Relaxation 101.

It’s a rare moment when, in the midst of a day filled with such ordinary events as watching the sun rise, bike riding and time spent with family, you stop and realise, it’s a day to remember. It’s not often we preempt nostalgia, actively participating in the memory as it unfolds, but today is going straight to the bank.

We started early at 5am to attend the dawn ANZAC service. I am hardly patriotic and gung-ho wartime rhetoric makes me cringe, but the fact remains, hundreds of thousands of young people of countless nationalities have lost their lives in tragic, barbaric, and senseless conflict, a fact that is certainly worth remembering.

As the sun started to rise, it was a wee bit magical.

Walking back from the park, I got a bit snap-happy. Bear with the whimsical sky/tree shots.

Autumnal magic.

Top way to start the day!

Then we embarked on a cycling jaunt that may or may not have had a particular destination in mind…

Little Creatures brewery!

I don’t even drink beer, but this boutique aussie brewery is way too cool to pass up.

The whole trip from home to Fremantle and back is around 50kms! BAM. So proud of my pedal-pushin’ little thighs right now.

I’d love to say I rode side-saddle, gracefully gliding along on my vintage bicycle with poise and charm, like so:

The reality is a bit more grim.

Rocking the peace symbol, trying not to stack it.

CHEESE!! Audrey would be horrified.

The class doesn’t stop there. My riding ensemble featured a borrowed pair of cycling pants, complete with ultra butt-cushioning that made me feel like I was waddling around in an oversized adult nappy. My crotch was grateful 50kms later.

Mum and I sported Vibrams, of course. The five-fingered love of my life.

We stopped for some mid-morning refreshments and got up close and personal with a very inquisitive black swan.

You say cute, I say…

…KEEP AWAY FROM MY APPLE, BITCH!

This concludes todays presentation; have to start preparing for Ma’s birthday party which is TODAY! Happy Birthday to the raddest mother in the world <3

Have you had unexpectedly awesome, memorable days recently? Do share!

Status Report.

You know when you’re little and you break the family heirloom your great great grandmother squared made from toothpicks on her deathbed? My instincts were always to try and patch up the picasso-like pile of splinters as best I could, arrange my face into a bouquet of innocence, walk swiftly in the opposite direction and pretend it was all a bad dream.

Similarly, I am choosing today to skirt around the glaringly obvious issue of complete and utter blog absence over the past month. If I don’t apologise, there is no problem. Right?!

Unfortunately, I never filled you in on how the story ends. It ends with me running wildly back to the closest family member and, through impassioned snot and tears, regurgitating every detail of my guilt and offering an explanation so long said family member would have forgiven me by the time I came to my whimpering conclusion.

I’ll spare you the essay, but basically our internet modem broke and we’ve been chasing *unnamed service provider* ever since trying to arrange a replacement. When the net dies, my life takes a turn for the hermit. I’m actually blogging from the luxury of my mum’s internet right now (in Perth, waheyyy!!) but hopefully I’ll arrive home next week to a shiny new high speed modem. Vibrams crossed!

SO MUCH has happened in the past month or two. I’ve spent lunch breaks discussing buddhist philosophy, experimental nutrition and meditation with my eternally inspiring college buddies, evenings contemplating The Art of Happiness, and weeks riding a crazy raft of ch-ch-ch-chaaaange!

I’ll update you on the highlights whenever I have a spare 4 hours, but for now let’s embrace the present. Nothing like it!

I’m in the wonderful city of Perth, on the west-siiiiiiide. Dig it. I am so insanely grateful to have family here now and a subsequent excuse to invade at any given moment.

Mum and Andrew chewing up the catwalk, green bags in hand.

Speaking of grateful, mum and I were compiling a list of all the reasons we are insanely, monumentally lucky yesterday, after we had a huge whinge about various trivial, self-indulgent things that we later realised are, in essence, tripe. It’s a nice exercise to turn around a gloomy mood by listing all the reasons we are so incredibly happy and fortunate.

I’ll start

I’m pretty chuffed to have a functional face, limbs, spine, kidneys, liver, spleen. They all go pretty damn hard, and are fairly amazing if you ask me. 

I’m also stoked to be surrounded by fresh organic food and passionate foodies. The ability to rock up to a farmers market, survey the scene, paparazzi the produce and fondle the fruit makes me one happy kidney bean.

