Category: Inspiration

Garden Glove Love

This is such a simple but potentially life-changing scheme initiated by pioneering the simple life: collect discarded/lost gardening gloves, pair them up and send to Nepal to help child rag pickers protect themselves from glass, excrement, chemicals, and infections. We should all get behind this: we’ll be searching the shed, the cupboard under the utility room sink and collecting from our neighbours and family – it may take some time, we are spread over the country, but eventually we’ll parcel them up and send them off. Great idea!

Update: 3 days later, we have the beginnings of a collection!

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Liesl Clark's avatarPioneering The Simple Life

Roadside Garden Glove. Photo © Finn Clark

It all started on a bike ride. We kept seeing garden gloves along the side of the road. In fact, we had seen the gloves lying there for weeks and finally decided to pick them up. One by one, over the course of about 2 weeks, we had managed to collect 20 pairs!

I Have Good Garden Glove Karma. Photo © Liesl Clark

We’re an island of avid gardeners, farmers, and a world-famous garden tour called “Bainbridge in Bloom.” Twelve months of gardening weather here on Puget Sound has afforded us 4 seasons of dirt digging. The problem is that the gardeners’ (or perhaps it’s the hired landscapers’) gloves too often end up along the sides of the roads, having fallen from the backs of landscaper’s trucks, farmers’ tractors, or islander’s cars. Being a food-grower myself, I couldn’t just let those gloves rot in the ditches.

Garden Gloves Rain or Shine. Photo © Finn Clark

My children and I have been collecting them: pulling to the side…

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How Underground Networks Can Outperform Aid Orgs

We all sit at home watching or reading the news about disasters such as last year’s earthquake in Nepal and, other than donating money to relief organisations, we think there’s nothing else to be done and move on to the next news item. With supplies being tied up in red tape, stolen or resold at exorbitant prices and eventually running out, these individuals looked at the bigger picture and via social media organised an underground relief network that really did make a difference to many villagers who might otherwise have perished. With so many disasters of one kind or another in the world, it can often be overwhelming if not paralysing. This article shows how it can be done and will hopefully stir others into action. Please read and repost.

Liesl Clark's avatarPioneering The Simple Life

It was less than a week after the April 25th, 2015 magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal that we came to realize little-to-no relief had reached villages beyond Kathmandu. Roads were dangerous; But even worse, as time progressed, supplies for temporary shelter for the over 2 million now homeless had dried up. Tents and tarps were sold out in Kathmandu. Foreign governments and aid organizations were being shut down at the airport, their incoming supplies requisitioned by Nepal customs, and much-needed food, tents, tarps, blankets, and medical supplies were sitting on the runway, tied up in a confounding wad of red tape. 

7_Damaged house.anup © Anup Gurung

Our friends in Nepal were frantic, texting us asking for any means to get materials over to the remote villages. Aid organizations trucking supplies to villages were stopped along the roads by desperate, angry, and hungry people who lived right along the road who also had seen no relief. Supplies were…

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Super Juicing: I Feel Good! Now What? 11 Tips on How To Maintain Your Juicy Success

As the irrespressible James Brown sang, ‘I Feel Good, I Knew That I would!’ (Click the link to see black & white footage of a very energetic performance and you’ll see what I mean).

So, here we are, the end of my Super Juice Challenge following Jason Vale’s SuperJuiceMe! Plan.

Results

I feel alert, energised, my digestion is calmed, I am calm, my aches and pains are calmed, no inclination to snack mindlessly, and I have lost 5lbs – but that was just an added bonus, I was not looking to lose weight. 

Plus, despite having to cope with some quite stressful situations, I am the only one in the family not to have caught a cold or cough this month!

There were times when I really wanted to crunch an apple and occasionally I added some ground seeds to a juice, but the Plan allows for occasional SOS additions. Apart from my Bit of a Wobble, I found it easy to get into the routine of it and didn’t have any desire for junk, sweet or savoury treats.

The plan is devised so that every so often you have a sweet, fruity, almond milk smoothie that assuages any craving for something sweet or just different from a juice, and the juices provide all the essential nutrients your body needs.

So no cravings.

Many people ask, so what now?

  1. Well, the first thing is to say what you don’t do: Don’t start planning your next visit to a fast food restaurant! Not that you will want to after any kind or length of juice cleanse. You will find that your tastebuds have been rewired. What you really look forward to is a colourful, crunchy salad or a big, juicy green apple!
  2. Likewise, don’t be persuaded by those around you to go out for a celebratory meal/drink – you will regret it. Your body has just been given a oil change and tune-up and you don’t want to start putting the wrong fuel in!
  3. It is important to ease yourself in gently to eating solid food or your digestion will suffer and you will lose some of the benefits you’ve striven to gain.
  4. Continue having a couple or more juices a day for the first 2 or 3 days at least – I do this normally when I am not juice cleansing anyway – no coffee, alcohol, grains, pasta, meat, dairy.
  5. Eat slowly and mindfully, chew thoroughly, sitting down at the table.
  6. Try to keep eating fresh and raw as much as possible, as many colours as possible on your plate.

