Wednesday

{ Baby Food Fast }

alOha ; ) 

   The Baby Food Fast. We're on day two, but who's counting? We've mentioned this before in bits and pieces on our face book page, and people have inquired .. wanting to try this thing. But until this moment, we've put it off with the "soon-soon, we'll blog about it later," response.




   In the Winter, it's better to eat more warm, cooked food: soups .. slow cooked stews in crock pots, baked squash and extra protein and fats. (good fats) So we've been doing that - I even have a little paunch to prove it. And the weather up here is all over the place in the grey areas between seasons, so there was the excuse: "Is it really Spring yet? Time for the rocket fuel fast? Um .. . let's look at the 5 day forecast." But now it's undeniable ..

   The first step of this exclusive eating regimen ... fast ... diet .. whatever you want to call it. The first step has nothing to do with your mouth or non-mastication, but rather, with the mind. The part of the mind that gets you into trouble. Call it the ego if you'd like, but there's a little voice in there, a pleasure chaser who wants greasy, salty crunch - sweet, sweet, repeat. Giving in against your better judgement is a victory for this unconscious voice, and a step back from control, health and happiness.

   Is there something wrong with enjoying a little texture - the crunch of a single almond and the raw oil it produces in the internal cold-press juicer and grinder that is your mouth?

   Absolutely not, but a lot of the time eating isn't done out of physical hunger. It's always best to check your intention, and taking this challenge, for however long, will show you who's running the show .. you may be surprised to find out that it's not you. 

   This isn't a starvation, no, but rather an energy packed, high calorie, fuel rich simplification. This journey calls for almonds, yes, soaked and blended to milk, and avocados ... nut butters, bananas, creamy coconut milk and raw chocolate. Salty and sweet butternut squash soups and blended mushroom and veggie broths that will make your toes curl.




   Simply put, what we do, when the weather's ripe, is chuck out the chewing. Baby Food Fast. If you can't break it down with your tongue, it's not on the menu. Almost everything we eat is born in the blender. We're fortunate to own a Vita Mixer, which is kind of like having your own little raw food restaurant in your kitchen. But we've had friends use their standard blenders with good results. There's a few little tricks on getting a bit more performance out of your blender in the recipes to come, and I we'll make sure to post them. But if you can afford a Vita Mixer, it'll change your life : )

   Frozen avocado is a base for a lot of our smoothies .. (concoctions that can pack as many as 900 calories per cup). It's very mild, creamy, a great thickener, and will adapt to your dominant ingredients: weather a coco sunday or savory italian blend with olive oil, basil, fresh tomato, and herbs and spices. And it's a healthy fat which won't stick in your arteries like low quality fats and oils.

   But as I was saying, the first step of this is off the table and in the mind. Oh - you'll find reasons not to start: "so-and-so's birthday dinner next week, a wedding, pizza night, the ball game .. MONDAYs .." Ours was, "I don't think it's quite Spring yet .. better hold off, and finish those delicious stir fry leftovers" .. In fact, we just yesterday loaded up all our non-blend-ables and non-juice-ables from the refrigerator and cupboards, and gave them away.

   I'm not trying to make this out to be some inner war of the voices - it was actually very easy for me, especially once you're a week or so in and start to feel like a super hero. It's more of a peaceful coup - a sit-in of flower children with dandelion greens, and a step down of the fat cat with his plate of lasagna and trash can fish bones ; ) 

   It's best not to do this impulsively. Think about it, daydream about it, obsess, denounce .. and then get ready. You may want to get your toes wet by exchanging dinner with juice or a smoothie at first. This should be your lightest meal anyway. They say, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a duke, and dinner like a peasant ." Heavy loads of fuel are not needed before you hit the couch and then the sack.

   Not all of you, but many of you (myself included) have a very strong emotional relationship with food. What they call comfort food. Trying days, when I find the wolf in me growling and restless, would led me to the local grass fed burger joint - tearing meat, reeling in strings of melted cheese from the void, dipping fries and hardly chewing at all. This - - is the opposite of the Baby Food Fast .. the Particle Diet .. I still can't nail down a good name for this thing. Open to ideas ; )

   Yes, the first (and last) step is in your mind. Quieting the cranky child in us all. And then .. the rest .. is a kind of metaphysical meditation. A break from taking breakfast, lunch and dinner orders from a never-satisfied diner. Time for a nice Spring cleaning. You never knew what a drag 15 pounds of intestinal weight can be until it's gone. Fast - Day 28 - and you look into the toilet and say aloud, "where's this stuff coming from?'

