No Better Way to Save Money on Food Then by Not Eating!

Joking aside, I’m definitely NOT talking about starving yourself or limiting your calories to 600 a day, I’m talking about 24 hour water detox.

Detoxification is a healthy way to give your body a break from digesting and instead lets it clean out toxins that have been getting a free ride in your bod.

Benefits of Detoxifying:

• Gives digestive system a break so it can flush out toxins trapped in your intestines.
• Some studies have proven regular fasting can improve heart health
• Suppresses insulin secretion and reduces the desire for sugar. This is especially beneficial since most of us on a Western diet are addicted to the stuff. We often don’t even realize how many foods contain sugar. Some professionals have called sugar a toxin equal to alcohol.
• Fasting benefits the brain. Some say that regular fasting can protect against diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and strokes.
• Reduces the amount of food you need to get full the next day. If you feel like you’ve been eating more than usual, a 24 hour water fast is a great way to get back on track.
• Some even say that fasting can help lengthen our lifespan. During fasting, our body is told it needs to store energy and manage our cells more efficiently.
• Fasting also can help lower blood pressure and can even help prevent cancer.

When to Fast and What to Expect

• Fast when it’s unlikely that you will be active. Pick a day like Sunday when you’ll be laying around watching Rob and Big re-runs.
• Dizziness (should not happen). Even when fasting during only somewhat active days can bring on dizziness. You really should fast when you will be resting. If ever you feel faint, eat a small piece of fruit, drink more water, and rest. The feeling should pass fairly quickly.
• Be near a bathroom. During a water fast, you obviously need to drink a lot of water. This is very important, you need to stay hydrated while your body is working to sustain itself. The side effect of water, of course, is having to pee. So make sure you’re going to be somewhere where it is easy to get to the toilet. You might also want to make sure it’s a toilet where you can have some privacy. You’re detoxifying, that means getting all the nasty crap out of your body (literally).
• Hunger. Obviously fasting can make you hungry, but if you fast correctly, and you are constantly drinking water, your hunger will be more tolerable. If you need a fix, drink some herbal tea like chamomile or mint. There are even special detox teas.
• Do not (water only) fast for more than 2 days. The best time to take a water fast is for 24 - 36 hours. Your body needs calories to work and if you fast without taking in any calories for too long your body will start eating your muscles. If you want to fast for a longer period of time, there are many 21 day detox diet plans that include taking in juices and other easily digested food.
• Many people recommend fasting once a week for optimal health. Some even recommend fasting every other, or every 2 days. I tend to fast once a season. Test it out and see what works best for you.
• Remind yourself that you can eat tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day. Often times it’s hard to fast because of cravings, remind yourself that you get to eat tomorrow. It’s not the end of pasta and burritos in your life. Sometimes a good time to fast is when you need to go grocery shopping, then you have less in the house to tempt you. Just make sure you have some fruit to break your fast the next day for breakfast.
• Go to sleep early. Going to sleep early is a good way to get some well needed rest, and it’s much easier to have hunger when you’re asleep than when you’re awake.

How to Break a Fast

First drink a glass of water, then eat a small meal of raw fruit. Take your time eating.  Eat slowly so you can notice when you are actually full or when you are actually hungry. You will find that you get full faster/with less food.

Try to eat raw vegan for the rest of the day. Raw vegan means none of your food is cooked and you are not eating meat or dairy products. Cooked food, dairy, and meat are hard to digest. Your digestive system has been sleeping while you were fasting, so give it a break and wake it up slowly.

Always remember to Listen to your body.

If you spent the weekend (or month…) drinking, over eating especially on unhealthy food, and generally not treating your temple well, you will probably feel pretty lousy. These are good times to fast.

Also, if you feel sick or lightheaded during a fast, today might not be your day. Try another day with a less trying schedule.

Fight Winter Colds by Warming Up with an Over-sized Cup of Soup

Winter is cold and awful, even in Barcelona I’m wrapped up coat, hat, and scarf while walking past palm trees. Well of course one of us got sick. While I was taking care of my patient, I started looking up articles about curing the cold. This reminded me of all the reasons I LOVE soup.

The most important thing in relation to this blog is that, soup. saves. money.

Which is great for the Cheap Vegan.

The first thing you need to remember about soup, is you can make soup out of anything! You can make sweet soup, spicy soup, bean soup, potato soup, mushroom soup, “shrimp ka-bobs, shrimp gumbo…” you get the idea.

Not only does this mean you don’t have to leave the house to buy ingredients, but it also stops food waste. I’ve used a plate of left over restaurant pasta, half-bad tomatoes, some wilting spinach, and an onion and with the help of some herbs and spices made some sweet minestrone. Any food in your kitchen can become soup and its a great way to keep from wasting food that may go bad soon. Not only that, but because once you use a vegetable in your soup, you can create a large amount of nutritious, low-calorie, food that due to the cooking process and the added salts, can last much longer than if you had just let that half a chunk of cabbage sit on the bottom of your crisper 1…or 4 more days. This means you can enjoy your left over soup throughout the entire week!

Besides practical reasons, soup has a number of great health benefits and is an essential part of my number one force against fighting the cold: hydration. If my college room mate taught me nothing else, she taught me that you really DO need to pump liquids when you have a cold. That rule and the fact that breakfast was the most important meal of the day were the 2 old food adages I refused to believe. But after much stubbornness, and a little desperation due to flu symptoms, I gave in.

Now I go on a hot liquid detox whenever I start coming down with a cold. Soup is a way to eat “real food” with high nutritious value packed with vitamins that help fight your cold, while still receiving the essential hot liquids my body needed to flush out my sickness. (In between soup meals, it’s good to drink herbal teas or even hot water)

But soup isn’t only good for your health when your sick. Soup is filled with the same great nutrients when you’re in sickness and in health. Eating a cup of soup before a meal not only stops you from eating as much of your entre, but gives you more nutrient dense food early in the meal so you don’t fill up on free bread instead.

Certain soups have been linked to preventing cancers such as Miso Soup on the macro-biotic diet, while vegetable and tomato soups are considered to help against heart disease.

Add heartier foods or broth and make a meal out of your soup, serve with a small salad or a slice or 2 of Ezekiel bread.

Here are some of the most nutritious ingredients you can add to your soup:

Cabbage, carrots, onions, mushrooms, garlic, kale, sweet potato, bell peppers, tomato, garlic, black beans

It is important to remember to cook soup slowly. This is one of the main reasons soup is so good for you. The process of slow cooking keeps ingredients from losing nutrients. Simmer your base for at least 30 minutes to an hour.