21 day juice detox - days 12 & 13

I've been so busy Friday and Saturday I haven't had time to write! Friday I taught an Intro to Raw Food at The Medicine Garden in Cobham, Surrey. The event was hosted by Ruth at The Larder which is the farm shop there. We had 8 clients and they all really enjoyed the food and the evening. We made almond milk, alligator smoothie, hazelnut, olive & red pepper pate that they ate with nori sheets, alfalfa sprouts, grated carrot and shredded spinach, courgette spaghetti with tomato sauce and chocolate brownies with fudgey chocolate icing! It was a bit strange for me not being able to sample the food as we went along, and I was very tempted by the brownies as they're my favourite!

Juice wise I didn't make anything new, just orange and wheatgrass juice. I was a bit naughty actually as I didn't have much time during the day as I was preparing for the workshop, so I only had that one juice. I did have some coconut water and herbal tea though, and lots of water.

Saturday I went to a hot yoga class at Serenity Hot Yoga in Dorking. Oh how I have missed my hot yoga! It was so great to be back! I really like the way they do it there, they use infra red heaters to heat the room so it doesn't feel as harsh as the other ones that I've been to which usually use blow heaters to heat up the room. It was the perfect temperature, hot enough to heat the muscles to help you stretch and make you sweat but not so hot you feel dizzy or lightheaded. Absolutely loved it! This is great for helping detox the body, exercise to get the lymph moving and heat to raise the circulation and induce sweating.

When I got home I made pineapple, raspberry and lime juice. I don't suggest juicing berries very often as they are very expensive and you don't get much juice out of them at all. But I had some raspberries and have been really missing their beautiful flavour so I made this juice, which was delicious!

Pineapple, raspberry and lime juice recipe:
1 pineapple
1 punnet raspberries
juice 1/2 lime

Juice pineapple on high, raspberries on low and mix with lime juice in the jug.

Then in the evening we went for dinner with some of David's family at his cousins house. We had pre warned them that I am fasting so I made a couple of flasks of juice to take with me. I also made some raw chocolate truffles for everyone to have after dinner.

I made the juice I had at Wagamamas last week, celery, apple, mint and lime. It didn't taste exactly like the one I had there as I wasn't sure of the proportions but it was still refreshing and delicious. As it went straight into flasks I didn't get a photo.

Celery, apple, mint and lime juice recipe:
1 bunch celery
4 apples
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 pack of mint

Juice celery and then apples, sandwiching mint between them. Mix with lime juice in the jug.

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

21 day juice detox - day 11

Wow...over half way now. Feeling really great today. My friend Deborah and I went to a networking meeting for people in the alternative/holistic industry and there was a fascinating talk about the benefits of including flax seeds and oil in your diet by Clare of Flax Farm www.flaxfarm.co.uk
Flax seeds:

• Are very low carb and GI
• Gluten free
• Have more omega 3 than fresh mackerel 
• Have more fibre than bran flakes
• Are a rich source of hormone balancing lignans
• Are rich in powerful antioxidants

Some of the health benefits of including flax in your diet are:

• Improved digestion
• Smooth radiant skin
• Balanced cholesterol
• Supple joints
• Healthy metabolism
• Increased immune function
• Balanced hormones
• Healthier gut bacteria
• Stabilised blood sugar levels
• Reduced inflammation in the body

I was in a rush this morning to get to the meeting and I didn't have time for scrubbing and peeling so I just made a big batch of orange and watermelon juice. I had half a watermelon in the fridge that was already washed and I put that through the juicer (rind on) and mixed it with the juice from 5 oranges. Because of the rind the colour doesn't look that great, it's a little dark and muddy (you obviously don't notice this when mixing it with a green blend). If this bothers you just juice the flesh of the melon and save the rind for your next green juice. Don't let looks deceive you though, it tasted gorgeous!

Going back to the flax, I always have a little jar of ground flax in the fridge for Max to sprinkle on his food. If you do this, make sure you only make small batches as it doesn't keep fresh for long, and always store in the fridge. Clare told us that children who have omega 3 in their diet have better concentration levels at school and less occurrence of ADD/ADHD. Today I made Max a half raw meal of pasta salad consisting of gluten free pasta, peas, broccoli (all cooked) and finely diced raw red pepper and cucumber with a raw creamy tomato sauce. He absolutely loves sprinkling the flax on his food himself, and as this was a tomatoey pasta dish I mixed some of the flax meal with some nutritional yeast (a vegan health food containing B vitamins, protein, minerals and trace elements, with a savoury cheesy flavour). He ended up eating most of his sprinkle mix with his spoon!

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

21 day juice detox - day 8

I rediscovered an old passion today - tap dancing! I did this as a child and loved it, and took it up again as an adult years ago but moved house away from the dance school I attended and so the lessons stopped. I found out that there is a local dance school in Horsham who provide children's and adults dance classes, and so went along for my first tap dancing lesson for years. I think I did rather well actually considering that it was the first time in ages! I really enjoyed it too. Can't wait until next week.

No new juices today, in the morning before my dance class I had the orange and wheatgrass juice from day 6, except this time I added in some grapefruit juice as well. It was delicious.

Then in the evening I had spinachade from day 1, one of my favourites. If you only try one juice from this blog, (and I sincerely hope you try out a few of the recipes), go for this one, it's delicious, you'll be really surprised.

I started a new yoga class today. Previously I was just teaching one class a week on a Tuesday evening, which was a mix between hatha and vinyasa flow yoga. Now I am doing vinyasa flow yoga on Monday evenings and classical hatha yoga on Tuesday evenings. I hope my students like the changes and get to try out both styles.

When I got back from yoga I had a miso broth, mmmm...salty and warming and grounding.

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk