Hello everybody! I’m here in Las Vegas for a family golf tournament. While I’m here I wanted to share some things that have been going on with me. I’ve been training for my NPC figure/Bikini Championship, Vegan Style which is definitely not the norm.

I want to show them what a Vegan can really do!

A lot of people at the gym have noticed that I’ve been leaning up and keeping a solid muscle tone.

I’m down to the wire now and it’s literally right around the corner. While I’m in Vegas, I wanted to talk about staying on your goals. When it comes to weight loss, there’s no magic bullet. If you do the right things at the right time you’ll get the results you’re looking for! It doesn’t matter if your goal is to improve your look or your weight, if you stay on track you’ll meet your goal. And be sure to check back frequently to my health and fitness blog!

Whenever I travel, I make sure I come prepared. In Vegas I brought my handy cooler which is filled with the foods that I typically eat. Preparation is key! Even though I may eat out occasionally I still have plenty of food to keep me on my goal.

Hotels always have a nice spread of treats; jelly beans popcorn, chocolate, etc.; watch out for these temptations! Bring your own food and you won’t give in!

I also brought my Magic Bullet blender with me as well. If you saw my Holiday gift Idea Blog, my friend Paulette gave this to me! It’s a gift that keeps on giving. I use it to make my shakes and smoothies when I’m on the go…it’s perfect for a little pick me up before I go and work out. It’s these little things that make your life easier and can help you stay on track!

Cant wait to share my results! Either way I see it as a success and I’m very happy with my results.

Kardena Pauza,
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans

Do you want to know what my fat melting secret is that gives me energy naturally?

And it’s not one of those potions, or pills, that you hear about with those crazy ingredients in it that you don’t even know what they are, and really, they cause all sorts of problems!

My secret is so easy and inexpensive and you probably have these ingredients in your kitchen…right now!

Now it’s not magic -remember you still need to be eating your healthy diet and exercising. This will give you an extra edge on your fat loss.

I have been waking up at 4am to get my workout in before I go and train my clients at the gym and this little secret gives me energy and helps me to burn fat in order to reach a fitness goal that I’m working towards that I’ll have to tell you about later. This secret is helping me to lean out already!

This amazing secret is going to help you melt fat, increase your energy, boost your immune system, so it has more benefits than just melting fat.

Here it is:  The three ingredients in this drink are lemon, cayenne pepper, and white tea.

• Lemon is awesome for cutting fat, phlegm & mucus in the body, it’s full of vitamin C, helps boost your immune system, fight infection, and reduce inflammation which will help you recover from your workout.  Lemon also helps detoxify your liver aiding your body in flushing toxins and fat.

• Cayenne pepper, some people know it as red pepper/capsicum, and it’s spicy!  This herb is one of the most powerful herbs on the planet…… and is one of the ancient healing herbs going back hundreds of years. It has a high heat unit which helps increase circulation so you carry more oxygen and nutrients into your cells and body, and it helps increase your energy. Cayenne pepper also helps cut fat in the circulatory system and lower cholesterol. Ultimately it will help your body and brain have more energy in the morning! It’s an amazing fat burning tool!

• White Tea…this tea bag includes some other herbs including the shizandra berry. White tea is the least processed tea of the black tea, green tea, and white tea (they all come from the same plant) and has the highest antioxidants. It also gives you an energy boost without the crash later. It’s also a great boost for the immune system.

How To Make:

Take the tea bag and put it in a water bottle (approx. 24 oz.) with room temperature water (you can cut the tag & string off of the bag) and then squeeze 1/2 a lemon into the water bottle, or whichever container you are using. Shake in a dash of cayenne pepper. At first just do a dash of the cayenne pepper to get your body used to it then once your taste buds and body get adjusted to it, you can add more. It is a detoxification so make it a gentle cleanse. You can work your way up to using a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Fill your water bottle up with water! You can make this the night before and just stick it in the refrigerator. You may have noticed I didn’t boil water for the tea. Well, you don’t have to. It will infuse in the water just by letting it sit.

