End of Cleanse Day 4

Sunburger on Ezeikiel Bread (minus the crust)

My jaw and neck are a slight bit better today. Yesterday was hard only because of the pain, otherwise nothing really remarkable. I have been a little irritable lately… or maybe the whole rest of the world is just being more annoying than usual… or maybe its because this week is going to be insane trying to prepare to have family in town and throw a huge baptism/birthday part for Juels on Saturday, it will by far be the biggest party we’ve ever had at our house (40+ guests so far). AND I just check weather.com and saw that we’re supposed to have scattered thunderstorms all day. Its supposed to be an outdoor garden party and there’s no way we can fit 40 people in our tiny house, so pray for sun!!!

I’m having some trouble with the recipes I’d planned for this cleanse because Whole Foods was out of buckwheat groats, which I needed for several recipes and now my schedule is all messed up. I had to plan carefully because a lot of things need to be in the dehydrator for a day or more so I had to schedule the dehydrator for certain meals. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do now.

Here’s what I consumed today:
9:00 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
9:30-10.30 32 oz green smoothie
3:30 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
1:00 almonds
1:30 12 strawberries
1:45 banana
1:45-3:15 Spring Tea
2:30 raisins, 1 small sunflower/dried fruit bar
3:30 3 orange slices
4:30 32 oz green smoothie
6:00 green salad, sunburger (recipe below) on ½ slice Ezekiel bread topped with lettuce, 1 stuffed mushroom
8:00 banana
8:45-9:15 Spring Tea
10:15 2 grapefuits
11:15 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures, L.B.T. Caps


Sunburgers

By Ani Phyo, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen (http://www.aniphyo.com/)

2 stalks celery, chopped (about ¾ cup)
¼ cup yellow onion, chopped
½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp oregano, fresh or dried
1 cup sunflower seeds, ground
½ cup flax seeds, ground
½ cup filtered water

To make burgers, put all the ingredients in a bowl, adding the water last. Mix well. Form into balls and flatten into patties. If you’d like a firmer patty, dehydrate the burgers for 3 hours at 104 degrees and serve warm. Top burgers with sliced tomato and lettuce, and serve with your favorite raw bread and condiments.

My note: This is the 3rd time I’ve made these. The flavor is delicious, but I swore I’d never make them again because the texture, even after dehydrating 3-4 hours, is like canned dog food. I decided to give it one last try and dehydrate them longer to see if I could get them more the texture of a meat burger. I had them in the dehydrator 9 hours and they were WONDERFUL! Next time I think I may even go another 2-3 hours. My dehydrator tends to take longer than recipes say it should, so yours may be different as well. Just leave them in, flipping every few hours, until they’re to your liking. Enjoy!

End of Cleanse Day 3

Today was alright. The cleansing part, that is, keeping on schedule with all the herbs and such and eating right, has been pretty easy. Tonight I had a lot of pain in my upper neck and jaw muscles. I’m no stranger to that, that is where my pain has been centered for the past 17 years. I’m hoping the reason the pain is so intense there is because that is what I am eliminating. I’m fighting the urge to take Ibuprofen. I used to take 9 a day just to take the edge off the pain. I haven’t taken even 1 in at least 6 months that I can think of. I know that if I take it it will halt the detoxification process and cause me to need to take it again… and again, and again. I’ve come a long way in eliminating the pain. Most of the time its strong tension, up the back of my neck, around to my jaw and up my ear. It is typically worse on the right. I’ve got constant or frequent pain in other areas, but I don’t notice them often because of the pain in my neck and face. All night it felt like my head weighted a ton and was crushing down on the back of my neck. My jaw felt incredibly tight and swollen and throbbing. Now (halfway through the next day) the pain is still there and has moved across my eyes. My eczema is driving me crazy itching so bad. For a day it was flaking off and I thought it was improving, now it’s back to just hard dry itchyness. Anyway, I didn’t sleep well at all last night, then woke up late today and was an hour and a half late for church. When I walked in Kolby asked me if I was okay, apparently it looked like I’d been crying. I guess the combo of allergies, rashes all around my eyes, and the minimal amount of makeup I put on them didn’t make me look so hot.

I’ve reached a point that I do in all my cleanses where I want to go on cleansing forever. I see progress and in a lot of ways I feel so good I don’t ever want to mess it up again. I don’t know yet if I will go back to eating any cooked food besides the occasional steamed vegetables. I don’t want to. I really want to be 100% raw for the rest of my life. But the Boca burgers have been calling me! Blast you Boca!

