Food & Exercise

Today I am talking about some of my favorite things. Raw food and exercise. Two things that I believe go hand in hand. When a person exercises the body needs the best fuel and nutrients possible to recover quickly because when we exercise we are basically tearing ourselves down. Then the recovery is building ourselves back up stronger.

Whenever I do a big run I like to drink a fresh vegetable juice before and when I finish I make a smoothie with banana, greens, berries, lucuma, maca, hemp seeds, hemp protein, and goji berries. I have many variations including bee pollen, royal jelly, chocolate nibs, other fruits, other veg.

These two things, I know they are healthy. There is no way they are not, but beyond knowing from reading countless books and blogs and seeing nutritionists I can feel that it is good. Like I am drinking pure energy. Well, I am. I'm not sure if anyone else feels the energy from their foods but I do and when I eat something that doesn't include fresh veg I usually feel heavy and sluggish and like I am missing something.

I wanted to share today one of my favorite blogs by a really great person and nutritionist who healed herself through food just like I did (if you ever read my first blog post). Megan Telpner. She is constantly sharing healthy recipes, great information on healthy foods, unhealthy foods and health washing and how to point them out and avoid them, and has other great people sharing through her site as well. She offers cooking classes in the Toronto area and is always out and about giving demos to large audiences or on tv or interviewing large corporations to get to the bottom of their health washing campaigns.

Her latest post is an interview with a raw food chef, Doug Mcnish, an includes a giveaway of his book. I am entering by including the link on my blog and hope that you can have a chance to win too! You can see that post HERE.

Rain Has Come

Potatoes

Last week the potatoes looked like picture #1

So I covered them as seen in picture #2

That was Tuesday, it is Saturday- picture #3 What?!  

The Romaine

It looked like this when I planted it

Now it looks like this:

Not the flowers, behind Them!  

I know it's silly, because things do grow, but I can't help marveling over them.

Getting crowded in the lettuce patch.

Strawberries. I want to call them Fraggleberries(did these exist on Fraggle Rock?) because in Italian they are called Fragole. So, naturally, I mix all English and Italian words together to make a better more  united language.

I think this is a peach. It is supposed to be a peach tree. Looks kinda funny though.

Here is where some ant antics happened. We threw out some wild flower and grass seeds and then noticed the ants taking them all to build their nest...well, then it rained. It rained for days. It is still raining. Poor littles guys are probably trapped under there.

And when walking through my garden after weeks of on and off rain you might notice your feet feeling a little heavy. And maybe even your garden shoe falls off you sometimes. It's just the mud and clay sticking to your feet. Have fun tracking it all over the paved areas and onto the terrace. 

Before and After Channel Style Old Lady Jewel Button Jacket!

So, now that I look at these pictures I am not really sure why I am posting it. You can't really tell what I did!

..So I am just going to have to tell you. I shortened it! I didn't like where it hit and you cannot really tell since I was wearing leggings in the before picture and jeans in the after. The length made me look like an old lady...hmmm...maybe I am an old lady. P.S. I took the before picture in the Fall maybe and I just got around to fixing the jacket now that it is Spring. I also cut off all my hair and made it blonde again. The End. 

Here is a nice detail of the paisley and the jewel buttons. I found this piece at an outdoor market and was really attracted to the fabric. Hopefully I will be able to wear it! It's been quite warm recently. 

Another  pictures with it buttoned. 

Oh, how did I do it you ask? Well....I unstitched the pockets and the yellowy lining around the edges. I then cut about 3 inches off the bottom, turned under the fabric, sewed it in place, pinned on the yellowy lining and sewed it back on, pinned the pockets where they seemed correct and sewed them back on.  Done. Easy as pie. What? You don't know how to make pie? Fine! 

Growth

Lemons!

My poor poor lemon plant! I was worried about it because it lost all it's leaves this winter in the house. I didn't really know how to take care of it. I also used 5 of it's lemons yesterday in a raw dessert that was so worth it! But now it is looking even more pathetic. I decided to take a good close look for signs of growth and life and YES! I found little tiny spurts of new growth. Thank goodness! You can see one right on the yellow of the lemon and then lower down on the same branch an even smaller one. 

I think it is going to make it.

Here is a Daffodil  that my friend gave me. She brought the bulbs from Holland and said plant now!!! So I did. They are unlike any Daffodil that I have even seen. They have a carnation like center instead of hollow like I am used to in the states. 

Here is an interesting little plant I found popping up under the pines. 

Stella keeping an eye on all that I do in the garden..

This is her bored model look

Then knowing that it is a photo shoot she posed. 

Marigold!

Onions and Celery 

Yep..

I am so proud of my Potatoes. They seem to be growing like mad! I get so freaking excited to see the progress. 

Here is a beet that was a two leaf sprout when I planted it.

Hard to see but this is camomile that I planted in a old piece of olive wood.

The sprouts are so teeny tiny. I hope they grow!

Carrots! They are a bit clumped together right now. I will separate them sooner or later.

That's all for now.

Planted

Yes! all planted. I've been working at planting for what seems like forever now and I am finally done! For now..

Here is a pictures of the first thing I planted. I don't remember exactly when I planted these romaine lettuces but it was something like a month ago. They were basically teeny sprouts and my moon planting calendar said it was good to plant leafy greens that day so I did! They really took. I even had to dig them up and move them around because I planted them too close together. I got lazy because they were teeny sprouts so I just started lumping them in the ground together. The transplanting went well and they all seem to be enjoying their new place.

Here are my potatoes, beets, carrots and green onions. You can't really see anything because they are hidden underground or just tiny sprouts. I will update when we can see something!

Here is an interesting thing that is going on in my yard. If you can see there are a ton of grass seeds bunched up against this rock wall...

You can see the one ant has the beige colored seed to the left.

It's a bit small to see but there are ants carrying the grass seeds to their nest. We noticed them doing this all over the yard. Pretty funny ant behavior. Do ants eat seeds or are they just using it like sand to build the nest?

Up close you can see the eggplants and in the back are onions, celery, and spinach. There are two teeny tiny hot pepper sprouts too. I got them in a little match packet at a fresh taco restaurant in London. We'll see how they go.

Strawberries, Cilantro, Parsley, Basil, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, and Asparagus. 

Artichokes! There was no space left for them in the dog protected fenced in area so they will have to battle with the beasts!

Corn, Beans, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumber, Mustard! I have no idea which plants are which here. Well, the beans and the corn I know but all the squash, pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber are all mixed up. Should be interesting come harvest time. I didn't have all the space I wanted here so they are kind of close together. I think I will be transplanting when they start to get bigger. I will have to move them out to the no protection from two beastly jack russells part of the yard. I'll have to try to keep the zucchini in the fence because the dogs will eat them...hmmm...or maybe I will need them to eat them. I am sure I seeded way too many plants! 

Lettuces! I am so excited about lettuce. I love it and I eat it all the time...for breakfast in smoothies with fruit, for lunch like a giant salad in between two pieces of gluten free bread, for dinner a salad with whatever I might be cooking that day. Nothing feels better than eating like this. 

And this is how I start and end most of my days...at least until the plumber comes and finishes the automatic watering system!!