linda’s blog

I had the ingredients for this so I figured I’d make it on Friday.  I was going to make the raw enchiladas for our Thanksgiving dinner but we were invited over at a friend’s house so I didn’t have to make a lot of food after all! (I still ended up making enough: raw cauliflower whip, raw parsnip whip, raw stuffing, spinach/fennel/orange salad with a mustard vinaigrette, delicious and the best cranberry sauce ever, and a coconut raw ice cream with cranberry persimmon sauce and ginger orange crisp topping. I found various recipes online and then modified the hell out of them. I’m sorry to say that I hardly ever follow a recipe just the way it is. Everything was delicious and very flavorful.

anyway, onto the enchilada recipe…

the enchilada tortilla shell part
• 5 cups corn (corn from the summer that has been shaved off and frozen)
• 3/4 cup golden flax, ground into a fine meal
• 1 tsp cumin
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 1/2 oranges, peeled
• 1 tsp Celtic or Himalayan salt
• a good pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup fresh water

First grind the whole flax in the Vitamix to turn into flax meal and pour into a bowl. You have to make sure the pitcher is dry and the flax is dry in order for it to grind well and not stick on the side of the pitcher. Then put the remaining ingredients into the Vitamix and blend until smooth. (The Vitamix VS is great for everything but especially when grinding nuts/seeds into flours and meals. The variable speed setting makes it so you ease into the grinding. Very nice.)

Pour into the bowl and stir around, mixing well. Pour onto a paraflexx sheet and spread evenly onto one sheet/tray. Cut in half and dehydrate at 105º for about 4 hours.

spread evenly on a paraflexx or parchment paper dehydrator sheet. cut in half so you have 2 enchilada shells

While that is dehydrating, you can making the filling:
• 1 small container of crimini mushrooms
• 1 small-medium zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 cup packed baby spinach
• 1 tsp cumin
• a pinch tsp salt (optional)
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• a good pinch of cayenne

Add the veggies in the food processor and pulse chop until finely cut. The spinach doesn’t have to be added if you don’t want to. Scrape into a big bowl and add remaining spices and vinegar. Stir and let stand. The spices and vinegar/lemon juice will start to really soften the veggies and they will reduce in size. Adjust the cumin and the cayenne to your liking. Feel free to add chipotle or other mexican seasonings that you like. You can pick whatever vegetable filling you prefer.

Assembling the enchiladas:

Flip the trays of the enchiladas and gently pull off the paraflexx sheets. The bottom part of the enchilada will be somewhat stiff and the side you just flipped will be sticky.

Add half of the filling down the center of the enchilada, long ways. Carefully fold up the two sides and pinch them together. Repeat with the other enchilada.

fill them with your favorite veggies

Stick back in the dehydrator and dehydrate for several more hours. If dehydrating overnight, put on a very low temperature so that it doesn’t over dry.  When you come back to it it will be ready to eat!

after they are stuffed, place them back in the dehydrator

feel free to check them after a couple hours

enchiladas are done! They were taste tested. :-)

I served this on a bed of red leaf lettuce and made a tomato/almond cheesy sauce to drizzle a bit on top (like sour creme) and then made a simple salsa to add to the top.

hella yummliness

Everyone loved this meal and devoured it pretty quickly! The corn is sweet, the veggies have nice spice, the onions in the cheesy sauce and salsa tasted great together. YAY! I love when everyone loves their raw meals!

serve on your favorite dish and enjoy!

Tip: Just because something is raw and made from whole food doesn’t mean that you can’t overdo it when you are eating it. So many places say it’s ok to eat whatever you want whenever you want it because it’s raw and that is just not so. To fill yourself up, add lots of greens to your plate and enjoy all the flavors. Chew slowly and think grateful thoughts while you eat. Enjoy!

this question wasn’t directed to me personally but to a whole group of people. I did respond to it and wanted to post it here. I’m hoping it is helpful to the questioner and potentially to others as well…

QUESTION: Anyone know of any good resources for supplements/herbal medicines/foods/anything else that can support you while you’re taking chemo? My aunt has just been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the lymph nodes and starts chemo next week.

ANSWER:
Hi there,

This is an interesting email for me to see personally and I’m going to speak candidly here from my experience and what I would do if I was in your aunt’s shoes and then in your shoes. My journey to food, health etc began when I watched my mother have cancer, be on chemotherapy, radiation and not yet FDA approved drugs also while watching my neighbor and who I considered to be a “surrogate second dad” on the end stages of diabetes simultaneously. To answer your question below, I’d recommend herbs that support the liver first and foremost, however, being on chemotherapy is literally taking poison in one pill and then taking other drugs to make sure that vital organs don’t shut down so that the poison can do its thing. So adding herbs to the mix will take a lot more care and planning so that they really support and don’t complicate matters. Since this is in the lymph system, more care needs to be directed to draining/caring/supporting the immune system and the lymph. I’d actually recommend having her get a “scholarship” and going to Hippocrates in Florida for their healing program but if she doesn’t want to, she can do many things to support and care for herself.

