Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy

rest

1. a bodily state characterized by minimal functional and metabolic activities
2. freedom from activity or labor
3. peace of mind or spirit

Three of the Seven Dwarfs have taken possession of my body, so I'm hitting the hay early tonight. In fact, I plan on being horizontal as soon as I post this interesting tidbit.

Did you know that sleep had anything to do with success in losing weight?

Get to know leptin and ghrelin. They sound like a Hungarian comedy act, but they are hormones that regulate appetite. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and signals the brain when it's time to eat. Leptin is secreted by adipose tissue (sounds nicer than fat) and has the reverse effect, telling your brain when you are full.

Chronic lack of sleep increases ghrelin and decreases leptin, leading you to feel hungry when you don't really need to eat and to keep eating after you have gotten the calories you need.

Uh oh.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

A Feast For The Eyes: Raspberry Cheesecake

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

April Nicole plays with her food. In fact, one of her favorite pastimes is looking through magazines for mouth-watering recipes and figuring out how to create them in the raw. It's an obsession, really.

Lucky us.

To feed your inner voyeur, visit April at exPUREience Foods for this raw vegan hedonistic raspberry cheesecake and other sexy recipes.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Spring Into Action Along With The Earth

With the arrival of spring, the Earth is awakening in all Her splendor, soft and certain that we are meant to grow good things.

It's easy to delight in this time of year. Spring is a wonderful time to renew our commitment to life. This requires that we replace complaints with affirmations, despair with hope, stagnancy with movement, death with rebirth.

Infuse yourself with the magic of the season and take the risk to come alive along with the plants emerging, the animals birthing, the earth reawakening, and the hours of sunlight lengthening.

Spring into action by doing something that is earth-honoring and life-affirming to mark this season of rebirth:

• Plant seeds
• Watch the sunrise
• Add some rainwater, lavender and almond milk to your bath and soak in the energy of Spring
• Create a safe haven for birds
• Recycle your glass, aluminum and plastic
• Ride a bike
• Dispose of those cleaning and personal hygiene products in your home that contain toxic chemicals
• Clean your home with earth-friendly products and consider the act to be a prayer and sacred offering
• Give yourself or somebody else the gift of forgiveness

Like the Earth, you are a place of nourishment and hibernation — for new ideas, new health, new friendships, new prosperity, new life. Feel the warmth and light of spring, filling you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes with the light of renewal.

I wish you a most blessed springtime and leave you with a lovely salad to enjoy.

Crisp Cabbage & Apple Salad

1/4 C cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp raw tahini
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 lemon, juiced
2 tsp tamari or Nama Shoyu

2 C red cabbage, shredded
2 C Napa cabbage, shredded
2 C Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 C golden raisins, soaked
1/4 C raw sunflower seeds

Blend together the first 5 ingredients and set aside.

Toss cabbage together in a large serving bowl. Toss apple slices with a little lemon juice to keep from browning.

Add apple, raisins, and half the sunflower seeds to cabbage. Toss with the dressing. Garnish servings with remaining seeds.

A Feast For The Eyes: Greek Burger

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

Anyone who's followed my journey into Raw Food Land knows that just nine months and 90 pounds ago, cheeseburgers were a staple in my diet. Imagine my delight when I discovered this hearty Greek Burger. Now that's one I can sink my teeth into!

To feed your inner voyeur, please visit the talented Dimitris the Greek for this raw vegan taste sensation and other sexy recipes.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

5 Simple Ways To Get Your Green On

You know what they say: Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. I've had my quota of green beer for this lifetime, thank you, but let's see if we all can't add a wee bit o' green to our lives, starting today.

Curb your junk mail. Reduce mailbox clutter and help save natural resources. Pull out the pre-paid stamped envelope in your junk mail, write “PLEASE REMOVE” on the envelope and send it back to them. They don’t have to pay for future mailings and you're not buried in piles of junk mail. You can also visit Catalog Choice and choose which catalogs you no longer wish to receive. Most companies provide online catalogs. Go paperless.

Eat local. Grow your own food. Small yard or no yard? Not to worry. Look into square foot gardening and container gardening. You may even be able to get several crops of a quick-maturing vegetable. Have a window? Great. Get a window box and grow some lettuce and herbs. Lunch is just a snip away. Support your local farmers, natural food stores and food co-ops too.

Compost. It's a critical step in reducing the amount of garbage needlessly sent to landfills. Recycle your kitchen waste. Save those apple cores, banana peels and other organic waste. It's an excellent way to enrich your garden's soil. Watch your houseplants thrive too.

Buy certified organic food, free of hormones, antibiotics, artificial ingredients, toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. If it comes down to budget — and who isn't conscious of spending these days — at least check out the list of 47 fruits and veggies compiled by the Environmental Working Group and see how they rate in pesticide load. A child's developing brain and endocrine system is especially sensitive to the damaging effects of toxic chemicals, so at the very least, buy organic for your children.

Buy Fair Trade Certified™ products and help to empower producers in developing communities and ensure that they receive fair price for their labor. Coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, mangoes and pineapples are common Fair Trade products. Search here to find a restaurant or retailer near you that offers Fair Trade Certified™.

You won't find any corned beef and cabbage here today, but I do have a mighty tasty green soup recipe to share with you. Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! St. Patrick's Day Blessings Upon You!

