Articles in the Health Sites Category

If this is your first time visiting, be sure to enter my latest contest for E3Live products (a value of over $200!) and check out my chocolate-covered raisin hemp balls. They’re easy (and fun!) to make.

And now I have a special surprise for you: We have a talented and inspiring guest today!

Zeenat Syal is sharing her wisdom of the healing benefits of raw onion. You know how I love the healing benefits of raw foods!

Take it away, Zeenat!

Onions – A Pungent Surprise of Natural Healing

The onion, a pungent edible of the lily family, is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables. It is considered food of exceptional value for flavoring and seasoning.

The onion is a biennial herb, usually grown as an annual. All its parts produce a strong odor when crushed. It has a superficial root system, a very short flattened stem at the base of the plant, which increases in diameter as growth continues. Leaves are long, linear and hollow. A bulb is formed by thickening of the leaf bases when the plant reaches a certain stage of growth.

The onion is believed to have originated in Central Asia, possibly in the Iran-Pakistan region. It has been cultivated since ancient times in the Middle East and India. It was a popular food in ancient Egypt, where it is depicted on the tombs as early as 3200 BC and has been found in mummies. Almost all religions in their holy scriptures have mentioned onions in some way or the other.

Onion is now cultivated in most parts of the world, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Philippines, China, Egypt, West and East Africa, tropical South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Food Value:

Onion which derived its name from the Latin Onio and French Oignon, has been described by some one as the dynamite of all natural foods. Compared with other fresh vegetables, it is relatively high in food value, moderate in protein content and is rich in calcium and riboflavin. There is considerable variation in composition between different varieties and it also varies with the stage of maturity and the length of storage.

The odor in onion is due to organic sulphur compounds, and is produced only when they are cut or injured, by enzyme action on a water-soluble amino acid. Heating, freezing and drying prevent the enzyme action. That is why cooking produces a different odor, flavor and pungency. The pungent flavor is appreciated by many people in many countries. The strong odor lingers for a considerable amount of time after consumption. It is said to be due to small particles retained is the mouth which cannot always be removed by brushing.

Onion is one of the vegetables which has the best keeping quality. The dried cured bulbs may be kept for several months without deterioration and can stand rough handling.

Natural Benefits and Curative Properties:

Onion is highly valued for its therapeutic properties. It has been used as a food remedy from time immemorial. The physicians of ancient Egypt prescribed onions in various diseases. They are stimulant, diuretic, expectorant and rubefacient.

The white onion is preferable to the red and yellow varieties. Onions should be taken with meals preferably raw as fried or cooked onions are comparatively difficult to digest. For therapeutic purposes, it is advisable to use onion juice instead of the whole onion as it is an all round medicine. Onion being stimulating and irritating food, its consumption in excess should be avoided.

Several parts of the plant have a place in traditional medicines. The seeds of onion relieve dental worms and urinary diseases. The stalks of onion are a source of Vitamin A, thiamin and ascorbic acid. They are used in both tender and mature stages.

*Onions*

Food Value                                                     Minerals and Vitamins

Moisture                                    86.6%              Calcium                                     47mg

Protien                                        1.2%                Phosphorous                              50mg

Fat                                              0.1%                  Iron                                           0.7mg

Fibre                                            0.6%               Vitamin C                                   11mg

Minerals                                       0.4%             Small amount if Vitamin B Complex

Carbohydrates                            11.1%

______

100%               Calorific Value: 51

*Values 100 gms edible portion.

Respiratory Diseases:

Onion possesses expectorant properties. It liquefies phlegm and prevents its further formation. It has been used for centuries in cold, cough, bronchitis and influenza.

Tooth Disorders:

Onion also possesses bactericidal properties. Hence, consuming one raw onion everyday, chewing thoroughly, can protect you from a host of tooth disorders. Chewing raw onions for three minutes is sufficient to kill all the germs in the mouth. Toothache is often allayed by placing a small piece of onion on the bad tooth or gum.

Anemia:

Onions are noted for their easily assimilable iron content. They are therefore, beneficial in the treatment of anemia.

Heart Disease:

Onion is an excellent preventive food item against heart-attack. Its beneficial because of the composition of the essential oils, calcium, iron, phosphorous and vitamins. The onions are very valuable in heart diseases as they correct thrombosis and also reduce blood cholesterol.

Skin Disorders:

Onion is irritating to the skin and stimulates the circulation of blood in the mucous membranes. Warts also sometimes disappear if rubbed with cut onions. Roasted or otherwise, onions are applied as a poultice to boils, bruises, wounds, etc., to bring the boils to maturity by its heaty sensation.

Ear Disorders:

Onions juice dipped in cotton wool and put into the ear is a popular Russian remedy for ringing sound in the ears. Dropped hot in the ear, it relieves earache.

Urinary System Disorders:

Onions are highly beneficial in the treatment of urinary system disorders. Regular intake of onion juice will bring about considerable amount of relief to patients suffering from burning sensation as well as to patients suffering from urine retention.

Bleeding Piles:

Onions are a very valuable treatment in bleeding piles. Onion juice mixed with a pinch of sugar taken twice daily by the patient will bring relief in a few days.

Uses:

The onion can be used in innumerable ways. The immature and mature bulbs are eaten raw or they may be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. They are used in soups, salads, sauces and for seasoning many foods. They may also be fried. Onion oil, produced by steaming distillation, is used to a limited extent for flavoring foods.There has been an increasing demand, in recent years, for dehydrated onion products. The onions are sliced and dried. They are used for flavoring food and in canned meat products, sausages, canned and dried soups and ketchups. Dried onion flakes can be reconstituted by cooking in water. Chopped and dried green onions are a kind culinary herb for culinary purposes.

Zeenat Merchant Syal is a Practicing Counseling Psychologist & Naturopath with degrees in Motivational and Counseling Psychology. She also holds degrees in various fields of Holistic and Naturopathic Medicine. Her Blog “Positive Provocations” focuses on Positive Thinking through Healing the Mind, Body, Heart &Soul-Trying to heal the world one blog post at a time-Spreading Positivity, Motivations, Inspiration, Love & Happiness.

Thank you so much, Zeenat!

Okay, y’all. Get busy adding those onions to your meals and enjoying their natural healing benefits!

And be sure to stop by Zeenat’s blog. She’s so inspiring and knowledgeable. Her posts are a joy to read and I know you’ll be glad you took the time to visit her!

(Onion) photo credit: Vic Lic

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to check out my review of E3Live. And a huge thank you to the folks at www.E3Live.com for sponsoring this review (and upcoming contest)!!!

Note: E3Live sent me samples, but I have not been paid to write this review. The thoughts I share in this post are my honest opinions.

I decided to use E3Live on its own, without mixing things up with BrainOn. I wanted to listen to my body and be absolutely sure how I felt taking each product. So now that you’ve read my thoughts on E3Live, it’s time to learn about BrainOn….

From Klamath Lake

The blue-green algae found in BrainOn comes from a lake in Oregon.

“Upper Klamath Lake is free of adverse bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. The lake receives an average 300 days of sunlight per year which provides a perfect growing environment for the world’s richest strain of wild AFA blue-green algae, scientifically known as Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. The alkaline lake water provides more than 60 times the nutrients needed for the algae to grow to its full potential each year. Under the right conditions, AFA algae can reproduce every 20 minutes, which provides a plentiful abundance of this organic, high life-force, miracle super food.”– www.E3Live.com

Brain Power

It’s kind of crazy to think you can actually absorb brain power from a serving of blue-green algae each day, isn’t it? But when you think about it, you’ll realize that for decades people have been stuffing their faces with overcooked, sodium and chemical-filled foods that are lacking nutrition. When our body lacks the nutrients it’s crying out for, our brains lack as well.

We have to remember that our brains need to be nourished in order to work like we want them to. Want to remember where you put your keys? Your anniversary? Answers to a test you studied days or weeks for? Do you desire to have the mental clarity and focus you used to have? Tired of feeling foggy and forgetful? Feed your brain!

Learn why you can nourish your brain cells with BrainOn…

From the site:

“E3Live BrainOn® contains the active ingredient in wild-harvested AFA that both promotes mood balance and enhances focus. In fact, no other product competes with BrainON® in terms of promoting joyfulness and brain clarity benefits with no side effects. BrainON® improves health. It’s good for you!

PEA was found to be significantly lower in subjects with Attention Deficit Disorder. People taking BrainON® with Phenalmin report better attention at school and at work. BrainON is for anyone who wishes to balance mood and to increase concentration. One of our most beloved products, E3Live BrainOn® helps you to enjoyably function at a higher level.”

Wow.

Pretty cool, huh?!

Depression

My shipment of E3Live samples actually arrived while I was out of town at my 28-year-old cousin’s funeral. She was like a little sister to me. She lost her life on impact in a car accident. Not only that, she was one of 3 cousins I lost in just a matter of a couple of months. One of the other cousins I wasn’t close to, but one of them I was. I went to school with him and always felt closer to him than other relatives.

Words can’t express what a difficult, trying, stressful, devastating time it was to know that 3 young people (ages 28, 32, and 36) were no longer here on this beautiful earth – or in my family. No more cards, letters, hugs, or smiles.

Those of you who follow this blog regularly know that I’m all about inspiring, motivating, uplifting, and happy thoughts. So my intentions of sharing this with you is not to make you feel depressed, but to prove a point: Both BrainOn and E3Live’s Original Formula helped me tremendously through these hard times I’m telling you about. I know that I was able to find energy, strength, and mental clarity that would have been much harder to drudge up without chugging a shot of E3Live or BrainOn each day.

“I’ve had people who’ve been depressed for years and years, and literally, within a few days after receiving AFA their depression lifts.”

“A wonderful and unique blend for peak performance of body, mind, and spirit that should be included in any detoxification and rejuvenation program. I take it myself daily.” — Dr. Gabriel Cousens,Director of Tree of Life of Life Rejuvenation Center

I did suffer depression after such family tragedy. Yes, Raw Juice Girl was depressed. I couldn’t sleep, fell off the 100% raw food wagon, ate the wrong foods… I was a mess! But I was able to bounce back a lot quicker because of BrainOn.

I also took a short break from freelance assignments but was able to come back full force and write even more than before. I’m convinced it’s  mostly because of this company’s blue-green algae. Convinced.

What’s In BrainOn?

I know you’re wondering what exactly is in BrainOn to make it so fantabulous, right?

Nutritional information (from the site):

Supplement Facts: Protein <1g; Trans Fat 0g; Vitamin A 1890 IU 38% daily value; Vitamin K 34 mcg 43% daily value; Riboflavin 49 mcg 3% daily value; Vitamin B1 27 mcg 117% daily value.

Ingredients: Organic, fresh-frozen AFA (Aphanizomenon flos aquae) with BrainON®, a concentrated organic AFA extract of Phenylethylamine (PEA).

That’s some awesome nutrition for our brains!

Pros

I’d definitely agree with the brain enhancing, mood lifting powers of BrainOn. As I mentioned above, it helped me through some very troublesome times, and as you know, I’ve managed to continue writing with enthusiasm and mental clarity.

From the site:

• All the benefits of E3Live, plus:
• Increase focus and clarity
• Lift and brighten mood with the PEA, the “love molecule”
• Lower stress and enhance well-being
• Function at a higher level
• Shown to increase concentration

I do agree with this list provided on E3Live’s website because I felt the same benefits personally when I took the supplement.

Cons

As I mentioned in my E3Live review, the biggest two cons I can think of from purchasing BrainOn is cost and taste (for some of you). Those of you who follow me know that I can pretty much chug down anything without it phasing me because I’m used to drinking potent herbal tonics, strong herbal teas, and other natural remedies (like organic apple cider vinegar with Mother). But I realize not everyone is accustomed to the taste of green. I find E3Live and BrainOn actually taste mild, so you may not have a problem taking it straight up. If you do, simply add it to smoothies, juices, or other recipes to disguise the taste.

And about the cost… One of my readers mentioned finding a couple of friends to split the supplement and shipping cost with so you can enjoy this wonderful blue-green algae. I think that’s a great idea!

Other than those two issues, I honestly can’t imagine anything bad about enhancing your heath.

Tip: Preparing your daily dose for the upcoming week is quick and simple. I gave step-by-step instructions (with a photo) in my E3Live review.

Verdict/Grade

I know this is a costly supplement for a lot of people, but I can honestly tell you it is a worthwhile investment.  If there’s a way you can readjust your budget and put your health before other expenses, I’d definitely recommend spending your money on this product.

For the results I’ve personally experienced from using BrainOn, I absolutely give it an A+ because I definitely came through (and out of) depressing, trying times much better than I would have on my own, without E3Live and BrainOn.

Have you ever tried BrainOn? Do you wish you could? Well, you can! E3Live has generously offered to sponsor a contest, allowing one reader to win 3 bottles of E3Live and 2 bottles of BrainOn, + a shaker cup—over a $200.oo value!!!

Contest is launching tonight, Sunday, November 8th. Get ready!!

Visit www.E3Live.com to learn more about this super fantabulous blue-green algae.

And thank you again to the kind folks at E3Live for sponsoring this review and the upcoming contest!!

The fun part is a video we recorded while at a recent festival. It’s so fun. Thought it’d make y’all smile today!

And the news? Raw Juice Girl now has a YouTube channel. Subscribe while you’re there, so you won’t miss out on my first ever video. Yep, you’ll get to giggle at my funny Southern accent!

And… um… yeah, that’s ME cackling in the background. *blushes*

Want to keep up with Raw Juice Girl’s adventures + more?  Subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life. I’ve also been working on a recipe page where you’ll be able to easily locate recipes for raw juices, smoothies, and now dehydrator creations!

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to enter Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for TWO containers  of Amazing Grass – one is CHOCOLATE! (Thursday, October 22 is the last day to enter.)  You can also use the code hwj (small J as in JUICE) for a 15% discount on your order, if you can’t wait. And a BIG thank you to Amazing Grass for sponsoring!

Fun Treats for Fall

Nathalie, at Raw Foods Witch, recently shared a new raw recipe video: How to Make a Festive Raw Pumpkin Pie Recipe. I love Nathalie. She’s fun, creative, informative, and I just adore her enthusiasm for raw living!

Cindy, from A Sparkle A Day, made us readers drool with her version of a healthy pancake. If you aren’t 100% raw/vegan, I’d definitely recommend you give this a try. I haven’t yet, but I will!

Love Veggies & Yoga? Averie sure does! This gal is RAWkin the blogosphere with her creative raw recipes. She has a passion for raw, vegan living and shares all sorts of recipes and tips–with pizzazz! One of her creations I’m lookin’ forward to making myself: Raw, Vegan Apple Crumble! Of course, Averie’s recipe archive is exploding over there, so dig through and find yourself some stuff to eat!

Mysti, of Life’s Approbations, shared her original recipe: Fall Perfection Pumpkin Muffins. This one isn’t raw or vegan, but is made with healthy ingredients! If you’re looking for a raw recipe from this gal, she offers that too at her new site, Dining Family: Sweet, Smooth and Cold! (And you’ll find a real little pumpkin at the end of that recipe!) UPDATED TO ADD: “Egg can be substituted out with 1/4 c applesauce and 1/8 tsp baking soda,” says Mysti. She wanted to share that for vegan readers. Thank you, Mysti!!!

I love pumpkin seeds, so Katy Joy’s recipe (from Raw People), sounds like a delicious treat. I’d like to make it sometime. Have you ever had Pumpkin Spice Milk?

And, here’s one of my recipes–that I haven’t enjoyed in quite a while!

Pumpkin Pie Yogurt

Ingredients:

• a container of organic, Greek yogurt (I love Oikos, but you could use raw, nut based yogurt)
• about 1/4 to 1/2 can of organic pumpkin (or raw)
• pumpkin pie spice

Stir pumpkin into your yogurt and sprinkle on as much pumpkin pie spice as you’d like.

Optional Toppings:

• trail mix
• granola
• raisins
• cranberries
• cookies
• raw pumpkin seeds (or nuts)

Do you have any favorite Fall recipes? Do you stay 100% raw in the Fall and Winter seasons, regardless, or do you stray and enjoy some warm (or other non-raw) comfort foods? Have you ever had the recipes I mentioned today? Do you plan on trying any of them? Hope you enjoy your weekend! Can you believe we’re half-way through October??!!

Want to REALLY enhance your recipes?? Enter the contest for NuttZo over at An Apple A Day blog! Hurry, contest ends soon!

