Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. (2008)
Director - Robert Kenner

"The food we eat has changed more in the past 50 years than in the past 50,000 years" That is the opening statement from the movie Food, Inc. The movie then proceeds to prove it to you with an impeccably researched selection of facts, laws and interviews. Since I'm already a convert, Food, Inc. was preaching to the choir for me, but I learned a few things I didn't know already about the food industry.

One big problem seems to be the subsidy on corn (allowing it to sold for less that it costs to produce) and the over reliance on corn and corn products in our foods. Not to vilify corn, because corn is not evil of it's own accord, but the practice of corn growing, feed corn for animals and highly processed corn products are the root of so many of the problems we have today with health, farming and food production.

Particularly enlightening was the discourse on how the big food corporations manage farmers with constant requests for upgrades to their farms and equipment in order to stay in business with them. The one woman who allowed the movie makers to film her chicken house was fired by her employer for not upgrading her chicken house to the sort that has no windows. Personally I can't imagine spending an entire life in the dark but this is what most chickens have to go through these days.

Not so surprising, was the use of lawsuits to keep 'rogue' farmers in line. Monsanto (the geniuses who invented Roundup pesticide) in particular seems to have made an art out of this approach. Even farmers who never even bought their seed got sued for patent violation when their crops were contaminated by neighbors crops. And, keeping the seed from your own crop was a violation as well. I'm still a little outraged over that one. I mean, if you buy something, isn't it yours? Apparently not....

Food, Inc. got into some of the key players at the FDA and USDA as well. Many of the top jobs are being held by those who have been employed by the big food corporations. The government is populated by them as well. Donald Rumsfeld was a CEO for Searle (bought by Monsanto), John Ashcroft, a Missouri Senator, received record contributions from Monsanto, and Robert Shapiro, one of Clinton's advisers, was a CEO for Monsanto. Even Clarence Thomas (you know, supreme court judge Clarence Thomas) was a Monsanto attorney. He is the judge who wrote the majority opinion on forbidding farmers from keeping their own seed.

For anyone who is not so familiar with the business practices of Monsanto, lawsuits are their premier way of beating their competition to death. Click on the Monsanto link above to see a video on what horrible things they have been doing (compliments of the Organic Consumers Association).

The bottom line in all of this is that these big corporations are using their power to control the food supply to our detriment. Obesity, diabetes, cancer and a whole plethora of diseases are becoming epidemic in our country and it's becoming clearer than ever that the cause is the food we eat.

For a truly enlightening experience, go buy or rent Food, Inc. And then exercise your power and go buy something organic! Even big corporations have to bow down to the power of the pocketbook (err, wallet)!

Candida Killing Plan - In Process

It is beyond self evident to me at this point that unless I get rid of my Candida problems that going raw will be just keeping me ill as there is too much carbohydrate and sugar in a truly raw diet. And, since it is the carbs and sugars that feed the yeast, raw is going on the back burner for 6 months or so while I do the diet from The Body Ecology Diet book by Donna Gates. That is NOT to say that I won't be eating anything raw, I just won't be so heavy on the raw (fruit is going to go bye-bye too).

Ms. Gates promises that if you follow her advice, your health will improve. I'm going to take her at her word and give this whole business six full months to prove itself. If it doesn't work, I'll know by then (and probably far sooner than that). Truth Calkins also used her advice and diet to get himself out from under the Candida thumb. Click on the link for Truth above to see a video of him making a chocolate/coffee ice cream mousse concoction. Yum!

OK, so this is the plan, so far. I'll be following Donna Gates advice on what to eat to starve the candida to death AND I'll be following Truth Calkins advice on probiotics and minerals and things to rebuild my immune system. I got his information on Candida from my sister who has a subscription to David Wolfe's site, thebestdayever.com. For those of you unfamiliar with David Wolfe, he is one of the leaders in the raw movement/community. A brilliant lecturer, David has been at the forefront of the alternative health/nutrition world for over a decade. Definately worth checking out!

So, over the course of the next month I'll be quitting coffee (yet again!) and slowly easing my diet over to what Donna Gates suggests. This will set me up to be fully on the diet from the 1st of the year until my birthday in June. At that point I'll be reevaluating my situation and deciding if I need to stay on her diet any longer or if I can begin transitioning back over to the raw.

Expect the step by step outline of all of this soon. I'm busy taking my notes from the book and researching products online and will bring you all the gory details as they emerge.

Return to the RAW!

After what has seemed like an interminable absence, I'm now getting back on track. My excuse has been that I moved from my apartment into a darling house! I wasn't exactly planning to be AWOL for 2 months, but that is what it has taken to find the new place, pack up, move and then unpack. And, I'm still not totally done with the unpacking. I expect a few more weeks of cleaning, pondering and re-organizing before I can heave a sigh of relief and get back to a normal schedule.

