Making a change

Hello fellow Raw Foodists & anyone else who finds this blog! I have decided that focusing on Raw Foods isn't right for me at this time. I have had so much going on the past couple months that I haven't even been focusing on ME, much less what foods are raw & what aren't. So, with that, I am not going to be posting on this blog anymore. I have started a new blogger site that I'm going to use to find out what I need to do to be a Healthy Nikki. If you want to join me over there, come on over. If not, good luck with your journey & I hope you live a happy, healthy life!

Cheers ~ Nikki

Green Smoothie Challenge!

I'm participating in the Raw Diva's Green Smoothie Challenge this week & I'm LOVING it! I was able to convince my boyfriend, mom, brother, and a couple friends to join me in the challenge. Green smoothies are new to some of the group & not so new to others. Since Chris & I have been enjoying green smoothies for months now we decided to mix up our recipes a bit & try something new.

Today for breakfast we had the Green and Gone Smoothie(on the right in the picture) from Gone Raw and it was delicious! I haven't taken many risks with my smoothies this far, but this one has convinced me that there are so many possibilities! It has so much flavor that I am only able to sip it, which has forced me to really enjoy it...yay!

Lunch is going to be a banana/raspberry/celery combo which is on the left in the picture. It doesn't look like a green smoothie to me but I know it's good for me and it's going to be very tasty!

I'm so excited to be participating in this challenge with my family and friends. I am not pushing raw foods on anyone (except my bf occasionally), but I think that having a green smoothie for breakfast can help EVERYONE. I hope that once the challenge is done everyone has found at least one favorite variety and can try enjoying a green smoothie once a day or so.

Traveling & enjoying raw foods

I am in Nashville this week for a seminar and decided to plan ahead so I can eat some or most raw at least. I was able to make some Walnut Hemp Crackers & Cranberry Granola from Raw Food, Real World as well as some Apple Cinnamon Cookies from RAWvolution before leaving on Monday. I also talked to the hotel last week to make sure that I could get to a grocery store. They said their shuttle would take me so I didn't have to call a cab which I thought was very nice!

So, I ate lunch at the hotel today but one of the women at the seminar had a car so she drove us to the grocery store after we were dismissed. I think we both did a great job picking out healthy foods, although I'm not sure what her normal diet is like. I got bananas, apples, grapes, carrots & grape tomatoes! I also got some Naked Juice & granola bars because I think realistically I won't be able to stick to the fruit & granola and I don't want to end up at the vending machine. I am happy with how this is all going so far...we'll see if it continues to go well.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to get up & workout because we don't have to be at the conference room until 8:30. Good Night!

My Transition Plan - Take 2

I just completed my first week of transitioning back to Raw Foods. I decided to take a less drastic approach this time, making one change at a time. Hopefully that will allow me to develop good habits as I go & not overwhelm myself. I am going to be vegetarian at a minimum for my food choices, but otherwise these are the guidelines for the next 4 weeks. Week 2 will mean following weeks 1 & 2 and so on.

Week 1 - Green Smoothies for breakfast every day
Week 2 - Raw Lunch...fruit salad, green salad, green smoothie, etc
Week 3 - Exercise 3x/week
Week 4 - Raw Dinner 3x/week

That's it for now...once the new year has started I plan to re-evaluate and make another plan.

What was your raw transition plan? Did you switch to raw foods overnight? Was it a many year journey? I'd love to hear other people's stories because switching overnight didn't work for me & this may not either so having other ideas would be great!

Less icky already & a plan for the future

It's amazing to me how much it can help just to drink a ton of water. :) I'm definitely feeling better already...after just 2 days of being conscious about what I'm eating & planning my days. Yay!

It helps a lot that the raw foods community is so amazingly supportive. There are 2 programs that have come to my attention at exactly the perfect time. If you’re interested…sign up & join me! If you do, post a comment here so we can share our experiences.

Raw Holiday Survival Guide

I have already signed up for the Raw Holiday Survival Guide that Heidi from Raw Food, Right Now! has gifted to the raw community. On top of the great blog she and her husband, Justin, publish, Heidi is offering tips, tricks, recipes and general happiness in a daily email now through the New Year! As a gift from Heidi it’s free...what a sweetheart!

From the first email today:

Last year, Justin and I had our first truly successful raw holiday season. What do I mean by successful?

We felt happy.
We didn't binge or pig out on cooked food.
We didn't feel forced to eat foods we didn't want to eat.
Our family was happy.

And most important - WE HAD FUN. We really did!

I am going to talk about our Christmas and New Year's festivities that happened last year in upcoming emails, but the main thing to remember is that we had fun. It was a positive experience. And after we had great holidays last year, I just wanted everyone to feel the joy!

Want to join the email list? Click here.

Green Smoothie Queen Challenge

I am still working on recruiting people for this 3 day green smoothie challenge…but I plan to sign up by Friday so I can get my new Green Smoothie jug in time! The Raw Divas are fantastic. They have multiple programs designed to help people at any stage of their raw journey. I participated in the Body Enlightenment System this fall and plan to attend another one in January because the community is so fun.

Anyway, back to the challenge at hand. It is for EVERYONE…men, women, young, old, those who haven’t ever heard of the raw foods way of living and people who are 100% raw. As far as I know at this point there is one male Diva…his name is Bob. (I think that might change after this challenge!) Bob & his wife, Keely, are serious supporters of the Raw Divas and I think it’s great that they can enjoy the journey together. Check out their blogs by clicking on their names. Keely was the one who brought this challenge to my attention earlier...so THANK YOU KEELY!

I was introduced to Green Smoothies earlier this year by my friends Jeff & Heather and the book Green For Life. Green Smoothies are a GREAT way to get tons of vitamins in a very easily digestible way (once you get past the color). Information in the book says that as humans we are not able to chew the greens to the point that we’re getting all the nutrients they have to offer, but that by blending them the greens are broken up enough for us to get the whole benefit.

Want to join me in the challenge? There are a couple ways to join. If you treat yourself to a fun new Green Smoothie Jug, you get free admission to the challenge & you can even bring a friend! If you aren’t interested in a new, super cool, green (to hide the fact that the contents are green) jug then you are invited to join that way as well. For all the information & to sign up go here.