Welcome To The World, Sally Joy :)

:))))

Our new baby horse was born Friday night :)))

Welcome to the world, Sally Joy :)))

She came in with the recent full moon on the stargate, 11-11-11 :)

She is like a *tiny* little sacred white replica of her dad, our

palomino Sparkie - she has the same white markings on her face and

ankles...

Mumma Barbie and baby both seem to be doing really well...and her

older brother Cherry Star is being very gentle with her so far... :)

Sally Joy is feeding a lot already, she is very alert and seems like

quite a brave little one - as you can see in this picture, she

already went to meet Mr. M up close on her *first* day here - Cherry

didn't make contact for about 10 days after he was born...perhaps

because mumma Barbie's pregnancy was very relaxed this time, this little one

has very few fears... :))) We hope so :)))

You can see a photo album of pictures of Sally Joy's first day here Earthside, over on Facebook, HERE - enjoy :)

The dogs are very curious and also learning to leave her

alone...Barbie is very protective...she is also still nursing Cherry

at the same time...

The picture of the stones on Facebook is where Sally Joy was born and we buried

her placenta... I laid a ring of eight stones around one

central white stone to represent her horsey tribe around her,

protecting her - she is horse number nine now living with us here ;)

We love her :))))))

on November the 9th I delighted with:

1 quart water
2.5 cups coconut water blended with Vitamin C powder
3 tbsp spirulina crunchies
1.5 cups coconut water
little bowl of cucumber salad with avo/sauerkraut, plus flax crackers, nori, tahini, SeaClear, lecithin on the side, followed by a little apple
mug of herbal tea
chunk of Mr. M’s Pili Nut Chocolate, 2 cups coconut water
mug of herbal tea


on November the 10th I enjoyed:

1 quart water
1 cup coconut water blended with Vitamin C powder
2 cups greeeeeeeen juice from the garden
little bowl of cucumber salad with avo/sauerkraut, plus flax crackers, nori, tahini, SeaClear, lecithin on the side, followed by a little apple
mug of herbal tea
chunk of Mr. M’s Pili Nut Chocolate, 2 cups coconut water
mug of herbal tea
1 cup water

The Freeze-Dried Durian is baaaaaaaaaaaack :)))

Any of you durian lovers out there who have ever tried our amazing Freeze-Dried Durian product will surely be jumping for joy right now – it’s BACK :)

These little chunks of freeze-dried deliciousness are made freshly from each durian season in Thailand and we JUST received the new batch – YAY :))) Mr. M and I are super-excited to get our hands on some again – it’s soooooooooOOOOoooOoOOoooooo GOOD – like durian “popcorn” or smthg – lol ;) You can also rehydrate it in any liquid, use it in smoothies, ice cream mixes, cereals and so on – endless possibilities :)
If you’ve never tried durian, this might be a fun new culinary adventure for you – proceed with caution though – people tend to looOoOOOOoooove durian or find it repulsive – lol ;)
You can get your mitts on some of the fabulous Freeze-Dried yumminess HERE – enjoy :)


on November the 11th I rejoiced with:

1 quart water
1 cup coconut water blended with Vitamin C powder
2 cups greeeeeeeen juice from the garden
bowl of Berry Good cereal with diced apples, maca and coconut water
2 cups coconut water
little bowl of cucumber salad with avo/sauerkraut, plus flax crackers, nori, tahini, SeaClear, lecithin on the side, followed by a little apple
mug of herbal tea
2 cups water


on November the 12th I loved:

1 quart water
1.5 cups watermelon/orange juice
2 cups coconut water blended with Greener Grasses
35 chlorella/kelp tabs
Yummmmmmmmers raw lunch at a friends’ place: salads, dressings, amazing stuffed tomatoes, followed by subliiiiiime carob pudding with freshly picked berries – GORGEOUSNESS :)
Water of a young coconut
Handful of coconut BBQ chips
2 cups water

OoOOOoooooo, we have a *beautiful* RawReform Giveaway Gift to share with one blessed winner this month: one of our GORGEOUS 8” Bamboo Salad Bowls :)

We looooooooooooooooove our sustainably-produced bamboo-ware selection and have a mass of these bowls, plates, cutlery, utensils and more here at our home in Ecuador – everyone always asks us where we got them from, as they are very aesthetically pleasing ;)

Well, this month we’re offering one of the beautiful 8” Salad Bowls to one fortunate winner…so, to be in with a chance of winning this gorgeous bowl, just send us in your A to the following Q:

“What is your favourite salad recipe that you’d love to fill up this bowl with…?”

 

Send your answers to rawreformcontests@gmail.com by December the 17^th and a winner shall be picked at random and with much jubilation shortly thereafter... :)

In the meantime, if you'd love to order some gorgeous bamboo-ware for your own delight, you can check out our whole bamboo collecti0n HERE - enjoy :)


All love and resonations of JOY :)

A. C. Stokes-Monarch. xxx

Fruity Feedback...

I’m re-reading Raw Emotions at the moment. I’m happy to see that it makes sense ;) LOL...after a couple of months’ break from it, I’m reading it over and getting it ready to go to print. I’m adding in a few little extras here and there for the printed version, like a ‘testimony’ page of peoples’ comments so far who have read the book. We’ve had some absolutely lovely feedback already and we’re certainly open to more if YOU’ve read 'Raw Emotions' and would like to share anything in regards to your experience with it. Here’s something sent in by ‘A’ this week:

“Hi Angela, I just wanted to tell you that I finished reading "Raw Emotions" last night.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for writing this book.

You have hit so many nails on the head for me in this book, I am very grateful to you. I am now in the process over going back through my notes to decide which concepts I am going to implement first.

