Coconut milk is going to give us the creaminess we want while aloe vera will make this smoothie velvety and most of all extra beneficial for the intestines.
Let’s add ginger to put the fire on my friend my sister.
Want a nice deep rich flavor? Then we shall mix carob (for the calcium) and raw cacao (for the magnesium). For that sweet vanilla taste, I’ll add a few drops of vanilla stevia from https://clairesamuel.fr/rawliving.
The little extra? Chia seeds full of omega 3 fatty acids which, when swelling, will add extra creaminess to the smoothie.
If you let your smoothie rest for a dozen of minutes, it’s going to become a real cream.
With that I say: self-care is definitely delicious and quite easy actually!
The best chocolate cherry smoothie is a mixture of frozen cherries from the market, bananas, fresh ginger, rosemary leaves, raw cacao and a little squirt of filtered seawater from Biovie, great online store where you get 5 euros off with this link.
Some people have a love hate relationship with veganism, some people like me have been avoiding meat and dairy for over ten years, yet still advise people to eat meat if they feel they need it because becoming vegan also requires research and a consciousness shift, and some people like Anne-Marie have so much strength in their beliefs that they do not hesitate to say it loud and clear: we humans are not supposed to eat animals, who have suffered all their life in shameful raising conditions.
It was such a delight to welcome Anne-Marie from Crudivegan on the live show in French. You may remember how I praised her channel 6 months ago and I have so much gratitude that Anne-Marie chose to read my book The Knot in the Spiral before our interview together today.
Please support Anne-Marie from Crudivegan and discover her recipes, tips and great knowledge (about calcium, iron, proteins) on her website, her youtube, her instagram and facebook.
If go up one notch, after not eating animals, you can eat fruits and veggies raw my friend my sister.
Advice to transition from junk food to living food
Anne-Marie isn’t a big fan of fasting. On the contrary, she recommends kindness and a slow path towards more living food in your plate. Thus, she advises people to start by replacing the coffee, milk and bread of your morning by fruits. Very easy. For instance, on the morning of the interview, she ate bananas with cinnamon on top. The great thing about eating fruits for breakfast is that they hydrate you and remove toxins. Also, fruits are easily and rapidly digested.
Menstruation and the raw lifestyle
A very interesting question was asked in the chat about the feminine cycle and transitioning to raw food.
Anne-Marie said she didn’t experience the traditional upsetting symptoms of menopause. Personally, I went from having heavy, long and painful periods when I wasn’t eating raw to the total opposite now. Many raw foodists women are sharing on the subject so I invite you to learn from them, like the gorgeous Kristina for instance.
Lastly, I soooooo recommend you read the fantastic book by Kate Magic about feminine hormones The Empowered Woman.
I loved Anne-Marie because she really insist on the importance of self-care. Eating raw and self care mean you do listen to your body, you feel the hunger or its absence, the need to rest or to move your body around. Eating raw is an invitation to go inwards and really come to know yourself my friend my sister. And this is the only way to help others.
Eating raw and living in a city?
If like me you dream to live in the countryside, know that it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get more and fresher fruits and veggies.
Of course, fresh produce is expensive and eating healthy without wasting produce requires a little bit of organization. However, everything comes down to priorities. If what matters the most to you is eating fresh, you’ll find a way. You can buy in bulk, you can go to the farms market at the end and check if the farmers leave over ripe produce and so on.
A huge thank you to Anne-Marie who shined her beautiful light in this interview for us my friend my sister.
It was such a pleasure and honor to interview Jenny today my friend my sister. Her Instagram is @veggy_by_jenny.
Jenny is a mother of three and with her husband, they decided to change their lifestyle after getting informed about healthy nutrition and the dangers of food additives.
Healthy is not boring but joyful and abundant! Lissa is the living proof of that.
2. All the useful tips that women can find on the channel Raw Food Romance
Lissa gives a lot of pragmatic tips, for instance eating one floret of broccoli a day if you feel bloated when you switch to raw. She also advise to move after a meal to help digestion.
These tips help because so many women think that eating raw is bad for us because of avoidable mistakes.
Lissa highlighted the importance of bacteria. You need to start with the microbiome my friend my sister.
Indeed, when you were eating a standard diet, you had a particular type of bacteria, which is not adapted to digest big salads right away. Building a strong colony of good bacteria takes time for some people and this is normal, especially if you took a lot and antibiotics, are really stressed out or if you were a c-section baby.
3. How you got rid of cellulite and why raw is the key!
The purpose is not to get the body of a Barbie doll but to feel good within our body my friend my sister.
Lissa generously gave us essential tips to get rid of cellulite:
1. a high amount of hydration, for instance lemon water first thing in the morning because water from the fruits is not enough according to Lissa. Everything that happens in our body needs water to function. Make sure you do not drink tap water but a clean source without hormonal residues (e.g. because the pill).
