Go Raw Chicago

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to go on an urban forage walk in the Chicago neighborhood of Ravenswood with one of Chicago’s premier foraging experts, Nance Klehm.
I thought I knew I thing or two about wild edibles and I felt pretty happy being able to identify about 10 or so wild edible foods.  But this woman…wow!  She really raised the bar for me and knew not only about wild edibles but about many, many medicinal plants.  I was totally impressed that she actually knew what to do (and did these things herself) with so many of the local plants.  We got to taste Sumac sun tea as well as milk thistle tea sweetened with her homemade plum paste.  Then we went on a two hour walk around the neighborhood.

Here are some of the plants we found on our walk around Waters School Garden (Sunnyside and Campbell near Lincoln Square) and the notes I took on them (not a lot sadly but I was really just enjoying the day, the walk, and the vibration of the whole event!)

-Queen Anne’s Lace: related to the carrot, seeds have been known to have a birth control, or sterile, effect.
-Creeping Charlie: rub between your hands and inhale for the relief of headaches and/or hangovers ☺
-Plantain: chew and apply to bug bites or skin rashes (from poison ivy) for a cooling effect.
-Sumac: can make sumac tea from the berries (pretty tasty—like sour pixie stix candy)
-Milk Thistle: can make a tea or extraction from the seed to heal the liver
-Yarrow: good to stuff in deep wounds until it can be properly bandaged.
-Grapes (with seed)
-arborvitae: can make extracts with for medicinal use
-Pine
-Mint
-Lemon Balm
-Ginko Biloba
-Oregano
-Burdock: dig up the roots in the fall (can juice or eat raw in a salad)
-Voilet: can eat the flowers
-Wood Sorrel: very tasty, adds a lemon flavor to salads
-Yellow Dock: very intense, probably too intense to eat raw.  Very healing for the liver
-Mullein: good for asthma
-Japenese knot weed: I don’ think you could eat this raw.
-Cat nip
-Bee Palm: the petals taste good (reminded me of dandelion flowers)
-Rosehips: will be food to gather, and even eat raw in a few months. Can make a tea out of as well.  Very high in Vitamin C.
-Mugwart
-Wild Arugula

-Garlic Mustard

<—-creeping charlie. take note all your raw food party people

Who knew there was so much to eat and use medicinally for free around here??  Crazy.  And it is SO easy to make your own extracts too.  Just buy yourself some organic or high-quality vodka and soak your herbs in a little of it for a couple days or weeks even. Then strain out your herbs and if you want, expose your extract to the open air for a while so some of the alcohol dissipates into the air.  And then presto! You have just made your own homemade extract.  I haven’t gotten into this yet but I think I will soon!

<–rose hips

For more information on her walks or to RSVP for the next one, please e-mail Amanda at
Amandaroelle “at” gmail.com.  “Nance Klehm has been foraging urban areas and particularly Chicago for medicines, foods and seeds for several years. She believes that urban foraging is a wonderful way to connect directly to all urban land whether managed forest, coddled backyards, heavily trafficked public parks, lonesome transportation ways and so-called vacant lots. Urban forage walks are by donation. ☺ Learn about what plants that are sharing this city with you!”

Happy foraging!
~Lenette

I’m going rafting and funyaking with some friends this weekend in Wisconsin .  It’s going to be the best camping trip ever! This will be the first time I’ve actually “camped” since going raw.  Thank goodness it’s with 5 other people from the “Young and Raw” in Chicago group.  We’re going shopping at Whole Foods tomorrow morning and bringing a ton of produce with us.  No problem!  I made lots of flax crackers and am bringing a bag of goji berries and hemp seeds for us too.  I don’t think it’ll be a challenge at all.  It’ll probably be just how it is when I travel to California for a week—tupperware, a small cutting board and knife, and avocado and salt (for dressing) will be key!  I’ll let you know how it goes next week ☺

I found a new raw food website this week.   It’s www.radicalhealth.com .  The raw food expert behind this is David Favor.  There is a TON of audio on the website you can listen to for free.  I’m not sure I agree with him on everything or am about to purchase all of his products—don’t get me wrong—BUT I have definitely picked up some great info from him this past week.  Take what you want and leave the rest from all of these raw food health experts.  Don’t get lost in all of the contradiction or you’ll drive yourself nuts.  My favorite saying happens to be from David Wolfe though: “One person’s panacea is another person’s poison; one person’s poison is another person’s panacea.” Well put.

