The Master Cleanse & Smoothie / Juice Fasting - Parasites??

Before Christmas I went on a 10 day Master Cleanse. I enjoy fasting and doing this every now and then to clean and clear out my system. I am a believer that everyone can benefit from fasting and cleansing their bodies in some capacity.

Day 8 on the #mastercleanse !!! Feel so amazing!!! Debating if I want to go longer than 10 days... #stomachsuperflat #flatstomach #cleanseyoubodyandmind #govegan

A photo posted by MarleynaA (@marand313) on Dec 13, 2016 at 5:57am PST

So I did this master cleanse modified of course as I usually do. Now I had some digestive issues that I have been dealing with for the past few years that I have been trying to work out. Cleansing has done wonders for me so far! Now I know that I have some things that I need to get out of my system that are being super stubborn!!

I started out drinking the lemonade without the cayenne... Why I don't know, due to the fact that I love cayenne!! One day I went ahead and added cayenne and when it was time for me to go there was what looked like RICE!!!

I went ahead and googled and yes these indicated the I have... TAPEWORMS!

Cayenne pepper is great at revealing if you have them or not. & more people have them then you would think!

Now I figured I had some anyway since I had been feeling movement in my stomach every now and then and I haven't done a full parasite cleanse in years!

Eww you say?? Yea I know... If you eat meat that is not frozen before cooking, sushi, or any meat that has not been cooked all the way through(like they love to do at many restaurants..) you probably have parasites as well.

When I lived in NYC my diet changed completely. I started eating a ton more sushi than before and eating meats that at certain restaurants were pretty questionable. I didn't even think twice about it! Although I LOVE sushi and I would continue to eat it if I was still eating fish.

However, I am not and will not ever again(at this point). No meat of any kind for me.

I believe that I have had this issue for the past few years. I have been super greedy and never feel satisfied. I want to eat 5 mins after my meal is done and stuffing myself to the point where I feel sick and cant hold anymore... Only to let some of it clear out of my stomach and eat more after a few minutes.

I did start to gain quite a bit of weight even with having a high metabolism.

I have been able to curb these horrible eating habits by doing a lot of intermittent fasting. Only eating at lunch time, which I feel is better because I am active during the day. I feel like eating right before going to bed does not help the body in any way. I lost some of the weight by doing this and am now at my happy size.

In January I went ahead and started a parasite cleanse. I ordered the NOW black walnut wormwood complex. I took this multiple times a day, every day. Not too long after I started that I ordered Diatomaceous earth and took that 1-2 times a day. 

Immediately after starting DE I saw one.... I will not go into detail. It wasn't pretty.

At this point I have taken about a week off of the parasite cleanse after a month. Yesterday I decided I was ready to commit to a fast! I could probably benefit more from doing another Master Cleanse but right now I have the mindset for a juice and smoothie fast combined with my modified master cleanse.

I believe the parasites have caused a blockage and fasting along with the parasite cleanse will hopefully clear them all out this time around.

I will be juicing or making a smoothie every morning before work. Yesterday I did a smoothie with mango, peach, banana with some flax seeds. Today I did juice with carrot, celery, cucumber, sweet potato, an apple, and a little grapefruit juice.

I had some potatoes yesterday so didnt start off horribly, but I am not completely fasting just yet. I need to do some of the 3 things I usually do to flush out my system. One I will do tonight when I get home. I am not sure if I want to incorporate the tea as of yet. The SWF I will do over the weekend first thing in the mornings.

In my last cleanse, I tried to do the SWF and they pretty much did not work. Cant really say why... Maybe whatever is in there absorbed or blocked it.

Ughh

Ok anyway!

I will be incorporating my parasite cleanse into this fast. I will also be drinking my Kombucha and Kefir for probiotics to repopulate my gut with good bacteria.

Today officially marks day one! Hopefully I make it!!! I want to continue for at least 5 days and depending on how I feel and if I am not craving more food, I will go longer. My hope is this time with incorporating juice into the cleanse and not just the master cleanse lemonade I will not be as hungry and tempted to eat! Last time it wasnt hard per se... But I just couldnt wait to be able to eat!

Wish me luck!!

(If you want me to go into detail about anything, let me know. At this point I will keep certain ick things pretty vague. lol)

Perennial Fruits & Getting Ready for a New Season - Container Garden 2017

This year I am starting off fairly early! Much earlier than last year. Its almost February and already I have seedlings emerging! 

