I am the weaver, I am the woven one, I am the dreamer, I am the dream...

“If we were to watch a weaver sewing a tapestry for only a few moments, and focused on only a small piece of the work, it would not look beautiful. It would look like a few peculiar threads randomly placed. How often we use that same, limited perspective to look at our life - especially when we are going through a difficult time.”

Beautiful quotes like this help me to breathe through the challenging times... I am feeling saaaaaaaaaaad today. Matt’s gone back to the US again…and…I’m still here in Canada…hmmmmm…I like it here, yet would be back down in the US and with my man in a heartbeat if possible…ho-hummmm…lots of breathing deep and letting go here…waiting for the visa blahblah to unravel itself…and accepting that this too shall pass… ;)

On October the 5th I had:

1 litre water
1.5 litres watermelon juice
1 litre green juice with carrot
1 atamoya
bowl of durian blended with mulberries and freshly picked blackberries – mmmmmMMMMmmmmm ;)green Vega bar
500ml water
800ml green juice with carrots
500ml water

I am also extremely sad to be absent from the Raw Spirit Festie next weekend…it’s going to be SUCH a tremendous event and I am SO excited for all of you who are going to co-create this amazing happening…mmmmm, well, I’m with you, in the ether…aaaand, happy raw events are happening here in Canada too, after all ;) We just spoke to a gorgeous little raw potluck gathering last night for example and I plan to also speak at YogaWest on Oct 27th, from 3pm (2662 West 4th Ave, Vancouver)…keep an eye on rawbc.org for updates and I hope to see you there if you’re around… ;)

on October the 6th I had:

1 litre water
1 litre watermelon/pineapple juice
bunch of exquisite yellow-green grapes
800ml green juice with carrot
bowl of ‘mushroom’ soup – (From Ani Phyo’s book: brazil nuts, garlic, water, salt, olive oil) with dulse and a chopped apple
500ml water
plate of yummy savoury raw potluck food, bowl of delicious pieces of raw desserts
1 litre water

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY ALERT ;)
Would you like to help me film some exclusive raw food promo footage? I’m looking for someone with a Sony Z1U HD Camera to work on a piece with me for a large-scale raw food production. If you (or somebody you know) have suitable camera experience and are (preferably) in the west of Canada somewhere, do drop me a line at angela@rawreform.com and let me know…

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

On Control, Coldness and Comments...

I wanted to share here one of the amusing drawings from ‘health freedom activist’/artist Emma Hollister – Emma has a whole series of these cartoons and there’s some classics in there – take a look at her page HERE.
If anyone wanted some further evidence that things seem to have gone quite, quite insane in terms of food propaganda, here is a stunning quote from an ABC news item today:

' "Raw produce, even if you put it in a bag and seal the bag, is still raw produce. It's a high-risk food, even if the American consumer doesn't realize it is,” says Oregon state epidemiologist William Keene.'

LOL…gotta love it ;)

on September the 19th I had:

1 litre water
1 litre green juice with carrots
½ a medium-sized watermelon
sprouts, spinach, tomatoes, flax crackers, hemp seeds mixed with tomato flax oil and salt
1 litre water
juice of 2 oranges
bowl of mashed banana with maca, lucuma, spirulina, chopped figs, currants and sprouts
1 litre water

Alrighty, so…life has taken on a bitter-sweet little turn for me right now…I’m sad because Mr Monarch has gone south to the US and I am here in Canada, missing him and feeling a bit like I’m in exile ;) I am also grateful though, as it means I get to enjoy some time here in Alberta with another super-sweet raw family, sharing and flowing together ;) It’s colder here than I anticipated…and further north than I’d realised…the family have in fact started to read Anastasia and told me that a beautiful forest we visited nearby here yesterday is actually part of the same kind of forest Anastasia is in, over there in Siberia – we’re on that kind of latitude…eeeeeeeeeeek ;) I feel like it’s good for me to experience a bit of autumn/coldness though, as I pretty much avoided it last year by going down to Costa Rica and have been in almost perpetual yummy/warm weather for the last 18 months or so… ;) Today we also went to a delicious, magnificently stocked rock and gem store, which was such a treat – we revelled in the magical energy there for over an hour and I picked some gorgeous little stones to join me on this journey…jade, rose quartz, garnet…yummy ;) I'd rather have my man back with me any day rather than some pretty stones, of course...yet for now, they're pacifying me ;)

on September the 20th I had:

1 litre water
600ml green juice with carrots
2 peaches
250ml banana/cacao smoothie
baby spinach, tomatoes, flax crackers, hemp seed mixed with tomato-flax oil
1 litre water
400ml kombucha
kale salad with avo/tomatoes/lemon and sea spaghetti seaweed – yummmmmmm ;)
1 litre water

I discovered something about this E-Journal today…I realised that the way I’ve had it set up means it’s not been easy for you petals to leave comments…sorry ;) I didn’t realise that it was only allowing people who are members of Google/Blogger already to send in comments…SO…today I jiggled it about a bit and now it ought to be possible for anyone to leave a comment...just go to the bottom of any posting on the blog page – http://rawreform.blogspot.com - click on where it says ‘comments’ and leave your pearly offerings for moderation…ta ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Dream-time Meanderings into Reality...

So…the majestic trees, lakes and autumnal colours of Ontario gave way to the flatter, sparser plains of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and now Alberta and here I have come to rest for the time being…WOW…never before have I felt the contrast between travelling by land and air so sharply as the last few days…we travelled 4 full days by car to arrive here – the journey seeming to almost take on a life of its own, carving out its own rhythm and patterns into our lives as I looked on, feeling rather like a surprised participant...it amazes me to think that if I had travelled by plane rather than by land, I could have hopped from one side of this continent to the other (or even further) in just a few hours…yet we came by land and the experience was much longer and, in many ways, felt a lot more ‘real’…I have seen and experienced most of the breadth of this land now…and it seems, as a result, more ingrained/solid in my experience than before…more so than it seems it would have been if I’d jumped in a plane and flown over it…I have often thought too in the past days of the people who have made this journey before me – some of them by wagon, others by horse, some by foot, with perhaps no shelter, no supplies…certainly no ‘directions’ from Mapquest to follow ;) Their journeys took weeks or months longer than ours…and here I have sat for 4 days, speeding through time and space, suspended in a metal structure, feeling often like I’m partially in dream-space, as this journey dances its magical path through our lives and then deposits me now, gently yet indifferently, in a sweet house with lovely raw beings, in a little town in the Canadian countryside, where I will cease to move again for a while, pick up the threads of a reality it feels like I left behind many days ago, back in Ontario and get on with writing…it’s certainly been an interesting adventure… ;)

on September the 17th I had:

1.2 litres water
2 persimmons
200ml kombucha
sunflower greens, hemp seeds, flax oil, nori rolls, tomato, spirulina crackers
1 litre water
an impeccable mango
2 apples, handful of mulberries/almonds
600ml kombucha
1 litre water

The last few nights we’ve been staying in hotel rooms as we crossed country…this is something else I’m quite unaccustomed to – I’ve been on the move for about a decade now, yet almost always in private abodes…hotels, like hospitals, feel rather peculiar to me…like bizarre little bubbles of ‘reality’, extracted from standard society, where intimate pieces of peoples’ lives seem to glide past each other and interlock briefly – for a few hours or days, then it all falls into separate pieces again and they go on with their individual stories…how many other people have slept in this bed? Used this towel? Done their morning yoga on this floor…? It seems strange that there is no discernible trace of them…they are, after all, to me, all brothers and sisters, whoever they are…and they were here…yet it’s like they never existed…the maid has come and rearranged the space again…clinical, clean, functional…and so the illusion that no-one was here is recreated, again and again…in the past, if I found myself in hotel rooms, I would write messages on the backs of the framed pictures hanging on the walls…messages to those who, like me, might be curious enough to know who else had shared this space…so…next time you’re sitting in a 'characterless' hotel room, perhaps you might take a look behind that picture of a cattle farm or tulip bed on the wall and discover the loving traces of those who have been there before you… ;)

on September the 18th I had:

1 litre water
900ml green juice with carrot
ball of spirulina/mesquite/lucuma mixed with water
bowl of chia soaked in water with dried mulberries, spirulina, lucuma and banana
1 litre water
½ box of prune plums
chocolate covered figs
nori rolls, spinach, sprouts, hemp seed butter and flax crackers
1 litre water

The last hotel we stayed at prior to arriving here in Alberta had a towel policy I found very pleasing ;) It was not a hotel that was marketing itself as ‘eco-friendly’ or any such angle…and yet the towel racks were fitted with signs asking the reader to consider the number of towels that are ‘needlessly’ washed all over the world daily in hotels and setting out some clear, simple rules for where to place used towels, so that only those were taken for washing…NICE…they also had another very sweet little system wherein, in each bathroom was placed a piece of ‘rag’ towel, with a laminated card explaining that it would be very much appreciated if this clean rag was used to clean surfaces etc, rather than any of the towels…CLEVER…I love this…Mr Monarch and I make juice wherever we are and hotel rooms are no exception…they often end up splattered with juice however, with little mounds of pulp littering surfaces…this ‘rag’ was therefore a very welcome find, for clearing up our customary juicy explosions…I thanked the woman at the desk as we left and told her I appreciated their policies…imagine the impact those 2 simple changes could have worldwide if implemented by all hotels and hospitals…yeeeeeee-HAH ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Thank you for the music... ;)

Yeeeeeeeeee-HAH :) Wow…it’s been fun the last few days – lots of travelling and talks…today we spoke at the Simply Raw Festival in Ottawa, Canada – SO lovely…thanks to all of you who humoured the sudden cold snap and came on down to enjoy – I REALLY liked this festie…such a nice crowd of people, a beautiful setting in a sweet little park and I LOVE that it’s free entry for all, meaning all kinds of people make their way along, who may not access it otherwise…it’s organised by the simply lovely Natasha and Mark of Simply Raw and I feel they are offering such an OUTSTANDING service to the world with this event – they pour so much love into it, so selflessly and also seem to enjoy it so very much – absolutely beautiful ;) Attached is a photo of myself and Mr Monarch having a giggle at our booth…;) (Sent in by the lovely Uljana - thanks ;). We also spoke to a charming, vibrant crowd over in Montreal a couple of nights ago, at an event catered by the luscious beings at Cru de Essence…this little crew of light beings have secured a fabulous venue overlooking the whole city, where they hold events, produce the most love-infused kombucha I’ve ever tasted and provide fabulous raw meals…WOW…yes, we’ve had a GREAT welcome to this area – we were even interviewed for a whole segment on the daily news a couple of days back, which a LOT of people seemed to tune in to ;) …thanks to you all who’ve been part of this journey…and so…tomorrow…ONWARDS…we ride west at dawn…yeeeeeeeeeee-HAH…

on September the 13th I had:

1 litre water
500ml green juice with lemon
cup of green smoothie with purslane
plate of raw pies
1.5 litres water
500ml kombucha
plate of savoury raw food – lasagne, nori rolls, salad etc, followed by raw cheesecake with banana ice cream
1 litre water

WOW, lots of you have been making GREAT use of the current coupon code for the new RawReform Store…the code ‘chia’ currently gets you 10% off any purchase PLUS a free 1lb bag of magical chia if you spend over $150 (people seem CRAZY for chia up here in Canada by the way – wonderful :). Many of you have been making great savings with this code already – like $40 off the price of a new Vitamix – NICE ;) Just to let you know, the code is valid until the end of this month, so you have a wee while yet to get your goods in ;) See the store HERE.

on September the 14th I had:

1.5 litres water
big piece of watermelon400ml kombucha
700ml green juice
plate of raw leftovers from meal last night – lasagne, crackers, seed cheese etc
2 litres water

I’m delighted to hear that so many of you have been enjoying the latest ‘Sound of Music’-inspired warblings from ‘Maria von Chia’ on YouTube…‘How Do You Have a Social Life with Raw Food’ has been viewed around 800 times in 2 days…thanks for all your lovely comments and emails :) It’s nice to know how common salad-dressing-smuggling is among this tribe ;)

All love,
Angela. xxx

How Do You Have a Social Life with Raw Food...???

STOP PRESS:

Fresh from the cutting room of ‘The Kitchen’s Alive with Living Enzymes’, comes the latest installment from our raw food heroine, Maria von Chia:

‘How Do You Have a Social Life With Raw Foods’?

