Eliminating Coffee

About a month ago, Golf and I watched a movie on Netflix streaming called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. The director and creator, Joe Cross, is a lively and likeable Australian who came to the USA for 60 days to do a juice fast and lose some weight. He had a chronic skin condition, not to mention heart and cholesterol problems.

During this time he also talked to Americans about food and what they actually eat. That most of their diets are made up of highly processed grains, too much dairy and meat. Vegetables and fruits, which should make up like 65% of your diet, ranked at only 5%.

Joe Cross also met a trucker during his travels and later helped him lose a tremendous amount of weight and changed his life.

I don't need to lose 100 pounds, though! Only 15 - 20 pounds. I would also like to do a juice fast to jump start my progress, likely a 7 to 10 day cleanse like a lady he interviewed during the movie. She wasn't overweight, but she suffered from migraine headaches and she was doing the fast to help her with that and her overall health.

I love coffee!

But I have an obstacle I need to overcome before I start this purifying cleanse. I'm addicted to caffeine! I've been a loyal and enthusiastic coffee drinker for nearly half my life. I love the taste and the mental boost that caffeine gives me. I drink not only coffee but iced tea (both green and black) and Diet Coke. Love it ALL!

So beginning today I've decided to wean myself down and by January, I'll be caffeine free and ready to do a juice cleanse. I'll also be ready to buy a nice juicer! I'm already on Craigslist looking to buy one for a cheaper price than online.

How am I weaning? Beginning today, I am limiting myself to only one cup of coffee in the morning. Normally I have two. Instead of cup #2 of coffee, I am taking a cup of black tea, English style (a little milk and sweetener). Mid morning I'll have another tea and then no more hot caffeinated beverages. In a few more days I will have only tea. Then from there I will slowly wean myself down from all caffeine. No more Diet Coke. I normally have a glass-and-a-half per day, so it's not out of control, but I would like to give my body a break.

And that's what this cleanse is for - not only for getting rid of some extra weight, but to show myself that I can do this, that it is possible. I'm curious to see how I will feel as well.

January is also a good time to do my juice fast because that marks my one year anniversary of regular green smoothie diet! Yep. I've been consistently having green smoothies nearly every day and while I feel better and have more energy, I do need a big boost with the juice.

I'll report my progress here.

New Green Smoothie Combo

When Aidan was in his school at the Berkeley Thai Temple yesterday, I discovered that a local Berkeley Bowl natural food store was just two blocks away. I went in without any intention to buy anything, just wanted to pass some time before lunch.

Berkeley Bowl is famous for abundant produce, cheap produce with many different varieties of fruits and vegetables. Often times prices are half of what you'd pay at a Safeway or Lucky grocery store chain and even farmer's markets!

So I ended up buying a big grocery bag full of yummy produce to have for dinners and for my green smoothies.

Today's smoothie I tried something different. I bought some raw flax seed meal. Flax seed has lots of Omega 3 fatty acids that help combat bad cholesterol and has lots of fiber! So I put a scoop of that into my smoothie today.

For greens, I saw something there I'd never seen before: green pea sprouts! And for only $1.89/lb! I paid $1.89 for the 4 oz tub of little clover sprouts, so the same price for 4 times as much sprouts was such a deal, so I got about a pound of it to use as my main green vegetable for my smoothie today. So total was combined clover and sweet pea sprouts. While at Berkeley Bowl I bought a type of organic kale I'd not seen before, but it didn't go into the smoothie today. I plan to try it out later this week!

The rest of the smoothie was made up of:

• frozen pineapple and strawberries
• 1.5 cups of unsweetened organic soy milk
• 3 scoops of whey protein vanilla shake mix
• a few sprinkles of steevia extract sweetener

This makes enough for two breakfasts. The sprouts give a very strong flavor and I couldn't consume it all in one go. I had half, took Aidan to school, got back from my powerwalk and now I was just able to finish it.

With it being October already, that means I've been drinking green smoothies on a fairly regular basis for 10 months now. Knock wood, I've hardly gotten sick and have been feeling healthy and fantastic!

Taking a One-Month Break

Since January I have incorporated green smoothies into my diet. I feel great and what's not to love about fresh greens and delicious sweet fruit blended together.

The only problem is that since January I've gained about 6 pounds! The only thing that has changed is my smoothies - I haven't changed any other eating habits or exercise. So I cannot help but think that there is a correlation, though it MAY be a slowing metabolism, hopefully not.

Just for kicks, I'm going to stop my green smoothie intake for the next month and see if it has any effect. I hate how my clothes fit and how my body looks, so I'm all on it! Wish me luck and I'll report back in a month

Still on my Green Smoothies and other updates

So it's been half a year now and I am still on my green smoothie diet. Many who are proponents suggest drinking a quart per day, but I just can't manage that into my lifestyle at the moment. Instead I drink about a pint per day or one large glass of it in the morning.

I've gotten more efficient at preparing the greens, although I still go for the same ones: spinach, collards, kale, red chard and green chard. I tend to buy two kinds per trip, a combination of a bitter, thick green with a smooth mild green. Example: this week I'm mixing collards with green chard.

Mixing it up to make it more palatable is the fruit. I totally love mangoes and you can get them cheap n frozen at Trader Joe's. I've also simply bought what's on sale, like this week it was peaches. Mango and peach taste great together!

Anyway, I've been quite proud that I've been able to maintain this new eating habit and there's just nothing like fresh fruit and raw vegetables first thing in the morning to give you lots of energy.

Thai School
This week Aidan started Thai school at the temple in Berkeley. He goes Tuesday through Friday from 10 AM til 2 PM. He's one of the only kids who utters a word of Thai to his teachers who are teaching students spending a year in the USA. It certainly helps that Golf refuses to speak to him unless it is in Thai - it has made a HUGE difference. The teachers rave about Aidan's Thai language and it certainly makes us proud!

The boy who was a bully last year has returned, much to our disappointment. But the teachers this year are more structured and more strict with the kids, plus we warned them about the bully and how he behaved last year. Today was the first report Aidan had that the bully's true colors finally showed. Took only 3 days! Aidan knows how to defend himself now and and knows to tell a teacher immediately if he is being bullied. He didn't seem upset by it when he came home today, so I feel alright about it.

New Books, New Seeds, New Website

I got a notice in my inbox the other day that my neighborhood Borders is going out of business. Kind of sad, because I love the atmosphere of a bookstore, how it smells from the coffee upstairs to that distinctive paper and ink scent. But it is just plain difficult to compete with online book retailers like Amazon, the competitive landscape is changing to that of a virtual world.

So I went in and bought some books I had on my wishlist because everything was 20% off and I have to say that I just checked on Amazon and their price is still lower than what I paid for at Borders with the discount. I mean, this is exactly why bookstores like Borders cannot compete. Plus I had to pay tax, but that may be changing soon for online retailers as well with states being so broke.

The first book I bought was (notice the irony with the link!) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond. I had his book Guns, Germs and Steel on my wishlist but since it was not in stock and Collapse was, plus it was the follow-up to GG&S, I got it instead.

In Collapse, Diamond explores the demise of once-productive societies such as the Maya, Easter Islanders and Greenland Norse. He also sounds the alarm on environmental practices undermining modern societies, including China, Russia, Australia and the United States.

It got rave reviews and so I'm going to learn a little something.

While I was there I bought Victoria Boutenko's Green for Life, on how greens and incorporating green smoothies improves your diet and overall health. It's a more detailed look into the nutrition of raw fruits and vegetables in the diet.

As a matter of fact, yesterday I made a green smoothie with two apples, half a Meyer lemon from Mom and Dad's tree, a leaf of collard greens, and about 3 large handfuls of baby spinach. Granted all that made just over a liter and I only drink half that per day. Green Smoothie Girl and Victoria Boutenko both recommend drinking a liter, but I'm not there yet.

One pint of that smoothie and a small serving of leftover brown rice and tofu for breakfast held me over til noon. Normally I have to eat a more substantial breakfast AND have a mid-morning snack because my body just gets HUNGRY during the morning and mid-day. But I didn't one pang at all, which is simply amazing.

So as I was reading Green for Life, Boutenko mentions using chia seeds as a way of getting more fiber and Omega 3 fatty acids into your diet. It also helps control your appetite when you soak the seeds and they turn into a gel because the seeds bulk up and produce a thick film around the seed. By adding 1/3 cup of seeds to a cup of water will bulk it up nicely and so you add that to your green smoothie to add lots of good fiber.

Those were all the magic words I needed to see on the page. Golf's Amazon Prime membership ends on Monday so I rushed over to see if any merchants offered Prime shipping on chia seeds. Sure enough, I found a great deal on a 3-pound bag of chia seeds and I ordered them yesterday. I plan to make chia gel and incorporate them into my smoothies, so I will tell you how it goes. Chia is supposed to not taste like anything, just act as a bulking agent to make you feel full. They do have calories though, so I cannot use too much, unlike konnyaku or shirataki, the yam noodle.

OK, lastly I want to promote my friend Benjawan Becker's new book called The Interpreter's Journal. Benjawan has taught foreigners to learn Thai and Lao over the last 15 years and in the meantime she has also been an interpreter in the northern California court system.

Follow my very personal journey starting in Thailand, the Land of Smiles. See how the influence of my family, Thai culture, Buddhism, meeting foreigners in Thailand, traveling abroad and living in the United States formed the catalyst for me to master several languages, become a professional interpreter and write numerous books on learning the Thai and Lao languages.

Her story is fascinating and inspiring. If you're interested in languages, the law, or in success stories, then The Interpreter's Journal is a good book for you.