We all love frappuccinos, but let me insure you that your body hates them! I can absolutely promise that this is one you AND your body will love!

Ingredients:

-2 cups ice

-1 cup soaked cashews

-1 tbsp cacao powder

-1 tsp maca

-1/2 scoop vanilla sun warrior protein 

-1/2 tsp mesquite (optional, add for caramel flavor)

-5 pitted dates (optional, add for sweetness)

-1 dash cinnamon

-1 cup liquid (almond milk/cold tea/water)

Add all ingredients to blender and enjoy!

Some great things to add to make this even better!

- 2 tbs Cacao Nibs, which will hand a nice texture

- 1 tbs Chia seeds, which will add thickness and energy

- add some matcha if you really want the caffeine— you will get a ton of energy without it!

- use yerba mate as a base instead of water, to add a bigger boost!

- not adding dates will keep this sugar free and bitter, just like coffee!

Nuts contain high amounts of enzyme inhibitors. These enzymes are present because they prevent the nut from sprouting prematurely. You may relate to this if you grow plants or are into botany, when you have to soak seeds overnight sometimes before they will start sprouting. These enzyme inhibitors will put a major strain on your digestive system if they are not first removed due to the fact that the enzymes will not become activated and it will be left solely up to your body to try and break it down. This is why most of us get stomach aches from eating raw nuts.  Soaking your nuts in warm water will neutralize these inhibitors and will increase the production of beneficial enzymes, leaving the food easier to break down and much easier to absorb the nutrients found in them.

Being a raw foodist, we are always speaking about how we must eat food in its original form, untouched. Through some readings, I found that when people would gather nuts or seeds (like the Aztechs) they would soak them in ocean water over night, and lay them in the sun to dry. This makes a lot of sense. I decided to try soaking nuts in a salt solution and just in warm water to see the difference.

Salt soaked nuts seemed to be even more easily digested than the water soaked ones! Soaking and dehydrating also seemed to bring out great flavor of the food!

Here is how your seeds/nuts should be soaked:

Pumpkin seeds/ Sunflower seeds

4 cups of raw seed/nut
2 tablespoons sea salt
filtered water

Soaking Time: 7 hours or overnight
Dehydrating time: 12-24 hours

Pecans/Walnuts

4 cups of nuts
2 teaspoons sea salt
filtered water

Soaking time: 7 hrs or overnight
Dehydrating time: 12-24 hours

Pecans and walnuts are more apt to go rancid and should be stored in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

Almonds/Cashews/Macadamia nuts/Peanuts/Pine nuts/Hazelnuts

4 cups of raw nuts

1 tablespoon sea salt

filtered water

Soaking time: 7 hours or over night

Dehydrating time: 12- 24 hours

After you are done with your soak, be sure to rinse them very well! You will see that the soak water has become murky, this is what you want to get rid of!

Once you feel the difference in soaking your nuts you will always want to do it! If you dont want to dehydrate them you can store them in the refrigerator, but they will not keep for a very long time.

Before making milks or nutbutters be sure to soak them as well! It’s very important for ultimate digestion and absorption!

Nutrition Facts of Nuts and Seeds: (mg based on 100g of item)

Almonds:

• Vitamins B1, B2, and B3
• High amounts of calcium (254mg)
• Iron (4.4mg)
• Phosphorus ( 475mg)
• Protein (18.6g)

Cashews:

• Vitamins B1, B2 and B3
• Calcium (46mg)
• Iron (5mg)
• Phosphorus (428mg)
• Protein 18.5g

Macadamia:

• Vitamins B1,B2, and B3
• Calcium (48mg)
• Iron (2mg)
• Phosphorus (161mg)
• Protein (7.8g)

Pecans:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B1, B2, and B3
• Vitamin C
• Calcium (74 mg)
• Iron (2.4mg)
• Phosphorus (325 mg)
• Potassium (300mg)

Pumpkin Seeds:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B1, B2, and B3
• Calcium (51mg)
• Iron (11.2mg)
• Phosphorus (1,144mg)
• Protein (29g)

Sunflower Seeds:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B1, B2, B3
• Calcium (120mg)
• Iron (47.3 mg)
• Phosphorus (6mg)
• Protein (24g)

Walnuts: (notice they are shaped like brains!! One of the only nuts high in Omega 3!)

