AUTUM DETOX PLAN....

The best time to make a detox program is during the change of the season, more so at Autum and at springtime...reason for this is the "normal" overload of food and specially toxic material, fats etc that we have put into our bodies.

Springtime comes just after winter time including X-mas..meaning...parties...family reunions with loads of sweets, roasted meats, alcohol...and so on.....the body needs to clean itself before entering summer to be prepared to battle against high temperatures and more body activity.

Autum is also a great period for a detox program as summer brings aswell a lot of night outs with friends, vacation periods where we might be traveling and trying new and local foods...alcohol...fats....and again, the body needs to be ready for winter, where cold weather kicks in and we are more vulnerable for infections.

I have designed a detox program which consist of 21 days, I offer aswell shorter period detox programs but I seriously believe that to have an efficient detoxification of your body, 21 days is the minimun time to do so....you will understand this when I tell you that 5 to 6 months of not so healthy eating can not be arranged in a 7-day detox program.

These short detox programs are good for people who have been taking good care of what they were eating where the body is not so full of toxic waste. 

If you are a very busy person with very little free time on your hands, I can understand you taking the 7-day detox plan as it´s better to detox a bit than nothing at all.

Of course, with all this I am not telling you that the ideal thing is to eat bad and all you want during the entire year as you are going to be doing twice a year the detox program anyway. The best thing is to eat well every day of the year, if this is your case than detox can be done once a year.

Why I still consider detox to be necessary even though you eat very healthy during all year round is because even though we do our best to eat healthy, we still have no control (not 100%) at least, of what we really put into our systems..therefor I always recommend doing some detox.

My program consist of a three week program where I allow the body to adapt to a lighter and more liquid diet.....then for some days I propose just taking your food in a liquid form, those days are fully packed with yummy fruit and veggie juices, veggie broths and herbal teas....these days it is important to stay relaxed, not too much activity as the purpose is to let your body concentrate on releasing all waste from your body....you might feel bad and sick during the first two days...this is normal, this is your body telling you that it is releasing all toxic material into the blood.....if this feeling prolongs into time that is not such a good time and I will advice you to stop or at least take it slowly.....

Then after these "juicy days" I will put you back into a normal solid diet little by little, again, letting your body adjust to a normal situation.....

When approaching the end of the detox program, you will feel great..actually you can start feeling absolutly great already the first three to four days....you will have so much energy that you might have trouble falling a sleep in the beginning...all this is normal....so please, DO NOT take sleeping pills as again, you will be adding toxics into your body, exactly what we don´t want....instead, take valeriana tablets or herbal teas...

When going back to eating normal..it´s recommended you keep eating healthy...this is the point of the detox plan! :-)

I will offer you a great range of healthy and delicious recipes for you to make at home...you will see that eating healthy is not just about a simple salad..there is so much more to it!

I hope you will contact me for this program....you will not regreat it...you will feel amazingly good, full of energy, happy ...always in a good mood and important for women....you will shine...your skin will look amazing and you will look so much prettier.....try it!!!!!

Love, E

HAVING RAIN FOR TWO DAYS.....!

After work I was heading home here in Tarifa..streets were soaking wet...pools everywhere....no one to be seen..somehow people here in Spain seem to be affraid of rain...with sunny days you will see no one staying at home....the streets are full of people....on rainy days you wander what happend and ask yourself where everybody went...is there a big party that nobody told me about??..no no....it´s raining..don´t you see? we can´t go out......strange....and sad really.....feeling the rain and dancing under it is an amazing feeling..this reminds me of lasts year trip to New York, when together with other friends we finished our tantric yoga class swetting like crazy...we came down into the busy streets and rain was falling down like I have never seen....we took our shoes off and started running thrue the crowds...it was a great sensation!!!!woowww...I felt sooo freee......I loved it and would do it all over again......:-))
So..back to Spain...to Tarifa...heading back home...what could be better than a nice "cuppa" warm soup in front of the tv???? mmmm....right at that moment..nothing! I opened my fridge, took my fresh veggies and started cooking this lovely warm and "Autumy" soup..............

