Inspiration and Synchronicities Abounding...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, what a YUMMY day it’s been…we rose early, packed up and set off for the wholesale organic markets in Sydney – yumyumyum – baby spinach by the box-load, huge juicy red organic watermelons, marvellous mangoes by the case and so on…then we drove across country with a friend for most of the day. It felt GREAT to me to get out of the city and see more of the countryside – breathing deep, noticing the differences in the look of the forests here, dozing in and out of sleep to unfolding scenes of beautiful lakes, forests, hills, farmlands and more… We arrived in Coff’s Harbour on the east coast in the early evening, where we met our delightful hosts for the evening – two youthful brothers of 19 and 21 whose commitment to sustainable (raw) lifestyles I find simply staggering. At the ages of 14 and 12 these guys apparently decided to go raw and did so, much to the astonishment of all around them. Now they are both studying to become alternative health practitioners, have bought a lovely plot of land here that they have started to farm and are working on a property there to open as a retreat centre. The integrity, skill, genuine love and care for all life around them is so clear in these guys. I find it so inspiring and such a blessing to share with them for a while on this land they are caretaking. Rarely have I met ANYONE in the raw foods movement so committed, clear and passionate about their vision – and to witness that in two healthy young guys who have many potential decades yet to share their blessings in this area, is just beautiful to me…

On November the 15th I had:

1 quart water
3 big chunks of watermelon
2 mangoes
little bowl of soaked mulberries blended with hemp seeds
2 cups water
1 big chunk of watermelon
1 pint celery/spinach/carrot/ginger/parsley juice
1 avocado, box of baby spinach and a little handful of macadamias
1.5 quarts water

The speed of ‘synchronicities’ and manifestations here in Australia seems quite phenomenally rapid to me at the moment :) I love it. I am very accustomed to experiencing a great deal of flow in my life and that things manifest after I have set my clear intentions – here, it just all seems to be at an ultra-rapid pace for me :) It’s so much fun and I’ve been really appreciating it…it seems as if there’s something about the people, the culture, the energy here that feels pretty ‘grounding’ to me – a real ‘down-to-earthness’ that I maybe haven’t had as much contact with recently and it feels to me as if that really contributes in some way to the rapid-fire synchronicities – as if there’s somehow less ‘surface stuff’ to cut through and more immediate alignment…nice ;)

on November the 16th I had:

1 quart water
small piece of pineapple
huge piece of watermelon
bowl of soaked mulberries blended with hemp seeds
3 cups water
little bag of cherries
½ a papaya and a mango
handful of macadamia nuts, 5 romaine leaves
bowl of mango/cucumber/tomato/cilantro/spinach salad, with extra spinach ;)
1 quart water

I didn’t have any veggie juice today…hmmmmm…not sure the last time THAT happened…I miss the greens sooooo much on days like this when all is travel…I feel in some ways ‘closer to nature’ of course, just eating simple whole foods, no food prep whatsoever – and yet it also feels a little ‘imbalanced’ to me too, to have so few greens in the space of a day…well, one day at a time…very soon we will be settled in our own new place and the veggie juices will be flowing in abundance again ;) Yeeeeeeeeeee-HAH ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Flax Crackers; my Bridge into 100% Raw...

I was very excited to receive this piece of news recently from Iceland:

November 09 | First Compost Station Opens in Iceland
The first compost station in Iceland, located at Gránumóar near Saudárkrókur in northwest Iceland, was formally opened yesterday after two years of preparations.

WOW. As perhaps you’re aware, composting is a passion of mine…and this news is especially exciting for me, as I used to live in Iceland, on-and-off for 3.5 years, during which time I often tried to encourage more composting and get involved in promoting more Agenda 21 work…in a country with absurd soil erosion issues, it baffled me entirely that no-one seemed to compost…so, I am absolutely delighted to read this news that an actual Compost STATION has now been created there…I guess maybe municipal compost collections will start then to gather up people’s leftovers – NICE :)

On November the 10th I had:

3 cups water
2 cups watermelon/orange juice
1lb cherries
bowl of soaked dried mulberries blended with hemp seeds
1 quart water
3 cups parsley/spinach/lettuce/arugula/carrot juice
bowl of avo mushed with dill hummus, alfalfa, mung sprouts and Celtic sea salt, stuffed in nori sheets
3 cups water
slice of DIVINE raw cheesecake and a little raw chocolate ball
3 cups water

