Detox Your Life in 7 Days Course GETS MORE BUZZ

When Nwenna Kai was suffering from chronic illness in her early twenties she knew something had to change. “I had complications with my thyroids, I had migraines, I was constantly tired and suffered from depression and anxiety,” she says. Kai decided to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and incorporating juicing. “Along with the other ailments, I had chronic constipation. I decided to start eating mainly fresh fruits and vegetables not realizing I was eating raw. I also juiced and incorporated herbs in my diet, I started to feel better. I realized that the body can heal itself.”

Read more for the full article, CLICK HERE

To register for next month's Detox Your Life in 7 Days Course, visit www.nwennakai.com/detox-program

Food Addictions & Cravings That Drive You Crazy

Most of us will have food addictions and cravings that are not so healthy for our bodies, however if we can minimize them, take the stick out of our asses and get over it, tell them the truth about it, and deal with them, we could actually heal them in a much lighter way. Some of us are afraid to even tell the truth about what we crave. One of my vegetarian clients just revealed to me that she still has cravings for bacon. I had to laugh and just tell him thank you for telling me the truth.

Here are some common food addictions and food cravings that we have, what they mean, and what you can do about them.

The Bread/Pasta Addiction/Craving
The Metaphysical Meaning
Having bread and pasta addictions from a metaphysical sense means that you are spiritually empty. We use food as a filler for being spiritually empty. Work on your spiritual practices. Fill yourself up with meditation, prayers, and writing gratitude lists. Get present to being empty. Enroll a prayer partner and become a prayer warrior.

Food substitutions - whole grain or wheat pasta and vegetable pastas like zucchini, jicama, beets, carrots, various forms of squash. (You need a spiralizer to make these vegetable pastas). For bread try Manna Bread which is readily available in Whole foods and health food stores.

The Sugar Addiction/Craving
The Metaphysical Meaning
You are missing the sweetness in life. You probably do not have much joy in your life and you probably do not deal with stress too well. Focus on what activity can you do right now that doesn't cost any money or require a lot of time that would feed your joy right NOW. It could be watching a funny movie, talking to a funny friend, watching a goofy YouTube video, or hula hooping with a child.

Food substitutions - agave nectar, maple syrup, honey, stevia, yacon syrup, lucuma powder, and sweet fruits

The Salt Addiction/Craving
The Metaphysical Meaning
You are undernourished and you probably have a feeling of being unappreciated. Craving salt can also mean that you have a thyroid disorder which stems from a mineral deficiency as most table salt lacks minerals. Minerals are in the soil, in the earth and the earth does what for us, She gives, she nurtures, she nourishes us with everything our bodies, minds, and spirits need. So craving salt could mean that you are craving nourishment for your body, mind, and spirit so ask yourself what would nourish you? Reading a book, writing a poem, praying, spending time with family members, etc.

Food substitutions - seaweed, iodine supplements, celtic sea salt, himalayan sea salt, herbamare, etc.

The best thing you can do for food addictions is to detox and cleanse the body regularly by doing herbal detoxes, raw food detoxes, vegetable juice cleanses, etc. The more you cleanse and empty the body, the mind, and the spirit the more you will see how you start to crave the spiritually fulfilling, sweet, yet good salty foods in life and you won't miss the breads, pastas, and artificial sugar and salt.

Check out my Detox Your Life in 7 Days Course to learn more about food addictions and cravings.

Embracing a New Food Paradigm

On the back of my book, The Goddess of Raw Foods, I quote, The Revolution starts at the Dinner Table. And it does. When we transform our food paradigm, we transform not only our health and the health of our families and our communities, but we transform the health of the planet and its environment and we as well transform a global economy.

Food is our Medicine, not our poison and it should not be used as a weapon. It is the building block of all of human life. We eat food for nutritional reasons, but we also eat food for comfort, nourishment, and for social reasons. We gather around the dinner table and eat and socialize and its a way that human beings love and serve each other.

Food is an essential culture component of the human experience, but it has become a weapon of choice for many of us.

A revolutionary way of transforming your health and your health habits is to embrace a new food paradigm. What does that mean?

Well it means giving up the old food paradigm that dictates to us what is sufficient amounts of protein, what is a refined grain (as if Mother Nature herself didn't make our grains refined), what is the sufficient amount of caloric intake for our bodies, the fact that consuming milk from an animal and feeding it to our children is both insane and counter intuitive of the nutritional supremacy of a mother's breast milk and also of the fact that there are other ways to get milk like from nuts, seeds, and grains.

Embracing a New Food Paradigm also means perhaps eating seasonally, so eat the fruits and vegetables that are in season as this not only benefits your health and delights your palette as the fruits and vegetables that come up in that season are juicier, taste so much better, and contain the nutrients that the body craves for that season, but it also transforms an economy that offers its devalues the health and well-being of the consumer over dollars.

Embracing a New Food Paradigm calls for collective action on the part of conscious individuals who firmly believe and commit themselves to valuing their health and their natural environments over everything else. It also means creating meals differently. Eating watermelon for dinner and just having a bowl of papaya for breakfast is not only filling, but highly nutritious. There is not need to eat eggs from a chicken and sausage from a pig to feel full or to get your daily nutritional value.

Learning how to read labels and read between the lines is extremely important in embracing a new food paradigm as there is nobody better to be an authority on what you should be eating other than yourself. Of course, there are people like myself and others who have studied, researched, and experienced how food either heals or depletes the body, but you are the ultimate authority on that choice. So that means, your doctor who is only required to take one nutritional course the entire time he or she is in medical school even with a half a million dollar education is also not an authority on what you should be eating.

