THE SWEET LIFE: Lebice Ice Pop Molds

Always looking for healthy ways to get my raw food on and settle a sweet craving in one fell swoop. Smoothies are great, but there are times when a frozen popsicle does one even better. These molds are a great way to get the perfect popsicle every time and each one even has it own drip tray! Great for adult and children alike! The order came with an e-book with lots of recipes, but being anxious to try it out, I just dug into my refrigerator and pulled out what I had on hand that usually goes well together. I made a little YouTube video of my making of the Strawberry Chia Surprise! Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY CHIA SURPRISE

Frozen Strawberries

Chia Seeds

Shredded Coconut

 Freeze Dried Acai Berry Powder

Kombucha Juice  

LEBICE ICE POP MOLD

#rawlushus, #lebice #icepops #popsicle

Testing pH Levels

 Using pH Test Strips

Monitor your pH level with our high quality 4.5-9 pH Test Strips.

About the Product (from the company's description)

Low Energy? Overweight? Poor Digestion? It could be your acid level. When your body's pH is out of whack it can contribute to a wealth of physical woes. In fact, some studies point to pH as a large factor in illnesses such as: Nerve and joint pain, Arthritis, Insomnia, Body stiffness, Diabetes, Chronic pain and fatigue.

In simple terms your pH is the measurement of your body's electrical balance which helps to regulate many normal bodily functions. If your pH is irregular it's difficult for enzymes in your body to function properly. And that can lead to tiredness, sluggishness, and even chronic illness. A fast, easy and accurate way to stay on top of your pH is by using pH test strips.

Clean, easy & accurate testing.

Our selpHbalance - 4.5-9 pH Test Strips provide an easy, accurate way to monitor your pH levels in the privacy of your own home. Our high quality test strips allow you to test either urine or saliva and never bleed like litmus or other testing papers. You can also test the pH levels of your pet and virtually any liquid with pH range of 4.5-9 such as: Food and drinking water, Your urine and saliva, Garden soil, Your pool, hot tub, spa, ponds and aquariums.

Guarantee

Our selpHbalance - 4.5-9 pH Test Strips are carefully tested, labeled, and accurately matched to our color chart for easy visible results. And we use only high quality materials and packaging with a long shelf life of 24 months. If you're not 100% not satisfied with our strips, simply return them within 60 days for a full refund.

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Learn more about why it so important to maintain pH balance in your body.

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My Review:

It is important to note that one reading (or even several readings) is not enough to make any conclusions when testing for pH levels. This is because our pH can be influenced by factors like: what we eat & drink, stress, physical activity, medications & nutritional supplements. So, instead of taking just one reading, testing several times a day for 3-5 days in a row will help give a more accurate idea of what the pH levels are overall.

These strips can be used to test all sorts of fluids. Its main function though is to test urine or saliva. There are a few things to consider to get the most accurate readings for that purpose.

For urine: The first morning's urine is usually not the best indicator of what is going on with the kidneys, because the body has been processing all the acids from the day before and the urine will usually ending up testing higher acidic levels because of it. The same thing occurs when testing right after consuming meals. Instead, take the reading on your second urine of the day and before eating any meals.

For saliva: Similar to testing your first urine of the day, your first saliva of the day and after consuming food and drinks is not the most accurate testing either. Wait at least 30 minutes after consuming foods or drinks before testing. Healthy saliva should never go below a pH of 6.8. If it is, it means that your alkaline mineral reserves are too low and the body does not have the minerals necessary to properly process food.

There are 100 Paper strips in the water proof container they come in. Their two test color system has two squares using two different pH reagents. The top reagent is more sensitive to higher pH ranges (7.0 – 9.00) and the bottom reagent is more sensitive to lower pH ranges (4.5 – 6.75). This combination gives you an ideal reading of your pH level. Simply put, their two test color system effectively measure a narrow pH range of .25 pH increments, so you’ll know exactly what your pH is.

