Day 326

Thoughts: Meet Yucca!

My husband introduced me to Yucca and now I love it! To think I never knew it existed before this year - I am sure there are many more wonderful foods out there to discover!

• Potato lovers would love Yucca I imagine as it has a similar consistency - that creamy white cakey crumble mmm! - and has less carbohydrates then a potato - so it is not as heavy.

• Yucca goes great with beans and rice.

• Yucca is a plant part of the perennial shrubs (a plant that lives for longer than 2 years) and trees in the agave family. They are native to the hot and dry earth so you will find them in arid areas like North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

• You can eat many parts of the Yucca tree - including fruits, seeds, flowers, flowering stems,and more rarely roots. It is the roots I love!

• Yucca is a white, starchy tropical vegetable that was originally grown by the indigenous peoples who resided in the countries now known as Columbia, Venezuela, and Brazil. These people used yucca as a dietary staple, typically milling the yucca into flour or making a paste from it.

• Because yucca is a versatile vegetable, its usage has spread to many non-Latin populations. For example, 10.5 million lbs. of yucca were sold last year in the United States alone. Additionally, every day more people are becoming aware of its use in cooking. This is because it can easily be substituted for potatoes in soups and stews and it contains a high amount of vitamin C and carbohydrates.
  

• Yucca is also a good source of dietary fiber and contains approximately 120 calories per 3.5-ounce serving.

• Another use for yucca that is becoming increasingly popular is the production of yucca chips by many food companies. Similar in appearance and taste to potato chips, except a little sweeter, yucca chips are entering the market as a healthy alternative to other snack foods.

• When cooking with yucca, many different variations exist for its preparation. Some of the most popular and tasty uses for it include the following:

• Boiling the yucca then covering it with onions and garlic that have been sautéed in olive oil

• Frying the yucca in olive oil until golden, removing it to cool then lightly shaking minced garlic on it.
  
  
  
  
• Adding it along with potatoes and other vegetables into beef-based vegetable soups
  

Source: http://www.essortment.com/all/yucarootsplant_rbgw.htm

Quotes: In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. -Robert Frost

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A beet, carrot, celery, ginger, spinach and garlic juice! A great way to get all your vegetables in one juice :)

Meal 2: 3 nectarines.

Meal 3: A avocado.

Meal 4: Freshly squeezed orange juice :)

Meal 5: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups! Created with cacao, peanuts, cacao butter and agave!



Meal 6: Mexican Rice and Beans with avocado and Yucca! Ingredients: Red onion, Green Pepper, Pinto Beans, Brown Rice, Tomato Paste, Cumin, Chilli, Coriander (Cilantro), avocado, lime!



Recipe: The recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups and Mexican Rice and beans are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: Dancing and stretching to some beautiful soft peaceful music by John Michael Sherdon.

39 days to go!!!

Day 325

Photograph: "Twisted" Artist: Leesa Connelly

Thoughts: Today I checked in with, or could say unplugged with a being called John Michael Sherdon. Like the Matrix movie that we could live in, John is Neo, completely unplugged from the machine, living in this world but not of it. He is a rare being on earth. You don't come across many human beings often on this planet as it is now who remains so unaffected by outside circumstances. Not to say he doesn't feel, connect, communicate and interact with everything of this planet. He does and he absorbs everything and has worked on his self for many years - experiencing things I have not even known existed, frequencies I cannot know intellectually. There are many things in my way, and many things I cannot imagine possible yet. I look forward while here and now as I work towards this greater awareness :)

Source: John Of The Light.com

Quotes: Be in the world and not of it - John Michael Sherdon

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A beet, carrot, celery and ginger juice oh and lots and lots of spinach.

Meal 2: Raw Chocolate Mint Brownie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls :) A chocolate meal! Created mostly with nuts, brazil, almonds and peanuts! Also has cacao, agave and water :) The beautiful Erica who works at Big Al's Fitness walked by the counter today as someone was purchasing the balls and said 'people love the balls Liana'!!! hehe :)




Meal 3: Orange, Grapefruit and Strawberry juice :)!!! Mmm mmm mmm! The most refreshing zangy energy juice! Juiced by Tristan at The Earth Diet Cafe!

Meal 4: Brazil nuts.

Meal 5: Spanish Beans and Rice with Avocado :) Mmm! The perfect warming, healing, loving, smooth, nurturing meal :) Ingredients: Red Kidney Beans, Onion, Garlic, Celery, Olive Oil, Paprika, Coriander (cilantro).



