The Raw Bombshell

Commitments

This might seem like a strange time to be talking commitment, what with the christmas season well and truely upon us. This is more a time to be thinking of letting go and getting into the party spirit. 

Well, I won't disagree with that, yet I've been finding my commitment to myself wandering at this time of year purely due, I feel, to the excuse of its christmas.... The thing is though, its not making me feel that great as I'm not honoring my commitments to myself and others, This blog being a fine example, I made the commitment to write twice a week and yet I find, its been 2 weeks since I last wrote.  Where does the time go?! 

So, I'm asking you, what commitments have you made to yourself and are you honouring them over christmas?  And if not, are you happy to have let them slide? 

There is an energy in keeping commitments, one that bouys you up and keeps you happy.  As this is the period of goodwill and merry making, ensure you're in tip top shape by doing all those things you promise yourself you're going to do, be that eating well, exercising or having fun with the kids! 

Are organic vegetables really better for you?

I moved a few months back into the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire.  Its got many advantages in that I'm surrounded by nature, it's literally on my doorstep.  I have great quality air, beauty, peace but it's got one drawback.  A lack of organic green leafy vegetables.  For some reason this area is the bemeuda triangle of organic veg! Where has it gone, go 20 miles in any direction and voila - there is the organic green veg again!

It upsets me no end as I got very used to just popping into any supermarket and having my pick of organics or the farmers market at the end of each month displayed the best of local.  The thing is it's so easy to get complacent when it's on your doorstep.  But now it's not.  Yep, we have great veg on the market stalls, loads of it but none of it is organic.  Ask locals about it and they just frown and look as if I'm mad.

"There ain't nowt to be had in that organic stuff that's any better than what's in these veg!"Would be the reply.

I have to disagree.  Due to a lack of time or even particularly know-how - I've not been consuming anywhere near the level of organic veg that I'm used to.  Alarming!  As everyone in the raw community goes on about the nead to eat organic.  Do these people know about the organic green veg bermuda triangle?!

But really, is there any advantage to organic.  YES! YES! YES!

I've noticed that I'm losing that raw glow about my skin. It could be the fact that its winter with a lack of sunshine and central heating taking its toll. Except for when I finally tracked down how I could get organic greens delivered to me, my skin shone, my eyes sparkled.  It convinced me.  So now I have to truck in the organics into my bermuda triangle and thankfully so far, the truck ain't gone missing!

So are you eating organic?

I believe you should - those pesky pesitcides are not a good complexion builder. 

Thank you

Thank you to all the people that have taken the time to wish me get well soon love.  I was touched by people's concern and care. 

I'm on the mend.

I have spent the past few days contemplating food though.  I've lost my appetite and it's only just beginning to come back.  I've been keeping it simple and enjoying snacking on straight-forward salads.  But now I want to get busy in the kitchen and eat some great meals.

Whilst on the mend it has been making me think about the christmas period and how we all have a tendancy to overindulge and then make loads of comitments to change in the new year.  Well I've been thinking - wouldn't it be a great idea to start filling the body now with more amazing nutrients in the form of raw food.  Start to flood the body with goodness so it will find it easier to remove all the excess stuffed in over christmas.

It's an issue to me at the moment as I realise I want to fill my body with good stuff at the to ensure its healing quickly.  I need and want to eat lots.  

With this is mind I've devised a teleseminar based around this subject - its called PRETOXING for        christmas.  That's the opposite to a detox, its not looking at what you can remove but rather what you can include.  It' a teleseminar that will get you focused on the joys of christmas without having to worry about the overindulgence.  Its going to be fun, with a few hints and tips and maybe a couple of challenges for you. Allowing you to enjoy a healthy christmas without feeling as you have to miss out.  If you have any questions now is the time to start sending them in so I can cover them in the call.

So keep a note in your diary for Monday 16th December 9pm (UK time) where I will be discussing this exciting concept.

I will post more details over the weekend.

Looking forward to you joining me.

xx

PS Couldn't help but feel a bit christmassy and get my dressing up photos out!  The photo is courtesy of the lovely people that run a treasure trove of fancy dress - Fanatasia.  Don't you just love christmas.

Happy Chocolate Face...

Well as a follow on from my last post regarding my rash, it has got worse and spread over my body. 

 Now, as I thought to myself this does not look like a food allergy, I made an appointment to see the GP.  Oooh the big bad doctor!  Frowned upon by so many in the alternative community.  But this needed medical attention.

On my raw food coach training course, Karen Knowler, gave us all the story of good luck, bad luck, who can say.  Which she wrote about recently if you want to read it in full, click here.  In essence it was the story of a man with a beautiful horse - the horse went missing, bad luck said the villagers - good luck, bad luck, who can say replied the man... the horse came back, good luck said the villagers - good luck, bad luck, who can say replied the man... the mans son went out for a ride on the horse, fell off and broke his leg, bad luck said the villagers - good luck, bad luck, who can say... war broke out and all the village men were sent to battle except the son who had a broken leg... the villagers commented on the mans good fortune to not have his son go to war... good luck, bad luck, who can say replied the man.... 

So what was the point of that interlude well I feel as if I was that man today! The GP did a diagnosis of me and told me I had scarletina (scarlet fever) - a highly infectious disease and has given me a course of penecillian.  Now usually, I would be very upset at this and berating my bad luck but today I thought well maybe this is good luck. Why?

It means I don't have a cacao allergy or reaction and I can carry on eating raw chocolate - yeah!  I also have a great sounding name for my rash - scarletina - evokes images of a brazen lady in sleazy nightclubs... am I getting carried away again?! 

 

Cacao Cracks...

What's going on with raw cacao?  There appears to be a bit of a backlash against its crown as the number 1 superfood with reports of people getting rashes and energy crashes. 

The most recent article I read was my fellow collegue and good friend Jo Thomas at Discover Raw about her thoughts after watching Kevin Gianni's video and his reaction to cacao on Renegade Health  (where he talks about a mysterious rash that appears on his side, his energy levels being diminished, his liver and kidneys being strained and his maganesium and potassium levels depleted).  Jo discovered she too was suffering from a cacao rash.

Why am I mentioning these 2 blog posts?  Because I feel a tad alarmed.  I love raw chocolate, I have eaten it almost every day for well over a year and loved its effects.  I find it a fantastic way to introduce people to raw food and I love its decandance as well as its buzz.  I on the whole eat the cacao nibs just as they are as I enjoy the bitterness but of course I make chocolate as well as its such a fun pastime.

Funnily enough I was never a big cooked chocolate eater.

Now all this talk about side effects of raw chocolate have made me look at my consumption.  Am I having any effects?  I first thought about this in the summer and no I can honestly say there was nothing that bothered me.  But this past month I've started to notice I was getting itchy after eating chocolates that I made.  I wondered if this was the cacao butter or powder.  It never happened when I ate the nibs.  I have noticed my energy levels dropping slightly but I've put that down to the 1000 and one things that I'm doing at the moment.

But...

Today, I found this on my side. Its not too pleasant is it? 

Ooh I can't believe I've just shared this with the world! As you can see I've been scratching it as its so itchy and I've got marks all over.

I was in London yesterday and ate a piece of raw chocolate cake from a raw cafe (very delicious it was too), something much richer than I ususally eat but hey it was a treat. Then this morning I had a tbsp of cacao nibs on my raw porridge as normal. 

What's happened?  Is this a reaction to cacao or is it something else entirely and my body is just trying to jump on the band wagon.  Actually I don't want to be on this band wagon as I enjoy my chocolate too much.  It's also Christmas soon and I'm running a workshop on Sunday where raw chocolate is a feature.  Mmmmm... Feedback please!