Eat right for your blood type, not cohen

This 'eat right for your blood type' diet is definitely less expensive than Cohen at PhP 1,980 for three months! @RezzyWezy mentioned this new diet called CGN - which stands for chrono-geno-nutrition. Her main motivation for dieting is, I quote - "I don't want to be a size XL on my wedding day!!"  She found Dr. Claude Chauchard who founded CGN through one of her numerous online deals.

Since I've been packing a few pounds lately, yes, believe it or not, I went online and signed up too. It's actually quite easy because I don't have to do any blood work or go to a clinic for a face-to-face consultation. Everything is done online. I filled up a form where I indicated my height/weight, blood type and eating behavior - specifically, eating out and gluten-free.

Here's a sample meal plan which I would've started today (well... no time to shop).

First week's Chrono-Geno-Nutrition diet

Chauchard Tea (photo from CGN site)

The meal  portions are quite small and measured in grams and/or a cup. As a bonus, 70% dark chocolate is recommended daily as a snack; however, the amount is limited to two squares only. And Chauchard tea is to be taken with every meal.

This tea must be the secret of CGN (?!?). It's easy to prepare and the ingredients are available in the supermarket or organic store.  Just mix one piece star anise, 5 sprigs of thyme (or tarragon) and 5 sprigs of rosemary in one liter water and boil.

In the video shown online, Dr. Chauchard guarantees a 5-pound weight loss in the first week. Hmm.... and I only need to lose six pounds.

My Green Morning Blend

I am sharing my breakfast green smoothie recipe as requested by Janette since I tweet my blends each morning. A green smoothie is actually nothing more than veggies mixed with fruits. All you need is a blender, a small sieve, a salad spinner, and a ceramic knife.

First, throw in a handful of almonds and water in the blender. I prefer using fresh buko juice (coconut water).  Since I got into raw food, almond is my source of protein. It is rich in fiber, vitamin E, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, calcium, magnesium and zinc. However, it has an enzyme-inhibiting substance in the brown coating which is difficult to digest. The best way to remove this toxic inhibitor is by  soaking almonds overnight. By the way, eating 4-6 soaked almonds every morning helps enhance your memory.

Next, strain the blended mix in a small sieve. What will come out is a white mixture that looks like milk.  I've never tried dehydrating the strained almonds. But you can try and mix it in bread or make it into flour. Pour the almond milk back into the blender and start washing the greens and removing the stems.

The greens are leafy vegetables. As you know vegetables are nutritious and packed with amino acids, minerals, vitamins, fiber and chlorophyll.  I am amazed at how chlorophyll is touted today through wheat grass. Shots of wheat grass are now served in restaurants  and health stores sell packaged wheat grass powder mixes. According to Brighthub,  chlorophyll elevates our hemoglobin count "and as a result, circulation improves and we have more energy... helps increase heart function, improves the vascular system, cleanses the liver of heavy metals and chemical toxins, cleanses and improves the health of the intestines, uterus, and lungs. It is also a natural breath freshener and body deodorizer."

In the salad spinner (left photo), I have romaine, arugula and spinach. Take note of the Variety Rule - "don’t eat today what you ate yesterday"- because vegetables contain minute amounts of alkaloids. If consumed regularly, the alkaloids will accumulate in the body and may cause harmful poisonous reaction. 

I usually buy organic greens and rotate every two days.  I like  pechay, kale, cabbage and lettuce. There are three organic markets in Manila - Salcedo on Saturdays,  Legaspi on Sundays and Isip in Palm Village on Tuesdays or order fresh produce flow-in by Renee all the way from Bukidnon.

Next are the fruits. Unlike the greens, you don't have to rotate the fruits. My staple is the saba, our local plantain. One saba is apparently equal to six cavendish bananas. My rule is to keep it simple and mix up to three kinds of fruits. What I like to mix with saba is either mango or avocado. Both are best sources of live fat which we need to lubricate our eyes, our skin, hair and joints.

