It's easy being green!

My new found passion for eating really well continues with my first foray into green juice. I have been super keen on green smoothies for ages now but hadn't tried green juice. I think I was a bit freaked out about trying to juice without a juicer, but joyfully enough my beloved's amazing Thermomix is exceptionally suited to the job, especially as what really happens is that everything gets blended in super high power and nothing is left out. Eating the entire vegetable!

Not to worry what machine you've got at home though, just use it!

Super-charge your diet with green stuff!

So what was in my first attempt?

broccoli stalks (2 small ones - all I had)
baby spinach (a handful)
cucumber (a whole one!)
celery (4 big stalks)
ginger and
a pear
+ a tray of ice and 250mls of water (required for blending)

SO good! I was not expecting that. Much easier to drink than the much heavier smoothie.

Suffice to say this made a lot! I drank half a litre for lunch and still have 2 cups for afternoon tea and maybe breakfast tomorrow (it can store for up to 24 hours)

Get on it!

A peek at what I eat in a day

I am currently wrangling with just HOW I want to be eating at this point in my life, and HOW I can maintain good habits for a long time rather than just in the short term. I am thinking of food as an integral and direct contributor to my SOUL health. The body is the temple, the gateway to the soul. Everything we eat, then, as far as I see it is contributing to your sense of peace and balance in the world.

I am resisting trying to adhere to a particular diet such as raw, paleo, vegan etc. I am letting intuition guide me. Intuition is different from responding to cravings! I have lots more to say on the subject of food and I'll get to it another time, for if you've read this blog before you know it occupies a lot of my time. Lately, I am enjoying it more and more, and loving preparing really great food. 

So, what did I eat yesterday?

Upon waking : 

2 teaspoons of Apple cider vinegar in a glass of water

1/4 cup of kefir

Floradix Iron supplement

Breakfast:

Coffee with a dash of hot milk with honey to sweeten

home made grain free muesli including linseed, almonds, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds with an apple and a tablespoon of natural yoghurt (sometimes I omit this and just have juice on the mix as pictured above).

Morning tea (I get hungry mid and late afternoon rather than at lunch so tend to eat more substantially at these times):

Left over salad nicoise (beans, tomato, potato, olives, anchovies, olive oil) with fresh salmon

Flat white

2 pieces of Pana Chocolate Cinnamon chocolate

Afternoon tea:

Tuna with fresh dill, mayo, lemon juice and rock salt on baby cos lettuce leaves

handful of sweet potato chips

Dinner:

Green smoothie (baby spinach, silverbeet, banana, almonds, seeds, blueberries, apple juice)

Haloumi with fresh mint and lemon juice.

Lots of water with mint and lemon and probably a few medjool dates during the day too!

Getting lighter

So after 11 days of being sugar, alcohol and carb free I have lost about 4 kgs. This is hard to be accurate about as my scales are a bit dodgy but suffice to say the needle has gone down.

What this tells me is that my body was suffering in trying to process foods that just did not work for it, and has thus been happy to respond to the change in diet with this weight loss. It also tells me that if I were to go back to eating in the way that I was, I would quickly regain the weight. I feel pretty good about making this a lifestyle choice.

I have found alcohol quite hard to do without, but having said that, I allowed myself a glass of wine last night at dinner, and one glass was all I needed. I was actually craving water! And this morning I awoke with a shocking headache. In the long term (after this period until Christmas) I will allow myself to drink when I feel so inclined (which isn't more than once a week normally), but I will avoid the sulphite-filled beverages such as wine (the drink last night also made my stomach very uncomfortable).

There have been several moments of compromise, but I can count them on one hand, which is astounding. For now, for me, something has shifted and I am feeling unburdened by this positive eating plan.

Another observable shift for me has been in a decrease in my appetite. I am no longer starving to get to the next meal, and I need less at each meal. Basically I was eating more than I needed to be based on the energy I was expending.

And this week as I sat to meditate for the first time since changing my eating, I had a stunning experience of my energy body (also known as the ethric body or even the aura). It is somewhat represented by the picture I include here. I felt like the energy was dancing at my chakras (energy points in the body), especially around the top of my head. I also felt the energy points (or chakras) in my hands, which is new for me. The meditation wasn't necessarily easier, but the sense of my light body was far stronger than it normally is for me. And it felt great.

I want to spend a bit more time thinking about the other changes I am exepriencing, and see if they are observable to others. It has only been 12 days after all, and I am on a bit of a high about it especially in regards to reversing what has been a sudden and dramatic weight gain over the last 12 months. I'll keep you posted on mood, energy levels, clarity of mind and all those other great things.

Positive Eating and the lightness of being

Image available here

For 7 days now I have been FREE of processed sugar (I have 2 pieces of fruit and a teaspoon of honey a day), alcohol and simple carbohydrates (no white foods basically). I don't use that word free lightly. For sometime I have felt like a prisoner to my food impulses. For what my mind would not let me be free of, the toll has been taken on my body.

But, I reached a moment of clear thinking and since then, it has been easier than I thought it would be, and it has definitely made me consider how unconscious my eating habits were, how I ate without thinking about the contribution (or otherwise) the food might be making to my body. It has also made me aware of my addictive stress related tendencies with food. I really craved a sugar/salt/fat hit in the first few days and felt unsatisfied with the nourishing food I was eating. I was able to simply observe this and it has been very empowering.

I am thinking about food as medicine at this time, primarily because I have a medical condition that can only be treated with diet and exercise. It has become increasingly pronounced over the last few years and I have had a major wake-up call to bring my focus back to my health and well-being. So I am considering the value and also the cost of anything I put into my body. This is somewhat motivated by the desire to shift a few kilos (weight gain is a part of the medical condition), but I am hoping, even when I am at a desirable weight that I will be able to maintain an attitude of positive eating for my body.

Positive Eating is probably the only way to describe what I am doing right now with food. I'm not vegetarian, vegan, raw or anything else. I am eating whole foods, seeds, nuts, sprouted grains, spelt flour bread when I am craving bread, good oils like flaxseed (unheated), fresh vegetables (with plenty of green vegies) mostly uncooked, rice milk but also some dairy, and organic varieties of all these things when I can get them. I don't feel hungry although I am eating less, and I am drinking A LOT more water. I reach for the water when I get hungry.

Right now, I'm committed and ok with it all. I hope to reprogram myself, break my addictions, and keep myself in a balanced relationship with food. I am chasing out the lurking shadows of addiction, which began with quitting smoking at the beginning of this year (an addiction I do not miss at all), and continues with this latest 'detox'. I aim for a lightness of being in body, mind and soul.

I'll keep you posted on the impact it has on all areas of my life, including the soul aspect.