The vegan community has been debating the ethics of beekeeping for years. Some vegans call it a cruel practice, and others argue that when done right, the bees are not hurt at all, and there are many health benefits. Personally, I agree with the "beegans" a term coined for those vegan who choose to eat bee products. I agree the "factory farm" beekeeping is horrid, just like with the animals, but if you focus on family and local farms that use proper methods, I really don't see the issue. Here are some great articles that discuss this.
Bee Products (Raw Honey, Bee Pollen, Royal Jelly). It's extremely important when researching bee products to support beekeepers that use cruelty free, organic practices. Not only is this more humane, but you will get a much better product. Also, if possible, purchase your Bee Pollen from a local source. Pollen has proven to greatly reduce allergies, and locally sourced pollen will better protect you from possible allergens in your area. My Mom gives her dog Aurora bee pollen for allergies and has noticed a significant different in her skin condition, scratching, and other signs of allergies. Bee Pollen is also highly alkaline, neutralized free radicals, increases hormone levels, increases strength and muscle definition. Royal Jelly is fed exclusively to the Queen Bee. This product is extremely high in protein, regulates nerve fibers, B-Vitamins, and treats hormonal imbalances. A study published in 1960 by the American Association for Cancer Research Inc. found that "whole royal jelly, when premixed with tumor cells before inoculation, has been shown to inhibit completely the development of transplantable AKR leukemia..."
After some initial rebellion and internal struggle with some of the food changes, I think I'm finally settled. Green Smoothies help tremendously. I've noticed I rarely crave sugar, and if I do I have a nice pulpy glass of orange juice. I did purchase some low sugar chocolate snacks, but haven't really needed them yet. Yesterday I went to Whole Foods and saw my favorite pimento cheese and I just stood there for two minutes, then walked on. I barely glanced at the Bothhouse farm drinks (I like the Mocha Cappuccino) and for the most part managed to make some really good shopping choices.
Coconut Based chocolate ice cream, cacao nibs and macadamia nuts, raw almonds dehydrated and seasoned with vanilla and maple, coconut ice cream bars, vegan/gluten free dark chocolate and orange bar and raw chocolate bar with superfoods. All very low sugar options and great for chocolate cravings.
So good, I'm addicted
LOVE this cereal! Reminds me of Grape Nuts without the crap
I started coffee enemas this week, and have done my meditations while holding the enema. You do a fresh water enema first, releasing immediately, then follow up with the coffee enema, which the goal is to hold for 15 minutes. So far I've gone anywhere from, not going to happen, to about 12 minutes so far. I think it gets easier the more you do it. Here's a great video from Jess the Wellness Warrior on doing coffee enemas:
I'm starting to see some results. I had major fatigue issues through October, and as the week has gone on I've had more and more energy. In fact, yesterday was the first time I didn't nap in who knows when. Not only did I not nap, I tried to go to bed, and ended up laying awake for an hour and getting back up! I still went to bed at a decent time, and got about 8.5 hours of sleep, which usually I sleep for about 12 hours, but I haven't need to. In fact I've had problems with boredom now that I'm not sleeping as much. Suddenly, I have all this time and I have no idea what to do with it. I cleaned off my two tables filled with mail and sorted through. I organized my bills and created a payment plan. I've watched some Hallmark Christmas movies and done some things around the house. I need to make a list of activities. It occurred to me that I could do that puzzle from my 31 Things list, finish putting together the photo album, also from that list. Shoot, I could actually start writing! My brain was too foggy, but it's clearing up so now it the time. Also, exercise and emotional/spiritual exercises. So we'll see how it goes.
Green Smoothie
Vegan Protein Powder
Oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and a dash of almond milk
Right now one of my biggest projects is finding the right supplement balance. I REALLY hate that Cellect, the mineral/vitamin powder that has like 97 things in it. It's nasty, smells nasty, and just doesn't go away. There really isn't anything else like it though; however, I believe I found an herbal remedy (that I already have some of) called Merlin's Herbal Magic Root Elixir. It has over 30 herbs in it. I will still need to take all my alphabet vitamins (A, B6, B12, B17, D3, E), and Iron. There is also something called Colustrum that is in the Cellect and a great part of it that I can get on it's own. Plus I can start doing MSM again, Bee Pollen, and look into some other things. Some of the stuff is in pill form, but several things can be tossed into my smoothies.