I also add a dash of flaxseeds which are high in Omega 3 oils. The benefits include constipation relief,  smooth skin, building muscle and burning fat.  Also,  depending on my condition - for instance, if I have colds or sore throat, I throw in ginger which is a natural decongestant and antihistamine; and if I have fever, I add half a red chili pepper.

Blend all greens and fruits together with the almond milk for 30-45 seconds. The proportion of greens and fruits depends on how green you want your smoothie to be.  Victoria Boutenko says "I recommend starting with more fruity green smoothies and slowly using more and more greens. As the body finds out the many benefits of greens, it becomes very excited and starts craving greener smoothies. Experiment with what amount of greens you find palatable and gradually add more greens so that you work up to the equivalent of one average-sized bunch of greens per day." 



There you have it, my green blends each morning. By the way, I don't chug my drink. I actually sip and chew my smoothie. Hope you try it and like me, get an energy boost each day! Cheers!

 

Going Raw, raw food that is..

Since I got into raw food, I've been besieged with questions why. I'm not asking to go completely 100% raw, but at least take more greens and fruits. Sharing top three reasons why:

First, did you know that cooking destroys nutrients found in food? Well, this depends on how you cook your food - you lose 25% if you steam and 100% if you microwave, fry or bake. According to Dr. Bernarr of God Healing, Inc and the Natural Hygiene Society of California, cooking food above 118 degrees F kills all the nutrients and enzymes in food. Natural Hygienist Dr. Virginia Vetrano affirms this and says that “heating any food, destroys much of its vitamin, mineral, and protein content, AND poisonous inorganic acids are formed.” So, what the two good doctors are essentially saying is when you eat cooked food, you are actually ingesting “dead” food, no nutrients and taking in instead toxins.

This leads to my second reason, do you know how our body adjusts to cooked food? According to raw food advocate and author of "12 Steps to Raw Food" Victoria Butenko, the body creates mucus. Mucus is actually good, it is a thick, viscous, gel-like material that functions to moisten and protect the body from toxins. The average human body produces about a liter of mucus per day.

Butenko however postulates that the more cooked food we consume, the more toxins we ingest and thus, the more mucus the body produces.  We accumulate so much mucus in our body that problems prop up. Headache is caused by the mucus stored in the forehead close to the brain and if you absolutely don't have mucus coming out of your nose after running, well, you have clean lungs.

To check for mucus in your intestines, stick out your tongue and check the color. If its color white, this means thick mucus is coating your intestines. Naturopaths call this mucoid plaque. It looks like a green rubbery hose that can extend to about 20 feet long. The trouble is once the mucoid plaque is created, it lodges in the numerous folds and crevices of the intestines and over time, it grows longer and thicker. Ironically, while mucus protects our body from absorbing toxins, it also prevents the body from absorbing nutrients. So, the thicker the mucoid plaque is, the more our body craves for more nutrients, the more we become hungry and consequently, the more we eat.

The third and last reason is for super health. Longevity and nutrition expert David Wolfe, says that “raw food returns to you lost power and abilities. It gives super human abilities – especially in physical endurance, clarity of thought and sixth sense perception.”  This means, no ailments, no acne, no asthma, no body odors, skin becomes soft and smooth, hair grows thick and wild and good news for women - - PMS will be a thing of the past and monthly periods will dwindle down to one day. Women have reported experiencing no menopausal symptoms and only discover having gone through menopause, only after undergoing blood tests to check their hormone levels. And here in the Philippines, the wife of inner dance Pi Villaraza, Daniw who was (and still is) on 100% raw food gave birth in less than ten minutes. She said that it was painless and effortless.

