Honesty and Juice

Photos: I am growing some sunflower greens.

(5:46PM)

YAHHHHHHHHHH! So much is happening right now! Do you feel the same way????

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach this morning! For one thing, Matt (Freakin) Monarch is coming to town tomorrow and I will get to meet him and hear him speak about raw foods to me and my friends here in New Orleans!!!!!!!!! hip hip HOORAYYYYYYYYY! I think it is going to be SO INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! This feels bigger than Christmas and my birthday put TOGETHER! I am terribly terribly utterly terribly excited...

My friend Alex sells these incredible organic grade A vanilla beans for super cheap. When I called him to place my order, we got to chatting about raw food and he made a comment about the relationship between raw foods and doing what you love. He pointed out that once you get really into raw foods, and this is something he was paraphrasing from David Wolfe I believe, that you can no longer do the things you don't like to do anymore. You just can't. That idea is exactly in line with my own experience of raw foods so far. I would agree with it wholeheartedly! Then I kept thinking and I even want to go a step further and point out something else I believe eating raw has done to me...

I have been getting a lot of awesome feedback lately on my blog (Thank you everyone who is sending me this awesome feedback! It means SO MUCH to me. It really helps keep things going strong.) One of the things that I've noticed that different people seem to be telling me is that they appreciate the honesty I write with. Hmm. I can see why they might say that since I have poured quite a bit of my deepest self out onto this thing - this blog. But here's the thing...the raw food made me do it!!!! (giggle) Well, not really, of course, but actually, sort of:)

The point that I am trying to make here is that raw food has made more honest. And open. And unashamed. I used to hoard tons of food in my room and eat massive amounts of junk food in secret away from family and friends. I would gorge on donuts and poptarts and chips and various milk chocolate things...I would try and hide all this behavior from everyone, though I have a feeling that those closest to me had a feeling about what was going on. I was never bulimic or anorexic, I was just a compulsive eater. My relationship with food and myself has only gotten better since I've embraced raw foods. There have been some difficult moments along the way, but in the big scheme of things, my life has begun to blossom. I have begun to blossom.

I've never been much of a juicer. There are various reasons for that, one of which is simply that I am a big fiber buff. I feel like fiber is a magic broom that helps sweep me clean. Plus, I don't like to waste. Plus I don't have a super juicer, just an el cheapo one. For some strange reason, this past week or so, I have really really REALLY been wanting juice. It started with my cold and feeling sick. I kept reading how people were knocking their colds out with juices. So I made some juice for myself. My cold is now gone. Can I say that my cold went away because I drank juice? No. I can only make observations and continue to pay attention to things. Now my cold is gone, but I still want juice. I can't explain it. Part of the reason is because I feel ready to take things to the next level. Part of the reason is because I finally feel ready to begin a juice journey.
I'm pretty excited to make juicing a normal part of my diet now. Green juice, in particular. I made a huge glass today and I feel like my feet just aren't touching the ground.

I had fun taking some goofy pictures of myself drinking juice.



I have never felt so good before in my entire life. My life keeps getting better and better. It really is amazing.

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Are You Feeling Beautiful? (Plus: FUN DRINKS!)

Photos: sun beverages

(1:57 AM)
I still have this funky cold. Mish suggested I drink veggie juices with lots of ginger and garlic. It sounded like a good plan, so I went to the store and picked up a few things. I've never been a big fan of ginger, but for the sake of health, I want to have more of a friendship with it. I got the idea to cut it up, put it in water with some minced mint and stick it out in the sun to make mint/ginger tea. I've never made tea or any beverage in the sun, but what the heck, right? I also put out a jar with just minced mint and another jar with some decaf green tea (my usual of late). I sweetened the mint/ginger tea with honey and it was fine, but it didn't seem painfully strong. So I got more ambitious and blended some lemon, water, honey, and a LOT of ginger and then strained it. Here is what I got....



Holy cow, that stuff was HOT HOT HOT!!!! I hope it was worth the pain.

