Back in action!

I've just joined Raw Food Rehab and am back in action! I didn't get to write for over a week because I was insanely busy with work and Bikram- I have been going to at least 3-4 classes a WEEK and with that and working 80 hours per week (remember I am an intern, I have no choice in the matter) and going to get fresh veggies/fruit almost daily to prep, etc, I honestly forgot about this dear blog. But, fact is, I CARE! and i really LOVE to write here.
SO, to quickly get up to speed, my juice feast kept getting interrupted by my consuming food every few nights, primarily in the middle of the night when on call, and mostly things like bananas, chocolate, and avocados. SO, I took time OFF from juicing, and have been enjoying food again YAY! I made an amazing zucchini pasta/marinara last night that I made with juicy organic tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, balsalmic vinegar, garlic, EVOO, and S&P. That was it. And it was to die for.
My hubby and I had that with a miso soup we made to start with (no tofu) made with raw brown miso paste, water, carrots, onion, shitake mushrooms, and seaweed. YUM! He is not raw, but eats all my raw meals with delight and appreciation. And he is always willing to help me with raw food prep. I wanted to take pics of our meal but was too hungry!
My goal for this blog is to start getting picture/blog posting savvy so that by the new year (2010 WOW!) I can have a pretty blog for all of you to really enjoy.

So, I am on this 11-week challenge on Penny's Raw Food Rehab. And the challenge is to be as close to 100% raw as possible and to lose weight along the way. My goal is to get back to the weight I was 10 years ago by Jan. 1st. Yes, I'm talking about my 19 year old body. I am so going to get it back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It means losing 20 pounds from where I am right now.

I am going to juice this week from Monday through Friday night since I am not on call this week until Friday. That should give me a good 2 pound start to my goal! :)

LOVE you!

Oh the signs

SOme signs from today- I have an assignment I'm working on so unfortunately have to make this short. but I must get it down!
found an awesome website today while drinking my lunch green juice:

http://www.suprememastertv.com/?langdir=1

Then, I left work with a superstar nurse, and we walked to our cars together and we bonded over our losses- her son at age 25 and my mother at age 52. I told her how losses make us value our time here more, help us pick and choose our battles and give us the insight to know when to let go and when to do things for ourselves instead of waiting for someone else to do it for us/motivate us. Then after kickboxing (i did bikram and kickboxing today hurray!) the original Golden Girls song was on the radio, some random channel. My mother and I used to snuggle together and watch the Golden Girls almost every night when she was sick, and even before she was sick.

I think that is all for today.
I shared my amazing green juice at lunch today and the 2 docs I shared it with LOVED it. Too bad they won't wake up and smell the fresh juice they could be brewing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love to you!
rachel

A GORGEOUS day in Maryland

What a beautful day. 75 and sunny. Perfect. Going for a jog around the lake- 2.4 miles. Then may go to the sauna, or come home and sit outside and read. Tomorrow morning I am doing a double of Bikram yoga, 9am and 11am. Definitely will go to bed by midnight for that one!
Feeling hungry so going to have the water from 1 fresh young Thai coconut before heading out for my jog ;)
Love,
Rachel

Day 2, a learning experience... again!

