feeling high ♥ on beautiful fresh food

I am SO HIGH on RAW foods today, crew! I feel fantastic right now. Wow. I am just sitting in front of my PC laughing sillily because I am so happy. :D

Today:

Got up at 5am and went to work. I work in the fruit and veg section of a big super market, so after work I purchased my lunch. :) Got home at noon and then...

- breakfast/lunch: grapes - loads, some fresh dates (= NOT dried, so yummy!), a big head of green lettuce
- snack: grapes and greens (another big head of lettuce and mini cucumbers)
- dinner: strawberries, papaya, tomatoes, greens (lettuce, arugula, sprouts, basil)

OMG. This was probably the BEST dinner I have EVER had. =) I need to take pics of my food again, it's so pretty and tasty that I wanna share it with you! Unfortunately, the batteries of my camera are low, I will post some pics tomorrow! ;)
So, this is what I had: First, some strawberries. Then I blended some strawberries in my tiny blender just to see, if they taste any different that way, the blended strawberries turned out really yummy, too (surprise!). Then I had some RIPE JUICY SWEET papaya (I saw it in the shop and it smelled so good, so I had to take it with me). I poured some of the strawberry 'sauce' into my papaya 'boat' - this was divine. Just to make it more fun, I combined some strawberries and some papaya in the blender and gave it a twist: great combo! I still had my undressed greens sitting in my bowl waiting for being devoured. I threw some tomatoes into the blender along with the strawberry-papaya combo: great soup! Then I added basil. Even better! And last, but not least, I added a handful of arugula and pulsed. This is the most amazing savoury low fat raw vegan dressing/sauce I have ever had, I think.
I am so glad I experimented a bit! I highly recommend experimenting with fruits and veggies in the kitchen (or on the study desk, as in my case). I coated my lettuce strips and sprouts with my sauce and enjoyed this BEAUTIFUL dish with my chopsticks. I felt like in heaven. Ha! Why cooking - when I can create something as mindblowingly delicious as this really simple low fat raw vegan dish? ;)

Happy Vibes to ya all,
Jasmin
♥


BTW: Here is a video by the amazing Chris Kendall showing some of his low fat raw gourmet creations:

rawvelations

I made a decision today. I hid my pot on top of my cupboard where I cannot reach it easily, hehe. I am not going to eat cooked vegan meals anytime soon again. I am going all raw NOW. This is why:

I have been eating cooked vegan meals (no salt, no oil) every day since last Sunday (5 days) and I do not feel my normal happy self. I feel heavy, down and sluggish. Although I cannot surely say that it is solely because of the cooked food, I am sure it is a major factor. I have experienced swell and some weight gain (I do not own any scale, but I can tell by how my clothes fit and how I look). I experience more thirst than usual. My digestion is OK, but I know it can be better. I do not feel like exercising after eating something cooked - especially, since I ALWAYS over-eat (= eat more than is comfortable) on cooked foods, it does not matter, if they are salt- and oil-free, if I am honest. I thought I could happily include cooked vegetable dishes in my diet and stay high raw vegan and low fat, but at least right now, this does not seem to be the case.

I feel more determined than ever to stick to 100% raw now. So, that is the positive side of this! I feel so sorry for myself that I do not go outside and enjoy the good weather or do some exercise, when I am actually such a big fan of sports and working out. It pains me deeply to see myself gaining weight and hiding behind closed curtains since I feel so disgusting because of over-eating! So, with ending my cooked food binges, I need to find a good alternative way to cope with my emotional void. Any ideas or suggestions? I have a lot of ideas, actually, but still I have gone back to old behavioural patterns again and again. So, how do I make the change once and for all?

Another interesting thing: the blood type diet! I saw a discussion  about it and got curious. I have always thought that the blood type diet was bogus, but maybe there is something to it. I clearly do better on temperate fruits and interestingly that is what is suggested for people who have blood type AB. ;) Alas, it is somewhat true in my case that orange juice can upset my stomach, I have always thought it is due not optimal quality oranges! And I used to drink water with lemon juice every morning some time ago and felt amazing doing that. I stopped this habit because I read somewhere on 30BaD that lemons are not a good thing to put into your body. I also love grapefruits. So, for now I will do a temperate fruits only experiment. (Although some of the melons and other fruits I consider temperate are imported from more tropical countries.)

So, again: mono meals - or rather one type of fruit and greens at a time - and no overt fats AND all raw are my priorities. Starting now - because I am worth it and deserve the best.  ♥ And you do, too! ;)


PS: Here you can see some foods recommended for AB:

• All kinds of Grapes and Plums, Berries (Cranberries, Gooseberries, Loganberries), Cherries
• Pineapples
• Grapefruits, Lemons
• Kiwi
• Tomatoes
• Celery, Green Leafy Vegs, Cucumber, Parsley

 Not recommended:

• Mangoes, Guava, Coconuts, Bananas and other tropical fruits except Papaya (which I love)
• Oranges 

precious fluids and goals ♥

Hello beautiful people :)

The positive message first: I have been eating exclusively sweet, juicy fruits and tender leafy greens for over a week and felt fabulous.♥
Then I decided to donate some of my precious blood plasma - I get some money in return and I figured since they check my blood they can tell me which blood type I have. I had to work on Friday and Saturday (need to get up at 5am in the morning) and in addition to that I had lectures on Friday and Saturday like every other day of the week except Sunday. Saturday afternoon I went to make my donation. The nurses were really nice and explained everything to me very kindly. The doctor and secretary were not very helpful at all. They wouldn't give me my blood results and could not tell me my blood type! (The only thing they told me was that my iron level is perfect and that my blood protein levels are more than fine.)