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My First Post-Juicing Meal on a Plate: Mixed Rocket & Spinach Salad Leaves, Sugar Snap Peas, Mung Bean Sprouts, Carrot, Grapes, Broccoli, Cucumber with Tamari and Olive Oil Dressing

7. If you eat fish, you can then introduce fresh salmon (high in omega oils) or steamed or baked other fish. Light Soups or Baked Sweet Potatoes. Steamed Veg. Stir-Fries

8. Keep grains to every other day to begin with to allow your digestion to get back into the swing of things and to help identify any problem foods.

9. Take note of anything that makes you feel yuck. Anything that makes you feel tired, uncomfortable, bloated, have heartburn or indigestion and cut it out for a while. Try again another time and if the same thing happens, probably avoid.

10. There are several follow-on plans you can use if you need ideas and support: Jason Vale has his 5:2 plan, the Soup’n’Juice Plan and his new Super Fast Food App that has over 100 recipes and the facility to devise your own 7 Day Meal Plan with shopping list provided. See his website for details.*

11. Above all, Keep Juicing!

* http://www.juicemaster.com

NB If you are thinking of doing a Juice Plan, please see your doctor first.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Super-Juicing: Day 13, Does It Have To End? Plus Tips on Preparing for a Juice Programme

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Here we are, the penultimate day of my Super Juice Fortnight and I don’t want it to end! I am loving the Sweet ‘n’ Smooth Veggie Blend for breakfast (see Jason Vale’s Super Juice Me! Plan*), despite the ever-present parsnip in the list of ingredients – and of course it was very swiftly replaced by a sweet potato!

It’s become so much of a routine now that my husband’s cooking no longer bothers me – not even the melted cheese! (see Super Juicing Day 6: Melted Cheese and Spicy Teacakes).

I am so full of energy and have been very productive, writing new blog posts and recipes, editing old ones, making cards and participating in a Blogging 101 course.

None of the usual January slump.

My brain is firing on all cylinders, I’ve made decisions I’ve been putting off for ages, I am bursting with ideas for writing – my body can’t keep up!

Many people find January a difficult month to do a juice cleanse due to the drop in temperatures, others find it an ideal time after all the Christmas over-indulgence, when they are full of New Year resolve.

Spring isn’t too far away – I have crocuses out already in the third week of January and daffodil buds that have been bursting to open for a couple of weeks now – so if you didn’t manage to join in the January Juicing, but have seen the stunning results achieved by others who have:

Why not plan to do it in February or March?

Here are some tips on how to begin:

  1.   Begin by reducing your intake of processed foods, sugar, coffee and alcohol while adding fresh veg and fruit. This will reduce any withdrawal symptoms you might experience in your first few days of a juice cleanse.
  2. At the same time as you are preparing yourself physically, prepare yourself mentally by reading a book or watching a film about juicing and how to go about it.*
  3. Make sure you use a nutritionally-balanced plan.
  4. Buy the best juicer and blender you can afford. Seek the advice of regular juicers, read my reviews and those of other bloggers/consumer sites. If you’re reluctant to splash out until you’ve given it a try, you can often find secondhand juicers at car boot sales and on eBay.
  5. Introduce one juice a day to get into the habit and get used to the preparation, timing and consuming of it.
  6. Find a good local source of organic fruit and veg if possible
  7. There will always be people around you who are sceptical, arm yourself with the knowledge you need to commit to your goal, don’t try to engage them, let them see your results.
  8. If possible, recruit some like-minded friends, or find support online, there are Facebook juicing groups and lots of juicers on Twitter who will provide support and advice.
  9. See your doctor before embarking on a cleanse, have your BP, cholesterol, blood sugar and so on tested, then again later on.
  10. Don’t just weigh yourself, take your measurements too. It is usually these that are the most startling if you need to drop a size or two.
  11. You don’t need to juice just to lose weight. Do it for your health!

You will be so pleased with the improved condition of your skin and your hair, your eyes will shine again, you will have more energy, feel more alert. Many people experience improvements in aches and pains and chronic conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, as well as more balanced hormones and a resetting of your taste buds!

You will discover which foods irritate your digestive system, produce mucous, make you feel tired and which make you feel more alive.

You will be flooding your system with all the nutrients it needs and it will thank you for it!

