Farmers Market Fun!

I work mostly weekends, and since I am taking this weekend off for the Raw Union, there was a huge dent in the hours I was working this week. I was only schedule 11 hours for the ENTIRE week...haha, it's almost comical how lame that is. I asked around and picked up more hours, and yesterday I worked a whopping 12 HOURS! I work at a coffee shop in a very high paced environment, so this is tough work. At least I was physically active ALL DAY LONG (caps means serious business). But, surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all! Wanna know my secret...(?) I loaded up on a TON of spirulina and astaxanthin for breakfast, and stayed hydrated all day. This stuff is, in my opinion, the ultimate superfood. I must do really well on a plant based protein, because man did this kick me into high gear for most of my day. I felt stimulated, alert and just plain happy as can be. It helped that I didn't eat much most of the day except little snacks here and there on a break, so digesting food didn't really subtract from my energy level. Then, today I covered an OPENING shift (5:00am!), again making a loaded raw cacao, spirulina, almond milk, maca, bee pollen and banana smoothie along side 12mg of astaxanthin, and BOOM...all day again. It was wonderful. I feel five again!

Later in the afternoon I went to the People's Co-op farmers market. It was such a blast. I ended up hanging out with a fellow PDX raw-y, listening to live music, eating fresh strawberries and salad. Sometimes Portland feels like a real treasure. It was great. I got some E3Live that I am really excited to try out. A really cool guy was sampling it out and gave me such a huge shot of it, just to see if I could handle it. Whoa, it was intense, but fantastic! I ended up being so impressed that I bought some, and convinced the woman standing in line behind me to pick some up as well :). Hope she needs energy! I also am excited to try out a locally cultured coconut yogurt that I got...I'll go get it...her it goes......MMMMMMMM! Soooo delicious. Probiotic goodness! Yum. With the strawberries I just got...delicacy.

As of today my top fav superfoods that I am using:
1) Spirulina
2) E3Live
3) Maca
4) Bee pollen
5) Chia seeds
6) Cacao
7) Goji berries
8) Cocunut 0il/water/yogurt/dried
9) Loads of blueberries
10) Mesquite powder

I have been kind of on a budget lately so my cupboards are getting bare, but theses are what I absolutely have to keep stock of for the time being. I add some, and subtract some depending on what else I want to experiment with. I usually throw all these things into a smoothie in the morning, have a salad mid day, and a small snack in the evening.

Tomorrow Kevin and Ann Marie Gianni from the Renegade Health Show will be speaking in Portland, so I will look forward to hear what they have to say. They will talk on "The pit-fall of a plant based diet." Should be interesting. I watch their show almost daily, and love the stuff that they share about.

Now I have to go get ready for the Raw Union! I have a jam packed schedule tomorrow and I leave bright and early Friday morning for the long drive down to Ashland.

Thank your local farmer :),
Katie