Vegan Bags and How to Find Them (it's harder than truffle hunting, really!)

I really don't want anybody else's skin in my life. My own is more than enough. They call it leather, nubuk, suede, but whatever you call it - I don't want it. I used to be more ignorant than I'm now, so I used to love it, but not anymore. Someone died for it, for god's sake. Nobody deserves to die so that another bag can be made. Not even a beautiful, gorgeous cultish Chanel bag!

I stopped eating meat quite a while ago and have been really good about it, despite may travels and staying in different parts of the world, often with no vegan restaurants around. If people on my life don't know vegan - I cook for them and they get easily converted. So my experience  helped me realize that "I travel so I cannot be vegan" is not a valid excuse. It's very difficult at times, true, but not impossible.

But how about "I want to look good and wear designer clothes but don't want to buy real leather"? Turned out it's way more difficult than eating vegan... Leather is everywhere. It sneaks upon you from every corner of your fancy existence.
It was pretty easy to eliminate leather from my closet - leather and suede pieces sell great on eBay and there are wonderful non-leather options like cotton, linen and wool always available from millions of great retailers (I won't argue with strict vegans here, sheep also suffer a great deal getting cut during wool collection and destroyed after their production cycle is over, but let's keep wool for now). I don't really like to wear synthetic fibers, they don't agree with my body, so this is another limitation but still there are lots of options.

The huge grey concrete wall appeared in front of me when I decided to choose a nice, fashionable purse and shoes to match.

I did preliminary scanning at Saks and Barneys. The only non-leather decent looking bags were super tiny clutches, and they couldn't even contain iPhone 6. Is it a bag for a lipstick maybe? But where will I put my phone, let alone wallet?

I decided to continue searching online since the scope is much vaster. But I was disappointed again...

Of course there are those veterans of vegan fashion like Stella McCartney but her vegan bag designs are crazy, unbelievably expensive. If she promotes veganism, why doesn't she make vegan bags accessible to the general public? Come on Stella - we need you! And we need your awesome bags but for a fraction of their current price. Make a cheaper label of cool bags for us (not the sporty one but a real nice baggy bag one). I refuse to pay more than $300 for a purse. Markups have to justify the existence of a business but hey, what's more important, principles or a dollar note?..

I like chic beautiful bags. I love tiny classical YSL and Chanel chain crossbodies, edgy rocker backpacks by younger generation of designers, iconic Paco Rabanne masterpieces and Chloe purses that are as cute as a button and represent beautiful craftsmanship at the same time. I also love sleek minimalistic designs of Margiela and Anne Demeulemeester, and that whole weird Belgian design direction but for some reason they all love leather! My favorite shoes of all time are calfskin slip-ons with rubber soles by Margiela, and I refuse to give up on them. I still wear them.... But I also refuse to buy new leather stuff.

I dislike cheesy fashions. Bags that look like they belong in Chinatown. I cannot look at Coach bags without a cringe. I never owned a logo Louis Vuitton bag or Tory Burch flats with that huge ugly golden thing on top because in my world they have no right to exist. Which makes my search even harder.

I want neither a simple cheap cloth bag, nor a conceptual fabric tote for a purse because I love bag pockets and can never find anything if it's not organized inside a bag. So all the colorful new age'y and Indian bazaar bags sink into oblivion together with totes. I need a functional bag that won't destroy my spine and would allow freedom to my hands, I already have a vegan tote by V73 (vegan leather bottom is failing shamefully, and the little lock in front has broken off - all after less than a month, ugh)

, a shopper and I don't need another one. It is too uncomfortable for me to carry a bag on one shoulder: if i have a big bag I usually stuff it, so the new one cannot be a purse or a shoulder bag. It should be either tiny - just for phone and wallet, so there is no temptation to stuff it - or a bigger backpack that looks cool. Really cool.

I want to succeed on my quest to find a beautiful vegan bag and vegan shoes to match, but I'm almost ready to give up... majority of vegan bags out there are made in China of fake leather- that ugly cellophaney material with bad crooked stitching and bulging zippers. There are some nylon and neoprene bags that look awesome but most of them are black, and I stopped buying black at about the same time I stopped eating meat...

I assume it's difficult to make a bag out of faux leather look expensive and cool. Otherwise why aren't all the bag manufacturers happily making them and avoiding dealings with toxic leather production? Or maybe that's the question they're not ready to ask themselves, stuck in the belief that leather is the end-all, and that they would lose their craftsmanship if leather trade stops. They're just not ready to diversify. There are generations of bag makers in Italy and other European countries who've been studying their craft for years, and I'm sure are making a very good stable living out of it... For some reason, leather is deeply associated with luxury. Same as expensive perfume, gold and cashmere. It's a symbol of permanence and durability on the physical level, and a desire to possess another living soul on the deeper subconscious level... But I want to believe that we live in an era of nanotechnologies where people fly to space and do microsurgeries on eyes and brain... if anything, barbaric leather use has no place in the new world. New fabrics are ample, and I want to vote for them with my dollar.

After many hours of research in front of the computer screen, with eyes red and maniac-ingly staring into the purse abyss, I finally had an enlightening moment. I decided that there are several directions to go.

For a backpack, find a simple but edgy looking one in neoprene or nylon. This fabric has sleek and sophisticated look if used by a good design house, isn't expensive but is very sturdy. I found a beautiful Courreges white backpack. Courreges, an old French design house, should provide impeccable quality, and the design matches my aesthetic. So I'm done with the "big one" - my new backpack.

For a small one, I decided to go with some fun and funky designs that are not extremely expensive. I won't go for high end stuff like Stella or MSGM yet - maybe one day I will get lucky and find a vegan gem on sale. But for now, I decided to get a corky faux fur clutch and some funky conceptual crossbody.