Now for some really fun news: Coming up on August 15th, we are going to be experiencing the first ever International Green Smoothie Day!!!!  Hey—“if there is a National Hot Dog Day,” I think we really need to have a healthy food day to balance it all out, don’t you?

The whole idea was thought up by the Raw Divas over at www.therawdivas.com .  They’re inviting all of us to step up to a 3 day challenge involving drinking a green smoothie three days in a row.  No problem right?  Let’s all do it together though.  It would be so much fun.  It cost $5 to join in on the challenge but a major portion of this goes to saving the whales—no joke! (Click on the pic below to read more about the Challenge .)

I’m not sure how I’m going to help celebrate this day with my Chicago meetup group, but I’ll think of something fun.  Help me spread the word!  If you don’t “officially” join the challenge online , that’s fine too, but I think we should all raise our green glasses up on this Friday in a huge toast to our health ☺

Now here’s a new recipe I’ll leave you with:  Save your money on raw chocolate bars!  Make your own quick cacao treat in seconds!

Cacao Crunch
2-3 Tablespoons cacao nibs
1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon maca
1 tablespoon agave nectar
(optional) 1 tablespoon goji berries
Mix and eat until satisfied!

~Lenette

Last Saturday was our Mulberry Maddness Meetup and I have to say, I’ve never had so much fun foraging for wild food!  Gathering fruit is so much more fun to do with others than gathering for greens is.  Maybe because none of my friends out here are really into wild edible greens, but more likely because fruit is just so much more exciting and satiating to pick and eat on the spot.  We found not one, but two mulberry trees at the Magic Hedge and foraged to our hearts content.  One was a white mulberry tree and one was a red mulberry tree.  One berry for me…one for my cup…one berry for me…one for my cup… I’ve never been too crazy about the Navitas dried Turkish mulberries so I wasn’t sure how I’d like them fresh.  Fresh is SOOO much better!  The red ones are even better than the white (IMHO).  I’ll definitely have to do another foraging meetup soon ☺

I’m back to work now after taking a very relaxing month off.  I’m working for myself now on an online business but creating a sort of daily weekday schedule nonetheless.  It feels good.  I work for 45-90 minutes and then take little breaks inbetween (thanks to Dhru from We Like it Raw for this advice).  I don’t get burnt out and I come back to my computer feeling refreshed and inspired for my next round.

Right now I’m working on creating a raw food lifestyle DVD, the content being very similar to what I covered in my classes last year.  I’m currently working on the website and will soon be working on the script and then I’ll be filming.  I just love talking and teaching about raw foods and really spreading the word and inspiration. The website will be www.rawfooddvd.com or www.sunfooddvd.com, not sure just yet (or both!).  As far as I know, this will be the only DVD teaching/showing how to successfully incorporate a predominantly raw food diet into your lifestyle, not just about how to make raw foods.  How exciting!!  I really hope I can make an impact on others this way.

Some local news: I’ll be giving a talk to Doc’s Juice and Smoothie’s (a 100% organic café in Bucktown) this Saturday at 1pm.  I’ll be talking about the whats, whys and hows of green smoothies.  There will be free samples of several types of green smoothies too so if you’re around, stop on by!  Here is the link if you want to RSVP (please do!)

Above is a pic my bf and I made to bring to out friend’s pizza party last weekend.  While everyone was eating homemade pizza (which I can still appreciate the smell off ) , we were eating some homemade raw pizza of our own.  The crust was a dehydrated buckwheat sprout and flax seed cracker, the cheese was a macadamia nut and cashew pate, the marinara was a recipe from the Raw Foods Made Easy book , and all of this was topped with avo, olives, jalapenos, basil, sprouts, and marinated (in some Braggs) mushrooms.  We made extra so our friends could try some out and it was a good thing because everyone who did loved it.  Raw pizza rocks!  When is someone going to open up a raw food pizza joint??? Hmmm….

<–one of two of my new 4 x 4 square foot gardens (surrounded by tons of wild edibles ironically enough!)