Want to keep up with Raw Juice Girl’s adventures + more?  Subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life. I’ve also been working on a recipe page where you’ll be able to easily locate recipes for raw juices, smoothies, and now dehydrator creations!

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to enter Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds. (Wednesday, October 7 is the last day to enter.)  Thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring! And don’t forget to check out my chocolate ice cubes — they’re super easy to make, and so fun!

Wellsphere Wisdom

A while back, I shared with you that Wellsphere.com is one of my all-time favorite health-related websites. I love its purpose, the community, and the endless categories and articles. Wellsphere is a site that’s truly and passionately dedicated to helping us learn, grow, and live the best, healthiest, most positive lives we possibly can. In fact, I’m a member of the Wellsphere community – visit my profile and add me as a friend!

Top Health Blogger

As you can see in the left sidebar, I’m a Top Health Blogger in Wellsphere’s Raw Food Community. When I was given the Top Health Blogger award, I felt so honored and blessed! Health is something I’m so very passionate about. I can’t believe I’ve come this far: I’m a survivor of domestic violence. I’ve lost over 100 pounds. And I have found so much healing – emotionally, physically, spiritually – through raw foods, juices, smoothies, juice fasting, and now yoga.

It’s  an amazing feeling to have the opportunity to inspire you, my loyal readers, to be healthier, better, happier people. Thank you so much for allowing me to share my journey – and my passion – with you!

Health 2.0 San Francisco

I’ve recently received a series of exciting e-mails from the awesome team at Wellsphere sharing information about the Health 2.0 HealthBlogger Conference in San Francisco. Of course, I couldn’t attend but it sure is fun to follow along! Go to www.health2con.com or tune in for real-time information at www.justin.tv./health2con. You can also stay current with all things “Health 2.0 conference” via the Twitter stream: #health2con.

Have you ever attended a health conference? Did you enjoy it? Would you go back? Have you ever visited Wellsphere.com? And most importantly, how do you feel about our country’s current health issues?

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to check out Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds–thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring!

Want to keep up with Raw Juice Girl’s adventures + more?  Subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life. I’ve also been working on a recipe page where you’ll be able to easily locate recipes for raw juices, smoothies, and now dehydrator creations!

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to check out Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds–thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring!

Awesome Awards

It’s always nice to know readers value the time and effort you put into your blog. And that’s why I’m honored to share the following awards that have been given to me: 

1. The Proximade Award, from George, at Tumblemoose
2. The Kreativ Blogger Award, from Lori, at Green Gigs
3. The One Lovely Blog Award, from Jocelyn, of Jocelyn Eats Fresh
   

Award #1

Let’s start with The Proximade Award from George. I’m honored that George considered me for this award. Here’s a little of what he had to say regarding those of us he chose: “I am grateful for an opportunity to award this to a few bloggers who are very special people.”

Thanks, George–you’re pretty special yourself!

If you’ve never visited him, do check out the Tumblemoose blog. Let me tell you, folks, I have yet to be bored (even a smidgen!) when visiting this pal of mine. His posts are fresh, inspiring, motivating, SO funny, and written with warmth, heart, soul, and passion. If you want to improve your writing/blogging–or even just be entertained while learning some awesome stuff–check George out!!! (In fact, I would have passed on the following 2 awards on to George, but I didn’t think he’d be crazy about the pinkness or frilliness of them.)

Award #2

The Kreativ Blogger Award was given to me by Lori, from Green Gigs. I was truly touched by her heartfelt–and very sweet–words about me:

“Michele Tune of Healing with (Raw) Juices is one of the most sincere, interesting, inspiring bloggers I have come across. Raw Juices inspires me to eat healthier and live better – thanks Michele!’

Award #3

“Michele has always been so supportive of me and my blog. I LOVE reading her blog because it is always so informative on the raw food/juicing lifestyle. Even though I’m no where near high raw… I know I can count on this blog to give me the advice I need! Love all the different juicing concoctions! Michele has also lost A LOT of weight…she really is dedicated!”

Note: These are actually the rules that came with The Kreativ Blogger Award, but I’m going to just apply the one set of rules to all 3 of these awards and whoever wants to participate, can. You can also break the rules if you want. I’m not the Awards police.

1. A Sparkle A Day – Cindy is a wife, mother, and beautiful, inspiring person. She fills her blog up with love, healthy meals and snacks, reality, compassion, fun–and let’s not forget those sparkles!
2. Mama’s Weeds – Alison is also a wife and mother, and this one is FULL of kooky humor–I love that about her! She’s also great with the creative recipes and shares lotsa cool parts of her interesting life!
3. Love Veggies, Yoga, Running + Chocolate – Averie is a one-of-a-kind gal. I love her rawkin’ posts. She’s another creative recipe-maker and a wife and momma as well. Lots of healthy vibes flowin’ here!
4. Jocelyn Eats Fresh – Jocelyn is on a journey toward her ultimate health and is just a bright splash of sunshine in the blog world: fun foods, fun times, difficult topics, positive attitude!
5. Have Faith – Jess is a freshman in high school and forever amazes me with her passion for healthy eats, exercise, and being the best she can be. So inspiring from a teen!
6. An Apple a Day – June is passionate about yoga and eating healthy–and she writes lots of awesome reviews and hosts fantabulous contests!
7. Life’s Approbations – Mysti shared a guest post recently (Dehydrator Recipes: Healthy Kids’ Snacks). Her blog is an open book of her life as a wife, mother, writer–and so much more. She shares frugal, healthier versions of recipes and her posts are reminiscent of Chicken Soup for the Soul stories!

Note: Don’t feel obligated to participate in passing the award on–or even sharing that you received it on your blog. I know this kind of thing isn’t everyone’s “cup of tea” so all is well in the blogosphere.

Don’t forget about Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds–thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring!

And Amanda, at the Run to The Finish blog is hosting a giveaway for vegan and gluten-free Nutrition/Energy Bars Giveaway! There’s some awesome flavors happening over there, so get going and enter!!

Want to keep up with Raw Juice Girl’s adventures + more?  Subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life. I’ll also be making a recipe page where you’ll be able to easily locate recipes for raw juices, smoothies, and now dehydrator creations!

First, I’d like to remind you that tomorrow night, August 28th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time), the contest for Detox 4 Women (by Natalia Rose) ends. Be sure to get those entries in!

We have two winners!

The Food Matters DVD contest ended tonight, August 27th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time). There were two DVDs to give away, so when I went to visit Mr. Random (random.org), I went through the process twice. First up, comment #20. Who was this, you ask? Well, Crazy Vegan Mom, of course! Congrats to you!

Winner # 1

Winning entry:

20 Crazy Vegan Mom { 08.23.09 at 3:49 pm }

I tweeted, my tweet name is CrazyVeganMom
here is the url to my tweet http://twitter.com/CrazyVeganMom/status/3498329085

Winner #2

The second time around, Mr. Random shot out #32. And, who did that comment belong to? Stephanie, from The Skinny Plate! Congrats to you!

Winning entry:

32 Titan Peeler & Julienne Tool « The Skinny Plate { 08.27.09 at 7:31 pm }

[...] Check out these awesome giveaways: Food Matters, Detox 4 Women & [...]

Extra entry sharing why she wanted to win:

33 theskinnyplate { 08.27.09 at 7:41 pm }

Thanks for such a great giveaway. I think this DVD is a great motivational film to clean up my eating style.

Congratulations, Ladies!

Zip me an email with your mailing address (healingwithjuices at gmail dot com) and I’ll get your DVDs in the mail as soon as possible!

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• 2 books (Coconut Water for Health and Healing and Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing by Dr. Bruce Fife
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

First, I’d love to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone involved with this amazing film, and for FoodMatters.TV kindly sponsoring this contest. Not only were they gracious enough to send a copy for me to review and glean wisdom from, they were generous enough to send TWO extra copies so TWO of you would have the opportunity to have the same experience as me and own a copy (a $24.95 value!)! Thank you!!

