Health and Wellness Conference at Moody Middle

I had such a great time presenting to three groups of 20 students at Moody Middle's first ever Health and Wellness Conference. The students were keen, interested and listened intently to everything I had to say. I began with a power point presentation illustrating my journey into raw and living foods. I spoke to them about what these foods were and were not, what I ate and choose not to eat anymore.

In the first session, the students were very attentive, and had lots of great questions. The second session was good, the group had a lot of energy, but were willing participants in the tastings. During the third session two students made a very good impression on me. Later my husband (who teaches computers at the school) told me that these two students were part of the Student Council and that they'd commented about how they are very intrigued with the whole idea of raw food and want to look into it more.

What I loved is that later, students were coming back to ask if there were any extras that they could eat. Some asked for the recipe sheet even though they had not been in my session. Others were asking how they could find more information on this way of eating and the lifestyle. I'd created some handouts with recipes, as well as websites that were great for learning more about this way of life.

Of course I told them about the blog - Hello Moody Middle - if you're reading this! Thanks for coming by. Thanks for a great experience at your school. I really enjoyed this and my energy levels were very high the rest of the day. When something feels right, it just flows and this is how this whole event felt like! There are more middle schools in our district that are going to do the same type of event. I know that I want to be a part of those now as well. Also, it's such a great thing for the kids to be a part of, I'd like to get one going at my middle school next year!

The best thing is, I've exposed another 60 kids to raw foods and got them talking and that's what it's all about!

Until next time,
Eat Raw, Live Well!

If you haven't added me on twitter yet, do so! Thriveonlive!

Raw Fu - Day three

Well, the first few days of Raw Fu 100 Day Challenge has been going GREAT! I feel amazing, dropped a total of 6 pounds and have been eating less and experiencing lots of energy!

I water fasted for 63 hours, almost three full days. I had a green juice yesterday for lunch around 1pm. Everything I mention eating is organic unless otherwise stated. I drink about 8 to 10 cups of pure water each day, so this food is above and beyond that.

April 15th, 2009:

four celery stalks
one bunch of green kale
one cucumber
two cups of alfalfa sprouts
four large leaves of chard
one lemon (peeled)

I also add pure water to my juices to make them less strong tasting. It feels like coming home when I drink green juices and I remember how great they make me feel when I haven't had them in a while. It was so filling and tasty! I drank it in class and the kids were curious. I asked if anyone wanted some and some joked about trying it but none did.

In the evening I had:

1 pint of strawberries
one apple
five kiwi with the skin on.

A friend of mine at work eats them this way and until recently I'd not had the guts to try it! Well, I LIKE it, who would have imagined. I'm all about eating whole foods and why not eat the skin if it's organic and clean?!

Today's been great. Sun is still shining on us here in the Lower Mainland and we're spending as much time outside as possible. I also received my package from Upaya Naturals with my Vitamineral Green powder, Sproutein Powder, and some Chlorella tablets as well as some raw olives! It's like Christmas when the raw food is delivered to the door!

April 16, 2009:

Hulk Pudding: 4 apples, handful of parsley and 2 tbsp. Vitamineral Green. It is the darkest green you've ever seen and it's packed full of nutrients!

4 kiwis

It's movie night with the kids tonight so I'll update more once they're in bed. Here's a quote from Raw Food Nation that I got in a Twitter Feed today:

If we eat less we live longer therefore we eat more :o)

Until later! Smiles and Sunshine!
Melinda

Ran my last training run today and went to the pub with the group! What would I eat in a pub you might ask. Well, I had water (not filtered) and a large salad (not organic) oil and vinegar for dressing. Usually I make my dressings in advance so I know they are at least organic, and completely raw. These were not organic. Pretty good for pub food if you look at the alternatives. The other runners I was with chose to eat regular pub fair. I could not believe what they ate and drank for that matter. But that's their choice and not mine. I'm good with what I ate and that's what counts.

So, we're updated here now and I'm off to bed early as the kids are up early with their ten to eleven hours of sleep!

Ciao for Now.
Eat Raw, Live Well!

Melinda

Raw Fu - 100 Day Challenge

Wow, it's been a while since I've written.  Probably because I've been neglecting myself a little this past month and a bit.  With my birthday quickly approaching at the end of this month, the focus is again on needing to be a healthier, happier, blogging me!

I was looking around the internet for some inspiration and found it at Raw Fu.  It's a great raw community on line that was started by Bunny Berry.  She's so down to earth, and honest about her own raw food journey that I was immediately drawn to her and what her site has to offer.

They are beginning a 100 day Raw Food Challenge.  I have to say that although I'm very high raw, I've not been focussing as much on what types of raw foods go into my body, and along with the 10 to 20% cooked that I eat, that too could improve!  So all you have to do to join like I did was go to this website.

Once you've become a part of the community, you are a part of the challenge.  Let me know how it goes for you and I'll be updating this more often while the challenge is on.  This is a perfect time to be a part of the challenge, as it's the beginning of spring, the weather is improving and we've got more and more fresh fruits and veg coming into season!  

Today I'm getting prepared with a water fast.  I began about 10pm last night (see, I ate late, which is something I'm trying very hard NOT to do!) and will go through until I eat breakfast tomorrow morning.  What I'll probably do is juice for the day tomorrow and then have a huge salad for dinner.  Heck, why don't I keep track of my diet here and you can see what I'm eating.  That will also keep me accountable for what I choose to put in my mouth.  It's not about being perfect, but about making the best choices for our own body!

Good luck, and please post and let me know how you are doing!!

100 days Raw, here we come!

Melinda

My favourite smoothie

Just a quick note for a smoothie to try. You can do this with frozen ingredients, or not.

1 pint strawberries (I use organic and wash them and keep the greenery on for some "greens")
1 banana
1 date
1 cup of water (don't freeze this part)
1 tablespoon of hemp seeds
5 brazil nuts (could be any nuts, really - sometimes I use almonds (10), cashews (10), or macadamia nuts (10))

Blend away and yum! If you freeze it, it's more like a milkshake, unfrozen more of a smoothie but it's really creamy with the nuts and seeds in it. Love it.

Try making your own concoction today. Play with it and have fun.

Eat Raw, Live Well!

Melinda

I also had Artisana's walnut/cashew butter on my celery - the last few had a couple of raisins on them for some "sweet" taste. It's a great way to get some celery in!

A Birthday...

My daughter attended a 6th birthday party for a friend of hers at a local rec centre pool. I was super impressed with the instructors that led the party and they did a great job with the kids in the pool. They kept everything calm and orderly...a hard thing to do with 15 youngsters in a pool!

There were two other things that impressed me. The little girl celebrating the birthday decided to go along with a tradition that others had begun a while ago. She asked that people bring money instead of a gift. Half of the money would go towards a charity and the other would go towards a nice gift from all her friends. What a great solution to getting loads of toys that they 'll only play with for a couple of weeks. What a great way to show our kids how to give back. What a great way to help out those less fortunate.

Then, for the "goodie bags", which I loath - with all the candy and cheap dollar store items that break in a few days - they had planters that they got at Home Depot for 5 bucks. Most of the kids were surprised, asking if that's all they got, and if there were any candies, etc. Others were thrilled, asking if they could plant them when they got home. My daughter fell into the second category.

We got home and within five minutes had the package taken apart, and we added the water so the peat could rehydrate. 15 minutes later we were planting seeds. It was great. We enjoyed planting the seeds and now we'll watch them grow.

Happy to say that I came home from this party feeling more fulfilled than at other parties, that's for sure. And, I've got some great ideas for when my kids' birthdays roll around again!

What types of things do you do at your kids' parties that are helpful for parents, the environment, and others?

In joy,

Melinda

Vitamix Blender

I've been using my Vitamix almost daily since I purchased it at Costco about two and a half years ago. Some days I even use it three to four times! Well this morning I was making applesauce for my little guy, and I noticed that one of the plastic parts that keeps the lid on the container had snapped off. Not sure when this happened, but I am sure it was ingested at some point (the blender is so powerful it was liquified?!) as I never found it on the counter before today nor today.

I made the applesauce and then called Vitamix. They have a seven year warranty and we've only had the machine two and a half years. My husband called (he's the one with the magic touch when it comes to returning or repairing items). The customer service rep we had was not the kindest person, but was straighforward and to the point. We expected that we'd have to send our container in to them and then we'd get one in return when they saw the flaw. Well, as it turned out we are going to have a new container wihin 12 business days. She confirmed our address and said that they'd send it right away.

Nice. Here I thought it was going to take a lot more red tape to get this taken care of and it was easier than taking a bandaid off my little guy! :) I have to say I am very pleased. I've always sung the praises of the Vitamix for health and wellness, and now after my first experience with their customer service and warranty I am going to recommend the machine once again!

Go out and get one NOW! It will help anyone who is trying to eat more raw and living foods. There's so much you can do with it! I'll be posting some smoothie and other recipes so that you can try them. You've got 12 days and then it's recipe time!

Eat Raw, Live Well.
Blend away!

Me

Celery

I've never been much of a celery fan. It always had too strong of a taste for me. Turns out, by putting more vegetables into my body, my taste for this (and cilantro) has changed. I actually crave celery now in some ways. I love to add it to my juices, blender drinks, smoothies, and energy soups. It's also one of my favourite snacks.

Here's my current favourite. I just Twittered about it as well.

Nuts about Celery recipe:

Celery
Macadamia nut butter (but really any nut butter will work)
Toppings: (choose one or more of the following)
Goji Berries
Sun dried raisins (usually with seeds - more nutritious, and not GMO)
hemp seeds
Or anything else you can think of.

Put nut butter into the concave part of the celery
Sprinkle toppings on.
Eat and enjoy.

In snow and sunshine - yes, it snowed here again!

Melinda