In the three months I was on 100% raw (yes Pinky, cheated on coffee and occasional wine), I experienced super health. My eyesight and hearing improved, my skin smooth, my hair thick, I’ve lost 10 pounds and stopped popping vitamins, supplements or medications. I must admit that going raw is quite daunting and requires commitment. Again, you don't have to go 100%. Start by eating more salads, adding raw vegetables in your meals like more tomato and lettuce in your sandwiches, drinking fresh juices especially my fav coconut juice, and snacking on nuts and seeds. If you want recipes, email me. :-)

Inner Dance with Pi Villaraza

Pi Villaraza

"I am not a guru or a healer; I am just a mirror to allow you to see things as they truly are” says Pi Villaraza when asked what he does.

I joined Pi’s detox, healing and energy training program in Bahay Kalipay in Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan last Labor Day weekend. He said that "Bahay Kalipay is our home. Because of the nature of our work in healing and detoxification, people naturally come to us to visit, heal, train and to center themselves. Thus, we decided to open up our home… to accommodate others while retaining as much of the basic simplicity we find as effective conditions for the work that we do." This includes hand pumping water that apparently most foreigners find charming.

I first met Pi when Rosanna Escudero invited me to do “Inner Dance” last March. He struck me as someone stripped off Ego –very simple in a t-shirt, jeans and sandals and extremely articulate while making all these “crackling” sounds.

Pi learned the ancient Filipino healing modality of the Babaylans after undergoing a vision quest that took him to the States in 2002 where he met powerful teachers and spirit guides that eventually led him back to the Philippines to do a walking pilgrimage around Mindanao like a hermit without money or contacts; and ended holing up for two-years on a deserted beach in Palawan subsisting on coconuts. He said “I felt a powerful urge to detach myself from all external sources of energy – family, money, friends and the many distractions of the world.”

He later coined it “inner dance” because of the dance-like movement generated from the internal energy. After a powerful session that night at Rosanna’s which was cathartic, my left side - the piriformis and ITB injury from the marathon- that has been bothering me for the last six months somehow felt better.

Pi describes inner dance as “Those who undergo the experience will soon find that it is not a dance, really, but more of an inner work that unifies mind, body, and spirit. It is a meditation that allows one to access powerful forces that simultaneously silences the mind.” Anna, who neither dances or practice yoga, was trance-like, gracefully twirling her hands and arms, moving with the music even doing back bends! She kept going for almost two hours. Short clip here:

The program consists of raw food live enzyme diet with a one day coconut flush, eco-tourism (visit to the Hot Springs or if the weather is good, sailing), organic gardening, handicraft (how to make a dream catcher), and healing and energy workshops which included daily Inner Dance, massage, Inner Yoga, Meditation, and self-processing spirituality. The workshops are experiential and interactive. He said “At the end of the stay, the goal is to have made a healing difference in specific physical, emotional and spiritual blockages the participant wants to focus his release work on. The secondary goal is to teach self-healing and simultaneously how to heal others.”

His organic garden set-up is in a way similar to Peter Caddy's, the founder of Findhorn Community in Scotland. There is a compost heap, potash (lime) and some guidance with the garden deva (through Daniw) who introduced mulch from the coconut husks to insulate the soil and protect the seedling. I planted my first organic tomato plant (left photo) in a terrain of mostly rock and coral and mixed with compost and all the essentials.

The experience was worthwhile and to me, downright full of integrity --from the simplicity of the place down to the simplicity of our food intake.

I learned a lot from just being simple. Inner dance is really a journey inward. The raw food diet, inner dance exercises, quieting of the mind are all tools to release mind/body/spirit from so-called blockages. With this release, I have more energy and am now more mindful and aware---ready to listen and see the signs that will help me toward a healthy, happy life…filled with peace from within.

Pi has helped others with medical conditions such as glaucoma, cysts, migraines, psoriasis, depression etc. Perhaps with this new found learning and practice, I can start by healing myself (treat simple aches and pains) and maybe in the future, advance to helping others mirror themselves.

Pi and Danui will be traveling to Singapore and will be in Manila on May 20 for a one-day workshop. To find out more about inner dance visit http://innerdance.multiply.com/

Also, to watch Pi in action, check out Epi Quizon's video "The Dancer Within":