1+ year without chemicals! :)

It's now been almost 14 months that I stopped using shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, facial soap, deodorant and fluoride toothpaste.

Instead I use.. water, water, water, clay, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and a mixture of both. I initially switched shampoo for baking soda, at least a few times a week for about 2 weeks, then just WATER! :)

And my hair got thicker, stronger, longer -it used to grow really slowly. I also haven't gotten a single split end since I stopped using those awful chemicals.

For those who think the baking soda thing doesn't work or damages the hair, well just like any other product: if you use too much of it on a quasi-daily basis, there will be some damage. All you have to do is scrub your scalp with some baking soda mixed with water (it will form a paste) IF you feel your scalp is getting oily, and stop when you think you've scrubbed enough. Use your gut feeling :)

I recently read an article of a girl who used baking soda every day for 3 years and now she's complaining that it ruined her hair. Well.. it's supposed to be a month-long treatment. Do it right :)

So.. nope my hair doesn't stink (why would it? I don't eat corpses or fatty foods anymore) and it's actually really soft.

If I go swimming in the sea, my hair might get a bit dry because of the salt or really sticky due to the humidity in the air, then I apply some cactus or coconut or avocado oil on wet hair and then rinse it off.
It works wonders :) but then again, too much oil on a weekly basis might not be a good idea.

My hair now, after 14 months of just washing with water, sometimes adding natural oils and that's it! :)

Protein - for once and for all

I've really had it with people thinking that you can't get protein from anything other than dead animal flesh.

Firstly, most people don't even know what protein is, or what a polypeptide is, or what an amino acid is!

So let's start from the very basics...

Proteins are chains of amino acids (building blocks). The human body needs protein to function - immunity, oxygen transport, hair and skin structure, etc. The human body can also produce amino acids, except for 8 which are: histidine, arginine, valine, tryptophan, threnoine, phenylalanine, methionine, lysine, leucine and isoleucine.

Sounds complicated but it's really not. You can only get these amino acids from food, they're everywhere! However, people have been lazy when they realised that animals contain all amino acids, hence their meat is considered ''complete protein''. So why look for a variety of fruits, vegetables, seeds and grains when you can just kill an animal and eat its flesh?

Thankfully, you don't need to kill.
And you also don't need to look too far, because some vegan foods ARE complete proteins!
They contain all 8 essential amino acids.

These are:

Nuts
Seeds
Soy & other beans
Sprouts (especially alfalfa sprouts)
Grains
Spirulina & Chlorella (algae, and these are 70% protein)

Now some would argue, including myself, that these foods aren't really the best for you - sure you can live a long and healthy life with a daily bowl of rice but legumes, nuts and grains contain lectins which are bad for you and they tend to digest very slowly so they rot in your stomach and make your poop smell bad.
Sprouts are tiny plants so it's not very practical to eat them, unless you have nothing else.

But now here's the interesting part... complete proteins get BROKEN DOWN during digestion so that the amino acids can form other proteins in your body, like haemoglobin or keratin.
So why eat a dead animal with ''complete protein'' if you will break down the protein anyway?!

Just eat amino acids from less fatty and acidic foods, so that you can also save your organs, and stay away from diseases.

The fruits & vegetables that contain the essential amino acids are the following:

Histidine:  Apple, pomegranates, beets, carrots, celery, cucumber, dandelion, endive, garlic, radish, spinach, turnip greens.

Arginine:  Beets, carrots, celery, cucumbers, green vegetables, leeks, lettuce, potatoes, radishes, parsnips.

Valine:  Apples, pomegranates, beets, carrots, celery, dandelion greens, lettuce, okra, parsley, parsnips, squash, tomatoes, turnips.

Tryptophan:  Carrots, celery, chives, dandelion greens, endive, fennel, snap beans, spinach, turnips.

Threnoine:  Papayas, carrots, green leafy vegetables such as celery, collards, kale, lettuce (especially iceberg),  nori (the sushi seaweed)

Phenylalanine:  Apples, pineapples, beets, carrots, parsley, spinach, tomatoes.

Methionine:  Apples, pineapples, cabbage, cauliflower, chives, dock (sorrel), garlic, horseradish, kale, watercress.

Lysine:  Apples, apricots, grapes, papayas, pears, beets, carrots, celery, cucumber, dandelion greens, parsley, spinach, turnip greens.

Leucine:  Avocados, papayas, olives, coconut.

Isoleucine:  Avocados, papayas, olives, coconut.

So there! No need to kill animals and/or have things rotting in your intestines!

You can easily achieve 0.5g/kg of body weight of protein with fruits and vegetables.

I do it with minimal effort, just a desire for a varied menu every day!

