JUNE GOALS: Attracting Abundance.

Somehow, its' June already. Time flies!

I am restarting my monthly goals, having gotten through most of the havoc of a long-distance move, I now have regained some balance that will enable me to get back to it!

First off,I want to talk about attracting abundance into our lives. It's something that I've been forgetting to do and want to get back into the groove, so to speak. 

My interpretation of attracting abundance has a lot to do with positive thinking and changing thought patterns into plentiful thoughts instead of lacking thoughts. What I mean by this is to look at a situation from a new perspective,a positive one. As an example, instead of making an expense/income sheet to track your finances, call it an abundance track record. Instead of seeing road blocks, see opportunities for growth. 

Think of what you can do instead of what you can't, and things will start changing.

Now onto this month's goals!

1. This one is twofold, keeping up with my caloric intake (min 2,500 cals) and drinking 3 liters of water a day. Since I've been in Toronto, I've been out and about a lot more and have been having issues keeping up wit both of those. It's something that I really have to constantly keep focusing on or I slip up,especially when my schedule changes.

2. 30 minutes of meditation a day, no exceptions. This is getting easier since my commute is over 30 minutes most days. I find that meditating on the bus, subway or streetcar makes sense since I commute alone and would just be listening to music or an audio book anyways. 

3. Run a minimum of 15 kilometers a week. This means a minimum of 3x a week. Also, on top of this I want to revitalize the rest of my training regiment,which has been more or less consistent, but not organized at all. Rock-climbing, running, lifting and swimming are my focuses right now. 

4. Actually get my YouTube channel going. One video minimum.

5. Always keep up with my to do list. I find that having one that is always up to date keeps me charging forward. This way I can clearly keep all my goals in mind and have a reminder that I wanted to do them. I'm notorious for having not-so great short term memory, this means I have to find means to overcome it to stay on top of my dreams. 

Now hopefully we will actually be having some summer weather this month!

Keep it fruity :) 

Raw on the Cheap.

Everyone is always yakking on about how expensive it is to eat healthy, most of the time its people who use it as an excuse. I would know, I used to! I think that really, if anyone, at any income level, wants to commit to a healthy lifestyle, they can. I know this because, as a student, I've lived with a very restricted budget and have been able to eat a high crab raw vegan lifestyle with good planning.

So what exactly is it that I do?

First and foremost, set a budget. Knowing exactly how much you can and want to spend on food is really important so that you can plan out your week's worth of food. I've set this as low as $50.00 a week and had more than food t satisfy my minimum of 2500 calories a day. Was it difficult? You could say that is just required much more planning, and more mono eating. But in reality, mono eating is ideal, so that didn't bother me one bit! I would say that my average spending for food would be $50-$100 a week at conventional grocery stores.

Second, do some research. Nowadays electronic sales flyers are really popular and you can get them directly sent to your email every week. With a limited budget, the best way is to buy the fruit that is on sale. Also, on't forget to check the discount rack! I've found masses of perfectly ripe bananas and other fruit and veggies for a fraction of the price. Another good idea that makes living on the cheap even easier is finding a wholesaler, which I hadn't been able to do at the time. Don't forget farmers markets in the warmer months!

Bananas will be your staple, at under $20.00 a case, they are usually the cheapest and most accessible calorie source you will find. Dates, when in season, are also a great idea. This also means that you will be eating with the seasons, since what's in season and abundant, is usually cheaper. As an example, I literally lived on citrus this past winter, it was amazing quality and super affordable.

Living on the cheap also means that unless you find a good wholesaler or farmers market, you will probably have to stick with conventional produce depending where you live and whats available. A great thing to look up for this purpose, are food co-ops. They have great buying power and can usually get you amazing prices if there is one in your area. You could even start up one if there aren't any already!

I also find that when I ate basically the same every other day I could still have variety every week while buying in bulk which saved money. So I'd have a simple salad every night that has almost all the same ingredients, but changing it up with spices or herbs (if you choose). Personally I can eat the same salad for a week and just change it up after wards. As for fruit meals, the bananas usually are always there, unless I'm feeling something else that week, and those are easy to keep interesting. You just have to prepare them in different ways: whole, smoothie, mashed, nice cream... The frozen fruit plays a vital role here as well, providing different flavor combinations. I like having at least 3 types of fruit for the week, always the best quality ones I can find, in season of course! This means oranges, persimmons, dates, pomegranates and other citrus in the winter. Mangoes, pineapples and the last of the citrus in the spring. Melons, stone fruit, berries and cherries in the summer. Grapes, apples, figs, dates and pears in the fall. With some fruit crossing over seasons, transition time is usually easy as well. This isn't even getting into greens and veggies which are amazing and are also something to cycle.

One thing that did take me time to get to this point is knowing how to cycle your fruit to always have ripe fruit ready to eat while avoiding any waste. I very rarely have any fruit go bad so no throwing money to the compost bin. This is something that you have to figure out for yourself, to see what works for you as an individual or a household.

This is an example of what I would buy for a week's worth of food in the winter/spring:

- One case bananas, $18.
- Small case oranges, $12.
- 2 cases Ataulfo mangoes, $14.
- 6 pack romaine hearts, $5.
- 2x 11 oz baby greens, $5.
- Case tomatoes, $10.
- Assorted frozen fruit, $10.
- 4 avocados, $4.
- Lemon, limes, ginger, assorted, $7.

TOTAL: $80.00
$11.42/day

I also always have backup dates or raisins, which I buy about once a month (about $20 worth) so that I always have available calories around. I always eat at least 2500 calories a day with this, looks like something like this:

Breakfast: 10 large bananas with 2 cups frozen strawberries (1300 cals)
Lunch: 1L OJ with 4 mangoes, blended. (900 cals)
Dinner: Large Salad (500cals)
TOTAL: 2700 calories

Basically, if you really want to do this, you can. There are very little barriers to it. Even transitioning in with rice and potatoes as evening staples keeps it very inexpensive. I spend MUCH less money now eating raw than I used to being a cooked vegan before I found 80/10/10. I'd say that high carb cooked raw vegan is comparable though and depending on what you eat, can even be more inexpensive.

People who spend a ton of money being "healthy" are usually the ones going after super-foods and supplements including specialty foods. These things can run up your grocery bill in no time at all and quite frankly, for most people, they are not essentials. All fruits and veggies are super foods in their own right, labeling one as such and selling it for high prices is nothing but marketing ploys from corporations looking for profit. That being said, if you want to live off expensive imported fruit, then yes, it makes for a more expensive lifestyle.

Keep in mind, this is also in Canada. In the summer, I spend less. In countries that grow their own fruit, this lifestyle can be even easier to live on with a restricted budget including the US.

This is just a guideline. Those who need to eat more or have a bit more to spend can definitely find more variety. Buying with others is also a great idea because you can get half cases of different fruit, if that's what you need to succeed. The bottom line, it doesn't take much to be able to do this. Period. You just have to want it badly enough to commit to planning.

Keep it fruity!

March Assessment and 90 days!!

90 days COMPLETE. WOO!! *dances*

So that's one of my new years resolutions crossed off. Which in all honesty, when I decided on it, I actually laughed at myself, thinking that I was not going to make it that far, I mean I had done 34 days as my longest stint before this one. There is nothing more awesome feeling than accomplishing a goal you thought you wouldn't actually achieve (at least on the first try). This makes me feel so great, and validates my year's goal of pushing myself to heights that I sometimes believe impossible (give new meaning to the whole I'm possible line).

I'm planning on continuing with it, but I do have an attitude of not depriving myself of something that I really want, as long as it stays in live with the whole high carb vibe. I think that having a all or nothing attitude has not contributed to my success in the past, and even with this 90 days I was going in with this attitude, and it has served me very well. I think that not telling myself I can't have something makes much easier, even if I don't really want it that much. This whole 90 days, every time I had a craving, I would ask myself two questions:
How bad do I want this?
Am I okay with feeling how this food will make feel?
Most of the time, the answer to the first question wasn't bad enough to warrant me even asking myself the second question. I think that this is how I am going to continue on, as long as I can budget it reasonably.

Okay, onto my March Goals assessment:

Food wise, I absolutely held up my goal of keeping raw and adding in more juicing. I juiced almost everyday of the month and I certainly felt the difference. I plan on doing another green juice fast soon, maybe even staring this week. I've had a few digestion issues, which I attribute mostly to the tons of stress I've been under because of my semester ending and the ton of work associated with it. Green juice usually fixes me up and I've made sure to have at least a liter everyday this past week.

I've kept up pretty decently with my calorie intake, keeping it over 2500 cals basically every day, with many 3000 calorie days. I established a new system where I almost always bring 2000 calories with me when I leave the house, that way I never get caught without food and I can easily achieve my goals. I just have to make sure I eat a 500 cal breakfast and a 500 cal salad and I'm set.

My exercise system worked really well for about half the month, the other half being overwhelmed by 60 hours school work weeks and too little of any thing else. I'm just reallyyyy happy this is the last week of classes, I have no issues finding balance during exams because my study breaks become exercise/meditation time.

As for my sleep schedule, I am getting up earlier and getting more done, but I have been having issues falling asleep, which resulted in most nights being under 7 hours. I think that the days I didn't exercise definitely contributed to the problem on top of stress.

Meditation has become a bigger part of my daily schedule, where I often find myself meditating during my commute and before bed. Yoga on the other hand, I'm still having difficulty implementing on a consistent basis.

I think that my blogging goals were relatively well attained. I'm going to keep the juicing post for during my juice feast. The anxiety post is proving a tad bit difficult to write, more so to get the right wording for what I want to express in it.

All in all, with the added workload from school, I feel like I've done decently in regards to this months goals. I am hoping to push harder in certain areas next month.

Much fruit and love! <3

Fun Fitness: Rock Climbing!!!

Sometimes, when you think exercise, it's with a sort of excited dread where the results are definitely what you want, but the means may not be all that exciting. I've gone through that time and time again.

Now I want to redefine my fitness regiment. It's SUPPOSED to be fun, exciting and addictive. It should be thought of as a time in your day where you get all worked up to face an awesome challenge where pushing yourself to new levels is accomplishing goals and getting you to be proud of yourself.

For some people, going to the gym does that. I've been that person once or twice. 

For many others, that just doesn't cut it.

Well let's change our attitudes and find something that gets your heart pumping and makes you happy AND fit!

I have a few activities that do this for me, one of the newest is....

ROCK CLIMBING!!!

I am seriously addicted.

The pics are actually from my first time at a rock gym, in Toronto. I absolutely love going there and have yet to find an equivalent here in Ottawa, but I am definitely working on it. 

I have this tendency to prefer activities that use my lower body strength  and even though legs are definitely used in rock climbing (apparently I don't use them enough, working on it!), it does require quite a bit of upper body strength. The soreness the next day is quite satisfying!

I've been top roping mostly, which does require a partner. But even if you don't have someone to go with you can go bouldering. Bouldering, which I've only really tried once, is just as awesome and in my opinion more difficult than top roping. It's a killer workout and has you concentrating much more on technique from the get go. 

I seriously recommend going to try it out, who knows, you might get as addicted as I am!!

80/10/10: The Raw Food "Bible"

My first introduction to the raw food lifestyle was from the well=known and popular 30bananasaday.com crew. AS much as they're forum is absolutely amazing for newbies and veterans of the lifestyle alike, I found that it really was essential for me to read the book that cemented it all. Besides being a wealth of information on why choosing this way of eating is the best, it's a great guide on how to transition, what to eat and how to succeed long term.

I call it the "Bible" of raw foods beause it really breaks down the lifestyle to the basics and explains in easy to understand terms how our bodies work and why a carbohydrate based diets works best for the human body.

As much as it advocates being a raw food fruit based vegan is the ultimate way to fuel our bodies and minds, it isn't strictly advocating it. The secret lies in the ratios of macro nutrients over time of 80% or more carbohydrates, 10% or less protein and fats.

After having experimented with this lifestyle for the past 2 and a half years, I can definitely say that I feel the best I ever have following that macro nutrient intake, even better when it's high or completely raw foods based.

The book comes with a high recommendation not only from me and the 30bananasaday.com crew, but from most of the raw community as well as the author of "The China Study" (another recommended read of mine of which I'll talk about in another post). It has basically everything you need to get started on thsi path to amazing health, along with the many online resources that are growing every day written by advocates of the lifestyle. 

I volunteer my personal copy to anyone who wants to check it out!

Woodstock Fruit Festival 2012

Wow.

Now 2 days after the last day of WFF 2012, I'm still awed by the amazing vibe of such an incredible event. First off, many many thanks got to the people that made it all happen. Micheal Arnstein started it all and many others made it the incredible life-changing event that it became. They are the true pionneers of this movement and deserve so much gratitude and appreciation.

I'm going to try to find the words to describe it. I don't think there's truly words to do this, EPIC comes close but it misses the deep connection, the crazy positive vibes, the out-of-this-word amazing people, the durian parties, the inspiring and inflamming talks...

I went there not exactly knowing what to expect. I wanted to connect with like minded people, learn as much as I could, do some personal work involving decisions on what I was going to do next and other things. I did all this and more, I truly discovered what I wanted, I discovered what a true community is, what it feels like to be truly accepted and accepting of everyone around me. It's an incredible feeling to know that, to feel that.

At WFF, there is a sense of how the world really should be. That simple, and that amazing.

I think that the event is truly leading the way to change. I strongly suggest to anyone who is anyone, no matter your background, diet, views, and feelings about the lifestyle, to sign up and see what it's all about. I say this because it's a place of true discovery, where everyone is invited to be exactly who they are and nothing else. To try something that may seem INSANE. I thought it was. Then I tried it. And I am never turning back.

I spent my day training with the likes of Dr. Graham, Ellen Livingston and others, barefoot hiking, swimming in the lake, having picnics for every meal on the grass, listening to speakers on so many topics, stargazing, playing and discovering. I got high on Durian, and bonked, sounding like a insane person because I wasn't getting enough sleep (too excited and too much to do, but that was just me ignoring my body's limits, a lesson learned!). I slept under the stars one night, a night definitely to be remembered.

Although I forgot to take pictures, I have so many memories permanently engraved in my mind.

So, now I say, I hope to see you all there next year.

Actually, I'm expecting it!!!