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates

The Father of Medicine

The people behind Food Matters believe that Hippocrates truly paved the way and laid the foundation for caring for our bodies–and so do I. Sadly, though, his natural approach to health has slipped through the cracks and is a distant memory for many, and is not yet known for others. Modern medicine has evolved to a place where the vast majority of our medical world focuses on prescription medicine, handing out scripts for bottle after bottle of pills that merely mask symptoms–when they even do that. You’re left with side effects you don’t know how to handle, so you go back to the doctor and you’re prescribed more pills. Treating illness now consists of chemical therapies that kill out our immune systems. We’ve reached a place where it’s “normal” to pop a dozen pills before we walk out the door to go to work and are on a schedule to take that many sometimes a second, and even a third, time within 24 hours.

Yet, so many in our world still ignore the fact that Hippocrates was right. His theory was right on: Our food is absolutely our medicine! Ever heard that phrase you are what you eat? I’m sure you have. I know almost everyone I talk to has heard it. Some live by it; it’s their creed. Others despise it, detest it, rebel against it, and downright refuse to believe that what they put into their mouths, their bodies, has anything to do with the way they feel, what their blood pressure levels are, or how their clothes no longer fit. Go figure…

Chapters

When you insert your DVD, you’ll notice there is a Chapters section. I love this because it gives you a sneak peek of what you’re in for! Don’t cheat, though. Start at the beginning and watch it all the way through. You’ll be so glad you did.

You’ll learn all sorts of awesome things! This film really makes you reflect on what you put in your mouth, how old it is, whether it’s really feeding your body–or if it’s feeding disease.

Note: You’ll also learn about natural cancer therapies and how to detox, lose weight, and keep it off!

Inspiration

I love the strong message of hope and healing Food Matters brings. As someone who has lost over 100 pounds and steadily improved my health by living a high-raw (and at times, 100% raw) food lifestyle + raw juices, smoothies, and juice fasting, I am extremely aware of how food is not only my medicine, but my strength, my healing, and literally my future–or the lack, thereof!

It excites me that as the film proceeds, anticipation about being healthier increases and you truly take away a sense of hope that it’s not too late to turn your health around in the right direction. Sure, it may take a while. Yes, it may be hard most of the time. But as long as we have a breath in our body, there is hope for better health! (I do realize there are situations that may be irreversible, where the patient is too near death to make a U-turn. So, I’m not preaching miracles here–although I do believe in ‘em! )

Experts

You’ll hear Experts chime in on why the quality of and type of food we eat truly matters. Here’s a glimpse of what each of them have to say about the medical industry, our non-organic farming methods, raw foods, and more…

“Good health makes a lot of sense, but it doesn’t make a lot of dollars.”–Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D, Therapeutic Nutrition Specialist and Author

“Dr. Paul Kouchakoff was the first to show in the 1930′s that if  you ate a diet that was more than 51% cooked food, that your body would react to the food as if it was being invaded by a foreign organism. Dr. Kouchakoff was the first to demonstrate that if 51% of your meals were raw, you’d have no leucocytosis; you’d actually have no white blood cell reaction, so your immune system would not be activated with a false alarm. Because we’re dealing with so many immune system issues today, we have to make sure that at least 51% of every meal that we have is raw so that we don’t overburden that already-overburdened immune system.” – David Wolfe

No yoga for me today. I listened to my body and I knew I should take a rest day, so I did. I can’t wait for my date with Polly in the morning, though! I wasn’t hungry when I first woke up. I didn’t feel like my usual warm lemon water, so I skipped that. I had a tall glass of plain water instead. After that, I had some herbal tea. When I finally got hungry, I didn’t know what I wanted! And guess what? I went crazy and had an organic Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries on top. Yeah, it isn’t raw but this is what I’m talking about when I say I sometimes craves a non-raw food, yet what I’m craving isn’t really junk food just because it isn’t raw. I’m still really close to 100% raw, really, but once in a while (once a day, once a week, once a month–whenever the urge hits), I have decided to treat myself to a non-raw (yet still healthy) food.

Oikos (Organic) Greek Yogurt

After my yummy-to-the-tummy Oikos Greek yogurt, I had my daily shot of E3 Live.

Snack/Lunch

Since I had a late breakfast (around 11 a.m., or so) I didn’t eat lunch at noon. Instead, I ended up having a snack around maybe 1 p.m.? I was a little hungry but not much, so I had a big banana with a spoon of raw honey. Yum! (No pic, sorry!)

Mid-Afternoon Snack

By this afternoon, I still wasn’t really craving anything–except chocolate! I realized I’d been craving chocolate all day, so I had me some! LOL Double the chocolate, double the fun, eh? I started with the totally delicious Amazing Grass Chocolate SuperFood bar. Yum-O! It has a thin layer of chocolate coating on the outside and nutty, green, chewy goodness on the inside. It’s healthy, tasty, and chocolate. What’s not to like? Seriously, I could eat one of these every single day! And they’re very dense and filling–AMAZING!

Amazing Grass Chocolate Bar

I decided to double up on my chocolate fix and had my other sample packet of Amazing Grass chocolate superfood powder, mixed with almond milk. Yum!

Amazing Chocolate Shake

(Just click on the photo below to read all about this yummy chocolate superfood powder! )

Dinner

It was most definitely time for some raw veggies, so I fixed myself a salad. And here’s the sad news: all of my camera batteries are dead and I’m having to charge them–so no salad pics tonight! Sorry! Use your imagination, though, and picture this:

a base of baby spinach leaves

with chopped Napa cabbage

chopped heirloom organic banana peppers (from my garden)

diced heirloom organic bell peppers (from my garden)

sliced heirloom organic beets (from my garden)

Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds

scattered fresh blueberries

Yummy to the tummy!

Contest!!

Want to win a giant 2 pound container of healthy deliciousness? Special K wants to know what nourishes me. So, here it is: raw juices, smoothies, raw foods, and healthy thoughts nourish me. What nourishes you? Head on over there and tell her so you can be entered to win!

Coming next: various foods I’ve eaten when breaking other juice fasts I’ve been on, and also why I don’t incorporate vegetable broth into my juice fasting regimen like some juice fasters do. <—– I am working on this post!!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

I previously mentioned Polly’s yoga to strengthen the lower back, but I thought maybe some of you who happen upon this post would be totally clueless about yoga so I decided to share Polly’s Yoga for Newbies video with you. It seems simple enough. (I haven’t tried it yet because I got attacked (and stung!) by a bunch of red wasps and haven’t been feeling too great.) But I’m definitely going to give this a shot.

I’ve never really had an interest in yoga, until lately. A lot of you, my readers, and other folks have recommended practicing yoga as a way to strengthen/possibly heal my back troubles. So, we shall see!

Do check out Polly’s blog: Yoga is Yummy. She also has quite a neat list of yoga videos you can watch (for free!!) and a super cool looking, brand-new yoga DVD you may want to go ahead and purchase if you like her style–a lot of other folks do. (She’s VERY inspiring/motivating!)

Don’t forget about the contests! And catch up on the juicy details of my 30-day juice fast.

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

I’ve mentioned before that I suffer from back pain (because of injuries from domestic violence) and I have received quite a bit of feedback/emails/comments suggesting I try yoga to strengthen my core and for possible healing benefit to my back. Well, I’m always game to try something new, healthy, beneficial, and that will make me feel better! So, I have been seriously enjoying Polly’s yoga videos. I love her soothing voice, her friendly, down-to-earth way of teaching, and her passion for living a healthy, good life!!

As I’ve searched through her videos, I came across this one for the lower back. I haven’t tried it yet but I wanted to share it with you right away…

More of Polly’s (free) yoga videos can be seen here at her Yoga is Yummy blog. You can also order Polly’s Yoga is Yummy video!! Not sure you want to buy a yoga video yet? Check out what folks are saying about Polly as a yoga teacher! (I love Polly’s cartoon!!! )

Is yoga part of your exercise routine? Did it help you with back problems? Did it help you lose weight? Tell me all about it!

Don’t forget to catch up on my 30-day juice fast…

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Day 10–Learnin’ About Lemon!

Day 11, Grapefruit Juice Heaven!

Day 12 with Sprouts on Top!

Day 13 and Juiceless

Day 14: Salad in a Glass

Day 15 + Living Tree Community Contest Winner!

Day 16 + Books by Dr. Bruce Fife

Day 17 + Green Pineapple Juice

Day 18 (Catching Up)

Day 19 + July 4th Celebrations!!

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• 2 books (Coconut Water for Health and Healing and Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing by Dr. Bruce Fife
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

Last night I slept so good. It was fantabulous!!