When to Drink it:
Have this drink right away when you wake up in the morning. Then wait 30-45 minutes before eating anything. You want to give it time to detoxify your body.

You are probably thinking, that’s it?????? Geez, where’s the magic ingredient from an exotic island? You see the gold is right under your nose!

I never thought I’d be getting up at 4AM to go work out but this has really helped me get up and get through my cardio and thrive. My challenge to you is to drink this every morning for two weeks and let me know if it’s as life changing for you as it has been for me. It’s an amazing drink.

Kardena Pauza
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans.com

I just ran this race called the Warrior Dash with some of my friends and clients, we had a blast!  This race had obstacles along the 3 mile run. I highly recommend entering something like this even if you don’t think you are in tip top shape, it’s more about mental toughness. If you are looking for a way to make exercising fun or if you want to test your skills and be competitive, a race like this one would be great. Even if it’s not this specific run lots of cities hold mud runs and other fun runs, so look them up!

I saw people of all skill levels do this and I cheered those on who I could tell this was probably their first challenge.

I checked out my posted time from the race and I came in 18th place for my age group and out of 5, 000 people, yes 5,000 people!

I came in 796th place, that’s in the top 16%. I’ll take it!

I didn’t know what to expect since I don’t enter races like this one and  I don’t think of myself as a strong runner. I’ll run for cardio once in a while during the week but I don’t push myself for time and sometimes I’ll do intervals, and they do get my heart rate up. So my placement was a surprise.

I truly believe my diet played a big part in my performance.

1. I made sure to drink plenty of water the day before. Remember even a 3% drop in body water percentage can decrease your power by up to 30%. And if a person is dehydrated it takes up to 24 hours to rehydrate your body. So plan ahead.

2. I made sure not too eat any refined carbohydrates 2-3 days before the race.

3. I ate balanced meals of carbohydrates, healthy oils, with vegetarian protein the day of the race. I had an energizing green smoothie from my easy veggie meal plan weight loss program.

4. Load up on fruits and veggies for energy and keeping you feeling light on your feet.

Make sure not to eat too close to the start of the race or you may feel bogged down. Eat 1-2 hours prior to the race. If you need a little energy close to race time, eat a piece of fruit. This should give you quick energy.

One of my clients, Patrick had never run in his life so doing this race took courage. After finishing the race, he liked it so much he signed up for another race coming up in just a couple of months! What’s amazing about Patrick is he used to be diabetic and ate lots of junk food and fast food before I met him and his feet had turned blue from lack of circulation then he took on a vegetarian lifestyle and exercise and today he has happy feet and no need for insulin.  I’m so proud of him for the transformation he has gone through and ultimately stepping out side his comfort zone and completing the race. Congrats Patrick!

Thanks everyone who came out and made it a really fun event! Can’t wait to do it again!

Remember- it’s always more fun with friends.

What do you do to prepare for a race on a veggie diet?

Kardena Pauza

Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans – 90 Day Vegetarian Weight Loss Program

I had requests to show how to make some great raw dishes so I’m sharing one of my favorites that’s also super easy and fast to make, Raw Spaghetti!

In this dish I don’t use spaghetti noodles, I use zucchini instead. Check out the video to see how I do this. It’s pretty amazing and easy to do.

Zucchini has great health benefits

• Vitamin C
• folate (great for women who are planning on getting pregnant)
• magnesium
• potassium
• fiber
• 90- 95% water.

There are much less calories per serving in zucchini than in pasta.

A serving of pasta is pretty small because it is calorie dense. You can eat cups and cups of zucchini compared to 1/2- 1 cup of pasta noodles, and zucchini gives you the nutrients your body needs.

Tools for the job- For this recipe you need a mandolin or some way to shred zucchini. You could probably use a cheese shredder or a food processor. You will also need a blender to make the tomato sauce. That’s it!

