21 day juice detox - day 15

Monday Monday here again! Was really tired today from yesterday's fayre. Had my lovely tap dancing class at lunchtime and my energy levels picked up. Strange what stomping about and making a load of racket for an hour can do!

I had a delicious beetroot based juice today, I called it Beetroot Blast. I'm really loving beetroot in juices at the moment, I don't know if it's because of the blood purifying and detoxing effects, or the yummy sweet taste, or the beautiful rich purple colour. Probably all three! And purple is my favourite colour.

Beetroot blast juice recipe:
3 beetroots
1 bag (750g) carrots
5 pears
1/2 bag spinach
Chunk fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lime

Put it all through the juicer, sandwiching spinach between pears. Mix lime in the jug.

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

21 day juice detox - day 14

Today I was exhibiting at the ABC Animal Sanctuary fund raising fayre. I had a stall and was selling raw chocolate bars, chocolate lollipops and chocolate making kits. The chocolate went down really well and I sold out. It was great to be supporting such a fantastic cause and giving people their first experience of healthy raw chocolate! Plus I got to meet Captain Jack Sparrow...another life goal ticked off the list!! (And he liked my chocolate!)

I made green juice to take with me and lots of snacks for Max to eat. To my delight there was a stall selling vintage clothing, so I spent a little of my profits on a beautiful handmade 60's maxi dress!

Green juice recipe:
1 bunch celery
1 cucumber
4 apples
4 pears
1 bag spinach
Chunk fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lime

Juice all the ingredients, sandwiching spinach between apples and pears. Mix with lime in the jug.

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

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 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

21 day juice detox - day 6

You know how you start doing something and get so involved you end up losing track of time? That happened to me today. I started at 12.30 just looking for my tap shoes in the shed and ended up tidying, rearranging, and then back in the house unpacking (we moved house recently), tidying etc. The next time I looked at the time it was 6pm! Luckily I had made myself a juice before I started, and had a full water bottle by my side.

My morning juice was orange and wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is the richest source of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is like the blood of plants, and interestingly it has an extremely similar structure to hemin, the part of haemoglobin in the blood that carries oxygen around the body. So drinking this amazing substance is almost like having a blood transfusion, it purifies and oxygenates the blood so much. It also helps to heal, deodorise, alkalise and detoxify the body, chelates heavy metals and on a spiritual level, raises Kundalini energy. A serving of wheatgrass juice is usually 1oz or approx 30ml. It is very strong and potent, and has a very strong flavour. You can either take it straight as a shot or mix it in with other juice. I took a picture of my wheatgrass tray after juicing enough to make a 1oz serving so you can get an idea:

 And here is what 1oz looks like:

So by mixing the wheatgrass juice with other juices, the strong flavour is softened. I usually use orange juice because it has a strong flavour, but you could try grapefruit, pineapple, apple, or mix it in with your green juice recipe.

Orange and wheatgrass juice recipe:

500ml (1 pint) freshly squeezed orange juice

30ml (1oz) wheatgrass juice

Mix together and enjoy. 

I get my wheatgrass kits from Goodness Direct.

Another delicious and nutritious liquid you can enjoy whilst on a juice detox is goji berry water. This is different from blending the gojis into your juice, because then you would be consuming some solids as well. For goji water, you simply soak about 1/4 cup organic goji berries in a glass of water for 12-24 hours. Strain off the liquid (which will have turned a deep red colour) and give the berries to your kids or family. Then savour the delicious sweet nutritious liquid yourself. I give the gojis to Max, who gobbles them down in about 10 seconds flat, he loves them.

As if I hadn't had enough chlorophyll for today, I opted for a very green drink for my evening juice. I said yesterday that I was feeling a little hungry, and although today I had my psyllium drink, the feeling came back. So perhaps I have had too much fruit juice over the last few days, and if that is the case, then green juices are the way to go. The juice that follows is quite a strong green juice, it's basically a liquid salad. I added a few apples to soften the flavours slightly, but the rest of the ingredients are all green vegetables. It even has a salad dressing mixed in!

Liquid salad recipe:
1 dark green lettuce
1/2 cucumber
1/2 bunch celery
1 green pepper
Handful parsley
Handful dill
2-4 apples
Chunk fresh ginger
Juice of 2 limes
1 dessert spoon of Braggs liquid aminoes or tamari

Run everything through the juicer, sandwiching leafy greens between the apples, celery & cucumber. Mix in the lime juice and Braggs/tamari. Add a dash of cayenne or paprika if you like. Sip slowly and enjoy feeding your body with the best fuel ever!


Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

21 day juice detox introduction

Orange and wheatgrass juice

One of the detoxification methods I teach to my clients is juice cleansing. Sometimes this is referred to as juice fasting, although that is a misnomer as the term fasting only really applies when taking just water or nothing at all. When you do a juice detox you are consuming all the nutrition your body needs, and usually much more, in the form of highly concentrated power elixirs extracted from fresh organic (biodynamic if possible) fruits, vegetables, herbs and sprouts. 

The science behind this ancient form of healing is that when you give your poor over stressed system a break from having to process food and chemicals (food additives, pesticides, hormones, medicine traces etc), it changes from its usual anabolic routine (processing and assimilating food, building cells and tissues), to a catabolic state (detoxifying, cleaning, healing, renewing). This means that it can concentrate solely on cleaning your system, getting rid of toxins, which are stored in fat cells, repairing and healing. 

You may be surprised to know but some pretty serious health conditions have been cured by simply taking a break from solid food for a while, including asthma, allergies, obesity, insomnia, high/low blood pressure, acne, psoriasis, migraines, inflammation, gall stones, arteriosclerosis, and even tumours! The body is a sophisticated machine with the amazing power to heal and regenerate itself, all it needs is to be given a break so it can do so.  Fasting and juice cleansing have been shown to increase life expectancy, health and wellbeing, these techniques put our health directly into our own hands, are free and available to us at any time we wish!

Soooo...I have decided to attempt a 21 day juice cleanse. I have done this type of detox many many times before, but never for that long. I always teach my clients about the importance of listening to your body, and a fast or juice cleanse is definitely a time when this applies, and so I will monitor my progress and see how I get on. If I feel the need to start my transition back to solid food sooner than day 21 (which incidentally is 16th June), then I will do so. Fasting is a time when the ego needs to be left at the door!

I will be posting once a day or every other day, usually in the evening, with my experiences, including the juice recipes with photos, my thoughts and how I am feeling, and I promise to be truthful! I will also include information on other detoxification techniques I am using, suppliers of produce and other products and anything else I think may be of interest. If there is anything else you'd like to know feel free to post a question in the comments box. 

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

Hello and welcome

My name is Natalie Heath, The Raw Lifestyle Coach.

I teach people how to live a natural, holistic lifestyle and achieve ultimate health, wellbeing and happiness through eating organic raw vegan food, juicing, practicing yoga and meditation, detoxifying the body and mind, using natural skincare and cleaning products, and many more self help methods and spiritual practices. I teach via one to one coaching, private group sessions at clients homes, public classes and workshops, and my Raw Lifestyle Retreats.

I qualified many years ago as a holistic therapist and loved being able to help people feel better, more balanced and relaxed. A few years later I completed my training in beauty therapy, achieving the Level 3 qualification in Advanced Beauty Techniques. I then went on to study for a diploma in Holistic Skincare Formulation with The School of Holistic Cosmetology. This qualifies me to design, produce and sell my own completely natural organic skincare, bath and body products. I also use my knowledge and experience to teach people how to make their own natural products at home. I have practiced yoga and meditation for most of my adult life and decided it was time to take my practice to the next level by completing my yoga teacher training qualification. For the last 5 years I have been on the raw food path, experimenting with the raw vegan diet and learning as I went along, going through periods of being 100% raw and variations along the scale. I was blessed 2 years ago by giving birth to an amazing little boy, I breastfed him for 18 months and feed him raw and cooked vegan food. I have helped many of my friends and family to introduce more raw foods into their diets and people always seem to love my recipes and ideas, and so last year I completed my raw teacher training qualification with the worlds leading raw food teacher trainer, Karen Knowler.

I feel so blessed that I am able to put all of my training, experience and knowledge together and help people along their own path to health, happiness and inner peace. I have started this blog for that very reason, so I can share my experiences, recipes and practices so that they may serve to help others looking to live a natural, raw lifestyle. Please follow and share if you feel this could benefit you or your friends and family.

Feel free to comment and get in touch if I can be of help in any way or you have any questions. I also have a forum on my site where people can interact and share recipes and ideas and ask me any questions. There is more information about my services, retreats and free recipes on there too. Check it out at www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x