Blessed Herbs Internal Cleanse

A couple months ago I embarked on a cleanse I've never tried before. I've been a big fan of the Blessed Herbs Colon Cleanse for a couple of years so I decided to try their ultra cleansing program, the Internal Cleansing Kit. It's a 3 week program that addresses all the major organs, utilizing a combination of herbal capsules and tinctures. It includes lung, kidney, blood, lymph, skin, colon and liver supporting herbs as well as 3 different parasite formulas. While on the cleanse, it's helpful to eat a light raw diet (juicing is ideal) but you may eat your normal diet if you want though results may be less noticeable. I ate raw, but, only half as much as I usually do in a day: basically a small smoothie and a light, low fat, salad. My cleanse was 5 weeks as I did a one week all raw pre-cleanse, the 3 week cleanse followed by an additional one week colon cleanse.

Everyone who knew I was on a cleanse asked, "Aren't you clean enough? You've been raw for three years." Well yes, and no. I did get clean changing from an Atkins diet to an organic, raw, vegan diet but after a while you accumulate other toxins. From the air, water, beauty products (I have a few vices...such as my hair products) and from life in general, especially urban living . Originally, I discovered the raw diet while looking for a natural solution to my acne. It ended up clearing up my skin as well as changing the complete course of my life, but I won't get into that now. Thing is, the past several weeks I started breaking out again and for someone who spends a lot of time in front of the camera, this was completely unacceptable. My body was telling me (just as it did 3 1/2 years ago) that it was out of balance. From studying David Wolfe, Donna Gates and Truth Caulkins, I learned the main issues were poor gut flora/digestion, excess estrogen and an overburdened liver. So in addition to taking all the Internal Cleanse herbs I also took New Chapter Probiotic Immunity 4 times a day (upon rising, before lunch, dinner and before bed) and New Chapter WholeMega fish oil 2 times a day (which helps remove excess estrogen). I also cut out foods that could cause hormonal imbalance:

Soy - contains phytoestrogens
Flax - contains phytoestrogens
Cacao - mimics sex hormones (it's arguable if it actually causes breakouts but I eliminated it just in case)
Caffeine (I like tea) - affects stress hormones which shuts down DHEA production, the mother hormone of all sex hormones

As soon as I started the Internal Cleanse my skin got very oily and started breaking out with cystic type acne on my chin, forehead, back and chest. It could have been a coincidence since it was around the time of my period but I also got a cold sore which is rare for me (usually only when I'm stressed or in very cold environments). I felt moody and sick for the first 4 days and then started feeling amazing. By the end of the cleanse I had lost 5 pounds (that's a lot as I'm 5'7" and went from 115 to 110) and I've been getting lots of compliments on my glowing skin. It's not perfect, still some little pimples here and there, but I've been using the Isun blemish products with great results.

I had to order an additional parasite kit from Blessed Herbs after I was done. It's recommended to do a parasite cleanse 3 times with 3 weeks in between to truly eradicate any critters. I'm continuing to take liver herbs (from New Chapter) until the end of the year and probiotics and Wholemega indefinitely. I'm also going to do an additional 10 day cleanse in a few days to see if I can truly eliminate my skin problems and help reduce cellulite that had shown up out of nowhere 2 years ago. I just bought a far infrared sauna to help my detox program and am so excited to see how much better my results will be. I plan on blogging my results so check back to see how I did.

For those interested in trying the Blessed Herbs kits, I highly recommend them (FYI, I don't work for them). I wait until they have sales to stock up which happen about 2-3 times a year. Sign up for their emails and you'll be the first to know when they're on sale. Good luck!

Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

The early autumn continues to bring us gorgeous watermelons and heirloom tomatoes in southern California. The perfect ingredients to create a soup that is as tasty as it is healing. Perfect if you're on a raw food cleanse. It's very high in cancer preventing lycopene and the flavor is simply fantastic. I taught this at my Brooklyn Kitchen classes and everyone raved about how much they loved it. If you're cleansing you can skip the sea salt and if you want a richer soup add a tablespoon or two of good quality extra virgin olive oil to the base.

Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho
Makes 6-8 servings

Base
4 cups watermelon, chopped
1 small red heirloom or Roma tomato, seeded, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh spearmint
2 tablespoons fresh basil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Add ins
1 1/2 cups multi colored heirloom or Roma tomatoes, seeded, diced
1 1/2 cups watermelon, diced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
1/2 cup white onions, diced

Place 4 cups of the watermelon in a blender along with the tomato, spearmint, basil, lime juice, vinegar, garlic and sea salt and blend until smooth.