And of course, (well, not of course, but in my case it was inevitable) I ran my diet off into a ditch and have been slowly getting it back on track. Not quite there yet as I'm still fussing over a few issues and having icky withdrawal symptoms from cooked and non-organic foods. I still haven't open up my juicer and Vitamix either. I intend to remedy that this afternoon. I hope to pull the kitchen together TODAY!

My sister came across some very interesting information from this guy named Truth Calkins about bringing candida issues under control, which I'll be trying out and sharing with everybody as soon as I can get myself under control and back on track. She gave me her notes on his lecture and it's full of good information on how he managed to rid himself of a candida infestation. Check him out on YouTube talking about his flu virus tonic and all sorts of other raw and health related goodness.

Truth has a tonic bar in the Erewhon Market in LA and now also has a company, Jing and Co. selling a yummy chocolate and jing herb brownie that helps give you energy. Lord knows I could use more of that! I hope to try them out and see what they're all about soon. You can pick up a 12 pack (with free shipping) for $57.95 (that's $4.80 a piece).

Have a groovy day babycakes, I'm off the organize the kitchen!

Tutorial: How to make Kombucha Tea

There are plenty of tutorials out there for making Kombucha, and now there's one more. Someday I'll do a video one for YouTube, but for now the written word will have to suffice. My main complaint for most of the tutorials I have read, is that they don't have enough pictures and don't follow through to the bottling process. If you've never cultured something before it can be a bit mysterious. Fortunately, Kombucha is really easy!

What is Kombucha? Well, Kombucha is a fermented tea made with a particular strain of beneficial bacteria. This bacteria produces a spongy mass commonly referred to the Kombucha mushroom, although strictly speaking, it's not a mushroom. The mushroom is where the bacteria lives and grows.

A lot has been said about the beneficial effects of drinking Kombucha. According to the Synergy web site, Kombucha helps the health "mostly through its influence on the liver, the blood and the digestive system, where it normalizes the acidity or pH. Metabolic balancing and detoxification is perhaps the most important function of Kombucha."

Lord knows I need more of that.

Personally, I love the stuff and feel more energized on the days when I drink it. You can drink 1-3 cups a day, but any more won't increase the benefit.


What you'll need:

• 8 green tea bags. I used Lipton, but your local health food store has some good organic ones. I also used 1 Numi organic iced tea bag in the Citrus Black flavor. Yum!
  
• a 1 gallon glass jar or sun tea jar
• 1 coffee filter - to fit over the mouth of your jar - 10 to 12 cup size
  
• 1 rubber band - to fit around the mouth of the sun tea jar
• 1 C. white sugar (you can use turbinado or organic too)
• 1 bottle of Synergy Kombucha and/or a Kombucha mushroom (I'm using both). You don't need a mushroom to start the culture. The Synergy Kombucha tea is enough.
  
• 1/4th C. apple cider vinegar (if you're making your first batch)
  
• a 1 C. measuring cup
• a wooden spoon
  
• 1 gallon of filtered water (you won't need all of it)

A few things to remember:

• Kombuch is alive and needs to be handled with clean instruments. Please wash your spoons, cups and jars with MILD soap and rinse thoroughly. Residues of soap will hurt your culture. Please wash your hands too.
  
• Prolonged contact with metals other than stainless steel will injure Kombucha as well. My Kombucha mushroom above is in a stainless steel bowl.
  
• Filtered water must be used because chlorine will kill the Kombuch culture.
  

Let's make tea!

• Put 6 C. of filtered water into a pot and bring it to a boil.

• Drop your tea bags into the boiling water, cover and turn off the heat. It's very important to turn the heat off, or you'll lose too much of your liquid and damage the flavor of the tea.

• Leave covered for 20 minutes.
• While the tea is steeping, put filtered water in your sun tea jar. I put 4 inches of water in the jar. This is to keep the jar from cracking when I add the hot tea. I'm too impatient to wait for the tea to cool so I use this method and haven't cracked a jar jet.
  

• Add 1 C. of sugar to the water in the jar and stir with your wooden spoon till it's dissolved.

• Uncover your tea and take out the spent tea bags. Let the tea cool for a few minutes more.

• Pour your tea into the sun tea jar and stir with the wooden spoon. Put your hand on the jar to see how warm it is. If it feels hot, wait a bit to put in the live Kombucha culture. The jar should be room temperature or slightly warm to the touch or the heat may kill the Kombucha.