NB You don’t need to do a cleanse to beenfit from juicing, just adding one green juice a day will make a difference to your health and sense of well-being.

I have one more day of my Super Juicing and I am so looking forward to the shakes for tonight and tomorrow night’s meal – they both have home-made almond milk in them (see Nut Milks, Shakes and Smoothie Recipes). Yum!

*http://www.juicemaster.com for Jason Vale’s Juicing Plans

You can watch Super Juice Me! The Documentary free on YouTube here:

*Joe Cross’s website also has juicing plans and resources while his film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is another inspirational tool when considering juicing.

http://www.rebootwithjoe.com

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Super Juicing Day 8 Back on Track – My Reward? Parsnips!

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Prep for Mineral Medicine

Here we are, Day 8, back on track after my weekend wobble, feeling good and very proud of myself for getting through it and sticking to my goal of 14 days’ juice only.

So what’s my ‘reward’ for making it through Saturday’s struggle?

Parsnip!

Except, not. As you can see from the photo, the offending parsnip is noticably absent from the prep board and replaced with a sweet potato. I have tried at least half a dozen times to have parsnip juice, but for me it never gets any better and I have decided to just give in and adapt accordingly. It is my one weakness and I think I’ve done well.

The juice turned out really tasty – sweet potato is one of my favourite vegetables to juice, skin on when organic – as was this morning’s Oxygen Elixir:

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Another lovely beetroot and avocado blend

Quiet day today, no disasters, no wobbles. Just lots of honest to goodness juicy veg and feeling fantastic!

 

Super Juicing: Days 2 & 3 Trouble Sleeping? Hunger Pangs? 10 Tips to Help You Through The ‘Difficult Days!’

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The second night of a juice cleanse is usually the part I struggle with. I get quite hungry in the evening and often have trouble sleeping, partly through hunger but also from being super-alert.

The ‘juicy high’ begins to kick in just at the point where you’re wondering if you should just give in, get up, and go and raid the fridge or snack cupboard. So here is some advice:

  1. Don’t do it! It will pass.
  2. Listen to an audiobook or some relaxing music until you drop off.
  3. Have some valerian or chamomile tea. I also like Clipper’s Snore and Peace.
  4. Lavender drops in a bath, on your pillowcase or a hanky work well.
  5. I also find Rescue Remedy Night-Time Drops helpful for turning off the buzzing thoughts long enough to fall asleep.
  6. Rest is important when doing a juice cleanse, so if absolutely necessary, have a little something (as Winnie the Pooh was often inclined to do!), but make that little something count.
  7. Don’t be tempted to eat mindlessly. You will be proud of yourself for seeing it through and will feel amazing next day.
  8.  Don’t reach for your partner’s leftover pizza or that slice of carrot cake you selflessly made for your children’s tea. No, really, don’t. You’ll thank me for this. Promise.
  9. Instead, try half a ripe avocado with some black pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Or a small, ripe banana. Or half of one of the Juice Master’s Juice Bars.*
  10. And don’t give yourself a hard time for ‘giving in!’ Instead, give yourself a pat on the back for choosing a healthy option and sticking to your goal.

This time, although I had trouble getting to sleep – I had a lot on my mind – I did manage to eventually and didn’t have to get up in the night to assuage those demonic temptations.

I think I may have cracked this juicing lark!

I got up, congratulated myself, and looked forward to the first main juice of the day: Sweet ‘n’ Smooth Blend. 

Hang on. Parsnip?! No way! Jason, how could you?!

(Regular readers will already know of my complete antipathy towards this genuinely nutrient-filled vegetable, but if you are bemused then please read my post ‘Pears But No More Parsnips’)*.

My husband knows better and thankfully had replaced it with sweet potato. And very nice it was too.

Phew, that was close!

Ps Although I don’t normally weigh myself during a cleanse, and am not looking to lose a significant amount – just the extra couple of Christmas pounds – for those interested in knowing these things: I have so far lost 2lbs. If it starts going beyond 5, I will begin adding more extras to my juices, or have an extra one each day.

Onwards and upwards – or downwards, or something! You know what I mean!

*http://www.juicemaster.com

*https://pearsnotparsnips.com/2015/11/06/pears-but-no-more-parsnips/

Disclaimer: As always, if you are thinking of doing a juice cleanse, please be sure to check with your doctor first. These posts are my personal experiences with juicing.

Copyright: Chris McGowan

Why I call you friend

If you are having a bad day, having doubts about your life, your very existence, need a smile, inspiration or motivation or just plain bored, I recommend you visit Ngobesing Romanus’ blog. He is a journalist, philosopher and poet and writes thought-provoking posts, poems that are equally uplifting and poignant, life-affirming and beautiful.

Source: Why I call you friend