day four of LOVEeasy

Menu du Jour:

1. Ginger shot [elixir]
2. Lemonade [alkaline water, lemon, lime, ginger, agave, Himalayan salt]
3. Master Tonic
4. Veggie Vibe
5. Coconut Water
* Alkaline water - with meals [my new best friend]

I LOVE GINGER! I put ginger in EVERYTHING I make, so today, I was very happy. The elixir was delicious, and their lemonade is my absolute favorite drink [it has ginger, YAY!]. I think my stomach is getting smaller by the day because, as you guys may have noticed, I'm drinking less and less each day. This is great because when I resume with solids, it will help me with portion control.

I have yet to experience a major energy boost, but then again I wasn't really low on energy prior to this cleanse. I have been drinking these juices for a several months now, so it could just be that my body is energized to the max. Who knows?! All I'm sure of, is that I feel great!

day three of LOVEeasy

Menu du Jour:

1. Chlorophyll shot
2. Orange Juice
3. Young Love [cucumber, celery, spinach- yummy!]
4. Master Tonic [alkaline water, lemon, yacon syrup, Cayenne]
5. Veggie Vibe
6.Coconut Water
* Alkaline water - with meals [my new best friend]

Today was fairly smooth. I'm getting used to not having regular meals. After the chlorophyll elixir and OJ, I didn't go to the bathroom like the first two days. I obviously have nothing in my stomach so that's great. The Organic Avenue website states doing three days for their cleanses is viable. They suggest five, but three days is okay. I figure it's because that's all it takes. I mean I didn't eliminate today. I had a lot of gas, as I should with all these natural laxatives, but had nothing to else to get out. I will continue to do the five days, but the next cleanse I do, will be just three days.

day two of LOVEeasy

Menu du Jour:

1. Chlorophyll shot
2. Pear Juice
3. Veggie Vibrance
4. Cucumber Basil Soup
5. Creamy Dandelion
6.Green Mylk
* Alkaline water - with meals [my new best friend]

This morning I woke up pretty hungry around 11am. I downed a 32-oz bottle of Alkaline water first. Then I had my chlorophyll shot and 16-oz pear juice. That held me over until 5pm [the water helped a lot!]. I had The veggie vibe for lunch with about half a bottle of Alkaline water.

For dinner [around 8:30pm], I tried the cucumber basil soup for the first time. I don't want to say that I didn't like it because there was something there that I really liked. It has, coconut water, coconut meat, cucumber, avocado, basil, garlic, and Himalayan salt. The cucumber and basil immediately jump out screaming at you, duh!. I generally like those two ingredients, so I kept drinking. The coconut water was the next flavor I noticed. Organic Avenue uses Thai coconuts; the taste is significantly different from our coconuts in Ghana [which I love]. The Thai coconut water is too sweet for my liking. Although, it has plentiful benefits such as, 'carrying nutrients and oxygen to cells, raising your metabolism, promoting weight loss, boosting your immune system, detoxifying and fight viruses, cleansing your digestive tract, controlling diabetes, aiding your body in fighting viruses that cause the flu, herpes, and AIDS, and even balances your PH and reduces risk of cancer' [LINK Organic Avenue]. I attempted to finish the soup, but just couldn't do it. I got through to about half the bottle which is 8 oz.
The creamy dandelion wasn't as creamy as supposed. It contains, kale, dandelion, pine nuts, garlic, daikon, miso (soy bean paste, sweet rice), sesame oil, jalapeno, cilantro, dill, hemp seed, raisins, parsley, lemon, ginger, Himalayan Salt, and pepper. It was very flavorful; I loved it! Just not that creamy! Just like day one, I wasn't hungry enough to drink the green mylk, like the coconut mylk.

I like this cleanse very much. I have done some pill cleanses in the past and although they did clean out my system, they were not effective because while I was cleansing, I HAD to eat! Can't survive on just pills everyday. I was polluting my system with the crap I was cleansing to eliminate. I've also attempted the 10-day master cleanse TWICE and was impossible to get past day one! I had hunger pains, my mood swings were out of control, and I just couldn't handle it. This cleanse, however, has substance; it has variety, and most importantly, tastes great! I'm satisfied and make no sacrifices.

Sure, I get hungry. I'm getting cravings for things I don't even eat regularly [thanks to all the food commercials on T.V.]. All I do, is look at Jewel, and I'm reminded of why I started this cleanse. She was my ultimate inspiration. She reaps the benefits through my breast milk, therefore, a healthy life for me, means an even healthier life for her.

day one of LOVEeasy

Since loosing weight is not a primary goal on mine, I will not to weighing myself through this cleanse.
Here is the menu du jour:

1. Chlorophyll shot
2. Pear Juice
3. Veggie Vibrance
4. Sunflower Falafel w/ Tahini dressing
5. Sunflower Sprout Salad
6.Chocolate Mousse
7.Coconut Mylk
* Alkaline water - with meals

I started my morning with a 1-oz chlorophyll shot and a 16-oz pear juice at 10am. The chlorophyll shot was intense but quick and painless, and the taste quickly dissipated after I washed it down with alkaline water. Pear is my favorite fruit so the pear juice was amazing, pure and refreshing! I was satisfied with that for about 3 and a half hours.

