Amazing Update! Dave the Raw Food Trucker

We check in with Dave the Raw Food Trucker--how is he doing 6 weeks after his heart attack and stroke?! Just for perspective, at one point, half of Dave's body was paralyzed, he couldn't speak, and was hospitalized for 10 days. Through it all though, he STAYED raw, and has always seen himself whole and completely healed. People around the world (and especially at Raw Food Rehab) have sent him prayers and healing energy. See how that love is manifesting in Dave's miraculous healing!

We celebrated World Raw Food Day with 50 rawsome friends and Dave gave an inspiring talk. Have you checked out his website? http://www.therawfoodtrucker.com. You can always find me on Rawfoodrehab.ning.com, the best raw food website community. :)

No Matter What!

Of all the tools in your toolbox, what is the most powerful? What helps you stay raw more than anything else?

It's not your Vitamix, Blendtec, dehydrator, or food processor...
It's not your favorite uncook book or Youtube video...
It's not even your favorite website or your best raw food friends...

All of these are tremendously helpful. But nothing is more important to your raw food journey than something that can only come from you: YOUR MADE UP MIND.

You have to decide that you are doing this. You have to make peace with what you are deciding to leave behind for your highest good. You have to decide that you are are dedicated: No Matter What!

Until you really commit to those three beautiful words no matter what, you have a chink in your armor where excuses can seep in and eat away at your resolve.

I will love myself, no matter what.
I will nourish myself, no matter what.
I will believe in me, no matter what.

Finding Your North Star

Back in the days, before GPS and maps and routes, sailors had to navigate by the North Star--one true point in the sky that showed them where they were, where they were headed, and how to get there.

We need that with a raw and living foods diet. Have you defined what your North Star is for you? If you are vague, and say, "I want to eat more raw. I want to exercise more." you'll get VAGUE results. When you are confronted by a food, how will you know if it is on your plan, if you don't HAVE a plan? We need to have a crystal clear vision of where we are, where we want to go, and what we WILL and WILL NOT do to get there. Make sense?

So what is your North Star? This can be a defining statement. When I was on a juice feast, this was easy: "I drink fresh veggie juice. I don't have anything that is NOT fresh veggie juice." When I got off the juice feast, I wanted to stay 100% raw vegan. This was also easy. "I am a raw vegan. If it ain't raw, and it ain't vegan, it ain't going anywhere near my mouth!"

Now, I am going back to high raw, and, I have resolved to keep my diet very simple and basic (no gourmet for me on this Initiative. I find it messes me up during this weight-release portion of my life. I think it's awesome for people who can handle it.) So my North Star is more complicated, but I MUST define it. That definition is what makes raw EASY--the decision making is easy because the criteria has been set. Foods are either an easy "Yes, please!" or "No way." There is no fooling oneself with a "just this once..." or "I'll have a little bit..." Just-this-once and I'll-have-a-little-bit are not my friends! They mess me up, big time.

So here's what MY North Star looks like (because this is a very individual thing!):

My Personal Statement of Commitment: I am a HIGH RAW simple vegan. That means that my diet is all vegan, that it is 90% fruits and vegetables, with no more than a handful of nuts or seeds a day, and no more than 1 avocado daily. My focus will be simple raw fruits, raw veggies in simple salads or with all raw dips, green smoothies, green blended soups, and green juices. I will eat cooked beans and legumes (my personal decision) but no more than 1/2 c. per day.

My WON'T EAT List: (for this iVault4 experience):
1. Sugars (except fruit)
2. Bread, pasta, or wheat of any kind
3. Meat
4. Dairy Products
5. Eggs
6. Dehydrated things (just for this initiative, going light and simple this time)
7. Gourmet raw (only exceptions: Sunday Supper because I feel it is "safe": I only get one serving and it is not in my house where it can get me in trouble. Plus the fellowship with other raw food Christians is very valuable to me. Other exception: Thanksgiving day, I will make myself a "fancy" meal to celebrate. It will be ONE SERVING of each item, and a ONE MEAL experience. No leftovers!)
8. Any COOKED food, except: 1/2 c./day beans/legumes

My Loving Limits: (rules I make for myself that assist me in overcoming compulsive eating impulses)
1. No skipping meals.
2. "One and you're done" (have one plate of normal sized servings of food, and no more. No "seconds")
3. If it's not on my plan, it's not in my house. My home is a SAFE ZONE.
4. The kitchen is CLOSED after 7pm--don't go in there!
5. After a meal, wait at least 3 hrs before eating again. (Prevents "grazing" and overeating)
6. Exercise is not optional! (5 out of 7 days, minimum)
7. No parties that are just "eating orgies", buffets or all-you-can-eat ANYTHING. If you don't want to slip, stay off the ice! Don't put yourself in a situation that you KNOW will be too tempting for you!
8. Remember the acronym HALTS to halt compulsive behavior. Your resolve will be weaker when you are too: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, Sad, (or Stressed.) Be on guard at these times and work out your emotions without turning to compulsive behavior.