• Once the tea is cool enough, add 1 C. of the Synergy Kombucha drink and stir a bit

• Add your Kombucha mushroom, if you have one. There should be room at the top of the jar for the mushroom to grow, so you don't want the liquid to go higher than the bend in the glass. If the tea seems low, you can add more filtered water.
  

• Add 1/4th C. of apple cider vinegar (if you're making it for the 1st time)
• Cover the mouth of the jar with the coffee filter and secure it with the rubber band. The Kombucha mushroom will rise to the top eventually and start making a baby mushroom on top of the mother.
  

• Put the jar in a warm spot (I have mine outside, in the shade of my orchid plants). The temperature should be between 72 and 90 degrees Farenheit. The warmer it is, the faster your culture will grow. No direct sunlight though, or it will die...
  

• Wait 7 days and then taste your Kombucha. It should have a pleasant sweet and sour taste and be fizzy. I've allowed my tea to brew for up to 2 weeks (it will become more vinegar-like with age) with no ill effects.

Don't despair if the top of your first Kombucha looks like something the cat barfed up. The culture takes a full week to get going and your first mushroom will be thin and a bit patchy looking. It may have some dark stringy stuff hanging down on the underside as well. No problem. That's a natural part of the culture.

• When your Kombucha is done, you can bottle it up with fresh strained juices. You will want to strain any fresh juice as the little pieces are unappetizing. Citrus fruits and berries are my favorite combination. You can put in whole berries and citrus peels too. The Kombucha will continue to ferment once it's in a bottle, just not as much once the lid is on. Be careful of Kombucha that has been bottled with fresh juice, as it will become VERY carbonated. Refrigerate it to keep it under control.

• Bottle only in glass bottles or jars with a tight lid. I just use old Synergy bottles and lids that I've run through the dish washer. It's not like the canning process where you have to sterilize everything. Clean and dry should be good enough. Just make sure you don't get your fingers in everything. Hands are really dirty!
  

• I have kept my bottled Kombucha for up to a year, unrefrigerated with no problems. If you have any doubts, just keep it in the fridge.

Voila! You've made Kombucha. Easy stuff too and sooooooo good for you. I highly recommend trying out the Synergy brand Kombucha tea. They make many flavors and all are delicious. My favorite is Trilogy. Even though I make it at home, I still buy bottles of Synergy. Yum-O!

Some day I hope to make as good a tea as they do!

Whole Foods Market carries Synergy as well as many health food stores across the nation. The Synergy web side can help you find a store in your area.

Revenge of the hydrogen peroxide protocol

After 2 days of my hydrogen peroxide protocol I awoke with a crushing exhaustion, headache, body aches and slight fever. Ah yes, a cleansing reaction. I spent all of yesterday confined to my bed, barely able to move. I started to feel a bit better in the evening and took a couple aspirin to help me get to sleep and then popped up again this morning feeling pretty good. Needless to say, I didn't take any hydrogen peroxide yesterday. I'll take some more tonight before I go to bed (as I forgot to take it this morning before my shake, oops). I did manage to have half my morning shake and a miso soup yesterday for sustenance, although I did have to moan my way through making the shake. Movement was still painful at that point.

Also, I forgot to mention that I did lose 11 pounds since beginning this sojourn. What the hell, only 160 left to go...

Thai style fish marinade

This marinade is good for any light fish type. I used salmon, but talipia would be lovely too. If you don't like things that are too spicy, leave out or reduce the hot pepper flakes. I got my dried shallots, keffir leaves and fried garlic at my local Asian grocery. Nama shoyu is usually found in health food stores. I included online links for you in case you can't find something.

• 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes
• 2 keffir lime leaves
• 1 TBS dried shallots
• 1/2 tsp fried garlic
• 1 inch grated fresh ginger
• Juice of 1 lime
• 3 inches fresh lemongrass - cut into 1 inch pieces and twisted to release flavor
• 2 TBS nama shoyu
• 2 TBS sesame oil
• 2 TBS agave syrup
• 4 TBS coconut milk

I marinated my salmon for about an hour and then popped it into a 375 F. oven for 35 minutes. If your salmon steaks are very thick you might need a few more minutes to bake them through. It came out fragrant and beautiful to behold. Yes, I'm a carnivore.

I served this up fragrant salmon with the Szechuan snow peas slaw from the Sunny Raw Kitchen.

Delicious!

Breakfast shake with tonic herbs

This makes a nice yummy shake filled with tonic herbs that are very good for you and taste good too. Please use fruit that is organic so as not to poison yourself with nasty pesticides. Very important. This shake is best made in a Vitamix, or some other high speed blender. Otherwise it won't be smooth and creamy.

