Opinions on what we should and should not eat flood our lives every day. I’ve been on a high-raw vegan diet for almost 5 years now. A good proportion of that ended up being green smoothies and superfood smoothies. If someone includes those two items into their day, its pretty difficult not to stay high-raw…they are total meals by themselves.
I’ve been branching out a little bit lately with what I’ve been listening to. Not exactly the same raw vegan material as before. I’ve been listening to some speakers with a more “paleo” style of eating, which would include raw, grass-fed meat and dairy. And eggs. LOTS of eggs. I heard a speaker online today talk about healing someone with 18 raw eggs a day.
Im not saying AT ALL that im going to get into that way of eating. I like my diet the way it is. I’ll occasionally have some pasture-raised chicken eggs, but the real bulk is in the superfoods, greens, and raw plant fats, especially hemp and coconut.
This week’s My Way feature comes to us from health and wellness practitioner Lori Painter. Lori is the author of the very educational and extremely entertaining blog, Inspire 2 Act. In addition to her health enthusiasm, Lori is passionate about the eco living, working out and raising her two lovely kids, Alex and Megan. Lori and her family live in Southern California.
My Way: Lori Painter
Just my luck that Dhrumil asked my to be featured in “My Way” when it is winter, rainy and cold (which is rare) in Southern California. It only makes eating 100% raw more of a challenge. However, instead of eating totally raw, I have decided in the winter months to focus on hydration, greens and eating fruits and veggies versus too many gourmet recipes. I’m still working on using food to feed my emotional needs. Since I belong to an organic produce buying club, my meals tend to be very simple and repetitive. It depends on what is in season. Each week it is a little different. This is how I do things My Way.
Monday
Off to the gym to earn my breakfast. I shower from the inside out in the sauna and visualize my dream day! Today’s menu consists of simple monofoods: breakfast is 2 apples and a banana, Lunch is a green salad with an avocado based dressing. I am sure to get my daily 4 quarts of water in too. I check online messages and correspond accordingly, watch some YouTube subscriptions and post a little twitter. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos
You sometimes must experience what you are not in order to become what you are.
This was a while ago for me, but I remember it well. I struggled immensely with emotional eating. I was living alone, my family was 1500 miles away, and I was in a long distance relationship. That, and the fact that I allowed my diet to exclude me from most social situations left me pretty solitary for many, many months. Sometimes it would just be too much, and I would start to stuff the emotions with junk food. This would make me tired, and so I would cease going to the gym as well. Double negative.
The pictures below were from September 06. I had a bad spell, which lasted about 3 weeks. My body couldn’t handle the barrage at all. I slipped into a mild depression.
Everyone has a breaking point though. I gained about 15 lbs, and that was enough for me.
If you live in a country that has four seasons, you have probably realized that your body goes through major changes during these transitions. In winter you probably crave more fatty foods and in spring you probably crave lighter foods such as salads and fruits. During this change, a reduced intake of fats alters the body metabolism and allows the cleansing organs like the liver and the kidneys to do their job. When you eat less, these cleansing organs are able to perform their cleansing tasks very well due to a decrease in the consumption of fats and the organs are free to flush out the harmful toxins like pharmaceutical residues, pesticides and preservatives from our body. A non-detoxified fatter body is prone to constipation, anemia, diarrhea, depression, hormonal imbalances and the worst of them all: a weak immune system.
A detoxified body is free from harmful toxins and leads to fat-burning and a reduction in the body weight which is a prerequisite for a healthier and a longer life. Winter is a season of laziness and slumber, spring is the time when nature becomes active. Therefore, it is also a time for the body to become more dynamic and expel the accumulated waste. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos
Staying properly hydrated and fueled during exercise improves endurance, we know that. But what is the best way best way to ensure that you maintain hydration and blood sugar levels?
Drinking and eating of course. Simple.
The trouble is, sometimes while exercising intensely – especially in a race situation – we can actually forget about the need for fluid and calories until faced with the result of their absence. At this point, of course, it’s too late to hydrate and fuel without a decline in performance. We must drink before we are thirsty and take in calories before we are hungry or feel the first onset of fatigue.
To time this correctly, practise in training. I recommend eating what you would normally eat before a race, then go on a training run / ride. Allow yourself to get slightly thirsty, then look at your watch and subtract 15 minutes from the length of time you’ve been out. That’s when you should have stated drinking.
In addition to athletes, this program is ideal for anyone who’s struggling to maintain muscle tissue. Those of you who’ve transitioned over to a raw or largely raw diet will benefit from performing these exercises. While I devised the program to help myself become a better endurance athlete, it’s what enabled me to maintain muscle mass throughout my shift to a mostly raw diet about four years ago. It works exceptionally well for creating mobility and fluidity of movement.
A few decades ago, endurance athletes were encouraged to avoid “gym training” for fear that they would develop heavy, bulky muscles. The reasoning was that extra mass without function would inhibit endurance performance. Which makes sense. However, the reason “gym training” was adamantly shunned by the endurance culture was primarily because it was lumped together with the body building culture. Of course, the main reason bodybuilders lift weights is to build bulk. They also weight train for symmetry and definition, but the vast majority of their time spent training is working to get bigger.
In the early eighties, some endurance athletes began supplementing their regular endurance training with weight training in the hopes of improving endurance. The results were mixed. While the athletes generally gained some strength, they also gained weight. Therefore, their strength-to-weight-ratio showed only very modest improvements and not enough to justify the energy expenditure in performing the extra workout. In other cases, strength-to weight-ratio dropped. Why? The problem was that these endurance athletes were doing body-building-style workouts that were designed to grow muscle size with little or no improvement in functional strength. Which resulted in a reduction in the endurance athlete’s most valued attribute: strength-to-weight ratio.
When it was realized that various training principals and techniques could be reworked to make bulk-less strength gains, gym workouts for endurance athletes were revisited.
Warning: This post is really long, and gets really personal, with lots of curse words, and is all very self-serving. But kind of entertaining, hopefully?
I just finished reading a book – yes, I’ve been reading lately. It was by the British chef Marco Pierre White, “Devil in the Kitchen – Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef”. It’s a good title… because who doesn’t want to read about sex? From a hot chef? And pain and madness? Well yes, that too. It’s inspiring to read about people who know what they want and go through a lot to get it. But pain and madness? Is that what it really takes to achieve greatness? Does everyone have to toil tirelessly, sacrifice health, get hurt, worn down, and knocked down over and over, feel pain, and teeter on the edge of madness? If so… I’m SO on the right track! YAY!
I’m being convinced, however, that maybe I can step away from that edge and still get where I’m going, and probably much faster. After all, I’m supposed to represent the brand – One Lucky Duck and Pure Food and Wine, we’re all about raw food and feeling great. When I first went raw the contrast was amazing. So much of the time I felt like I could do anything – life was a dance party. As I pointed out in Raw Food Real World, it can feel a bit like being on ecstasy – maybe not quite, but still it’s amazing. It’s been four years now – did I get used to it and/or is it stress and pressure that just put a damper on it all? I want the dance party back!
You don’t have to be a hardcore green foodie to know the culinary power of a good oil. But in terms of nutritional reputation, some oils have had it worse than others. Cue the tropical oils: palm and coconut. There’s no denying they taste great, but man, those guys have had it tough. In the 1980’s, critics claimed the high level of saturated fat found in tropical oils was harmful: a message largely campaigned by the wonderful folks that brought you trans-fats.
Of course now that it’s trans-fats that are on the chopping block, new studies are looking back to the tropical oils, only this time as a healthy dietary addition. It seems the plant-based, cholesterol-free tropical oils not only pose no health threats, but actually contain many health-giving properties. Palm oil is considered one of the best oils for high heat cooking applications, as its fatty acid chains remain safely stable under the higher temperatures. It is also extremely high in bioavailable antioxidants, and is known, in fact, to be one of the richest sources of cartinoids — more than 30 times what is contained in carrots. Take into account the high amounts of vitamin E, as well as the ability to help with cardiovascular disease, and it’s easy to see why palm oil is a respected oil in the nutritional world. Continue Reading / See Additional Photos
G / Food Chocolate truffles for your sweetheart (or yourself) – rich, creamy and divine!
G / Food For this coming special weekend, I have put together 2 of my readers favorite desserts for your weekend treat. Enjoy
G / Food Pom Ice Cream Pops | I knew that blood-red elixir was bound for a special V-Day dessert the moment it landed on my door step.
G / Food Sexy Oreo Truffles | Only 3 ingredient! And no baking required.
G / Food Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes | I have to admit, I think I prefer these cakes to normal cupcakes. they were so light and moist. They near enough melted on the tongue.
G / Food More than merely cocoa-flavored, this dark temptress throws a one-two punch of no-holds barred chocolate intensity, powerful enough to send the most dedicated chocoholics spinning.