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B1,B2,B3
• Vitamin C
• Calcium (83mg)
• Iron (2.1mg)
• Phosphorus (380mg)
• Potassium (225mg)
• Protein (15g)

As you can see, not only are seeds and nuts great sources of protein, they are amazing bone builders due to the high amounts of beneficial calcium and phosphorus!

The number one thing i get asked is “What is a good meal replacement?”

There seems to be this belief that if you skip meals and eat less you will loose weight. Many people, mostly women, come to me complaining that they are hungry all the time and need a bar or protein drink to replace a meal. Some of them come to me with Dr.’s telling telling them to use snickers marathon bars to replace meals. There is something wrong here, and we need to first break this down.

First, recognize the fact that you are hungry as your body telling you you need to eat. Our bodies give us signals and we are supposed to recognize them and tend to them to make that signal or symptom go away. Our body doesnt just do this when it is hungry, but in many other ways. When we break out on certain areas of our faces it is because certain organs are not functioning. Everything happens in our body for a reason, and when things aren’t running smoothly the body will give you a symptom.

When it comes to eating food, our brains will never tell you you are full until you get the nutrients it desires. You can eat a huge bag of chips and still be hungry, but could not get through a bag of greens the same size, you would be full a lot sooner. If you are hungry all day long, and are NOT an active person, it is because you are not eating nutrient dense food and your body is trying to find what it is lacking. If you are constantly hungry and an active person, you are simply burning off what you are eating and need to eat more. This is not something that you should ignore.

Secondly we need to understand that skipping meals will NOT make you lose weight. It will in fact make you GAIN weight. Your body does not know that you diet. When you are scarcely eating and skipping meals it things that there is no food. You need to remember where and when our bodies were designed. We were gatherers, We would walk the earth searching for our food, and sometimes had to go without. Our bodies would recognize this, and hold on to every calorie we put in our mouths, so that we would not starve. You body works the same today. When you skip meals and do not feed your body when it needs it, your body will start to store calories. This will cause weight gain. Doing this day in and day out, your body will be in a constant storing mode.

When you consistently eat through out the day  your body knows it is always going to have food, therefore it will just burn what you consume and will let go of the calories. Eating 6 small meals a day will keep your metabolism functioning. Try this:

When you wake up drink a big glass of purified water or a fresh green juice. Continue on with a well balanced breakfast. This is normally when i have my big green smoothie. Around two hours later, have a snack on a piece of fruit or a small bag of soaked nuts like almonds. I love snacking on apples. If you are more comfortable with a protein bar eat a very clean one, like one from Garden of Life, that is cold processed. Then enjoy your lunch. Try and keep it high raw. If you are eating a sandwich use Ezekiel bread or even a Portobello mushroom! Fill it with raw things like avocado, mushrooms, fresh peppers, greens and tomatoes. A few hours later enjoy another light snack. Enjoy your dinner, again with a high raw veggie content. Enjoy a nice dessert like chocolate avocado pudding!

Losing weight happens naturally when you give your body what it desires and you tell it there is a plentiful amount of food around. Please dont starve your body from what it needs and listen to it. It is speaking with you for a reason.

The other day I was watching a coworker in the break room eat an entire pizza. I couldnt believe it. I asked him if he ever thought about what his body must do next in order to process that meal. He said it does just fine. My heart literally ached for his body.

I realized then that the reason it upsets me so much when people hurt their bodies is because I look at each organ as its own being inside my body. When i watched this person consume his pizza i thought of it plopping into his stomach. I thought about his stomach trying its hardest to break it down, and trying to find some usable enzyme in the food for help. As his stomach cried for help, it needed to rob enzymes from the pancreas in order to complete the breaking down of this doughy dairy ball.  The pancreas becoming weakened and more depleted. (Remember, it takes 10 metabolic enzymes to make one digestive enzyme.) The stomach then finally empties it into the small intestine, where it tries to absorb nutrients from it to give to the rest of the body for fuel. Unfortunately, it finds nothing. It pushes the remainder of it down into the large intestine, or colon, where it sits and ferments, because there is nothing to help pass it from the body. It congests and clogs the colon, and makes it sick. It wants fresh air but can never get it.

This is how sickness and disease happen. We stress out our organs and treat them as if we want them dead.

Here is my challenge to you:

The rest of the week think about everything you are eating, as you eat it. What is your stomach doing with it? Is it robbing the pancreas to help its digestion? Is your small intestine finding vibrant and amazing nutrients to pass along? Is your colon only holding food for a short period of time, and excreting it so it can again breath?  I think if we actually recognize our organs for what they are, and not just things in our body, we will automatically start to eat much better.

