Vol. 1, Issue 5, February 9, 2010

The Universe is Madly in Love with Mothers!

Hello my lovelies, we have some VERY fun and practical bits and pieces for you today, plus my SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (I'll save that for last to keep you in suspense) so let's cozy in together for this issue of our Raw Mom Newsletter.

In this week’s issue we've got an address from yours truly about Heart Month and how to feel it to heal it with some perky peeks into my fun-loving raw lifestyle Shenanigans, a recipe for how to make your very own Cultured Veggies inspired by Rawmom Gina Laverde who studied with Donna Gates who created the Body Ecology Diet that are teeming with natural probiotics which I have provided the links for so you can see how they are made, a Q and A with Rawmom Debra Tau which comes to us all the way from Japan! A chance to hear from Donna Gates, Marrianne Williamson, Dr Mercola and about 40 other amazing speakers at next month's world-wide event that Tera called W.I.S.H. plus a list of great ideas about how to create more togetherness in your family from The Mother magazine, and as promised, the best was saved for last, my BIG announcement which I am still in shock over!

Love and Blissings,
Shakaya and the Raw Mom Team

Love & Snow are in the Air

Well my Lovelies, February is HEART MONTH, a gorgeous time to pause and feeeel ALL the glorious things in our life! My promise is to LAUGH MORE- to be honest and open and allowing and smiley and grateful for this beautiful life! Looking into the soulful eyes of my children always fills my heart to over flowing. Go grab a kid, yours or any kid will do-haha, and ask them for a hug, and feel the unconditional love they just radiate- especially if you are sad...Such precious little snowflakes.

If I am busy working on my writing at the computer, I love to take little breaks and just gaze out the window; right now the soft snow is covering all the naked trees making a sparkling mosaic in their branches- so pretty! Yesterday I was so stiff from writing for hours that I suddenly had the silliest notion of just running around in the snow, bare feet and all in the yard. So I DID! Whipping up fluffs of snow in my face and eating it like my kids always do. Remember how good snow tastes? Of course you do! We’ve all done it, like opening our mouth wide in the rain. And it was 60 seconds of pure, silly, BLISS. Sometimes I like to just stop and light one of my pure bees wax candle’s and just stare into the lovely noble flame and just BE. Centering myself for a few minutes always bring me back into alignment and I become once again overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude. There is so much love all around. If I place my hand over my heart I begin to melt the armour and can actually FEEL my feelings- even the sad and hurting ones. We all have them and they need our love and attention, just like a small child whose given the time and honoured space to feel their pain- without being told they are wrong. Love works. Only EVERY time.

Today, because I ran out of moisturizer and wanted something different than my usual stand-bys of olive oil or coconut butter, I spied an over-ripe avocado hiding in my fruit bowl and exclaimed “YOU’RE SUCH A SWEETIE-PEA, I CAN’T EVEN SAY!” I proceeded to add some Spirulina and mash it with a fork and apply it carefully to my parched little face trying not to get any in my hair. When suddenly, I had an URGE- why not put a couple drops of pure essential oils of ylang-ylang and rose into this lovely creamy offering, and slather it all over my body? OH YA! I was a sweet-smelling GREEN DIVA! It's so much better than anything from the store- remember, anything you put on your skin you are basically eating...When I showered off, my skin felt so silky-soft. Too bad hubs is at work...tee hee.

Oh, Luke, my awesome partner of 11 years, so loving and totally THERE for me and our boys...just remembering how much we have been through together, how crazy things can get sometimes and just having someone to wink at in those moments…once again I am overcome with love and gratitude for having someone in my life to work through stuff with who never gives up! What a Hero!

So what do YOU do to attract love? Who do you love? Who loves you? When was the last time you did something completely out-of-the-blue special just for them? An impromptu back or foot rub, made them cookies or their favourite meal, drew a picture with crayons and posted on the fridge or sang them a song? And please remember YOURSELF sometimes! Just breathe a little more and know it’s a beautiful life with everything that we need. Ask yourself often “What would LOVE do now?” and then, do that!

Love, Shakaya

RawMom Q&A

Dear Rawmom,

Thank you for the post on morning sickness. Wish I had read it weeks ago! I'm into week 11 and looking forward to not feeling nauseous. You recommend lemon, but I find that acidic foods make my stomach hurt. I hate dairy products but found myself drinking cow's milk and eating cheese despite the strong mental aversion and yucky aftertaste in order to calm my tummy. Herbal teas didn't work...Any suggestions?

Lori
Tokyo

(WOW! All the way from Tokyo! We are so happy to have you with us Lori xo) Shakaya and all of us here at Rawmom)

**

Dear Lori,

To answer your question about remedies for overcoming the nausea associated with morning sickness, I would still encourage you to give fresh lemon juice mixed in water a try. Although the lemon in its natural state seems acidic, it is actually alkalizing to the body when digested! Since you mentioned your being drawn towards dairy, then perhaps you could try raw goat milk or raw goat cheese, as some acid/alkaline food charts show it as alkalizing to the body, and it is a healthier alternative to cow milk (which is actually acidic).

To consider how to "treat" morning sickness during pregnancy, I believe it's important to go beyond simply treating the symptom of nausea and first look at the root of the challenge – the cause behind the condition. There are a wide variety of possible causes of morning sickness, with the most common one being the fluctuation of hormones, from estrogen and progesterone to the pregnancy hormone, hCG. While this could make sense to some degree, it does not explain how if all pregnant women have these changes in hormones why then do only some of these women experience morning sickness? An interesting fact is that if morning sickness does occur, it's most likely to show up between weeks 6 & 12, which coincides with the baby's own vulnerability to toxins!

Using my own pregnancy experience as an example, I believe there is a huge link between the mother's exposure to toxins, especially food toxins, and her degree of experiencing morning sickness. I started consuming a plant-based living foods diet over a year before conceiving my child. During this period, I went through a "detox" from all of the harmful "foods" I had been eating, i.e. animals, dairy, gluten, and processed foods. Anyone who's ever gone through a detox knows that nausea, and vomiting in severe cases, are common symptoms of the process. Usually the higher the level of toxicity and the quicker the detox, the more severe the "health crisis" symptoms are. It is completely normal in the cycle of detox to feel worse before one feels better. So when I did become pregnant and continued to eat a raw vegan diet, I was already free of harmful toxins. I did not need to go through a "detox" period on behalf of my baby and thus did not experience nausea and vomiting, aka "morning sickness." I did however become nauseated on the few occasions in which I tried to shift my diet to include meat and dairy after being literally scared into doing so by an overly fearful uninformed midwife who believed I was compromising the health of my baby by eating a vegan diet during my pregnancy! Needless to say I quickly stopped eating meat, reverted back to my raw vegan diet, and transferred my care to a new midwife who was tolerant of my lifestyle!!!

I personally recommend that a woman experiencing "morning sickness" take a look at her diet as a serious contender in the possible causes behind her nausea symptoms. Since making an overnight change in lifestyle can send one into extreme detox, and thus would heighten the nausea and vomiting, I do not recommend making quick and drastic changes. Rather, I would suggest that one significantly reduce the toxic foods immediately, and then start slowly replacing them one by one with an increase in the healthier foods. I would focus on the chlorophyll rich green foods, and lots of alkaline vegetables and fruits! The foods that are most alkalizing to the body when digested are lemons, limes, and cucumbers. Interesting too, is that for some women, even just smelling a freshly cut lemon or lime can really help diminish nausea!

While one transitions to a healthier diet, addressing the morning sickness symptoms of nausea will be necessary. Besides the lemons, which you can juice fresh and mix in water, fresh ginger made into a tea can also help take the edge off of nausea. Additionally, one drop of peppermint essential oil in a glass of water can help, although this is controversial. Simply smelling the essential oil may be a "safer" alternative, but still questioned by some. If still concerned, a general rule of thumb is that if you used peppermint essential oil before pregnancy without any adverse reaction, than it's probably okay. However, if you are new to peppermint essential oil, your pregnancy is probably not the best time to test it out! So an alternative to using the essential oil is to drink peppermint leaf tea. If one tea bag is not strong enough to do the trick, try doubling up! Even better, use a stronger loose leaf tea and adjust how much you use to find the strength that is right for you! The best option may be perhaps to make a peppermint leaf herbal infusion.

