Search This Blog

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Day 67


Thoughts: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2010! Wow!

I have had emails from people saying "How did you do it? Start the Earth Diet? How did you stick to it?". The first thing I did was declare my 5 year binge eating spree complete. I was over it. Truly. Tired and bored.

1. Declare your old habits and your old ways of being complete.

Even if you don't believe it, declare what you want. What do you really want? And what are you committed to? For example I declared on Saturday at 10pm that I will start the Earth Diet for 365 days and am eating only foods born from the earth, and I am committed to losing weight, feeling great and being healthy and looking hott! There is nothing wrong with wanting to look hott by the way. We have been conditioned to think that looking hott is the highest place to live and wanting to be hott is selfish and indulgent. Well guess what...we ARE selfish and indulgent!!! Heheeee! Life is abundant and we can create anything! If looking hott is what you want, then play that game, own it and create it!!!

2. After you declare it to yourself and the universe, share it with others. Make your declaration real.

Share it with at least 5 people what you are doing and what you are committed to. For this to work you want the people around you to know who you are being NOW. Otherwise they will keep relating to you like your old habit. Sharing it with others also helps because they hold you accountable for what you declare. Also now it's not just a great idea whirling around in your head, it's out there, in other people's head wat you are doing, so confirms it strongly!!! You are making it into a reality by sharing and telling others about it!!!

3. If you want to win the game you have declared, play it fully!

If you declare "I will eat only fruits and vegetables today" then do it. "I will eat an apple a day for 3 weeks" then do it! Do what you say you are going to do. You will impress yourself, be proud of yourself and love yourself!!!

Simple existing on this earth is fabulous! And playing all these fun games that we declare is even more amazing!!!

Challenges: Today no challenges.

Triumphs: Making declarations!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Beetroot, apple, carrot and celery and ginger juice. Chocolate balls.

Lunch: A salad with green lettuce and advocado and garlic slices with lemon and olive oil dressing.

Dinner: 2 green apples. some almonds.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: no snacks.

Recipe: Recipe for the chocolate balls (the best ever natural and raw chocolate balls!!!) is in earlier blogs.

Exercise: Chillin today!!!

299 Days To Go!!!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Day 66


Thoughts: It's new years eve! New years resolutions are dumb. I guess they are better than no resolution though right. I used to wait until a Monday to sart something new, or tomorrow. I would break moments up into time and days and weeks "in october i will start this." A friend once asked me "whens a good time to do it now?" NOW!!! For 5 years I kept saying "I will never binge again from tomorrow, or from Monday, or I'll wait until the new year." Now I do it now! There is no waiting. What if I suddenly died? I don't want to die miserable.

Challenges: Oh man...today I rushed to the toilet many times. I was pooping up a storm...and it was not fun, it was runny and full of nuts and I felt like I was going to throw up all day. Do you check out your poops? It's the worst I have felt since I have been on the Earth Diet. I feel like I have been eating too many nuts lately. When I thought about nuts today my stomach quenched at the thought of eating them. You know when you throw up and you know what food upset your body because when you think of it you think eewwww! Nuts are a good protein source, and an excellent fuel because of their fat, and to a lesser degree, carbohydrate, content. People recoil at the mention of the word 'fat', but we have to remember that fat is just a fuel to burn in daily activity. If our energy budget is right, the intake of fats and carbohydrates are burned up in daily activity. It is only when we eat too much of anything that trouble starts. Overlaid on this is 'good fat, bad fat'. Nut fats are good because they are unmodified. Some may have useful contributions of omega-3 , sadly deficient in an industrial diet. Some have high amounts of monosaturates, also useful for regularizing blood lipids and protecting from cardiovascular deterioration. Whole nuts 'burn slow', and help equilibriate appetite, damping down 'calory cravings'. In a natural diet, using nuts as an important part of the food mix, and coupled with exercise, it is possible to lose, not gain, weight. Again, excess calories, from whatever source - sugars, starches, fat, or oil - over and above your energy expenditure, will be stored as fat. Nuts in themselves are not 'fattening', lack of exercise and overeating any carbohydrate or fat is fattening. So I guess it was too much fat for my body to handle and so it got rid of it.

Triumphs: When I felt sick today I said to mysef and shared with Steph, "I will have a new body in a few hours" and so I kept breathing in new fresh air, breathing in a new body and breathing out the old body. Nothing stays the same way for a long time. Our body is constantly changing and transforming with each breath. We have the ability to heal ourselves. It was great to be with my body and heal it.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 4 chocolate balls. green apple.

Lunch: raw carrot. juice, beetroot, carrot, celery, ginger and pineapple.

Dinner: Fried Salmon with miso soup (no tofu) with green tea.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: no snacks.

Cost: $13 for salmon from the best ever Japanese restaurant in the world!!! Yep! It's in Surfers Paradise.

Exercise: walking around surfers and dancing up a storm in the nightclubs for new years eve.

299 Days To Go!!!

Day 65



Thoughts: Are we all chasing hapiness? Someday I will be happier..I will be happier when...once I do this then I will be truly happy. I got to the root of why I was doing what I was doing when I was bingeing for so many years. I believed that if I would eat really healthy and little during the week that I would lose weight and be skinnier and therefore be happier. And then at the end of the week I would be so starved and over it and binge on junk food thinking I'm stupid and there's no way I can do it, be skinny and happy. It was a vicious circle for years. Get to the root of why you are doing what you are doing, eating wise. Are you eating foods that make you feel good, or make you feel worse?

Smiling and hapiness are so infectious. If you look after yourself and your health you impact everyone you meet.

Challenges: Why would we eat foods that make us feel worse?

Triumphs: Transforming old habits. Habits get so boring after a while! Day 65 on the Earth Diet!!! Wooooo!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: juice, beetroot, celery, ginger, carrot, pineapple.

Lunch: Nuts, lots of nuts. Walnuts. Macadamia nuts. Brazil nuts. Goji berries.

Dinner: Boiled rice. Fried salmon fillet.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: no snacks.

Exercise: Walking around Surfers Paradise.

300 Days To Go!!!

Day 64



Thoughts: Die to the past every moment. You also die to your body every moment. When you turned 5 years old, you died to you 4 year old body. This is exciting because if you have a dis-ease in the body, or cancer, or illness, in every breath you can breathe out the old body and breath in a new body. You cells are always being replaced with new ones. If you are overweight you don't have to become resigned that you will always be like that because your body is constantly changing with each breath. The body is pure consciousness.

Deepak Chopra's book "Power, Freedom, Grace" is one of the best books I have ever read, and it's perfect for anyone with an eating disorder, weight issues, overweight, underweight, has a negative conversation with your own body and self, anyone wanting to be healthy, lose weight, feel great, look great, look glowy and charismatic! And all these things will happen, and first you need to alter your consciousness. As a result you will create the body and temple how you want it. No more fad diets or extreme detoxing. Ever notice how one diet you went on you thought "This is it, I will be healthy from now on, I will stick to it, I will lose weight and then be happy and I will never put on weight again". Then you break the diet and go back to your familiar ways of being and acting and you start bingeing again and think "Oh now I've wrecked it, I may as well fill up now, I will start the diet again in a few days". Only to repeat this cycle again and again and again! Reading this book will break that cycle! Strongly strongly reccomend reading this book!

Challenges: Dying to my old body with each breath.

Triumphs: Dying to my old body with each breath.

What I ate Today:

Breakfast: Nectarines. Chocolate balls. Goji berries.

Lunch: Juice, beetroot, carrot, celery, pineapple and ginger.

Dinner: Advocado, carrot, and green apple. mmmm rawness.

Exercise: Dancing in the morning to wake up my body and walking around Surfers Paradise.

303 Days To Go!!!

Day 63



Thoughts: Be thin to cut cancer.

I found this interesting article online today "Even those who are not overweight should slim down if they want to cut their risk of cancer."

The World Cancer Research Fund carried out the largest ever inquiry into lifestyle and cancer, and issued several stark recommendations. They include not gaining weight as an adult, avoiding sugary drinks and alcohol, and not eating bacon or ham. Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight. EAT FOODS BORN FROM THE EARTH!!!

Cancers of the colon and breast are some of the most common forms of the disease, and the report says the evidence is "convincing" that body fat plays a key role in the development of these tumours.

The report also links the kind of food consumed to cancers, especially colorectal ones.

In particular, researchers say people should stop eating processed meats, such as ham, bacon and salami, and limit the consumption of red meat to 500g a week - although this still means you could eat, for instance, five hamburgers each week.

My conclusion: I am what I eat. If I eat chemicals I will create an accumulation of chemicals in the body. I create my own cancer. It doesn't just happen to me. EAT ONLY FOODS BORN FROM THE EARTH! It is possible to not eat man made foods, processed and packaged. We don't need them. And we are naturally all slim and healthy. Anything else is what we have created.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7069914.stm

Challenges: No challenges today.

Triumphs: I create my own health.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 2 nectarines.

Lunch: Raw advocado and carrot. Juice pineapple beetroot celery Ginger and carrot.

Dinner: Advocado with walnuts and macadamia nuts. Apple and a pear.

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: 3 nectarines.

Exercise: Walking around Surfers Paradise.

304 Days to go!!!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Day 62

Buy free range lettuce.

Thoughts: My fellow universal earth child friend (hehe) Jonathan Stone sent me a text message today "Has your sense of reality and spirituality changed? (since the Earth Diet) are you able to feel and see canges in energy?". I wrote back "Yes, and I have to say that the question is amazing and you are a very enlightened being having asked that. I feel more connected to me, my temple is now clean, my body is showing heath beause thats who i am, my self expression is health and so all the chemicals and additives and trace of processing machines are being stripped out of my body." He wrote back "Has your vibrational energy for manifesting things increased?". I wrote "Yes things are flowing with ease and grace". Funny how food can really impact ones life. We are what we eat. If we eat chemicals, we become a walking chemical, craving more chemicals.

And the next day Jonathan sent me another text "Decided to go organic for 1 month. I'm going to feel awesome. Lol". After a month I will write a blog about Jonathan and his organic adventures! See for yourself the dfference it makes in your life.

Challenges: Patience. I know my body is still adjusting to the new Earth Diet, and my processed, chemical body is dying everyday. Every moment. I just want my body to be real. Like me. Real foods make a real outside. I was puffy and had fat wobblies on my body. Those aren't me. Those are preservatives and chemicals and process machines.

It's weird that they put lettuce in plastic. It's like its wrapped up, being contained, like chicken in a cage. Buy free range lettuce if you can, just as it is. Avoid foods that have been packaged. The less human touch the better!

Triumphs: I love enjoying such wholesome healthy foods. Like actually enjoy eating them. I love it when the chia seeds get stuck behind my teeth and my tongue has to work at getting them out and they feel like soft tadpoles in my mouth. Clear on the outside and crunchy seed it the middle. That's what they felt like.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Juice, beetroot, ginger, carrot, apple and celery.

Lunch: Chocolate balls, walnuts and goji berries.

Dinner: Salad with green lettuce, advocado, spinach, olive oil and chia seeds and lemon.

Dessert: Chocolate balls.

Dessert: 4 nectarines!!! how many nectarines in a day can you eat? Oh god now I'm promoting consumerism! Heheh!

Snacks: no snacks.

Exercise: A little skateboard and walk in Surfers Paradise!!!

303 Days To Go!!!

Day 61



Thoughts: Peace is giving up that there is something wrong. My beautiful friend Steph said this to me today and I got present to how easy it is to create peace for myself. In relation to food, for so many years I had it that I was wrong and what I was eating was wrong, and I was eating to much and it was wrong and my bingeing eating disorder was wrong. Those thoughts didn't help at all, it just created more "wrongness" and guilt and no peace. If you are overweight, wobbly, underweight, have an eating disorder, it is not wrong. If you state what is, for example "I have a binge addiction for junk food". That's all it is. It is not "I have a binge addiction and it's wrong". When you simply state what is, the "wrongness" disapears and you have peace. I know from the emails I have been getting that some of you are still living with an eating disorder or weight issue, so just get it is not wrong. And when you transform it, you will have died to an old way of being and now living into a new transformation. How exciting for the soul. You can do it!!! I never thought I could...and I did.

Challenges: How easy it comes up for me "this is wrong", sitting in that "wrong" place that needs to be fixed and changed. I have thought these thoughts for the last 22 years and have accepted them by the conditioned society we live in.

Triumphs: Giving up that there is something wrong!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Green apple and cherries.

Lunch: Walnuts and macadamia nuts and chocolate balls with brazil nuts and goji berries.

Dinner: Baby spinach with advocado and lemon and olive oil dresssing. simple. light. yum.

Dessert: goji berries. choc balls. When steph and I are together the choc balls come out in full force!

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: No snacks.

Exercise: walking around surfers paradise.

304 Days To Go!!!

Day 60



Thoughts: Merry Christmas! Why we eat so much (and throw out so much) at Christmas, and why we never learn!

Challenges: Is Christmas more depressing for you or more happier? How do you feel? A friend mentioned to me "Christmas can be depressing for some people", I had never thought of Christmas like that! I thought it's a happy time of the year generally. I look at it as Christmas is "meant" to be happier but how do you really feel? And does it become socially acceptabable for human beings to act like crazy maniac chickens with their heads cut off zooming around the shopping centers buying last minute things? And do you eat more food? Why do we eat more food in one part of the year? It's weird!

According to Foodwise, Australians waste over $5 billion worth of food per year, which is over 3 million tonnes. But food waste peaks in the festive season when, according to 2008 figures, Australians spend $7.6 billion on food in December alone.

"To some degree, we need to come to terms with the reality that we simply buy too much stuff, including food, and we need to recognise that it is virtually impossible for us to consume all the food that we buy." Paul Harrison. http://tribalinsight.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/christmas-eating/

The eating less, comes after the buying less.

We are consuming machines! Hehe!

Triumphs: I wanted to eat bread and ham on xmas and all that stuff that I usually eat...and I didn't. The first christmas ever that I have not done it!Probably the first year that I wont be digesting my xmas food a week later! hehehe! The impact: I don't feel heavy and gross and tired and have no regrets of eating too much food! I used to eat sooo much at once and then regret it later and feel guilty that I ate so much. I feel free now that that's gone from my life.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Free range eggs fried in olive oil and some strawberries off Mum's strawberries plant. Chocolate balls.

Lunch: Prawns. Lots of them! Salad with lettuce and cucumber and advocado.

Dinner: A smoke of marijuana.

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: No snacks.

Exercise: Trampoline in the morning. Walked a bit around a mens prison. Carried 10 kilos on my back around the airport. We do do quite a lot of exercise if we really study and go back into our day. We do all sorts of cool crazy human being exercises througjtput the day!!! Lifting laughing bending walk scurbbing? Hehe what happens if you watch tv all day? You only work one muscle! The eye muscle!!!

305 Days To Go!!!

Day 59



Thoughts: To eat bacon or not to eat bacon?

Challenges: Mum and Nadine were eating bacon this morning for breakfast. It smelt so good and I wanted to eat it. And yes pigs are a natural food source born from the earth, however the bacon and ham you buy from the supermarket is heavly processed. Eating meats such as bacon, sausages and luncheon meats, increases the risk of developing a lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). One bacon strip contains about 40 calories, 3.5g of fat, 1.7g of saturated fat, 7.5mg of cholesterol, 120mg of sodium, and 2.5g of protein. The meat is cured (aged) and smoked before you buy it.
(http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/healthy_eating/bacon.htm).

Pigs are fed meat, they eat everything and anything. Eating a vegetarian animal is better than eating a meat eating animal. The thing you have to watch out for when it comes to bacon is the nitrates (also called nitrites like sodium nitrite). It's a preservative used in processed food to help maintain its colour. Nitrates can be found in bacon, hot dogs, sausages, and cold cuts. The reason they are so bad for us is that when we cook them at high temps, they form Nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic. In the news, nitrite-based preservatives were found to be linked to pancreatic cancer (http://www.fitsugar.com/657589). If you don't want to give up eating pig/ham/bacon, look for nitrite-free bacon and other processed meats at your local health food or grocery store. Also avoid ordering it when you go out, since there's no way to know if it's free of nitrites or not. I would love to find an organic farmer and eat organic pig. I know there are a lot out there.

Triumphs: Not eating the bacon.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Cherries and grapes, 3 egg whites, olive oil cooked on the BBQ!

Lunch: Chocolate balls. Beetroot, carrot, Ginger, pineapple, celery juice.

Dinner: Salad with advocado and lettuce. Free range eggs fried in olive oil.

Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: 2 nectarines

Cost: juice $5...cheap for a shot of health hey!

Exercise: 20 dance off...with myself hahaaaa! walk beach in morning yoga breathing.

This is where I went for a beach walk...the earth is stunning isnt it?!

305 Days To Go!!!

Day 58



Thoughts: My sister commented that I have smaller boobs now. I have noticed this too. And it's because I am eating foods with no hormones. There are articles about hormones in food causing early puberty. I developed faster than my mother, who developed faster than her mother, and my younger sister developed faster than all of us. There are more hormones in our foods today then there was 50 years ago.

-History of hormone use in food production

As early as the 1930s, it was realized that cows injected with material drawn from bovine (cow) pituitary glands (hormone secreting organ) produced more milk. Later, the bovine growth hormone (bGH) from the pituitary glands was found to be responsible for this effect. However, at that time, technology did not exist to harvest enough of this material for large-scale use in animals. In the 1980s, it became possible to produce large quantities of pure bGH by using recombinant DNA technology. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH), also known as bovine somatotropin (rbST) for use in dairy cattle. Recent estimates by the manufacturer of this hormone indicate that 30% of the cows in the United States (US) may be treated with rbGH.

The female sex hormone estrogen was also shown to affect growth rates in cattle and poultry in the 1930s. Once the chemistry of estrogen was understood, it became possible to make the hormone synthetically in large amounts. Synthetic estrogens started being used to increase the size of cattle and chickens in the early 1950s. DES was one of the first synthetic estrogens made and used commercially in the US to fatten chickens. DES was also used as a drug in human medicine. DES was found to cause cancer and its use in food production was phased out in the late 1970s.

-What are the different hormones used now by the meat and dairy industries?

There are six different kinds of steroid hormones that are currently approved by FDA for use in food production in the US: estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate, and melengestrol acetate. Estradiol and progesterone are natural female sex hormones; testosterone is the natural male sex hormone; zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengesterol acetate are synthetic growth promoters (hormone-like chemicals that can make animals grow faster). Currently, federal regulations allow these hormones to be used on growing cattle and sheep, but not on poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks) or hogs (pigs). The above hormones are not as useful in increasing weight gain of poultry or hogs.

-Can steroid hormones in meat affect the age of puberty for girls?

Early puberty in girls has been found to be associated with a higher risk for breast cancer. Height, weight, diet, exercise, and family history have all been found to influence age of puberty. Steroid hormones in food were suspected to cause early puberty in girls in some reports. However, exposure to higher than natural levels of steroid hormones through hormone-treated meat or poultry has never been documented.

A concern about an increase in cases of girls reaching puberty or menarche early (at age eight or younger) in Puerto Rico, led to an investigation in the early 1980s by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Samples of meat and chicken from Puerto Rico were tested for steroid hormone residues. One laboratory found a chicken sample from a local market to have higher than normal level of estrogen. Also, residues of zeranol were reported in the blood of some of the girls who had reached puberty early. However, these results could not be verified by other laboratories. Following CDC's investigation, USDA tested 150 to 200 beef, poultry and milk samples from Puerto Rico in 1985, and found no residues of DES, zeranol or estrogen in these samples.

In another study in Italy, steroid hormone residues in beef and poultry in school meals were suspected as the cause of breast enlargement in very young girls and boys.

http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/Factsheet/Diet/fs37.hormones.cfm

Challenges: Society has us think that we need to eat 3 meals a day and snacks in between. I sometimes forget and get caught up in this. And this is not true. If we listen to our bodies, and get connected we will know exactly what to eat and when to eat. And we believe it. We eat too much. We consume too much. The food companies are making billions.

Triumphs: Remembering this.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Green tea leaves with Ginger and lemon. A cup of water and lemon. Oats.

Lunch:Lunch: 4 nectarines and a beetroot, Ginger, carrot celery and pineapple juice

Dinner:Dinner: Prawns in olive oil with garlic and chilli. Salad with green and purple lettuce, spinach, advocado and olive oil with lemon chilli and chia seeds. Potatoes cut as chips and cooked on the BBQ. MMMM love a BBQ!

Dessert: Chocolate balls

Snacks: walnuts and macadamia nuts

Recipe: Soak prawns in olive oil, chopped garlic and chilli. You can also cut up apple and even juice some apple into the suace to make it a sweet chilli dish. Grill on the BBQ.

Exercise: 12 km bike ride with the best ocean view and a swim at the beach and jumping off the jetty ;)

307 Days To Go!!!

Day 57



Thoughts: An easy recipe to get rid of candida. If you have a candida overgrowth in your body (and you will know from thr symptoms I wrote about in yesterdays blog) you can get rid of it or reduce it dramatically by a few ways. A colonic, a candida cleanse (detox diet) and generaly watching what you eat and consume.

Colonic: What is a colonic? Colonic irrigation is a water enema given to flush out the colon. This will flush out the candida that is growing and leaching into your bowels.

Candida Clense: Eat foods that contain no candida or create it. A list of candida free foods will be posted in tomorrows blog. Be careful with what you eat. Since glucose promotes yeast production, control your consumption of any food that contains much sugar. Also, try to limit food that contains yeast like bread as well as wine. Consuming these might promote the growth of candida.

