Welcome to Louisa from Harrismith who is now carrying stock of our miraculous Bragg Apple Cider. If you are in the area contact her for your bottle of golden elixir.

Louise has the Body Dynamics Aquasize School and uses the Apple Cider Vinegar for cramps and overall well being.

Day 2 was HI-Jacked! The daughter and grandson came to visit, and what does every grandmother do? She cooks..... and for fun she bakes. This has been my downfall in this lifestyle... the clinging to traditional roles and my own ingrained beliefs of what that role dictates. To my credit I didn't go out and buy additional goods. I used up grocery items already inhouse. Oh dear, except the big brown C.... my grandson loves the stuff and the local supermarket has a phenomenal special price on slabs... I fell crashed and burned with all the Cs.

But I pick myself up, dust myself off and carry on with the plan. I will not allow this to derail me completely as has happened in previous attempts to return to RAW. Celene Bernstein gives good advice in her book "Health Seekers". She lays out a plan for handling those times when you feel like a binge or you know that you're going to a celebratory event and you will be tempted. The day before eat only fruit. The day of, eat a mono diet (only one type of fruit) until an hour before. After the binge drink only water for 12 to 18 hours then eat just one type of fruit until supper. So water it will be  and then melon for the rest of the day until supper/salad time on Day 3.

I don't plan my crashes... but the amazing cleansing effect of a pile (5) of mangos for lunch on day one and the huge mixed salad for supper before my crash on Day 2 encouraged me to get back on course. Also, Celene stresses that you must not feel guilt, eat and enjoy when you do go off course. Call it Treating not Cheating. And I won't blame others either. I had already started cheating in the morning. I ate decadent black figs and exotic Dragon Fruit for breakfast with a few slivers of brie.  You may have noticed it peeking out amongst the produce I purchased on day 0. Its not a part of RAW Vegan  but I had recently read an article by Weston Price and the fat soluble nutrient he discovered called Activator X and now known as K2 which is only found in Shellfish, Organ meats, fishliver and butter from cows eating rapidly growing green grass. Thus I have been giving myself leave to eat the mature cheddar and creamy dreamy butter I so love. A few minutes further research has revealed that K1 is profuse in green leafy plants especially kale which contains a thousand plus times our daily requirement and this nutrient is converted by our intestinal flora into K2. Again the incredible necessity to have a healthy gut.

I didn't want to mention the actual items I treated myself and my family with soas not to bring your mind to what you shouldn't eat, however, I do want to bring awareness to some factors around those choices you make. There is a difference between going out and buying a factory made box of cookies with all sorts of unknown contents and a home made batch created with love and stone ground non gmo flour, free range eggs, butter..... you get the picture. There is a world between a MacDonalds Burger and fettuccini tossed with lightly sauted portabello mushrooms and red onion served with a generous salad. Make the better choices when you want to detour.

A final thought.... my grandson will still love me and he will be happy with the distilled water he loves so much, grapes, cucumber, pistachios and cashews. I can be the modern off the wall grandmother who runs and cycles instead of knitting and crocheting, who doesn't cook roast dinner on Sundays and tries to force green smoothies down his throat instead of soggy cooked green beans. Yum.

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This awesome sight greeted me this morning as I entered the kitchen!

Ah, YES! I made that decision yesterday, to go back to a totally RAW vegan diet. ....as I have many times before and not adhered to that resolve. But I feel in my 70 trillion cells that this time is different. I have you now to hold me accountable. And the second trick is to stock up abundantly on all the fresh and yummy fruit and leaves you can find. Have so much of it available that you are spoilt for choice when deciding what to eat. It must fill all your kichen counters in beautiful and appealing displays of colour and shape and texture. It must make you smile with pleasure to see it. The sweet scent of your produce must tickle your tastebuds into mouthwatering want.

So here I am at Ground Zero again. Having started my day with a mug of cold chamomile tea that I had taken to bed with me and been too sleepy to drink, I now viewed my amazing array of real food, and mangos were my first thought for breakfast. However, I noticed that the pears that had been perfectly ripe yesterday would be worm fodder within hours so into the fridge I dived to find a punnet of corriander leaves. One of my all time favourite smoothies is pear and corriander... and a teaspoonful of dried ginger (I love ginger and recently read that it contains a powerful anti-cancer constituent when dried or cooked that proved 10 000 x stronger than chemo in the research model).

I rinsed the corriander and threw the handful into the blender jug stems and all. The pears I washed in a basin of water to which I added a few drops of LDC (a Neolife product that was created environmently and user friendly and biodegradeable decades before Green was a trend). LDC is a light duty cleaner that not only breaks the surface tension of water making it "wetter" but also keeps particles suspended in solution carrying away the poisons you wash off your produce. Washing to get rid of pesticide sprays is of utmost importance when eating RAW Vegan especially when you consider the sheer quantity of produce you need to consume. Organically home grown is first prize of course! - back to the pears... they were quite small and soft so just needed the stems, bottoms and brown spots removed. The cores were tender and pips small. I weighed all this and it was about the goal weight of a kilo. I blended it with just about a half cup of distilled water and it came to just over a litre - PERFECT.

As I have an early pilates class, just a glass of this immediately at room temp (as only the corriander had been refigerated) will go down well on this autumnal morn. The rest will be fine and cold when I get back from the gym. Not the prettiest smoothy but the freshness of the corriander, slight spicyness of the ginger that doesn't overpower the delicate sweet flavour of the pears is totally YUM

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Coming Soon!!! Coconut Aminos - read what Dr. Axe says about Coconut Aminos:

"Do you find yourself in love with Asian food but unable to stomach the risks of genetically modified soy sauce? You, my friend, are in luck. Welcome to the world of coconut aminos.

What are coconut aminos? Put simply, coconut aminos are a sauce often used to substitute for soy sauce in Asian food dishes. Rather than supplementing food with a hormone-riddled, sodium-rich mystery sauce, you can use coconut aminos as a tasty, healthy replacement condiment. There are only two ingredients to create coconut aminos: organic coconut tree sap and organic sea salt.

Not only are coconut aminos a great substitute for soy sauce, but they’re also a powerful little ingredient on their own. Coconut aminos are gluten-free, non-GMO, certified organic, soy-free, MSG-free, kosher and vegan. Packed into this unassuming condiment are the nearly endless benefits of the coconut, including protection of the heart and reduction in the risk of certain cancers."

7 Benefits of Coconut Aminos

1. Protect Your Heart and Regulate Cholesterol
2. Reduce Risk of Diabetes
3. Aid in Weight Loss
4. Strengthen the Immune System
5. Reduce Risk of Colon Cancer
6. Promote Mental Health
7. Naturally Treat Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

To read why you should avoid Soy Sauce & try Coconut Liquid Aminos - click here

(Source: Dr. Axe - Food is Medicine)