Recipe:

-1 large red paprika
-1 zucchini
-1/2 yellow onion
-2 cloves garlic
-1 large ripe tomato
- 1 tbs Curry powder, madras
-Olive oil, extra virgin
-Salt and pepper
- 2 cups of water

In a pot, add olive oil medium heat, add the onion, previously chopped, garlic and curry powder, leave it two minutes cooking then add the chopped paprika, chopped zucchini, let cook again for 5 more minutes and at the end add the chopped tomato..leave cooking for another 10 more minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Bring everything into a blender, be careful as the soup at this point is very hot, make sure you close the blender well before turning it on. Blend well until smooth texture.

Serve in cups or bowls and garnish with some fine zucchini slices and some drops olive oil...enjoyyyyy...mmmmm...I know I did....hehe!

Love, E

GRAPES....THOSE LOVELY FRUITS....

GREAT ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITY!!!

Grapes are very in a polyphenolic phytochemical called RESVERATROL, which is a powerful anti-oxidant that plays an important rol protecting against cancers like colon cancer and prostate, also against coronary heart disease , degenerative nerve diseases like Alzheimer and agaisnt viral/bacterial infections.

 If this wasn´t enough, grapes are also a great source of other type of polyphenolic anti-oxidants, called ANTHOCIANINS, which seem to anti-allergic, anti-inflamatory and anti-cancer properties.

Also present in grapes are CATECHINS, which are a flavonoid tanins, another group of anti-oxidants specially found in the white-green varieties, these also have protective activity for the body.

Above all this..grapes have a good range of diffrent minerals, of which, Potassium is highly concentrated.

When it comes to vitamins, they are a good source of vit. C, which helpsin these autum days preventing you to catch a cold :-)

Make sure you have some!

Enjoy!

HEALTHY COCONUT MILKSHAKE!
With yesterdays leftovers I made myself a great milkshake this morning....

Recipe:
-Coconut milk
-1 fresh peach (bio)
-1 banana, ripe
-juice of one lemon

Just add all the ingredients into a blender and serve into large glass...don´t forget to drink it freshly made as all the vitamins will go away! This makes a great start of the day..lots of vitamins and good fats for good energy!
Have a lovely and healthy day.
Love, E

NICE AND FRESH  COCONUT MILK SOUP...

The other day I woke up thinking Autum already dug in but it was still quite warm..I bought  ingredients to make myself a nice hot Autum soup but being warm as it was I ended up doing the "raw version" which tastes as lovely as the hot version...

Coconut milk gives this rich and creamy sensation with a nice aroma as well which for those who do eat dairy products don´t really get from adding cream to soup recipes....coconut milk is very rich..it has saturated fats which one might think..oh..maybe not that good...well guess what..it is GOOD FOR YOU...our body needs saturated fats..just not as much as we take in, that is a fact, as they tend to accumulate specially in our arteries and heart...but nevertheless, do take them in small amounts....

This soup is a good example how you can eat your coconut milk.....

For this simple recipe I used:

-1 zucchini

-1 4-5 little mushrooms

- Tiny piece of fresh ginger

- juice of one lemon

- Half a tin of coconut milk

-1 cup of fresh mineral water

- Olive oil, extra virgin, few drops

- Salt and pepper to taste

- Sprouts and lemon zest for garnishing.

For the raw version of this soup, I chopped the zucchini in slices as well as the mushrooms. I grated the ginger on top of the other ingredients, add the coconut milk, water and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix all together well. Put into fridge and let cool down at least for 20-30 minutes.

Serve in plates or small glasses as you prefer and garnish with a few drops of olive oil, sprouts of any kind (I used alfalfa) and lemon zest. Enjoy!

AUTUM IS COMING...

It´s 14.58pm...and for October...it´s already quite cold which is not that normal in the South of Spain.....I was craving for some nice and healthy snack but still something to take this feeling away...I had some salmon in the fridge....wild salmon of course.....animal protein, fish in this case...which I eat ever so often...max once a week to make sure of my vit.B 12 intake (only present in animal protein and necessary for the body) makes you produce warmth inside so quite suitable for this time of the year....

