The Power of Greens
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| Making Juice in the kitchen of Girl Gone Raw |
On this path of a lifestyle change, I found myself at an
amazing cooking class last night. For Christmas, my sister gave me a cooking
class for a pressie. I’ve been playing with making healthy choices all of my
life when it comes to food. My aunt remembers me pulling out a pepper in church
as a kid to eat. I will admit that I do enjoy some fine chocolate from time to
time. Many years ago I was guided to go “cold
turkey” to give up Coke, M&M’s & chicken to name a few of the
things. Of course my friends look at me strange & love to tease me that I
don’t eat meat. Oh, I have some stories from Japan that are just making me
laugh right about now. It’s always been part of my path, I never liked the
taste of meat as a kid, but ate it anyways cos that was for dinner. I guess you
could say that I have been inspired by my travels, the growing wave of
vegetarians & veganism lifestyle changes too to pretty much adopt a vego
diet. Of course Sir Paul’s vegetarianism played a part too, with other artist
making the choice. But the Coast Maine girl of my youth hasn’t gotten rid of
the seafood. You got to be careful. I learned at an early age from my father
that “wild caught” is the right way
to go when buying seafood & to make sure that it’s always fresh. Being good
to the ocean is very important & to Mother Earth as well. Oh, I ended up at
this charming house on 81 Congress Street across the street from the Rosemont Market
in Portland to meet Elizabeth Fraser & to learn all about the beauty of
going raw or incorporating more raw goodness into my diet at Girl Gone Raw.
I didn’t realize that the amount of bread, pasta & fresh
baked chocolate chip cookies were actually some of the triggers for my
anxiety. I went to them as a form
of “comfort foods” to make me feel
better. I love the fresh smell of artisan bread from a bakery. It’s so
inviting. But when I went on an
intense detox a little after this time last year, those things became a thing
of the past for me. Acupuncture has helped me with my allergies very much but I
wanted to make sure to see what was really making me sick with crazy symptoms.
Coming back from Antarctica was my wake up call for me to seriously change the
way for many things. Was it my
hormones that was making me go crazy with my chakras out of balance, I kept on
questioning myself? As I have found out on this journey, I keep on shedding the
person who I used to be. I read this amazing book by Lama Surya Das Letting Go Of the Person You Used To Be
that really opened my eyes to the path that I was walking all along. Letting go
of what no longer serves me. Yes, there was time that I used to enjoy watching the Celtics play in the Garden, but that’s not me any more. Of
course, I’ll support them in a tournament, but I’m not one of those die heart
sport fans. I do enjoy watching surfing from time to time or a good footy match
(as in English football) or Irish rugby. I have seriously made a lot of changes
on many levels over the years. It’s about being healthy from the inside out. I
no longer fall asleep to the television like I used to do many years ago once I
realized that it did put a lot of negative thoughts into your subconscious mind
while sleeping. I’m not addicted to the television like I once was when I was
scared of the “present moment”.
Sadly to say that the America/Western diet lacks a lot of
things & we don’t eat a lot of the right stuff to help us. Food is energy
& it’s also medicine, the good medicine that gives cells energy to make you
seize the day. It makes you not feel sluggish once you eat the right items.
Popping pills to cure a disease or illness is not the way to go & become
addicted to them. It’s about making healthy choices on the path & breaking
obstacles that once served you, but no longer does the trick. Sad to say that
there are too many GMO’s & antibiotics in our culture that we eat along
with high process corn syrup, pesticides & chemicals in the food that is
available to us at the supermarket. Cheaper is not always better, spend some
time & money to invest in healthy foods. In time it will cut down on doctors visits & improve
your overall health. Studies have shown that dark leafy green vegetables are
the one of the most important foods that will optimize your health for the
better. Eat them for breakfast, lunch & dinner; be creative with them in
your meal prep. Greens are loaded
with minerals that include iron, calcium, potassium & magnesium. They give us so many benefits with
vitamins K, C, E & B that can balance your PH, contain Omega 3 Fatty Acids,
detoxified the blood from the chlorophyll, high in nutrients, powerful
antioxidants that support the immune system & they are high in nutrients
& enzymes. Get rid of the death foods that rob you of your health
& that means going to golden arch for a Big Mac, white bread, refined sugar
& cookies to name a few of the items.
I thought that I was going to get my inner chef groove on
like I did at SkyKitchen in Lima, Peru, but I didn’t it. I did
enjoy Elizabeth showing the steps & learning about the techniques like I
was sitting in the audience watching Julia Child cook. I did get to help out
with the destemming of the kale though for the kale salad. I learned a lot
about the benefits of juicing, making smoothies, massaging the kale with
dressing for the salad, using greens as wraps instead of tortillas & bread,
using chia seeds as a thickening agent, how to make kale chips in the oven
& dehydration techniques. There was a lot of food that I enjoyed eating
from juice, mint-choco-chia pudding, kale salad with tahini dressing, cashew
cilantro burgers, cucumber dill soup, collard wraps with almond butter & finished
with pistachio & basil mango nice cream. I definitely had a feast that was
enjoyable. I enjoyed meeting others on the path of healthy eating too. It was
very nice share our experiences with one another. I left the evening with a
full Buddha belly & felt amazing with all of the healthy food that I ate.
It reminded me of experiencing Cafe Gratitude
during one of my first visits to San Francisco. I believe that the original
location in the Mission is now closed.
Elizabeth’s small house on Congress Street is filled with so
much goodness from the beautiful paintings that she has painted that are for
purchase to the cooking lessons to the items that are for purchase. Smoothies Gone Raw by Elizabeth Fraser
& Maggie Knowles can be bought along with granola mix, kale chips & fruit
roll ups to name a few of the items. I hear that by the CVS in Munjoy Hill is
where the Portland Food Co Op store is going to be in a few months. They’re so
much food goodness in this small city that it’s taking off like the other
Portland on the Leftist Coast.
Channing my diet is just a way to manage the waves that I am
surfing. It’s all about raising my
vibration so I can attract the things that I want to in this lifetime. We are
all energy beings, learning how to raise them & get rid of blockages is
just my path right now. It’s about sailing my ship out of the safe harbor to
experience life to the fullest. Healthy eating choices are a must for me. I can
control my allergies & amnesty at a much more reasonable level than before.
Adopting ayurvedic techniques on health eating from not the perception of your
eyes to eating small meals only when I’m hungry. It’s all about taking care of
me from the inside out. I do
recommend a fun evening out at Girl Gone
Raw too. You never know what you’ll find once you leave the Hobbit Hole
& step foot on the adventure.