Happy Friday Everyone!!!  Need some upliftment?  Here are some short but effective audio clips to get you in the mood ;)   I try to listen to these every morning now.  I’m a such a nerd, I know!    http://www.soundboard.com/sb/laugh_track.aspx

The Chicago Green Fest last weekend was awesome.  I think it was the biggest so far.  It’s always fun running into friends from the local raw food community, sampling new products, supporting local companies just starting up, and browsing through the gorgeous organic clothing.  I’m not sure what booth/product was my favorite, but my friends and I all got a health reading at this one particular booth and each got a print out of where we stood with our digestion, adrenals, hormones, sleep, etc (there were about 30 points of measure)-and we thought this booth was well worth visiting.  The testing method was new to me but the guy said the readings were usually pretty accurate.  He put a clip the hand of tip of my left index finger and then wet an electrical probe and pressed it onto the outside of the middle bone of my right index finger.  The guy pressed down with the probe for each health measure and obtained a number on the computer.  Funny enough, I was slightly outside the ideal range for water!!  That was a great wake up call for me though.  I am now really focused on making sure I get at least 3 liters of water in me a day (not including juices, teas, etc.)  The basics are always a great thing to re-focus on

I’m seeing wild foods everywhere right now!  Clover, plantain, dandelion, wild violet, rhubarb, lambsquarters, lemon sorrel, and garlic mustard (I LOVE garlic mustard).  I think I’ve been thinking about and studying wild foods so much lately that the universe is literally putting them right in front of me everywhere I go!  I borrowed a book on wild edibles from the library last month, wanting to identify everything in my front yard.  It turns out I have four of the above eight wild foods in my front yard alone.  I feel so lucky.  I plan on going to the Magic Hedge near Montrose beach in Chicago soon to check out what else is going off now that spring is in full gear.  Probably mulberries, wild apples, and tons more.  Check out this post I did last year on wild foods for more info on the Magic Hedge.  I think the next young and raw meetup will be an intro to wild foods in my front yard and then a field trip out to the Magic Hedge.  I’m VERY excited…

One last thing for today to spark that ever-expanding mind of yours:  I found a great source for some free e-books on superfood health from Mike Adams, “The Health Ranger.”  He’s such an awesome guy that has started up a website called http://www.newstarget.com/, a completely independent website dedicated to educating us on health info the FDA doesn’t want us to know about.  The website is

http://www.truthpublishing.com/Articles.asp?ID=131 and gives you access to about 10 free e-books.  I’ve already read/skimmed through four of them and have learned a ton of new info.  Also, here are some great youtube videos of him I’d highly recommend.  This is a series of about eight though so watch them when you have time.  His knowledge base is huge and this is not your everyday information.  You’ll definitely learn something new from him.   Enjoy and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

~Lenette

  <—at the Chicago Greenfest last year.

Well I asked, and of course the universe provided… I got my organic compost from a local woman here in Chicago.  She had a whole Vermicompost operation going on in her basement and it was quite interesting to see all the stages (and worms) involved in compost-making!  (Her business name is “Windy City Compost” and e-mail is ebrandstetter “at” gmail.com if your local and interested.)

So with the tremendous help of my angelic landlord, I built the frame and filled it with the blended peat moss, vermiculite, and compost on Monday and planted the transplants, and seedlings last night.  What fun!  I haven’t gotten that dirty in SO long.  It actually felt cleansing.  I’ll be posting pictures of the progress.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I inherited some sort of green thumb from my mother.  If not, I may be a tad embarrassed.  But it’s all about the experience, right?  But seriously, just in case, I’ve decided not to invest in any sort of sea mineral supplement like Ocean-Grown until next year!

The annual Chicago Greenfest is this Saturday and Sunday and I’m pretty excited about it.  I think I’ll be getting my “million dollar idea” there or sometime real soon.  I’d like to address some sort of problem or dilemma that raw foodists have with some sort of product (could be physical or informational).  If any of you have any ideas, feel free to pass them onto me.  I’d love your input!!   Last year’s fest was really awesome though.  I’m bummed Sunfood Nutrition (and David) won’t be there this year, but I always look forward to meeting the people behind new up-and-coming business.  Paul Stamets, the author of numerous books and papers on the subject of mushroom identification and cultivation, is giving a talk at 2pm that I’m really interested in going to, and the Young and Raw Group is meeting up to watch the Raw for 30 days film playing in the film room at 5:30.   Local raw and vegan restaurants will be in the food court area too and I know local raw chef Blake will be cutting open and selling young coconuts for about $3.  Should be a blast!  (I love getting asked “what IS that??” when I’m drinking/eating out of a young coconut.)