I found faux fur clutches in different candy colors in Topshop, and a really fun colorful little crossbody by Manish Arora.

The search continues...

Enlightenment - the Express Method

Many people (especially hardcore, goal-oriented Russians:) have been asking me about spiritual growth (a heavily abused term, but what to do), 7 bodies, enlightenment and particularly "how to reach there fast and painlessly". They read nonsensical books written by people who have little, if any at all, understanding of the process, go to their seminars, network, get very inspired, start practicing a cocktail of different techniques borrowed from different masters, following several sometimes incompatible paths and happily sharing their findings. When they start having problems or feel they are stuck somewhere but not necessarily knowing where, and realize all their accumulated knowledge doesn't get them where they want to be, they get very upset because they know so much already! I usually try not to say anything unless asked, but even when asked, I still don't feel like offending them with my opinion, though oftentimes they do get offended: spiritual ego is the strongest and trickiest of all! It takes open mind (or rather heart) to realize it's not about knowledge; if you know everything about atom power but you are, for example, stuck in a snow cave and don't know how to dig snow, you will die of hunger - just because your grand knowledge is not applicable to the situation. It's completely useless where survival instincts are the most important. 



Growth is like that: you may know the entire Encyclopedia Britannica by heart but when a moment comes, all knowledge fades away and there is only one thing left: whether you're ready to jump, to trust your heart, to give up all for nothing...

Most self-proclaimed gurus (non-enlightened humans who decide to teach others how to get where they have never been) just don't have any idea and say you can get there without any 
sacrifice: just pick the most powerful techniques from this master and that master, practice them together and you will be "there" in no time. I've been witnessing a horrendous misfortune that happened due to this approach: an amazing human being who is very close to me got split in half doing exactly that. And there is nobody to blame: he wanted fast results and - voila! - got fast schizophrenia...

"Gurus" can talk all they want, and promise lots of wonderful things, including express-delivery of enlightenment right into your ajna chakra, but if they have not reached, they can't possibly know what to do in order to reach... leave alone teaching others! Will you listen to a 400lb fitness instructor (if he's not 400lb of bone&muscle of course)? He hasn't lost weight yet, hasn't done it, hasn't achieved any results, so how can he teach others?... Another scenario is when a guru has reached somewhere (most probably a very attractive place; a place you want to be at - acquired some powers, extrasensory abilities of the 4th body) but not the Ultimate; he got stuck there and is now trying to convince others that it's the final destination. 

Watch The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowski - he has some striking (and even funny) characters stuck at the bottom of the Mountain...the whole array of them, from first (physical) to the highest bodies - and I won't be surprised if he got inspired by real "gurus" while creating them. 

Theory or philosophies don't help here - one must walk the walk. And the only criterion that works here is whether one has transcended.

I will be harsh now, but here is my point: if a person has not reached the state of the Ultimate, don't waste your time reading what they have to say about the Ultimate. Rather, read or listen to enlightened masters and practice their [PURE] techniques. Without mixing anything. Without adding your own. Trust me, they have a way broader perspective than your or my comparative mind can ever muster. They've been there, they've done it, they have a method to get there. 
Walking this path on your own, without a Master, is like climbing Mount Everest without a map: it will be as hard to achieve for you as it was for the first enlightened man! A Master who has been there is offering you a map from the point of view of the apex, so he's offering the true and proven method. Now, imagine you're using several maps while climbing: you will get so confused and waste so much more time... Or if you use a map that leads to a beautiful valley rather than the top: so you will reach the valley, you might even enjoy it, but was it your initial intent? 

True Masters are few, and many of them have not uttered a word (just graced disciples and devotees with their holy presence) but there are several beings who have both transcended and left us a priceless legacy of wisdom and modus operandi. Masters of this caliber come once in a thousand years, and are often hard to understand for their contemporaries, but at least it's worth a try. If you are really interested in your growth, accept a Master into your life. Without a Master the road is unpredictable and oftentimes dangerous, if not lethal. You will be surprised how different it feels to be looked after by an Awakened One, especially when your Master is not in the physical realm.

I have only seen glimpses of the beyond, but am happy to have a wonderful enlightened master Osho to guide me, to prevent pitfalls, to move me away from misleading, though often very tempting, directions.



And, most importantly, from wasting my time and energy on express methods. Humans tend to judge everything, including enlightened beings. They assume that they have a better perspective: comparing teachings of several masters, picking and choosing from the wealth of their heritage. I, as a very curious and somewhat nerdy human being, too, like to study everything new and exciting, but mysteriously, through books, discourses, unexpected communications and sometimes even my husband, the Master shows what's true and what's not, and helps to identify mirages in the desert. Which, unfortunately, are plenty.




Here is what Osho said about fast results for the unprepared:

"So if suddenly by chance a person happens to be in a state in which the grace can descend on him or a sudden situation is created in which shaktipat happens to him without a medium, then there is every possibility of his freaking out or becoming insane. The energy that has descended on him may be too much and his capacity to hold it too little; hence he can be completely shattered. Then unknown, unfamiliar experiences of joy become painful and unbearable.

It is as if a man used to staying in darkness for years is suddenly brought out into the daylight: the darkness will deepen all the more and he will not yet be able to see the light of the sun. His eyes were accustomed to seeing in the darkness, so they cannot stand the glare of light and will close.