• 1/3rd of a banana
• 1/2 orange
• 1/2 lime
• 12 grapes
• 5 strawberries
• 1 TBS dried unsweetened coconut
• 4 wedges of frozen peach
• 1/4th to 1/3rd C. unsweetened almond milk
  

The tonic herbs:

• 1/4th tsp Licorice root powder
• 1 tsp Maca root powder
• 1/2 tsp Ginger root powder
• 1 tsp Astragalus root powder
• 1/2 tsp Schisandra Berry root
• sprinkle of Cinnamon bark powder
• pinch Cayenne powder

These herbs have various qualities that I'm looking for to help with my physical issues. Click on the names to see what each of them have to offer. I'm hoping to strengthen my immune system, liver and adrenal function, and reduce my fibromyalgia with these herbs.

Blend the whole business together for 2 minutes and then add 4-6 ice cubes and blend till the ice is smoothed in.

Drink immediately!

Candidaisis and Weight Loss Protocol

So, I spent the last week flapping about like a freaked out hen trying to get a protocol together designed for weight loss and to tackle my candidiasis issue. I think I've settled on a plan of attack, which I'm hoping will work. I'm going to try it out and see what happens. I may have to make changes as I go along. This diet may be too heavy on the carbohydrates and simple sugars to adequately address candidiasis.

I believe that my weight problem is linked to my candidiasis problem, so without addressing both at the same time, nothing will come of any of this. I'm not one to waste effort. I also believe that candidiasis is responsible for my rediculous food cravings, adult acne, dandruff, vaginal yeast infection, hypoglycemia, intetrigo, chronic fatigue, mood swings, indigestion and brain fog.

That said, I'm giving you all the link to the candida protocol that I found online that seems the most logical to me. It give several different ways to take food grade hydrogen peroxide and talks about the benefits and the possible reactions you might have to taking it. Please note that I take full responsibility for what I'm doing and have not had the advice of a physician regarding this protocol. (nor do I want any)

Below (in green) is the protocol I'll be following, taken word for word from the site:

USING 33% FOOD GRADE HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (H202) - INTERNAL

It is suggested to take the below dosages either one hour
before eating or 3 hours after eating.

Use the dosages listed in the chart with 5 ounces of distilled or purified water. When reaching higher dosages, more water may be used. Take on an empty stomach, 1 hour before a meal and at least 3 hours after a meal. If your stomach gets upset at any level, stay at that level, or go back one level.

NOTE: Candida victims may need to start at 1 drop 3 times per day.

Dosage Schedule for undiluted 33% H202

1st day,use 9 drops ( 3 drops, 3 times/day)
2nd day,use 12 drops ( 4 drops, 3 times/day)
3rd day,use 15 drops ( 5 drops, 3 times/day)
4th day,use 18 drops ( 6 drops, 3 times/day)
5th day,use 21 drops ( 7 drops, 3 times/day)
6th day,use 24 drops ( 8 drops, 3 times/day)
7th day,use 27 drops ( 9 drops, 3 times/day)
8th day,use 30 drops (10 drops, 3 times/day)
9th day,use 36 drops (12 drops, 3 times/day
10th day,use 42 drops (14 drops, 3 times/day)
11th day,use 48 drops (16 drops, 3 times/day)
12th day,use 54 drops (18 drops, 3 times/day
13th day,use 60 drops (20 drops, 3 times/day)
14th day,use 66 drops (22 drops, 3 times/day)
15th day,use 72 drops (24 drops, 3 times/day
16th day,use 75 drops (25 drops, 3 times/day)

For more serious complaints stay at 25 drops, 3 times per day for 1 - 3 weeks. Next graduate down to 25 drops, 2 times per day until the problem is taken care of. This may take from 1 - 6 months. Don't give up!

When free of complaints, you may taper off by taking: 25 drops once every other day, 4 times 25 drops once every third day for 2 weeks 25 drops once every fourth day for 3 weeks A good maintenance would be 5 - 15 drops per week, depending on the amount of cooked and processed foods you are eating.

I had my first dose first thing this morning and felt no ill effects. I tried a different hydrogen peroxide product years ago and did myself in by drinking too much too soon and wanted to DIE from the die off. I was nauseated beyond belief and headachey and generally sick as a dog. It was my fault too, since I rushed the program and thought it wouldn't have such a big effect on me. I won't be repeating that debacle.

I purchased the food grade hydrogen peroxide online (which comes in a 33% solution and has to be diluted before use) and am very happy with my purchase. This in not something you can just pick up at the drug store. Do NOT use the stuff from the drugstore either! It has various chemicals in it that will make you very sick!!!

How can I be sure that I have candidiasis? Well, besides the symptoms that started when I took my first round of antibiotics (when I was 7), I took the informal at-home test.

When you get up in the morning (first thing before anything else), you spit into a glass of water. Normal saliva is clear and will not have any substance. Those with a candidiasis problem will have saliva that has long stringy stuff floating around in the glass, be cloudy and or sink to the bottom in a clump.

My nasty pictures are below:

Think I have candidiasis? Uh, yeah...

As you can see, there are the yucky stringy icky things floating in the glass of water that are described perfectly in this link. While it's not proof positive, it's good enough for me. You can go to your doctor and take a candida immune complexes test if you want to, but I'd rather not. If your doctor won't go along with testing you, you can always order one online for yourself.

My new daily routine:

Upon rising:

• take hydrogen peroxide in water
• wait 1 hour to eat breakfast

Breakfast:

• take blood stabilizer pills
• 1 fruit shake with tonic herbs (recipe to follow)
• wait 3 hours to take next round of hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide - round 2

• wait 1 hour to eat lunch

Lunch:

• take blood stabilizer pills
  
• Large salad with vegetables and salad dressing
• wait 3 hours to take next round of hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide - round 3 (last of the day)

• wait 1 hour to eat dinner

Dinner:

• take blood stabilizer pills
• small salad
• side of veggies of some sort
  
• small piece of fish or chicken

Before bed:

• chamomile tea

I'm not sure what role fruit type desserts, crackers, wraps and the like will be playing here. I'm getting an Excalibur dehydrator and will be experimenting with that over the next few weeks. I'm expecting a few spectacular flame-outs over that one...

I also plan to squeeze in a daily Kombucha tea. I'll be putting up a tutorial on how to make that as well, as soon as I can get myself together to write the darn thing.

Recipe Archive

The following is a complete list of all the recipes I've made and put up on my blog so far. I'll be adding to this list as I go along. Please note that not all these recipes are raw, as I'm only about 80% raw and still eating some animal protein and cooked food.

Appetizers

• Spicy lemon hummus
  

Marinades

• Thai style fish marinade
  

Salads

• Italian style tomato and avocado salad
• Greek artichoke and zucchini salad

Shakes and Smoothies

• Breakfast shake with tonic herbs
  

Soups

• Vegetable broth

Fermented Foods

• Kombucha Tea

Carnivore

• Greek Chicken Bake

Italian style tomato and avocado salad

I made this Italian style salad yesterday and it turned out rather well. This is reminiscent of the classic Italian tomato and mozzarella salad just without the cheese. When I get my cashew cheese done I'll do this salad again and see how it is with nut cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 large beefsteak tomato
• 1 half avocado - peeled and sliced
• 10 fresh basil leaves - cut into a chiffonade (stack the leaves, roll them up lengthwise and cut into thin slices)
  
• 1 TBS sunflower seeds
• Cold pressed organic olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• fresh cracked pepper, sea salt and dried Italian herbs to taste

Cut out the core of the tomato and cut it into slices horizontally. Arrange on a plate so that the slices overlap. Put an avocado slice on each piece of tomato. Salt, pepper and sprinkle with Italian herbs. Drizzle Balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the tomato's and arrange the basil chiffonade on top. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds.

Enjoy!

Off the cleanse and back on to food

A few hours after my lunch salad yesterday I had to run to the bathroom. I guess my stomach couldn't handle the greens because I spewed forth with a fiery green sewage that could only have been my lunch. Never has anything gone through me so fast in my life!

There's no doubt that my intestines have been cleaned out...

The fiery green sewage lasted until this morning when it finally petered out. I have decided to pull back on greens for a bit and stick with fruit and soup for a few days until my bowels have had a chance to normalize. In the meantime I'll be working on a few recipes that I'll be posting here to cheer me up on my Rawvenge adventure.

I found a couple wonderful raw food blogs that I want to share with you. The Sunny Raw Kitchen is written by a very lovely woman named Carmella Soleil who is living near Quebec with with Don, Kylo (puppy dog) and DaPuss (kitty). She has filled her blog full of enticing photographs and yummy recipes that inspire me to drool every time I visit. I simply must buy myself a dehydrator so I can try all of her recipes.

Her Super Caramel Chocolate Tarts, Cheddar and Smoked Veggie Pizza, Garlic and Dill Cheeze, Basil and Black Olive Pasta, and Black Forest Cherry Cake look heavenly! I'm hungry now just writing this.



This yummy nut cheese may get a try in the next day or two...


