Retreats and Relief...

OOOoooo, here’s another exciting raw food job opportunity alert:
I was contacted this week by Florence in Canada, who is looking for three yummy beings to help run her spa and wellness resort at a 4* wilderness lodge in the Selkirk Mountains, BC. The roles are:

1) Cleanse Director
2) Raw Food Chef and Lifestyle Coach
3) Holistic Health Practitioner and Spa Services Coordinator

The centre will be offering raw food, body cleansing and health rejuvenation retreats.
The pay for these positions looks great, the scenery will definitely be stunning, the work rewarding and staff from outside the immediate area might also be able to live in the lodge during the retreat season (July-October).
Full job descriptions and details on how to apply for these positions are available on the retreat website - http://www.inner-cleanse.ca/ - click the ‘Employment Opportunities’ button, on the left-hand side. You can also read details about the retreats on the site.
ENJOY :)

on June the 6th I had:

1 quart water
1 mug of pau d’arco tea
3 cups cucumber/celery/pineapple/ginger juice
2 cups water
1lb cherries
yummy savoury meal of nori rolls stuffed with dill hummus, mung bean sprouts, baby spinach, lambs’ quarters and spicy cracker pieces. Followed by a DELECTABLE little bowl of goji berry powder, yacon powder and pine nut butter mixed together :O
cup of peppermint tea
2 cups celery/cucumber/cilantro/spinach/endive/fennel/ginger/carrot juice
2 apples and 2 tbsp of divine goji powder
2 cups water

on June the 7th I had:

1 quart water
1 mug pau d’arco tea
2 cups celery/cucumber/cilantro/spinach/endive/fennel/ginger/carrot juice
a delicious papaya
3 cups water
jalapeno/cilantro hummus with baby leaf salad, nori, Mexican flax crackers and mung bean sprouts. 2 raw chocolate bliss balls
3 cups water
3 cups celery/cucumber/apple/ginger juice
1lb gorgeous cherries and 2 tbsp goji berry powder
2 cups water

After the blog I wrote about travel last week, Makaela replied to say:

“Just like to mention, have travelled in India, & took the homeopathic remedies for malaria...and out of a few of us, the only ones that got sick were the ones taking the prescribed medication for malaria...the homeopathic work a treat .....& Helios etc. advise always for free...
Makaela”

WOW, that’s SO great to hear, Makaela, thanks for sharing that. I can remember taking rounds of the prescribed malaria tablets at least twice on travels in my younger days and they felt horrendous in my body, just as I’d heard they would be – nausea, headaches etc (and that from someone who was VERY accustomed to taking allopathic medicines at that point ;) Yes...very unpleasant pills, so it’s WONDERFUL to hear a raw foodie success story with taking the homoeopathic remedy instead...thanks :)
Incidentally, while we’re on the topic of nasty old medicines, I awoke one day this week to the taste of thyroxine in my mouth – which I stopped taking 6 years ago when I went raw (after being on it for abt 12 years). WOW...where had THAT been hiding...??? ;)

on June the 8th I had:

1 quart water
1 mug womens’ tea
big slice of watermelon
3 cups cucumber/celery/pineapple/carrot/ginger juice
flax crackers and nori rolls with pistachio nut butter, mung bean sprouts & lambs’ lettuce. Followed by a little ball of goji berry powder, yacon powder and pine nut butter together = total YUM ;)
mug of peppermint tea
3 cups water
2 cups celery/cucumber/endive/sprouts/lettuce/carrot juice
½ a yummy papaya
little ramekin (love that word ;) bowl of carob powder mixed with yacon powder and pine nut butter
3 cups water


on June the 9th I had:

1 quart water
1 mug pau d’arco tea
2 cups celery/cucumber/endive/sprouts/lettuce/carrot juice
½ a yummy papaya
2 cups water
2 apples with ½ an avocado, dulse, mung beans, pistachio nut butter and a few flax crackers
ramekin of carob powder/yacon powder/pine nut butter
1.5 quarts water
2 cups celery/cucumber/endive/cilantro/ginger/carrot/apple juice
sublime little bowl of blended green yum: macadamia butter, yacon powder, maca powder, carob powder, green powder, water
2 cups water

I’ve been reading a couple of the Postsecret books this last week. Have you been over to Postsecret.com? I’ve mentioned it before once or twice...I think it’s a fascinating project. If you’re not familiar, it is a ‘community art project’ wherein people anonymously send in their secrets that they’ve never told anyone before, written on postcards. These postcards are then displayed on the website, at travelling exhibitions and some of them make it into the Postsecret books (4 books have been published so far I think).

Frank Warren is the guy who started this project and had NO idea that it would reach the scale it has – I believe over 250,000 postcards have been sent in since he started in 2005. People write in about all kinds of things – unrequited love, deepest wishes, traumas, memories, suspicions, doubts etc. The books are amazing little collections of expressed vulnerability, truth and sincerity. You can almost sense the collective relief of letting these things OUT into the world, out of each individual’s head ;)

I remember when I first started to get into ‘recovery’ work, as outlined in ‘Raw Emotions’, one of the things that struck me the most was connecting to the vulnerability, fallibility and ‘humanity’ of others – realising that, wow, other people do things or have done things they don’t feel so great about and it’s ok to talk about those things, share them, release them and hey, maybe even laugh about it all afterwards ;) This is the same kind of transformative energy I perceive in the Postsecret project and books too. Indeed, I’ve heard of people reading one of these books and it helping catalyse them into whole new life paths...beautiful...
My favourite piece that I’ve seen in the 2 books I’ve been looking at over the last week seems to have been written by a young woman in Canada. She wrote that there were 6 things she felt unable to tell anyone – even her boyfriend, who she shares everything with. She wrote them down on 6 postcards and was going to mail them in to Postsecret. The next morning, she decided instead to leave them next to her boyfriend’s pillow as he slept and she left for work. A while later, he arrived at her place of work.
He asked her to marry him.
She said yes.
That actually moves to tears – I find the shift in energy so beautiful – that these things that have probably been holding her back from being fully present, open and loving for years are suddenly instantly transformed and released, in the light of acceptance and love. We’re all human. We all have aspects of clutter and shadow behind us – they don’t have to strangle-hold our experiences though, if we choose to let them out into the light...
Ahhhhhhhhh, breathing deep with gratitude here,

All love,
Angela. xxx

Blessed and Blissed in BC...

Alllllllllllrighty then…on we flow and here I am now in Vancouver, BC…hurray :) Despite the incessant downpour here, it seems like a delightful place and I’m very happy to be here and especially to be back with my man…ahhhhhhh, I breathe deeeeep and give gratitude ;) I was also treated to breathtaking views over the Rocky Mountains on the plane journey yesterday and today experienced the fun and revelry of the ‘Taste of Health’ expo here in Vancouver…the raw food presence was STRONG – it was wonderful to see, for a festival that was not particularly angled towards raw food…Raw BC were there with a booth, Gorilla Foods and others were around, doing food demos and selling raw snacks, one woman was promoting a raw retreat centre, Doug Graham had a booth and gave talks and Matt and I were delighted to speak to a packed room of vibrant Vancouverites…considering we were only added to the programme a few days ago, it was quite some turnout and we squished all we could into the hour time-slot ;) Thanks to all of you who joined us…

on September the 29th I had:

1 litre water
600ml green juice with apple
500ml green juice with apple
1 apple
4 tbsp chia soaked in water, mixed with mulberries
3 dried pineapple rings
500ml water
box of prune plums
500ml water
water and meat of one young coconut
700ml green juice with carrot and apple
little bowl of spirulina mixed with lucuma, mesquite, water and mulberries
500ml water

For those in the Vancouver area who didn’t hear us speak today and would like to come along to an event, I’m happy to say we have another couple lined up for you precious northern-dwelling petals ;)

Firstly, the Monarch and I will both be speaking next Saturday, the 6th of October, at a raw potluck being held at this address:
907 West 33rd Ave, corner of Laurel Street, starting from 5pm.
(Please bring an organic, raw vegan dish to share)

Then later this month, on October the 27th, I will be giving a talk at the Yoga West Studio, at this address: 2662 West 4th Ave, from 3pm.
Hope to see you at one of those events if you’re around ;)

on September the 30th I had:

1.3 litres water
700ml green juice with carrot
water of one young coconut
½ a bowl of chia soaked in water mixed with lucuma and mulberries
500ml water
a few slices of dried pineapple, an organic mango
500ml green juice with lemon
the rest of the chia mix from above, with some ridiculously yummy Artisana Amazon Bliss Butter – mmmmmmmm :)
1 litre water

When I was Juice Feasting for a few days last week, many of you wrote asking why I eat bee pollen when I Feast…well, basically, I find it very supportive during JF-ing, without taxing my digestive system…which, after all, is the whole focus of JF-ing – giving your body a break from digestion, so it can focus on elimination of old nonsense from the structure instead… Here too is what I wrote in ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ abt pollen:

“Bee Pollen – 1-2 tbsps a day. Use fresh bee pollen and keep refrigerated or in a freezer. Bee pollen is said to be a ‘complete food’ and contains an extraordinary amount of minerals, easily-assimilated protein and enzymes, making it a great digestive aid. (Again, bee pollen is obviously not a vegan product, so may not appeal to all.)”

Hope that answered that for y’all…you can also read more if you like, in the handbook HERE…

One love,
Angela. xxx

'Passion for Paradise'...;)

On September the 1st I’m going to be speaking in London at the fabulous Festival of Life raw food/permaculture/vibrant living festie. I’m excited – it’s going to be a wonderful weekend. I speak on Saturday afternoon at 5pm and Matt will be there speaking too – at 3pm. I believe this is the fourth year of this wonderful gathering (perhaps 3rd...)– wow – it seems amazing to me that it was 3 or 4 years ago now that I first attended this event, as a visitor... It absolutely blew me away – I was in awe – it was the first raw gathering of its kind I’d been to and spending the whole day living, learning and eating among a crowd of so many like-minded beings was SUCH an amazing experience to me… One of the things I love so much about this festie is that it’s so affordable for people – entrance is just £12 for the whole weekend and all talks, sessions, food demos and so on are free once you’re in…there will be stalls, incredible raw food, yoga, music, dance and MASSES of vibrant joy…hope to see you there ;)

On August the 20th I had:

1.5 litres water
300ml warm water with lemon juice
1 litre ‘garden’ juice
1 box of blueberries
handful of mulberries and 3 tsp green powder
big green salad with avo, dulse, fresh tomato/garlic sauce, sprouts and sauerkraut
1 litre water
1 large papaya
1 litre water

I’ve stopped using deodrant. LOL…I love it…many raw foodists of course choose not to use any deodorants, or just something simple like lemon juice…well, after dabbling all over the ‘natural’ deodorants section of health food stores for the last few years, I’ve kind of lost interest…my body pretty much doesn’t produce that much odour anymore anyway – only when I’m detoxing something rough, like cracao…so, the deo’s become kind of…redundant…I’m enjoying this new experience – it feels like another happy step onwards into simplicity for me…I still OWN a deodrant stick and use it from time-to-time…overall though, my pits are mainly breathing free and easy these days…I’ve also started to sprout and regularly eat fenugreek sprouts, which have apparently traditionally been used in India for regulating body odour for generations…hmmmmm…interesting…have you TRIED fenugreek sprouts???…WOW, they smell and taste SO great to me…and are, of course, also happily packed with enzymes and nutrients…yummmm ;)

on August the 21st I had:

1.5 litres water
300ml warm water with lemon juice
150ml orange/grapefuit juice
700ml cucumber/celery/romaine/carrot juice
3 persimmons blended with 4tbsp of ground chia, with a handful of mulberries swirled in
500ml rooibos tea
500ml water
green smoothie of pear, romaine, spirulina, water and gojis
500ml water
greens/avo/dulse/sauerkraut/sprouts salad with fresh tomato sauce and hemp seeds
1 litre water

I went rock-pooling one day recently, when the weather was brighter…poking about in the rocks while the tide was out…it was amazing…I was in a stage of feeling a little tired of being incessantly ‘on-the-road’…that morning however, in my sun-kissed scramblings on the rocks, I was blessed by an encounter with a beautiful huge black crab. We stopped and gazed at each other for quite some time…I breathed deep into the experience and took the message that I, like the crab, am of course truly at home always, wherever I am…I have my backpack just as he has his shell…my style is a little more complex than his, admittedly…and yet, I resonated and felt at peace…thanks little friend ;)

All love,
Angela. xxx