Greens contain a powerhouse of nutrition. We often don’t think of “powerful” and “lettuce” in the same sentence. For many of us, the only lettuce we know is the pale, limp iceberg served on a plate with the hamburger on top! Or maybe Mom served an iceberg lettuce salad with dinner – topped with those thick bottled dressings, of course.

When I talk about greens, I don’t mean those salads. I’m talking about GREEN greens – bright emerald, happy-go-lucky grass green, and even paler shades of bok choy. Greens contain a wealth of nutrition calorie per calorie, along with fiber and chlorophyll. And don’t forget the power of enzymes!
Just take a look at this information on the nutritional content of favorite greens and you’ll see what I mean:

Kale Romaine Lettuce Bok choy
Vitamin B1 0.22 mg 0.43 mg 0.308 mg
Vitamin B2 0.26 mg 0.40 mg 0.538 mg
Vitamin B3 2mg 1.9mg 3.845 mg
Folate 58 mcg 802 mcg 508 mcg
Calcium 270 mg 195 mg 807mg
Iron 3.4 mg 5.72mg 6.15 mg
Sodium 86mg 47mg 500 mg
Beta carotene 18,452 mcg 20,556 mcg 20,617 mcg
Lutein + zeaxanthin 79,100 mcg 13,641 mcg 308 mcg

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Start your day with fresh fruit. Fruit is a quick transit food, meaning it passes quickly through the digestive system. It’s broken down easily into glucose, which our brains need for fuel, yet it’s high water content means it’s also low in calories. And fruit is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. 

If you never or rarely eat fruit, start with whatever appeals to you. Apples, pears, bananas, berries…there’s an almost limitless choice in the supermarkets today.  Purchase organic fruit whenever possible. Apples, peaches and berries are among the most heavily sprayed crops in conventional farming, so choose organic always with these fruits. 

If you’ve never had a fruit smoothie, you’re in for a treat! Made with frozen fruit, they taste like a milkshake without the milk. Make with room temperature fruit, they’re still a satisfying and sweet way to wake up your day. A quick and easy fruit smoothie to make is a blueberry-banana – spinach smoothie. Simply place one cup of organic frozen blueberries, one ripe banana, and 1-2 cups of water or fresh coconut water and a handful of spinach (I promise you won’t taste it) into a blender. Blend on smoothie setting for 30 to 60 seconds and serve. You can even pour this into a travel mug and take it in the car with you on the way to work.  

Start your transition to a healthy living foods diet with fruit.  Eat fruit until noon, then switch to greens, salads, and other healthy foods, and watch your energy levels soar!

Our bodies must guide healthy weight loss. Losing weight isn’t just a matter of shedding fat and inches. Your body adjusted to the increased amount of calories you ate over the years by adding fat, yes, but it also increased its blood supply and adjusted all sorts of intricate hormones to keep running optimally. The body adjusted to the extra weight slowly. In order to lose weight, we have to do so slowly and gradually to allow all of the body’s systems to adapt. That takes time. 

When you eat a raw, living food diet and lots of healthy plant-based nutrition, you’re giving your body optimal nutrition. At first it may be reluctant to shed the weight. Over time, however, your body should naturally, gradually and easily find a weight that’s comfortable for it. It might not be the exact weight on a height and weight chart at an insurance company somewhere. It will be a weight determined by your genetics, frame, activity and nutritional status. 

High calorie, high fiber, moderate fat, high nutrient living foods are really the key to long term weight loss. Ditch the crash diets. After all, who really wants to crash? Not me!

It’s the same thing for detoxification programs. If you’re nagged into it, or if you embark on a detoxification program out of fear – fear of disease, fear of illness, whatever – it’s like the little kid who agrees to clean his room, but he sighs a lot and talks to himself about the “mean mommy who makes him do stuff.” 

Instead of thinking about detoxification as a chore, a burden, or something you’d rather not do, how about embracing this new step forward in your health? If that sounds like too much of a stretch, maybe some sort of daily affirmation such as, “I am so grateful  for the opportunity to heal my body. I am going to provide my body with the very best nutrition available and I am going to feel GREAT!!” may help.  I have found that my resistance to trying something new usually indicates I have fears about something.  You may be saying to yourself  ”I can’t eat better because I never follow through with anything” or “I can’t afford to eat this way” or “My friends and family are going to think I’m weird if I start eating this way.”  All of these fears can just as easily be shifted from the negative to the positive.

When I get into fear based thinking, at first I honor myself and acknowledge that fear. After acknolwledging the fear, I challenge myself to explore/identify and feel the opposite of those fears. Here’s is an example with the fear ”I can’t afford to eat this way.”

• Sometimes I reason with myself logically.

“Eating this way is cheaper because I won’t be buying all the expensive packaged, processed foods anymore. I will eat out less, so the reality is I will have more money in the bank as well as my health. Down the road, I will have so much more energy that my work will be more productive which will help me make more money.  Additionally, I will have my health and well-being.”

• I also try to gain perspective. I try to take a global, “big picture” view of things to diminish the power a fear or limiting belief has over me.  “How can I put a price tag on my health?” “I always have enough money for vacations, cars, clothes, etc, but feel like I’m not worth spending for my health.”
• Third, I begin to embrace the opposite of my fear. “How can I afford not to take care of myself?” “I have the right to feel better and nourish myself.” “I deserve to feed my body with the best food available on the planet!” “My life is abundant and money flows easily into my life!”

Here are another few tips that may help shift your mindset from an “oh great, got to cleanse this spring” to “hurray for me! I’m going to feel great!” mindset: 

• Write down 3 goals for your spring health detoxification program.
• Write about why you want to achieve those goals – what motivates you?
• Keep a journal or diary and write about your feelings during cleansing, fasting or detoxification programs. Your own words may surprise you.
• Join a Revitalive Cleanse and get the support and guidance you need to help make your cleanse a success.

 Enter into your detoxification program with a joyful heart. You’re doing your body a world of good. You’re giving it exactly what it needs to heal itself from the inside out. You’re learning new and wonderful ways to care for your health. Isn’t that worth celebrating?

One of the questions I hear most frequently from people curious about raw, vegan living is, “how do you get enough protein?” The assumption is that if you’re not eating meat, you’re going to die from lack of protein. Even vegetarians get this question, and they may continue to use dairy products and eggs! 

One of the best books to address the protein question is The China Study by T. Collin Campbell, Ph.D. Campbell studied protein for over 30 years and discovered so many correlations between high protein consumptions, especially meat-based protein sources, and so-called chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease that it’s scary. 

Many Americans continue to consume massive quantities of animal-based protein despite our sedentary lifestyles.  Our days begin with big breakfasts of sausage and eggs, followed by heavy lunches of hot dogs or hamburgers, and then end with a steak dinner. While in the midst of consuming a diet rich in animal protein, many find it inconceivable to forgo the protein for even a meal or two. We have been programmed that we need animal protein at every meal to be healthy. The reality is that all fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts contain some protein. 

The humble plant kingdom actually contains quite an abundance of protein. By eating foods rich in protein building blocks such as hemp seeds, we can meet all of our body’s requirements. We are just shifting the source of protein in your diet, not eliminating protein from the diet. But if you’re committed to a raw, living food lifestyle, finding plant-based sources like hemp is ideal. And no, you won’t grow weak and unhealthy from lack of protein.  There are many athletes who are raw, vegans – including Kristen and myself!

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• Dual-Stage Juicing System for Maximum Efficiency
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