Your Raw Wellness

Maybe You Are Like Millions Of People That Are Trying To Get Down To A More Reasonable Weight. If You Are, You Aren’t Alone. I Went Through That Journey, And I Want To Show You Exactly How…
Weight Loss The All Natural Way!

A full body detox is great for overall health and longevity purposes once or twice per year. I’ll get into how to do that later. Right now lets talk about a basic cleanse that is gentle enough to use every day yet strong enough to work. Here is this simple recipe:

1.2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar I’ve heard that “Braggs” ACV is the best brand. Honestly, I’ve had wonderful results and have only used a generic supermarket brand which is about a dollar and change for about a liter.

2. 1/8-1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda (This will neutralize the vinegar so you don’t harm the enamel on your teeth, it neutralizes in your stomach anyway so you are still getting all the benefits of the ACV. It is actually easier for your body to absorb what it needs to from the ACV if you neutralize it first. By taking out that step, you saved your body that work (read: work = energy) and now it can use all of its energy to absorb what it needs. You want to get it to about a 7% alkaline level. The ACV you buy in a grocery store is about 5%. The more that acid bothers you (GERD, acid reflux etc) the more Baking soda you should use. Start with 1/8 of a teaspoon and assess your tolerance. I have found ¼ teaspoon to be the magic number for me. Remember Baking Soda is sodium based, you may find yourself retaining a good amount of water for the first couple of days until your body becomes accustomed to the additional salt. I am extremely salt sensitive and couldn’t get my feet in my heels the first night. Then again, you know me and my Jersey girl 6 inch stilettos!

3. ¼-1/2 fresh lemon juice

4. 1 Tablespoon Organic Honeyb

Add about 4-6 oz of water and drink 2-4x/day. If you can get it down once on an empty stomach, you’re doing better than most people out there. I warm my water and make it into a tea. I find it to be a lot tastier when I throw in the additional (less palate pleasing) ingredients listed below.

ADDITIONAL INGRIDENTS – OPTIONAL:

1. 20 drops Ginger Extract. Ginger/Gingerol has TONS of benefits. Check out www.superhumanradio.com and tune in to the show on Ginger –The Uber Herb. Carl Lenor explains all the benefits of Ginger better than I ever could!!! (Gotta plug your boy, Carl, he let NY/NJ speed talker rant on his show for an hour, sweetiepie…u know me, I NEVER forget anyone who has helped me in my career!!).

2. 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper, if you can stand it. Go slow with this to assess your tolerance. I LOVE spicy food so the first day, brass guts over here decided to throw an entire teaspoon right into the mix. I thought my throat was going to close. Me and my daring (read: dumb) Rosanneisms! Heehee. Cayenne pepper heals and rebuilds tissue of the digestive system, increases the effectiveness of other foods and herbs when used with them, and is also linked to healing the heart and cardiac tissue. Cayenne has been known to stop heart attacks. Contrary to popular belief, it does not cause ulcers, it actually heals them. That’s if you can deal with the burn if you have one. Enough facts, lets get down the nitty-gritty of why everyone is reading this….cayenne is a natural thermogenic which has been proven to raise body temperature, boots metabolism and ultimately aid and speed fat loss. Just think increased circulation = increased lymph flow ( that means decreased cellulite ladies) = detox = ULTIMATE HEALTH, FATLOSS AND BODY WEIGHT MAINTENANCE (we’ll get into that another time).

3. I’ve also been adding 1 Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder. It’s an extremely acquired taste. To be perfectly frank, this stuff is icky…and I can stomach most everything “nasty.” It helps restore flora in the intestinal track. Turmeric has also been proven to clear the skin of those who suffer from acne and blemishes, help eliminate facial hair growth in females (not sure that this is proven internally, but I found a lot of stuff on using it topically). CAREFUL w/ this stuff, however….it STAINS!! After all, one of its main old time uses was as a dye in India, where it originates. I learned this the hard way. It stains EVERYTHING! And I mean everything from bed sheets, clothing, towels, down to the skin on my face. Its a nasty orange color but stains a fluorescent yellow color…think the color of a yellow highlighter exploding all over you!

