Thrive On

Continuing on my Thrive in 30 Journey, I looked at the biker on the cover (Brendan Brazier of course) and I realized I needed to address another component - Exercise.

I bike. I bike only during a short season in Chicago, maybe 7-ish months. The weather the first half of the Thrive in 30 Challenge was not biking weather for me, so I needed to look at alternatives. My calorie consumption remains the same year-round but my activity level does not. This poses a problem for my mood and my comfort in my wardrobe!

I could definitely benefit from more consistent and varied physical activity. I wasn’t going to get to a group class unless it was at 5:30 am or at 9:00 pm. So my only options were working out at home or a gym. I know myself well enough it will not happen at home. And, committing to a gym was spotty concept as well. Thanks to a one week free deal I attended a gym daily, and joined that gym at the end of the two week mark of my Thrive Journey. I am there 4 or 5 early morning a week thanks to a workout partner. I wouldn’t be there quite as often without her.

Another muscle that needed exercising was my brain. Brendan states it in Thrive (and I say it to my clients), it only takes a few more minutes out of your day. Joke’s on me! A new activity or new food or concept being asked of a client could be completely foreign or maybe something familiar but not part of a routine, it is going to take more than a few minute a day to implement and time for new neural pathways to develop or a re-wiring of the old.

I think nothing of whipping up a complete vegan 5 course meal, but to tell the average Midwestern meat-and-potatoes family to just add green veggies or some flaxmeal or omega 3s to their day falls a little short.

I know what sprouting is. I haven’t done it but once as an experiment. I’ve soaked beans overnight, only to cook them thoroughly the next day. Despite the easy steps involved in sprouting or soaking, these were all new steps and I needed to do my own research, needed a little longer to add it to a routine or think ahead on how much I needed to sprout for the week. I admit for the future will I sprout only to the germination point to release the enzymes; I don’t grow mason jars of sprouts in my fridge. Between the coconuts kefiring, the beets fermenting, and the seaweeds, gojis and dates soaking there’s enough activity in that box!

So if you see a woman loaded down with 3 or 4 bags at 5:30 am, it is probably me heading to the gym with 1. A bag of Thrive food and sprouts for the day, 2. A bag of gym gear, 3. My laptop and/or other equipment, and 4. Just my bag.

Thrive Journey

By the time I post, I will be well into my Thrive Journey. I was asked by Maya Henderson to join her and a few others on the Thrive in 30 challenge. Can you eat raw for 30 days the way Brendan Brazier eats raw? Are you ready to experience more energy? Are you ready to be free of cravings? Are you ready to get all your nutritional needs met? Even the nutritional needs of a triathlete? Are you ready to handle stress more easily? Are you ready to sleep great?

I picked up the book, Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life ,and read it one Friday night. I felt like I was hearing my own words on many of the pages. Brendan Brazier is a professional Ironman triathlete. He is a vegan. He tried lots of ways of eating. He developed this way of eating and developed the Vega product line. I do use and love to use the Vega EFA oil blend. If his energy bars didn’t contain wheatgrass, I’d love those too. I am allergic to the stuff, really allergic like go to hospital throat closing up allergic. If I had zero time in my life, I would also use his smoothie powder, but I have enough time to toss in my own ingredients. I also had enough time to try some of his raw recipes: energy bars, nut and seaweed pates, crackers, and my favorite kale wrap.

As some of you know I’ve been drinking a quart of smoothied green veggies and a little fruit every day the last five months. You may have seen a facebook status or a twitter post stating my smoothie ingredients of the day. Some weren’t so palatable, but most were awesome. The program I followed from the summer forward, of which the smoothies was only a portion, increased my energy, eliminated cravings, deepened my sleep and began the physical and emotional cleansing I needed.

So I can say Thrive maintained those achievements, educated me on some foods, and posed some time management challenges. Had I not gotten my feet wet with the summer smoothie adventure into raw food, I don’t know that I would have stayed with the Thrive Challenge. Life has been chaotic and the Thrive food prep took a mind shift, a little forethought, and an extra bag to carry every day! Unfortunately many of the ingredients since they are raw or a bit obscure must be purchased at a natural grocer. You aren’t going to find hemp seeds, maca, raw cacao, or raw goji berries, nuts or seeds just anywhere. Sometimes the Raw and Macrobiotic bars at the local natural grocer were lunch, snack and dinner for me. Not cost effective but exactly what I needed.

