Tag Archives: raw

Green Smoothies Revisited

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You know what I need more of in my life?

…Green smoothies.

uncle sam green smoothie man

I have been a green smoothie devotee since coming across the lovely Victoria Boutenko in 2011.  Blending large amounts of greens, from sweet butter lettuce to bitter kale and collards, with bananas and other fruits became a staple of my diet.  When I prioritized drinking at least one green smoothie per day, I felt and slept great.  It was the most painless way for a wimp like me to get in all those greens that, let’s face it, I wouldn’t have eaten otherwise.  Living in coastal Southern California, I had the luxury of an organic backyard garden, and, squired by my Vitamix, I couldn’t be stopped.  I was like a green smoothie mad woman scientist!  They helped me create a personal definition of what it could look and feel like to eat raw, or, more realistically for me in the longterm, high-raw.  You see, I had been introduced to Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ Live Green Rainbow Cuisine in the mid-2000′s, and while his message (alkalinize your body and regulate your blood sugar by eating raw, mostly low-glycemic veggies and fats, prevent illness, feel and look healthier) resonated with me, his meal suggestions and recipes were beyond what I had access to at the time.  Some of the equipment required (dehydrators, blenders, juicers) was too expensive, and some of the produce, products, and supplements, weren’t locally available.  I shelved the idea of raw until 2011, when I began this blog and learned to love simple blended meals.

Last year, I moved to the damp rainforest of coastal Northern California.  High-raw felt refreshing down south, but in my new climate, it felt heavy and downright cold.  As fall moved into winter and the grey skies wept for days on end, I ate a lot of bean soups.  I wanted warming, drying foods.  Now that we are transitioning back into summer, I am finding myself again craving the nutritious, creamy deliciousness that is the green smoothie.

Here’s how I make my green smoothies now.  I’m flexible, with a method to my madness:

  1. Choose your base.  I usually use a cup or so of water, but if I’m feeling it, I’ll first juice some apples, ginger, carrots, and/or cucumber for some extra concentrated nutrients.  Non-dairy milks, like almond, rice, coconut, or hemp, provide a yummy foundation for your breakfast smoothies.  I like mine thick, but play with your ratios until you find the texture that suits you best :]
  2. Choose your greens.  If you’re afraid of strong flavor, start with baby spinach.  Then go change your diaper.  Just kidding, but really.  Don’t be a baby.  You can use any edible greens, and bonus points for the weedier and herbier varieties ;].  Try and alternate types regularly, though; there is a theory that the oxalates might build up and hurt you if you continually eat, say, spinach.  Rotate every time you purchase or harvest and you’ll be fine.
  3. More veggies?  Might I suggest a few stalks of celery?  I don’t like beets, but you might.  When in doubt, add more greens.
  4. Choose your fruit(s).  I start with one or two bananas.  They mask the intense flavor of the greens, while lending a creamy consistency.  I don’t like it when my smoothies are grainy or thin.  Gross.  So always use a banana, or an avocado!  As for what comes next, add what you will, but be careful of certain combos: Sweet fruits (bananas, dates), acidic fruits (pineapples, strawberries, grapes), and melons- try and choose one category per smoothie.  Yeah right, but seriously, watch out for mixing melons.  That’s about as far as I follow those rules :p
  5. BOOST IT: Maca, cinnamon, hemp protein, (soaked) flaxseed, coconut oil, oats, almonds or any other nuts… these are a few of my favorite things.  Get creative :]

Although I am no longer 100% raw, I still use the principles of nutrition and holistic living I learned while I was, and I continue to build on them.  I will be revisiting and revising them in future entries.

Mutually Beneficial Relationships with Animals: Can They Exist?

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I had moved to a new town just in time to begin third grade, and I could barely contain my excitement the spring we incubated a clutch of chicken eggs.  When they finally hatched, I instantly fell in love with a tiny black chick.  He was so fluffy and tiny!

I begged my parents to let me have him.  I think they had residual guilt from denying me the first grade black bunny, “Magic,” so they eventually agreed, with the caveat that I had to first earn an ‘A’ on my upcoming president report.  Obviously I chose Abe Lincoln, and I made a point of doing a great job.  I got my ‘A,’ and I couldn’t even sleep from excitement, daydreaming about my new buddy and the awesome adventures we were going to have together.