So sometimes it happens that such a situation can come about within you in which the unlimited energy of grace can descend unknowingly on you; but its effect can be fatal, destructive, if you are not ready. You have been caught unawares so the happening can turn into a disaster. Yes, grace can also become harmful and destructive.
In the case of shaktipat the chances of accident are very few, almost nil, because there is a person who is functioning as a medium, as a vehicle. Passing through a medium the energy becomes gentle and mild, and the medium can also regulate the intensity of the energy. He can allow only that amount of energy to flow into you which you can hold. But remember, the medium is only a vehicle and not the source of this energy.
So if a person says that he is doing shaktipat, that he is doing the transmission of the energy, then he is wrong. It would be just like the bulb declaring that it is the giver of light. Because the light is always emitted through the bulb, the bulb may be deluded that it is the creator of light. This is not so. It is not the primal source of light but merely a medium for its manifestation. So a person who declares that he can perform shaktipat is under the same illusion as the bulb" (In Search Of The Miraculous, Vol.2 p.3).

SEVEN HUMAN BODIES: #1: PHYSICAL BODY: Discipline or Celebration?

WHY PURIFY

The thinner and purer the first (physical) body gets, the easier it is to access our higher bodies. It is virtually impossible for an alcoholic, a drug addict, a maniac or such to work on their higher bodies, since the physical addiction will require the entire energy the body can possibly accumulate to feed that addiction or mania. And the body needs a lot of energy to jump to the next level of consciousness.
The more physicality and "baggage" the body accumulates - the less possible it is to reach higher levels. Thus all the body purifications, veganism, detoxifications, and abstaining from toxic and gross substances like alcohol, drugs, meat, heavy metals, to start with.

Osho has spoken about physical purity at the very beginning, in the 60s and 70s, but once he became more popular among foreigners he switched his focus from physical body purity to global problems, human emotions and relationships. Why is that? In the very beginning, when Osho had just a few disciples, there was no need to work on their worldly problems: they were already ready for serious work, individually hand picked, and their relationships with the world have already been worked through. They were not striving for anything more than enlightenment. 

When Osho became more popular in the world, all kinds of people started to get attracted, seeing the "success" of the first disciples; most of them were not ready for the trip towards the ultimate; they were still preoccupied with the world, interested in the worldly possessions and relationships, and for the most part not ready at all to drop every attachment. To manage those people, to bring them closer to themselves, to help them become happy and fulfilled would not be possible if Osho put them on a rigorous monk routine. Most of them would simply run away! Needless to say that the whole Osho concept of Zorba the Buddha started to shape around that: a human who lives happily in the world, makes money, celebrates life and moves towards meditativeness and awareness. And to live happily in the society a human has to deal with the relationships with that society, not purify himself to such a degree that he or she cannot stand the society or any other impurity anymore... So, most Osho sannyasins took body purification and purity as something petty, unnecessary; celebrating life, often with alcohol and drugs, abundant sex, and taking everything they could from life... 

Portland Book Review

Why is it that Osho's old disciples, the ones who have received the esoteric teaching about seven bodies in the 60s and early 70s, are the ones still revered in Osho realm, and most later disciples, especially westerners, who conduct therapy groups and Osho activities, are still full of ego and weaknesses? Could lack of purity be the reason? Why in a human mind, even the mind of a sannyasin, celebration, toxic substances and overeating often go hand in hand? Why can't we learn to celebrate life just living, dancing, singing, being happy to be alive, without a glass, a plate or a smoke? It's socially accepted to share substances with friends, but when one seriously works on their energy, isn't it enough to just exchange energy with others?

I've seen many well-known therapists in Pune and around the world who, after completing a meditation camp or a deep, healing therapy group celebrated that very completion with alcohol and meat, looking utterly unaware and driven by desire. How come people who meditate almost daily for many years and do a lot of psychotherapy are so "un-enlightened"?
I've been asking myself this question for a long time until discovering 2 Osho books - The Psychology of the Esoteric and In Search of the Miraculous. Both of them consist of early Osho talks translated from Hindi. Osho hasn't spoken on esoteric topics in English mostly because the questions he'd been asked by westerners were of a different realm and not about the step-by-step bodywork on the road towards spiritual opening. The topics covered in these 2 books are mind-blowing and completely opposite of how the standard western mind understands Osho.

Inspired by the books, work and experiments we have conducted on ourselves, we decided to start a new project -"7 BODIES"- to help seekers understand the necessity and extreme importance of tactical work on all our accessible bodies. And the more we work on our grosser bodies, the more access we get to the subtler ones. This is serious work, but Osho taught to do it playfully, and to be non-serious about serious things. That helps to remain juicy, not to lose joy of living while working on ourselves. Osho looked at yogis, Buddhist monks and other "serious" spiritualists and decided this is not the way for his sannyasins. That's why he advised his followers to sing, dance and meditate doing so. It is way more difficult than sit for years in a private cell, because distractions and temptations are plenty, but this path would work out a lot of unresolved issues and "hooks" (attachments) and sky-rocket anyone who is pure-heartedly stepping onto it.

ALL OUR BODIES ARE CONNECTED.
When I started to meditate intensively, my body pretty soon denied alcohol and animal products without any effort from my side. Literally, one morning it told me "enough is enough", and I never went back since. This was another proof for me that different bodies within us are connected, and are much wiser than "us", or what we think to be "us".

When one works on their bodies, meditates and purifies, the physical body becomes more sensitive and starts to communicate its needs much better to the mind. And if one listens to their body, it becomes very easy to understand the truth about it. Not the needs imposed on us from the outside, but the actual truth about nutrients, vitamins, nourishment, liquids, physical touch, beauty, emotional connections and love, as well as poisons, heavy metals, toxins, impure foods and polluted air. Our bodies have collected millions of years of unconscious experiences and wisdom, and we will gain access to that information only if we become less gross / more subtle. To explain how to do that - is the whole purpose of our project called 7 BODIES.

Sprout: A Cheap and Easy Super Food

Today in the gym a lady asked me about sprouting seeds. She was extremely interested since she never heard of micro greens before, but at the same time was thinking, why bother? Her logic was, if, for example, sprouted radishes taste the same as the vegetable itself, why not just buy radishes ? Why bother sprouting?

The difference between sprouted seeds and fully grown vegetables is the same as between a newborn baby and a 70-year-old man: in essence they're the same person, but are they?...
The first ever nutritional study of microgreens was done in the summer of 2012 by the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland ,^[1] indicating promising potential that microgreens ... have particularly high nutritional value compared to mature vegetables. (source: Wikipedia)

Sprouted seeds are like a vitamin and micro element explosion: they give us maximum of what healthy food can give - a super concentrated cocktail of goodness and newly born energy. Superfood at its best. The livelihood of micro-greens is insane. At times I can even hear them singing :)






A little bit of science: 
Seed -> sprout -> micro green 

-> baby green -> grown plant

When a seed is dormant, it has a lot of starch (fuel for the possibility of growing). When the seed "wakes up", it finally starts using that starch and transforms fuel into nutritional goodness. Composition of the seed changes completely, and all the "bulk" becomes supercharged with vitamins and energy. It's like burning fat and transforming it into energy for a 26-mile marathon. The sleepy 

giant is finally awake!

When the root and the first pre-leaves (cotyledons) show up from the hull, the germinated seed is turning into a sprout; when sprout grows the first pair of real leaves, it is turning into a micro green (microgreen) and is becoming a plant (1” to 1½” including the stem and leaves). If it grows even further, it becomes a "baby plant" - small and juicy (that's what most fancy salads are made from: baby arugula, baby spinach, baby kale, other baby greens...)


How To Sprout?
The most important here is to get high quality organic sprouting seeds. You can sprout regular supermarket raw seeds and beans/legumes as well, almonds, quinoa, alfalfa - you can sprout pretty much any raw seed or nut that tastes good to you. Some seeds are not regularly sold as a meal but taste great when sprouted so i buy my radishes, mustard seeds, alfalfa and such at Johnnyseeds.com - he has a wide selection of affordable organic seeds, and they grow very well. This store is also not bad at all.

You can find sprouting directions all over the Internet, but here are great detailed instructions for each species. In a nutshell, nothing can be easier: you just put seeds in a bowl, jar, sprouting tray or any other no-leak container and completely cover with filtered water. 
Next day drain the water (you can use a strainer, mesh lid, muslin), wash your seeds and keep them covered. High quality fresh seeds start sprouting almost immediately - my buckwheat usually sprouts the next day, but it also depends on the kind of seed. Most seeds germinate on day 2-7, so if you're making a seed medley, try to combine the seeds that germinate at about the same time.  If you buy special seeds for sprouting/microgreening, the sprouting time is usually stated on the baggy. 

It's important to use filtered water in everything you're going to eat, especially sprouts and microgreens... If you wonder why, read here.

Cute Bioset Germinator Kit

There are some really cute and easy sprouting kits, like this one for example, or the one in the picture (if you buy a sprouting kit, directions on growing will be included).
Be careful, do not allow your seeds to ferment or rot - it can cause poisoning. To keep the seeds fresh, wash them daily (twice a day in warm seasons/climates) and since they have a tendency to get smelly. To prevent that, you can keep your sprouts in a fridge. If they do get smelly and slimy and washing doesn't help, and you feel like there is no way you can eat anything that stink so bad even after you wash them, just plant them instead and eat as baby greens a couple of weeks later. Protect your seeds from fruit flies (they love sprouts!) - cover the container with muslin or a lid with tiny halls.

Microgreens
Growing microgreens is easy and rewarding: microgreens taste almost exactly the same as the final fruit/vegetable, especially flavorful kinds like radishes, sunflower seeds, russian reds and mustards. So it's easy to have an array of flavors and  greens in less than 10 days. You can grow micro greens either hydroponically (without soil) or with soil. The first method is obviously less messy, but the soil planting will give you a feeling of a "real" garden, even in winter. Some species (like sunflower seeds) can only grow in soil, some prefer hydroponics, so read directions for every specific plant.

theheartskitchen.com recipe

Sprouted seeds start changing taste from nutty to greeny, salady as soon as the sprout develops chlorophyll and becomes green (turns into a micro green). If you like to keep the taste of the original seeds, eat them while the sprout is small and white. Keep them away from sunlight.

Enjoy your seeds and greens in salads, as decoration to main dishes, as a garnish, in smoothies or shakes, or even as a main dish itself. I often eat them bare and raw - they're flavorful enough to give you a full taste satisfaction! - or cook them for a "real" course. 
My most favorite "cold" (raw) recipe rocks white sprouted chick peas (garbanzo beans), nutritional yeast, sunflower oil and soy sauce mixed together as a salad. 

My almost-daily meal

The hot favorite of all times includes quinoa, lentil and buckwheat medley grown for 3-5 days mixed with  chopped baby zucchini, baby kale, chard & spinach sprinkled with soy sauce, olive or coconut oil and a dash of dried shredded seaweed, nutritional yeast, turmeric powder, freshly ground black pepper and sizzled on high heat for a couple minutes.

Do you sprout? Let me know in the comments where you buy your seeds, which container you use and what your favorite sprouting flavor is.

I JUST LOVE JUNK FOOD TOO MUCH: the story of my veganism

A road of a thousand miles starts with one single step. 

