In the blender this morning:

• 2 peeled oranges
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 slivers of ginger
• 2 handfuls chopped pineapple
• 3 peeled carrots
• half cup of water

Vibrantly orange and very tasty! (feeds 2)

I encourage you to try starting your day off with a healthy blended/juiced drink. Once you start, you won’t want to stop. I think it’s the perfect time of day to get all those nutrients, because your body has been fasting while you’ve been asleep and is thirsty for nourishment. Start off fresh and healthy! Then, if you are less healthy throughout the day, at least you’ve got that nutritious foundation to keep your body happy. And chances are, you won’t want as many unhealthy foods throughout the day, anyway. At least for me, these drinks put my very ornery sweet tooth at ease, and make highly processed foods seem much less appealing.

photo by Kaushal Karkhanis

<<not veggie related>>

photo by Shandi-lee

This past month and a half has been lovely for me. I’ve been sleeping so well.

It would seem my sleepless nights have returned, however.

After chatting with my advisor about my future plans in the PhD program, he casually mentioned that after I’m a TA for his class, I should TA other courses, then try to become a section instructor, and ultimately, teach a course before I’m done with the program.

At that moment, I became terrified. Thus the reason I can’t sleep.

I do believe I have some teacherly qualities about me, but I do not in any way shape or form feel ready to teach a course at a big university. Just because I took courses as an undergrad does not mean I am equipped to teach them. Will I be knowledgeable enough to teach them in a few years? I sure hope so.

Why am I so fearful? Probably a lot of things. I don’t have years of teaching experience or years of experience in psychology to fall back on. I’ve only been in the psychology (undergrad) program for two years. I won’t have all the answers to questions asked in class. I still feel like an underling, nowhere near savant status in my field. I’ve seen how stressful it can be for PhD students to teach courses. I fear bad student reviews. I fear the students will know more than I do. I fear not being a fair grader. I fear being called out as a faker who has no idea what she’s talking about. I fear my weaknesses will show. I don’t always feel like I deserve to be in this program. I don’t feel mature enough yet. I still have so much to learn!!

But I wouldn’t be where I am now without having conquered quite a few frightening situations. Fear can be good. It can help us grow. It can push us forward when we know the fear of staying static is worse. However, there are also those crippling fears that make people go back into their shell and never come out again. Is this going to be one of those?

Sometimes I think I’m completely crazy for wanting to get a PhD and that maybe I should escape while I can. Then I think about how much I hated waiting tables and being a barista. How unfulfilled I felt. How, unless I had stayed in Utah, my art degree was not going to help me in this job market and I didn’t think graphic design was my passion anyway. How I loved psychology and knew I was cut out for more. And then I think, “My sister is an MD and she’s working on her PhD right now. If she can do that and be the mother of a toddler, an infant, and two step-kids, and learn Danish so fluently in a year that she was able to practice medicine in Denmark, I can certainly manage to pull this off.” Confidence is key. Along with a crazy amount of hard work, passion, and self motivation.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

I really look forward to my green drink in the morning (and then another in the evening). I’m starting to crave it. This morning, I decided to forgo the smoothie route and do an all-out juicing. Since we didn’t end up buying that juicer, I did my own makeshift juicing process. This entails blending everything up, and then straining it all through a wire strainer.

It’s more tedious, but the results are well worth it.

In the blender today:

• lemon juice from one lemon
• handful of kale
• a lil’ broccoli
• 2 carrots
• sliver of ginger
• one Brussels sprout
• one Golden Delicious apple
• one celery stalk
• water

And wouldn’t you know it? It actually tasted really good! Looked strange, but tasted yummy. I could get used to this juicing thing. What a great way to start off the day!

photo by Food Thinkers

Yup. Another documentary. I tell you, I’m on a roll. This one is about France pushing to be more organic. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot about why it’s good to go organic and why it can be dangerous not to. I found their footage of a school going organic to be absolutely delightful. The kids were being educated on healthy eating and learning to grow their own  gardens. So neat!

Even if you don’t go all out organic after watching this, I think it has great educational value. It also makes me want to really push to make an amazing vegetable garden next year. Right now I’m in the process of growing several types of tomatoes, zucchini, wax beans, and basil. The basil was from a friend and we’ve already had it on homemade pizza. Amazing. The tomatoes, zucchini, and beans were a gift from my mom. The plants are growing rapidly. Still nothing edible to declare, though. I can’t wait!

Last night, the hubs and I went grocery shopping. Our cart was packed exclusively with fresh fruits and veggies. We’re starting to bring juicing and smoothy-ing back into our lives. We had our first green smoothie last night, and, though it didn’t taste perfect (still getting back into the swing of things, here), it made me wake up feeling fantastic this morning. And for breakfast, we had another über healthy, and also delicious, smoothie. We’re talking about getting a juicer– an inexpensive one, but it has good reviews.

Here’s the one we’re looking at. We can’t really afford anything more expensive than this right now. With buying and fixing up a house and school starting back up in a couple of weeks… we’re pretty strapped for cash for a little while. But the reviews overall are quite good, as long as you don’t jam pack it with too much produce too fast, you’re good to go.

I do hesitate, though. I hate buying new appliances that end up just taking up space. Our kitchen is pretty cramped already! And that boat of a food dehydrator I bought hasn’t been getting much use the last few years. Woops.

But after blending up kale last night and having to essentially chew our smoothies, I get why juicing makes sense. And I would very much like juicing to become a normal part of our everyday lives. So, we’ll probably be buying it.

I don’t plan on going exclusively on a juice fast. At least not right now. I do like to chew some food. I can’t have big delicious apples laying around and not eat one. I’m only human. But I am confident that with all this fresh produce, and avoiding processed foods, I will feel great, and hopefully lose a few pounds, too!

I’ve been on a bit of a documentary kick lately. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. But I had to share with you yet another amazing documentary I watched, called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. Not the most uplifting title, but it’s incredibly inspiring.

It starts off with an Australian fellow named Joe who is overweight and is riddled with health problems. He is at his breaking point and is ready to turn his life around. After consulting several physicians, he decided to go on a 60 day green juice fast. The results are uncanny. He travels around the U.S. talking to others about their eating habits and lifestyles and manages to come in contact with one particular man who is suffering from the same unusual ailment as he is. The man was also grossly overweight. Joe’s chat with him is so impactful that he decides he needs to change his life, too. His results are surreal. The two of them wind up inspiring many others to try juicing.

I don’t want to give it away, because I really think you ought to check it out for yourself. You’ll be glad you did

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

The notion that “you are what you eat” is often forgotten. When we start to feel ill, how often do we turn to our dinner plates for the cure? In reality, our food choices are very closely linked to our health problems. Next time you’re feeling a little down, a little blue, or a little under the weather, before you start popping pills, look to your diet. The food choices you make can indeed directly impact the outcome of your life. Are you eating a lot of processed foods and not enough fresh foods? Are you getting enough vitamins?

The documentary Food Matters is a great reminder of the importance of nutrition (including a staunch promotion of the vegetarian diet) and cautions us to reconsider turning to drugs for the cure. It provides an educated, research-based counter-perspective to conventional medical practices. And it’s so simple. All they’re really saying is, if you want to feel better, eat better! Not too shocking, is it? But the results can be astounding. Disease reversal, cancer treatment, profound weight loss, curing depression… food really does matter!!

I highly recommend you check out this documentary. You’ll be so motivated and inspired to eat better. It’s also a great reminder of why raw foods are good for us. And I learned something new about how cooked foods can affect our immune systems. Very interesting!

CNN also posted an article recently about what foods are best to cure certain ailments. Check it out: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/12/top.power.foods/index.html

Many of my readers are vegetarian or vegan already. And that’s lovely! But I can’t stress it enough that, even with a vegetarian or vegan diet, you can still and be unhealthy. I’ve definitely practiced junk food veganism before. It can be easy to fall into that trap, especially in situations when processed foods are more convenient or easier to come by. And that’s why documentaries like this are so great. They are that kick in the butt. The nagging mother telling you to eat your veggies. We can all use the refresher course. Continued vegucation, if you will. I think I should copyright that one….

