What the doctor ordered

Last week some friends and I went to a Naturopathic Doctor at Osa's Garden in Florence, Alabama, who used a machine to read the health of my organ systems, and prescribed to me:

• a 100% raw diet for 30 days
• daily fresh juices of carrot, apple, celery, beet, romaine, tomato, red bell pepper, and raw potato juice, some a few times a day
• high protein smoothies with hemp protein
• rebound exercises (lymph nodes don't drain unless you shake your body or bounce like in dancing, running, jumping jacks, etc)
• good thoughts
• massage coconut oil into skin daily
• coffee enemas (which stimulate the liver and gall bladder to release toxins)
  
• flax seed oil
• deep breathing exercises
• lymph massage
• and sunshine daily

How many times have you gone to a doctor who recommended that you think happy thoughts, massage coconut oil into your skin, and breath deeply in the sunshine??

For the last 6 days I have been on a raw foods diet, which has included not only juices and smoothies but gourmet meals like lasagna and tostadas and and raw chocolate desserts. This cleanse is coinciding perfectly with the Juicing and Raw Foods Retreat at Gray Bear Lodge.
I went through about 2 days of feeling agrivated and tired but since yesterday I feel GREAT!

Raw Food Recipe:
This "Cheezy Bean" Dip recipe, from Let's Get Started Eating Raw Foods by Linda Lagos, is absolutely fantastic and will be enjoyed by ANYONE!!!

1 large red bell pepper
1 tbsp. raw tahini
3 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. onion powder
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. cilantro, chopped

3/4 cup raw cashews or sunflower seeds
4 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour or until softened
1 small jalapeno
3/4 tsp. cayenne or more to taste (reduce the spice for kids)
1/4 cup water or more to reach desired consistency

Put the liquids into the blender then add all the other ingredients gradually. Add extra water if needed to reach the desired consistency of a dip.

Soaking Time: 1 Hour
Preparation Time: 25 Minutes
Makes: 1 1/2 - 2 cups

I've made this raw food recipe without sun dried tomatoes and it still comes out delicious... Instead of 1/4 cup water I added 1/4 cup tomato juice. In Joy!!

Food Forests

I received an email today about forest gardening, and it reminded me of a bumper sticker I've seen: If you eat, you're involved in agriculture. This doesn't have to be so! An alternative to agriculture is permaculture- an ecological design system for sustainability and regeneration which is applied to, among other things, how we grow our food.
Agriculture is designed to grow a lot of food for a lot of people. It is not designed in a way that is beneficial to the earth, to the microorganisms and insects and fungi that comprise healthy soil. It is not designed in a way that brings optimum nourishment to the plants growing and in return optimum nutrients for our bodies. The food is then shipped thousands of miles, decreasing the freshness and nutrition content by the hour.

Food Forests=Forest Gardens=Biodiversity=Sustained Productivity=Food Security

I recently received the following in an email:

What is a Food Forest Garden?

Imagine a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh fruits and ripening nuts. Every shrub is packed with delicious berries, and every other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, or beautiful edible flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant underfoot, gourmet mushroom logs sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi vines climb back up through the layers of this multi-functional forest of food.

Food forests are diverse gardens modeled after natural ecosystems designed to mimic the way a forest thrives and regenerates. A forest continuously nourishing all elements in the system and produce a vast diversity of outputs, but requires little or no inputs to sustain itself. By recognizing the self-supporting, mutually beneficial relationships of the elements in a forest - from tall trees, smaller trees, shrubs, herbs, ground covers, vines, nitrogen fixers, insectaries, fungi, animals, and more, the food forest garden designs a similar system but replaces the components that are in a common forest with species that are preferred edibles and more useful for humans. The forest then becomes a Garden of Eden, in which edible or useful plants are found from head to toe, where something in season is always ready to eat, and the system requires little or no maintenance to sustain and regenerate.

Join the campaign for local food security and learn how you can help to transform gardens, lawns, parks, and empty spaces into thriving edible landscapes that are beautiful, regenerative, and produce an abundance of delicious, locally grown food!

Upcoming Forest Garden Courses:

Forest Garden Immersion Course in High Falls, New York - April 23-26, 2009

Food Forest & Agroforestry Workshop in Maui April 14-18


Here are some links for further reading on forest gardens

http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/
http://www.rootstofruits.co.uk/?p=29
more links coming!

Computer fasting

We've all heard at least once before of the many health benefits of fasting. A few days ago I decided that I needed to take a sabbatical from my computer, despite how intelligent and worldy I think it is, and no matter how connected and important it makes me feel. I had come to the realization that I had given my power to this machine, checking it all too often throughout the day to see if someone had emailed me, if a friend was on skype, who commented on my Facebook photo... Hmmm, as if I was becoming addicted.... almost like many I've heard from who have expressed computer co-dependency.
My intention was to fast for 3 whole days, however like all cleanses I have intended, I stopped early, on day 2. In that short time I feel like I have successfully regained my power... If you are on the computer every day, consider a detox too! and let me know how it goes....