Did I have days that were not entirely raw? Heck yes. Two consecutive days - PMS days, mild irritation amplified to high stress and I ate bread. Good bread. Local bakery bread. And a not so good 10-pieces of bite size Halloween chocolate binge. My body rebelled with a flare of mouth sores. Nice. I ate a few eggs. I went out for Indian another night. I had a couple glasses of wine and a bloody mary. I wasn’t craving a drink, I wasn’t stressed, I was just out and enjoying life. So 2 of the last 30 days were stressful, while 5 of the last 30 days were off the Thrive wagon. Those aren’t terrible statistics.

Post script: in the three weeks since the end of the Thrive in 30 challenge, I ate a cooked Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and lots of vegetables; I ate real pizza; I ate ice cream. I was low spirited and low energy and a little reactive. This isn’t how I want to feel or present, so I do my best every day. I drink my quart of veggie smoothies; I grab nuts and fruit if I didn’t prepare meals for the day; and reserve the deviations from a raw vegan lifestyle when with friends and family.

More to come on my Thrive experience!

Green Smoothies

I’ve been on an adventure of green smoothies and of fruits from faraway places, and I’m returning to share a few recipes and a bit more of my current adventure! First, here are a few smoothies. Blend one up, sit back and read. I try everything once, take what I like, and make it my own.

I tend to blend up more ingredients than “they” suggest, so I’ve pared down the ingredients in traditional green smoothie style.

Most smoothiable veggies I don’t eat. Celery, cucumbers, zucchini, or lettuce are apparently the base for many varieties. I did use a red pepper, raw onion and raw garlic a few times, but really not a fan of drinking those. I am a fan of the cruciferous family which is comprised of siblings broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, etc; and as you will learn, cruciferous are not smoothiable. So I was rather stuck.

The base of my green smoothies consists of a few of these ingredients daily. Don’t drink the same greens day after day; each have great health benefits, mix it up. I’ve only given you a glimpse of what each contain.

• Romaine Lettuce is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin K, folate, vitamin C, manganese, and chromium. It prevents cholesterol from sticking to artery walls.
• Spinach, Chard and Beet greens contain at least 13 different flavonoid compounds that function as antioxidants and as anti-cancer agents.
• Cucumber contains silica, an essential component of healthy connective tissue and cucumbers reduce water retention which can reduce certain types of high blood pressure.
• Celery contains vitamin C and several other active compounds that promote health, including phthalides, which may help lower cholesterol, and coumarins, that may be useful in cancer prevention.
• Parsely contains volatile oils-particularly myristicin-have been shown to inhibit tumor formation. Flavonoids in parsley-especially luteolin-have been shown to function as antioxidants that combine with highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules (called oxygen radicals) and help prevent oxygen-based damage to cells.
• Summer squashes are excellent sources of manganese and vitamin C. It is also a very good source of magnesium, vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, copper, folate, and phosphorus. In addition, summer squash is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, calcium, zinc, niacin, and protein.

So the base is a little on the savory side, not so sweet and not so palatable for most people. The average green smoothie drinker will use 60% fruit to 40% vegetable, so definitely add some fruit. Banana thickens and sweetens it and dates are sweet, avocado thickens a smoothie and provides good fat. How about some berries or cherries? Not very sweet but full of antioxidants. Then, try more exotic items like coconut meat, coconut water and acai berries. Coconut contains good fats that actually help you process fats and the water contains necessary trace minerals and acai is filled with antioxidant qualities if they aren’t overly sugared or processed.

I still stayed quite savory adding basil, cilantro, thyme, or mint to berry, pineapple, papaya smoothies. I also used tamarind and guanabana pulp found in the frozen section of Mexican grocers, plus kiwi and pears.

I don’t use cruciferous veggies raw in smoothies because they inhibit the thyroid. I don’t need my endocrine system slowing down, so eating these veggies cooked or fermented will bring out their better qualities.

If you are drinking these in the Fall and Winter, add ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon or a dash of cayenne or drink them room temperature. Consuming cold or cold-natured items in the cold temperature seasons isn’t ideal for your body to break down so you can warm them up with spices. You may want to skip cooling summer vegetables like cucumbers until the the prime season for them come back around. Stick with slightly bitter or winter vegetables like celery, swiss chard, lettuces or spinach. Experiment with short season fall fruits like pomegranates and persimmon.

Oh, blenders! It really helps having a Vitamix or a BlendTec blender. Those can puree whole vegetables and fruits in seconds. I spent more time cutting up my vegetables and slowly feeding them to my old standard blender.

I will discuss some other add-ins a little later like Cacao, Hemp, Maca, and Goji Berries when I fill you in on Superfoods.

Here are recipes: This one was given to me which was clipped out of the newspaper
Pineapple Grape
1 cup Green Grapes
2 cups Pineapple
1 large handful Spinach
1 cup or more water
Raw spinach has no flavor in smoothies, so it’s an easy way to get a big dose of green goodness. This one was really sweet for me, but tasty.

Cilantro Pineapple
2/3 small Pineapple
Entire bunch of Cilantro
6 full leaves Romaine
Again a sweet one, but I want you to start with ones that will keep you wanting to drink your smoothie

Blueberry basil
2 large handsful of blueberries
6-7 basil leaves
1 green apple
1 large cucumber
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups red leaf lettuce loosely packed
2 cups spinach
Juice of 1 lemon or 1 juicing orange
Thumb nail size ginger root
Water

Mint lime thyme
3 thyme sprigs
8 mint leaves
Juice of 2 limes
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine

Rosemary raspberry
1 pt raspberries
10 grapes
2 large fresh tender rosemary sprigs
3 stalks celery
2 cups spinach
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root
Juice of ½ lemon

Marjoram Acai beet
1 cup shredded fermented beets
1 portion frozen acai berry puree
4 marjoram sprigs
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root
Juice of 1 lime

Lemon balm orange
Entire juice orange
5 lemon balm sprigs
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root

Goji Pear
1 large handful Spinach
2 stalks Celery
1 small handful flat leaf Parsley
1 Pear
¼ cup Goji berries
3 – 4 Dates

Banana Mint
1 handful lettuce leaves
1 handful mint
2 bananas
1-2 cups water

Avocado Persimmon
3-4 stalks celery
2 ripe persimmons
1 avocado
1 handful of spinach
1 -2 cups water

Wellness & Health in Lincoln Park

I have exciting news to share with you! I am spreading my practice east to Lincoln Park and am accepting a limited number of patients. You can join me in a cozy room in Partners in Wellness at 1967 N. Dayton. The office is just 1 block west of Halsted and and just around the corner from Armitage.

If you’ve been looking for assistance on your path to wellness & health for your physical body and your emotional and mental self, call me today to chat about what we can achieve together.

773 805 1216 surfacingwellness at gmail dot com

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Lisa is National Board Certified and a State Licensed Oriental Medicine practitioner with advanced training in fertility & women's health and emotional/psychospiritual treatment.

Quick Salad

Outside of blending green smoothies these last few months, I’ve not spent much time in the kitchen. I started receiving weekly boxes of organic veggies from a local grocer this month, which has necessitated me to cook or at least assemble vegetables. Here’s one from this week:


2 small ears of corn
3 large leaves of kale
1 golden delicious apple
3 scallions
A little extra onion
4 sprigs of thyme leaves
1 small container of tuna
1 tsp coconut oil


While corn boils, mince kale, scallion, apple and onion. Place kale into a bowl, pour the boiling water from the corn over kale and cover the bowl. Cut the corn kernels from the cobs, place them and the minced ingredients into a bowl. Add thyme leaves, salt, pepper. Drain the kale, mix into bowl of ingredients with a tsp of coconut oil. Incorporate tuna. Serve or chill for later.