Exercise: Lots of brisk walking
Food: 1 L Freshly squeezed orange juice, cashew nuts and large salad of leaves, carrot and sweetcorn with a touch of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (not altogether!)
I'm devouring more of my Living Nutrition magazines. The content is just so great and I will be subscribing to the rebranded, redesigned version (now called Vibrance). http://www.livingnutrition.com/
I've just reread an article called the Organic Mind by Lee Glickstein (www.speakingcircles.com)
Lee explains how we can develop an organic mind as opposed to a conventional mind to match and express our developing physical vitality as we go more raw. An organic mind is fertile, fluid and flexible among other things while a conventional mind is rigid with assumptions, 'right ways' and judgements.
These are Lee's suggestions for creating an Organic Mind,
1. Appreciate others like you would appreciate a tree, a river or a fruit i.e. with no judgement
2. Listen while you speak, and softly maintain eye contact
3. Notice natural silence and join it every day
4. Let your judgements pass. Laugh at yourself
5. Listen, listen, listen, softly and with your whole body, listen to the essence of others
And his seven traits of the Organic Mind,
1. Appreciates silence and acts from a foundation of listening
2. Listens to the essence of others and speaks only into the essence of others
3. Conversations move quickly through content into the sharing of meaningful ideas
4. Meets every person through soft, available eyes
5. Is down to earth, laughs and cries easily
6. Thinks less and less about more and more
7. Thinks universally
A lot to munch on there! But such great stuff...
Sponsor
Friday, 13 June 2008
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Raw in Roma
Exercise: Escalators
Food: 8 bananas, salad with leaves, avocado, sun-dried tomato, carrot, gherkins, and pesto dressing, bread, tortilla chips nibbled in Fresh and Wild, cashew nuts
I have been in Italy these past few days, first to a wedding in Pescara and then to Rome. The wedding was beautiful in a little village outside Pescara. The reception was held in a castle and on the way we passed fig trees, olive trees and apricots trees, how amazing is that! I want to live there!! I had the juiciest plumpest olives at the canape reception pre dinner. Re dietary requirements, I simply said vegan, no wheat or dairy and that am really happy with a salad. But didn't specifically mention raw.
So knew it would be okay, and also as long as my body was happy and I felt alright eating something then I would go with it. It was a classic five course meal, while everyone was complaining that they had overeaten on lots of meat, I felt just fine. My first course was vegetable soup, then a trio of boiled broad beans, courgettes and another vegetable I can't remember, then I had a plate of mushrooms and potato, then a mixed salad of leaves lightly dressed and finally a plate of seasonal fruit. I had about three conversations with people who asked me about my eating choices and it was really great to talk to them. In some ways I was slightly dreading it but then I would remind myself everything was okay, that I could eat what I wanted, and that I could just be me even if different, this wasn't about labels.
And of course when I said that it was easy! To top it off we danced the night away..
The first night before the wedding some of us went for a pizza, I really didn't want pizza or pasta or rice so one of my friends asked for them to prepare a salad for me. It was very simple, leaves, carrot and sweetcorn, lightly dressed. It was one of the best meals I have ever had.They had given me a good sized bowl but I was still hungry (probably helped by the fact that we arrived at the hotel at 7pm after setting off at 10am from London that morning!) So this time I got the italian words needed to ask for another one and they brought me a huge bowl and it was still delicious. I guess I had paid them a compliment by asking for another one and they rewarded me well!! It was in my top 10 of raw meals, hunger met simple nourishing fare.
Rome was wonderful and it was good to be back again. My hotel was perfect with a fruit stall at the end of the road that also served freshly sqeezed oj do you see why I say that I am the most blessed woman in the whole world? It's run by a charming lady called Augusta, check it out if you go on Via Della Vite off Piazza Spagna. It was quite blissful to eat when and what I wanted. To spend the whole day walking outside in the air and sunshine, feasting on the sights and poking my head into various ancient and modern nooks and crannies. I revisited an old favourite Cafe Magnolia who do about 10 different creative salads as well as pizza and pasta so a good place to bring friends. Of course it came with bread and I had some. I know I was sleepy from the dancing of the night before and all the travelling but that night I slept for 12 hours straight and could have slept more but got up at noon because I didn't come to Rome to sleep!! That's the effect on me good to have the reminder...
It's good to be home..
Food: 8 bananas, salad with leaves, avocado, sun-dried tomato, carrot, gherkins, and pesto dressing, bread, tortilla chips nibbled in Fresh and Wild, cashew nuts
I have been in Italy these past few days, first to a wedding in Pescara and then to Rome. The wedding was beautiful in a little village outside Pescara. The reception was held in a castle and on the way we passed fig trees, olive trees and apricots trees, how amazing is that! I want to live there!! I had the juiciest plumpest olives at the canape reception pre dinner. Re dietary requirements, I simply said vegan, no wheat or dairy and that am really happy with a salad. But didn't specifically mention raw.
So knew it would be okay, and also as long as my body was happy and I felt alright eating something then I would go with it. It was a classic five course meal, while everyone was complaining that they had overeaten on lots of meat, I felt just fine. My first course was vegetable soup, then a trio of boiled broad beans, courgettes and another vegetable I can't remember, then I had a plate of mushrooms and potato, then a mixed salad of leaves lightly dressed and finally a plate of seasonal fruit. I had about three conversations with people who asked me about my eating choices and it was really great to talk to them. In some ways I was slightly dreading it but then I would remind myself everything was okay, that I could eat what I wanted, and that I could just be me even if different, this wasn't about labels.
And of course when I said that it was easy! To top it off we danced the night away..
The first night before the wedding some of us went for a pizza, I really didn't want pizza or pasta or rice so one of my friends asked for them to prepare a salad for me. It was very simple, leaves, carrot and sweetcorn, lightly dressed. It was one of the best meals I have ever had.They had given me a good sized bowl but I was still hungry (probably helped by the fact that we arrived at the hotel at 7pm after setting off at 10am from London that morning!) So this time I got the italian words needed to ask for another one and they brought me a huge bowl and it was still delicious. I guess I had paid them a compliment by asking for another one and they rewarded me well!! It was in my top 10 of raw meals, hunger met simple nourishing fare.
Rome was wonderful and it was good to be back again. My hotel was perfect with a fruit stall at the end of the road that also served freshly sqeezed oj do you see why I say that I am the most blessed woman in the whole world? It's run by a charming lady called Augusta, check it out if you go on Via Della Vite off Piazza Spagna. It was quite blissful to eat when and what I wanted. To spend the whole day walking outside in the air and sunshine, feasting on the sights and poking my head into various ancient and modern nooks and crannies. I revisited an old favourite Cafe Magnolia who do about 10 different creative salads as well as pizza and pasta so a good place to bring friends. Of course it came with bread and I had some. I know I was sleepy from the dancing of the night before and all the travelling but that night I slept for 12 hours straight and could have slept more but got up at noon because I didn't come to Rome to sleep!! That's the effect on me good to have the reminder...
It's good to be home..
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Everyone Needs Compassion
Exercise: Escalators
Food: 8 bananas, fresh Oj, cashew nuts mixed salad with carrot, leaves, avocado, sundried tomato and sweetcorn, a handful of dates a few hours after the salad
Deep down I know that it would have been a good to fast today. I wasn't feeling hungry and felt my body could do with a rest especially as I had quite a few cashew nuts which needed to be fully digested.
Did I then fast, heck no, I carried on business as usual. I soon felt the consequences, my body certainly didn't want the cashews. And I could feel it trying to get equilibrium! A couple of loo visits and everything was fine!
There is a quote that goes something like, "Greatness is being courteous and kind to everyone especially when there is no apparent benefit".
And I was thinking it would be lovely if we could be kind to ourselves as well, not just how we treat our spirit, mind and body i.e. what we eat , how we move around etc but also when we mess up and make the wrong choice. Like me today! Compassion brings hope. So let's be kind to ourselves so we can be kind to others.
We are the revolution..
Food: 8 bananas, fresh Oj, cashew nuts mixed salad with carrot, leaves, avocado, sundried tomato and sweetcorn, a handful of dates a few hours after the salad
Deep down I know that it would have been a good to fast today. I wasn't feeling hungry and felt my body could do with a rest especially as I had quite a few cashew nuts which needed to be fully digested.
Did I then fast, heck no, I carried on business as usual. I soon felt the consequences, my body certainly didn't want the cashews. And I could feel it trying to get equilibrium! A couple of loo visits and everything was fine!
There is a quote that goes something like, "Greatness is being courteous and kind to everyone especially when there is no apparent benefit".