I want so badly to heal my relationship with food and eating and you are such an inspiration to me. Now I see clearly why my earlier attempts at being raw or succeeding with any other way of eating have not been sustainable.
And, thanks to your book, I understand why eating raw foods can be an important part of the healing process. Maybe the time was right for me to get the message...and maybe it's about the teacher showing up with the student is ready.

Thanks again.
Best, A.”

THANKS, A :) If YOU have a testimony you’d love to share, or any comments, feedback, typo alerts or anything else about ‘Raw Emotions’ you’d care to send in, please email angela@rawreform.com and let me know :) You can also order the e-book HERE if you haven’t seen it yet...
THANKS :)

on June the 4th I had:

1 quart water
cup of pau d’arco tea
10oz celery/cucumber/cabbage/fennel/spinach/carrot juice
1lb cherries
2 cups celery/cucumber/spinach/fennel/cabbage/endive/lemon juice
spicy flax crackers topped with dill hummus, sprouts and dulse seaweed = yummmmm
little bowl of sweet stuff afterwards = GOJI BERRY POWDER (WOW), yacon powder and lucuma powder, mixed with water
3 cups water
10oz celery/cucumber/spinach/fennel/cabbage/endive/lemon juice
orange fruits meal: papaya/loquats/persimmon
3 cups water

Time for another story of Brighton magic :) A couple of days ago, a dear friend was leaving on a trip to London for the day. Just before she left, I said ‘Mmmmm, if I was going to London today, I’d go and eat durian there...’ ;)
A few hours later, I was walking down a street in Brighton and suddenly felt the energy of durian, as my attention was drawn to the left. I looked up and there was a Chinese supermarket there that I’d never seen before. Hmmm...I followed the clues and walked towards the store. I then SMELT the durian before I even saw it...and entered the shop to find 2 boxes of fresh, unfrozen durian sitting next to the door. :))) I’ve never seen durian for sale in Brighton before and was extremely excited. The owner told me she gets shipments of them every week in the summer time and this was the first shipment of the summer...and it had just arrived a few minutes before I got there. WOW. The synchronicities in this place are just beautiful :) I really feel like Brighton is an amazing vortex at times – things can certainly manifest quickly here... The cost seemed reasonable too, at £5.95/kilo – which doesn’t seem wildly different to London prices, if I recall correctly. I bought a gorgeous little fruit and ate it in the sun yesterday. If anyone else would love to go and partake of these magnificent munchables, the address is:

Ryelight Supermarket, 48 Preston Street, Brighton, BN1 2HP Tel: 01273 734954

ENJOY :)


on June the 5th I had:

1 quart water
1 mug pau d’arco tea
orange fruits meal: papaya/loquats/persimmon
3 cups celery/cucumber/endive/spinach/fennel/ginger/apple juice
a GORGEOUS little durian
1.5 quarts water
3 cups celery/cucumber/endive/spinach/fennel/ginger/apple juice
1 mug rooibus tea
1 cup water

I’ve been eating quite a lot of fruit (mono-)meals of late and REALLY enjoying them. Here are some of the things I’ve been appreciating:

1. I love that when I eat a fruit meal, I feel light afterwards, rather than ‘weighed down’ in some sense by fats/heavier combinations, etc. When we first go raw, for most of us, there’s a sense that we can almost ‘eat anything’ and we’ll still lose weight, feel healthier and lighter after meals and so on, even if we’re eating raw pizza and cheesecakes all day long – this is of course because we’ve STOPPED eating the really crazy toxic processed/cooked ‘foods’ and almost anything that’s raw is some kind of improvement. That all shifts, the longer one is raw. If I was to eat raw pizza, cookies, cakes etc all day long now, I’d be a mess...LOL...my body consistently moves towards a ‘cleaner’/simpler intake all the time. Whereas raw pizza might have felt ‘light on my stomach’ to me at the start of this journey compared to the junk foods I used to eat, that is no longer the case. Now FRUIT meals feel light to me and I like the ‘clean’ feeling of fuelling up on them...
2. Yesterday I was eating some gorgeous papaya in the sun (one of my absolute favourite foods). After eating, I looked at my skin and noticed my arms and legs looked a little dry. Hmmm, what to do...? Then I realised the answer was right there in front of me – the discarded papaya skin :) I picked it back up and rubbed it all over my limbs – I got my food, then they got theirs’ – wonderful :)
3. I’m feeling more and more that I definitely prefer eating fruits whole, as they are, rather than blending them, making them into cakes/puddings etc. It just feels SO good to me to eat something like that in its whole and natural form, giving blessings before I open it or bite into it, visualising where it came from, giving gratitude. It seems a very different energy to throwing something in a blender and shattering all the cells into a mixture of something else. I’m reading the classic book ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ at the moment, which is also impacting my thoughts around this a lot ;) Plants truly sense and respond to all our thoughts and feelings, as repeatedly outlined in this book with countless examples...
4. I love when supermarkets/stores sell off the BEST fruit really cheaply, because as far as their standards go, it is ‘overripe’, when in fact, it is absolutely IDEALLY ready for munching...this week for example, I got a clutch of divine persimmons that were perfectly soft and ripe for less than £1 ($2)...I see this happen a lot with bananas too...
5. Finally...GOJI BERRY POWDER...while this may be a dried fruit product, rather than something of the more succulent nature, I felt compelled nonetheless to mention it here. This week, three sachets of dried goji berry powder arrived here from Mr. Monarch in the US. (: W.O.W. :) This is one of the most sublime raw foods I’ve tasted yet. Absolutely delicious – it melts in your mouth and tastes sweet and fresh and bizarrely reminiscent of some kind of childhood sweets (not sure which...) You can literally just eat it straight from the packet on its own, it’s SO tasty...or add to any kind of sweet raw meal/smoothie/cake etc...you can get hold of some HERE if you’d like to treat your taste buds ;)

All love,
Angela. xxx

Time to Leave Thailand...