(quick intermission to Google search…)  Darn it. I’m not the first one to coin that term. Ah well.

One of the best and simplest recommendations they give on the documentary is: as soon as you wake up, before you eat or drink anything else, drink lots of water! Flush out those toxins and start fresh each day. Easy, no? I’m gonna go grab a glass right now!

Foodmatters

photo by awee_19

Again, I turn to Health.com for nutritional information. Vitamin D deficiency can be a major concern in some parts of the world, like Denmark, where my sister lives, and also in Minnesota, where I live. The most obvious way to get vitamin D is through sun exposure. 20-30 minutes of sun exposure without sunblock per day can be all it takes. But in Minnesota, many people are trapped inside in winter, due to the insanely frigid temperatures, and in Denmark, part of the year consists of very little sunlight. So, if you live in a climate that fits either of these descriptions, you might not be getting enough vitamin D. Also, if you have naturally dark skin, you may also be at risk, since skin pigment blocks vitamin D absorption. The older population is also at risk for deficiency, since absorption through sunlight decreases with age.

Fortunately, there are other ways to get vitamin D. Cereals, milks, and orange juices can be fortified with it. There are supplements you can take, too. But you probably already knew that.

What I bet you didn’t know is that some mushrooms are also sources of vitamin D. That’s right! If the mushrooms were grown in ultra violet light, they will contain vitamin D! But you have to make sure they were not grown in the dark, like many mushrooms are. According to Health.com Dole’s Portobello Mushrooms contain vitamin D. And that’s great for me, because I love Portobello mushrooms!

Here’s the press release from Dole, back in 2008: http://dolemushrooms.com/vitamin_d.htm
“When we bring these to market, mushrooms will be the only natural, non-animal source of vitamin D available,” said Gary Schroeder, Director of Dole Mushrooms. “Since plants do not make vitamin D we will be the only source of vitamin D in the produce section.”

So, there you have it. Happy fungus eating!

photo by Dano

Health.com has listed the 10 best foods for your heart. Not surprisingly, 9 out of those 10 foods are vegan.

1. Oatmeal
2. Salmon
3. Avocado
4. Olive Oil
5. Nuts
6. Berries
7. Legumes
8. Spinach
9. Flaxseed
10. Soy

Soy is often painted in a negative light, with the assumption that vegetarians and vegans just get too much of it, and that it’s found in so many food products. But try not to worry. It’s a good, lean source of protein and it’s believed to lower cholesterol.

Once again the vegan diet has proven to be triumphant in the context of healthy living.

This past weekend we had a sort of last minute housewarming party. Though many people could not make it because either they lived too far away or were going out of town that weekend, many of our friends were able to make it and we had a great time! We had a potluck, so one of our friends, Heidi (top left) made her own amazing marinara sauce to go on top of her amazing homemade bread stuffed with vegan cheese and vegan pepperoni. I’ll be sure to snatch the recipe from her, but essentially she just kneaded the dough, folded in the cheese and pepperoni and baked it. Pretty easy! She also made us Sangria in a lovely glass pitcher she bought for us, and brought us an adorable bouquet of flowers from her garden. What a doll! Her fiance (top right) and her adorable baby Harry were also in attendance and we all had a great time!

Another couple who came made homemade vegetarian chili (bottom left)! And another friend brought us potato salad tostadas (bottom right)! For the grill, I cut up tons of vegetables for veggie kabobs, including onion, green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, portobello mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, brussel sprouts, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and pineapple! And Emory made Bobby Flay’s marinade for them:

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Delicious!

I also made probably the most incredible antioxidant-rich fruit salad ever. It contained blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, concord grapes, apricots, and pineapple. Holy yum! And it looked amazing, too. I wish I had gotten more pictures of the great treats!

All in all, we had a great time. We played ladderball, and board games, gave tours of the house, drank and ate amazing things, and listened to some great music (including Amy Winehouse, RIP). It was an impactful day in many ways. It was also the day my sister gave birth to her second child, Mattias (pictured below with her first son, Christian)! Adorable!

photo by Nikolaj Høeg