Last night we spoke to a delightful audience here in Sydney. We were extremely blessed to have the lovely Julie of Conscious Choice present, catering the event with her outstanding cakes and truffles. WOW. Now, Matt and I travel all over the world trying different raw foods – and I can truly say I don’t recall seeing such beautifully presented desserts anywhere else…apparently, Julie is an ex-pastry chef and it definitely shows…her creations are outstanding…and made with SO much love by this gentle, happy soul – YUMMY :)

on November the 11th I had:

3 cups water
3 big chunks of watermelon
1 paw-paw
bowl of avo mushed with sundried tomato hummus, alfalfa, mung sprouts and Celtic sea salt, stuffed in nori sheets, with a pack of Mexican power sticks
2 cups water
3 cups parsley/lettuce/spinach/carrot/arugula/chard juice
bowl of soaked dried mulberries blended with hemp seeds
3 cups water
2 mangoes and a handful of cherries
2 cups water

OOoooooOOoooo, we’ve been just LOVING the alive hummus packs from Matter of Flax (as you can probably tell – we’ve been eating them almost every day for the last few days ;) We just added the spinach and dill flavours to the RawReform Store – both feel very gently yummy to me – I enjoy the dill especially ;) I am TOTALLY loving the new Mineral-Rich Flax Crackers too, which we also just added to the site. Mr Monarch brought lots of random raw food yum out here with him and these crackers are just outstanding. They’re so thick that you can easily use them as a pizza base and feature the most delicious combination of pumpkin, sesame and flax seeds with dulse – it’s extraordinary – I can’t actually really work out in fact HOW they managed to end up tasting so great, as the ingredients are really simple…just the technique and the love in the product I guess ;) I have a particular soft spot for flax crackers – as many of you know, my final ‘hurdle’ of the cooked food world was rice cakes… I was on about a packet of rice cakes a day at the end of my cooked food eating…I was thoroughly addicted…then one day I thought to myself ‘why do I keep eating these things? They taste like cardboard…I could be eating flax crackers instead…’ …and so I did…I laid down the packet of rice cakes once and for all and flax crackers became my bridge to a healthier, 100% raw life :) They became my truly healthy alternative to bread. That was about 2.5 years ago now…and while it is of course very easy to make flax crackers, I also love to try other people’s and these 'Mineral-Rich' creations are highly recommended…you can see more about them on the RawReform Store HERE.

Enjoy :)
One love,
Angela. xxx

Epic Raw Plane Journeys...

Sooo…I am finally arrive-ed in Sydney :) HELLOOOOOO Australia :)))
Yeeeeeeee-HAH…25 hours of travel and a shocking number of time zones later, here I am…and I am very grateful to have arrived. My gracious hosts from Sydney raw food group ‘Gifts From Gaia’ came to meet me and took me on a quick tour to see the beautiful beaches and hilly climbs of Sydney…the opera house, the harbour bridge, the organic food stores – I’ve barely arrived and I’ve already seen them all ;) I am overawed by the beautiful Jacaranda trees with their purple leaves and pale bark…I can definitely feel that I’m on a different continent – the plants and air and bird calls all seem different…and on my first trip out to the garden I even met a Kookoburra – what a welcome :) Mr Monarch arrives tomorrow morning and we speak on Saturday at the Intuitive Well from 6pm – more details HERE.

On November the 6th I had:

1 quart water
2.5 cups celery/romaine/carrot/ginger/radish juice
1 dragon fruit
little bowl of banana blended with persimmons, then swirled with cinnamon, raisins and chia seeds
1.5 cups peppermint tea
1 pint water
2 satsumas, 2 golden kiwi fruit
little bowl of kale/avo salad stuffed in nori rolls
‘fruit salad’ with bits of pineapple, orange, raisins, banana
2 tbsp bee pollen with hemp seeds
handful of dried persimmon pieces
1 pint water
1lb longans
1 banana
3 cups water

Hmmmm…it’s kind of challenging to say what I ate on which day while flying, as the whole thing was a bit of a blur and seems like a distant dream already…I was basically just eating small amounts, regularly, as I felt hungry. I had some of my own food with me and then had also ordered the ‘fruit platter’ option from the airline (some of which was great and some of which was…tinned fruit cocktail… ;)

on November the 7th I had:

2 cups water
little bowl of melon fruit salad, a handful of dried fruits
2 persimmons
1 ‘Asian’ pear
2 cups water
another little bowl of melon fruit salad
1 avo mushed with a little hemp seed/bee pollen mixture and Celtic seasalt, wrapped in nori rolls, with a homemade sundried tomato flax cracker
3 cups water
little bag of FRESH CHERRRRRRIIIIIIIIIESSSSSSSS :)))
1 quart celery/cucumber/spinach/carrot juice
little handful of brazil nuts with nori sheets
2 cups water