I may have violated the red onions, m’bad. THEY JUST LOOKED SO JUICY!

This also made me salivate. $5 bananas? Unheard of! Are you feeling me Aussie residents?!

I am thankful for an abundance of raw, organic garlic, which I have been crushing and chugging on a regular basis to keep me perky. And by perky, I obviously mean stinky like a bucket full of chunder. (Now THERE’S an under-utilized word. Chunder. Bring it back!)

Designer corn.

You know how I feel about sexy, leafy greens.

A pomegranate in its natural habitat. (Probably should explain that we were at a local market in Perth that has a kick-ass community garden with delicious fruity candies ripe for the picking).

Baby green-thumb.

A gorgeous man rocking out on the harpsichord.

Ma is thankful for double shot espresso. My adrenal glands are thankful that I never cultivated the habit.

Lucky to have delicious fresh ingredients on hand to whip up tantalising vegan fare. Quinoa, kidney-bean, veggie, seaweed and tomato stew? I think so.

So extraordinarily lucky to have been taken on my yearly shopping outing with mum today. Material possessions in no way support happiness, but they can sure as heck make you smile! Especially when you score an amazing Lululemon hoodie complete with ruffles and thumb holes. I think I’ve written with zest before about my love affair with Lululemon, not only for their quirky, flattering sportswear, but also because their entire business philosophy is aimed at supporting the goals and aspirations of their staff, and treating their clientele with unheard-of courtesy and warmth. It’s love

Other things making the thankful list included:

• Having a kick-ass family who love and support me through thick and thin, and veganism
• First-world living standards.
• Freedom (of speech, sexuality, career, education… to be a ranga sans persecution!)
• Vibrams.
• Dates (both the dried fruit, and the sexy dinnertime variety).
• Comprehension, cognitive function.
• Heston Blumenthal.

Quite a comprehensive list, in my opinion. What are you thankful for on this glorious holiday?

Profuse and heartfelt apologies for the absence. Hope to spice up the old blog soon!

Detoxing in the New Year: Part 1

It’s that time of year again when people go cuckoo for week-long syrup fasts, fat-igniting magic pills and foul-tasting meal replacements that all serve primarily to reinforce the distinction between happiness and health.

Happiness is where they’ve been; partying, indulging, living. Health is that odious, obligatory task of taking out the trash.

People of all ages and genders have been wandering into my work wearing expressions that immediately betray their grim purpose; ‘Fix me with your herbal hocus-pocus!’

I begin to explain that a gentle cleanse does not have to equate to suffering and sacrifice…

…but they are already plucking the ready-made detox kit from the shelf, cringing as they turn over the neatly packaged box of potions that will ‘melt fat from their frame’ before you can say gimmick.

To them this temporary plan, albeit painful, is the only way they can truly repent for the sins of the festive season. Unfortunately, it is an established misconception that holding your nose in the name of health is a necessary evil, and however loudly I may protest, many people refuse to believe that good health and good fun can ever be reconciled.

Say no to Lemon Detox!

This worrying trend that I’ve observed in store is far from being an isolated phenomenon. It saddens me to think that this is the way many people visualise health, and as a result, they are missing out on the truly wonderful, miraculous and delicious truth. To perform a detox and attain permanent & lasting health, YOU DON’T NEED TO PULL THAT FACE!  It’s not so bad my tortured friends!

I’ve decided to write a series of articles that provide you with various options for detoxing and losing weight in a manner that is taste-bud friendly, and free from rigid rules and yawn-fest calorie-crunching.

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PART ONE: The Emotional Detox

Correct. This particular approach targets the noggin’; the control centre of our being that deserves a lot more love, and acts as the foundation for our continued efforts at attaining better health.

Like emptying your handbag of months of compounded crap, cleaning out your mental space can help you locate that inspiration you misplaced, the missing keys to your happiness, and the motivation that was rotting right at the very bottom, in a forgotten Tupperware container (don’t pretend you haven’t found decomposing matter in a hidden corner of your purse!).

Not only can taking the time to re-focus and re-group support a greater level of organisation, but having a healthy mental state also prevents the physical effects of stress from impacting negatively on your body.