I recently met a woman who refused chemotherapy - she’s a fellow “jersey girl” who now lives in VT if your aunt wants to interview her. Her doctor gave her 3 months to live and told her to take chemotherapy. She refused. She did have surgery though and she supported herself with herbs and food and other modalities. She used things like essiac tea for the liver and still takes it and swears by it to this day. That was 15 years ago for her. I love her story. If your aunt wants, I can connect her to you. Her doctor who had threatened to refuse to be her doctor because she refused treatment then asked her to go “on the road” with him to universities to show how alternative treatments can be more than complimentary.

I also am friends with a woman who, on her 2nd bout of breast cancer and while on radiation went on raw/living food. Her oncologist told her that fresh fruits and vegetables were bad for her while on radiation. She not only made it through 30+ days of radiation and still was able to function and work (and felt good which is something people say is not possible while on radiation - even her oncologist was floored), she has continued on over 6 years now in a healthy body. She says her body is alkaline now and no disease can enter because her inner environment is no longer conducive for disease to thrive. I can connect you to her as well. Her story is also amazing because she did the mainstream modalities along with her own and has succeeded (and then some!) She’s in her 50s and has more energy than me!

Other than that, I’d recommend greens superfoods for the supplement question - something like VitaMineral green or Pure Synergy (although Pure Synergy has potent herbs in it.) I’d recommend eating fermented miso and eating seaweeds to help pull the junk out of the body. I’d recommend green juices/smoothies to be on the top choices for food support and HEALTH. Not eating sugar, meat, dairy, stimulants or refined anything would be top on the list too. Meat/dairy acts as a fertilizer for disease, illness, obesity, heart disease, etc (please refer to “The China Study” for the longest, largest and only peer reviewed nutritional study out there.) Sugar and refined foods and processed foods also feed/fuel cancer cells (and other illnesses, too.) It’s something like 1 TBSP sugar shuts down the immune system for 2 hours so if you ever want to know where your cold or flu came from, check your diet first… Cultured veggies are good but in a cancer environment, it’s recommended to keep the cultured veggies simple (only fermented cabbage or only fermented radishes but not mixing them into a kim chee type thing.)  Diet would have to change. People can say that that is too hard for them but for me, cutting me open or giving me pills with horrific side effects is too hard for me. My head/heart tells me I’ll do a green juice fast first and feel uncomfortable in the short term because it is the least invasive thing that might/would produce long term benefit. It’s also the cheapest medication/treatment/prevention, out there. A wise elderly woman recently stated at a showing we did of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead that she always thought organic food was too expensive until she went to the hospital and got a $10,000 bill - she said, “suddenly organic food seemed cheap to me!” It’s all about choices and priorities and more choices.

If this were me, I’d do this first before invasive and potentially devastating “therapies” like chemotherapy. (I had always said that I would eat raw/living foods if I ever got cancer and wondered why I would wait until a major illness set in to begin. So I began my living foods journey 10 years ago… We all have cancer cells in us so why wait until we’ve fertilized and flourished them to then decide to change and have that change be that much harder? Saying this, though, whenever the change is made is ultimately the right time to make it.)

All this being said, whatever you aunt chooses to do is *her* choice and the best thing for you and her family to do is to fully support her in whatever she chooses to do. Your loving email and concern for her is just lovely to see and I wish you all the best in this journey.  It was difficult for me to watch my mother’s “buy in” on western medicine only. I watched my conservative brothers and I try to get her to juice and try things like shark cartilage (we never were raised on this, although we were raised on food from scratch and local foods.) I was impressed to see my one brother do research for her on complimentary medicine. He actually pointed me in that direction, bless him.  My mother’s full trust was in western medicine only. She could swallow the horse chemotherapy pills but choked and gagged on supplements, vitamins and juices. I’m saying this because a person’s openness and beliefs plays a big important role here. My mother, it turned out, was resigned to die and she picked out the dress she was going to be buried in from the moment she was diagnosed. That was her choice and when we finally let her be in her choice, the journey for her was a lot more graceful and honoring. I obviously don’t know you or your aunt. I don’t know what her wishes are or her openness or willingness to try other things and it’s not in anyone’s best interest to push things on her that she doesn’t want.  It’s not easy (and I speak from much experience here) to offer things to family/friends as alternatives and then just let them be to do whatever they choose to do.  I’m doing this with my family all the time and I’m not always successful in the letting them be part. If your aunt wants this, she will find it for herself, and then you can help her in whatever ways it aligns with you the best.

I hope this helps. I’m here to help and not harm. I always realize that my lifestyle can be “threatening” to a good many people and I email/speak from the place of my heart and my own experiences. Everyone is free to do what they want. Free will.

With any and all recommendations that I write here, they are best made when the person needing the information does their own research and makes their own decisions. That’s better than taking what I or others say as the be all and end all of everything. I wouldn’t want anyone to do exactly what I say. Your aunt’s situation is specific to her and her body and she needs to find out what will work best for her.