It seems that since sharing her last beautiful ballad, ‘A Few of My Favourite Raw Things’, dear Maria has been facing some of the starker realities of the raw food lifestyle…from social shake-ups to the inevitable detox, listen on to hear Maria’s musings on life on the raw side… ;)

Lyrics:
(By: Angela Claire Stokes, MA ;)

How do you have a social life with raw food?
When everyone around you thinks you’re nuts?
Smuggling salad dressings into restaurants
And insisting on organic – NO buts…

Many a thing you know you’d like to tell them…
It’s not all carrot sticks and celery strands
But how can you make them stay? And listen to all you say?
When they’re convinced that raw foods must be bland…
Oh, how do you have a social life with raw foooood?
How can you help your loved ones understand…?

When I eat cooked I'm confused
Out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am...
And raw food feels so right
And yet try as I might
It so often seems like no-one understands…

I feel vibrant, I feel great
With just raw foods on my plate
It’s amazing, it’s delicious, can’t they tell?
Losing pounds and feeling light
Looking younger, always bright
"How’d you do it?" Don’t they get it?
It’s THE FOOD...

But how do you solve an issue like candida?
How do you get the parasites out?
Detoxing from zits to diarrhea
Is this really what being raw is all about…?

Many people find detox unpleasant
Many symptoms make you feel exposed
Bloated to the max and producing so much gas,
That everyone around you holds their nose…

Oh how do you have a social life with raw foooooooooooooood?
I’ll be the change and eat the best I can…


xxx

Reflections on the Past...

There’s been a dramatic limey invasion of Raw Spirit Radio… ;)
Last week, myself and fellow British raw renegades Kate Magic, Suki Zoe and Joel Gazdar united with Laura ‘Foxy’ Fox in Sedona, AZ to spread some healing inter-continental love vibes and apparently ‘redeem the British culinary tradition’ after decades of soggy, broiled, greasy nonsense… ;)
The interview was great fun and Mr Monarch even got in on the invading action…you can hear the show by visiting this LINK and scrolling down...
Foxy also has a lovely-sounding show lined up for tonight – September the 11th. On the 6th anniversary of the events in NYC that shocked the world, she’ll be holding space with Steve Adler, Nick Good and others, all sharing on the theme of Forgiveness and Divine Love as a path of healing. Beautiful. Check it out with that same link above…

on September the 9th I had:

1 litre water
1lb jack fruit flesh
600ml green juice with carrots
500ml water
bowl of sea spaghetti seaweed with sunflower seeds, hemp oil and granulated wrack seaweed – RIDICULOUSLY good…
little piece of leftover almond dessert from LIVE yesterday
1 litre water
bowl of chia seeds soaked in blended concord grapes with banana
1 litre water

Today - September the 11th - also saw the appearance of the new moon in Virgo – an ideal time, according to astrologer Lisa Dale Miller – to ‘consider one's responsibility to serve, heal, and educate others’… She suggests:

“committing to heal and serve others to the best of your ability, question, analyze and shake out your old beliefs, act with an openness and intelligence sourced in non-judgmental curiosity and revolutionize your life by breaking the illusion of separation and committing fully to love all beings.
This is the New Moon to realize that we each have a duty to heal ourselves by reaching out to heal others. And by the way, you can't heal the planet if you won't take responsibility for your own health and well-being.
This is the best New Moon for initiating an intention to deal with substance abuse, weight problems, and eating disorders. This is the New Moon to get serious about seeking medical attention for symptoms or illnesses you have been avoiding or denying. Bring happiness to your loved ones by committing to illness prevention and better health. This is the time to investigate dietary changes, daily exercise programs, and improving sleep and learning relaxation techniques. Make no mistake about it; the mind-body connection is the most powerful medicine for healing and the true wisdom of Virgo.
The New Moon in Virgo is also the right time to deal with unrelenting self-criticism and perfectionism. Virgo tends to suffer from a sense of never being good enough; nothing it does, creates, thinks, or feels is worthy and therefore it constantly questions and critiques itself. If this sounds like you, this is the New Moon to take your inner critic in hand and tame it.”

To read Lisa’s entire fascinating article on this powerful new moon for shifts in health and well-being, click HERE.

on September the 10th I had:

1.5 litres water
slice of watermelon
box of strawberries
bowl of sea spaghetti seaweed with hemp oil, sunflower seeds, sauerkraut and wrack granules
1 litre water
1 litre green juice with carrot
bowl of banana/jackfruit/hemp seed ice cream with a few pods of durian on the side…
1 litre water

I began to imagine recently what it would be like to meet my great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. Imagine. I have no association with them as beings at all. They could literally walk into the house I’m in right now and I wouldn’t even recognise them, on a physical level (and I don’t mean if they walked in here as skeletons ;). I don’t know their names, I don’t know what they looked like…I don’t know where they lived, what they enjoyed or what they experienced here…and yet they played pretty significant roles in shaping the being that I am today – I carry resonances of all of them – physical features, tendencies, genetic weaknesses, diseases, preferences…I find this strange to contemplate…it’s like there’s an odd disconnect between my heritage and me…nothing disturbing of course…I just found it interesting to contemplate… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Letting go and moving on...

I had such an amazing experience at my parents’ house, which I’d love to share…I’ve been clearing out bits and pieces of my old possessions from my parent’s space over the last weeks and found a drawer full of old diaries…it was SUCH an interesting experience for me…I gave them to Matt to flick through as I continued emptying out drawers and the things he found to read out had us alternating between hysterical laughter and jaws dropped in disbelief…I was SOOOOOOOO angry as a teenager/young 20-smthg – I had NO idea…it was astonishing to hear some of the things he read out and to know that they were written by the same hands which are typing this now – and just a few years back...he was reading stuff from around the year 2000, when I was really at my peak of obesity, illness and – seemingly – bitter resentment…my entire outlook on life was SO entirely different to that which I feel I embody now…as Matt read, it seemed like everything was an issue for me back then – my perspective was so dark and dreary and ANGRY…everything was such a problem/someone’s else’s fault/not fair and so on…hearing the words now, I can clearly see where the fear and pain was coming from in each situation and that back then, I simply hadn’t yet come into my own self/embodied to the point I seem to have today…I was instead reflecting, attracting and embodying all that I had known growing up and was yet to discover that which truly resonates for me – in fact, there was a hilarious bit Matt read that went something along the lines of:

‘Woke up. Ate breakfast with Naomi. She ate salad. Weird. I ate 5 pieces of toast with yeast extract, fruit and chocolate.’

LOL…yeeees…wow, how the times change, eh? ;) …and I for one am SO grateful for the constant shifts and opportunities such as these to reflect…

On September the 5th I had:

1.5 litres water
400ml grapefruit/orange juice
800ml green juice with carrot
bowl of blended avo/banana/maca/lucuma/cinnamon, with sprouts, tiny pieces of broccoli, sultanas and hemp seeds
500ml water
6 fresh figs
500ml water
little bowl of goji berries and pine nuts together
1 medium papaya
500ml water
3 tomatoes, bowl of incredible soaked sea spaghetti seaweed with hemp oil, hemp seeds and seagreens
slice of lavender magic cake
1 litre water

Have you heard Ani Phyo’s Interview on Raw Vegan Radio yet…? Aaaaaah…ANI :) She’s SUCH a sweetheart…I listened to this interview the other day and loved the way she summed up her life – she sold her house, dis-attached herself from the vast majority of her possessions and now travels about in her convertible car with her dog, luggage that fits in the boot (trunk)…and that’s it :) …they travel all over the place, visiting people, doing raw food demos, promoting her book and living in a state of constant gratitude…MMMMMMmmmm, love that gal :) She’s a wonderful light-worker and I totally recommend checking out this sweet little 20-minute or so interview HERE…

on September the 6th I had:

1.5 litres water
400ml grapefruit/orange juice
800ml green juice with carrot
little bowl of cake made with pumpkin seed/soaked dried apricot/lucuma base and frozen durian/banana filling
1 litre water
plate of pot luck yummies – salads, dips, hummus, etc, then pieces of 3 other delectable raw cakes – it’s raw cake bliss at the moment ;)
1 litre water

We’re off to Canada tomorrow – wow…six weeks back in Blighty just fleeeeeeeeew by…much gratitude for all we have experienced and shared here these last weeks…the sunset over the south coast was absolutely phenomenal this evening – what a send off ;) …followed by a really sweet and lovely raw potluck gathering at a local ‘raw-friendly’ house – such divine timing - a great opportunity to bid farewell to so many bright light-workers of the UK…ta-rah for now, lovelies…time to splash back over to the other side of the pond… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

RAWREFORM ONLINE STORE NOW OPEN – GET 10% OFF YOUR ORDER and FREE CHIA SEEDS :)))

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH, CHEEKINESS itself – that Mr Monarch is utterly incorrigible…sneaking into my blog...LOL…judging by your emails and feedback today though, many of you seemed to enjoy his little adventure into my blog space yesterday…I’ll be more careful to close down my blog windows from now on when I leave my desk ;) Thanks for all the messages… ;)

On September the 3rd I had:
1.5 litres water
350ml warm water with lemon juice
1 litre watermelon and orange juice
bowl of avo blended with banana, swirled with maca, lucuma, sprouts, shavings of broccoli and pumpkin seeds
1 litre water
1 medium papaya
500ml water
bowl of chia soaked in blended apples, swirled with cinnamon, pieces of dried figs, spirulina and lucuma
1.5 litres water

Hey, FUN NEWS…de-de-de-de-de-de-deeeeehhhhhh (cue fanfare, drums, explosions, etc…)

RAWREFORM ONLINE STORE NOW OPEN – GET 10% OFF YOUR ORDER and FREE CHIA SEEDS :)))

I’ve got an ACTUAL online store :) I’m so excited…this has been a loooooong time coming and today we’re officially unveiling the new RawReform Store – WELCOME :) (I know some of you keen-eyed tricksters have already sneaked through the back door and made your way in there - cheeky ;) So, come on in, one and all and have a good poke about – there’s books, raw foods, kitchen appliances, rebounders, beauty products, supplements and all kinds of other yummies to explore… HURRAY :)

AAAAAAANNNNNNNDDDDDD...

...to welcome you to the new shop, we’re offering a 10% discount on all orders PLUS a free 1lb bag of magical chia seeds if you spend over $150…yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-HAH ;))) Just enter the coupon code ‘chia’ when you’re at the store checkout, to claim your discount and free seeds ;)

The RawReform site has been online for over 3 years now and never really had a fully-functional store, so this is an exciting step forward - now you can get all your rawness straight from the site and pay in whatever way suits you best – cards, cheques, Paypal – we accept it ALL now…I know a lot of you have been having issues in the past with ordering my ebooks for example, as we only accepted Paypal - well, here we go, now you can pay any way you like...HURRAY... ;)

Visit the store HERE.

on September the 4th I had:
1.5 litres water
800ml watermelon/orange juice
handful of gojis with pine nuts
3 peaches
1 litre water
700ml green juice with apple
slice of outrageous raw magic cake :O
1 litre water
handful of sprouts and gorgeous Japanese seaweed
1 medium papaya
1 litre water

PHeeeeewwwwwwwwww…we had great fun doing the photo shoot for Kate Wood’s next book today – ‘Raw Magic’ will be out around the end of November and all being well, you ought to be able to see myself, Matt, Kate and other yummies galavanting on the cover with outrageous raw cake ;) You can check out Kate’s other books HERE…
One love,
Angela. xxx

Raw Events, Ferments and Pregnancies... (don't get too excited ;)

Are you a luscious lady, ripe for a touch of juicy detox??? Hmmmmm…??? If so, I’d highly recommend you shimmy on over to Ronora Lodge in Michigan for their second Women’s Juice Feast Detox Retreat of the year, starting September the 12th. Unfortunately, due to visa blahblahs I will not be present to facilitate this retreat as originally planned…the first JF retreat we held there back in spring-time was AMAZING though and I would be back there in an instant if it was possible…the fantastic news is that the modern-day mumma of raw foods herself, Victoria Boutenko has agreed to step in and head up the juicy joy team…yum :) Visit www.rawnora.com for more info ;)

On August the 30th I had:

