Toronto Canada has great raw food events and cafes.. are you talking Bracebridge ON Canada??

6000 calories? Are you exercising all day long??

Today is day 46 of a 100 day juice feast. We actually found it easier than preparing food right from the start and were feeling fabulous from day 1!

Then came:
* family for Christmas
* icy roads that kept us away from home one day (we couldn't get up the hill to our house)
* a 5 day power outage in -20C weather (thank goodness for our wood stove)
* we got low on produce and were left with vegetables and almost no fruit

So for a few days over Christmas we blended soup juices and strained through a nut milk bag. It wasn't very fulfilling (not enough calories by far). Piers just existed on 1-2 L of juice a day, and I supplemented with some solid foods. I didn't have any reaction at all to adding them back into my diet. And now that our power is back on, and I've done a trip to town for apples, we are happily juicing again.

We are both loving juicing and the simplicity knowing what you are going to eat... JUICE! We make all our juice in the morning and drink throughout the day. In all I'm happy with how Christmas was handled, and that I'm back happily to juicing. That's a big win for me.

Our new years drink... we did a punch bowl of water with raspberries, cranberries, elderberries, and goji berries and let them soak for 12 hours in a chilled room. It was amazing!!!

Can you think of some? I'll start the list... here are some myths:

* Eating healthy is a disease call orthorexia nervosa
* You can't get all the protein you need on a vegan diet
* You need to cook food to make the nutrients more available
* Water filters are unnatural

Please help with more... what myths would you like to see "busted"

Hi Cee, Please do take care of yourself and give yourself lots of extra rest and love! I am sending you lots of healing energy.

Cheers,
Sheryl

I'm on day 45 of juice feasting and loving it. We had some challenges over the holidays, and I did eat on a few days, but stayed fairly healthy and am back full swing now. We are going until Feb 24th.

The most important thing for me is to do it all in one block of time. We juice 4L each for the day, wash up, and go for a 30 minute walk. Keeping things all in one block makes it seem much easier. And faster too.

Won't most shops be open on the 2nd?

Oh oh... for recipes you need the ones with the shell off... unless you want to hand shell each and every one. Ones in the shell are used for growing sunflower sprouts to eat (which maybe you want to do for those). The black you are seeing is just colour from the shell leaching out into the water... completely normal!

Sorry! On the up side sunflower sprouts are delicious. Just plant them one layer thick on siol and cut to eat when they are about 10 cm and high and when you have two luscious leaves ready to eat.

Are they sunflower seeds without the shell for a dip/dressing or with shell for growing sprouts? That makes a big difference!

Whatever you decide do you might not want to use the standard chemist/pharmacy vitamins. Many of those have been shown to actually hinder the body in absorbing the natural vitamins and minerals from food (because they are not the right types - there are many varieties of most vitamins that are slightly chemically structurally different).

For example I would not take most types of B12, but there is one from a company in the states that has one exactly structurally the same as what the body needs, that you dissolve under the tongue. I don't believe the B12 bright pink syrup drops, or pink tablets from the pharmacy can come close to the effectiveness of one properly done. I do take B12, but that's the only one I take. It feels important to me.

I also take some Mother Earth Minerals which are angstrom sized liquid minerals. Smaller minerals are easier for the body to absorb. There are studies where someone had TOO MUCH of a mineral that was causing problems, and when they added in more angstrom sized minerals their body actually released the overload of the mineral from the body.. so more actually helped a toxicity issue where the body had too much.

Anyhow I'm just about to run out in a Canadian Blizzard... over to my parents house to help with some Christmas preparations... sorry if this is brief. Just wanted to share some of the information I've come across in the last few years.

Luke and his company Sunrise Coconuts are the Raw Pleasure favourite. When Piers and I were in Australia we were known to occasionally get them delivered by the pallet like those huge 1mx1m squares of watermelon you occasionally see delivered. Some to share with other RP customers, but like 40 young green ones each for us to coconut water feast on. Yummy!

Definitely talk to Luke!

It's fabulous!!! If you are interested in personal development definitely have a look!!http://tonyrobbinstraining.com!

One question... can you try to grow one a little longer and see if they really are growing, or if it's just the dried end piece swelling up with water. I'd love to know!!

I'm all excited in Canada because I just found a source for raw dehydrated mature shredded coconut. Not something I use that much, but how cool to get it really raw!!

I voted! Great to see so many friends up there!!! Giselle who is one of the creators of this is so fabulous@ We met her in Sedona.

We have a goal of doing more regular Raw Pleasure newsletters in 2009 too... so if people have articles or recipes (with photos) they would like to share we'd be pleased to publish them out to the world! You all have great experiences in so many different aspects of raw living. I think it would be a great contribution to the world!

By young most are referring to the white pointy topped shaved coconuts often found in Asian Grocery stores... by old the brown sometimes hairy ones. Young ones are usually from Thailand and quite sweet, with sometimes jelly flesh inside, sometimes a little firmer. Old ones are more mature and have harder, higher fat flesh.

If you're lucky to live somewhere a little tropical you can get local coconuts with the green husk still on... I've been told the easiest way to tell young from old in the full husk is by how many scars it has on it from rubbing against other coconuts and the tree. I haven't had enough to know if that's right though!

Cheers,
Sheryl