Dr. Craig Sommers's Lecture Video Part 2: Protein

Protein always seems to be of concern when anyone finds out a person is vegetarian, vegan, and/raw raw, or when changing to a meat-free diet. Watch the video below on the next part of Dr. Sommers's lecture at Almond Blossom Cafe covering the topic of protein. I certainly learned some new things even though I've been studying this on and off for a few years now.

It's a shame that mainstream media has hidden these truths from the general public. Sadly, it's all too common for the health-conscience to be criticized for our choices by people lacking the proper education on this lifestyle and nutrition in general. How can one do their body right, without understanding how it functions optimally? It's time to take charge of your health, your life will be grateful for it. Once can let go of bad habits and really start to feel great, it's amazing what positive forces will enter your life.

Best Valentine's dinner ever!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you showed your love today and that you'll carry it with you always. May we all be grateful for the love in our lives and around us. Thank you Brent for the card you made for me, it was so special :) and thank you readers for your support, encouragement, and inspiration. It means so much to know you're interested in my thoughts. As I continue to work on expanding this blog into a website, I will reward my first followers for your kindness. Until then, send me a message on twitter or leave me a comment with any question you would like answered and I'll answer them ASAP. Now on to our fabulous meal...

Oh, I'm so full of yumminess tonight! We went to Almond Blossom Cafe for "Raw in Love" and it was so delicious! We started off with some salsa and crackers, followed by a Tex-Mex platter (that would have filled us up alone), and finished off with a dessert platter. We couldn't finish the sweet treats there, so we came home and watched the movie Juno while I munched away at the remains.

Tex-Mex is my husband's favorite raw cuisine, so if you have a friend that's curious about living foods, a raw "taco" is sure to please their taste buds. Full of flavor and good for you! You can't say that about Taco Bell!

Desserts are another sure way to convince skeptics that raw foods are delicious! Don't these just make you drool?! Truffles, cake, cobbler, and pudding, oh my!

Dr. Craig Sommers's Lecture Video Part 1: Enzymes

A few posts back I mentioned the lecture I attended at Almond Blossom Cafe where Dr. Craig Sommers spoke about the content from his book: Raw Foods Bible. I learned so much that I wanted to share, but it was a lot of info so I will break it down into each topic he discussed.

Raw food is alive with enzymes. Here is why this is so important to every living being. Excuse my sloppy video-taking, I was trying to eat with one had and record with the other.

Dinner & a lecture at Almond Blossom Cafe

Tonight was quite the treat—for the body and mind! I got to listen to a great speaker, Dr. Craig B. Sommers, and have a rawsome meal prepared by my favorite raw restaurant. We started off with a nice green salad with sprouts, followed by the "antipasta" dish pictured above (yes, I have those same plates at home), and ended with my favorite kind of dessert: carob-raspberry cake sprinkled with coconut! (Sorry no photo of that, I was eating it with one hand and videotaping with the other.)

Dr. Sommers gave a great talk about the raw foods lifestyle. I bought his book, which he was kind enough to autograph and I will be sharing the video and some of the things I learned throughout the rest of this week as the information is great and covers a variety of topics. I just wanted to give you a quick preview of my evening until then.

Check to see if you have any health gurus visiting your town. It may be just what you need to get you inspired and motivated to make the leap to a new you. And if you're not far from me, let's plan to go together.

Day 6, and I'm feeling good

It has been a great day! I feel so wonderful, like I did when I was eating raw before. But this time, I got to this feeling much sooner and I attribute it to the detox. I'll have to be careful about how much fat I add back into my diet, but cleaning out like this will make it easy to read my body, see what it responds to best.

We ended up going to the farmers' market later then I've ever been, so there really wasn't as much there as usual. I forgot to take photos, even though I brought my camera :( but I did take some of the stuff I bought.

We also stopped at the Almond Blossom Cafe to pick up organic produce before getting the rest of our groceries at the market. They catered our wedding (check out the photo of our cake here at the bottom of the page) and we signed up for a lecture by Dr. Craig Sommers, author of The Raw Foods Bible, there next week so I'll be sure to write about that.

Our eating schedule was thrown off a little too, so after a banana snack, I was super hungry for a late lunch consisting of a kale, blueberry, and mango smoothie (yummm) and a carrot. Then Brent made some adjustments to his salsa recipe and made it completely raw and we actually like it better. So I had that for a snack with zucchini slices twice today and my mouth was on fire—love it! Thanks Brent!

Dinner was a very flavorful salad with lots of veggies and a lemon-ginger dressing. I did crave some popcorn with our family movie night, but I resisted the temptation and had some "chips" and salsa instead. I also had a terrible lust for some red wine, especially since there's an open bottle spoiling as we speak, but I said no and it feels good not to care.

My body is feeling so light and fresh, that it's hard to go to sleep at night. I don't have that drained feeling and my mind is still alert even though my body is signaling to get to bed. I think kicking up the workouts is going to help with this. We wanted to buy a wii fit today, but it appears that they are hard to find, so I took the dogs out for a long walk. I think I'll try a different yoga video tomorrow and see how the challenge goes.

Thanks for the strange fruit comments. I wanted to find something at the market today, but didn't succeed. You should see our fridge though, it's jam packed with produce and I love seeing so much healthy stuff every time I open it. Off to bed, hope your day was lovely.