Buddha

I grew up in Communist Russia, and by the time the first McDonald's came to Moscow, I was in my late teens. People were queueing around the block, and it took several hours to get your serving of fries. Together with Pepsi Cola (another killer poison, by the way), it was a symbol of our generation, a symbol of freedom, the symbol of the end of life in an informational aquarium, where you were fed what the authorities wanted you to eat. We finally were given a choice! And oh yeah we were choosing!
Along with BMW's, Mercedes600s, flashy designer clothes that quickly invaded the post-Soviet space, McDonald's occupied its niche. Because of this historical background, it had always been treated with great reverence in Russia, and by the time we found out how crazy unhealthy it was, we were already hooked. The taste and texture of french fries, chicken nuggets and filet'o'fish will live in our subconsciousness for ever....

I'm happy that by the time McDonald's invaded my life I'd stopped eating red meat. I was a red meat addict before that, and at age 12 started to suffer from it physically. I would scream at my mom if there was no meat on my plate... Enough is enough! That had to stop, even at a tender age 12, living in a communist country with no concept of healthy nutrition, my body knew that and started to protest... So I'm kinda blessed that I have never tasted a meat burger in my life. Nevertheless, I stuffed myself with lots of other garbage.

I started to substitute red meat with lots of bread, pasta, Chinese noodles (another huge favorite) and other fast food - a common mistake of people who stop eating animal products. Eating vegetables is more difficult, more time consuming; they rot fast, they need to be washed and chopped, and when you're constantly on the go the easiest of all is to munch on a turkey sandwich or buy fast food on the go...which I did, I must confess, for quite some time. When I lived in Moscow, McDonald's was on my way from work, and I stopped there almost every day (the Tretyakov Gallery was also on the same route but I went there only once in several years when friends came to visit from abroad).

Vadis Turner: Fast Food Quilt

Once I moved to the USA, I kept frequenting fast foods of all sorts: Dunkin' Donuts for hash browns (Oh those hash browns! I miss you more than anything in the world!) and chocolate goodness with cream inside; Chipotle for chicken burrito (2,000 calories per burrito, anyone?); Subway (the veggie patty foot-long); my good ol' friend McDonald's (fries, chicken nuggets, filet'o'fish); etc, etc... Starbucks became my second home: I had a huge coffee with milk (or latte) every morning, and a marshmallow square or some other pastry to go along with my Grande. Otherwise I couldn't function. Healthy vegetarian diet, eh?

I wish... At some point, I felt dependent on coffee and fast food, and there is no worse feeling than realizing you depend on something...especially something utterly unhealthy. When you pass a fast food joint and you feel that unexplainable pull to enter, open your wallet and get satisfied... And my battle has started.

There is a new term in the modern internet world: web sites that collect food recipes from all around and display them along mouth-watering pictures are called FOOD PORN web sites. There are lots of them, and thousands of food bloggers submit new recipes daily. I think that fast food logos and store fronts are the FOOD PORN of the offline world - anyone who was addicted to it once would agree. It becomes a sinful pleasure; it calls you, lures you with irresistible chemical smells that interact with your brain to create desire....

My www.feastie.com
(food porn web resource) saved recipes

It's not easy to get "clean", to stop an addiction. Same as alcohol and cigarettes, food addictions take time to manage. Give yourself that time! Or you will most probably slip. I slipped many times; my struggle with junk food failed many times, I'd become a health food theoretic but in practice continued to be a junkie... until i stopped struggling and started to watch... Until I decided to try it the Osho way.
Osho says, " Whenever you drop something by fight, it is never dropped. You will drop smoking by fighting and then you will start doing something else which will become a substitute". I would not come to McDonalds for weeks, but then something happens in my life and I would eat junk again, day in and day out... so i start to feel useless, incapable of even the simplest thing!

Around the same time I heard a discourse where Osho was talking about smoking as a meditation. it was a completely different, non-violent approach to self, and I was intrigued. I decided to watch myself. Every time I had an urge to grab a 2000 calorie burrito, or 2 packs or hash browns, I was watching myself. I still ate them, but ate wholeheartedly, with undivided attention, enjoying every bite. During one of those junk food meditations, an idea came to my mind: starting today, I will count how many times a month I eat junk food. Any sort: takeouts, fast food, soda on set, free drinks at fashion parties... I made a mental mark not to repeat the same junk food place more than once a month, and by the time I went through all my usual places, the month had already passed. Pretty stressless, i should say, and I didn't even have to limit myself. All I had to do is not to repeat the same place! Thanks to the variety of fast food joints in New York City, it was pretty easy; just needed a little bit of awareness.

I soon started to notice that the pull of certain places has become weaker; the undigested pieces of food that get stuck in our intestines and make us crave for exactly that same foods over and over again have probably been washed out in a month, and I started to extend the time between "visits". At the same time, I started to cook more. Even bad-habit cooking is healthier than fast food; and I slowly began to substitute unhealthy choices with healthy ones.