Of course, warm lemon water was first on my list when I woke up on day 17 of this 30-day juice fast.

Breakfast

About an hour after I drank that, I had my breakfast juice. I was extremely happy I had leftover pineapple juice from yesterday morning because I’m getting things ready for company that’s coming from out of town and it was such a relief to be able to grab my E3 Live cup with pineapple juice just waiting for me to drink it.

I actually forgot to take my daily shot of E3 Live today! I got really busy cleaning and just forgot.

I did get my tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar in, though.

Keepin’ Cool!

I am absolutely LOVING this shaker cup! It has a super COOL ice wand that you can keep in the freezer and when you’re ready for it, just pop it down in its slot and it’ll keep your juice or smoothie extra cold. This is fantabulous for days when I need to run out the door with juice in hand and I can enjoy a cold drink longer. The E3 Live folks are just awesome for including the ice wand with this shaker cup!

Anyway, I had GREEN PINEAPPLE JUICE this morning because I added a scoop of Amazing GrassGreen SuperFood powder. It was actually really good! Seriously.

Lunch + Dinner

Since I was expecting company from out of town this afternoon, I decided it’d probably make it easier if I juiced lunch and dinner at once. So, I grabbed the following…

Yum!

2 heaping handfuls of heirloom, organic lettuce (from my garden)

2 apples

2 – 1 inch pieces ginger

handful parsley

3 small beets (from Amish produce stand)

1 carrot

2 celery stalks

Pretty Colors!

All Stirred Up

I diluted this one about 60/40 and had enough juice to fill up my E3 Live shaker cup, my Amazing Grass shaker cup, and also had a dab left in the juice machine cup and I drank it straight from that cup!

Actually, after I made this double batch of juice, I got busy cleaning again and preparing for my company and I never drank my dinner juice!! That’s okay, though. I wasn’t craving it and I breezed right on through the day with plenty of energy and never even missed it. I had plenty of regular water and herbal tea as well, so I’m good. And I’ll be loving it in the morning when I can just grab my cup of juice and leave to go run some errands. Makes it SO convenient!

And there you have it… day 17 was a success and I can’t believe tomorrow is day 18!!

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Just tuning in? Catch up:

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Day 10–Learnin’ About Lemon!

Day 11, Grapefruit Juice Heaven!

Day 12 with Sprouts on Top!

Day 13 and Juiceless

Day 14: Salad in a Glass

Day 15 + Living Tree Community Contest Winner!

Day 16 + Books by Dr. Bruce Fife

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• 2 books (Coconut Water for Health and Healing and Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing by Dr. Bruce Fife
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

I can hardly believe this is day 15 of my 30-day juice fast!!

Last night I slept well again. I jumped up this morning and discovered I was out of lemon! So… no warm lemon water this morning. I grabbed my Amazing Grass shaker cup, added some ice, a scoop of Amazing Grass Green SuperFood powder and some leftover cucumber-apple juice, and also grabbed my bottle of water with organic apple cider vinegar (a tablespoon) and left to run some errands (including picking up some lemons!).

On the way home, I stopped at that Amish produce stand again and bought some more beets (forgot to take a photo of ‘em this time–sorry!) and then came home….

Lunch

After a busy morning, I decided to drink more of my cucumber-apple juice (it’s so refreshing!!!) and added another (yes, a second scoop for today!) of Amazing Grass Green SuperFood powder. I decided to drink my grass outside.

Dinner Concoction

1 apple

1 celery stalk

1 nob ginger

1 handful spinach

1 handful parsley

5 (heirloom) rainbow chard leaves (from my garden)

4 (heirloom) beet leaves (from my garden)

2 small beets (from an Amish produce stand)

Looks Like Sherbet Juice!

Yum-O!

I had drank half of that juice when I realized I hadn’t taken a photo of it! I was getting ready to start this blog post so I just snapped a photo at the laptop. It was a beautiful, rich color and the taste was  simply divine!

And a Winner!

It’s awesome to finally be able to find out which lucky reader wins the Living Tree Community contest (a 16 ounce jar of Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter AND an 8 ounce jar of Raw Almond Butter–both organic!!)

I used Random.org to select a winner. There was a whopping 164 comments (whoa!) and it generated the #10….

…. which means Jocelyn (from Jocelyn Eats Fresh blog) won!

Here’s here comment:

Jocelyn { 06.22.09 at 4:22 pm }

whoa whoa whooooa..I so would love to try these products..
for one: I’v never even heard of such a thing as organic coconut mango persimmon butter..lol Like..we don’t get those kind of products in Canada!

Also Awhile back I was reading up on the website and I really like their *way* of living

http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/store2/grow.asp
especially loving relations and restful sleep
also..look at all thoes fine ingrediants that goes into the final product! Sounds like a dream to me!

Congratulations, Jocelyn!! Just e-mail me at healingwithjuices at gmail dot com with your mailing address and I’ll get your package in the mail!!

Thanks so much to Living Tree Community for sponsoring this contest. They are truly an amazing company with their heart in the right place!

And thank you to each of you who entered the contest. I appreciate every single one of your comments and entries and I SO WISH I could have awarded each and every one of you with these delicious products but I couldn’t. Keep striving for ultimate health and I hope to see you around!!

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Just tuning in? Catch up:

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Day 10–Learnin’ About Lemon!

Day 11, Grapefruit Juice Heaven!

Day 12 with Sprouts on Top!

Day 13 and Juiceless

Day 14: Salad in a Glass

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

I had a little trouble going to sleep last night, but once I drifted off I slept blissfully and woke up rested and rarin’ to go!!

And I totally forgot to mention yesterday that I got to meet 2 young ladies from Wales! They had the cutest, most awesome, Welsh accent. It was just the coolest thing ever. I have never had the opportunity to meet anyone who was from Wales so it was such a special treat! Here’s one of them playing the guitar (she gave me permission to take her photo):

Friend from Wales

How awesome is that??!! So fun!!

Breakfast

This morning began with warm lemon water (1/2 a lemon in a cup of hot water). I normally have a raw juice between 30 minutes to an hour later but this morning, I was in the mood for a juice. I just wasn’t craving it. So, instead, I drank a tall glass of water with a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar .

Lunch

Lunch was hilarious. My Mom was making plates of salad for everyone who was here today and she made a plate for me–to juice! LOL So, I did.

Salad

(a little of each of the following)

chopped tomato (from a friend’s garden)

cauliflower

sliced cucumber

heirloom lettuce leaves (from my garden)

heirloom onion, chopped (from my garden)

sliced yellow bell pepper

sliced celery

Salad in a Glass

(Filled up a little more than half of my Amazing Grass cup)

After I took this photo, I added a scoop of Amazing Grass Green SuperFood powder. This juice was actually very delicious and satisfying!

(Just click on the photo below to find out how AMAZING this powder is!! )

Pickling Cucumbers

These are actually pickling cucumbers that weren’t picked soon enough and grew too big to pickle.

These are still good for eating/juicing, though. Sometimes they have a bitter taste; sometimes they don’t.

Cucumber Juice

I ended up with more than this amount because the juice turned out bitter. So to try to remedy the not-so-pleasant taste, I added 3 apples. That gave me 3 cups of cucumber-apple juic + a tall glass for me to drink right away. Weird combo, I know, but it worked out!

Cucumber-Apple Juice

Yum-O!

And that was it for day 14. I made sure to drink plenty of water and also had herbal tea with lemon. Tomorrow means this 30-day juice fast is already half over! Sheesh. Has it been 2 weeks already?

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you: I won a contest!! Eeeeek!! Kristin over at Iowa Girl Eats recently had a contest and I won the Grand Prize!!!

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Just tuning in? Catch up:

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Day 10–Learnin’ About Lemon!

Day 11, Grapefruit Juice Heaven!

Day 12 with Sprouts on Top!

Day 13 and Juiceless

Contest Alert!

• The Living Tree Community contest ends tomorrow at 9 p.m. (Central Time)! You’ll win a 16 ounce jar of Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter AND an 8 ounce jar of Raw Almond Butter–both organic!! Hurry and enter. You have SIX CHANCES to win!!!

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

I didn’t sleep that well last night but, surprisingly, I wasn’t that tired or feeling that bad this morning. It’s crazy how a juice fast keeps my energy level up–even when I don’t sleep that well. I just kept waking up for some reason!!

Breakfast

My day began (like always) with a hot cup of lemon water (more about this below in a reader’s Q & A !! )

I was craving pineapple juice, so that’s what I made! I am loving being so in tune to my body! These longer juice fasts are so serene and holistic for me.

On to the morning juice concoction…

Pineapple, Chopped

(The whole thing except the leaves)

Yummy Pineapple Juice!

Added 6 Strawberries

+ a Scoop of Amazing Grass!

Amazing Grass Green SuperFood

(Berry flavored: Acai + Goji)

(Learn more about this amazing superfood by clicking on the picture below.)

My Breakfast!

(Don’t let the green fool you–it was berry-licious!!)

Besides my Amazing Grass shaker cup, I had enough pineapple-strawberry juice to share 3 small-ish glasses with family and store the container below (which holds 3 cups) in the freezer. I also made a few popsicles for later. Yes, you can have your juices frozen as popsicles while juice fasting!! How fun is that–especially in the summer time??!!

For Later

(I hear pineapple-strawberry juice is so yummy frozen and thawed–like a slushy!!)

After my juice, I had a glass of water with organic apple cider vinegar.

Snack

I had my daily shot (a tablespoon) of E3 Live and a tall glass of iced, herbal tea with lemon. Yum!

Lunch

For lunch, I finally decided to try the juice concoction Jenna keeps raving about. Jenna, over at Eat, Live, Run keeps talking about the following juice.  And I keep forgetting to pick up ginger root at the grocery store so I haven’t been able to make it until today! I searched Jenna’s site and discovered she also plays around with her recipe. She sometimes adds cucumber or half a lemon to the recipe but I went with her original version today…

New Concoction!

2 small beets

1 green apple

2 stalks celery

1 carrot

1 nob ginger (about an inch thick)

Note: I absolutely adore how there was just a hint of ginger in each sip. It wasn’t overpowering, but it was definitely there, tickling my tongue and throat! I didn’t dilute this one. Yum!

She’s a Beauty!!

(And yummy to the tummy–just like Jenna said!! Thanks, Jenna!!!)

Snack

For an afternoon snack today, I had a homemade pineapple-strawberry popsicle (from my breakfast juice). It was sooooooooo delicious! I enjoyed this yummy treat outside.

Sweet Treat!

Dinner

Tonight’s dinner was inspired by yesterday’s lunch–but I tweaked the recipe a little to come up with…

Kale Kreations!

2 apples

2 carrots

1 small beet

2 kale leaves

handful of spinach

nob and half of ginger

few sprigs of parsley

(The recipe shows 2 carrots and 2 apples because I threw another of each in the juice after the photo just to make a little more juice.)

Rainbow Swirls!

Yummy Goodness!!

(Made 16 ounces… I didn’t dilute this one.)

Reader’s Question

Why do you drink warm/hot lemon water first thing every morning?

Answer

Lemons are loaded with goodies your bodies need such as Vitamin C and heart- and cancer-fighting compounds like limonin and limolene. I love them. I have been drinking warm lemon water each morning before breakfast for a long time now. My Mom is a HUGE advocate of lemons and we have been having them in our iced tea for oodles of years. The warm lemon water (drank on an empty stomach) helps alkalize the body, jumpstarts your liver and bowel and flushes your kidneys and bladder. It’s very cleansing to your body. Lemons boost your immune system, lower histamine levels, and help give your skin an overall healthy glow. I definitely feel less energetic and have less “umph” on days I don’t get my lemon!

Hope that helps you understand my obsession with warm lemon water.

That’s it for day 10. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this 30-day juice fast has in store for me!!

Just tuning in? Catch up:

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Contest Alert!

• Erica over at I Run Because I Can is having a super fantabulous contest for peanut AND almond butter PLUS other yummy stuff!! Check it out!

• Kristin from Iowa Girl Eats is hosting a super duper cool contest for Real Simple magazine and RAWsome Pure Bars!! Hurry and enter!!

• Don’t forget about the Living Tree Community contest! (You’ll win a 16 ounce jar of Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter AND an 8 ounce jar of Raw Almond Butter–both organic!!)

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Living Tree Community (Raw almond butter and organic coconut mango persimmon butter!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

References:

McKeith, Gillian. Gillian McKeith’s Boot Camp Diet: Fourteen Days to a New You! England: Penguin Publishing, 2009

Yeager, Selene. Doctor’s Book of Food Remedies, Rodale Publishing, 1998

Updated to add: Entries are no longer valid for this contest. It has ended and a winner has been chosen. Thanks!

First, I’d love to send out a huge thank you to the Living Tree Community company for sending delicious samples for me to sample and review and also for graciously offering to sponsor this contest so you can try some of their products, too!

Note: I reviewed these products before my 30-day juice fast began–I am just now getting to writing the review/posting the contest.

A while back, I received a box of goodies from Living Tree Community. This is a fantabulous company! They create delicious raw products that they refer to as “Alive”.

I had the awesome opportunity to sample their raw cashew nut butter and also their organic chocolate maca energy butter. I give both products a HUGE thumbs up and I’d definitely try them again! I am also loving the company’s passion for providing us with the most “alive”, raw products as they possibly can!

Organic Cashew Butter

(What? It was DELICIOUS!!!)

From the Living Tree Community site:

Nowadays cashews come from India, Tanzania, Vietnam and Cambodia. In our experience the best come from Brazil. This is natural enough as that’s where the cashew originated. It was domesticated long before the arrival of Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century. It was “discovered” by European traders and explorers and taken from Brazil to India and East Africa, where it soon became naturalized. Living Tree Cashew Butter is made from Brazilian cashews. Try it on apple slices or carrot sticks. Also be sure to try our cashews. What a delightful addition to school lunches!

The cashew nut butter was to DIE LIVE for!! Oh my gosh, it was soooooooooooo delicious! I remember even now. I was so, so sad when the jar was empty!!

Organic Chocolate Maca Energy Butter

From the Living Tree Community site:

By combining raw cacao with lavender flowers, mint leaves, honey, agave nectar, Living Tree Alive Olive Oil, sundried raisins, nutmeg, cardamon and cayenne we have brought you a uniquely sophisticated taste.

The organic chocolate maca energy butter was definitely a NEW and DIFFERENT taste for me. I wasn’t sure I liked it at first. I think it’s because it’s such strong, live flavors. I will say this, though: I totally, totally felt a “lift” after eating it each time–and I LOVE that!!

Living Tree Community Contest!!

What You Get

You’ll be winning:

• 1 -16 ounce jar Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter
• 1 – 8 ounce jar Raw Almond Butter

From the Living Tree Community site:

Organic Coconut Mango Persimmon Butter

We’ve combined organic mango, persimmon, pineapple and coconut to bring you a creation filled with the wonder of existence. The mango, pineapple and coconut convey the exuberance of the tropics, and the persimmon – the glow of California’s wondrous fertile Central Valley. Have also added raw cacao, sesame, sundried raisins, agave nectar, organic carob and a dash of Royal Himalayan pink crystal salt.

Organic Almond Butter

We began making almond butter over 25 years ago. At first our almond butter was roasted, but that has become a small part of what we do. Nowadays, our energy goes into making alive almond butter. We have developed, over the years, a proprietary process. We make it slowly, over several days. We slice, we do not grind. Furthermore, we make it frequently, in small batches so it’s fresh and alive.

You’re allowed FOUR FIVE SIX entries for this contest:

Note: Please leave a comment for each thing you do (tweet, plurk, etc.) because each comment will be counted as a number when I enter the total number of comments at Random.org once the contest ends. Thanks!

1. Leave a comment sharing why you want to try Living Tree Community Alive/Raw products. (DO NOT just say “thanks for the contest” or something like that–I do not publish those type of comments because they seem like spam and aren’t fair to the other contestants who leave a thoughtful, genuine answer.)
2. Do you Twitter? Tweet about this contest and then leave a comment with your Twitter name.
3. Do you Plurk? Plurk about this contest and leave a comment with your Plurk URL.
4. Share this contest on your blog, linking back to this post. (The pingback will be counted as an extra entry.) If you don’t see your pingback, just email me at healingwithjuices@gmail.com and let me know. It may have gone to spam for some reason.
5. Add Healing with Juices to your favorites on Technoratori. Comment again to let me know, with a link to your technoratori profile to show you added us.
6. Are you a Stumbler? Stumble and review any post you want to–just leave the link to your SU review in (its own) comment.

