Alrighty, I’m going to do something I said I would never do… review a hoodia product. lol.

First of all, when the Ice Cube Diet people wanted to send me their product to try, I gave them fair warning. I told them that we make fun of scammy spammy diet pills and nonsense here. But, they insisted! They stand behind their product enough that they thought they could win over the peanut gallery here at The Fun House. lol.

So they sent me the product, and I have to say I’m surprised… this isn’t a “lose weight fast hoodia melts fat blah blah blah” pill; it’s REAL RAW HOODIA, not dried, and not in pill form. It’s frozen ice cubes of hoodia juice mixed with a little lemon juice to mitigate the “yuk” taste of the hoodia. Sucking on these cubes seems to be the most effective way to use them.

Before my review of how these worked for me, let’s start with some hoodia facts:

1. MOST hoodia diet pills are complete garbage and contain little or no P57 (the chemical that curbs appetite.

2. Hoodia, in order to receive the full benefits like the San Bushmen in Africa that use it for their hunting trips, it really needs to be consumed fresh and raw.

3.  Hoodia is actually a FOOD for the Bushmen, not a “supplement” like how we think here in the West.

4. Hoodia is bitter and really kinda tastes like crap. I’ve had slices from a live hoodia succulent, the real thing, and I can tell you that it tastes awful; but you will get used to the taste the more you chew it.

5. Real hoodia is not for American sissies. It’s not a pleasant taste. It’s like one of those “eat your brussles sprouts” moments with your kids. It is effective and killing the appetite, for sure, no doubt… but can you do what the Bushmen do and suck and chew on it to get the same benefits they get?  If not, don’t waste your time on hoodia pills or product formats that are more “pleasant” for Americans. Man-up or forget it.

The Desert Labs people that make the Hoodia Ice Cube product with lemon juice. It still tastes like hoodia, but with lemon, which makes it a bit more pleasant than plain, raw slices of hoodia.  Personally, I found the hoodia juice cubes they sent me to be quite refreshing in the hot summer! I like the little burst of energy they give along with the appetite reduction.

Sometimes more than one cube was necessary and there seemed to be a cumulative effect over the period of sucking on the cubes for a couple of days. And some days I felt less hungry than others. Your mileage may vary… YES this is a REAL fresh plant hoodia product in a convenient ice cube form with a little lemon. It may or may not have the same effect everyday. But for sure, it’s the real thing and the people at this company grow their own hoodia and have made a nice business out of supplying the market with a REAL, fresh hoodia product and not a scammy “diet pill.”

If you’ve never tried hoodia, the real stuff, it’s not a waste of money.  Buy a plant and chew it, or you can buy the convenient ice cube form from these nice folks.  There is no other way to use hoodia correctly to get the true benefits other than the fresh plant form.

I LOVE my Jack’s Dehydrator! It’s still going strong making the best Essene breads ever. What can I say? It’s been a workhorse.  You do need to keep an eye on the bottom drawer because things can heat up down there and get brown spots, rendering it “cooked” more than raw. However, as I mentioned when I first wrote about the dehydrator, temperature control can be achieved  by pulling out the drawers; and of course, always run your Jack’s in a room with good air circulation.

Jack’s is made entirely of aluminum and has mesh, stainless steel screens. For those of us, like myself, that aren’t crazy about foods in plastic or aluminum, parchment paper is an excellent choice to use with it. Most of the things I make are done on parchment paper. I also use the stainless steel screens they provide when drying whole food slices on the trays.

Jack’s with parchment baking paper makes excellent raw cuisine, EXCELLENT. So if you are making breads, pizza, rolls, etc, you can’t go wrong and the food comes out perfect in my experience! Hope this was helpful.

So what is the Berry Blast Drink by Focus 28 anyhow? Well, it’s a sugar-free, whey protein drink; and just like it says, it’s berry flavored.

Now, normally, this might be something I poo-poo as “not much different from “Crystal Lite” in terms of taste. While it is along those lines in terms of taste, one thing it does in an absolutely fabulous way is lend itself to the addition of fruit and sparkling mineral water for a refreshing protein meal with fizz!

This is a great idea for the bariatrics as well as the rest of us that might want a delish, super-fast, protein pick-me-up without a lot of calories.

I like to call this drink, Hot August Strawberry! Here is the simple recipe, it is less than 3 minutes to prepare.

What you will need:

A blender

1 envelope of Focus 28 Berry Blast Drink

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup crushed ice

1 1/2 cups VERY COLD sparkling mineral water

fresh strawberry for garnish

Prepare:

Put ice, sparkling water,  frozen strawberries in blender and blend until smooth and icy.

Garnish with a fresh strawberry or other berries , Enjoy!

Here’s a bit of a run-down. Earlier this year I went mostly raw. Then I burned out for about a week or two and couldn’t look at anything not cooked. lol. Now I’m on cruise control on 900-1000 calories a day with highly concentrated raw foods included, but not the whole shebang for now. It must be some weird brain fart I’m having. My digestive problems like reflux have all but gone away doing at least half raw vegan and cultured foods like kefir and kombucha.

How much do I weigh now?  I don’t know. I don’t own a scale. I’ve been fighting with myself on getting one. I have had to get rid of 2 pairs of pants that are now too big for me.

Exercise is STILL a problem for me and this is why the weight is slow coming off.  I love my rebounder, but right now it’s being used to hold papers and computers. lol.  My goal is to get it cleaned off again this week and start jumping more often.

I’m 5’10 and I want to weigh 130 lbs. lol.  I’ll be almost model-material. lolz!!  But seriously, 130 is my ultimate goal. I don’t think I’ll kick myself for 150 but I’ll probably be one of those people forever trying to get off that last 20 lbs. If I am a rich lady by the time 150 happens, well hell, I may just pay to have the rest vacuumed out.

On of my favorite personal tools is the kefir smoothie with frozen fruit. This simulates ice-cream in a very satisfying way; I think part of that may be the yeast in the kefir which lends a kind of “richness” to the flavor and feel.

What are your favorite personal tools to stay on the path to weight loss?

I’ll tell you right now. I’ll try ANYTHING at least once. The only thing I won’t bother with are “miracle diet pills” or pharmaceuticals or scammy “lose weight fast” diets and so on.

But by golly, if you have a product or service or recipe or method that makes some sense, I’ll try it! This is how I discovered kefir and kombucha and added them to my tool kit. They were both such an integral part of helping to heal my digestive system; people, probiotics, fresh, delicious probiotics are fantastic for your body and I pound my body with them everyday. These simple cultured foods have been relief beyond relief.  I used to take Priolosec everyday, at the most now, 3-4 times a month, and ONLY after something oily, and not always after something oily, no not at all… and not after alcohol either.

I’m not a doctor, but, if I had to bet on it, I would say every person out there with obesity problems has digestive diseases and syndromes. IBS, reflux, etc.  The first order of business, I think, should be to get your digestive system healthy for a couple of months, even before cutting calories and really dropping the weight. I’m glad I’ve had these two wonderful foods in my toolbox to start this journey.

I’m sitting here snacking on a piece of heaven. And trust me when I say that you don’t know the meaning of the word heaven until you’ve tried lychee fruit.  Lychee is not a product or a recipe or a new diet pill, you simply peel and eat. If there is one thing that being mostly raw has taught me so far and that is the love of nature’s own “packaged” foods. There isn’t any Hagen Daaz ice cream flavor that can surpass the taste, character and mouthfeel of real, live fruit.

Lychee has a quality that only one other fruit (that I know of) has: rose scented flavanoids – and that would be rose hips of course.  The rose nose of lychee is so decadent, so enchanting, that it’s easy to get lost in this low-calorie indulgence!  Go ahead and eat the whole bag!

Isn’t that the best part about fruit? Unlike potato chips, you can eat this entire bag of lychees and still have a good day!

I’m eating my bag right now.

Here we go again with this “pear in a bottle brandy” that has been relieved of its brandy and soaked for a month or more in tasty vodka. YUM. It’s low calorie heaven; and I’ve got another RAWktail on board for the holiday weekend! I call it the Blueberry-Pear Liberty Martini. Tee hee.

As you may recall from the first RAWktail we did here at the fun house,  we used blackberries, shaken not stirred.

For this recipe you are going to need:

a jigger or two of vodka soaked pear-in-a-bottle brandy bottle

1 lemon

blueberries

ice

cocktail shaker

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crush 10 blueberries on a bowl and add juice to shaker

cut lemon in 1/4 and squeeze 1/4 lemon into the shaker – use another 1/4 piece to rim the martini glass

prepare toothpick with 5 or more blueberries

add ice to shaker and then the vodka – shake vigorously

pour over blueberries on the toothpick

serve

depending on your vodka , less than 100 calories  ;-D

Benzoyl Peroxide

A package labeled “gourmet” lasagna with a price tag to match, among other chemicals I had no clue about, benzoyl peroxide was listed as an ingredient. How about that? Zit cream in your lasagna!  YUMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!  What will those whacky food corporations think of next?

How about silly putty in your McNuggets!?

But then again, you always knew this crap was bad for you, right? Yet, knowing the facts and then actually doing something about it (like not giving these jerks your business) are two different things altogether. I mean, the heroin junkie KNOWS that heroin is bad for his body, yet he continues to visit the heroin dealer. There is no doubt in my mind that these “food” (and I use that term loosely here) corporations know what kind of chemicals make their food irresistible to American tastebuds and continue to follow that path, because of course, they have to eek out a living too, just like the corner heroin dealer.

You like fried food? Why not buy some fresh chicken, eggs and bread crumbs and fry up your own chicken McNuggets?  I once read a story about a mom that took her child to grandma’s for a visit. Grandma proceeded to do just this: fresh, wholesome, home-made chicken “McNuggets,” but the child screamed and cried for McDonalds when they were served to him. How sick is that??? Would you take your child to the local heroin dealer so that they could develop a taste for his “chemicals” as well?

Today we are going to make RAW Bloody Mary’s.

If you don’t have a juicer, use a nutbag to strain your live juice or you can just throw in some ice into the blender and turn it into a Bloody Mary Smoothie!! Personally, I like smoothies because you get all the good fiber from the vegetables.

Fresh veggies you will need:

1 very ripe very red tomato – large

1 small red bell pepper

1 stalk of celery

1 small clove garlic

1 piece of onion equivalent to 1/8 cup

fresh hot pepper of your choice (habenero is really great if you can deal with the heat! just remove the seeds before adding small pieces in the blender)

spice mix to add:  1/8 tsp black pepper, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar

—-

Throw everything into the blender. At this point, decide if you want juice (use your juicer or nut milk bag to extract juice) OR throw in some ice and as much vodka as you like, flip the switch and the Bloody Mary Smoothie shall be ready in a flash!

Let’s start with the base of this amazing RAWKtail — The Blackberry Martini :

It is a bottle that once was full of Williams Pear Brandy, that is now filled with Tito’s vodka.  The pear was grown inside the bottle on the tree and then filled with the clear pear brandy.  After I finished the brandy I filled the bottle with the wonderful Tito’s vodka which is now has an amazing pear flavor that makes perfect notes for the nose.

You will need some fresh blackberries, ice chips, a cocktail shaker and a martini glass…

Take several blackberries and skewer them on a toothpick and then take 3-4 more and squeeze them then throw in the bottom of the glass if you love lots of garnishes in your drinks OR rim the glass and inside with them only.  Place the toothpick with the other blackberries in the glass.

Put the ice in your shaker and pour the “pear” vodka over it, a jigger or more.  ;)  At this point you may throw the blackberries that you used  to rim the glass in with the ice and vodka and shake vigorously!!  Pour over blackberries in the vodka glass.

This drink is less than 100 calories, and that would be a jigger+ of vodka.

Cheers!