1. Every next trip to the supermarket, I sub'ed one unhealthy food with its better, healthier version. I started to look for low-fat versions of my regular foods. Not the non-fat ones (those are bad) but low-fat, organic milk products, stripped off of fat without the use of chemicals. Milk, cottage cheese, low-fat yoghurt, cream, and cheeses (feta, mozzarella, gouda). I wrote the whole list of healthier alternatives to regular foods in my previous food blog post.
2. I started to substitute chicken and fish with tofu and legumes (I hadn't cooked legumes for years, and it was a new discovery for me that beans can be used in anything other than a Chipotle burrito)- lentils, chickpeas and all sorts of beans; milk with almond milk, regular eggs with organic eggs produced by my violence-free landlady. She has a house in Pennsylvania where chickens roam freely and happily. She never kills old hens allowing them to live up to ripe old age and die naturally. Her eggs taste amazing, I'd buy dozens of eggs a week and eat them almost every day. It helped me drop almost all animal products without even trying (if you live in Brooklyn, I can share her contact with you).
Some people say that you shouldn't eat more than 3 eggs a week because of high cholesterol, but I discovered that if you don't eat greasy burgers and other crappy animal fats, the number of eggs in your diet can be significantly increased. They are a non-vegan superfood, so it's way better to eat 7 free-range organic eggs than 7 cheeseburgers.
3. I stopped eating milk chocolate and switched to dark chocolate. Hazelnut chocolate being my utmost favorite.
4. I substituted eggs with avocados. Did you know they have much in common? Even the shape :)
5. I changed my supermarket. Instead of a regular corner store and Key Food I started to go to Trader Joe's and frequent their organic section.
6. I started to take a daily multivitamin. Research shows that people who take multivitamins live several years longer.
7. I began to buy all organic legumes, seeds and non-perishables at iherb.com - the best and cheapest online supermarket (if you decide to shop there, use code CHK415 for an extra discount). I started to sprout my lentils, quinoa and buckwheat (bought at iherb) along with a dozen other zesty and flavorful seeds from Johnny's seeds. Mixed with baby greens and lightly sizzled, they make a perfect meal.
8. I started to bake my own cookies and breads, using buckwheat and oatmeal flour instead of wheat. They are gluten-free and filled with vitamins & nutrients. I use chia seed instead of eggs for baking. Almond milk instead of cow milk. Coconut oil instead of butter. With these ingredients almost every recipe can be "veganized".

9. I began to add more raw foods into my diet: the ratio of cooked vs. uncooked has first gone down from 90/10 to 70/30, then to 50/50, and eventually reached 30/70.
10. I started to eat more superfoods and less bulk (bread, rice, pasta, granola). I did a substantial research on healthy nutrition and finally was ready to share it with my friends.
11. I resumed my body cleanses and successfully completed a 10-day cleanse. At this point of my life, I'm one of the healthiest eaters of all the people I know. I'm really happy it doesn't stress me to eat well because the process was slow and gradual; I didn't force any of those changes, they all came naturally as a succession of events in my life. I grew into veganism and nourished healthy nutritional habits from the ground up, over several years, rather than changing everything overnight. And though it took me a long time to get here, those were years of learning and preparation for goodness.

I must say, changing diet and eating habits is EXTREMELY HARD if you're doing it rapidly. But if you're going step by step, it's becoming natural and almost unnoticed. The most important thing to do is to STOP HAVING EXCUSES: believe me, I had plenty! Our creative mind always comes up with something soothing: "I had a bad day and I need some comfort food". "I have a super early call time for a shoot and need an energy drink (or two)". "I'm breaking up with this asshole and I want to stuff my face"... Stop, realize it's an excuse, and do what you intended to do consciously, taking full responsibility for your action. Don't suppress - just stop justifying.

If you love yourself, if you really love your body, you just have to make a decision. Sit silently with yourself, stroke your skin, feel your body as a beautiful host for your spirit, and promise to protect it, to love it, and not to harm it in any way. Loving doesn't mean allowing everything; if you have a small child - would you allow him to eat only candy all day long? If the child doesn't like vegetables, you would still try to somehow sneak veggies into her diet, right? Loving is not the same as spoiling: if you really love your car, you would never knowingly put wrong oil into it, or damage it. So why put wrong "oil" into your body engine? Why clog your vessels with cholesterol, why create sugar spikes and crashes time after time? Think about it; meditate on it, if you will. Listen to Osho, discover the deeper meaning of your obsession, and try some cathartic meditation technique to throw it out of your system.

LOVE YOURSELF. Love your body, and it will pay you back with years of health and happiness.

THE BODY CLEANSE & DETOX: Apple Juice/Herbal Liver/Gallbladder Detox & Blood Cleanse

Many friends asked me to publish this cleanse details, so I'm finally doing it. Please read carefully, it's important! 

I'm doing this cleanse for multiple reasons.
First, the shape of my gallbladder is a bit wacky: it's inborn and not dangerous, but makes me collect more junk than necessary in the little sack under the liver. Which can cause long-term health problems. So periodic liver/gallbladder cleanses are recommended (here is more info on gallbladder stones).
Second, I have been fighting with bad acne all Winter and Spring. The glorious Summer Sun cured it some, but I feel the problem is not topical. 
Third, my body in general feels tired, sleepy, hazy and intoxicated. I have developed annoying allergies. I'm becoming lazy and unmotivated for no reason, and that's just not who I am...
I'm also planning to maximally switch to raw foods, stop craving glutinous foods and lose some unnecessary weight.

I've done the apple juice cleanse many times in the past with great results - once in a cleanse clinic under doctoral supervision, and lots of time on my own - adding some blood cleansing herbs / teas/ extracts this time. Last year I did a 21-day cleanse on apple juice only; this time I decided to limit it to 7 days, but today is Day 7 and I feel like extending it a couple more days so I can do a 10-day one for a deeper cleansing effect.
Here is a big BUT: if you have been diagnosed with gallbladder / liver stones, DO NOT DO this cleanse! Reduce the size of the stones using prescribed drugs or ultrasound, change your diet/lifestyle completely to avoid the further formation of stones, but don't make your stones move, or you may end up in hospital with severe pain or damage. Your doctor should be the person to talk about it to. Do the cleanse/fast only if you're in no physical danger.

This is what different types of cleanse do for you, so decide which effect you're looking for.
3 days helps the body rid itself of toxins and cleanses the blood.
5 days begins the process of healing and rebuilding the immune system.
10 days or more will help prevent illness and disease by giving the body time to reverse the damage caused by long-term exposure to dangerous chemicals and toxins. It starts purifying your body on the molecular level which is extremely helpful for meditation.
Check if you need to detox/cleanse your body.

The most difficult thing about the cleanse is psychological: everybody is scared to stay without food for so long, and it's instinctual and deep! But I've done it many times, and it's only hard to start...
Day 1 is usually an adjustment.
After day 2 it becomes very natural, body starts breaking down its fat reserves, so appetite for the most part disappears, and last year on my 21-day cleanse I was even working during first and second weeks with no difficulty.

The fasting structure is pretty simple. Pre-cleanse, you have to stay vegan for at least a week - no alcohol, smoking, coffee, drugs either.
Day Zero 
you only eat vegetables (no protein or fat; no pickles or spices), and start drinking a lot of water in between meals (not together with meals).

Days 1-7 (or 1-10 depending on the length of your fast)
Starting from first day it's only freshly squeezed apple juice and herbal teas. Granny Smith apples are recommended because of less sugar, but if they're too sour for you, choose another juicy kind. Cut out seeds and membranes before juicing apples - seeds can be toxic, and membranes can be bad if you're preserving pulp for baking/puréeing.

Every morning upon waking up drink a glass of water with a teaspoon of pure unwashed, un-iodized seasalt, and if you're doing enemas, perform a herbal enema. You have to do enemas twice a day - mornings and evenings. Enema is not a must, but without it the effects are not as profound. The best is burdock root enema (it's a great herb for all kinds of intestinal problems), but can also be chamomile or any soothing or antibacterial herb. 3 times a day a glass of water with blood cleansing herbal extracts (yarrow, astragalus, etc), also honey and lemon/lime is allowed in very small quantities if you are doing some high precision work or driving (e.g., a teaspoon with your herbal teas - honey gets absorbed by your body 100%, nothing gets down your digestive tract, so your brain painlessly gets some sugar during adjustment period), other than that - it should be only liquids (also, self-made fresh organic vegetable broth is allowed if hunger pangs happen,  which happened to me on the first day so I gulped it down - but only during first days - same as honey).. 

Sugar in apple juice should be enough. Drink as much of it and as often as you want. You can save the apple pulp (refrigerate it!) and bake cookies or bread with it, or make apple puree adding honey and cinnamon, so nothing gets wasted.
Apple juice usually does the trick - it has enzymes that block appetite, and also not too harmful to your tooth enamel (the most popular Master Cleanse recommends lemonade which in my case is too harsh). The point is not to get hungry at any time. Otherwise your body will never melt it's fat reserves!
If you get extremely hungry, feel like juice is not helping and you NEED TO EAT something, peel an apple and eat it very-very slowly, grinding every bite 33 times, as if making purée out of it with your teeth.

And lots of pure filtered water!!! If you drink a lot, hunger partially recedes.
Change your water filter right before the fast. Drink at least 10 full glasses of pure water a day, and at least 4 cups of herbal tea. Plus unlimited amounts of apple juice. Consider juice your food, because it is (your body understands any liquid that is not water as food anyway).
Also, keep taking your regular daily vitamins if you take them. Just remember to take a lot of water to flush them down - your stomach is extremely sensitive when no food is in.
At the end of the fast there is a not-so-pleasant liver cleansing which I will explain a bit later. But i repeat, it's not a very pleasant process, you have to eat olive oil with lemon juice, spoon by spoon  for 2 hours, and after that I often feel like vomiting, but it works wonders and , if done properly, helps to get rid of allergies and lots, lots of weird things stored in your liver/gallbladder and ducts, you literally see what comes out of there...very unexpectedly! but it's pretty intense and not a must either. Only when you are ready for it!

The cleanse that I'm doing is based on the enema process - If you are cleansing without enema, you can do a "herbal enema" instead - just instead of flushing it up, flush it down with tea. There are lots of readymade herbal colon cleansing teas on sale, but you can also create your own with herbs mentioned here - it's not really very important to have the exact herbs; if you don't have them all, just make it with whatever herbs from the list you can find. Put the herbs together and boil them on very low heat for 20 mins; then let the pot steep under the lid, and drink as tea. You can find instructions on how to use colon cleansing herbs anywhere online. They say it's the same as enema, but I prefer to use less herbs because high concentrations can actually be toxic for you...

When you stop having any kind of poop, just liquid (sorry for graphic details but they're important...), you can switch from intestinal tonic to liver tonic. If you do liver cleanse with full colon, you can get intoxicated because liver/gall bladder start producing too much bile and it gets trapped in your intestines..
You can find some of the liver tonic herbs here or here - same, you can use all or some of the herbs, just follow directions on the herbal essences' bottles. I buy pure, one-plant essences online, and the non-alcohol ones that are used for kids; during fasting alcohol is not recommended; you will get totally drunk from even a few drops!))) I'm buying my essences online at vitamingrocer.com - they're very good, they sell organic ones like this one for example. And here is their list of herbs, including organic herbal teas. They don't have all the essences though, but I found yarrow, astragalus, yellowdock, red clover and stilingia. Burdock Root, Nettle Leaf, Oregon Grape rootbark, Gentian root, Wormwood leaves, Dandelion root, Milk Thistle,  Black Walnut hulls, Ginger rhizome, Garlic bulb, Sweet Fennel seed and other bitter herbs can also be used, but thing about bitter herbs: if you're using them beyond the intensive 1-week cleanse, don't overdo the dosage, they can become pretty toxic if not used properly. During the liver/blood cleanse you can do much higher dosage though, since we're creating stress for the body to start with (otherwise the body will never start throwing out toxins). It's not a natural thing for the body to do - we have to stimulate it a lot!
The liver tonic has to be taken 3 times a day, in a little water (half glass) . Make it with 3 droplets of each herb (4-5 different herbs combined).

