Turning Points to Health

The turning point in my life was when I purchased a Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre in 1994.  I had wanted a high powered blender for some time, as I inherently knew that I needed to include more raw food into my diet.  I could see the advantage of blending a whole pile of fruit, leaves, etc and just chugging it down.  At that stage I was 40 years old and suffering from various maladies.  These ranged from horrible PMS that lasted at least 2 weeks of every month, drinking too much alcohol and popping sleeping pills every night.  I was a mess.

I purchased my Vitamix from my daughter’s friend’s mother, Colleen Thornhill.  Meeting Colleen and her husband Mike, and purchasing the Vitamix changed my life almost immediately.

I became a vegetarian within two weeks of purchasing the machine and increased my raw intake by at least 70%. I blended smoothies every morning for myself and the rest of the family.  I took a flask of the stuff to work and basically just had fruit all day.  Supper was a big salad.  I lost weight, strangely enough, even though I was already very slim.  I dropped from 50kgs to around 44kgs, and kept this low weight for about 3 years – slowly stabilising and creeping back up to around 47kgs, which is my current weight.

For the next three years I still drank alcohol, but less so and still took sleeping pills, sadly, but I felt much better all round and I no longer experienced PMS, which was a huge relief.

In 1997 we left South Africa, and this was another turning point in my life.  My husband and I both gave up alcohol.  Two years later we moved to Saudi Arabia, and it was there that I decided to give up sleeping pills.  This was exceedingly difficult, but since I was not working, it seemed like the right time. Within 6 months I was able to sleep without any chemical aid.

A year later we moved to Dubai.  Here I increased my raw intake to around 95-100%, exercised every day on my rebounder (a gift from Colleen and Mike) and felt like I had evolved into the me I was meant to be.

At this point I purchased a distiller and a dehydrator. I wanted to be sure the water I was drinking was as clean and pure as possible. The dehydrator was to add other textures and flavours into the raw diet.  Dried fruit is my passion! I eat far too much of it.

I am now 56, and incredibly happy and well.  I have amazing energy and never get depressed, even if things do go wrong!

I highly recommend to anyone embarking on a ‘health crusade’ to seriously consider going ‘raw’.  Somehow raw food vitalises the body.  Every cell seems nourished, content and happy. If all the parts of the whole are well, it stands to reason that the whole being will be well too.    The easy way to do it is with a blender, particularly initially.  It is so easy to blend and chug.  Purchasing a juicer is also a good idea, but I have not yet done so.  I tend to only juice oranges and have a cheap little juicer for this purpose.

I also highly recommend exercising on a rebounder (or mini trampoline).  I bounce/aeorobicise on my trampoline every morning for 30 minutes to very upbeat, trendy music.  It is a great way to start the day and excellent for encouraging elimination, and of course keeping fit and trim.  The other benefit I have noticed is that I now have really good balance.

 

 

 

Recipes for a Raw Coconut Smoothie and a Raw Yoghurt

Do you do Raw and miss yoghurt or perhaps you just do not do dairy. Young coconuts make an amazing smoothie, and then if you like you can go one step further, and make some raw, non dairy yoghurt.

South Africans from western descent are not that familiar with young coconuts as these are truly tropical fruits. This was the situation until recently where you can now even find young coconuts in Cape Town to satisfy the needs of raw fooders and others that have fallen in love with this delicious fruit.

So exactly what do you do with the young coconut to make a smoothie or yoghurt.
First you need to open the coconut. Now this does involve you investing in an inexpensive machette Be sure that you know what you are doing cause this is a really lethal weapon. I have seen Mozambican guys that make opening them look like childs play. It takes a certain knack.

Then, scrape the coconut ‘meat’ out (see video) and place the meat into a super blender such as a Vitamix or Hi-Blend Multi Speed, together

 

 

The recipe reads
2 cups young coconut meat (2-4 coconuts)

1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut water, (you might need more coconut water to thin the mixture down)

Directions

• Place the coconut meat and coconut water in a super blender and blend until smooth. Add extra coconut water if necessary.
• Add the pro-biotic powder and blend lightly ( just enough to mix the powder in)

You now have a stunning coconut smoothie. If the coconut milk and meat was not refrigerated then cool the smoothie off in the fridge before serving.

To make the Raw Coconut Yogurt 

Take the

Place the coconut cream in a glass jar with a lid and allow to sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Stored in the refrigerator will keep up to 1 week.

Growing Sprouts -Overcoming Problems

THIS IS A GREAT LITTLE SPROUTER!

The thing about sprouting it seems, is that it comes easy for some and is really difficult for others, pretty much like caring for plants does.

The bottom line is that sprouts ARE little plants and require the same growing conditions as all other young plants.

• 1st and formost the seed needs to be fresh – then they need
• Sufficient moisture
• Sufficient Airation
• Sufficient drainage

So, if your sprouts have not enjoyed these ideal  conditions then you probably experienced sprouts that:

• Dried out
• Became a smelly pool of slush
• Grew just great but then suddenly were covered in cobwebs of mould

Sound familiar?

Well I too have experienced the above disasters and have been searching for an inexpensive sprouter that would work for just about everyone. You know there are always those very odd, non-greenfingered people out there that could just kill any plant. Besides those really odd ones this sprouter will work for everyone. The sprouter I found was actually manufactured in the USA (not China) AND was manufactured from a BPA-free plastic. I was really taken by the design which is astounding! It just gives the sprouts pretty much everything they need. You will need to assist with a little rinsing now and then but otherwise this puppy is almost maintenance free.

Lets get to it…. You can buy it from Healthmakers – here is the link, and for the rest,  keep your eye on this blog to watch the video we will make of how to grow sprouts in the Easysprout.

 

In the meantime here is a visual of how to grow the sprouts.

 

 

Start with fresh seed and your Easysprout inner growing container with vented bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easysprout provides you with a special insert shown here on the right. This is placed into the growing container when you are sprouting small seed such as alfalfa or red clover to prevent them falling through the vents at the bottom of the container

 

 

 

 

 

Simply fit the insert into the bottom of the growing container as illustrated

 

 

Measure the seed in the dual use domed vented cup with measuring graduations in ml.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pour about 50ml seed into the growing container

 

 

 

Fill with water and leave to soak for a few hours or overnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place the vented dome lid into the growing container as illustrated. and place the growing container into the outer container. You will notice that the growing container has ridges so that when the inner container is correctly in the outer container, it will stand proud allowing convection air flow. This is Essential to perfect sprout growing and what make the Easysprout sprouter so unique.

 

Rinse when necessary – sprouts needs to be moist – not wet. After rinsing ensure that they are allowed to drain well and that the water in the outer container is poured out. Under no circumstances should the sprouts be left lying water.

In as little as 3 days you can have magnificent sprouts.

Also supplied are a solid lid and a vented lid for storage in the fridge

 

This is a stunning new Sprouter – for even more info go to http://healthmakers.co.za/store/easysprout-sprouter.html

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