Here are some top tips for raw plane travellers, compiled after my epic journey here…

*Bring lots of your own food. You can bring pretty much whatever food you like onto the plane – you’re just unlikely to be able to take much off with you at your destination on the other side, so try to eat or share what you have ;)
*I recommend bringing plenty of water-rich foods with you, to help you stay hydrated, especially considering the strict regulations around carrying liquids on planes now. I’d recommend bringing foods like cucumbers, apples, persimmons, mangoes, papaya, longans, dragon fruit and so on. I’d also recommend bringing things that feel exciting to you, so it’s like an adventure… :)
*Constipation is very common among plane travellers – partly from dehydration, partly from the stress of being in a different environment etc. Help yourself to avoid an unpleasant stuffed feeling by drinking plenty of water, breathing deeeeeeep and doing ‘breath of fire’ breathing if you’re familiar with it – it will help you to release. I’d also thoroughly recommend bringing prunes with you to eat for this reason – preferably soaked first (with soak water drained off though, because of the liquid restrictions).
*I’d further recommend bringing a few heavier items to eat too – a couple of avos, some hemp seeds maybe, bee pollen etc – so that you’ve got smthg more grounding too. (Though taking hemp seed with you to some countries may be risky – check regulations first ;)
*Wear/carry VERY warm clothes for the flight. It might seem like you won’t need them, yet it can get VERY cold though in pressurized cabins and especially if you’re trying to sleep, it is absolutely worth bringing a few extra items of clothing to stay warm.
*Flights seem like an ideal time to me to go into deep meditation. There is lots of ‘downtime’ to get into a real space of love and radiate that energy out to fellow beings. The last part of my journey here for example was a flight with a very sweet, restful energy – almost everyone on board was asleep…as I took a periodic wander around to stretch my legs, it was joyful for me to radiate love through the whole gathered company of brothers and sisters…I don’t think I’ve ever been in the presence of so many sleeping people at once… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Demystifying the Ancient...

OOOooooOOOOoooo, I am EXCITED to introduce…The Chia ‘Cheat Sheet’…we receive so many emails from people curious to know more about these yummy little superfood seeds that I decided to create a Chia Factsheet, hopefully containing all the info you require to satisfy your chia curiousity…it even includes 10 FREE raw chia recipes – yummmmmmm…to see the article or download it as a free PDF e-book, follow this link:
http://www.rawreform.com/content/view/345/127/

On November the 1st I had:

1 quart water
1 quart alfalfa/celeriac/radish/ginseng/spinach/romaine/carrot/parsley/dill juice
bowl of blended bananas/persimmons/hemp seeds swirled with cinnamon, goji berries and date pieces
2 cups water
tablespoon of ‘raw halva’ – hemp seed butter mixed with raw honey
2 cups peppermint tea
1 medium papaya
1 quart celery/romaine/sunchoke/broccoli sprouts/celeriac/parsley/carrot juice

The clocks go back here in Canada this weekend…in my world however, they actually went back last weekend…lol…yes, I’ve officially been in my own time zone this last week…the clock in my computer went back LAST Sunday…which is the day when the clocks USED to go back…after living in my own time zone for a couple of days and wondering why everything seemed a little ‘out-of-alignment’, I finally Googled the current time in this area only to learn that the US and Canada had voted sometime this year to change the end date of Daylight Savings to November the 4th instead…and apparently they forgot to tell my computer… ;) I wonder how many other people got monkeyed by that little change…??? Well, it at least led me into some interesting thoughts about the nature/‘reality’ of time and in the end I decided that I quite liked being in my own time zone and left it like that…I guess everyone else will sync in this weekend though… ;)

on November the 2nd I had:

1 quart water
2 persimmons
1 quart celery/broccoli sprouts/celeriac/sunchoke/ginseng/radish/carrot/apple/spinach/cilantro/dill juice
bowl of bananas blended with persimmons and cinnamon, swirled with ground almonds, goji berries, date pieces and ½ a fresh vanilla bean, ground – WOOOOOOW – vanilla beans are SO yummy…
2 cups water
1lb of longans
3 cups of parsley/sunchoke/alfalfa/romaine/apple/carrot/radish/cucumber juice
2 cups water

SooooOoOOoooOoooo…all being well, I’m off to OZ this weekend…(switching another absurd number of time zones – 17 hours difference I think ;O )…I suspect I will hence be more or less ex communicado the next few days…I shall reconnect from down under…and for those in the Sydney area, we’ll be speaking on Saturday November the 10th at the ‘Intuitive Well’ from 6pm – event details on the RawReform Calendar HERE…hope to see you there… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx