I haven’t really done much with are Hemp and Flax seeds.

The experiment:

In an effort to stay warm, I’m going to eat more fats from the lists above. This last weekend, when shopping at Costco, I picked up a bag of ground flax seed. I’m going to be making dehydrated crackers before too long. I’ve also picked up more oils – coconut and olive. I’m going to make sure I get a couple tablespoons a day. If I get ambitious, I might even try some chia seeds.

Another thing that I found was that spicy herbs help give the sensation of warmth. Ginger is in that list. Turns out that these roots are not all that expensive. I picked one up the other day and started adding it to my evening vegetable juice. That juice has been something like: 6 large carrots, 1 med beet, 2 small apples, ½ inch ginger and a small slice of kohlrabi.

I have to say that it really does give the sensation of warmth – for a while. It doesn’t last a long time. But, that’s ok, for a little is usually all I need to get me over the hump of the chill. 

Oh, I also found a great lunch treat that leaves me warm all afternoon – Raw Coconut Cream Pie! I’ve posted that one before. You can find it here (Raw Coconut Cream Pie). I’ve now started making this one in a cheese cake mold so as to be able to make it with more filling. The filling is where the fat is. I took an extra large slice today and found that it really did last me hours! When I came home at dinner time, I wasn’t starving and, well, I wasn’t cold!

I also bought David Wolf’s book The Sunfood Diet Success System and expect it here within a week. I’m going to figure out the details to this 20:40:40 diet and see if I can give it a real go.

All the while, I’m going to monitor my sensation of being cold. The results, I’ll blog about for everyone to see!

Eat healthy and stay warm!

Changing your vibration

The more I think about Dr Bruce Lipton’s equation: protein + signal = behavior, the more curious I get regarding all the different signals that the body responds too. When he covered the basic idea of a signal in his presentation (I linked to it in in a previous article – Unlocking your DNA) he mainly talked about some molecule snatched by a receptor as it passes by. The overall context in which he talked always implied chemical substances; like insulin, glucose, or something that comes in a well formed molecular shape.

What I find more interesting are the other forms of stimuli (non-chemical) that exist in our environment that the body responds too. If you put some thought into it, you’ll find the list is pretty long. Here are a few examples:

Non-chemical:

  • Light – visible light processed as sight
  • Light (UV rays) – trigger the production of melanin for protection
  • Light (infrared) – in the form of heat that we feel
  • Sound – vibrations in the air
  • Touch – pressure against the skin
  • Feelings – what you can perceive from another person (like a singer)
  • Thoughts – that trigger a response in the body (sexual arousal)
  • Actions – laughter that lightens the mood

That should give you the general idea that there are stimuli that the body responds too that are more in the ‘energy’ fields than anything else.

Even if you include the chemical based stimuli you’ll find that the body is microscopically sensitive.

Chemical:

  • Smell – molecules in the air
  • Taste – molecules on the tongue

The level of sensitivity is pretty amazing. In the case of visible light, photons (energy) excite the retina in the eye and the body registers the specific wavelengths in order to interpret the color. The amount of photons determines the intensity.

This is light that we’re talking about. This is no molecule – something that we normally think of as having ‘substance’ but simply energy. The body has receptors specifically designed to register pure energy. Not only does the body respond to visible light, but non-visible light in the wavelengths that UV (changes in the skin) and infrared (sensation of heat). These are other forms of electromagnetic radiation that clearly trigger a response in the body yet there is no molecule backing the signal

Side stepping

If you’ve read the teachings of Eckhard Tolle (The power of now), you’ll recognize how I like to ‘carve up’ the different attributes of a person. In a nutshell, there is the physical body, emotional body, mental body and spirit. If you’ve read around (or lived) you’ve probably come to a similar breakdown. It’s nothing new.

Yet it’s not really the different attributes that make up a person that’s interesting to me here. But, rather, how these parts of a human are all connected. What is the link between spirit and body? As Dr. Lipton has stated the link is the signal.

People have been asking this question forever looking for some type of scientific answer to what they already experience on a daily basis. That is, as my research has lead me understand, spirit is light and that light is the energy that signals your own physical body to respond. As subtle as the light strength is, it is enough to interact with the body. The body responds to light and amplifies the light signal that the spirit starts.

We have already seen (previous articles) that energy (sunlight) is captured by other physical ‘Beings’, converted into useful molecular constructs, or simply stored (as in sugars) for future use. It is when that light is released in the body that the cells of the body respond and perform action.

We also know that conscious and unconscious action is triggered by your own spirit. When you lift your arm, you don’t have to think about lifting your arm, but the act of moving your arm is a desire of the spirit. You simply just lift your arm. We all may have had to learn how to lift our arms (at one point when we where young) but that action has become so common that it’s an unconscious activity now.

Language was another thing that we all had to learn. The motor skills for pronouncing just the right sounds in the correct order is something that doesn’t come naturally, it’s earned (learned). But, once it’s earned, the subconscious takes over and the desires of the spirit can flow off the tongue at any time. The words that you choose are uniquely yours. They are a form of creation that your body learns to harmonize with and resonate too. Let’s get back on track.

Why is this important to understand?

Because there is energy in what you create that acts as a signal within your body!

That may sound pretty simple, but let’s look at a couple examples. Singing is a great example. I’m sure everyone has experienced music that is sung with soul, verses music that isn’t. When the music resonates with the spirit, it triggers an energy flow (through emotions) that gives the song life. That life you don’t just hear, but you feel. It is energy that acts like a trigger to all that feel it. The energy that the creator resonated with when they produced the song actively triggers response in others. Laughter is another great example. The act of laughing triggers an energy flow that’s very infectious. Both of these things are generally taken for granted, but what if this type of triggering is what we need to ‘unlock the DNA’?

Many sacred teachings have stated that some of the work that’s needed for spiritual growth is self created – in the form of chants or sacred sounds. It would seem that chanting some phrase with emotional (spiritual) intent would setup a vibration that the body would resonate with. Bringing this back around to Dr. Lipton’s work, maybe one way of unlocking ‘healing’ DNA strands is through self directed creation – you consciously manifest through sound and emotions (energy) the triggers, or generates signals, that unlock the correct DNA to develop a sensitivity or healing protein within the body.

So, Dr. Lipton talks about your belief as controlling your DNA, but I would change that a little to state that it is the environment that your spirit creates that controls what DNA are active within your body. It is what your spirit focuses on and gives energy too that the body resonates with which the DNA respond too. After all, the body is controlled by the spirit!

So, if you come across someone that gives off an energy that excites you, take the time to resonate with that person so as to experience how they generate the energy that they give off. Listen to their words, watch their actions and pick up a memory that you can resonate with. Make it a vivid memory. Your body has a miraculous ability to remember events, use that to bring into your life what you want to be. Then, resonate to it!

I am totally looking forward to sharing personal experiences on this path of discovering how different signals change the body – specifically mine! If you come across any, feel free to share.

Have a wonderful day!