Other Stars to Guide Me:
1. I will PLAN MEALS. I will make sure I have everything I need for the next day.
2. I will PLUG INTO SUPPORT. I will check into the 'Hab every day! I will support others!
3. I will JOURNAL daily. (So important for me.)
4. I will BE PREPARED and make sure the kitchen is "ready to rawk" daily: unload the dishwasher every morning, and make sure the kitchen is cleaned well every night.
5. I will take extra good LOVING CARE of my body: daily supplements, hot/cold/hot/cold showers, dry skin brushing, brushing/flossing daily (I've been bad at remembering to floss!) etc.
6. I will refresh my SPIRIT daily: I will pray morning and evening, read the Word before bed, and have my "walking devotion/praise music" time at lunch.
7. I will TAKE TIME just for me, doing things that make me HAPPY: Funny movies, good books, crafts, and hanging out with friends...

OK, it is YOUR TURN! (You knew that was coming, right?!) DO YOU have a North Star: a clear vision of where you are, where you want to go, and a crystal clear road map of exactly what you WILL DO and WON'T DO to get there? If you don't have a map, it is going to be so much harder to get there, if you make it at all.

Are you serious about your life, your health and your dreams? Or do you just talk a good game?

TAKE ACTION. DO IT NOW. (I just did. :) I double dog dare you!!!

Back To Basics

So, um, I went on this juice feast. I kinda wrote about it a lot. Then 40 days went by, and I finished it strong, and I broke the feast, slowly and carefully, like you are supposed to. And all was well in HeatherLand. And then.

I had this GREAT plan: I was going to eat really simply during the day, and make fabulous, gourmet dinners for me and the teens. I had my menu all planned out and I got all excited about it. In fact, I got TOO excited about it.

You see, the meals came out awesome. Too awesome! For my newly juicy, nicely cleansed palate, the food was an overload of flavor and deliciousness. It was also heavy on the nuts and seeds and salty stuff like nama shoyu.

Raw gourmet can be one of the tastiest, most exciting cuisines imaginable. Last Sunday, I went to Sunday Supper. I had a wonderful raw dinner catered by an amazing chef. It was wonderful. TOO wonderful. I wanted to eat and eat.

Monday, I made delicous raw tacos: I dehydrated some tortillas, and made "refried beans" from soaked and seasoned sunflower seeds, and I had lots of avocado, and I made sure to include lots of veggies by making my own wonderful salsa (tomatoes, sweet onions, a milder red jalapeno, the juice of one tangerine, cilantro and some mango.) The good news? They turned out great! The bad news: they turned out great! I couldn't stop eating them!

Tuesday, I made zucchini noodles with a simple marinara that was just freshtomatoes, sun-dried (non-oil packed) tomatoes, a little sweet onion, garlic, a date or two for sweetness, some Italian herb seasoning and a lot of fresh basil. I served it with a big green salad. And? No problem. It was all light, all veggie, and it didn't make me want to overeat.

Wednesday, I ate leftovers and my MIL brought over some SAD vegetarian food for the kids. I found myself hugely tempted (but not so much I gave in. Thank you God! But I'm no angel or superwoman. I get VERY tempted. I am just sayin'.)

Thursday, I made an attempt at super-fancy raw Asian cuisine. I made cilantro-lime pate (sunflower seeds, cilantro, lime, celtic salt, flax seed oil). I made Asian dressing (tahini, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, nama shoyu, sesame oil, seasoned rice wine vinegar.) I took some kale, grated carrots, and sea vegetables and marinated them in the Asian dressing. Then I took a raw nori sheet and put some of the pate, and some of the marinated veggies and a cut up avocado into it and made sushi. Then I made kelp noodles. I made a broth for them out of almond butter (I made my own in my awesome juicer!) and miso, and it was really bland so I added a lot of the Asian ginger dressing and lo, it was awesome. All this took me, oh, forever. It was past 8pm and we were all starving. I plated it all up fancy-like, snapped a picture or two for my facebook (lol), and we fell on it and snorked it down like wolverines. And again, it was yummy. Too yummy! And it felt heavy and salty. Again, I had a hard time knowing when to stop feeding my face.