My best to you,
Linda

A few weeks ago, I took my kids in to have their physicals. It had been years since we went to an MD. We always went to NDs (Naturopaths). We had 3 MDs in town that moved away and so we took it as a hint that maybe it wasn’t necessary to go. I decided to try again with an MD after paying out of pocket for 3 paps and blood tests for myself and thought I could maybe utilize the health insurance that we have for this type of thing. So we found an MD that is knowledgeable in homeopathy, herbs and other forms of complimentary care and figured this was a good compliment to OUR mainstream healthcare which is whole body centered focusing on food, herbs, homeopathy, lifestyle, diet, exercise, etc.

My son is 12 and my daughter is 10. I wanted to talk to the MD about tetanus because the school was saying it was time for a booster. I was shocked to learn that there are 2 other shots that are now being given to kids age 11 - 13: the HPV vaccine and the meningitis vaccine. My first thought was, “geezum! how many vaccines are being given to kids and when does it end?” The HPV is 3 shots within a 6 month period, tetanus is 1 and meningitis is 1. So this is FIVE more shots that they would get to the huge number of shots from their infancy/childhood had they received all of them. OY!

I’m an ingredients person. In my life journey so far, I am aware now of preservatives, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, genetically modified ingredients, synthetics, chemicals, flavorings, artificial and “natural” and real ingredients found in food. I’m aware of the above-mentioned ingredients found in our clothing that we wear, the make up that women and men use, in the hair care and body care products that we use. I’m aware of the chemicals used in the electronics that we have in our homes and cars. And the list goes on. I work diligently to know the ingredients that I am putting in and on my body. I deny dentistry that uses artificial sweeteners in their cleaning products because I keep them out of my daily diet. I make my own minimally-processed food so that I know what I’m eating - it’s cheaper, easier, healthier and safer for me to do this. I use beauty products whose ingredients are that which I could eat. I’m into organic and biodyanmic foods because those are the closest to the nature that I want to live in.

It’s sobering to once again research vaccines. Here’s something that is supposed to help people and communities and when you read the ingredient lists, it’s unconscionable to see the ingredients getting injected into babies so young, developing kids and pre-teens. Honestly, I’m trying to imagine just HOW many vaccines get injected and how many times a baby/child has to deal with formaldehyde, aluminum, mercury, preservatives, lactose, etc in their developing bodies and immune systems. There are 10-12 childhood diseases that kids now could receive vaccines on and among those 10-12, there are anywhere between 1 and 4 shots each. A minimum of 12 shots and a maximum of 48 shots potentially, if you just did the math. It’s really somewhere around 25-30 shots or so if you went thru the full gamut. YIKES

I started this research yesterday for an hour and I’ve been at it for 2 hours this morning. I am dumping what I found here on the 3 vaccines mentioned above. Just when I thought that I wouldn’t have to think more on the vaccine subject, I realize that it is still prevalent. And it doesn’t end for many who decide to then continue to have flu vaccines and various job vaccines for being a teacher or nurse, etc. OY. I don’t feel anger or fear. I feel sober and sad, to be quite honest.

Here goes:

“One hundred years ago, children received 1 vaccine (the smallpox vaccine). Forty years ago, children received 5 vaccines routinely (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and smallpox vaccines) and as many as 8 shots by 2 years of age. Today, [as of 2000] children receive 11 vaccines routinely and as many as 20 shots by 2 years of age (Table 1).” http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/109/1/124/T1.expansion.html

My notes:

• ASK TO SEE THE INGREDIENT LIST OF ALL VACCINES so you can see if you have any allergies to the components and to see what your child is ingesting. (The cumulative ingredients of multiple vaccines need to be looked at, too. Doctors have never asked us if we are allergic to the ingredients. The little piece of paper they give you AFTER the shot is given says to make sure you are not allergic to any of the ingredients before you receive the shot.)
• ASK TO SEE THE DRUG INSERTS OF ALL THE VACCINES PRIOR TO GETTING THE SHOTS. There you will see spelled out interesting tables of allergies and other health issues that have come up in people who have taken the vaccines. But this is only on SOME of the newer vaccines. The older ones don’t have this information. Older vaccines also may or may not have ingredient listings.
• GET THE NAME OF THE VACCINE to study on prior to deciding on whether you are receiving them or not. For some diseases, there are a few to chose from so best to know what they are going to administer. Better still is to read on all the vaccine names related to the disease and then pick the one you want, if you want any.

TETANUS - I’ll start here because I thought I had done my research on this before and made my decision in good conscience to receive the tetanus boosters for myself and vaccines/boosters for my kids.

