Few thoughts crossed my mind:

a.) FINALLY a hospital is doing this landmark study on diabetes, in Toronto.

b.) I can save them the suspense – it does help.

c.) Changing what you eat can affect a LOT of things – I feel like this is still news to people.

Recently I attended a friend’s wedding. At my table, I knew no one but they sat us with a Naturopath (who I of course made friends with) During our discussion, we talked about how much diet can change your life. I mean really. We had both experienced this amazing change with others, and I’ve experienced it myself.

Often people come to me with different ailments: headaches, insomnia, poor digestion, anxiety, etc, etc, etc. When I first ask them about their diet, I can see this look on their face: “Really?” Really. Every molecule of food you put, or don’t put, into your body has profound effects. Most people are quick to take a pill to help them (sleep, eat, feel better) but are quick to dismiss the idea that switching from Lean Cuisine dinners to organic kale salad will make a change. As if somehow that is a radical idea and  putting synthetic chemicals in your body is better one?

How you are you feeling today? If you aren’t feeling healthy, if you aren’t feeling like a million bucks: Check Your Diet. If it’s crappy, change it. (lucky for you) Your health is in your hands! 

I’d like to give a huge shout out to Toronto’s favorite *and best* pint sized food critic Ryan Storm for featuring Doug ’s food *and myself* on his blog! Ryan, and his sibs, are awesome because you would never see them in an ad like this:

Terrifying!!

In fact, Ryan can likely tell you where all the food in his house comes from down to the farmer’s name. He truly is a positive example to his fellow tweenagers and adults alike. Thanks for being awesome Ryan; keep up the great work!

In other news, the picture above terrifies the sh*t out of me. To think that at one time someone actually put out this ad and we actually believed this. This exemplifies the whole reason I ignore food that has to be sold to me. If you have to convince me to eat it, I likely shouldn’t be eating it. Period. I will admit at one time I fell prey to healthwashing until I started to read labels. The horror! Also a good reason to try to include as much food without labels in your diet as possible.

What are you eating today?

I came across this quote while doing my morning blog reading. *Also, in my reading, came across this gem from Yoni Freedhoff – Coca Cola has actually lost it.*  I decided to explore this simple, but profound, quote a bit more…

Sure this is true of good habits –  if you repeat them, they become ingrained in you. This is also true of BAD things. The more you repeat a bad habit the more integrated into your psyche it becomes. Yipes Time to pull out the journal and take stock. What good things do I repeatedly do? What bad things do I repeatedly do? Looking from this perspective I could see how certain repetitive behaviours REALLY turn into baaad habits. Here are my good behaviours I want to turn into good habits:

• Positive self talk
• Positive talk to and about others (gossiping can be a cruel cruel cycle to get caught up in!)
• Lifting people up
• Being present
• Giving love
• Keeping promises

Alright Aristotle, lets do this. So, what good habits are YOU cultivating? What BAD habits are you letting control your life? Ditch ‘em!

A seemingly casual comment made by a casual friend is what sparked this blogging re-ignition. While engaged in conversation I relayed to this person that I follow a plant based diet. They looked shocked “you don’t eat meat?” nope, haven’t for nearly two years now. The response:”But you look so…healthy”. I chuckled and asked, “what I was supposed to look like?” The comment lingered with me. Healthy. What was his definition of healthy? What was mine? What is anybody’s?! I’m guessing he meant I don’t look like the sunken in skeleton and don’t have bald patches (which apparently happens when you stop consuming animal products <– insert sarcasm here)

But it goes beyond that. It got me thinking, to a time when I was struggling with anorexia. At points during that period people told me I looked “healthy” too but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was eating nothing but rice cakes and wasn’t getting my period, period. How is that healthy?! But I looked “healthy”. Often we see people who are curvy (much like how I am now) and we think they must be “unhealthy” because they are not stick thin. They don’t look ”healthy”. What we don’t notice is how their skin is glowing and they are vibrant with health.  *You know your mom told you not to judge a book by it’s cover*

So it got me thinking, more. What does healthy mean to me?

It means to feel great – physically and mentally. That seems like a simple statement but hear me out. It means to wake in the morning with a clear head, eager to start the day. It means putting the best food possible in my body (even if it is organic sweet potato fries). It means to move my body a few times a week and listen to it when it wants to rest. It means (as hard as it can be at times) to love myself no matter what “shape” I am in. It means to smile no matter the circumstance (which can also be hard at times). It’s that simple. I’ve come to the conclusion then that:

Healthy doesn’t really have a “look” but it certainly has a “feeling”.

I’m curious to know readers: “what does healthy mean to YOU?”

That of course is my ego actually telling me I am perfect and I don’t need to change anything. Sorry fella, improvement team coming in. The truth is no matter who we are or where we are at in our lives, there is always room to go up, to change. I learned this from doing yoga actually. As soon as I think I have “aced” a posture, the teacher tells me how to go further. I usually grumble at first thinking “really, this isn’t good enough? C’mon I’ve worked so hard on this!” Ego again. Go further, push yourself. If it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you! Don’t be stagnant! Think about a swamp that doesn’t move. All that sludge and muck just sitting and rotting. Yuck. So I need to change, I get it.

Do I make a resolution to do that? I read this and it got me thinking. A resolution is a firm decision not to do something or a course of action decided on. I can decide all I want but what good will that do me? I need action. I need to BE about it, not TALK about it. So I’m not making any resolutions, I’m starting a revolution, like the Beatles.  A revolution is a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something. A paradigm shift. Yeah, let’s do that.

My New Year’s Revolution will include:

Accepting the Challenge – I find sometimes I get lazy and give up. No more! Bring it on life. I’m stepping to the plate and aiming for the field lights.

Gratitude – I, like many people, get grumpy when I think about all the things I don’t have. For instance, a new fancy Vaute Couture jacket, 5 closets full of clothes, a fancy new sofa, etc etc. So how about what I DO have? A jacket, period. More clothes than I probably actually need. A home. Reality check, there are people who have less than that. Suck it up buttercup and be grateful!

Positivity – Negativity is like a black hole of grossness. It sucks you in and, worse than that, it breeds more negativity. What I can’t understand is how you get stuck in it anyway it’s not like it’s fun?! F*ck that. Who’s got the time to be in a pit of negativity with all the amazing things going on in life? Not me!

Vulnerability – If my heart is not open, then I am not open. To anything. I will trust, be open, be honest, be loving. Even if it means it will bite me in the ass later. If that happens, I will revert to the statement below.

I will accept the things I can not change and have the courage to change the things I can – Even if that means I have to change gasp myself!! (which is the hardest thing to do)

Alright 2013, let’s do this. Happy New Year!

What will your New Year’s Revolution include?

Start your morning with:

1 tablespoon Raw Apple Cider Vinegar – Mix it with a bit of water and shoot it back. It will give you practice for New Year’s Eve. It will also get your digestion in motion! Which will likely be sluggish due to the aforementioned indulging. 

1 16 ounce glass of water with 1/2 fresh squeezed Lemon juice OR 1 mL Milk Thistle or Dandelion tincture – Maybe you’ve had a few glasses of wine, and some cookies, and some Daiya cheese wedges, and maybe, just maybe, your liver kind of hates you right now. So give it a boost! If you have the tinctures, great. If not lemon water is an easy sub.

Coffee – I know what you are thinking..“what the hell?” I know a lot of people who are looking to quit coffee in the New Year. If you are a coffee drinker, don’t quit know. Save that for the New Year..unless you want the headaches now. What you can do is start weaning yourself off the stuff now by brewing weaker and weaker pots. By New Year’s day, you won’t even need it. Trust me, I’ve been there. Cold tofurkey coffee quitting is not fun.

Exercise – Even if you only run a flight of stairs in your building, just do something to get movement in your body!

A nutrient dense smoothie – I’m not talking bananas and berries here, I’m talking super nutrient dense. Get some green in your smoothie in the form of kale or spirulina. Toss is some cacao or any of your favorite super foods. For tips on making it taste good, read here **yes that was a shameless plug** Chances are you haven’t been eating the most nutrient dense foods and your body will LOVE this!

Throughout the Day:

Eat as much Raw Food as you can – We all know, you’re still going to go for that cookie, or bunch of leftovers in the fridge. That’s fine. Balance it out with some decadent raw food desserts, some raw red beet ravioli, or throw in a side salad with your leftovers. The problem with eating rich, sweet, and fatty foods is our body will start to crave it and hate fruits and veggies. Slowly start to get those good for you foods back into your diet that way it’s not such a shock January 1st.

Before you go to bed:

If the holidays are leaving you stressed try some Magnesium. It not only helps to relax you, but helps you to move your bowels and move out all the junky food sitting in there. A healthy Herbivore is a happy bowel Herbivore! Everyone has a different limit, so be careful. Some people can tolerate 1,000 mg some only 100 mg. Start low and increase in 100mg doses until you notice a difference in your bowel movement. Trust me, it’s noticeable. 

New Year’s Day is 6 days away. For those of you that are starting your resolutions now, “Good for you!” and I am jealous of your will power. For those of you, like me, putting it off until the 1st, stick with the In-Between Guide and you’ll be ready to go full speed January 1st!

Love.

I found a new thing that I love. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough (like, super lucky) to be chosen to receive two passes from Borden Communications for Iyashi Bed Rock Spa. I was somewhat “in the know” about rock bathing. Maybe not. I actually thought you laid, rather uncomfortably, on a bunch of rocks while sweating. I couldn’t go at this alone so I dragged the hubs with me. The pass was for 30 minutes of bathing and 1 hour of hot yin yoga on the rocks. I was ready, he was a little very reluctant.

The woman that checked us in was so helpful and so nice we were both at ease immediately. I got changed up and headed into the bathing area. Side note: The change rooms are so massive and comfortable, I kind of just wanted to hang out in there all day! Only downside, disposable flip flops. There has to be an eco-friendly alternative. 

After 30 minutes of bathing we were led for a very gentle 1 hour yoga class. Warning: it’s hot. Like hotter than hot. And this is coming from someone who was obsessed with hot yoga. The good thing is you get breaks at the 30 minute marks. This gives you the option to stay in the sauna area or take a dip into the coolness and relax in the change room. After an hour and a half at Iyashi, we were ready to conquer the world. There is something about sweating like no one’s business that really helps you, not only detoxify, but focus. I find that with any form of yoga or meditation. It draws your senses inward. In a world where virtually everything is pulling you out of your body and mind, this is a very good thing.

Peace.

I decided to take a second read through Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. If you haven’t read this book, do it, now. This book is small and unassuming but it’s pages are laced with wisdom. Funny; my first read through I highlighted everything on happiness. This time through, I’m looking at compassion. Life is all about perspective, non?

Ginger Cookies.

I. Love. Ginger. And I love cookies. So why not put the two together and make gluten free, vegan, yummy Christmas ginger cookies? Yes please!

Ginger Cookies

adapted from here

Cinnamon sugar

2 tbsp Coconut Sugar

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Ginger Cookies:

1 1/2 cups Almond flour

1 1/2 cups Brown Rice flour

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp ground Ginger

1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground Nutmeg

1 cup Pumpkin puree (which you’ve lovingly made ahead of time. If you haven’t, a (BPA free) can of organic pumpkin puree will do.)

2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

2 tbsp. good Coconut Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized Ginger or 1 tablespoon freshly grated Ginger

**Crystallized ginger is super easy to make, if you have a dehydrator. All you need is to  thinly slice it on a mandolin and coat with coconut sugar and dehydrate**

Preheat the oven at 375F.

Place the flours, spices, sugar, and baking powder into a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, coconut oil,  and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Add the crystallized Ginger, or freshly grated Ginger, to the mixture. The dough should be wet but not sticky. If it’s too dry add a bit of Almond Mylk.

Using your hands, roll the dough into 1-2 inch balls, then roll in cinnamon sugar, then place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow them to cool before you try to eat them so you don’t burn your mouth ( like I did ).

Before and After

So there you have it: Love , Peace, and Ginger Cookies

I started every day of the last part of the cleanse with Milk Thistle.

What the what?

Milk Thistle is amazing for our main detox organ, the liver. It has been used for over 2,000 years to help treat disorders of the liver and gall bladder. The Milk Thistle seeds contain a flavonoid complex know as silymarin. This complex has been shown to be protective of liver cells, helping them to regenerate and detoxify. All that in a dropper full!

I made sure to eat as much raw food as possible, everyday.

This dressing, and these hemp seeds, make any salad amazing!

And of course kept it positive, everyday.

Most people think a cleanse has to be some sort of inner spiritual journey that one must undergo while drinking nothing but crystal clear water at the foothills of the Himalayas. Sure that’s one way to do it but I have modest funds, like my food, and live in a big city. I say anyway you can detox go for it. In this case I started off this detox starting my mornings with coffee, complaining about almost everything, and eating way too many Sweets From the Earth Cookies. {They are ok sometimes, but not everyday.} By the end I was starting my morning with Milk Thistle shots, reciting positive affirmations, and eating more kale. That’s a successful cleanse to me

People equate detoxing mostly with the body but let me tell you, your emotions can get right on board with that and purge. Big time. All those times something ticked you off and you shrugged it off or anytime you wanted to complain about something but you sucked it up, stayed strong and went about your business, bad idea. Once something is created, it’s created. Whether it’s a molecule, a piece of plastic, or a thought, it’s there. And it ain’t going anywhere unless you move it. Yesterday I was a volcano. Here I thought I had been coping with things but really I was just displacing and rearranging thoughts and feelings as opposed to getting rid of them. Just like the toxins in your body. If you are not actively detoxing you are just shuttling them around. When those toxins are awakened, you know it. Same for emotions. If you find your self in this state where you feel like you may have turned into the exorcist, hold on tight. These are things that you NEED to get out. There is a healthy way to do this based on my expereince:

What NOT to do when you are an emotional hurricane:

• Do not, repeat do not, take it out on the closest person to you. You will likely end up hurting their feelings. (and feeling even worse)
• Do not make any big decisions. Realize you are as unstable as a tectonic plate. Realize that unless it’s life threatening, you can make that decision tomorrow (when you aren’t a loose cannon)
• Don’t target. You will likely hone your emotions onto a person, place or thing, past or present. None of these things are the root cause of how you are feeling in the present. You are merely going through an emotional uprising that will pass. Don’t play the blame game.

Here is what TO DO:

• Journal – You can tell your journal ANYTHING and it won’t judge you.
• Beat the living crap out of a pillow (as opposed to your fellow human beings)
• Call your BFF – Warn them first you are potentially going to spew a bunch of nonsense first. Just ask them to listen.
• Forgive yourself – Yesterday I was a whiny and ungrateful brat. True story. I an emotional wreck and I started then getting upset at myself for being the aforementioned whiny and ungrateful brat. Repeat after me:

“This too shall pass”

And it did. Day 4 is better and I can see the rainbow. I’ll share with you the yummy smoothie I had for breakfast that made my day that much better.

ChocoHemp Goodness:

2 Tablespoons raw cacao

2 tablspoons Almond butter

4 tablespoons hemp seeds

1 cup almond mylk

ice

Day 4 is finishing up much better. My positive intention today was to look on the bright side, no matter what. I’m sticking to that

So I have survived almost two days with NO COFFEE. For real. I decided not to have my gasoline tea (dandelion, artichoke, and cleavers) this morning and instead started my day with a liter of pure water with the juice of 1/2 a lemon. If you don’t have a juicer, lemon water is a great and inexpensive way to help the body detoxify. The bitter juice of the lemon is a trigger for your liver and gallbladder to start moving. Also, the citric acid found in lemon juice, once metabolized, creates an alkaline byproduct. AND if that wasn’t enough, lemon juice is a diuretic and also promoted the health of the urinary tract. All this from one little glass of lemon water!

While drinking my lemon water I set my intention:

“Find Peace And Contentment In Everything You Do” aka Don’t fidget and be present. 

This. Is. So. Hard. When you are at work you want to be home, when you are home you want to be out, when you are doing laundry you want to be laying on the couch. An entire day can pass of you living where you WANT to be instead of where you ARE. If you spend your time being content with where you are, surprisingly, you feel pretty frickin’ good. Try it, trust me.

Breakfast was - 

Another very healthy tasting smoothie

1 cup peppermint tea (cold)

2 tablespoons of Irish Moss

4 tablespoons hemp seeds

1 kale leaf

3 drops stevia

ice

This smoothie is GREAT for digestion. Irish moss contains essential minerals and is also soothing for the digestive tract..which takes a beating on a daily basis! “Peppermint calms the muscles of the stomach and improves the flow of bile, which the body uses to digest fats. As a result, food passes through the stomach more quickly.” 

I was still a bit hungry so I had 2 tablespoons of Raw Almond Butter (which I can NOT be trusted around, I will eat the whole jar)

Lunch Was - 

Kale salad with beets, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, peppers (aka leftovers from last night’s dinner)

Dinner Was - 

Miso Soup with greens and Kuzu noodles, Red Lentil Dalh…and maybe some homemade tempeh bacon.

CONFESSION – I had chocolate today. Homemade raw chocolate sauce: Cacao, coconut butter, coconut nectar. I couldn’t resist!! Ideally I wanted to go sugar free BUT I made the exception for this. C’est la vie.

Day #2 of any cleanse is usually a little…strange. You feel sort of headachy and cranky as things (toxins) start to make their way out of your organs and fats cells and into your blood stream. Lucky for us, our bodies are amazing and resilient things that can kick out toxins easily, when it’s treated right. Don’t worry, by day #3 you will be feelin’ fine!