Recipe: The recipe for Raw Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls and Spanish Rice and Beans are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: Bike riding all over Amityville :) To and from the gym, to and from a friend's place, to and from the spanish store to pick up some beautiful avocados with my husband :)

40 days to go!!!

Day 324

Thoughts: Which one sounds like you;

"No matter how hard I try I can't lose weight and be healthy"
"I can eat whatever I like and don't put on weight"

Each one of these beliefs will create quite different experiences. What we believe about ourselves and about life becomes true for us. These are the wise words of the beautiful extraordinary being Louise Hay.

Life is Really Very Simple. What We Give Out, We Get Back

What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. I believe that everyone, myself included, is responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst. Every thought we think is creating our future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences.

We create the situations, and then we give our power away by blaming the other person for our frustration. No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for "we" are the only thinkers in it. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.

The Universe Totally Supports Us in Every Thought We Choose to Think and Believe

Put another way, our subconscious mind accepts whatever we choose to believe. They both mean that what I believe about myself and about life becomes true for me. What you choose to think about yourself and about life becomes true for you. And we have unlimited choices about what we can think.

When we know this, then it makes sense to choose "Everyone is always helpful," rather than "People are out to get me."

The Universal Power Never Judges or Criticizes Us

It only accepts us at our own value. Then it reflects our beliefs in our lives. If I want to believe that life is lonely and that nobody loves me, then that is what I will find in my world.

However, if I am willing to release that belief and to affirm for myself that "Love is everywhere, and I am loving and lovable," and to hold on to that new affirmation and to repeat it often, then it will become true for me. Now, loving people will come into my life, the people already in my life will become more loving to me, and I will find myself easily expressing love to others.


Most of Us Have Foolish Ideas about Who We Are and Many, Many Rigid Rules about How Life Ought to Be Lived

This is not to condemn us, for each of us is doing the very best we can at this very moment. If we knew better, if we had more understanding and awareness, then we would do it differently. Please don't put yourself down for being where you are.

"Men don't cry!" "Women can't handle money!" What limiting ideas to live with.

"You are wonderful." "I love you." How often do you tell yourself this?

This blog thanks to the wonderful Liz Graydon!

Quotes: "The Thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences." Louise Hay

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A grapefruit and orange juice.

Meal 2: An avocado.

Meal 3: 4 nectarines.



Meal 4: Some brazil nuts.



Meal 5: Green Salad. Created with avocado, baby spinach, green lettuce leafs, garlic, spring onion (shallots), coriander (cilantro), green chilli, cucumber and lime.



Meal 6: Chocolate Fruit and Almond Bark. Created with coconut butter, cacao butter, cacao paste, cacao powder, maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, hazelnut extract, vanilla extract, sunflower lecithin, raisins, dried cherries, coconut, almonds and walnuts!



Recipe: Green Salad and Chocolate Fruit and Almond Bark are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: A 40 minute workout at Big Al's Family Fitness! Worked on cardio and abs :)

41 days to go!!!

Day 323

Thoughts: How you lose weight on The Earth Diet.

When you eat only foods that nature intended, your body weight is restored to it's natural state. I was never fat, but previous to The Earth Diet I had excess weight stored from the years of accumulated artificial sugar, processed foods, preservatives and chemicals!

Did you know the average person eats about 2 Kg of food additives a year!!!

It always seems to be that extra weight that would not shift. Once I cut this from my lifestyle and live eating only foods naturally provided by the earth, my body completely transformed, feeling healthy and energetic, being able to sleep less, eat less and yet be fulfilled, and my digestive system is now a fully functioning operating organ - hehe! No more blockages! And now that my bowels are cleaner I am able to actually absorb the nutrients! Now I eat what ever I like when I like, including chocolate! Real chocolate made with cacao beans, no sugar and no dairy!

• When you swap foods with sugar, preservatives, and artificial flavours to natural whole foods from the earth, their is no way for it to stick in your body, food flows in you and out of you, your digestive system works harmoniously and you are flourishing with vitamins and minerals and left with more energy!
• The Earth Diet focuses on lightness - you become what you think about most and when you focus on lightness rather than heaviness, that is who you are!
  
  
• The Earth Diet gives your digestive system a break, as you are no longer eating foods that provide you with no nutritional value. It is these foods that the digestive system uses up so much energy to digest. When it is not wasting the energy on digesting foreign sugars and flavourings, and instead eating nutritious foods, your body is absorbing all the vitamins and you are left with more energy and vitality to do other things, in which you are most likely to be active and burn fat!
  
  
• When you swap regular store bought chocolate with real chocolate made from cacao beans, no sugar, no dairy and no artificial anythings you will drop all that 'chocolate' weight you have gathered over the years!
  
  
• Your body becomes in a alkaline state in which weight gain is not possible. Weight gain is created when your body is overloaded with food and chemicals and hence acidic.
  
  
• The Earth Diet has a lot of raw recipes. Raw foods are alive foods. Science proves that cooking not only destroys nutrition and enzymes, but chemically changes foods from the substances needed for health into free-radicals and poisons that destroy our health!
• The Earth Diet isn't a quick fix - it is a lifestyle transformation. So you don't lose weight with uncomfortable detox symptoms only to put it on again after the 'diet'. Once you try your own Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups you won't want to eat store bought Reese's Cups again!
• You will also experience an 'emotional' detox on The Earth Diet and realize your true potential; powerful beyond measure!- you learn to separate yourself from the voice that has you binge on sugary junk and fast foods!
• When you juice fresh fruits and vegetables, you absorb the vitamins and minerals at cellular level.
• Your natural fat burning ability is recreated.
• As whole foods from the earth are higher in nutrition and lower in calories! So you can eat more, absorb more nutrients and lose weight!
• The main source of fats on The Earth Diet nuts and seeds, as well as avocado and coconut butter. These fats are easily broken down in the body and do not store! So cellulite will dissolve!
• Weightloss is not complicated on The Earth Diet and there is no calorie counting. When you are in a state of well being excess weight flows off you!
• Consume as much as you can of the 'right nutrition' and you will never put on weight
  
  The Earth Diet Challenge begins October 26th - eat only foods from the earth for 21 days and another one for 9 days! See the website to register!
  
  Some foods and recipes for weightloss on The Earth Diet are:
  
  
  • Raw Zucchini Pasta Pesto
    
    
  • Avocado
    
    
  • Chocolate Balls
    
    
  • Grapefruit and Orange Juice
• AND SWAPPING THINGS LIKE:
  
  Ice Cream - for Raw Ice Cream; no dairy and no sugar!
  
  Pizza - for raw pizza made with sprouted buckwheat, tomatoes, and macadamias and nutritional yeast as cheese!
  
  Pasta - for Raw Spaghetti! Made with Zuchinni!
  
  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - for your own raw peanut butter cups!
  
  Pancakes - for buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup!
  
  Juices - get your own juicer and juice beetroot (beet) that lifts waste off your bowel walls!
  
  Cheesecake - with raw Cheesecake made with macadamia nuts and cashews! Divine!
  
  Cookie Dough - raw created with cashews, oats and vanilla!
  
  To view these recipes and more plus see before and after photos visit www.TheEarthDiet.org
  
  
  Quotes: Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil - tell me, what was your original face before your mother and father were born?....Zen Koan.
  
  What I Ate Today:
  
  Meal 1: A beetroot (beet), carrot, celery, ginger and garlic juice.
  
  Meal 2: An avocado.
  
  Meal 3: 2 nectarines.
  
  Meal 4: Veggie Patties! Ingredients: Beetroot, garlic, ginger, carrot, zuchinni, egg plant, eggs, brown onion, oats, potatoes.
  
  
  
  Meal 5: Raw Chocolate Brownie :) Created from raw soaked almonds, walnuts, cacao powder, coconut oil, dates, vanilla extract (optional).
  
  
  
  Meal 6: Aussie Prawns (Shrimp). Created with prawns, orange, parsley, basil, cummin, garlic and rice.
  
  
  
  Meal 6: Some raspberries :)
  
  Recipe: The recipe for Veggie Patties, raw Chocolate Brownies and Aussie Prawns are available free on The Earth Diet website!
  
  Exercise: A 1 hour workout at Big Al's Family Fitness! I did cardio, jumping and core work :)
  
  42 days to go!!!

Day 322

Thoughts: Death by Sugar.

This article was written by a beautiful friend of mine Elisha Yarrington who writes a blog Mind Body Spirit!

Sugar is by far one of the most addictive substances.