I went to a yoga class at the New Orleans Yoga Center a few evenings ago. I don't think I am very good at yoga, but I do like it. I want to start doing more of it. I try practicing "Audry Yoga" at home, but its pretty goofy stuff. The people near me in the class the other day were so good, I wanted to just stop and watch them. Maybe I should have...Yoga is so beautiful! I even like just saying the word "yoga"....yoga....yoga...

I have been feeling a bit tom-boyish and not in touch with my femininity and beauty the last few days, so I have been putting some energy into feeling pretty. I haven't shaved my legs or armpits in a while, so I did that yesterday. Then today, I piled my hair up on the top of my head in a nice pretty bun. These things helped and I will continue to put more energy in these directions.

I've been thinking lately about women and our body images. I think most women (and perhaps men, also) have a strong sense of body image. I'm beginning to have a greater and greater respect and appreciation for this concept of Body Image - of one's perception of his/her body's beauty or lack there-of. Regardless of my beauty or nonbeauty perceived through the eyes of others, I am realizing that my own perception of my body/beauty can serve me as a very useful tool . I am beginning to see that when I am feeling not-so-beautiful it is only an opportunity for me to pay attention and use that energy to work on myself in some way, be it coming up with creative ways to keep improving my diet, making time for some form of exercise, or just simply doing something - anything- that I think will lift my mood. Inner messages relating to my body image have proven to be a resource for improving myself and my life in general when I accept and pay attention to them. I think many people suffer from negative body images. I like to think that our negative body images and thoughts are really only messages from within, our body/mind's natural way of urging us to do something, change something or work on something within ourselves so that we can become more of who we truly are.

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***NOTE: the comment section for this post disappeared somehow when I went to insert the photos. I don't know how to get it back. Dan: I hope you are having some luck and fun with mint tea concoctions:)

Cuckoo For Cacao

Here are some garden pictures from this morning:

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(12:29 AM)
I've decided to try a new approach to these blog entries. I'm going to try leaving out the explicit lists of food that I eat each day and just discuss food and my relations with it a little more naturally - just whatever seems to be interesting. Part of the reason I am doing this is because I think it might be a little boring for you guys to come across these detailed lists of what I've been eating, but its also kinda hard for me to remember it all! Another thing is that I think one of the factors of a healthy relationship with food is not obsessing over it. I can remember going through phases (not so long ago!) where I used to constantly go over in my mind the foods I had eaten so far that day (and the day before). I would play this mental feedback to myself that I was eating too much food - even when I wasn't. The point of this was to hopefully build discipline and get myself to eat less so that I could be thinner. I still try to remember the foods I eat to a certain degree, but not nearly like I used to. And I try to remember them for different reasons, such as this blog! But I will take a little break from all that and see how things go...

Having said that I do want to talk about what I ate today: I had a cocoBmax drink and then a big fat chocolate shake for breakfast. I was feeling a little down-and-out and sorry for myself, so I made this shake out of coconut water and pulp, a few cashews, some agave nectar, vanilla extract, and cacao, and it was really not very good. But I ate it anyway. THEN (!!!) I guess because I was mentally not satisfied yet, I had a big fat serving of cacao dessert (ground cacao and almonds with vanilla and agave nectar). I thought I was going to feel sick and full and gross afterwards the way I used to feel when I would get carried away and eat emotionally...BUT I DIDN'T! I didn't feel bad at all afterwards! I felt calm and energized and if anything, more in touch with my feelings. It was pretty bizarre, but pretty cool. Yet another reason why I love raw food:) Then I had a great salad for dinner and another cacao shake that was just as bad as the first. (I'm trying!). I still ate the whole thing and had my cacao dessert afterwards again (BIG GRIN). hee hee hee...

Now time for a BIG...DEEP...BREATH. I've had some big time emotions surface within the last few days. I feel it is only right for me to mention these because I don't want to pretend every day is peaches and cream if it isn't. Some of the things I have felt over the last couple of days are anger, humiliation, and frustration, to name a few. Most of these feelings surfaced during/after a confrontation I had with a loved one. I've been questioning a lot of things and trying to look deep down inside and right now I just feel kind of numb. I went for a walk to go get some blackberries this evening and I ran into an acquaintance who gave me some very good (absolutely unsolicited!!! I hadn't mentioned any of my recent trials/tribultions) advice: he told me to just let my emotions come to the surface and then just let go of them - rather than trying to analyze them and think them through, to just let them go...that when you try to figure it all out, you are really just feeding more energy into your state of unrest instead of just getting in touch with true peace...I really liked that.