The day arrived to bring my chick home.  I watched in horror as the dairy farm representative gathered and removed all the chicks, loading them into a white commercial van, their chirps barely audible.  I was, of course, heartbroken.  My mom came to the rescue and drove me to the old Santa Paula Mill that weekend, where she paid 50 cents to bring home what would become our family pet for the next decade.

pet chicken

mmmhmm.

“Checkers” spent the first several months of her life living in the house with us.  My mom and grandpa soon built her a large backyard hutch, and she loved to take dirt baths in the sun, retiring to her house as it dropped from the sky.  One morning, we woke up to find our Malamute-Lab mix stuffed in the hutch with her.  Not eating her.  Sleeping with her.  She would groom him, and they would often share food.  She came when called, followed my mom and me everywhere, and attended many, many days of grade school with me, perched on the old wooden bookshelf in the back of the classroom.  I had wonderfully supportive elementary school teachers.

When she was around a year old, Checkers began laying eggs, and they were turquoise, and two and a half dozen a month!  I had never seen green eggs before, and being a kid, I was beyond thrilled.  Their yolks were a rich golden yellow, and made great pancakes.  She had a great diet, which included tablescraps and supplements in addition to her chicken feed, and it showed.  I have to imagine that, as far as eggs go, Checkers’ were as wholesome as could be.  They were happy eggs coming from a truly happy, healthy, and loved hen.

I think chickens make great pets for children, and I hope to have a few more in the future.  They are intelligent, have distinct (hilarious) personalities, and are simply good company.  They will also lovingly offer your family a source of nutrition.  See, and here is were I differ from some of the hardcore vegan/animal ethics activists, I believe that there are friendships with animals that can be mutually beneficial (do I have to add ‘without killing them?’).  We provided a loving and caring home for our hen, and she gave us eggs.  Likewise, I volunteer at a stable filled with horses that are cared for by a team of knowledgeable and loving individuals.  The facilities are beautifully maintained, and the horses have only one job: Saturdays, they whisk the disabled up and away from their chairs and through the forest, on a short trail running parallel to the ocean.  The retired horses receive the same loving care and attention, but spend ride time lapping up extra grooming and pets.  It’s a really healthy, positive place, inside and out, and everyone leaves with a boost, including the animals.  The social and physical activity benefits all of us.

4h

These do not at all seem like exploitative situations to me.  On the contrary, from the way I see it, we all win.  I think that we could greatly profit from exploring and developing more respectful, mutually-beneficial relationships with the animals, both on the individual level and at large.  I’m not saying to go out and get yourself a flock, but hey, maybe.  You could start smaller by encouraging your children to join an association like 4H, giving them hands-on projects to build their self-confidence and sense of community, while cultivating compassion and empathy for the other members of the animal kingdom.  We will only improve ourselves as we pursue a more balanced relationship with our natural world, an inevitable side effect as we seek and define truth.  I know that we will sleep better, too.

16 Personalities

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I recently took the Meyers-Briggs personality test, which uses Jungian principles to yield you an idea of how in the hell your noggin operates (i.e. WAY differently than others’!).  My result was INFJ, and I was surprised at how accurate the descriptions were.  I emailed the test to my parents, who replied with their types, ISFP (mom) and ENTJ (dad).  Researching them, I realized I had been trying to understand my own family members, in addition to everyone else, through my own perceptual lens.  I also learned why they are such vastly different characters, and objectively for once!  I realized that this could be a valuable key if you really desire to better understand yourself and those around you.  I hoped that my parents would read about my result also, as perhaps it could explain to my father why I care little for competitive environments and external achievements, and shed light for my mother on why the heck I’m SO freakin sensitive (both long-standing pet peeves of theirs).

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Don’t let my writing style fool you; I am a true introvert.  I expend energy in social situations, and tend to experience my environment through intuition, swimming in an unlimited pool of feeling and emotion- not just mine, yours too, you freaks!  It wears me out, and I often have trouble telling just where I end and the world begins.  I almost always feel out of my body (see my entries on derealization and depersonalization), and have to really focus to physically ground myself.  When I do, I feel like I’ve just woken up.  It’s so much more familiar to float away on the endless stream of ideas and pursuits of development and growth as I personally understand and define them.

Understanding how your mind works and relates to the world can be empowering.  I know it has been for me.  It helps you to better (and genuinely) appreciate yourself and those around you.  It hints at areas at which you could improve, aka: our opposite natures.  It’s tough for me to be extroverted and social, but I feel much more balanced when I attempt to be.  I also learned what (-) traits tend to surface under stress, and yup, they were right on.  So annoying.  I guess that means they were me and my problem the whole time, haha.