We’re back in Australia now. It was fun to go and play for a while in Thailand...we also found some aspects of being there a little challenging though – primarily the pollution factor...from car fumes to pesticides to litter, it felt a bit full-on for us... Here are some of my recent observations about life in Thailand:

1. In general, Thai people seem to me to be happy, relaxed, smiley, kind, generous and content. Indeed, enjoyment seems very embedded in the national psyche. One of the guiding principles of Thai culture is ‘sanook’ or ‘fun’ – if smthg is not ‘sanook’, there’s not really any point doing it ;) LOL – love it ;) People ensure to enjoy themselves together wherever they are – even at ‘work’ ;) – this is a nation who seems at some level to really get the idea of enjoying our time here...they could be thought of as a very heart-centred people in this regard...

2. ‘Tis a country where the bathrooms are generally very...wet ;) LOL...they seem to take the term ‘water closet’ literally and the whole bathrooms are usually like ‘wet rooms’, tiled throughout and quite often with no shower curtain or anything to separate off a bathing area – everything just kind of merges into one big sloshy fun room ;) I like it. Having grown up in England, where even the bathrooms obscurely tend to be carpeted, this is a refreshing alternative to me. ‘Tis also a country where I tend to shower a lot – at least once a day and sometimes up to 3 times a day. It’s very hot and humid and while I love sweating, I don’t like feeling sweaty for extended periods – I think that’s a throw-back from my obese days, when being hot and sweaty felt very uncomfortable to me...

on May the 14th I had:

1 quart water
2 cups INTENSE veggie juice (cabbage, celery, cucumber, cilantro, carrot)
water of 3 young coconuts with another quart of intense veggie juice
big bag of rambutan
3 dragon fruit
1 quart water
½ a fresh pineapple
½ a fresh durian
1 quart water


3. People tend to travel by motorbikes/scooters. They seem VERY skilled at riding them and very few people seem to wear helmets. It’s not uncommon to see people riding along on a motorbike while sending a text message (SMS) on their phone, carrying cardboard boxes, holding their babies and so on ;) Very young children routinely travel on the bikes and many speed past with 2 or 3 tots on board... It’s pretty remarkable to observe, for us. They seem to start learning to ride them very young too – a few days ago we saw an absolutely classic sight. A Thai girl who looked literally about 9 years old rode past us on a big black motorbike, pulled up at the side of the playground, then excitedly ran with her arms flailing towards the playground toys, where she sat and played. LOL...nobody batted an eyelid, while we mused on the fact that if a similar scene were played out in the US/UK, the parents would most likely end up arrested or smthg ;)

4. While we’re on the subject of children, I’d love to mention the distinct lack of strollers/pushchairs/prams in Thailand. I literally didn’t see a single one there, or any of the assorted baby-related paraphernalia that tend to go with them (except the packaged milk powders ;). Thai people carry their babies and when they’re old enough, they walk. I appreciate this simplicity. It also seems like it would be very challenging to even try to use a stroller/push-chair there if you wanted to – the kerbs are often VERY high off the road – up to a foot or more off the road – not very conducive to pushing baby strollers around... (BTW, there is a WONDERFUL book on the benefits of carrying babies, called ‘The Continuum Concept’.)

on May the 15th I had:

1 quart water
plate of fresh fruit: papaya, pineapple, rambutan, mangosteen, banana
water of 2 young coconuts with wheatgrass powder
amazing raw food restaurant feast at Rasayana in Bangkok – platter of taco cups, raw lasagne, raw pizza, pesto pasta, followed by banana ice cream with amazing macadamia/carob wafers
1 quart water
water of 2 young coconuts and 8oz carrot juice
2 divine mangoes
1 quart water


on May the 16th I had:

2 quarts water
1 cherimoya, 1 persimmon
2 cups water
romaine wraps stuffed with avocado, alfalfa sprouts & karengo seaweed, with some gorgeous macadamia/flax crackers on the side
1 quart water
3 little persimmons
1 pint water

5. One thing I find very challenging about life in Thailand is the pollution. It is shocking to me. As I mentioned before, the Thai culture seems mid-way somehow between ‘tradition’/old ways and haphazardly embracing aspects of a more ‘western’ lifestyle, with an apparent emphasis on...plastic and pesticides (see below for more on pesticides). Litter is abundant in most places, streams and rivers bubble with untold chemical concoctions and the streets are hazy with petrol fumes (so much so that we actually bought face masks to walk around in and Mr Monarch is of the opinion that the last 3 weeks in Thailand have aged him a couple of years ;O ). In many ways, this country is like a potential paradise (beaches, warmth, exotic fruit, coconuts, elephants, friendly people, inexpensive, etc), then not far underneath that surface, there is a much murkier reality. It’s like they’ve taken on different aspects from the ‘west’, yet managing those things doesn’t quite seem to flow well...or maybe they’re just not as adept at hiding it as other countries ;) People in western countries often speak of ‘throwing things away’, raising the question of ‘where is ‘away’?’, while in Thailand one almost gets the impression they don’t even bother to make landfills/other solutions to manage all the rubbish that’s generated from the packaged foods – people just drop it where they are – ‘away’ is...well, right here actually...imagine how abundant the soil everywhere would be if all those dropped items were fresh food scraps instead ;)

6. On the subject of fresh foods, pesticides and other poisons are a major issue in the Thai food chain. Some of you have been writing in asking why we’ve not been eating any veggies lately. Well, that’s why...it’s VERY challenging to find anything organic, so anything we’ve been eating tends to be smthg with a thick skin, so that we’re at least hopefully limiting our exposure to toxins. We were very blessed to have access to amazing organic veggies at the health spa where we stayed on Koh Chang – hence we were drinking veggie juices daily and eating veg-meals there. However, most of the time it seems wiser to focus on thick-skinned fruits and coconuts, though having said that, we hear that many people inject durians in Thailand with all kinds of toxins, as well as picking them before they’re ripe and dunking them in Sodium Dioxide to get them to ripen quicker – eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek... Fortunately a friend who used to live in Thailand advised us to ask vendors in Thai for ‘durian ban’ – smthg like ‘wild durian’. These are smaller, rounder fruits that usually haven’t been meddled with as much. We hear that organic farming is starting to be more common in the north of Thailand now, in the Chiang Mai area, which is encouraging... ;)

I’m definitely gonna miss the coconuts – love, love, LOVE having fresh coconuts every day, they feel soooooooo good to me...and all the fruit was fun...and the elephants... ;) We’ll have another video ready sometime soon hopefully concluding our adventures there...for now, bye-bye Thailand and thank you :)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Pressure

We’ve left the little raw food oasis at The Spa on Koh Chang now and we’re back on the Thai mainland, at a beach-side resort where the beach is about 10 strides from our room. Yummy :) We’ve had some wonderful adventures in the last few days. A couple of days back, we had Thai massage for the first time since we got here. WOW. It was INTENSE. I was absolutely amazed at the power hidden in these teeny-tiny, petite little Thai women ;) LOL...in terms of intensity, I think this actually rivalled a massage I had once from Igor Boutenko (Dad in the Boutenko family) – and anyone who has ever had a massage from this huge Russian powerhouse knows how hardcore his technique is... Well, I asked the Thai massagist for ‘medium’ pressure and I was literally squealing at times...I can only imagine what Mr Monarch was experiencing beside me, as he asked for ‘strong pressure’...eeeeeeeeeeeek ;O They use this VERY potent herbal balm on the back, which acts like ‘deep heat’, penetrating deep into the tissues. Aside from that, they also seem remarkably adept at pinpointing the exact points of most tension if a body and NAILING those areas with vice-like pressure...eeeeeeeek ;) I think I’ll ask for ‘soft pressure’ next time... ;)

on May the 8th I had:

1 quart water
shot of wheatgrass and water of a young coconut
bowl of mango/banana raw ice cream, ‘raw chocolate pie’ and a raw spirulina energy ball
2 cups water
½ a deliciously ripe pineapple
shot of gotukola juice and a glass of carrot/celery juice
2 cups water
bowl of papaya/coconut meat/spirulina smoothie with some seaweed on the side (sounds odd, tasted GREAT ;)
3 cups water

on May the 9th I had:

1 quart water
shot of wheatgrass juice and water of 2 young coconuts
3 cups water
cup of warm water with lime juice and honey
big bowl of banana/mango ice cream with honey/cinnamon sauce and bee pollen
2 cups water
1 tbsp wheatgrass powder
½ an incredible pineapple,1lb rambutan
a few pods of yummy durian, a few mangosteen
1 quart water

We were also delighted to go on a beautiful elephant trek in the jungle. REALLY yummy experience. It seems there’s not many places for elephants to live anymore here – humans have taken everything over. Many elephants now live in sanctuaries instead. We visited one of these sanctuaries on Koh Chang (which actually means ‘Elephant Island ;) We got to swim in a river with the elephants & scrub them down, then we climbed up ontop of them and trekked through the jungle. Naturally we were on the elephant who stopped to eat durian on the way – it was absolutely classic. I love their big huge round padded feet, which they use to just squish the durian open, then pull the pieces out to enjoy – nice style :) We also got to hand-feed them masses of bananas afterwards too. They seem so gentle to me. They also apparently have the biggest brains of all land animals – very intelligent and responsive. One of my favourite stories that I heard in recent years was that after the Tsunami here in the India/Thailand area in 2004,
in some areas, the elephants who had fled to higher ground before the tsunami struck then came back down and carried human children up to higher ground. WOW. I don’t know if that happened in this reality or not – I’d like to think it did though...and if it did, then what an incredible act of compassion, after all that humans seem to have done to take over elephant areas...

on May the 10th I had:
1 quart water
water of 2 big young coconuts with wheatgrass powder
1.5 lbs rambutan
3 cups water
an entire AMAZING little jack fruit – absolutely incredible, one of the best meals I’ve ever had – perfectly ripe, sweet like candy and DIVINE
3 cups water
water of 2 big young coconuts with wheatgrass powder
bowl of blended yum: bananas, pineapple, coconut meat, spirulina
3 cups water

on May the 11th I had:

1 quart water
water of 2 large young coconuts with wheatgrass powder
a few rambutan and half a fresh pineapple
3 cups water
another entire little amazing jack fruit
2 cups water
bowl of blended yum: bananas, coconut meat, spirulina, with a few gojis swirled in
1 quart water

While we’re on the topic of large ‘natural disasters’, I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that Burma is in a state of crisis right now after the cyclone that hit last weekend. Some of you have written in asking if we were affected by the cyclone. Physically, no – we were far away from Burma when the cyclone hit – on the east side of Thailand. We do however feel concern and compassion for the current situation there. As I write this, I believe the amount of aid being permitted into the country is still very small. However, one organisation I’ve received information from this week – Avaaz - is collecting and sending money directly to the monks IN Burma, who are providing people directly with shelter and help. Avaaz has received over $1million in aid this last week from worldwide donations. You can see their site HERE if you’d like to contribute. I presume there are also many other organisations collecting and channeling aid money in a similar way to this too – Avaaz is just one that I’m aware of, if you’d like to send some financial support for our brethren in Burma...