   On the physical side, you need to be ready for your body to start making some interesting sounds, growls, noticeable movement bellow the belly like snakes in heat.  As you cleans and detox, you might find yourself saying - my pits smell like burning plastic, or ..  my pee just came out dark orange ... ha ha ha.  Just observe as much as possible, and don't take everything so personally. You are not this body .. and it knows what it's doing much more that you do. Oh .. and you're going to want to brush your teeth more than usual - with the chewing fast, they'll get pretty slimy pretty quickly ; )

   The first time I did this with juwels, I was shooting for 3 days .. and ended on 40 something, but not because I wanted to keep cleaning, but more for the feeling I had buzzing through me. I'm pretty clean already - 100% organic, juice, super foods, canyon spring water - love & laughter - but a few weeks into this thing and I'm in a different reality. Clean, sharp, calm - like a yogi vampire high on beet juice.




   A warning: if you're like me, you'll find yourself with a lot of extra energy. A clear mind in the early morning and at night, all the way to the pillow, and then, nah' night. So if you find yourself loving this, and never want to stop, then you might want to keep it under your hat (even though the urge is to recruit everyone you meet to this bliss, there's no point in trying to convert anyone in your hyper healthy state) .. just remember to take a breath between sentences, keep the dancing to a minimum, and otherwise, try not to appear like a complete crazy person. Ha, ha, ha ; ) We did this while we filled about 300 candle orders in our little Winnie during the etsy interview ; )

   Why would you have extra energy? Well, just a theory, but the body sucks large amounts of energy for digestion, and when you have a 2 pound burrito floating around, and barely broken down into 10 over-sized bites, well, it's time to call in the night crew. And then the food fuel is offset by all the extra processing.

   Blending breaks the job down into millions of manageable particles. Easy, streamline - rocket fuel. You get the full fuel and have reserve power for building bridges and filling in potholes. Your system will start to clean itself. Flush. Dislodge. Not my intention, but I lost 21 pounds last time I did this (just so happened to be at a friend's place which had a scale). I don't -have- 21 extra pounds to be found or lost .. It's true that I wired up quite a bit and felt like a 19 year old hunter tribesman .. rather than a soft caterpillar, but the majority of that weight fell into the LA sewer system. You'll be amazed.

   I could go on an on about this - but my favorite part is taking the physiological urge and over-thinking out of food. It's interesting to see how many times you'll have to smack your hand, which has wandered onto the refrigerator handle in boredom or restlessness, and say, "no, no - there's only a spoon and baby food in there." With Matrix style food, three cups of green super fuel, fresh juice, soup, etc ... nothing sexy or naughty, there's no more giving into the crying baby or the red faced temper tantrums of this complicated life we've evolved to. And the thing that surprised me most, was when the chatter and whining quieted, so did many other parts of my body and soul. It's a definite high and a very empowering to have the reigns on something like that, and I'm excited to visit this place for a second season ; )

   Thanks for reading, chug-a-lug-lug, loVe,

  -p&j



 .... I think we'll end up creating a page here on the blog to post loads of daily drinks, tips, bits and pieces .. but this is just an introduction. Once the page is ready, I'll post a link {Here}  


    oh .. and feel free to message or comment with any questions that you might have already. This will help us light up as many aspects as possible in future posts ; )




  

5 comments:

  1. Great idea, but the more remote you are, the less access you have to fresh fruit and vegetables - or any. The drought isn't helping. Dandelions and goosefoot barely coming up yet.

    Jane in northern NM

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  2. OoOooOOoo, I can't wait to read more about it. I've heard of the sharpness of life after these fasts. I think I'll get my ducks in order and jump in. You make it seem so enticing! I'll be intrigued to read more.

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  3. This has really been on my mind lately, I feel the inner struggle when I reach for the comfort foods most days. Feelin sluggish for sure! I have a vita mix now though! yay! I just have to get motivated to put it to good use (I think this post did it!). I am in the AZ desert and the idea of eating light is sounding perfect now that its 100 degrees every day. I am super excited to hear any tips or recipes you have. I am ready to take the challenge :)

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  4. I'm so excited to see the drink ideas! I think I felt my absolute best mentally and physically on a macrobiotic vegan diet, but that was quite a while ago :x I've been wanting to clean up my diet again.

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  5. We got a Vitamix at the beginning of April and have been having one or two smoothies a day and a meal (usually lunch) as well... haven't quite been able to give upon the solid food entirely but loving the smoothie addition to our diet. I'm inspired to give the fast a try for a few days though !! Could certainly use the energy :)

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