Just gimme land, lots of land under starry skies above...

Today I decided to check out what was happening for me this day last year on my blog...February the 1st 2007, I was...74 DAYS into Juice Feasting and amazed to be ‘STILL having solid bowels movements’...lol…;) Those of you who followed my juicy adventures more closely will know I actually experienced solid BMs for the ENTIRE 92 days...quite phenomenal...it really shows me how much there is to release from these structures, after soooo many years of less-than-optimal eating... Here to the right is also a pretty picture I took on this day last year, while visiting a local art gallery in Costa Rica, where I was at that time...seems like a few lifetimes ago now... ;) My, my, how quickly things seem to flow these days...and how JUICILY things seem to flow too – have you noticed how many people out there seem to be Juice Feasting at the moment? It’s quite amazing to see...all power to you if you’re immersed in liquid land at the moment ;) (You can see my full post from this day last year HERE.)

on January the 31st I had:

2 quarts water
1lb cherries
12oz pineapple/cucumber juice – YUMMMM
bowl of avo mushed with diced tomatoes, pinch of salt and assorted micro-greens/alfalfa sprouts, served with cucumber slices and carrot ‘unbread’ sticks
1.5 quarts water
1/5 tbsp green powder
bowl of fruit salad: delicious mix of papaya, banana and blueberries – absolutely GORGEOUS :)
1/5 quarts water

YAY, I’m happy to hear so many of you enjoyed the link to the free Ann Wigmore book over on the ChiDiet site :) REMEMBER that there’s still time to enter the RawReform giveaway contest for January – though it somehow already became February where we are – there’s a few days yet before the next newsletter goes out... The question this month was all about the ‘old school’ raw food pioneers, like Wiggie herself ;) The prize is a free copy of Mr Monarch’s ‘Raw Success’ on e-book and to be in with a chance of winning, just email in your A to the following Q:

If you could speak to any of the Raw Food Pioneers of by-gone days and ask them a single question, whom would you connect to and what would you ask them?

Examples of pioneers who have passed to the other side include:
Dr. Norman Walker, Arnold Ehret, Bernard Jensen, Szekely, Paul Bragg, Dr. Ann Wigmore, Herbert Shelton, St Louis Estes and Hilton Hotema... There have been some fascinating Qs coming in so far – keep ‘em coming ;)
Send your answers in to angela@rawreform.com and the winner shall be selected at random and with much joy in a few days... ;)

on February the 1st I had:

1.5 quarts water
1 golden peach and 1lb cherries
3 cups water
delicious fresh sprouts/greens salad, straight from the garden, with diced tomatoes and bell peppers, celery/spinach sauce, salad dressing, avocado and home-preserved olives – yummmmm :)
A few orange slices and a chocolate bliss ball
Shot of INTENSE kombucha
2 cups water
24oz juice: cilantro/cucumber/watercress/kale/carrot/spinach juice
bowl of chia gel with papaya/banana/blueberries and dried figs dunked in tahini on the side
3 cups water

We were so blessed today to meet the lovely Mark and Veronique of Vital Essence, who showed us some places to get organics in Auckland. We were starting to wonder... ;) We’ve actually never been anywhere that seems to have such scant access to organics – we were a bit baffled, especially as New Zealand tends to be renowned for being very eco-conscious and there are MANY organic farms here...a couple of days ago we tried our luck in one supermarket only to discover the interesting ‘health food and soap’ aisle...yes...those of you who’ve heard me give a talk may remember me joking that ‘the middle aisles will kill you’ – well, this ‘health food’ aisle definitely didn’t appear to be an exception to that, with all it’s packaged soya products and the alluring smell of soap wafting along from the adjoining shelves… Fortunately we located a couple of places to get organic goods today – hurray – including Ceres, a nice little health food store :) Then even more exquisitely, we were treated to a delicious fresh salad, straight from Mark and Veronique’s garden – YUMMMM. It was so beautiful to me to see a young family living the kind of life I would LOVE to soon settle into too – a garden full of greens and fruit trees, a beautiful, happy young raw toddler and people who are clearly curious about the joys to be explored here...FUN :)
By the way, I have the full event details now for our talk here in Auckland: we are speaking on Sunday February the 17th (N.B. - not the 16th as previously thought) at the St Columba Centre, 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby. The event runs from 1-5pm and you can see more details on the RawReform homepage HERE. Hope to see you there if you’re in the area ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Onwards, with Gratitude...

Ooooo, here we go then…out with the old, in with the new…I hope you’ve had a great year so far and that the closing moments of 2007 find you in loving company, with joyful thoughts and a blissful vision for our next…13 moons :)
We’d still love to hear your raw reflections from 2007 if you’d care to share :) The current RawReform Giveaway prize is a pair of our uber-popular exercise toy – POI – and to be in with a chance of winning, just email in YOUR answer to the following question:

‘What have been your top THREE raw food highlights of 2007?’

…what in the world of raw food has inspired or uplifted you this year? What stands out in your memory? Who did you love sharing recipes with? What helped you to stay motivated? Which recipe made a difference in your enjoyment? Send your answers in to angela@rawreform.com. We look forward to reading and sharing your responses :) The winner will be picked at random and with joy in a few days… :)

on December the 29th I had:

2 cups water
3 cups watermelon/orange juice
big chunk of watermelon
big handful of cherries
2.5 cups green smoothie: mango/banana/red dandelion/romaine/tatsoi swirled with goji berries and incan berries
3 cups water
1 pint tatsoi/fennel/cucumber/bok choi/red dandelion/radish/red pepper/random greens/mizuna/carrot/apple juice
little bowl of soaked dried prunes blended with hemp seeds
3 cups water

Are you looking for a yummy raw place to hang out next year? Here’s a little site that you might find useful: http://www.rawcommunities.com. This has a list of – you guessed it – raw communities, worldwide…PLUS, remember to check out the Raw Permaculture Course in Hawaii in February if that appeals to you: www.livingmandala.com aaaaaaaaaaaand – guess what? There’s ANOTHER Permaculture Design Course coming up soon at another raw-friendly place: Punta Mona Community in Costa Rica. Their course runs from Jan 28th – Feb 10th at their eco-community on the east coast. I didn’t actually tread on Punta Mona ground when I was in Costa Rica this time last year – came VERY close though and I’ve been in contact with some of the lovely people there, who grow muchos amazing greens and rare plants…it’s an incredible community by all accounts – check it out at www.puntamona.org for more info :)

on December the 30th I had:

3 cups water
slice of watermelon
1 pint tatsoi/fennel/cucumber/bok choi/red dandelion/radish/red pepper/random greens/mizuna/carrot/apple juice
big handful of cherries
1 cup water
½ an avo mashed with 2 tbsp raw pesto, mixed with diced tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and a pinch of Himalayan salt, served with romaine leaves and flax crackers
1 quart water
1 pint green lettuce/fennel/cucumber/mizuna/ginger/apple/celery juice
little bowl of soaked dried apricots blended with hemp seed, swirled with slices of fresh banana and cherries
2 cups water

Tomorrow – January the 1st 2008 – the RawReform website is 4 years old. WOW :) Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to yoooooouuuuuuuu…what an extraordinary four years it has been…if you’ve ever wondered how the site started, here’s a little insight from a piece I wrote recently:

“British health magazine Zest wanted to run a piece on my story for their January 2004 ‘new year, new you’ edition. I was thrilled. My partner at that time was an extremely talented web designer and began to suggest we put up a website about my transformation too, to share this message. I laughed at first. At that point, the internet did not play much of a role in my life, other than reading about raw foods and emailing friends. I had certainly never considered having my own website. The more we talked about it though, the more I came to like the idea. It was in Greece in the summer of 2003 that the name ‘RawReform’ was given to me, as I wandered the sandy beaches, pondering which name would suit this venture. I began writing out the content for the website that autumn, which was a hugely cathartic experience for me. It helped me so much to see clearly the patterns I had lived out with food. I was also terrified. I had never spoken honestly with many of the people in my life and now I was about to bare my soul to the world. How would my family and old school friends react when they read my truth?
It took my partner just a few days to put the first website together. Then on January the 1st, 2004, the day my article was published in Zest magazine, RawReform.com went live…I was thrilled…and terrified ;) In the end, the reactions of my family and friends were mainly filled with love, appreciation and kindness. Mostly, people said they felt sad to read how miserable I had really been all that time, underneath the façade. Some seemed surprised that I was sharing so much personal information with the world. Others were silent. The whole experience left me with a huge sense of relief and fulfillment. I had shared my truth with the world and it did not seem to have back-lashed on me ;) I felt encouraged and supported to go on sharing my truth. People seemed to respond with great enthusiasm to my before/after pictures. After all, as the saying goes ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ and many people seemed to draw inspiration from my photographs.
The journey of RawReform has continued to expand exponentially since those simple beginnings…and I had no idea at that point of what would unfold over the coming years via this website, my little portal to the world… ;)”

…and who knows what 2008 will hold for all of our ext-RAW-dinary adventures…I wish you yummy goal setting and even more delicious fulfillment of your deepest desires in the coming months… :)
Thanks for all your messages, comments and support this year – it is all greatly appreciated…

One love,
Angela (and Mr Monarch ;). xxx

How blessed we are...

Have you been listening to the Raw Summit 2? I really enjoyed listening to Michael Beckwith yesterday – he seems like a really sweet man – my favourite part was when he described how he likes to communicate with people who may seem like they are at the start of their spiritual journey – he equated it to seeing them like a child who is learning to ride a bike, with training wheels – it’s unlikely one would jeer at such a child for not already using a standard bike – in the same way, it seems less-than-generous to judge those who may not seem to be at the same space as you/others on their spiritual path – give them love, support, encouragement and the whole is served with much more kindness…lovely :) If you have not yet signed up for the second Summit, you can do so HERE:

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=672327

On November the 16th I had:

1 quart water
3 cups parsley/spinach/lettuce/romaine/carrot/sprouts/wild greens juice
3 cups banana/wild greens smoothie
big chunk of gorgeous watermelon
bowl of soaked dried apricots blended with hemp seeds
1 quart water
1 avo mushed with chopped cilantro, lime juice, Celtic sea salt and dulse, stuffed in nori with sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sunflower greens and spinach
2 cups rooibos tea
1 quart water

I’ve been intending to share this picture/tip for quite some time now…well, here we are - a delightful little idea for eating watermelon, that I picked up from a woman in Asheville, NC… Rather than slicing a chunk of a melon off completely and exposing a large section of it to the air to oxidise, instead, cut a hole in the side of the melon, like a kind of hatch (see picture) and then use a spoon/ice cream scoop/similar to scoop out as much melon as you want at a time, before setting the ‘hatch’ back in place…it’s very clever and works really well I find…enjoy ;)

on November the 17th I had:

1.5 quarts water
half a medium sized watermelon
bowl of YUMMY green smoothie – mango/banana/sunflower greens/spinach/lettuce, swirled with goji berries for chewability ;)
bowl of mulberries blended with macadamia nuts
3 cups water
½ a papaya and 1 black sapote
big handful of cherries
2 cups water
avo mushed with chopped cilantro, lime juice, Celtic sea salt and dulse, stuffed in nori with sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sunflower greens and spinach
chunk of pineapple
3 cups water

Guess WHAT? This is the 250th Post on this e-journal ;O WOW…what a journey we’ve come on…it was almost exactly a year ago now that I posted the first blog entry here – on November the 19th 2006, to be precise – you can check that first post out HERE if you weren’t around way back then ;)
I started this e-journal at the beginning of my 92-Day Juice Feast…I’d just arrived days before to Costa Rica, had no juicer and had never written a blog before, yet it all flowed into place and I came to LOVE this medium of communication – it feels like writing an email to the world, to me…and so, looooong after the Feasting ceased, the writing still continues…and here we are today, 250 posts in…mmmmm…thanks for sharing in this journey that has taken us from Costa Rica to Australia with countless stops on the way, from liquids to solids back-and-forth and through engagement announcements, visa traumas and all manner of yummy daily recipe run-downs in-between… ;) It’s been a pleasure…and here’s to another 250 posts of ext-RAW-dinary adventures ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Gotta Have JUICE...

Wheeeeewww…big travelling day today…up at 5.30am and on the road/in the air most of the day…all the way from LA to the Creative Health Institute in Michigan…yeeeeeee-HAH :) Very happy to be here – it seems like a wonderful place and very greeeeeeeeeen…
I saw some amazing scenery on the way here – spectacular views of the Grand Canyon…then the desert gave way to rivers and tundra into mountains and snow and forests, then flat farmland and more desert…so many contrasts and SOOOOO much space and wilderness…very dramatic and beautiful for me to witness…
I felt sad to be leaving somewhere again – SoCal has been a great ‘home’ for me for the last month, with wonderful friends and community…I felt in a sleepy, hazy daze most of the day today while travelling and disconnecting myself from all that – like I was mainly in the lower ‘reptilian’ part of my brain. It was quite a blur and my energy felt mostly inward – it was challenging for me to try to ‘take much in’ beyond the bare minimum essentials of where to put my feet next to get to the right gate on time and when to get off planes, etc…and arriving into grey clouds, drizzle and the cold of the north felt like quite a shock to the system…;) I think I’ll be needing to get some more appropriate warm clothing over the next few days…it’s definitely cosy here at CHI though and I’m looking forward to speaking here tomorrow…

Today I have had:

1 litre water
2 apples
500ml water
spinach/cilantro/lime/avo/dulse
banana/chocolate chews
500ml water
blended fig/coconut/dulse mix with spinach and nori
500ml water
handful of goji berries
1 litre water

Today was the first day in a loooong time that I had no juice all day. Feels kind of strange. I got a nice little message from the universe abt it too, as I sat waiting in an airport lounge between planes today – a guy came over to plug his phone into the wall for charging and commented to me ‘gotta have juice’ :) He was speaking in regard to his phone needing energy, but I got the bigger message… ;) I don't know any airlines that serve green juice...YET ;) One day a raw airline fuelled on...hemp oil...will exist, with cushions and chaise longues for seating, no armrests or seatbacksuprighttraytableinpositionplease announcements, green juice on tap and space for the flight attendants to hold yoga classes...but for now, just getting onboard with some water seems often like a big enough challenge... ;)
Speaking of Juice – we will be doing a lot more of that again, starting this Monday, with the Juice Feasting Conference Calls…there is still space to join us for this 4 week series of talks on all things juicy and abundant ;) The themes for the 4 weeks will be:

1. Practicalities
2. Hopes and Fears
3. Social Issues
4. Breaking a Juice Feast

...4 hours of quality liquid-based conversation, with all your Qs A-ed, for just $70 (abt £35)…bargain (plus you get to listen back to it whenever you like) …;) You can read more abt it all and sign up, HERE:

http://www.rawreform.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage/product_id,36/category_id,12/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,55/

Hope you can join us ;)
All love,
Angela. xxx

Away-days and Almonds...

The last couple of days have been pretty full-on for me with filming for two different TV shows…it’s been LOADS of fun ;)

On April the 4th I had:

500ml water
600ml veggie juice
800ml veggie juice
3 apples
1.5 raw Thai spring rolls
1 litre water
400ml ‘elixir’ tea
kelp noodle ‘Pad Thai’
coconut/chocolate mousse dessert
450ml spice tea
300ml water

This was a really fun day filming in lots of different locations around LA, including some great raw food hangouts – I LOVE Erewhon, the huge natural foods supermarket – their raw section and promotion is just phenomenal – we picked up some pre-prepared Thai raw spring rolls there that I’d never seen before and they were DELICIOUS – the ‘skin’ of the spring roll was young Thai coconut meat blended and dehydrated into sheets, sprinkled with black sesame seeds and wrapped around veg…very very yummy and felt very ‘clean’ and easy to digest too – lots of high water-content veg in there… in the evening we visited one of the lovely Leaf Cuisine establishments too and their new Pad Thai meal with KELP noodles was SUCH an interesting experience for me…I am fascinated to know how they made them or where they’re from…I’ve never seen them before…it was extremely reminiscent of eating pasta…great stuff...

Today I have had:
500ml water
2 apples, 1 kale leaf
500ml water
300ml almond milk
Handful of soaked, sprouted, dehydrated seeds
400ml water
½ avocado w/cilantro, basil, sauerkraut, grated carrot
1 banana, 1 tbsp hemp seeds, handful of figs, 2 tbsps coconut ice cream
700ml green juice
500ml water

Filming started early today and has been a hilarious whirlwind of activity all day – wow, TV studios are such a different reality for me – the make-up and hair spray and lights and so on….it’s good fun to play those games for a while ;) I am so very unaccustomed to wearing make-up now though – I feel as if I look like a bit of a ‘drag queen’ with TV make-up on…they assure me it all looks natural on film… ;) we’ll see…
I made almond milk in a food demo today and it went down really well with the people on set…then I used the pulp to make some little ‘truffle’ treats for them too…the world of raw almonds is being pretty severely rocked around at the moment though, with bizarre threats bouncing about that all almonds must be pasteurised from now on in California…hmmmmmmm…seems very curious and undesirable to me…and there is currently a petition building to protest about this – if you haven’t accessed this already, you can see it and sign it here:

Online petition - Mandatory Almond Pasteurisation is WRONG ;)

All blessings to all,
Angela. xxx

Adjusting...

Mmmmmmmmm…woke, a little dazed and confused abt my whereabouts, to a beautiful blue sky, blazing sun and swaying palms on the Cali coast…went out onto the porch and enjoyed my meditation, yoga and writing in the beautiful sun, grounding back into this body after the flights yesterday. It was SO nice to just go and sit outside like that without the obstacles of many doors and gates on the way…that is smthg I won’t be missing abt Costa Rica – security is HUGE there and shuffling through three layers of gates just to get in the front door tends to feel a bit restrictive to me…
I also did some clearing work that felt SO great to me while sitting out there in the sun today. I was suddenly moved to start removing some of the jewelry that was no longer feeling good to me. I have had for many years some kind of ‘policy’ with my jewelry that once on, it does not get removed by me, until it retires itself by breaking in some way. Well, that’s felt like a great policy, but in recent months, especially due to the clearing effects of the Juice Feasting, I have felt myself wanting to remove some things myself, yet not quite feeling the right energy for it. Well, it came this morning. It was time and I removed one chain of beads from my wrist and three necklaces. WOW. The impact this had on my energy field was huge. I felt a great lightening of my being, like a relief and brightening. It felt great – very empowering. All 4 items that I removed held in some way ‘negative’ energy for me from the associations I make in my mind when I look at them – the memories they trigger - and it was time for them to leave my immediate energy field. Hurrah :)

Today I have had:

1 litre water
1lb tangerines
¼ lb spinach
1 small green salad with cilantro/lime dressing
3 fuji apples
1 litre water
3 tbsp hemp seed combined with 2 tbsp pollen
1 avocado combined with 3 small cherimoya and ¼ vanilla bean
400ml water

We cycled along the beach front to the Farmer’s Market this morning…wow…very nice to see all the people out exercising on the beach and enjoying fresh fruit and veg at the market…I bought some wonderful things…the spinach was unbelievably good…it tasted like BUTTER – I had a bag of it, that I started eating like chips and ended up just mono-mealing the whole bag of it and going back to buy more – it was really wonderful, especially after my reaction some weeks back to spinach in Cosra Rica, when my body just didn’t seem to want it anymore…
In the evening I made SUCH a yummy blended dish…avo, cherimoya (see pic) and vanilla bean…yummmmmmmm ;) I was inspired into making it while locked out of the house for a few hours today – I sat and thumbed through ‘Sunfood Diet Success System’ and saw the avo/cherimoya blend recipe…then added some vanilla to it too, which intensified the delicate flavours…wow…it was seriously delicious ;) So sweet and soft and gentle feeling – like baby food somehow…it was the first time I’ve eaten more than one type of fruit at a time since breaking the feast, but I was very happy to do so, as it was soooo satisfying and didn’t feel at all like a difficult thing for the body to digest…yummm…
I also cycled about 8 miles today I think – felt good, especially after sitting on a plane most of yesterday…I cycled at night though too and was shocked at how COLD it is here once the sun goes down – I had on 4 layers on top, plus a woolen hat, mittens and a scarf and was still cold…indeed, haven’t felt so cold in a very very long time…brrrrr...
One love,
Angela. xxx

Happy 100th :)

Ladies and Gentlemen...I am delighted...(and surprised)...to announce that this is the 100th blog entry on the RawReform Blog...wow...imagine...I never really anticipated it would get so ingrained into my life...but, I'm enjoying the sharing, so...on we go ;)

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-HAH…well, here I am, back in the US and LOVING IT :)…ahhhhhhhhh, I do SO appreciate the energy here – I had SUCH a great day travelling back here yesterday, re-entering into the powerful vibe of abundance and joy I experience in this country…I love the feeling of open expansiveness and was grinning most of the day…people seem so very friendly and talk to me everywhere I go...I love it :)

March the 7th, I had:

600ml water
600ml celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
water of 5 young coconuts
700ml water
meat of 5 young coconuts
1 litre water
½ tsp pollen

Hmmmmmm…so, I packed a whole little cooler bag of salad and fruit etc for my journey today, but then left it in my friend’s car at the airport…lol…hmmmm…what to do…? Well, I went out onto the street and found a guy selling coconuts and had a great time there instead ;) It was fun – I arrived at his place just as lots of guys who work in the airport came out on their morning break to get a drink from him – it was very sweet to see them all bustling over for coconuts and bags of fresh juice and they seemed very amused to see me there too, sitting on some rocks, happily drinking a whole line up of coconuts…they helped me smash the cocos open and off I went, with a bag full of coco halves...
My flights were just great – I was feeling fantastic and excited to be heading back to the US and feeling a lot of love and joy and very much in my heart and in the flow…I stood at the back of the plane at a couple of points and felt such joy looking down the aisle, at all the little heads of all the little humans, flying through the sky together. I love those moments – when I can feel us all as parts of the bigger whole, one big family and feel my love for and unity with each and every one. I breathe deeeep and send love and blessings through the scene before me. The energy coming through me felt very very strong and buzzing with joy. When I left the States back in November to go to Costa Rica, the main intention that was in me was to Juice Feast and take wonderful care of my own health and well-being for some months – which is what I have been doing – and it felt really great to have done that and now be heading back on up to the US again…
Something I found bemusing on the flight was the adverts I saw as I flicked through the inflight mags…they seemed to circle around the theme of illness and doctors…it was quite extraordinary and I’ve never seen anything like it in fact – guess I’m just not used to American media…so many adverts along the lines of ‘I had cancer and this hospital treated me’, 'thank goodness this miracle drug has been created because my heart disease was...etc etc' - so many of them - MOST of the ads in fact...quite bizarre to me and highlighted again for me the massive potential of raw foods to help shift SO many things in terms of peoples' health and society in general...
So...looking forward to another 3 great months here – and hope to meet some more of you along the way… ;)
One love,
Angela. xxx

Adios...

SOOOOOOO, what do you think of the new blog layout? I guess many of you read this by email update, actually, so you won’t be used to seeing the actual RawReform Blog page…but it was overhauled today and I’m really pleased with it – check it out HERE… ;)
Today was my last full day in Costa Rica, for the time being…ahhhhh, it’s been a wonderful time here for the last 4 months or so for me…I feel very blessed and give much gratitude for all that I’ve experienced here – it’s been a wonderful place to pass winter and Juice Feast…and tomorrow…back to the lights and bustle of LA…yeeeeeeeee-HAH ;) I’m excited to be going back to the US for many reasons…especially the upcoming Natural Products Expo West at Anaheim this weekend and the first ever Raw Film Festival the weekend after – 16th-18th March, in Hollywood…both events look INCREDIBLE and I am really excited to go and have fun there and hopefully connect with some of YOU maybe too, along the way ;)

Today I have had…

500ml water
½ medium watermelon
500ml water
one avocado with lime juice, lettuce leaves and dulse
three small bananas
water of one old coconut
350ml chard juice
water of 2 old coconuts
¼ medium watermelon

yeaaaah, pretty simple intake today…I like it…wow…had a load of chard to use up, so decided to have it straight, with coconut water as a chaser…it was…intense…too much actually for me to drink all of it that I made, so I ended up using the foam of it on my face and the rest of the liquid as an implant in an enema…interestingly, my body did not seem to much appreciate the greens as an enema…it did not want to hold them in at all – felt ‘too strong’ somehow…indeed, the only other time I’ve ever used greens in an enema before, I had an out-of-body experience, so…it seems with the amazing absorption power of the colon, using strong things can have very big impacts for this body…

Alright, alright, I get the message :) lol…the amazing Brownie pic from yesterday’s blog seemed to stir much enthusiasm, judging by the recipe requests from readers today – and, blessed as we are, the budding creator of the piece - Jocelyn in AZ - has opened her recipe files to share this yummy treat with one and all…so, just follow this link:

http://www.rawreform.com/content/view/290/

and you’ll find all you need to know about how to make ‘Jocelyn’s Choco-nut Brownie’…thanks for sharing, Jocelyn ;)

News Target sent out a great new link today – for the all-new ‘Disease Mongering Engine’…lol…this ingenious new device “instantly generates disease names that sound similar to the fictitious disorders and syndromes dreamed up by drug companies and modern psychiatry.” Try it yourself at:

http://www.newstarget.com/disease-mongering-engine.asp

Here’s the result that I got…
Reactive Erectile Sleep Syndrome With Facial Tic (RESSWFT)
RESSWFT involves explosive, emotional behavior and responses surrounding the unexpected and unplanned stimulation of sexual organs when sleeping, worsened by involuntary facial muscle spasms.


Eeeeeeeeek…sounds dangerous… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Satisfaction...

Don’t worry, I haven’t lost the plot and started back on the cacao brownies quite yet ;) This incredible pic is not from my kitchen today, but rather from the RawReform inbox, where mouth-watering emails have been flooding in all day from readers sharing their favourite recipes for home-made raw treats, as part of this month’s RawReform prize giveaway…on offer are three whole cases of divine raw chocs and treats from the amazing Raw Chocolate Company, based in the UK…
This pic of raw chocolate brownies drizzled with raw strawberry sauce was the entry sent in by Jocelyn in Arizona…WOW…I definitely know where to come for tea if I start to tire of prunes ;) lol…

…to be in with a chance of getting in on the Raw Chocolate giveaway action, all you have to do is email YOUR favourite home-made raw treat info to: angela@rawreform.com…and don't worry, it doesn't have to be as visually stunning as the above entry - we're just interested to know your truth of what you really prepare at home... and the three extremely blessed winners will be drawn at random at the end of the month…yummmmmmmmmy :)

Today I have had:

500ml water
½ medium watermelon
big salad – fine chopped greens: lettuces, dill, plus red pepper, flesh of an avo, dulse leaves and lime juice
500ml water
2.5 litres celery/red pepper/garlic/hot pepper/orange juice

...well, from yummy treats to post-Feast simplicity...The salad I ate in the middle of the day today totally filled me and sustained me for most of the day – it’s so funny for me to look at these lists at the end of the day of these simple fruits and veggies and think that I am so fulfilled by them, when 6 years ago or so, this kind of list would have sufficed for perhaps one meal for me – well, not that it would have been possible to get me to eat these kind of things back then of course…lol…but it’s the quantity that is so interesting to me – how little is needed to feel SO sustained when the assimilation is improved and the foods so nutrient-dense…

I learnt a great new tip recently I’d like to share, from the GLiving Community Forum - http://gliving.tv/community : Google Alerts…you can get Google to set up 'alerts' for you, really simply, on anything you choose - e.g, go to http://www.google.com/alerts and choose:

raw food, raw foods, raw foodist, raw foodists

...or whatever interests you...then every day/week/whatever you choose, you get an email that lists all of the appearances of those terms in news items, on blogs, etc...pretty cool - I just got my first msg from them today abt raw things and there's loads of interesting info in it...

ENJOY :)
One love,
Angela. xxx

'You're all I need, in life...to get by... ;) '

I sat out in the sun to eat my beautiful green salad today in the middle of the day and was amused to find that a neighbour seemed to have their ‘record player’ jammed on ‘You’re all I need to get by…’ …I felt it as a very sweet message from the universe for me, as I sat soaking up the glorious sunny rays and chomping on my simple lush greens…they are all I really need to get by – sun, happiness, simple food, love, connection with the bigger picture…nothing complicated… I eat very slowly these days – I’m happy to say that I’m a ‘fletcherising’ kind o’gal of late ;)…so, as a result I must have literally sat through about 8 or 9 renditions of ‘You’re all I need to get by’ whole chomping on my greens…it didn’t tire me though, I enjoyed the cosmic giggle – it was like a mantra and a constant re-affirmation of the desire for simplicity that has been further etched into my soul from Feasting…I wanted to share some of the experience with you, so have embedded a YouTube video of the song here (not sure abt the cheesy old vids, but I’m sure ‘Max and 99' means smthg to some of you out there… ;)…if you can’t see/hear it, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPJqPJc_HE

Today I have had:

700ml water with lime juice
¼ big papaya
1 bowl salad – cut greens, with flesh of an avocado, dulse and lime juice
1.3 litres of celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
500ml water
3 small bananas
500ml orange juice
300ml water

I ate another avocado today, in the middle of the day. I opened it and ate some of it plain before using it with the salad. WOW. Phenomenal…I was blown away by HOW good the avo flesh tasted, just as it was…I was reminded of the day 6 or 7 years ago when a friend in Vienna first introduced me to eating avocadoes…I remember that it tasted so bland to me and strange and how we dowsed it with salt to make it ‘edible’…lol…my taste buds have changed so much…I am actually tempted to put avos back into their botanical category of fruits in my head and mono-meal them like I currently do all other fruits since breaking the Feast…it was just sooo great on its own…I added the rest of it to my salad as a dressing and…yes, it was great and yummy, but nothing like the pure creamy magic of eating it straight…wow…one thing I noticed though was that my heart seemed to be beating faster for a while after eating that salad today – it felt as if it was hard work for my body to be dealing with that kind of digesting again…it was adjusting back to it…

There have been some great comments flowing over on the GLiving Forum about Juice Feasting and one writer – ‘Indulge’ – had some great info to…divulge… ;) about prunes, or as they’re now apparently called ‘DRIED PLUMS’...:

“I love prunes actually. I think they have gotten a bad image. Yet who doesn't like plums, and they are a dried plum. Just as good as dried apricots or peaches. And, they just happen to be one of the HIGHEST fruits in anti-oxidants. They are always right up there on the anti-oxidant ORAC lists, yet everyone seems to gloss over them in favor of the blueberries etc. I also love them because they are low glycemic and don't spike my blood sugar like raisons and dates do.
"The prune has changed its name and is now known as the “dried plum”. The Food and Drug Administration approved the change, which was recommended by the California Prune Board. It hopes to shed the prune’s image of a food for the elderly and target it to the young and health conscious. Market surveys show the name change is a winner."

…yeah, baby, prunes are going stylish – I told you – prunes, they’re amazing, they’re so under-rated, they’re the next…cacao ;) lol…watch this space, Wolfie will be moving his oompah-lumpas up to Cali for the plum season this year, I guarantee it ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Back to the Fats...

Today I held a raw food/juicing intro day here in San Jose, Costa Rica. It was attended by a lovely group and was the first workshop I’ve done that has been simultaneously translated (into Spanish) – so, that was interesting to experience - it allowed a lot more time and space to think ;) We had a lot of fun, shared a lot, made yummy food and juice together and I was really happy to be passing on this healing raw food message on this powerful day when the moon is full in Virgo and calling us to focus on health and well-being – what a great day to share… ;)

Today I have had:

750ml water
¼ big papaya
1 medium salad –
Greens: lettuces, cilantro, katuk, red pepper, grated carrot and beetroot (beet). Dressing: avocado, dill, lime juice, ginger, hot pepper.
300ml pineapple/greens/celery juice
1 medium salad
600ml orange juice
200ml water

SOOOOOO, this was the first time I have had avocado since breaking the Feast…and I feel good – surprisingly un-heavy…a little bloated, but nothing extreme…today was also easily the most complicated food intake I’ve had since the feast – I had 2 medium-sized salads, both of which had about 10 or more ingredients in them (same ingredients)…I can tell the difference in my body from having this more complicated mix – the slower processing speed and my nose also became quite itchy – but overall, I feel fine…just super-aware of all bodily messages at the moment…

I am reading the very-inspiring ‘The Law of Attraction’ by Esther and Jerry Hicks at the moment and wanted to share this wonderful quote I recently came across that really resonated for me:

‘ …we are amused as we watch the majority spending most of their life seeking a set of rules against which they can measure their life experience, looking outside of self for those who will tell them what is right or wrong, when all along they have within themselves a Guidance System that is so sophisticated, so intricate, so precise and so readily available…’

mmmmm-hmmmmmmm, I can really resonate with that – that is really how I lived my life for so many years – trying to ‘work out the rules’, wanting safety/security/definiteness from an external source so that I didn’t have to deal with anything for myself…such a different game now, riding this wave of constant change…and I feel it’s an amazing gift to let go of those restrictions and just let it flow…

all love,
Angela. xxx

Measures of delight...

Some days back, there was a message asking for more recent full-length shots of me – well, here is one taken on the day I broke my feast (green dress, red background), along with a re-post of one from day 1 of my feasting…can you see the difference…?
I actually finally got around to finding some weight/height/BMI scales here to weigh myself again recently and was happy to note that I was 136lbs/62kg (fully clothed) – so had indeed lost around 18lbs while Feasting, as I’d thought…the slightly disturbing news from the scales however was that I am apparently now 5’3” (161cm)…rather than 5’7” (170cm)…hmmmmm, yes, I’ve apparently shrunk 4 inches/9 cms in the last 3 months…lol…well, that would be an unfortunate side effect of juice feasting and one surely worth documenting…I think on this occasion I’ll put that down to computer error though…

Today I have had:

500ml water
1 small watermelon
water and meat from one young green coconut
1 litre celery/red pepper/hot pepper/garlic/orange juice
1 medium papaya
medium salad – cilantro, lettuce, dill, dulse, fresh lime juice, coconut oil
1 litre celery/red pepper/hot pepper/garlic/orange juice

mmmmm, this felt good today – a LOT of greens and non-sweet/sugary stuff – felt good, balancing…I was also really happy that it felt so balanced, as there was quite a lot of challenging things to handle here today with emails and logistics and turning to food in an attempt to handle it was not something that appealed or happened – it was very clear to me how much that would absolutely not help, which is quite a departure from my old patterns and felt clearer than ever before…nice…
I listened to the radio interview I recorded for Tribeca Radio today. It was recorded on the day I broke my Juice Feast, just prior to eating my prunes ;) – in it I discuss my health and history, the Juice Feast, my spiritual experiences, recommendations for others and so on…you can hear it again live at www.tribecaradio.net at 1am EST tonight, or listen to it whenever you like, as a podcast, by following this link:

http://www.tribecaradio.net/blog/02.27.07.HV.27.mp3

Enjoy,
One love,
Angela. xxx

Lunar Liquids...

‘Do you know the way to San Jose?…I’ve been away so long, I may go wrong and lose my way…’ so the song goes…and it felt a bit like that for me today, winding my way back across this beautiful country into the apparent bedlam of the city…lol…felt like I’d been away for a long time, even if it was just a couple of nights – life on the Caribbean coast really works at a different pace – and I like it ;)… I also really enjoyed seeing many healthy people there…Puerto Viejo is a beach town with many surfers and most people look fit and alert and strong – it’s nice to see…some traveller friends I met recently told me that they had in fact been warned not to go to this town, as there were ‘too many beautiful people’ there…lol…I’m not quite sure why that would warrant avoiding a place, but can definitely concur that there seemed to be many fine human specimens on display…also a lot of BIG, pure bred dogs, which is another thing I’m not used to seeing here in CR…Rottweilers, Dobermans, Bull Terriers and so on…well, back to the city now anyway…and also SOOOO happy to be back, if only to tank myself up on celery juice again – had not had any for the last couple of days and was really feeling it…

Today I have had:

400ml water
water and meat of 3 young green coconuts
½ head lettuce
250g pineapple chunks
250g papaya chunks
1 tsp green powder
½ head lettuce
3 small mangoes
1 medium mango
1 litre water
1 litre celery/red pepper/hot pepper/garlic/orange juice

I am relieved tonight – I’ve been feeling quite bloated the last couple of days – water retention and not sure why, then looked to the sky and saw the moon…ahhhhhh, of course – full moon this Saturday – my body always seems to swell in response, as well as interlocking my menstrual cycle with the waxing/waning patterns, as is the case for many women. Our bodies are of course primarily liquid and just as the oceans swell and recede with the cycles of the moon, so too do we…this one is going to be an amazing Full Moon on Saturday – it’s in Virgo, calling us to pay attention to the body and take responsibility for our own health…interesting – precisely the topics I have been thinking and writing about today…it is also going to be a total lunar eclipse…beautiful…read more about it here:

http://astrowisdom.com/thisfullmoon.htm

And for any of you reading this and pondering when to begin your OWN Juice Feasting journey, here’s a handy hint from AstroWisdom wonder Lisa Dale that may inspire you:

“…this is the ideal Full Moon to start a weight loss or de-tox program…Virgo rules a desire for purity and cleanliness… celebrating your body as a heavenly gift…”

Yep…no time like the present ;) Get on it, I say – ride this amazing wave of health awareness and go for it :)

One love,
Angel.a xxx

Life on the other side...

Huge promoters of all things green and glorious - Green Living - http://gliving.tv/ today have my JUICY story up on their front page...if you go there and follow the links about Juice Feasting, you'll find this fabulous article they put together describing Feasting:

http://gliving.tv/bodydesign/27/92-days-of-nothing-but-juice/

I was really impressed with this article - they really put some nice info in there ;) hurray for the GMonkey, spreading the word...


Today I have had:

water of 4 DELICIOUS young green coconuts
a big slice of watermelon
1 medium papaya
1 litre water
small green salad - parsley, cilantro, dulse, fresh orange juice squeezed over as dressing
water AND MEAT of 2 young coconuts
one small watermelon
500ml water

WOW - the young cocos here are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO delicious - the ones by the beach are sweetest and absolutely mineral-packed - feel fantastic to me...plus today I ATE the meat from 2 of them - first time since getting to CR, due to the Juice Feasting - wow...so simple and tasty and easy on my body - all feels easy on my body right now, the foods I'm choosing - mono-mealing with fruits, getting my greens in...loving it...
ahhhhhhhhhhh, what a beautiful day...I woke by the beach and went out to collect shells, drank loads of yummy coconuts, then hired a bike and went for a 12km bike ride along the coast...so beautiful here...and HOT...sat on the beach and ate a whole papaya and ended up a sticky mess of sand and sea water and sweat and juice...lol...it felt great to get so much exercise though, with all the biking...
Two things I am noticing are different about this body since stopping feasting are that:

1. I seem to often have phlegm in my throat upon waking...this is quite curious, as I'm not consuming anything different than while I was feasting, in terms of ingredients...the only real difference is the fact that now some of it is solids and some juice...so, I find that very interesting, that my body can take in the same foods, in a different form and produce mucus/phlegm as a result...

2. I have started setting off car alarms...lol...not on purpose you understand...it seems as if my energy field has become bigger or more powerful or something, as I literally rarely take a walk anywhere these days without setting off alarms as I walk along the street...it's quite bizarre and I find it very interesting also...

one love,
Angela. xxx

IRIE...

I´M IN THE CARIBBEAN... :)well...kind of...I´m on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica at least :)I have wanted to come over here the entire time I´ve been in CR and today...was the day...I LOVE IT...SUCH a different vibe over here - strong Caribbean Island influences, a lot of rastas and music and art and a really laid-back-vibe..PLUS...it turns out the woman who runs the guesthouse I´m staying at is raw...lol...I do love the way the universe works :)
I am looking at the Caribbean Sea again for the first time in about 10 years and feeling really relaxed and great...people are friendly and the amount of available coconuts is quite absurdly abundant...Hurrah...

Today I have had...

1 litre water
500ml beet-carrot-beet green-chard juice with water of one old coconut
400ml orange juice
1 mango
1 pack sugar cane sticks
1 small green salad - parsley, cilantro, dulse, fresh orange juice and coconut oilç
400ml water
1-2 watermelon
500ml water

wow, travelling feels quite a bit easier again, post-Feasting...just to buy a watermelon and eat it for example, without juicing first - feels nice...I do so love being on the road...I mean literally, the journey part of it - the travelling - once it starts, I find I don´t want it to end - there is something that resonates with me so much...I feel liberated and comforted by the space I feel and seeing all the sites from the window and so on...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, wonderful times...

A guy is playing ´Redemption Song´ out in the street...I´m off to enjoy :)
ONE LOVE,
Angela. xxx

CELEBRATION TIME :)))

HURRAY :))) IT”S FINALLY FINISHED :))
My new e-book – A Juice Feaster’s Handbook – is ready for download NOW on the RawReform site :)
I am soooooooooooooooo happy and relieved to have this completed and ready for people to access – the response has been HUGE to this whole Juice Feasting process and I’m delighted to be able to share the info that people are really wanting and needing, all in one package…
Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered the book…hopefully you have all happily received it by now by email and are rapidly absorbing its juicy info…the 6 WINNERS have also now been selected at random for the ‘Post-Feast FEAST’ prize giveaway of YUMMY raw treat gift packs…and I’m thrilled to be able to announce that the lucky winners ARE…

(DRRRRRRRUM RRRRRRRRRRRROLL PLLLLLLLLLLEASE ;)

…Representing the UK/Europe/right-of-the-Atlantic tribe, we have:

Nadine Coulson
Jane Marriott
AND
Julia Barnes

…and on the left side of the Atlantic, we have the oh-so-lucky:

Linda Stockton
Joyce Jackson
AND
Sharon Danukos

CONGRATULATIONS and FELICITATIONS to you all…your prizes will be winging their way to you soon – ENJOY :)


So, as you perhaps noticed, in the furore of e-book finalising, blogging fell by the sideline yesterday, so, here’s how it went…

On Feb 25th I had:

500ml water
500ml prune soak water
200g/7oz soaked prunes
1 litre celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
3 small papayas
green salad – lettuce, cilantro (coriander), basil, hemp oil, lime juice, dulse flakes
1 litre water
½ tbsp coconut oil w/dulse flakes
water of 2 old coconuts with green powder
500ml water

…this was Day 6 of Feast-Breaking for me – officially the last day of the Feast-Breaking Protocol, which spreads out over 6 days…and…all went well :) I’m delighted in fact with how smoothly it has gone…the only thing that slightly disturbs me to see is that as soon as I eat a salad, like I’ve been having the last couple of days, my mind automatically then wants something sweet afterwards – it wants dessert – that’s how I’ve always eaten, all my life – dessert after a meal, so, that habit has been poking its head back round the door now that solids are back on the menu…I’m not very interested in letting it in though…maybe now and then for a visit, but not to stay ;) It just doesn’t serve me so well to mix too many foods into the same blend, so, catching these kinds of patterns NOW, before they start to deepen and get re-rooted again is the best thing I feel I can do to honour my new state of health…

Lots of people have been laughing about the prunes ;) lol…I know, I know…they don’t really have much ‘sex appeal’…and I’m sure we can all think of things that sound much more exciting to break a lengthy Feast with, but hey, it works ;) and they’re yummy…I think prunes are overlooked…I’m willing to become an ambassador for prunes…;) besides which, I’ve spent most of my life looking for excitement and fulfilment in food – I don’t necessarily want to choose to do that anymore…so, choosing this path of concentrating much more on the healthy, body-fuelling aspect of what I broke this Feast with than the emotion-fuelling aspect was vital for me…
Something else I noticed, while eating the papayas, was HOW much easier the fruit sugars felt to my body eaten as a WHOLE food – wow – such a difference…I really came to understand from a whole-body perspective the saying to ‘eat your fruits and drink your vegetables.’ The fruits WITH the fibre intact just seem like such a more balanced package, letting the fibre off-set the impact of the sugar-rush…the papayas were ABSOLUTELY DIVINE…yuummmmm :)

And so, to today – Feb 26th…it is 100 days today since I started Juice Feasting…that kind of puts a cap on it for me…I had always looked on it as a 100 day process, more or less, to include both the juicing and the Feast-Breaking protocol…so…today was really like my first day back in the ‘real’ world…hello :) …nice to be back…

Here’s what I had:

300ml water
500ml prune soak water
200g/7oz soaked prunes
1 litre water
1 pack sugar cane sticks
water of one old coconut with green powder
1 small honeydew melon
750ml red pepper/garlic/orange juice
green salad (lettuce, cilantro, basil) with dulse leaves and coconut oil
250ml water

Ok, so I want to get smthg clear – MANY people write asking me which fasting/retreat centre I have been staying at here in Costa Rica… I haven’t been at a centre here…I’m just living here in a house and juicing :) That’s one of the JOYS of juice FEASTing rather than fasting – it is so user-friendly – it’s designed to be something that people can do in their homes, while getting on with ‘normal life’…unlike a more traditional fast, where one might end up feeling weak/incapacitated etc and prefer to be supervised in a centre – FEASTing is all about masses of fuel and being FUNctional ;) and hey, now my Juicing HANDBOOK is out there, you can read ALL about it and get juicing yourself if you feel so inclined…;) That’s not to say of course that it’s not a wonderful experience to share this with others at centres and I’ll definitely be holding space for more and more events like that in the future – starting in Michigan this April – but I just want to make it clear that this is smthg anyone can access, in their own homes – you don’t have to be in Costa Rica (though it definitely is fun ;)…

One love,
Angela. xxx