We’re back home again after an awesome vacation and some much needed quality time spent with family. Unfortunately, it will probably be the last time we fly for awhile. It seems the whole experience was spent in a ‘hurry up and wait’ mode, and all the extra charges and security checks pretty much took the fun out of flying.

You are allowed to bring your own food aboard the plane, but not your own water bottle, or any other liquid unless you purchased it inside security for an inflated charge. So we guzzled the last of our water, then ditched our bottles before security check in. Fortunately, we had plenty of fresh fruit and trail mix to munch on until we got back home. I think next time we’ll drive out to California to see our family.

So I got to thinking about the best ways to staying raw on a road trip. I figured I’d post something here for those of you still getting ready for your vacation, whether it’s to see family, go to Disney World, or fly to another country. It’s important to know ahead of time and plan your meals so that you aren’t forced to eat food you don’t want in your system. Keep in mind that if you are spending any mealtimes with your family, you’re going to be in for quite a bit of scrutiny, questioning and ridicule.

As you can imagine, traveling is one of the biggest obstacles to maintaining a diet high in living foods. And you are much more likely to stay raw if you pack accordingly, and are prepared. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Traveling with little preparation and then left to eat what is provided or available makes it difficult to get the support you need to stay raw while on the road. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared with all your raw goodies to stay mostly raw. It simply does not matter how long you’ve been following the raw path - if you go somewhere without your raw food snacks you’ll find yourself being compromised!

Maintaining a live food diet while traveling can be easy if you have the right information. Once you’ve made the decision to go raw, the small inconveniences of your new lifestyle are quickly outweighed by renewed energy, rapid weight loss, and improved health. After a month or so, you should have an exciting repertoire of new foods to enjoy—some that involve more or less work than others, and some recipes that require special equipment like a dehydrator, a Vitamix, or a food processor.

So what should a “raw foodie” do when it’s time to hit the road? You can’t very well pack a five screen dehydrator and Vitamix in your overnight bag, can you? Fortunately, there are many quick solutions that will enable you to stay 100% raw and feeling great. I will say that I did pack my BlendTec blender and had fun making some raw food dishes, as well as smoothies to share with our family. But for most people, it is not realistic to pack a blender, unless you have a small portable one, like this one: Elite Cuisine Mini-blender.

So it goes without saying that you are much more likely to stay raw if you are prepared and pack accordingly. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. I found out the hard way myself when I showed up as a guest at someone’s house and I didn’t bring some of my own raw food. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared to stay mostly raw. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been eating raw…if you go somewhere unprepared you’ll find yourself in a tough situation.

Grocery and Health Food Stores
Be sure to do your research before leaving to locate hotels with organic grocery stores within walking distance of your hotel. A simple search, for example, for “organic stores, Boston” provides a Google map of the city with about 15 choices. Find one you like, and then do another search for a nearby hotel.

What to buy:
• Salad in bulk (if there’s a big organic salad bar)
• Pre-packaged guacamole (make sure it’s dairy free), salsa, or olive tapenade to for dipping with carrot sticks or the crackers you made at home
• Lots of fresh fruit to keep around your hotel room in case you get hungry
• Buy a bag of pre-washed baby greens, some olive oil and raw nuts, and mix up a salad right in the bag!

Room Service
Room service is usually NOT what you want to eat, so don’t bother even looking at the menu…. Unless you need to order fresh fruit – but generally it’s best to get outside, get some exercise and find a fresh fruit stand (no, not a bakery or deli!)

Even if you are in a remote location sans organic food stores, order plenty of fresh fruit for breakfast, double portions of salad for dinner, and request olive oil and vinegar or a light vinaigrette dressing. Eat until you’re full—and stay away from the bread basket!

In Case You get Stuck in Timbuktu!
Always remember to pack a Live Greens type of supplement no matter where you’re going. You never know you might be out in TimbukTu and not a grocery store for miles. In case you end up in some far-flung place and no grocery store in sight, and unable to get any fresh produce—organic or otherwise—you can still travel stay raw. With a small mason jar, and filtered water, you can shake-shake-shake to health!

You might want to consider purchasing a battery-operated portable blender to pack in your suitcase. Throw in a banana and distilled or filtered water, mix with your organic green powder like Live Greens, and you will survive!

Keep up the Greens
A big challenge will be maintaining your daily consumption of greens at a proper level. I always travel with a big bottle of Live Greens, and bring along little mason jars for easy mixing while on day trips. It’s easy to simply add your green powder to filtered water and shake it up.

Remember the experience is more important than the food!
It seems when you travel, either to some exotic location or just to visit family, it always turns into a big eating fest. Shopping, planning and preparing the next meal before finishing the plate in front of you seems to become a time consuming endeavor. When you haven’t brought along any of your own food, it’s easy to become concerned about where your next meal will be coming from, or your hosts are concerned about having enough food available to feed you and your family. It would be great to learn to enjoy the vacation experience, sights, sounds, and smells of new and different places. Packing your own raw food makes this possible, because no longer are you concerned about your meals, restaurants, etc. And it puts less pressure on your hosts if you are staying with friends or family.

Also, the benefit of taking the pressure of meal planning and preparation away from your hosts is that you can prepare some of your favorite raw food dishes and introduce them to new flavors, and share the benefits of a raw food lifestyle.

When your vacation is no longer just about the food anymore, it provides you with time and opportunity to explore the area, such as historical museums, art, theater, festivals, shopping, and day to day life.

Travel with Raw Food Partner or Friends
It definitely helps to have a raw foodie partner or friend who shares and enjoys the same meals as you do. It makes the experience so much easier and definitely more fun. Together you can enjoy the raw food journey while traveling to exotic locations or simply visiting family. It also helps to have the support and encouragement that you can give each other. Larry and I enjoyed our raw food snacks together, and I helped him to stay strong when dealing with pressure to eat this or that from his family members.

If your friend or partner is not a raw foodist, then you’ll be able to share and example with them why raw food is important to you. Make time to sit down with them, go over menu ideas, food preparation suggestions, and really set the intention for what’s to come. Getting them excited will get you excited too, and you’ll be able to support each other along the way.

What to pack
Below are some suggestions to pack for your trip:
• Green Superfood: Live Greens are my favorite, but also Vitamineral Green, Sun is Shining, Pure Synergy
• Raw Honey or Agave: Only good quality dark agave or organic honey, forget about the cheap stuff, you deserve the best.
• Bee Pollen (some vegan purists don’t do honey or bee pollen)
• Goji Berries and/or Cacao Nibs
• Dried fruits and nuts: take it easy on these and always try to soak them the evening before consumption.
• It’s very important to pack a variety of easy snacks in your carryon bag in the event that you can’t find healthy snacks in the airport, train station, or hotel when you arrive. It’s easy to forget just how many options there are:
• Fresh veggies: carrot sticks, celery, broccoli and cauliflower.
• Dehydrated vegetables: sweet potatoes, white potatoes with salt and vinegar, zucchini, and yellow squash.
• Fresh fruits: a banana and grapes for the plane/train/car; apples, oranges, and pears packed in your bag.
• Dried fruits: dried apricots, apples, and pears; raisins, prunes, figs and dates.
• Raw cookies or snack bars: made in your dehydrator at home, last 3-5 days in Ziploc bags.
• Raw crackers: a huge variety can be made, a wonderful, crunchy treat when you’re craving salt.
• Granola: make a big batch in your dehydrator before you leave
Many organic grocery stores are beginning to carry prepackaged raw food bars. They’re a bit expensive ($3-5 US dollars each), so it’s best to make your own if you can, but some great brands are:
• Raw Organic Food Bars: cinnamon raisin is a favorite
• Raw Revolution bars: cashew is terrific
• Pure Bars: ginger snap—yum!
• Smart Monkey Bars: chocolate brownie
• Think! Organic: apricot coconut

Many of these brands can be pre-ordered by the case. Stock up before you leave. Note that international flights may not allow perishable items in carryon bags. Find out the rules before you leave.

Be on the lookout
Be alert for exotic fruits and try everything. Check the local paper for farmer’s markets, fresh fruit stands, and organic restaurants and shops. Don’t be discouraged, more and more towns and cities are providing organic and fresh vegetable shops. Don’t be shy, ask the locals where to find the organic food stores.

If you’re traveling overseas, you may want to look into the services of a local guide, who can be hired for as little as $1 an hour to show you around and help you locate organic foods by asking detailed questions to vendors like…”Are pesticides used? Do you have raw honey? Do you give discounts?” and so on.

Restaurants and Juice Bars
United States
• Atlanta: (live food truck that will deliver meals to your hotel or office)
• Boston: Grezzo (Alissa Cohen’s new restaurant, open 2/1/08)
• Miami: Tree of Zion (raw-friendly, fresh juices)
• New York: Pure Food and Wine (amazing gourmet raw food), Jubbs Longevity LifeFood Store (take-out live food)
• San Francisco: Alive! La Vie Cafe
International
• Amsterdam: Unlimited Health
• London: VitaOrganic
• Rio de Janeiro: Universo Organico (first live food restaurant in Brazil, great juice bar and raw food with local flavor, won Best of Brazil)
• Toronto: Live (affordable, delicious raw food), SuperSprouts and Remedy Café
• Vancouver: Eternal Abundance (organic produce, raw food in the back of the store)

Traveling Overseas
Traveling for pleasure overseas is a luxury for most, and if you’re going to a foreign country, remember to be a positive example of your home country…(The USA needs all the help it can in that area right now) … get a foreign language phrasebook or go online and write down some key phrases, like:

• Thank you
• Please
• Hello & Goodbye
• How much?
• Yes & No
• and of course, “cheaper?”

I think you get the point, a little goes a long way!

Needless to say a little planning definitely goes a long way. Kind of like the Boy Scouts’ motto: Be Prepared. Remember to pack your essentials, and your chances of having the best trip ever will skyrocket.
Safe travels…and never stop exploring. You will always discover more of yourself in the process.

