First day of spring... finally!

What will I do to celebrate today? Go hiking? Camping? Enjoy a long bike ride? All three? Who knows!

Last night I went running and while outside and exhilerated I laid myself down on the grass and felt myself become absorbed into the stars and my surroundings. Being inside makes you feel like there is a barrier between yourself and the "real" world. Being outside and truly experiencing your environment on a basic, super aware level almost transforms what your concept of the "real" world is. The divide between the "safe" indoors and the "harsh" outside world fades away and it all becomes a vibrant, living, interconnected, whole, perpetually undefinable playground. You really, actually understand that all the names you have for everything, all the stereotypes, all the preconcieved notions, mean little to nothing. The overwhelming immediacy of what is, of what actually is can't be described. So I'll stop there. You'll have to actually see and feel and KNOW what I mean for yourself.

This week I've been eating a lot more raw food. Ive had anywhere from 1-3 green smoothies a day. Ive also had a salad on tuesday and today. My only problem at the moment is that I tend to overcompensate and eat beyond what I need. Need to work on intuitive eating if I want to avoid indigestion because even eating too much healthy stuff isn't really healthy if its taxing your body.

I'm back

Sorry I haven't updated in a little while, I've been dealing with a variety of things (new job, some personal issues, etc) but I am back to blogging regularly now!

So, as I mentioned before, I am prone to some anxiety. It all started about 8-9 months ago when I started drinking a lot of coffee. That kind of triggered anxiety in me and made me acutely aware of how it feels to be overly anxious. I recently started seeing a therapist and that kind of internally inspired me to start taking care of myself more and to stop procrastinating on the things that count. I made a sort of spring cleaning list for myself. I kind of do most of these things already but I just want to make it more "official."

1. Cutting out refined sugar for good and cutting down on agave and dried fruits. No corn syrups!2. Getting lots of fresh clean air. Avoiding situations with toxic air (don't walk along highway, breath in cleaners, etc)
3. Only use personal care and beauty products that are very natural, simple, and safe. Baking soda for deodorant. Mineral makeup. Coconut oil for lotion. Green tea or raw aloe vera gel for facial toner. Natural organic soaps, shampoos, and conditioners.
4. Staying gluten free whole foods vegan for life so I don't suffer from digestion problems (among other issues).
5. Eating more raw foods than cooked. Make cooked foods with healthier methods like steaming, rapid boiling, warming up, etc.
6. Avoid rancid and hyrdrogenated oils. This includedes corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, refined palm oil, etc. Get majority of fat from fresh raw sources like seeds, avocadoes, and coconuts. Get a smaller percentage from raw nuts and extra virgin olive oil.
7. Find natural cleaning replacements for detergent, toothpaste, dish soap, etc.
8. Avoid using as much plastic as possible. Don't buy plastic water bottles. Store water in jars. Avoid storing food in tupperware or other plastic containers. Store food in jars or ceramic containers. Use reusable grocery/shopping bags. Keep one in purse at all times.
9. Try to buy as much organic food as I can afford. Buy the following organic: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach (especially this bc i eat a lot of it), and strawberries. Try to buy more local and fair trade products.
10. Focus on foods with lower pesticide residue if not buying organic: avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, onions, mango, papaya, pineapple. Although I should still always buy organic fair trade bananas.
11. Avoid acrylimides by not baking or frying on a regular basis. Only do this once in a while.
12. Get plenty of sunshine each day. And fun exercise!
13. Get plenty of omega 3's DAILY from flax and chia seeds
14. Drink at least one green smoothie a day. Preferable more.
15. Start sprouting.
16. Practice yoga more. Meditate more.
17. Improve my massaging techniques.
18. Eat at least 3-4 servings of raw leafy organic greens per day.

Now, I don't want this to come off as some huge daunting set of "restrictions" that I am imposing on myself. I already do much of this stuff out of habit AND I enjoy ALL of it. Feeling physically and mentally sound and vibrant trumps old, unhealthy, life force zapping habits by a zillion miles.

Easily irritated

Today I did a somewhat silly thing. I ate a large salad for lunch. I ate it really quickly and probably didn't chew nearly as much as I should have. Afterwards I went for a moderately intense bike ride for about an hour or so. At the end of my ride I started getting horrible stabbing pains all over my abdomen. I came inside and was doubled over in pain it hurt that bad. I was close to asking my boyfriend to take me to the hospital it hurt so badly! Then I started burping to try to force the extra air out of me. That helped a little bit but I still was in pain. Next I tried sipping peppermint tea. Finally, the pain subsided almost 45 minutes later after it started. I never want my stomach to feel like that again. It was horrible! I really need to be more cautious with my eating habits. I slip into periods where I eat my food really fast. Obviously this makes it hard for my body to digest and then I get a lot of air build up in my stomach/intestines which can be quite painful. I've also been experiencing acid reflux on and off. I think that that is from the cocoa I've been consuming in rather decent quantities latley (hot cocoa, dark chocolate, brownies, etc). No wonder my stomach is acting up! I'm going to try to be really diligent with my eating this week. I don't know if I actually have IBS or not but I do have many of the symptoms and I want to get this under better control.

