Raw 100-day Challenge: Starting this Friday!

Greetings World:

I am embarking upon a 100 day Living Foods Challenge staring Friday August 1. I have seined to www.rawfu. com to be in concert with other people who are embarking upon this journey with me. 

Why am I doing this? I have been on and off this Living Foods Journey for a little over a year now and I am moving into a space where I aspire to maximize my potential and have my life be created from a space of conscious intention. I believe that eating amazing, healthy living foods, coupled with high vibratory thoughts and actions will bring forth an abundant and thrilling life. 

I believe the old saying that we are what we eat (consume, ingest) physically, spiritually and emotionally. So why not consume the best.

I have decided that this will be my course of action for those 100 days:

I will consume 80% Raw living foods. 

I will have a 100% raw day once a week.

I will drink green smoothies daily. (Something I already do)

I will drink fresh fruit/vegetable juices daily

I will post my menu.

The 20% foods that will not be living foods will be un-processed and whole grains.

I will periodically post videos and pics for your viewing pleasure.

Anyone else out there up for the challenge? Check out rawfu.com. 

All the best to you on this perfect journey,

GaBrilla

www.urbanmamasong.blogspot.com

Where has GaBe been?

Hey all. No excuses here. A lot has occurred in the past few months. I am glad that our  blog hasn't gone completely neglected. Brandi so lovingly shared her experiences being back in the bay area and her love affair with strawberries and please know that I am extremely jealous right now:-(

Anyway, as for me, aside from my musical adventures, I have been harvesting some of the seeds that I planted earlier in the summer. I planted french beans, corn, basil, lavender, purple sage, rosemary, and okra. The mint I planted last year it trying to take over one part of the "baby farm", but I give a lot of of it away,  which keeps it under control.

I have been working very hard preparing other areas of the yard. Inspired by my need to have the healthiest food possible in my body and the bodies of my family members and by the Dervaes family (go www.pathtofreedom,com) I am working to cultivate as much of our yard as possible and our yard is HUGE. It is not easy when it is me most of the time pulling up grass, turning over soil, transferring compost, planning and reading and observing and baking in New Orleans heat. But I know there will be fruit to this labor, so I persevere.

I'll post pictures in the next post.

In Greatness,

GaBrilla

Hi all,

I am now in California for the summer. I am still doing graduate school research, but just taking a break from Pennsylvania. Today is a glorious day! This glorious afternoon I went to the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. This was the first time I have been able to visit the market since I have been in California, so I am extremely happy to write this posting. I want to share with the world all the wonderful foods I bought.

First of all, I bought strawberries, strawberries, strawberries! These are really my first strawberries of the year, so I am very excited. They taste amazing!

And I brought one of my most favorite fruits…loquats! Loquat trees are a local tree in Oakland…it is crazy that a lot of people don’t eat this fruit. I also picked up some delectable peaches, cheerful spring onions, awesome red leaf lettuce (my favorite), fragrant cilantro, and beautiful arugula. I am in love…so in love. And finally, on the way home, I stopped at Berkeley Bowl and brought mangoes, blueberries, tomatoes, and a cherimoya. What a blessing!

And when I got home I made this awesome salad. And I topped it with pistachios, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds! Yum!!! What a blessed day!



-Brandi

Oh, and here is a picture of me!!!

Hello world,

It has been months since I posted anything. Life has been busy, but that is no excuse. So here is an update:

First and foremost, I am still raw. Still pushing along and waiting for the sun and earth to provide me with fresh fruits. From these Pennsylvania winters, I have learned that although I love, love-love-love vegetables, I really need some fruit in my life. Mmmmm, some mango, strawberries, blueberries, all the berries…wow, just the thought of fruit has me dancing in my chair. Oooo, pomegranates…I’m currently passing out.

