Raw Chocolate Ice Cream

There’s no refined sugar or milk in here and it’s completely raw. When we first made it we weren’t sure what to expect but when we tasted it we realized it was exactly like chocolate ice cream…only healthier. Yummy and good for you – you can’t go wrong.

Ingredients

1 cup young coconut meat – may need two young coconuts to yield 1 cup meat

1/4 cup agave

1 cup cashew nuts – soaked in water for about an hour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup water – could use coconut water if you want

1/4 maple syrup

2 tbsp cocoa butter/powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp vanilla bean seeds – can use liquid vanilla as well

1 cup brazil milk – recipe below

Scrape meat out of coconuts. Measure out about 1 cup. Put in blender. Add cashew nuts into blender. Melt cocoa butter lightly on stove (90 degrees Celsius is enough it melts very easily). Add cocoa butter to blender. Add agave, maple syrup, cocoa powder,salt,vanilla, and brazil nut milk. Blend. If you have an ice cream maker you can put the mixture in there or if you are like me and don’t you can pour the mixture into ice cube trays. Leave overnight. The next day take out ice cube trays, pop the chocolate ice cubes out and put it into food processor. Blend it to give it the ice cream consistency. Voila. Raw chocolate ice cream.

Brazil Nut Milk

1 cup raw brazil nuts, 4 cups water, 1/2 cup agave or raw honey, 2 tbsp cocoa butter, 1 tbsp vanilla, 2 packets stevia, pinch of sea salt.

Blend nuts and water. Strain milk through a nut milk bag or just a fine strainer. Rinse blender, place milk back in and add remaining ingredients. Blend together and your done.

How Can Binaural Beats Help With Your Meditation?

I’ve been meditating for quite a while now but I usually have an extremely hard time quieting my mind. I’ll try to focus on a sound or an object but my mind will wander over to what I did that morning, what I didn’t do that morning, and what I definitely have to do later. Once I realize that there’s something I have to do then I can’t get back into a meditative state.

Another problem I have, although less often, is I’ll actually be in the groove and have my mind really focused, then next thing I know I wake up and I sure feel like I had a nap but I don’t feel like I meditated at all.

The reason I meditate is usually to find an answer that I’m searching for… and every single time I meditate I do find an answer BUT it relates to stuff I have to do that evening. That’s very frustrating when you are looking for an answer to something pertaining to your life that deeply affects you.

But that was before! Now I’ve found an answer to it all…So to continue…

The best meditation I have ever had was a guided meditation by a friend of mine.

He instructed all of us to relax, then relax even more. I didn’t think it was going to happen but then I found myself concentrating on his words and being able to also concentrate on the imagery he was giving to us. My mind didn’t have an opportunity to take over with its crazy thoughts because he would move on to the next step or imagery before it had a chance to do that.

By the time he got to our reason for doing the meditation I was completely relaxed and focused on what I was looking for. The answer to my question was absolutely clear in my mind and I was extremely excited about the whole experience.

I went home and tried to replicate the whole experience with just myself but I started thinking about other things. I realized I need guided meditation and I got on the internet and searched. I found binaural beats. I haven't looked back since.

And don’t be scared because binaural beats are not a mind altering drug. They are an aid to help get your mind where it needs to be to perform a task, like meditation.

It’s like taking a break from your busy day by being calm but without having to get comfortable, stop thinking, and relax before that’s possible. Skip that part and get right to the calmness.

So here’s why Binaural Beats work.

Our brain goes through many frequency cycles during each day. Different frequencies produce different effects to the human consciousness. Knowing this, it has been discovered that the brains receiving and operating frequency can be altered by sound waves. Many of the most powerful brain frequencies are less than 20 Hz. Hertz, or Hz for short, are a unit of frequency.

Our hearing can't pick up to frequencies below 20 Hz. This is where binaural beat technology comes in. It uses the inner wiring of the brain to create the desired frequency with perfect accuracy.
Meaning, in your right ear will be a frequency of 308 Hz and in your left ear will be a frequency of 300 Hz so your brain is drawn towards the beat frequency of 8 Hz which is the difference between the two. Among many other things that you can use this for, one is meditation.

I find that within a few seconds of putting the earphones in and getting comfortable I am in a meditative state. I come out of it feeling refreshed and satisfied.

It’s so nice to know that I’m looking after myself at that very moment and not thinking about the past or future.

I’ve had excellent results finding answers to my questions now and they are even better than the guided meditation with my friend.

If you want to obtain a calmer and more focused meditation and you think that guided meditation might be for you then check out binaural beats.

The best place I've found for instantly downloadable beats for all kinds of things is the Unexplainable Store Here.

They literally have a binaural beat tailored for almost any problem you are having. The above clip is a just a portion of what they offer. Check out all their binarual beats by clicking here.

Preservatives and Additives are Yummy?

Before all this processed and convenient food people used to just eat plain old food like potatoes and vegetables.

Now we barely ever get potatoes and vegetables unless it comes out of a can, bag or container.

Just because it is more convenient for us to rip open a bag and dump our food into the pot doesn’t mean it’s good for us. In fact it’s just the opposite.

I once heard a guy say something that I’ve never stopped picturing. He was talking about the food we put in our bodies and he made a comparison of fresh food as opposed to processed food.

He was saying that if you put fresh food in the ground it will become one with the ground but if you put processed food in the ground it will become moldy.

I look at it that way now. If I can’t throw it in my compost when I’m done then how good is it sitting in my body? Our food is filled with preservatives and additives.

Food is not meant to last for years on the shelf. So we add preservatives and additives to our food so that it can sit there for years on the shelf and then after it’s sat there we finally decide to eat it, and the chemicals.

So let’s go through some common preservatives and additives.

Sodium Nitrate (also called Sodium Nitrite) is a preservative, coloring, and flavoring commonly added to bacon, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, smoked fish, and corned beef. Studies have connected eating it to various types of cancer.

BHA and BHT are known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction and are banned in some European countries.

MSG is an amino acid used as a flavor enhancer in soups, salad dressings, chips, frozen entrees, and restaurant food. It can cause headaches and nausea, and animal studies link it to damaged nerve cells in the brains of infant mice.

Aspartame, also known by the brand names NutraSweet and Equal, is a sweetener found in so-called diet foods such as low-calorie desserts, gelatins, drink mixes, and soft drinks. It may cause cancer or neurological problems, such as dizziness or hallucinations.

And here are some colors for you. Blue 1 and 2, found in beverages, candy, baked goods and pet food, have been linked to cancer in mice. Red 3, used to dye cherries, fruit cocktail, candy, and baked goods, has been shown to cause thyroid tumors in rats. Green 3, added to candy and beverages, have been linked to bladder cancer. The widely used yellow 6, added to beverages, sausage, gelatin, baked goods, and candy, has been linked to tumors of the adrenal gland and kidney.

I was actually stunned to learn about Cochineal coloring not long ago. It’s bug juice. No seriously it juice that squished out of bugs. That’s disgusting. It’s also called carmine, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, or E120. Because it’s considered natural there is no requirement to label it as what it really is but unfortunately in some people it has been known to cause severe allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock. As well it’s not giving vegetarians or vegans a right to choose. It’s in your yogurt.

I used to be a, it tastes better with color victim, even though now I know that just because the cheddar cheese is yellow doesn’t mean it tastes better than the white cheddar.

Eating naturally is just one of the ways to make ourselves healthier as a whole.

Toxins shouldn't stay in our bodies

Today, toxicity has become a major issue not just in our environment but also within our bodies.

We are surrounded by pollution that we breathe in everyday of our lives whether it be by the nearest chemical plant, the nearest smoker, the car driving by or the fire that we have while we are camping. There’s always something that we are breathing in and not all of it is always coming out.

With the increasing pollution levels, this has also affected our food chain. Scientific research like the Human Toxome Project has shown that most of us have toxic chemicals in our bodies due to environmental pollution.

In today’s world, our eating habits are no longer healthy and natural foods. We eat fried and processed foods that are preserved, colored, and contain additives. How can that be good for our bodies?

Some common additives are Red Dye 40 which is suspected to cause certain birth defects and possibly cancer. Caramel is a famous flavoring and coloring agent that can cause vitamin B6 deficiencies. It can cause certain genetic defects and even cancer. Saccharin causes toxic reactions and allergic responses, affecting skin, gastrointestinal tract and heart. It may also cause tumors and bladder cancer. And these are just to name a few.

Not only are we eating a whole bunch of color and additives but we are over eating them. We no longer eat to survive. We eat when we get together, in front of the TV, because our clock has struck noon, and for any reason that we now associate with eating. This has lead to our population suffering from what the World Health Organization defined as Globesity.

We are also eating the toxins from our cookware. Metals from the cookware may leach into your food in small amounts.

Our bodies are working so hard at digesting massive amounts of crap and getting rid of toxins that they don’t have time to do much else. This is why there is more sickness. Our bodies are incredible and repairing themselves but they have to have the time to do it.

When you are really sick, with a bad flu let says, you don’t feel like eating. Yet, you survive to the end of flu with little nutrition in you. I like to let my body focus on getting better and not force it to a million other things when I am sick. I guess you could say I like to help my system out a bit.

Our bodies cannot cope with the unnatural increased in toxins. The end result of toxicity is increased incidences of Cancer and other diseases.

We can’t avoid all toxins around us. Even if we eat everything we should, don’t smoke or drink, and live a perfect life we are still surrounded by pollution every day. We are still breathing it in every day. So we need to give our bodies a little help every once in awhile in the form of a detox.

There are many different detox programs out there and I believe they can all have a positive effect on us just as long as we don’t go overboard and decide to use them as a massive weight loss program. It’s about giving our bodies a break and removing toxins from our body. It’s not about losing twenty pounds in a week. That’s not healthy and the ultimate goal of detoxing is to become healthy.