I want to make sure this year I start off right and am able to get continued harvests throughout the season.

However right now I want to talk about my perennials. Over the last year I developed a newfound love of perennial plants. Particularly berry bushes and citrus trees!

I bought and killed 2 strawberry plants & a lemon tree all from Home Depot. They weren't in the best shape initially when I bought them. I probably could have saved them, but the strawberries had a terrible aphid infestation and the tree was dried and shriveled and only had like 2 leaves on it.

After that and watching One Yard Revolution I found Stark Bro's. I obsessively poured over their website and started out with a Pineberry, which is a white strawberry, a Heritage Raspberry and an Issia Kiwi.

After that I decided to buy more...

I bought more trees from a website that I will not name due to the fact that I have not read anything good about them and I personally had a bad experience with them. The prices were bottom dollar so I thought what the hell...

I bought Lemon, Lime, Orange, & Tangerine trees, 2 Pomegranate bushes and a Cherry tree. I also bought 2 Hazelnut trees, and an Almond tree. All three of the nut trees arrived dead and some of the others died not too long after. I will be requesting replacements soon due to the fact that they do offer a 1 year warranty. That is probably the only good thing about this company. Although the process for getting replacements is horrible & nonsensical. We will see how that goes when I send in my request.

After that I went back to Stark and bought Concord Grape, Boysenberry, and Cranberry plants!! Definitely doing too much.. But I still want more!!

I then bought a Caper plant from a seller on eBay. This one plant in particular is proving to be pretty difficult... All the advise around on how to take care of it pretty much confuses the shit out of me since it goes against all I know. I have experience with Aloe Vera and other cactus, but this one baffles me!

Hopefully I will figure it out soon without killing it off completely.

I started some seeds in my seed tray. For some reason I have a bit of an aversion to using it. I prefer to start them in individual planters or larger cell seed trays.

I planted quite a few seeds in each cell so that I would get a few of each plant and be able to pick and choose the best plant start to keep. I do not want to grow more than a few of each of these.

As they grow from the seed tray I will remove the best ones and repot into a re-purposed water bottle. We drink a lot of Aquafina and I thought this would be a great way to up-cycle the bottles before recycling them. Each plant will get its own bottle to live in until it gets big enough to be put into one of the 7 gallon grow bags I bought,

Today, I will be planting all my tomatoes, peppers, melons, and things of the like. This way they will have the best start and I will be able to get fruit much sooner than I did last year!!

The melons in particular take much longer for the fruit to ripen. I did get seeds that grow smaller melons just so I would be able to enjoy growing them in my relatively short growing season in NY. I have never grown them before so this will be something new & exciting!!!

These all will go directly into the water bottles and will sit in the windows in my sun room until they are ready to go outside!

This year I do plan to keep a much better vlog on the things going on in my garden. I will have much more time to dedicate to it as well. Looking forward to my 2017 growing season!!

I'm excited!

Racism and the Political Atmosphere - Thinking Out Loud Thursday *31*

I wrote this a few months ago and never posted it... I think I should stop censoring my posts...


So I haven't posted a Thinking Out Loud in quite some time!! October, 2013 to be exact!!!

I thought I would revive this series and see if I could expand upon it in some way. We will see about that...

I wanted to talk about the political atmosphere in this presidential election. On one hand we have Hilary Clinton who I will be 100% voting for!! I wanted to make that clear first and foremost. I am absolutely a Bernie Sanders supporter and would love to have him as my president. I do hope he runs again in the future. However I have always supported Hilary and she definitely is next in line after Obama.

Clinton has from what I have seen quite a few "haters" as I would like to put it. There are so many people that are so far against Hilary Clinton that they would prefer to have a moron running the county into the ground, the same with his own businesses - emphasis on the plural.

I would much rather live in a county where we are building each other up everyday than tearing each other down with hate and fear mongering. This world where it is OK to hate each other based on nothing more than appearance or religion will be even more pronounced with that racist bigot in the white house.

We as a people must spend more time developing each other and attempting to make each other better in some way, instead of the opposite!

All this hate and drama that goes on is not good for our future and our children's future. My question is how can you hate someone who has never done anything to negatively affect you?? How can you make assumptions and discriminate against someone without any substance behind said assumptions??

How do you try to ban an entire race or religion with the concept that they are ALL bad!! There are bad people from all walks of life. Bad does not designate itself to where someone comes from, or the color of their skin!!

I was watching CNN a while back and there was an ignorant commentator who stated that black people get arrested more because they commit more crimes. That is complete and absolute bullshit that he and people who think like him are just to blind to open their eyes and see!!

I have witnessed first hand where someone of a lighter complexion would get away with a crime Scott free whereas someone of a darker complexion would get the book thrown at them. People have this preconceived subconscious notion that darker skin equates to criminal, bad, belongs in jail, ect...

Just look at all the media that surrounds all these shootings! A man walks into a church and guns down several people. He lives to stand trial. A child in a park with a BB gun, shot dead on sight!!

A man upset leaves dinner and murders an innocent couple and eats their face. The cops say he "was a good kid". Obviously not!!!

They paint these monsters as anything but that, and label these unarmed black men, women, and children who are gunned down as thugs, heathens, and criminals!! Attempting to justify their over use of force and prejudice!

When people assume that racism isn't a thing when they have never experienced it first hand its a problem. It is even bigger than people would like to believe. If you put someone in a box and assume the worst of them how can they show you that they are better?? Especially when you choose not to look and prefer to ignore.

I was watching a clip where a white man basically told a black man that his experiences of racial oppression were of his own making and that people of color need to stand on their own 2 feet. The black man completely shut his thought down stating that due to the fact of how this country was stolen from the Native Americans, how Africa, Australia, Asia stared with only people of color that white men are standing on the backs of all of those they have stolen from & who they feel are beneath them! Including white women!

To expand on my previous thoughts...

This rings true on so many levels for the tone of this election. It is sad that we are going through this again today and that people are coming out of their racist closet thinking it is ok to be this way.

Electing Donald Trump can possibly be the worst or the best thing that Dumb America could have done. Worst case scenario is he gets us into a war somewhere, revokes Roe v Wade, Gay Marriage, and Obamacare, as well as all the other things that this country needs. Best case he actually does not do any of the crazy shit that he ran on and actually acts like a good president. (Unlikely)

Either way I hope that this election has taught people that they just cant sit at home on election day or any other day that will define our country and lives in some way. You have to stand up for what you want and what you believe in.

If you don't other people will and their agenda will be pushed, while yours is pushed aside...

Get out there and vote on big and small elections.

Stand up for what you believe in!! As long as what you believe in is just.

Hatred and bigotry should not be what we show towards one another!

Respect and understanding will get us much farther than we ever could imagine. Would be nice, wouldn't it...

The Vegan lifestyle is so hard!! - Let go of whatever is holding you back

Changing my lifestyle has not been very complicated at all! I mean in terms of going from a meat eater to only chicken & fish, then only fish, then vegetarian, and finally vegan.

The longest transition for me was going full vegetarian. Only because of the abundance of food always around at my job! There was always something around to eat. I made it a point to not even look at & consider eating the meat and once I had that in my mind it was pretty much set.

At home, it is much easier. I simply do not buy meat!! And now I am not buying any animal products period! No meat, milk, cheese, or eggs. I never really did honey...

Since I have found #Aquafaba I especially have no need for eggs. The only thing that is somewhat missed is the cheese. I have not spent a lot of time looking for alternatives as of yet but I will make it a point to do so next time I head to the grocery store.

A whole new world opened up for me since going Vegan. Now I can eat and not worry about where my food came from or if it will cause me or my kids our health in some way. I can eat knowing that no other living thing is being harmed in the process.

People who have never thought about being vegetarian or vegan have such a negative idea about what it is. And my biggest issue with it is why on earth would someone ever be against someone actually eating their veggies!!

When my father found that I converted my sister to vegan he started out with the negativity. I said to him eating vegan is the same as we usually eat just take out the meat. Having grown up with him cooking many almost vegetarian-ish meals, it was not hard to understand. He then said to me "I never could get her to eat her vegetables." Well grandpa!! Now she is!!

All I had to do was show her a video of what happens to the animals on the farm. It wasn't even a super graphic one!!

Once you let go of the idea that you CANT eat like this, everything else is out the door!!

Once you open your mind to finding ways to cook without meat, milk, eggs, and cheese, you will find a whole new world of possibilities that you never would have known!!!

Being vegan is not hard!!

Being vegan is not expensive!!

Being vegan does not take up any more time than eating a SAD(Standard American Diet) does!!!

I never really ate a SAD diet but now when I am walking through the store and I see someone picking up a couple pounds of bacon I cringe and all I can picture are their clogged arteries, heart disease, and all the other issues they have because of their poor eating habits.

The time to start eating healthy is now! If you are thinking about it, let go of whatever it is that is holding you back from doing so!! Do it now! Start now!

If you cant make a conscious effort to do it yourself, no one will do it for you.


Love,
Mars

Vegan Lifestyle?? - Transitioning kids from Vegetarian to Vegan!

Over the past year I have transitioned from being a meat eater to vegetarian. I had always known that was the best way to be and I had already cut out beef and pork from me and my children's diet. We still ate chicken, turkey, and seafood up until earlier this year when I stopped buying any and all kinds of meat. I still bought milk, eggs, cheese, and yogurt until recently and not 100% when I will stop entirely.

I recently started back with an almost daily yoga practice. Something that I have loved to do for years but never did more than once a month after initially starting. In doing yoga and following tons of yogis on Instagram, I came across many, many vegan yogis.

The other day I posted my lunch on Instagram, featuring broccoli, cauliflower, and avocado. It was delicious I must add. I always hashtag myself as #WannabeVegan and a friend of mine commented. It made me realize that I have rarely eaten cheese and have not brought milk into the house for weeks!!

I was subconsciously transitioning to vegan!! So I might as well make it a conscious effort like I did with being vegetarian.

My 18 year old sister didn't really get the point of vegetarian or vegan lifestyles and my kids got it but they were not 100% there yet. I decided to show them the films that made me want to change my eating habits completely in hopes that they would want to change as well.

This past Saturday I started them on Vegucated. This documentary follows 3 New Yorkers who went vegan for 6 weeks. During that time they were also educated about the meat industry and how cruel and inhumane the animals are treated. That alone was enough to open my sisters eyes and make my kids not ask for cow milk anymore.

I had been buying almond and coconut milk and they claimed to not like it. I went to Trader Joes and got soy and rice milk as well to see how they felt about those and I think they are happy with the Vanilla Almond and Coconut milk!! Yay!!

I also stocked up on tons of beans, fruits, and veggies for everyone to eat. I more so lean towards a high carb vegan/vegetarian lifestyle. One thing about this so far is that there are times where I cant control what the kids eat. My kids go to school and there are lunches provided. They also hang out with their friends who do not eat like we do at home. They can ask for salad at school or bring lunch from home, but I can not say that they are absolutely not eating what is being served. And often the salads have ham and cheese of top.

Although, I would love for them to be completely vegan all the way around, I am not militant about it. The other day my daughter went to a birthday party where they had pepperoni pizza and wings, and sausage and eggs for breakfast. I made sure she went there with a watermelon, strawberries, grape juice, whatever she wanted to take, just so she could have the healthy options. I am sure she ate the pizza as well as everything she brought along.

I find that kids are very open to things like this and if they say they don't like veggies then they are eating the wrong ones! Its all about preparation. I find that most veggies taste better if they are cooked just until al dente OR NOT AT ALL. You don't want mushy broccoli! Your kid wont eat it! But if its cooked just right with the right amount of seasoning, they will love it!!

I do not buy any meat at all and I will not be buying anymore milk or cheese either. I do need to find good brands of fake cheese and yogurt though... I just love it too much to completely let it go.

My kids love veggies because they have been exposed to them since birth. If you assume your kid doesn't like veggies and therefore do not give them on a regular basis or only give them in very small portions then how do you expect for you kid to like them??

I have always cooked with meat being a small part of the meal. It was actually quite easy to get rid of it completely! Why do meals have to be centered around meat??

I have successfully been eating vegan  off and on for a while now and have been consistent for a few weeks! I might have had cheese once a week or 2 ago. I am not 100% if I will ever be completely all around vegan, but I will try to get as close as I can.

Chobani, chocolate, and my leather/suede shoes are not out the door just yet. Although I will probably not be buying anymore leather or suede I am definitely not getting rid of anything that I already own. Not yet anyway...(Read: Expensive!)

The Chobani I have cut down on how often I buy it, but I cant say how I will feel next time I walk past it in the store. :)

Best wishes to all the vegetarians, vegans, and wannabe vegans out there!!