Yesterday, Went to college and didn’t have any juices to drink for 6 hours after my mini-raw binge.On the way home, the urge for the ladies was quite strong. Managed to control it however and walked home just in time…My tummy really hurt before going although the movement was easy.

So I quickly made some notes to prevent the same mistake occurring.

Rule 1. Juice green rather than sweet. Up to 1 litre over a period of 1/2 to 1 hour. Slow drinking is best.

Rule 2. After a raw-binge…wait 3 hours, then have some juice to rehydrate.

Rule 3. To prevent constipation - add flaxseed meal to your salads.Please remember flaxseed needs 5 volumes the amount in water/juice to drink 1/2 hour after eating it otherwise it’ll plug up your system.

Rule 4. Aquababe - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID - The body can’t handle 2 litres of juice, followed by 1 plantain salad 1 hour later, followed by 500ml of nutmilk 1 hour later, followed by 1 8oz cup of kefir, 1 hour later, followed by 300ml of green juice. Too much dense raw over a 4 hour period of different kinds of food will send your poor tummy into a military protest. My skin also looked foul by the end of the day.

Rule 5. If you look like you’ve been through 2 much time in the sauna after you’ve binged, please rehydrate 3 hours later…Learn from it then take a long beauty sleep of 5-8 hours. That’s what I did, and my skin has repaired during the night.

Rule 6. Please eat light the next day…green juices 500ml at a time with no fancy fruit in it except maybe 1/2 a green apple. One light salad, for example (give your body time to recover from the binge blitz).

Rule 7. Get some exercise in..whether it’s a brisk walk or dancing..please do…to give your tum a workout - so it’ll happily evacuate rather than fermenting your binge til the next day. Cos raw gas fermented will smell like cheese if you’ve had sulphur in it…Never mind - you knew that didn’t you??!

Rule 7. Yes, I know I’m trying to put on weight, but even bodybuilders eat every 2-3 hours - not every HOUR!!

WEll, that’s it folks…. MINI RANT over…

Thanks for the compliments. To tell you the truth, most of what I’ve learnt has been from books, by people like Leslie Kenton, Gillian McKeith (12 Superfoods for Your Health), Bernard Jensen (Dr Jensen’s Guide to Better Bowel Care, also another of his write-ups - Juicing Therapy, Anne Wigmore (Wheatgrass and another -Sprouts), Udo Erasmus (Fats that Kill, Fats That Heal).

I couldn’t afford £500 to learn how to live the raw lifestyle as my nutritionist, Raw Food Chef, Jill Swyers suggested. So had to educate myself and learn what was right for me to get my body working in the right order. The main thing that she emphasised to me was ‘Green Juices’. I would need to have at least 6-8 8oz glasses a day at intervals during the day to rejuvenate.

That was 5 years ago and I went through phases of high juice, high raw and then some cooked then more cooked and no raw! I couldn’t help but notice - high raw = fine health, skin good, mood good. However, the problem was I didn’t want to lose weight. My skin always went dry on high raw, high juice. Also, I went through rapid weight loss which I really didn’t need.

So I read through Bernard Jensen’s book on juicing and discovered he mentions green veg drinks are gentle and rebuild the tissues. So you can start with those…Juicing therapy has recipes in there which are quick and easy to make. Plenty to get you started on juicing.

He has also written Blending Magic which talks about all different kind of blends you could do fruit/veg/nuts/seedmilks, etc.. Leslie Kenton has recipes in Juice High. Juliano’s Raw Uncook Book has main meals and bread, cracker, Raw Pizza,

However, I must add I bought these books 1 by one probably starting with Juliano’s recipe books and started making the ones that were simple and appealed to the eye. A book with good photos of how the meal’s meant to look like is an inspiration.

Basically, if you just remember that your body is 70% water, and makes water from liquid fat/protein you’ll be alright. I just discovered this on Monday night after 2 hours research on the net for why I had such dry flakey, winter skin. It turns out I’d the 2-3 litres of water I’d been drinking each day was NOT rehydrating me, but rather flushing the minerals/vitamins out of my system due to the fact that I was not drinking the body’s kind of water.

Also, the body has a high content of sulphur and this is what keeps the cell membranes elastic and not hard. I could relate to that. Not enough sulphur - dry flakey skin.

On Tuesday, when shopping for groceries, I kept all this in mind.

For liquid fat, I bought full fat cream raw milk (I make kefir from kefir grains with this) and also plenty of parsley (4 bunches a day) for parsley/carrot juice. Parsley has amino acids, protein and calcium. I saw Jenna’s almond nut milk and tried it…However, I quickly learned that my body prefers seedmilks with the hulls in. Only tend to use 1-2 kinds of fruit to flavour them + Virgin Coconut oil blended in. Eg, hempseeds 1/2 cup soaked overnight. Always soak seeds/nuts overnight so that the body can digest them better otherwise you’ll really find them very heavy!! And you might get zits….

