The Green Queen

Free Raw Food Teleclass

Free teleclass by Karen Knowler!

“The 7 Must-Know Steps to Take Your Raw Food Journey to the Stars - and Beyond!”

"Are you ready to refresh or recommit to your raw food journey and make it completely awe-inspiring, delicious and magical this time around?

If your answer is "Yes!" and you're ready to see where your raw food journey can take you over the months and years to follow, then this is the call for you!

As you probably already know, I’m a HUGE fan of Karen’s work – I’ve done a few of her programmes – and I’m currently on one of her biggest coaching programmes – the Raw Online Business training.

No matter where you are on your raw food journey, Karen is a brilliant person to work with and be inspired by.

This is a free teleseminar – and you can always listen to the recording later if you can’t attend live.

You just need to register here, and you’ll get sent the call details. I’ll be on the call too, so let me know how you liked it.

Drastic measures are called for !

*WARNING* This post contains pictures you might find embarrassing, unpleasant or gross. Feel free to click away now to this picture of a cute cat!

After a truly shocking non-raw month, I've vowed to spend this next one taking care of myself (and fitting into that damned wedding dress!). 

I'm starting a herbal colon cleanse! A friend, let's call her "Jess" just finished it, and the pictures of her... ahem...eliminations impressed me so much I've been showing people on my mobile phone! (Pictures at the very end of the post)

Why a colon cleanse?

In the past month, I've eaten all sorts of stuff that has made me feel terrible. Pizza, chinese food, bags and bags of crisps, ice-cream, etc etc. My body feels clogged and bloated. I want to kickstart a detox to have a summer of good food and exercise.

You might be thinking - "well, that's not bad.... I eat pizza all the time, and it doesn't affect me".

YAY for you! The problem is that I can't stop with one slice of pizza, one handful of crisps, one bowl of ice-cream. If I could, then I wouldn't even mention it, let along write on a blog! I have a junk food addiction, and so have to treat myself like a junkie.

I wrote in a previous post that I've had some emotional and physical upheavals. It's also really made me face how much I use junk food to numb myself. I'm committed to a life of health and self nourishment and I want to do everything I can to help me on that path.

I also bought a mini trampoline, and some hand weights. I've heard trampolining, or rebounding is an incredibly easy and efficient form of exercise, low impact which works your whole body - I'm loving that idea! Mark loves it too, and probably just woke the neighbours with 15 minutes of loud bouncing!

Back to the cleanse. After my experiment with the month-long Ejuva Intestinal Cleanse, I figured I needed something shorter, but also has good results. The Blessed Herbs cleanse is only 9 days, so I think that might be easier for me. It's also cheaper than Ejuva, and I'm doing it with another friend, so we got a small discount for buying two. 

It promises to:

Remove Old, Accumulated Waste from Your Small and Large (Colon) Intestines (which generally means, people in this cleanse lose weight)

Rejuvenate the Digestive System

Reduce Cravings and Food Dependencies (YAY)

Give more mental Clarity and Focus (this will be great too, I'll be really busy over summer)

I'm thinking - SWEET! Also, "Jess" said her skin was amazing, and she felt great afterwards. So anyway the pictures....after a couple of days, people report a sea-weed like substance being eliminated. I've come across these pictures before but didn't believe them until someone I knew did it.

Can you believe it? Seriously - what is that stuff? Apparently it's old waste and toxins that have built up for ages, called mucoid plaque. Gross, GROSS! Definitely a case of better out than in!

"Jess" is really skinny already and has been a vegan for years, so I really wonder what's lurking in my colon - let's find out, shall we?! I promise to post a small diary and the results for all to share and delight in! Will start next week sometime.

Hope I didn't ruin your dinner!

Bad News = Bad Food - but hopefully not forever

The last three weeks have been incredibly challenging, with some really unexpected circumstances. Forgive me for the vague terms, I'm not going to share specifics, but it's nothing life threatening.

While I've actually been strangely unemotional about this upheaval, what's telling is my diet. All that stuff that I thought was sorted, has been sorely tested with emotions come into play!

Each time I've had to face the problem(s), I've reacted in a very robotic way - and then I've CHOWED DOWN. When the first news hit, I found myself at a local pizza joint ordering a large margharita and a tub of Ben & Jerry's which I then ate at the bus-stop..... with a plastic fork. I then had pizza AGAIN for dinner.

The next time I had to face reality, I "found myself" at the local Chinese for some stirfry and prawn crackers. This morning was another tough wake-up call, so I ordered in Thai for lunch, even though I wasn't all that hungry.

If I find myself thinking about how "hard" or "unfair" my life is right now...... well, I'll just pick up some crisps at the train station and all is well... for about 30 minutes. 

The result of all this takeaway junk is that I'm feeling lethargic, have spots all over my face and I've very quickly gained a couple of kgs. The way I look and feel feeds another cycle of self pity, which is easy to solve with mind numbing junk food. Look at my eyes. So dull and lifeless. 

Bad circumstances are not permanent, and I know that. This month has really shown me how much I stuff my emotions in food, and it's probably a positive experience because my years of bodily abuse has been magnified to show me how pointless and destructive it really is. The weird thing is that it's not just bad news that makes me do this. I've noticed that really good news sometimes has the same effect. Like the happiness is too much for me to bear, so I'll numb it with some MSG.

I'm being really gentle with myself over the next couple of weeks. I'm still making sure I have a juice or a smoothie every day and I'll try not to obsess over the food, or the extra weight. 