I tried to do the gall bladder flush tonight. That was the part of the cleanse I’ve been dreading and terrified of for the past 2 months. At bedtime you drink a combo of fresh garlic and ginger with olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I don’t like a lot of lemon juice. I gag at the smell and taste of olive oil. And I can’t eat raw garlic or ginger because I can’t handle spiciness at all. I also gag at the smell and taste of ginger. So I knew it would be tough. After tasting a few sips I added fresh squeezed orange juice, as recommended in the instructions, for flavor. Didn’t help much. Then I added some water. That helped a little, so I added some more. After a few more sips, and gags, and burning of my lips and tongue from the lemon juice, I added some pure maple syrup. The Master Cleanse (google it) is a similar concoction and it uses maple syrup. I was trying to think of something to balance the flavors. There was sour, spicy, and fat (oil), but no sweet. The syrup helped quite a bit, but after 40 minutes I only had about a quarter of it down and I was really feeling like I might vomit. So I left it at a quarter dose, layed down on my right side like the instructions said, and drank my tea which made my mouth feel better but I was nauseous for quite a while and kept burping these huge monster burps. I could say that it was an awful experience and I just can’t get the drink down so I’ll just have to have a toxic gall bladder for the rest of my life, but I don’t go down like that. It was a first attempt. There will be more. My will to be healthy is extraordinary. There is nothing that can stop me. I WILL get that drink down. The only reason I didn’t keep forcing it down until I threw it up was that I wanted to keep as much of it down as possible, so I figured it would be better to keep down ¼ than it would be to spend an hour gagging just to lose it all. I plan to try again tonight or the next. I had originally planned to take the flush every other night of my cleanse, but I’m thinking this may have to extend well beyond the cleanse before I get it right. I don’t feel like I’ve failed, I feel like I’m learning, and this is only the beginning.

Here’s what I consumed today:
8:15 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
8:30-9:30 32 oz green smoothie (same as yesterday)
10:45 almonds
11:00 Spring Tea
11:15 orange
Lemon Cream Pie
11:45 3 slices cantalope
12:15 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
1:00 strawberries
1:30 Namaste Tea
2:30-3:00 32 oz green smoothie
3:45 4 lettuce wraps with raw chkin salad
4:30-6:45 Spring Tea
6:00 orange
6:45 green salad with veggies
Cilantro-Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe below)
7:30 Herb Tinctures
7:45 orange
8:15 G.I. Gel, Herb Tinctures
10:00 apple
10:15 L.B.T. Caps
10:50-11:30 ¼ dose gallbladder flush
11:30 Namaste Tea

Cilantro-Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms
From: Raw Food for Dummies

16 large crimini or button mushrooms
¼ cup Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce)
1 ½ cups broccoli florets
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 TBS cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
2 TBS nutritional yeast (find it in the bulk bins at Whole Foods)
½ cup raw walnuts
3 TBS pine nuts
¼ cup red onion, peeled and chopped
1/8 tsp sea salt, or to taste
¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)
½ cup celery, cut into 1/8 inch cubes


1. Remove stems from mushroom caps and set aside.
2. Pour shoyu into a bowl and roll mushroom caps around in it to coat. Arrange caps on a plate and either set aside or, if dehydrating, put plate in a dehydrator at 105 degrees for 20 min.
3. Pour remaining shoyu into the bowl of a food processor with mushroom stems, broccoli, cilantro, olive oil, nutritional yeast, walnuts, pine nuts, onion, salt, pepper, and cayenne (if using). Process on high speed for 40-60 seconds or until a uniform pate forms (some chunks are okay). Transfer mixture to a bowl.
4. Add celery to pate and stir well.
5. Scoop pate into mushroom caps, forming a rounded top. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a glass or plastic container with a tightly closed lid. Mushrooms will keep in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 days.

Variation: Use crimini mushrooms if you like the earthy flavor of mushrooms and can find them in a large size. If you prefer a milder mushroom, get button mushrooms. Small mushrooms work great too, but you’ll need twice as many.

