Day 7: Sprouts, Spinach, Pear and Lime
No. 7 smoothie was delicious, believe it or not. As I head into week 2 ... I'm noticing some important things. Adding a lot of nutrients to one's diet in concentrated form . . . as smoothies do . . . there are some noticable "detox" effects. One is tiredness. Another is dry skin and breakouts on the face. And yet another is yucky breath! These effects are not a constant, though . . . mostly one feels added energy much of the day.
This weekend promises to be bee-utiful, weatherwise . . . but much of my time will be taken up looking at apartments and boxing up more personal belongings in anticipation of my move at the end of May. This move is the perfect opportunity for me to massively streamline my possessions and whittle them down to just the very basics . . . if it isn't essential and doesn't add to a mood of tranquility and harmony, it get's chucked! If I haven't worn it in over a year it also gets chucked! (By chucked I mean given away or tossed . . . depending on its condition.) I'm really going to be a lot "lighter" in many ways when I settle into my new digs. Couldn't be more thrilled.
One HUGE thing I've been awakened to about myself in the last few months is just how wasteful I have been in terms of use of plastic storage bags, napkins, paper towels, and other household items, etc. that all add negatively to polluting the environment. It has to do with the abundance of the American culture I was born into . . . yes . . . but that is irrelevant at this point, becaue now I'm awake. It's as if I'm becoming more and more "trued up" to the enormous wasteful habits that I've taken on over the years. Little by little I'm beginning to rid myself of them.
I met a guy on the train last night . . . he rode his bike to the train station from his house just a coupla miles away . . . and we got into a brief discussion of this kind of stuff. He said that if we each used just one less napkin a day, whole landfills could be eliminated! That was astounding to me. That "earth footprint" thing is actually starting to sink in for me.
Anyway -- along those lines, here is a "Green Tip of the Day" from Chris Watts:
"It is important that we focus more on conservation and re-using things than recycling. Recycling requires energy! Energy requires fuel and results in more CO2 in the atmosphere. Re-use bags. Rinse and use plastic produce bags and please buy reusable canvas grocery bags. Forget soy! Soy is not all it was marketed as. Guess why rainforest is cleared? It's cut to make room to grow soy and raise beef. There are better plant protiens: hemp, goji berries, spirulina and green leafy veggies are far better choices for protein. Soy is also difficult to digest. Personally for protein, I do lots of green juice and spirulina. Spirulina is 65% protein -- making it the highest source on earth. And it is a complete protein. I work out hard four days a week and I feel great. I get plenty of protein and I eat no meat or soy. Do it for the rainforest."
Speaking of soy . . . my recent diagnosis of a large nodule on my thyroid (which I'm scheduled to have biopsied soon) has spurred me on to further research regarding thyroid disorders, and low and behold . . . I found yet another article on the extremely negative affect SOY (the modern, genetically modified, farm-factory produced kind!) has on thyroid function. (Also cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cabbage, for those whose thyroids are not in balance.) Well, I had a massive "aha" moment when I realized that from about 1985 until only about 9 months ago ... when I learned about the connection ... I had been consuming large amounts of soy ... substituting it for meat thinking it was better for me! (What a learning curve all this stuff is, really.) I had soy milk, soy crackers, soy ice cream, soy "meat" in the form of tempeh, "chicken nuggets" etc. ... basically soy everything! Now I'm wondering if all that soy intake hasn't had something to do with my thyroid presently being very out of wack. Ho hum. But the learning continues ... and so does the healing.
Footprints in the SandOne HUGE thing I've been awakened to about myself in the last few months is just how wasteful I have been in terms of use of plastic storage bags, napkins, paper towels, and other household items, etc. that all add negatively to polluting the environment. It has to do with the abundance of the American culture I was born into . . . yes . . . but that is irrelevant at this point, becaue now I'm awake. It's as if I'm becoming more and more "trued up" to the enormous wasteful habits that I've taken on over the years. Little by little I'm beginning to rid myself of them.
I met a guy on the train last night . . . he rode his bike to the train station from his house just a coupla miles away . . . and we got into a brief discussion of this kind of stuff. He said that if we each used just one less napkin a day, whole landfills could be eliminated! That was astounding to me. That "earth footprint" thing is actually starting to sink in for me.
Anyway -- along those lines, here is a "Green Tip of the Day" from Chris Watts:
"It is important that we focus more on conservation and re-using things than recycling. Recycling requires energy! Energy requires fuel and results in more CO2 in the atmosphere. Re-use bags. Rinse and use plastic produce bags and please buy reusable canvas grocery bags. Forget soy! Soy is not all it was marketed as. Guess why rainforest is cleared? It's cut to make room to grow soy and raise beef. There are better plant protiens: hemp, goji berries, spirulina and green leafy veggies are far better choices for protein. Soy is also difficult to digest. Personally for protein, I do lots of green juice and spirulina. Spirulina is 65% protein -- making it the highest source on earth. And it is a complete protein. I work out hard four days a week and I feel great. I get plenty of protein and I eat no meat or soy. Do it for the rainforest."
Speaking of soy . . . my recent diagnosis of a large nodule on my thyroid (which I'm scheduled to have biopsied soon) has spurred me on to further research regarding thyroid disorders, and low and behold . . . I found yet another article on the extremely negative affect SOY (the modern, genetically modified, farm-factory produced kind!) has on thyroid function. (Also cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cabbage, for those whose thyroids are not in balance.) Well, I had a massive "aha" moment when I realized that from about 1985 until only about 9 months ago ... when I learned about the connection ... I had been consuming large amounts of soy ... substituting it for meat thinking it was better for me! (What a learning curve all this stuff is, really.) I had soy milk, soy crackers, soy ice cream, soy "meat" in the form of tempeh, "chicken nuggets" etc. ... basically soy everything! Now I'm wondering if all that soy intake hasn't had something to do with my thyroid presently being very out of wack. Ho hum. But the learning continues ... and so does the healing.
Till tomorrow.