NOTE: ANYONE can enter this contest. You DO NOT have to be in the United States. Oh, and I’ll be using Random.org to choose the winner….

Contest ends Tuesday, June 30th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time) so you have NINE DAYS to get all your entries in. Have fun trying to win!!

After this contest ends, you’ll be competing for more raw nuts, books, DVDs, and lots more–so don’t miss out on upcoming posts!

Be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

Day 5 has been fantabulous! I’ve felt energetic, happy, and very much at peace. No headaches, no emotional detox symptoms–just a smooth sailing day. Yay!

I’m afraid it’s been such a wonderful day that I forgot to take any photos! I’ve just been “in the moment” today and didn’t even think about my camera!

Why the title?

Some of you have questioned my decision to freeze my juices. I have never done this before. I mentioned in day one’s post that freezing the juices is a first for me. I am the #1 fan of drinking raw juices the instant they splash out of the juicer. Why? I believe (as do so many others) that the most of the juices’ nutrients are the strongest, most alive, and most beneficial as soon as they’re juiced–not a few days after.

So, are my juices beneficial to me during this 30-day juice fast–even though most of them are being frozen and not consumed right away? At this point, the way my body is reacting… I’d say absolutely! No, the juices may not be 100% alive. They may have lost a little nutrient value, but they haven’t lost enough that I can’t feel their health benefits. Today proved that for me. Each juice I drank rushed through my body and I felt rejuvenated with each sip. I know my frozen juices (and the ones in my fridge) are beneficial to my body.

It seems a lot of folks are torn on this one. Some say it’s okay to freeze it; others say it’s a no-no; others say don’t even store it in the fridge. What’s a Raw Juice Girl to do?! Keep on keepin’ on, that’s what. In other circumstances, I’d drag out the juicer and each juice I consumed would be freshly juiced, drank right away. But I’m not in those circumstances, and this is what’s working for me.

And I keep forgetting to mention: I’ve juice fasted for years–anywhere from 1 day to 52 days. I’ve been on 30-day juice fasts before so this isn’t new to me. The only thing different this time is that I a)am freezing juices and b)am sharing it with the world.

Breakfast

Today started out with lemon water, like always. Half an hour later or so (I’m going to explain this in an upcoming post), I had 12 ounces of delicious apple juice. It was a very nice breakfast!

Snack

After my morning juice, I had a glass of water with organic apple cider vinegar. (I drink this every day whether I’m eating or on a juice fast–I have for years.) I also had a tablespoon of E3 Live (straight up).

Lunch

For lunch, I enjoyed 12 ounces of the carrot-spinach-sprout juice. After that, I had a glass of herbal tea with lemon.

Snack

I had a brown juice. (Yes, a brown juice! In case you missed it in the previous post, it’s because the beets and greens mixed to create a mucky brown-colored juice. Still tasty, though!)

I planted some heirloom spinach and although I didn’t feel weak or weird or anything, I craved another juice! I was in the hot sun so I decided I deserved it. I treated myself to another carrot-spinach-sprout juice. I also had 2 glasses of herbal tea with lemon and water, of course. What? It was hot out there!

This photo wasn’t taken today (and only a portion of the garden is visible–so now you know why I didn’t take photos of my juices today!).

Yesterday in the garden.

We’ve had so much rain here, some of our seeds were washed away twice!

Dinner

I ended my day with another brown juice and more water. I really feel the nutrients racing through my veins. This juice was a great way to end a fantabulous day!

Just tuning in? Catch up:

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Living Tree Community (Raw almond butter and organic coconut mango persimmon butter!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

It’s been a while since I’ve embarked on a longer juice fast. Things like moving to an Amish farm, the recent loss of several young family members and trying to balance my freelance writing and blogging assignments in the midst of all the chaos has pretty much kept me preoccupied.

So, the other night as I was reading Natalia Rose’s lastest book (Detox for Women: An All New Approach for a Sleek Body and Radiant Health in 4 Weeks–which I’ll be sharing a review about soon and also hosting a contest for you to win your very own brand-new copy!), a light bulb went off when I read one of her tips. She says she freezes her raw juices so they’ll be available when she wants them and/or when she’s in a rush. How awesome is that? I have absolutely no clue why I’ve never even considered freezing my raw juices. Seriously. Raw Juice Girl should have known. Thanks, Natalia!

As I read Natalia’s tip, I made my decision: I’d juice up a bunch of raw goodness and freeze it; I’d start a 30-day juice fast ASAP. (After all, I’ve been hearing the call.) I made my list, went shopping–and even found some really cool freezable containers with twist-on lids to store my raw juices in. They each hold 4 cups and I bought 4 of the 2-packs, so I ended up with 8 of ‘em.

Once home, I went wild!

Check out my raw goodies!

First up: 100% pineapple juice. I cut it into long slices so it’d fit in the mouth of the juicer (which needs to be waaaaayyy bigger, in my opinion).

I don’t peel the pineapple; I just chop it up whole. Everything except the leaves went in. Bromelain, come on down!

Messy Pineapple Preparation

” … studies have shown that bromelain has a wide variety of health benefits, and that many of these benefits may not be related to the different enzymes found in this extract. Excessive inflammation, excessive coagulation of the blood, and certain types of tumor growth may all be reduced by therapeutic doses of bromelain when taken as a dietary supplement.”–WH Foods

Berzerk for Berries

Even I don’t want green juice 24/7, so besides the pineapple, I went for a strawberry-blueberry combo. Here’s what went into that batch (which made it through the juicer before it burnt out):

• 2 (12 ounce) bags of wild blueberries
• 1 (16 ounce) bag of strawberries

I divided this juice into two of the 4-cup freezable containers I bought (I love these things! I even held them upside down after I filled them to the top with juice–and nothing spilled out! Eeeek! ). So this recipe makes 8 cups (because I diluted it). If you don’t dilute it, it makes 4 cups or so. The reason I dilute my juices is because it is easier on the system while juice fasting (for some people, anyway).

In the freezer they went!

Green Goodness

For my green juice, I decided to throw in the following list of ingredients:

• 1 (big) bunch of parsley
• 1 bundle of celery
• 1 (2 pound) bag of carrots
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1/3 of a (2 pound) bag of turnip greens
• 1 big head of cabbage
• 3 (big) cucumbers
• 1 bag of spinach leaves

Yes, folks, I’m serious!

Chopped, Washed, Ready to Go!

Insert Mishap Here

Then it happened. My juicer burnt out on me! What’s a raw juice girl to do without a juicer? Nope, I didn’t have a backup juicer–it went out on me a while back. Hmmm…. So, the juice girl put her thinking cap on. She’s very, very stubborn you see. There’s no way on Earth she was going to be a quitter. Nope! She grabbed the next-best thing: her blender. And she went to town blending away! (Don’t ask why she’s typing in third-person all of a sudden; she has no clue!)

Juicing aka Blending

Foamy Green Stuff

The End

I poured my green juice into six of those freezable containers and into the freezer they went! I also had excess–enough for 3 jars that went into the fridge and I’m drinking those today. I normally don’t like to put juice in the fridge (I like to drink it as soon as possible after juicing, but I was kind of in a mess here with no juicer and all, so I compromised.)

Oh, and the happy part…

Yes, I do believe it is a happy ending after all. I started my 30-day juice fast anyway! My grandmother always taught me: Where there’s a will, there’s a way–and I believe that.

So far today I’ve drank:

6 ounces of 100% pineapple juice (breakfast)
and about 12 ounces of the green juice so far (It’s 3:15 as I write this). I’ll have another green juice soon, though.

I’ve also had plenty of water!

(Updated to add: I had another 8 ounces of green juice around 6 p.m. I also added a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
to one of my water servings today.) I also had my daily dose of E3Live (more about that in upcoming posts).

I’ve manually strained the green juice I’ve drank today (other than the pineapple juice which went through the juicer before it burnt out)–my other option is to chew it. LOL (Some of you do that (chew the pulp) with raw juices but I don’t recommend it during a juice fast; it defeats the whole purpose of giving your digestive system a rest.) So, now I’m looking for a new juicing machine. Any juice machine companies in need of a raw juice girl to do a review/contest?