End of Cleanse Day 2

Today was much easier. Not that yesterday was particularly hard, I just felt like I was forcing water and herbal drinks down like crazy. I was actually gagging on water halfway through the day. And the tea was worse. I’ve never liked tea anyway, it just isn’t enjoyable to me. I’ve only ever used it medicinally and then I have to really force it down. But today was good. I kept thinking I was forgetting to take stuff and checking my daily checklist, but I was right on track. It just seemed too easy in comparison to yesterday. Maybe my body is just adjusting to the large amounts of fluids or something. I’ve never been great about getting in enough fluids so my body doesn’t really know what to do when it’s well hydrated. I didn’t get much sleep last night between the dog acting crazy and waking me up over and over, the baby waking up about every 30 minutes fussy and congested and wanting to nurse, and having to pee at least once an hour. So I am tired today, and I have a little bit of a headache tonight. Today was crazy busy. Its 9:30 and this is the first time I’ve sat down except to eat dinner. Speaking of which , I’m VERY excited about today’s recipe! Today was a breakthrough day. For 9 ½ months I’ve been trying recipes only to be disappointed over and over. Normally I consider anything that doesn’t make me gag a success. But today’s recipe was DELICIOUS! I now have 1 meal item on the menu that the kids and I really enjoy eating. Yay! Also, today was mine and Kolby’s 5 year anniversary! We didn’t get to spend much time together because we were so busy so that was a bummer, but we are very excited to have made it 5 years and look forward to the next 55!

Here’s what I consumed today:

8:15 G.I. Gel & Herb Tinctures
9:15-11:00 32 oz green smoothie (red leaf lettuce, frozen strawberry, pineapple, mango, and peach) (as outlined below)
11:30 orange
12:00 Herb Tinctures
12:00-12:30 Namaste Tea
12:15 blackberries, 3 oz
12:30 G.I. Gel
1:00 raisins
1:30 almonds
1:45-3:00 32 oz green smoothie
3:30 banana
4:45 4 black mission figs
5:15-6:30 Spring Tea
6:00 chkin salad wraps (recipe below)
4 asparagus spears with olive oil, garlic powder, and sea salt
“Easy As Pie” Cool Lemon Cream Pie (recipe below)
7:00 canatlope
8:00-9:00 Spring Tea
8:00 3 bites Lemon Cream Pie (Behn didn’t finish his second piece, lucky me!)
9:30 G.I. Gel & Herb Tinctures
10:00-11:00 Namaste Tea
10:00 red grapes
11:00 L.B.T. Caps
12:00 banana

Raw Chkin Salad
I found this recipe online, its AMAZING, and I don’t know who to credit it to : ( Sorry to whoever wrote this!

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (soaked 3 hours)
1/2 cup cashews (soaked 3 hours)
1/4 cup gound pecans
2 inch piece of cucumber
1 tablespoon onion (I used 3 green onions, bulbs and greens chopped)
1/2 celery stick
½ carrot
1 teaspoon dill
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
half a lemon's juice (I used a quarter)
1 teaspoon salt
lots of ground black pepper

Directions:Pulse all together. It should be a finer texture than regular tofu chicken salad. That helps it to stick together. No need to add water if it seems it won't stick. The cucumber and nuts and carrot should release water after it sits. This is delish! Add to your fav raw bread! Keep in fridge for a week. Makes: 2-4 servings

My note: I spread this on lettuce leaves and rolled them, it was sooo good! The kids had there’s on Ezekiel bread with lettuce. You could also serve this on raw or whole grain crackers (depending on where you are in your transition).


“Easy As Pie” Cool Lemon Cream Pie
From Carol Alt’s book The Raw 50

Handful of cashews
Handful of raw almonds (I used 2 handfuls)
Handful of pitted dates
2 TBS raw carob powder (I omitted this, the only way to get raw carob is to order it online)
1 ripe banana
½ cup shredded raw coconut, unsweetened and unsulphered
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS flax oil

Combine the cashews, almonds, dates, and carob poder in the food processor and finely chop until the mixture is crumblike. Add purified water by the teaspoon until the mixture sticks together. Dump the crumbs into a glass pie plate and press onto the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. (My note: It doesn’t need to go all the way to the top of the pan, this is a shallow pie.)
Place the crust in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.
While the crust chills, combine the banana, coconut, lemon juice, and flax seed oil in a blended and whir until the texture is smooth and creamy. Fill the pie shell with the mixture, then refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. Serve cold, cut into wedges. My note: I don’t have a food processor so I used my Vitamix. The dough didn’t turn out crumbly, more like paste (which is why I added the extra almonds, it was a little too sticky). I also ground up a small handful of almonds and sprinkled them in the pie pan before I put the dough in to keep it from sticking.

End of Cleanse Day 1

Drinking my morning tea

Caesar Salad with Sprouted Grain Croutons







I feel like I drank an ocean. I wouldn’t be surprised if my pores suddenly sprung leaks and water just started shooting out of me in all directions. I must have peed like a zillion times the past 3 days. And I’m nauseous. The first half of the day was pretty easy, but now I’m exhausted (its 11:30 at night and I needed to be asleep an hour ago) and I just feel sick all over. I’m just trying to remind myself that this is good, this means its WORKING. Before I started this cleanse I’d thought about how disappointed I would be if I just breezed through it without conflict. That would be bad. That would mean I’m not actually eliminating anything. I’m drawing from my experience with childbirth. When a woman feels her contractions getting stronger she’s inclined to tense up and get scared. I believe that’s counterproductive. I welcome strong contractions. The stronger they are the more my body is working for me and my baby. The stronger they are the more assured I am that everything is going perfectly and safely. The stronger they are the closer I am to holding my baby in my arms. So I’m trying to think that the more sick I feel the more my body is getting what it needs. These are only symptoms of detoxification. They are good. I am welcoming them. I don’t need these toxins any more. Its time to let go. Its amazing what we hold on to. Anger. Regret. Sickness. Fear. People. Sorrow. We don’t need these things. They build up in our bodies and sicken us at a cellular level. They fester and rot and breed disease. They kill us. Just let go of what you don’t need. If it isn’t serving a positive purpose, then you don’t need it.





I did jump the gun and start today off with an enema, which wasn’t in the plan until tomorrow, but I’m glad I did. When people hear the word enema they tense up. Why is that? I’ve been pondering it lately. Why are we so afraid of our anus’s? They are just as much a part of us as any other part. We should love ourselves from top to bottom, inside and out. No wonder colon cancer is so common. I’d be willing to bet it has a lot to do with the feelings we have toward that area of our bodies. When you think colon, or anus, what do you think? Shame, stink, poop, embarrassment, the unknown, darkness, immorality? Let’s be honest about it. What’s the deal? What’s keeping you from knowing yourself and loving yourself completely? I was terrified to do an enema. I put it off for years. I did my first one a few weeks ago. I was on the bathroom floor shaking before I did it because I was so scared. I don’t really know what I was so scared of… the unknown I suppose. But really there’s nothing to be afraid of at all. Enemas have been done since ancient times. A trend that has lasted that long must have some miraculous benefits! We really do need enemas, or better yet colonics (if you can afford them). Our health is too important to let the unknown scare us away from something so essential. I would recommend you do 2-4 enemas before you start a cleanse just to get the hang of it and to let go of your fears, if you have them. The idea of cleansing is to care for yourself, not to enter into some freaky world of unexplored sphincters and witch brewed tinctures. It took me a few tries to get an effective enema, and for that reason alone it’s a good idea to have a few practice runs. Once you try it you won’t be sorry. You have nothing to lose. I mean really, what’s the worst that can happen? You poo on the floor? So clean it up and try again. As they say, “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” And fruit is good!





Here is what I consumed today:
6:30 G.I. Gel
7:15 Herb Tinctures
7:30-8:00 Spring Tea
8:15-9:45 32 oz green smoothie (romaine, frozen strawberry, pineapple, mango, and peach) (as outlined below)
9:15 Blackberries, 6 oz
9:45 2 bananas
10:30-11:00 Namaste Tea
11:00 Orange
11:45 7 oz green smoothie
12:00 Herb Tinctures
12:30 G.I. Gel
1:00 Strawberries
1:30 raisins
1:45 almonds
3:15 red grapes
3:45-4:14 Spring Tea
4:45 banana
5:30 Caesar Salad with Sprouted Grain Crutons (recipe below)
6:00 Orange
7:15 almonds
9:30 Herb Tinctures
10:00 G.I. Gel
10:30 red grapefruit
11:00-11:30 Namaste Tea
11:30 L.B.T. Caps8:30-9:00 32 oz green smoothie





Caesar Salad

1 large bunch spinach (I forgot to buy it so I used mixed baby greens)
1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup raw pumpkin seeds, ground
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed (I used garlic powder)
½ lemon, juiced
½ - 1 tsp prepared Dijon mustard (you can make this raw, I used bottled)
2 TBS extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
dash Celtic sea salt
sprinkle freshly ground white pepper

Place spinach/greens and tomatoes in a bowl. Grind pumpkin seeds and sprinkle over greens (this is the substitute for the Parmesan you’d find in conventional Caesar salad). In a small bowl combine garlic, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour over spinach/greens and toss well.
Serves 2. Best eaten immediately.