And I was thinking it would be lovely if we could be kind to ourselves as well, not just how we treat our spirit, mind and body i.e. what we eat , how we move around etc but also when we mess up and make the wrong choice. Like me today! Compassion brings hope. So let's be kind to ourselves so we can be kind to others.
We are the revolution..
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Repetition
Exercise: Run, escalators
Food: 3 bananas, banana and Dr Martins's coco milk smoothies, handful of almonds, some dates, some chocolate and some sun-blushed tomatoes from tomorrow's salad
Read something in Mike Brescia's (of Think Right Now fame, see links) email today which reinforced what I'm learning about how we use our imagination. He stated we use the following to keep in our minds eye the things we want to achieve, i.e how to remember them
- repetition of word pictures
- repetition of positive thought
- mental pictures
- mental movies
- affirmations
So the question is does this work, yes! It's how we learnt our times table as kids, it's how we learnt to develop good handwriting (okay some are still working on that one) and it's how we would get excited about going on holiday to name a few.
It can seem like magic when it all kicks in the secret is that while doing this you will start to get insights and nudges to do things or stop doing things. That is your plan working out for you. So if you are getting a niggling that it's a time to explore something it's worth checking it out, e.g. going veggie, eating more raw, becoming organised etc.
For eating healthy you might write daily affirmations on how you feel when you eat right, then use encouraging thoughts to keep doing what you need to do, play a mental movie of where you are now and where you are headed.
Habit is God's way of helping us to experience good all the time!! But we get to choose... all the time.
Food: 3 bananas, banana and Dr Martins's coco milk smoothies, handful of almonds, some dates, some chocolate and some sun-blushed tomatoes from tomorrow's salad
Read something in Mike Brescia's (of Think Right Now fame, see links) email today which reinforced what I'm learning about how we use our imagination. He stated we use the following to keep in our minds eye the things we want to achieve, i.e how to remember them
- repetition of word pictures
- repetition of positive thought
- mental pictures
- mental movies
- affirmations
So the question is does this work, yes! It's how we learnt our times table as kids, it's how we learnt to develop good handwriting (okay some are still working on that one) and it's how we would get excited about going on holiday to name a few.
It can seem like magic when it all kicks in the secret is that while doing this you will start to get insights and nudges to do things or stop doing things. That is your plan working out for you. So if you are getting a niggling that it's a time to explore something it's worth checking it out, e.g. going veggie, eating more raw, becoming organised etc.
For eating healthy you might write daily affirmations on how you feel when you eat right, then use encouraging thoughts to keep doing what you need to do, play a mental movie of where you are now and where you are headed.
Habit is God's way of helping us to experience good all the time!! But we get to choose... all the time.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Come Join The Party!
Exercise: Escalators
Food: 5 bananas, smoothie (celery, papaya, mango and pear), bunch of grapes, big salad - lettuce, sun-dried tomato, carrot, sweetcorn, pine nuts, pesto dressing
Another of my friends is getting intentional with her eating, she's vegetarian four days a week now in order to in her words, save the planet, and a girl at the yoga weekend asked me if I was a raw-fooder, she'd obviously been observing what I was eating! She said I looked great and was glowing, which was lovely to hear. I've gotten used to a certain level of being eating like this plus all the other adventures I'm on, so it's always blows me away when the results are so obvious to someone else. She herself tried raw for six months and thinks it's time to make it more permanent.
And.. okay not one of my girlfriends per se, but Oprah has gone vegan (for 21 days)!
Read more here
http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/cleanse/blog/blog_main.jhtml?promocode=HP42
I love the comment at the end,
Kathy Freston's Comments: External "fillers"—like soda and chips—leave you feeling empty and wanting more. Yearning, dissatisfied. To really feel substantially filled and nurtured and cared for, it has to come from something that is not outside of us. If you are pushed against a wall or challenged, try to remind yourself that you need not do and be everything.
If more people knew that they would be experiencing more freedom. It's these 'moments of truth' that bring awareness. We reach for 'soda and chips' or whatever it is we reach for, it could be any thing to damp down those emotions.. 'healthy food' does not promote health in our body if we don't actually need it, it becomes excess and something else for the body to deal with. I remember being offered some strawberries once and I said 'no thanks!' 'but it's fruit' they said. I'm not hungry and I don't want them but I'm meant to shove them down because they're fruit? It's completely a different matter if I want to shove them down!
Well if you doing the veggie, vegan, journey you know you're only a couple of tube stops from 'more raw' and 'all raw' !!!