What you can do now as an individual is support small and local businesses like co-ops around the world who support small organic farmers and other food vendors who do not sacrifice the health of their consumers for the sake of a dollar.

Other ways you can embrace a new food paradigm is to eat only food that you recognize and can pronounce, buy only organic and/or local, learn how to grow food outdoors or in indoors, and
quit giving in to pleasure over your health and quit making excuses about how you can't give up chicken. You're grown.

7 Things You Should Know Before You Turn Your Passion into a Business

Design your life around your passion.

Now this is the gold. In other words, make your lifestyle your business. I quit TV producing to open up an organic raw vegan restaurant in Los Angeles because I wanted to eat and live a more holistic and natural lifestyle. I did a four year run with the restaurant and there were times, I would be at the beach while my employees handled my restaurant. That's the lifestyle I wanted. I wanted to be able to go to the beach and still make money. So figure out how you want your life to look like and design your passion and your business around it.

Be Authentic.

Authenticity is like the new sexy. When people are authentic, they will buy from you, they will support you, and they will follow you wherever you go. Consumers are smarter now more than ever and we want to know where our dollars are being spent, so work on your authenticity. What is authenticity? According to Norma T. Hollis, America's Leading Authentic Voice Doctor, authenticity is the key to finding your life's purpose and communicating it with extraordinary power.


Stay in the conversation of who you are, what you are doing, and what you are want.

The wealth is in the conversation, not the conversation we have via text, email, Facebook, or Twitter. Even though these are wonderful opportunities to market and advertise your business and events and projects, the wealth is in the conversation you are having with people, so stay in the conversation of who you are, what you are doing, and what you want in life. And be authentic about it.





Keep money on the mind.

Cultivate a wonderful relationship with money now. If you don’t you will surely not make a good living doing what you are doing. Cultivating a good relationship with money means you realize what money can do for you and your business and for the world. It gives you spending power to re-invest in your business, to offer more services and products to your consumers, and to live the lifestyle that you desire which makes you a happier person and people want to buy from happy people.

Know your partners. (not your competition)

Passion cannot compete, so I don’t look at what people do in my field as competition. They are teachers, lessons, people who I can network with, partner with, create joint ventures together with, etc. Know who they are and meet them. Have a conversation with them. Tell them what you are up. They might refer a client to you or a business opportunity or give you some advice.

Reach out to your Community.

From time to time, reach out to your community and get an idea of what they want or expect from you. It’s a humbling experience, but one you might want to practice from time to time.

Invest in yourself.

Attend trade shows, networking events, hire a coach, take a teleseminar, whatever it takes to keep educating yourself and learning. Learning doesn't stop with school and for an entrepreneur it is always evolving. Enlist a team of mentors, coaches, friends, etc around you who consistently offer you advice, suggestions, knowledge, resources, and information.

Nwenna Kai is teaching an online workshop on Turning Your Passion into a Business Workshop, on Tuesday, March 1st, @ 6 pm PST, 9 pm EST.

To register for the workshop, visit www.nwennakai.com/workshops/

Raw & Living Foods for Beginners: Get Started! Part I

It's a New Year and spring is coming upon us. Its a perfect time to take on a new diet and lifestyle and learn how to do it easily, quickly, and inexpensively.

Join myself and some newbies for The Raw & Living Foods For Beginners Workshop. Get answers to all those questions that you have about eating raw.

Raw & Living Foods For Beginners: Get Started! Part I
Tuesday, February 22nd - 6 pm PST, 9 pm EST

Lecture is 45 minutes followed by a 30 minute Q&A

Learn what The Raw & Living Foods Philosophy is all about

Learn how to set up a Plant-based diet Kitchen on a budget

Learn all about recipe development & menu planning tips & tricks

Learn how & why to eat according to the seasons

Learn the do's and don't's and myths of a raw foods diet

Register for this class @ www.nwennakai.com/workshops/

Investment - $35

What's Really Eating Us? Black women & weight

When I came across the statistic that by the year 2034, 100% of black women will be overweight and obese, a bundle of emotions came across me as I felt embarrassed for black women, I felt sorry for us but mostly I felt compelled to write about it, talk about it, and take it on as a part of my platform in healing women.

Obesity is a symptom of something much deeper than just food and a sedentary lifestyle. As with any imbalance in the body, there is an imbalance in the mind/spirit as well which lends to the question, What’s Really Eating Us?

Anytime a large group of people who have identity factors in common with each other such as race suffer from a similar symptom such as obesity and thus a similar disease, then the question becomes what is going on with this group of individuals in which they share a common experience that is affecting them and producing a symptom as large as obesity. According to statistics over 70% of black women in America now are considered to be overweight and/or obese. I’m not going to put much weight on the statistics because I do my own personal accounting. Besides that I’m a skeptic when it comes to statistics especially since we have to be wary and conscious of from whom and from where this information is being disseminated? However, when I run my daily errands, when I look at my family, when I look at other black people’s families, when I hear brothers talk about black women’s weight problems, I don’t need a statistic to tell me what is really going on. In my family alone, I have a host of aunts, great-aunts and first and second female cousins who are overweight and/or obese. When I first took on this weight issue, I would run my daily errands and count the amount of black women who were overweight and/or obese and the numbers would run anywhere from 50-75 in a few hours of my day.

Too often western modern medicine dismisses the metaphysical, historical, political, and economic factors out of the picture when it comes to diagnosing and healing disease. While this form of medicine works to care for the symptom, it doesn’t aim to heal the entire person and look at what’s really going on?

We all want to blame obesity on food, but if that were the case, with the billion dollar weight loss industry, everyone who goes on a diet and loses the weight should be able to keep the weight off, but they don’t.
So again comes the question of What’s Really Eating Us?

ECONOMICS

We all know that the more money that you have, the more healthier you are. Why? Because if you have more money, you obviously live in a neighborhood that has healthier eating establishments, and options for sourcing organic, fresh, and healthier food. Also if you have more money, you value your health as you know that if you are healthy you have more energy and more energy means more money. Poor people who have a poverty consciousness eat cheap food. Its real simple and basic. People who are health conscious and who value their health over other material items will pay the few extra dollars that it takes to eat healthier. People who have more money are also more educated about their health. They seek knowledge and most of these people will read food labels, question where their produce is coming from, and they will read articles and books about health.

When you look at a working to middle class predominately black neighborhood in an urban city, look at the types of supermarkets in that area, the number of farmer’s markets in that area, and look at the conditions of that supermarket. Detroit, a predominately black populated city is considered to be a supermarket desert. A 2003 University of Michigan study of Detroit supermarkets showed there were only five grocery stores in Detroit with over 20,000 square feet. At the beginning of the recession, major large chain supermarkets fled the city leaving Detroit’s citizens to buy groceries from convenience stores.



THE MEDIA

In the media, we see black women celebrities who have struggled with weight: Oprah Winfrey, Star Jones, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Price, Monique, Queen Latifah and more. Some of these women even have gone so far as to say how healthy, beautiful, and big they are thus giving black women permission to think that you can still be overweight and healthy. On top of that in a celebrity craze culture, we believe what celebrities dish out without any analytical reasoning of their messages on our part. Therefore this leaves a population of overweight black women believing that they are healthy in spite of carrying hundreds of pounds of weight.

DNA? ITS IN OUR GENES…..

As I talk to black women, many of us still believe the old concept that we are naturally bigger women. But if that were true, how would that explain, black women who are sizes 10 and under?

Is it in our DNA? Absolutely not! But many black women believe that because their grandmother, their mother, and their aunties are big, that they will naturally gain weight as well. There’s this unconscious agreement that goes on with black women in families where the mother is overweight and therefore her daughter must be overweight too especially if the mother is passing down her food and lifestyle choices to her children.

CHILDBIRTH

Women still believe that with childbirth comes excess weight. But many white and Asian women successfully lose weight after childbirth. So what’s so different about their bodies from our’s?

DIET

Now let’s get down to diet. One stipulation about the black community is that we usually eat like our ancestors or elders eat despite the health issues that it creates. When I first became vegetarian, the struggle was not in staying vegetarian and avoiding the temptation of meat, the struggle was in getting my family to understand and respect my new diet and lifestyle. The Standard Black American Diet is one that is rich in fried foods, meat, dairy products, processed foods, sugar, and fast junk. It is junk that clogs colons, creates diabetes, hinders the heart from beating, raises blood pressure, and shortens life spans and in spite of the abundance of knowledge everywhere black people still eat the junk of our elders and then turn around and laugh at the ignorance. So knowledge really isn’t power, is it?

LIFESTYLE

When me and my black girlfriends used to go hiking every Saturday morning in the Canyons when I lived in Los Angeles, we didn’t see other brown-skinned cuties on those trails besides us. We saw 80-year Russian grandmothers and Botox overdosed Beverly Hills housewives turning red from too much overexposure in the sun while hiking those long trails.

What are the lifestyles like for black women across the country? And how does that reflect the growing weight problem among us?

So the question What’s Really Eating Us? has a number of different solutions and possible answers, but we must go beyond the obvious factor of food and take a deeper look at the health of black women from a holistic perspective incorporating the mind/body/spirit connection.

The Yoni Diet: A Womb Wellness Class

Join myself and others in a powerful, health and life-transforming class about The Yoni Diet. Learn how to eat for your womb so that it is strong, supple, and soft.

Our Wombs are the most powerful force inside of our bodies. Our state of health stems from how healthy it is. All women need to eat life-giving foods that nourish and sustain the Yoni Body.

Learn how in this Womb Wellness Workshop!

The class is online.

Tuesday, February 15th – 6 pm PST, 9 pm EST
Lecture – 45 minutes followed by a 30 minute Q&A

Learn what foods are best to keep a strong, supple, and soft womb

Learn what 7 herbs are a woman’s best friend

Learn how disease is created in our womb-man bodies

Learn how to release fibroids, eliminate menstrual cramps, and shorten long cycles

Learn the proper way to detox and cleanse The Yoni Body

Investment – $35

Register for the class at www.nwennakai.com/workshops/

How important is it that my mate eats raw, or is vegan or vegetarian?

Recently I got an email from a woman concerned whether or not her relationship with her boyfriend can or will last as she adopts a more vegan and raw foods diet as she says that he (the boyfriend) eats a lot of meat especially red meat and fried foods and highly desires to continue to eat meat.

As I've journeyed through this experience of having a vibrant high energy diet full of live foods and juices, I've come to the realization that everything else in my life and reality must adhere to those same principles so I've noticed that personally everyone especially my mate must as well have a similar diet and thus a similar mindset. I say this for a number of reasons. One being as though most people who eat meat and who eat a lot of meat have what I call a meat mindset in which they cannot foresee eating a plate of food without some form of animal indigestible protein which is a problem because that means they are not open-minded and therefore blocked in some ways. They also probably struggle with other ares of their life such as self-worth as a diet full of a lot of flesh foods and especially fried foods is the #1 cause of most preventable diseases. So if you are eating to live and he is eating to die, these are two energies working against each other.

This could cause problems in your relationship as you continue to grow on this path as you will notice if you continue this journey that eating a mostly live foods diet naturally lends itself to opening up the mind, body, and spirit to higher levels of spiritual ascension. This opening up could lend itself to so many forms and possibilities that you may not be aware of or even prepared for. If you study any of the greatest teachers of humanity throughout history, you will understand that the way to ascension was through the physical vessel in which they knew the body had to operate at its most vibrant and radiant energetic level as possible meaning that a vibrant diet and fasting and cleansing was key to achieving this outcome.

As you grow and journey, you will notice that your entire life will change. Your friends will change, your priorities will change, your career may even change, your finances may change, the places you visit may change, the movies you choose to watch may change, your language may change, and especially your programming,and therefore your mate may even change.

On a personal note, I do know of many couples where one person is vegetarian or vegan and the other is not, but the one person who is not vegetarian or vegan is also very open-minded as to his or her food choices and they have a high level of respect and even admiration for the other person who chooses not to eat flesh foods. On another note, I know of some couples where one person eats meat and the other person doesn't and there is always conflict when going to social events or out to dinner as the other person who eats meat will either make comments about his or her diet or make fun of them. This is extremely disrespectful and a waste of one's time and energy as the person who is making fun of the other person is not taking into consideration that his or her mate really values his or her health.

If you want to keep your relationship and also keep true to yourself with learning how to eat better, the best thing to do is to focus on you and what your mind, body, and spirit needs. He is not the last man on earth and he may actually see how you may change and want to change his diet as well or he may not. Either way is not wrong or right. Change is inevitable and consistent and its always working on your side.

Quick and Easy Juicing Tips

Juicing is a great way to get more nutrients in your body without having to eat and digest a lot of fruits and vegetables. Could you imagine eating all of the vegetables and fruits that you actually juice? It could be overwhelming, so if you have the equipment to juice, take full advantage of it. Here are a few quick and easy juicing tips to enhance your experience.

Fresh juice is best drank as soon as you finish juicing.

Store pulp in freezer and use for soups, dips, sauces, at a later date.

Start with juicing softer fruits or vegetables first and then firmer ones.

Do not force any fruits or vegetable through the chute. Allow the pusher to push them through.

For easy cleaning, place a plastic bag inside the pulp collector container.

Let the unit run for a few minutes after you finished juicing to allow any excess juice to be extracted from the pulp.

Do not put any fruits or vegetables through the juicer until the unit is turned on.

Juice the vegetables that you like, not the ones that you don't like and not the ones that everyone tells you to juice.

You must have a base juice when juicing. Your base juice can be celery, carrot, cucumber, apple, pineapples, or beets. These fruits and vegetables have a lot of juice in them and can serve as your base juice.

Never juice bananas or avocados. They do not have any juice in them. Use them instead in a blender for a smoothie blend.

If you have to store your juices because of time restraints, drink them in at least 3 days.

Fresh watermelon juice is the best breakfast in the world. Its cool and refreshing and it cleanses out the kidneys especially during the early AM hours of the day. People who have high blood pressure should think about drinking fresh watermelon juice everyday while its in season.

Feast on as much juice as your body can take. The body loves fresh juice especially in the summertime.

Happy Juicing!

Top 7 Reasons to Detox and Cleanse Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

I did the Master Cleanse right after the New Year hit and now I'm starting a 7-day juice fast as soon as I get my new juicer in. Juicing, cleansing, and fasting are ancient spiritual practices that promote healing, wellness, and spiritual transcendence and ascension. All of the ancient teachers practiced fasting in order to heal their bodies and to ascent to higher levels of spirituality.

There are many different types of fasts for many different people, lifestyles, likes, tastes and desires so I encourage you to find one that fits your tastes and just do it. But in the meantime here are some top ten reasons to cleanse and detox your mind, body, and spirit

• Weight Loss - Weight is nothing but waste in your digestive organs such as the colon or liver. Anytime you do a cleanse or detox of any sort, you are going to shed some pounds. Some will shed more than others. Even though I'm not looking to lose weight, usually when I do a detox I expect to lose about 5-7 pounds, but usually I gain the weight back when I stop doing the detox. The body's intelligence will know how much weight you need to lose or not to lose. Trust me if you are looking to lose weight you will, if you are not looking to lose weight, you will not.
  

• More Energy - With all the weight loss, your body naturally will have more physical, mental, and emotional energy. I always notice that I rise earlier, fall asleep better, and sleep less when I detox. The mornings are great for prayer and meditation so this is a wonderful time to really connect with Source and get back to your body's natural energetic rhythms.
  

• Clearer Skin - When the body releases toxins within, it shows on the outside. What's going on inside is going on outside so for those who need to have clear, bright, skin that shines, the right herbal detox is a great fit for getting that photogenic skin in gear.
  

• More mental and emotional clarity - This is a big One! With all the physical benefits of a detox, there are enormous other benefits as well. When the body is aligned, the mind and spirit become aligned as well. So the mind can deal with more things when it is clear and grounded. I notice how much more emotionally balanced and available I am to myself as well as to others. What can also happen though and for those who are extremely toxic in the body is that you can experience extreme mood swings when detoxing, but whatever emotion you have to detox it has to come to the light to heal so embrace the mood swings, take a nap if need be, journal about it, and keep on your detox. Clarity is a huge gift as it helps us to make better decisions, critically analyze, and otherwise see things that we normally would not see when we are bogged down physically in our bodies.
  

• Improved Immune system - After a detox, you will notice how you won't get as sick as much if you also continue to stick to a mostly raw and/or vegan/vegetarian diet that is diverse, nutritional, and full of greens. Or when you do get sick, your body will immediately work to heal itself and it will heal itself quicker. Years ago when I used to detox frequently, I noticed when I did get colds, they might have only lasted for a day. And when I first went raw, I came down with the flu for the first time, but it only lasted for two days. The body's intelligence starts to work overtime as it responds to how you are taking care of it.
  

• Better stress management - I don't know if I have more or less stress in my life or if I'm just better at handling it now than I was before. Doing a detox and also maintaining a really healthy diet and exercise program will reduce your unhealthy reactions to stress. Stress is a killer, but if we can learn how to respond to it differently, we can manage our health differently.

• Spiritual Ascension - When the body is purified and empty, your spirit now has the ability to transform itself without the distraction of toxins. Do not be surprised if your intuitive and psychic muscles start to activate. Cleansing and fasting is practiced all over the world in our churches, our mosques, and our synagogues as ways of purifying our lives and connecting to God more deeply.
  

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children's book, The MoreLove's coming September 2010. You can get the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai's Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA's pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

Green Drink and Green Smoothie Variations

I'm experimenting this week with green drinks and green smoothies

Here's some combos for you to try.

2 cucumber
2 kiwis
1 bunch of green grapes

Juice in a juicer.

handful of celery stalks
1 granny smith apple
1 piece of ginger
1 cucumber

Juice in a juicer.

almond milk
handful of swiss chard
1 banana
1 pear

apple juice
handful of spinach
1 pear
1 banana
1 avocado
handful of berries

Blend in a blender to make a smoothie


apple juice
handful of kale
1 avocado
handful of blueberries
handful of mangoes
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

Blend in a blender to make a smoothie
1 tablespoon of E3 Live Total Body Blend

Enjoy and create some of your own. If you have some in mind, please do share.

How to Stay Eating Raw

Eating raw is a lifestyle and not just a diet and over the ten years that I have gone back and forth and back and forth with eating raw, the one lesson that I've learned is to not limit myself or put pressure on myself on staying 100% raw. As long as I eat healthy and consume a diet of mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains which is what I believe to be a healthy and balanced diet, I consider this to be a way of life for me as life has its ups and downs and its challenges, blessings, and opportunities for growth, change, and renewal, as human beings sometimes we just change our minds about life and I've come to learn that that is ok.

With all of that said, some of you are wondering, well how can I eat more raw or stay focused on eating raw now and here are my tips and suggestions based on my own experiences.

- Surround yourself with a health conscious community. Enlist a friend, child, family member who also wants to eat more healthier. Having a buddy always make it easier.

- Embrace the diversity of a health conscious diet and define it for what it looks like for your life.

- Arm yourself with information, resources, books, online communities. Let it consume your life in a positive way.

- Carve out time for shopping and preparing food and make it a priority as your health should come before anything else.

-Get creative with recipes and diversify your kitchen staples so that your diet is one of surplus and abindance as opposed to lack.

- Have your favorite foods or staples on hand so that you can always grab it. I keep almond butter and raw tahini because I can make so many different recipes with these simple ingredients.

- Try eating raw one day out of the week.

- Don't beat yourself up when you slip up and have an Oreo cooking or something. When you've been eating one way for so many years, its hard to just stop and eat another way. Food has attachment to it.

- Limit eating out a lot and with friends who don't eat like you. This can be a great challenge as food is such a social activity in our culture but you have to keep in mind that you are changing your diet and ultimately your lifestyle so your friends and social activities are going to change as well. Welcome the transformation and the transition.

The revolution starts at the dinner table!

Did you know that plants can grow fresh air?

How to Beat Stress?

My blog posts and articles are always inspired by my clients, friends, and the community I serve when they email me their questions about their health and their diets. I always feel so inspired to help and write and serve and so I wanted to write this blog post about conquering stress since a good friend of mine reached out to me and asked me about what he could to help him with his stress. Stress can be extremely detrimental in our lives. This is one of the reasons why many people can't and won't heal from disease as it can block your means to healing.

I've had a lot of experiences with very stressful situations when I was running my own restaurant and catering company by myself without a lot of support. I felt all alone and by myself when I came across challenges that seemed bigger than life itself. However looking back there were some simple things that I could have done that could have relieved my stress and my situation. So here are some keys to conquering those stress demons and creating a more pleasant and peaceful life.

• Gain perspective on your stressful situation.

When the earthquake hit Haiti, my perspective on my life changed enormously. Experiencing a major earthquake in an already impoverished country with very little food, medical help, clean drinking water, and adequate housing is an extremely stressful situation. I used to say to myself that if you have food in your refrigerator, access to clean drinking water, a roof over your head, and clothes and shoes than you are living better than half of the world. Missing a car payment, yet you have a job, dealing with a medical issue yet you have health insurance, or losing a boyfriend yet you have great friends are not stressful situations. Stressful situations are do or die so gain perspective on your situation and really see it for what it is, a temporarily uncomfortable situation that can be and is being remedied as soon as you take action consistently.

• Learn to meditate

The greatest gift we were given to by God was the gift of breath. The breath has enormous healing power. The breath releases up to 70% of the body's toxins through the lungs. Not only that but the breath has the ability to calm us down in stressful situations, center us, help us to deal with racing thoughts, and it helps us to gain perspective, thus enabling us to remedy our problems rationally.

• Learn to sleep.

Sleep is very healing for the body and the mind. When we are sleeping, we are healing our bodies and our bodies and minds are transforming. This is why it is so important to sleep as often and for as long as our bodies desire. I used to think there was something wrong with me because I like to sleep for something like 8-10 hours a day and sometimes if I so care to, I even like to lay down in the middle of the day for a quick 45 minute snooze. But now I realize that this is the way my body processes thoughts and experiences. We all have different ways of processing and coping. You are not unhealthy if you sleep for a long or a little bit of time.

• Get physical.

I do Bikram yoga a lot. It not only relaxes me, softens my joints and bones, but it also helps me to sleep, elevates my heart rate and works me out to the point of exhaustion, but it also gets me real clear and helps me to deal with problems that I thought I may have. Any form of rigorous movement for an extended period of time releases endorphins in the brain, gets the chi in your body moving, and promotes overall healing and well-being. Even if your stressful situation is still present in your life, you know have the gumption, the tools, and the ability to deal with it like a champ.

• Find an activity that brings you ultimate pure joy and do it everyday.

Find an activity that is easy, simple, doesn't cost a lot of money, and doesn't take much energy or effort to do and do it everyday. It could be as simply as praying, meditating, reading a book, talking to a child, calling a friend, laughing to yourself, making yourself some food. I noticed that when I started doing this years ago, that I started to make all the activities that I do in my life fun. So now even the things that I used to loathe to do actually now bring me sheer joy. Sometimes just driving in my car makes me happy, cleaning my bathroom, making food for family and friends, and making my niece happy by playing with her brings me a lot of joy. Remember taking baby steps allows for transformation to take place not taking quantum leaps.

• Listen to music

Music is the ultimate band-aid. Pleasant sound vibration boosts the function of the immune system which of course if your immune system is smiling, then your health is improving.

• Reach out and ask for help even if it hurts or goes against everything you believe in.

This is extremely important and very healthy. We have to learn to reach out and ask for help. We cannot do everything alone and we were not designed to do everything alone. God created billions of beings for the planet so that we all can take part in the miracle. Learn to ask for help constantly. You may not always get it and don't let that stop. You may get help from people who may be looking for something in return. That may not be the type of help that you need but understand that asking for help is about you, not the other person. Its about finding the humility and the love inside of yourself to know that you need help and you need help from another person. It also teaches you how to trust other human beings which is extremely important as well.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children's book, The MoreLove's coming September 2010. You can get the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai's Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA's pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

Foods that Feed The Pineal Gland

Our pineal gland otherwise known as our master gland or the gland that governs over our third eye is the center of psychic awareness in the human mind. It is about the size of a pea and sits inside a cave located behind the pituitary gland. It naturally produces a hormone called melatonin which regulates human daily body rhythms that deal directly with the day and night cycles. Developing and expanding the function and the energy of your pineal gland is extremely important as it affects every system in your body physically and it has the potential to determine the expansion or the contraction of your psychic awareness, consciousness, and experience.

Sunlight is extremely important for the pineal gland and yes sunlight is a form of food as food is any substance that nourishes the body. Sunlight can be taken in and digested through the eyes, skin, hair, nose hairs, and ears and should be consumed for at least 30 minutes a day. To fully engage the pineal gland, sunlight should be taken in through the pupils.

Seaweed vegetables that are sun-dried by the sun contain high amounts of vitamin D, many vitamins in the B-vitamin family and iodine. Those vegetables include and are not limited to kombu, arame, wakame, dulse, nori, etc.

Dark leafy greens like our kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, bok choy, collard greens etc are
extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as this gland absorbs the properties of the green color of the vegetables and properly distributes them to the appropriate systems of the body so that the body is thoroughly nourished.

Consuming meats including fish that has high amounts of mercury, carbonated beverages, fluoride in our water and our toothpaste and access to smog negatively affect the pineal gland and can block its ability to function properly. When you consume meat from an animal, you are ingesting the DNA of that animal and therefore taking on the negative and positive experiences of an animal which could interrupt the ability of the pineal gland to take on its own psychic awareness blueprint of the individual.

The proper foods can positively affect your pineal gland but you can also activate your pineal gland by eating more of a raw foods, vegan, or vegetarian diet, running an ozone machine in your home to clean up the air in your home, and drinking filtered water. As much as the pineal gland needs sunlight, it also needs to produce enough serotonin to be activated so that it can increase its psychic awareness therefore serotonin is produced when the brain is asleep and therefore sleeping in a very dark room is extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as well. Foods that produce serotonin are almonds, bananas, hot peppers, rice, potatoes, and black-eyed peas and when consumed can also nourish and feed the pineal gland as well.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children's book, The MoreLove's coming September 2010. You can get the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai's Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA's pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

7 Ways to Lose Weight on a Raw Foods Diet

I get this question about losing weight a lot from women who eat mostly raw or who are vegan and vegetarian. I have actually heard of women gaining weight on a raw foods diet and the reasons could be anywhere from consuming too many calories as when most people start eating raw, they tend to overeat or we tend to gravitate more towards the nuts, oils, and raw desserts.

Overall losing weight is so much more than about eating the right diet but here are some helpful tips and suggestions for losing weight on a raw foods diet.

• Eat in tiny portions, but more meals throughout the day.

Its a wonderful feeling to eat as many times a day without having to worry about weight gain, however sometimes even though we are eating raw and extremely healthy, we still tend to overeat as overeating is an addiction to food whether it is healthy or not. Practicing the art of moderation and balance is key to eating healthy and especially when eating raw. Eating more throughout the day also does not feed into the eating less fad diets as they body does not miss food when you are eating all day, but just eating in tiny portions. For example, my dessert last night was eating a handful of wine grapes and I was extremely satisfied.

• Cut back on nuts and oils.
  

Even though all foods that are left in their natural state meaning unprocessed, unfired, and uncooked are always healthy and sustainable for the body, anything in excess can add weight and not be helpful to one's weight goals. Therefore if you find yourself not losing weight, try eliminating some of the oils and nuts from your diet as most raw food recipes calls for nuts and oils in spreads and salad dressings. You can make oil free salad dressings by blending tomatoes and peppers with herbs to make salad dressings and you can use seeds instead of nuts.

