Healthy Living

Last year I started a blog called A RAWkin Life which journaled my new healthy way of living. However, having 2 blogs is a lot of work so I have moved everything here. 

I have been a vegetarian for many years and decided to take it a step further and add mostly raw food (fruits and veggies) to my diet. Due to many health issues and lots of research I have chosen to do a more natural way of healing my body, gaining energy and living as pain free as possible. I will occasionally post updates so check back to see what's happening.

Feel free to comment and/or share your story about healthy living by posting in the comments section at the bottom of the page or sending an email to the address found in the sidebar of my blog.

January 6, 2012 - Update

The new year is here and I am super excited about all the things planned for the upcoming months. Lots of trips planned for business and fun. Looking forward to a trip to California in the very near future - Palm Springs and hiking in Joshua Tree State Park with a group of friends. We found amazing cabins in Beaver Bend State Park last summer and will be going back - so much to do there and it's just gorgeous. I'm ready for warmer weather so we can hit the lakes and rivers in kayaks. We are supposed to be doing C25K but I keep procrastinating. Not big on running so that may never happen. Long bike rides in the near future so hope the weather stays nice. My garden will be getting an overhaul so spring will be fun. I just added some new bird and squirrel feeders and will try and get pictures to share. I love nature and it is my biggest source of inspiration. 

My juicer I talked about in my last post is now old and has been used a lot but is still running great. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to start a juicing program. My pain level is super low when I drink fresh fruit and veggie juice and my energy level skyrockets. Just wish I had found this years ago.

I just wanted to give a quick update and will post more soon.

August 8, 2011 - My New Juicer!

My New Juicer!

Making juice was so much easier with my new juicer. No stopping to clean it out every few minutes. I was able to make 2 quarts of the best juice all at once. My life just got easier!

My favorite juice:

1 Granny Smith Apple (small size)

3 Carrots

1 Large Leaf Swiss Chard

1 Large Kale Leaf

1/2 Cucumber

1 Stalk Celery

1/2 Beet (optional)

So good! My juice used to consist of only green juice (no sugary veggies or fruits) but it was making me feel a bit sick after I drank it. I played around (and made some really bad juice) and came up with the recipe above and it is so tasty! This juice seems to work well for me and I have hours of high energy after drinking just 12 oz. If you don't like beets then I would leave that one out. Beets are really good for you but they have a super strong taste. And you could add 1/4 lemon if you want a bit of tart - lemon juice is good for the liver.

I've been really busy this summer. We started hiking and it is my new favorite thing to do. I love it and really want to work up to a day hike. And soon we'll be adding running (OUCH!) to the list - we'll see how that goes. The Jingle Bell Run here in Dallas is December 21st and my partner and I have decided we're going to sign up. We'll be doing C25K to train for this and our first week of training will be later in October (NOOOOO!). I'm not a fan of running, it hurts me! I'm going to give C25K my best shot and see what happens - I am hoping it gets me through the 5K. Years ago I trained for a Century bike ride (100 miles) and I think I would rather train for another century ride rather than a tiny 5K. Maybe I'll start to like running (trying to stay a little positive - I need to work on my attitude with this one). I will give updates and may post some videos during the C25K - that should add a bit of humor to my blog - argh!

As far as weight loss - when I lose the 3 pounds I've gained by not juicing, I will have lost a total of 40 pounds since changing my lifestyle. And I never feel deprived. That isn't true, the few times I've ventured back to my old eating habits, after a couple of days I start feeling deprived and am craving everything! And I don't have nearly enough energy to do the fun stuff we've added to our lives this summer. But when I'm on track with my healthier way of eating I don't feel deprived at all. I'm sure that's because my body is getting all the nutrients it needs.

Have a happy, healthy day!

August 7, 2011 - Kombucha

2 Gallons of Refreshing Kombucha ready for bottling

Stress and bad eating can take its toll on the digestive tract and you can end up with all kinds of issues - need I say more? Being determined to be free from stomach issues I began looking into probiotics last year and found a few brands that sounded good in capsule form, purchased them and took them faithfully. They did nothing for me. So, one night while surfing You Tube I stumbled onto someone's Kombucha video (can't remember who it was) and it sounded interesting so thought I would look into it further. I purchased a bootle of GT Dave's Original Kombucha and gave it a try and it was interesting but not a flavor I fell in love with immediately. I tried other flavors and brands but kept going back to GT's Original, but at $3.49 a bottle it gets a bit expensive if you want to drink it every day. So, I decided to make my own.

I have been bottling my own Kombucha for several months now and I drink it every day. The naturally occurring probiotics works for me and as a super bonus it helps curb my appetite. If I am having an afternoon sugary/starchy craving I drink about 8 oz. of Kombucha and cravings are gone.

Scoby

Kombucha is a fermented tea. It is made with a Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast called a Scoby or Mushroom. I am not going to go into all the details about what Kombucha is because there are many sites and You Tube videos that will give you all the details. Before I started making my own I did my research here at Kombucha Kamp as well as many other sites and watched a lot of videos.

Better view of Scoby - are you creeped out yet? 

:o)

A new Scoby grows at the top of the older one (older scoby is called the mother) and can be removed and used to start a new batch. They last for a long time if you take care in preparing your Kombucha Tea.

Before bottling the Scoby gets moved to another container and Kombucha is added to cover the Scoby. This is the starter for the next batch.

After getting your starter ready it is time to bottle the rest. Kombucha is naturally carbonated but the carbonation can be increased by leaving the capped bottles sitting out for about 24 hours before refrigerating. You have to be careful and I suggest putting them in a box and releasing a bit of the pressure every few hours or they can explode. I find that there is enough carbonation and not worth the mess and danger of flying glass.

I make my Kombucha by boiling a pot of water (medium size pot and filtered or spring water). After the water comes to a boil I add a cup of raw sugar (fair trade certified organic sugar) per gallon of tea being made and stir until disolved. Then the pot is removed from the heat and 5 green tea bags + 2 black tea bags (English Breakfast) are added. I let the tea bags steep for 10 minutes and then remove them. Add filtered or spring water to your container and add the tea but leave enough room for the Scoby and starter liquid. Let cool to room temperature before adding your Scoby or you will kill the bacteria. When cool you can add the Scoby and the starter liquid. Cover with a cloth and rubber band - t-shirt material works great or paper towel is fine - Kombucha needs to breathe. Don't use anything with a loose weave or you'll get fruit flies. Sit your container in a dark warm place. The top of the refrigerator is a good spot and you can wrap a dish towel around the container to keep the light out. Check it in about 5 days by inserting a straw underneath the Scoby and taking a sip. If not ready check daily until it is. It shouldn't be too sweet or too tart. It takes 5-7 days in warm weather and can take up to 2 weeks in winter.

Kombucha has very little sugar or caffeine because the bacteria in the Scoby eats it. You can purchase strips to test the PH balance when you first start making Kombucha (just search for Kombucha PH test strips), but after a while you will know when it is perfect just by tasting. If made correctly it helps to alkalize the body and is a great source of probiotics. Due to the fermentation process it can have a small alcohol content.

Scobys are pretty easy to get. If you have a friend who brews Kombucha, just ask them for one. You can also purchase one from a reputable online shop. I have even seen them on Etsy.

Happy brewing!

Getting Back on Track - August 6, 2011

YUM!

Don't these Mangos look amazing? They are so good. Had to do some shopping yesterday and found these at Central Market. I couldn't even wait to unpack the groceries before eating a couple of them. Slurp! :o)

I started juicing and eating a raw food diet (about 80% raw) in February of this year. I have had many health issues over the past several years with lots of pain, fatigue, joint swelling, knots in/near my joints that made moving them excruciating, mental fog and just plain feeling old. I had gained weight due to lack of activity and that just made things worse. I would go to doctors and they would all send me off with a Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue diagnosis and a prescription for some medicine that made me feel worse, not better. I lived on pain meds and ended up with a horrible ulcer (not sure if pain pills contributed but probably didn't help).

I will be 48 next month and can see the big 5 0 racing towards me. I want to be 50 and fabulously healthy, not 50 and old. I want to do the things I love, bicycling, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, gardening and anything else I want to do. And I want to do those things well into my senior years. I want a clear, sharp mind and to look as young as possible for as long as possible. And frankly, for the last few years I have just felt old.

At the end of last year I decided enough was enough and started looking at alternative ways of healing the body. Stress is a big one and that was the first one I decided to eliminate. My job was very high stress and long hours so I decided to make some changes there. I was a real estate agent and had an art business on the side which I loved. So, as of January of this year I left real estate and started doing art full time. I still have stress on occasion but it is more in the normal range and manageable.

I researched everything I could find on living a healthy lifestyle and at the end of January I found the raw food diet (more of a way of life than a diet). I ordered a juicer and started figuring out what works for me and things started changing very fast. Most of my meals were raw vegetarian (about 80% raw). I lost 28 pounds in 3.5 months, my skin looked better than it had in ages, I had energy, very little pain and almost no swelling in my joints, my mind was sharp and clear, I was working outside in the yard and found my heat tolerance was better. I was doing things I hadn't done in a long time and it felt great. So many wonderful changes.

(Me on the left. My partner, Carsen, in the middle and right photos. Taken at White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX)

The pictures above were taken in mid June and we had a blast. This year we learned that we love canoeing and kayaking (mostly kayaking). This is not something I would have been doing last summer. It feels so good to have energy and to be almost pain free! You think I would never go back to my old ways of eating, but...

I did fall back into my old habits - not all of them, but enough to start reversing the progress I had made. For about a month now I have been slowly going back to my old ways of eating and I am feeling it. All the old problems are returning - not all the way but soon I will be back to where I was if I don't make some changes NOW! Big wakeup call. I actually love my new habits and it makes no sense why I would let them go. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to see if my old habits were really responsible for my health issues. Guess I got my answer.

Time to get back on track!

Breville Juice Fountain Compact

The picture above is the juicer I own right now and I have been using it since mid February. I purchased this one because it was the cheapest of the Breville juicers and I didn't know if I would stick with this or not (really figured I would not do this more than a couple of weeks). It is a great juicer if you use it occasionally. My partner and I use this daily and we juice a couple times a day. The waste container fills up way too fast and has to be cleaned out before you can continue juicing. And it has one speed so harder vegetables and fruits need to go through again (messy) in order to get the most out of them (and you want to get the most out of them because organic produce is a bit pricey). Cleaning out the waste container is pretty messy. The juice it makes is great though so no complaints there. Last week I ordered the Breville Juice Fountain Elite and can't wait for it to arrive.

My daily juice is usually pretty green and consists of (all organic) kale, chard, cucumber, zucchini, celery, spinach, 1/2 small lemon and fresh ginger. Today I really wanted something sweet for breakfast so this is what I had:

Red curly kale, carrots, beet, strawberries, celery, chard, green apple, 1/4 lemon, and it made 12 oz. of the best juice. Isn't it a pretty red? I wanted more because it tasted so good - should have made a quart. Perfect juice for such a hot day and it was very satisfying. I drank this hours ago and am still running on the energy boost.

There is always waste after juicing and I hate to throw it in the trash. This will go into my compost bin later today. Sometimes I mix other ingredients and spices with the pulp (depending on what I juice) and put it in my dehydrator to make crackers.

It feels good to get back into healthy eating again. I expect a few detox symptoms but hopefully they won't be too bad. In a week or so I will be feeling better than ever. Just the extra energy I have today is a huge improvement.

I would love to hear your juicing recipes and stories of what you do to keep healthy.