The biggest issue I had with the strips was, even though it says it doesn't, there was some bleeding. Plastic strips tend to not do this as much. That would be my biggest complaint about them. Otherwise, though I didn't have other strips on hand to cross check with, from what I can tell, they worked really well and appeared to be accurate. If you watch my video, you will see I did test a wide range of fluids that were across the scale of acidic to alkaline, so it does register the range.

* Though I did receive this product at a discount, I am under NO obligation to provide a review. I have always wanted to try a product like this, since I have heard so much about testing pH levels. I was very existed to try this and share my results with those who are interested. I hope this proves to be helpful for others.

#selpHbalancepHteststrips

  

My test results with various water sources in my house.

My test result with various other liquids in our house.

Our saliva and urine test results. Taken in the evening.

Vegan Protein Ebook

I have decided to challenge myself in reviewing several recipes books. My first one will be VEGAN PROTEIN eBOOK by Abhishek Kumar.

 

 

This is a recipe book I downloaded onto my kindle and it can be found on Amazon.

For this particular book I plan on trying a number of the recipes as they are written, showing here how they turn out, commenting on what the experience was like, how I would tweak it for my liking and then seeing how I might be able to adapt them into raw options.

Stay tuned!

• #veganforlife

Description

The vegan diet is easily one of the healthiest diets in the world and for good reason. Not only does it help in cutting down on the existing fat in your body but also enhances your disease fighting capacity. It is designed to provide people with a complete solution to their weight loss issues and aid with the slimming down process.

However, when people hear of Vegan diet, they always ask, ‘where do I get my protein intake from?’ but the fact is plant-based products have ample proteins, and if you cook your food with the right ingredients – plant based proteins are more than enough to build a lean body.

This book is designed so that you can follow a protein-rich vegan diet without having to struggle for new recipes. The recipes in this book are easy to cook, 100% vegan and rich in protein. These recipes are designed for both novice and expert cooks and make use of all the best vegan ingredients that one can buy from the market.

The diet incorporates the use of protein rich foods such as chickpeas, quinoa, soya and rice bran, which help in building lean muscles. Below is a summary of the different recipe types we have listed:

• High Protein Vegan Smoothies
• High Protein Vegan Salads
• High Protein Vegan Soups
• High Protein Vegan Deserts
• High Protein Vegan Stir Fry

Tea Totaling

Yes you can drink tea and keep it RAW!

 

Depending on the type of tea there are several ways to get the fullest flavor. Making sun tea is the best and easiest way. You can also still steep tea with heated water, just be sure to keep the water from boiling. If the tea you are brewing is mostly leaves, it doesn't take as much warmth and as long to brew.

If you are dealing with root or bark teas, you may want to let them brew at least a day. Several days in the fridge and then one day in the sun to warm it up before use is even better. Sometimes you can brew bark and root teas for as much as a week or more to extract as much flavor as possible. If you prefer, some of bark and root teas can be easier and quicker to brew if you get them as a high quality powder instead.

When making any of my brews, I usually make a gallon at a time and cycle the tea through several times to get full use out of them. Of course, the first round will always be the strongest. 

Remember used tea bags makes great compost for your flowers and plants as well.

Below are some of my current favorites I have been using.

RELAXING SLEEP TEA

I go this tea to help me relax and induce sleep at night.

 

  
The pouch comes with 14 tea bags and has a lovely and tasty blend of some of my favorites:

Chamomile (the ultimate relaxing tea)

Saffron (used to ease breathing and loosen phlegm)

Licorice (soothes digestion & throat membranes)
Ginger Root (a stimulant, helps with nausea and aides digestion)
Fennel Seeds (aides digestion and eases indigestion)

Rosebuds (high levels of vitamin C which help boost the immune system)

Lemon Grass (helps with spasms, tummy aches, regulates blood pressure, eases coughing, fever & helps with the feeling of overall exhaustion)

Tulsi (Holy Basil) (used to care for respiratory disorders, heart disease and overall relief of stress)

Natural Orange Flavor (derived from the essential oil making process, either the essential oil itself or from orange water)

 #sleeptea

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Kombucha

When making Kombucha, you always want to get a high quality organic tea with excellent flavor. Green, black and white teas are the most common to use. This is one of my new favorites.