 <—I was getting a bit carried away with this supersmoothie :)  I remember it tasted out of this world though!

On one last random note for the day–my bf got himself a Vita-Mix this week!   (As well as maca, goji berries, hemp seeds, and cacao powder–another superfoodist is born ;)   It’s just such a treat to make a perfectly blended smoothie for yourself in the comfort of own home whenever you want.  He finally couldn’t take it any more :)  Smoothies are a great way to go if you are just getting into raw foods, short on time, having digestion issues, on some sort of detox problem, or just want to simplify meal prep time.  Other blenders are fine when you’re just starting out, but after a while, you want the BEST.  In my humble opinion, Vita-Mix and Blendtec Blenders are by far the very best for a raw foodist.  Let me know if you need any more convincing on this one.  But I don’t think you would regret the decision to buy one.  I’m pretty sure they last well over 10 years (and there’s a 7 year warranty).  That comes out to about 12 cents per day if you think about it if you use it at least once per day-and you will!

Here’s a fun clip to watch of Tim VanOrden, the creator of the Running Raw Project, talking about green smoothies.   I didn’t realize what a funny guy he was until watching some of his youtube videos.   [*Note: Tim obviously prefers the Blendtec to the Vita-mix.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course. I feel the Vita-mix has two legs up on the Blendtec for two major reasons: 1) there is a tamper that allows you to help move the foods and thus speed up the process and 2) there is no auto timer and so the likelihood that you overblend (overhead) the smoothie is minimized. For a great comparison that Mike Adams from Newstarget has done on the two check out this great article.]   Enjoy! ~Lenette

<–me being smoothie gurl at the All Things Organic Expo helping out my Superfood Snacks friends.

Sorry for the absenteeism on here lately.  Life has been sort of hectic–in a good way though, of course.  But I am back in the swing of things now.  I have, once again, a plethora of things to share with you!  Here’s the run down of what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been observing in the past 2 weeks in Chicago Raw Food-Land (I’ll save some for later though so this post won’t be too long) :

Last Sunday, the Chicago Young and Raw Group had a meetup brunch at The Balanced Kitchen, a relatively new organic, vegan, local-foods, gluten free, green restaurant in Chicago.  They’re not a raw vegan food restaurant per se, but I’d say they can definitely hang with the best of them.  (Currently, they’re only doing raw for special events.) We were served 6 course meal and treated our taste buds to some amazing new flavors.  One friend in our group even said that the food there was better than a meal him and his girlfriend had a Charlie Trotter’s (a VERY VERY VERY expensive restaurant in Chicago that will serve a raw food course upon request).  The interesting thing is that none of the chefs there are “Raw Food Chefs”– they are pretty much self-taught.  In a way, I think this is a lot better because it’s not the same old stuff–raw hamburgers, raw tacos, raw pizza, etc.  They are creating completely new flavor combinations (not that other raw food restaurants aren’t though) using the chef training they have, as well as whatever they’re learning from raw recipe books or websites.  All in all, I was really impressed.  We left feeling quite good, and definitely not stuffed.  It was kind of like going to a raw food tapas restaurant–nibbles and tastes here and there, really savoring the flavors and the company!

There were a couple of new businesses that presented to us before and after we ate at the Balanced Kitchen that I really wanted to mention.  Why not? I feel we should all support each other–especially new and upcoming green/raw/organic businesses ;)  It’s always so thrilling to hear entrepreneurs tell the story of their product/service and business vision/unfolding with pride.  I think back to my visions and how (especially lately) they have been unfolding and changing and getting tweaked here and there and all over the place.  Now I think I’m going to be going into the online e-commerce business.  What a complete 180 from a opening up a smoothie/juice bar!  But I digress…the first business is my friend Jason’s.  He’s making organic, vegan, gluten-free raw desserts like cheesecakes and pies and he just got into a few Whole Foods in the Chicagoland area.  His company’s called Raw Creations.  How exciting.  I can’t express just how wonderful his desserts are.  He’s always coming up with new things too.  After brunch, we were treated to a cacao-lavender pie and it was just amazing.  Check his website out here if you’d like to learn more or if you’re near the Whole Foods in Wheaton or Willowbrook.  Here’s an awesome video of him talking about his product with “190 North” too.  Check it out! 

