Living Beyond...

If you follow me on facebook, you probably noticed that I've shared some comments about juicing and eating mostly raw lately. This isn't really anything new for me because it's something I've done off and on for the last couple of years but I stepped up my game a few weeks ago after watching, "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" with our son Jack who looked at me when it was over and said, "Mom. For the rest of the day I only want you to eat fruits and vegetables," which I agreed to do and have pretty much continued since that day. I've lost 7 pounds since then and have been feeling pretty good. Along with this, I've cut out processed food by about 90% and dairy altogether.

It hasn't really been that difficult and I've noticed a marked decrease in cravings for sweets and junk food. I have no problem getting up early in the morning and find that a big glass of fresh green juice gives me more of a lift than coffee ever did (and...without the negative side effects).

I've been making juices for Michael too and next week, we're going on a 10 day juice fast which I'm really looking forward to. Him? Well....he'll do it because he loves me, smile; he's a meat and potato guy at heart but with a willing and teachable spirit thanks to the last 4.5 years.

Something else that's been a big influence for me right now is that my cousin who's just three years older than me was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this month and next month will be the 10 year anniversary of Jeff passing away from cancer. Ugh! Sometimes I just feel like I'm surrounded by all of it and while I know that God is in control of my life, I also know that I can control what I do and don't put into my body; and with an amazing husband and five incredible kids to live for and love on, I want to be sure that I'm as healthy as I can be on the inside.




All that being said I have a really good friend who's been eating a paleo diet (pretty popular right now - just google it) and has been loving it and has lost over 40 pounds in 3 months and so we get together and talk shop about food and diets and organic and grass fed and raw and blogs and recipes and all that good stuff and she told me something about a company called Beyond Organic which was founded by Jordan Rubin who has an amazing health transformation story of his own and is the author of The Maker’s Diet, which you may know of, as well as several other books. I know of his book but have never read it so I really can't comment one way or another about it. All this to say that clearly, God had a hand in the restoration of Mr. Rubin's health and you know us....we're all about restoring; marriages, families, health...even furniture if I try my hand at that some day (which, who are kidding, I probably will. hello craft blog).

So, I'm going with my friend tonight to learn more about what this company stands for and I went on their website today to get directions for where I need to be and as I'm looking around on the site I notice that they had a gathering last month and one of their keynote speakers was a woman named Dr. Caroline Leaf who's written an amazing book called Who Switched Off My Brain which we have and always recommend during our Intensives and have mentioned on our weekly conference calls several times as it's one of the best resources out there explaining how and why the synapse in our brain function the way they do while completely bringing in the correlation to scripture. Yep. Not only is Dr. Leaf a scientist specializing in brain research, she's also a believer. Needless to say, my interest here is high.

I love finding out about how to take care of my body in healthy and delicious ways; and it has to be delicious or what's the point right? And on that note, I wanted to share a little blog site with you that I recently found that is full of great information on alkalizing foods (super important to have your internal environment be more alkalized than acidic) with great recipes and seriously mouth-watering pics. It was started by two sisters. You'll love it.


Completely gorgeous right?!? And if you have a way to stream movies, I definitely want to recommend Fat Sick and Nearly Dead as well as Forks Over Knives; both will definitely get you pausing before you drive through for favorite fast food restaurant.

Sorry. It's just cause I love ya!

Coconut Oil Deodorant...

I absolutely love handmade spa and beauty products; making my own face masks and body scrubs....it's fun, wonderfully economical and I love the herbal smells that fill my bathroom and shower when I use them. There's also the added benefit of actually knowing what the ingredients are that I'm putting onto my skin and since I've heard a lot about the aluminum salts used in many deodorants (to block the pores so you don't perspire) can get into breast tissue and has a potential link with breast cancer. This, in my opinion, makes the use of a natural deodorant even more appealing.

Knowing this, I've tried several over the counter natural deodorants (won't name any names here) that haven't worked for me at all ~ not as far as odor is concerned anyway and who wants to be dry but still smell? "Not I," said the Little Red Hen.

Okay, segue into my journey with raw foods and using coconut oil in my diet for it's many health benefits and I find that it's also used as a beauty product and.....as an ingredient in natural deodorant which you can easily make yourself.


There are recipes all over the net for making this but the recipe is generally the same all around:

4-5 tablespoons of melted virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder (I use cornstarch)
10 drops of your favorite essential oil (I like lavender, tangerine and lemongrass)


Mix everything together (it will have the consistency of thin pancake batter) and pour it into a re-purposed deodorant container or into a small lidded jar. That's all there is to it! Just be sure to keep your deodorant in the refrigerator as coconut oil liquifies in warm temps. When I'm going to need it, after I shower for example, I simply take it out before I get in so that it softens up a bit and goes on easily (be sure to put it back into the refrigerator when you're done). You could also just keep it in a jar in your bathroom, scoop out a small amount when you want to use it and rub it on.

