Blog / fruit smoothie

Monday, January 28, 2013

Life is pretty full lately, with lots of changes and transitions coming. I've had many years of emotional eating under my belt and the last 10+ have been changing the pattern a bit. In some ways, I've come full circle: when I used to raid the fridge if I was experiencing sadness or anger or frustration, etc, now I find that I can't eat if I'm feeling a big emotion. That's both good and very foreign at the same time. It's good because I think this is how "normal" people react: they hear awful news and they can't eat until their insides are settled down. It's also very foreign: there is a loss of what to do when something big happens. I have many tools in my toolbelt and I'm still learning how to take inventory of mind/body/spirit when change happens or stress happens or excitement happens, etc. There's always much to learn and I don't think I'm totally out of the water yet for emotional eating. Since we got the big Vitamix order, I was super excited and stressed (good stress) to make sure we had all our ducks in a row. Coincidentally, I had had a physical/blood test that showed some hormones that were extremely low - almost not existant. Could be my age, and doc suggested I try DHEA to help bring some hormones back. I did a little bit of research on DHEA and found a full spectrum of information ranging from no bad side effects to terrible side effects. I did some experimenting with it and on the one hand, I felt more "myself" in my body and there were other things that happened too, namely: having difficulty sleeping, getting BIG pimples on my face and gaining weight. In retrospect, I can't say for sure if it was solely the DHEA that made me gain weight, or the stress of the big order, or the problems experienced in relationship. I recall that I felt pretty darn hungry when I was taking DHEA - I typically don't wake up very hungry, for example, and when I was taking DHEA, I was waking up pretty darn ravenous. Whatever it was (and probably a combination of the three), I put on weight - about 20 lbs, which is a lot. This has been the norm for me, though. It's been rather easy for me to put on and take off the same damn 20 lbs for the last 10 years. What a habit. I'm longing to break this. It's a mental and emotional habit, I'm sure of it. (My 20 lbs is like average size people's 10 lbs. I'm six feet tall, which is why I don't refer to myself as average size. So I mean to say where it is easy for some folks to gain/lose the same 10 lbs, for me it has been 20.) Anyway, I went off the DHEA after 3 months or so of being on it. The major difference is that I'm sleeping better and the mad pimples are gone. The weight, however, is still there. Holding on. The good news is that I'm doing strengthening exercises and using weights to try to up my testosterone naturally. I'm able to hold the plank pose (yoga pose) for well over a minute now! I do feel stronger and so my overall health and well-being is good. I don't, however, feel good when it's time to wear my clothes and I no longer want to have a "fat" wardrobe" and a "thin" one. So, it is time yet again to step into this eating pattern and weight-holding-habit and see what I can do to get down to a healthy weight AND STAY THERE LONG TERM! I'm going to be working with Lauren Walker with this, she does energy medicine and so much of this for me is like a habit in the mind/spirit. I eat very well and I exercise. There is the mind of a fat chick in there, though. And the mind of a non-deserving person. These are the things to work on. I've been contemplating this for a while now and it occurred to me that the last couple of weeks I've been pretty stumped about what I want to eat, how I want it to look like. In the past, when I felt the best, I did a green juice in the morning, a green smoothie in the afternoon and a BIG salad at night with some added cooked stuff like brown rice and some Rhapsody tempeh. It's time to reboot the system here - the salads at night have turned into more cooked than raw and ending with desserts. I've also been snacking on raw chocolate during the day and that's also not a good habit for me to get into. Recalling the 10 days or so of eating lots of fruit this past summer, I remember how attractive fruit is. I remember how nice it felt to eat fruit (I had so many guilty feelings associated with fruit from books and raw foodies in the past that I associated fruit as being BAD!) I tend to have to gear myself up to green juicing (don't ask me why) and so I thought I would start the day with a fruit smoothie today and see how that feels. In the Vitamix pitcher (64 oz), I threw in: 4 ripe bananas 3 mangoes 4-5 honey dates (FRESH! What a treat in January) 1 blood orange Whirled it around in the blender and then poured into 3 glasses: 2 16 oz glasses and 1 32 oz glass. I had the 32 oz glass. It was yummy and a light yellow color. Very pretty. Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have similar experiences and what things work for you to get out of your own way to living your best healthy life. (I'm referring to energy and mind/spirit aspects of food here please!!!) Love, Linda
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pain free, asthma free! plus a recipe, food deliveries and other raw food haps

Hello Good People! I hope this newsletter finds you well and happy. Things have been busy busy with our nut milk bags! May has been a wonderful month so far. We made our first delivery of our 12 x 12 hemp nut milk bags to Vita Mix in the middle of April and are just so excited about that. Vita Mix is a great company and we're totally thrilled to work with them. We're selling our nut milk bags to lots of people/companies/places and SOOO happy to offer high quality bags so people can make their own juices, nut milks, seed milks and easy sprouts. And let me honor them now: Cafe Gratitude, our first wholesale customer; Matt Monarch, VitaMix, SimplyRaw, Rainbow Grocers, Catch a Healthy Habit, the Green Umbrella, Raw New England Community, Essene Health Bread/York Raw Food Group, and loads of other individuals, groups, stores. In fact, I really need to put a page on the website with this to show our deep gratitude and support. Great news also is that we've found a source for biodegradable bags! So all our products will be in biodegradable packaging - not just our food! YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!! I have to tell you that I've had some serious spring fever (which is why you haven't heard from me in a month!) We've been having great weather (yay! Sunhine!) and I've been walking between 4-7 miles each day. This is major for me as even last year, I didn't have the ability to do this without great pain. I had an injury to my hip about 8 years ago and went to different health practitioners for it. One doctor told me that I was going to be in pain for the rest of my life. I said, "NO I'M NOT!" and went to a different doctor. In this past year, I've made great strides (literally and figuratively) with regards to my hip/leg pain and I'm WALKING AGAIN! I am so very grateful to have mobility, flexibility and to be pain-free, I can't even begin to tell you. For me the missing link was exercise and I can tell you that my *whole* self is happy to be doing this again. Other great news is that Matt's asthma is soooo gone! He's had asthma since he was a young kid and he said the other day that he's very happy to feel as if he has normal lungs again! This is great news. I always knew his lungs would be healthy and clear. This is a testament to the vegan diet - raw vegan with lots of healing greens. Low-fat, minimally processed, whole vegan foods. That's where it's at, baby! We're both just looking and feeling great and soooooo grateful in the process. Baby steps! This is a journey and it takes as long as it takes. It's all good stuff! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RAW FOOD HAPS THIS WEEK AND BEYOND • Raw food deliveries made to Hunger Mountain Coop and a St. J's Food Coop yesterday. .We now have our raw food in St. Johnsbury! Wonderful wonderful! They are even carrying my gRAWnola! Please support your local coops and ask for more raw food! • Our downloadable recipe book - over 70 smoothie, juices and soup recipes: http://vt-fiddle.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=52 • NEW IN STOCK: Healing Cancer from the Inside Out DVDs are here as well as their RAVE Diet books and EATING DVDs. This Mike Anderson guy is another guy that I'm happy is around doing what he's doing. Advocating for a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet is great. I saw his DVD on cancer and immediately wanted to support him. I've gotten calls and emails from people who want a copy for themselves, so I'm very happy to have that available for you. The China Study books are also in stock and are a must-read in my opinion... PACIFICA PERFUME, CANDLES AND LOTIONS ARE HERE!!! I'm sooooo excited for these. They smell great and the lotions are beautifully emolient. WiseWays Herbal products are also in stock! Sea Chi skin care products are here and are as gorgeous as ever!! And more new items are coming... Books and audio books by Dr. Joel Furhman as well as heavy duty 9-tray dehydrators in white. Please contact me if you are interested in getting any of these items. With everything we sell, items can be picked up or I can mail them to you. ALSO IN STOCK: Health Force Nutritionals, bulk nut butters, Artisana butters, Fruits of the Earth superfood powder, Maca Force Vanilla Spice, really raw oats, raw nori sheets, chia seeds, turkish mulberries, dandy blend, wasabi powder, kelp noodles, dandelion leek miso by south river, garlic red pepper miso by south river, Eating for Beauty by David Wolfe, Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie, Sun Warrior Biofermented Rice Protein powder (in natural and chocolate flavors), marine phytoplankton, lucuma powder, yacon slices, really raw cashews, artisana coconut butter, tibetan goji berries and Vitamix pitcher replacements. If you have an old vitamix blender, you might want to consider a new plastic pitcher to replace the one that was made with bpa plastic - it also comes with a new lid that stays on so your hand doesn't have to rest on top when you blend. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FUN THINGS TO READ