Drink as much water as you can through the entire fast - this is the time when you have to force yourself to drink. Only filtered/spring water can be drunk. Do not boil it. May keep it in a silver vessel for a day - it improves water's crystal structure and taste. Do not drink water from plastic bottles, especially if it has been in the sun - during this time body is especially sensitive to toxins in plastic like BPA - keep water in glass. It also helps to freeze your water before drinking, there is a whole science about how to make water more "alive" - and the benefits of the alive water you can see in this wonderful movie. 

Also, very important during the cleanse is to support it with all the excretion organs (skin being the largest), so if you do a herbal bath, that would help. Or sauna which is the most powerful. When I was doing a program in a detox clinic, they made you drink a glass of red wine inside sauna daily. Now at home I do a very hot herbal bath (with same herbs that I use for detox teas) to increase perspiration (since it's not recommended to exercise while you're fasting, this kind of sweating is supportive to your cleanse).
Deep belly massage is also very nice, you can self-massage your entire intestinal tract with essential oils (from top to bottom, and only in this direction); or, if you have a hoola hoop, do it for 10-15 mins a day. You could feel a little dizzy during the times of doing it because the internal organs start reacting; - it's normal. If mild pain occurs, don't freak out, it's also normal. If pain doesn't stop after several minutes, or intensifies,  then something is wrong with your internals and you have to lie down. Either the process is too fast, or it's too much for your body - then don't do it. For me, it has been very helpful, and I bought a very heavy hoop, this one.

No exercise other than that and yoga/stretching/walking around the block. Minimal activity is necessary for the blood to circulate, but because you can faint you should limit it to MINIMAL. Rest and meditate - it's the best time for meditation; the body is healing itself and your meditation will become very, very deep. If you do strenuous physical exercise routine, your muscles will have no protein/food to restore themselves, and you will feel sore for a longer time than usual.

Day 7
On the last day of the fast, by 7pm, you have to perform an enema and prepare 150mg of high quality, virgin cold-pressed olive oil, same amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice, a hot water bottle (or electric heating pad), a blanket, a tablespoon and a timer. Put a hot water bottle on your liver (right side under the ribs) and remain in bed for the rest of the evening. Every 15 minutes you have to swish your mouth with lemon juice and drink a full spoon of olive oil (15mg), followed by a spoon of lemon juice. You might feel like vomiting, so close your nose when you drink the oil. I close both my eyes and my nose :) because this much oil tastes disgusting... You have to keep going until you run out of oil. Then fall asleep (you can heat your liver side for the entire night). 
In the morning, fresh and clean, make an enema (if you feel poopy, poop first). If you do a no-enema process, take 2 pills of No-Spa (or some similar-effect medicine to relax your intestinal muscles) and a glass of freshly squeezed carrot juice (add a spoon of oil for a stronger effect). You will be surprised what you see in your toilet bowl afterwards...

I have heard that coconut oil can work instead of olive oil, but haven't tried it. Coconut oil has a better taste and you can drink more of it, but it has to be warm (it hardens at room temperature under 23 degrees Celsius (76 F). Next time I will probably try it.
Also, some hardcore people like my brother (army-trained)) have the gut to drink the oil in its entirety at once, thus saving themselves a "slow pain". You can try it, too! (I tried, but can't:)

I kept a facebook diary during my fast, and you can see the process day by day.

By the end of the fast, I usually am so NOT hungry that I reluctantly start eating and despise the whole humongous food industry!)))))  This time it was harder because I had to cook food for my husband every day (he works crazy hours). Try not to do that if possible.
You have to get back to eating very slowly and carefully: first vegetable soup, then raw pureed vegetables, for a couple days no bread, pasta, rice or anything glutinous (otherwise you can develop a bad constipation). Apples, other fruits, then add raw seeds&nuts, and little by little get back to your normal diet. .but a little healthier than before :) If you're not sure how to get your diet to become healthier, read here and follow at least some of the advice.

Also I have found a very interesting product called Zeolite that is proven to help rid the body off of heavy metals (the most difficult thing to get rid of!) - here is the research, and here is the product. I would probably try it next and see if it makes a difference. Have you tried it before? How was it?

What did the cleanse do for me?

The most amazing and unexpected benefit of the cleanse that I'm witnessing right now is a painless period. I'd had very bad PMSs for a week before my period, feeling lost, crying for no reason... and painful cramps for years... Don't remember when I was doing a hike on my "first" day....mmm....never?
After the cleanse, I didn't have ANY PMS symptoms or mood swings; the first day of my period (usually I spend it in bed or at least resting) I went on a 2-hour hike because I didn't have any cramps!!!! (if you are a woman, plan the cleanse in such a way that it falls in the middle of your menstrual cycle. Fasting during your period is NOT HEALTHY!)
My skin has cleared (HUGE achievement for me - it was one of the goals of the cleanse); the body odor has become very subtle;
My energy increased, I don't feel sleepy during the day anymore;
The clarity of thinking strengthened;
My mood has become more joyous;
I have lost 2 inches around my waist and hips, and 3 "difficult", "last" pounds of weight;
I have "lost" (or rather shoved out) around 70 mini cholesterol gallbladder stones and a lot of bile&mucus. I took a rather graphic picture of it - cannot publish it in an open source but if you REALLY want to see it - write to me.

Yay body cleanse! I really love you and appreciate what you do for me. If you need more information about juice cleanse, this web site is a good one. And here is more info on other juices for juice cleansing.
Have you ever fasted before?  Please share your reasons and experiences!
Or ask questions if I haven't covered something above.