Next, there's a charming bloke from England, Russell James, who's a professional chef and is gracing us with mouth watering recipes like Maca Ice Cream and Cacao Crackle Sandwiches, Vegetable Samosas with Cucumber and Mint Raita, Pesto and Carmalized Onion Pizza, and Mushroom Curry with Parsnip Rice & Spiced Mango Chutney . Oh Lordy, I love a goumet meal and his recipes look just wonderful. I'll have to wait to get my dehydrator to try some of them though.

These killer ice cream sandwiches will have to wait for another day, as will the samosas and the pizza...

The Mushroom Curry below may get a try soon...


All these photos were borrowed from their respective sites and are not meant to infringe on any copyright laws. Each one links back to it's original page.

Many, many thanks to Carmella and Russell for inspiring me with their delicious recipes!

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Nine

Today is officially the last day of my cleanse! A roaring success so far to boot. I'll be re-introducing myself to food today as per the instructions of the Blessed Herbs.

First thing this morning I was yet again greeted with the unmistakable signs of mucoid plaque.

Unbelievable really. And after I got home from my morning errand run I got out more than double this amount. I'm still amazed at how much is coming out...

Today I'll be eating very small amounts, per the instructions of Blessed Herbs.

Breakfast:

• 1 coffee with soy creamer
  
• 1 small apple - chewed thoroughly and slowly

Lunch:

• I small salad with a bit of dressing

Dinner:

• Small piece of fish with some steamed veggies or a small salad

After breakfast, I went out to my local health food store to get some groceries and felt a bit light headed, even though I had my apple. And after dragging 4 bags of groceries and 6 gallons of distilled water up my flight of stairs, I crashed into bed for 10 minutes or so to recover. My salad and half a liter of water revived me quite a bit.

My lovely sister, Miss Priscilla, and her adorable husband Michael will be coming over here for dinner and so now I must go and get my salmon ready for their arrival.

I'll be working out my next Rawvenge move over the course of the next few days and will keep you posted on the next step in my plan towards health and weight loss.

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Eight

Today is the last day of my juice fast.Yippee!!! I admit I got a bit hungry today and am ready to be done with all this endless toxin absorber. I got out a lot more of the mucoid plaque today as well. It wasn't quite as impressive as yesterday, so I'm not bothering to show any pictures.

A total of 50 pounds of apples was juiced during this fast. And I made 4 double batches of the vegetable broth (that's 16 liters of broth) and drank another 10 liters of water during the last 5 days. Whew! No wonder I spent so much time in the bathroom.

There's quite a bit of the digestive absorber left and, according to the instructions, I'll be taking that until it's gone. Blessed Herbs says that I can get out quite a bit more mucoid plaque even after the fast is over if I continue to take all of the digestive absorber.

Oh joy...

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Seven

Success!

We have entered the muciod plaque zone! I was very pleased this morning to discover that my first movement of the day was an icky disgusting release of mucoid plaque.


Then, less than an hour later I got out over 24 inches more of the same disgusting stuff (some I left in the toilet bowl as the pieces were too small and slippery). That's a 24 inch ruler I put down next to the plaque to show how long it is. It's even more impressive when you consider that I haven't been eating and that ALL of what is coming out has been stuck up there for a really long time.


I've been rejoicing ever since! I'm really impressed with the efficacy of the Blessed Herbs product. I haven't had any discomfort; no spasms, cramps, hunger pangs, or sick feelings of any kind. So far everything has passed easily with no straining or constipation.

I can't wait to see what comes out next!

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Six

On to day 3 of the juice fasting part of this bowel cleanse!

I did not sleep so well last night despite the chamomile tea. I had to get up to go to the bathroom about 3 times and didn't get uninterrupted sleep. I'm tired today as a result and a bit cranky. I had my coffee and went straight into my first toxin absorber and now I feel better. The apple juice is nicely refreshing.

My bowels did a nice elimination this morning, but still no mucoid plaque. I know it's kinda gross, but I really want to get that stuff out. I need to see it to believe it.

The rest of today went as expected. I took all my toxin absorber rounds and finished up with 4 digestive stimulators and a cup of chamomile tea with liquid stevia. I'm still going to the bathroom constantly but I feel fine and haven't had a cleansing reaction yet. We'll see what tomorrow will bring...

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Five

I slept very well last night on account of the chamomile tea and felt quite well on arising. I needed to run some errands today, so I had my coffee and ran out to shop and hit the bank. I felt a bit light headed and goofy in the Wally-Mart, so I went right back home to get going on all my toxin absorber rounds. I felt better almost immediately once I drank the apple juice and had my first round of pills.

I also changed my coffee. I decided to make a half and half blend of coffee with Teeccino, which is an herbal coffee substitute. I bought the almond amaretto flavor and it's soooooo good! This particular blend contains: organic carob, organic barley, organic dates, chicory, organic chicory, almonds, natural amaretto flavor, and organic figs.