Food: 5 bananas, smoothie (celery, papaya, mango and pear), bunch of grapes, big salad - lettuce, sun-dried tomato, carrot, sweetcorn, pine nuts, pesto dressing
Another of my friends is getting intentional with her eating, she's vegetarian four days a week now in order to in her words, save the planet, and a girl at the yoga weekend asked me if I was a raw-fooder, she'd obviously been observing what I was eating! She said I looked great and was glowing, which was lovely to hear. I've gotten used to a certain level of being eating like this plus all the other adventures I'm on, so it's always blows me away when the results are so obvious to someone else. She herself tried raw for six months and thinks it's time to make it more permanent.
And.. okay not one of my girlfriends per se, but Oprah has gone vegan (for 21 days)!
Read more here
http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/cleanse/blog/blog_main.jhtml?promocode=HP42
I love the comment at the end,
Kathy Freston's Comments: External "fillers"—like soda and chips—leave you feeling empty and wanting more. Yearning, dissatisfied. To really feel substantially filled and nurtured and cared for, it has to come from something that is not outside of us. If you are pushed against a wall or challenged, try to remind yourself that you need not do and be everything.
If more people knew that they would be experiencing more freedom. It's these 'moments of truth' that bring awareness. We reach for 'soda and chips' or whatever it is we reach for, it could be any thing to damp down those emotions.. 'healthy food' does not promote health in our body if we don't actually need it, it becomes excess and something else for the body to deal with. I remember being offered some strawberries once and I said 'no thanks!' 'but it's fruit' they said. I'm not hungry and I don't want them but I'm meant to shove them down because they're fruit? It's completely a different matter if I want to shove them down!
Well if you doing the veggie, vegan, journey you know you're only a couple of tube stops from 'more raw' and 'all raw' !!!
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Yoga
Exercise: Yoga, escalators and run
Food: Oj, 3 bananas, green salad with avocado, cashews and a few dates
Am doing a yoga and meditation weekend today and tomorrow. It was so lovely the centre is in Oakwood, so tonnes of greenery and what a gorgeous, delicious sunny day today!!
Giovanni (who looks like George Clooney with Mel Gibson's eyes, true! Serious potential for lookalike work there) guided us humorously and sensitively through four sessions of meditation interspersed with yoga stretches and poses.
http://www.rolfing-yoga.com/flash1.html
http://www.wccmretreatcentre.org.uk/
I'm really enjoying getting into meditation, just being present. Felt very detached afterwards but in a good way, just being in the midst of everything. The day ran from 10 to 5 with break for lunch and a wander. Lunch was a mix of vegetarian and vegan fare.
I felt light and floaty at the end so despite being out the whole day, then doing two trips for food shopping, I felt compelled to go for an evening run. And it was just the right conditions, cool and breezy!
Have noticed yesterday (off work) and today that I'm not eating as much but not sure if this is a trend yet, because when I'm not at work ie doing the things that I really, really want to do, food moves down the agenda. I was thinking that lots of people I come across don't like their jobs or are feeling unfulfilled. Which means they must be living off purpose, so is it any wonder we are eating off purpose too?
Anyhoo will see how I go. I may be moving to a new level in my raw journey. Haven't craved anything this past week, seems chips may have fallen off the 'attachments' list completely. Was going to get some edamame on Friday and I felt a check in my body like it didn't want that. It was very subtle but immediately turned round thinking 'no don't want that'. At another time I might get a go ahead signal. In a similar vein I had some nuts this evening and felt like I had enough, then went back and had some more although not a lot. But I felt that check, although I ignored it!
Food: Oj, 3 bananas, green salad with avocado, cashews and a few dates
Am doing a yoga and meditation weekend today and tomorrow. It was so lovely the centre is in Oakwood, so tonnes of greenery and what a gorgeous, delicious sunny day today!!
Giovanni (who looks like George Clooney with Mel Gibson's eyes, true! Serious potential for lookalike work there) guided us humorously and sensitively through four sessions of meditation interspersed with yoga stretches and poses.
http://www.rolfing-yoga.com/flash1.html
http://www.wccmretreatcentre.org.uk/
I'm really enjoying getting into meditation, just being present. Felt very detached afterwards but in a good way, just being in the midst of everything. The day ran from 10 to 5 with break for lunch and a wander. Lunch was a mix of vegetarian and vegan fare.
I felt light and floaty at the end so despite being out the whole day, then doing two trips for food shopping, I felt compelled to go for an evening run. And it was just the right conditions, cool and breezy!
