One of my favorite reasons to cleanse is put a stop to cravings and wipe the palate clean. This week I’m doing exactly that with the Cooler Cleanse 3-day program, which I definitely recommend! Their juices are very fresh, they provide a variety of flavors (so you won’t get bored), and provide a ton of great information to keep you on track.

So what is a juice cleanse and what can you expect? Cooler Cleanse gives us all the info we need….

“A short cleanse or detox program is not a luxury or indulgence. It’s routine maintenance, something you do to help your body run better, feel cleaner, and look brighter and younger. During a juice cleanse, you ease the digestive process by replacing regular meals with delicious, fresh-pressed vegetable and fruit juices, raw coconut water elixirs, and silky smooth nut milk blends. Consuming only liquids for a few days frees energy in the body, which can then return to the essential jobs of deep inner cleansing and healing.”

“After a brief time on this simpler, cleaner diet, you feel lighter, more energized and clearer in body and mind. Senses become sharper as behaviors around eating and drinking are more balanced. You help build the inner conditions necessary to stay resilient and healthy. When you feel better on the inside, you look better on the outside. Glowing skin, bright eyes, the disappearance of hard-to-lose pounds, as well as a newfound sense of optimism and enjoyment of life, are all common results of juice cleansing.”

This movie is remarkable. Interested in preventing cancer? Watch The Beautiful Truth. What you eat has a lot to do with it…

It’s not only important what you put in your body, but also on your body… In the pics above are a few of my favorite products. Go for natural and organic! Make your body smile. Watch out if you see any of these (hard pronounced ingredients) in your soap…

• Triclosan (can upset your hormone balance – ekk let’s not go there people)
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate / Sodium Laureth Sulfate (this can also be found in garage floor cleaners – hello no thanks!)
• Parabens (another ”if-you-use-me-I’ll-mess-with-your-hormones” substance)
• Ureas (this guy can harm your immune system)
• Synthetic Colors (Step away! Contains heavy metals which equals cancer. Not trying to scare you, just speaking the truth)
• 1,4–Dioxane (Stay far away from this one folks)
• Ethyl Alcohol / Ethanol (Can toxify your organs. Enough said…)

What’s for dinner tonight? Well… thought I’d make this beautiful bibb lettuce salad from TheRawChef.com. Maybe you should too?? Enjoy…

Ingredients (Serves 2): 2 heads butter lettuce, 1 avocado, 2 nori sheets, 1/4 cup pine nuts, and 1/2 cup baby tomatoes

Dressing: 1 cup cashews (soaked 20 minutes), 1/2 cup water, 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast (optional). Blend all ingredients together in a high-speed blender. Chill until ready to use.

Quick Parmesan Cheese: 1/4 cup macadamias, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Use a Microplane to grate the macadamias into a bowl. Add the nutritional yeast and salt, and then mix thoroughly.

Assembly: Cut the leaves from the stalk of the butter lettuce. Toss in the desired amount of dressing and then rearrange the leaves on the plate so they go from biggest to smallest, as they did when they were part of the original lettuce. Cut half of an avocado into a fan and place on the plate just to the side of the butter lettuce. Crush a dry nori sheet with your hands and sprinkle the lettuce with it. Quarter the baby tomatoes and sprinkle the salad with them, finishing up with a sprinkle of the quick parmesan cheese and the pine nuts.

“Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.” –Anonymous

Today’s breakfast… fresh fruit.

The secret…… ENZYMES!!!

”Raw foods contain live enzymes that aid in digestion, which activate as they are consumed. Heating foods to temperatures beyond 118°F causes those enzymes to begin to die, destroys nutrients and vitamins, and alters the natural metabolic structure of the food. Essentially, eating cooked food is an inefficient and ultimately deleterious way of feeding ourselves. Because the foods’ enzymes have been destroyed, your body has to use or produce its own enzymes to digest the cooked food. As we age, our bodies’ natural source of enzymes is depleted, and many believe that eating cooked foods only hastens the process. As Dr. Gabriel Cousens, author of several books on raw foods, explains, ’As our enzyme pool diminishes with age, our ability to perform the tasks that keep the body healthy also diminishes. Aging happens when enzymes decrease in concentration in the body.’ Therefore, Cousens continues, some enzyme researchers… believe that enzyme preservation is the secret to longevity. By eating raw foods, we build up our enzyme reserves,” (Raw Food Real World, pg. 16).

Received a package this week with edible arrangements, the perfect gift! Not only are you giving away something beautiful and refreshing, but also a vitamin kick… loves it.

So this week I’m in Bermuda, long needed vacation… We stocked the fridge with delicious citrus fruit for a real vitamin C party. Ate this luscious orange yesterday after a long run on the old train tracks here in Hamilton. Other benefits from this fruit include…

• Fiber (great for digestive system and also control blood sugar levels – we like, we like…)
• Magnesium (which regulates high blood pressure – nice…)
• Iron and Vitamin B6 (essential in the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen from the lungs to cells – hmmm def mucho importante. Did you know they can even help prevent lung cancer?)
• Calcium (for strong shiny teeth. Smile)
• Antioxidants (protect the skin from cell damage and free radicals. Who doesn’t want beautiful skin?)
• Folate (an organge provides about 10% of the necessary daily folate intake and helps the brain develop. Come on smart people…)

 

It’s not always easy to make changes in life, especially when it come to your food. Your eating habits are so ingrained, some of them are even tradition, and social pressure is everywhere. Here are a few tips from one of my favorite raw foodists  Kimberly Snyder:

1. Clean out your closet: Before you even begin to change the way you eat, you have to set yourself up for success and get rid of temptations. Go through your pantry and clear out all refined and processed starches and sugars. Nix dairy, deli meats, soda, sugar, table salt, canned vegetables, and dusty old spices. In the future, look for spices that say on their label that they are “non-irradiated.” As a general guideline, you want to remove anything containing artificial preservatives, agave, artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup. Get rid of  cereals like Special K (On a side note, the reason those cereals are crispy is because of a browning phenomenon called the Maillard reactions. These create aging free radicals in the body) which contain wheat, gluten and additives and are low-grade foods.  See a full list in her book The Beauty Detox Solution.

2. Grocery Shopping: The most positive way to reach your goals is by shopping responsibly. Your body is your temple! The act of eating and transforming those molecules into your own is a sacred exchange. Each and every thing that you put on and in your body has an effect on your vitality, health and beauty. Instead of iodized table salt, try out a high-quality sea salt such as Celtic or Himalayan. And instead of Splenda or sugar, try xylitol or stevia. At first, you want to strive to maximize alkaline foods (greens, ripe fruits, veggies) and minimize acidic foods (caffeine, processed foods, dairy).

3. Drink more water: Cut out the soda (yes, even diet varieties). It has absolutely no nutritional value and is loaded with empty calories. Additionally, soda is extremely acidic and will therefore contribute to premature aging, acne and dark under-eye circles. It will deplete our body of precious essential minerals that are important for our vitality. Our body is made up of 70% water! Water helps improve blood flow, promotes the metabolism and activates the bacterial enzymes and flora in the intestine, which helps promote the excretion of toxins and waste.

4. Go Green: Get thee to the farmer’s market! Add greens to the start of every lunch and dinner meal for healthy plant minerals and easy absorption. I encourage you to practice variety with your greens. Add veggies, avocado, and switch up the type of lettuce and kale to keep the textures fun and enticing, and to ensure a wide variety of mineral absorption.

5. Mold meals from smallest to largest: I am a fierce believer that it is not just what we eat that matters, but the order in which we eat our food. We want to understand the nutrients and absorption qualities of the foods we are consuming so that we can minimize gas, bloating and fermentation. Begin to order your meals from lightest to heaviest. For example, start your day out with some fruit followed by a Glowing Green Smoothie. For lunch, enjoy a full green salad with lots of veggies and for dinner, have a proper sit-down meal at least 3 (preferably 4) hours before you go to bed. This is the last meal before our bodies have 12+  hours plus to digest and move it through our bodies so this is the time to add cooked food, animal protein and a wide variety of veggies.

http://www.kimberlysnyder.net/blog/2011/08/09/5-easy-ways-to-transition-your-diet/