Stark Natural

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Well, we ended our cleanse after five days.  I think we could have done better, but oh well.  We did what we could do:)

We just completed the fourth day of our cleanse.  It’s been pretty easy thus far because we’ve been drinking fresh juices.  Tomorrow is our last day of juices, and then we go five days on herbal tea and water.

Up until now, I’ve just had a few headaches, and a white tongue from the detox.  My husband and I rode our bikes 15 miles today, too.  It was hard, but we surprisingly had a lot of energy.  We figured it was because we weren’t eating:)

Today is the first day of my summer fast.  I do a 10-day cleanse/fast every two months, by the way.  The last time (April), I used Stanley Burroughs Master Cleanse, as my guide, which most people are familiar with because it helped Beyonce lose weight for her movie Dreamgirls.  You basically drink cayenne pepper-infused lemonade sweetened with grade B maple syrup for 10 days while chugging sea salt water in the morning after you wake up and sipping laxative tea before you go to bed.  Its tough, but totally worth it because you feel amazing afterward, and your skin absolutely glows.  But after your go through ten days of flushing out your body’s toxins via your tongue and anus, the after effects of looking radiant are totally deserved. I prefer to fast with just distilled water, but for me, that method has proved to be extremely difficult.  I get so cranky, and have actually yelled at my husband for no reason due to my frustration during a prolonged water fast.  

This time around, I am in London, and its been really difficult to get the things I need for my fast.  Distilled water, for example, is non-existent here.  So is grade B, organic maple syrup.  So my approach is to take herbal tea, and some fruit juice for the first five days, and then try to do five days of water fasting.  This should be interesting, as I have been craving Indian food all day.  The Indian food is AMAZING here.  My husband, Kale is doing the fast with me, which is great.  It’s so nice to have a partner in crime!  We are also planning to have a couple silent days where we will not talk at all.  Complete silence, meditation rest.  That should be interesting.  I’ll check in throughout the next 10 days to update our status.

Let me close with saying I do not fast to lose weight.  I do it to give my body and digestive tract a rest, to clean my cells and to rejuvenate.  It’s truly a treat, and a great way to pamper yourself.  

Peace and love:)

Go Vegan, Save Planet:)

The activity known as “Guerrilla Gardening” happens when an environmentally conscious individual takes over an otherwise abandoned or neglected space of land, be it large or small, to plant seeds that will grow into trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables or anything else that is aesthetically and environmentally pleasing.  The concept has been around for a while, and supposedly it had its beginnings in New York.  However, I’d never heard about it until I visited the UK.  

I was actually able to practice guerrilla gardening while I was in Bath.  It was such a rush to sneak out after 11 at night with our sunflowers, water buckets and pitchforks.  When we were finished planting, I had such a great feeling.  Although we had done something technically illegal, we had done something good for nature.  Somehow I think nature trumps the justice system:)

There’s a Web site, www.guerrillagardening.org, that I would encourage anyone interested in starting a guerrilla garden, to visit.  When Kale and I get back to the states, we have big plans for any neglected public spaces in or around the city of Denver.

Llamas only have bottom teeth.  Just thought you might want to know…

Although vitamin supplements may have a beneficial short-term effect in very few cases, there is no reason to use them on a daily basis for nutrient replacement.  As long as your daily intake of fruits and vegetables is abundant, you are receiving nutrients in the way nature has provided them to you.  Thank you nature!  According to Dr. T. Colin Campbell, “There is not one nutrient you can purchase in pill form that cannot be better obtained in it’s original form.”  You are very smart, and capable, but you will never be smarter than nature, so don’t fight it.  Just go with it, eat with it, enjoy it and be thankful for it!

Please also don’t go trying to outsmart nature by eating a diet high in animal-based fat and protein while popping your synthetic multi-vitamin in the morning.  Your synthetic multi-vitamin will not provide your body with nutrient-enrichment. It may give you expensive urine, but that is about it, and do you really care that much about the value of your piss?  Ditch your crappy supplements, and spend that money on organic fruits and vegetables.  You’ll be a lot better off:)

Also - please do not think you are receiving the vitamins and nutrients you need from animal-based foods.  Although there are some vitamins lodged inside the tissues of our forest and marine friends, most of those nutrients come second hand from the plant-based diet they eat.  Why get your nutrients second-hand when you can go right to the source?  And please don’t say, “because it tastes good,” because in the words of Jules, Samuel L. Jackson’s Pulp Fiction character, “sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know ‘cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherfu**er.”

If my rant hasn’t been convincing enough, consider the results of a study on beta carotene and lung cancer that was released in the mid 1990s.  Beta carotene is a powerful antioxidant that turns to vitamin A in the body.  It is ONLY found in plants, and has been shown to reduce the risk of several diseases.  Because of beta carotene’s beneficial effects in the body, the supplement industry started extracting it out of its natural habitat (vegetables and fruits), and placing it in the form of a synthetic pill.  As a result of this craze, there was a study conducted in Finland over an 8 year period that set out to test the effect beta carotene supplements had on the development of lung cancer. The results showed an increase in lung cancer for individuals taking the beta carotene supplements.  To put it another way, taking beta carotene supplements increased the risk of lung cancer!  The same study showed a decrease in the rates of lung cancer for those who consumed plant-based foods that were rich in beta carotene. This was the study responsible for the beta carotene supplement industry’s collapse. Sort of makes you think…well, it made me think.  I encourage you to visit the T. Colin Campbell Foundation Web site for more information, classes, and an entire network of people demonstrating optimal health on a plant-based diet.  There is no financial interest here on my part.  I simply want to encourage health, wellness and a nice, long, disease-free life for all:)

Peace and love!

xo

Wake up, America! You’re dietary habits have proved ineffective, and it is time you do something about it. For several years you have been told to eat a diet rich in animal-based foods. After following the “experts” advice you’ve wound up in the hospital, or on maintenance medications to treat your heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, IBS, Obesity and autoimmune diseases. When are you going to realize that whole-food, plant-based nutrition is the answer to all of this unnecessary sickness? You are not this way because of genetics. You are this way because of your toxic environment. What you are eating is making a huge contribution to your poor health and poor quality of life. You have the tools to take responsibility for your wellness and achieve optimal health.

Did you know that people who consume a whole-foods, plant-based diet experience better health than those who consume an animal-based diet with refined carbohydrates? It’s been scientifically proven. A plant-based diet has demonstrated reversal of heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, etc. The reason these findings are not widely advertised is economic. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who will lose money if Americans exude health instead of sickness.

I encourage you to do your research and become familiar with the studies conducted by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Joel Fuhrman and John Robbins. Their research will convince you that a plant-based diet is the way to greater health and wellness.

Many recent studies studies, according to the T. Colin Campbell Foundation, indicate a decrease in osteoporosis for people who eat a plant-base diet. A diet high in animal-based protein will increase the acidity in your blood. Because the body strives to be slightly more alkaline, the bones will release calcium into the bloodstream in order to regulate your body’s pH. The calcium released by the bones is then excreted in the urine.

According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, multiple studies have linked osteoporosis to diets high in protein, salt, refined sugar, caffeine and phosphorus, all of which cause an excessive loss of calcium in the urine. Therefore, he concludes, osteoporosis should be seen as just another one of the diseases that is linked to our rich, highly refined, high protein, high fat, modern diet.

Individuals who eat a plant-based diet have a much lower rate of osteoporosis because they are already eating alkalizing foods that allow their bones to hold onto its calcium. Plant-based foods provide phyto-nutrients that contribute to bone health as well as body pH regulation.