For sulphur, fresh organic raw eggs - I drink 4 in the morning/4 at night. Also kefir has plenty of that.

To cut a short story long, I noticed a huge difference practically overnight..

I tried to do the customary face exfoliation - which was scratching my face over the loo seat every morning (pardon my french) - and the skin was so elastic and firm, it wouldn’t flake off. Bear in mind, I’ve been suffering from sunburn for 1 month so far and had a very peeley face up until Wednesday night.

Also, my skin tone returned to normal. Quickly figured would have to have juices throughout the day, juice blends throughout the day and my avocado/sprout guacamole with raw plantain throughout the day. You also need to grind flaxseeds with a small coffee mill (1 tablespoon over your salads so that you’ll have a complete bowel movement when you do go to the gents/ladies.

As long as you remember to start small with a good blender or food processor at least (they don’t have to be expensive - just good quality) you’ll have the tools to start you off. You don’t really need knives except a small kitchen knife. I use my cheap £40 food processor to cut/slice up my salads which I have daily.

When you graduate to Essene Bread, you’ll probably need a Vitamix though which you could save up for.

Try and invest also in a good juicer.

The books I’ve mentioned should explain to you the ins outs of raw/why raw/how to go raw/enjoy raw and look splendid not gaunt….

My…hope this mini-e-book helps!!

It’s Thursday afternoon,5th July and am loving RaW Living!

Breakfast consists of juices 4 x in the morning space 1.5 hours apart.

Went to gym at 12 noon and spent 10 mins on the ecliptical trainer (you know the one where you’re kind of climbing like a mountain at whatever speed or level you like - using your arms as well)

Then went to stretch or so I thought…5 mins into the stretching I realised I didn’t want to do the normal tummy routine…

Our Fitness 1st gym has a lot of dance music, which I love as I tend to freestyle a lot…so I did. Facing the window (felt a bit shy), I freestyled for 45 mins straight.

Don’t like to boast, but am quite a good dancer…people tend to watch and I pick up guys that way. Though haven’t been to a club for ages cos of my skin which has been aged by the eczema.

Well, today, some people came up to stretch and do tummy routines besides me…but soon left - did the skin on my arms and neck scare them?

Anyways, raw is fun and I had prepared a post-workout meal in advance: 1 raw plantain smothered in a hemp-coconut dressing…Put in mung/green/lentil/quinoa sprout with apple/cucumber (minced in food processor for 1 min)and of course lemon squeeze.

Well it was delish…funny thing is, am making these blends up without looking in recipe books… the ideas are just flowing!

Got home at 3.00pm and quickly made kiwi/cucumber/apple/sesame seed and hijiki sea veg blend…added olive oil to make it creamy, ginger and lemon squeeze to taste. All done in Vitamix which has liquid measure printed on the side…

At the moment, all my blends are coming up to 500ml to 1 litre. Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad - main thing is I’m mighty full when I finish!!

Skin ain’t flaking so much…dehydration caused by wrong water (even if it’s ionised, the body makes water from liquid fat - amino acids)..Just found out last Monday night..So carrot/parsley juice, seed milks, olive oil in the seed milks, liver flushing + sunflower seed pate’s on plantain - Here I COME!!

Er - must go before this turns into a mini e-book…

Here goes: 1 Banana
1 Apple
1/2 large avocado
Juice of 6 large carrots
Knob of ginger

Blend and enjoy

Well this is the basic version, but you can add 1/2 cup of sunflower sprouts and also 1/2 cup of ground flaxseed to make it thicker.

Also adding celery juice makes it more smooth.

Instead of the banana, you could use 1/2 a ripe plantain…same taste.

If you consume 1-2 8oz glasses of this over a 1 hour period before you go to bed…you will wake up with a beautiful complexion. Works every time, people will think you’ve got make up on!!

Didn’t want to throw away the carrot pulp so made a variation of Juliano’s Mango Essene Bread on pg 65.

Instead of wheatberry sprouts, there are sunflower sprouts
1 Green apple
Omitted the mango
1/2 cup of orange juice
2 handfuls of almonds (soaked last night)
Carrot pulp
The rest of flaxseed (soaked from 2 nights ago in hot water)
Cacao nibs….
1/3 cup olive oil
Handful of soaked sultanas

It’s very different from Juliano’s as there is carrot pulp and almonds which features heavily and also omits the honey (sweet enough!!)

I thought the cacao nibs might make it taste interesting. Blended everything except the flaxseeds in the food processor then made the dough smooth in the Vitamix.

Spread in glass oven tray then mixed in the flaxseeds. They tend to help the bread bind better.

Anyway, it’s been dehy-baking since 4 hours ago and is browning nicely. Smells heavenly…

Looks like I’ll make a big batch of this once a week so I can have a snack when I’m at college, or travelling on the train. Normally, I’d snack on a Snickers bar or crisps…(Naughty me!!)

