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A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. September's Theme: "Freedom" If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,
if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
rejoice, for your soul is alive. I know how you want to look and feel. I've worked with people from every walk of life – whether they are homemakers, soldiers, doctors or socialists – they all want the same thing - an energetic glowing body, clear youthful skin and taut toned limbs. They want to wake in the morning full of energy while looking in the mirror to find a face and body that looks rested and glowing. It doesn't stop there. They want to feel peaceful inside, inexplicably happy to be alive. Does that sound like what you're also looking for? Does it sometimes seem like you're the only one who is going through life feeling groggy and weighed down? Do you feel like you'll never be able to achieve your desired weight or stop your body from deteriorating? Do you wish you could get beyond obsessing about how you look and feel in order to be a productive person? It is not too much to ask for? In fact it's more achievable than you realise. I'm always asked why I eat raw food. I occasionally become a bit nostalgic and say why not! But generally my answer depending on the environment and the person I'm with. My response can be any of the following:
When I first looked into the raw diet I found it all really confusing. It really isn't. It's an excitingly invigorating adventure. There is nothing you can't achieve with raw food and more importantly not only is it fantastically good for you but you don't have the full bloated negative feeling you can get after eating a cooked or processed meal.
I want to share a simple electricity free day with you. I have no set daily routine; I'm an all or nothing kind of girl. I don't tend to have days were I will vary my eating pattern with a smoothie for breakfast, a juice for lunch and a salad and vegetable based meal for dinner. I tend to make a decision in the morning as to whether it's going to be a all smoothie or all juice or water day or a fast food day. A fast food day is a day were I graze all day on the abundance amounts of fresh fruits, salads, nuts, seeds and vegetables available. I also have the occasional day with three or four small structured sit-down type of meals (this one I tend to do when in company or my exercise intensity is high.)
I'd like to share a fast food day with you. It is my small contribution to helping the environment; it's a day free from electricity and the restraints of the kitchen.
On these days I tend to limit my exercise, which means for me I don't intentionally exercise although my day is still very active. I have four young children and my dogs to walk.
I walk with my dogs at a fast pace for approximately two hours, any more mindful exercise on top of this generally makes me quite hungry but the whole point of my fast food day is to rest my body from the work of large amounts of food. I'm eating and not feeling hungry as I'm taking in smaller amounts every two hours or so. I like this day as it encourages me to drink lots of pure fresh water. I tend to not drink as much water on my juice and smoothie days due to forgetfulness rather than intent.
Upon waking I have a glass full of lemon and mint water which I drink from my beautiful hand crafted glass goblet. I squeeze half a lemon into the glass then I add a slice of lemon and about three mint leaves picked fresh from the garden. Then I simply fill my glass with some pure clear water which I keep at room temperature. I have a beautiful litre glass bottle that I fill with fresh water in the evening. I place the lid on it and leave until the morning, that way I have water ready that is at room temperature which is so much better and gentler on the body. In the beginning I could only drink water if it was really cold until my body and I established a habit, now I can drink it as it comes.
On my fast food day I don't eat until noon. I don't eat until yesterday's meal has left my body and I've drunk about two litres of water; often with either lemons, limes, oranges or mint leaves added to them.
I love using beautiful hand crafted items like my water bottle, goblet and bowl. Pouring some silky sexy clear water into a beautiful handcrafted wine glass is such an indulgence type of experience, rather than drinking out of a dull covered coffee mug. I'm not at all materialistic or extravagant in my purchases but I treasure gifts from friends. I have a special hand crafted glass water bottle, a wine goblet and a bowl. These are gifts from around the world, gifted to me by dear thoughtful friends who brought them home from their overseas travels.
After taking all my little delights to school each morning, I walk my dogs. By the time I feed and brush them it's already mid-day. I try to make my eating as mindful as possible by sitting down to eat. While at the farmers market I picked up some large red succulent tomatoes still attached to their vines, they smelled perfect as tomatoes should and tasted even better than they smelled. After drinking a glass of water and polishing off four tomatoes I focus on the household chores.
Later I chop up an iceberg lettuce into small crisp size pieces and place them in the fridge for later. Once my chores are finished I try to give myself a minimum of ten minutes where I meditate and listen to my favourite music CD and gift myself some Reiki.
Sometimes I get a little time in the garden where I tend to my herb and vegetable garden before slipping two bananas out of their jackets, grabbing a handful of nuts and dates and into the car I go for the school run.
When we get home the children are ready for dinner. While I prepare their meal I graze on grapes, strawberries and chopped carrots. This is my hungry time so having a variety of fruits ready to eat works fabulous for me. I've been known to eat a complete ice-berg lettuce before bedtime! I occasionally indulge myself and sprinkle some sea salt or cayenne powder onto my lettuce and nibble away my packet of crisps.
There are always leftovers to snack on in the evening. Some of my favourites are lettuce and carrot wraps. This is simply a mixture of grated carrots, onions and curry powder mixed with some lemon juice or honey. Place some of the mixture on to a large lettuce leaf, wrap it like a blanket and crunch! Absolutely delicious and bulky which is so satisfying at the end of the day. You can really jazz up that mixture; remember there are no rules as long as it's raw.
I finish my day with an avocado. I love them, I just slice it open, take out the seed, sit down with a spoon and scoop out the green delight within. I try not to eat past 8 p.m. as to make sure most of the digestion is done to my food before sleeping.
This is only one of many ways I eat, on smoothie and juice days I can drink as many as six pints of pure golden sunshine. Some days my heavy foods like nuts, seeds, avocados and bananas are limited and sometimes that's all I eat for days. We are all human, we all have days were we under or overeat. My policy is to eat and be free to choose. Eating raw gives me that freedom of choice.
Nicola Watt is a Raw Food Coach and a Natural Juice Therapist. Born in England in the United Kingdom in 1974 she is also a Certified Personal Training Instructor, Reiki Master, Indian Head Massage Therapist and Tarot Card Reader.
As well as writing for Timeless Spirit as a columnist she writes raw e-books on weight-loss for health and allergy prevention and she facilitates Raw Spiritual workshops and re-treats.
She is currently studying to become a Master Juicer which is officially recognized by the CMA (Complementary Medical Association).
Mummy to her four young children and supporting wife of a British Soldier, Nicola enjoys the great outdoors, hiking, cycling running and walking her three active dogs along with caring for her children's small pets.
A practicing Christian with some Buddhism beliefs she likes the simple things in life and has a dream to live in a warm climate off the grid.
Volume 7 Issue 6 ISSN# 1708-3265
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