Yet it is commonly added to nearly 90% of processed and packaged food items.

It promotes cancer cells.

Triggers weight gain.

Promotes early signs of ageing.

Evidence shows that sugar is a major factor causing chronic illness (let alone obesity). DEATH BY SUGAR may not be an overstatement.

There is a vast sea of research suggesting the deadly effects of sugar in our westerm diets. Science has now shown us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food, is taking a devastating toll on your health.

Sadly our government and the FDA allows sugar to be loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in almost all processed foods. To tomato sauce, vegemite, bread, cheese and toothpaste!

And now most infant formula has the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola, so babies are being metabolically poisoned from day one if taking formula.

(Some of the this information was gathered from Dr Robert H.Lustig from the Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism- i strongly sugget you watched his presentation).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

I highly recommend watching the above video. If i were to sit here and right everything i know about sugar (fructose) and explain in scientific detail what happens to your body when you consumer sugar, this post would be more like a essay.

So instead... read these SIMPLE dot points about sugar, and what it does to YOU. Even if you only remember one of them, you may think twice next time you eat processed packaged food.. Remember knowledge is power.. Ignorance is bliss, we are evolving and growing into more intelligent, conscious being's so be OPEN to information that comes to you.. Read it. Analyze it. and Do your own research!

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
3. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.
5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.
6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
8. Sugar can weaken your eyesight
9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulceration colitis.
10. Sugar can cause premature aging. In fact, the single most important factor that accelerates aging is insulin, which is triggered by sugar. 1
11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.
13. Sugar contributes to obesity.
14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, and multiple sclerosis.
15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)
16. Sugar can cause gallstones.
17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.
18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.
19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.
20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.[
21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.
23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
24. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
25. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
26. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.
27. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.
28. In intensive care units, limiting sugar saves lives.
29. Sugar may induce cell death.
30. In juvenile rehabilitation centers, when children were put on low sugar diets, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.

The Earth Diet is sugar free :)

To read more by Elisha visit here.



Quotes: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Zen Wisdom

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A beet, celery, ginger, carrot and garlic juice.

Meal 2: Blueberry Kiwi Buckwheat Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce! Created with cashews, oats, buckwheat flour, water, raspberries, kiwi fruit, blueberries, orange juice, and honey!



Meal 3: 2 nectarines.

Meal 4: An avocado.

Meal 5: Chocolate Mud Balls. Created with cocao, agave syrup, brazil nuts, almonds, coconut oil and avocado!



Meal 6: Orange Beef Ginger Stir Fry. Created with orange juice, ginger, garlic, chilli, steak, olive oil, vegetables, honey and sesame seeds.



Recipe: The recipes for Blueberry Kiwi Buckwheat Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce, Chocolate Mud Balls and Orange Beef Ginger Stir Fry are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: Stretching and walking :)

43 days to go!!!

Day 321

Art Work by Thomas Sheridan

Thoughts: Your real life. "I will start tomorrow" - you will never start tomorrow! This is an excuse to avoid what ever is going on NOW! And if you 'screw' up in this moment, who's to say you can't re-create yourself anew in the next moment and start again! We can always start again now, and now and now and now! We are never one way - always changing - we are nothing and our word. I am nothing and my word. If I say I can I can, if I say I can't I can't. Forgive yourself - you are the only one who will do it for you! And as Mother Teresa says 'Life is a struggle - accept it'.

Jinjee Talifero a beautiful being and creator of The Garden Diet says "Your real life is waiting for you! It is already there! Here! It is not something you need to strive and work for or envy others for. Your have your very own! A totally unique life, with its own challenges and joys, woven from the fabric of life by your individual ancestry, environment, choices, beliefs, and the desires of your heart, a life that is rich with meaning, that is a profound story, and that reflects your deepest values. Yet so many little things can keep us from embracing our life, from living this wonderful life fully, from experiencing the stark reality of our breathtaking existence!

Here are some of things I've found that can keep you from living your real life... I believe they are all addictions....

overeating
stinking thinking
negativity
MSG
caffeine, coffee
alcohol and drugs
cigarettes
perfectionism
workaholism
sloth, slovenliness
procrastination
fear
jealousy
hate
blame
doubt

One way Jinjee has found to overcome these and other addictions is with a raw vegan diet, regular exercise and a conscious pursuit of inner balance and harmony.