By Friday, I realized that my plan of all-raw but gourmet dinners wasn't really working for me. But I had dehydrated these wonderful corn chips and some amazing onion bread. I hogged out on chips and salsa and the raw pizza I made with the onion bread. Saturday, I drank smoothies all day, then hogged out on the raw pizza again.

Now it is Sunday, and I am saying, ENOUGH. I have no desire to keep over-eating, raw or not! Some people can handle all these delicious raw gourmet meals and fancy desserts. I wish I was one of them, but I am not. By the grace of God, I have been relieved of my compulsions. But I also know that for my highest good, there are places that I should not let me go. Do you know what I'm sayin'? Can I get an Amen, my brothers and sisters? 'Cuz Mama always said, "If you don't want to slip, stay off the ice."

Last week was way too slick for me. All that heavy food was reawakening cravings in me for the SAD, and for the least healthy of the raw as well. I have been 400 lbs, and I have a healthy fear of it. I ain't a-going back there!

So new plan, which is really my old plan, the one that I used to release 125 lbs in the first place: green smoothies, blended green soups, salads and fresh fruits. Lots of fruits and veggies, just a wee bit of nuts and seeds, and no more than one avocado a day makes a Happy Healthy Heather.

The moral of the story for me? Keep it simple. Now I am singing the Shaker song in my head:

"'Tis a gift to be simple,
'Tis a gift to be free,
'Tis a gift to come down to (come up to!)
Where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of hope and delight!"

This Sunday, I am thanking God for good friends, good simple food, and so many blessings my heart can almost not contain them all. Have a beautiful and blessed week everyone!

The Juicy Life--Breaking the Fast, The Final Chapter

Today is the last day I will be blogging about my Juicy Life. I consider my juice feast completed to success.

I have a lot to say today but I woke up late, and skipping the gym is not an option! I hope you'll come back tonight when I'm sure I'll have FASCINATING things to say! (Note to self: think of something fascinating!) Ciao for now!

Ok, I'm back! Did you miss me? I feel like I should say something profound about this whole experience, but I also feel like I already said what I had to say on Day 40 and with my video. I guess all that's left to do is to think about what I will take away from this experience.

I feel really proud that I was able to make it for the whole 40 days. I feel good about what I was able to do for my body. I detoxified at a deep, cellular level, and I released 35 lbs over the 40 days. I exhibited a lot of self-control and deepened my relationship with God as He got me through it. I was able to work on limiting beliefs, get rid of clutter, and bring up areas in my life where I was still holding on to pain or unforgiveness, and send healing love to those places. I made a great friend, and almost lost him right away. I learned to never take the people in your life for granted. They are a gift from God and should be regarded as such.

Most of all, when I look back, I will cherish this time for the friendships I've made and the special people who I am extremely privileged to have in my life. Penni, (Shelton, of rawfoodrehab.com)you are an extraordinary woman. You have been so good to me, so nurturing and encouraging, generous, loving, a wise mentor and a gorgeous red-headed cheerleader all rolled into one. I asked you once where you hide your wings. You said you're no angel but you can't fool me...I'm still looking for them...

Susan (Penni's right-hand woman at RFR), I can always count on you for encouragement and to always hold the high ground of positivity. You are such a shining light in this place, and in this world. The mansion would not be half the place it is without you. I feel so lucky to have you as my mansion "Resident Assistant"!

Rather than an ending, I feel a new beginning coming on. I want to spend some more time with my new "in real life" friends, Annette and Mauri and Thubten, and my new Seattle friends. My new friends in the computer, no less dear, I will have more time to read all your blogs and write back and forth to you and join with all of you as we all get radiantly, ridiculously healthy and gorgeous and deliriously ecstatic. And then we go out and heal the world with our love and we all live happily ever after. Amen.

The Juicy Life--Breaking the Fast, Day 6

FAIR WARNING: IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY JUICE FEASTING, AND DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT SOLID FOOD, YOU'RE GOING TO WANT TO SKIP THIS ONE. :)

Well, you can say my feast is well and truly broken, now. :) Every week, in Milwaukie, Oregon, (a suburb of Portland) we have an organic raw vegan meetup called "Sunday Supper." We are completely spoiled! Three weeks in the month, this is a dinner with a theme catered by various local raw food chefs. The supper is hosted by Gabrielle Chavez, who wrote The Raw Food Gourmet: Going Raw For Total Well-Being. Once a month, in lieu of a catered dinner, we have a potluck, and that has been fun, too.

This week, Gabrielle prepared the dinner, and we had not one, but three chefs there! Andy, whose last name I don't remember, but he is a well-known raw chef in the Portland area, was there, even though he has been on a juice feast for (get ready for it: 172 days! He is going to do 200!!! Needless to say, no one was impressed with my 40 days at all, lol) Julia, another un-cookbook author, catered the dessert with one of her amazing pies from her book "Sweet and Raw Pie Mandalas." Nearly everything we ate (besides the avocados!) was grown on Gabrielle and Thomas Chavez's organic farm in Oregon City.

Here's the Menu:




Pizzamoles Topped with Minh's Marinated Tomato Madness

Fruit 'n Nut Crunchy Salad

Savory Greens of Summer Soup

Julia (Divinia Alchemy)'s Prize "Sweet Mandala" Pies

So what is a "pizzamole" you might ask ('cuz I did.) Ok, a pizzamole is a 3 by 6inch piece of raw onion bread (uber yum, recipe in the kitchen) spread with a recipe Gabrielle got from Mihn (of Ronnie and Mihn). It is simply mashed up avocado that you add a little bit of lemon juice and about a teaspoon of unreconstituted miso paste to. It was sooooo delicious! On top of the avocado were cherry tomatoes that had been marinaded in an Italian-type raw vinaigrette overnight and then dehydrated just a little bit to concentrate the flavors.

The pie had a goji-berry and almond crust (really interesting flavor) and was an apple-creem pie with a goji-chia seed jam on top. It was amazing, and the tiny sliver I had, I enjoyed immensely. Everything else was good, too, but the pizzamoles and the pie really stood out.

So it was probably not the best idea to indulge in dense, dehydrated raw gourmet 6 days after ending my juice feast. I have no regrets, however. All day long, I stuck with veggie juice and green smoothies and greens based blended soups, and that's what I'll be having today, as well. This was my pre-planned celebration meal, and I enjoyed and appreciated every scrumptious bite, in the company of lovely friends. Isn't that the way that we are meant to experience food?

Doing this juice feast has renewed my taste buds and refreshed my palate to enjoy the delicious, simple flavors of raw and living foods. I never even add salt to any of my blended soups, because I add celery and greens and I can "taste" the salt in them.

After Sunday Supper, we gather for a spiritual fellowship time (the meal is held at a church) and almost everybody stays for it. We read a passage of the Bible and share what it meant to us, what questions we have about it, and then we pass around a soft, squishy globe of the world and everyone picks a place on it to pray for and send loving blessings toward. Then we pray together for anything or anyone else we may want to, and have communion (with raw bread and raw fresh-pressed grapejuice!) What I love about this service is that probably half or greater of the people may not even identify themselves as Christians...and yet we can all gather together in peace and love and harmony and discuss scripture and send love to the world and pray and break bread together as sisters and brothers.

I feel so blessed to have connected to my raw community. If you haven't done that, you are cheating yourself. If you don't have one by you, start one. It can even be profitable--at this one, everyone gives a love offering of $10-20 for the meal (totally worth it for a raw, vegan, organic, gourmet 4 course dinner) and whoever volunteers to be chef (with lots of help from the rest of the group) gets to keep whatever $ is leftover after buying ingredients. I have heard some of our chefs say they made $300 in one night. (It is very well-attended, and most of us have great organic gardens. :)

Raw foodie cannot live on raw bread alone! Friendships are a gift and connection is vital to make this not just a lifestyle, but a life. :)

The Juicy Life--Breaking the Fast, Day 5

Oh my goldfish--I was almost done writing this post and my browser crashed and I lost it all! I am starting to sense a little of what poor Penni has gone through with her computer crashing multiple times. Ack! *shakes fist at computers in general, then takes it back because really, she loves them*

Ok, my other post, was SO MUCH BETTER, (trust me! lol) but here's the gist. I stayed on green smoothies just fine yesterday. All the cravings were gone. I am SO happy that I didn't give in to temptation or I would most likely still be feeling the after effects right now.

It was so much easier to be sipping my smoothie all day while working in the Sweat Shop (costume department of my son's musical theatre.) I was busy doing patterning from the designer's sketches (harder than it sounds.) And then I got to work on what I really love: hat making. That is my specialty in the company. So yesterday, I got to get started on 12 cute red fez hats with tassels for 12 even cuter little girls (of course I will post pictures when they're done) and one tiny little red fez for a stuffed monkey. The monkey is Mr. George, my son's chimpanzee puppet (Joe is a talented puppeteer) and he just felt that Mr. George really ought to have a fez. Naturally. So I was happy to oblige. :)

When I get the fezes done, I get to make spoon-bill bird hats. I love making the "critter" hats--I do it muppet-style, with big halved ping-pong balls for the eyes, and huge fake eyelashes to really make the characters come alive. This is my favorite kind of hat making--last year I was fighting with buckram to make forms for what became glamorous pill box and bowler hats, and it was frustrating because every little mistake shows on that kind of hat. Plus, the directors I work with have a very clear idea of what they want, but they aren't always great at communicating it TO ME. It's more like they'll know it when they see it, lol. Finally, it is a fine line between Glamorville and TackyTown when you are doing fancy hats. The character hats are much more my style!

It is so much easier to stick with my green smoothies when I am busy in creative activity. I barely even noticed all the ladies horking down the baked goods people invariably bring to the Sweat Shop until some of them asked me how I can resist. (Every other year, I was right in there, horking away with them. It was my favorite part of the Sweat Shop!) They say, "Idle hands are the devil's playthings," and while I don't know about that, lol, I do know I find it so much easier to resist temptation when I focused on something I enjoy.

So I decided I am going to stick to the following, until I get sick of it: green juice every morning, then a green smoothie with fruit later, a savory "soup" green smoothie for mid-afternoon, and a fancier, raw dinner for me and the kids. Why? It's all about the greens, baby! The green juice doesn't take so long, now that I only have to make 1 quart instead of 4, and the green smoothies take maybe two minutes to make. So it is quick, convenient, full of fiber, alkalizing, healthy and yummy. Plus, I can "drink my lunch" while I'm at my desk, and still have my whole lunch hour for walking/prayer/meditation time.

If I get bored with this, I can switch it up. I don't think I will because I am going to making exciting dinners. During my juice feast, I got clarity about the fact that what I was doing was not working for me. I used to take some time and make a yummy, cooked dinner for the kids. Then I would grab an avocado and some pre-made salsa and call it dinner for me. I saw that I need to put just as much effort into making a nice dinner for myself as I do for my children. Plus, it was really tempting, having to cook those foods, wanting to taste while cooking to check the flavor, and having the left-overs in the house to tempt me. And my kids are perfectly game to eat raw, as long as it TASTES GREAT.

With that in mind, I think I have a winning line-up of dinners this week. (By the way, I always do the same cuisines on certain nights of the week. That is my tip for you because it makes meal planning a snap. You'll see what I mean:)

Sunday--Sunday Supper--This is an awesome weekly raw vegan meet-up I go to every week (when I am not juice feasting!) I am so lucky to have this weekly gathering! It is catered by local, raw professional chefs and talented amateurs from the group.

Monday--Mexican--Raw Tacos (walnut taco "meat" in romaine taco-shells) with guacamole and fresh salsa and raw corn chips

Tuesday--Tuscan--(or any Italian!) Zucchini spaghetti marinara, big green salad and flax "garlic bread"

Wednesday--What's Left Wednesday: a time to eat up any left-overs! (if none, it's every diner for himself!)

Thursday--Thai One On--(Actually any asian food, but Thai One On works so well!) Kelp noodle Pad Thai, and nori-rolls with cilantro-lime pate, and Asian Persuasion Coleslaw

Friday--Pizza Night! Raw flax cracker pizza with raw pizza sauce, rawmigan and toppings and a big green salad

Saturday--SS&S--Soup, Sandwich, and Salad Bar Make dehydrator "bread" and tortillas, and provide all manner of yummy pate, nut cheeze, and fresh veggies to make-your-own sandwich and salad how you like. Serve with gazpacho or other raw soup.

Now do you think I'll get bored with a menu like that? I don't! It's all about the planning, my Raw Scouts! All about the planning!