Miracles for Middle-Aged Weight Gain: A 7-Day Detox Testimonial

Recently The Raw Divas received a wonderful letter from one of the 7-Day Detox participants.  Vivienne’s letter was so encouraging that we asked if we could share it.

“Oh yes!” she said.  “Certainly, it would be an honour. I am 59 and my husband is 61, we would so love others of our age to value as much as we have from your kind support and valuable information. By the way, we both are continuing to lose that weight. Thank you, thank you.”

We hope you enjoy hearing about Vivienne’s experience as much as we did! Read more »

Sisterhood Spotlight: Meet Lyn Wright. She’s Making it Go Right on Raw Food

Hi!  My name is Lyn and I’m soooo excited to be a part of this group. (I’ve recently come onboard as the new director of the Raw Diva website!)

I’ve been a fan and follower of The Raw Divas site since it first came out.  It has helped me a lot and I love telling others about it.  I love how it’s actually a community and that things are kept FUN!

I’ve been interested in nutrition for a loooong time (yes – I’m old!) because I was very motivated to find a better way to handle my health problems.

I didn’t get off to a very good start.

As a toddler I had severe asthma which also led to catching anything that came along.  My mom was a chain smoker but no one back in the 50’s thought to tell her not to smoke around me!

For fear that I’d miss too much school, my doctor put me on ‘desensitizing shots’.  This seemed to stop the asthma during Read more »

Healing Medicine: Green Drinks & Threading the Needle

It feels good to bottle health for family and friends. Today, I bottled one green juice and two green smoothies for a friend who was recently hospitalized for stomach-related issues. Since being released, she hasn’t had much of an appetite, so I figured fresh green juice and/or the green smoothie would be the perfect food for her to sip on to assist her healing journey.

The top bottle in the picture shown here is of the juice: kale, 3 apples, 1 pear (because I ran out of apples), 1/2 lemon.

The bottom two bottles are of the smoothie, which turned out silky smooth. The ingredients used to make that were:

~ a couple handfuls of Kale

~ a handful of Parsley

~ two Pears

~ a few slices of Pineapple

~ half an Avocado

~ about 1 teaspoon Cold Pressed Olive Oil

~ about 1 teaspoon Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar

~ Water (didn’t measure — maybe a cup or so)

~ dash of Cayenne Pepper

~ about 1 1/2 teaspoons Agave Nectar

Now, I’m about to send my friend this blog entry suggesting she also “Thread the Needle” as a way to massage her abdominal organs and rejuvenate her entire system. What a nice complement to her green drinks!

“Thread The Needle?” she’ll ask.

~ On all fours in Table position (hands about shoulder width apart), begin lowering the right temple to the floor while “threading” the right arm under the left arm. (The left hand is planted on the floor.) Feel a nice stretch behind the shoulder. Hold for a few seconds while inhaling and exhaling through the nose.

~ Return to all fours and repeat on the opposite side.

To increase the stretch, raise the non-threaded arm toward the ceiling and hold for a few breaths.

Feel renewed now, Michele?

Green drinks and stretching! Does healing “medicine” get any purer than that? Why get a needle when we can just “Thread the Needle”?

Green Hugs & Blessings,

Penny

Mighty Warrior Women's Workout

What do exercise postures, the Hebrew Alphabet (written from right to left), and Proverbs 31 have in common? A mighty warrior workout for women!

Thanks to the fitness DVD, PraiseMoves® Alphabetics, I have learned to do postures that mirror Hebrew letters. Then, while briefly holding each posture, the voice of Laurette Willis, creator of PraiseMoves Alphabetics®, can be heard reading a verse per posture from verses 10 to 31 of Proverbs 31 about The Virtuous Woman.

“As you meditate on the qualities of the virtuous woman,” says Willis, “realize that the Hebrew word for virtuous — Chayil — means capable, strong, valiant; a mighty warrior.” Yes, women, that’s what we are, and a mighty warrior is precisely what I feel like each time I move through the Hebrew alphabet and Proverbs 31 via fitness.

Although the majority of the Proverbs 31 postures on PraiseMoves® Alphabetics are simple to do, I not only feel my physical body strengthening as I hold the postures, but my mind and Spirit, too. “She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms.” And, “She extends her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy,” are some of the Proverbs 31 verses that are heard throughout the workout.

For a few of the exercises, Willis offers modifications for those who need to reduce the level of intensity of the posture. For instance, the second to last posture of the series (at the Hebrew letter tav and Willis’ posture The Cross) can be done with the inner knee resting on the floor for support, or off the floor for more of a challenge. Then, how wonderful it feels to transition from the strength of holding “The Cross” back to Willis’ “Altar” posture (known as Plank to some) and then off to relax in her “Little Child’s Pose.” The word “Amen” confirms the conclusion of the workout. Ahhh, at that point the body feels totally balanced, the mind fully renewed, and the soul wonderfully refreshed!

While not a sweat-dripping kind of workout, the flow of it certainly helps slightly raise the body temperature for me. For those wanting a longer PraiseMoves® Alphabetics workout, however, there is also a 60-minute workout on this DVD — done to the longest Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119. Like Proverbs 31, Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem. At every 8th verse of Psalm 119, a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet begins the verse. “The last 22 verses of Proverbs 31 (verses 10 – 31) follow the same progression alef through tav,” Willis explains.

PraiseMoves Alphabetics® also offers the option of doing the workouts with or without detailed instruction. With the “Flow-through” option, participants can simply, as the name implies, flow through the sequences.

A workout sequence for The Lord’s Prayer — spoken in English and Hebrew — is also a choice on the DVD. (For those more familiar with yoga, The Lord’s Praise sequence may remind you of the flow of “Sun Salutation.”)

I realized sometime ago that my fitness niche includes flexibility exercises and walking. Add the opportunity to meditate on Scripture in the process, and indeed that’s a perfect way for me to do my daily devotion with a glorious motion!

Can you tell I’m loving PraiseMoves® Alphabetics? Just lovin’ it!

Hugs & Blessings,

Penny

P.S. Hebrew Word Pictures (book and CD set) by Dr. Frank Seekins wonderfully complements PraiseMoves® Alphabetics.