OTHER HERBS AND SUPPLEMENTS TO AID IN DETOX:

1. Milk thistle – The liver is the most important organ of detox in our bodies. Milk thistle helps support liver detoxification and healthy liver function.

2. DHEA – Caffeine addicts, fat burner fanatics, diet pill poppers….they don’t work for you anymore for a reason. Most people just say, your body gets “used to them” which is medically known as “Adrenal Fatigue.” Your adrenals are little glands located on top of each kidney. They are the major players when it comes to hormone secretion. Too much stress, not enough sleep, too many stimulants are all a big cause of adrenal overload. When they get overloaded, they do not function properly. DHEA helps “clean them out”. If you can get your hands on Rx DHEA, I’m jealous. Seriously, if you go that route, please be carefully monitored by your physician. If you can’t, regular drugstore DHEA is fine. Also, the only way to fully clean them out is to eliminate your stimulant intake (I know, I just went through my caffeine withdrawls last week…no fun but soooo worth it), eliminate the stress in your life and get your sleep.

3. ALOE VERA – Aloe Vera gel is one of the best digestive cleanses out there. I’ve been using it for a week both internally and on my skin and have noticed major differences. It is sold as a ‘Detox’ in most heath food and vitamin shops and also at your local grocery store as juice. You probably want to mask the taste, the plain juice tastes like dirty shower water.

4. Caster Oil – NOT TO USE OFTEN…stimulates spasm of your upper intestines, not just the lower intestine (like most other herbal or chemical laxatives) therefore, will clean out your entire intestinal tract. It will typically be effective w/ in 5 hours of taking and is so effective you may not pass your bowels for 3 or so days afterwards b/c you are so “cleaned out” (SORRY graphic I know but detoxing can be nasty!)

5. Psyllium Husk and other fiber supps – We want to eliminate everything in your digestive tract. Fiber helps this moves everything along more quickly.

6. Digestive Enzymes – You can get at your local vitamin store.

7. Papaya is the best natural digestive enzyme out there and its only a couple dollars at the grocery store. A delicious Brazilian shake, compliments of my sister in law: 1/2 papaya, 1/2 pineapple, Ice and water. Blend to desired consistency. DELICIOUS!

8. 1 serving of Greens Supplement (I’ve tried many, evidentially Greens Plus is the best but I’ve gotta say Greens First is much better as far as taste. There are tons of brands out there and I’m not too sure if it really makes too much of a difference which you use). Mix your greens w/ 2 tablespoons of ground flax (either grind your flax seeds in a grinder, I use an espresso grinder or just buy “Flax-o-meal” at your local grocery store. STORE IN THE FRIDGE. Add to a large glass of water. This will naturally flush your system more quickly than anything I’ve tried thus far.

9. Fish Oils – Cod liver oil is awesome for detox but anything w/ EPA and DHA (is that right, don’t have a bottle in front of me and don’t have time to look it up as I am typing this out quickly to you.)

KEY ELEMENTS TO REMEMBER WHEN DETOXING:

1. Drink TONS of water, obviously we are trying to flush your system

2. Limit sugar, sweetener, caffeine etc. Anything toxic to your system needs to be omitted or at least used very sparingly.

3. Exclude or limit dairy intake, it does not work well with cleansing. I didn’t research this further, I will eventually, I just read it multiple times during my research and figured it to be a valuable point.

4. Limit intake of meats…ok very quickly, meat isn’t digested and literally rots in your belly….ok, I’ll stop there…u get my point!

5. Fiber, fiber, fiber. While you’re detoxing the free radicals and toxins from your liver, kidneys and lymph will be released into your blood stream/lymph system and you want them OUT. The addition of a herbal laxative or fiber supplement is quite common in most detox programs.

