Embracing My Health

Paul, my husband, sent an email to a work colleague who is battling cancer.  Here’s that email.  I’ll expound on each of his points below in posts to follow over the next few days, but this is a great introduction on how and why nutrition makes all the difference in our health – whether it be improved general well-being to battling disease.  So without further ado…   I present guest blogger: Paul Moment.

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DON’T let the final word on this cancer come from the doctors. Seriously. I strongly encourage you to, along with the doctors advice, take matters into your own hands and educate yourselves on alternatives and supportive regimes.

Specifically, raw food. Janece has been getting us into raw food and the anecdotal results are pretty startling. She just read me some stories tonight about raw food’s effect on cancer – specifically gynecological cancer and advanced leukemia in the stories we read. (Editorial note: These case studies can be found in Carol Alt’s The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle.)  In both cases the cancer was neutralized to the point of completely disappearing, while the body’s critical nutritional indexes skyrockets. We personally had a friend with a very aggressive brain tumor who extended her life expectancy from months to almost two years just with nutritional changes, even though she didn’t know about raw food. Again, these are all people with very very serious health issues and the scariest kinds of cancers.

Here’s why Donna (Editorial note: name changed) should strongly consider trying raw food:

1) Nutrition is literally who we are. The only thing our body has to build itself, maintain a internal environment conducive to energetic life, and battle disease is what we take in — food and vitamins. When food is cooked, the important enzymes, fats, and chemical makeup of the food are altered and depleted, leaving our body bereft of the vital compounds it needs for cell building and disease prevention. Cancers exploit damaged and weakened immune systems. An important way to hold back cancer is to build an unfriendly environment for it by increasing the body’s overall vitality. In addition to cancer-fighting, raw food also contributes to healthy hair and skin, reduction or elimination of allergic symptoms and even serious conditions like irritable bowel syndrome etc.

2) Doctors know shockingly little about nutrition and its medicinal importance. I heard a stat once that most doctors only take one nutrition course in their almost decade-long medical training, and most of their ongoing training is in drug therapies – chemicals that can further disable the body’s natural disease fighting abilities. I strongly believe (and I believe the evidence is clear) that food is medicine, and it’s a much more pleasurable medicine than the chemo that Donna is potentially facing. At the very least, I hope she will take it on as a vital part of supporting her return to health, and no doctor is going to tell her to not try and eat healthy during the next months.

3) Raw food contributes to a non-acidic internal composition. In the early 1900s a scientist (Dr. Otto Warburg) won a Nobel prize for his work on how cancer is starved off and rendered much less potent in alkaline blood environments. Meat, sugars, dairy and other foods contribute to highly acidic blood environments (which additionally contributes to systemic inflammation, also problematic) whereas plant-based foods are highly alkalized. This accounts for the startling results that cancer patients have experienced switching to raw food.

4) Raw food is more energy-generating. Raw food is not only rich in all of the vital nutritional compounds, but it also frees the body from taking its own resources to try and milk some nutrition from the food. Having strong nutritional support mitigates stress and anxiety, which I’m sure Jim and Linda are feeling in abundance.

5) Raw food is delicious. It’s pie, lasagna & raviolis, smoothies, juice, sashimi, raw cheese, and tons of other delicious food. I am/have been a meat and potatoes kinda guy, preferring that even to sweet stuff. When I first heard raw food, I imagined bitter skinny people chewing nuts, but it’s really delicious and deeply satisfying – way more than I would have imagined.

Janece and I have been seeing fundamental body results. The anecdotal and study evidence is very compelling. The resources to take on a raw food lifestyle are abundant and well-developed. It’s easy, delicious, quick-acting, and cheaper than drugs. If Donna introduced just raw juice cocktail and greens-based smoothies into her diet, that would be enormously beneficial.

I’m copying Janece on this. She is researching this pretty thoroughly and has a ton of important resources. We’d love to give you any support in this that we can. You have our email.  Janece also has a health blog called “Embracing My Health” – http://www.embracingmyhealth.com. A couple of books we’ve found helpful – “Green for Life” by Victoria Boutenko and ““Eating in the Raw” and “The Raw 50″ by Carol Alt.

I picked up The Raw Food Detox Diet from the library. Truthfully, the primary reason I chose this book was because it was the only raw food book in the library at the time.  Turned out to be the right first book for me.  It gave me a starting place to investigate raw food.  Over the last several months, I’ve been increasingly curious about eating raw food and its benefits.  I actually started in on eating some raw food in my day before I read this book.  As I read the book, I found out (lucky me!) that I started as I should… not too fast.  For most people, it’s wise to have raw food be a journey and not something you dive in, head first, into the deep end.  For most, it’s too much of a shock to the system and you’ll end up feeling sick, unhealthy and running away from anything resembling raw food.