1.5 litres water
700ml warm water with lemon
700ml orange/melon juice
600ml green ‘garden’ juice with carrot
3 plums
bowl of chia soaked in blended apples/persimmons/water, with dried figs, mulberries and dates
500ml water
6 fresh figs and a little box of jack fruit pieces
1 litre water

One of you marvellous popsicles – Michelle – wrote in with a couple of questions:

If you have the time, could you share the sauerkraut recipe you enjoy so often? I've made some cultured veggies in the past but wouldn't be able to eat those daily on a bet. And when if/you become pregnant, how will you change your diet if at all? If that is not something you've considered, please forgive me asking. Thank you so much! Michelle

Mmmmmm…yes…sauerkraut…actually, the one we’ve been eating of late is an unpasteurised one we’re buying from Bionova here in the UK…here’s a quick run-down of how I WOULD make it if I were to do it myself though:

Cut up a head of cabbage, really finely. Put with enough water to cover the cabbage, in a glass vessel in a dark-ish, warm-ish place, for about 4 days (keep checking). Make sure it’s covered. Add a little probiotic powder if you want to speed the process up…

As for being raw pregnant…well…my intention is that as and when I get pregnant and have kids, I would remain completely raw - as I am now - and would also raise them completely raw. I know too though that this seems to shift for many raw women when they actually GET
pregnant, so, I'll see what unfolds - I cannot imagine being anything other than raw though...we'll see...and I would feel very unpleasant about giving any child of mine anything to eat other than raw foods...they will have their own journey to explore as they grow up - I'd love to give them what I would consider the healthiest start I can...

on August the 31st I had:

1.5 litres water
600ml warm water with lemon
700ml watermelon/orange juice
600ml celery/cucumber/carrot/radish/fennel
romaine wraps with avo, fermented sunflower seed cheese, sprouts, cilantro (coriander), red pepper, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds
1 litre water
5 fresh figs
big juicy-smoothie hybrid of carrot/apple/cucumber juice blended with spinach and ginger
bowl of chia soaked in apple juice with mulberries
1 litre water

SOOOOO…the spectacular Festival of Life kicks off tomorrow in London…yeeeeeee-HAH…I love it…I speak tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon at 5.30pm and Matt speaks earlier – at 3pm – hope to see you there if you’re around ;) More info on the site http://www.festivaloflife.net…

One love,
Angela. xxx

ATTENTION: Show Almonds YOUR Love...

Ok, things with the almond pasteurisation are at point CRITICAL right now…I hope you get this message in time to add your name to the list of those protesting the move to pasteurise almonds in the US, which is due to go through this week… If this is smthg that you feel strongly about, PLEASE do visit either of these sites:

http://cornucopia.org/index.php/almonds/

or

http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/store2/arti.asp#raw_almonds

and add your voice to the escalating DIN of those vehemently opposed to this plan…it will be soooo appreciated – the time to act is truly NOW…

On August the 26th I had:

1.5 litres water
150ml grapefruit/orange juice
7 fresh figsbig handful of incredible ‘maribel’ plums
700ml green ‘garden’ juice with carrot
500ml water
salad of greens, sauerkraut, dulse, avo, sprouts, lemon juice, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds and love ;)
700ml greens/carrot juice with greener grasses powder
chia pie – yeeeee-HAHAhahahahahahahahaaa – LOVE it ;)
1 litre water

The chia pie was SO much fun to make and delicious to eat too… the base was a mixture of soaked hazelnuts (filberts) and apricots with lucuma powder, maca and cinnamon. The filling was chia soaked in blended bananas/dates/vanilla pod, decorated with goji berries – yummmmmmmmmm…I even gave my parents a slice each – I had NO idea what they’d make of the chia – and they loved it ;) COOL ;)

on August the 27th I had:

1.5 litres water
1 litre watermelon/orange juice
800ml greens/carrot juice
500ml water
small salad – greens, sprouts, avo, dulse, lemon juice, pumpkin seeds, sauerkraut
500ml water
bowl of sugar mania ;) chia seeds soaked in blended apples, swirled with various bits of dried fruits – chopped figs, dates, mulberries…hallelujah for chia’s power to off-set sugar absorption craziness ;)
1.5 litres water

Tomorrow – August the 28th – is the Pisces Full Moon for diving into transcendent, compassionate oneness…yummy…it also happens to coincide with a total lunar eclipse – watch out for THAT ;)
According to Lisa Dale Miller, this will be ‘a very spiritually demanding Full Moon’.
She goes on to say:
“This is the night to put into action all of your intentions and give your gifts in service to the enlightenment of all sentient beings.
On this Full Moon it is important to recognize the fundamental relationship between gratefulness and non-attachment. Use this Full Moon to look at what you cling to and your fear of letting it go. Do you spend most of your time grabbing and craving for more things; trying to fill your inner emptiness with a multitude of possessions? We come here with nothing and leave with nothing.
Pisces' bottom line is to learn to love unconditionally, and to work for the collective enlightenment of all sentient beings; no matter how hard it may be or how long it may take.”

To read Lisa’s whole piece on this full moon, see HERE.

Enjoy :)
One love,
Angela. xxx

Gratitude and Suspicious Stools...

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the amazing book cover designs we’ve received so far – WOW, you’re such a talented bunch :) We’re really impressed…what is also fascinating for us is that the same themes and colours keep coming through – the ones which we too have seen and spoken of since we started to plan the cover…the collective conscious is truly alive and pulsing ;)
If you have smthg you’d still love to submit to us, the deadline stands at midnight, Monday the 27th of August, PST…send entries to matt@rawspirit.org… Thanks :)

On August the 24th I had:

1.5 litres water
500ml warm water with lemon juice
700ml watermelon/orange juice
700ml green juice with carrot
romaine wraps with avo, dulse, sauerkraut, sprouts, lime juice, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds
1 litre water
bowl of chia seeds mixed with blended apples, swirled with mulberries, lucuma powder and cinnamon
500ml water
½ large papaya
500ml water