A “decadent raw vegan organic chocolate and catering” business called Cru Cacao was also in the house that Sunday.  Cru Cacao was started by couple Dereme and Blazej only back in December (wow) and they were there presenting their amazing chocolate truffles to us.  They had about 8 different flavors with exotic ingredients and flavorings such as mango dust, rose water, saffron, clear agave nectar, and gold flakes (not all in the same truffle).  They run about $4 each and will be available at Whole Foods soon.  These are what you’d give your honey or mom when they’ve been real good.  We each got to sample one.  Below is a pic:

Another quick note (EXCITING): I just got an update last week from Emily, the person who keeps up the Raw Food Restaurant Guide Blog and List, and 17 new raw vegan restaurants have opened up since mid-February.  What exciting news.  And that means more places for us to eat! Lol.  But a real important note here, especially for those not in the city of Chicago: please take a look at her list.  If you know of someplace (either raw vegan, or organic and very raw friendly) that should be on this list, PLEASE e-mail Emily and let her know.  It will take two minutes.  I know she will thank you on her site for the tips too! Thanks to you from all of us raw fooders too

MUCH appreciation for your readership and support,

~Lenette

The basis of your life is absolute freedom, the goal is joy, and the result of that perfect combination is motion forward, or growth. Your goal is to find objects of attention that let your cork raise. — Abraham

Sorry I’ve been M.I.A. as of late, there is just SO much new stuff happening.  I keep making notes on my “Blog” word doc on what to talk about next, and it’s to the point where I have enough to write a 10-page post!  Instead, I think I’ll post some short tidbits on all these new things.  Hope you this newsletter-like post!

-I’ve been jogging around my neighborhood a lot more lately.  Chicago is definitely getting “greener” and greener.”  Especially in Bucktown and Wickerpark–there are more and more eco-boutiques and vegetarian and organic places popping up all over.  Most noteworthy is the organic juice and smoothie bar, Doc’s (which I’ve mentioned before).  When I walked in to say hi to the owner the other day, I saw that he was now selling 100% organic juices and will be rolling out green smoothies (with some help from little ole me) very soon!  The prices are so reasonable too!  AND you don’t have to get carrot juice in it if you don’t want to :)  I had a celery-cucumber juice and it was amazing!

-Another place of note is The Green Grocer that just opened on 1402 W. Grand Ave.  Todd and I went and checked it out on Saturday to meet the owners and thank them for opening up more organic-purchasing opportunities for them.  They are really wonderful people.  The Chicago Conscious Choice ran an article about them and that’s how I found out.  I just love helping to spread the word about businesses like this though.  They have a great little website in the works that even has a coupon on it.  Please check them out if you’re in the neighborhood.  They have some fresh organic and local produce there too.  I bought some organic ginger there (which Wholefoods surprisingly doesn’t even have). 

-I’ve updated some pages on my website quite a bit.  They are the Great Links, How to Makeover Your Kitchen, How to make your own Super-smoothies, Super-juices, and Super-soups, Raw Friendly Places to Eat In Chicago, and How to shop for raw foods if you’re in Chicago pages. Please check them out!

-In the spirit of Earth Day, last weekend my girlfriends and I got together at my place and had a Girls Night In/Score Your Friends’ Clothes Party!  We all brought trashbags of clothes we no longer wanted or were going to wear and just had a ball going through each other’s things.  I think we were all amazed at how many clothes we went home with.  I must have scored at least 30 new items, not including some brand new makeup a girlfriend no longer wanted.  There were about 8 trashbags full of clothes leftover which no one wanted so I’ll be calling the VVA soon to come pick the stuff up BUT I want to do this again!!  This was just such a great idea and SO much better than getting ripped off by going to a Buffalo Exchange or similar clothing store. I should host a Young and Raw clothing exchange meetup.  Hmmmm…..   ;)  

-I’ve been getting into a few new things practices lately:  EFT and Muscle Testing.  I think I’ve watched about 30 YouTube videos on these two things alone in the past week!  Wow.  There is just so much out there (on YouTube), it’s just ridiculous.  I don’t think I’ve blogged about this yet (I probably need to), but when I had the Young and Raw meetup featuring a naturopath guest speaker at my apartment the other week, there was a huge interest in her muscle testing (a.k.a. kinesiology) abilities.  What an invaluable skill to have!  We can waste $100s of dollars a year on supplements that really aren’t doing anything for us or may even be HARMING us.  I’ve talked to my bf about this, and from now on, he’ll be muscle testing me (if he’s with me) before I buy any new supplements at the store in the future.  Here are the best YouTube videos I’ve found on muscle testing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t1qaEAYu1w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vZyWouhNpc

- EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).  A lot of you have probably heard about this in the past.  I’ve heard about it a couple of times a year now for about five years.  It’s never really caught on with me until now though.  I’ve been using it on all sorts of things (mainly while I’m in the car driving to or from work, before I’m about to eat a meal, and before I go to sleep at night) and it’s really been working wonders.  If you haven’t heard about this before or would like to learn more, here are some great YouTube videos I’ve found on this (they can explain it much better than I could here):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQp0kA5a5OI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyU08zK8mzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKMFPFB1Ng8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mqUPm7L5A

-A money-saving tip for Chicagoans:  The cheapest place I’ve now found to buy coconuts in Chicago is Chicago Food Corporation (there’s as big sign that says JOONGBOO market that you’ll see from the 90/94).   The address is 3333 North Kimball Ave.  I went there last night to buy some coconuts (in dire need for some more coconut kefir) and realized that I was only paying 39 cents per pound for them.  They came out to less than $1 each.  I was paying $1.50 for them at the Chinese market in uptown Chicago!  No durian at this place though :(   Darn!

-Here’s a really cool news clip taken at Karyn’s Fresh Corner the other week if you haven’t seen it yet.  I hope to be looking at feeling that young at 61!!

-The Raw Spirit Fest:  Yes, it’s still about 5 months away but this is really getting me excited!!  My friend Anthony, from RawModel.com, just registered to host a workshop there (I’ll be assisting him) and I’ll be working with the We Like It Raw team to get the Give It To Me Raw members together at some point in the weekend for a some sort of awesome shindig!  If you haven’t bought your ticket yet, it’s definitely not too late.  But it IS getting a little late if you haven’t make hotel accommodations yet so I suggest you start looking around or talking to others going.  Just a little favor to ask you:  if/when you do buy your tickets, if you could buy them using this link,that would be the best ever! Thank you so much

-Ask and it is given–It’s SO true!  I’ve been wanting to leave my corporate job for a long time now and my wish has finally been answered.  I’ll be leaving with a severance package in July!!!  I’m SO excited to pursue what I want to do and am so good at doing, full time now.  This is the best situation ever.  I’ve just been walking on air the last two weeks.  So many opportunities are opening up in front of me right now and I’m just scribbling down my ideas as soon as they come.  The BIG idea is still on the way though….

Hope you enjoyed the randomness of this post as well as the MANY, MANY links.  Hope this keeps you busy for a while!.  Love you guys!

~Lenette

<–spread of raw foods and superfoods.  Soon to be replaced with a pic of the smoothie recipe I give below though!

Okay…my idea for one of the best raw food meetups ever: host a small raw potluck at someone’s house (10-15 people max).  Invite a (or your) naturopath over to the house for a reasonable fee.  I’m thinking if everyone pays $10-$15 each, it will adequately pay for his or her time for those couple of hours (plus they are getting an opportunity to promote themselves to a new audience).  They can talk a bit about health, detoxing, reading the lines and dots in the eyes, supplements that work, supplements that don’t, etc.  A little Q & A too, of course.   Then, he or she can also spend some time with each person, talking to them about what they see (from their skin, hair, eyes, etc), giving some possible solutions to their health challenges, and maybe telling them a bit about live blood cell analysis.  If the naturopath is pretty affordable (like mine is) everybody wins at this meetup!  The naturopath gets paid for their time and will most likely get some new clients, get to taste some amazing raw food creations, and probably learn a thing or two about the raw foods lifestyle.  And the Meetup group gets to enjoy a great speaker as well as one-on-one advice on their health.  Most people have never been to a naturopath before so it would be an enlightening experience for them.  I’ve thought about having my naturopath bring over all of her flower essence-making things so she could make a customized blend for everyone but then I thought this would take up too much time.  Instead, people could bring a few of the supplements and/or superfoods they’re currently taking and ask what she thinks about them or what dosage would be best for that person.  They could also ask her what detox she would recommend for their spring cleanse.   I can’t wait for this potluck and already have a date on the calendar. 

A quick update on The Green Crush: the menu is coming along quite nicely.  I am getting really excited.  I’m not quite sure about the pricing yet.  I’m still playing around with it.  I would do superfood add-ins for the standard $1 each or do something new like “Superfood Me” for an extra $2.  OR, if I should make the smoothies a little pricier and the superfoods add-ins a little less pricey to really encourage people to pay the little extra money and try the superfoods out.    

Here’s my favorite “Hold the Greens” smoothie so far:

1 large and juicy peeled orange

1 frozen banana

1 heaping tablespoon cacao powder

1 small handful of cacao nibs

Some orange zest.

To superfood it:

2 tablespoons tocotrienals

1/3 aloe vera leaf

1 teaspoon camu camu

1 tablespoon maca

Pinch of celtic sea salt

Make it and drink it with joy!

~L

Yesterday during a long lunch break I went to visit my naturopath for a little checkup on my health.  I love visiting her and was looking forward to it all weekend.  I always learn so much about detoxing, my health, the power of raw foods, and whether or not the supplements I’m taking are doing anything for me (because honestly, sometimes I just can’t tell a difference).  It’s always nice to save your money on what’s not working

I had a free 30 minute live blood cell analysis coupon from her so we did that first.  I told her I was still on a Blessed Herbs Whole Body detox program and was liking it.   But after looking at my blood, she said I probably didn’t need it!  I don’t think she has any other raw food clients because I always blow her away (not to brag or anything!)  She said she’s never seen such clean blood or so many red blood cells in such perfect circles!  Wow.  Honestly–it’s all about the raw food diet and detoxing (although I’ll probably back off the detoxes for a while until fall).  It was really neat to see the red blood cells (some with “healing circles” around them), white blood cells, and some platelets moving so gracefully across the monitor.  I always leave her place so elated and grateful for my health.  I REALLY recommend everyone get a live blood cell analysis to determine your strong and weak points before buying a ton of supplments or getting onto an long or intense detox program.  It is so neat to see your blood cells moving across the screen.  Like the nerd I am, I took some pictures for your enjoyment

I brought a big bag of most of the supplements I had in my supplement drawer over to her for muscle testing. I’d been wanting to do that for a while.  She’s very intuitive and can do about 4 different methods of kinesiology testing.  Not that I am that great at taking, or even remembering to take, all of these supplements every day, now I know what I can drop and what I need to become more regimined about.  This is what I learned. 

-I don’t need to take aged garlic extract every day.

-I need to up my CoQ10 to two per day.

-I don’t need to take Niacin. (But I still like to experience the flush sometimes!)

-My Megafoods Women’s Once a Day Multi and B-Complex vitamins are working and should keep those up. One per day. (I swear by Megafoods. It’s one of the very best supplment brands out there. She was surprised because usually the people who come in to see her are taking multis that don’t work. Surprise, surprise.)

-I really need to supplement the B-Complex vitamin with a really good sublingual B-12 There were a few misshappen cells that pointed to a deficiency in B-12 and iron. I ordered these yesterday. See here for what I believe will be a good B-12. Methylcobalamin B-12 is the best form. Awesome price too. (You can find awesome deals online if you just take a bit more time to really shop around.)

-I have a slight iron deficiency as well.  So I decided to buy some angstrom iron from David Wolfe’s website. I feel this is the purest form of the supplement.

-There’s a teeny tiny bit of yeast in my blood so I bought a candida formula from her for $30 that I will take for 2-3 weeks.  I won’t have to alter my diet though.

-She saw that I have trouble digesting/assimilating protein so I’ve ordered a protein-specific digestive enzyme bottle from her. It’s a really good brand called Theramedix. I guess I’ll take those for lunch and dinner and forget about taking the regular ones I’ve been taking for a while. Hopefully I don’t have to keep these up forever.

