Get More Summer Freshness In :)

Here we are mid summer, amidst a bounty of nature’s gifts, I hope your enjoying them as much as I am. Fresh peaches, near the last of the cherries and berries, the best nectarines and tomatoes I’ve ever had, and only a great fall harvest to look forward to! No time like the present to up the quantity of fresh ripe raw organic fruits and veggies in your lifestyle. Its that easy, up the good and naturally the poor choices just don’t hold as much room.

Today I want to provide some simple tips and recipes for increasing the amount of freshness in your life, get ready for a rawvolution of energy vitality and positivity to emerge from within 🙂

Let us begin our day fresh, its shown that how you begin your day will largely dictate how you treat yourself for the rest of the day. Im hoping you got a good nights sleep, and didn’t eat late at night the day previous, if so, break the cycle tonight :)! When you wake, if your thirsty enjoy a large glass of fresh water, reverse osmosis or distilled is the best choice, although any filtered or non fluorinated bottled water is much better than tap. Instead of reaching for that coffee, move your body and get a natural boost! A quick 3-10 minutes of alternate stretching and vigorous activity (jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, skipping, push-ups, sit ups, squat thrusts, yoga, ect ) will get your system pumping, preparing you for the day in a much better way. If your heading to work get a walk in or a bike ride to work up a slight sweat. Bring something juicy and sweet, think melon, grapes, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, pears, oranges, or anything you love to eat. Bring enough to satisfy yourself for the whole morning, and wait to eat it until you are genuinely hungry.

Genuine hunger is a completely different issue, one that demands a whole post in the near future. Lest  it be know, the absolute vast majority of us know little to nothing of genuine hunger. Hunger isn’t a sensation of the stomach, nor is it accompanied by grumbles, aches, headaches, anxiousness, irritability, nor a urgency to eat. These symptoms are actually your body getting a chance to direct some energy to detoxification, basically processing the wastes and toxins created and contained in our food, as well as environmental and metabolic. How well we would all do to pass through this uncomfortable period allowing our body some digestive rest and detoxification to await true hunger. True hunger is a sensation felt in our throat, signified by a cleared tongue, clear thought, and a relaxed feeling that we could eat, indeed without urgency. When we eat a diet exclusively or predominated by ripe fresh raw organic produce our ability to read our bodies signals clears, and our feelings of being nourished and satisfied increases. More on this in a future post :).

Back to breakfast, which is indeed the most important meal of the day and quite literally breaking the fast from the day previous. For optimal digestion, absorption, and detoxification, always wait to eat until you have a empty stomach and have a clear tongue. Doing so helps ensure ease of digestion, preventing a sour stomach, fermentation, and resultant build up of toxins. Breakfast can be as easy as keeping it simple with one to three kinds of juicy fruit that are similar in nature. Eat until you are satisfied  enjoying one to two meals before lunch rather than snacking all morning. A large fruit smoothie, or alternately green smoothie can also make a great breakfast choice. Try a few peaches, some nectarines, a cup of berries and a few handfuls of spinach for a amazing summer green treat 🙂

Lunch can be started with acid or sub acid fruit and finished with a salad, or made entirely of sweet fruit and simple greens (all lettuces, celery, cucumbers, zucchini). Most often I enjoy a large sweet meal after some vigorous activity, think a quick run or jog at lunch, followed by bananas, mango, grapes, pears ext. One of my favourite lunches is simply as many bananas as I desire (often up to 15) followed by lettuce or a sweet slaw. Give it a try, start with a few cups of chopped celery and make a sweet sauce of blended celery and a few pre soaked medjule dates. You can use as much of the soak water as needed to blend into a creamy sauce, pour over top mix n devour, delicious. If your going for a cooked lunch, i would go for non sweet meal option, enjoy your fruit 15 or more minutes ahead, and have a large green salad to start the meal to get more freshness in 🙂

Dinner can be once again started with as much fruit as you wish, the more you get in the less likely you will be looking for something else sweet after dinner. I most often find it works best to consume my sweet meal at lunch followed by greens and celery or cucumber, and have my dinner meal start with acid or sub acid fruits and follow with a large salad or soup made with some of the same fruit if desired . Often I eat exclusively fruit all day, including more as my pre dinner meal, and finish the day with a large salad or green soup to get my savoury veggie fix. A great way to get in tonnes of veggies is a soup/stew. One of my favourite dinner recipes these days is as follows. Dice 2 tomatoes and 2 stalks of celery into a bowl. Blend 2- 3 tomatoes with a handful of fresh basil and as much spinach or your favourite green as you can fit in. Pour the soup over the diced ingredients and enjoy 🙂 Try adding half a avocado, or some peach or nectarine both in the broth and/or diced for a different flavours and textures.

Hope you enjoy some of the recipes and the tips,if you have any comments or questions they are always well received 🙂

as always enjoy much