Transfer the puree to a large bowl. Add diced tomatoes, watermelon cucumbers and onions and stir to combine.

Chill for 1-2 hours before serving.

Will last two days in the refrigerator.

ISUN Product Review

Like many women in their 30's, I am forever on the hunt for new and better facial products to help correct my previous two decades of poor lifestyle and dietary choices. My SPF free years of my youth are haunting me in a way that no amount of green juice or raw food is going to help. I need some serious skincare. I've actually been a really big fan of DeVita products for the past three years but find that it's just not emollient enough for living in the dryness of southern California. I recently stumbled upon ISUN, an all natural, organic, ethical, eco friendly, wildcrafted line of skincare. I was overwhelmed with the amount of products in their line so I decided to just start out with one of their introductory packs to see what it was all about. Since I have acne prone skin I ordered the Blemished Skin Care set that comes with a cleanser, toner mist, clarifying serum, spot treatment, neem and blue green masks and an exfoliant. They even threw in a bonus lip balm (which is my favorite lip balm EVER now).


I have to say this is the most effective acne skincare product I've ever tried. It has antimicrobial and deep poor cleansing that doesn't dry your skin out like other acne kits. The star of the show is the clarifying serum that contains essential oils, neem, MSM and salicylic acid (from willow bark) that gently exfoliates without the harsh dryness. The spot treatment is very effective too as is the neem mask. I have really sensitive skin so I like that I can keep it on long enough without the itchiness I get from other masks. The only thing I would have liked in this set was a sample of the moisturizer of which there are about a dozen to choose from. I'm currently using Dr. Alkaitis for night time moisturizing but when I run out I'll try one from ISUN. You can find the products at Living Earth Beauty which also features some other really great brands of natural beauty products including products from Living Libations which create my favorite tooth product, Yogi Tooth Serum. Right now they have free shipping on all orders over $99 so get on it!

Summer Detox

Since I spent the first half of the year writing my book, I didn't have the time to do my usual maintenance juice fasts or cleanses. Now that I have some downtime I figured it's time to do some late spring cleaning. Thing is, I still had to work on new recipes so I needed something less painful than a juice fast. I had bought the book "Clean" by Dr. Junger and thought that might be a doable program to follow while I continue working in the kitchen. The basic plan is as follows:

Breakfast: smoothie
Lunch: raw or cooked meal
Dinner: smoothie
Portions should be small (2 cups for smoothies) avoiding nightshades and allowing at least 12 hours between dinner and the following breakfast.

This was not that much different than what I already ate so I decided to follow the plan completely raw and see how it goes. After 6 days I didn't feel or see results. I guess I believe there has to be a certain degree of torture for it to be a successful detox. I've been raw for 3 years so this wasn't much of a challenge except for the portions were smaller and I couldn't have tomatoes. This would be an excellent plan for someone coming from the Standard American Diet though. The book has great information about why to detox and the plan is simple to follow. It allows one cooked meal a day if you choose and that includes some animal products.

I wanted to continue my cleanse so I modified it by skipping the lunch meal and instead having:
-1 quart fruit based green smoothie with superfoods and 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil or tahini paste for the first half of the day
-1 quart vegetable green smoothie with 1/2 avocado for the second half of the day.

I can't believe I hadn't tried this before. I feel amazing and yet I can tell I'm detoxing. My sense of smell always becomes more acute when I detox. I also start to breakout and this time around I had the unpleasantness of hives on my upper chest, thighs and around my temples. Thankfully it was only temporary. I've had loads of energy which is what I needed, not a detox that makes me crabby and fatigued. I've been able to workout as well but I do get crazy cravings. Often for food I haven't eaten in ages like In n Out burgers. I have 5 days to go but I think I can go much longer. With the summer heat and the abundance of local produce this is a plan I could follow for a while.

Has anyone else tried a smoothie cleanse? How were your results? I've done Frederick Patneaude's smoothie cleanse but it excluded fats and salt all together. THAT was hard. That little bit of fat is the difference between me being hungry in 3 to 4 hours or starving in 1 hour. I've only been using a pinch of salt in my one smoothie. I've lost a lot of water weight and my arms look toned again just by cutting down the sodium.