For lunch, around 1:45pm, I had a 16-oz veggie vibrance juice with the falafel salad. The veggie vibe contains, carrot, cucumber, beet, celery, chard, spinach, ginger, parsley, and lemon. The beet and chard were the dominating flavors, in my opinion; takes some getting used to but was not bad tasting at all. The falafel salad was not what I was expecting at all. I had never had a falafel until today. It was really flavorful, even better with the Tahini dressing. Its contents include, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, olive oil, garlic, shallot, scallion, paprika, lemon, parsley, coriander, Himalayan salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, and black pepper.

Lunch kept me full for quite some time. I did not eat dinner until 7pm. I had the sunflower sprout salad. In it, we have, sunflower sprout of course, pine nuts, sesame seed, bell pepper, garlic, scallion, flax seed oil, lemon, Himalayan salt, pepper, and lecithin. It has a lot of flavor, which, again, was not expected. It was very well balanced and filled me up!

I did not eat the dessert, which was chocolate mousse [yum :)], until an hour after I have dinner. The ingredients include, alkaline water, almonds, coconut butter, cacao, dates, vanilla, Irish moss, soy lecithin, cacao nibs, and Himalayan salt. Now I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate, but this was amazing. The taste was real, pure, so innocent like the original cocoa seeds I grew up eating in Ghana. I loved it!

I feel great and eliminated 2 twice :p

my new year's resolution for 2011

I came up with my resolution just a couple of days ago. I know it's after the new year, but I figure as long as it's within the first month, you're good :). I've decided to cut out as much processed foods as I possibly can from my diet. A lot people wonder why they get so sick so often, not realizing that it's because we fill our bodies with artificial crap that were never meant to be there.

Most factory-produced foods have synthetic additives that do more harm than gunshots! It's not like we don't know there chemicals such as sodium nitrate, saccharin, olestra, etc. in the things we eat. We know all this because it says it right on the box. All these chemicals and food dyes are especially dangerous because everyone is led to believe that they're safe. They weaken our immune systems overtime and slowly deteriorate our organs. This makes us more susceptible to all sorts of diseases, hence the necessity for yearly flu shots and periodical vaccinations [which reminds me, I just found out that they have now combined the H1N1 with the regular flu shot into one injection, so now you must get the H1N1- which is a whole other topic, but just thought you guys would like to know]. Boy, I can go on for pages about nutrition, but let's get back to the topic at hand.

So, to kick off my organic diet, I will first be cleansing my system. For the next five days,

I will be on an a raw food and all-plant-based juice cleanse from Organic Avenue . This cleanse is called the LOVEeasy.

Organic Avenue is an NYC-based organic food and juice company that started in 2000. They produce a Live, Organic, Vegan, Experience- their famous L.O.V.E* signature. They currently have 3 stores in NYC and deliver to the tristate area. See their website for delivery zones and charges.

Their juices are cold-pressed and somewhat of an acquired taste. I know I had to get used to it. Their cleanses and products are also quite pricey, but the benefits far surpass the price you pay in value. I have grown to LOVE their juices! Even the one ones that I could barely smell, when I was first introduced to. They also have transition  plans for those who may not have the stomach to dive into their intense cleanses.

I will let you guys know how it goes!

New Year, new you? Really?!

Each new year, brings new goals and aspirations to many of you. Hence new year resolutions. My theory for the reason people wait for the start of a new year to make their lives better, is because it's much easier and a heck of a lot more accurate to measure your progress. This may well be far off, but it makes sense.

Ever since I was old enough to understand new year's resolutions, I have made and stuck to each and everyone of my resolutions! It started with 2004. At the turn of the new year, I vowed to pursue someone I had been crushing on for over a year. We'll call him Ronald. Bear in mind, I was in high school :p. My resolution that year was to get over my extremely shy self and work up the nerve to talk to him, before the year's end. Well, ladies and gentleman, I did just that! By June of that year, I had not only talked to him, but we began having regular phone conversations. This raised my very bruised self-confidence way up!

The start of 2005 speared the declaration of my independence. I went off to college and achieved financial sovereignty from my parents by the end of that year. It was the scariest and boldest move I'd ever made but the best one, nonetheless. 2006 was the year I cut out fast food; 2007 was our official engagement year. For 2008, I was determined to live in another NYC borough. I grew up in the Bronx and wanted a bit more culture, and I did. We moved to Astoria, Queens for about 7 months! In 2009, I vowed to finish school, also accomplished! My resolution for 2010 was to be the best mother I could be to my daughter, who was born later in the year.

So yeah, I agree, new year, new me! I've done more growing up in the last seven years than I think I'll ever do. This is my measure of success. What's yours?

Happy New Year everyone!