Tracy's Blog

My team’s cookbook was released yesterday. Today I made Raw Zucchini Soup which is from the book….yum yum…Grab your copy here and learn about 110 Ways To Eat Well.

Health Benefits of Zucchini

• Zucchini helps cure asthma, as it contains Vitamin C, which is a powerful antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties.
• The vegetable is known to help prevent diseases like scurvy and bruising, caused by the deficiency of vitamin C.
• Regular intake of zucchini effectively lowers high homocysteine levels in the human body.
• The vegetable can help prevents risk of having multiple sclerosis (MS).
• Zucchinis have high water content (over 95%), high nutritious value and contain a very low amount of calories, so they make the perfect snack item for people on diet.
• The vegetable contains useful amounts of folate, potassium, and vitamin A, necessary for proper functioning of the human body.
• Zucchini contains Vitamin C and lutein, both of which are known to be good for the eyes.
• The vegetable is a good source of vitamin B6, riboflavin, manganese and a lot of other nutrients.
• Eating zucchini is known to help the body in supporting the arrangement of capillaries.
• Regular consumption of the vegetable can help protect the body against colon cancer.
• Zucchini is believed to be beneficial in preventing heart disease and related symptoms, such as high cholesterol.
• The rind of zucchini contains the nutrient beta-carotene, which is known to be full of antioxidant properties and thus, helps protect cells against oxidation damage.
• The vegetable proves to be a good source of magnesium and phosphorus, the nutrients essential for building and maintaining healthy bones.
• Zucchini is rich in vitamin C, another powerful antioxidant that can provide protection against cardiovascular disease.

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup water
1/2 zucchini
large handful of fresh organic baby spinach
1/2 avocado
1-2 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp lemon juice
¼ to ½ tsp garlic powder

fresh salsa
sour cream or plain yogurt (optional)
Freshly ground pepper
Sea salt
Multigrain croutons (optional)
Peel zucchini and cut into pieces to fit in blender. Add zucchini and water to blender with spinach, avocado, parsley, lemon juice and garlic powder. Puree until smooth. Enjoy at room temperature or slightly warmed. Pour into bowls; add salsa and yogurt in middle, with salt and pepper to your taste. Top with croutons, if using. Serves 2.

So this morning I woke up with no hangover, considering I must have had at least 5 or 6 of these Sake Mojitos.

They are extremely light and refreshing and go down way too easily.

This recipes is from my favourite raw cook book Raw Food Real World. Here is how I make them:

Sake Mojito

In a martini shaker, crush a few lime leaves with a spoon. Add some ice.
Add:
1/3 lime juice (I used the one from the grocery store that comes in the can frozen)
1/3 sake (try to find organic if possible, I’ve never seen it at LCBO, but maybe some of the other ones may have it)
1/3 champagne
A generous squeeze of sweetener. I used agave nectar, but honey, brown rice syrup or stevia will do.
Shake, pour and enjoy!

From what I’ve read in the book and online, some types of sake are considered raw as they are brewed at a lower temperature and keep some of the enzymes of the rice.

Nevertheless…these are perfect for summer and summer is on the way….so are the sake mojitos.

My Skin

So my original reason for going raw for 30 days was to improve my overall health, internally and externally. This weekend I had two separate people comment on how great my skin looked….so I guess something is working.

I also cheated on Saturday night….eeekkk…I add some goat cheese dip with olives and roasted red peppers with crackers. Yummmm it was good, I couldn’t resist…

As you can tell…I’m allowing myself to cheat just a wee bit! Back on track tomorrow….

So today I got to try out one of the recipes from Raw Food Real World that I’ve been anxiously looking forward to – The Cucumber & Pineapple Gazpacho. It was amazing! It has so much flavour. The cilantro and jalapeno just give it a perfect kick and the cold and chunky texture are really refreshing. I can see this being a big hit in the summer. Today is cold but this soup is still heart warming….anything with cilantro and jalapeno are.

I just discovered a study that showed that jalapenos, habanero and other hot peppers cause cancer cells in the prostate to kill themselves…very cool!

They also have antioxidant properties, anti-inflammatory properties and are sometimes used in treatments for migraines, arthritis and muscle pain. They can also be an appetite suppressant (which reminds me I saw some Lindt chocolate in the store the other day that was red hot pepper flavoured ?? what is that all about??), clear congestion and are also a good source of vitamins A, C & E as well as folic acid and potassium.

Today Mackenzie and I visited The Big Carrot, a whole foods health & grocery store, down on the Danforth today. I wish there was a place like that near me !!! Someday maybe I’ll open one of my own.

So today begins the challenge of eating raw foods. Since I didn’t actually get to the grocery store yesterday….I packed a ton of raw veggies…sounds boring….it was. Tomorrow will be better, I promise.

I went to the Yoga show to help my sister with her booth. I just realized that I am combining my raw challenge with “giving”. So my giving for the day was taking the day off to help her with her booth.

Yoga people are a great crowd to be around. I find them very open minded, giving, gentle spirited and real. They are so in tuned with their bodies both physically and mentally it just amazes me.

Mark and I purchased a Wii Fit a while ago and I did start doing the yoga with that console. It didn’t last long …but that’s normal for me….to start exercising and have it last only a week or so before I get totally bored with it. Nevertheless…now that I’ve lost the weight I wanted to lose, I am in desperate need to toning….particularly since summer is fast approaching. Maybe I’ll start again. I figure if I start at the beginning of the week and quit by the end, I’ll be doing pretty good!

So at the Yoga show, I met Mark from mindbodywarrior.com who offers spiritual yoga retreats in the Mayan Riviera. I couldn’t help  notice that Mark was very fit, almost to the point that I would have guessed him to be into body building or a stringent weight lifting routing. I asked him if he did any other form of exercise in order to get that kind of a physique….he said no. (You can check out his physique here.)

He explained to me that strengthening your core (what most people consider the core – as your torso area)…you are also strengthening your limbs which he also considers to be the core.

Therefore your arms and legs also strengthen; plus you’re using those limbs to hold up the bulk of your body weight so the muscles are definitely getting a workout. Some of his poses last for 3-5 minutes….ouch!!!!

Some of the physical health benefits of yoga are:

• muscle toning
• pain prevention
• better breathing

The mental benefits include:

• calmness
• stress reduction
• body awareness (which goes great with my healthy chocolates I blogged about yesterday).

Here’s something I’d like to share that is actually printed on the back of Mark’s cards. It’s totally in tune with my current personal growth so I can really relate to the message.

True Power is when you appreciate what you are currently living, and then align your Intention, Attention and Action to create the reality that is your True Potential.

Appreciation: Are you appreciative of your current situation? As bad as you perceive it to be, it is there for your growth.

Intention: Do you really know what you intentions are behind your actions? Search your inner wisdom and you will find what is truly yours to intend.

Attention: Does your attention match your intentions? Energy flows where attnetion goes. By focusing your attention on the intention you will direct your energy and begin to manifest.

Action: Once your intention and attention align, do you follow through with action? Action is the follow through required to manifest this potential into the physical world.

Well…as I said tomorrow will be more interesting on the “raw” front. I did get a bunch of groceries today so looking forward to trying some long awaited recipes.