The donation process itself took only about half an hour (unlike about one hour with most other donors; I think this is partly because I am so short and partly because my blood flows much better than the blood of high fat animal products consuming people!). The machine separated the plasma from the other blood particles right before my eyes. I sent positive messages to my blood and felt very grateful for having such amazing fluids streaming in my temple body! However, a lot of doubts came up during the procedure as well. My blood was piped through plastic tubes, got stripped off the plasma, mixed with a citrate solution and pumped back into my veins. Doesn't sound very healthy, does it? I could actually feel the strange taste in my mouth resulting from the citrate. Not ideal. Do not try this at home. ;)

After the donation I came home hungry for fruity sugars and mineral-rich tender leafy greens to recover properly - only to find that my grapes and lettuce were everything but fresh and enjoyable, I had to compost a good part of my food! I got a headache, drank lots of water (I was sooo thirsty!) and went to bed very early at around 7.30pm. Then I slept (with pee breaks) until 8am the next day. I think my body needed rest! I still felt weak the next day. However, since I have been neglecting my running all week until Sunday, I decided to go for a run. I ran about 5km and then walked home with pain in my chest. Of course, I still had no ripe fruit at home! Bummer! So, I decided to go to one of the very few shops that were open. (Shops are closed on Sundays in Austria.) Did I find good fruit? Well. Maybe the melons would have been alright. Apples from the supermarket do not appeal to me anymore. The rest was under-ripe. I craved greens. The greens available did not look very palatable. I ended up buying lots of veggies and some overt fats! (Avocados and cashews.)

I decided to 'treat' myself  with some nicely prepared vegan food (plain cooked vegetables, no salt, no oils). Honestly, I enjoyed the taste and textures. But I got a belly ache and cramps in my stomach from the cashews. I needed a lot of sleep and water. I did not feel fully rested today and continued this day like yesterday: I started with a little bit of melon (amazing!) and had some slightly under-ripe bananas (they need unusually long to ripen this week!) and then I prepared some vegan food again. I typed it all into my Cronometer and it showed that I have filled up on ALL the vitamins (except B12 and D) and minerals! Over 100% in all the vitamins and minerals, including calcium, zinc and iron! At least something, I hope my body can absorb what it needs. ♥

After these two days of high raw vegan I long for all raw fruity goodness once again and I am ready to create a goal list for the future. So, here goes my goal list:

• always have bananas ripening in my cupboard
• have dates in the room for emergencies (I have never had datorade!)
• move more: go for a long, fast walk or run on a daily basis again
• concentrate on mono meals of juicy, sweet, ripe fruit
• overt-free 
• buy more than I think I need!
• forage wild greens and make green smoothies with them
• buy good organic greens and have about 2lb of greens a day
• mindful eating: eat when hungry, stop when satisfied, do not overeat
• be grateful for what I have ♥ 
• work on my Vision Book every day 
• more sun on my skin and less time online!
• continue going to bed early 
• and last but not least: more water! 

So, here it is, my list of goals, I think it is always helpful and also very important for personal success and evolution to set goals for oneself and reflect and re-adjust after some time. I will let you know, how it goes.
Hope you have a great week! ♥

tracking my progress

Hello beautiful people :)

I've just come back from going fruit shopping once again - it is raining today and the air is super fresh and I enjoy the cool breeze. I carried home four hands of bananas, four kilograms of green grapes, a head of lettuce, 4 bags of mixed greens, a kilogram of tomatoes and two kilograms of kiwis. :) After that I blended some bananas, grapes and a bunch of mixed greens into a beautiful green breakfast. It was so good, I highly recommend it!

These are my new special friends, grapes:

This is the beauty of bananas, grapes and mixed greens combined:

And here is my bowl of goodness topped with greenness:

So, I figured that it would be a great gift to myself to track my progress like my fruity friends Lissa and Michele. I think their blogs are so beautiful and inspiring, thank you, ladies!

I also want to say thanks to Barb, who was so nice to mention my little blog in one of her posts. I feel very honoured - now I feel like I need to work on my blog to make it better! :D

I wish everyone a nice day,
I'm off for class (Walther von der Vogelweide, I'm coming!)
Jasmin

best foods for academic performance?

Well, as a student, the title of this video sounded very interesting, and indeed, what Dr. Doug talks about makes so much sense to me. I love his holistic approach to health. Eating fruits and vegetables provides our bodies with the best fuel and nutrients in order to function properly. Also, our mental clarity is best, when eating these foods. Diets high in fat not only result in all kinds of physiological problems like high blood sugar and candida issues, but also result in brain fog. Garlic is known for its negative impact on the brain, it hinders the proper communication between the left and right brain hemisphere. The brain loves simple sugars. ;)

Enjoy!

ready. set. go!

Hey!

So, I have had another 2 and a half low fat raw vegan weeks, when I was suddenly shocked at the end of the month: I used more than double the amount the money that I had planned to use for food. :o

Needless to say, I got quite sad and frustrated, I checked in the shops what other possibilities there are and found that grain products (whole grain bread and rice) are quite cheap (counting per calorie). Also, potatoes are cheaper than bananas right now. What did I end up doing this week? I experimented. What would happen if I eat cooked carbs vs. raw fruity carbs?

First. Whole grain bread. There is salt in it. Ouch. I don't know, if it was only because of the salt or also because of the gluten, but anyway, I got extremely thirsty, a bit bloated and I felt very itchy and I had very bad sleep on one night. This experiment lasted 2 days.

Second. Potatoes. They work much better for me. Also, I bought some very cheap veggies to eat with them and it tasted really OK (mangoes, melons, bananas etc. taste better though. They are just less stimulating and more expensive per calorie.) Then I had notice something: My pee smelled so bad. Ew. Must be because of the cooked veggies (broccoli, chard, carrot). I like it when my pee does not smell (bad). Also, digestion was not bad, but the elimination process after having a mono fruit day is SO much better. I think I would be OK eating potatoes once in a while, when I do not have ripe fruit at hand. So, this is my second day incorporating cooked potatoes, and I am already ready to end the taters experiment, LOL.

Result. I feel best on fruit and I do not want to let money determine what I eat completely. I considered dumpster diving and just living from the fruits and veggies markets throw away (hello, capitalism!) plus supplementing with cooked rice and potatoes for cheap carbs. But that would mean less (good quality) sleep - I love to go to bed early and dumpster diving is best done late at night. Maybe I will do it once in a while, but not to sustain myself from that.

Future. Bananas are a much better fuel. They are cheap. How hard can it be to manage to have ripe bananas around all the time? Every time I run out of bananas, I run into problems. LOL. Well, considering 100% raw or not. I still refer to myself as a fruit loving vegan - I am not ready to commit to 100% LFRV 100% of the time. The 100% thinking does not do me any good. Usually, if I choose in the moment and have fresh RIPE fruit around, I go for the fruit anyway. :) I sometimes make cooked foods sound better than they are in my head. Plus: I need to be fully honest - I am too lazy and too impatient to cook. I like it simple and instant: mono fruit meals, please.

Also: I HAVE A JOB! Yippie. Finally, I am earning my own money. Hehe. Soooo, I can buy more and better fruit. And I do not have to feel too bad about buying so much fruit. :) Well, my parents were not complaining at all - it is me who wants to feel more... self-dependent. I love my parents and their support. :)

Goal. Being on banana island most days. Eating 2 pounds of greens a day, minimum. I am craving them so badly and I eat them mono. Hehe. Also, to get some Vitamin C and E: oranges and kiwi. Plus, the occasional apples and pears (when they are cheap!).

Well, then, wish me success.

Love,

Jasmin

the minimalist perspective

I really love Leo Babauta's blog and all of his posts, especially the article "addition by subtraction" caught my attention, it really resonates with me.

I want to share the article with you:

mnmlist: addition by subtraction

Oftentimes when we have a perceived need, we look for something to acquire in order to meet that need.

We want to lose weight, we buy weight loss books, workout equipment, diet pills, nutritional supplements, a fitness program. We sign up for the gym or a class or a trainer.

We want to travel, we buy a suitcase, a travel pillow, the perfect carry-on luggage, maybe even special clothes or equipment for traveling.

We want to start meditating, we might get a meditation pillow, or sign up for a class, or buy a book, or get a timer, or get the perfect meditation clothes.

You get the picture — any new endeavor might not only require the new clothes that Thoreau warned us about, but new equipment, books, DVDs, gadgets, software.

But adding these things to our lives brings problems, not just solutions: they’re often added expenses, sometimes adding to our debt or financial problems; they’re more clutter in an already cluttered life; they must be dealt with and tracked and maintained and stored; they each extract a high environmental cost; it takes transportation to acquire the new things; and so on.

And often, these new things bring problems without being the solutions we desired.

Another thing to consider, rather than adding, is subtracting.

If you think you need a new notebook in order to write, maybe the problem isn’t your lack of a notebook, but your desire for a nice new one. Subtract the desire, and you can write without acquiring.

If you want a new iPhone (as I often find myself doing), consider whether this is a true need, or just a desire that can be eliminated. If you want new workout equipment, consider whether you can work out without any equipment.

An empty room (or the outdoors) contains all you need, other than food and water and basic clothing. In an empty room, you can meditate, sleep, pray, think, compose, do a workout, talk with a friend.

What you already have beyond an empty room — books or access to a library, a computer or access to one at a library, pens, maybe some paper, and all the other possessions in your life — are way, way more than you need.

When you subtract the desire, you can subtract possessions, and leave your mind, heart, and life free. Then the possibilities are endless.