The great news is that I start Karen's Raw Online Business Programme next week. I'll be staying in a hotel and will a lot of time to dream and reflect and get ready for the new me which will emerge over the six month programme. 

Recognise the bad stuff.... and move on

Wow – an interesting last couple of days. I signed up as a Film and TV Extra. I am a major movie buff, so I thought it would be fun, and earn me some handy cash while I’m still setting up my business. Obviously, getting married puts some financial pressure on too!

I got a two day job for a gambling commercial, getting to fly in a harness! The bad news was getting up at 5am to get to set on time. It really wasn’t a good environment for me. Bad food, people who are either too busy to be polite, or people who are not really living their dreams. Harsh, but some of the most complaining people ever – lots of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda”. 

That’s a really toxic environment for me, because I recognise that I can be influenced by negative people. I don’t need any excuse to have a complain, especially when we found out that we weren’t getting paid overtime (and yesterday’s shoot went 5.5 hours overtime). Getting up at 5am and then bed at 1am to do it the next day is really not great for my body and mind either. (see pic!)

My attitude has been terrible the last two days. Running through my head was:

Resentment….. “I’ve been ripped off”………”I’m never paid what I’m worth”…..

Beating myself up ……. “I always get myself in these situations…”

Feeling trapped…………. ”I can’t believe I have to come back tomorrow… I have no choice…..”

Feeling poor…..”I never have enough money”….I’m going to run out of money soon”…

It’s good to recognise these thoughts and move on. So being an extra is not for me. Good to know, let’s move on to the next thing. One that serves me, my goals and my higher purpose. 

What's this got to do with Raw Food?

Raw food for me isn't about the food. It's about nourishing myself, being authentic and discovering my true passion in life. What I put in my mouth is just one part of that.

Since I discovered raw, my tolerance for toxic situations, people and food is being tested constantly. It's sometimes extremely confusing and painful, because I like life to be easy going. I like to know where I stand. 

I believe in the Law of Attraction, so it's really quite shocking to write down what I was saying to myself. It's no coincidence that as I was putting those toxic thoughts into my brain, I was also feeding my body with all sorts of crap food from the set. I want to be more aware my thoughts, so even if I do "slip up", then I don't let it descend into the "My life is terrible, and I'm a terrible person" tirade of self punishment.

The lovely Blanka sent me these words.....

We want to eat raw to feel good about ourselves, not to feel bad when we don't.

That's a brilliant reminder that it's not about the food. It's about my life and happiness.

From Louise Hay's book, You Can Heal Your Life

I am willing to change. 

I choose to react as though I have found a treasure when I discover something else to release. 

I see and feel myself changing moment by moment.

Thoughts no longer have any power over me.

I am the power in my world. I choose to be free.

All is well in my world.

More addiction confessions and more raw pizza!

My last post I wrote about my former addiction to pepperoni pizza and how I finally feel I have it under control.

However, what I didn't share is something that I'm very much addicted to today, even while I'm striving to be raw.

I don't like using the word "addicted", because it definitely doesn't resonate with me, but how else do you describe something you use even when you know it's bad, that you use as a way to stuff your emotions and keep you numb, and something you feel like you have no control over.

I'm talking about CRISPS. (Potato chips to some of you)

This photo is part of a campaign by the British Heart Foundation to expose hidden salt, fat and sugar in common foods. They specifically target crisps because the average child eats these readily available "treats" frequently. Unfortunately, I'm probably not the only person in the modern world to have a crisp addiction. Even Oprah has struggled with them. It's funny. I've never tried drugs (except for the odd whiff in Amsterdam), never experimented with pills, always hated cigarettes and I rarely drink. But seriously, sometimes I crave my crisps like a junkie!

I can go weeks without even thinking about a bag of crisps, and then (like yesterday), I'll eat four bags in a row. If I'm at a party, I really can't resist them. It's not a recent habit either. I can remember spending my lunch money on crisps until I went to a school that banned them, but then I was right back on them when I went to High School.

Rationally, it's probably because I haven't connected giving up crisps with my values. Giving up McDonalds (another former addiction) was easy because of the ethical, environmental AND health concerns I had. Then giving up meat for me, followed a similar process. I'm still working on dairy, but I fundamentally believe it's not a good product for my health or the planet. My diet coke habit didn't really wane until I read about how soft drink companies destroy local environments and water safety in third world countries. Now crisps, I think of as bad for my health (my supposed number 1 value), but nothing environmental or ethical. Hmmm.... interesting.

My aim now is to investigate crisps a little further. Why exactly are they bad for us? How do they impact the environment, are they an ethical product? Hopefully I find some real dirt and I can finally get them outta my life. I think it's a powerful lesson for me. Hopefully in the future my health will be reason enough, but in the meantime, I gotta guilt myself about the planet, animals and third world countries. 

Please share your addictions in the comments section and how you overcame them. 

On a more positive note!

Here are some pictures of Blanka and I enjoying some more raw pizza at her house. We have a Tues ritual of meeting for yoga and a green juice. We just extended it a little today for lunch too. Our green juice blew my socks off. Seriously green and amazing. Lots of herbs: parsley, coriander and mint; pineapple for sweetness; celery, fennel, brocolli stalk, lime and ginger. WOWSA.

Oh, and Blanka lent me her copy of Evie's Kitchen which has a recipe for deydrated potato chips. Maybe I need to carry an emergency box with me everywhere I go!