Green smoothies and raw cookies.

I've become a little obsessed with raw food lately.
Its funny because I never thought about it much before. I just though....eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruit. I ate a lot of salads, but I usually had a cooked meal in the evening.
Doing my own research on raw foods has introduced me to an abundance of amazing foods that I never knew were out there. Although I'm totally not a 100% raw (I enjoy cooked food periodically and don't think its bad to continue eating it in small amounts) I've noticed my diet has changed for the better. I'm eating a more variety of fruits and vegetables and cravings for anything processed or even sugar is gone! If I do feel like eating something sweet, a date, or another dried fruit does the trick and I'm happy and satisfied.
Not to mention my coffee mug has gone down a size. SEEE!!!



I feel damn proud of myself and the wonderful thing about it is that I didn't even have to try hard to reduce my coffee consumption. My body just doesn't need that much any more. I had 2 visits to Starbucks last week and I was ordering herb teas!

Anyway, I'm having lots of great results such as, an increase of energy, and weight loss, but I don't want to jink that so.....I'm just going to keep going how I'm going because obviously something is working.

I've been using my blender and food processor on almost a daily bases now to make green smoothies and other yummies.
My goal for this week is to have a green smoothie every day for breakfast or another meal/snack. I'm absolutely loving the green smoothies and they are so filling!
My smoothie this morning.
Spinach, banana, pear, Maca, Spirulina. DELISH!



Yesterday a fellow yogi, vegan, and raw foodie friend came over to study with me and we made a Strawberry Arugula smoothie and some raw cookies for us to munch on. They were so filling and satisfying that 2 cookies was just enough for me.

With the cookies only requiring 3 ingredients: ground flaxseed, cocoa, maple syrup(not 100%raw), it was the fastest thing ever to make and did I mention they tasted GOOOOOOD! They had a nutty texture and very dark chocolate flavor.
My friend is a kind enthusiastic soul who said they were the best raw cookies she's ever had. :)


Anyway, feeling really motivated and interested in prepare raw meals that I've even considered making myself a food blog...but naw..I'll just keep posting here, I hope you (my small group of readers) don't mind.

Happy Birthday Motozo and Jason!

Happy Birthday Motozo!
Although he insisted that we didn't need to do anything special, I wanted to do something for him. Last year, we didn't do much because we were so busy planning our wedding, so this year I made sure we celebrated properly!



Lots of Motozo's friends and mine showed up for the birthday party I threw for him. Good food, good enviroment, but best of all, good company.



We stayed out drinking and having a blast until around 2:30 we finally made it home. The next morning was like x-mas for Motozo as he opened up all his presents and I was just as excited to see what he got.



I love you to bits Motozo and like fine wine you're aging well!

Jason's birthday falls on the same day as Motozo as well September 24th! The little bugger is already 2 years old! Unbelievable! Cha did an excellent job making him a train cake and it seems he had a blast on his special day!
Its amazing how time flies!

Next up on our celebration is our 1st year wedding anniversary in 2 weeks. Its already been a year!

32hr Fast!

For a while now Motozo and I have contemplating doing a fast for detox reasons.
So finally we set a date and since we had a 3 day weekend we decided to fast on Monday, yesterday. I'm happy to say, we made it!

Motozo was a lot more hard core then me and didn't want to drink anything but water. He eventually cracked and had some lemon water that I choose to drink all day long instead of just plain water.
I also had about 4 glasses throughout the day of the
Master Cleanse Lemonade which consist of Lemons, Maple Syrup and Cayenne Pepper. The real Master Cleanse is minimum of 10 days and you need proper Grade B Maple Syrup along with taking a daily laxative tea and/or Celtic sea salt flush to help with elimination. Whats a detox without proper elimination yeah? Since I only planned to fast for one day I didn't really make sure my maple syrup was grade B (its organic is all I know) or take any laxatives since I'm pretty regular in the morning.

I think this detox was perfectly what we needed after a long holiday and drinking on a daily basis. Also, ever since being back my sleeping schedule has been totally screwed. Jet lag has given me a bad sleeping schedule and I'm waking up pass 10AM and still feeling tired. Some nights I can't fall asleep until 5-6AM and the cycle continues of sleeping in late and falling asleep WAY too late.
The good thing about fasting is that I could allow myself to be as lethargic as I wanted to, well..I still wanted to go for a walk to get some fresh air, but after 30mins or so I was just too fatigued and both Motozo and I took a nap for a couple of hours when we got back.
The desire for food hit pretty strongly around 5PM and didn't have much energy but to lie on the couch and watch TV. I really dislike feeling so fatigued, so a couple of times I told Motozo I'm going to eat, but I managed to stay strong! We both went to bed early and I finally had the BEST sleep I had since coming back from France which was 2 weeks ago. I got up a couple of times to use the wash room since I drank probably 1 gallon of water throughout the day. And at one point, I was still half sleeping as I was making my way to the bathroom and WHAM! I walked right into the wall and I now I have lovely bump on my forehead.

But despite the fatigue and swollen forehead, I'm really glad I did it. I have to say I was VERY impressed with Motozo, who has a great appetite and is accustomed to eating large meals. The interesting thing is, we both woke up not very hungry so portion control was very easy for our first meal.
Infact I ate less then I usually eat for breakfast and felt completely satisfied.

I'm now very interested in doing the Master Cleanse PROPERLY for a full 10 days. Apparently, a lot of people who do it still have energy to go to work and exercise because its recommended to drink a minimum of 6-12 glasses a day of the lemonade which roughly gives you 1200 calories. Of course, everyone's body is different and some have rougher symptoms then others, but I want to try this cleanse somewhere around New Years or at the end of the year. Cleanse my body for 2011!

Here's to health!

France, a bit of Luxembourg and Germany.

Were back! And what a glorious 2 weeks we had. To sum it up, we drove lots, slept in a different hotel almost every night, did lots of sight seeing and drank lots of champagne and wine. I found a new appreciation for red wine or rather have developed a liking to it and preferred it over white wine.
The weather was perfect with it sliding into Autumn beautifully! The leaves were changing colors and I took full advantage of it by running almost every other day. France is such a beautiful country and I totally fell in love with it! Paris was by far the best of all the "big" cities we went to, but we enjoyed ourselves just as much in the small little towns with their big characters.
We rented a car and covered quite a bit of ground. Paris, Champagne, Luxembourg, Germany, Burgundy, Loire Valley, Brittany and then back to Paris.
If we could do it again we would probably have stayed longer in Champagne, Epernay and Luxembourg. It was a shame we had to pack up after only 1 night at each place.
We didn't expect those places to be as nice as they were, but at least we did get a feel for the place and we have great memories now.


One of the great things about France and Luxembourg are there great bike paths in certain cites. How genius to have a car lane, bike lane and pedestrian lane! Motozo wished he had his bike with him a few times as we enviously saw many many cyclist peddling through beautiful vineyards and towns.
We also got the feeling that French (Or maybe its a European thing) are much more eco friendly and energy saving over Japanese. You hardly see anyone carrying plastic bags when grocery shopping since everyone brings their own shopping bags when they shop. And in alot of hotels you have to manually switch on the lights in the hallways and a timer will switch them off.
At one hotel we were at, the bathroom had a roof window which minimized the need to use the light in the bathroom all day.
Another great thing is their daylight saving! We still had daylight at 9PM!
This was especially wonderful when we were driving for 5 hours on some days, but still managed to do sight seeing in the evening when we finally arrived at our destination. Dammit Japan, you seriously need to start daylight saving!

Of course, we had a few frustrating moments when some people gave us some very rude looks because our French wasn't perfect and at some restaurants the service was SO slow we ended up walking out to find another place. But for the most part people were nice and very helpful and we managed to communicate what we wanted.
Anyway, I'll let the photos do the talking now.












More photos HERE
A lot are same with my facebook so sorry if you already saw them there. I think it'll be mainly Lilia who haven't seen them.