Quotes: Life is a struggle, accept it. -Mother Teresa

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A pineapple and mint juice :) Freshly juiced of course mmm!

Meal 2: 2 organic nectarines.

Meal 3: Creamy Coconut Balls! Created from honey, lemon, cashew nuts, oats, coconut and vanilla!



Meal 4: A Mango Avocado Salad. Created with mango, avocado, olive oil, the juice of lime and tangerine, fresh coriander (cilantro) and black sesame seeds!



Meal 5: Another nectarine :)

Meal 6: Sweet Sesame Salmon Salad. Created with salmon, honey, sesame seeds, aspargus, cucumber, baby spinach, tomatoes and spring onions (shallots)!



Recipe: Creamy Coconut Balls, Mango Avocado Salad and Sweet Sesame Salmon Salad are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: A lot of walking today :)

44 days to go!!!

Day 320

We have all heard about the meat industry and how it is linked to billions of dollars as well as countless drugs. Today’s industrialized process reduces the nutritional value of the meat, stresses the animals, increases the risk of bacterial contamination, pollutes the environment and exposes consumers to a long list of unwanted chemicals. You can’t see it. And you can’t always recognize it by reading the label.

So I spoke with Dr Edward Kachab, PhD of Chemical Free Kids who witnessed the processing of meat and discovered how every step of animal farm production is controlled with drugs! Edwards shares what drugs are used and exactly how this affects the animals and us when we consume it in the body...

Did you know that farm animals in large-scale animal housing where large numbers of animals are assembled into small areas of land or water are continuously dosed with drugs for most of their life-span to keep them healthy and increase production???

Such is the economy of large-scale animal production of meat, milk and eggs intended for our supermarket shelves. For example, chicken, egg, pig, veal and fish production. I wasn’t terribly aware of what was really involved until I took this area up as a research topic during my post-graduate studies. My supervisor asked me to develop a diagnostic kit to detect these drugs in sheep. I discovered that drugs are added at very high doses to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases and for growth promotion. In fact, it’s a common practice in animal farming to add antibiotics and anabolic agents to the animal feed to fatten up them and improve the overall efficiency of production.

I got to find out that every step of animal farm production is controlled with the use of drugs. Drugs with potent hormonal activity are used to control reproduction for example in ruminants and pigs. Other drugs such as prostaglandins and their analogues are used to regulate fertility and breeding programs whilst glucocorticoids are used to control timing of production. In fact, drugs are added to farm animals almost right up to the point before they are killed. As farmers need their animals to weight as much as possible for maximum returns, beta-adrenogenic blocking agents are given to sheep, cows and pigs whilst they are on their way to the slaughter house to reduce any weight loss due to the stressful circumstances of transportation. Once animals make it to the slaughter house, the drug dosing doesn’t necessarily stop; some may be dosed with even more drugs such as certain tranquilizers to stop anxiety or prevent heart failure or to curb aggressive behaviour.

If you’re beginning to wonder if food production is all about the economy, the answer to your question is yes! At the end of the day farmers or food manufacturers are interested in making a profit. They are set up to produce ‘food’ for a profit. They are not in the business of keeping you healthy. For that you need to find a good company that specializes in wellness. So let’s take a closer look at what happens when all these drug enter the body of farm animals?

In a best case scenario, once the drugs enter the blood stream they go to the liver where most of the drug gets metabolised and then excreted by the kidneys with little or no drug residues left in the animal body. However, there are many drugs that are not easily metabolised and eliminated from the body and these drugs enter the muscle, the skin and the fat where it gets deposited and stored and accumulate over time and over repeated dosing. Some people report experiencing an allergic reaction when eating a piece of animal fat but not to the meat itself as it is in the animal fat where some drugs accumulate at their highest concentration. Drugs or their metabolites can also make their way to milk and eggs as that may be the route in which the animal may eliminate the drugs or toxins from their body.

What are some of the regulations?

Regulations require that when drugs are administered to farm animals a certain period of time know as the ‘withdrawal period’ must elapse before the animals are killed or before eggs and milk are collected so that sufficient time lapses for most drug residues to be cleared from the system. However, drug residues exceeding the recommended levels continue to be detected for many drugs. One of the most common reasons for this is that animals are killed before the withdrawal time is animals with amounts much higher than they are supposed to. Drugs administered just before the animals are killed don’t have time to be eliminated and often result in high residue levels in the meat. If the drug is administered as an injection it can be localized at very extremely high levels at the site of the injection.

What are the health risks from these drug residues?

The two main health risks to humans is either toxicity on the body or microbiological effects. For example, some drug residues have been reported to be cancer causing agents or having an effect on the reproductive system. They may even act on the endocrine system and act as hormone disruptors. The presence of antibiotic residues in food may result in allergic side effects for individuals who are already sensitized to these antibiotics. For example; penicillin. Regular exposure to antibiotics from food containing these antibiotic residues can result in the built up of antimicrobial resistance by human pathogens and the disturbance of the healthy bacteria naturally occurring in the gut. This then gives rise to an increasing population of parasites inhabiting the gut.

So where do we go from here?

I have put together an action plan for you to support you in reducing your exposure to toxic drug residues from farm animals that when implemented will make you feel Good!

Your six-step Action Plan to feeling Good!
• Avoid or reduce the amount of meat that you consume and if you are a meat lover then simply go organic.
• Eat smaller portions of meat and make vegetables or salad your main portion.
• Always take a good pro-biotic to restore and keep the microflora of your gut healthy.
• Don’t drink water with your meal and wait for 30 or 45 min before drinking any fluids for your digestive enzymes to work at their optimal best.
• Exercise daily and drink lots of water.
• Try one of The Earth Diet recipes. You can do this one just for fun too below the Sweet Meat Stir Fry using Organic Free Range Grass Fed Cows: )

Dr Edward Kachab, PhD
The Earth Diet

The Earth Diet – Feel Good!

Another look at meat and it's health risks in my blog Day 168.

Quotes: "I have done my best", that is about all the philosophy of living that one needs....Lin-yutang.

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: An avocado.

Meal 2: A beetroot (beet), carrot, celery and ginger juice :)

Meal 3: A orange and grapefruit juice mmm!

Meal 4: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups! I love this after a workout :) Raw and healthy!



Meal 5: Some brazil nuts :)

Meal 6: Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms!



Meal 7: Organic Sweet Meat Stir Fry. Created with olive oil, asparagus, capsicum (red bell pepper), ginger, garlic, green onion, chillis and honey!



Recipe: The Recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms and Sweet Meat Stir Fry are available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: A 1 hour Zumba class at Big Al's Family Fitness with Raphael! Such a fun class - I love being able to move my body in so many ways and use so many muscles all in one class!

45 days to go!!!

Day 319

Thoughts: What is one of the most boring and tiresome words ever?

Like discipline, responsibility is one of those words you have probably heard so many times from authority figures that you’ve developed a bit of an allergy to it. Still, it’s one of the most important things to grow and to feel good about your life including your body and health.

Taking responsibility for ones own actions.

Some people are scared of responsibility. Healthy people are responsible people. Before you eat something you take responsibility for the properties you are putting into your body; otherwise you are a victim to the food you are consuming.

Before the Earth Diet I would eat processed foods, fast foods and sugary foods and the next day feel sluggish and bloated. Then I would become a victim - why me? I am always bloated? She's not bloated, I am, why I work so hard, I am healthy most of the time, it's so hard and bla bla bla - obviously that did nothing. Useless thinking - and because I acknowledged it and believed it - wasted energy.

I learned this energy could be better spent having taken responsibility for my health and body and that no person, no outside circumstance can affect my life - if I don't allow it that is. Once I took on responsibility for my health and that I am the one who decides my health, I began to experience the healthiest I have been in my entire life! It is in my hands now :) No blaming the food, my parents, my mind etc etc ;)

Exploring personal responsibility with the help from some timeless thoughts on the topic...

“When you blame others, you give up your power to change.”
Unknown

Not taking responsibility may be less demanding, less painful and mean less time spent in the unknown. It’s more comfortable. You can just take it easy and blame problems in your life on someone else. But there is always a price to pay. When you don’t take responsibility for your life you give away your personal power. Plus more…

“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”
Joan Didion

Give yourself the permission to live the life you want.

“When we have begun to take charge of our lives, to own ourselves, there is no longer any need to ask permission of someone.”
George O’Neil

By taking responsibility for our lives we not only gain control of what happens. It also becomes natural to feel like you deserve more in life as your self-esteem builds and as you do the right thing more consistently. You feel better about yourself.