Have noticed yesterday (off work) and today that I'm not eating as much but not sure if this is a trend yet, because when I'm not at work ie doing the things that I really, really want to do, food moves down the agenda. I was thinking that lots of people I come across don't like their jobs or are feeling unfulfilled. Which means they must be living off purpose, so is it any wonder we are eating off purpose too?
Anyhoo will see how I go. I may be moving to a new level in my raw journey. Haven't craved anything this past week, seems chips may have fallen off the 'attachments' list completely. Was going to get some edamame on Friday and I felt a check in my body like it didn't want that. It was very subtle but immediately turned round thinking 'no don't want that'. At another time I might get a go ahead signal. In a similar vein I had some nuts this evening and felt like I had enough, then went back and had some more although not a lot. But I felt that check, although I ignored it!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
A Parallel Universe
Exercise: Escalators
Food: litre of OJ, about 10 bananas, handful of cashews and almonds, green salad - baby spinach, peas, avocado, celery, cucumber and raw pesto
Sometimes I have moments where it feels like I am living in some weird and wonderful world of my own (indeed I am and so are you!) with the various journeys I have embarked/am embarking on in every area of my life, and it is literally every area. So much is changing or changed, just a few,
- I don't watch TV (not a rule or a conscious decision would watch if I wanted to, it simply went from medium priority to low priority to zero priority. )
- I would not have called myself a nature-lover before now I know that I am
- While not being a beach lover I wouldn't have been my choice to visit a cold country during their cold season. That is not an issue now
- I shop intentionally, I visualise what I'm looking for and then go and find it. I no longer shop to escape or for retail therapy anymore. Still enjoy shopping just clearer about my objectives!
- I eat a natural, unprocessed plant-based diet. A colleague asked me if it was hard eating out as there is so much I can't eat. I said everywhere does a salad! Also explained I'm not doing this from a place of deprivation but of abundance. I can eat ANYTHING I want, it's just that I choose not to. Big difference.
- My courage muscle is growing bigger!
- My desire to learn is huge
- Much better able to detach from emotions
- Trusting God's work
quote from author Neale Walsch... "You can live a charmed life, and there is a formula by which you can make this work." Here is the formula: "You can live a charmed life by causing othersto live a charmed life. That is, be the source of "charm" - ofcharming moments and experiences in the life of another." "Be everyone else's lucky charm! Make all who you touch today feel"lucky" that you crossed their path. Do this for a week and watchthings change. Do it for a month and you'll be a different person."***
I'm taking up this challenge....
And,
"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight - and never stop fighting.
E.E Cummings, poet
Coolio.
Food: litre of OJ, about 10 bananas, handful of cashews and almonds, green salad - baby spinach, peas, avocado, celery, cucumber and raw pesto
Sometimes I have moments where it feels like I am living in some weird and wonderful world of my own (indeed I am and so are you!) with the various journeys I have embarked/am embarking on in every area of my life, and it is literally every area. So much is changing or changed, just a few,
- I don't watch TV (not a rule or a conscious decision would watch if I wanted to, it simply went from medium priority to low priority to zero priority. )
- I would not have called myself a nature-lover before now I know that I am
- While not being a beach lover I wouldn't have been my choice to visit a cold country during their cold season. That is not an issue now
- I shop intentionally, I visualise what I'm looking for and then go and find it. I no longer shop to escape or for retail therapy anymore. Still enjoy shopping just clearer about my objectives!
- I eat a natural, unprocessed plant-based diet. A colleague asked me if it was hard eating out as there is so much I can't eat. I said everywhere does a salad! Also explained I'm not doing this from a place of deprivation but of abundance. I can eat ANYTHING I want, it's just that I choose not to. Big difference.
- My courage muscle is growing bigger!
- My desire to learn is huge
- Much better able to detach from emotions
- Trusting God's work
quote from author Neale Walsch... "You can live a charmed life, and there is a formula by which you can make this work." Here is the formula: "You can live a charmed life by causing othersto live a charmed life. That is, be the source of "charm" - ofcharming moments and experiences in the life of another." "Be everyone else's lucky charm! Make all who you touch today feel"lucky" that you crossed their path. Do this for a week and watchthings change. Do it for a month and you'll be a different person."***
I'm taking up this challenge....
And,
"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight - and never stop fighting.
E.E Cummings, poet
Coolio.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
