HAPPY FALL!

The Food

So much of what I've been doing lately with the raw lifestyle is centered on the recipes. I know this will change soon because one of us is going to hit recipe overload. (Actually, Enrique will hit it first, but then I will keep pushing the envelope.) But, right now I am not juice feasting, not fasting, not setting any food goals, and honestly, it's hard to tell how I really feel since my entire life has been revolutionized. I'm just satisfying the hunger and then turning around and letting the little one suck half of the nourishment right out, and going right back to the kitchen again.

In addition to being so hungry, its difficult to go outside right now. Besides being almost 100 degrees in Ojai, we have to contend with the Zaca fire. Here is a picture a friend of mine took from her backyard in nearby Montecito:

So, yeah the air quality is disgusting right now. Might as well stay holed up inside with my recipe books and trusty dehydrator.

As for baby?

He just grows and grows. Right now, he is in the 50% for his height and weight. I don't have exact measurements today, but I'll do a post on his specifics in the future.



Because I'm spending so much time preparing yummy foods, I decided not to separate the recipe blog from the main blog. I'll leave the link to past recipes, but from now on, I'll just post what I'm doing here.

Last night I made a huge batch of Russell James' Mediterranean Almond Bread. I turned half the recipe into pizza bread by topping it with Juliano's Exquisite Marinara recipe and dehydrated that overnight. Here it is in it's first incarnation:


Its actually really yummy alone as a snack, but just for fun I'm going to throw some toppings on there and see where that takes me.

How Many Boyz are Raw?

New anthem for the raw ladies:

Link

Can We Be Successful on a 100% Raw Vegan Diet?

I've just spent a couple of days in conversation with a sweet friend about the possibility of having long-term (I mean decades) of success, being full of energy and in healthy bliss on a 100% raw vegan diet. No raw animal products, no steamed veggies. But, that holy grail of the raw movement: all raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

There are myriad books saying it is so, and all the speakers and constultants and gurus will counsel you that it is the way to paradise health. But, the truth of the matter is, many of the experts are not always following these guidelines. Everyone seems to be incorporating this or that into their diets, while still holding Raw Food up as the ultimate in perfection.

I was "raised raw" in a time and place where my raw friends were wearing the "Cooked Food is Poison" T-shirts espousing a "Raw is Law" philosophy. These days, moderation seems to be the buzz word and everyone is throwing around their percentages.

Yet, still I run into so many people that seem to be struggling. And I guess since I've been doing this for a little while and my partner is so darn successful on the diet, people ask me questions that I don't know how to answer.

So, I keep seeking. I know the success stories are real. I like to believe it is possible. And that is why I am so grateful baby has come into our lives at this moment. Because I don't know that we will see the truth in this generation. We're so wounded and clogged and confused that the journey becomes long and hard. We get lost. We give up. But, the information is spreading so exponentially and as we pass it along, we'll see individuals like Sebastian who have the opportunity to try and make it work from step one with a clear road map and clarity of vision.

So, I guess my advice is: Keep trying. Pass the information along to your children, or children you know. Don't let the heart of the message get lost in the confusion and the chaos. Hold the flame. Allow yourself flexibility and compassion, but don't give up the faith.

My Chubs, My Lovely Baby Chubs

I wonder if he's getting enough nourishment?

Hungry Mommy

I've never been so hungry in my life. I've always been a big eater, but I have never eaten so much, so often. Now, I know this is totally normal for a nursing mother, but it has come as a surprise just how much food I need to keep me going through the night. Even as a cooked vegan, I usually didn't need more than a juice or a smoothie before noon. And I guess since I had so many digestive challenges during my pregnancy that kept me from really being able to eat large amounts of food, I just wasn't prepared for the hunger that followed.

So, my daily (food) regimen now looks something like this:

7am - glass of Thai coconut water
10am- glass of green juice (if Enrique has been so sweet as to prepare some) or fruit and coconut water smoothie with green powder
11am - bowl of fruit (cherries, strawberries, durian) or
1/2 pint Enrique's ice cream (coconut-based)
12 noon - small salad (with avocado or nut-based dressing)
2or3 pm - couple handfuls macadamia or brazil nuts, or a small dish of olives
6pm - large salad or a recipe, if I've prepared one

The best part is, I get to flex those recipe muscles. I absolutley love to uncook, but in the past, I've settled for fruit or a salad. Now, I'm getting creative because with all this food I'm consuming its easy to get bored. So, in the past two months I've had a lot of fun. Here's just a few of the recipes I've been entertaining my palate with.

Fettucine Alfredo
Zucchini & Bell Pepper Noodles w/ Olives and
Mac Cream Recipe from Juliano's Raw

Caesar Salad
Dressing Recipe from Alissa Cohen's Living on Live Food

More Dishes with Links to Recipes:

Cashew Hummus
Pad Thai
Pesto Pasta
California Ranch Salad
Ginger Nori Rolls
Pea Mole with Flax Crackers
Classic Kale Salad
Burritos
Curry Coco Soup

Healing and a Happy Baby

Baby will be six weeks old on Thursday and he is thriving. I, on the other hand, am only just now feeling like a human being again. After healing from the birth, battling what might have been thrush, and winning over mastitis including two days of over 101 degree fevers, I am finally back to my pre-birth energy levels. I can't really say I notice a huge difference in my energy due to the raw food, but I have made it through the various healing crises with relative ease.