Eat a lot, eat a lot of goodness & feel very good! :)

(List copied and slightly edited, from http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/protein.htm)

Bed Abs Exercises!

When I started getting taller very fast (around the age of 10), my posture suffered from it and so did my spine - it curves outwards and so even with a yoga mat, my vertebra hurt when I workout my abs.
The best solution for me was to work out defying gravity (bar, pole, or any edge like a pool or wall), until I realised I can work out my abs without leaving my bed!

I know it's not ideal because it's better to work on a hard surface, but until my spine readjusts (I believe it will with a lot of yoga) this is the best I can do without getting bruises.

SO I decided to draw out the exercises I do so you can try the same, it's really a lot of fun and it's so comfortable you have NO excuses not to do them until you get tired!
(But if your back is fine on the floor, then you should probably stick to that)

How I Stopped Drinking Water

While most people are making resolutions for 2014, my body decided to do something on its own for the last week of 2013.

I kinda.. stopped drinking water. I may have had no more than 2 cups during the past week..

And the reason is that I've been drinking my water through RAW FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! :)

How much water do you think is contained in this picture?

It's roughly about 90% of the weight in this image.

Bananas contain approximately 74% water, apples and tomatoes 84%, strawberries and spinach 92%, lettuce and cucumber 96%.. you get the idea.

So here's what I eat in one day:

2 cups of orange juice

2 bananas (that's 186 g of water or about a cup)

2 cups of strawberries (almost 1 & 3/4 cups of water)

A biiiig salad with carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes - so if it's about 4 cups and 92% of it is water then let's say 3 & 3/4 cups of water)

So far so good right? It's already 8.5 cups of water. Of course, if I don't salt my food then it's even better and I don't feel thirsty at all. If I have soy sauce in my salads or sushi or wraps, I make up for the saltiness with lots of carrots and cucumbers -it works! And I'm not even trying. :)

Now, moving on with the second half of my day:

1 green juice, about 2 cups and it's mainly vegetables/low-fructose fruits, completely quenches my thirst and makes me feel full! (or another juice, or another 2 bananas)

After that, I could have a raw dessert (usually almonds, cocoa, dates) and I'm not thirsty.

Then I have a salad or wrap,  stir-fried vegetables, or even a soup (ok that's kinda cheating, but I have made soups without any added water, so it's more a puree of steamed vegetables).

And I'm still not thirsty!

So by now, that's about another 2 cups of water and let's say it stops here so I've had over 11 cups of water that day. It's more than enough, I still pee several times a day, my skin's not dry, and nothing else is. I also feel less bloated - water just has a bad effect on me!

There were days when I tried drinking filtered water and what happens?

I immediately pee it out. Or I wake up 3 times a night to go pee - it's not fun, especially in winter.

Now, maybe this waterlessness is a winter thing? But I typically juice more in the summer or eat more watery fruits, so hmm...

A couple of quick points I want to make:

1- Water was never drunk by the Ancient Egyptians - and while they still had bad health in some cases, they would drink juice, wine and beer instead - why? Because water wasn't clean back then! What?!

The Nile still had bacteria from dead animals and decaying matter, and honestly nothing has changed now. Our waters are dirty. Only we've made them even dirtier. And while we can filter out some things, there are some we can't (antibiotics, cocaine, hormones are found in water no matter how well it's been filtered). I don't want any of that! So that brings me to my second point:

2- Fruits, vegetables, and just plants in general filter water really well. Sometimes you still find traces of metals and they can be poisonous but I buy my food from organic farms or grow at home so really the risk isn't there. Plants filter the water in the root system, in the stems and the leaves - that's more advanced than any super tech expensive system we'll ever create. And that's also why they use plants in bioremediation of contaminated waters (something I study and love).

PLANTS PLANTS PLANTS! <3

Plant plants, please.

3- It's so much cheaper to drink CLEAN PLANT-FILTERED WATER FROM PLANTS! No need for filters, which create pollution (in their construction phase) and waste, and no need for water bottles that also pollute (plastic production) and contaminate us with plastic by-products that find their ways in the water and act as endocrine disruptors (they mess up with your hormones, for both men and women).

4- That leaves a lot more water to be abstracted for irrigation, and our hygienic needs (shower, laundry, dishes, etc). 

Some countries need it badly.

Vertical Bottle Tower Gardens

I've been working on making something similar to this:

And after making my own step-by-step instruction image, I found his... here

Bottle tower gardening: how to start ? (Willem Van Cotthem)

Kind of frustrating to work on something and then find out that someone has already done it!

 But our methods are different, my bottles are much lighter because I used styrofoam and less soil.