A couple of things to note:

* you may need to rub it in a bit before you get dressed
* a bit of white may get on your clothes if you don't rub it in
* this deodorant works so wonderfully that you can easily go longer than a day without using more. I know this may gross you out but it's totally true.
* it smells WONDERFUL! I remember having my husband smell me several times throughout the day when I first started using it - I was SO amazed by it!


Add a pretty label to your container and make some for yourself to feel pretty and healthy and make some for your friends who will be just as amazed as you are by how well it works!

p.s. a little side note. i've been using this for about two years now and i'll never, ever, go back to store bought - even store bought natural deodorant. they just don't work as well as this. serious!

Natural Is Best...

OMG...two Wellness Wednesday posts back-to-back. That's just crazy people! I will relate it to marriage restoration in that Michael absolutely listens to my heart by completely indulging my craftiness in all it's many forms and praising everything I make - my Proverbs 31 husband!!!

So, I love trying homemade skin care recipes and this is my most recent find and since our skin is porous and what we put on it get's absorbed into our bloodstream, I think what goes on our bodies is just as important as what we put into them. Just like the natural deodorant that I make and use. Have I mentioned that yet? It's awesome!

But today, I have a handmade lotion for you so let's get right to it. I don't remember exactly where I found the recipe but the ingredients go like this:

• 1 cup filtered water
  
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp grated beeswax
  
• essential oil (optional)

As always, I changed it up. I replaced 1/3 of the water with rose water (you can use rose water, orange flower water or brewed tea like peppermint, chamomile or hibiscus - the latter will give a delicate pink color). Instead of evoo, I used a mixture of organic coconut oil and organic avocado oil and I added about 6 drops of tangerine essential oil.

Heat the oil, sans essential oil, in a double boiler using a glass bowl. Add the grated beeswax to the oil and mix until completely melted. Carefully remove the glass bowl from the double boiler and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Put the water into your blender and turn it on. While it's whirling, take the plastic center from the top of the blender lid and slowly pour in the oil and beeswax mixture. It will immediately begin to emulsify. Blend about 30 seconds more then add any essential oil you may be using. You may have to stop and stir/loosen your lotion a couple of times but that's normal and it mostly depends on the strength of your blender.





This lotion is wonderfully creamy and smells soooo good. I use it everyday, even on my face as a mask to moisturize my skin and it's also a great makeup remover!

If you have a local farmer's market that you go to and there's a honey vender there, they probably sell the beeswax. That's how I got mine. This is a whole food product and should last about 3 months at room temp. I don't expect ours to last that long but if you make it and aren't going to use it right away just be sure to refrigerate it.

Tomorrow is Michael's birthday and he's asked for an hour-long back rub. Guess what I'll be using?

Kick Butt Smoothie...

It's been a while since I've put up a 'Wellness Wednesday' post. Not because I haven't been trying to eat better or eat raw but because I'm easily side tracked. Just ask my husband. He will agree in the most unconditionally loving way.

We both really liked this though. A tall glass of carrot-y, orange-y, pineapple-y yum.







Isn't she a beauty? No dairy and no added sweetener.

about 2 cups of fresh carrot juice
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
frozen chunks of banana, pineapple and mango (to your liking)

That's it. Bee pollen and flax oil would be good, healthy additions but I was fresh out. Oooo...coconut butter or fresh ginger, or raw macadamia nut butter or fresh papaya. Maybe some mint.

See what I mean?

Amazing Pumpkin Pie!

One of my (Annalea) favorite things about eating live raw foods is eating the desserts! I'm tellin' you what - you won't believe how delicious uncooked sweets can be and once you start making them, you'll want to do it again and again. AND....you could even eat them for breakfast if you wanted to!

Okay....I'll sign you up for that!

In fact, this Raw Pumpkin Pie tastes so much like the traditional fare - right down to the crust - that you won't even miss it and if you were to add it to your Thanksgiving table this year, I'll bet it'll end up GONE...GONE...GONE!

I found this recipe on line one day (here's the original) and was intrigued because there's no pumpkin in it! I did fudge around with the recipe a bit to suit my personal taste and because I was out of some of the ingredients but I promise you'll LOVE it!