Tetanus vaccine contains aluminum, formaldehyde and thimerisol (mercury)

“Each 0.5 ml dose of MassBiologics’ Td is formulated to contain the following active ingredients: 2 Lf of
tetanus toxoid and 2 Lf of diphtheria toxoid.  Each 0.5 ml dose also contains aluminum adjuvant (not more
than 0.53 mg aluminum by assay), < 100 mcg (0.02%) of residual formaldehyde, and a trace amount of
thimerosal [mercury derivative, (< 0.3 mcg mercury/dose)] (not as a preservative) from the manufacturing
process.” - this comes from the drug insert which I found here: http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/package_inserts.htm

My daughter had a slight fever and pain in the location of her arm for about 2 days from the Tetanus shot she just received. I’m actually happy that she had a fever because I willingly allowed for mercury, formaldehyde and aluminum to be injected into her body. My son had no reaction and while others would think that’s good, I’m upset that his body didn’t find this invasive. I never looked up the ingredients on the shots before and I will from now on.

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http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/package_inserts.htm - link for good majority of US licensed vaccines…

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Meningitis Vaccine. The doctor told me that they used to give this vaccine to kids beginning college but I don’t recall getting this vaccine before going to college. He said kids going to camp can also get it.

“Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. Most cases are caused by bacteria or viruses, but some can be due to certain medications or illnesses.

“Bacterial meningitis is rare, but is usually serious and can be life-threatening if not treated right away. Viral meningitis (also called aseptic meningitis) is relatively common and far less serious. It often remains undiagnosed because its symptoms can be similar to those of the common flu.” http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/meningitis.html

“The meningitis vaccine is about 85% effective against certain strains of bacteria. It does not protect against viral meningitis. …. Bacterial meningitis can be treated with a number of effective antibiotics. It is important, that treatment is started early” http://healthcenter.ucdavis.edu/topics/meningitis.html

So it looks like the vaccine only works 85% of the time for bacterial meningitis and not for the more common viral strains of meningitis. It looks like if you contracted bacterial meningitis, you’d get a course of antibiotics to treat it.

Menomune vaccine: This the drug name for the meningitis vaccine. The ingredient list is NOT listed on the drug insert so I had to do a search to find the ingredient listing online. Turns out there is latex in the vial stopper of the vaccine, lactose in the vaccine, thimerisol (mercury) as a preservative in the vaccine.

“Menomune®- A/C/Y/W-135, Meningococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine, Groups A, C, Y and W-135 Combined, for subcutaneous use, is a freeze-dried preparation of the group-specific polysaccharide antigens from Neisseria meningitidis, Group A, Group C, Group Y and Group W-135. N meningitidis are cultivated with Mueller Hinton agar1 and Watson Scherp2 media. The purified polysaccharide is extracted from the Neisseria meningitidis cells and separated from the media by procedures which include centrifugation, detergent precipitation, alcohol precipitation, solvent or organic extraction and diafiltration. No preservative is added during manufacture.
“The 0.78 mL vial of diluent contains sterile, preservative-free, pyrogen-free distilled water and is used for reconstitution of product supplied in 1 mL vials. The 6 mL vial of diluent contains sterile, pyrogen-free distilled water to which thimerosal (mercury derivative) 1:10,000 is added as a preservative. The 6 mL vial is for reconstitution of product supplied in 10 mL vials. After reconstitution with diluent as indicated on the label, the 0.5 mL dose is formulated to contain 50 µg of “isolated product” from each of Groups A, C, Y and W-135 in an isotonic sodium chloride solution.” http://www.rxlist.com/menomune-drug.htm

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When I posed the question to my local mama yahoo group, it was interesting to note that the feedback I received was on HPV only, and I’m guessing because HPV is spread sexually. It’s also the newest vaccine and there’s more on the controversy of the testing and efficacy of this vaccine. So here’s what I found…

Some things I pulled from one of the links Allison sent (one of the moms on the yahoo group):

2 strains of HPV account for 70% of cervical cancer. Gardasil protects against 4 strains of HPV (2 strains for cervical cancer and 2 for genital warts.)  Gardasil does not protect against the various other strains of HPV. Gardisil doesn’t protect against all types of cervical cancer.  (Cervarix vaccine protects against 2 strains of HPV that can cause cervical cancer.)

(My question is how do they know it protects everyone. How is a person tested to see if they really are immune. I’m curious as to the process. I guess it’s a blood test but I’m not sure.)

The effect of HPV vaccine and the incidence of cervical cancer will take about 20-30 years to see the efficacy.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmCeWwNKr6FmdDVWSW5OUEhZTHpieVRESDR6bVpHMFE&hl=en_GB#gid=3

“GARDASIL may not fully protect everyone, nor will it protect against diseases caused by other HPV types or against diseases not caused by HPV.” http://www.gardasil.com/vaccine-for-cervical-cancer/gardasil-and-hpv/

“You should not get GARDASIL if you have, or have had:
“• an allergic reaction after getting a dose of GARDASIL.
“• a severe allergic reaction to yeast, amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate, polysorbate80.”  http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/g/gardasil/gardasil_ppi.pdf

“GARDASIL may not fully protect everyone, nor will it protect against diseases caused by other HPV types or against diseases not caused by HPV. GARDASIL does not prevent all types of cervical cancer, so it’s important for women to continue routine cervical cancer screenings. GARDASIL does not treat cancer or genital warts. GARDASIL is given as 3 injections over 6 months.” http://www.gardasil.com/

from the drug insert on gardisil that Erin sent (another mom on the yahoo group):
There’s 2 interesting tables on page 9 and 10 of the drug insert which shows people who got other health conditions (systemic autoimmune disorders) after taking the vaccine. Those tables talk about the number of people who got those conditions with the vaccine vs. the control group.  It’s when the two numbers differ widely that we should pay most attention. Arthritis (Arthralgia/Arthritis/Arthropathy) had the biggest numbers. 10 cases of celiac with the vaccines vs 6 without, etc.

“Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed  in the clinical trials of a vaccine cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another vaccine and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.”

“There was no clear evidence of protection from disease caused by HPV types for which girls and
women were PCR positive regardless of serostatus at baseline.”
What is PCR positive? What does this mean? I’ve got a question in to a friend about this…

INGREDIENTS:
“Each 0.5-mL dose of the vaccine contains approximately 225 mcg of aluminum (as Amorphous
Aluminum Hydroxyphosphate Sulfate adjuvant), 9.56 mg of sodium chloride, 0.78 mg of L-histidine,
50 mcg of polysorbate 80, 35 mcg of sodium borate, <7 mcg yeast protein/dose, and water for injection.  The product does not contain a preservative or antibiotics.”

THE FIRST INGREDIENT IS ALUMINUM. The aluminum is used to kick in the immune system and acts as a kind of carrier to the protein in the vaccine.

Link for some side effects of ingesting aluminum http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/janak/080406

Another link with information on side effects of aluminum sulfate: http://www.inchem.org/documents/ukpids/ukpids/ukpid34.htm

A public forum on Gardisil side effects: http://www.gardasilhpv.com/2010/04/gardasil-and-aluminum-vaccine-adjuvants.html - this page has a bit of information on aluminum, if you scroll down to the halfway point or more on this page.

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Potentially dangerous ingredient lists commonly found in vaccines: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the_vaccination_debate_%E2%80%93_part_1_dangerous_ingredients_in_your_childs_vaccines_that_your_doc - this has good information without the use of fear or some other agenda in the mix.

There’s a bunch of websites with information like this that show ingredient lists to watch out for and their possible side effects

another one: http://poisonevercure.150m.com/ingredients.htm - this site seems to have compiled a BOAT LOAD of information into one place. wow. I didn’t navigate through this site to see if it has a religious bias but the information content of the tables on this page was clear to view and understand.  I’m assuming from the photos used on this site that is has some ethical, political or religious undertones to it but I didn’t navigate through the site to see if my assumptions were true. I found this site by doing a search on vaccine ingredients and this is what came up. It has enough on this page to make me stop and think about all the various components of what our children receive nowadays in the vaccines.

And this is where I’ll end for now. There is enough just in the ingredient list alone that makes me pause to consider if this is the best way to protect our kids from diseases.

The questions arise: Is the disease worse than the vaccine? What is the prevalence of the diseases now? What is the prevalence of diseases in a daycare environment? In a home environment? What is the long term effect of the vaccine ingredients? How can we know - it seems that we won’t know for 20-30 years unless there are more reports of auto-immune problems, etc. How can you really tell that they came from a vaccine and not from the chemicals in the food, water, air, clothes, homes, etc. If these vaccines are necessary and important, can they be made without heavy metals, preservatives and the other crap in them?

Too many questions. I still find it easiest to work under the notion that I’m going to look at the ingredients of anything that I’m going to put in/on my body or the kids bodies. I wouldn’t ever willingly put this crap in my body or the kids’ bodies. I feel very sorry for the few vaccines that we’ve done knowing what I know now. I’m hopeful that because it was not a lot and we eat a clean diet that their bodies can overcome the ingredients of these. I’m hopeful we can continue to clean up our environments and our diets so that we use less of these things, that our bodies have a naturally strong defense system and at the VERY LEAST that we all become aware of these ingredients and make the pharmaceutical companies change them. Ignorance is not bliss for me.

Please begin/continue your own awareness of the ingredients in your food, in your drugs/vaccines/pharmaceuticals, in your clothes, in your make up, in your beauty care, in your supplements, in your homes, in your life and your kids’ lives.

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added 12/12/11: A friend sent this to me. I’m adding the links here because I found them interesting and I suspect others would as well.

http://www.vaccineinjury.info/vaccinations-in-general/vaccinatedunvaccinated.html

the original link that my friend sent here:
http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/10/14/big-study-vaccinated-kids-2-5-more-diseases-than-unvaccinated/

She got it from the health freedom alliance website. I wasn’t aware of this website either so I’m interested to poke around more on that one, too. It looks huge.