Healthy indulgence

I feel really proud of myself. I've been eating rather well all week and feel pretty good as a result. Today I decided to indugle a little bit and make some brownies from a recipe I modified. They are called "mayan brownies" and are flavored with cinnamon and a bag of Bengal Spice tea. They actually don't contain any wheat either. Here is the recipe:

My Mayan Brownies

1 and 1/4 cups cocoa powder
3/4 cup of unbleached cane sugar or brown sugar, your choice
1/4 cup of rolled oats (gluten free oats or brown rice flour if you want)
1/4 cup liquid coconut oil (virgin is preferable)
4 tablespoons agave nectar
3 tablespoons milled flax seed
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 bag of Bengal Spice tea by Celestial Seasonings (optional but recommended)
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased small baking pan. This makes a rather small batch so you should double it if you want more brownies. I baked mine at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. I used a toaster oven so your time will most likely vary. The original recipe I modified this from called for a time of 30 minutes so use your best judgement. When they are done (top of brownies should be somewhat shiny and slightly cracked in appearance) remove and let cool before cutting. These are very fudgy brownies so they might fall apart if you do not allow them to cool before hand.

I made a frosting to top mine with that complimented the flavors in the brownie really nicely. Here it is:

Avocado Lime Frosting

1/2 an avocado mashed
around 2 cups of sugar (or more until desired consistency/taste is achieved)
juice of one lime
a tsp of cinnamon (optional)
a tsp of powdered fenugreek (optional)

Combine and let chill in fridge for a stiffer consistency. When brownies are cool, spread the frosting on top and enjoy!

I really enjoyed these brownies. They were dense, rich, and not as unhealthy as brownies could be. Maybe I could make brownies solely using agave in the future? I'll probably skip the frosting next time or make a version without refined sugar as well. Too much sugar makes me tired.

All in all, my one week raw kind of fizzled out due to poor planning on my part. But I don't view it as a failure in any way at all. I feel more connected to my body after even two days of eating raw and I feel like I just want more raw foods in general. Tomorrow I am going to aim to make at least breakfast and lunch raw for sure. Dinner will probably be comprised of beans and some sort of steamed veggies and who knows what else. We shall see!

I tasted spring today

Aww it was so beautiful out today. It was february and I was outside sweating in my cardigan. I took one of my most enjoyable bike rides ever today. It wasn't on a particularly interesting route or anything but I have been craving warm, liveable, breathable weather like you couldn't even begin to understand. I was so ecstatic to be out on my bike plugging along with the sun cascading down all over me. I was in heaven just sitting next to the lake simply doing nothing but smiling at the sun and taking it all in. What made it even better is that I felt so much stronger biking than I had felt in the past. The route I took usually required me to stop riding and walk my bike up a few hills and I was able to do the whole thing without stopping or walking once. I felt really good about that. I think I might have to stage a repeat tomorrow.

On another note, at the little spot where I rested next to the lake there was a grotesque amount of trash (mainly plastic bottles) on the shore. I'm thinking of getting a bunch of trash bags and working on cleaning it up. I feel like it such a shame to leave such a pretty place in such a state. I wonder if I could put up a "Do not litter" sign afterwards? Hah.

I ate mostly raw today. Not entirely. Well, I ended up running into some problems. I underestimated how much food I would need for myself and basically almost ran out of raw foods. I don't have much money to work with so I'm going to have to supplement with lentils, beans, frozen veggies, sweet potatoes, etc. I don't mind though. I still feel quite healthy eating plenty of raw foods with the addition of legumes, sweet potatoes and cooked veggies. This will be cheaper for me as well. Nuts and seeds for protein can be extremely costly and I don't have that sort of budget. I think being raw for two days really increased my appetite for greens though. Tonight for dinner I made a curried yellow split pea soup and when it was done I removed it from the heat and pureed in some fresh spinach. I want to experiment with new leafy greens as much as I can. They are pretty cheap and very nutritious (and delicious) so why not? So far I'm familiar with spinach, romaine, arugula, kale, dandelion greens, turnip greens, and collard greens. We shall see which variety I decide to delve into next.

Day Two

Today ended up going quite smoothly. Here is what I ate:

-smoothie of kiwi, flax, cinnamon, raw apple cider, and stevia
-raw coconut oil dark chocolate bark with raisins and dried cranberries
-homemade coconut "ice cream" sweetened with agave
-2x tension tamer tea, 1 bengal spice tea, 2x kombucha mixed with raw apple cider and cinnamon, 1 lemon ginger water
-mustardy kale with avocado, pineapple salsa, pumpkin seeds, and sea salt
-cortland apple

I really enjoyed the kale dish. It was extremely simple to prepare and very tasty. I can imagine myself eating it rather frequently. How do I feel? I feel pretty good. My skin looks quite nice and my eyes look brighter than normal. I had one large pimple on the side of my face near my hairline but aside from that my skin looks clearer than the usual. I think the msm is really helping as well. I don't feel achey or stiff like I had been feeling which is especially exciting because I have been exercising more than normal. In addition, I feel more energetic and agile than normal. I suppose it is because all this food is so much easier to digest. It makes sense that I would feel tired and lethargic if my body has to use up all its energy just to pass a meal along.