6. Dry brush your stomach in a circular motion (15 times clockwise/15x counter clockwise) upon first waking to stimulate your bowels. Again, more on dry brushing later. It is very useful but too long to go into detail in this email.

7. The more raw foods you can eat over cooked, the better. Raw fruit and veggies are all game. Don’t worry about the sugar in fruit, you will not gain fat from eating fruit doing this. The best line from a weight watchers meeting one time….a girl said she was afraid of the sugar in fruit and a 300 pound lifer turned to her and said, “Honey look at me, do u think I got like this by eating too much fruit!” Raw nuts, beans, sprouts and fish are great protein sources. I am a physique competitor and wasn’t worried about my 5 meals when I did my 2 week cleanse, but I did include whey protein because I wanted to keep protein intake slightly higher than carb intake. Remember whey protein will have sweeteners in there unless you use the unflavored kind so use it use it sparingly.

CLEANSING TECHNIQUES AND REMEDIES:

1. Taking tea tree oil baths or using mint oil extract body soaps will oxygenate the blood. The more oxygen in blood, the more circulation, more lymph flow…detox, anti cellulite, yadda yadda yadda!

2. Coconut oil or milk body lotion…same as above

3. Dry brushing and Contrast Shower Technique – I swear I was floored when I read the contrast shower thing because obviously you know where I heard of it first. Its all about stimulating lymph flow, detox and even anti-cancer benefits (especially breast cancer which is associated w/ lymph flow and drainage).

Source: http://www.steroidstoday.com/?p=395

Here is the third part of the interview with Matt Monarch as he discusses the raw food diet. Enjoy….

What Is Raw Food/ Living Food?

Raw food and living food are one and the same. Raw food is food that is unaltered food, which has not been heated above 105-115 degrees. Raw food consists of uncooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouts, and super foods.

Here is a brief list of raw foods:

Vegetables: Broccoli, Zucchini, Cabbage, Cucumber, etc… Fruits: Oranges, Apples, Grapefruits, Bananas… Nuts: Almonds, Walnuts, Cashews… Seeds: Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds… Sprouts: Alfalfa, Mung bean sprouts, Barley, Buckwheat… Super foods: Spirulina, Maca, Wheat grass…

Raw food is considered a living food because the nutrients and enzymes still remain intact. When food is cooked above 105-115 degrees, it rapidly starts to lose its enzymes and nutrients. Enzymes are heat sensitive and die once a certain temperature is reached. Nutrients, on the other hand, are reduced to some degree but some may still be present after cooking.

Why Should We Eat Raw Food?

Our food today is not the same as it was years ago. Today we have a wide array of processed, canned, irradiated, sugar laden, and nutritionally dense foods. The world is now based on convenience, so we have more fast food and quick meal options. This is because no one has time to cook or eat raw foods. More importantly, as stated above, cooking food produces food that is altered and thus lacking nutrients and enzymes.

Raw foods are full of flavor and nutrients; these foods are natural and made for human consumption, and they do not require heating in order to enjoy them. When you eat raw foods, you are giving your body 100% of the nutrients and enzymes available. Enzymes help to break down the foods you eat and obtain the nutrients available within them. When eating cooked food, your body has to make its own enzymes to process the food that you are eating. This causes the body to use more of its resources, which in turn causes aging and disease.

If we would feed ourselves living foods, which contain the needed enzymes, we could possibly live a bit longer and live without disease. Living food produces a living body, whereas cooked food produces a diseased body-if not immediately, it will later in life.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Raw Foods?

The benefits of eating raw foods are enormous. As mentioned above, you are getting all of the nutrients and enzymes needed to process the foods and provide life to your body. When giving the body what it needs (living foods), you are creating an environment that will allow your body to heal itself; our bodies have the ability to heal if given the right foods.

Raw foods have been known to help the body heal itself of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and more. I believe that you can live a life free of pain and disease by eating raw foods. The nutrients and enzymes provided by raw foods provide the body with energy. It balances the hormones, in addition to providing a healthy and strong body and strong immune system. Most consumers of raw foods (known as “raw foodists”) do not get colds or flu, and they do not suffer from the illnesses that the world has come to know as “normal.” A cold, for example, is not normal. A cold is a sign that the body is not able to kill the virus; it is a sign that the immune system is weak.