How I made the croutons:I just took a few slices of Ezekiel bread (sesame flavor, because that’s what I had on hand). Ezekiel bread is a live sprouted grain bread that is cooked at a low temp to preserve nutrients as well as possible. It isn’t raw, but it is superior to other breads as it is “live” and contains no flour or sugar. It makes a great transition food, or an occasional treat. The cinnamon raisin lightly toasted with coconut oil is like a dessert! Anyway, I took a few slices and spread a thin layer of coconut oil on both sides. Then I sprinkled dried parsley, garlic powder, and sea salt on both sides, pressing it into the oil with my butter knife to get it to stick. After that I cut the bread into crouton-sized squares and put them into the dehydrator for about 5 hours. They were delicious on the salad!

End of Pre-Cleanse Day 2

Behn modeling his raw Pad Thai

Another day down. I felt amazing the first half of the day, then I crashed. I don’t know if it was the fact that my boys woke me up super early this morning, or if it was because my allergies went crazy when Kolby was mowing the lawn, or maybe I let my blood sugar get too low, or it could have been detox symptoms… but I just got so super tired and fuzzy headed and just wanted to crawl into a womb. Regardless, I’m feeling better now, just tired.

I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow, excited to start the deep cleansing. Of course I’m a little nervous, you never know what detox symptoms will come your way, but luckily they are typically quick to pass. I’ll need to keep that in mind over the next few days.

Here is what I consumed today:

7:30 G.I. Gel
8:15-9:30 Green smoothie, as outlined below (frozen strawberry, mango, pineapple, and peach with shredded unsulphered, unsweetened coconut, and spinach)
9:45 organic red delicious apple
10:45 raisins
11:15 orange
12:00 1-1/2 stalks of celery with raw almond butter
1:15 green grapes
1:30 1 raw flax pancake with blueberry syrup
3:00 almonds
4:15 banana
4:45 10 oz green smoothie (same as above)
6:00 5 spears lightly steamed asparagus with organic cold-pressed olive oil, garlic, and sea salt and raw Pad Thai
9:00 ½ red grapefruit
10:00 ½ cup peppermint ice cream (raw and vegan)
10:45 banana

I realized today I didn’t note my water intake for yesterday, and I’m not done drinking yet tonight, so I’ll just say that I did drink more than my goal yesterday and I’m sure I’ll meet my goal before I go to bed tonight as well. I also didn’t take my L.B.T. caps yet, but I will.


Here is today’s recipe:

Pad Thai

Serves 4-5

1/2 head lettuce, shredded (I used red leaf)
1 large handful bok choy, shredded
2 daikon radish, grated
1 large handful shitake mushrooms, chopped
1 large handful fresh green beans, chopped
1 large handful bean sprouts
2 red chili, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed (I used garlic powder because my kids don’t like spice)
2 TBS sesame oil
1 TBS raw agave nectar
2 TBS Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce)
8 TBS cashews, chopped
Make a bed of shredded lettuce and bok choy on each plate. Place all of the rest of the ingredients, except the cashews, in a bowl and toss to coat. Pile on top of the lettuce beds. Top with cashews.

End Of Pre-Cleanse Day 1

Todays recipe: Flax Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup

A typical dinner at our house, isn't it beautiful?? I'm learning there's no such thing as "just a salad."

I woke up this morning 1 pound lighter and 2” smaller around my waist, so I would say pre-cleanse day 1 was a great success! 1 pound at my size is a lot of weight, and I would have been happy with 2” from the entire cleanse. Of course, I’ve cleansed before, I know how it goes. The first few days you drop weight fast and then the middle part moves very slowly, usually dropping more the last 2 days. It’s that middle part that’s so hard. That’s when all the cravings hit and your not seeing fast results like you did at first.

Big announcement, yesterday was my FIRST EVER 100% raw day!!!! I hadn’t really intended to do it, I just started out the day so well I decided to see if I COULD do it, and I did! I didn’t miss cooked food at all. I am shocked!

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. My husband is in Chiropractic school and didn’t do well on one of his finals, so he may be expelled from school and not allowed back. This is a BIG deal considering we are 3 years into our Chiropractic school journey and should he be expelled for good we would be left with a tremendous amount of debt and no means to pay for it. It’s pretty scary. Still, I told him when we first met that he looked like a Chiropractor (he was working toward becoming an M.D.), I knew then that is what he’s meant to do and I know it now more than ever. So I will continue to pray and have faith, and your prayers would be greatly appreciated as well. He has worked so unbelievably hard at school and trying to support our family. He is a wonderful man and deserves so much to succeed in school. Once he graduates I have no concerns really. He managed a Chiropractic office for several years and has done countless screenings. He knows how to run a practice and he can adjust as well as anyone at his level, he just needs to pass these darn science classes!