Watch what you eat and consume: Avoid the use of chemicals that may exacerbate yeast infection. There are chemicals found in dyes, inks, or perfumes that are found in tampons, underwear, hygienic sprays, and any other materials that are in contact with your crotch that can cause yeast infections. If your genitals become irritated after the use of these things, try to isolate the cause right away and as much as possible, use environmentally-derives, nature-friendly alternatives.

http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/health/how-to-get-rid-of-candida/

Challenges: Putting the bait on the fishing rod. Ewww! Heheee

Triumphs: 2nd time in the movies with no snacks! Wooo usually I would buy a choc top and lollies. Since cleansing the candida out of my system I crave sweets less! I watched Avatar by the way! Best movie ever! And I caught a fish for my dinner!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 2 nectarines and green tea (leafs) with Ginger and lemon . 2 chocolate balls.

Lunch: Apple and advocado. A beetroot, carrot, celery, Ginger, pineapple juice. Goji berries. Darejeeling tea. mmm my favourite... rich and creamy and sexy! What a sexy tea it is!

Dinner: Snapper mmm mmmm from Bunbury (Western Australia) salad with green lettuce spinach and lemon and olive oil dressing. Potatoe with garlic and olive oil. AND the fish I caught today! We had it raw in a juice with lemon, garlic, and chilli! So fresh...right off da boat ;)

Dessert: chocolate balls

Snacks: walnuts

Recipe: Raw fish...sushi if you like...
1. Catch a fres fish
2. Fillet the fish
3. Soak the chopped fillet in fresh lemon juice and/or lime juice.
4. Chop chilli and garlic and add it to juice.
5. Add real apple juice if you like it sweet!
6. Eat fresh and raw!

Cost: Free since we caught it in the ocean!

Exercise: Bike riding, fishing. It's quite a physical sport! Caught one fish! Cartwheels. Love cartwheels as an exercise.



308 Days To Go!!!

Day 56


Candida roots. Ewwww!

Thoughts: Do you have candida overgrowth in your body? I've had candida for years and didn't know about it! Since I have started this Earth Diet the candida in my body has reduced huge, I am not as bloated, my face is less puffy, I feel alive inside. I did some more research on it tonight and here's what I got....If you have more than one of the symptoms here you may have an overgrowth of Candida Albicans. This condition (called Candidiasis) can give you a wide variety of symptoms which we may be able to help you with. The symptoms of Candida can vary greatly and you could experience any (or many) of them such as:

-Allergies to foods and/or airborne substances: The number of things that you react to keeps increasing until you may become ‘universal reactors’ meaning your react to everything! And what’s more you can’t tell what is the trigger any more.
-Fatigue: If you feel very tired continually, and often feel worse after eating. Candida can cause this.
-Gastrointestinal: This means you have poor digestion, constipation, diarrhoea, gas, bloating, cramps, heartburn. Think Candida.
-Neurological: (how your brain works!) Sugar cravings, irritability, mood swings, headaches, migraine, ‘fogged in’ feeling, poor concentration, dizziness, depression, anxiety. If this sounds like you, look for Candida or yeast infection.
Genito-urinary: Vaginal infections, menstrual problems, impotence, infertility, prostatitis, rectal itch, urinary infections. Depression.
All those problems we don’t like to talk about!
-Respiratory: If you catch colds and flu easily, have congestion, post nasal drip, sinusitis, blocked nose, asthma, bronchitis, earaches, sore throats.
-Skin: anything that itches, Athlete’s foot, hives, psoriasis, eczema, skin rashes – these are very common with candida.
-As a child were you or your own children: Hyperactive, had cradle cap, nappy rash, thrush, chronic ear infections, tonsillitis, or colic.
-Miscellaneous: do you feel bad all over, have cold hands and feet, your body aches, and your tongue has a white coating on it especially when you get up in the morning.
-All of these symptoms may have their origins in an overgrowth of the fungus candida albicans.
-Important: Just because you have some or many of the above symptoms doesn’t mean you must have a Candida problem, but the likelihood is great.

If you go on like this – life is not much fun.. so…

Alter what you gotta do so you get rid of your candida! Tomorrow I will write about how to get rid of it :)

check out http://www.besthealth.com.au/Candidaarticle.html for more information.

Challenges: Being with candida in my body.

Triumphs: Having less candida in my body!!!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Oats and green tea leaves.

Lunch: 3 nectarines and brazil nuts, macadmia, walnuts and goji berries.

Dinner: Apple, garlic, chilli, onion, coriander and olive oil sauce/dip/mixture with eggs fried in olive oil with kidney beans advocado and salad or lettuce, spinach and advocado what a feast!!!



Dessert: No dessert.

Dessert: Chocolate balls.

Snacks: Cherries and chocolate balls. MMMM festive season.

Exercise: 18km bike ride in the morning! a snorkel in the afternoon in the most beautiful, clear water at Busselton. I was pretending I was a fish while I was swimming over the schools of fish :)
Where we went snorkelling!

309 Days To Go!!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Day 55



Thoughts: Tonight I got into the beans! Kidney beans. I've never been a big fan of beans and tonight I enjoyed my beans dish (recipe below) so much I did a little research to find out just how good these things were. I told my father Bernard that I would write my blog on beans tonight. He said "Is anyone interested in listening about beans?". I said "sure". He said "plus they make you fart, but they are lovely things". !!! Hahaaa I thought that was funny!

So:

-Beans are one of the longest cultivated plants.
-Beans were deposited with the dead in ancient egypt. Can someone remember to add beans to my grave? Hehee!!!
-Beans important source of protein.
-There are over 4000 different types of beans. Beans are taking over the world! Heheee!
-The most common beans that I knew about are the Mung bean, chick pea, lentils, kidney bean, Lima beans, and baked beans are so popular in Australia.
-Some beans especially the kidney beans contain a harmful toxin and must be cooked on high level for ten minutes to destroy it.
-Alot of people fermenting the beans before eating them.
-You know why they say you fart if you eat beans...it's because (according to wikipedia) many edible beans, including broad beans and soybeans, contain oligosaccharides (particularly raffinose and stachyose), a type of sugar molecule also found in cabbage. An anti-oligosaccharide enzyme is necessary to properly digest these sugar molecules. As a normal human digestive tract does not contain any anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, consumed oligosaccharides are typically digested by bacteria in the large intestine. This digestion process produces flatulence-causing gases as a byproduct (farting). Some species of mold produce alpha-galactosidase, an anti-oligosaccharide enzyme, which humans can take to facilitate digestion of oligosaccharides in the small intestine. This enzyme, currently sold in the U.S. under the brand-name Beano, can be added to food or consumed separately.
Other strategies (to prevent farting!) include soaking beans in water for several hours before mixing them with other ingredients to remove the offending sugars. Sometimes vinegar is added, but only after the beans are cooked as vinegar interferes with the beans' softening. Fermented beans will not produce most of the intestinal problems that unfermented beans will, since yeast can consume the offending sugars.
-Brazil produces the most beans in the world followed by India.
-Beans and legumes are a great source of soluble fiber, a useful source of vegetarian protein and a good source of energy. They are also good sources of phytochemicals and phytoestrogens - bioactive compounds like isoflavones which may protect against breast cancer.
-The calorie content of beans and legumes varies according to type. For example, garbanzo beans contain about 45 calories per 100 grams, while kidney beans contain about 125 calories per 100 grams. Calories confuse me.
-Dry beans are one of the richest plant sources of protein (6-12 percent protein by cooked weight), are high in carbohydrates especially dietary fiber and typically low in fat.
-Beans and legumes are a useful source of folate. Some types contain Vitamin A.
-Beans are a great vegetarian food
-They are soooo cheap to buy!