My friends always love this when I make it, and are surprised when I tell ‘em it’s raw…

I guess it’s the only thing I’ll make in the oven, although I do like Juliano’s Real Toast…Very nice…only thing is it’s so nice, I finish it as soon as it’s made…

Yes, I’m slim with a big appetite

Went to bed, then woke up at 2.30am to make 500ml of almond nutmilk and goji berries….Was I full or what?

Finished the last bit of nutmilk this morning at 7.00am….Had a really nice sleep.

Woke up at 11.00am and had a cucumber/apple/celery blend.

Went to the shops for carrots/parsley and plantains

Came back at 1.30 and juiced 750 ml of carrots/parsley with lemon to taste. Yummy!!

Had another blend at 4.00 and am still having it besides me as I type this as I accidentally made 1 litre of the stuff…

It was 1 cucumber, 1 Green Apple (granny smiths), Juice of 1 fistful of parsley including stalks, 6 carrots juiced.

Blend cucumber/apple and add parsley and carrot juice. Oh yes, plenty of lemon juice to taste as this was a lot…Very interesting taste and quite thick cos of the parsley.

Am trying to have lots of juice/blends/smoothies and nutmilks to rehydrate myself properly. I have only been drinking lots of Saffron Tea and plain ionised water. It’s not enough. My body’s probably tipping in the alkaline balace and it’s PH needs to be corrected. Hence I’m getting a variety of food into my body.

The false wrinkles on my face are beginning to fade, and the deeper wrinkles in my neck need to be worked on. Skin still flaking, but I feel full of energy…

Took photos last night, want to see how I look from day to day on raw…

This IS Fun!!

Cabbage Mangos
Spring onions Bananas
Celery Kiwis
Mushrooms Blackberries
Cucumbers Avocados
1 African yam
1 Sweet potato Green lentils (for sprouting)
Ginger root Almonds
onions Pecans
Lemons Cacao nibs

Sunflower seeds
Hijiki Seaweed
Nori sheets
Quinoa
Goji berries
Coconut oil (for smoothies)
Hemp seeds
Alfalfa seeds (for sprouting)
Fine sea salt

Keep in mind I was totally out of food in the larder and fridge and freezer!!

Still to buy plantains and parsley, garlic.

Wanted to make something different -

Mango Sip recipe

1 mango (peeled)
1 teaspoon of cacao nibs
4 tablespoons of sunflower seeds and wheatberries (soaked overnight)+ 1/2 cup of the soak water
1/2 cup of blackberries
1 teaspoon of lecithin granules (to emulsify fats)
1 small knob of ginger root (skin on)
Lemon juice to taste
1 teaspoon of VCO
1 tablespoon of flaxseeds (soaked overnight in 3 cups of hot water)

Put the above in Vitamix blender. It is purple but looks nice in a glass.

Very interesting taste, mostly tasting of mango and lemon. Couldn’t taste the cacao nibs, ginger gave it slight twang. But I really enjoyed my first meal of the day. Sent chills up my spine!

This can be adjusted to suit taste, I love smoothies to taste of the actual fruit put in + lemon and ginger for taste.

Finally, discovered what makes my skin so dry and flakey…Too much water consumption and too many baths!! Apparently, my protein/fat to carb ratio was unbalanced (in favour of carbs). I should be having liquid protein and fat at every meal so that my skin can produce oils to nourish itself.

Being slim doesn’t help either. So my water consumption is now down from 2-3 litres daily to 2 8oz glasses, with lots of cucumber/celery juice instead. I’ll also be making nut/seed milks and drinking my beloved kefir which is pure protein/fat and good for the gut. Oh yes, avocado/sprout guacamole 2ce a day with salad.

Please bear in mind, I want to put at least 2kg on. So I’ll be having blends, smoothies rather that just plenty of juice.

Do stay tuned!!

I think the main problem for me was that I do NOT want to lose weight but want to gain it as I’m just 120kgs - er, my mistake, 63 kgs, I meant 120 lbs, 10 stone in the UK!!!(did I really say that? sorry, in London, we use stones for body weight measure) which is fine for 164m. Over the weekend, I’ve read rawmodel’s blog and also We Like it Raw’s website, but what really impressed me was all the podcasts for Supercharge Me! I’ve watched all of these just before typing this! Actually got goosebumps watching it from all the excitement I felt.

The burritos looked great, the coleslaw and even the green banana smoothie? Wow…Juliano’s RAW uncook book and other’s will be of great use. I must admit I do enjoy kefir from raw goat’s milk - to give me good skin tone as I’ve suffered 10 years with eczema with 30% to go. I need the goodness from it. The grains I got from the Kefir Shop in Scotland.

I’ve figured the way to maintain weight is eat dense raw food like avocadoes, sunflower/olive oil pate, chickpea/tahini over salads and banana based blends. Plenty of nuts/nut milk.

I know how to do raw carrot cake, but will probably cut down on the sweet stuff. Oh, yes, I drink Moor Mud and Terramin clay as well…I’ll post daily my recipes and what I’ve learned from Jenna

Real inspiration!