Signs That You Are Enzyme Deficient

Some of the signs of enzyme deficiencies are indigestion, stomach upset, gas, and bloating. If you have some of these problems, it’s highly possible that you do not have the enzymes needed to process the food that you are eating; this is a sign that you might want to think about changing your diet.

If you have a disease such as cancer or high blood pressure, it is highly likely that you are enzyme deficient and are in need of enzymes.

How to Incorporate a Living Foods Diet into Your Lifestyle

Start eating more fruit and vegetables, attend a living foods class in your area, purchase books that are written by raw foodists, and get in your kitchen and start discovering the wonderful taste of living foods.

Living foods are not boring foods. You can make pizza, bagels, bread, chocolate cake, and more. Living foods have so much flavor-you won’t miss cooked food.

If we don’t start making time to provide better health, our lifespan-as well as the lifespan of our offspring-will be shorter. As the years go by, I have personally noticed that people are getting diseases at young ages. I believe that we have the option to live better and longer, but we have to be willing to do what most people aren’t, and that is giving up our addiction to cooked foods.

It is no secret that we as a species consume a lot of cereal grains.  It’s in our breakfast, our lunches, our side dishes and entrees.  It’s in our Mexican, Italian, and Chinese staples.

Grains even make up most of our favorite snacks and desserts.

And according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society, this is a good thing.  These institutions feel that “whole” grains, such as wheat and brown rice, should be the foundation of a healthy diet.

Do you wanna know what I think?  (Since you’re reading my blog, I’m going to assume that you do.)

The USDA, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society are completely WRONG.  You do NOT need grains to be healthy.  In fact, it will serve you well to completely eliminate them from your raw food diet.

Would You Eat Them Raw?

Seems like a silly question, but bear with me here for a moment.

If you were out in the wild foraging for food and you came across a field of wheat, would you be inclined to it some?

Would your mouth water at the sight of uncooked, unprocessed, unseasoned wheat kernels?

For the 1% of you who answered yes, I have to wonder about the possible fowl genetics present in your lineage.

On a more serious note, eating raw grains is not just unappetizing to the human palate.  In Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet, Dr. Douglas Graham writes:

“At best, raw grains taste unpleasant and bitter, even when they are sprouted.  More often, they are inedible or poisonous if eaten in the field.  Even birds, the only natural grain eaters, feed their young on insects, as grains are deficient in protein and nutrients.”

On the other hand, ripe fruit is instantly appealing to our senses.  It’s beautiful to look at.  Its smell makes us salivate.  It gives nicely in our hands.

Last but not least, fruit tastes wonderful.  What sane person can honestly resist a perfectly ripe peach or a fragrant muskmelon?

What About Cooked Grains?

You may be thinking that cooking grains is a better option than eating them raw.

Think again.

When a complex carbohydrate food such as wheat or barley is heated, the molecules of the food are fused together into a glue-like substance.  Even though cooking has broken down the complex starches into simple glucose, the body must do extra work to process the now chemically fused molecules.

This presents a huge problem in terms of blood-sugar levels.  In Left In the Dark, authors Graham Glynn and Tony Wright write:

“Carbohydrates also appear to be problematic when eaten in large amounts.  A diet high in carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates (cakes biscuits, pasta, etc.) dumps large amounts of glucose rapidly into our bloodstream.  This can cause insulin resistance in which the absorption of glucose from the bloodstream is disrupted.  This in turn can lead to obesity, adult onset diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and strokes.”

And a little further down the page:

“If we compare refined carbohydrates with fruit we can see that fruit has a much lower glycemic index, which means it is digested more slowly thus avoiding the problems of the ‘glucose rush.’”