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Living Tree Community (Raw almond butter and organic coconut mango persimmon butter!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

References:

WH Foods (Bromelain)

As I was writing this week’s articles, I realized that you might like to have a list of the juice fasting articles I have written for Raw People so far. On days I don’t post here, you can re-visit this post  and peruse the juice fasting information I’ve shared on RawPeople.com.

All you have to do is click on the title of the article and that link will take you to the article. I’ve included an excerpt from each article so you can have a sneak peek of each article….

Enjoy!

Raw Juice vs. Bottled

Freshly squeezed orange juice tastes so much better than store-bought, doesn’t it? There’s a reason. Know what it is?

Raw, Real, Rewarding: Juice Fasting 101

Sick? Tired? Overweight? Unhealthy? Out of shape? Stressed? Allow yourself to escape from the world’s noise by drifting into a juice fast—an experience that is serene and healing…

Raw Juice Fasting Journey: Part 2

Last week I introduced you to raw juice fasting. We discussed preparing your mind and body, why raw juices and fasting are beneficial to your health, some things you might expect during your raw juicing journey as your body begins to clean and rid itself of accumulated toxins, and more.

Raw Juice Fasting Journey: Part 3

“It is often the last key on the ring which opens the door” – Proverb  Is Your Health Last on the List? I chose the above proverb because it truly resonated with me. Its words rang true as I reflected on life and health and searched my heart and soul for direction for this article. I realize that, for many people, juice fasting or converting to a raw food lifestyle is a last-ditch effort to rebuild their lives and improve the health they’ve taken for granted for way too long. Is that the situation you’re in?

Help: Juice Fasting is a Headache!

Why the Headache? Frustration has set in, right? You’ve spent money on a juicer, carefully shopped for beautiful organic produce, searched deeply and mustered up all the motivation you can, only to discover you’ve awaken with a splitting headache on day two of your juice fasting attempt.

Juice Fasting Minus the Juice

“Instead of using medicine, rather, fast a day.”—Plutarch  Tired of Juicing? Switch Up! If you’re ever in the midst of a juice fast and are either a) tired of cleaning, preparing, and juicing fruits and veggies or b) would like to go into a deeper cleanse for a few days, you can switch up! Just eliminate the juices and enjoy ionized alkaline water and herbal tea for a few days.

Juicing—Without the Fasting

Success with Juices, No Fasting It’s quite interesting how many benefits you can get from juicing—without even fasting. Don’t take me wrong. I’m absolutely for fasting. I fast on water and herbal tea alone and I juice fast as well. But you don’t have to miss out on the nutrition raw juices provide simply because you misunderstand the concept and think you have to fast to reap the rewards. Drink your fresh, raw juices!

Raw Juice Ideas from Sunup to Sundown

Whether you’re juice fasting or just want to incorporate more raw juices into your day-to-day lifestyle, here are some juice combinations you can use in the morning, at lunch, and/or in the evening. These juices can absolutely take the place of your meal(s) or snacks. They can also just be a healthy beverage to enjoy along with your meal.

Juice Fasting for Weight Loss

Fantasizing for Freedom from Fat You’ve tried low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, cabbage soup, and many other numerous diets to no avail, right? I understand your struggle. No, really, I do: I’ve lost over 100 pounds and it didn’t happen overnight.

Wonderful World of Wheatgrass

Grass is Greener Remember the old saying “the grass is greener on the other side”? Unless you’ve tasted the benefits and/or already know the true power of wheatgrass, you will be astounded! What’s that? You don’t know what the benefits of wheatgrass are? Well, let’s find out…

Raw Juices (and Smoothies) for Weight GAIN

We’ve looked at the pros and cons of juicing for weight loss, but what about weight gain? Yes, those of you who have struggled with losing weight might cringe or feel a tad bit jealous of those who strive to gain just a couple of pounds, who fantasize about gaining 10, even 20, pounds. But it’s a serious issue that affects many people.

Juice Fasting on Your Birthday—Or Someone Else’s

You’re more excited than you’ve ever been before: You’ve embarked on a juice fast and you have so many visions and dreams of vibrant health, a long, active life, and glowing skin. You’ve researched and read everything you can on juice fasting and its benefits, until you’re sure this is the right step for you. You’re confident that a journey filled with raw juices—and not one bite of food—is exactly what your body needs, craves even.

Juice Fasting: The Eco-Friendly Cooling System

Juice Fasting to Cool Off This Summer Think you need an air conditioner to beat the heat and cool your sizzling body temperature down this summer? Think again! While juice fasting may not have been the first thing to come to mind when you envisioned yourself cooling down, it is most certainly an eco-friendly way to beat the heat.

I also contribute to Raw People in the following categories:

• Health and Beauty
• Raw Remedies
• Weight Loss
• Organic Gardening
• Lifestyle and Meditation

I hope you enjoy RawPeople.com as much as I do!

Don’t forget to enter the Navitas Naturals contest! You have until Monday, June 15th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time) to get your SIX entries in!

Be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

First, I’d like to send out a huuuuuuge thank you to Mic and everyone at Navitas Naturals for not only sending delicious samples for me to try, but for sponsoring this contest so you can try some, too! Thank you!

Navitas Naturals Goodies

Check out that eco-friendly canteen! Now you can re-use your water container and help preserve the environment! And look at those delicious cashews and goji berries. Eeeek!

I was super excited when my package from Navitas Naturals arrived. I absolutely love cashews and I was pleasantly surprised by the freshness of this brand. I had never tried goji berries and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I liked them at first! They grew on me, though–and there’s so many ways you can incorporate them into your meals or snacks:

• smoothies
• oatmeal
• granola
• cookies
• or just by the handful

Navitas Naturals: The Company

It’s nice to know a company has the health of their consumer in mind when they’re creating and selling their products. Here’s what Navitas Naturals shares on their About page:

“Health conscious consumers choose our nutrient-rich products because they are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Our premium quality “superfoods” are always free of additives and trans fats; the absence of these elements speaking to the purity and effectiveness of the products.”

Do you know what “Navitas” means?

I learned what it means when I checked out their website: The “Navitas” in our name is the Latin word for energy.

How awesome is that?! Healthy snacks from a healthy company–and the root of the company is based on energy! Who couldn’t use a little more energy in this crazy world, right?

What do I mean by “healthy company”?

Look what else I discovered on their About page:

“And like our name implies, our mission is to provide premium organic functional foods that increase energy and enhance health. Part of this effort is to continually search for the world’s most beneficial natural foods. Navitas Naturals is a certified organic, green business headquartered in Marin County, California.”
Healthy for our bodies–and our world? Now that’s a winning combo in my book!

And…. you can follow them on Twitter! @NavitasNaturals

Navitas Naturals Contest!!

What you’ll be winning:

• 1 eco-friendly canteen
• 1 package of raw cashews
• 1 package of goji berries
  

You’re allowed FOUR FIVE SIX entries for this contest:

Note: Please leave a comment for each thing you do (tweet, plurk, etc.) because each comment will be counted as a number when I enter the total number of comments at Random.org once the contest ends. Thanks!

1. Leave a comment sharing why you want to try Navitas Naturals products. (DO NOT just say “thanks for the contest” or something like that–I do not publish those type of comments because they seem like spam and aren’t fair to the other contestants who leave a thoughtful, genuine answer.)
2. Do you Twitter? Tweet about this contest and then leave a comment with your Twitter name.
3. Do you Plurk? Plurk about this contest and leave a comment with your Plurk URL.
4. Share this contest on your blog, linking back to this post. (The pingback will be counted as an extra entry.) If you don’t see your pingback, just email me at healingwithjuices@gmail.com and let me know. It may have gone to spam for some reason.
5. Add Healing with Juices to your favorites on Technoratori. Comment again to let me know, with a link to your technoratori profile to show you added us.
6. Are you a Stumbler? Stumble and review any post you want to–just leave the link to your SU review in (its own) comment.

NOTE: ANYONE can enter this contest. You DO NOT have to be in the United States. Oh, and I’ll be using Random.org to choose the winner….

Contest ends Monday, June 15th, at 9 p.m. (Central Time) so you have FOUR DAYS to get all your entries in. Have fun trying to win!!

After this contest ends, you’ll be competing for more raw nuts, raw nut butters, books, DVDs, and lots more–so don’t miss out on upcoming posts!

Be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.