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As a vegan raw foodist, one of the hardest things to do is find high quality, organic supplements to enhance our existing diet of fresh organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. There are so many products available, all of them touting their benefits to your health, etc. Personally, I think the only one that really benefits are the manufacturers and distributors that sell these products. Sure, many companies offer affiliate opportunities with their products, but they generally only pay about 5 - 10%, and requires the marketing person to continuously sell that same product over and over again.

Recently, as part of my business, I’ve aligned myself with a company that endeavors to produce only very high quality and organic nutritional supplements. Since I’ve done extensive research and have seen almost everything that is out there, I am proud to represent their products here on Raw4Healing.

BioGenX Global offers several nutritional products, but I am only going to feature just one of them here today. “Live Greens” is a nutritional raw greens powder that can be mixed with water, juice or added into your smoothie. Below are the ingredients of Live Greens.

Q: What makes the BIOGENX GLOBAL’s Live Greens so nutritious?

A: Each individual ingredient in the BIOGENX GLOBAL Live Greens are in themselves, nutrient rich, superfoods. When the ingredients were combined by our Master Formulator, he scrutinized each potential ingredient, to be sure that nutritionally, every need was met. Not only were they met, but they were exceeded. This is because each ingredient chosen to go into the Live Greens formula was nutrient dense, and had multifaceted nutritional value. Look at wheatgrass alone, it is considered to be a complete food in itself. The fact is that one pound of fresh wheatgrass is equivalent in nutritional value to 23 pounds of choice garden vegetables! Wheatgrass, Kamut grass, barley grass, and oat grass are just the beginning of this amazing formula. Besides the grasses, grains and seeds, we have included highly nutritious micro-algae, like cracked cell chlorella, and spirulina, which contain many B vitamins, chlorophyll, and minerals such as calcium and iron. Live Greens also contain seaweeds like Kombu and Wakame which are not only extremely nutritious, but also help to rid the body of toxins and heavy metals, while boosting immunity. The fruits and vegetables contained in this super nutritious formula were chosen because of their high antioxidant level, and their ability to provide many vitamins and minerals. Our Master Formulator also created a unique herbal formula, to support the assimilation of the nutrients. BIOGENX GLOBALs’ Live Greens contain many nutrition packed herbs, such as ginseng and olive leaf, to help the body heal and to boost the immune system. Last, but not least, included in the formula are enzymes, Omega fatty acids and probiotics to ensure that the body is able to assimilate the nutrition provided.

Q: Why are BIOGENX GLOBAL’s Live Greens So Unique and Powerful compared to similar products on the market?

A: Again, it is because of the structure of the formula. BIOGENX GLOBAL has gone out of our way to bring the most nutritious ingredients along with the most powerful herbs, and fruits and vegetables, regardless of cost to us. Many other Green products are made with the majority of the ingredient being the cheapest ingredients, such as alfalfa, which is a very cost efficient, and nutritious, but not as nutritious alone as it is when combined with many other nutrition dense foods, which over-lap each other nutritionally, guaranteeing you the most nutrition possible, per tablespoon, of whole food goodness.

For more information about Live Greens, click here.

Riff on all the raw food approaches, by Nomi Shannon

Water only

Juices too

Just green smoothies

What to do

Do it like Ann wigmore did

Just be sure to alkalize

Food combining is the way

Acid fruits are not OK

But yes they are –just before 10

Now I hear you should only eat the pineapple stem

Have you heard of 80-10-10?

What about Fit for Life and Zen

Let’s be reasonable apples only

But haven’t you heard of the grape fast

What about Joanna Budwig-quark and flax

What is quark and is it raw

I haven’t time to grow the sprouts

If they don’t sell it at McDonalds I have my doubts

Can I eat sweet potatoes, rutabagas and tomatoes?

What do they mean by mono meals?

Mr. Aajonus vonderplanitz says eat raw fat and meat

That sounds gross -but how will I get my protein

Better only eat low glycemic

I’m afraid I’ll become anemic

Fruits til noon and then my veggies

But where do I buy them and how do I make them

I need help and what did they say about nightshades

Don’t they go on top of lamps?

I think I’d better wait for awhile

and put if off until I know –just

Exactly the one right way

to eat better every day
If you are confused about how to begin… or want to renew your enthusiasm, Join Nomi and Friends today:

FREE WEBCAST EVENT

Join Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet, with Kevin Gianni of LiveAwesome.com and David and Katrina Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com for this FREE webcast event on Saturday April 19th, noon EST, 9AM PST.

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Learn about David and Katrina’s experiences in their 50th day of juice feasting and how it can affect you in your quest for better health.

EVENT: Spring Renewal, Begin 21 Days to Better Health
DATE & TIME: Saturday, April 19th at 12:00pm Eastern 9AM Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS FREE EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

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This will be an approximately 90 minute event.

The Raw Gourmet
PO Box 10396
Wilmington NC 28404

Part of the raw food lifestyle is going green in every other area of your life besides the organic food you eat. From recycling your garbage wastes and composting your veggie trimmings, to using low energy lightbulbs and hanging your laundry on the clothesline in the summer. There are so many ways to cut down on energy consumption, but what about the fuel you use in your vehicle? With gas prices rising to over $4.00 a gallon, is this even possible?

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