But that’s not all!  Here are some more problems associated with eating cooked grains:

Migraines Rheumatoid arthritis Depression Crohn’s disease Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Autism

But Humans Have Been Eating Grains For Thousands of Years!

While 10-30,000 years may seem like a long time to we humans with a mere 100-year life span (at best), it is but a flash in the pan evolutionarily speaking.

Here is an excerpt from Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution on the increased consumption of grains since the Neolithic Period (when humans settled down and began farming extensively):

“Becoming dependent on grains reduced intake of fruits and vegetables, often to 20% or less of total energy intake.  Accordingly, access to micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals) previously supplied by fruits and vegetables was substantially decreased.

Of course, cereal grains also provide micronutrients, but not necessarily those to which human biology became accustomed throughout a multimillion-year evolutionary experience, during which fruits and vegetables were the overwhelmingly dominant plant foods.”

Quite simply, we have not been consuming a diet high in grains long enough for our anatomy and physiology to have adapted to them.

And anyway, grains do not fulfill our nutritional needs as fruits and vegetables do.  For instance, they are very low in vitamins A, B, and C and sodium and calcium.

This is why when you pick up a box of cereal or whole wheat pasta, you will often see  “Fortified with,” preceded by a host of vitamins and minerals that have been added to the product.

Not only that, but certain properties in grains affects absorption of vital nutrients within the body.  It is now known that grain consumption decreases Vitamin D absorption.

And while many proponents of a grain-based diet site fiber as a reason to indulge, there is a huge caveat here.  You see, the fibers in grains are not water-soluble like those present in fruits and vegetables; they are insoluble.

This means that they lack the ability to absorb water and move comfortably through the body.  Think of a harsh bristle brush slowly making its way down your digestive track.

Yikes!

Leave It To the Birds

In short, there is no reason for you to consume grains.  Raw or cooked, they are completely inferior to raw fruits and vegetables.

If you are having trouble consuming enough calories on a raw food diet, there is no need to turn to sprouting grains…or legumes for that matter.  Simply increasing your consumption of sweet fruit until you feel satisfied will do the trick.

Remember, fruit always comes first.

Although it is difficult for some of you to transform your diet completely, you do not have to go 100% raw. You can incorporate natural alternatives to the foods you were eating (such as organic raw peanut butter and not regular peter pan). You can also purchase all organic, stay away from cow milk, incorporate plenty of fresh fruits and veggies and only drink water and you have dramatically changed your life already!

Changing over to 100% raw foods right away may be hard for some people due to their personal preferences. Also, by changing over to raw food, the body will begin to detox on its own within a few days. Changing over and doing so gradually would be wise so the body will not have to go through detox so hard at the beginning.

One method used was six days on, one day off which seemed to work as the body could compare food tastes. After awhile, the body would choose what was healthy over the unhealthy, allowing the detox to continue on its own. The feeling of well-being that was felt on the six days was still desired on the seventh day. Contrasts between food types and their tastes were noted, and personal preferences could win for that one-day. But eventually, the non-cooked food won out.

A second method used was to eat raw food “cold turkey” for two weeks straight. On the end of the two-week period, a list was made to see what was enjoyed most … the processed food or the raw vegetables. At first, the desire for processed food was still there but over time, it lost its appeal. By the end of the month, the feeling of “well-being” due to eating raw foods won over the taste of cooked and processed foods.

Keep in mind that you do not have to incorporate a full 100% raw food diet forever! You can eat raw foods 80% of the time, for instance, perhaps up until dinnertime, then go cooked for dinner. Just eating more fruits and veggies alone will change your health drastically.

Today our friend Megumi interviews me in a three part series. Today I get into the spiritual aspects of the raw food diet. Enjoy……

• These Dried Organic Pomegranate Seeds are the ultimate snack food. They have a peculiar sweetness to them that keep you hankering for more.

Product Description / b> Organic MedlinePlus these dried pomegranate seeds are the ultimate snack. They have a peculiar sweetness to keep you craving for more.

Dried Organic Pomegranate Seeds, 16oz