I believe I have already spoken of the nutritional value of fish?? well....I choose wild salmon as I know from a fact from when I was a researcher and I was studying the toxines in marine mammal blubber, muscle and fish being the cause of it.....salmon is the least contaminated fish there is...at least when it comes to Mercury, present in nature from debris breakdown but also caused by industrial releases into the sea....Mercury accumulates in the muscle of fish....the bigger the fish, this is the higher in the food chain, the bigger the concentration of mercury as it accumulates more from eating all the little fish...tiny species like sardines don´t accumulate as much so they are better to eat....try avoiding the larger fish like  shark (although not sold  normally here to eat, thank God!) , sea bass, sword fish and Tuna , this last one...is a very endangered fish, specially red tuna, so more reason not to eat this poor guy..... I am living at this moment in Tarifa, the most southern point of Spain, here you find the most traditional way of catching the red tuna, called "Almadrabas"...they use nets in which they make labirinths in order to catch the fish and this way they make sure the fish gets confused with all the nets and can´t get out anymore....to this we have to add the fact that marroccan also fish here the red tuna and to complicate things more,Japanese boats come and stay for around two months and catch the most tuna for their sushi making..I guess I need not say more why we need to cut down on eating this poor fish? The last article I read about the Tuna population said that since the 1970's the red tuna declined about 90% of their population.....this is terrible news...you can imagine, me...animal lover...nature lover...sea lover...how it makes me feel...of course I do not eat Tuna and I hope after you have read this ,you won´t either ....:-)

Ok..going back to the fish protein...and why I still eat fish....at least well selected fish and only once a week...is because it´s a very healthy source of high quality proteins and also and very important, a great source of essential fatty acids, specially omega -3 very important for the general health...nervous system....it´s also a natural antiinflamatory  so, for people who suffer of chronicle degenerating diseases it´s great to calm down the symptoms....also very important for pregnant women as it helps in the development of the brain tissue in babies.....
And you might be thinking...what about the toxins? mercury??? Yesss...there is mercury in all fish...as I mentioned before..eat the small sized fish, not the babies..I mean the smaller type of fish....in the other hand, fish also have a lot of Selenium in them, this is an essential mineral very important for us..for the metabolism as it takes part of many metabolic reactions among many other things....Selenium seems to counteract the effect of Mercury by binding it...so...this could explain why fish that have high levels of Mercury don´t get intoxicated with it....:-)
Things we can do to avoid getting Mercury absorbed in our bodies is to take suplements of Selenium and also take Ascorbate, wich is vit. C, which seems aswell to help detoxify Mercury from the body.

Coming back to what I made for lunch...this is a lovely sandwich...I used whole grain gluten free bread, added some olive oil on top..then salmon slices (as many as you wish) , for some acid I added some cherry tomatoes, also give great color to the dish.. and some cut chives and salmon eggs for garnish....this is a healthy snack to accompany with some salad if you wish...I had no time for a propper lunch as I am working at the same time so no salad pics this time..sorry...promise to post more soon....;-)
Bon appetit!!!

BREAKFAST ANYONE???

Ok, so maybe chocolate mousse is not the healthiest thing to eat for breakfast...but...what if the mousse was 100% veggie and no sugar? yes...I believe in healthy food and healthy living...I also believe that one part of being healthy is enjoying life..therefore..taking things like chocolate that make you happy should always be in your menu..that´s why I made sure I was eating chocolate the healthy way.....this mousse is really delicious and healthy at the same time...don´t believe me? here´s the recipe:

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE "THE VEGAN WAY" :

-1 ripe avocado (bio)
- 2 tbs Cocoa powder with no sugar
- 2 tbs agave nectar or organic honey
Mix all together in the mixer,add more of the cocoa or agave nectar for more sweet taste if you like...
Serve with a sprinkle of toasted nuts like pine nuts or almonds.

And if this was not healthy enough...why not add some delicious bio fruit to it? In this case I've used good mango and peaches , great fruits that are rich in betacarotenes...these great antioxidants to fight against our daily free radicals!
Enjoy!!!