Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Super foods

Hello Blogsphere! Have you missed me?

I have been busy writing my book, entertaining this summer and hanging out with my family. We are gearing up for the fourth of July and our house is in full swing. The buntings are hung, Red, White and Blue bows are strung, Uncle Sam would be proud!

I wanted to give you some information on super foods, so I put it into a nice display to show you what different things you can enjoy that will benefit your health!

Herbs


Spices



Nuts





Sea Vegetables




Grains





Super Sprouts









Beans and Legumes







Fruits



Incorporating each of these super foods into your diet each day will benefit your health and wellness trifold.
Dramatic, intentional eating can change your entire molecular cell structure. What was once diseased, can begin to repair itself, and it can also stop some signs of aging and also regrow damaged cell walls.
Even if you are a meat eater, you can start a change in yourself that can add years to your life, undo harmful cell degration, erase bone calcification and stop the growth of some cancer cells.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of information!!!!
Until next time!



Monday, June 14, 2010

Meal for Monday


Hello Blogsphere!


I am leaving you a short post about my menu today with a few recipes.

Enjoy



Breakfast:


Recipe

Banana, Walnut and Cinnamon ice cream

2 frozen Banana's

a small handful of black walnuts, use english if you prefer

two big dashes cinnamon

Add bananas and cinnamon to your food processor, when the consistency of ice cream add in walnuts and pulse twice.


Second Breakfast:
4.5 cups dbl. strength green jasmine tea
2 oranges

Snack:
California roll with wasabi (made with brown rice and grated cauliflower, celery, cucumber and pickled daikon radish


Lunch:

Cabbage rolls

Recipe

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
12 cabbage leaves, par boiled and trimmed
1/2 pkg. extra firm tofu, previously frozen, chopped so it resembles rice (???) just fake it with me.
1 medium onion, grated
1 small green pepper, minced
garlic powder to taste
onion powder to taste
cracked black pepper to taste
2 cans tomato sauce ( use organic if possible) mixed with 2 tbls. parsley and pepper
Mix shredded cabbage, tofu, onion and green pepper together. Season liberally with spices. Roll mixture into cabbage leaves. Pour tomato sauce over cabbage mixture and bake for about 1 hour in a 325 degree oven. Serve with a fresh spinach salad with a tbls. onion/garlic hummus.


Snack:
Kale chips with red pepper flakes and garlic


Dinner:
"Cream" of Broccoli soup
Country Mustard baked tofu
Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers

I am getting ready to go to for my Remicade tomorrow. I am a little excited about seeing what my blood work says. I am hoping to see a dramatic drop in my RH factor and also an increase in calcium and protein levels. I have been pretty strict in my food regimne and I feel mush better this month before my remicade than I did the last time. My back pain is less painful and I am not as exhausted as I normally am when I am eating alot of vegan junk food!
Thank you for all the kind thoughts about my last blog. It means so much to me!
Hoping you have a nice week.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I am still here


Hello friends.

I just wanted to drop a line and let you know I am still here and I am also still plugging away at the E2L Diet....

To say I am happy about the diet would to be lying, but if you ask me about the results I am ecstatic. I have lost a whopping 13 lbs. in 3 weeks.
My plaques have all but vanished and I my hair is insane. It is this huge thick mane of hair that I haven't seen since I was 16 years old.


I have received some well intentioned e-mails. I appreciate all of the letters I get from my followers, you all mean so much to me.

I have also received some not very nice e-mails from people who think that I am a quitter, a whiner, and bad mouthing the E2L diet.

I am not a quitter, I am still doing the diet.


I am not a whiner.

This diet is hard, especially if you have given up as much as I have in my lifetime, and as far as the E2L diet...IT WORKS.
If you do not know about my illness, but would like to see what my skin normally looks like please look
here .

Now, for the reasons I am not happy about this diet.



I live a very restricted life. I do not go to crowded places often, I do not visit sick relatives and I do not under any circumstances go to the hospital if someone is ill. I am immune deficient, what that means is, I can catch a staph infection quicker than you can say, OH NO......
So you can imagine what my life is like.


I have contracted staph twice in the last three years. I have been bed ridden twice in the last two years. I have had my body lock up on me and I was unable to assist myself to the bathroom for 6 months. My body is no picnic. I used to talk 13 pills a day to maintain my body and my mind. This disease is very emotionally destructive. Three of the 13 pills were depression and anti-panic attack meds.

So 9 years ago I stopped all meds, became a vegan over night and I have maintained my illness thus far. But.....I still had some plaques, and I am in constant pain from my Psoriatic Arthritis. I have spondilitis and mutilans associated with the PsA that are slowly deteriorating my spine and hips. There is no cure.

When Alicia told me about eat to live, I was skeptical.

I had already drastically changed my lifestyle. I became a vegan for health reasons, not animals. I was given a premature death sentence and I was going to fight it all the way.
I have given up all of my favorite foods for my illness.

Now I had to restructure my entire life again for my illness? Was I willing to once again start over from scratch?

The answer is yes.

But am I going in quietly?

NO!

Alicia told me when she first started the E2L diet she was like a small child stomping their feet and having temper tantrums all the time. I cannot eat this way she screamed!


I also feel the exact same way. I love fresh fruit and fresh veggies, but on this diet I am having a hard time chewing so much.... lol

I have received e-mails from people telling me how easy they transitioned into E2L and how they love the food..

Now....
Either they are lying or they are cheating, because I am not transitioning well, I am less than thrilled with the food and I am so not thrilled with the lack of salt.

I am following the straight plan. It is the most restricted and it is difficult to chew so many vegetables and fruits in one day.
I eat several pounds of raw and cooked vegetables and fruits everyday.
I also eat beans and some grains.
I am not on a 85/15 plan.
I do not cheat. I do not use oil.
I do not eat bread, margarine, meat, meat substitutes, sugar or dates.
In the beginning I tried the whole date/nut bar thing.
In my own opinion, it is just another way to sneak sugar back in your diet, and I felt it was defeating the purpose of detoxing my body.
I do not go over any of the specified regulations of this diet. I am hard core, all the way......

I drink 8 bottles of water a day. I drink 4 glasses of double strength green tea in the morning and two in the evening.
I thought you might like to See what I eat in a single day.




Here is my daily food regime: this varies from day to day, this is today's.

Wake up: Double strength green tea, I drink this all morning long.

Breakfast smoothie: Banana/strawberry with flax

Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon and apples

Snack: Celery and apple slices with 1 oz. homemade cashew butter

Lunch:
4 cups romaine and spinach salad with the following toppings
radish
tomatoes
celery
cucumber
scallions
broccoli
stone ground mustard, vinegar dressing
1 tbls. red pepper hummus

Snack: 1 grapefruit and 1/4 cup pistachio's

Dinner:
Vegetable soup: onions, celery, green beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, cabbage, tomatoes, fresh tomato juice.

Snack: popcorn with chamomile tea


I try to stay as close to natural food as possible. I do not try to recreate foods I used to eat. I do not eat all raw. I have mainly been eating alot of organic watermelon and cantaloupe for snacks. I also have been on a grape fest... Lots of grapes

I walk three miles a day. I also swim three times a week and I am doing crunches and some cardio dance, when I feel like it.

I hope to be an inspiration to those of you that are struggling. I am being honest in my struggles, in my pain and in my temper tantrums. It is who I am. I am not going to sugar coat my dietary changes or the hardships I am facing. It might be simple for some to eat this way. For me it is not.


This is the hardest diet I ever tried.

I am making amazing progress. I feel the changes. I see the changes.


I am hoping for a cure. I think I might have found one.....

If you would like me to let you know what I eat, I would be glad to post my menu's. I am not ready to post recipes yet.

When I feel more self assured I will start posting my pictures again.

So.. Why is there a picture of an angry cat on the top of this blog? Because this is the way I feel most of the time lately and it cracks me up!!!!

I hope it cracked you up too!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The beginning of the End?

I am discouraged.....
Unhappy.....
Disappointed....
Disgruntled.....
and sad

I miss my food. I miss blogging about my food and listening to people wanting to make my food.
I miss the connection of people enjoying something together and just being happy.

I have lost 12 lbs, and some of my old clothes fit. I bought a bikini.
I don't care....

I hate the food
I hate the bland
I hate that my family will not eat any of my food and they sit around reminiscing about my mashed potatoes.

I dread eating now. I rarely eat. Food has no appeal for me at all. None....

I never have anything to blog about. I think the food is ugly, I think the meals suck, and I wouldn't want anyone to eat what I made.....EVER!

This is a good plan.
This plan works.
This plan saves lives.
I do not know if I can do it.

I am being honest.
I hate this food.
If I continue this plan I am going to stop blogging.
I am not being melodramatic.
I am being honest.
I cannot show food I hate, to people I care about.
It does not taste good.
That I would not feed to my dog.....not that he would eat it....

I need a little support here in my hour of need.
I am seriously thinking about eating a cheeseburger, and I am not joking!