For quite some time the government has been putting chips into cellphones so that at any time the president can chime in and you will be forced to listen. Have you ever been watching TV and your show gets interupted by “this is a test”? That is all to be able to enforce this at some point in the future.

Today I noticed an app was downloaded on my phone that I had never downloaded or seen before called “Emergency Alert”.

I opened it and it was a blank screen. I hit the menu button and went to settings. It stated “Mandatory Presidential Alerts. Add additional alerts.”

Here it is in action. If the president wants to put a video of him on my phone he can. I have no choice.

I can not undownload this app. I cant alter it in any way. This is scary, and we all should fear this.

I am not sure how much you all have studied any prophecy, but this has also been mention in The Bible, when a man proclaims himself as all powerful in the one world government  and requires all to listen to him at his own convenience and to worship him.

Whether you believe in prophecy or not, this is still infringement on our rights. This needs to be stopped.

Check your smart phone for this new app.

Stay alert and aware of what is happening before it is to late.

So its that time of year where we are all cleansing and ridding our bodies of last years toxins! My number one cleansing tip to you is to DRINK A TON OF WATER! Most people are very dehydrated, and if your cells do not have the proper amounts of water they have no way of flushing out… you will be keeping all those toxins inside!

Besides flushing out our bodies, we need to kill parasites as well. Parasites are little worm like creatures that live in your digestive system. They eat your food and cause major havoc in your body. Symptoms of parasites are:

-Cravings for white bread, flour, and sugar

-Cloudy mind

-Tiredness

- Never feeling full

-Always hungry

-Waking up around 2 or 3 am and feeling scratchy (this is when they are laying eggs)

So how do we get rid of them? Its easy. Just follow this recipe!

Ingredients:

-Wormwood (loose herb)

-Cloves (not ground)

-Black Walnut Tincture

-1 qt Purified or Spring Water

Brew 2 tablespoons of wormwood and 1 tablespoon of cloves in 1 quart of water. Steep it for 20 minutes and strain. Add 3 drops of Black Walnut Tincture.

Day 1: Drink 2 cups of tea

Day 2: Drink 3 cups of tea

Day 3-6: Drink 4 cups of tea (one full quart)

It is important to not miss a cup, and it does not need to be drank all in one sitting. It is quite bitter, but DO NOT add sweetener!

You should see parasite coming out by the second or third day, they will look like corn, grains of rice, or worms. You can drink a cup of this tea once a week for maintenance or drink a few drops of black walnut twice a week.

To read more on parasites check out this website! http://www.colonlove.com/Body-Cleanse_ep_38.html#parasites

I really want to address the Oz factor.

People seem to have an infatuation with everything that comes out of Dr. Oz’s mouth and are quite quick to jump up and do what he says. Working in health food stores the last few years has been crazy, seeing how the crowds come trampling in to buy whatever is on his show. I can  not stress how dangerous this is.

The other day at work I noticed a plethora of people asking for brown seaweed. Here is how the conversations went:

Customer: I need brown seaweed.

Me: Ok, is there a specific one you are looking for?

Customer: Yes brown seaweed.

Me: well there are many types, kelp, kombu, is there a certain one you prefer?

Customer: I dont know

Me: What are the properties you are looking for?

Customer: I dont know

Me: Why are you seeking to take it?

Customer: It was on Dr. Oz

Me: Ok, what did he say it should be used for?

Customer: i dont know

I then had one customer tell me it was for radiation from Japan, and then another tell me it was for weightloss.

This is scary. This man is on TV, knowing society blindly follows the media without first educating themselves, and having them raid health food stores in search of products they are unsure why they are taking.

The truth is, they were looking for seaweed with high concentrations of fucoxanthin, a substance that helps activate the thyroid in people with a sluggish one. To use this as a weight loss tool is dangerous, as it can leave you with a hyperactive thyroid. If you were to take this supplement and have a normal functioning thyroid, you can really screw up your adrenal system. For so many people to be blindly taking this now really troubles me. Just because he is a doctor people will listen to everything he says, and sometimes it is not for the better.

I am begging you, please before you listen to what Dr. Oz, or for that matter ANYONE says about health please research it out yourself and make the decision on your own. Dont let someone else make the decision for you.