Day 2, and I had a hectic day. it is 135am and i am going to sleep in the call room until 730am. Yesterday evening (thursday) i spent about 1 and a half hours making the most amazing green juices to bring to work for my 30 hour shift, and i did fantastic, until i decided to have grapefruit juice and a banana for dinner instead of my spinach/tomatoe/celery/garlic/romaine juice, thinking i would have that juice later in the evening. The banana was really unusual for me for a juice feast, and in fact does not fit into a juice feast at all in my eyes, but i was having SERIOUS cravings for one. Also I usually allow one fruit sometime during the first day or two just to help the transition. So anyway, I then admitted a patient who was malingering. If you don't know what that is look it up please. These people make me furious because in my eyes they are still sick but in the view of the big picture there is really not much at all you can do to change them. AKA you cannot help them, just spend hours and hours going through paperwork with them while they fake many things not worth talking about on this post. Anywho, I got a little annoyed that my patient was doing so much lying, and I had a pretzel- now this was a small one, not the big dough carnival ones! this was just a little one from a chip/plastic bag with like 100 in one bag. You see, these overnight nurses bring in tons of J-U-N-K and I was on the computer in the room full of J-U-N-K. Yes, I consider pretzels to be complete junk. And also the other 'no preservative...' processed crap they bring in. And then I had a few strawberries. And a little rice :( :( :( You see, I am just as vulnerable to relapse as these patients. LOL. All the while I am thinking I am going to spit out the food and it won't count. Duh, that is insanity. Swallow. I am not food disordered.
So, the lesson I learned is that I need to do several things while on call on a juice feast:
1.) BLOG! I COMPLETELY forgot I have this outlet!!! ARGHHHHHH!
2.) Wear several layers so I don't get cold, it slows me down and also makes me procrastinate drinking my juices b/c they are even colder than me.
3.) DO NOT work AT ALL in the room with shit food. In fact, I decided yesterday to stay away from food altogether while I juice feast.
4.) Keep my ipod shuffle in my white coat so i can hear a song to redirect my attention when I start thinking about food.
5.) Take a nap around/just after dinner time if I can (in the on-call room).
6.) Just as important as #1: After 5pm have green juice with me ALL NIGHT, continuously with me, if I am not going to have a dinner juice at 5pm. If I have a dinner juice at 5pm, then have another juice with me at all times after 7pm. Or tea. Or water. All three in rotation would be the ideal.
7.) Tell the night nurses what I am doing??? I don't know, I don't see how this would help much.

What did you learn today???
Now I will sleep for a bit, get up at 730am, work until noon or 2, and go home to my honey ;) hopefully i will have energy to jog around the lake when i get home ;)
tonight's dinner juice is this morning's breakfast ;)
love and bear hugs,
Rachel

Ah, the signs!

Just had to post that I just left a comment on the Gianni's show page for today's show and I was comment #16, my lucky number ;). Also, I clicked on one of the blogs I follow today and it (random choice) was the following: http://thepowerofchoiceisyours.blogspot.com/. Please check it out. The Power Of Choice is YOURS!!!!! I will be going on this blog daily for inspiration/motivation. It is fantastic.
Love and hugs,
Rachel

Day 1 of yet another juice feast is tomorrow!

Oh Lord! I have not written in a while, but now I am DETERMINED to do this- I am determined to make blogging work for me. Writing was extremely therapeutic when I was a teenager learning about love and life, and now that I am a young woman on the raw food journey I will write! I WILL I WILL I WILL! okay, enough hysterics!
My last post, eons ago, was day 5 of a 30 day feast, which if I remember correctly did not make it far beyond 10 days... maybe because I was not writing. There are not many people in my day to day life that I can express my sincerest emotions to when I am juice feasting. I can of course express them to my husband (we just got married a little over a month ago ;) ) but he has never attempted a juice feast so I don't think he truly understands what we juice feasters go through. I mean I go through seriously intense emotional stuff- I get seriously offended and saddened by the crap acidic garbage people ingest while I am juice feasting. I get ill at the sight of nasty food that is served up to very intelligent doctors, and the amount of caffeine and soda these people consume. I feel it is our duty to respect our bodies and our soul by living a pure life on live food.

To change the subject, I will also be writing about BIKRAM YOGA:):):) my favorite obsession. The next best thing to Bikram to me is the sauna, which I'll be entering tonight after a 1 hour spin class at the gym. I was going to jog around the lake, but I wanted to be home instead for a call from one of my dearest friends who now lives in Rome. I did not hear from her, I think she must still be at the art gallery openings, but we will likely speak this weekend. I am quite eager to see her face (Skype).

I have been attempting to begin a 16 to 30 day feast for the past 2-3 weeks. Each weekend for one reason or other I end up breaking the feast- painting one weekend, a rude aweful break-up with a best friend since high-school who I just can't be close to anymore, more painting another weekend and some nesting with my hubby. But the whole time I had in mind that October 1st would be day 1 all over again. After all, my b-day is October 16 and the BEST gift I could give myself is the gift of a juice feast that lasts longer than 2 weeks. In my opinion the best results are attained when you feast for more than 10 days, and optimally more than 14 days. (The gift from my husband is going to be a wheatgrass grower's kit, yay!)

I'm going to try and work on my husband to feast with me this weekend. He gets very cranky when he gets hypoglycemic- i do not have the same reaction to hunger, my body regulates sugar very well so I never really feel any weakness when I juice feast.

Okay, I must run to get ready for spinning and the sauna now. I can't wait to lie there in 160 degree Farenheit, bliss ;)

Love and bootysmacks,
Rachel

My Juicy juicing Routine

My Amazing Beautiful Friend Tawny at http://rawpixieyogi.blogspot.com/ has inspired me to blog more!! Thanks Tawny! I have been for the past few weeks that I'd like to start blogging! I am studying for an exam on the 24th so can't blog much until then, but afterward I will certainly be blogging!
Here is one in the meantime ;)

my juicing routine starts with a big produce trip- the following
will last you about 4-5 days, depending on how much water you
drink- the more water you drink the less hungry you will become
and then your supplies last about a day or two longer:

8 cucumbers,
3 or 4 bunches celery
12 lemons
4 limes
A big piece of ginger
a few tomatoes
garlic
1 bunch beets
2 or 3 heads of kale
2 or 3 heads of spinach
a dozen or so apples
a pineapple or watermelon- anything for a sweet juice when you
 need a 'dessert' juice
a grapefruit
a bunch of grapes- green or red, or both :)
a head (?) of fennel
carrots!! a 2 pound bag (you will have extra)
2 heads of parsley

This sounds like A LOT but if you go to a place where you know
the price and value are right then this really is what you might
spend in 4-5 days of eating anyway, especially if you eat out.
And you will have leftover produce, trust me.

Also you will need some mason jars (about 3 or 4, you'll
rotate them) you can make them by ripping the label off any big
jars like pickle jars.

And the following:
Bee Pollen
Organic cold-pressed coconut oil
MSM
Spirulina
Chlorella tablets
Maybe blue green algea if you want even more green
Cayenne pepper (to make your lips tingle :) )

Basically, when I wake up I have about 2 cups of filtered water
with the juice of 1 lemon and MSM (I use 1/2 teaspoon) and 2
dashes of cayenne- usually I also put in 1/4-1/2 teaspoon
blue-green algae, 2 drops of marine phytoplankton, and 1/2 tsp
- 1 Tb (depends on my mood for that flavor) spirulina- then if
I don't get those 3 green supplements in later I know I didn't
forget them for the day. I don't like to put those in my juice.
And I don't like to water down my juice at all, although I do
put ice cubes in my juice before drinking it. I know it is best
to drink things at room temp (don't know why- it's just what the
hard-core raw foodies say) but I like the juice to stay cool/cold
so I don't have to drink it as fast.

OKAY, so I drink that while I make juice! This is on a morning
when I have to go to work. If I'm going to the gym I grab the
leftover juice from the night before (I ALWAYS make extra and put
it in a smaller mason jar as a back up stash)

The juicing lifestyle is different depending on what your day
entails. If you are going to work or meetings/travelling all
day then you have to get up about an hour early to really
give yourself the time to prepare all that you need until you
get home. Having a little too much is okay- you will probably
drink it. Otherwise,  if you'll be stopping in periodically
at home then you can do 2 batches. I don't like to juice more
than 2x/day b/c it gets too labor intensive. HOWEVER, that said,
if you wash/cut stuff up beforehand and put it in a big container
after your grocery run then it is much quicker. To make juice
for 3 drink sessions takes me about 30-40 minutes, including
clean up. I drink juice about 3-5 times per day when juicing,
depending on how much water I am also drinking and of course
how much activity I need to be fueled for.

The bee pollen and coconut oil are your best BEST friends
when juicing. WOW!  I've heard the hard-core raw ones say it's
best to eat coconut oil on it's own but I love the two
together- taste like chocolate to me when juicing, and raw
chocolate is one of my favorite things EVER (Go Gnosis!).

So how much bee pollen and cooconut oil? I typically have
about 1-2 Tbs bee pollen and about 1 Tbsp coconut oil each
day. I try and spread that out to be about 2-3 times a day
of bliss- and sit down for it! I also like to have it just
before or just after juice so the fat helps me absorb the
fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E, and K. Otherwise it is a really
good idea to put a little (maybe1-2 tsp, some people put
more) hemp oil or other cold-pressed oil in your juice.

Also, you need TEA!!!! Try to only do organic herbal tea-
get the good stuff, I go for Teavana's products. Mmmmmmmm!
You can sweeten up tea with lemon juice, stevia, allspice,
cinnamon- get creative.

A nice candle scent or insence is also nice some evenings,
just don't go overboard- it is a treat for the senses, not
a replacement for a piece of raw pie.

Lastly, get out there and EXERCISE! Keep those muscles
working so your metabolism does not slow down.

If for some reason wake up late one day and you absolutely
cannot make the time to juice and you will be out of the
house all day then just do a quick big green smoothie-
throw some spinach, apple, pineapple, frozen banana,
whatever you choose (high greens though) in the blender,
pour into a few mason jars, and hit the road. Drink tons
of water that day and juice when you can that evening.
The next morning keep to your plan and juice!

And definitely get connected to people juicing on-line
(if not in your personal life). I got a good friend of mine
into juicing and we often synchronize our fasts/feasts.
She is amazing at it and helps me to be too!
Great support= great success!

Check out globaljuicefeast.com,
http://www.living-foods.com/recipes/juicerecipes.html,
http://www.freedomyou.com/fasting_book/juice%20recipes.htm,
http://www.soymilkquick.com/vegetablejuicerecipes.php.
I can also send you some! All of mine come from everything in
this email. I try to keep my feasts low-sugar, so I really
don't do much fruit. You can definitly do higher fruit though!
You will see that you'll have your own personal style of
juicing. My friend uses about 12 apples in 2 days, while
12 last me all week- it's totally a matter of preference.

And above all, LISTEN to your body. Rest more when you
feel you need to, and rest less when you don't feel you
need to. And be prepared for some emotional detox- we all
have some emotional baggage, whether it be from the past or
present. Be prepared to deal with it and just know you are
stronger when juicing then on any other way of existing and
that you can face anything. Emotions come up because as
you detox your body yourspiritual self awakens and attenpts
to let go of 'stuff' too. Let it!

Email me anytime- rchriss@aecom.yu.edu. I SO
look forward to your juicy journey!!

Much love and all my best to you!
Rachel

On the menu- days 3,4, and 5

Day 3
Oolong tea with stevia
kombucha
coconut water
2 cups Bloody Mary Wanna-Be

Day 4
coconut water
2 cups Bloody Mary Wanna
2 cups Fruity Juicy
carrot juice with a splash of allspice

Day 5 (so far)
carrot juice with a splash of allspice
water

EACH DAY!! MSM, chlorella tablets, bee pollen, 1/2 Tb coconut oil

Day 5

Day 5 and going strong :)
Some of my recipes:
---Bloody Mary Wanna-Be---
3 plum tomatos
1 head romaine lettuce
1 large carrot
12 small carrots
5 stalks celery
1/2 clove garlic
1 peeled lemon
small handful cilantro.
Juice all and top with a bit of cayenne, cracked black pepper, celtic sea salt or kelp, and dulse if you would like.
Makes 3 cups (with Samson 6-in-1 Juicer)

---Juicy Fruity---
1/2 orange
1/2 pear
1/2 apple
1/2 lemon
1 cucumber
large handful red grapes
fennel (to your liking)
ginger (also to your liking)
watermelon and coconut water (both optional)
Dash a bit of cinnamon and/or nutmeg on top and enjoy.

Introduction

Hello all of you beautiful people of the world! My name is Rachel and I am a medical student who became vegan just over a year ago and a raw foodist since June of 2008. I truly believe that we are what we eat, so I am determined to make my raw food journey a successful one. There are many blogs out there, so I am GREATLY APPRECIATIVE of you being here now with me.
I have done 4 juice feasts so far: 14 days, 5 days, 16 days, and 5 days. I am now on day 5 of a 30-day feast, which I am doing with the Global Juice Feasters of the world! http://www.globaljuicefeast.com/ (I began 1 day early).
Thank you again for being here. I will do my best to make most of my blogs short and sweet :) Love, peace, and happiness to all.