 

#teaveli

Fresh Darjeeling First Flush Organic Loose Leaf Black Tea- Fresh Black Tea from the Misty Himalayas-Lively, Full of Vigour, Abundant Flavor and Delicate Crispness Leaves a Delightful Aftertaste-3.53oz

 

These are few things you might need as well:

 

1 X Organic Kombucha Scoby - Live Culture by Scoby Kombucha

 

Cotton Muslin Bags 3x4 Inch Drawstring 25 Count Pack

 

Regency Natural Ultra Fine 100% Cotton Cheesecloth 9sq.ft 

 

1-gallon USDA Fermentation Glass Jar

 

Some sweeteners you can use:

Wholesome Sweeteners, Organic Sugar, Cane, 2 lb

 

Raw options:

Coconut Secret Coconut Crystals, Raw, 12-Ounce

 

YS Organic Bee Farms CERTIFIED ORGANIC RAW HONEY 100% CERTIFIED ORGANIC HONEY Raw, Unprocessed, Unpasteurized - Kosher 32oz

 

Madhava Organic Raw Agave, 46-Ounce

 

I won't go so much into the recipes, because you can find all sorts out there. One of my favorite sites with recipes, that are more raw, is this one:

How to Make Kombucha: My Raw Kombucha Recipe

 

Here is another sight with recipes to make jerky with the any surplus scobies:

Making Kombucha Mushroom Jerky- Recipe- Vegan Jerky

8/26-31/15

NOURISHMENT

These are a few dishes I made over this week. Some of these were eaten over several days. I continued to drink the Sassafras Tea (yeah...those couple of spoonfuls did make a lot), drank more of my lemon and orange peel water, and finished the raw "Laughing Giraffe' Coconut/Banana Macaroons. I also ate the other dry farmed Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melons I got last week at the Farmer's Market. I did not go there this week. Too much food I need to use up first!

Was I 'raw' the whole time? No. I did go out to eat at Robin's and had some cooked food. BUT, I did pick as much raw food as possible and what wasn't still was 'vegan'....even the 'ice cream.' I also had a few bites here and there of the vegan cooked food that mom did not want to finish.

Chinese Nut & Nori Salad

Raw Watermelon Rind & Flax Crackers with toppings

Salad with Tomatoes and Bell Peppers

Mixed Salad with Raw Hummus dressing

Portobella Mushroom Sandwich with Walnut and Flax Patty

...with Tomato and Lettuce toppings

Yesterday my husband, in trying to find new 'raw' ways to treat me with something to eat (instead of bringing home things like french fries, and such)...decided to find a raw recipe on-line and fix it for me. We have some Pineapple that needed to be used up. So, with my help, we did an on-line search for raw recipes with Pineapple. He settled on this one. I think he was a bit surprised that I had all the ingredients readily handy, and that have been 'under his nose' all this time.

FLAT BELLY DETOX SMOOTHIE

* We made the following changes to the recipe and it still was very yummy.

• We used the whole inside, minus the seeds, of half a lemon instead of lime.
• We added a little extra water and additional crushed ice to the recipe, because I tend to like my smoothies more ''fluidly" and frigid tasting.

This Flat Belly Detox Smoothie will help you to fight fatigue, boost your immune system and get fit. The base is pineapple, an excellent fruit to hydrate your body and improve your absorption of essential minerals such as iron. The smoothie also contains fresh lime (packed with vitamin C) and three powerful superfoods: maca powder, spirulina and turmeric. These make an excellent addition to any smoothie!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of ripe pineapple, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 medium size ripe bananas, fresh or frozen and roughly chopped
• ½ cup of water
• ½ small lime, peeled
• 1 teaspoon of maca powder
• ½ teaspoon of spirulina powder
• 1/8 teaspoon of turmeric powder (a little goes a long way!)
• 2 large handfuls of greens of your choice: spinach, kale, chard, collard greens, curly endive, bok choy, dandelion greens, Romaine lettuce… (I used spinach and kale)

Instructions

1. Combine pineapple, banana, water, lime, maca powder, spirulina powder and turmeric in a blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Add your leafy greens and blend again.

Notes

JULIE’S TIPS & TRICKS: • I topped this smoothie with some chia seeds and hemp seeds for extra protein, and a little spirulina + turmeric powder for color. • Don’t have time to prepare yourself a fresh smoothie in the morning? Blend it the night before, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator and you’ve got a super quick and nutritious breakfast waiting for you in the morning! • Turmeric is often called ‘the queen of all spices’. It can protect your heart, enhance your digestion, improve your liver function and much more. I love adding it to vegetable stews, sauces and smoothies like this one. You can substitute the powder for fresh turmeric too! • Maca powder is extremely rich in minerals, vitamins and protein. It will boost your energy levels, help to balance your hormones and reduce your stress levels. • Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae. It is packed with protein, B-vitamins and antioxidants that will help to reduce inflammation and protect you against free radicals. Great news for your skin, hair, nails and overall health!

MOVEMENT

I have been making a point nearly every day to walk on the beach and let the tide do its wonders to my lymphatic system. The swelling, burning and itching (though not entirely gone) is doing a whole lot better than it was this time last month. Sometimes my husband will go with me, and sometimes I go alone. These are just a few of my favorite shots I took this past week while walking. If I posted them all, then this would just be a board of ocean shots. :)

 

REFLECTIONS

I tried the little envelope to write down anytime I ate cooked food. In the end, I found it to be, for me, a pointless and irritating exercise. Keeping track of everything I eat as well has always been to restrictive for me as well. I find it seems to focus on limitations rather than focusing of new horizons to look to.

8.24/25.15

NOURISHMENT


For the 24th, I my drank lemon water for breakfast, had about half of the Suja Juice I bought yesterday for lunch and for dinner I ate half of the dry farmed Watermelon I got at the Farmer's Market. I find that with the dry farmed Watermelons, I can even eat the rind. Not sure if it is just because of the variety they grow (they are VERY seedy...which store bought ones now rarely are) or because of how they are grow, but eating the rind is like eating an apple.

I also put some of the seaweed I picked up at the beach into my dehydrator, just to see how they would turn out.

The only other thing I had was a few cough drops that I keep handy when working...to keep my breathe fresh.

At the end of the day I put up the 'Raw Seal Deal' envelope over my computer. I have it planned that if I eat anything that is not raw, it gets written on a piece of paper and put inside on the envelope.  Well, today I already broke the seal. It is always those little things. I had a VERY busy day and worked on 6 out of the clients that were scheduled in the spa. I saw one of the chocolates got a bit too soft and squishy, so instead of throwing it out...I ate it. The other thing, another 'can't let it go to waste' mentality of mine was that I finished a couple of spoonfuls of the soup my husband made for momma. It was mostly broth and corn. She obviously doesn't have that mentality, given she ate all she wanted and didn't care if the rest was thrown out.

Being it was such a busy day, I really didn't have much time to eat much otherwise. I had 3 more of The Laughing Giraffe Macaroons, which finished up the rest of the bag and ended the day with the rest of the Smoothie I had made the other day.

My biggest thing was to drink plenty of water, given the job I do can be very hot and labor intensive.



MOVEMENT

Yesterday, I focused more on doing about 45 minutes of Self Breema, intensive stretching - focusing on opening up my hips and working the Lymphatic System to help with my swollen legs.

Today, as if doing 6 massages isn't enough! Even so, I still went out to the beach at sunset and walked in the water for about 25 minutes. The tide was coming in and it was getting dark, so that was about as long as I could do safely.



REFLECTIONS

What I did notice though is that my right leg, even with the long day, did not have any signs of swelling at the end of the day. My left leg, though still swollen, appears to be about half as swollen as it normally would be at this time.

I also noticed that I wasn't really tired at the end of the day. I feel, at the end of the day, almost like I used to feel at the start. My husband, on the other hand, was very lethargic. I almost caught him saying that if I had had a day as busy as he had, that I would be as tired as him...but then he caught himself...when he remembered that I not only had had a busy day, I worked straight through without eating much of anything.