I also feel a bit dehydrated. All that water was good, but I also went to the bathroom about 25 times yesterday, so it didn't stick around.

This afternoon I got out a bit of mucus too. The first sign of what I hope will come in another day or two. I won't bore you with a picture of that...

I'm going to do everything just exactly the same as yesterday, except I'll take 3 digestive stimulators instead of 2. Gotta keep the bowels moving.

Today worked out well, despite the fact that I got a late start. I still feel good and haven't been having any major cravings either. The toxin absorber is quite filling and the vegetable broth seems to quell hunger nicely. I'm still going to the bathroom many, many times a day. No doubt this is normal because of the extra liquid I'm taking in. But, no mucoid plaque yet.

So far so good.

Recipe: Vegetable Broth

This is the double recipe for vegetable broth given by Blessed Herbs. It's very simple to make and quite delicious.


Ingredients:

• 4 quarts of distilled water
• 2 potatoes, scrubbed and diced
  
• 6 carrots, scrubbed and sliced
  
• 6 stalks of celery, scrubbed and sliced
  
• 2 onions, peeled and sliced

Bring the water to a boil in a large stockpot. Add the cut veggies to the water and turn the heat down so that the pot will simmer. Cover pot completely. Simmer for 40 minutes. Strain out all the veggies. Done.


You can add 4 TBS of Miso after you strain out the veggies if you like the taste of it. I do like the taste and think it adds a nice nutty flavor to this simple soup broth. I also added a couple drops of hot sesame oil to my bowl to give it a little bite, but it's not necessary. I just like the hot stuff...

If you want to make less, just cut the recipe in half. I ate up the single recipe in my first day, so I doubled it the next time. I don't really want to make it every day of my 5 day fast.

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Four

Today is the first day of the 5 days of juice fasting. I feel confident, now that I've worked out my issues with the toxin absorber, that the juice fast will go well even if I get some cleansing reactions.

Blessed Herb's literature says that you can experience headache's, itching, rashes, aching muscles and/or joints, fever, sweating, body odor, bad breath, mouth sores, appetite loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sleeplessness, tiredness or exhaustion.

Also, I may experience a deep cleansing reaction which would be a reappearance of old injury's or heath problems as my body works to heal these lingering weaknesses. According to them, a deep cleansing reaction mimics the signs of particular past experiences, but in a much shortened version and is preceded the day before by an "on top of the world" feeling.

They also say that these symptoms usually pass quickly. Blessed Herbs recommends an enema or colema made with peppermint tea for physical symptoms and chamomile tea for emotional swings.

According to Becky yesterday, I may have to increase my digestive stimulators as my elimination my slow down during the next 5 days. I decided to take 2 pills tonight instead of 1 to ward off that problem. I may increase my intake of the digestive stimulators by 1 pill a day to ensure that I continue to get good results.

My feeling about this is that it will probably take a couple days for me to start detoxing, and then I may get some symptoms. It would probably be good if I do, as I'd like this cleanse to do as much as it can for me.

I slept pretty well last night and feel just fine today so far.

The picture above has all five of my toxin absorber rounds, my extra water and digestive stimulator laid out and ready to go. This is all I'll be eating today except some vegetable broth that I'll be making in just a bit. Here's the recipe for that.

The plan is to start the day with a coffee and go directly to my first toxin absorber round. I'll do 5 rounds of toxin absorber (20 pills a round) with a 3 hours wait between each one. Two hours after the last round of toxin absorber I'll take 2 digestive stimulator pills and have a chamomile tea before bed. I'll also have a much vegetable broth as I like.

Well, I didn't have any hunger really. The vegetable broth was a big help in that regard. I had 3 bowls of it in between my toxin absorber rounds. Taking 100 pills was quite a challenge. It's quite a bit of work to juice 5 times a day (and clean up), make the veggie broth and take all those pills. I felt fine and am interested to see what tomorrow will bring. I capped off today with a double chamomile tea with liquid stevia sweetener. Very pleasant so far....

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Three

Well, the ginger toxin absorber was even more repugnant to me last night. I took too long to drink it and it began to gel up, making it even less palatable. I've already called Blessed Herbs again about capping the absorber up and am now waiting for the master herbalist to get back to me. Apparently we've had to go to the top to get the answer. I hope to God I can cap this stuff up and stay on track.

I was a little hungry last night, but I think it was a craving instead of real hunger. I saw popcorn on TV and immediately wanted some. The feeling passed without incident.