I encourage you to investigate your personality type!  It might give you a clearer perspective and provide some direction for you on your journey through this crazy thing we call Life, whether in pursuits of love, livelihood, happiness, or personal success.

I don’t know if anyone actually reads this blog, but if you do and happen to take the personality test, I’d love to have you anonymously add your answer below!

Broken bone club

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It was bound to happen: I’ve joined the broken bone club. I was kicked by a horse yesterday and cracked my pelvis :[. Gross. I hate how those words look and sound. It’s been an itchy drug haze since the hospital discharge, and I’m feeling useless. Thank god for Netflix and Nooks. And to think I was planning on giving up my iPhone in the evenings for Lent…

Has anyone out there used comfrey for breaks? I’ve read about using it externally as a poultice, but I have an open wound and don’t know that that would be appropriate. Maybe I’ll order some on Amazon and it’ll arrive after the skin closes up. I am intrigued by this “knit bone” and am open to learning about how I can avoid complications from this injury in the future.

Day 232: Daydreaming Personalities: Out of the Closet.

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As a child, I lived and played in my imagination. Dog weddings and archeological digs in the backyard were common activities, as was my firm belief that if only I believed sincerely enough, I could fly right off of our playhouse, resurrect a dried starfish, and knit gorgeous sweaters from our Sheltie’s winter coat. As I grew older, I would be called a daydreamer, a whimsical personality.

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A few years ago, I came to the conclusion that the majority of my attention was fixed on my inner monologue, spinning stories around the people and animals I encountered, and forever whispering snippets of melodies that had caught my ear during the day. I wondered if I was distracting myself from reality, and tried to stop, or at least slow down. I became frustrated with the difficulty I encountered; I realized I was dealing with what I perceived as a coping mechanism (due to its habitual and distractive nature), and while I found the cognitive-behavioral approach helpful in becoming aware of this, I always felt like I was fighting a fundamental component of my personality.

I am reclaiming my right to daydream. Introspection and introversion, when integrated with a dose of extroverted reality, make for a really interesting time. I am sorry that I fought this part of myself, and see now why the creative outlets I attempted, while fun and successful, weren’t completely satisfying. A big part of my creativity is just for me, has always been just for me, and I’m grateful to allow myself to savor the gift of storytelling and wonderment throughout the day. I see now that this has always been a legitimate outlet, one that didn’t ever need to be dressed in a costume and packaged for the external world to appreciate and admire. Funny that it only took awareness for me to identify, vilify, and finally love and accept a huge part of what makes me me.

So daydreamers, this one is for you. Your time in the clouds isn’t wasted; just come down sometime and say hello :]

Day 230: Discoveries.

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Last year, when I decided to begin this blog, I had no way of anticipating the radical changes that would accompany the journey, from internal and external perception to my interaction with my environment on all levels. I remember writing an entry early on called something like “Authentic Living” which hinted at this.

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As I try to process and express what this means to me, I’d also like to say that while I had no idea I’d at all accumulate any sort of readership- with the exception of family members keeping tabs (Hi Dad!), it has always been my hope that through documenting my experience (or, more accurately, science experiment), I might be able to help others… perhaps those who have become frustrated during their journey through Pharmacologia, as I had.

I knew, as you do, that I should eat more fruits and veggies. Grandma had told me that from babyhood. I knew that processed foods aren’t great for you (but boy are they convenient!) and I had read and researched the heck out of the health benefits of eating vegetarian or vegan. I was stuck in the root of the material plane, however, focusing on all of the benefits to the physical body (I include mental health in this category), and having little idea of the great advantage this sort of diet would present to one’s energetic and spiritual self. This is because my focus and reality lay in the physical realm. The truth is, there’s a reason many great spiritual leaders and thinkers have both recommended and followed a vegan diet: on an energetic level, a cleaner lifestyle opens one up more readily and thoroughly to the flow of spirit (or chi, or kundalini, or god, or life energy, or Bob- it doesn’t matter what you call it as long as the concept lies behind the word). It’s less dampening to the spirit, and to the muse. The same way we use caffeine, nicotine, THC, alcohol, etc., we use flesh and dairy. Yes, our bodies can technically process it, but it’s not the best method if one desires more spiritual and philosophical lucidity or clarity.