Just wanted to share the new light in my life. Yesterday we rescued  an African Grey from craigslist. As you can see he is in pretty rough shape. He is mostly plucked, with only his wings, tail, and head left with feathers. He has plucked away at himself because he was previously kept in a cage with no toys and in a room away from any kind of contact. He was kept isolated from the world. He mostly speaks swear words and frequently tells himself to shut up. It really breaks my heart to see him in such bad shape and him repeating the horrible things said to him.
Yesterday was his first day out of his cage,  he is seven years old. He was unsure of what to do at first but quickly began climbing all over it. He attempted to fly a little but his wings are not developed from never using them. He is a little aggressive out of fear, but is desperate for a friend. We eat the same diet so in sure we will be best buds in no time!
It is really upsetting to me that people can be so cruel. Parrots are like 2 year old children and need constant love, attention, and stimulation. Scuttle is like an abused child. With time, love, good diet and a lot of attention hopefully he can be healed. I will keep posting updates on how he is progressing.
Before you decide to go to the store and buy an animal, please think about rescuing one first. Be the light that an animal may never get the chance to see. Be their second chance at happiness.

This is a great recipe to add to any mexican dish!

Ingredients :

-1 cup cashews
-1 tsp coconut aminos
-1 tbs chili powder
-1 clove garlic
-1 habenero, seeded
-1.5 tsp honey
-1 tsp Cajun seasoning
Salt to taste
Squeeze of lime
Optional: a few drops liquid smoke

Place all ingredients in blender with enough water to just cover them. Blend on high until creamy, adding more water as needed. Eat on sandwiches, tacos, nachos, or to dip veggies!

Bacopa Monnieri, also known as Brahmi, is my newest and latest favorite herb. I use it every morning in my “Superfood Coffee” that I make and Im not sure how I went without it before. Being that I currently re-entered school to gain my BS in Psychology and am taking courses to become a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, I have a lot of studying to do in between the eight million other things I need to get done in a day.

Bacopa is an adaptonagentic neuro tonic that enhances your memory and your ability to learn and recall information. It is extremely beneficial for the brain, mental deficiency, learning new skill, anxiety, depression, stress, Alzheimer’s Disease and “ADHD”.  As you can see, this herb mostly affects the Hippocampus in the brain, stimulating it in order to build new neurons.

The brain works like this: When we go to learn a new task, neurons in certain parts of our brain become stimulated and they become stronger. When they become stronger and more powerful they connect with stronger neurons and also attach to weaker ones of the same area. However, when that same neuron is again stimulated, it strengthens that weaker neuron making it strong, and therefore building your ability at that particular skill.  Bacopa stimulates neurons in the hippocampus and allows your ability to learn and recall to grow. This is why this herb is especially good for children . A child’s brain is extremely plastic (plasticity is the brains ability to learn new things)  and do not have many weak neurons. When their brain is stimulated the appropriate neurons become stronger. The brain then gets rid of the ones that have little or no activity, and this is why it is easier for children to learn new tasks (such as foreign languages) than adults. Proving a child with this herb can help with neuronal stimulation allowing them to obtain more information and learn many new skills.

Clinical Research:

In a study of Neuropsychopharmacology Bacopa was tested to see the benefits of the herb on the brain. This study came to the findings that Bacopa decreases the rate of forgetfulness of newly acquired information, and an increase in verbal learning and memory consolidation.

In another study that was preformed, it was found that students who used bacopa retained more information than those who did not. Six months later the students were retested on this information and the ones still taking Bacopa were able to recall all of the information learned prior.

The Triterpenoid saponins and Bacosides of Bacopa are what enhance the nerve impulse transmission. It enhances kinase activity, neuronal synthesis, and the restoration and regeneration of synaptic activity. This is what makes Bacopa so nerve nourishing. It is stimulating and strengthening your neurons, creating optimal brain functioning.

It was also found that Bacopa had the ability to stimulate GABA, an amino acid that is found in the central nervous system and transfers nerve impulses. When GABA production is enhanced, improved memory, the ability to adapt to new conditions, and improved acquisition will be found.

Bacopa Vs. Depression:

A study has shown that this herb has the same effect as SSRI’s and MAOI’s in the fact that they block serotonin from reuptake back into the brain cell once it is released. (That’s how anti depressants work, the keep your brain flooded with serotonin) Bacopa was found to increase serotonin content.

As you can see this is an amazing herb. Try it for yourself and reap the benefits first hand!