Let’s start by first making the noodles from zucchini. I use a mandolin which has a long straight blade and a number of small blades that stick up to slice the zucchini in to thin strips. I take the zucchini and slice it long ways to get long noodles. I used about 3 small zucchini’s to make enough for my husband and I.
Shred them in to a bowl and now it’s time to make the tomato sauce.

Here are the ingredients. Now all you need to do is put all ingredients into the blender. You may want to soak the sun dried tomatoes in water for 15-20 minutes to soften them if you have a regular kitchen blender. This will make them easier to blend.

Tomato Sauce
2-3 ripe tomatoes
4-6 oz. sun dried tomatoes
2-3 garlic cloves
2 dates or use agave nectar to taste
4-5 basil leaves, or to taste
italian herbs- tarragon, thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil
mineral salt to taste
2-3 teaspoons olive oil

Blend all ingredients together in the blender until creamy and almost smooth. Taste again, you may need to add a little oil, salt or herbs to give it a punch.

That’s all there is to it! now add the sauce to your noodles and it’s ready to serve. You can sprinkle nutritional yeast on top to give it a hint of flavor in place of parmesan cheese.

Optional- you can add chopped bell peppers, raw olives, leeks or onions, chopped mushrooms or any other veggie you like in Italian food.

This recipe will take about 10-15 minutes. Just goes to show that anyone can find time to be healthy and make healthy choices.

I love this dish, let me know how you liked it and other dishes.

Kardena Pauza
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans – 90 Day vegetarian weight loss program

I’m home from the natural products expo in Anaheim. It was a great expo, I picked up lots of samples and today we’ll go over the great stuff I found…and some of the not-so-great stuff I found! Here are some products that I recommend, and some that I don’t recommend…

Let’s start with Nori seaweed sheets. These are a great alternative to tortillas if you are making something like a wrap or burrito. They come in different sizes, some are small and some are bigger (great for bigger burritos/wraps). What I like is that they’re low in calories, high in vitamins and minerals (such as Vitamin B/potassium/iron) and overall are much better than things with lower nutrient value like white flour tortillas.  Now Seaweed sheets do have a distinct flavor which is much different than tortillas.  They might take a little getting used to.

Next are Chia seeds from South America. These are great in cereals, on salads, or sprinkled in soup…you can even drink them in water. They are high in fiber/ Omega 3s, and gram for gram they contain: 8x more Omega 3 than salmon, 5x more calcium than 2% milk, 2x more fiber than bran flakes and 2x more iron than raw spinach. Isn’t that incredible! The high fiber will help satisfy your cravings and so will the Omega 3s, which stabilize your blood sugar so you don’t crave unhealthy foods.                             

I don’t eat bars very often but here’s one that I do recommend from Macro greens/Miracle reds company (I interviewed them here). These bars are raw, organic, and vegan and the main ingredients are Brazil nuts, macro green and red powers, with a bit of date paste to bind it all together. They are high in antioxidants and minerals. I don’t eat these all the time, but once in a while when you’re in a hurry this is a great on the go snack.

Larabar also has some newer bars made with chocolate (which I’m not happy about because it has a lot of extra sugar). The original version are tasty like the lemon ginger or apple flavors.

There is a great green food supplement from EarthRise, which is a spirulina supplement. You know how much I love greens, so I’m happy about this whole food that’s high in protein/beta carotene/antioxidants—it adds more nutrients to your diet! It is similar to the macro greens so you can switch them back and forth in your diet in order to get a variety of different minerals.  Now spirulina is different in some ways.  Spirulina contains ten times more beta caroten than carrots, a nice concentration of vitamin B and vegetable source amino acids.

Watch out for so-called “weight loss powders.” There are several types I saw at the show which said all you have to do is put their powder in a water bottle and drink 30 minutes before a meal. Well, drinking water before you eat will already help you curb your appetite, without the powder. These powders are high in caffeine, and caffeine is an appetite suppressant, but there are lots of side affects that are not good, such as increasing your adrenal gland stress and cortisol levels in your body. When this happens, it’ll put you in a high stress state which makes your body excrete excess cortisol which causes fat accumulation in the belly area! Make sure you read the labels very carefully so you can really learn what’s in these “diet” powders before you buy them!

Brendan Brazier owns Vega and they have created a really great product which contains vitamins, minerals and protein from hemp, brown rice, flax, and peas. It’s great for on the go or added to a smoothie. It’s easy and tastes good.

Bran crisp bread (cracker). This is a great example of a company creating products that are high in fiber and low in refined carbs. Much like sprouted grain bread (Ezekiel bread, etc.); these crackers are much denser in fiber and are an excellent way to replace white bread or “fake brown bread” in your diet.  Look for new products like this one in your local health food store or health food section.

Teeccino is a wonderful substitute for coffee. It’s a dark roast with a rich flavor and a hint of chocolate.  It’s low in sugar, and contains barley and chicories. It’s a great option if you want to curb your coffee appetite.

I know I’m going to get a lot of flack from coffee drinkers, but take my information as you will.

Coffee isn’t good for you because it dehydrates and strips the body of minerals and creates and acidic environment in the body, which can contribute to osteoporosis. When you’re body is dehydrated, it cannot flush out excess toxins or fats, so you’ll hold on to more of the bad stuff!  You’re also more likely to pull a muscle when you exercise if you are dehydrated.

Here’s a breakdown on some berries I found: Incan berries, goose berries, and Goji berries.

Goji berris are exotic berries from the Himalayas. They are an excellent source of antioxidants and are good replacement for blueberries or raspberries. Although organic blueberries are great, these other types of berries will definitely add variety to your smoothies and snacks.

Thanks for joining me on my voyage to the Natural Products Expo!

Kardena Pauza, Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans, a 90-day vegetarian weight loss program

I had the privilege of speaking with Jay Kordich “The Juice Man.”

I’m here with Jay Kordich, I’m so excited to be talking with him. He is the author of “The Power of Juicing” and he has wonderful products to get you started with juicing and eating healthy. Jay has introduced thousands of people to the power of juicing to heal, detoxify, and regenerate their bodies.
Fresh juices can be a wonderful addition to your weight loss program.  It’s a great way to get the nutrients and energy your body needs.  And with all this energy you will want to exercise!

Here’s is my interview with Jay”

Jay: “Let’s make it simple:  Our body, your body, everybody’s body on this Earth is nothing more or less than a juice machine.  So when you eat an apple, your body processes it, breaks it down in to 2 parts- liquid and fiber. The fiber is going to go out of you and the liquid is going to go through the intestinal wall into your blood stream.

The human body is a juice machine so it tries to break everything down into juices…

So when you understand that principle, you try to do a lot of juicing on your own, with our own machine, it helps the body out.  The body works more efficiently that way, you get more nutrients in the blood stream and feed every one of your 100 trillion cells.  It’s an easy thing

How I got started- I was attending USC and in my physiology classes and anatomy classes I really didn’t know all that much when I came down with cancer of the bladder and I was peeing blood.  Right away I knew something was wrong.  I remembered in my anatomy classes about a famous Dr. who treated Dr. Albert Schwitzer. I traveled all the way from Southern California to Europe to have a consultation with Dr. Max Gerson.  He told me, “Jay you have got to drink juices.”  I was like everybody else eating hotdogs, hamburgers, and french fries just like every other young boy in American.

I started drinking lots of juices. He recommended a book called “Raw Vegetable Juices” by Norman Walker from Utah.  I am a real advocate of Dr. Walker.

Anybodies healthy when they are young like 10, 20, and 25.  What about my age 86 years old. How will they be then?

The power of these juices were very substantial to me when I put my dad on Juices. He lived to be 104 and my mom lived to be 98!  Remember, the average American lives to be 77.

Kardena : “What about people who are looking to lose weight?”

Jay: “Right now I am 175 lbs and I’m only 5’10” and I’ve maintained my weight ever since I started drinking juices. I used to be over 200 lbs. My wife is the same way. She has a great figure and maintains her weight.