One love,
Angela. xxx

Thailand Video and Raw Food Study Course ;)

We’re in Chanthaburi now – the durian-growing capital of Thailand and hence, most likely, the world ;) The smell of durian is just in the air here in many places and as it is harvest time right now, there are enormous stacks of the fruit EVERYWHERE. It is absolutely incredible to see, for us. On the bus on the way here from Bangkok, we saw literal truckloads of durian passing us on the roads, while all along the roadsides, markets are stacked high with the ‘king of fruits’ and open warehouses reveal enormous containers of the spiky spectacle...it’s phenomenal...
We went out for a wander today to the local markets in the area we’re staying in. The market vendors were amused to see our enthusiasm for their fruits, especially the durian ;) (See the video below for evidence ;) There were so many amazing fruits available, including sapodillas (another one of the Monarch’s favourites), rambutan, mangoes, jack fruit and something I’ve never seen anywhere before which tasted like a cross between a white sapote and a grapefruit – bizarre ;) Things seem SO inexpensive here – like less than $1 US for a whole fresh durian, opened on the spot by the vendor. WOW... You can check out our adventures on video HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXC4m3zr7ws

on April the 28th I had:

2 quarts water
1 coconut water with wheatgrass powder stirred in
a ‘gourmet’ raw feast at Rasayana raw restaurant in Bangkok – WOW :) We tried various things: green veggie juices followed by spicy coconut soup, vegetable sushi, coconut noodle pasta, live pizza, raw papaya salad, banana/carob pie and carrot cake.
1 quart water
little handful of gojis
1 fresh durian
2 cups water

Yesterday we visited the Rasayana raw food restaurant in Bangkok. It is a beautiful little tranquil oasis of living cuisine amidst the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Rasayana is attached to a healing centre that offers colonics, massage, saunas, yoga and other therapies. It was SO nice to be able to access organic, fresh, loved-up raw food and green juices. The menu was wonderful – a yummy blend of more traditional Thai flavours with common gourmet raw items such as spiralised pasta, pizza and so on. The food was absolutely delicious, gorgeously presented by very attentive staff and above all, very easy to digest, which is always a huge bonus ;) There was very little fat involved in the dishes we chose – most of the dishes contained lots of veggies covered with OUTSTANDING dressings and sauces – that is a great ‘secret’ of raw food prep – get a FABULOUS dressing to work with and you can persuade people to eat all kinds of veggies ;) LOL...we loved it. I also loved the experience of being in a restaurant with a WHOLE menu to choose from again. It’s a long time since I was in a raw restaurant and having a whole menu to choose from feels, to me, almost like being a ‘mainstream’ eater again, with many choices available, instead of trying to piece together a limp salad from a menu in a place that has minimal interest in raw ;) I would DEFINITELY recommend checking out Rasayana if you find yourself in Bangkok.


On April the 29th I had a fruity day of:

1 quart water
1 lady finger banana
2 coconut waters with wheatgrass powder
a handful of rambutan, a few jack fruit pods, ½ a sapodilla, 1 bizarre sapote/grapefuit-like fruit, a couple of durian pods
1 coconut water with wheatgrass powder
4 rambutan, 4 jack fruit pods, half a gorgeous little pineapple and 1 lady-finger banana
3 cups water
2 lady-finger bananas, a couple of durian pods, the meat of a young coconut, plus a handful of goji berries with pine nuts
1 quart water

My GOODNESS, there’s quite a tempest of yum brewing over on ChiDiet.com – have you seen? They are almost ready to re-release the ‘Raw Food Home Study Course’, based on Ann Wigmore’s teachings. It’s officially going on sale on Thursday, May the 8th. This is the completely updated, comprehensive version of this home-study course that has already helped people all over the world GO and STAY successfully raw, with an emphasis on greeeeeeens, cleansing, growing, exercise and other ‘Wiggie ways’ ;)
We were fortunate to see a preview copy of the course and it is RAMMED with information. Wow. Containing a complete 300-page 13-step study manual, 10 DVDs, a huge recipe book, audio interviews with transcripts, books from Ann Wigmore herself, a ‘free’ consultation and much more, this course is a BOUNTY of wisdom from one of our Raw Food elders, condensed, organised and handed to you in a package for easy digestion ;)
As a special launch prize, ChiDiet are GIVING AWAY 2 free sets of the course, along with a free 1-hour consultation with the man behind the course – Jim Carey. You can click HERE to find out more about that. Jim is also going to be doing a live call with Victoria Boutenko this Thursday, which anyone can join, where they’ll be discussing what a yumster Ann was, along with giving away ANOTHER free copy of the course – WOW – that’s 3 free copies you could win this week ;)
We often get emails from people asking WHERE they can go and study something about raw foods. Well, there aren’t yet a vast number of places to do that – and this course can be an ideal solution ;) Just learn in your own home, at your own pace. Maybe even buy a set among friends and enjoy it together – that tends to help with the motivation ;) You can find out much more about what will be in the course, as well as get a FREE Ann Wigmore e-book called ‘Why Suffer?’ and see a nice little video presentation by Jim called ‘Dispelling the Raw Food Myths’, by clicking HERE.

One love,
Angela. xxx

Thailand Durian Magic...

We’re in Thailand now, as those of you who read Mr Monarch’s blog will be aware ;) We arrived last night to Bangkok and we’re in a yummy state of bliss already, even if we’re still in the city right now ;) Fresh durian, pineapple, papaya, rambutan and longans right out on the street outside our hostel, elephants walking in the streets, countless salesman and hawkers selling their wares...and HEAT – I haven’t been anywhere so warm and humid in quite a few months – it feels funny to have my arms exposed again and feel my skin, rather than being wrapped in layers ;) It is HOT here – it was about 30C/86F when we arrived last night – WOW ;) We’re off to hopefully find Bangkok’s very own raw food restaurant today – Rasayana – see HERE.
I’m not sure how much internet access we’ll be getting the next few weeks, so bear with us if you send messages and don’t hear back swiftly ;)

on April the 26th I had:

1.5 quarts water
1.5 cups pineapple juice
½ meal of blended gojis/almonds, with a little grawnola alongside ;)
1 quart water
little handful of seaweed
1 tbsp wheatgrass powder
1.5 quarts water
other half of blended goji/almond meal, with a little grawnola
handful of fresh sprouts and seaweed, a selection of little ‘bliss balls’ ;)
2 cups ‘kapha’ tea
3 cups water

Thanks for all the yummy messages that have been coming in about the ‘Raw 5 Years going on 6 Years’ video myself and the Monarch posted last week ;) We’re glad to hear many of you have been enjoying it too – it was certainly fun to film ;) Here’s a comment left by one reader - Lyn - about the video, that I found amusing ;)

“Angela, your new Maria von Chia clip made my day! Matt's inner von Trapp captured on film was priceless! Thank you again for your daily blogs, you are truly inspirational. Love from Lyn in Manchester, UK”

If you haven’t seen that particular YouTube offering yet, you can access it HERE – let your ears soak in the subtle pleasures of raw food musical world ;)

on April the 27th I had:

1.5 quarts water
3 cups pineapple/celery/fennel/spinach/romaine/parsley juice
1 DELICIOUS cherimoya
2 cups water
meal of mixed sprouts, ½ avocado and seaweeds
2 cups water
little blended meal: soaked dried figs blended with spirulina and almonds
1.5 quarts water
handful of sprouts and seaweed
2 cups water
1 fresh coconut water and a few durian pods (here we go ;)
3 cups water

Have you seen RawMom.com yet? If you haven’t, this is another little side-venture from those lovely Raw Divas Tera and Amy that I would HIGHLY recommend. WOW. RawMom.com is a blog written by 7 actual, literal, living, bonefide Raw MOMS, who live all over the world :) They each write one day a week, sharing tips and guidance on their areas of interest and there is some FABULOUS info in there to access. I am just so delighted to see that there’s a clear place for people who want to bring up little raw magic monkeys to get guidance from others who are living this way, have gone down the path already and have a wealth of experience to share. I love it :) We even got the chance to meet one of the seven lovely ladies this weekend when we spoke in Melbourne – Joanne came along and it was lovely to meet her, along with the inimitable Gala Darling and many others we have connected with previously via the internet – THANKS to you all who came along... ;)
Now...on with the durian munching ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Sharing the Loooooove...

Today my radio interview with long-term health seeker and raw foodie Revvell Revati went up online. Revvell interviews many different speakers about health, success and realising our potential. She seems a lovely being, sharing useful, illuminating info with the world via internet radio and this was a fun interview to do… ;) You can listen to the interview for free here: http://www.bigmediausa.com/archive.asp?aid=10513

on October the 1st I had:

1 litre water
1.5 litres watermelon juice
3 fresh baby corn-on-the-cobs
500ml green juice with carrot
bowl of durian blended with young coconut meat swirled with cinnamon and cut up dried figs
500ml water
1 litre green juice with carrot
phenomenal bowl of sea spaghetti seaweed with pumpkin seed butter and granulated wrack seaweed; a few baby tomatoes on the side
Pro to go sachets for ‘dessert’ ;)
1 litre water

I’ve been making quite a few little updates on the RawReform main site the last few days…one area I was working on was the FAQs pages…I found it interesting to note that by far the most frequently viewed Q on there was:

‘What are the drawbacks of being raw?’

Hmmmm…intriguing that this is what seemingly interests people the most…the possible ‘negative’ aspects of being raw…I wonder why…looking for escape hatches from the inevitable detox perhaps …??? ;) It’s all a choice, it’s all a choice, it’s all just a choice… ;)

on October the 2nd I had:

700ml water
1.2 litres galia melon/orange juice
2 peaches
1 litre green juice with carrot
little bowl of sea spaghetti seaweed with pumpkin seed butter and granulated wrack seaweed; a few baby tomatoes on the side, followed by a big spoonful of the outrageously tasty Amazon Bliss Butter
500ml water
romaine wraps with durian, orange juice and lime juice
1 litre water

I get beautiful daily emails from a recovery service called Hazelden – I wanted to share here a recent posting from them, which really spoke to me:

“ ‘The gift of love means this: I want to share with you whatever I have that is good.’
-- John Powell, S.J.

How loving are we, really? Do we keep score when we do favors for a friend, keeping in mind that we're owed one? Do we hoard rather than share a favorite treat, hoping to prolong our own feast? And the good mood, when it's ours, do we use it to help another raise her spirits or do we secretly gloat because we're "in a better place"?

The opportunity to respond with love visits us throughout each day. A smile, a kind gesture, including someone in a conversation, noticing a job well done, are acts of love, acts that connect our hearts, at least for a moment.

When someone has shared love with us in some form, we notice it and are moved.”

Beautiful... To sign up to receive these kind of uplifting daily msgs yourself from Hazelden, you can subscribe to the ‘Daily Gift’ emails from THIS PAGE…

One love,
Angela. xxx

Simply Raw, Speaking and Spirulina...