Because it’s most often you that are standing in your own way and in the way of your success. It’s you that start to self-sabotage or hold yourself back in subtle or not so subtle ways once you are on your way to the success you dream of.

To remove that inner resistance you must feel and think that you actually deserve what you want. You may be able to do a little about that by affirmations and other positive techniques. But the biggest impact by far comes from taking responsibility for yourself and your life.

Taking action becomes natural.

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Abraham Lincoln

Life consists of each day. Not just the big events sometime in the future. So don’t forget to take responsibility for the little things today too. Don’t postpone it. Taking responsibility for your life can be hard and taxing on you. It’s not something you master over the weekend. So you might as well get started with the it right now.

Aim to be your best self.

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.”
Henry Ward Beecher

Read more about responsibility on The Positivity Blog

Quotes: “It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.” Sophocles

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: Buckwheat pancakes with Egg Omlette! Created with organic eggs, spring onions, olive oil and buckwheat :)



Meal 2: A avocado.

Meal 3: A orange, grapefruit and strawberry juice mmm!

Meal 4: Some brazil nuts.



Meal 5: Saute of Peas and Prosciutto with Mint! Created with olive oil, shallots , sugar snap peas, fresh shelled peas, prosciutto or salmon, mint and coconut oil.



Meal 6: Chocolate Wrapped Almond Delights! No sugar, no dairy and they are raw :) mmm! Created with almonds, oats, cacao, agave and vanilla!



Recipe: The recipe for Buckwheat Pancakes and Egg Omlete, Sauteed Peas Prosciutto and Mint, and Chocolate Covered Almond Delights are available free on The Earth Diet recipe www.TheEarthDiet.org

Exercise: Dancing and stretching my body to some beautiful music by John Michael Sherdon!

46 days to go!!!

Day 318

Thoughts: Do you eat junk food because you love to suffer?

How dis-ease in the body hinders your life experience!

When you are tired, or have dis-ease in the body, aches and pains, or are overweight and slow to move, it gets in the way of you truly experiencing life at a high frequency. This high frequency I talk of is one of peace, love, joy, grace & ease, connection with others, love & respect for your self. It is possible for every human being, no one gets a chance above others. When you eat foods that nature intended you vibrate at a much higher frequency than that of a lifestyle with heavy foods, artificial sugars and processed foods!

When you can’t stand the endless cycle of suffering anymore, you begin to evolve.

I am no master. This is something I will always be working on, I will never stop it, as I am working towards being free, everywhere, every moment with every person, not being affected by outside circumstances, not being affected by what is going on outside of me, not being affected by what someone does or says. Being free of attachment to all things. Being free. Being pure love, peace and joy.

I am human. I feel the pain-body, the strong negative entity that lies dormant and active in me. Sometimes I experience it and am aware of it, and other times it has me so quick that I am unconscious and completely taken over by it, and then thinking more thoughts on that same frequency, and I then attract more people and situations who are also operating on that frequency. And I will over eat on heavy foods that lower my energy.

Eckhart Tolle explains that unconscious human beings are out of alignment with the "evolutionary impulse of the universe" and are meant to evolve into conscious beings. They truly don’t know what they are doing in their unconsciousness, but will, nevertheless, suffer the consequences of how they act. But, "… from a higher perspective, it is not possible to be out of alignment with the evolution of the universe, and even human unconsciousness and the suffering it generates is part of that evolution.

Have I truly had enough of suffering? I would be lying if I said yes. I am working towards being free, constantly re-creating myself and practicing presence.

Quotes: All conditioned things are impermanent.

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A green apple, cucumber and ginger juice (great for the gall bladder!)

Meal 2: Raw Donuts! Created from pumpkin, apples, coconut flour, cashews, coconut oil, coconut creme, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg!



Meal 3: A mango :)



Meal 4: Caramel Prawns (shrimp) Created with prawns, agave, water, olive oil, shallots, garlic, ginger, chilli, rice and fresh coriander (cilantro)!



Meal 5: A avocado.

Recipe: The recipe for Raw Donuts and Caramel Prawns is available for free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.org

Exercise: A yoga class and a bike ride :)

47 days to go!!!

Day 317

Thoughts: Who eats, you or your pain-body?

You know there are times when I feel great, and feeling great seems naturally simple, and I eat healthy, it also seems easy and natural to be healthy and to exercise. And then there are those times when I crave heavy foods, and that nothing will get in the way of me having just that, and even I know will do nothing but make me feel worse after, and once I eat it and feel worse I find myself having more, doing it again and again to feel worse and worse - even though yesterday I said "This will be the last time".