***update 12/21/11***

read this RANT on natural news and while it’s a bit harsh, I love that Mike Adams can getcha thinking. I have similar questions about these things that gets said about vaccines (which he writes about in a very “in your face” kind of manner) - read and see what you think. The article is def geared toward shaking things up: http://www.naturalnews.com/034452_flu_shots_vaccines_immunity.html

The days just roll into each other and that feels good for summer. I’ve been reading an excellent book for the last 2 days that has captivated me. The bad news is that I’m staying up really late because I can’t stop reading. I’m loving that the days are flowing so nicely, though. It means that I’m getting into a nice groove of things here. The food/diet/whatever you want to call it is feeling very effortless. I’m still noticing emotional cues that make me feel uncomfortable while eating so I just stop, breathe, notice, breathe out and move on. This is a good lesson. As much as I think I’ve come so far (and I have), I still am on the journey and some things take time.

yesterday morning’s yummy juice: 1 bunch local kale, 1 local carrot, 2 stalks celery, 2 apples, 2 peaches, 1 1/2 grapefruit - made 2 20ish ounce juices of yumminess

exercise: hopped on the rebounder for all of 5 minutes before my kids took over. (I guess they wanted to have fun too!)

yesterday’s green smoothie: 2 bananas, 1 10 oz bag of red raspberries, 2 scoops rice protein powder, 6 or 7 leaves of kale, 2 TBSP vitamineral green, 1 TBSP coconut oil - made 2 quarts of smoothie

exercise: walked up and down a hill for a little over 2 miles. this is a nice hill that gets your heart pumping immediately

dinner: a bed of local greens, leftovers of kelp noodles, jicama salad, a couple dollops of raw marinara sauce to finish it and an ear of corn.

Yesterday was a busy day of making food. I’ve been steadily selling out of everything and with a person short at the cafe, it’s hard to keep up with all the tasks. I really need at least one more person in the cafe each day to keep food prep up. Yesterday I made raw mayo, sunflower seed cheeze, sunshine salad, not tuna and onion bread. This was in between helping customers, answering phones and getting orders out. It was a full productive day and my back and legs were slightly sore from all the standing. It was good to take a walk to move them in a new way, get lymph moving and get circulation going.

I’m still at the same weight from the fast. I’m not bothered by this at all. I’d like to step up exercising to see where takes me.

this morning’s peach nectar juice for one amazingly thirsty person: 5 or 6 leaves of kale, 2 ounces of pea shoots, 1 stalk celery, 5 small peaches and 1 orange. It’s heaven in a mason jar. This made like 40 ounces of juice plus.

yesterday’s juice: 1/2 head of lettuce, 2 stalks celery, 2 carrots, 2 apples, 1 grapefruit - made 2 16 ounce juices. this was a very yummy juice.

exercise: 6.3 miles on the stationary bike, 25 minutes on a hill setting, 151 calories burned. I love being able to do the bike when time constraints are present. I get in a good sweat in a short amount of time. I would love one day to be able to walk or bike in the mornings outside. I’ll get there. I walk once a week and we’ll make that more, I’m sure. But for now, I take my exercise whenever and however I can get it.

lunch smoothie: 1/2 bunch of local collards, 2 bananas, 1 bag frozen blackberries, 2 scoop rice protein powder, 2 spoonfuls of bee pollen, 1 TBSP coconut oil. this made 2 quarts of smoothies

afternoon smoothie: 1 banana, 1 cup raspberries, 4-5 leaves of local chard, 1 scoop rice protein powder. this made 2 16 ounce glasses.

dinner: big plate of local green lettuce, small bit of local zucchini with raw marinara sauce and jicama “potato” salad. Also had some steamed broccoli and I had an ear of corn on the cob.

evening snack: lemon blondie (tiny square.)

It’s been very easy to do this challenge. It actually doesn’t feel like a challenge at all. Well, that’s not entirely true. What feels like a challenge is to not gorge myself with huge portions of food. That’s the thing I’m working on. But eating this kind of food is not the challenge for me personally. I’ve been doing this so long that it isn’t hard to have a green juice in the morning, green smoothie in the afternoon and dinner to be a raw food dinner. I don’t focus any more on the fact that this is 100% raw - it just seemed to make sense to end a 10 day juice fast with juice/smoothie/light meal. I was thinking I was going to continue with no fat for the 11 days after the 10 day juice fast but that didn’t work out for very long at all and I don’t mind one bit. I definitely like fats. Who doesn’t! Our brains like it, our bodies like it. It’s a good lubricator for the entire body. I have a tendency to like something and go a bit overboard so the desire to be totally away from fat for 10 days was a good choice for me.

When I’m really aware, I’m better at noticing my body’s natural stopping points for eating and also what my body wants to eat and do. Busy-ness, chattering thoughts and distractions helps to impede the natural flow of eating with awareness and intuition, etc. The 10 day fast really shifted the whole thing. It got me hungry, which I haven’t been really hungry for a long time. It also showed me the emotional panics I get into when false hunger comes in. It showed me the boredom eating or the mindless grabbing for something and eating it when pressed for time. I saw how much I grab for snacks because they are easy and they are right there. I basically saw lots of bad habits that I got myself into while working this cafe.  The juice fast also changed my taste buds so I don’t want very sugary or salty foods, and that is a very good thing. I still like sweet and savory but because of the juicing, I’m finding natural sweetness and natural salts in foods.

