CANDIDA, COULD IT BE THE ROOT OF MY TROUBLES?

Today I will talk about a perfect theme for halloween, because I'm kind of terrified of it haha! Normally it is not well understood, generates conflicting opinions, in the field of conventional medicine is sometimes not recognized as a real disease, and has been attributed million symptoms but "supposedly" there is no hard evidence that they are truly linked to it, except for many testimonies of people who have improved treating it, I'm talkin about candida. Normally when I heard the word candida I used to think of a vaginal infection, that you got cured with cream, but apparently I was very wrong.

Let me explain a bit better!

In our body, there's tons of  "good" and "bad" microorganisms who are responsible for keeping our intestinal flora in balance. These essential friendly bacteria, perform important functions in our body and assist in digestion, protect the intestinal mucosa, help white blood cells fight disease, provide important nutrients to the blood, prevent constipation and diarrhea by regulating out bowel movements. They also manufacture vitamins among other things.

Unfortunately when our immunity is compromised by our acidic diet, high sugar intake, processed carbohydrates, stress, pesticides and chemicals in our food and water, and the use of medications, especially hormones and antibiotics; this delicate balance can be lost. The body goes into this state of weakness and the bad bacteria can multiply rapidly.

GROW FEST 2013

This past Saturday October 19, Savy and I decided to take a short trip to Redlands, FL (about an hour from Miami) to visit this beautiful area, characterized by the number of farms and nurseries that it has. Also we took the opportunity to attend Grow Fest, a festival that I saw advertised at Whole Foods in support of organic agriculture (for me any excuse to be outdoors is fantastic). Today in the "green spots" section, I'll give you a photo tour and my review on the event.

RECIPE: DELICIOUS MIXED SEED BREAD (GLUTEN FREE)

Since adopting a gluten free diet, I basically chose not to eat bread, since no option in the supermarket caught my attention and they are a bit expensive for their size, not only that, but some have ingredients  that seems unnecessary and don't convince me. For a long time I replaced my bread cravings with brown rice tortillas (store bought), but it's definitely not the same. Some mornings I want my little piece of toast and herbal tea. Searching through blogs I love (I'm still not that skilled with gluten free baking, which is a whole new different world) I found this recipe on deliciouslyella.com, tried it, loved it and decided to share it with you guys.

SUPERFOODS: CHLORELLA

Today I will talk about a super food that is never missing in my home. Not only that, but I talk about it to everyone who comes visit, and even made my mom buy a couple of bottles. I drink it every single morning in my smoothies (because it tastes a bit funny), usually mixed with spirulina. I'm talking about chlorella. Remember, as I had mentioned in prior posts, the body's pH must be balanced to keep us in good health and with optimal cellular oxygenation, chlorella not only helps you be alkaline but has so many benefits! This is truly a magical food.

Chlorella is a single celled freshwater microalgae, which throughout history has been able to survive thanks to its tough outer shell, which protects her genetic integrity. It's one of the most efficient foods on Earth because of the way it uses and concentrates sunlight. Able to reproduce four times every 24 hours, it's the fastest growing plant, with the highest content of chlorophyll on the planet. With it's dark green color, it's truly a super food because it is composed of ⅔ protein and ⅛ of chlorella growth factor (CGF), a complex of nucleotide-peptide made from beta glucans, nucleic acid, amino acids, polysaccharides and peptides that is only found in this plant.

RECIPE: QUINOA MEATLESS "MEATBALLS" WITH ZUCCHINI PASTA

This recipe pleasantly surprised my husband and I, because we never thought that it would have this level of flavor...so much that today he asked me if I could prepare it again! Sorry about the color of the photos, the light was terrible and I'm no expert in photoshop. This recipe was taken from an app called The Whole Pantry (recommended), and I made a few modifications. Run to the kitchen right now and prepare them because they are ultra delicious!

Here is the recipe:

VIDEO OF OUR FIRST SHOW AS THE STEREO LIGHTS

As I had posted before, my husband and I a couple of months ago created a project called The Stereo Lights, where we sing and play live (with synthesizers and MIDI controllers), original tracks or remixes made ​​by us of songs we love.

Our first show (and my debut singing in public), was in St. Barths as part of the "Summer Sessions" music festival during the month of August. We played at a very popular restaurant/lounge on the beach called "La Plage". The complete set lasted about 1 hour, but here is a summary of a few songs. Hope you enjoy it :) for me this is a completely new facet and I love developing it with my super talented husband Savy Fontana, who has been in the electronic music industry for over 15 years.

Here it is!

MY FIRST FIVE MONTHS ON A VEGGIE DIET AND IT'S PROFOUND IMPACT ON ME

During this weekend I was thinking that even though I have given you guys many recommendations, techniques, tips and recipes that I apply daily, I haven't been so self explanatory about my personal process. Let me tell you it has not been an easy one, but very rewarding! For years I have been eating healthy (or "clean"), but when I wanted to take it to the next level I started drinking vegetable and fruit juices daily. A few weeks after watching documentaries on animal abuse and the environmental damage that the meat industry generates, researching about GMO, inquiring about how people with cancer have transformed their lives through plant-based foods and the great benefits of lowering or eliminating animal protein in our diets, I decided to change to a veggie diet (full of natural foods, unprocessed and organic) and see how my body responded. Not only that, but as you already know, I removed all toxic personal products and household cleaners with harmful chemicals in them.

You are a world, you are unique and so are your needs, what works for one hurts another, and that's fascinating. The manifestation of our imperfections makes us humble, vulnerable, humans. I want you to see the reality of this process, to be inspired and take what resonates with you, and to have your participation and feedback. This blog is not to show you how perfect I am and for you to do things my way, on the contrary, it's a window into my trial and error while I intuitively discover how to improve my life and health through food, to rid myself from stress and dare to be truly happy by changing my perspective, to live in harmony with this planet and treat my body like a temple...with love and kindness, and not with aggression and self-criticism as I did for many years.

THE DOCUMENTARIES THAT INSPIRED MY LIFE TRANSFORMATION

As I mentioned earlier, I've been reading about nutrition for years because it's a subject that I'm really passionate about, but what really worked as a catalyst to take the radical decision as to change my diet and lifestyle, was to see these movies.

I remember one day sitting down to watch the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and was left so thirsty for information that I began to see these five documentaries on the same weekend one after the other. Three days later I started my first juice cleanse (of 4 days) along with my husband, and it made me feel so good that I transitioned directly to a vegetable diet (first I said I was going to go vegetarian, keeping organic eggs and fish, but my body was not being so receptive of them so I decided to leave them out completely).

Five months later I have this wonderful blog that inspires me to be better every day, I eat intuitively and I 've noticed that my body responds great to a diet full of fruits, vegetables, super foods, seeds, nuts and grains (sporadically). I stopped drinking coffee or any other stimulant, using artificial sweeteners or refined sugar, white flour, dairy, meat or gluten.

The most important thing is that the change has transformed me not only on the outside, but in my way of looking at life itself, in my broken relationship with food, how I manage my weight and love my body. In exercising because I enjoy doing it, and not forcing myself to do the same routine every day...I'm gentle with my body, I listen and change my habits as I go. I learned to give thanks, to pray, to forgive myself, to not believe everything I hear just because it comes from a doctor or because TV commercials say it is excellent or "natural". I'm a persistent detective and investigator, I love to take the reins of my life, and these documentaries provided me with that last spark I so  needed! I hope they will have the same effect on you!

Here they are