You may feel crazy like you have split personalities, like one part of you wants health and the other creates destruction and sabotage? Consider that one part of you is your essence, the you who is pure love, peace and joy. The other which creates more pain over and over again like a vicious cycle is a negative entity living in you, but is not you - or what some call the 'pain-body'.

Eckhart Tolle the author of The Power Of Now and A New Earth talks about the pain body as accumulated pain, a negative energy field that occupies your body and mind.

If you look at it as an invisible entity in its own right, you are getting quite close to the truth. It's the emotional pain body. It has two modes of being: dormant and active....

When it is dormant perhaps you feel it is easy to be healthy; to think healthy thoughts, to eat light healthy foods and exercise. When it is active however the pain-body wants to create more pain, it wants to survive so you may find yourself in a vicious circle of bingeing, starving yourself, or eating foods that make you feel only worse after eating them. Which ever creates the most pain, the pain-body does it.

Why would you eat from your pain-body?

The pain body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, "become you," and live through you. It needs to get its "food" through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness.

So the pain body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on. Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.

Once the pain body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn't really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others.

If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane.

Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the the pain that lives in you. But if you don't face it, if you don't bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.

So the pain body doesn't want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence.

You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own inner strength. You have accessed the power of Now.

Does everyone have a pain-body?

Yes. The pain body consists of trapped life-energy that has split off from your total energy field and has temporarily become autonomous through the unnatural process of mind identification. It has turned in on itself and become anti-life, like an animal trying to devour its own tail. Why do you think our civilization has become so life-destructive?

How long the feeding time lasts of any particular pain body varies greatly from person to person, I could be a brief one, it could be an hour or two; some pain bodies have a feeding time of several weeks, even months. That is the extreme and in very extreme cases there are some pain bodies that have virtually no dormant stage that are continuously feeding and active.

The pain that is carried over from your childhood and beyond and leaves residue doesn’t go away completely, it leaves residues of pain, Energy fields, everything is Energy. And then those Energy Fields get together, because they feel, they vibrate at the same frequency. So emotional pain gathers into one mass of pain, contracted Energy, that isn’t flowing freely.


Being the pain-body

When the pain-body has taken you over and has succeeded in pretending that that’s 'Who you are', all your thinking is completely aligned with it. And it’s feeding on it. At that very moment the last thing you want is to be free of pain. At that moment pain IS what you want because at that moment, You are the Painbody.


Being free of the pain-body

You are the one who is able to allow the pain to be. You know you are not creating this pain at this moment because you are practicing accepting “what is”. So it is not pain you are creating, it is old pain. You bring the “acceptance” to the old pain.

So I am not saying, we are not fighting the pain we are not even trying to get rid of it. You bring the consciousness, which is a very compassionate state of allowing “what is”. It is a very powerful state it implies you are Present. As the one who is able to allow.

If you do not recognize how the Painbody operates, it will trick every time and you will lose consciousness through it.

First we realize “there is an Energy Field of pain in me”, that may manifest either as turbulence, anger, heaviness, depression, tightness, fear whatever way it manifests its not pleasant its painful its past pain but very much alive still.

Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain body. Accept that it is there. Don't think about it - don't let the feeling turn into thinking. Don't judge or analyze. Don't make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of "the one who observes," the silent watcher.

This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence. Then see what happens.

Source: Eckhart Tolle

Quotes: The Pain-body; Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself.

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A beet, carrot, celery, ginger and spinach juice :)

Meal 2: Rockmelon (cantaloupe)



Meal 3: 3 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups! If you like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups these are divine! No sugar, dairy, preservatives, artificial anythings! Created with cacao, cacao butter, agave and peanuts! mmm :)


Meal 4: Curried Lentil Sprout Salad. Created from lentil sprouts, olive oil, cumin, tumeric, cayenne pepper, carrots, corriander (cilantro) and lemon.



Meal 5: A avocado and some brazil nuts :)

Meal 6: Guacamole with carrot and celery sticks :)



Recipe: The recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Curried Lentil Sprout Salad and Guacamole with carrot and celery is available on The Earth Diet website free www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: A workout with the Manny (hehe my husband) at Big Al's Family Fitness working on legs and shoulders :)

48 days to go!!!