• Increase your water intake.

Increasing your water intake will assist the body in helping your foods to assimiliate and it can also increase your bowel movements. Remember excess unnecessary weight is nothing but built-up waste in the body and removing it is the key to losing weight and shedding pounds. One client of mine who recently lost 20 pounds now says that she is losing weight without even thinking about it as her body is doing the work now as opposed to her doing the work.

• Do a juice fast.

Fasting on natural vegetable juices will not only help you to shed the pounds as you detox your body, increase your bowel movements and thus shed more and more waste and pounds by the day, but it will also help you to get mentally and emotionally clear about your health and weight goals. It can also help with any cravings that you may be having that may be adding weight to your body. Fasting is an ancient practice designed to heal old wounds that may be associated with your weight. It also declutters the mind and returns the body and the palette back to the simple, easy, and light foods that our bodies naturally enjoy and can digest easily.

• Increase your daily intake of greens particularly dark leafy greens.

Greens, greens, and more greens will fully nourish your body and assist in the elimination process.

• Cut down on the raw desserts.

We all know that raw food desserts are the best and even though they are made with the loving natural sweeteners from Mother Earth herself, they still can add weight to our bodies if eaten more than often. Just because your eating mostly raw doesn't mean you have to have a raw dessert everyday. Substitute a mango or slices of kiwi instead of having a slice of a macadamia nut cheesecake.

• Drink wheatgrass.

I recently spoke with a non-raw foods chef who lost over 170 pounds while taking classes at the Ann Wigmore Institute in Puerto Rico. He's not even vegetarian but he swore that drinking two shots of wheatgrass everyday helped his body to detox naturally and thus drop the pounds easily.


Nature will assist you greatly when you align your body back into vibrant and optimal health, so therefore if you stick to your diet and you still notice that you haven't lost a pound or you may even be gaining weight, you might want to take other measures such as increasing your physical activity, monitoring your portions, or really getting to the root of the weight problem. Weight is nothing but waste and waste collects mostly in the colon area. Getting regular colonics could help in losing the weight, but also investigating your issues around food, health, and your self-esteem will help as well.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children's book, The MoreLove's coming May 2010. You can the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai's Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA's pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

7 Myths of a Raw Foods Diet

The more I travel, talk to people, answer their questions about raw foods, I find that there is a block or a challenge when it comes to eating more raw foods. Most of the time, people have bought into the myths of a raw foods diet and therefore they avoid it all together. Once when I was in Chicago, one woman told me that fresh food costs too much money and she could only afford to eat canned fruits and vegetables. So here are the 7 Myths of a Raw Foods Diet and the Real Truth of a Raw Foods diet.

• Myth #1 - A raw foods diet is too expensive.

Everything is perception and at first when you eat more raw foods, it may seem expensive because you are shopping more for fresh, organic, local produce or because you are buying different equipment and tools for your kitchen and different pantry items to concoct your recipes, but you can actually save money on a raw foods diet. What I've found to be true is that the more raw foods I eat, the less portion size I consume and also I've found great produce markets and farmer's markets where the local organic produce is very inexpensive. Shopping at high-end gourmet health food stores and supermarkets will break your bank. I also instead of buying my nut butters which I use to provide bulk and substance to my diet as well as protein, I make at home in my food processor by adding the nuts, olive oil, and some salt and then I store them in containers and snack on them during the week. I'm not sure if I spend more money on food than the average person or not, but I do know that I don't take any medications which cuts down on costs and I haven't had the need to see a doctor in over 7 years which also cuts down on costs and because I eat so simply, other areas in my life have called for that same simplicity and moderation which also cuts down on costs.

• Myth #2 - A raw foods diet is too cumbersome and hard to maintain.

The more I embraced raw foods, the less cumbersome and easy I found it to maintain. Also because I eat more simply than I have ever eaten before, I have found that having a really organized kitchen by having ample storage containers, a compost container, and a place to store everything makes it not only easier to maintain the diet, but it makes a very pleasant experience. Eating more living and fresh foods brings joy to my life. I now look forward to taking trips to the produce market and seeing what new fruits and vegetables are available and I also enjoy experimenting with recipes. It only becomes cumbersome and hard to maintain if you are not embracing the food and surrounding yourself with people who eat like you as the influence of others can hinder your joy in embracing this diet.

• Myth #3 - Raw foods is dangerous because of the bacteria on food.

All food should be handled carefully, with clean hands only, and prepared on clean surfaces. Its also important to consume fruits and vegetables as soon as possible when they are really fresh as this can cut down on the possibility of the growth of harmful bacteria on them. There is the case of fermented vegetables which is when vegetables are kept at room temperature in a sanitary container for a number of days to ferment so that it activates the lactobacilli which is naturally present in raw cultured vegetables as well as in our digestive tract but this bacteria is beneficial for your body. There are friendly bacteria necessary to break down foods in our digestive tract. It is also not necessarily true that when food is cooked that it kills the bacteria.

• Myth #4 - A raw foods diet does not supply enough nutrition.

This is exactly the opposite. A raw foods diet supplies the body with all of its necessary vitamins, nutrients, and minerals it needs to thrive. It as well naturally hydrates the body with its high water content which means that you don't have to drink as much water and it is also a natural detox diet which means that it it constantly detoxing the body of toxins. As far as protein is concerned dark leafy greens are known to have the most digestible protein on the planet.

• Myth #5 - Raw foods does not taste good.

This all depends on the creator of the dish. Raw foods can taste just as good, if not better than cooked food and with just as much or as little or no seasoning at all. What is great about raw and living foods is that because the natural juices in the food are so scrumptious for the body, you don't always have to season the food. It all depends on one's palette.

• Myth #6 - You have to eat a 100% raw foods diet to enjoy the benefits.

Absolutely not true. I've experimented with a 100% raw foods diet and I've enjoyed many of the benefits such as flawless skin, a high energy level, and a higher immunity to disease. But I've also gone 80/20, 50/50, etc with raw and cooked food and I've noticed that I still maintained the benefits. Getting more live and raw foods is important for the overall health of the body because it naturally detoxifies our bodies and supplies the body with enzymes but its not necessary to eat 100% raw. Everyone's body is completely different and some people just can't eat a 100% raw foods diet.

• Myth #7 - There is not much diversity in a raw foods diet.

There are more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains on the planet to eat than there are animals to eat. There is so much diversity in a raw foods diet. The reason why people believe this myth is because as humans we tend to eat the same food over and over again and we tend not to experiment with different foods. We also tend to shop in the same place and therefore we are only going to be exposed to what the market is asking for. Its important to read about different food, venture into other neighborhoods to shop for food, try different ethnic and exotic fruits and vegetables, and experiment with different herbs and spices to season your food. I've been playing around a lot with caraway seeds which is a spice that I probably would have never heard of if I didn't eat a raw foods diet.

A Communal Salad

Yesterday was my sister's 37th birthday and I made all the food, but what I wanted to share with all my readers was the communal salad that my family found to be the greatest treat! Its amazing how nourishing a simple, colorful, salad can be for your family. It has jicama on top, beets, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, arugula, mixed greens, purple cabbage, and red peppers in the salad. We had a creamy tahini and chive dressing with it and it was just fabulous. It went faster than the veggies pizzas I made also.

Making pretty shapes with your vegetables, putting them in a big wooden bowl, and topping it off with a great dressing adds to the eating experience of sharing it with family. Enjoy!

Last Day of My Master Cleanse

I just finished wrapping up a radio interview with KJLH FREE Radio 102.3 in Los Angeles with Dominique DiPrima talking about raw foods and all the benefits and this is the 10th and the last day of my master cleanse as well. I haven't done the master cleanse in over 5 years and even though this was probably the easiest one of the cleanses that I have done in the past, I'm ready to move on to the next phase of my 40 day cleanse and detox which will consist of The Full Body Detox by Dherbs.com along with eating a 100% Live Foods Diet. For the next five days or so, I will slowly transition into eating solid foods as I will be juicing and making smoothies and occasionally have whole piece of fruits.

I must say this time around the cleanse has been awesome. Even though I was a bit more tired than I expected, I'm glad that I listened to my body and slept as often as my body wanted and needed. On this cleanse, I think I benefitted more mentally, spiritually, and psychologically and I attribute that to probably years of eating a mostly live foods diet and cleansing my body on a regular basis so my body didn't necessarily have to do so much work to physically remove toxins. But mentally I felt sharper and more clearer than ever on this cleanse and during the last four days of my cleanse, I even noticed myself being able to absorb information and ideas more easily.

Cleansing is a powerful tool for the mind, body, and spirit. Taking a break from digesting solid foods and taking it easy on your body and your life is so important in order to rejuvenate ourselves and to remember that our bodies are meant to feel and look healthy and light.

I look forward to sharing more of my experiences with all of you at a later date as I move into the next phase of my cleanse and share with your tips and advice on how to have the best cleanse possible for your budget, your lifestyle, and your health as I strongly believe that being healthy and feeling healthy contributes to the greater good of all living beings ont this planet.

Is Eating a 100% Raw Foods Diet Healthy?

Eating a 100% raw and living foods diet is absolutely healthy only if it is done correctly and with the right intentions, however it is not necessary to eat a 100% raw and living foods vegan diet in order to enjoy all of the benefits that it can offer.

A raw and living foods vegan diet is a diet made up of mostly organic and fresh uncooked and unprocessed nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, fruits, vegetables and superfoods. It is a diet that does not advocate for any animal flesh or dairy products. Some would think that it is impossible to eat this way and it is as there are some nuts on the market that say they are 100% raw and living, but actually they are not. Also there are many organic fruits and vegetables on the market that are actually not 100% organic either.

Even though I eat a mostly organic raw foods diet, I do not strongly advocate for anyone eating this way. What I do suggest is that everyone eat as healthy, as organic, and as raw as possible as eating foods that are natural, unprocessed, and living are more gentler to the body and healing. That is basic common sense.

From years and years of experience, I have noticed that people who eat a 100% organic raw foods diet are not necessarily the healthiest looking people and this does not mean that it has anything to do with the diet. There are many other factors at play in determining the reasons behind this. Many people who eat a 100% raw foods diet could be struggling with emotional, metaphysical, mental, and spiritual challenges that directly affect the organs especially the digestive organs in which the digestive organs are extremely important in determining the health of the body. Therefore these other factors could take part in the physical components of breaking down foods and allowing the foods to properly nourish and sustain the body thus still creating disease in the body.

Overall eating a well-balanced diet that caters to your personal tastes and your body's health needs is of the most utmost importance. Embracing change in one's diet is also extremely important as it is not healthy to keep eating the same foods over and over again especially when the seasons change.

Our bodies are constantly changing as we age, as the seasons change, as we change environments, as we change our minds, etc and therefore our needs change as well.

Eat a well-balanced diet, one made up of different colors, textures, etc. Eat foods that are in season. Listen to your cravings as they are telling you what your body needs. And learn to eat different foods constantly. Do not become constipated or stuck on eating according to a rule. That is the worst thing you can do for your body and for your psychological health. And overall embrace change.