If anyone feels like trying this plan let me know your results. I'd love to hear your experience with it. If you're looking for a good book on detox plans I also highly recommend checking out "Raw Food Cleanse" by Penni Shelton. Do you have a favorite detox book? Let me know!

Rawkin' Raw Vegan Interview

Check out my lastest interview! Great blog with great info.
Rawkin' Raw Vegan

Book Update

For those who haven't heard, I have spent the last 6 months writing a raw food recipe book for Quarry Books coming out next spring. I am proud to say I have just submitted my 100+ recipes and 40,000+ words on how to make some of the best food on Earth. I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to announce the title yet but I can say the first layout and cover look awesome so far. It's the recipe book I wish I had when I went raw and I think will become the go-to book for those looking to go all raw or just wanting to add healthy fare to their everyday diets. It's fully illustrated with step by step photos thanks to my very talented husband, Matt. I can't wait to share it with all of you. Right now I'll be spending the rest of the month doing a little editing but I'm looking forward to having more time to blog, make videos and teach classes as well as catch up on some reading and songwriting.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

NYC Icy

On my recent trip to NYC my good friend introduced me to NYC Icy, a legendary Italian ice-type dessert shop which had recently returned after a two year absence. Located in the east village on Avenue A between 6th and 7th street, NYC Icy offers unique flavors like mango-basil (so good), apricot-ginger, rice pudding, earl gray (wow) and chocolate-bacon (3 years ago I would have said yes) as well as classics like chocolate chip and fruit flavors.


What makes this so amazing is how true the flavors are. I had the grapefruit and it tasted exactly like the real thing but in shaved ice form. The owners say they use all natural ingredients and flavors (except for cotton candy) for all of their ices. Their lips were sealed on what exactly goes into them so I don't know what it's sweetened with but I like that they're not overly sweet. Their traditional ices are vegan but they also have cream ices which is similar to a light gelato.


Over the weekend I tried the grapefruit, lemon, pear, earl gray, purple carrot and mango-lime and fell in love with all of them. Definitely looking forward to coming back to NYC later this summer and trying some of their other 200 flavors.

Me vs. the fruit flies

Three years as a raw foodist and avid fruit eater, I've never had a problem with fruit flies until this past week. While I was out of town they infested my kitchen including sneaking into my fermentation crock and spoiling my sauerkraut. These wily little flies refused to leave with the garbage, finding refuge in a bouquet of flowers which I sadly had to take to the trash as well. Still, they hung around, so I went online to find a solution and discovered two simple methods.

Fly trap #1

In a small bowl add apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing liquid and leave at the source uncovered.


Fly trap #2

Fill a jar with a small amount of apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Cover jar with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in it.

Fly trap #2 was supposed to be more effective, according to the website I found, but #1 worked much better. By the next morning only a couple rogue flies remained while the rest had drowned. The apple cider vinegar smells like rotting fruit, attracting the flies, while the dish soap breaks the surface tension so that when flies come to sit on the surface of the liquid they get sucked in.

Hope this is helpful to anyone else who is battling flies, especially with summer just around the corner and more fruit coming into season. I apologize for anyone who might be offended by the killing of fruit flies. I did give them a couple chances to leave on their own and anyone who ruins my sauerkraut is pretty much asking for war.

Anyone else have a better solution?

The Elusive Cadbury Egg

For the past two years, Pure Juice & Takeaway in NYC has been carrying raw vegan Cadbury cream eggs around Easter time. Last year I missed out on them but this year I was lucky enough to be around to nab one for myself. Thought I'd share the experience since so many have read about it from Sarma's tweets and were probably curious as to what they were. The chocolate was smooth and dark and the center was a luscious coconut cream base. I couldn't figure out the yolk though. Turmeric? Mango? Whatever it was, it was delicious. My only complaint is that I wish it was bigger. Mmmmm...

Quarrygirl Goes Raw

The hilarious, potty mouthed and brutally honest vegan blogger, Quarrygirl, recently took a plunge into the world of raw foods. Quite surprising after her terrible experience at Pure Food & Wine on a recent NYC trip. Read here about some of the culinary delights she enjoyed on her one week raw trial. Would love to read a follow up post to see if she felt any of the health benefits.

Quar, we have a date with a raw pizza very soon!