By the way, foods taste amazing after a juice fast. Everything has been gorgeous tasting. I think my taste buds became alive again and I already had very sensitive taste buds, I thought.

This morning’s juice was delicious.

this morning’s yummy juice: 1 bunch local kale, 1 local carrot, 2 stalks celery, 2 apples, 2 peaches, 1 1/2 grapefruit - made 2 20ish ounce juices of yumminess

I think I’m going to hop on the rebounder for a little bit before going to the cafe. Have a blessed morning

this morning’s juice was very tasty

• 4-5 big leaves of kale
• 1/2 european cuke
• 2 granny smith apples
• 2 stalks celery

made 1 24 ounce juice.

this afternoon’s smoothie = kickass

• 6-7 big leaves of kale
• 3 ripe peaches
• 1 cup of fresh cherries, pitted
• water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 scoops rice protein powder
• 2 TBSP vitamineral green
• 1 TBSP coconut oil

blend and serve. Emily and I are savoring this incredible juice. This made almost a full pitcher in the vitamix (almost 64 ounces)

this is Day 4 of the 2nd part of our green juice fast. We decided to continue to eat simply for 11 more days because that would make a 21 day challenge altogether. It’s said that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. I’m wanting to write out the intention so I can read it if I need to. Yesterday was a difficult day for me but in a very different way than the green juice fast was.

What was difficult? Well for starters, it was the first day of my monthly cycle and I was craving chocolate and fat - anything fat. I had a small piece of the lemon blondies I wrote about the other day. I found that I had a big desire just to eat and eat and eat. I had to finally go upstairs at 10:30 just to avoid being near the kitchen. I haven’t felt such a strong desire to do that. Even on the green juice fast, I was hungry but there wasn’t this strong pull to get up and start stuffing my face like there was last night. Hey, maybe the full moon was turning me into a wolf in the kitchen! *arrrr-oooooooooo*

The other thing that was difficult was that my challenge partner left. Matt and Sam went on a father/son weekend and maybe my demons came out stronger because I felt like I could cheat and no one would know it or something. I know that he’s not able to do this challenge because he doesn’t have easy access to juice/smoothie/raw food but maybe he too wanted to have a break. He had grilled veggies and fries last night. They called to check in and went on a walk to walk off their dinners. Anyway, it helps me to have these kinds of challenges forefront in my mind and with my challenge partners around for support AND to keep me accountable. I’ll be honest, my craving-munchies-demons came out strong after I heard what he ate for dinner.

When I went upstairs to avoid the kitchen, I thought it would be good to write out the intention for this part of the challenge so that I can hold that steady. It worked so well with the juice fast part. So here we go:

• I’m doing this to create a habit of eating WAY less sweets and less fats. To eat more simply and to eat less.
• I’m doing this to continue on with the ease of inflammation that burdens a lot of my body.
• I’m doing this to get down to a healthy weight - it is very tiring to always be in the overweight category. I’d like to get to and maintain a healthy weight for my height and bone structure.
• I’m doing this to get my boat pointed in the direction of being more athletic. Phase 3 is going to incorporate a more structured exercise program. Eating will probably change again but I want good habits and awareness here so I can move onward and upward.

OK, that feels good and centering. I’m glad I did that.

Here’s the juices/smoothies that I had yesterday:

morning juice was interesting but tasty (this was the “I’m running out of everything so I’m just using what I have juice”): 4-5 leaves of kale, 1/2 lb local mesclun mix, 1 red bell pepper, 1 carrot, a little bit of fennel, 5 small apples from the tree.

in the afternoon, I had a taste of a delicious juice I made for a customer: 1 cuke, 1/2 lemon, 2 stalks celery, 2 granny smiths. YUM YUM - very refreshing!

my lunch smoothie: 1/2 head red leaf lettuce, 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 TBSP bee pollen 1 TBSP coconut oil, 1 heaping TBSP Vitamineral green, water.

my dinner was a big bed of red leaf lettuce and some kelp noodle heaven on top. (I kept the carrots and cabbage off but instead had a boat load of red onion slices on it and that was amazingly delicious!) Later on I had a piece of the lemon blondies as I wrote above. I drank some water and then went to bed early.

So we’re on day 2 of our next phase. I tell you it feels very easy to do this in comparison to a green juice fast/feast. We start out with a green juice, then in the afternoon have a big green smoothie and then in the evening have a light raw food dinner. Yesterday went smoothly although Matt and I both had the munchies after dinner. We split a coconut water between us and the sweetness of it seemed to curb the cravings.

Here we are on day two. We are running out of fruit for the juices so Matt went to gather some apples that fell from the tree. We used 1/2 lb mesclun mix, 6 leaves of kale, 1 thumb size piece of fresh ginger, 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1 container strawberries and 2 apples. It was a good juice and it was about 20 ounces each.

I exercised a bit after that and am about to make the smoothie. I did 5.5 miles on my stationary bike in 23 minutes on a random hill pattern. I got to sweating so that was good. Today I want to make some of those lemon blondies from LJs RAW FUSION RECIPES book because a small small bite of that would be a nice addition to what we are doing. We are doing low fat and those blondies are high fat, but definitely a good fat. We want to exercise more so we’ll be wanting a bit more macronutrients and well, for me, it helps me to feel like I’m not depriving myself when I have a kickass sweetie like that around. I was thinking about them last week during the fast. They are really delicious.

OK, I’m off to get dressed and make the smoothie.

OH! I also wanted to write that the whole family here had a very weird night’s sleep. I wonder if the full moon coming up here tomorrow is what has made the night so sleepless and then full of lucid dreaming. Anyway, I haven’t had a night like that in years, thankfully. It did, however, remind me of about 6 years ago when I habitually slept terribly, waking up in night terrors, etc. It was interesting to have the comparison and I’m grateful to sleep better now. When we have nights like this, I often wonder if others are as well… OK, I’m off!

Back again. Made the smoothie just like yesterdays. It is good and filling! It is so yummy to have these again. I love my green smoothies. p.s. I weighed myself and am 2 lbs lighter so that’s good news!

Ode to the Green Smoothie by Linda Wooliever

Oh how there never shall be
a green smoothie tastier than thee

(except, of course, until the next one.)

Today’s first Green Smoothie after the fast

• 2 bananas
• 1 container of fresh strawberries
• 2 TBSP bee pollen
• 1 TBSP coconut oil
• 1 head green leaf lettuce
• coconut water

Blend in the VitaMix and serve. This made 2 massively delicious green smoothies (2 quarts). ENJOY!

This is Day 1 of the next phase of our lil juice fasting experience. Yesterday, August 10th was day 10. We did (what turned out to be) the usual 16-20 ounce green juice in the morning, 24-32 ounce green juice at lunch time, a 16 ounce juice around 4:30 but what we did for dinner time was a small juice consisting of 1 big bunch of kale, 1 beet with greens, and 3 green apples. We drank a smaller 12 ounce juice each and all the while had kelp noodles soaking in lemon juice to soften them, I spiral sliced 1 zucchini to make zucchini pasta and I made a light local tomato marinara sauce.

After we let the juice rest for a short while, we made a small plate of zucchini and kelp noodle pasta with a couple dollops of the marinara sauce. Matt served the portions and I asked him to. I was too hungry to serve myself a proper portion. (Sometimes my eyes can get the better of me.) He used dessert plates and served out our dinner. We all sat at the dinner table and ate. There were a couple times I had to take little breaks and breathe because it tasted so delicious and I felt so hungry for it, that I could picture myself devouring it.

It was the perfect amount and it filled us up super well. I didn’t think that was going to be possible. I thought I was going to want seconds and thirds. My stomach was very satisfied. It was nice to chew food, too! I had wondered what we were actually going to break the fast with. I was thinking fruit first or possibly a simple soup. But I was drawn to the kelp noodles.

We talked how we were going to phase out of the fast and how we were going to continue on. All during the fast there was the desire to continue on. I like starting new life habits for a period of 21 days because it’s said that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. So for these next 11 days, we’re going to do green juices in the morning, a nice green smoothie in the afternoon and then a raw dinner. We’ll adjust if we need to as we also want to start more exercising to this program.

So this is Day 1 of the next phase of this endeavor. Wish us luck! I went to bed last night thinking it’s kind of fun to plan your life in 10 day increments!

I wanted to write on this blog the best yet savory green juice that Matt made up. Growing up in CA, he really has a knack for working with various hot peppers. This is what he and I came up with. I put the veggies that I wanted to juice and he worked out the proportions:

Day 9 kickass savory juice = hella yummy: 1 head escarole, 1/2 bunch kale, 1 small cuke, 1 red bell pepper, 1/2 bunch parsley, 3 cloves garlic, 2 jalapeno peppers, 2 pints cherry tomatoes, 3 carrots. This is divine. Made 2 quarts of juice. I think he also added a scallion or two in there and he definitely added a shot of Vital Heat and a dash of coconut aminos. It was a magical drink and it instantly squashed any cravings. We were happily full afterwards.

10 day juice fast gratefuls:

• I’m grateful to have released 11-12 lbs during our juice fast
• I’m grateful to feel SO awesome in my body
• I’m grateful to have so much inflammation gone from my body
• I’m grateful for the clarity of mind and the increased energy to do other things
• I’m grateful for the decluttering and organizing that seeemed to just happen during these 10 days. Even yesterday, instead of getting on the computer in the morning, I tacked the 2 big piles on my desk and filed away some and recycled way much more. I even paid some bills that were there.
• I’m grateful for all the shifts going on in my life, in my heart and in my mind. That’s the biggest part.
• I’m grateful for my body and for this experience.
• I’m grateful for my kids who did a great job to make themselves green smoothies and put together their meals so that I didn’t have to do too much of that.
• I’m just plain grateful. <3 <3 <3