I’m excited to say I’m going to be speaking at the second annual Simply Raw Festival in Ottawa, Canada on September the 15th :) Home of the infamous ‘Raw Pie Contest’, this is a wonderful FREE family event, from 10am-5pm in Ottawa’s Central Park. I’ll be speaking in the afternoon, along with Matt, Dorit and Brendan Brazier – yeeeeeee-HAH – hope to see you there if you’re in the area…



On August the 18th I had:

2 litres water
½ large papaya
800ml celery/cucumber/apple/ginger/fennel/radish/romaine juice
bowl of exquisite kale salad with heirloom tomatoes, avocado, lemon juice, dulse, red pepper, sprouts and sauerkraut
1 litre water
2 persimmons/Sharon fruit (YAY;)
700ml spinach/carrot/romaine juice
slice of leftover banana bread with cream cheese topping
1 litre water
400ml rooibos tea

One reader - Gail - wrote recently asking me to explain what ‘spirulina sticks’ are – which have been popping up intermittently in my intake of late…hmmmm...well…to be honest, I really don’t know…lol…a friend brought them back from Auroville, the ‘eco-city’ in India - they are tiny little crunchy sticks of spirulina - see pic – absolutely amazing texture and taste – like tiny little bits of crunchy spirulina-flavoured pretzels ;) As far as we know, there is nothing in there but spirulina and it’s hand-harvested and dried in the sun in Auroville…I’m very interested to know more too though , as I’ve never seen spirulina like it…perhaps this is how it looks when it’s just been harvested, before it’s ground to the powder we’re more familiar with…hmmmm…


on August the 19th I had:

1.5 litres water
1 box blueberries
800ml cucumber/celery/apple/radish/ginger juice
800ml ‘garden’ juice
box of strawberries
1 litre water
1.5 durians
3 persimmons
1 litre water

Yep...t'was another durian day ;) We went to play out in London – eat durian and go to the theatre…FUN :) We gave a homeless Chinese guy in Chinatown a whole durian, which he seemed very happy about…and we saw a darkly hilarious film from New Zealand called ‘Eagle vs Shark’ about an archetypal ‘loser’ pair who fall in love…very amusing…and inspired me to get on back to New Zealand…I was there back in 2000 – before I went raw…I absolutely LOVED it…Matt and I will in fact be down there this winter sometime, doing talks and a bit of travelling…we’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions for places you’d like to hear us talk there – email me at angela@rawreform.com and we’ll see what we can dream into being ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

A mouthful of durian helps the medicine go down...

I saw Mary Poppins at the theatre this weekend. It was FANTASTIC – in every sense of the word…mmmmmmm…wow, I just LOVE musicals…as I suspect is becoming clear ;) Yes, more to come on YouTube soon, I promise… I grew up on a diet of greasy food, Monty Python and musicals…and seeing Mary Poppins again now, as an adult, was amazing to me…I appreciated it on so many levels that I had never consciously understood as a child…yet now I can see the essence of what it was that I must have loved so much back then…aside from being able to pull whole hat-stands out of her bag, laugh her way up on to the ceiling and so on, she is the most AMAZING light worker…truly ;) LOL…Mary goes around from place to place, spreading light, love, joy and genuine communication between people – there’s no nonsense with this nanny, yet she is pure heart-energy, moving and shaking her way through the skies and down chimneys into peoples’ lives…and when the work is done and the heart spaces are opened with those people, that’s it, she’s off, to the next place…beautiful…if you’ve never seen this show, you’re perhaps quite perplexed at my blatherings here – well, I’d really encourage you to watch it – it’s so innocently inspiring and uplifting…enjoy :)

On July the 28th I had:

1.5 litres water
2 tbsp green powder
1 tbsp sunflower seeds mixed with wakame seaweed flakes
1 litre water
piece of jack fruit and 1 whole durian 2 litres water

Ahhhh, yes, it was definitely a durian day on Saturday for me…as evidenced in the picture above at the pagoda in London’s Chinatown…yummmm…quite magnificently, we also managed to do a re-run of events this time last year, ending up taking durian on the underground again and into the theatre too (see THIS old newsletter for my dramatic durian encounter on a London rooftop last July) ;) LOL…I suspect it was not much of a ‘coincidence’ that the girl sitting in front of me during the play moved halfway through the performance…eeek…sorry people…the durian passion just has me in its grip…along with THIS steamy British laydeee too, so it seems – OOOO la la, madame...

On July the 29th I had:

1.5 litres water
700ml green juice with apple and fennel
bowl of chia seeds soaked in blended jack fruit and apple juice
1 litre water
350ml green juice
leafy green salad with nut balls, followed by lime mousse and chocolate/almond cake (courtesy of the wonderful Raw Fairies catering now offered at Bonningtons Cafe in Vauxhall.)
1 litre water
2 tbsps green powder
500ml water

Q & A
A question from one of YOU to ME…
“When you add lime juice to you green juice do you juice the lime peel and all through the juicer or use a separate citrus juicer, then add the lime juice to your green juice? About how much lime juice do you add?”
…well…I don’t juice the lime peel…I tend to roll the lime on the counter-top first, pushing down on it (a top tip for getting maximum amount of juice out of any citrus fruit, easily, as it breaks open the ‘pods’ inside) then cut it in half and just squeeze into the already prepared juice. I’d usually use about ½ a lime per person…depends on your taste of course ;) Hope that helps…

AAaaaaaaaaaaand…a question from ME to YOU…
One lovely lady just asked me for a raw recipe for pickling summer squash or paddy pan…not being much of a ‘pickler’ myself and having frankly never HEARD of ‘paddy pan’, I have no recipes to share, but if you DO, please either leave a comment here or drop me a line at angela@rawreform.com and I’ll pass the juicies on and post here too, for all to yummy up… thanks ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Learning and Loving...

Many thanks and gratitude to all of you who have been sending your emails/comments to US Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, asking him to reconsider the ruling on mandatory pasteurisation of almonds in the US. There have been some great messages going out to him in this last week – I have in fact created a special page on the RawReform site to gather these messages together – so, if you have not yet sent him a message yourself, please feel free to visit that page HERE and copy/paste as you please into an email for mike.johanns@usda.gov…together, we can make a difference with this…

On June the 10th I had:

1.5 litres water
700ml celery/cucumber/apple/fennel/ginger juice
¼ of a big watermelon
500ml water
kale salad: finely chopped kale, flesh of one avocado, lime juice, dulse, diced tomatoes, cumin, young garlic
one banana blended with figs and lucuma powder
2 litres water
box of strawberries
600ml green juice
small salad of fresh sunflower greens, watercress, baby leaves, cilantro with flax oil, hemp seed, lime juice, young garlic as dressing, w/nori.
Handful of goji berries
500ml peppermint tea
1 litre water

Ok, I learn more about this body every day…it seems to speak to me clearer and clearer all the time and today it was telling me that it definitely didn’t appreciate the heavy-ish meal I had in the evening of the 10th (see above)…although this salad was small, it had quite a number of ingredients and a fair amount of fats…my body did not appreciate working on that all evening and night and I awoke feeling very sluggish and heavy the next day…

On June the 11th I had:

2 litres water
box of raspberries with baby spinach leaves and handful of sunflower greens
1 litre water
¾ of a durian
2 litres water
700ml celery/cucumber/apple/ginger juice
3 peaches
2 tbsp bee pollen with 2 tbsp hemp seed
1 litre water

I am TOTALLY in love with this song by Alicia Keys at the moment (embedded below) – wow, she inspires me SO much – when I hear her and see her, I perceive gorgeous, open, pure, loving spirit working straight through her – here is a goddess so totally in her flow with her path here on earth, spreading her messages through the musical vibration, touching millions – she seems so fantastically talented, dedicated, tuned-in to her energy flow and true to her work…just SO beautiful to witness :)
ENJOY :)
One love,
Angela. xxx

Calling all Juice Feasters... ;)

Yesterday saw the first ever Juice Feasting Teleconference Call. I really enjoyed it and MUCH has unfolded today as a result…one of the most exciting things being that I have now created a FREE Google Group called ‘Juice Feasters’ for connecting. I am really excited about this – I have been looking for a user-friendly way to help people connect around Juice Feasting for the last couple of months and this seems like a great solution to me.

You can see the group and join up here:

http://groups.google.com/group/juice-feasters?hl=en

Here are some of the features I’m impressed with so far:

We can:

*post messages/ask Qs

*upload files and pictures to share
(I have already uploaded a few items)

*co-create and add to web pages within the group space (VERY cool). Everyone can participate in this – I have already put up permanent pages today for links, recipes and top juicing tips. We can create pages on anything related to juicing and anyone can add.

*easily follow conversations, which are grouped together logically

*create our own profiles for each user, with picture, info, location etc – so you can see who else is onboard and in your area/time zone to connect with…

*receive new messages by email to stay updated or just go and catch up online whenever you choose to.

you can visit http://groups.google.com/group/juice-feasters?hl=en, register yourself and start connecting in today with others on this path…HURRAY :)

I am also REALLY happy to say that following on from the free Juice Feast Conference Call yesterday, next week I will begin hosting a NEW 4-week long series of Teleconference Sessions on Juice Feasting.
The sessions will be on Monday nights, starting on April the 16th…
To read more about the calls and sign up, see 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/

On Tuesday April 10th I had:

500ml water
500ml tea
sliced apples topped with goji/strawberry/lime juice/figs sauce
700ml veggie juice
800ml water
banana/chocolate crepes with coconut ice cream
800ml water
500ml celery/red pepper/garlic/hot pepper/orange juice
500ml tea
kale salad
600ml water

In the afternoon I went running for the first time in a loooong time. It felt really great. I love the feeling jogging gives me of everything being given a huge shake up. It feels really rejuvenating to me, especially here out in the warm sun…love it…

Today I have had:

500ml water
500ml tea
700ml veggie juice
500ml water
700ml veggie juice
meal of durian blended with fresh vanilla bean and coconut water, stuffed in romaine lettuce leaves with banana/choc crepes
500ml peppermint tea
1 litre water
500ml water
500ml peppermint tea
500ml water

The durian meal in the middle of the day today was enough solids for me for the whole day, Durian is SO dense for this body to handle…LOVE it though – and WOW, combined with a fresh vanilla bean, it was totally lush…here’s a bizarre article a raw foodist recently forwarded me about genetically modified durian – yes…someone has cross-bred the smell out durian…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/world/asia/08durian.html?
ex=1176782400&en=278734180b9e1b6a&ei=5070&emc=eta

Hmmmmm…I am fascinated that a man would choose to devote over 3 decades of research into removing the smell from a fruit…lol…wow…humans are so fascinating to me…
Here’s a great line from the article:

"There is probably no other fruit that elicits such passion — and revulsion — as the durian."

And another:

"Rarely does durian season pass without newspapers somewhere in Southeast Asia reporting a durian death. The fruit, which is rich in carbohydrates, protein, fat and sulfurous compounds (thus the smell), is said here to be “heaty,” and can therefore be deadly for those with high blood pressure…"

Lol…the article also concludes that he is now trying to breed out the spikes from durian too…hmmmmmmmm… ;)

All blessings,
Angela. xxx