Clean Green Celery Soup

2 to 4 stalks celery, chopped and divided
1 avocado, chopped
½ cucumber, chopped
½ to 1 C water
juice of ½ a lime or lemon
handful of cilantro
sea salt or kelp flakes to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
celery leaves to garnish

Put half the celery into a bowl. Place the remaining celery along with the next five ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour contents into the bowl. Season to taste. Don’t forget to garnish with celery leaves!

What do you do to get your green on? Share you tips below.

A Feast For The Eyes: Oreo Cupcake

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

Friday Food Porn

To feed your inner voyeur, please visit the lovely Shannonmarie at Rawdorable for this raw vegan Oreo Cupcake and other sexy recipes.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

You Can Quote Me: Planning Is Key

I started smoking when I was 12 years old. Smoking and Dexatrim™ became my diet of choice for many years. A dozen years ago, I had a desire to change my relationship to tobacco. I was a Sacred Pipe carrier and smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. It seemed conflicted to me that I would use tobacco in prayer and ceremony, and then mindlessly abuse it throughout the day. I set a goal: July 4, 1997 would be my Day of Independence, freedom from smoking. Then, I came up with a plan to work toward my goal.

Success! Eleven years and counting, smoke free!

Of course, I put on 100 pounds in the meantime. Transferring one addiction for another is not freedom.

With the extra pounds, came a host of chronic physical symptoms – heartburn, headaches, edema, aches, pains, fatigue, depression, shortness of breath – and quite frankly, I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, all the time.

On the last summer solstice, I set an intention to change my relationship to food and regain my health and vitality. The goal, for me, wasn't so much about the number on the scale. I wanted to find freedom from mindless, compulsive eating. I wanted to begin living a healthier lifestyle that was more in alignment with my core beliefs. And I knew that having a PLAN was the key.

And so began my transition from highly refined and processed foods to a diet of primarily fresh, organic, plant-based foods.

First things first: planning my meals. This actually involves forethought and grocery shopping. Imagine that. And, it means ensuring that I have plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, sprouts, seeds and nuts on hand. I also like to stock an assortment of fruit in the freezer, cut and ready to throw into the blender for delicious green smoothies.

Have mason jar, will travel

I've learned from experience that when I'm away from home and hunger strikes, it's just too easy for me to make poor food choices. For years, my car was set to auto-pilot to the nearest drive-thru window. So now, if I know I'm going to be out running around for more than several hours, I'll plan on taking a mason jar of green smoothie with me. Little bags of organic baby carrots, crunchy sprouts, dried fruits, and nuts are great take-alongs too.

Here's what raw food chef and author Kristen Suzanne says about having things planned and ready to eat:

Living the Raw Vegan lifestyle is really easy, there is no doubt about that. Whether you're eating a simple apple for breakfast or making a pate-stuffed tomato for lunch, it can take very little time out of your day. The key when starting out is to be focused and organized, which also makes it easy to stay on your Raw diet. I have found that half the battle for most people trying to stick to a diet is simply having things planned and ready to eat. Once you have that figured out, there is no guess work, making it less likely for you to fall off your chosen path to optimal health. (Continue reading)

Fail to Plan. Plan to Fail. Simple. And, you can quote me on that.

What are some things you do to PLAN for success on your diet?

A Feast For The Eyes: Friday Food Porn

Sometimes, looking is enough.

And, sometimes, you just have to give in to temptation.

To feed your inner voyeur, please visit MELOMEALS: $3.33 A Day for this raw vegan Big Ass Salad and other sexy recipes.

Live a little. It's the weekend.

Behold, The Eighth Wonder Of The World

So I got this inspiration from my friend Gwyneth Paltrow, who sent me this email. Well, okay, she's not exactly my friend. I mean, technically we've never actually met. But, she emails me like every week and always signs off with

Love,

Anyway. Gwyneth's telling me all about where to eat and stay in Paris (cuz I go there so frequently) and says,

Le Voltaire is a lovely place on the river with a lighter type of French fare (grapefruit and avocado salad). It is one of my favorite spots to go for lunch.

And, I'm like What??? Grapefruit and avocado?! Parlez-vous français?

Now you know I'm currently having this love affair with ruby red grapefruit sent from Florida (Thanks Mom!). And me and the avocado have been involved in a healthy long-term relationship since, what, high school? But, holy guacamole, a marriage of the two?

I just had to take my chances and see if they could cohabit. And, wonder of wonders, a match made in heaven (or France). Listen, I have no idea how Le Voltaire makes their salad, but here's le earthmother version.

Ruby Red Grapefruit & Avocado Salad

2 medium ruby red grapefruits, diced (reserve juice)
2 ripe avocados, diced
1 tsp raw honey
handful of pomegranate seeds
sprig of fresh mint leaves, rough chopped

Using a sharp knife, cut the peel and white pith from grapefruits and dice, saving the juice. Pit, peel and dice avocados. Place grapefruit and avocado in a large salad bowl and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Add honey and mint to reserved grapefruit juice and mix well. Drizzle over salad and gently toss before serving.

Eat. Die. Go to heaven. Repeat.

I have this friend who tells me to try making a smoothie with the ruby reds and bananas. Now, personally, I'm a green smoothie kinda gal, but I'm all for experimenting.

Sweet. Tart. Creamy.

Great. Now I need a 12-step program. And, another order of citrus.

Hello, Mom?