Crust:
2 cups raw pecans
1/2 cup pitted dates, soaked
1/8 - 1/4 tsp sea salt (check after 1/8)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Place pecans into food processor and grind until somewhere between coarse and fine. Add remaining ingredients and process until well combined. Pour into a 8-9 inch tart/pie pan with a removable bottom and pat mixture evenly over the bottom (you may go up the sides of your pan if you wish).








Filling:
1/2 cup raw cashews that have been soaked in water for 4-6 hours (I used 1 cup soaked which is about 3/4 cup dried)
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup yacon root syrup (I didn't use this because I didn't have it. I understand it has a real molasses flavor. The 1/2 cup of agave makes it plenty sweet though)
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup carrot juice (I made my own juice so I also threw the pulp into the mix)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I only used 1 tsp)
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I only used 1 tsp AND added 1/2 tsp of ground cloves)
Vanilla powder to your taste (I just now noticed this. I didn't use it though a little vanilla probably be good though, because of the coconut oil I think it's fine w/o)

Just put everything into your food processor and whirl away until everything is well incorporated. Pour on top of your pecan crust and chill for 2-3 hours before serving.








I think a cashew whipped cream would be divine with this, especially spiked with a bit of fresh orange zest but, alas, I'm without a VitaMix blender (hi Russ!) which is like the god of all blenders so that will have to wait until I find myself in the black. The link above showed the pie with chocolate drizzled over the top which would probably not be too bad as I do enjoy pumpkin bread with little chocolate chips in it. All that to say...experiment! Have fun and play with your food!

I won't tell anyone.

Well....actually, I might.

Okay, about the ingredients in this pie, and because this is Wellness Wednesday, I want to expound a bit on the health benefits of virgin coconut oil which are actually quite varied. Here's a little Youtube video about it along with some tips on ways to use it. Oh, I buy mine at Whole Foods and be sure to try the raw coconut butter.

Oh. My. Goodness!!!!

Wellness Wednesday

If you listen to our ministry calls on Tuesday nights and it happens to be late in the evening, you just might find us talking about food instead of marriage. I seriously have no idea how it started...it was several months ago and, admittedly, I (Annalea) am an avid "foodie", it was towards the end of a call and those of us still on began talking about eating live raw foods. This went on for a couple of months and then we seemed to take a bit of a hiatus from it but somehow this evening the conversation was resurrected.

With some good-natured prompting, I was moved to tentatively start a section of our marriage blog that would feature recipes, tips and other blogs related to incorporating more raw (I mean 'live') foods into our lives/diets.

So, Wellness Wednesday was born (name is still up in the air...suggestions?) and, really, I think the wellness part fits with the theme of a restored ~ well ~ marriage. Too much of a stretch? That's okay, we're still in the testing stage. Kinda like trying out a new recipe. Okay...Okay...

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31

The benefits of a living foods (raw) diet are amazingly endless. Just type 'raw food diet' into your favorite search engine and you'll be amazed at how many sites there are devoted to the subject.

Really. Open up another window and do it.

Then come back.

Did you do it?

No? Okay. Just promise to do it after you read this. And while you're at it (especially if you're a foodie like me), take a look at these sites; they're some of my favorites:

Raw On $10 A Day (or less!)

Sweetly Raw

Raw Radiance

In The Raw

Raw Epicurean

Rawmazing

That should hold you for now. I don't want to give you too many and then be held responsible for all of the work you don't get done because you spent two hours looking at a bunch of recipes for uncooked food.

I know. It's crazy. Crazy GOOD!

For now, on this maiden voyage, I'll show you some pics of a juice I made to get you inspired. Oh, in case you might be wondering, I have a Champion juicer. I've had it for 10 years and I love it! Powerful and uber easy to clean unlike the Jack La Lane juicer which my loving husband brought into the marriage and which we have a continued dispute over - which one is the best?

I'll give you a hint. Mine is.






The beauty of fresh juice is that it's all good for you ~ amazing actually ~ and you can throw in whatever sounds good. This one was a mixture of carrots, apples, beets, celery and oranges. Here are my other favorites:

Pink grapefruit and apple

Green lemonade (about 8 romaine leaves, 1/2 cucumber, 2-3 stalks of celery, 2 apples, 1/2 a peeled lemon, 1-inch piece of fresh ginger)

Carrot, apple, parsley

Watermelon

These are all delicious and you're body will thank you for treating it so nicely.

Yes it will!

Have fun and experiment. Always use organic when you can. You don't have to peel cucumbers, or ginger or apples when you juice them. Probably other things too. You'll figure it out as you go.

You know what else? I'm pretty sure that Adam and Eve didn't cook anything when they were in Eden.

I'm just sayin'.