The Final Stretch of My Magical Pregnancy

Update! Congratulations to Kristen Suzanne and her newly expanded family. Crazy Sexy Life welcomes baby Kamea into the world! Here are Kristen’s reflections during the last month of her pregnancy…

I’m full-term in my pregnancy now, so I can go into labor anytime over the next 2-3 weeks. Talk about exciting! The past month was spent preparing by doing things like interviewing pediatricians; setting up our home for a homebirth; touring the hospital where I could end up in the event of an emergency transfer; getting our car seat installed; washing my baby’s clothes and cloth diapers (we’ll be practicing EC – elimination communication – but we’ll still need some diapers as we do this); resting; rereading and printing out my birth plan for my midwife, doula, mom and mom-in-law… among other things.

This pregnancy has been magical… I wonder often, as the days count down, “Precious baby, will you be born under the warm sun or under the glowing moon? Will you be born in the water or our bed? And, the big mystery that surrounds us all… are you a boy or a girl?”

All my life, I’ve been the type of person who “wants to know.” As a girl, growing up, I always wanted to know what my birthday and holiday gifts were, days in advance. What patience has maturity brought? NONE—now I want to know months in advance! My husband takes pity on me, gives me my birthday present a month early, and then takes pity on me again by giving me something else on the actual day, insisting that every girl should get to open a present on her birthday.

My impatience goes both ways. When I give gifts to family or friends, I want them to know what it is, and I invariably make them open it early. I’ve never been patient to know the answer. Ever.

But something is different about this baby. When it comes to knowing its sex, there has been something magical about not knowing. One of the biggest gifts I’ll ever receive is finding out on the day of the birth. The cute thing is that every time someone asks me the sex of the baby and I tell them that I don’t know, the response is always the same: “Oh, how cool! No one ever does that anymore!” It’s really odd in a way, because everyone’s eyes light up when they hear that I don’t know. The response has been excitement across the board – yet almost no one else does it. Strange, that such an appealing idea is rarely considered an option anymore.

Or perhaps not so strange, in a day of such routine ultrasounds, which provide, after a certain point in baby’s development, more looky-loo photo ops for giddily curious parents than actionable medical diagnoses. You want giddy? Not knowing is the mother of all giddies.

Originally, our decision to forego ultrasounds after 13 weeks had nothing to do with keeping the sex a surprise. It was due to our desire, especially after one miscarriage, to avoid anything even remotely invasive whenever possible. Not knowing the sex emerged somewhat as a byproduct of this medical decision, and ended up becoming an unexpected source of constant, wide-eyed speculation and daily imaginings of possible futures.

Not knowing does funny things. We find ourselves imagining alternate futures. On some nights, I dream that baby is a boy; on other nights, a girl. My husband finds himself daydreaming about the distant future. Years from now, will he have a teenage daughter or a teenage son? Our minds try to guess about possible personalities, imagine scenarios like teaching him or her to drive a car, going on a first date, or seeing them off to college – without knowing the sex! The unknown stops the fictive dream abruptly, jumping back and forth between the boy version and the girl version, like alternate realities that haven’t been cast in stone yet… except that they have; we just don’t know which one it is.

Every day, multiple times a day, I place my hands on my belly and feel my baby moving throughout the day. He or she is definitely an energetic baby—our little back-flipping ninja—perhaps from all of the nutrient-rich, raw, vegan foods I eat. It’s an exquisite sensation, and it’s during these moments that I have finally learned what it means to be truly present. My baby draws me into his/her inner world, and I can’t help but tune out everything else going on around me and join my baby in what feels like his or her special form of thoughtful, deliberate communication. Yes, deliberate. It may sound crazy, but it feels like baby is actually trying to say something between all its thumping, stretching, and occasional ninja back-flipping.

I’ve enjoyed a super healthy organic vegan diet throughout my pregnancy, which included plenty of raw food. My choice of exercise has been walking, and I weigh 160 pounds as I round out 38 weeks (we estimate that I’ve gained 30-35 pounds). I look at my body in the mirror, and I’m proud of my growing belly and the healthy weight I have gained, even if there are brief moments when I don’t recognize myself or when I feel my thighs rubbing as I walk (ha!). But then I remember, and tell myself frequently, that my body is concerned at present with making a little person, and it needs supplies. I consider my booty a convenient storage place for baby ingredients.

And, courtesy of the raw vegan diet and my love of walking, I also know… the weight gain is not permanent. I miss rigorous exercise and really can’t wait to get back to it – all in good time. Being pregnant has been a gift and a joy. I’m eager to give birth, and ready whenever baby is.

Photo Credit: _Nezemnaya_

Rating the LifeForce Energy in Our Food

Over the past few decades, we at Hippocrates Health Institute have conducted research into the electrical frequency of our food and the effect that electrical charge has on the frequency of healthy cells. In conjunction with the photographic research conducted at UCLA in the mid-seventies, which measured the relative energy level in different foods, we have created a list of foods from highest to lowest in energy content.

Why are wheatgrass, edible weeds, and tropical fruits at the top of the list? Because they have the most sunlight, or lifeforce energy, in them. In this system, we recognize that all life on the planet comes from the sun. It is collected by plants in the form of ultraviolet rays, which are energy. The ratings of the listed foods are based on the radiance they contain and emit. Higher levels of food have greater radiance because their cells are capable of capturing and maintaining greater amounts of ultraviolet rays from the sun.

Five-star food (*****) indicate those with the greatest nutritional and electrical frequency available; fewer stars indicate diminished potencies and vitality. Nutritional quality and quantity are created within each plant and are determined by the amount of sun energy contained within the cell structure of the plant.

Please note that even at the lowest levels, cooked food is not mentioned because none of it registers any measurable frequency. Our research shows that cooked vegetables neither contain nor emit energy. Although dairy foods and meat do not contain radiance, both do absorb energy form the body when they are consumed. While cooked food does not contribute energy to your body, dairy and meat are even worse: they deplete your energy reserves.

The lesson to be learned from these observations is basic common sense. Those who consume the least amount of meat have the fewest incidences of man-made disease and illness, while those who consume the highest amount of meat have the most health problems. Those who consume absolutely no animal products have the fewest diseases and health problems.

Argentinians, Australians, Northern Europeans, and North Americans—the heaviest consumers of animal-based food—are also the sickest based on World Health Organization statistics on cancer, heart disease, and other maladies of the industrialized world. Ironically, these people are also among the most economically prosperous. Sadly, many of those who are neither prosperous nor carnivorous suffer at the other end of the dietary spectrum as the victims of malnutrition and starvation. As with all areas of life, what is needed is balance: Those with the means must improve their diets; those without the means must be accommodated with health-promoting food.

Using the star-rating system, you can determine what level of energy you would like to achieve. At times, one-star foods are acceptable even for people in the platinum range. The lower energy content of sprouted grain and bean preparations decelerates the metabolism, allowing for healthy weight gain in those who do no resistance exercise. People who are in the bronze or copper realms can use the four- and five-star foods to increase stamina and clarity.

Do not limit yourself or try to maintain unrealistic goals. After reading this information, many robust dreamers will say they want to live exclusively on five-star foods and remain permanently on the platinum platform. When they fail to achieve this objective, they may relinquish their hopes and sabotage their own dreams. Refined emotions, a positive self-image, constructive experience, and common sense should govern your choices.

If you never fail to do your best, you will progress securely and eventually live in a comfort zone that fits you and your life at that time. However, just because the given level is comfortable, do not get so complacent with it that you fail to constantly try to achieve higher levels of functioning or remain at the highest level once you have reached it. If you are already at the highest level, reside there with the highest level of dignity as well.

FIVE-STAR FOODS *****

Algae (blue-green; freshwater)
Algae (green; freshwater) — chlorella
Fruit, tropical (ripe, organic) — mango, papaya, pineapple, star fruit
Plants, baby (sprouted) — buckwheat, fava bean greens, peas, sunflower, sweet potato greens, wheatgrass
Sea vegetables — arame, dulse, hijiki, nori, Pacific or Atlantic kelp
Weeds, edible — chicory, dandelion, lamb’s-quarters, plantain, purslane

FOUR-STAR FOODS ****

Beans, easy to digest (i.e., beans containing fluids) — adzuki sprouts, mung beans
Coconut, green — fresh green coconut meat
Flowers, edible — chrysanthemum, nasturtium, rose, tiger lily
Fruits, succulent (ripe, organic, high energy) — citrus, kiwi, melons, nectarines, peaches, plums, pomegranates
Olives, ripe (unprocessed)
Sprouts (light by weight) and green sprouts — alfalfa, broccoli, chia, clover, garlic, onion, radish

THREE-STAR FOODS ***

Fruits, vine grown — currants, grapes, tomatoes
Grains (sprouted, with two-day germination) — all grains
Nuts — all except cashews and peanuts
Sauerkraut — green, purple, and red cabbage
Seeds (sprouted) — flax, hemp, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower
Vegetables (green, yellow, orange, purple, white, and red) — beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage (green, red), carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, garlic, lettuce (iceberg), onions (unsprouted), peas, peppers (orange, red), squash (winter), squash (yellow), string beans, sweet potatoes, yams

TWO-STAR FOODS **

Beans (sprouted) — all varieties except soy and black
Fruit (grown in northern latitudes) — apples (most), blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, gooseberries, pears (most), raspberries
Mushrooms (eaten raw) — maitake, reishi, shiitake
Root vegetables — burdock, celery, jicama, parsnip, radish, rutabaga, turnip, yucca
Whole grain preparations (raw, dehydrated living food) — bread, cereal, chips, cookies, pizza crust

ONE-STAR FOODS *

Chestnuts, raw
Grain preparations, dehydrated (stored for more than 30 days) — breads, cereals
Legumes, dehydrated — all beans except soy and black
Nuts and seeds, dehydrated — almonds, Brazil nuts, flax, hazelnuts, hemp, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios (unprocessed), pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, walnuts
Root vegetables, dehydrated — beets, carrots, jicama, sweet potatoes, yams
Salad dressings, raw vegan (prepared in a blender) — all except vinegar-and-oil dressings

People in the process of recovery from cancer, viruses, bacteria, fungus, yeast, and low-blood sugar and high-blood sugar disorders should avoid all fruit until they have completely recovered.

An excerpt from “LifeForce,” by Dr. Brian Clement

Minimizing Metabolism to Maximize Health

By Julieanna Hever, M.S., R.D., C.P.T.

We are constantly told that we need to rev up our metabolisms in order to burn calories, stay lean, and maintain health. This is completely misleading. Throughout history, scientific experiments have confirmed that animals live longer when kept on a calorie-restricted diet. We have also seen in the literature that slimmer people tend to be healthier overall. What we can extrapolate from this data is the fact that the slower the metabolism, the more slowly we age. There are several factors that have a role in this process.

One of these factors is logical: the more food you eat, the harder and more frequently the body has to digest and assimilate these nutrients. Digestion and absorption require approximately 10% of total body energy requirements, and this is energy that gets pulled from basic metabolic functions. In other words, the less time your body has to work on digestion, the more time it can focus energy on repair, healing, and other metabolic processes necessary to sustain health.

Another concept that is critical to understanding metabolism is that of free radicals. These are highly reactive compounds that are created by normal processes of living as well as from environmental stressors, such as radiation, pollution, exercise, etc… The free radical theory of aging, proposed by Dr. Denman Harman in the 1950s, states that age occurs from the damage due to free radicals over time. Ironically, the molecule that keeps us alive is the same one that ages us. Oxygen is what we require to breathe and function, and it also causes the body to deteriorate. This can be likened to the difference between an apple when it is initially cut in half and what it looks like an hour after exposure to the air (brown and mushy). This is the process of oxidation. During exercise, we consume more oxygen because of increased respiration; this increases both the effect of oxidation and the body’s exposure to free radicals, which are formed due to the excess oxygen intake. Of course, we know that exercise has limitless benefits and is critical for optimal health. Still, this is a side effect that happens to occur.

There are two tremendously powerful reasons why a whole foods, plant-based diet can counteract and slow the process of free radicalization in the blood. First, plant foods are full of antioxidants and phytochemicals that specifically target free radicals and neutralize them. Second, one of the most potent findings in slowing the process of aging and disease is the use of calorie restriction. Reducing the amount of food that is consumed suppresses the development of many diseases and increases lifespan by decreasing the damage and stress caused by oxygen. Whole, plant foods are naturally low in calories and are satiating due to their high fiber and nutrient content.

The message here is contradictory to what we are taught and to how society functions. Ultimately, to decrease your risk of most diseases and to increase lifespan, you must eat a diet that is based in whole, plant foods. To take this to the next level, it is critical to eat only as much as is truly necessary, eating only when hungry and stopping before the feeling of over-fullness occurs. Some experts recommend stopping the consumption of food at an early hour each night so that you may complete digestion before sleep and have the night to heal, recover, and fight disease processes. Instead of forcing yourself to eat because it is meal time or because others are eating, wait until your body truly feels hungry—then provide nutritious, whole, plant foods to your prepared digestive system.

Julieanna Hever, M.S., R.D., C.P.T., is a Registered Dietitian and ACE-Certified Personal Trainer who has owned To Your Health Fitness and Nutrition in Southern California for more than twelve years, practicing personal training and nutrition counseling. Julieanna counsels, writes and lectures about the miracles of plant-based nutrition. She is now an instructor for Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s eCornell Plant-Based Nutrition Certification Program. To learn more, please visit Julieanna on her website and her blog.

Overcoming Chronic Pain

Hello, Happy Healers! My name is Maria Mooney, and I am a proud, mostly raw, vegan graduate student munching and working my way toward a clinical M.S.W. in mental health therapy. Did I mention I also have a rare, progressive neurological disease, which has no known current cause or cure? It’s true! I have been blessed and cursed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a progressive neurological disease with the main symptom being chronic, burning, stinging, shooting neurological pain. Lucky me, all four limbs happen to be affected, with the most disabling pain in my lower legs and feet, and I daringly fight each day for my mobility.

While many people diagnosed with RSD/CRPS are forced to use wheel chairs, crutches, or other mobility enhancing devices, I have evaded the aforementioned and even obtained a 4.0 GPA in my first year of graduate school with Kris Carr’s raw, vegan diet, strong opiate medications (a.k.a. “leg juice”), a strong support system, and an even stronger desire to live a joyful, fulfilling life.

I picked up Kris’ documentary, Crazy Sexy Cancer, during my first hospital stay two years ago, and quickly followed suite reaping the benefits of a diet high in anti-inflammatory fruits and veggies and low in inflammation causing animal products and processed foods. This is of infinite importance for an illness where incredible swelling, which I have little to none of, is a major symptom and mobility/spirit stealer. It also provided me with a sense of empowerment that I could make a significant and strategic difference in my health, despite the grim prognosis. I could beat the odds! Not to mention, it has kept my weight low and healthy, which plays a vital role in allowing me to, well, stand at all! Think about it, the more weight a set of painful legs and feet has to bear, the worse the pain will be.

Let’s rewind several years ago to when the first signs and symptoms of RSD/CRPS developed. I was running 40+ miles a week for a division one university and was perpetually in motion. You couldn’t catch me in one place for very long, and if you did, you better have been able to keep up with me as I moved onto the next location.

As the symptoms progressed, the amount of time I could stand lessened until it became a few excruciatingly painful minutes, and not long after, I fell into a deep, reactive depression. A depression I now know is very common and quite normal for those experiencing chronic pain, but the stigma around mental illness affects a suffering individual’s access to care and, ultimately, his/her right to happiness. Chronic pain has the ability to wipe out any sense of self you possessed before and replaces it with a never-ending black hole of self-loathing and a clear disdain for life as you now know it. This is when we must enlist the help of a knowledgeable professional to bring us back to center and point us in the right direction of health and happiness.

Two years of intensive mental health therapy later, I possessed the proper and effective coping tools to deal with my altered existence, but it wasn’t until I freed myself of the notion that life is supposed to be “perfect,” without pain and suffering, that I began to really live. Once I embraced pain in my life, I could sit with it, feel it, be it for some time, ultimately, let it go, but most importantly, LEARN from it. The pain no longer had the power to ruin my days and make my decisions for me, and with that, I closed out fear and opened myself up to the healing powers of love in all of its splendid forms. Most importantly, I opened myself up to a love and acceptance for my unique, empowered self as I am in this moment, and I saw my disease as a vehicle for my personal growth and development. I discovered I have something to offer this world.

A friend once told me I was a special and unique individual, a single unicorn among many horses, and cleverly used what I now call the “unicorn analogy.” The unicorn analogy celebrates our individual uniqueness and our ability to understand that we are special, no matter what illness or burden we carry, no matter what size or color we are, and what infectious power comes with this realization. Each one of us is one of a kind, an alluringly beautiful creature, strong, wild, fierce, and impossible to tame with exceptional endurance, perseverance, and wisdom, might I add? A symbol of hope, love, and faith with an unconquerable nature! Did I mention beauty?! Inside and out. With a sharp wit that only a lucky few possess, my friend once uttered with the best of intentions, “Feel lucky you are a unicorn. They put down horses with bad legs.” And, to that, I say, “AMEN!” Embrace the uniqueness in you and share it with the world as part of your healing journey, your illness evolution, and you will touch the lives of others while self-actualizing, personally developing, and healing yourself, mind, body, and spirit. I can guarantee it. And, isn’t that the purpose of it all?

Happy Healing, Unicorns!

<3 Maria

Maria is a 25 year old, vegan graduate student living with a progressive neurological disease, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). Follow along as Maria reflects on lessons learned through her health challenges, shares her experiences with alternative and traditional treatments, and enjoys life to its fullest at her blog!

Quitting the Smokes

By Gena Hamshaw

Tell me if this sounds familiar: you’re the designated “health nut” in your circle of friends. Perhaps you’re the resident vegan; you might also be the runner who’s training for her next marathon. When you go out to dinner with friends and family, you’re the one explaining what tempeh is, or extolling the joys of raw nut cheese, or giving your companions a quick tutorial in sea vegetables.

But something’s amiss. You’ve gone this one habit—just one—that doesn’t quite jive with the others. Maybe it’s the coffee you can’t stop guzzling in the morning. Maybe it’s that extra glass or two of wine that you don’t really need. Maybe it’s the furtive non-vegan cupcake you sneak in when no one’s watching, or the pizza you ordered yesterday and immediately regretted.

Or maybe it’s the smokes.

For almost eight full years, I was the health nut with the nasty habit. I was a smoker: not a social smoker, but a full on, pack a day smoker. I smoked in with my morning coffee. I smoked when I got home from work (to “unwind”). I smoked during my lunch break. I smoked after meals. I smoked after sex. I smoked after the gym—it was my reward, I reasoned. I smoke when I was stressed, and I smoked when I was mellow. Through good times and bad, ups and downs, I smoked. And, truth be told, I relished every cigarette I ever had.

That I was also a vegetarian, and then a vegan, didn’t stop me. That I exercised daily didn’t stop me, either. That I had made those choices under the rubric of being “healthy”— my veganism was more a health choice than an ethical one—didn’t really deter me, either. The hypocrisy was not lost on me, but I just couldn’t let the damn cancer sticks go. My doctor once chuckled during a physical and asked, “how does it feel to be undoing all of the incredible things you do for your body? Because that’s what you’re doing.”

Over time, and as I began my journey into raw foods the hypocrisy became more than I could bear. I was terrified to quit: How would I end meals? How would I handle stress at the office? What would I do as I waited for people outside of restaurants? How would I occupy my hands at night?

Then I went to Mexico on an eight day yoga retreat. And for the first time in seven years, I went four days without smoking. I wasn’t trying: I was practicing three hours of yoga a day, eating mostly raw fruit and coconuts, and feeling incredible. Cigarettes simply didn’t cross my mind. When I realized how long it had been, it occurred to me that I’d gone nearly a week without nicotine. I’d never have another chance to go five days without any of my triggers: stress, deadlines, etc. So I decided to quit, right then and there.

At first, I didn’t feel so bad, and I thought that perhaps the armor of my healthy lifestyle would magically protect me from nicotine withdrawal. Then it hit me. First came quitter’s flu, the four-day ailment that mimics real flu (it’s a powerful form of detox, localized in the mucous membranes). Then came headaches: dull, unrelenting pains behind my forehead that persisted for days at a time. Then came lousy moods. Throw in trouble focusing, ravenous thirst, and erratic bursts of energy, and you get the picture: I was miserable.

But it wasn’t these nasty ups and downs that hurt the most. It was my sense of loneliness, especially at night. Many recovering alcoholics describe a dread of evenings, a fear of coming home and not being able to pour themselves a drink. As a friend who was trying to sober up once put it to me, “What will I do if I have to be alone with my thoughts?” I wasn’t afraid of my thoughts, but I did feel, suddenly, very alone. Cigarettes had been my little friends in those quiet evening hours, and I missed them.

So how did I stay the course? I wish I could offer you magical tips and tricks that helped me, but the truth is that there weren’t many. I didn’t use gum (I would have gotten addicted to that, too). I drank a lot of tea, slipped in some guilty coffee now and then (hey, it offered a healthier high than nicotine and tobacco), and relied heavily on my yoga practice. But the best motivation was the slew of improvements in my health: the brighter skin, the renewed energy, the capacity to run five miles without heaving. And the best incentive of all was my feeling that, for the first time, I could embrace my identity as a health freak honestly.

Now, a year and a half later, it seems a bit crazy to think that smoking ever figured so prominently in my life. It’s like trying to remember the intensity of being in love with someone long after you’ve fallen out of it. I still feel pangs every now and then, but for the most part, it’s ancient history. I won’t pretend it’s easy: I still have an intense nostalgia for smoking, and I struggle often with the urge to buy a pack. But fortunately—and in spite of the one or two guilty drags I’ve stolen from friends’ cigarettes in the last year—I’ve managed to remain firm in my commitment to quitting. And believe me, it’s worth it.

For all of you out there reading who struggle with smoking—or any other non-ideal habit that wages battle with your healthy ones—I urge you to do your best. I offer you no lies: quitting will be hard, and your ability to stick with it will ultimately rely on your own willpower and determination. But if you can muster your biggest reserves of strengths, I can guarantee you that a healthier, happier, and prouder future awaits.

Stick to your guns. Wherever you are, and whatever your goal is, this former smoker is cheering you from afar.