So here I am...at the local university library...making satisfying clicking noises (I like the way it feels to type)...surrounded by anxious college students preparing for finals...breathing deep...feeling tingly...filling up on life...



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Miscellaneous in May

photo: my first harvest from the tomato/pepper garden = cherry tomatoes & purple pepper

(11:34 PM)
Hello! So there is this big event called the Raw Spirit Festival:



It is taking place in Sedona, Arizona October 12-14th and it looks SOOOO amazing. This will be the third year it is being held. It seems to be all the craze in the raw food world. I knew about this festival last year and really wanted to go, but wasn't sure I could afford to and couldn't find anyone who could go with me. I was thinking of going alone anyway, and then a very generous friend of mine invited me to the Bahamas that same week and offered to cover my expenses. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. This year, I am pretty dead set on getting to the Raw Spirit Fest. The line up of speakers, chefs, facilitators, etc looks phenomenal. I had to smile at the home page of the Raw Spirit Fest because it is all the "Whos who"s behind the entire raw food movement! Its so weird to think that all these people whose books I have read and who have inspired me so much will be meeting in this one place. The price of the event is $300 for early birds and this includes 7 organic raw vegan meals catered by famous organic chefs. If anyone between New Orleans, LA and Sedona, AZ is considering going and might want to carpool, lets get in touch! (Also, to anyone planning on attending, if you purchase your ticket by clicking on the Raw Spirit Fest link/icons on my page, I will be eligible for a small discount and would be more than happy to split that discount 50-50 with you.)

I harvested some of my kohlrabi the other day and made a dill/kohlrabi salad with lemon juice, salt, olive oil, dill, and kohlrabi:





I found a really neat raw blog the other day that has some great stories, photos and information about wild foods and consciousness: http://www.rawrob.com/ Very interesting and informative. I found the entries about Ayahuasca especially interesting and will be researching this topic myself. For future reference, I have also included a link to Raw Rob's blog under "MY FAVORITE RAW BLOGS".

Enjoy!

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Being Basil

photo: anise leaf...a love letter from Mother Nature

(2:20 AM)
It is late at night, but I am still having a marvelous day. I do officially have a cold:( I don't mind it too much today since my mood and energy level are high. I got to spend some amazing time in the backyard this morning. There is SO MUCH food growing in the garden right now! I can't wait!!!!! Here is an album with some photos:

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FOOD UPDATE:

Yesterday: 1 cocoBmax w/ 2 level t of bmax, 16 oz kombucha, arugula/spinach salad w/ tahini dressing, 1/2 cacao dessert, 1 cup blackberries, cacao dessert, 1/2 cup cream of celery soup, small spinach salad w/ tahini dressing, 1/3 cup vanilla almond fudge

Today: 2 level t of Bmax mixed into 3 blended oranges, wild blackberry/walnut salad w/ orange/anise dressing, cacao dessert (small appetite today from my cold, I suppose)


photo: blended oranges - they look so creamy!


photo: wild blackberry/walnut salad - this salad was incredible!

A little while ago I wrote about some realizations I had about bodies. I've been having more and more realizations of that sort lately. Its AWESOME! I love feeling all these good realizations pass through me. Let me go into a little more detail...

So I was out taking pictures in the garden this morning and I stooped down to take some photos of the basil. While I was down there with the basil, I began wondering what it was like to be basil. Here is a poem/thoughts I have about it...

Being Basil

Part of me is in the ground
Growing further and further into it
I am shorter than most people
I am quiet
But I sing in my own way
I just breathe
And the world is better
I am Plant
Not just any plant
I am all the plants
Not just all the plants
I am you, too.





I felt really connected to the basil and all the plants this morning. Actually, I think I might be a plant. I might be all of them...