So here is what I consumed yesterday:

6:45 G.I. Gel
8:30 4 slices orange
9:00-10:30 32 oz blueberry/strawberry/spinach green smoothie (as outlined below)
9:30 2 bites banana
11:00 orange
12:15 1/3 large cantaloupe
1:00 ½ cup raisins
1:30 almonds
2:15 8 oz green smoothie
3:00 red pear
4:30 almonds
5:00 2 raw flax pancakes with blueberry syrup
6:30 large (dinner plate sized) salad (organic mixed baby greens, avocado, tomato, cucumber, red pepper, fresh squeezed lemon juice)
8:15 G.I. Gel
9:00 red grapefruit
9:30 L.B.T. caps
10:00 green grapes


The reason I like to include everything I’m eating here is that people frequently ask me what I eat. As in, “You don’t eat anything cooked??!! What DO you eat then?!” I say raw fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds, but even I have to admit that sounds rather sad and empty… people really don’t realize what an abundance that is. Not only are there THOUSANDS of varieties of fruits and veggies in the world, as well as many varieties of nuts and seeds, but using those as ingredients you can make an unlimited number of delicious raw creations. Even if you’re not into the raw culinary arts, just eating plain fruits and veggies you could try a new one every day of your life and still never come close to trying them all! People automatically will say, “I couldn’t go without my sugar!” What they don’t realize is there is a whole world of healthy raw desserts to enjoy.

So here is the recipe for today:

Flax Pancakes

1-½ cups ground flax seeds (I grind mine in a coffee grinder, or you can buy pre-ground)
2 TBS coconut oil
1 banana, mashed
sea salt, to taste
cinnamon, to taste (I just put in a sprinkle)

Combine well in a bowl. Shape in to small 3” pancakes and place in dehydrator at a low temp until they reach your desired dryness. I did about 8 hours and they were a little too dry. I think 4-5 hours would have been better in my dehydrator. Serve with a little pure maple syrup or blueberry syrup (recipe below).
Makes 9 pancakes.


Blueberry Syrup

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen and defrosted)
2-3 dates, soaked for a few hours
juice squeezed from 1 orange
½ vanilla bean, scraped (or ½ - 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla flavor)

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. You can pour over pancakes like this, or pour onto a dehydrator sheet and place in the dehydrator for the last hour and have warm pancakes with warm syrup.

Feeling great and looking forward to pre-cleanse day 2!!!!

Why Would You Want to Cleanse Your Colon?

Well, besides the little bit I shared below about colon cancer, there are many reasons. Here is a fantastic article:
http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/colon/Journey-to-the-Center-of-Your-Colon/
I HIGHLY recommend all of Dr. Tim O’Shea’s articles and seminars. To check out his articles on other topics, click on “chapters” to the left.

For those of us who are more visual, here are some photos of what is stuck inside you, giving you headaches and gas and all kinds of issues, blocking your intestinal walls from absorbing nutrients from the food you eat:
http://www.blessedherbs.com/bh/colon_testimonials

We clean all kinds of things. Our toilets, our dishes, we change the oil in our cars… considering we put A LOT of gunk into our bodies voluntarily, and also a lot of nasty stuff gets in there from air we breath, the water we bathe in, etc. doesn’t it just make logical sense to clean out our bodies out on a regular basis?

Cleanse Outline

So here is the outline of what I will be doing over the next 11-days, for those who are curious.

This cleanse consists of 2 pre-cleanse days, 7 cleanse days, and 2 post-cleanse days.

On the pre-and post-cleanse days I will be eating as much raw as possible 95-100%. No raw chocolate. Lots of greens, especially blended.
I will consume:
- 32 oz green smoothie with Sun Is Shining, DHA/Flax oil, 2000 mcg B12, and 200-400 mcg Chromium Polynicotinate
- G.I. Gel, 1 TBS (first thing in morning)
- G.I. Gel, 1 TBS (afternoon, empty stomach)
- 2-3 L.B.T. (lower bowel tonic) caps at bedtime
- 64+ oz water (which is half of my body weight in ounces)

On my cleanse days I will consume:
- 32 oz green smoothie (as outlined above)
- 32 oz green smoothie with Sun Is Shining
- G.I. Gel, 1 TBS on empty stomach
- G.I. Gel, 1 TBS on empty stomach
- G.I. Gel, 1 TBS on empty stomach
- Herb Tinctures from kit, 2 droppersful of each in water
- Herb Tinctures from kit, 2 droppersful of each in water
- Herb Tinctures from kit, 2 droppersful of each in water
- Spring or Namaste Tea (by The Herbalist), 1 cup
- Spring or Namaste Tea (by The Herbalist), 1 cup
- Spring or Namaste Tea (by The Herbalist), 1 cup
- Spring or Namaste Tea (by The Herbalist), 1 cup
- L.B.T. caps, 2-3 at bedtime
- 64+ oz water

On my cleanse I will do:
- Upon waking: dry brush, Jojoba oil massage (let soak 5 mins), hot/cold alternating shower
- One or more of: pilates, yoga, deep stretching
- Nature Walk and/or aerobic exercise
- Deep Breathing outdoors
- At bedtime: hot bath followed by foot pumice, jojoba oil massage

Alternating days:
- At bedtime: gall bladder flush
- Upon waking: enema (alternating catnip and cider vinegar water)

I will be blogging daily what I consumed, ate, and did. I will also be trying a new raw recipe each day so stand by for reviews and recipes! Also, I’ll be posting before and after pics and measurements on the 30th.

If you’re curious about any of the products in my cleanse you can find them at the following web addresses:

Detox-It Kit
http://www.theherbalist.com/detox-it_kit.php

Spring Tea
http://www.theherbalist.com/mineral_spring.php

Sun Is Shining
http://www.sunfood.com/buy/1/85/7/Sun-Is-Shining---Green-Superfood--raw--organic---wildcrafted-ingredients-/0441.aspx


And here is the cleanse I REALLY want to do, but can’t afford! Lol

Digestive Cleanse
http://www.sunfood.com/buy/5/117/24/EJUVA-Herbal-Intestinal-Cleanse/0292.aspx

Yeast Cleanse
http://www.sunfood.com/buy/5/117/365/EJUVA-CANDI-NOT-Anti-Candida-Program/0378.aspx

Parasite Cleanse
http://www.sunfood.com/buy/5/117/366/EJUVA-PARA-NIX-Anti-Parasite-Program/0379.aspx

Also www.blessedherbs.com has what looks to be a good one.

A Few Words Before I Cleanse

I’ve done cleanses before. A couple, maybe 4 or 5, Isagenix cleanses, a yeast cleanse, and a parasite cleanse. But it’s been almost a year since my last one (which was a 30-day Isagenix cleanse), and I haven’t done one quite like this before. For this cleanse I will be using a kit from The Herbalist (www.theherbalist.com) called the Detox-It Kit, which is for the digestive tract, liver and gall bladder, adrenals, and hormone balance. I will also be doing gall bladder/liver flushes and enemas, as well as healthy practices like yoga, aerobic exercise, deep breathing, dry brushing, etc. These things are all very new to me!

Why this cleanse? All of my pregnancies have been hard, but this last one really tore my body up. My last child was born in November of 2008 and since then my health has really not been good. During that pregnancy I discovered I was hypoglycemic, rather severely, and am still very much struggling with that. I was swollen all over for almost a year after he was born. For about 6 months I couldn’t walk up the stairs in our house because my knees hurt so bad and were so swollen. I topped out at 190 lbs. I was just plain sick all of the time. Most of the time I can’t even drive my kids anywhere because I have random bouts of dizziness, they come out of nowhere and can last for up to a day. I used to have little black outs too, but haven’t had one of those in a while, maybe 5 months or so. Because of all of this (if you haven’t read previous posts) I began transitioning to a raw vegan diet about 8 months ago. I’ve lost about 68 pounds and my health has been improving, but I feel like I’ve hit a wall. I’m still having a lot of digestive issues, which I have had since my baby was born. At any given time I can hear and feel gas moving around and it comes it without warning wherever I am… how embarrassing! My bowel movements (btw if you don’t want to hear about bodily functions you’re listening to the wrong girl) are indicative of liver toxicity. Hypoglycemia is caused by digestive and gall bladder problems. I’ve been told by several healers that my gall bladder is very toxic, though I’ve yet to have an attack (knocking on wood). I have also heard that a woman who has had multiple pregnancies should always do gall bladder flushes, that they use to take women right to the OR for gall bladder removal after the birth or her second child because gall bladder problems in multigravida women are so common. Despite eating a raw food diet I am still tired most of the time and having trouble staying asleep at night. My fibromyalgia symptoms have improved some but I am still in pain (muscle tension and pain is a common symptom of colon issues). I guess in general I feel I should be moving forward in health with my diet, but I’ve stayed the same for months. Also, my body is a size 2, except my midsection, which is a size 10. That’s not normal or right or healthy! That alone tells me there are issues going on in there. The average person has 10-15 lbs of fecal matter stuck and rotting in their colon. I’d like not to have that in there. The fact that my uncle died of colon cancer just a few short weeks ago gives me all the more reason to begin chipping away at all the sludge I’ve put into my body my whole life now, before its too late. Colon cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death by cancer in this country. Someone dies from it every 9.3 minutes. I am not going to one of those people, are you? The choice is yours.

This cleanse is for my Uncle Gene. I promise you the pain you suffered will not be in vein, because I will take what I know and teach those who want a better life for themselves so that they will not have to endure the same pains, and I know that you’ll be there to guide me. I love you and miss you so much, and am so grateful for the man that you are, for the impressions you left on me, and more than anything for the times you stood up for me when no one else had the guts. Thank you!

Falling Into Myself, and In Love With Yoga

It’s so rare that a get a quiet moment to just let go and exist within myself. I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I felt awful. After 3 bouts of diarrhea, my first attempt at an enema (for some reason I felt my body begging me to give it a try at 2 am), and almost 5 hours of being too tired to stay awake but too uneasy to fall asleep, I finally did. So when the family woke up for church I was finally enjoying some restful sleep. As a result I was gifted 3 hours of “me” time.

I started the morning off with a green smoothie (as usual) and another attempt at an enema, which went much better than the first one. I was terrified to try an enema and have been avoiding it for many years. Those first attempts were approached with nervous shaking and nausea. I’m delighted to say now that they really aren’t bad at all, and not half as humiliating as one might think. So there is hope that I will be able to get through my upcoming digestive cleanse and perhaps ease some of my fibromyalgia symptoms and get rid of this monstrous gas that has been plaguing me, humiliating me in public, and causing stabbing pains in my abdomen for the past year and a half.

After that I decided to re-attempt yoga. I first tried yoga when I was about 15. I must have gotten the wrong video for a beginner because the man in it was flying through the poses and I seriously didn’t know which way was up. Attempt number two, I was bout 19 and tried a Kundelaini yoga video with my best friend, which of course ending up being mostly fits of laughter and mocking the “breath of fire.” Good times, for sure, but not exactly contusive to spiritual awareness. I tried it once again about 6 months ago to a show I saved on DVR, but I didn’t have the foam blocks I needed to do all the poses and I wasn’t strong enough to hold them for more than a few seconds, but I did love standing balanced in the prayer pose and felt very calm and energized afterward. Today I had two Kundelani yoga shows saved on DVR. I glanced through them both and the second one was for spinal health and digestive strengthening, so I decided to give it an honest shot. I was still very weak, and for sure I couldn’t do all the poses exactly like I was supposed to, but I was a good sport. At the end she had you lye on your back completely relaxed and breathing deep. Out of the blue I began to cry, as I tend to in those rare moments of letting go. As this began to happen I felt my spirit fearing residing in my body and the woman on the TV said, “This is the most important point, this is where the body and the spirit come together.” I thought of how, all my life, I have had panic attacks when I felt any kind of discomfort or disharmony in my body. I have always said that I live in my head, meaning I don’t feel grounded in my body. I have the ability to completely disconnect from my body, which serves me well at the OB/GYN, but not so much in everyday life. I’ve always thought that was a defense from the sexual abuse I endured over a 6-year period when I was a child. I HAD to go somewhere else. My body was not a safe place. But, even before that I was afraid of my body, always fearing disease and death. I think this fear may even go back to birth, or the womb. Perhaps it’s something I acquired as a result of my mother’s feelings about herself, or me, or maybe the trauma of being born. Regardless, now I know that I am disconnected and I want to be grounded in myself. As I was lying there I whispered out loud to my spirit, “Its okay.” “This body is beautiful, and safe, and getting stronger everyday. Its okay to live here.” And I felt a rare and blissful sense of peace.

I’m sure that this is just the first step in a long process. I mean, I have to learn HOW to be present in my body. But I think yoga is the tool that will get me there. To anyone I would say, “Try yoga!” And if you don’t like it, try again and again. It’s so natural, so beneficial to body and spirit. There is a disconnect in almost everyone in this modern world. We aren’t living inside ourselves, we’re living in fast-paced society. Lets return to where we came from and remember who we are. Then, we can gather up all the God-given gifts within us and spread them about the world.