As far as my month-long healing process, I mentioned before the coconut water cure for the stinging pee. Vaginal healing also included ice packs for my perineum and bed rest for at least a week.

After about week two I began to experience extremely sore, cracked and bleeding nipples with incredible pain associated with nursing. I would compare this pain to glass being sucked through the nipple with each let down. The catalog of symptoms all pointed to candida more commonly known as thrush. I treated this with grapeseed extract swabs for both myself and baby, along with Motherlove nipple salve, and ridiculously frequent laundering in vinegar of everything that would come in contact with my or baby's skin. And, I basically went topless for two weeks and got my nipples in the sun as much as I could. Thought about cutting out sugar, but there was just no way I could go without the calories. I am absolutely ravenous. Finally, that abated and I began to feel less discomfort.

Then suddenly one morning I developed a high fever, terrible aches and pains and a rock solid lump in my right breast. Mastitis. I was terrified I would end up on antibiotics. But, with google to the rescue I was able to treat the infection with bed rest, hot and cold compresses and frequent nursing. The infection was gone in about 36 hours, but the incredible aches and tension in my neck and shoulders persisted even through Enrique's most fierce massages and pressure points. I got really angry at this pain. I couldn't stop myself from railing into Enrique and taking all my suffering out on him for any little thing I could think of. Everything he did hurt my feelings, and even though I knew it was just this month of constant pain talking, I was angry and resentful at him. I was really becoming dark and depressed. I begged him to buy me some ibuprofen. That did not make him happy, but it was the most therapuetic thing I could have done. He bought me a bottle, but it only took one pill to make all the difference.

Imagine, I made it through birthing a child with not one drop of painkiller, and what finally broke me was knots in my shoulders. I realized however, it was the debilitating nature of chronic pain, one thing after another for a month straight. If I was not breastfeeding, I would have fasted and let my body heal the pain away. But, this was not really an option for me while I am sustaining this rapidly growing baby in addition to myself. So, I was able to turn to allopathic medicine. In a tiny dose, coupled with my continuing dedication to the raw food diet, it really saved my sanity. For that I am grateful, and it brings me compassion and understanding for those that suffer on a daily basis. It is an incredible challenge, and sometimes we have to remember that our "ideal" way of doing things might not be the solution for the moment. I took compassion on myself and I am so glad I did, because finally, one morning soon after that one little pill, I woke up feeling perfectly, amazingly, blissfully...normal. Hallelujah.

Baby took it all in stride, and as you can see, couldn't be happier. And, despite all the challenges, how could I be anything but happy? I mean just look at that laughing face. Too bad we couldn't bottle that and sell it as a painkiller!

Mother's Milk

I went back to 100% the day Sebastian was born. It just sort of happened in a way that felt incredibly right for both of us. I had been craving cherries and peaches and wanted them available to eat the day of his birth, I even included it in my birth plan. I'd been waiting for them to appear at the farmer's markets and I knew they would be there by the time he arrived in early summer. So, I started nourishing both of us with the most luscious of cherries.

Having lived in Maui, I've had a thing for coconuts for a while now. But, I was pretty spoiled by that experience (that is, eating fresh, green, just off the palm coconuts that I open with my own machete every morning) and I haven't been able to stomach the shaved, white imported Thai cocos that most of us are so familiar with. Nonetheless, in my ecstasy/delirium, I started asking for coconut water at some point that first week postpartum.

A few days after drinking coconut water (and inexplicably loving it - again, didn't used to be able to stand the Thai coconut water straight) I discovered something totally amazing. In the morning, after my first glass of coco water, it doesn't sting when I peed. I'd had a small tear that my midwife said was not neccesary to stitch - so it had been stinging pretty bad whenever I'd have to pee, and I was doing so with the aid of a removable shower head to dilute it and ease the pain. I sort of experimented with this and realized that, yes, the coconut water did affect the pain associated with urinating. Enrique says it is the alkalizing nature of the coconut. I'm sure there is a scientific explanation, but I think of it as the pure magic of the coco. So, needless to say, we've been buying ALOT of coconuts. Now, I am healed of that particular challenge, but I haven't stopped drinking coconut water every single day.

I'd always known about the connection between the coconut and mother's milk, but never really paid much attention. I just loooooved coconuts. Now, as I watch my son thrive on the milk that is powered by this miraculous fruit; I am so in awe of the perfection of nature. He's only one month old, but after doing my google research on the benefits of eating coconuts while breastfeeding, I know that he is going to be able to fight off dis-ease and be supremely healthy. This has been an amazing gift and I am so grateful to my body for intuiting it.

Next on the plan is getting down to Mexico to find some fruiting coconut palms and a good machete.

Baby Boy

The Cole-Candioti Family
Enrique, Tiffany and baby Sebastian

born at home in Ojai
May 31, 2007. 10:04 am.
7lbs. 13 ounces.