Raw food is exceptionally good for you.  But when eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), our bodies are ready for the powerful nutrition, enzymes and detoxifying effects that raw food provides. My biggest take-away from this book: Green Lemonade! I start my day with by juicing a head of romaine, 5-6 leaves of dark green leaves like kale, collards spinach, or wild greens, 2 apples (usually Fuji), and a whole lemon. I vary the combination of these, mostly in what dark greens I use… but follow the general recipe. It is certainly unlike anything you’ve had before, but surprisingly tasty and addicting. And Natalia Rose asserts that you may feel the impact of drinking this on your health from the first day. I would agree. I did!

What I appreciate most about this book is a sense of rationality, of prudence and moderation.  She gets that moving towards our own individual personal health is a personal process.  What one person is ready for, another is not.  She’s gracious and flexible.  Exactly what anyone who is interested in raw food needs to hear.  For a long time, there were many who were not and militancy ruled.  The problem with militancy, it doesn’t woo or invite.   Most often, it sends people running the other direction.

There are times where her regimen for “quit exit” foods, what to combine and don’t combine, and when and how to eat your food throughout the day are daunting.  Don’t let that slow you done.   I’m still learning and I’m not doing everything she outlines to do… and I’m experiencing detoxification, increased health and energy and weight loss.  Every step we take toward more health, is just that… taking us to a place of increased health and well-being.  Our bodies are wonderful that way!

A quick mention regarding the recipes:  I do like the recipes in this book, although if you are going to be eating a fair number of raw meals… don’t plan on this being enough recipes to your menu diverse.

Overall, this is worth reading.  Pick it up at your library.  I checked it out, extended my check out period and then ultimately decided to buy it.  There are big chunks of this book that I’m not sure I agree with.  But, that said, it was a great first book for me to take me further into my raw food journey.

Recommendation: 4 out of 5 stars.

I’m LOVING my green juice breakfasts.  This morning’s breakfast: romaine, celery, parsley, spinach, carrot, apple and lemon.  Yum!

Good morning!  I’ve been offline here for nearly 2 months.  It’s been due to a combination of life events and this blog misbehaving.  But I’ve whipped the blog into submission and I’m back personally as well.  A quickie update.  Over the past two months, I gained back 12 pounds and have since lost 8 again when I realized I was slipping backwards both in my healthy habits and my weight loss goals.

My new numbers as of this morning:

Weight: 252
Height: 5′8″
BMI: 38.3

Measurements

Neck: 14.0 (-.5″)
Bicep: 15.0 (-.5″)
Forearm: 11.5
Chest: 48
Waist: 44 (-2.5″)
Hips: 49
Thigh: 26 (-2″)
Calf: 18 (.5″)

In posting my numbers, I noticed something interesting.  While my weight is 4 lbs higher than the last time I checked in 3 months ago – but my measurements are down!  I’m not certain that this is why – but I have changed my diet significantly over the last week.  If I had measured beforehand, I could have said that it was because of this change.  But since I didn’t, I don’t know for sure.

I’ve switched to eating a primarily raw diet.  I’m eating raw throughout the day with dinner being more traditional.  Today is day 6 of eating 80-85% raw.

More soon!  I hope many of you will find your way back here again after such a long silence on my end.

Embrace Love, Embrace Life, Embrace Your Health!

So, I was spoiled by a very good breakfast this morning. Quinoa flakes with ground chia seeds, fresh blueberries, bananas, sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of agave syrup and vanilla hempmilk. Sounds complicated as I type it out… but it was easy and yummy. Double bonus! – Amira loved hers too.

In all my reading, raw foods is something I haven’t delved into much. I’m just beginning to learn more about it’s benefits now. One of my breakfast recipes is perfect for raw diets though:

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• 4 cups rolled grains – my current blend has been 1 cup oats, 1 cup triticale, 1 cup wheat, and 1 cup rye. You can also use spelt, hulled buckwheat, hulled barley, etc. as well.
• 2 cups oat bran
• 1 cup sunflower seeds – I grind them, but you can put them in whole if desired
• 1 cup raw, unsalted nuts – I use raw almonds. I use slivered almonds and chop them up a little further.
• 1 cup lecithin granules
• 1/2 cup flax seed – I grind them, again, you could use them whole
• 1/2-3/4 cup chia seeds, ground
• 1 cup milk thistle seeds – ground
• 1-2 cups dried fruit, I’ve used goji berries (whole or ground), dried cherries, apples, apricots, raisins, etc. – You can use whatever dried fruit appeals.

Mix, then store in the refrigerator.

TO SERVE: Soak in milk* for 15-30 minutes before eating. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar.

(*You can use milk, soymilk, nutmilk, or water. We use hempmilk (a mixture of chocolate and vanilla flavors.)

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Paul & I both like this breakfast – it’s filling and leaves you feeling energized through the day. I need to come up with a grain combination that is gluten/wheat-free for Amira. I’ll have to experiment with that.

All in all, good day.