I forgot to mention that I've been having a cup of coffee every morning with soy milk. Apparently, it can be difficult to try to quit coffee during the cleanse. According to the literature of the bowel cleanse, they recommend a green tea, but I don't really like tea. I just switched to soy milk instead of cream. One cup is all that they allow.


Breakfast:

• 2 blood stabilizers, 1 policosanol and 1 chromium pill taken before the meal
• small bunch of grapes
• 1/2 of an avocado
• 1 smallorganic apple
  

Set timer for 3 hours.


Lunch:

• 2 blood stabilizers and 1 policosanol pill taken before the meal
  
• 1/4th C. spicy lemon hummus
• 1 C. carrots
• 1 small organic apple

Set timer for 3 hours.

Hurrah! I got a call back from Becky this afternoon and was cleared to cap up all the toxin absorber. She said that the Master Herbalist told her that the only thing to watch out for was bloating, which would mean that I wasn't digesting the caps well enough. No problem. I already know from my blood stabilizer herb pills that I was digesting them just fine. I know this because when I take them on an empty stomach, I'll feel the herbs churning in my stomach 5 minutes after I take them.

Here's my set up for capping the toxin absorber. The long ends of the caps are already in the Cap-M-Quik and the short ends are in the little glass bowl in the picture above. The toxin absorber is in the pyrex measuring cup. The empty packets are to the left.

Here, the 50 caps are filled and ready to get their little hats on. It didn't take too long. I'll have to go back to the health food store and get some more caps though, since I've got 3 more days worth of toxin absorber to fill.


I capped up 11 of the packets, enough to get me through the next 2 days, and came away with 215 size "0" pills. 215 divided by 11 = 19.5. So, each packet contains 19-20 capsules of matter. Quite a bit actually.


Dinner:

• 1 digestive stimulator pill taken before the meal
• 1 small romaine lettuce salad with shredded carrot and a bit of Greek dressing
• 1 egg
  

Set timer for 2 hours. Time to take the toxin absorber.

I took the 20 toxin absorber pills with 24 oz. of juice and water (8 oz. fresh organic apple juice and 16 oz. distilled water). It worked perfectly and I didn't have any bloating.

I admit that I was a little bit hungry today, but it wasn't too bad. Hopefully tomorrow won't give me too many problems in that area. I still haven't decided whether to take my blood stabilizers or not. I have to wait 2 hours after I take the toxin absorber to take them, so I'm not sure I really want to. I may not need to anyway, so I'm going to wait and see.

Off to bed....

Rawvenge Bowel Cleanse - Day Two

Welcome to day two of my first bowel cleanse. Fortunately, I've already had the required 2 good bowel movements today and will only be taking 1 digestive stimulator pill before dinner.

However, I got up to go to the bathroom about 6 times last night before I could go to sleep (the result of all that water) and got up much later than I had planned. My cure is to drink all my extra water early and get the peeing over with before I go to bed. Good plan, we'll see if it works.

I was not at all hungry yesterday, so we'll see how it goes today.

Breakfast:

• distilled water
• 2 blood stabilizers, 1 policosanol and 1 chromium pill taken before food
• 1 egg scrambled with 1/2 sliced onion and 1/2 sliced avocado
• small cluster of organic green grapes (instead of the juice)

I decided to forgo the juice today and have a little bit of fruit instead. I want to try to take the water plain instead of with juice and see if it's easier to finish off.

Set the timer for 3 hours. I'll be making lunch then.

Lunch:

• 2 blood stabilizers and 1 policosanol pill, taken before the meal
  
• distilled water
• 1 apple, peeled
• 1 pita bread, grilled and cut into wedges
  
• 1/2 C. spicy lemon hummus

Set the timer for 3 hours. Dinner time...

Dinner:

• 1 digestive stimulator pill taken before the meal
• distilled water
  
• 1 C. Greek artichoke and zucchini salad
• 1/2 pita bread, grilled and cut into wedges

Set the timer for 2 hours. Toxin absorber time.

After the gritty experience of yesterday's toxin absorber, I'm thinking that it might be wise to drink it straight down and not swish it around in my mouth. I was a bit grossed out by it yesterday. I may have to pill the stuff up and take it with juice instead. I may call the blessed herb people and ask if it's OK to do that.

O.K., so I called the Blessed Herbs people and they were very nice and helpful. I asked if I could cap up the toxin absorber and Becky, the woman I spoke to, didn't know the answer to that, but is having their expert call me tomorrow morning with the answer. If capping the toxin absorber is not an option they will send me the peppermint flavor absorber free of charge. Apparently the peppermint is less gritty.

I'll suffer through the ginger flavor again tonight and wait for the answer tomorrow.