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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Lemon Larabars, um, make that LaraBalls and Lululemon on my 51st Bday

Since 1959



Yesterday, May 28th, I turned 51 years of age. Old enough to know better and put make up on before I came downstairs to the sound of Altered Images singing "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!" amid some random giggling.
He's Not Mad, Daddy just hates smiling. For the camera that is.


 These two were up to mischeif.. the suspense was in the air..and Surprise! Daddy had the camera, Sam decorated the dining room and a big lovely bag from Lululemon was sitting there with my name on it! Awesome way to start the day!
I love me some Lululemon!

After getting Sam off to school and Dad off to work, I ate a BlackBird naturals Truffle and then did my one hour run, super energy from that one truffle WOW! It was a grass fed butter one, so that is all I will say on THIS blog.. more on them on my new blog Grass Fed Momma. Check it out for the other non vegan side of my Gemini life!

We went to Wood Ranch for dinner, I had their great coleslaw, it is super yummy. Another surprise awaited me, silly me, thinking that was enough for one birthday. And let me just say, Daddy got the video camera out and well, it's an interesting 30 seconds of fun.. just watch!



In case you are concerned that I did not indeed make a wish, just held that crazy face for a bit then blew the candles out.. I did make a wish after all the hullaballo. And it's a doozy. No I will not tell you. Everyone knows it won't come true if I do. Jeez!


Today I had a hankering for Lemon Larabars, all this lemon talk got me going!  So here is my sort of on the fly Lemon Larabar  or rather, LaraBall recipe. Enjoy, they are tasty little buggers.
Malcolm! Bad Boy! 
oops, it's just Mom's Lemon Laraballs, sorry boy!

Seriously they are good, you can change the shape of course... 
In your food processor toss 12 dates, pitted unless you are a thrill seeker, about 1/2 cup of Trader Joe's sliced raw almonds
 (Note: I did not soak anything, it makes it all soupy in my opinion, but soak away if you feel better doing that)
Take a lemon slice(Meyer is best IMO), squeeze a bit o juice in there and throw in some peel for vibrancy and let 'er rip... taste.. add lemon if not zesty enough... add dates if not sweet or gooey enough.. 
Add about 1/4 cup raw cashews, process a bit until  you get the world famous "ball effect". Taste, adjust, a pinch of sea salt may be nice :)
I rolled mine into balls, let them chill and try to eat just one.
I double dog dare ya. (Malcolm made me say that.)

With Undying Love for all of  you
deb xoxo
Officially Over 50

Saturday, May 8, 2010

It's a New Day: Why I am No Longer a Vegan

Note to all Vegans: you may not like what you read here today. Avert your eyes if you are faint of heart about non veganism!






So HI!
 My blog is called Debbie Does Raw... and I do eat mostly (90% or so, sometimes 100%) raw foods and have done for about 2 1/2 years now. For the last two years my blood tests for my CLL have been stable.

 Before I went raw vegan, they were steadily rising at a rate of about 2K every two months with a high reading of 29K, about three times normal white blood cell count. I shudder to do the math.. let's see, 12K rise per year times two years. .if I would have kept on my SAD/vegetarian/junkatarian style diet I could be looking at a white cell count of over 55K and possibly the onset of serious symptoms. 

MY BEFORE: YIKES! Sam was about 2 here I think..

On April 7th, my oncologist clocked my WBC at 21K and said "We will grow old together!" which is for him the equivalent of Obama streaking the White House lawn. He is a very serious guy, not much joking going on.

So YEAH RAW! It is the best diet I know to reverse aging, heal illness and flip your disease "ON" switch into a "dimmer switch" setting. Why mess with that?

After my initial success of halving my white blood cell count in five months of raw vegan eating, I kept on doing what I was doing, went to Raw Spirit in Sedona and generally felt super fantastic. I did have a nasty persistent rash all around my eyes, mouth, chin and nose.. could not get rid of it..
Earth Hour 2009

 I lost some weight but felt that the way I looked was right for me, about ten lbs less than I weighed most of my adult life. I exercised a lot, lifted weights etc, just was super active and feeling groovy.