I won’t even tell you about chewing your food, masticating your food….
Whenever you eat something cooked, eat a mouthful of food, take half a glass of vegetable juice, then another bite or two of cooked food, then a couple sips of juice.  It’s the enzymes in the vegetable juice that will help you digest, breakdown, emulsify, and utilize the nutrients in your food.  Juices are what everything you eat aspires to become. Everything you eat must become juice. If it doesn’t’ get into a juice form it can’t penetrate the little microscopic holes or entry portals through the villi in your intestines.  And nothing will be able to be absorbed to feed your trillion cells. You are fed by the liquid part of food, in other words you are fed by the juices of the food.

When you eat a broiled steak, the body starts to digest it. It starts in the mouth, teeth, you chew it and swallow it.. What’s the body trying to do? It’s trying to digest it, break it down to juice.  What going to come out of that steak? Carrot juice, apple juice, pineapple juice? No… blood, blood of the animal.  It’s morbid, and it’s full of the animal toxins. It’s a stupid thing to do. I know people don’t know, I know they don’t know what they are doing when they eat a steak..

I know there are some animals like lions, tigers, and bears that eat meat.  Look at elephants, they never eat meat and they are one of the largest animals in the world.

Kardena: “Thank you Jay for sharing this wonderful information with everyone!”

What an energetic guy Jay is, love this guy.  He has a powerful belief in juices because he is living proof of it’s amazing power.

My perspective is- If you want to be healthy seek out people who are healthy to learn from just like if you want to have a successful business you would want to learn from a successful business owner.  Jay is definitely a mentor of health for me.. For being 86 years old, he is doing amazing!

I myself juice periodically juice and I always feel amazing, energized, and have a positive attitude.

Please share with me who in your world is in amazing health over 50 that you see as an inspiration?!

Kardena Pauza,
Author of EasyVeggieMealPlans, 90 day vegetarian weight loss program

Reporting Live from the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA

Today I’m reporting live from the Natural Products Expo West, ok almost live. I’m here to check different products and foods and gather some insights for items you can look for in the future when you visit your local health food store. Here are a few highlights from the expo…

Macro Greens
Macro Greens offers a whole green food supplementation product which is hypoallergenic (no dairy/wheat/sugar), is sweetened with stevia- balances blood sugar, contains 18.5 billion probiotics and has 5 extra digestive enzymes. These features help balance blood sugar, boost brain function, support your endocrine system, clean kidneys, and many other benefits. It’s also raw, vegan friendly, and certified organic.

Tip: An important thing to keep in mind is that just because our bodies crave food and we feed it, it doesn’t mean we’re getting the right nutrients. Foods that are high in nutrients will not only fuel the body but curb unnecessary cravings.

I use this green product in my smoothie. I also drink it in water to curb my sweet cravings at night.

Larabar- natural raw bar
I typically like Larabar for a quick emergency snack, this year they have a new chocolate line. I’m not excited about the extra sugar in these bars. I would stick with the original flavors.

Energy Bar Vendors
There are plenty of energy and protein bar vendors here today selling products that are supposedly good for you. Even though this is a natural products expo I’ve seen plenty of artificial flavors and sweeteners in some of these bars. These bars claim to make you muscular and strong (they even have to have models to promote it!). But don’t believe the hype! Steer clear! This just reiterates that you really do need to read labels.

Vega
I spoke with Rob Cheeke at the Vega booth. Looks like he is Brendans right hand man.
Vega has a new sports line of products. They have a pre workout energy drink with ginger, ginseng, yerba mate, green tea, rhodiola, kombucha all for quick and sustained energy. They also have a post work out drink that contains 5 different kinds of protein and is a great workout aid!
This guy is sure energized! I want whatever he is having! He is a great representative of a plant based diet and what’s a person is capable of. Not everyone aspires to be as lean and ripped as he is but we can definitely appreciate what it must take to get there.

Growing Naturals
Growing Naturals produces a line of allergen-free, GMO free, raw (under 120 degrees), vegan, whole grain bio-available rice-protein drinks. It’s the only whole grain rice protein on the market right now. I didn’t know this but other brands only use parts of the rice and not the entire brown rice. This gives them the advantage of added key nutrients and amino acids that are found in the protein bran.

What’s interesting about this company is that the processing that happens to create the protein concentrate is an enzyme process and it’s heated under 120 degree which keeps the rice protein in a more natural state.

I had an awesome time at the expo! I can’t wait to share more product reviews with you in my next video.

Kardena Pauza,
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans, 90 day vegetarian weight loss program

I even met John Grey! (author of Men are from Mars women are from Venus)

With all this cold weather recently, are you craving something warm? Maybe something Italian? How about a healthy alternative for spaghetti made from winter squash?

Winter squash (aka spaghetti squash) is dramatically lower in calories than traditional pasta noodles. How much lower, you ask? Try 40 calories per cup of spaghetti squash vs. 190 calories per cup for traditional pasta! Spaghetti squash also is a great source of vitamins and nutrients. It’s very dense with vitamin A, C, magnesium, dietary fiber, and a great source for antioxidants like betacarotene (which prevents cholesterol build up and regulates blood sugar).

Just a side note about blood sugar: traditional pasta noodles raise the blood sugar amount and if it’s too high, it’s stored in the body as fat. That’s why traditional noodles are so fattening…they can stick to your hips!

Our version of spaghetti is very similar to the traditional way of making spaghetti. The squash, like traditional pasta noodles, will absorb all the flavors of the pasta sauce it’s combined with. It will keep all the great Italian flavors and texture. You probably won’t even notice the difference!

To get started, cut your squash in half, dig the seeds out (but not the underlying “noodles”), bake upside down in a pan at 350º for about 30-45 minutes. To make sure it’s cooked, take a knife and try to pierce the shell, if it goes through smoothly, you’re ready.

Let it cool down and then scrape out the guts from the wall. It comes apart into stringy pieces, just like spaghetti noodles. Just scoop them into a bowl and you’re ready to add to spaghetti sauce. 

A note on spaghetti sauces: you can use store bought, but make sure there’s no sugar or high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients. There’s no reason to put sugar in spaghetti sauce! If you want a quick and easy way to make your own sauce, just sauté onion, garlic, tomatoes, basil with a little olive oil and you’re good to do.

 All that’s left is to add your sauce to the noodles and mix…you’re done! Enjoy this calorie-friendly and delicious alternative spaghetti!

One of my favorite snacks is granola and I ate it all the time as a youngster.  But I found out later, granola can be high in sugar and high in dense calories from grains and nuts! No wonder I gained weight in high school!

I thought granola was one of those really healthy foods, now granted, I probably ate too much of it, excess calories is a no no.  It’s so easy to gorge on granola, it tastes so good!

Instead of living without it, I created my own recipe for a raw granola made from soaked/sprouted sunflower seeds.

FYI- You can dry the granola in the oven on low heat if you don’t have a dehydrator.

Sunflower seeds are high in nutrients like vitamin E, vitamin B’s, magnesium high in fiber and easy to digest.

You can find this recipe in my book, Easy Veggie Meal Plans. In the book you’ll find directions for single servings (portioned out for men and women), in the video I made about 4 or 5 servings.  You might as well make lots so you don’t have to make granola for a while.

Here’s the recipe for my delicious “Good for you” granola:

Women’s Version:

- 1/3 cup raw organic sunflower seeds, which I’ve soaked in water for 12 hours (drain water).
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 tbsp brown flax seeds (soaked is best, because the gelatinous nature helps everything stick together)
- 2 tbsp raisins
- 1/3 tsp of alcohol-free vanilla
- 1/3 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp shredded coconut
- Dash of salt (mineral, mountain, Himalayan, or sea salt)
- 1 tsp agave nectar (or you can also you use dates, raisins, or stevia).

Mix all ingredients in your food processor until chunky like granola, this won’t take much time.

If you have a dehydrator, grab your tray and spread the granola on the tray.  Dehydrate for about 12 hours.  It will dry in clusters, then scrape it off with a spatula and put it in a bag, seal it up and it will store for up to two weeks or longer.

This granola makes a delicious cereal especially with almond or hempseed milk.  (See how to make your own almond milk here)

Men’s Version:

-2/3 Cup of soaked sunflower seeds
-1 Tbsp of soaked flax seeds
-1/4 Cup of raisins
-1/3 tsp of alcohol free vanilla
-1/3 tsp of cinnamon
-1/2 Tbsp. Shredded Coconut (unsweetened)
-Dash of salt
-2 tsp of agave nectar
- Dash Stevia
-1/2 Cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Enjoy your granola! I know I do!

Kardena Pauza,
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans, a 90 day vegetarian
weight loss system

Do you have a healthier version of a child hood favorite dish? Share it with us!

Why soak nuts and seeds?

Seeds, nuts and beans can just lie around for months when dry – without sprouting – because they contain enzyme inhibitors to stop that process. But once they make contact with water, they become alive and the enzyme inhibitors are released – like Gremlins!

The sprouting enzymes become active in these little seeds and begin breaking down the food to it’s easiest to digest form. This makes it easier for you to digest and more nutrients are bio-available and you absorb more nutrients to feed your cells.

Enzymes are alive only in living foods but not cooked foods and begin to die at around 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

I believe that for optimal living we need to eat living foods. After all, a “live” food is life giving, energy giving, and nutritious but cooked dead food does not give you the vigor and energy that living foods can.

I know you are a person who wants to get the most out of life, so feeling amazing is very important to you. This element right here is very important.

Begin to eat more living foods, not just soaked seeds. My challenge to you is to try and eat more vegetables, I dare you! This would be one of the best things you could do for your health and weight loss.

HOW TO SOAK SEEDS:

You don’t need any fancy jars unless you just want to buy them. A bowl works just great for sprouting. When you sprout smaller seeds like sesame seeds, radish seeds, broccoli seeds which are really small, you will want a sprouting jar with a lid.

Flax Seeds:

Soak for 8 hours (overnight). Put flax seeds in a bowl and cover with water about 1 inch above the seeds. Place the bowl on the counter at room temperature for the full 8 hours uncovered. You can cover with a towel to keep bugs out.

The flax seeds will absorb all the water and become a little slimy. This is natural. After 8 hours, put the unused soaked/sprouted flax seeds in the refrigerator with a lid on. They will last about 5 days in the refrigerator.

Sunflower seeds:

Use the same process as flax seeds. Soak for 8 hours (overnight) in a bowl and cover with water about 1 inch above the seeds. Place the bowl on the counter at room temperature for the full 8 hours uncovered. You can cover with a towel to keep bugs out.

After 8 hours, drain the water and store in fresh water. To use, drain water and scoop out what you need for eating. We use for breakfast, pate’s, snacks, granola, raw sushi rolls, and lots of other cool stuff.

Store in the refrigerator with a lid on and be sure to store seeds in fresh water. If they are not stored in water and exposed to the air, they will mold quickly. They will last about 5 days in the refrigerator after sprouted.

Sesame seeds:

Same process as sunflower seeds. These are GREAT sources of calcium.

Almonds:

Soak almonds for 12-24 hours. Put the almonds in a bowl and sit on counter to soak.

With almonds you need to rinse them every 12 hours if you are soaking for 24 hours.

Store almonds the same way you store sunflower seeds. Store in fresh water and put a lid on it and put in the refrigerator. These are great snacks, or for smoothies, or making fresh almond milk, and all sorts of other goodies.

Almonds these days are pasteurized because after an E coli break out involving almonds, the government required all almond growers to pasteurize their almonds – usually by quick steam or a chemical spray.

Even if the package says “raw”, they are technically not raw, it is now against the law to sell them. It is very difficult to find raw almonds now but it can be done. Just do the best that you can with what you have. At least soak your almonds so they are easy to digest.

Kardena Pauza,
Author of Easy Veggie Meal Plans, a 90 day vegetarian weight loss system.