MMmmmmMmMmMMMmmmm…chia continues to light up my culinary world ;) loving it, loving it, loving it…for those of you in the UK/Europe who want to get your hands and taste buds wrapped around some of these yummy little pods, we still have a few 1lb (454g) bags available here – at £10 a bag – as far as I’m aware, it isn’t yet available anywhere in the UK, so email me at angela@rawreform.com if you want some and we can get them sent to you soon – first come, first served ;) For those of you elsewhere in the world, you can also order all the chia your heart desires – in 1lb and 5lb bags – from HERE…hurray :) We’re all going to be racing around like little road runners on chia energy soon ;)

On August the 25th I had:

1.5 litres water
700ml watermelon/orange juice
½ large papaya
10 fresh figs
handful of extraordinary ‘maribel’ miniature yellow plums
700ml green juice with carrot
big salad with greens, avo, arame seaweed, tomatoes, red pepper, cilantro, sauerkraut and sprouts
500ml water
bowl of banana/persimmon/mulberry ice cream with little rolled balls of pumpkin seed/dried apricot/lucuma powder mixture…mmmmmm ;)
500ml rooibos tea
500ml water

Some Raw Food Reflections...
Mother Nature provides us with raw food, direct from the earth…all the other land-dwelling animals eat what they like/thrive on, then defecate back onto the land the remains, including seeds and so on, to help further the proliferation of species. What do most humans do, in comparison? Well…we take that food from the earth, we process it, steam it, grind it, ‘refine’ it, distill it, boil it, bake it, bottle it, package it and sell it to each other. Humans eat this stuff…THEN we flush our bizarre feces full of Franken-food chemicals and sludge into the ocean, as if we’re trying to hide the suspicious packages of evidence from Mother Earth, who is perhaps wondering where all the nutrients from the land went and what this peculiar species is up to… :O ??? LOL…really…it is totally absurd when you look at it that way…what ARE we doing…? We are given all that we truly thrive on, direct from this land, this planet…and yet we complicate things in the most farcical manner to astonishing levels…it seems if you ask most people if they would prefer to live a simpler life, they give an emphatic ‘YES’ and yet, when it comes to eating simpler FOOD, from a simpler food supply chain…well, that’s a different matter…most of our societies simply aren’t embracing of that model yet…people aren’t accustomed to it…they don’t know where to begin…as ironic as it is, pre-packaged ‘fast-foods’ seem to appeal to most as simpler than eating food straight from the Earth…they can just grab a sandwich at a deli and get on with things…this may seem ‘simpler’ and yet, it belies the complications and processes that have gone into the creation of that sandwich…the processing of the wheat, the baking of bread, the resource-intensive raising and slaughtering of the animals that were made into that meat, the miles that lettuce travelled to get to the deli, the toxins that were released into the atmosphere from the production of that plastic sandwich box…is this really simplicity…??? Yet most of our societies are not yet well set-up to help people reach out easily for raw food alternatives…I am excited to think of how things will look perhaps 20 years from now, when delicious raw food eateries abound in all places and it DOES seem easy and convenient for people to reach out and eat truly simple foods…or gourmet raw foods even, for that matter…throw in a few compost toilets for good measure, so that we give back to the EARTH instead of into the oceans and wow…we might be somewhere near looking not so entirely insane… ;)
(Please note – the current situation with raw almonds in California is, for me, a clear case of this ‘insanity’ run wild – if you haven’t heard the latest, this looks set to be the last week in which truly raw almonds may be produced in the US…the move to pasteurize all almonds is due to go through on September the 1st…eeeeeeek…hmmm…what to do…??? See http://www.cornucopia.org/ for action that can taken TODAY to help show vehement disapproval of this plan…)

One love,
Angela. xxx

'Passion for Paradise'...;)

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

On August the 20th I had:

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

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

on August the 21st I had:

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

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

All love,
Angela. xxx

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

Cover Girl...

WOW…I’m on the front cover of ‘First for Women’ magazine in the US this month, which has a reported readership of over 2 million women – yeeeeee-HAH – raw food weight loss is going mainstream ;)…This picture is the cover shot…eeeeeeek…exciting…and yet…does that really look like ME…??? …it seems so peculiar to me…some of you may recall my musings on the lengthy photo shoot for this mag cover a couple of months back – quite extraordinary the amount of time and energy that is poured into creating one shot like this…and it's so interesting to me that I seem to end up looking as the magazine would like me to come across... ;) hmmmmm, well, it's all good seed-spreading...let’s see what unfolds as more people read about a NATURAL way of healing…I haven’t seen inside the mag yet – so, if you see a copy, please let me know how it looks...I believe First for Women is widely available in book stores/grocery stores etc... ;)

On August the 14th I had:

1.5 litres water
200ml rejuvelac
150ml grapefruit juice
700ml ‘garden’ juice
flesh of one ‘personal’/mini watermelon
500ml water
big salad with greens, sprouts, tomatoes, red pepper, dulse, flax/tomato dressing
1 litre water
box of strawberries
250ml rooibos tea
bowl of blended banana/mulberries/hemp seed with whole pumpkin seeds
3 guava
500ml water
400ml rooibos tea

The weather here on the south coast of England has been phenomenal the last couple of days – extremely strong winds, rain, the sea dashing against the shore…in the town where we’re staying, the sea was separated some decades back from the sheer chalk cliffs that mark the end of this island, with a wide walkway of concrete at the base of the cliffs…it occurred to me while watching the relentless thrashings of the sea in the wind the last couple of days, that it was as if the sea was enraged at no longer being able to kiss the cliffs and had conspired with the wind to beat its way passionately northwards to once again embrace its etsranged lover…

on August the 15th I had:

1.5 litres water
400ml rooibos tea
250ml rejuvelac
200ml orange/grapefruit juice
800ml cucumber/celery/apple/ginger juice
½ a phenomenal large papaya
avo/banana blend with lucuma, maca, mulberries and pumpkin seeds
1 litre water
spinach wraps with avo/dulse/sprouts/tomatoes
500ml water
slice of watermelon
500ml water

I speak tonight on Raw Summit – yeeeeee-HAH ;) Hope you enjoyed Matt’s talk last night…wow, he really went into some stuff…misery, social issues, eating issues, colonics, cracao, sex… ;) There’s no stopping the honesty with this guy… ;) If you didn’t hear it, you can catch it HERE for free still, until mine starts at 8pm EST tonight…ENJOY ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

'Urban' Raw Foodism...

