A-Z Challenge - 'H'

I can't think of a better H-word for today's topic than honey - specifically raw honey. Raw honey is an amazing, natural food. It has to be truly raw, however. Honey that has been heated at more than 117 degrees Fahrenheit is no longer considered to be raw - above that temperature, the beneficial enzymes are destroyed.
On my journey to wellness, I have sworn off all artificial sweeteners and avoid using regular sugar. Instead, I opt for raw honey or pure maple syrup when needing a touch of sweetness. I have a firm conviction that multiple sclerosis in not to blame for my condition but rather it comes from excessive use of aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal) and sucralose (Splenda). While I never used the little blue, pink, and yellow packets of sweetener, I did go through a phase of drinking way too much diet soda. It wasn't long into this phase that my symptoms began. Though my suspicions had not been confirmed, I immediately swore off diet soda. My symptoms worsened even after discontinuing all aspartame and sucralose usage but, given the way that toxins are stored in the body, my hypothesis still makes sense. Today, in fact, I read an article published by Dr. Mercola regarding the topic of the negative effects of aspartame. Please, take some time and educate yourself about the dangers by visiting his site at: Victoria Inness-Brown's Aspartame Experiment.

Feelin' Groovy!

"Slow down, you move too fast..."  How true.  The lyrics, of course, are taken from Simon & Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).  When the song was originally recorded in 1967, there was no such thing as the internet, cell phones, microwave ovens, and while McDonald's existed, their drive-thru service had not yet been born.  Things were still moving relatively fast in 1967, but no where near the speed of life that we see today.

We are constantly looking for ways to speed things up, to be more efficient, and to earn more money while spending less on necessities so that we can spend more on frivolities.  What are we doing to our quality of life - not the superficial, material quality but the emotional, physical, and spiritual quality - with these pursuits?  People are behind the wheel of their car while talking on the cell phone and eating that fast food meal that they picked up at the drive-thru.  I am all for multitasking, but that is just dangerous in more ways than one!

Today I have already spent quite a bit of time on 'slowing down.'  For almost a week, I have been working on making my own kefir.  Each morning, I have been straining raw milk to recover the kefir grains that have been soaking for the previous 24 hours.  The process of revitalizing the grains in order to produce kefir takes 5-7 days.  This morning started in similar fashion. 
My next project was to make my own peanut butter.  On Wednesday, I had purchased some raw peanuts at It's Only Natural and started soaking them in sea salt and filtered water.  After suitable soaking time, I transferred the peanuts to the dehydrator and started soaking the raw filberts (hazelnuts) that I had also gotten at I.O.N. with the peanuts (did you know that shelled, raw filberts float?).  When the filberts were done soaking, I added them to the dehydrator on a second tray.  I suppose that the difference in density between the peanuts and filberts is the reason, but both were completed drying yesterday.  I pulled out the food processor and loaded the peanuts into the bowl and stored the hazelnuts in a container for snacking.  Along with the peanuts, I added a Tbsp. of coconut oil and a dash of sea salt and turned on the processor.  Once the peanuts started to turn into a nice, creamy butter, I added a Tbsp. of raw honey and some flax seeds and let the processor run for another 30 seconds to mix it all well.
The third project of this morning was to transform two avocados, onion, green pepper, sea salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper into guacamole.  Only as I type this do I realize that I forgot to add cilantro to the mix.  No problem, though.  I can always add it later...
Fourth project - to make some more vegetable stock.  Actually, I was somewhat efficient on this project.  While dicing the onion green pepper for the guacamole, I also chopped the onion and green pepper for the stock.  I filled the Crock Pot with filtered water and turned it on while preheating the oven to roast the onion and green pepper.  To the roasting vegetables, I added some coconut oil and sea salt.  While they roasted, I coarsely chopped some cabbage, carrots, and celery and added them to the Crock Pot.
Time for clean-up!  With these projects, I certainly created a fair amount of dirty utensils so while the onion and green pepper roasted, I cleaned up.  Having just run a cycle, the dishwasher was full of clean dishes.  Rather than waste the electricity to have the dishwasher dry the dishes, we simply let them air dry before putting them away.  As the food processor parts would present a bit of a challenge for the dishwasher anyway, I decided to hand wash everything that I had used.


Out of all of these projects, the guacamole took the least amount of time from start to finish.  Had I been responsible for growing the ingredients, that would have been a different story.  The kefir project began almost a week ago and still isn't completed.  The peanut butter (and hazelnut) project(s) began on Wednesday and was completed today.  The vegetable stock project began today (aside from shopping for ingredients) and will be completed on Tuesday.  All of these things take time but the benefits far outweigh the time spent completing them.


To paraphrase the song, slow down, don't move so fast.

The Heat Is On!

Thus it begins - day one of the Master Cleanse.  After squeezing my lemon and mixing my first glass of 'lemonade,' I couldn't resist using The Heat Is On (Glenn Frey) for the title of this entry.  While I would never have tried it otherwise, the number one staple of the Master Cleanse is spicy lemonade - lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.  Feel the burn!

This morning began similarly to every other day.  I woke up to Ginger wanting to be taken outside.  Fortunately, It had not yet started to rain.  After our brief walk, I mixed the morning salt water 'flush' as recommended by the Master Cleanse.  Well, almost as recommended.  I am not a big fan of drinking salt water - certainly not a whole quart of it.  So, I mixed sea salt with about 4 oz. of filtered water and drank that followed by a large glass of plain, filtered water.  The idea behind the salt water is to help the body to flush out the toxins and waste that have been freed up by the previous day's cleanse.  So, while I drank the amounts recommended, I just did it in two phases.  Next, I mixed up my VIDACELL, raw honey (1 tsp.), and cinnamon and let it sit while I fed Ginger and started making my first glass of lemonade.

The recipe for the lemonade is:

• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
• 1/10 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 8 oz. filtered water

This mix should be consumed 6-12 times per day.

Cayenne pepper is added for several reasons.  Primarily, it adds a thermogenic effect.  This simply means that it turns up the metabolism in the body by increasing the heat.  Increased metabolism means increased fat burn.  This is actually a mixed blessing, however.  Toxins are stored by the body in the fat.  When you increase fat metabolism, you are also increasing the body's exposure to the toxins stored there.  Ultimately, it is the goal of the Master Cleanse to purge these toxins from the body without further introducing more toxins.  By restricting your food intake to only lemon juice (preferably organic), pure maple syrup (again, organic preferred), and cayenne pepper (you guessed it, organic is best), you are not only ridding your body of the toxins already stored within but you are limiting the intake of new toxins.  As well, because you are burning more fat than you are storing, your body's ability to store toxins is reduced.  For most people, the exposure to the newly released toxins shouldn't cause severe side effects.  Some things to expect are increased body odor and bad breath for the first couple of days while these toxins are purged.
Secondly, cayenne pepper is known to improve blood flow.  This effect in and of itself is amazingly beneficial.  Improved circulation carries with it a whole host of benefits.

Obviously too soon for any results, but I am really exited about the potential!

As of this post, my consumption so far is:

•  2 tsp. sea salt
• One serving of VIDACELL
• 1 tsp. raw honey
• about 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 servings of lemonade - 4 Tbsp. lemon juice, 4 Tbsp. maple syrup, about 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper total
• about 2 quarts of  filtered water total

I Won't Back Down

Sorry for the seemingly combative title, but it works.  The song, of course is by Tom Petty - I Won't Back Down.  The reason that it works for this entry?  Well, I have decided to begin following the master cleanse for the next 10 - 14 days and I am setting my mind to the task.  I have been reading up on the process and the benefits for quite some time, and the timing just seems right to start the fast tomorrow.

Essentially, the master cleanse calls for you to drink a mixture of freshly squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.  In addition, it is recommended to drink a cup of senna tea each night for the laxative properties and as much purified water as desired.  I have never been a big fan of tea, so I will be skipping that part.  I will also be modifying the fast by adding my daily dose of VIDACELL, raw honey, and cinnamon in the morning.  I don't really know what sort of impact this will have on the overall benefits of the cleanse, but I am willing to find out.

My plan is to keep a daily log during the next 10 days of the fast and the following four days while I slowly resume my regular diet.  Depending on how things go, I will likely be posting at least one entry per day on this blog.  So, if you are interested in my progress, be sure to check back!

To start off right, I had a simple dinner of plain, whole milk yogurt mixed with some berries and cherries with a glass of water.  As well, I weighed myself to see if there is any weight loss benefit.  As of a few moments ago, I weighed in at 237 pounds.  This is considerably less than the almost 300 pounds that I weighed at the beginning of the year, but still has quite a bit of room for improvement.  Tonight, while I will not be drinking any tea, I will be using a psyllium seed husk drink mix in place of it.  Hopefully it will have a similar effect to the tea.

This past week has been another eventful and exhausting one...  In my last post, Take It To the Limit, I talked about our adventure to the NY Renaissance Faire and about my work on preparing the garden for next year.  Well, this week was almost a carbon copy!  Instead of the NY Ren Faire, we went to the CT Ren Faire on Saturday - much closer to home.  The girls didn't feel like going in costume, but I did.  We got another chance to see one of our favorite performers, Jayna Lee.  She does an amazing aerial acrobatics (how's that for alliteration?) performance.

Yesterday found me in the garden once again.  My intent was to sift some more of the soil back into what will eventually be a raised bed.  While I was out there, my neighbor came out and suggested that I claim the compost bin that was left behind by another neighbor several years ago.  She and I went down the hill into the woods where Jim had installed the bin.  He had it wedged in pretty well and it was about half full of wonderfully composted soil, so it took a bit of effort for us to move it.  We scooped out and distributed the soil to some of the plants we have growing out back as well as into my raised bed.  After that, it was simple to move the bin out of its spot and up into the area that I had already established as my compost pile.
In addition to recovering the compost bin, we also discovered some really nice flagstones that were essentially discarded down the hill.  It took some effort, but we also moved those from their resting place to the spot just outside my door.  I didn't spend too much time nestling them into a nice, level spot, but I plan to revisit that project.  I will probably have to get some gravel to really do the job right, though.