It all depends on what you're going to use it for, they can easily be adjusted for any purpose!

Here's what I did:

I then placed another empty bottle at the top, with the cap on - with only one small hole in it to let the water drip... I then did a permeability test and found that the lower bottle gets the first drop of water about a minute after I placed water in the top bottle. It takes about 10 seconds for water to travel through each bottle, but that depends on the type of soil used and the height of the soil...also, it might take more time -and more water- when the plant grows, so I'll need to repeat the test several weeks later! 

It flows! :)

Benefits of a Vegan Lifestyle

I wrote this as my final piece for my Vegetarian & Vegan Nutrition Consultant course, and although I do not support animal product consumption in any case, I am patient and will let my patients take the time they need to stop consuming cheese *cough*pus*cough* and other nasties -after all, it took me a couple of months too.


Being vegetarian or vegan is often more than just a dietary change, it is a lifestyle change. The vegetarian/vegan lifestyle is beneficial on many levels: health, fitness, ethics, and economics. The diet itself may vary a lot, for example between an ovo-lacto-vegetarian and a raw vegan, so it is sometimes difficult to draw conclusions from scientific studies. And although the reasons for adopting this diet largely differ from one person to another, the general response to this change is positive and inspiring. The diet is not necessarily synonymous with health, as it can be accompanied by plenty of coffee, alcohol, drugs and lack of exercise - however for this paper it is assumed that no harmful chemicals are consumed and a semi-active lifestyle is chosen. It has been estimated that vegetarians and vegan live longer than omnivores, and this is why:

By eliminating animal products from the diet, and assuming no intake of junk/processed foods, the body's alkalinity is more stabilised, and two main problems are solved; firstly, the kidneys have less work to do in terms of eliminating excess protein, and secondly, there is less calcium being depleted from the bones to neutralise the protein's acidity. Hence, there is a much lower risk of developing kidney stones and osteoporosis. This improvement is far more pronounced in vegans because cheese and milk still contribute to acidity and other problems. 
Another obstacle that can easily be overcome by adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet is weight gain and obesity. In fact, vegetarians weigh in average 3-20% less than meat-eaters, and have lower rates of obesity (Lanou & Svenson, 2010). Again, these figures are lower for vegans, as they do not consume any cholesterol from dairy products , and much less saturated fats than vegetarians; however it all depends on the individuals diet as many fruits can lower cholesterol. It is known that body weight is linked to diseases, particularly cancer (ibid) and arterial fat often leads to cardiovascular complications -however these are much more common for meat-eaters.
Regardless of the labelling, a vegetarian/vegan diet that is high in fibre and low in fat, protects from ageing and disease. As long as the diet consists largely of fruits and vegetables, all the nutrients in these (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) protect the body from a variety of diseases by supporting the immune system. In fact, disease often manifests itself in a weakened and toxified body - meaning one that is saturated in fats, bacteria and environmental toxins which are obtained through animal products. It is thus equally important to consume organic produce, as these toxins also include pesticides. Whilst meats have been linked to several types of cancers, particularly in the digestive system, a vegetarian diet reduces cancer risk by 10-12% (ibid). On the other hand, the vegan diet lowers prostate cancer risk in men, and female-specific cancers by 34%; this is because dairy products often contain hormones and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals (Freston, 2012). Furthermore, Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn four that a vegan diet alters over 500 genes which are responsible for disease prevention (ibid). A vegan diet can also reverse diseases like arthritis, diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular problems and even cancer (ibid; Physicians Committee, 2010). This has been illustrated by many doctors across the globe, for example Dr McDougall and Dr Cousens in the United States. 

It is also most likely that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables will give the person more energy, and that energy will be spent by partaking in daily fitness activity, particularly of medium-high intensity. In fact, many elderly vegans and vegetarians participate in rigorous sports competitions, for example Ruth Heidrich, a triathlete in her seventies, who also fought cancer by adopting a raw vegan diet! It is indeed very common to find vegan that run 10km daily, or commit to at least 1 hour of exercise every day - many even report having more energy since they have turned vegan.
In fact, another physical improvement that follows the dietary change is sexual performance. Needless to say, more energy will most likely result in more active and longer intercourse, but particularly for men: having no fats clogging the arteries means a harder and longer lasting erection (Mitchell, 2012). As for women, their reproductive system will also benefit from a vegetarian/vegan diet as menopause symptoms are much easier to cope with when there is no intake of animal products. Also, the breast milk quality improves on a plant-based diets as the ratio of 'good' versus 'bad' fats is increased, and the vegetarian/vegan woman often has more energy post-birth to handle her child. 
From a personal point of view, the dietary change allows for a lot of discovery and creativity, especially in the kitchen, and because it preaches the abundance of beneficial foods, one cannot feel like they are deprived of nutrients. In fact, vegetarians and vegans don't miss meat, and vegans don't miss cheese either - this is either due to a new found love in certain fruits or vegetables, or to meat and dairy substitutes like tofu, seitan, quorn, etc. So even for pregnant vegan women, they have many options to satisfy food cravings.