I am currently finishing my 2nd year of graduate school, and interestingly-enough I think this semester has been more difficult than the first. I don’t think I have ever stressed so much in my life. A few weeks ago, I actually had an allergic reaction to some cashews. I couldn’t believe it! I had hives for a WEEK AND A HALF. I still have marks on my skin from all the scratching. Since I have a history of eating cashews, I am pretty sure that it was not the cause. After reading up on a few things, I realized that the reaction was due to stress. Since then I have accepted the fact that I have been stressed, which is a big step since I tend to deny that I am stressed when I am stressed. Yeah….issues. I also began to realize that a lot of my current bodily issues are probably related to stress. I find it amazing that even though I have been raw for almost 2 years that I still have some issues. Here is a list:

1. Psoriasis on my scalp
2. Sleeping 9-10-11 hours a night
3. Now, I take forever to get out of bed. I can lay in bed for 1-2 hours when I wake up. This is a good sign that my adrenals are overtaxed.
4. I have gained 5-10 pounds this semester…which is crazy since I am like 40 pounds overweight.
5. Ever-changing moods…just ask my roommates
6. Gas…just ask my roommates
7. Tired all the time
8. Bloated and puffy
9. And, just not as happy ☹

So, I have been working on ways to decrease my stress. Luckily, I have some amazing people around me who are helping me find ways to de-stress, experience joyfulness, and give my mind peace. Lucky girl! I have actually started to meditate…this is day 2. A new, inspiring friend (see ) gave me some pointers and so far so good. I have stopped working as much, and duh…that has really helped. And lastly, I started bellydancing and going to bed early again. And just as a side note, since I have been taking it easy in the past week, I have lost about 5 pounds.

So, I thought I would update you all with a picture. Unfortunately, I lost my camera in New Orleans, but someone took a picture of me recently at a wedding shower.



I am in the middle, Joche my roommate is on the left, and my friend Lavona is on the right.

Oh, I now have a myspace page. It took me forever but I have finally succumbed. Go to myspace.com/rawblackgirl

Have a wonderful, awesome, stupendous, enlightening, and joyful day!

-Brandi

Greetings People,

It has been a while since there have been any updates from the rawsistas. Due to busy lives, all of us have not been able to post as much as we thought we would, when we first started. But I/we do promise to keep updating as much as possible. Even if we don't write something about what we are personally doing, we will post a video, a website/blog; article or book that we think you would find interesting.

Updates

For the past week or so, while some of my fellow New Orleanians were out at parades in celebration of Mardi Gras, I have been transplating my greens that have been struggling for survival in this inconsistent weather patterns. I have made a commitment to working/ being with the Earth in some way every day. I have a new obsession that I will talk about in my next post. Until then, please enjoy these pics. it.

....Notice how much concentration Omer has while watering the mint.


Here are our Collard greens and Green eaf lettuce. I am affirming their recovery and giving them lots of compost and loving thoughts.

Oh, I forgot to add that I build the garden boxes myself (smile). I felt really empowered.


Youth and Raw Foods

In February, I started teaching a workshop that I created called "Vibrant U-- A journey into Wellness" to youth at a High School in New Orleans. The workshop merges body awareness exercises, nutrition education and the arts in a fun and exciting way. Initially, the students had the expected questions like "What is the class about?" and "What are we going to learn?" and the like. Based on my own experience and focus on creating Wellness in my own life, I have learned that Wellness is dynamic and individualized, so giving them one answer didn't work, becasue it always brought me to another question, so I just allowed the action and work/play answer their questions. There were a few times when their a little bit of resistance to some of the philosophies that I present in the class, but overall, these youth are amazingly receptive to the information. I love it when I hear them say " Oh, Miss Gabrilla, I can't wait to tell my mother /aunt/ father about this!"

This past week, (which was the first day of food preparation), we had a blast, we made a Mexican-inspired salad with a nut cheese and a berry/banana smoothie. The food was so good. They loved it!


Our Mexican-inspired Salad



Notice the smiles of pure raw goodness.


One of my students called me on the phone after leaving class, telling me that her mother really enjoyed some of the salad that we prepared. It feels really good when I see how cooperative they are. How willing they are to learn how to prepare healthy wholesome food and live healthy loves. I did not get one complaint. They would taste the corn and really just light up. They make me love coming there.

Before we prepared the meal, we watched a clip from the video "Raw for Life". They were shocked to know that a person could heal their bodies of conditions such as cancer, diabetes and high blood presssure by eating a raw foods diet. One of my students asked "Why don't the doctors tell us this?" Sharp. They don't miss a beat.

Just amazing kids. I will post more about the workshops as the week go by. We have 11 more weeks.

In Greatness,
GaBrilla

Here is an E! Entertainment clip on The Raw Living Foods Lifestyle. Enjoy!!!!