Check out Herbalist and Wise Woman, Susun Weed's web site for more information and how to: http://www.susunweed.com/How_to_make_Infusions.htm. (Susun Weed was among the amazing women who was interviewed on the Raw Mom Summit ).

Happy Healthy Feel-Great Pregnancy to you!!!

Sincerely,
Rawmom Debra Tau

Featured Recipe: Wise Woman Slaw

After doing an amazing interview with one of our readers and dear friends, GINA LAVERDE for the Raw Mom Summit about how she had reversed her son's Autism by using the Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates, I was intrigued. I knew the principles but wanted to learn more about how to incorporate it into my own life. So I asked Gina to introduce me to Donna and we hit it off. I immediately realised I had to share this life-changing information with all my moms and so invited her to be a guest speaker for W.I.S.H. You will be able to hear that call with Donna if you sign up here: www.wishsummit.com.

Cultured vegetables are available commercially at most natural foods stores but I find them a bit pricey and prefer to make them myself now that I know how. It is fun and easy.

Here is the recipe I have been making every other week:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cabbage, red or white, Nappa or mixture as the base- organic is best
• 1 head cauliflower
• 2 lbs carrots
• 2 lbs daikon
• 2 lbs turnips
• 1 head of garlic
• 2" ginger peeled

Many veggies can be cultured with great success for more nutrition and digestibility. You can use beets which are great for the liver, sea veggies like wakame and arame, kale, collards, apple or red pepper, or other radishes besides daikon (but I haven't tried these yet)

Spices and dried herbs add something special: I like caraway seeds, chili flakes, garlic and ginger. Celery juice makes a great brine too. But to just get started, go basic and just try cabbage and water with salt so you get comfy with this first before experimenting.

Clean all vegetables well and then chop or use a food processor to shred everything. Mix vegetables in a bowl. Pack vegetable mix tightly into glass jar(s). When the jars are full with about 1 -2 inches room at the top, use a wooden spoon to pound the mixture down and then add some more. Always leave 1-2 inches at the top of the jar so the fermented veggies have room to expand. I use 2 quart size jars. Then you add liquid or brine which is a mixture of good quality Celtic or Himalayan salt, about 2 T, and water. I also add a few leaves of cabbage that were from the outside that I could have thrown away, instead they help take up the space at the top and still leave room for expansion.

Here are Donna and Gina doing a batch in this video series:

Pour brine over the veggies, leaving breathing room for expansion. Cap tightly and leave at room temp for 2-4 days, then move to the refrigerator for storage. I 'check in' every day and release the cap to let the built up fermentation gases escape, and re-seal air-tight.

Note: Donna recommends using a 'starter' of probiotics- I do this when I have them in the house, but it turns out well without it.

These keep very well and are great to have on hand in the fridge. You can eat them alone as a condiment, or add them to salads, sprouted tortilla wraps, etc. I love them with a little olive oil, some turmeric and dulse sprinkled over tip, with avocado. I munch happily away with my chopsticks. In-Joy!

15 FUN TV-FREE THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR KIDS

I was recently invited to write for THE MOTHER magazine (Rawmom’s Jamie Abrams is a regular contributor) which is a most beautiful and always inspirational publication coming out of the UK and instead of sharing about my article I wanted to share some ideas from one of the articles in the Nov- Dec issue #37 (Unfortunately, the author’s name of this article isn’t on the page nor in the table of contents) :

1. Make a seasonal table, gathering goodies from Nature to display (this is a nice focus for a hike with the whole family) such as acorns, holly berries, (I would add Dogwood, pinecones, boughs of large and small pine, flowers, shells, pretty stones, beautiful leaves, interesting sticks). Light a candle, and give thanks for all the beauty around you.
2. Sew lavender potpourri bags
3. Invite friends for a themed pot luck dinner
4. Join or start a storytelling group
5. Take a moon bath by walking in the moonlight
6. Build a snowperson
7. Go sledding or skating
8. Make lanterns (My family used little glass jars that we covered with pretty tissue paper in orange and yellow and red- putting a little tea-light candle inside and making a handle out of string) to take with you on an evening walk.
9. Write a letter to the kid’s grandmothers
10. Snuggle up under the blankets on the couch and read to your kids
11. Write, learn and share a new poem or story
12. Create a list of goals for the new year together
13. Make a Dream Catcher out of feathers, shells, ribbon and beads to hang in the bedroom window.
14. Make bird houses and feed the birds
15. Gather up and give 15 things away

The BIG Give

When I interviewed Shazzie last year for RMS, she said The Universe loves us and wants us to be happy. I loved that so much I decided to tell myself that every opportunity. I tell my kids that every night at bedtime when their sleepy heads are most susceptible to positive affirmations. It has become one of my mantras.

Sometimes we have to, ooops, I meant we 'get to' re-program ourselves...Anyway, I have had a series of events happen that are all nothing short of miraculous and I want to share them with YOU so you too can magnetize your dreams and miracles, because the Universe is madly in love with you!

I was blissed to be asked to be a contributor to the IBS for Dummies Cookbook last year. What happened was I was asked to but I decided that because there are so many talented raw chefs out there I would put the call out in the raw community for others as I am not a chef per se- I told everyone that the IBS publishers were looking for them and to apply! Over a month later after I had forgotten all about it I was asked again to contribute too. So I did. And fogot about it again. Several months later I received a letter from the publishers that some of my recipes indeed had been chosen. I couldn't believe it! The book came out months after, and sure enough, there I was, along with Angela Elliott whom I had invited among several others. We were actually the only raw contributors in the book! From being a former Colon Hydro Therapist, I am so aware of how IBS people suffer, and so I was thrilled to have contributed some raw recipes which I know will help people who unfortunately have been told they must stay away from raw food which is misinformation.

Then, on my blissday this year, I received a note from divalicious Tera that for my birthday present she wants to make me the Queen of Rawmom and has legally signed it over to me! *GULP!* GUSH!*

After volunteering here for two years, and supporting Tera's vision of creating a community for raw moms so much, it feels like a DREAM COME TRUE. I had taken it on as a full-time job trying to answer people's emails and questions, writing blogs about my family life, driving traffic to the blog, inviting moms and raw celebs alike to share their wisdom, recipes and experiences and created products like the Healthy Lunchbox and Raw Mom Summit, and I have had some 'animated' discussions with hubby over why I worked so hard and just couldn't leave to get a 'real job' although I have come so close several times due to financial reasons...The fact is, I obviously love supporting and joining with women here. It is my calling. And Tera must have known that. Wow. How amazing is this?

We have worked together for 2 years now, had some very sisterly 'moments' which weren't always easy, yet, we always work them through. I believe she is a rare and special woman in my life, a whirlwind of talent and creativity that is like a force of Nature, and a precious gift. She lives to support other women and she takes risks and invests her time and resources so they can expand in their own beautiful unfolding. She has done that for me and I really love her and am forever grateful. And inspired, to give to this community everything I can to celebrate the lifestyle we all share in various degrees and many forms; I won't let you down Tera, or my dear Moms.

The miracles just continue as just yesterday Maclean's which is one of Canada’s largest magazines just contacted me for an interview about my views on primal parenting, so I'll share about that when I can. I hope to hear from some of you about what miracles you are manifesting in your lives and family, as well as what new things you might love to see around here. I have a few of my own which I will be sharing about right after W.I.S.H.. Rawmom will still be a community based site, its not about me, its about ALL of us. The more contributors, the merrier! So contact me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and introduce yourself.

Love and Blissings,
Shannon Shakaya
www.rawmom.com