• What are pea shoots? (They're in my recipe below) Well Mister Peter Burke can tell you about soil sprouting and how to grow them yourself! He's the man! http://www.thedailygardener.com/snow-pea/

Matt has been updating the website: http://vt-fiddle.com/shop/index.php?main_page=products_new - althought this is tax week so bear with us... I updated the how-to use our nut milk bags pages:

http://www.vt-fiddle.com/rawfood/how_to_make_nut_milk.php - how to make nut milk http://www.vt-fiddle.com/rawfood/how_to_make_nut_milk.php#nut-mash - nut mash recipes http://www.vt-fiddle.com/rawfood/how_to_make_juice_with_nut_milk_bag.php - how to juice http://www.vt-fiddle.com/rawfood/difference_between_nylon_hemp_bags.php - pros/cons of using hemp vs nylon filtering bags http://www.vt-fiddle.com/rawfood/care_use_of_nut_milk_juicing_bag.php - care and use instructions The recipe page is up but doesn't yet look pretty so you'll just get a teaser on that one! :-p Also the sprout page will be updated SOON, when I come back from my little vacation... Please check out our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Worcester-VT/Vermont-Fiddle-Heads/63781489465?ref=nf - Become a fan and check out photos, events and notes. MM-kay? Also, check out the blog. It's pretty again! http://vt-fiddle.com/blog/

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AND NOW FOR THAT RECIPE So yesterday, I got a facebook message that someone wanted a heavy duty green smoothie. She wanted greens because I think she waas feeling under the weather. So this is what I made her (and Matt and myself.)

So Green it's Black Smoothie • 1 huge bunch pea shoots (check out link above to grow your own) • 2 bananas - very ripe • 3 shots wheat grass juice • 2 small pears • 1 rounded cup red raspberries • 1 rounded tsp VitaMineral Green (tons of greens, minerals, enzymes, probiotics) • 1 rounded tsp Spirulina (she said she wanted protein) • filtered water • 1 tsp agave (optional) In the VitaMix, place ingredients in the pitcher (you may have to pack the greens down) and fill with enough filtered water to fill to the 6 or 7 cup line. Blend for about 30 seconds or until everything looks to be very well blended. This will fill up almost the whole pitcher. Pour into your favorite glasses and enjoy! The red raspberries and the green greens make the smoothie turn very very dark in color. So it's not the prettiest smoothie ever but it's hella delicious and nutritious! TIP: Chew your drink and drink your food! Remember that digestion starts in the mouth and even though you are drinking, practice "chewing" your smoothie. Enjoy!

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Have a great week and Please contact me for information or other raw goodies (both bulk and prepared.) in joy and in health, Linda Vermont Fiddle Heads 18 Worcester Village Road Worcester, VT 05682 802-223-2111 802-408-1000 (fax) http://www.vt-fiddle.com P.S. Keep checking back on the shop. Adding products as we speak! http://vt-fiddle.com/shop/ P.P.S. Need some bulk food items? Or great reading/educational material? Hella awesome skincare products? We've got: Healing Cancer from the Inside Out DVD, Pacifica Perfume, Candles and Lotions, WiseWays Herbals, Sea Chi skincare, The China Study book, Joel Fuhrman books and audio, heavy duty dehydrators, new products by Health Force Nutritionals, really raw oats, raw nori sheets, chia seeds, turkish mulberries, dandy blend (a dandelion coffee substitute), wasabi powder, kelp noodles, dandelion leek miso by south river, garlic red pepper miso by south river, Eating for Beauty by David Wolfe, Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie, Sun Warrior Biofermented Rice Protein powder (in natural and chocolate flavors), marine phytoplankton, lucuma powder, yacon slices, really raw cashews, artisana coconut butter and goji berries. Please contact me if you are interested in getting any of these items. With everything we sell, items can be picked up or I can mail them to you.
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