So what's up for week two? Adding in exercising, which will be bouncing on the rebounder. Also, dry skin brushing and I really need to do the neti pot. I plan on thawing out the pesto I made this summer and making a delicious pesto pasta with Quinoa noodles, another soup, either corn chowder or baked potato, and trying out a Creamy Coconut Beans and Rice recipe. And of course, more green smoothies. I'll leave you with a photo of tonight's Buddha Bowl. This one has brown rice, diced potatoes, orange bell pepper, green beans, and seasoned tofu. Bowls are very easy to make. Pretty much use rice as your base, then any kind of veggie you could possibly think of, toss them together, and there you go. Delicious.
This is a super simple recipe for a delicious raw granola. I've modified it some from the original recipe.
Ingredients:
2 cups almonds (soaked 8 hours)
1/2 cup raisins
2T lemon juice
2T cinnamon (I might increase to 3 if you really dig cinnamon)
2T Bee Pollen
3T Cacao Nibs
Optional: Raw honey, fruit, for toppings
Directions:
In a food processor, mix almonds, raisins, lemon juice, cinnamon and bee pollen until reaches a granola consistency. Remove from food processor and stir in cacao nibs. Top with honey, bananas or any other kind of fruit and serve!
This past week I've been a bit sluggish. I've been sleeping alot (like, until 2pm), have less energy when I'm up, zero creativity, and more or less have been planted on the sofa watching early episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I wondered what could be causing this shift and I realized that I've slacked a bit, not intentionally in a few departments. With the heat, Triton and I haven't been walking as regularly, and unfortunately I haven't replaced our walks with another form of exercise. Instead of doing my energy routine twice a day, it's been more like once a day or every other day recently. And although I eat pretty well, I haven't been eating optimally for my health. Meaning, while carrots are superfantastic, Spirulina kicks some carrot booty, plus some. Generally I get the "goods" in my daily smoothie, but this past month the laziness bug has kicked in and I've swapped my Superfood Smoothies for processed Naked/Botthouse Farm beverages. Monday I started back up on my smoothies, and in just two days I've noticed a huge difference. I started getting up earlier day by day, I've been writing again, I have more energy, and even took Trition for a very sweaty sticky walk this evening. I decided I need to kick things up a notch, and checked out David Wolfe's book "Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future" from the library. He's an incredible resource of information, and inspired me to really get gung ho in regards to my diet. Since the beginning of the cancer parade, I've had a few items that consistently show up in a bad way on my blood tests.
1. Low levels of Hydrochloric Acid. What does this mean? Essentially hydrochloric acid is the stuff that breaks down your food in a digestible format that your body can use and distribute for all it's various functions. So all those pills, veggies, etc. have had very little effect because my body is unable to absorb most of it. 2. Anemia. I have an extremely low iron count, in fact generally I'm only a point away from a blood transfusion. This tends to freak the doctors out. My Naturopath literally cannot understand how I get up each day based on the results of my blood test. 3. Hypoglycemia. My blood sugar is all over the place, and I've always bounced between being at risk for hypoglycemia and diabetes. Neither one screams fun times. 4. Hormonal Imbalance. Now this one has been on and off over the years. I've had long periods of time where everything is perfect, my cycle is regular and life is good. However, I've been wacky since about Thanksgiving, I think I've had maybe three menstrual cycles, which is not good. It freaks me out just a bit because I only have half an ovary, due to some benign tumors they cut out in my early twenties, so my understanding of this part of my body is really weak. Note to self: See a gynecologist.
Everything else is awesome! When I first starting going in for blood tests five years ago, EVERYTHING was off the chart's bad. Hemoglobin levels, kidney enzymes, you name it, the results sucked. For the past year everything has been in balance except for those four items, plus my inflammation levels. The level of inflammation in my body has always been off the charts bad, which is the cancer, however, slowly by surely it's edging towards happier levels. However, I think the other issues are making the process much slowly. If my body didn't have to put all it's effort on getting me to function on a basic level each day, the cancer would probably dissolve quickly. Hence the interest in Superfoods.
David came up with a list of his "Top 10 Superfoods" and "Honorable Mentions." Each item on his list has everything I need to eliminate anemia, hypoglycemia, hormonal imbalance, cancer, and my digestive issues.
I feel this is an extremely important and eye opening subject, so I'm splitting this into a three-part blog. For now, check out this video of David Wolfe discussing various Superfoods. Check back on Friday for Part II, where I'll break down the Top 10 Superfoods and share why they are so "super"!