Challenges: For breakfast I ate the best eggs ever. Followed by te best burn ever! hehe my father Bernard gave me a shot of his very own made Grappa! Grappa is alcohol made from wine. It's clear and a very strong alcohol shot. Haha my body got a shock and burn! And I learnt that each country makes their own alcohol depending on what food they have available to them. Australia and France famous for Grappa used from grapes. Asians make Saki from rice. Mexicans make tequilla from potatoe, and Europe is popular for Ouzo and Absinthe are made from aniseed (a plant liquorish tasting).



Triumphs: Love it when the poop maker is working. It seems when the poop maker is working, everything is working. The digestive system reminds me of the engine of the factory. Keeping everything going and moving. It's like eat the foods, suck in the nutrition, get rid of the rest. Perfect machinary. The digestive system reminds me of a sugar cane mill!!! There are so many foods I wouldn't have heard about or tried before the Earth Diet. It's like I have opened up this whole new world! A world of food mmmmm! I am discovering so many glorious foods. I like using new words...haven't ued glorious in a while! Isn't glorious a nice word? Today I discovered the beans. Beans are now in my life :) hehe!

What I ate today: 

Breakfast: Eggs! The best ever! Organic and free range from my family's farm. I could really taste the difference, they were so big and fluffy and a really strong yellow yolk! Some oats and a shot grappa.

Lunch: Lots of green tea with Ginger and purple grapes. 

Dinner: Kidney beans with corrainder and chilli and a salad of green lettuce, spinach, advocado!



Snacks: An apple, a nectarine 2 more nectarines!

Dessert: No dessert!

Recipe: Kidney beans. Boil them for 10-15 minutes until they are soft. Add corriander, garlic, ginger and some chilli if you like the hottness! Serve them with a salad, or in a tortilla as a wrap or even in an egg omlette!

Exercise: Yoga breathing, walking, helping out in my families French restaurant, dancing, cartwheels and handstands in the garden! 

310 Days To Go!!!

Day 54

Dinner!!!

Thoughts: I am in food heaven!!! My fathers property is called the Bio Organic Vinyyard and Garden!



A map postcard of Western Australia (my father Bernard is the artist!). To the East "Nannup" is where the farm is.

And he lives there with his wife Helen and my 2 brothers Sam and Tosh. It's absolutely amazing. Clean fresh air, tall trees, rain water, solar power, totally sustainable and they grow everything to eat. Grape vines, apples, cherries, lemons, herbs, corriander, mint, basil, potatoes, lemon grass, chamomile, lime leaves, sage, thyme, they have lavender and spinach and rocket, green and purple lettuce, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, every food you could want!!! Beans, garlic and chives!!! I had so much fun picking all the fruit and vegetable, and picked a salad fresh from the garden and an hour later we were eating the food!! Iam certainly in food heaven! The garden is watered using bore water pumped from the earth below. Helen rides 10 mins to start the pump. The dishwater is also recycled on the garden. I thought living a lifestyle like this would be impossible, and today I imagined if everyone did this! There would surely be less pollution, utilizing the suns natural energy for a source of electricity, growing our own foods, using rainwater when possible. Oh it would be amazing!

Challenges:Challenges: Being with the Earth Diet when I am a visitor at someones house. I don't want to feel like a pain in the butt...and I guess I am! heheeee!

Triumphs: My first time ever picking food from the garden and then 30 minutes later preparing it, cooking it, and into my body. MMMM what an organic experience and totally connecting with the Earth! Thankyou Earth!!! AND it was all cooked using a wood fire oven!!! Wohooo! No technology needed! I do love technology and it is nice to know that us human beings can get by without it and produce extraordinary results...like an amazing dinner feast! The difference between growing your own food, picking it and eating it compared to buying straight from the supermarket...you lose the connection with the earth...

My lazy eye and I very happy about picking food from the garden! This is my squash and garlic! Wooo wooo!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: 2 nectarines, a green tea, apple and carrot.

Lunch: Bowl of oats.

Dinner: The best dinner I have ever had! Truly. It was local fresh sea mullet fish from Bunbury (Western Australia). And I hand picked the vegetables and salad from my families organic farm! Potatoes, green beans, herbs basil and corriander, green lettuce, purple lettuce, spinach, a squash, garlic!!! Woweeee! It tasted so alive and so fresh!

The wood fire where my family cook their food!

Helen chopping the wood to cook dinner!

The final product! Yumoo!

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: a fly. mint tea. Kiwi fruit. Peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

Cost: The vegetables and salad all free and fresh straight from the garden! How cool is that?! So there is no need to go to the supermarket!

Recipe: Grow a garden! heheeeee

Exercise: A 2 hour bush walk. Yoga breathing. Amazing. Serenity. Lots of flies. I'm sorry his life had to end in my nose. The last thing he would have experienced is snot. (A fly flew up my nose and never came out).

On my bushwalk :)

312 Days To Go!!!

Day 53

Earth wine! Yep totally natural and organic!

Thoughts: Today was the first time I have had alcohol on the Earth Diet! And guess what...totally earthy alcohol! Yep! My father Bernard made it himself from his farm! He grows the grapes, organically, no pesticides or sprays, then picks the grapes. For red wine they pick the grapes in April and for white in February. Then him and my brothers and Helen put the grapes on the back of the ute on a tarp, and stomp on the grapes!!! Love it, a totally organic way of getting juice from the grapes instead of a machine! Once there is juice Bernard puts it in a drum for 21 days for fermentation. Then he puts his ear to the drum and when he hears no bubbling, the wine is ready! They then sifin the wine out of the barrel using a bucket and tube and their mouths leaving the muck at the bottom of the wine. And walahhh you have your very own organic home made wine! Earth wine. P.S pigeon poop is the best for the garden and plump grapes! MMMMM! See the Earth really does provide us with everything!

My families grape vines to make their own organic wine!

Challenges:Today we drove from Perth to Busselton and we stopped for lunch at a roadside diner. There was no food at all there that I could eat sticking to the Earth Diet, nothing born from the earth, not even a piece of fruit! My father and brother had a burger. Instant food. Bernard my father commented "Instant civilization, instant coffee, instant sex, instant emails".

Triumphs: Instant...yuk. Instant...unsatisfying.



What I ate today:

Breakfast: Eggs fried in olive oil, strawberries from Mum's strawberry plant and rockmelon! Love a big break-fest!

Lunch: cashews and almonds and pitachios.

Dinner: Helen's veggie special! Helen is my fathers wife. After I told her about the Earth Diet she went to the fridge and thought in her words "Bugger, I have this woman who won't eat this and that". So she used what she had, zuchinni, garlic, tomatoes and beans and some herbs from her garden, marrame (similar to orgeno) and thyme and mint. It was absolutely amazing...reminded me of Routatoo...recipe below.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: A red wine!

Recipe: Fry zuchinni and onion in olive oil. Then add vegetables and garlic, turn off the heat and put a lid on it to steam everything together. mmmm mmmm! Serve with a salad. We had green lettuce and spinach from Helen's garden, carrot, capsiucm and fresh basil. mmmm. You can get really creative with salads.

Exercise: Jumping on the trampoline in the morning, dancing to some Black Eyed Peas and bike riding to the Busselton beach to go for a swim :) I love creative exercising like this, it keeps it interesting. I prefer it to the gym.

Jumping with Connor...beats the gym ;)

312 Days To Go!

Day 52


Mums strawberry plant! Nothing beats a fresh fruit or vegetable straight off the earth and into the body!

Thoughts: There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight. I believe it is a natural human being state. Be in your natural state. We are naturally healthy and slim. Listen to your body and when it wants to exercise then get up and do something about it, even if you just move. I have been putting on some music (loving Black Eyed Peas new album!) and dancing around to that! It wakes my body up and I feel alive and excited and energetic! I have also been listening to my body and what it wants to eat. Today my body was loving the advocado. Before the Earth Diet I would crave a lolly or some chocolate, and now I know that I was craving a substitute for real whole foods. Now instead of chocolate I eat my own chocolate balls made from Cocoa and almond meal (recipe in earlier blogs) and pineapple instead of sugar, or grapes, or an apple! I discovered so many healthy whole earthy alternatives!

Most people think that losing weight requires you to change only your eating and exercising habits. However, there is another extemely important third part to this process...self love. How do you see yourself and what is conversation you have with yourself when you look in the mirror. Use visualization and the law of attraction. I found this awesome article...
http://www.wikihow.com/Lose-Weight-and-Create-Your-Ideal-Body

Challenges: none today.

Triumphs: it's great to be back in Australia eating fresh raw foods.

What I ate today:

Breakfast: some of mums strawberries from her strawberry plant! Nothing beats fresh of the plant fruit! With eggs fried in olive oil and rockmelon.



Lunch: a salad with lettuce spinach and advocado with fresh lemon juice.

Dinner: a salad with rocket, lettuce, spinach, advocado, Brocoli, olive oil and fresh lemon with chia seeds! And roast potatoes and carrot.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: rockmelon and chocolate balls.

Exercise: walking in circles lost in Fremantle for 30 mins hahaaaa!

313 Days to go!!!

Day 51

A natural earthy alternative to foot scrub and exfoliant!!! Fish!!!

Thoughts: How far would you go for your health? How hard would you work and how much does your health mean to you? Today I arrived in Singapore airport and there was absolutely nothing I could eat there inside the Earth Diet (no preservatives, additives, processed foods for 365 days). There was a McDonalds and a cafe sellings pastries and breads. So I took action and jumped in a cab ($17) went into Singapore and bought some cherries ($4) and some nuts almonds cashews pistachios ($8) and a cab back ($15) in time to get my flight. So my lunch was $44! Totally worth it. There is no price on my health. Plus I had a fish spa while I was at it...hahaaa as you do in Singapore. The fish spa is where you put your feet into a pond and all these Garra Rufa fish from turkey come and eat all the dead skin off you feet and legs. My feet and legs felt so smooth after!!! This amazes me see because there is no need to buy chemical foot scrubs or exfoliants when the earth provides us with a natural one! Fish! Hehe and if you don't have access to the fish a favourite of mine is sand from the beach. :)  

Challenges: Nothing in the airport at all inside the Earth Diet. Would be awesome to see a healthy alternative at airports!

Triumphs: Going for an adventure into Singapore to find some earth foods ;)

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: no breakfast. First time I have missed Breakfast since I was on the Earth Diet. To me breakfast is the most fun meal of the day and I love to eat it! Today I was on the plane.

Lunch: cherries mmm mmm and cashew nuts, pitachios and almonds. A beetroot, carrot, celery, ginger and pineapple juice.

Dinner: advocado. I was also on the plane and arrived back in Aussie land at 9:30.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: no snacks.

Cost: nuts $8 advocado $2.50 juice beetroot pineapple Ginger celery carrot $5 cherries $4. Total: $19.50

Exercise: walking around Singapore! My friend Jane tightens her butt and abs when she's walking to get more of a workout!

314 Days To Go!!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Day 50



Thoughts: I have news that I am excited about and news I'm not so excited about....I'm not so excited that I am leaving India in about half and hour!!! AND I am excited that I am coming back to India in September! Wooooo! So while I was in Rishikesh I met with an absolutely amazing man called Sudhir who is an Indian man who funds a school (Arohan School) for orphans and impoverished children! Out of his own money and accepting donations Sudhir has created a school to children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school! 10 years ago Sudhir was making 26 rupee a day (50cents) so he went to Europe for 3 months and worked with a dream in goal. When he came back to India Sudhir converted his money and was able to start his very first business. And today he owns hotels, a massage center, a yoga house and this school! I visited the school (when I asked Sudhir about his school he said "It's not my school, it's our school) and was so inspired by what he is doing and the impact he is having on providing education for these children (The school is very practicle, the kids learn yoga, how to grow their own food, they learn to read and write, they learn english, to paint and draw) so I offered to come back in September for one month and create a team of extraordinary people to build an add on of the school, a sustainable school using waste like rubber tyres, cans and bottles. We will also be volunteering at the school teaching the kids sports, and music, gardening, sustainability simple living, drawing, and they will be helping build the add on school!


Kids playing at the school!


Sudhir and I

I will be organizing discounted group flights from Australia to India (If you are flying from another part of the world let me know) and accomodation will start from $4 per night to $6 per night. You can choose the amount of time that you would like to spend in India and on the school, either one week or one month. A documentary crew from Dehli will be filming us creating the school, and will be aired in India and intended for Australia.

Who: You! A group of extraordinary people who want to make a difference in the world by having education available to impoverished Indian children!
What: Building a sustainable school out of waste materials etc rubber tyres, cans and bottles. Educating the children in Yoga, gardening, sport, art, music, english, reading and writing.
Where: Laxman Jhula (Rishikesh) at the bottom of the Himalaya's in India!!!
When: September. You can choose to stay 1 week or 1 month.
How: Let me know if you are up for the experience of a lifetime!!!
Cost: Accomodation in Laxman Jhula at the Krishna Ganga Homestay right on the riverfront starts from $4-6 a night. A huge meal costs less than $1 per day. You could easily live off $3 a day for food. Flights from Australia to Dehli. I will be organizing group discounted flights. Transport from Dehli to Laxman Jhula also organizing group discounts with Vicky who is my friend and amazing tour guide!

The view from the hotel you will be staying at! Beautiful right on the river :)



A painting on the school :)

If you are ever in India, doesn't matter where you are going contact Vicky...he will take you anywhere you want to go! And for the cheapest price too :) He took me from Dehli to Laxman Jhula, to Agra and the Taj Mahal. He can go with you somewhere for a few days on a trip across India or if you want to go shopping for certain things he can do day trips or even single trips. Send him an email vickytouristservice@gmail.com or call him 9958368135 or add him on my facebook Rajshthantourwith Victor Victour (you may want to copy and paste that, its a challenging one to remember!haha!). Best to go with a friend of a friend I reckon so your not taken to random places so they can make money or try rip you off.

Vicky took me to the sugar cane factory! If you are visiting India hit him up for sure! vickytouristservice@gmail.com

Earth Diet totally doable for the month in September in India!!!

Sudhir and I at the school.

Challenges: My poop maker has slowed down from all the rice. When I come back in September I will bring my juicer so I can juice beetroot, ginger, and carrot to keep things moving in the bowel area ;)

Triumphs: When I create something that is bigger than me, like building a sustainable school in India, food issues seem to disapear. I look back at the times I was so consumed with food, planning my day around eating, planning my next binge (in secret of course), and I must have been so bored!

What I ate today:

Breakfast: Apple and orange.

Lunch: Dahl and rice and vegetables and chapati.

Dinner: Rice with curry spices and cauliflower.

Dessert: no dessert.

Snacks: no snacks.

Exercise: walking around India on my last day.

315 Days to go!!!

Day 48

Lunch.

Thoughts: South Indians eat a lot of rice. North Indians eat a lot of wheat. Shabanna the beautiful Indian women I have met is from the North and she said she has eaten Chapati's (wheat and water made into a pancake) every single day of her life (since she started eating). She has not missed a day of wheat! And she is thin. The wheat in India is less processed and is whole and brown, compared to our westernised flour which has been processed and a bright white. Westerner's have wheat intolerance, irritable bowel sindrom, celiacs disease, all of which is said to be caused by wheat. Shabanna has not heard of these problems! I ate at the best ever Indian restaurant tonight called Sona (write it down if you are going to Dehli!It's in the Nehru place, the business district and it has the largest grey market for technology and software in the world!) The coolest Indian people you will ever meet shouted me authentic Indian food. It is easier than I thought to eat inside the Earth Diet in India. They eat mostly everything born from the earth, spices, rices, wheat, vegetables, herbs. The sauces are all made from spices, herbs and vegetables instead of our a can or bottle. It doesn't make sense to them to eat from cans or bottles or packages since there is so much agriculture and foods in India. I learnt today that 80% of Indians are farmers.

Challenges: Self feeling fantastic, body feeling a bit sluggish. I have been eating rices and spices everyday. My body is adjusting.

Triumphs: I had a good sweat out here at the dance fest from this morning! Great health to me is : great food and great sweat! Also today I was present to how not present I am at times. Drinking tea: If I don't feel the cup on my lips and the warmness of the tea on my lips and then in my mouth, taste the tea and feel the swallow, and then the warmness of the tea down my throat...than I am not present. Nothing is wrong with this. And today when I was present and drinking the tea, it was the best ever and I really actually enjoyed the experience!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Apple and orange.

Lunch: Dahl which is chickpeas, corriander, garlic and green chilli with rice.

Dinner: At Sona's authentic Indian restaurant! Upma and rice pancakes with herbs and spices! And pure ground coconut.



Dessert: goji berries.

Snacks: goji berries. green tea.

Cost: We all ate sooo much at dinner and it cost 50 rupee each ($1.19). I ate rice pancakes, and Upma and these vegetables sauces. Lunch was 30 rupees which is 71 cents!

Recipe: Rice pancakes: They grind the rice and then stick it together using water.

Exercise: a huge dance fest with 103 Indians! bahli ho!!! Woooo love dancing in India! Full self expression is being alive!

308 days to go!!!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Day 49

at the Taj Mahal!

Thoughts: I wonder if he woke up this morning thinking "Today is my last day on earth, I will die today". I saw a dead person today. He looked around 16 years old. There was a crash on the road. I can still see it vividly in my head. A motorbike crash, 3 people lying on the road, 2 slightly moving, 1 completely gone, the beingness gone, just the body left, half the head missing, somewhere on the road. People driving by not affected (every 6 minutes an Indian dies from a crash on the roads). My friends told me just forget about it. Far out. Life really can just end in a second. Any day. Any hour. I live as if I am going to live forever, I forgot that I can die and will someday. One day it will be my last. This experience really got me present to being present. I read Echkart Tolle's the Power Of Now, and would practise being present, and not long before my little voice would come in (if you just thought what voice? That's the little voice!) the voice that speculates, judges, analyzes, tells you that you can or can't do something. And when reading it I learnt that I should be present moment and to moment to really endure and experience life as it's fullest. And I never knew how because the voice would come in and I would go on mental vaccations for minutes, hours, days, sometimes weeks and months! How often are us human beings Being present? How often are we in our own heads? I am really grasping the power of now, now, and am getting that living each moment is possible. I love being alive, and playing the game of being a human being on earth! I experienced feeling sick in the stomach this morning when I saw this, I looked right into his eyes, and my body felt weak, I felt tense and my body was hot. The other two laying there I think were still alive because they were moving a little. I hope so. I think about the impact of that boy leaving this physical universe, he's just gone now, his presence not missed by billions, and missed severly by family and friends I'm sure. Did he live his life full out? Did he leave with regets? Was he satisfied and fufilled? And did he ever experience peace and full self expression? And was he born into a world with a notion of "Not good enough, not enough, a someday I will be more satisfied when I get more money or health or that partner or win something or create something, I will be happier when I am happier" kind of world. Or was he born into a conscious world of peace, love and light with people being present and whole, perfect and complete, with nothing to fix or change? It makes my bingeing habits that I had for 5 years and only stopped 49 days ago seems so small and ridiculous and such a waste of life! So many years I wasted, I missed life and magical moments, and being connected to myself and the earth, because I was so consumed with that little voice in my head. I am so grateful I am out of my head now. I can really appreciate waking up each morning with a body, with fingers and toes and eyes to see and ears to listen.

And really what happened was : I saw a dead boy on the road, and I made it mean all of this stuff.

Challenges: A fear of death when I saw the dead boy, and the voice in my head saying "enjoy the moment, be present, you have to" which actually takes me out of being present!

Triumphs: Being alive and eating healthy foods! Thank you earth!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Apple and orange and a black tea with ginger.

Lunch: Dahl (yellow lentils) with corriander and chilli and rice.

Dinner: Jeera rice with black dahl and vegetables.



Dessert: No dessert.

Snacks: peanuts and goji berries. Masala tea! Yum!

Cost: 170 rupee for lunch.

Exercise: Walking around the number 1 out of the 7th wonders of the world TAJ MAHAL! Beautiful!

307 day to go!!!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Day 47

Imagine waking up to this every morning...mmm...my hike through the Himalayas!

Thoughts: 3 days in India and at a traditional Indian wedding! wooohooo! India hands down the best country I have ever been too, and next time I am coming with friends or family, I want to share this experience with them! The wedding blew my mind! I felt like I was in fairytale land, the Alice In Wonderland! Fairy lights, red carpets, Indian music, lots of food, beautiful Indian women wearing glittery saris, hours of dancing! I danced my little heart out - Indian style of course! And oh Indian music is sooo amazing, so expressive, and the dance style here is like full self expression, body parts moving in all sorts of ways! ;) I loved how all the food was served in banana leaf bowls, so once you had finished eating everything dropped them on the ground, back into nature, totally biodegradable. I ate rice and dahl and vegetables and potatoes with spices, and it must have been authentic Indian because I was on the toilet for the first 20 minutes this morning! Hahaaa!

The massive Indian dance celebration fest at the wedding!



I saw the coolest thing today, it made me laugh, there was a truck carting sugar cane and at the back of the truck was a man on a bicycle holding a sugar cane stick getting a free ride! haaa! Talk about sustainable creative thinking! People here work 7 days a week, there is no break or sleep ins. What for?! The Indians are so active, everyone always has something to do, even if they're sitting in the sun, they are doing that fully. I could never get bored in India! We had a 4 hour drive back to Dehli and Wikky asked "Do you want to watch a movie in the car?" I said no way hosay looking out the window is my movie! I can watch them for hours, there is so much life and energy and activity and community. Human beings at play. There are barely any overweight Indians.

It constantly smells like smoke here, all the time!!! I love it! It's like I am constantly camping! The first day here in Dehli I had sore eyes and was taking shorter breaths because I felt the smoke was thick and heavy from the pollution, fog and haze. It's getting easier to be here now, my body can tolerate it. I suppose people who haven't left India wouldn't know any difference in the air. It makes me so grateful for the clean fresh air we have in Australia! Especially on the Byron Bay beaches!

Why don't children smoke?

Challenges: Eating so much rice. In Australia I would eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and here a staple is rice or chapati's (made from wheat). All the carbs make my body feel a little foggy and cloggy. My body is craving a shot or rawness! Hehe and all is good I am embracing the Indianess and am loving the spices and herbs.

Triumphs: Today I hiked for 3 hours at the gateway to the Himalayas! It was sooo amazing. I went by myself so it was just me and nature, the river and the hills! The air here was fresh and crisp and I used my Indian yoga breathing techniques I learnt yesterday and sucked in deep breaths and filled up on freshness! It opened my eyes and my face and my lungs and stomach! It gets all nmy blood and cells connected and working together. After my hike I had a packet of raw cashews and walnuts. Usually I would scoff down the whole packet just to be done with it and miss the taste of the nuts. I'm learning from the Indian's that they eat food like a celebration, a thanks, an appreciation. They don't just scoff it down to get it over with. When I was eating the nuts today I was present to the work that people went through to get these into my hands. Blows my mind. Appreciation. I saw a sign today that said FEED IS GOD.

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Raw walnuts and cashews. Black tea with ginger.

This is how they make the tea and ginger, from scratch! No tea bags!

Lunch: Sprouts with rice and dahl (lentils). Dahl is my favourite!

Dinner: Wikky's wife Shabanna made traditional Indian food with Dahl, Jeera rice and chapati and brinjal!



Snacks: No snackaroos.

Cost: Lunch for myself and Wikky cost 80 rupee ($1.90). Tea was 5 rupee (11 cents). I gave him 10 rupee!

Exercise: 3 hours hike through the bottom of the Himalaya's! I could walk for hours it's so relaxing and refreshing.


319 days to go!!!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Day 46


Thoughts: Day 3 in India! wow wow wow! I love Indiaaaa! I am in Raxman Jhula, right under the mountains and next to a river! Yogis here... I may even meet someone else who wears lemon as deoderant! Lots of white skins here, mostly from Europe, met some Aussies here from Byron Bay, lots of Israelis here too! Mostly people that love to chill, go barefoot, do yoga and smoke are here. It's very cheap to live, you get a huge meal for under $1. And I just saw a notice looking for volunteers to spend their time with impoverished children at the schools by drawing with them, teaching them computing skills, music, sport! If you are interested send an email to sudhir4india@gamil.com would be quite an extraordinary experience, and think of the lives you would be impacting. Yes I am talking myself into it! hahaaa! I would love to educate them on the environmental issues. I read in the Hindustan Times that India ranks 7th on the list of countries likely to suffer from weather changes linked to global warming. The report said that 3255 people died in India between 1990 and 2009 because of extreme weather conditions. Yesterday when we were driving I handed the water bottle to Wikki and he drank the rest and then threw the bottle out of the window! I was like whaaaaa? I explained to him that I couldn't believe he just did that because we throw ours out in the bin, I could never throw it out on ground! Although when I was a kid and uneducated on respecting the earth and pollution I would have done so. He explained to me that it didn't really matter and that even if he put it in the bin it would have ended up on the ground anyways.



India is amazing for appreciating. When I am here I look around and see how hard the people work, how cheap everything is, and it makes me appreciate everything, back to basics, simpleness, like waking up in the morning, thankyou! having eyes to see, thankyou! having legs to walk me around to see beautiful things, thankyou! having a whole body, thankyou! having great health, thankyou! having healthy nutritious food, thankyou! I find if I get so caught up in the "game" of life, stressed or worried about failing or whatever it is, it's so refreshing to come to countries like these where they do appreciate simpleness.

Oh and we kept driving past all these circle mud cake looking things on the side of the road and so I asked Wikki what they were and he said cow poo! And the people here get the cow poo, then dry them out, and once they are dry they use them for cooking, for the fires! Talk about being recyclable! Cool!

Challenges: I miss my chocolate balls. Today I thought about them and was like mmmmm and then thought well I can't have them for a week so I got them outta my head! haha! Ate goji's instead! Also I have been eating more rice than usual, at home I eat more raw fruits and veggies, and I am trying to eat less of that here because they say my body is not immune to the water and bacteria. So rice is my filler, and it's making me feel a little slower than usual. Oh and the Buddah cafe had a big fat slice of chocolate cake that my body craved for a few minutes! heheee! So had carrot and ginger juice instead! I suppose it's the thoughts that come up like "Oh im in a different country I should experience all the foods (even though Chocolate cake is everywhere)" or "it's to hard to do the Earth Diet in another country". It's these kinds of thoughts I am watching out for, they trick me! Don't worry self is stronger, totally on the Earth Diet and enjoying India fully!

Triumphs: 320 days to go!!! I write at the end of my blogs how many days left, and the thing is I am not counting down, I was at the start because I was like ok sweet in 350 days I can have Nando's again, and I can have chocolate frogs again and lolly snakes. And now I look at it as a lifestyle and that I could never, nor want to go back to eating as much processed foods, foods with additives and chemicals, takeaway foods again! I have never felt so alive and free :) When you take the crap outta your body, you take the crap outta your life! hehe just made that one up, and that's what is so for me!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: I had sprouts again with green chilli!

Lunch: goji berries!

Dinner: Dinner at the Buddah cafe, the best place ever! Definately best cafe I have ever been to, it's chill, 3 stories made from bamboo, IN INDIA!, and they played Jack Johnson and John Legensd! Had rice with herbs and cashews and almonds. Not exactly sure what herbs but the rice was yellow. Where's my Indian guru when I need him? Oh he's in the hotel watching tv! hehe! Any ways the Indian's are freaking legends, simple foods taste so amazing, just add herbs! And a ginger and carrot juice. Carrots here are more red than our orange!

Rice and juice from the Buddha Cafe!



Dessert: A ginger and mint tea mmmm

Snacks: no snacks.

Cost: Dinner for me and Wikki and also a tea and ginger and a chai tea cost 185 rupees which is $4.40. Food is sooo cheap here! A 1.5 litre water cost 15 rupee which is 35 cents! Breakfast cost 20 rupee which is 47 cents! And you get massive serves too ;) tea costs 10 rupee which is 23 cents compared to the tea I buy in the cafe in Brisbane for $3.50!!!

Exercise: 2 hours of the best ever Indian yoga this morning! Stretching, bendy positions and lots of breathing! I felt stiff before, and after it felt connected and flexy ;) I think we worked on every muscle and every joint and opened up the chest and stomach through breathing! It was all in Hindi so not exactly sure what each pose was for!

320 days to go!!!