Did you know that highly stressed individuals have permanently elevated levels of cortisol? This is a hormone secreted in the event of a fight-or-flight-type situation and would be useful if you were legging it away from a bear or a yeti. Being continuously depressed, anxious or strung-out however means your body produces cortisol consistently, in turn increasing your insulin levels and appetite, and hence stubborn belly fat is born.

Many natural health gurus also believe that holding on to negative emotions and failing to address underlying issues can be reflected in the physical – i.e. being ‘chubby’ because it serves an emotional purpose. Are you hiding behind your weight? Could it be that you are deeply afraid of the consequences of actually attaining your goals and having to live with the attention you might receive being thin? Sounds far-fetched, but the power of your mind and your prevailing beliefs is such that thoughts can and do manifest in the physical. Think about it, yo.

My suggestions for becoming a happier, more mentally mellow dude (in the gender non-specific sense) are as follows:

•  Ask big-picture questions. Go on, I dare you. One night I actually took the time to ask myself how I was doin’ and if I was happy with my studies/life/future plans. How shocked was I when the answer I came out with was a resounding, NO. If you find that you also aren’t jiving with your current job, living arrangement or overarching direction, why not hypothesise as to your alternative options? It’s your life; please build, tweak and sculpt it to your liking! Go forth and write, research, plan, enquire, chant and astrally project until you have a solution.

•  Take the time to offload all those pesky logistics/budget concerns and grocery lists onto paper. Ok, so needing to write a shopping list has never impacted negatively on my happiness, but I’ve certainly felt overwhelmed with thoughts about money and other tedious aspects of capitalist living that, once laid out on paper, did not seem so horrid. Be brave, allocate funds in order of priority (tip: SPLURGE ON CONSUMABLES!) and take the time to make a detailed to-do list that you can cathartically tick off with vigour! CONFESSION: Sometimes I include a bunch of things that I’ve already achieved, like ‘wake up’, ‘shower’ and ‘breathe’ to make me feel super productive

•  Address interpersonal tensions. If there’s someone you’ve been avoiding or a friend you have unresolved issues with, make a concerted effort to heal that wound. Whether it means acknowledging that they are gone from your life, or trying make amends, decide on your preferred outcome and take warrior action (yes, you can be a friendship warrior as well as a Vibram warrior!).

•  Do the hard stuff. There are always things on my list that inspire a certain fear and weakness in the spongy parts of my spine (emailing someone with bad news, asking for a favour, paying a ridiculous, outrageous, outlandishly expensive parking fine…). When you want to put it off, you have to flex your confidence muscle and just it do (yoda, for nike). You’ll feel an empowered sense of accomplishment once you’ve volleyed all life’s tennis balls back into the opposite court (sometimes my analogies aren’t so catchy– let’s roll with it).

•  Clean up your shit. I’m not saying you live amid filth and squalor but if you did, hypothetically speaking, it would be wise to shovel out the poo. For everyone else, organising and cleaning out your room, house and car can have a profoundly cleansing effect on the mind. Feng shooooeeeey is not without it’s merits.

•  If all else fails, jump into the ocean. Or at least touch it with your toe. Or go somewhere in nature that you’ve never been before; a place that restores calm to your muddled interior would be ideal. Take the time to do some whimsical, meditative frolicking (of which you know I’m a fan) – any time spent tuning your nature chord is time well spent.

What are your tricks for cleaning out your emotional inbox?

Vegan almond butter crunch ice-cream.

Hello?

Is anybody ooooooouttttt theeeeeeereee?

I may have short circuited and rage quit the blog for a while, due to unforseen technical difficulties. Technical difficulties being that my new

has a terrible personality clash with my ancient mac.

TOO MANY MEGA-PIXELS. DOES NOT COMPUTE.

It’s like an old, grouchy dog that has been usurped by a younger, bouncier, less-scabies-ridden pet, and does not want to play. I’m constantly being given the apple evil eye…

Thus, pictures from my new camera take about 10 light years to upload, and seeing as I like to spam you all with images, this has created quite the time-sucking vortex that led me to place the ol’ blog on hold until such time as I am gifted/stumble across/straight-up steal a new macbook.

BUT this awesome nomination from the bubbly, vivacious, and all-round amazing Amanda has dragged me out of hibernation!

Thanks so so much to that ass-kickin’, fat-blastin’, Rambo-channelin’ fitness demon over at Me Vs. the Bulge!

I have to pass this on to seven other sassy, stylish bloggers and also give you seven random facts about myself. Fun!

(Lucky I had another post on the back burner, because now I can merge the two into one super post and claim exemption from blogging duties for another month! The pictures that are on here are a result of about a week of uploading one image per day, yelling expletives at the screen and plucking out the grey hairs that keep springing forth from my roots in response to the teeeeeeeeeedium of posting. Have I complained enough yet?)

So, without further adieu, I’m passing on the love to the following sensational bloggers:

• Kate at Green and Juicy for providing us with wonderfully well-researched and thoughtful posts on holistic health. And also because I suspect we were separated at birth.
• Lindsay at The Kitchen Operas because not only is she a fabulous cook, but an awesome singer to boot!
• Paije at Veggie Monster for her abundance of salads & great sense of humour.
• Shellet at Shellet wants to run because I love & admire her determination.
• Pure 2 Raw twins for their rawmazing inspiration and super sweet blog posts.
• Gena at Choosing Raw because her blog is the ultimate raw/vegan resource and I one to day hope to be half as witty, intelligent and switched-on as she is!
• Ashley at Healthy Ashley because she aims high, achieves the unthinkable and inspires me daily.

Plus about a thousand more.

Want to know seven irrelevant things?

1. My boyfriend gave me a food processor for my birthday, and subsequently, my diet now consists of perfectly pulsed raw veggie concoctions, and this..

…Banana soft serve. A little late to the party, but i’m making up for lost time.

2. In the photo below, some home-grown macadamia nuts are casually scattered around a spoonful of tea leaves, with my new mug just chillin’ in the background like it had been there all along.

But there is nothing casual about it. Macadamia nuts have no relation to green tea, nor do they fall artistically on chopping boards in perfect alignment. I also spilled the tea leaves on purpose, but made it look like an accident…TRICKY, TRICKY! All the pro’s are doing it. My photos are contrived; I’m coming clean!

More nuts and tea!

3. When I was little, I actually feared for my mother’s back when walking over cracks in the footpath. Too this day, her spine is stellar and you’ll never see me lay a toe over broken cement.

4. I sometimes stop liking bands once they go ‘mainstream’. I’m fickle and snobbish like that.

5. Sea and river weed scare the bajeesus out of me. Total irrational phobia, but if there is a swathe of dark, wispy seagrass at the beach, i’ll swim as far away from it as possible. Sharks? Bring it on. Jellyfish? Harmless. Underwater plants? Bone-chilling.

Funny, seeing as I literally eat it for breakfast every day.

6. I decided that if I don’t eat meat, then I also shouldn’t buy leather goods or animal-derived apparel. This has become problematic as I’ve discovered the nicest fashions and accessories are always cow hide, and as a result, I must now wear my vibrams everywhere. More problematic are my weekend party plans. Can we get a stiletto VFF please?

7. I don’t believe in playing games on my phone, but somehow I ended up downloading Angry Birds the other day and have become slowly addicted. Last night I went to bed late, at 12am (eeep!), and decided to ‘just try to make it past level x’ for 5 minutes. I looked at the time a little later and 45 MINUTES HAD PAST! If you want to travel rapidly into the future, invest in a frivolous iPhone app that lets you hurl birds at pigs at increasing levels of difficulty.

And now, a fun little food-processor-friendly recipe!

Vegan almond butter crunch ice cream!

Take one well-endowed frozen banana, chop it into pieces, process with a generous teaspoon of almond butter until it whips into a glorious soft-serve-like mess, place in a ridiculous martini glass, and top with candied almonds!

Heaven.

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I’ve missed the blog; I hope I can get technology sorted soon. I have so many tasty pictures and irrelevant thoughts to share!

Let’s meet again soon. x

Christmas pics with interspersed health talk.

I’m always a big grinch in the lead-up to Christmas, but when the day arrives, a sheepish smile spreads across my gimpy features as I delicately unwrap gifts on xmas morning, and watch my loved ones do the same. Even better, is sitting around a simply laid table in the stillness of a sweltering Australian afternoon surrounded by excellent food and charming, intelligent and slightly intoxicated individuals.

2 tiny bursts of flavour as grown on our balcony, still warm from the sun.

Mum has a Kombi fetish. She evidently carries the dominant hippie gene that has been passed down; although I can’t say I share the same enthusiasm for novelty salt & pepper shakers.

Amongst the happy snaps, I thought I’d share a little health-related happenings of late. After all, this is a health blog if I remember correctly, with a decidedly photographic slant of late.

One of the reasons my healthy-living libido dropped a few weeks ago, and the blog became decidedly undernourished, was that I became sick. Sick with some kind of viral infection that, while not severe enough to lay me low, persisted with irritating, uncomfortable symptoms. In fact, on day 10 of the raw food trial I started coming down with these flu-like symptoms; my nose was gushing like Victoria falls and at the same time, I turned to cooked comfort food to satisfy an errant cookie craving. In hindsight this was probably part of the entire detox process, and I’ve also read that illnesses that you’ve had in the past can resurface before leaving your body for good. I had quite severe glandular fever when I was about 16 (mononucleosis) and I felt perhaps this was again rearing it’s fugly head.

Since then it’s safe to say, I’ve been a cruel mistress to my already immunocompromised insides. Compounding the sickness, i’ve been eating super clean for one week, then downing an array of franken-foods the next (some not even vegan – no meat of course, but ice cream and cheese may have featured). I don’t feel I have to stick to a rigid vegan ideal (however I would never touch cringe-worthy cage eggs or pig-fat soft serve); it’s more that my innards have been subjected to a roller coaster of dietary randomness, with foreign foods not seen for months, interspersed with super-food smoothies and wholesome raw goodies.

In an oversized nutshell, I have felt decidedly unhinged and have called into question both my general health, and the respect that seemed to be altogether absent in my dealings with my own body.

Why was I sick when I continually invest so much into my health?

Am I deficient in something?

Did I go into the raw diet too fast and cause myself greater harm than good?

Why do I find myself constantly placing undue stress on my body (ie. eating way too many sweets in a sitting & effectively sending my body into crazy adrenal overload)?

Why why why why why for the love of all that is sprouted why?

For if there’s one thing i’ve learned, it’s that how we eat is just as important as what we eat. I have a rudimentary understanding of food combining and the importance of proper elimination; I realise that eating some things in combination with others can inhibit the absorption of certain vitamins; I know that if we eat while stressed, we are unable to digest food effectively; I believe that overeating places stress on the body and contributes to ageing and other chronic illness; I feel we need to allow ourselves a little room for fun, frivolity and freedom because happiness is crucial to health, and vice versa.

I could talk about these things until I was blue in the jowls, however putting them into practice has proven more difficult.

So with my recent resolve to avoid orthorexia and be more flexible in my dietary needs (without giving up my predominantly vegan values and committment to health) I also made the decision to:

a) improve my immune function and make sure I am not missing essential factors in my diet.

b) bring more mind into mind/body wellness. A repeat offender for ignoring mental health in favour of the physical, I am taking the lead of individuals I admire and bringing some yoga and meditation into my life. My new mantra is OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM….nom, nom, nom.

c) play nice with my body. Don’t bully, belittle or badger; criticize, castigate or condemn; denounce, degrade or disparage…

d) quit alliterating. It’s doing my head in.

With bizarre illness still kicking on, in a pretty muted, fatigue-ey, throat-ey, gland-ey kinda way, I went and stocked up on Astragalus (for immune function), milk thistle (treat possible liver inflammation from mononucleosis) and Zinc (also for immune function, amongst other things), dosed up on Spirulina, barley grass and seaweeds, have been trying to include adequate protein, and lots of fresh fruit for vitamin C (as always). I’ve also been doing yoga each morning, and sometimes of a night, and generally trying to focus my attention on pacifying my peevish mind (ah, seem to have already reneged on committment d).

Treating your body with kindness may just be the best gift you could give yourself. What do you all think about this approach? Ever had health doubts or moments of questioning your own resolve?

Onto lighter topics, look what Santa brought maj! Isn’t he a hip, rockin’ dude? The speediest, flashiest model of VFF’s no less. I have vibram envy.

Camera bag!

Leftovers from christmas eve dinner. I made a fairly scrumptious quinoa salad from a recipe here. And also a strawberry & baby spinach salad from Golubka – please go to this blog now. It may just be heaven in html.

Dissecting the goods.

Typical aussie bouquet of natives.

Clean plates.

Hope you all had a beautiful, relaxing holiday x

Random happy snaps.

Morning!

Man oh man am I enjoying the sublime relaxation of holidays – no work, no school, no responsibilities. Visiting family makes me want to join the ‘people-over-20-who-live-a-cruisey-life-at-home’ club. Could. So. Do. It.

My days have been filled with leisurely mornings of blogging, jogging and non-egg-nogging. Yoga features heavily, as do jaunts to the park, use of the free-gym facilities and over-jealous photography of each and every mundane object and scene.

Mum chopping vegetables. Don’t miiiiiiind if I do!

How cute is this photo!? I need to get others to hand model for me, due to my chub-scout fingers. If you know me in real life, you would have witnessed the sausage-like appearance of my digits.

More garlic modelling. Looks like it’s on a little stage, no?

Skinned.

Is this post getting stinky from all the garlic action?

There are some beautiful parks in Perth, and although the weather has been a little off i’ve been acting quite the tourist wandering around snapping pictures of the sights. A man asked me the other day if I was from the local paper as I took photos at the growers markets. I said yes, and to check on page 7 for a transcript of our conversation.

I refused to lug my pair of joggers cross country, so brought the Vibrams as my work-out shoe of choice. They pack so easily, and now that i’ve broken them in, feel like I could walk around in them all day.

Baby got butt-ress roots.

So many unique textures and colours of bark.

Sprout!

GRAN?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post when I talk about new habits, respecting your body, and taking responsibility for your health.

Namaste (I will be a yogi yet!)

x

Raw day 4 & 5.

Hi beauties!

Well, the glorious sunshine lasted a nanosecond, as is Sydney’s temperamental way, and it’s back to dreary, bleary bleak-fest. Summer 2010 is taking a rain check. Oh god, I’m making terrible dad jokes in the presence of company, please forgive me!

The past couple of days have taught me a lot on the raw front. Yesterday, I was quite melancholy, and started to question my motivations for doing this experiment, as well as the validity of the diet itself.

I had a big green smoothie for breakfast, as well as some hot lemon tea and an apple. (FYI – hot drinks are not technically ‘raw’, and many choose to forego them on a 100% raw diet. I don’t see the harm in things such as ginger tea, or hot water and lemon but am drawing the line at caffeine for this experiment – no green tea for this little hippie! Funny though, because I usually gravitate towards steaming teas, but I have little desire for them right now.)

My stomach was still pouting at me, in the form of cramps, bloating and reflux-like symptoms. I decided to ignore it, and try for a run. Needless to say, I got halfway down the street and turned back. My gut was not feeling good, and I don’t believe in pushing yourself if your body is giving you signals it wants to stop. Instead, I packed up some chopped vegetables & fruit, and took myself to the beach to make the most of the sensational Sunday skies.

As I said, I was feeling quite flat today – not so much energetically lacking, but mentally a little gloomy. I started to wonder if I had done the right thing in jumping into this experiment all carrots blazing, without a proper transition period. The article Kate sent me in the comments section last week, cautions us against plunging into a serious detox without adequate preparation, as too many toxins are stored up for your body to cope with. Instead of being able to eliminate them effectively, it is overwhelmed, and thus the detox is ineffective as the toxins remain in your system, unable to be expelled. It suggests that worsening symptoms of bloating, nausea, headaches etc are actually the body trying to tell us to slow down, and quit with the cleansing barrage. You can read it here.

This was playing on my mind as I considered the gas-baby I was now housing in my abdomen; could I be thwarting my body’s attempts at detoxification by coming on too strong? Was I trying to get to 3rd base with raw, when really, we were only ready for 1st?

I decided to keep monitoring my symptoms, and quit if I kept feeling lousy. (That being said, I’ve experienced no headaches, save a tiny one on day 2, or any other major symptoms apart from belly expansion & discomfort. By my reckoning, I am lucky…for now.)

Advice received to keep melons separate was respected, as I ate this gigantic piece as a mid-afternoon snack. With SMH good weekend, of course.

Oh, and most important news of the day, CHECK MY VIBRAMS TAN! Do you see it? Are you jealous? I bet! I have this weird array of terrible tan-lines that zig-zag across my back (lululemon sports-bra outline), form patterns on my feet, and abruptly stop mid-thigh. A pox on you exercise short-shorts! It’s too far gone to actually go to the beach and actively try to even out the damage. Oh, and of course, it’s wrong to tan (ahem).

So anyhoo, day #4 was not too hot. I felt a little better after driving to work and listening to Cloud Control, and customers cheered me up by making inquiries about my green smoothie in a jar that I was eating behind the counter with a spoon. I told them it was a sludge-shake with added algae and spinach. They laughed like I was joking.

I slept badly, with this strange reflux thing happening where it was like I had a permanent cramp right across the top of my stomach. It kept waking me up and I was a little worried.

This morning it was still there somewhat, so I decided to eat a really simple meal of bananas and mango for breakfast, for better digestion.

I did feel better in class, like my stomach was actually getting it’s shit together and breaking the food down. I came home, ate 2 dates, and whacked on my vibrams for a run. I decided that although my gut was achey, maybe I needed to move in order to feel better. Like yesterday, starting out was uncomfortable, and much of the run I was preoccupied by cramps and bloating. But I had a hunch it was what I needed, and sloshing about in the pouring rain in my vibrams by the sea, I started to feel better. I was amazed that due to my stomach woes, I had failed to realise that I was not actually tired and felt extremely fit & energetic along the way. Hills that usually wind me were less than threatening, and I felt extremely alive and happy. There were few people because of the drizzle, and the 8km route flew by. In vibrams and everything! I think i’m really starting to break these suckers in.

So that’s the happenings of today. I am now feeling decidedly better, in all respects. Oh and Jarad said my eyes were really ‘blue’ the other day – they’re not blue at all, but hey, i’ll take it! Must be extra sparkly due to the living foods. And also, my skin feels really nice. I believe it may be glowing! However I am waiting for the detox break-out…anytime now.

I also wanted to mention that I’m getting very excited about continuing down the raw path after this experiment (which doesn’t have a specific time-frame by the way). I believe that yesterday’s slight depression was in part due to the fact that I’m not eating food like I used to any more. I love all the fresh fruit & vegetables, but it’s not the emotionally-fuelled love-affair I had with baked vegan sweets and elaborate new dinner ideas. In this way, I think that i’m going to try and be more creative with my meals, because I don’t want to lose that appetite I have for trying new things, and using imagination in the kitchen. That’s important to me, and a big part of my life. (Yes, gluttony!)

This amazing blog called Golubka that I stalked from Green & Juicy’s blogroll encapsulates that passion for culinary creativity with amazing flair and originality. It may just be the most beautiful blog I’ve ever come across – recommended reading/viewing.

That’s it for now! Any comments/questions, please feel free to share!

Sunday funday.

Greetings!

Did you all live it up on this sensationally sunny Sunday? When it’s been overcast and miserable for a few days, I literally cartwheel out of bed and squeal with glee upon peeling back my blinds to reveal blue skies and (delayed) springtime sun. I’m a mad woman who takes the notion of seizing the day to a whole new extreme; I engaged the pincer grip & nipple-tweaked this day until it begged for mercy. Sunday’s off are a rare treat; I’m going to milk them for all they’re worth!

Off course, after reading Born to Run before bed last night, I made the executive decision to don my vibrams and be a barefoot bandit this morning, pre-breakfast no less.

Y’all know I don’t function so well on an empty stomach, so I scarfed a medjool date before I left for good measure.

I did a long-ish run yesterday afternoon and never like running to any great extent 2 days in a row, so I frolicked around the beaches, scampering about in that crazy, childish manner that seems to be inspired by my bare, liberated tootsies, walking here, running there, and generally loping about grinning at the beauty of it all. I wish wish WISH i’d had my camera because it was absolutely, eye-wateringly beautiful out there. Sometimes I sprint down to the beach, collapse on the sand and just stare into the ocean wondering how the hell everything came to be so gosh darn delightful. I was contemplating the Deepak Chopra-ish notion that we create our own realities; that we are the ultimate creative forces in the universe…This being the case, let me just say then that I am a veritable Van Gogh, I never knew I was such a supremely skilled artiste .

Of course, wandering in an hour later with sand in my hair and a glint in my eye, I was ready to MURDER a spirulina shake.

Bubbling cauldron of superfood pow-ah.

I then got to making a raw picnic for the man and I, as I was SET on heading back to the beach with camera in hand.

I spiralized some carrot & zucchini, then made a dressing from yellow miso, lemon juice, raw honey, ginger, sesame oil, tamari and water.

This impressed Jarad, carnivore extraordinaire. Sweet victory!

I then decided on a special Sunday treat in the form of this AMAZING sourdough that is baked near my house, that i’ve somehow never tried before. Lordy, this was delicious. I schmeared on a big dollop of lentil dip and ascended to foodie heaven.

I was again sporting my VFF’s, with embedded foliage.

Nawww.

We checked out some sculptures that are positioned around the beaches as part of an annual exhibition. I love how interactive they are; both with people & the environment. Although I WAS a little turned off by the sheer number of bodies now congesting the walkways; it was kind of sad because I’ve had the chance to see the whole exhibition many times but this was Jarad’s only chance…however we gave up halfway because the throngs of people made it nearly impossible to get a good look at each artwork, and we are generally unenthused about crowds

Some cool ones included this ‘reef’ made out of milk-bottle caps and what-si-mer-call-it cables.

And a giant chicken. Complete with living tail-foliage and oversized eggs. I tickled his chin.

Sexy boulder beauty.

Pinchy the crab.

Spotted! Sneaky VFF sighting. This dude totally rocked the white sprints – how does he make them look so ultra cooooool?

I love this one. I think it pairs beautifully with the physical setting. Very calming.

Once we abandoned the crowds, we returned home to demolish my third and final course of the picnic that had to remain in the freezer for reasons that will soon become apparent.

I MADE HEALTHY RAW VEGAN ICE-CREAM! WITH HOMEMADE CACAO CHIPS!

The recipe was one I’ve been dreaming up for a while, and I would like to declare it a triumphant success! Stay tuned for the recipe low-down. Get excited.

The boy and I also went to see the Social Network, which was really excellent. I thought the script, acting & soundtrack (by Trent Reznor) was awesome; very much lived up to the hype.

Now, I need to rest my weary eyelids and crawl into bed with another chapter of Born to Run. Completely engrossed.

Goodnight! x

Vibram designs.

Today I learnt two new things about my five-finger friends:

1. You don’t run in Vibrams, you ramble.

When I set out for my run today, I noticed how different it is to get about in these amazing, barefoot booties. I can’t just set my head down and jog; instead I find myself zig-zagging all over the path, leaping over puddles, gutters, thin air, and frolicking around with no real direction in parks and playgrounds.

And when I say, no real direction, I am led to my second discovery of the day:

2. The Vibrams have a design.

You might think you’re just going down for a jog in the park (which is how I set out today) however soon enough, you are heading in the opposite direction to the beach, rambling about over the sand, and launching yourself full pelt into the ocean. Yeah. That happened today. Despite it being the middle of winter, and despite my lack of beach-going attire, I suddenly found my feet hopping and skipping merrily down to the waterside for a chilly little dip.

Glorious! Thank you Vibrams for spicing up my workout!

Result:

Sopping wet stretchy pants and sandy knickers.

The day was made better still by this mornings trip to the growers markets. How amazing to stop and chat to the passionate people who personally make the products they are selling, telling you about their homemade methods and farming techniques. I came home with a LOOT.

Les fleurs for le livingroom.

Fresh local honey, with jonquils.

Strawberries make an appearance! You know when you hardly ever buy something so it seems really ‘special’ and you don’t want to eat it? That’s how I feel about this purchase. How to immortalise this punnet…

Gnarly greens.

Leggy greens.

Favourite greens. The lady at the veggie stall & I had an epic discussion about our mutual love of kale that went along the lines of …’oh oh oh in green smoothies, SO GOOD!’ ‘Yes! And chopped finely in salads with avocado and lemon *swoon*’ (simultaneously) ‘KALE CHIPS!’. It seems kale has a growing fan base, wahoo!

Boo-naners!

Has anyone seen the awesome Chocolate Covered Katie’s Hug a Fruit campaign? It’s right up my alley, seeing as I have passionate relations with all things firm and fruity (sorry, should lay off the innuendo). In light of this, I have appropriated her idea to accommodate my not-so-secret-fetish…Hug a fruit? Pash a Fruit!

Let there be lemons!

Amazing homemade hummus. Get in mah belleh!

Well, I’m sure I could entertain you with more pictures of fruit and vegetables, however I’m hankering to go and consume some of it, and prepare for housemate wino dino night – three girls, three boys, more than three bottles of alcohol…

Have a great Wednesday night, whatever you’re up to!