Crushed Fruit, Bruised Nuts, and Healthy Raw Chocolate Shakes

Don’t you hate going to a farm store, seeing the best fresh fruit around only to come home and see half of it was crushed by a bagger who didn’t know you didn’t put sharp edged containers on top of the soft fruit?

Do you like the peace of doing some type of martial art or meditation only to have a kid open the door every ten minutes to ask, “Whatcha doing?”

Do you feel empowered or ready to fall apart on days when things don’t go as planned?

I am inspired by a phrase that has no famous origin or at least that I know of because it is something I thought up heading out to Newburyport yesterday. (Gorgeous day it was).

It goes, “Don’t worry if the world tries to break you apart when you know where to put the pieces back together.”

Are you able to pick up the pieces and move on?

When do you have to close the door to the past?

Are you able to do it or will you just sit down and cry?

We are all defined by what we think of ourselves. I think and believe (have faith) that I will completely heal my obesity and diabetes and that I am on the right track with raw foods. I haven’t made the jump to 100% raw foods but when I eat a piece of chicken or like tonight I had BLT’s with local smoked bacon, the bread around it is the finest quality with the highest grains and fiber I can find (Trader Joes Sprouted Bread) and tomatoes and beet greens. All organic and local. For our drink we each had a thick rich chocolate shake.

You are thinking,”What? How can you be on this path and have a chocolate shake?”

Not only will my chocolate shakes take inches off your waist they are so nutritious that you will have a giant dose of antioxidants, flavonols, and rich omega 3 fats.

Raw Chocolate Shake

1 Fresh Young Coconut – pour water and scoop out coconut meat into the blender or vita mix

4 Tbs of Raw Cacao

2 Tbs raw extra virgin coconut oil

3 Tbs raw agave

1 medium avocado

1.5 cups of ice

Almond or soy milk to smooth out when the mix becomes too thick.

And I mean too thick. You can almost have pudding but if you want to easily sip this cold delicious concoction with a straw you will have to add up to 3/4 of a cup of your favorite non dairy milk. And remember raw cacao is a far cry from Hersheys or other brand cocoa since one is raw and full of all it’s borne nutrients and the other has had their nutrients cooked out.

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What did I do with my crushed fruit?

The farm store in Newbury, MA, Tendercrop Farm, that I go to each week had fresh apricots and nectarines this week. But as I mentioned in the beginning half of my fruit was cut and soft by the time we came back. Some people would toss this away but what do you think farms do with the rough looking fruit, they either flash freeze, make moonshine, or puree so we did the latter. Although I love moonshine.

In fact the softer and juicier the fruit, the easier to blend or vitamix. Just pour it into the appropriate size plastic zipper bag and freeze. Make sure you flatten it as much as possible so you can just break off a frozen piece and add to your favorite smoothie.

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Qigong

There seems to be a lot of different styles of Qigong from the most stretching of Wuji style to a smooth almost wispy movements of Kuan Yin style but it is the latter I want to talk about.

Wuji style and Chakra yoga leave me almost exhausted sometimes and I cannot do that style the next day so I handle a softer workout with Kuan Yin style. Except that the soft movements and concentrated breathing do the opposite and totally cleanse my body of the aches and pains. This leaves me with a very healed feeling.

What is going on here?

If there is a master reading this blog, please tell me what is happening.

Why would Wuji style feel so hard to do sometimes or feel exhausting at the end after I clear the body of excess Qi?

………….Maybe the cleansing at the end of the Wuji style is doing more harm or releasing too much Qi back into the world. I do know that the breathing makes the workout and with Wuji you can really work out every area of the body since their are 18 positions and 15 minutes or warm-ups and 15 minutes of closing. That is close to an hour and a half of the most amazing twists and turns while holding a very distinct breathing pattern.

If you are confused, my dedicated reader, I am sorry. I am learning as well and Qigong mastery is something measured in decades. I love it and have a long way to go. I will keep trying and telling you what’s going on.

Back to Kuan Yin style, it is amazing how that feels as the master I am following looks to be in a pure state of delight and looks like a giant bird soaring through the air. In fact you can try two parts yourself and tell me how it feels to you:

Don’t follow right from the beginning. It will tell you when to start.

Make sure you follow to the finish. If you have to do something, come back and finish. Qigong can kick your ass really hard if you don’t follow correctly to the closing.

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Oh I was so hungry today and needed some raw hummus and made one up or rather I began one and my wife had to finish while I went to an appointment.

Raw Nut and Seed Hummus with Sweet Peppers:

2 Cups Raw Cashews

3/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of raw black sesame seeds 

3 Tbs of Olive oil

1 red bell pepper

1 long banana pepper

sea salt to taste

1/2 cup tahini

water to smooth things out.

Soak cashews and seed for at least one hour to two hours then drain.

Chop and process or vita mix the peppers first and then add other ingredients. This takes a little bit to do right and you want to have enough water to get a great consistency but not to much to dilute the flavors.

Be sure to cover and leave alone in the fridge to blend flavors. Total yield is about 4 cups. But here is fair warning, if you like the intense flavor of black sesame seeds then this is for you. If you don’t then leave the black sesame seeds out or replace with golden.

I hope I touched on areas that interest you. I have been feeling really great normally except for today which ended well after a 1 1/2 hour nap. I would hope that you see and feel the difference in your body and the way you feel and even smell after changing your belief in food to one of survival. You can and will heal yourself if you stay on track. Cheat well once a week so you don’t feel sorry for yourself and laugh a whole helluva lot.

That is why I am leaving you with this mental picture since I didn’t think to get a snapshot of my youngest boy chasing me like a samurai around the backyard with a large plastic bat.

This resulted from his desire to say he’s bored while I am trying to do afternoon Qigong or Pa Kua. So fed up I was that I said he could attack me at will while I do my workout. Sort of the Inspector Clouseau asking Kato to attack him to improve his chances of survival in a random attack.

Now I have this boy traveling at full speed while I walk the circle or perform movements and doing everything he can to get the vital parts of my body with the bat for 30 minutes at a time. So when I wrote bruised nuts in the title, I meant it. And I started him off with a wooden bat, full size, and quickly went to a plastic one when I found out I couldn’t avoid a bat in full swing from an object 3 feet tall. Ouch! Yikes! and Yow!

Thanks for reading and thank you for your comments! 

Comments

[Elle]

I love this! Not only the chocolate shake, which looks awesome, but the thought of a little kid attacking your tenders with a bat. hehehe!

[Anonymous]

Hi Bill,

My yoga classes at Amore (an equivalent of planet fitness) oftens ends with the relaxation pose (lying down). Then one day, the teacher said that the essence of the relaxation pose should be present in all the yoga poses - no matter how difficult. To relax - let go, even as the muscles ache or the tendons feel stretched (but no forcing). Breathe... :) Happy exercising.

Kim

[Elle]

Thanks Elle and Thanks Kim for your comments