The most common New Year’s Resolutions are to: 1. Lose Weight 2. Start dieting 3. Go to the gym. Well, let me tell you the gyms sell the most memberships in January and the treadmills are overflowing for the first month of the year, but the managers aren’t worried or ordering in more equipment to cater for the extra demand.
They know that by mid-Feb the floors will be half empty again and back to just the regulars, plus they have the added bonus that you’ve bought a membership for the entire year, but aren’t likely to go more that once or twice in the month.
And as for diets, well we all know they hardly last 2 – 3 weeks before the stress of going back to work or getting the children ready for the new school year drives you back to your normal bad eating habits that you were so determined to crack this year. I mean who ever makes it to Valentines Day without ‘cheating’ over a big box of chocolates?
BUT, do not fear – we can still get it right!
All I takes is a small shift in perception and a move away from instant gratification in exchange for a view and taste of the bigger picture, a picture full of abundant health, joy, clarity and energy. As a raw food chef I can assure you that your taste buds won’t go unsatisfied either – not only is this bigger picture fun and inspiring but it is delicious too.
So, if you’ve decided you’re up for the challenge of cleanliness first it’s time to de-clutter your state of the art machine – your body. Why should you cleanse? No matter what’s going on right now, the road to glowing health begins with cleansing and detoxification. It would not be an understatement to say that your digestive system is the cornerstone of your overall health. The food that we eat does not just randomly affect us, it becomes us. We simply cannot get away from that over-used cliché – you are what you eat.
Blocked pipes
Picture for a moment your kitchen sink and its drain pipes. Your sink is designed to carry away mostly water and some small food scraps through the pipes. However, if you put too much of the wrong stuff down there – like oil or stringy food remnants or worse still, imagine pouring a bag of white flour down the drain and then trying to flush it through with water (or fizzy drinks) – you’re going to end up with a soggy mess – and a blocked up pipe.
The blockages usually occur in the loops and folds of the pipes. Now if you ‘cut and paste’ this analogy onto your digestive system it looks something like this: Your body is designed to transport food which has a high water content swiftly through your pipes (your digestive system). If you put too much of the wrong stuff in the top end – bad oils and deep fried foods, stodgy breads, pastas or mucus-forming milk products the inevitability is – a blocked system.
How much toxic waste are you carrying?
It is not uncommon for people to be carrying around 5 -10kgs of old fecal matter inside their colons. Up to 30 kgs has been reported! When the digestive system is continually put under strain by bad food choices the colon begins and continues to get blocked up and retain this waste in the folds of the colon. What’s more is that once the colon is backed up, the body is continually re-absorbing poisonous toxins back into the blood. The result is more ill health and lethargy.
What to do?
General maintenance Your body is infinitely intelligent. It is always striving for optimum health and is always regenerating itself. If you simply ADD IN the foods that you were designed to eat – your body gets on does the rest of the work for you, because it knows what to do. The foods that we are talking about here are:
NUTRIENT DENSE
ALKALISING
MINERAL RICH
and
ENZYME PACKED
In short they are RAW PLANT FOODS.
If you want to live more – eat more living, green plant foods. It’s as simple as that. The easiest and quickest way to get back on track is to start juicing. Juicing is like a full vitamin, mineral, enzyme supplement for the body. The goodness is easily absorbed into the body and utilised for cleaning house.
A Challenge
JUST ADD IT IN – FIRST
The best way to adopt a healthy lifestyle is to JUST ADD IT IN. So, don’t go drastically changing your current diet just yet. All you need to do is add in the following green vegetable juice – FIRST. So, before you have your bacon and eggs for breakfast JUST ADD IN a green vegetable juice -FIRST. Before you have your hamburger for lunch, JUST ADD IN another green vegetable juice or dark green leafy salad – FIRST. Before you have your macaroni cheese or spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, JUST ADD IN another green vegetable juice or dark green leafy salad – FIRST.
Why this works?
Hunger is your body’s search for minerals. So if you have the green vegetable juice first you will be amazed to find that your hunger is satisfied – because your body has found what it needs – minerals. If you have a hamburger instead, you’ll most likely find that you’re still hungry. Your body is still giving you hunger signals because it hasn’t found enough minerals in the food you’ve just eaten. So what you’ll find is slowly but surely you’ll eat less of the bacon, eggs, burgers and pasta and you’ll begin to opt for smaller and lighter meals. It may seem hard to believe at first – but try it. Give yourself 30 days. You’ll be amazed!
Juice feasting
Step 1: Start with a mild base
Apples combine well with vegetable juices, making them sweeter and more palatable. Apples, cucumber and celery are all great sources of antioxidants. Cucumber is also a good source of potassium and celery, an excellent source of sodium.
1. Easy-drinking green
1 apple
1-2 carrots
½ a cucumber
2 celery sticks
Carrots are naturally sweet and help to form the sweet base. Let the carrots and apple form approximately 1/3 of your overall juice mixture. Apples and carrots are great antioxidants, anticancer agents and are good for the heart. Once you’ve gotten used to these mild base juices, make them more nutritionally rich by adding some dark green leaves
Step 2 … begin to add stronger
leaves
2. Getting stronger
1 apple
1 whole cucumber
2 carrots
handful of red or green lettuce leaves
handful of spinach
Step 3: The Secret Ingredient
Secrets revealed:
1 apple
1 whole cucumber
1 pack of celery
½ a bag of spinach
½ a lemon
½ a lime
Adding a wedge of lemon or lime or both to your juice makes it very refreshing and hides the taste of the stronger leaves. As always, organic is best – as it has more minerals and trace minerals. Some juicers are better than others. You’ll want to look for a masticating juicer that can juice your green leaves, wheatgrass, sprouts effectively and is super easy to clean. If you need more info please feel free to get in touch. Tel: 021 7864068
POWER LUNCH SALAD
1 Cup Spinach
1 Cup Rocket
1/2 Cup Watercress
1/2 Grated Carrot
1/4 diced Cucumber
1/4 Cup Brocolli
1 large Avocado
handful of baby tomatoes (or sundried
tomatoes)
generous helping of olives
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Himalayan Rock salt
Why it’s a Power Lunch?
The rich green salad leaves are high in Silica and therefore really good for hair, skin and nails. Brocolli is a good for iron and magnesium and helpful for high blood pressure and constipation. We’ve all heard carrots are good for your eyes, they are also good for helping to reduce inflammation of the mucous membranes in the intestines and respiratory tract. Olives and olive oil – good proteins and good fats and avos….hmmmm… delicious, and Himalayan rock salt for more minerals.
So JUST ADD IT IN – lots of green juices and salads and feel the radiance of raw food for yourself.
If you’d like to learn more about raw foods book yourself on to one of Beryn and Peter’s Raw food Preparation classes for the full experience. Classes are run over 2 full days, usually weekends and are being run in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, East London and the Garden Route. For more info please call Beryn or Peter on 021 7864068 or visit www.superfoods.co.za and check out the ‘events’ page.