It's Friday Junior (aka Thursday). I am trying this new thing, where I prep my blog post in the evening and then post it first thing in the morning. What do you guys think?
First things first a wicked wallies update. I know you are just dying to find out how long I can hold a wall squat. I set a new personal best. Hollaaaa! Longest 2 minutes and 30.7 seconds of my life.
As you know I went to a Raw cooking class a few weeks ago Vibrant Lifestyle in Toronto. My interest in preparing raw food is simply coming from the idea that whole uncooked foods, have all of their nutrients. Many people (including myself) tend to over cook their food, leaving it lifeless and void of all of it's precious nutrients and enzymes. Preparing my own food is not always an easy task. I travel on a regular basis for my job, which means I eat out a lot. Like a lot. Over the last year or so I have become a lot more interested in food in general. I still love my treats. They are just fewer and farther in between. I also try not to classify myself as Paleo, Vegan or any other type of diet 'label'. I believe in eating lots of fresh, whole, yummy foods. Is that called anything? Oh yeah, "Healthy".
As you may also know from reading my blog, one of my dreams is to become a natural/holistic nutritionist. I have some other much more exciting things I want to do first, but we go one step at a time. For now I have lots of foodie friends to guide me and encourage me. One of those people is Gillian Reid. She is my nutrition hero. Check her out on Facebook and tell her I said hello!
I am sipping a gorgeous green tea and watching Game 1 of the World Series tonight. I have been wanting to share a few interesting tips from my cooking class and since I don't have a workout to share today, I thought today would be a lovely time to share them. I had never been to a cooking class before and the one thing I really appreciated was how passionate the gal who taught the class was. Not in an annoying "you have to only eat raw food" kind of way, but you can just tell she loves food and has definitely found her passion.
I probably took two or more pages of notes, but I wanted to keep the info short and sweet in the hopes that you will maybe learn even just one thing.
So here are my Top 5 "Are You Kidding Me" Tips from my Raw Cooking class:
1. The basic principle of RAW cooking is that you do not cook or dehydrate your food above 118 degrees fahrenheit. Dehydrating food is cooking it. Beware of dried fruits as many of them are dehydrated at heats way above what is considered to be raw. Cooking over 118 degrees kills the enzymes in the food.
2. Cacao (or raw chocolate) can be purchased in nibs or powder. It comes from the cacao tree and has three times the antioxidants of green tea. You can cook with them or sprinkle them on desserts, apple sauce or yogurt. Cacao is also high in magnesium. It is also high in vitamin A, which will help make your skin glow and be super healthy.
3. Hemp, goji berries, chia and quinoa are all considered complete proteins. This means that they have all of the essential amino acids in them. Gogi berries!!! Wow! Also, hemp has a perfect ratio of omega 3 and omega 6, which is perfect because when you have too much omega 6, it can become inflammatory to your body.
4. Cook with coconut oil!!! When you cook with olive oil it can become carcinogenic and a trans fat (aka bad fat). Coconut oil has a higher heating point, can be used as immediate energy, speeds up metabolism and doesn't go bad! Convinced?
5. Ok this one is a little complicated.Your body stores toxins (from food, air etc) in fat cells (and joints too). Your brain is 70% fat. Hopefully you have made the connection. The more toxins in your body, the more toxins that are in your brain. Your fat cells act as a storage solution for toxins. So basically the less toxins in your body, the healthier your brain will be.
If you are interested in dabbling a little bit more with raw "cooking", you can look it up online. I really do recommend a cooking class. I am also excited to share a recipe from my class! Remember everything is 100% Raw annnnnnd so easy to prepare. Oh and pretty tasty too. This recipe is great because you can wrap the bars individually and take them with you on the go.
Banana Bread Bars
Ingredients
1 banana (or 2 tbsp banana powder)
3/4 fresh or soaked dates
1/2 cup quinoa puffs (may need more)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cupt chia seeds
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Directions:
1. In a food processor, process all ingredients except for quinoa puffs until desired texture is reached.
2. Add in quinoa puffs and mix (you may have to use your hands).
3. Flatten the mixture in a clean surface (you can use your hands or a rolling pin).
4. Cut into bars (you can freeze if you would like).
Looks pretty good, huh? Let me know if you try out this recipe. I would love to hear what you thought.
Happy Reading,
Me+