MMmmmmmmm, yumminess abounding…have you been listening to the free Raw Summit calls…? Hope you’ve enjoyed the sharing so far – I’m impressed with it – I think Kevin’s such a great interviewer – I love how he delves into stuff that doesn’t always get covered in interviews – a rare talent ;) Tomorrow night (Wednesday the 15th) is Matt Monarch’s talk (yay;) then mine, somewhat appropriately, the day after, on Thursday – hope you can make it along for the calls. Remember too that if you miss the calls when they air (8pm EST each day) you can still listen to them FREE for the following 24 hours, until the next call goes out…if you are still yet to sign up, or want to read more, click HERE…enjoy ;)

On August the 12th I had:

1.5 litres water
500ml rejuvelac
tiny glass of orange juice
big glass of amazing courgette (zucchini) juice, followed by lashings of green ‘garden’ juice with apple
bowl of ground chia seed blended with banana and mulberries
bits of raw chocs and treats, sprout/greens salad with tomato sauce, apple pie and herbal tea at a raw potluck
2 litres water

We manifested such a bargain today – a Breville Juice Fountain Juicer for £1 ($2) at a car boot sale (like a big swap-meet/garage sale with many vendors in one field, selling things from the trunks of their cars) :O…wow…we’ve been using the tiny little random centrifugal juicer I bought my Dad years ago for the past few days…the Juice Fountain feels like SUCH an improvement – we are so blessed – we’d been talking about buying a new one for the house, then while out jogging, found ourselves at a huge sale, where the juicer sat waiting for us near the entrance…the Juice Fountain is one of those amazing juicers with a HUGE hole for the produce, so we can literally juice whole apples in one go – much less chopping involved – almost none in fact – it’s SO fast…I love it…see HERE for more info on them...we’ve been juicing whole giant courgettes (zucchini) – if you’ve never tried that juice straight, I’d highly recommend it – it is so smooth and milky – yummmm…

on August the 13th I had:

1.5 litres water
300ml rejuvelac
tiny glass of orange/grapefruit juice
800ml veggie juice
big bowl of salad with greens, dulse, sprouts, red pepper and flax seed/tomato dressing
400ml rose/chamomile tea
500ml water
500ml courgette (zucchini) juice
3 peaches
sprinkling of spirulina sticks
bowl of ground chia seeds blended with apple juice & bananas, swirled with mulberries and pine nuts
2 litres water

I was speaking with Rob from Funky Raw the other day and he said he no longer buys greens – he picks all his own – and he lives in CENTRAL LONDON – now, that is SO inspiring for me as a raw-foodist-forager-wannabe…imagine…freshly picked wild food is SO much more vital than shop-bought/days-old/limp/ produce that’s possibly been flown many miles…even if it IS organic ;) It strikes me often that most of what’s going on with the raw food movement at the moment seems so 'urban' – it’s recipe books and appliances and beautiful restaurants and so on – rather than foraging and getting your hands dirty and composting ;) Well, it is what it is…I know for me that my heart and body resonate a lot more towards simplicity though, in my truth…and tuned-in foraging skills would be SO exciting to me…hmmmmm…Rob says he’ll be heading up some foraging walks at the Funky Raw Festival which starts on August the 22nd, near Portsmouth...nice…more details HERE…

One Love,
Angela. xxx

Cacao at the Summit...

Another Public Service Reminder ;)

Raw Summit, the inspiring free series of teleconference calls with 12 of the world’s leading authorities on raw foods, kicks off TONIGHT with yesterday’s birthday boy, David Wolfe…

THOUSANDS of people from all over the world are already signed up – don’t miss out ;) If you haven’t signed up for the series yet, you can click HERE to see the impressive schedule for the next couple of weeks and get yourself on the list…

You can listen to the whole series for FREE and upgrade packages with lots of bonuses are available too… Visit the link that is emailed to you when you sign up to get the dial-in info for each call…
I speak on August the 16th – hope you can make it along for the call ;)

On August the 7th I had:

1.2 litres water
300ml rejuvelac
750ml ‘garden’ juice
big yummy salad – greens, dulse, avo, sprouts, chives, watercress, lemon juice, sauerkraut, with fresh homemade flax crackers
handful of goji berries with pine nuts
500ml peppermint tea
400ml water
600ml celery/cucumber/carrot/ginger juice
bowl of chia seeds soaked in blended pear/lime juice/ginger mixture, with sultanas, maca, lucuma and pumpkin seeds stirred in…WOW…
raw ‘conscious chocolate’ – yummmmm…
1 litre water

So, as the modern-day cacao-king kicks off the Raw Summit tonight, I'd like to, rather 'synchronistically' muse on the subject of raw chocolate...Ok, so I was away from the UK for about a year before coming back now…I was advised beforehand that it had all gone rather ‘cacao-crazy’ in the raw food movement here and well, yep, judging by the number of new raw chocolate bars I see all over the place here in the shops, it seems to me it is indeed all pretty chocolate-covered here now ;) There are many choices for people – and I can see it's a useful way of potentially opening up larger and larger numbers of people to raw foods in GENERAL – get them ‘hooked’ into raw with chocolate instead of the proverbial ‘carrot’ and THEN get them onto the real carrots and other goodies…in a nation of committed chocolate-lovers, it seems like a winning strategy ;)
BTW, it seems some of you could not find access to the link to the chia seeds yesterday…so here it is again in full, just in case:

http://www.rawveganbooks.com/product_info.php?ref=6&products_id=1001333&affiliate_banner_id=1

Enjoy ;)
One love,
Angela. xxx

The ch-ch-ch-CHIA connection...

Alright, it’s time to go into it… CHIA… my new favourite toy…many of you have been noticing that in recent weeks, this magical little seed has been popping up regularly in my daily intake… I’ve been experimenting and can say without hesitation that this is my favourite new raw FOOD of the moment…yes, for all you North American readers who are reading this and reminiscing about ‘chia pets’, apparently they are indeed the same thing…sorry ;) All those little bundles of nutrition you all could have been ingesting for years were instead being used ornamentally…tee-hee ;)
Chia is an INCREDIBLE power-house food…nutritionally ‘off-the-charts’ in so many regards – take a look at this for example:

The seeds have 2 times the protein of any other seed or grain,
5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is trace mineral that helps transfer calcium into your bones,
2 times the amount of potassium as bananas,
3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries
3 times more iron than spinach
copious amounts of omega 3 and omega 6 which are essential fatty acids...

Chia seed was used by the Mayan and Aztec cultures as mega-energy food, especially for their running messengers…it gives an incredibly ‘sustaining’ shot of energy and I have noticed for myself that it seems to have ‘running energy’ on it as a food – I have been experimenting these last weeks and would see that if I ate chia, then went running later that day, my endurance and ability to run further was enormous…pretty impressive stuff…

on August the 5th I had:

1.5 litres water
300ml orange/grapefruit juice
1 litre green juice with greener grasses
bowl of chia and flax seeds soaked in apple juice with banana, pumpkin seeds, mushed cacao balls, maca
1 litre water
1 apple with 1 small avo and a handful of dulse
fresh figs with pieces of jack fruit
slice of watermelon
1 litre water

Besides the amazing nutritional aspect of chia, it also TASTES great, looks cute (like tiny dinosaur eggs) and is ready really quickly. You soak the seeds in water, as you would flax, before eating and they very radiply absorb a huge amount of water. They're marketed as a 'dieter's dream food', as they bulk out meals and fill you up, yet burn off very easily and steadily ;). They are said to take in up to 9 times their volume in water, in less than 10 minutes…they then work like an incredible digestive broom, sweeping through your intestinal tract, helping to dislodge and shimmy out any old lurking nonsense…
I was first introduced to chia by a lovely friend in Connecticut. She had soaked some in almond milk and made it into a kind of ‘raw rice pudding’ – she was falling in love with chia and shared it with me – it wasn’t until recently though that I got hold of a bag of it myself and really got stuck in ;) Now I’m eating it almost every other day it seems…I love it…it’s SO good just soaked in water, by itself, or I like soaking it in freshly squeezed apple juice too, then stirring in some lucuma powder and other yummies…another chia property I appreciate is that it reduces the impact of sugars on the system if eaten together – so I can combine it with super-sweet tastes like apple juice and not get super-spiked – yeeeee-HAH ;)
So, now’s your chance to move from playing with your food to eating it – you can read more about chia and order some for yourself HERE – at $8 a pound, it’s very reasonably priced and will bulk up to many times that size – great for quick, easy, yummy food for kids or quick snacks ;)

on August the 6th I had:

1.5 litres water
1 litre green juice with lemon
small piece of orange melon
big bountiful amazing greens salad – lettuce, spinach, alfalfa/broccoli/fenugreek sprouts, lamb’s lettuce, rocket (arugula), lemon juice, dulse, avocado, dulse flakes, tomatoes with home-made flax crackers
500ml water
½ a large papaya
½ box of cherries
samples of totalrawfood.com chocolate bars – yummm ;)
1 litre water

THANKS to all of you who rocked up and sent in questions for the FREE Teleconference I held last night with Chef Dan Hoyt of Quintessence in New York…if you missed the call and would love to hear the playback, it is available for FREE HERE...enjoy ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

In Response to Three Recent Emails...

WOW. Recently I received an email declaring:

“A new study out of Johns Hopkins University finds that 75 PERCENT OF AMERICANS WILL BE OVERWEIGHT BY 2015; TWO-THIRDS CONSIDERED HEAVY OR OBESE NOW; RATE STILL INCREASING.”

Eeeeeeeeeeek…wow, people…this situation is getting pretty extraordinary…as you may have seen in the latest RawReform newsletter, I’m in the process of writing a new book which will be printed as a ‘real’ bound volume, available in stores – hurray ;) - it is my intention to help masses more people heal themselves with this info and I want to include OUR stories to encourage them…raw food before and after pics tell it all, they encourage people towards the truth so succinctly. If you have a story you’d love to share, please email angela@rawreform.com with a paragraph about it and a before/after photo…let’s help the shift onwards into the light…

On August the 3rd I had:

1 litre water
200ml orange juice
800ml green juice with carrots
1 fresh corn cob
1 box of blackberries
raw food bar
bag of freshly picked local cherries
1 litre water
700ml green juice
avo/dulse/greens salad on fresh flax crackers
1 litre water

Somebody else wrote to me recently saying that it seems to them like I don’t eat much…this was interesting for me, as it seems to ME like I eat quite a lot..hmmm…different perspectives ;)
…things tend to change a LOT in terms of quantities consumed when you go completely raw. Over time, the body cleans and strips down and you become a more efficient 'machine' at assimilating foods, so you start to require less quantity, to get all the nutrition you need…I’ve been on this path for over 5 years now and with the 92-day Juice-Feast mega-cleanse thrown in too, I’m a pretty efficient ‘machine’ these days ;) The longer you're raw, the less your body requires in terms of quantity, which can often be very challenging for people emotionally to deal with...ahhhh, it’s all a journey and we all have our own marvellous experiments to enjoy…

On August the 4th I had:

1 litre water
250ml orange juice
800ml green juice
bag of cherries
2 pears
500ml water
bowl of banana/avo mush mixed with fresh alflalfa/broccoli/fenugreek sprouts, shavings of broccoli, pumpkin seeds and lamb’s quarters. Chocolate balls
1 litre water
300ml green juice with greener grasses mixed in
bowl of banana/avo mush mixed with fresh alflalfa/broccoli/fenugreek sprouts, shavings of broccoli, pumpkin seeds and lamb’s quarters. Chocolate balls
500ml peppermint tea
1 litre water

I received this in another lovely email message today:

“We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need twelve hugs a day for growth." --Virginia Satir

Mmmmm-hmmmmm…I really hear that…I avoided physical contact with others for SO many years as a morbidly obese person. I deprived myself of so many years of intimacy, as I felt like it was not ‘appropriate’ for me to have physical contact with anyone – like I was too ‘disgusting’ for anyone to be near…wow…what a life perspective ;) Now sharing hugs with others is one of my simplest and most enriching pleasures ;) I am still shy at times to initiate physical contact with others, yet when I DO reach out and hug another, I feel the joyous energy flow and I know that it benefits all involved ;) ahhhhhhhh…breathe deep, send love, share HUGS ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx