Friday, April 30, 2010

time to do WORK

so this is going to be the starting date of the detox process... granted i DO anticipate a few hiccups when i get home... (i.e. mom's home cooking, a few runs to our favorite cooked food restaurants, etc.) BUT... let me tell you all about my project for this summer.

i may have mentioned this before, but my mom is coming to this strange crossroads in her life. next year, my brother glenn, myself, AND our littlest brother tommy (who's only 15) will be out of the house next year! (away at colleges and tommy will be doing a semester in switzerland) my mom has been taking classes in nyc on integrative medicine, nutrition, diet etc. and she has LOVED it. she has also had a nasty scare with a hyper-active thyroid, and is ready to start making some pretty heavy duty changes in her diet. it's all of these factors that make this transition quite appropriate at the present time.

however, my mom is also commander in chief of the champion household... which means that she basically has 4 million different things going on at any given time. (hence the hyper-active thyroid perhaps?) so when i get home, not only is my mom swamped, but she's relying on me to help her start the transition into a diet with more raw foods.

with this abdication of her kitchen power, she still has one major challenge that remains: cooking for the rest of the family. so while she would love to prepare all of this stuff for herself, she frankly doesn't have the kind of time and energy that i will, so i'm excited to take the opportunity to be able to baby my mom. she works SO hard for all of us and truly is one of the most extraordinary women i will ever encounter in this lifetime. so it feels good to be able to help her take time to detox, and rebuild her nutrition and health!

with this kitchen "overhaul" of sorts came two things: a mission, and an AMAZON.COM SHOPPIN' SPREEE!!! my mom actually was able to go to a lecture with David Wolfe, and the biggest thing she took away from him was the notion of making your kitchen a "center of regeneration and healing." this is an interesting concept as the american cultural construct of a kitchen has always been one of the utmost importance to family life and well-being, but the idea of coupling that with the intention of healing and wellness is a fantastic way to view things. i hope i'll make the kitchen as close to this ideal as possible...

ok so about the fun stuff. my mom went TO TOWN on amazon.com and let me basically get her anything i wanted. (don't tell dad hahaha) here's a list of some of the AWESOME stuff we got that i will be reviewing in the near future via a couple of video posts.

Vitamix Platinum (w/ variable speed knob... yahoo!)
Kyocera Revolution 7" ceramic chef's knife (these things ARE SO GOOD!)
World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Slicer
Cuisinart 9 cup Food Processor (raw patés here i come!)
Omega 8003 Juicer

we will be borrowing our neighbor's excalibur dehydrator (i need to get my mom used to the idea of a dehydrator first...) until we find one. i really want one right away! but after having blown a rather ridiculous amount of $$$ on all of this stuff, it's best to just take it slow.

so again, the two things we don't have yet, that i REALLY do want in the kitchen by the end of the summer are an ice-cream maker, and a dehydrator. i think those will make raw food a LOT more livable.

in addition, we will be constructing our first backyard organic garden! my mom is really letting me dive into all of this, and i figured it would be a great thing to let other people learn and observe our successes and (inevitable) failures.

i will keep you all posted!!!

ps... i got 9 hours of sleep! yahoo!

best,

cliff

Thursday, April 29, 2010

just say NO to... Agave?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/30/beware-of-the-agave-nectar-health-food.aspx

http://www.raw-living-food-success.com/natural-sweetener.html

serious concerns

this is the 2nd night in a row with no sleep. mind you, i'm the type of person who is barely satiated by 9 hours of sleep a night. i prefer to get well over 10.


i am genuinely concerned about the effects of the stimulants i've been taking to make it through finals week. i am going to need to take my diet REALLY seriously when i get back home.

the fact that i can't get to sleep at all at midnight is insane... and now of course i need MORE stimulants to stay awake for my exams today. CT can't come soon enough. get me on a plane to JFK already!

i have 2 more exams today... i just have to pull through and finish strong so that i can genuinely relax when i'm home. so far, i have a b in religion, a b+ in humanities, an a- in political science, an a- in convocation... and i am still waiting to hear back from global econ and global media.

i need that 3.6 baby! i will kill someone if i don't graduate with honors.

ugh... this week is from hell!

best,

cliff

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

himalayan salt lamp

starting to crack

i have so had it with eating bad food!

i am making my way over to the vitamin barn in malibu for some wheat grass, kombucha, green juice and trailmix. i'm at my wit's end!

AND... I am about 10 days late on finding this out, but the new Crystal Castles cd is out! I've been bopping out to that in the past 24 hours. Go get it!


I may or may not do a video post today. I'm feeling rather uninspired frankly, but I want to keep uploading stuff. My channel views have gone up, but I can't tell what that's from. Is it b/c I keep looking at my Youtube Channel? Or is it b/c other people do?

Nevertheless I hope people are watching the videos. I guess it's rather impatient of me considering that they've been up for like 48 hours. Oh well.

Best,

Cliff

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

growing fresh air

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Here are the links I mentioned:


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/air-filtering-plants-indoors-air-quality-benzen-formaldehyde.php

http://www.ted.com/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html

http://www.andreaair.com/

A few things I forgot to mention:

I water the plants once a week, and that keeps them totally satiated

The andrea air purifier is designed around the air purifying properties of a plant! It sucks in air through this little encapuslation, around the leaves and roots of the plant and then the air freshened by the plant is circulated back into the room.



AWESOME.

Best,

Cliff

Monday, April 26, 2010

vlog about mercola's B12 spray

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check out the link!

http://products.mercola.com/vitamin-b12-spray/

raw food blues


it's official.

I sent all of my cooking stuff back home to CT, and now I am officially high and dry here at school. I can't eat raw!

Granted I could go to rawvolution, or juliano's or something, but frankly i'm broke and I can't afford it.

I have been hitting up my favorite cooked food restaurants as of late because I can't cook in my dorm, and although it's been great to binge, I feel like $h!t.

BTW... whenever I don't eat raw, my nose gets really red and dry (I have no clue why this happens) and I call it the "rudolph syndrome."

It's always a good indicator of whether or not i'm on track.

I will just have to wait until CT for some more amazing raw food, but until then, I will post a few things here and there about whatever is on my mind.


Best,


Cliff

Sunday, April 25, 2010

before finals week


I thought it would be best to start the blog off with a bit of a shameless plug for my puppy at home: Daisy.

I miss her and her older brother Dek (pronounced DEEK) like crazy and can't wait to get my hands on them!

Get prepared for a few posts on their antics in the future.

Best,

Cliff

Intent!

SUP YO

This blog and I have a couple of goals:

1. To show that raw foods are great

2. To help out people who are interested in raw foods

3. To chronicle my journey as well as my mom's journey into raw foods

4. To get some awesome feedback from people in the raw foods community

5. To use the internet and its virus-like speed for positive ends

A bit about myself,

I am currently a junior at Pepperdine University in the lovely Malibu CA
I am originally from New Canaan CT, and will be returning there shortly for summer vacation
I have been vegetarian since 2005 (and have dabbled with veganism / raw foodism)
I first became interested in raw foods during my time as an employee at the Stand Juice Company in Norwalk CT. Check out their fbook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/the-stand-juice-company/53522968548 Mike and Carissa are the coolest.
I am not 100% raw, and I doubt I will ever be 100% anything
I like family, friends, dogs, art, music, FOOD, swimming, traveling, speaking mandarin and french, running, and all sorts of other stuff.

You can be assured that:

Video posts will be regularly added
Links and news will be regularly added
Interesting / Funny / irrelevant material will be added for good measure

I hope you enjoy my blog!

Best,


Cliff