Awesome roasted nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds are great. But I noticed that I was not feeling very well after eating them straight from the bag. So I decided to find the way how to eat nuts and keep my tummy happy at the same time. Maybe this post will be helpful for you too!? Let me know what do you think!

4 signs that you are not processing nuts well:

• Heavy feeling in your lower stomach after eating nuts
• Stomach pain
• Heartburn
• You can literally see bits of them in your poo (SORRY! I have no idea how to write about this indirectly 🙂 )

I remembered that during my Nutritional Therapy lectures in BCNH we studied that nuts&seeds contain  lectins, phytates, and enzyme inhibitors (I will call this bunch LPEs), which may be one of the causes of the above mentioned conditions. I must mention, that “enzyme inhibitors” are good nature’s way of “protecting” them from heat, etc. before “right”conditions come (eg. rain) for the nuts to grow into trees.

By soaking nuts you can not only minimise the impact of LPEs, but also enhance the flavour of nuts!In a way, you are “tricking” the nature, by providing conditions when nuts&seeds may “relax” and start releasing all good minerals and micronutrients.

Also, you need to remember that roasted nuts from the shop are most likely not soaked first which means they still have LPEs. There are a few brands though which actually soak the nuts before they roast or dehydrate them, check out LivingRaw nuts, or Raw Ecstasy but they are not very cheap.

So, why not to try to prepare and “activate” your nuts yourself, it is super easy! Let me show it to you 🙂

 Easy process for soaking nuts

• Rinse nuts/seeds with fresh water (better purified water, not from the tap)
• Put them in a bowl (better in a glass or ceramic bowl)
• Cover nuts with water (2 cups water/ 1 cup nuts) and put smth breathable on top (paper towel or tea towel)
• Let them stand for a few hours (during the night/day/ or 24 hours). If you have time or you are around, change the water a few times. If not, don’t worry about it 🙂
• Drain the water (which will look very dirty)
• Rinse again with fresh water (the water contains all those LPE which are acidic to the body, so rinse well!)
• Dry your clean and beautiful nuts on a sheet of paper towel or dehydrator (if you have one)
• Put in a bag or a glass bowl and keep in refrigerator for 3-4 days

Check out timings for each type of nut/seed here. But! Just not to overcomplicate things too much, a few hours would be good. For example, arrange all in the morning and it is ready for the evening or make preparations in the evening and the nuts are ready for breakfast!

And finally a recipe!!! 🙂

Soaked and roasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds

• Soaked pumpkin seeds (I made them overnight)
• Soaked walnuts (I made them overnight)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp rosmarin
• Pinch of dry basil
• Pinch of dry coriander
• Pinch of pepper
• Optional: 1 tbs bee polen

Preheat the oven for 200 C, mix all the spices and nuts in a dry bowl and put the mixture to the baking sheet. In 25-30 min the AWSOME nuts are ready to eat! 🙂

Note! It is better to add bee polen 10 min before the nuts are ready, so it doesn’t burn 🙂

Awesome Roasted nuts and seeds

 

Tip #1: Overeating (before/during/after)

There are so many people who eat sometimes because it is simply “THE ONLY solution to the issue which you can do at the moment”.

Why does it happen? Well there are a lot of people discussing why and how it happens from the chemical point of view.

I would prefer to focus on one KEY “simple” thing – you need to feel in LOVE with yourself and try to be kind not only to people around you, but to yourself too.

Easier said than done, right?

There are a few strategies which might be useful for overeating.

BEFORE

Trigger feeling: Sadness about…/Loneliness/Boredom/
You feel like: Need to have to eat this cookie/chocolate/5 apples/cereal pack/chips…(insert your variant)
Your thoughts: “I must eat now”
Your body reactions: Heart rate goes up/Hands shaking/Irregular breathing/Any other change from normal, calm you…

Goal: Calm down

Actions to help you out at this stage:
1)  OBSERVE what is happening in the body (don’t judge). Simply observe, like a scientist, like an observer, a very interested journalist – When you can notice how you are feeling (in which part of the body there is a change from normal), the chemical reactions in your brain changes and it calms down the   urge to eat.
2)Deep breath 5 times (3 count in-3 count out)
2) Stretching (Hands up and on the sides/close your eyes and stretch the neck)
3) say loud  WHAT do you feel (if you are in the office maybe a good idea to go to the meeting room not to freak out your colleagues 🙂 ) – “I feel angry that they did this”/ “I feel bored and thats stupid to waste my time like that”/” I feel lonely”…
4) Look at the mirror and just try to smile at yourself! try again, until you actually smile.
5) Relax the muscles of your face. Yep! Each muscle on the face needs to feel relaxed and without any tension.

DURING

You feel like: NOTHING (you usually don’t feel anything at this time, as you are concentrated on the process of eating)
Your thoughts: “why am I doing this?”
Your body reactions: eating “like a rabbit”/ very fast, no chewing

Goal: “Wake up” your unconscious brain

Actions to help you out at this stage:
1) Slow down!!! Yep, slow down the speed at which you are eating. Try to chew slower and sower and slower.2)Put your feet on the ground and FEEL the ground under your feet (if you are standing already, concentrate on the FEELING of the ground, feel your soles, feel the fingers touching the ground)
3) Say out loud ” I love myself”/”I accept myself”/ “I am strong”
4) Look outside to the street/ think about how each tree looks like, how fast cars are passing by/ just focus on something that is happening outside

AFTER

You feel like: low/upset/frustrated
Your thoughts: “Why did I do this???”
Your body reactions: feel like a bubble/ lay on a couch and can’t move/ feel like hiding under the blanket

Goal: Help your body to feel better and help your mind to move on

Actions to help you out at this stage:
1) Drink hot water with ginger. Continue with warm water with some lemon squeezed in. It should help your digestion.
2) Take a shower if possible – it will help you to “freshen up”, so you don’t lay on a couch feeling like “a big jelly fish”
3) Do some EASY stretching (as its to hard to run/jump around/ do weights when you feel really super full
4) Raise your arm and quickly move it down and say “F..k it, it happened” 🙂 Just accept that it happened and MOVE ON. You will try your best next time, and next time again and you know what? Eventually you will stop at the point “before BEFORE” 😉

Have a fab journey x

Super Easy DETOX to make your LIVER happy!

Sometimes we feel like “aghhh….” like a broken machine, tired, feel bad after eating food, bloated, and the list can go on and on and on. What is the reason? Well, there could be many thyroid issues, gluten sensitivity, etc…

But you can NEVER go wrong with one thing – SUPPORT your LIVER to feel better.

Liver: It is your “factory” for processing all types of toxins and good nutrients in the body, which “arrive” to the liver via blood. Toxins could be as from food and also from environment, and even form the normal metabolic processes in the body. And nutrients come from the food you are eating. So liver, basically, can process both good staff (making it available for the whole body and your heart) and also can be part of the elimination process of the bad staff (toxins) that your body doesn’t need (yep, so you can pop/pee it). Interesting, that at the moment there is no artificial device which could match all the functions which your liver do! So its kinda very very very important to make sure that your liver works well.

So you can see now, that liver is constantly working and it is pretty easy for it to be slightly “clogged” or sometimes it is really in a bad state, which is called “fatty liver”, when the cells of the liver can not filter any more and then they become swollen with fat – which makes a situation pretty dangerous…ANYWAY.

Don’t worry and lets try to see if YOU need some liver support:)

First – some signs that you need a liver cleanse:

• abdominal bloating
• after eating you have acid reflux/heartburn
• pain or discomfort over the liver – (right upper abdominal area under the rib cage)
• abdominal bloating
• quite a big round belly
• trouble digesting fatty foods – your poo is yellowish and is floating
• you had your gallbladder removed
• dark spots on the skin (actually sometimes they are called “liver spots”)
• getting sweaty constantly
• acne/rosacea or itchy, blotchy skin
• unexplained weight gain and inability to lose weight even with calorie restriction
• fatigue
• mood swings and depression
• snoring
• fatty yellowish lumps around eyes.

Now, if you feel like OMG – this is MEEEE. Don’t worry – we can try to get it sorted naturally.

First – try to incorporate some cleansing foods in your diet for the next 2 weeks and try to eliminate environmental toxins (smoking) and some food related toxins (you know I am talking about alcohol and processed foods, right?:) ). Check out this video about 14 foods to clean your liver

Second – Try to go on this Detox for a 1-2 weeks.

Third – Get SLOWLY out of the detox. Introducing first fish for a week, then meat in the next week.

Hope this will make you with reducing your “ahhhhhh” state! xx

 

Easy Detox:

15 minutes before you are ready to eat breakfast, squeeze the juice of a lemon in a medium glass of hot water and drink it.

Breakfast: 

-Beetroot juice: 8 ounces. You can take more if you desire but make sure that you take 8 ounces at least.
-Low fat goats cheese: 5 level tablespoonful’s. No more – no less.
-Low sugar fresh fruit (e.g. berries): 1⁄2 pound. You may eat MORE but be sure to eat at least 1⁄2 pound. You can eat only one kind of fruit or you may mix/or you can have a vegetable salad
-Herb tea: 1 cup (if you want). May add a sweetener like  honey, maple syrup (I prefer to have the tea without…but its your choice)

Between breakfast and lunch you should drink all the vegetable juice you can hold. Also eat fresh raw vegetables and berry fruits. The more live food you put down – the more thorough will be the cleansing. Make up a lot of vegetable broth (see recipe). Drink lots of this broth. It is full of minerals.

Lunch:

-Vegetable broth: Drink 2 cups during the meal.
-Salad: Make a chopped salad of fresh raw vegetables. Use a dressing of fresh extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and amino acids (you may add crushed garlic or apple cider vinegar). Eat at least 8 level tablespoonful’s of salad, more if you desire. Use 4 of the vegetables listed below: Artichokes, Asparagus, Beans, Beets, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Celery, Dandelions, Dark Green Lettuce, Endive, Egg Plant, Fresh sweet Corn. Fresh Green peas, Green Peppers, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce, Lotus, Okra, Onions, Parsley, Parsnips, Pumpkin, Radishes, Spinach, Sprouts, Tomatoes, Turnips. (You may use the leaves or tops also).

Mid afternoon snack: Berry fruit dessert • Herb tea and water

Between lunch and dinner drink all the vegetable juice you desire. Eat all the fresh berry fruit and vegetables you want.

Dinner:

-Vegetable broth: Drink 2 cups during the meal, more if you desire.
-Cooked vegetables: Select 3 or more of the different kind listed above. Eat a generous helping of each. (No potatoes) You may add a tbs. of garlic with lemon or liquid aminos.

If you feel hungry after dinner, eat fresh berry fruits and drink vegetable juice – ALL YOU WANT.

VEGETABLE BROTH

-7 carrots
-1 small bunch of celery – cut fine.
-Big handfull Parsley
-Big handful spinach – cut fine
-3 litres (or slightly less) hot water

Place carrots and celery in water and simmer for 15 minutes. Add parsley and a large spinach. Simmer 10 minutes more. Drain off the juice or broth. Flavour with onion, green peppers or garlic, lemon, amino acids and cayenne. Store in refrigerator. You may add tomato or other vegetable juice for variety of flavour and texture. It can be used hot or cold. The purpose of this broth is to FLUSH. Drink lots of it during the 7 days. It is full of minerals from the vegetables.