2. a clean liver by avoiding cheat days: “give yourself the gift of health” says Lissa
3. a good hormonal balance because excessive estrogens gets stored in the fat
The liver filters through the estrogens while the lemon water flushes out the liver so everything acts in synergy. You do not need to buy expensive creams to get rid of cellulite. Food can help to balance your hormones. I warmly recommend the book by Kate Magic The Empowered Woman to dive deeper on that topic my friend my sister.
4. Why Lissa’s channel Raw Food Romance is such a great place to find resources about raw food
I know you will get inspired by her style which is so colorful, vibrant, fun and full of love. I love to remind you my friend my sister that pleasure should be part of a raw food lifestyle.
Moreover, Lissa explained that eating raw is actually easy. You need less time in the kitchen compared to a cooked whole food diet which sometimes implies hours of baking into the oven! You can use cherry tomatoes, cabbage which is already shredded and make a simple salad. Of course you do not have to use the dehydrator every day.
The questions we shall ask ourselves are as follows: What is the reward I am looking for? Convenience or feeling good about myself? Do I want to feel guilty afterwards or proud?
5. A little note about the magic of cats in our lives
Lissa and I are both cat lovers and she several cats which are all over her instagram stories! During the interview, one of her cats waas sleeping in her drawer and she made a little appearance on the camera!
6. How you do not need to feel limited by the age on your passport
“Age defines only one thing: when you arrived on the planet” says Lissa. So of course eating raw does not eliminate aging but allows her to gracefully live our best life all the way.
Above all, being healthy and vibrant helps us to spread the love, reminding everybody that we all have the potential to change our lives.
Lastly, please eat enough warns Lissa, otherwise you cannot sustain this raw lifestyle for long.
7. What is the power of planning meals to stay healthy?
The antidote to overwhelm is planning! Thus, Lissa recommends to plan your meal the night before, like a food journal in reverse. “A successful day begins the night before” reveals Lissa. Write down what you are going to have the next day. Shop more often (if you can) to have fresh produce at home. Stock up on dried lentils that you can sprout for instance. Make sure you always have new sprouts by starting a new batch before you finish the first one. Become friend with people at the markets because they can give you deals on large quantities, for instance on ripe bananas.
8. How waking up early changed your life
Lissa and her partner started doing the 5am club about a year ago despite the fact she is not a morning person. They trick here is to go to bed early, like 8pm so you are asleep at 9pm and can get up at 5am regenerated!
Lissa starts by lemon water upon waking. Then she does 10 minutes of meditation, 10 minutes of going through her affirmations, 10 minutes of gratitude list (adding new things every day!), 10 minutes of writing visualisation goals followed by a list of clear actions to do to reach these goals then 10 minutes of headstands/stretching. A very valuable tip for this morning routine is to push the snooze button of your phone with a nice little chime to move from one item to the other.
Another great tip is to organize how the food will have to be prepared: what time to blend the dressing, who is going to chop the veggies and so on and at lunch time everything is ready.
“Having that structure first thing in the morning has definitely changed perspectives on how the day unfolds” says Lissa. Of course, sometimes the 5am club does not happen. No perfection here!
9. Why consistency is key to stay healthy (and very powerful too)
Consistency brings you closer to your goals my friend my sister. It is a key thing in life. What you consistently do will give your the results of that in the future. Our power is in the daily habits we choose to adopt. Lissa tried so many times to switch to raw food. She succeeded in 2014 because it was a one day at a time journey. She would say first thing in the morning “Today I am a raw vegan!”.
Furthermore, this is so important to put off your cravings if you have any. You could say “I’ll have that another day, because today I am a raw vegan!”.
10. Take care of yourself
This is the only way to give to others my friend my sister. It is not being selfish. I repeat: self care is the way to give to others afterwards. Take a rest. Spend time in nature. Try the raw vegan dishes you always wanted.
Lissa finished the interview on this beautiful note “Please take care of yourself so you can take care of others!”.
Spirulina for the iron, ginger for the fire, raw cacao for the heart and cashew nuts for the creamy texture… shall we make a funny-looking smoothie out of it? Because I have no bananas left in the house today and I am craving a green smoothie!
I love how raw food can be so versatile and easy to mix and match. Spirulina can be added to salads as well as smoothies. Cashew nuts can be eaten in a tray mix with cacao nibs and mulberries and can also be the foundation of a nice salad dressing in the blender. You can definitely improvise recipes my love. I cannot stop talking about living foods because it is for me a pillar when we want to rebuild our life. I have written a book about it entitled The Knot in the Spiral my friend my sister.