After my Oct. 2008 blood test, holding steady at 16K or so.. I got an idea. I got the idea that somehow, someway, I could CURE my disease totally, not just keep it steady but blast it out of my body! So I did a six month experiment, in my human petri dish aka ME.

In this period of time I did regular enemas (yeah at home, party on Garth!) and had 12 professional colonics done and did some Hyperbaric Chamber time just to mix it up.


I set aside my fixation on  medjool dates and all things Larabar or involving anything too sweet (easier said than done for me the Major General of Sweet Tooths!)
                                                        Raw Cacao Truffles

                                                Looking like Slim Shady.. I can see it now, could not see it then..

 I did eat fruit, lots of it. And I juiced like always, ate about a thousand salads etc. And I lost a bit more weight. It was pretty rough going at times. Sometimes I had side aches and upset bowels after colonics, so bad I did not eat at all. I kept exercising but did not really see any muscle gains or strength gains.

The moment of truth came at the oncologist office. I was so confident, so excited, so SURE that I would be CURED!! (that word, btw, should be banished. Cure is not a good focus, wellness is the only goal, IMHO) and guess what happened!? I got worse. My white count went up to 19K. Ouch. That hurt. Bad.
Because of this one reason: My Daughter, who needs me to stay healthy...


And as much as I said, just keep swimming just keep swimming, I knew that I must be doing something wrong.
 I started looking into CLL deeper, searching for someone who cured themselves of it, who healed on their own. To date, I have only found two people who claim this in the world. 
Both had all dental work removed (root canals and mercury fillings etc)  and one, Steve Frier used Coral Calcium also. As I have had tons of crowns and root canals, this for me would pretty much mean dentures. . not an option. When I researched the dentist Hessel used in Australia, he stated flat out that "vegetarians/vegan will not benefit from the treatments and they cannot heal properly." Hessels food list contains butter, eggs and other animal products. What? I thought? .. hmmmm...



Mother's Day 2009

and a certain age that  I reached last May....


meant there was no time to fool around.. and it was time to consider.. well non veganism. Funny enough I met a guy who told me all about raw milk kefir and how he made his own. 

Then my research led me to Jerry Brunetti, a man who according to the drs should have died years ago, but healed his lymphoma with raw colostrum, raw milk and other healing foods. Check Jerry out here.


Another good friend from Crazy Sexy Life , Dana Herbert was also using raw milk in her fight against jaw cancer. Things were pointing me in the direction of (GASP)using animal products. I was scared to try them, afraid I would have mucous flow out of all orifices or terrible stomach pains.. but after a sip of raw colostrum.. nothing bad happened.  To be  honest, all the enzymes and enemas et al  had made a bit of a mess out of my digestive system. It was not functioning well at all, even a simple green juice could leave me with hours of pain in my gut. 

 I started making my own kefir, thanks to a friend with grains, added in some raw butter and a few eggs here and there.. and I felt...... really really good. Better than I had in quite some time.  What gives?

At the Screaming Cherry Blossoms gig to see Alissa

and better...

Notice my muscles are coming back?
I got stronger..fitter...gained weight...hmmmm..on not too much raw dairy a week, still mostly raw fruit and veg.. lots of fruit...

and I kept gaining weight..5 lbs in six months..

holding my own on the bike...

on the way to a talk on the benefits of raw dairy..notice anything? 

next onc visit...just last month.. blood got worse again. and I gained 8 more lbs....argh.....

I quit all my raw dairy, went back to full raw vegan.. and realized that I had been eating all my fruit, dates, lots and lots of sweets, raw but loaded with sugars.. along with my increased raw fat/dairy. Ooops.
back to the drawing board...
Currently, I am using raw kefir, a bit of raw butter and raw cheese.. and (WARNING NOT RAW OR VEGAN) some broiled fish and bison..stay tuned.

Bottom line folks: Read Lierre Keith's Vegetarian Myth before you write me hate mail.
Read Daniel Vitalis's story of his long journey out of Raw veganism
Read Kai Lilla's story of her teeth saved by leaving vegan behind..
Read Raw Model Anthony Anderson's move to raw dairy and beyond!
Read J S and Heidi's journey into vibrancy and health
and for some really amazing storys visit Rhys at Let Them Eat Meat for many ex vegan interviews!

I want to live.
Period.
and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.
You can judge me.
You can throw animal blood on me.
But unless you can keep me alive.. I don't really answer to anything other than that.

With Love and Compassion,
Deb

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Hawaii= Raw While Traveling!


Most of you know that my dear Jazmine moved to Hawaii to go to college and live with my in laws last June.. it was both happy and sad for us. We are so grateful to her grandparents for taking her in and helping her get started at college and learn to drive. We miss her.. so off we flew on Spring Break to see them all!


After the Prison guard like greeting at LAX, getting yelled at to take my sweater off, don't put that in the bin, put that in the bin etc.. we got to sit and wait.. then we were off! Hawaiian Air is Da Kine for going to Hawaii, so nice and they even serve a fruit bowl!  We had a great flight and landed in the warm evening breezes of Honolulu.
The Girls are Re united and it feels so good!

Rawnola, cashew milk, apple bananas YUMMY!

The View from our Room

Blending up some Green love smoothie

My Jazzy, all grown up!

The Young Ladies

Daddy and His Girls
We went to the Kapolani Farmers Market, at Jazzy's college.. so wonderful and full of island organic produce!

Organic Greens, the collards were HUGE!


I got some Lilikoi Dressing.. all her stuff is organic and made with Lilikoi!


Yes, that is a jack fruit, also had black sapote and more exotics that I had never seen before! I bought a giant avocado for 4.50.. but it was worth it a few day later.


Naked Cow Dairy.. grass  fed butter with toasted coconut....oh my...

Raw Food Goodies from Licious Delicous, they rawk!


Grandma, Grandpa, Jaz and Sam waiting for me to shop...

Jaz is studying for her drivers license, not so easy in busy Honolulu. Jaz, you did great!


We ate out and of course, Sam was thrilled!

Jaz and Dad, they got some golf in this trip!

The Young Family together again!

You know these two hooligans..

After a workout, nothing like a great green smoothie, Hawaiian style....

Organic honey, butter with toasted coconut, apple bananas, eggfruit(it was good!) and some greens and cashew milk, Yummy breakfast.......
We headed to the beach right by the hotel, it was gorgeous, not too hot and a small breeze...

Sam took time to meditate...

Salad fixins all from hawaii, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, thai basil and Lilikoi dressing.. it has a touch of mustard and honey too.

On the way to Makapu Lighthouse, it was really windy!


Hard to match this stunning sight!
Windblown but having fun!
We got a little lost, loved this billboard in a small town past Makapu..

On the trail to the lighthouse......

This is a prime whale watching spot.. sadly we saw none;(
windy fun at the top of the hill

I think this is an island too..
Sam in Action as Usual!
We went to the fairly new Whole Foods.. WOW.. don't expect the same prices as the mainland, everything was at least 35% higher, some things were double the price!
Sam's Favorite Dive
my fav book of the trip, reading by the pool


We visited Jaz at her workplace and it is so cool! Kokua market is a natural foods coop and one of the cooks is from Cafe Gratitude!


Check out the raw stuff, the macaroons were loved by all, even Sam!
Jaz works in the produce dept and makes all the fruit and veg look amazing! Good Job Jazzy!



Me going crazy shopping at Jazzy's work!
More shopping went on.. Sam got a new dress..

Then back to Grandma and Grandpas! We love hanging out at their house, Sam and Grandma are into makeup here!Sam got new tennies and discoverd the treadmill!We found this dress at the thrift store

Off to the North Shore. sisters at play!  Turtle bay
                                                          the sudden rain!

Haleiwa.. and the smoothie place.. Sam takes notice of the signage..:)



Our last day.. off to the airport...missing our Jaz, Grandpa and Grandma Young..



Headed home, aloha and mahalo







Nice to be home..

next blog? can you guess?.. hint: Raw Model........


Love and Mahalo
Deb