Raw Journal

I started this journal in hopes that my life could help or inspire someone else. Enjoy!

Aug 2008

Summer Bliss!

Strawberry Spinach Berries Hey sweethearts hope you have been enjoying your summer as much as I have! I've been going to the beach and yesterday I actually swam in the ocean for about an hour and in Northern Cali that's no small feat! I loved it though, every time the waves would crash on the shore the mist made a rainbow!

I've also been taking walks in nature and in the trail behind my house I discovered wild rose hips growing and I feasted on about 10 of them. I'm so lucky to have gotten my vitamin C straight off the vine. For those of you that have never had a fresh rose hip, they taste like a tart fruit gummy.

Here is some more information on rose hips

As it turns out not only they are a good source of vitamin C but also of Iron! I love how nature provides us with all they need

wild rose hip I've been watching the Olympics at night and at the same time completed my newest work of art that looks like coral or seaweed; it's very oceany feeling which goes with the ocean theme of our bed
room.I've been having so much fun!

I also have been continuing to do summer raw food events. The pie contest was fun and a few people from the www.giveittomeraw.com forum who live in S.F. came. Nice to see new faces and energy. Two people tied for 1st place with a Merry Mango Pie and Red Velvet Pie. Both pies were nut, oil, and agave nectar free. The mango pie had a coconut crust and mango/dried mango filling and the red velvet pie was made with avocado, dates, beets, carrots, cacao, with a buckwheat crust. You can see the pictures of the pies and the winners to the right.

Then I had my dessert class where I used my brand new coconut grater! I had bought some raw coconut flakes from Whole Foods and was really disappointed. So I bought this coconut grater and then dehydrated the flakes. The coconut flakes where the sweetest and freshest coconut flakes I've ever experienced. I mixed them with dates to make my coconut crème pie, and it was delicious.

Green Smoothie Revolution

Bodega Bay at Sunset I had so many raw desserts left over from my class that I ate them for breakfast for awhile and I started to gain some weight, but I hosted Victoria Boutenko to come speak and I've been so inspired! Before she came, I was making a green smoothie every morning, but after she came I have been eating almost exclusively green smoothies. Fruits and greens in the morning and afternoon and at dinner I'll make a green soup with non sweet fruit and greens. I've also eliminated crystal salt from my diet and have only been using dulse seaweed to satisfy my salt tooth. I didn't use salt for many years when I first went raw, but unfortunately somewhere along the way I got addicted to it and I personally I know I feel better when I use seaweed instead of salt. In the past when I'd use salt I'd get headaches, feel dehydrated, crave sweets, and because salt is so stimulating to the appetite, I would overeat. I can't say I'll never use it again but I definitely will try to minimize it.

pie contest winners merry mango and red velvet About 60 people came to the Victoria Boutenko event, which is the biggest event I've ever hosted. I mean I usually get 20 people to come to my potlucks and I'm really happy about it! People traveled from near and far to see her and I'm so glad I could make it happen. Maximum capacity for the venue was 66 so we just barely made it under!

Victoria has literally started a green smoothie revolution. She talked about how long term raw foodists start to not feel as good in the long term, but that green smoothies are the answer for feeling great long term. She also thinks that the aphids on our organic greens blended up can be a good source of B-12! I also learned that I definitely need to rotate my greens a bit more. She recommends a minimum of 7 rotated greens. She mentioned that if you eat too much kale (or any green from the brassica family) it can affect your thyroid. I realized that I've been depending on kale a little too much because it is one of my favorite greens of course.

My Newest Work of Art! She also commented that spinach has gotten a bad rap and that coffee has so much more oxalic acid than spinach. And that spinach is good because it has calcium in to which counteracts the negative effects of oxalic acid.

Luckily, where I live there are so many greens to choose from. I discovered this farm about 5 minutes from my house called green string farm where they grow their greens with rock dust and compost! They have a beautiful selection of greens: beautiful red leaf lettuce, chard, basil, purslane, and parsley. Purslane is especially healthy because purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular) than any other leafy vegetable plant. I've also been experimenting with Nopal Cactus. When properly despined it makes a great addition to a green smoothie.

two pies at the Petaluma Raw Potluck: My Nectarine Cobbler and a Mango Tart So many people were motivated by the Victoria Boutenko talk that they wanted me to start a green smoothie challenge for our local potluck group. I decided to make this challenge available to everyone thanks to the internet! If you want to learn more about the green smoothie challenge click here.

Victoria is so warm, gracious, and giving of her time and information, not to mention extremely professional. I know that green smoothies have made me feel amazing. These last few days that I have been on an exclusively green smoothie diet I wake up easily with energy, I feel so alive, and a skin tab that I was born with inbetween my eyes is steadily shrinking. Victoria was saying how during her retreat how peoples moles were falling off left and right! I am so grateful for Victoria and all the wonderful raw food visionary speakers out there. It is so important to support those that give their time and energy to spreading this information!

Dream Slides

My New Coconut Grater Besides listening to Victoria speak I also was so lucky to go an Abraham Hicks Seminar. It was truly inspiring. I had been wanting to go for a long while and I finally made my dream come true!

During the lunch portion of the seminar I met a nice fellow who told me about a vision board that he made. I knew what a vision board was from watching the movie The Secret and I had just recently made one with a friend of mine. We spent all day cutting out pictures from magazines of things we wanted and then glued them a poster board. This was the second vision board that I made. The first one I swear helped me manifest my honey, and if you've read any of my journals you know how wonderfully that worked out!

The Winners Tied for 1st Place! But the gentlemen at the seminar said that he didn't have time to make a traditional board and that he actually made a "vision board" as a slide show that he watches at least once a day. I thought the idea was brilliant! So I found a free slide show program on the internet and put in pictures of things that I wanted and then I wrote an affirmation on each picture. I have some experience in design so I was able to write the affirmations on my pictures, but you could just as easily add them as captions depending on what slide show program you use. Then I added some music and put the slide show on my website and I watch it everyday at least twice a day! It puts me in the best mood and so far I've been manifesting things like crazy! Although I love meditation, I've never been disciplined enough to do it everyday. This little slide slow is my answer because it puts me in a positive frame of mind and it is so easy to watch at least once a day!

I'm showing you my slide show even though it is deeply personal in hopes that you will be inspired to make your own dream slides!

http://www.rawglow.com/video.htm

New Raw Food Documentary

Victoria Boutenk and I Speaking of videos thanks to Angela Stokes I found out that their is a new raw food documentary coming out that needs your support. Check out the sneak preview: