Day 4 of 108 ~ Yesterday I ate;

Soak water from my died mangos
Soaked mango blended w/frozen banana (-So good!)
Raw mango-tomato soup
Raw zucchini noodles with sage-tomatillo sauce
Salad: tomato/bell pepper/onion/lettuce
Durian (-Mmmm... yum.)

*Raw Mango-Tomato Soup Recipe* (serves 4 people) You can also use it a a salad dressing!
If I can remember this correctly, here it is; several medium-large tomatoes, a few scallions whole (top & bottom, without roots), lots of soaked dried mango, a little soaked dried papaya, lime juice, lemon juice, 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a jalapeno pepper (use less if you don't like hot pepper), some fresh cilantro, a whole red bell pepper & 1/2 of a zucchini. Put everything in the blender & blend until smooth. After that, you can add lots of chopped watercress on top & a few red grape tomatoes for color.

Day 3 of 108 ~ Today I ate;

Lots of soaked bahri dates (-love drinking their sweet soak water too!)
Red grapefruits
Raw zucchini noodles with sage sauce over chopped red leaf lettuce

* Raw Zucchini Noodles with Sage Sauce Recipe *
I make the zucchini noodles with a noodle maker. You can also use a potato peeler or grater to make the noodles. For the sauce I use a 1 small bunch of fresh sage, the juice of 1 lemon, some scallion whole (the top & bottom) , a few tomatillos, 1/2 pint of red grape tomatoes, about 2 cups of baby spinach leaves, 1-2 hot peppers (I use 1 very small habanero & 1 big jalapeno, but that may be too hot for most people), and 1/4 or more of a Florida avocado. (I like Florida best because they are more water rich than California avocados & they have a sweet taste than combines well in sauces.) Put everything in a high speed blender & blend away. I put the noodles over a bed of lettuce, then add sauce, after that I place some chopped tomato & scallions on top for color.

Today I ate;

1 small Hachiya persimmon
5 organic Bahri dates (-They arrived in the mail! Wow, they are very sweet. I think I still prefer a good quality organic Medjool date over the Bahris. But it was fun to try something new. I have 5lbs of them in my fridge now. They should last a long time. So I'll eat them little by little.)
Lots of blended veggies with heaps of raw spinach (-Today I tried purple turnips, or were they radishes? I'm not sure. But they tasted good & paired well with my red beets.)

Forgot to add this to yesterday's eats;
I had raw yellow squash noodles w/mango-celery-tomato sauce & chopped cilantro for lunch. <--The sauce was really good. My trick is to blend a pint of grape or cherry tomatoes with 2 celery stalks, then pour it into a glass jar with organic dried mango slices in it. Let it soak until the mango is re-hydrated, (you can leave it in the fridge over night or on your counter for a few hours), then blend all of it when you are ready to eat. You get a really think & super flavorful sauce thats sits beautifully on top of your raw noodles. You can add fresh chopped basil, oregano or cilantro on top for color & more flavor.

Today I ate;

2 liters of water

Lots of mangoes (-yay!)

Red leaf-avocado salad w/Bragg's dressing & kimchi 

Spirulina smoothie

Chilled spring pea soup

Plain chai tea

= 1750 total calories for the day

I've got good news! Today is day 1 of my 21 day cleanse. It's kind of a combo. Part of it is based on what I wanted to do back in May (-but I got off track & fizzled out on the idea). The other part is based on the book 'Clean' by Dr. Alejandro Junger. My problem areas are eating too late in the day, too many food combinations that can interfere with proper digestion & eating more than I need to. I feel like the Clean program will help me address all of them. Plus allow my body the extra space (& love) it needs to heal past abuse (-like working with toxic art supplies, too much stress, too little sleep, too much food, emotions not acknowledged or expressed, etc.). Some of the things I like about the Clean program is that it addresses other ways of healing like; meditation, artistic self expression, skin brushing, sweating, massage, laughter, deep breathing, etc.  I do many of these weekly or daily already & it makes a huge difference. I've also tried a juice fast and LOVED the results I got from it. So this 21 day cleanse will be a combination of all of it. I know it will do me wonders if I stick to it. I will be blogging the whole way through. So you will be able to read how it all goes..

This is what the plan looks like;

The Essentials: Do These Daily

1 Plan and prepare your three meals: Liquid meal for breakfast/Solid food meal for lunch/ Liquid meal for dinner, with any supplements you’ve selected.

2 Follow the Elimination Diet guidelines for everything you consume.

3 Leave a twelve-hour window between the last meal of one day and the first meal of the next. Try not to snack in between.

4 Make sure you have a bowel movement before the end of the day. 

5 Drink enough pure water to cause you to pee often. If more than one hour has gone by without peeing, you are not drinking enough.

6 Move. Walk. Take the stairs. Jump. Incorporate more movement into your day, as often and for as long as you possibly can. 

7 Rest. Get enough sleep. And breathe deeply all day long.

The Optional Activities:

1 Exercise. In addition to your increased daily motion, more deliberate exercise practices will pay off big time. Start slowly and increase gradually as the days go by.

2 Five-minute meditation exercise. Clean your mind and emotions as you clean your body.

3 Colonics. Daily bowel movements will do the work. Colonics will accelerate the process.

4 Skin brushing. Spend a few minutes removing dead skin cells before your shower.

5 Hot-Cold treatments. Once in the shower, use this to power up circulation and detoxification.

6 Infrared Sauna. Sweat profusely as often as you can.

7 Massage. Schedule a massage each week if your time and budget permits.

8 Laugh. Try to do something every day that makes you laugh out loud. It changes the body chemistry for the better and releases stress.

9 Lubricate. Drink two tablespoons of olive oil every night before you go to bed.

10 Write. Keep a daily log of what you eat, what your incessant thoughts are about, how you are feeling and how you slept the night before.

11 Record your progress. Take a daily picture of yourself: same angle, same distance.

12 Eat a clove of garlic every day. Have it alone or thinly sliced and sandwiched between two thin apple slices.

13 Read a book related to health and wellbeing, about the food system, or about the environment. Take this opportunity to educate yourself about what is going on today. Understanding will make it more likely that you will want to maintain the results after you complete the program.

14 Express your artistic side. Dance, sing, play your instrument, paint, sculpt. Whatever it is that wets your whistle. This will activate your right brain and more strongly imprint this whole experience in that part of the brain that is more involved with instincts. Far in the future, even if the thoughts of living Clean vanish, your instincts will be stronger than your thinking brain and will guide you to making the right choices for health.

Today I ate;

2 liters of water

Banana-celery smoothie

Banana-beet top smoothie* (<-- looks and tastes like a chocolate shake!)

Shredded summer squash with cherry tomatoes, avocado and minced purple olives

on a bed of arugula with  strained tomato sauce on top

= 1365 total calories

* Green Smoothie Recipe: Banana & Beet tops*

This green smoothie is not green. It is the color of chocolate milk, a beautiful red-ish brown. I used a little filtered water, three bananas, and about 6 or more beet leaves including the stalks. I did not use the beet, only it's greens. If you want it thick, put the bananas in the blender first and don't use water. If you like it cold you can make it with ice.

As fruity as it gets..

Well, I just want to post a little "heads-up" for everyone. Starting today I am getting serious about being mostly fruit.  (You are what you eat!) This includes all sweet, acid and non-sweet fruits. Examples are; olives, tomatoes, zucchini, berries, nuts, seeds, sprouted seeds like sunflower sprouts, avocados, durian, melons, cucumbers, pineapples, peppers, plums, etc.. 

I will stay on the low-fat raw vegan side. Not necessarily 80/10/10, but something close. It might be more, it might be less, it will be whatever feels best. I will include lots of fresh leafy greens and lettuces everyday. Celery smoothies and fresh vegetable juices are really good for me. I might bring in some sea veggies or root veggies too on occasion. 

This means I will have to get creative or really simple. I've always liked a salty-fatty salad dressing. I adore avocados, coconut and durian. I could eat them everyday. Finding a new rhythm in my eating habits and in the kitchen will take some work. New fruitier recipes or simply eating fruit. We will see what is in store for me this year. 

I will be blogging what I eat everyday (if possible). If any of you have a fruit to share or a low-fat vegan recipe, please share it with me. You can post a comment. Your support would feel wonderful and make this journey more fun.

Sending you sunshine, happiness and love!

Xo, A.

Today I ate;

1 liter of smoothie (avocado/lemon/water/raw honey)

The juice of small grapefruits (I had LOTS. -Really good!)

Avocado with dulse and cayenne on lettuce leaves

Puree of apple/banana/cinnamon

32oz of lemon water

1.5 liters of plain water

(I exercised too; 40 minutes of walking and 90 minutes of yoga)

I'm not too happy with my current diet. Too much avocado, coconut oil, spices and salty things. Sometimes the produce I can get easily is not ripe (or not good) so I have been making 'less than great' choices. It's winter in NYC, so I don't have a great selection of fruits to choose from right now. But this week I will move towards more green smoothies, vegetable juices and home-made lemonades. There is no reason why I can't have more liquids in my diet till better weather and better fruit comes along. ~NO EXCUSES!