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

The Tale of The Frog Princess and The GREEEEEEEEEENS... ;)

I’ve been TAGGED :O To be honest, I’m not totally sure what this is all about – seems like fun though – Poppy wrote:

“Hello Angela!! You're it! Now the rules are: write five things about yourself that we don't already know about you and then tag up to five other people. Good luck!! Poppy x”

Hmmm, ok...5 things y’all don’t know about me...let’s see...

1. I used to hand-carve runes onto stones as a business.
2. I have a great desire to play the character ‘Nancy’ in the musical Oliver...
3. I am allergic to nickel.
4. When I was a child, I had an obsession with frogs – I had pictures of them and toy frogs everywhere, plus I played often with real frogs out in the garden.
5. I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was about 11. I still don't really like activities where you add something on to the body to do smthg - like skiing, roller-blading, ice-skating and so on... ;)

Well, I’m guessing most of that was new information for MOST readers ;) So now I get to tag 5 more people, eh...? Ok, me choose 5 other bloggers (in no particular order) so the blogging flow is maintained:

Mr Monarch: http://mattmonarch.blogspot.com/
Margi: http://rawcanadiangirl.blogspot.com/
Ellen: http://rawtraveling.blogspot.com/
Holly: http://www.rawcuisine.co.uk/
Ani: http://www.aniphyo.com/

Looking forward to see what YOU all want to share ;)
THANKS :)

On March the 16th I had:

2 quarts water
1 quart watermelon/mandarin juice
1 pint celery/cucumber/lettuces/cabbage/dandelion/parsley/beetroot/carrot juice
2 little bowls of yum: one with a blend of apples/mulberries/cinnamon, the other with bananas/blueberries/yacon powder/vanilla
1 quart water
½ tbsp green powder
little bowl of cucumber yum: grated cucumber mashed together with avocado, pumpkin seed pate, finely diced onion, mixed sprouts and karengo seaweed, served in lettuce wraps and nori sheets
1 quart water


on March the 17th I had a juicy day:

1.5 quarts water
3 cups watermelon/mandarin juice
1.5 cups wild berry tea
1 tbsp paste made from spirulina powder, bee pollen, vanilla powder, maca powder and water
1 quart watermelon/mandarin/lime juice
1 quart cucumber/lettuces/parsley/carrot/Jerusalem artichoke juice
3 cups apple/cucumber/celery juice
1 quart water

Hmmmm, a lot of you seem to be having issues trying to place orders in the RawReform Store from OUTSIDE the US (especially Canada). I hear you. This is unfortunately a common issue right now - we CAN send things internationally, from our depot in the US - the site just does not currently handle international orders very happily ;) We're working on it and foresee having a user-friendly new site for ALL customers within the next couple of months. In the meantime, the process for setting up international orders is a little peculiar – breathe deep, here it is:

*create an account for yourself in the RawReform Store (or log in if you already have an account)
*go to 'edit your shipping address'
*leave your postal code as it is in the Zip Code field
*For 'State' put NV, for 'Country' put USA
*write your full city, state/province and country in the field that reads 'COMPANY NAME'

Our customer service reps know to then send it internationally - it's a little trick we set up to 'side-step the system' ;) I hope that makes sense to any of you having issues with this and I apologise for the inconvenience. You are also welcome to call our customer service reps if you prefer, on 001-866-729-3438 OR email Mr. Monarch on matt@rawspirit.org and he can help you set your account up for international orders. Once your account is set up, you'll be able to easily order from then on - it just needs to be set up for the first order ;)

on March the 18th I had:

1.5 quarts water
10 fresh figs
2 cups honeydew melon/apple juice
1 cup cucumber/lettuces/parsley/carrot/Jerusalem artichoke juice
1 pint cucumber/lettuces/parsley/beetroot/carrot/J. Artichoke juice
3 peaches
10 fresh figs
½ a watermelon
1 pint water
¾ of a durian
1.5 quarts water


on March the 19th I had:

1.5 quarts water
10 fresh figs
1.5 cups cucumber/lettuces/parsley/beetroot/carrot/J. Artichoke juice
1 small handful wakame fronds mixed with pumpkin seeds
10 fresh figs
1 quart water
2 cups green smoothie: banana/peach/blueberry/romaine/cilantro
20oz juice: lettuces/Jerusalem artichokes/beetroot/radish/dandelion/carrot
little bowl of cucumber yum: grated cucumber mashed together with avocado, pumpkin seed pate and karengo seaweed, served in lettuce wraps
little paste of lucuma, yacon and vanilla powders mixed together with water, served with yacon slices – yummmmMmmm :)
1 quart water


Here are a couple of recent reader Qs on travel/food ‘safety’:

“Angela, Congrats on your new e-book! It takes patience and trust to work with the precious timing of the universe and you've got it! My hubby and are traveling to Guatemala at the end of the month-it will be my 1st experience traveling in the raw. I will be sprouting and dehydrating some nuts and seeds, probably make some flax crackers, definitely bringing my spirulina and Vitamineral Greens and enzymes. Did you find it safe to eat fresh greens in Central America? Any advice would be great! I look forward to your blog in my inbox often-thank you for sharing!!xo, Kelly”

“You mentioned that you rarely wash your fruit and veggies - are you not concerned with parasites? I know it is less of an issue in the developing countries but in warmer climates, isn't it dangerous not to disinfect any potentially pathogenic bacteria? Xell”

Thank you, ladies :) Hmm, ok, let’s see...greens in Central America...yes, in Costa Rica there was an adequate supply of organic greens in the areas I was in...I was cautious to stay near the more ‘developed’ areas though, where (rather ironically), organic greens were more readily available – the further I went from the main city, the scarcer organics seemed to get and crops in general seem to be HEAVILY sprayed down there, so I was not at all into using non-organic greens. SO, I commend you definitely on preparing yourself with GREEN POWDERS – that is key, if you don’t want to be delving into unknown greens territory ;) As fresh greens are so high in water content, personally I’m just not into the idea of consuming them if I don’t get a good feeling for how they were grown, otherwise it’s kind of like having a drink of pesticides ;) lol... When I’m in countries that don’t seem to have the greatest range of organic greens available I make SURE to have green powders with me (plus other raw foods like chia seed, goji berries, dried crackers, seaweeds etc) and I tend towards fruits with thick skins, like melons, pineapples, papaya, avocado etc. Of course, in some countries/rural areas (like some parts of N. Italy, in my experience), no ‘organic’ standard seems to exist, simply because people don’t tend to spray anything there ANYWAY – nice :) It’s just taken as given that food isn’t sprayed, so there aren’t necessarily any ‘organic’ labels at markets and so on. I like those places ;)
I guess if you’re in places like Central America, can’t find fresh greens you feel good about and really want some, you could get hold of whatever you CAN find and wash them in something like a solution of Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) in clean water. Which leads us into Xell’s Q... ;) Hmm, yes, I’m really not into washing fruits/veggies much. I know people are into all different ideas, like using GSE/veggie washes/H202 etc… All that stuff just doesn’t appeal to me much...sometimes I will wash produce off with water if, for example, we’re breaking off lettuce leaves and there’s a lot of mud or insect life in there... In general though, I feel there is a MAJOR fear factor going on in our societies around bacteria/microbes etc. It just makes sense to me to eat food more or less as it comes from the earth (‘organic’, of course ;). After all, it’s the insane attempts to ‘clean’ our environments with chemicals and ‘kill all germs’ that helps accelerate conditions like asthma and allergies, amongst countless other issues... In terms of parasites, yes, most of the time lately I’m not in places where I’m concerned abt this from my food – as I started to say above though, maybe if someone’s in a country where they DON’T feel good abt the foods available to them, washing with some GSE or smthg might be a good idea. Personally, I’m actually getting very interested in doing a parasite cleanse at the moment – I’ll start smthg very soon in fact I think – it’s more BIG old parasites, from my obese days that concern me though (e.g. potential large worms etc), rather than little microbes etc that might be on my food right now. We’re planning to go up to Thailand in a while, so I’m interested in having any potential parasite situation in check before that too ;) I’ll let you know how it goes...
I know some people will read this and be shocked or even outraged at the idea of not washing foods etc – well, we all have different paths and this is the way I do things right now – I’m not saying everyone ought to do things this way or that I always have or always will do things like this – it’s just what feels good to me at this point ;)
Hope that makes sense and that you’re all feeling great about your food choices too ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Juicy News, Green Powders and Gifts from Gaia...

OOoooo La Laalalalalalaaaa – we are now officially launched into liquid world with the start of the Global Juice Feast yesterday on March the 1st. Globaljuicefeast.com is all a-buzz with activity and I’m happy to hear that many of you have also been enjoying listening in to the set of JF conference calls we just put up on the RawReform store. I have three pieces of yummy juicy news for you today:

1. We now have the first, FREE conference call up there for download too. This was the hour-long call we did prior to recording the main set of 4 calls and it’s available now as a free download from HERE. We also put together a little package of all four of the main conference calls for a reduced price of $35 for all 4, instead of $10 each if bought separately :) YAY – you can see that package and access all the juicy info HERE.
2. Those juicy yumsters Justin and Heidi over at RawFoodRightNow.com just posted their review of my book ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ – thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it :) – you can see their review HERE.
3. I’m also happy to say that I’ve reached a personal conclusion about my participation in this year’s GJF – I’m going to have a straight juicy day once a week – most likely every Monday, depending on scheduling and starting TOMORROW :) Back on the juices for Ms. Stokes on the ‘morrow…yeeeeeeeeeee-HAH… :)

On March the 1st I had:

1.5 quarts water
1.5 cups nettle tea
3 mandarins
20oz celery/cucumber/parsley/kale/radish/lettuce/carrot juice
bowl of raspberry bliss: soaked dried mulberries blended with fresh raspberries, with LSA (ground linseed/sunflower seeds/almonds) stirred in, plus more berries for chewability
1 quart water
2 cups peppermint tea
10 amazing, dark prune plums
18oz celery/cucumber/kale/apple/ginger juice
½ watermelon
1 quart water

Here’s a quick reader Q from Mary:

“A question> How do you consume your green powder? I have been taking it regularily now for some weeks just in water, however, I certainly DO NOT enjoy the taste and sometimes it can make me feel a bit nauseous. You do have any tips on how to do it better? Blessings, Mary”

Hmmm...well, to be honest, I just eat green powder with a spoon, straight from the package...LOL...I love it – especially the wheatgrass powder we have here at the moment – it is sweeeeeeeeeeeet – gimme a spoonful of that any day over fresh wheatgrass juice ;) Green powders can vary HUGELY in taste though, depending on which you use – an algae, like spirulina or chlorella? Or grasses/veggie mixes? Or smthg that has a huge range of ingredients in it? Personally, I prefer the tastes of ‘cleaner’ green powders usually – like straight wheatgrass, or straight spirulina for example, rather than complex mixes. I do REALLY like Greener Grasses which is from Healthforce Nutritionals and is a simple blend of 6-8 grasses, no fillers...I find that the taste of green powders starts to get a bit ‘messy’ usually when there’s dozens of different ingredients, besides which, sometimes I really wonder about the body’s ability to decipher the mixed messages in smthg complex like that… ;) So, it really all depends which green powder you’re using...for example, I really don’t appreciate much the taste of chlorella – whereas I LOVE spirulina and can often be found with a green ‘spirulina’ mouth when supplies are nearby ;) If it’s spirulina you’re dealing with, I’d suggest a very simple recipe is to mash up an avocado and stir in 1 tbsp of spirulina and the juice of one lemon (or half, depending on how juicy it is). I used to eat that every day at one point – LOVED it :) Other ways to get more green powder into your life: throw it in smoothies/juices or sneak small amounts of it into sweet meals (e.g. sometimes we sneak some extra greenery into things like the ‘blended mulberry’ meals we make, or ‘apple flax’). If you use small amounts of green powder like that, with stuff that tastes yummy, you’re getting your extra nutrients in, without pulling ‘yuck’ faces ;) Also, the ‘nauseous’ reaction you’re having could be for a number of reasons – it might be you’re simply using a powder that doesn’t agree well with you OR it might be that the power of those greens is creating a little detox reaction in you…
Hope that helped – I’d recommend getting on the tasty greens, like Greener Grasses – or better yet, go mainly for FRESH greens, rather than powders anyway ;)

on March the 2nd I had:

1 quart water
3 cups nettle tea
3 mandarins
20oz celery/cucumber/kale/apple/ginger juice
bowl of the Monarch Savoury Speciality: grated cucumbers, avo, sunflower seed pate, garlic, spring onions, arugula, mixed sprouts and karengo seaweed, wrapped in lettuce leaves and nori sheets
1.5 quarts water
few slices of dried papaya, ½ tbsp green powder
bowl of mulberry fruit bliss: soaked dried mulberries blended with fresh blueberries and served swirled with fresh cherries and a little LSA (ground linseed/sunflower seeds/almonds)
1 quart water

I am feeling SO blessed and blissed in this little corner of paradise we currently find ourselves caretaking...this morning I awoke and wandered out onto the dewy grass for my morning yoga and was greeted by a graceful slither of rainbow, positioned directly in the space between the trees that guides our view down to the ocean...quite, quite beautiful...it only lasted a few minutes...I took a photo – you can see it here to the right – not sure if you can make out the rainbow from here – I hope so :) Then this afternoon I went for a delicious wander in this local area and found my way into an incredible grove full of ENORMOUS old rocks and unfathomably twisted trees that have worked their way up from the floor of this shady grove towards the sunlight way above, clinging to the sides of the rocks in the most bizarre formations – it’s an incredible little pocket of life there…take a look at this picture I took and you can see one of the trees with these huge roots stretching all the way down to the ground down the sides of this boulder...it actually almost seemed like a film set, the whole place – it was just so amazing to think that a place like this actually exists, untouched, except for a pathway to gawp from... ;)
While we’re on the subject of beautiful, inspiring locations, dear ladies and gentleman, we have a request for information from a dear raw chap who is seeking guidance on places to enjoy in Kauai for extended stays this summer...anything yummy to share? Or raw-friendly places anywhere in Hawaii would be interesting to know about for that matter...please send any leads to angela@rawreform.com and I’ll compile all the info and post here – thanks :)

One love,
Angelalalalaalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. xxx