Similarly, I have learned that the symbols we use to represent concepts are of little significance, as long as they function personally, and that they often serve to create walls between people who might have found commonality, but instead hyperfocus (and disagree) upon the symbols themselves. It’s the old “a rose is a rose” cliché, where the symbol is merely a vehicle for the emotion evoked. The emotions may be common, as is often the goal, but the symbols themselves don’t need to be.

…So thanks for stopping by, whoever you are. I hope that you find inspiration in your day, in your dreams, and that you find yourself walking a path of endless internal and external discovery and appreciation. The view from here is breathtaking.

Day 227: Waking Dreams.

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I was exhaling a deep breath when it happened, and his hand and face and sparkling room all accelerated me at warp speed as I laid back, gasping at what I saw. Rolling into a fetal position on my right side, I was drawn into another dimension, where neon patterns pulsed and snaked, both seen and sensed on such a basic vibrational level that I was humbled. I was overtaken by a bright light emerging from the sea of glowing motifs, and then there was darkness, an incandescent green drawing me into a paradigm so familiar that I submitted to the wholly foreign kaleidoscopic experience.

My consciousness had completely separated from my body when I shed all the anxieties and fears that accompany a fleshly, material existence; perhaps only for a lucid instant, during which eternity crystallized in such coherence that I knew I was encountering Source, both a mirror and the void, inextricably intertwined. When I finally woke up, I continued to feel gratitude on a cellular level: gratitude for the intensity of my experience, gratitude for the strength of my soul and of all souls, and gratitude for being allowed a glimpse into the esoteric unknown.

Day 191: So about that Joe Rogan…

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A lot of my readers are coming across my blog via Joe Rogan-related searches, so I thought I’d tell the story of how I came to be a serious devotee of his podcast.

You might remember that I experienced symptoms of derealization and depersonalization during an exceptionally anxious period of my life. While I was creeping my mom out with observations like, This doesn’t feel real. It feels like a memory of the distant future, or I am pretty sure I’m dreaming all of this, my brother came across a conversation on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast which perfectly captured the essence of the phenomena I was experiencing. Sure, he and Duncan Trussell were describing the effects of psychedelics on the human experience, but we’ve learned that altered states of mind and consciousness can be triggered by many, many factors… psychedelics, meditation, and heightened states of anxiety or other emotions (like ecstasy) are just a few of the modalities.

I was hooked. I really enjoy listening to someone who’s way more eloquent than I am discuss particularly interesting topics with a wide variety of guests, from fellow comedians to my favorite authors (Graham Hancock, you are gangsta). I actually had no idea JR was involved with comedy until I started listening to his podcast, and I’m so glad I did because he can be hilarious. I’ve got some solid media recommendations (Food of the Gods, Magical Egypt) from him, and have become a fan of several of his guests’ comedy, specifically Duncan Trussell, Ari Shaffir, Joey Diaz, and Bert Kreischer.

Podcasts are an amazing thing, really. The access to information is as wide (and sometimes as convoluted, or downright fraudulent) as can be found across the internet. JR’s view on the use of psychedelics in a context of self-exploration and personal growth closely parallels my own, and I find his validation of the experience both refreshing and honest. I also really like when he talks about the physics of the universe, cosmology, space, et al. While I can’t say I agree with everything he says, I can definitely say that a lot his podcast is lol, and that he gave me a different and helpful perspective during a really difficult period of my life. Huzzah!

Day 170: Auras.

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Kirlian photography can reveal your aura, aka: the ever-changing electromagnetic field surrounding you, created by and reflecting mood, spirit, and experience. I was so excited to have my image taken recently, which revealed mine to be green and golden:

I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the mention of new-agey stuff like this, but the truth is that all things have auras.  They are simply measurable fields of energy, which most are unable to see with the naked eye… hence why kirlians are so rad.  If you’re interested in developing the ability to read energy fields (some sources call b.s. on faux-kirlian images), check out these eye exercises.  Apparently, we are all capable of learning this skill; in fact, many insist that we were endowed with the faculty at birth, but were taught to ignore it.  I have definitely practiced, and it seems more accurate to me to try to “sense” another’s aura as opposed to actually “see” it.  Interestingly, I have been told several times that I dominate the green chakra, and that my aura is both green and yellow.  According to my kirlian, this is an accurate assessment.

If you are interested in photographing your aura, it’s absolutely more reasonable to pay to have it done ($10.00 – $50.00 generally) as opposed to investing in a $3500.00 piece of equipment (the fiber optics are developed overseas and can be quite expensive), although trying to hone your individual skills can be a lot of fun.