-I need to get better probiotics. I didn’t realize the ones I was taking had a form of sugar in it (dextrose I think?). Probably not helping the candida much.  Better ones will help greatly.  Mine were in a gelatin capsule too

-My krill oil is working for me and I should keep it up.  The only problem is I didn’t realize was the one I was taking was in a gelatin capsule. Gross. Such a shame–I really like Source Naturals but they don’t do any vegetarian capsules.  We should all call and ask for it.  So I found another Krill oil online. This one took a long time for me to find so I’ll save you the hassle. Here it is–the only one I’ve found in a vegetarian capsule.

My naturopath also makes custom flower essence blends so I took advantage of that while I was there too. For only $14 too. What a steal. The generic Bach flower essenses are about that much. They really help with stress and whatever else your body/mind/spirit needs.  If your Naturopath does this, I encourage you to ask for it. It’s such a treat I think. She called upon my guides and her guides and muscle tested each of her 200+ essenses (some she tested whole boxes at a time). At the end, she charged it on a special crystal she had bought a few years ago. See pics below.

In the end I paid about $40 for a half session with her and $14 for the customized flower essence.  I probably spend about $175 on new supplements too (most probably one-time purchases).  I think it was the best money spent ever.  To think that I’m not assimilating all that spirulina and bee pollen and hemp seed protein I take in!  I love the taste of those foods anyways but I want my full money’s worth too!   You just can’t put a price one feeling the best ever every day though, can you?    

Thanks for reading.  Hope you learned a thing or two about supplements.  Some raw fooders don’t take any. That’s cool too.  Whatever works for them and you.  But I think the B-12 and the iron (and krill actually) are worth looking into for balance.

Stay tuned for the next post because I have got some FANTASTIC ideas for raw food groups that I want to share…

Just thought I’d pass the word…

How can you receive a free gift sampling of raw organic chocolates delivered postage paid to your front door?  You SING!

1. Call the Raw Spirit Festival headquarters on either 928.776.1497 or 928.708.0784 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday during the month of February or leave a musical message on the voice mail with your name.  Please tell them Lenette Nakauchi referred you
2. Sing Them A Love Song (come on! You can do it… just delight them with at least a lovely line) and
3. Sign Up For The Festival!
    
4. Once A, B, and C are completed, then Presto! A scrumptious sampling of mouth-watering raw organic chocolates will arrive at your home or po box from one, or possibly several, of the following distinguished chocolatiers:

Golden Bean Chocolate http://www.goldenbean.com/

Chocolate Super Foods http://www.chocolatesuperfoods.com/

Sacred Heart Chocolate http://www.sunfood.com/

FortinaChocolate http://www.fortinachocolate.com/

Goddess Chocolate http://www.rawgoddesschocolate.com/

Gnosis Chocolate http://www.gnosischocolate.com/

Wild Bars http://www.wildbar.com/

I can’t believe how many raw chocolatiers there are out there now!  We’re so lucky! 

Now here’s an easy way to make your own whenever you’re out of the gourmet stuff:

1/4 cup coconut oil (warmed up a bit in the dehydrator if necessary so it’s liquid)

1/4 cup agave nectar

3 heaping tablespoons cacao powder

pinch of sea salt

dribble of vanilla extract or some vanilla beans (optional)

Sprinkle of cacao nibs (optional)

Mix and put dallops all around an empty ice cube tray. 

Put in the freezer and now pop out and eat as desired.  Yum

~Lenette

P.s.  Feel free to e-mail me with questions on the logistics and travel for the Raw Spirit Fest.  I highly recommend buying tickets as soon as you can as well as reserving a room at the Raddisson (where the fest is held).  Last year I bought awesome tickets through Southwest, flying into Pheonix and sharing a rental car with a friend to Sedona.  This year I plan on (and would recommend) staying in Sedona for a few days after the fest to go hiking, sight-seeing, etc.).  Put a picture of the Raw Spirit Fest logo on your vision board if you’re now sure you can do it but really want to… And there are lots of forums like http://www.giveittomeraw.com/ and http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/forum.php where you can meet up with others in your area that you can travel and bunk up with!