While many vegetarians/vegans report sleeping much better at night ever since giving up meat, this may have to do with having a clearer conscience -particularly for animal lovers. It is estimated that by eliminating meat form one's diet, a person can save up to 100 animals a year; and this figure is larger for vegans are they refrain from using any products that have been tested on animals, or that are made with animal-derived products, and they also refrain from wearing animal skins. 
Additionally, the environmental footprint of a vegetarian/vegan diet is substantially reduced because farmed animals and their food crops require land (through deforestation) but the animals also contribute to global warming through methane emissions. Meat production has a very high water demand, at least 5 times more than for grains and vegetables, and wastes resulting from farms often pollutes nearby soils and waters, which eventually interconnect at an international level. It can also be argued that the crops and smaller animals used to feed livestock contribute to more environmental problems like overfishing, and pollution through fertilisers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms. In fact, the the amount of food needed to produce 1 kg of meat can feed 12 persons, so a vegetarian/vegan diet can end world hunger. Moreover, animal products are quite often frozen for profit-making purposes and air freighting, both of which necessitates fuel, and lots of it. So not only is the environment being harmed, but the fuel prices go up and create economic turmoil. Lastly, meat is more expensive than fresh produce, and because its consumption is linked to cancer and diseases, a better health will result in very few medical bills. Hence it is more economical for both the entire population and the individual's wallet to stop consuming animal products. 

Whether a person chooses to stop consuming animal products for the sake of their health/fitness, the animals, the environment, or simply to save money it is almost inevitable that they will benefit all these areas. In addition to eating more healthy foods and preventing or curing diseases, a general positive response to the dietary change will definitely inspire others to do so. The lifestyle is based on a positive attitude, by feeling good inside and out thus it can only spread good. 

References:

Course Material

Freston, K, 2012. A Vegan Diet (Hugely) Against Cancer. Huffington Post. Available from: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegan-diet-cancer_b_2250052.html>

Lanou, A & Svenson, B., 2010. Reduced Cancer Risk in Vegetarians: An Analysis of Recent Reports. Cancer Management and Research, 2011; 3: 1-8. Available from: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048091/>

Mitchell, L., 2012. 5 Reasons Why Vegans Have Better Sex. Available from: <http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5590/5-Reasons-Why-Vegans-Have-Better-Sex.html>

PhysiciansCommittee, 2010. Vegetarian Foods: Powerful for Health. Available from: <http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=248>

Poor, poor babies - apparently over 45 000 000 000 - yes that's 45 MILLION - turkeys have been slaughtered yesterday for people to say thank you.

Fruit Diet/ Banana Girl

  Every day I'm trying to eat as much RAW as possible, which is still quite hard because so many things taste good when cooked, especially in this country. Well not so many, but just a few and it's hard to let go. It is always is.

And although I try to follow a 80% raw diet some go all the way and you do see amazing results!

Firstly, the 80/10/10 diet means 80% fruits and vegetables, 10% protein (beans, peas, grains, seeds) and 10% fat (nuts, seeds).

This diet was adopted by several Olympic athletes, and because of the low-fat intake their fitness performance is maximised, but some go as far as 1% fat in their diet!

Here's a little excerpt from this article:

"The 80/10/10's calorie intake is broken down by the following: 90 to 97 per cent 'sweet and non-sweet fruit' and two to six per cent 'tender, leafy greens and celery'.

Zero to eight per cent is taken up by 'everything else' which includes other vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, plus fatty fruits, nuts and seeds.

Dr Graham said: 'You can generally accomplish this with two or three large fruit meals during the day plus a large salad in the evening.
Anyway
'Fruit predominates heavily, yet you consume as many greens as you like.'"


ANYWAY, so, this girl - the Banana Girl eats about 97% fruit and 3% leaves and fats (nuts and seeds).
And she can run 10km in under 47 minutes. Yep.
She eats more fruits than you ever thought someone would be able to. But guess what? She's doing great!

Adam and Eve only ate fruits... but that's a different story.

Fruits give you all the carbs and amino acids you need - here's a living proof:

Click here for her story.
Or watch this video. She's such an inspiration.. from someone who ate McDonalds and had a drug problem for 5 years to a sexy someone who eats an abundance of fruits and runs 12 km/h every day...

Now hear her rant about vegan criticism: