Travelling in the RAW...

I’m going to answer a couple of travel-related raw questions today that came in recently...first up:

“I am deciding to go & do a little travelling & wondering / hoping you might cover some of your essential tips for travelling in the raw possibly on your blog.....
Makaela”

Thank you :) Ok...let’s see...here are my Top 10 Essential Tips for travelling in the raw...

*BE PREPARED – take nutrient-dense things with you that travel well – e.g. – don’t take a watermelon with you on a plane ;) LOL – aside from the fact it would probably take up half your baggage allowance and quite possibly be confiscated at the other end, it’s not going to feed you for more than a day or two. Take foods that are somewhat the ‘opposite’ of watermelon – dense, concentrated things – nuts, seeds, crackers, goji berries, seaweeds, trail mixes, etc. Have these things with you, then get the fresh stuff where you are. If travelling by plane, pack as many foods as possible into your CHECKED luggage. Take whatever you're going to eat on the plane in your hand luggage (water-content rich things like cucumbers are good here ;) - try asking the security people NOT to x-ray your plane food - you might get lucky ;)
*FRESH PRODUCE – clearly, organic is usually preferable – you might not always be in areas where organic produce seems very forthcoming though, SO, aim for stuff with thick skins, if in doubt – papaya, pineapple, avocado, possibly durian ;) etc. If pushed, it seems preferable (though certainly debatable ;) to go for non-organic fresh produce than to choose any processed, packaged food instead. Do your best with what you find available and be sure to give your food lots of love, gratitude and blessings, regardless of origin ;)
*CHIA SEEDS are a FANTASTIC food to travel with, as they are very nutrient dense and bulk up in under 10 minutes to 10 times their volume, when soaked in any liquid. This is the food Aztec and Mayan messengers used to use, to keep them going on their travels. See the Chia Cheat Sheet for more info.
*GREEN POWDERS – definitely take green powders with you wherever you go – hopefully and preferably you’ll find fresh greens that you feel good about, wherever you end up – in the event that you don’t though, or you just want more greens – you’ll always have the powder as a back-up ;) VERY important to help keep us balanced/alkalised/mineralised, especially if you’re somewhere where the main things you’re munching are fruits and you’re getting a bit sugared-out ;) (If you can take some probiotics with you that are stable at room temperature/travel well, that will be useful too ;)
*COCONUTS – if you’re somewhere that has fresh cocos available – GO for it, preferably many times daily ;) I am in LOVE with fresh cocos – they are quite incredible – so balancing, nourishing, full of electrolytes, sterile environment (coco water can actually be used for blood transfusions for humans if necessary ;O...), they’re also anti-fungal/microbial/viral etc – oooooo, they’re just wonderful. Consume, often ;) In many cases, drinking coco water will be FAR preferable to drinking any water sources you’ll find, though do try to drink ‘pure’ water daily too (which will often mean bottled water...).

(Contd. below…)

on June the 2nd I had:

1 quart water
12 oz cantaloupe melon juice
2.5 cups celery/cucumber/fennel/cabbage/spinach/watercress/carrot juice
1lb yummmmmmy cherries
little bowl of blended green yum: mango/spinach/alfalfa sprouts/spirulina/kelp/avocado, with mung bean sprouts and pumpkin seeds stirred in :) delicious...
2 cups water
½ a delicious papaya
2 cups celery/cucumber/fennel/cabbage/spinach/watercress/carrot juice
cup of ‘womens’ tea
little bowl of chia gel mixed with finely diced banana and apple pieces
another cup of ‘womens’ tea
1 cup water

*RESEARCH – if you feel drawn to, it can be useful before you set out to do a little poking around on the internet etc to see what kind of options might be available where you’re heading – try search terms in Google like ‘organic’, ‘organic farm’, ‘permaculture’, ‘raw food’ and so on, for that area and see what pops up – you might suddenly discover that there’s an organic farm with a home-stay right in the region you’re interested in visiting... ;) Or you might locate some markets to go and check out that you wouldn’t have otherwise maybe found... (As always, you can check out sites like WWOOF.org – Willing Workers On Organic Farms – for places to do work exchange. Couchsurfing.com and Craigslist.com may also be useful ;)
*BELIEVE that you will eat foods you want to eat – i.e. don’t be in fear that there’s going to be nothing for you to eat – where there’s a will, there’s a way. Mr. M and I travel all over the world and have NEVER resorted to eating cooked/processed things – there is always SMTHG to eat, if you’re willing to focus energy towards finding it ;)
*EQUIPMENT – we find it useful to have a few basic items with us – a few spoons/forks/a sharp knife or two, a couple of wooden bowls, NUT MILK BAGS, water containers, etc. We use nut milk bags for sprouting on the road, as well as straining juice, etc. On this last huge trip down under, we ended up travelling with a blender AND a juicer – pretty intense ;) I would hope not to do that again and wouldn’t really recommend it (though it’s definitely nice to have access to those things – also depends a lot on HOW you’re travelling – if you have a vehicle of some kind, that can make a big difference ;) You could also of course travel with a little ‘personal blender’, which can be also used to make juices, IF you’re carrying a nut milk bag ;)
*HOUSE GUESTS – if you’ve never read it, you can hop over HERE to read an article I wrote a while back called ‘How to Be a Great House Guest’ – which was published by the Guardian online in the UK :)
*ENJOY – remember that whatever happens, it’s all just a game – a big ol’ cosmic giggle ;) Regardless of what appears to be unfolding around us, we can be happy in every moment, if we choose to be. Every experience is an opportunity. Life on the road can feel pretty intense at times, far from ‘home’, unfamiliar languages/places/tired/jetlag/etc etc... do your best, whatever the apparent circumstances are, to be with what is, with grace. Breathe deep...you might not have seen an organic kale leaf in 3 weeks...hmmm, life’s still ok though, right? LOL ;) Go with the flow...and ENJOY :)

Hope that helps :)

on June the 3rd I had:

1 quart water
1.5 cups pau d’arco tea
1 quart cucumber/apple/ginger juice
bowl of blended yum: banana/avocado/alfalfa sprouts/cilantro/spirulina/kelp powder, with mung bean sprouts and pumpkin seeds swirled in
3 cups water
1lb cherries, 3 loquats
20oz spinach/cucumber/celery/fennel/alfalfa sprout/cabbage/carrot juice
bowl of chia gel with papaya and finely diced banana, followed by a
little bowl of amazing yum mixture: GOJI BERRY POWDER (WOW), with lucuma powder, yacon powder and a little pine nut butter
3 cups water

Ok, onto travel Q number 2:

“I have a question. With all the traveling you and Matt do, are you required to get any vaccines before you are allowed into any of the countries you travel to? I want to do some traveling in the future but I am against vaccines.
Thanks,
Kim~”

Hmmmm...yes, I had a LOT of vaccines for international travel, BEFORE I was raw...pretty much all the vaccines that are offered in fact, except for yellow fever. My experience was that they were mostly very unpleasant. During my early detox as a raw foodist, my left arm would often swell up in red lumps and release pus - presumably old toxins from all the injections. (Sorry if that is 'TMI' for you ;)
SO, since I've been raw, I have not had any injections...and I've had no issues travelling anywhere...then again, I've been going to pretty 'tame' places mostly...the US, Canada, western Europe etc...
I'll say this though - I cannot recall EVER being checked ANYWHERE I have gone for proof that I've had vaccinations - and I've travelled all over the world...so, I'm not sure when/if it would really be an issue. Take obvious precautions, like not eating things with thin skins/no skins, avoid ice cubes etc and areas where it looks less than sanitary and...you can easily be fine and disease-free. I feel it's pretty unlikely much of any of the vaccines are still in my body - maybe some of them - and I have no 'fear' about going places, getting illnesses OR getting hassled for not having 'the right injections' ;) I guess I have the somewhat dubious 'advantage' that if they WERE to hassle me abt it, I have HAD an armful of toxins in the past and probably have some paperwork somewhere to show that I had them all done...as I said though, I cannot remember EVER being asked abt my injections by any border guards etc...
For other places to ask/read abt this - I would perhaps suggest curezone.org as a starting point, along with perhaps the 'Thorn Tree' forums on the Lonely Planet site...

ENJOY :)
All love,
Angelalalalaaaaaaaaa. Xxx

Please Fit Your Own Oxygen Mask First...

A few people have written lately to ask our thoughts about air travel and our carbon footprints.
Hmmmm, well...airoplanes and airlines have featured a lot in my life, in fact you could even say that my very existence was the result of the airline industry – my parents met while working at Gatwick Airport in Sussex, back in the 70s. Growing up 6 minutes from the airport, in a family where pretty much everyone worked in airlines, travelling by plane was one of the cheapest/easiest ways to travel for me and I’ve been flying since I was 6 years old. So, my associations with planes run deep.
However, in the last few years, travelling by plane has ceased to feel like fun to me. Quite aside from the absurdities of airport security and luggage restrictions these days, the carbon emissions/environmental impact and also the effect on my own health have become increasingly troublesome to me. Whereas I used to ENJOY plane travel, the plastic meals and all - I just don’t feel that great when flying anymore. I believe this has a huge amount to do with becoming more and more sensitive the longer we are raw – radiation, toxins, recycled air and so on seem to have more of an impact on me now than before, though I can also recover quicker, given conducive conditions after the flight. It also just feels odd to me these days to be so ‘disconnected’ from the land. Flying through the air, especially on long flights feels very ‘ungrounding’ to me, literally ;) It’s an odd sensation and it feels like it takes some time for the other levels of my being to catch up to the physical once I’ve landed.
So, where do we go from here? Ideally, as I’ve mentioned numerous times, the Monarch and I would like to get to a piece of land where we can settle asap, to get on with creating our own ‘Motherland’, along the lines described in the Anastasia book series. It is our desire for that piece of land to be in California somewhere, which is Mr. Monarch’s homeplace. HOWEVER, what is holding us back from going and getting on with that right now is that we are waiting for my visa for the US. Hence, we’re still on the road for now...exploring other possibilities... I’ve been travelling for most of the last 12 years now and, as I’ve also mentioned before, I’m done. I’m ready to STOP and put down some solid, beautiful, loving, nurturing roots somewhere, preferably travelling overland/by water after that, as and when it seems necessary. The Monarch and I have actually spoken often of travelling by boat between places – we’ll see how that works out, as we both get very sea-sick ;) I imagine we’ll probably still take some planes at times...just not so often...
In the meantime, a few of the things we do to help offset/reduce our carbon footprints are supporting the wonderful Woodland Trust in the UK (which preserves native forests and plants new trees), living and promoting the raw vegan lifestyle (e.g. buying local/seasonal, organic, not using a dishwasher, not producing so much ‘absolute waste’), encouraging the way of life described in the Anastasia books, along with recycling, refusing extra packaging, choosing hemp/organic clothes, consciously switching off unused electrical items and lights and so on. (I've also planted a great number of trees in my time - incidentally, that is in fact exactly what I was doing on 9.11.01 when the Twin Towers were hit by planes - I had no idea what was happening until much later in the day when I returned from the fields and heard the news...) Recently, I’ve also been delighted to see that some airlines have started to offer a ‘carbon offset donation’ choice when purchasing tickets. You can make a donation that goes towards planting more trees and protecting native forests. Certainly seems like a step in a positive direction for now, at least while planes are still flying... ;)

on May the 4th I had:

1 quart water
water of 1 young coconut
glass of greeeeeen juice
3 cups water
zucchini pesto pasta, with nibbles of other dishes: vegetable terrine, nori rolls and lasagne, followed by banana ice cream with bee pollen = yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm
1.5 quarts water
glass of greeeen juice
1 quart water

Eeeeeek, I’ve just been TAGGED again ;) Seems a new game of tag is in process and the ext-RAW-dinary Ms. Suki Zoe just nabbed me with this explanation of the game:

1. pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. open the book to page 123.
3. find the fifth sentence.
4. post the next three sentences.
5. tag five people.

Hmmmm, ok...well, the nearest book to me right now is one I found in the spa library called ‘Half My Size’ by Suzie Elelman, written by another woman who lost half of her body weight. Page 123 says:

“I often use the term ‘self first’ and get asked if there is a difference between being selfish and putting your self first. My best analogy is when you’re on an aircraft and during the safety drill they emphasise that you should put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others. You also have to learn to find time to put yourself first and that is often the hardest thing to do.”

WOW, that was an appropriate little tie-in with the airoplane discussion above ;) Also very interesting to me, as I have previously used this exact same analogy in my own writing abt the importance of taking care of ourselves first ;) LOL – there’s that remarkable collective consciousness at work again ;)
Ok, so now I get to tag 5 more people, eh? Me choose

Shell, Holly, Anthony, Margi and RawFoodRightNow

ENJOY :)

on May the 5th I had a juicy day of:

1 quart water
water of 2 young coconuts, glass of green juice
water of 2 young coconuts, glass of green juice, 2 tbsp YUMMY bee pollen
3 cups water
water of 1 young coconut, amazing ‘cayenne cooler’ drink = blend of lime juice, cayenne pepper, honey and ice
water of 1 young coconut, glass of carrot/celery juice
2 cups water
glass of watermelon juice
3 cups water
glass of carrot/celery/pineapple juice
big glass of lime juice mixed with honey and water
1 tbsp green powder
3 cups water

WOW, this was my first day ever of Juice Feasting where SOMEONE ELSE made all the juices :) FUN :) It was SO nice to just go and choose smthg from a menu each time I felt the pang of hunger – and to try out all kinds of different drinks that I wouldn’t normally make for myself. I LOVE the lime juice drinks – especially the one with cayenne – Yeeeeeeeeee-HAH ;) They remind me of a drink I used to have daily when I lived in Sri Lanka – the mother of the family I stayed with would give me a similar drink as ‘medicine’ – her version however was water, lime juice and TABLESPOONS of white sugar – eeeeeeeeeek ;) I’m very happy to be on these versions with raw honey now instead...add a pinch of mineral-rich salt for a GREAT electrolyte drink...yummmmmmmmm...

One love,
Angela. xxx