Jared Leto Loses Weight On Raw Food

Jared Leto Before and After Raw Food (photo via US Magazine)

Jared Leto has been looking like his usual thin rocker self lately. But over the past two years his weight has fluctuated quite a bit.

He gained at least 60 pounds for his role in his latest movie, Chapter 27.

Sure, celebrities sometimes need to gain or lose weight for a specific role, and Jared was no exception. But 60 pounds? That is a lot of weight to gain.

Interestingly enough, Jared is a strict vegetarian, so his weight gain plan included a lot of dairy products. Lots and lots of pizza. Apparently daily Domino's pizzas were a part of his weight gain plan. In fact, he gained so much weight that he ended up spending a few days in a wheelchair!

Gaining weight can be easy. Usually it is the loosing part that is tough.


How did Jared lose all the weight?

According to an interview with People.com, he was quoted with the following weight loss plan:

"Health food every day. I will eat anything that doesn't have taste - like unsalted nuts, raw food and berries..."

That sounds like an interesting plan. Eat anything that doesn't have taste. I guess cardboard was a part of his plan too. Cardboard is vegetarian, right?

But then he mentions raw food? I understand the later part of what he is saying: unsalted nuts, raw food, and berries. It is the "I will eat anything that doesn't have taste..." part that I do not understand.

Strawberries are tasteless? Raspberries are tasteless? And what about this "raw food" stuff?

Raw food is tasteless?

What kind of "raw food" was Jared eating?!

What is he saying? What does he mean when he says raw food?

I do not know. And neither does anybody else except Jared.

He also mentioned in an interview with Sirius radio that he fasted for 10 days immediately after shooting.

Fasting. That could mean a lot of things. Juice fast, water fast, even juice feasting!

I will say this: One of my favorite parts of being a raw foodist is the taste. I love the flavors of raw food. I love my taste buds bursting with exhilaration as I bite into a fresh strawberry from the farmers market, or the intoxicating aroma of a passion fruit.

All in all, I find it fascinating that he mentions raw food.

I want to say that I congratulate Jared on such a successful weight loss.

And I hope that someday he will find raw food to be more flavorful in the future. He should come over to our house sometime and I promise to make him a meal so good that he will retract his previous statement.

- Heidi
Raw Food Right Now

Related Links:

Ecorazzi.com: Jared Leto Gets Back In Shape With Raw Diet
Interview with Jared Leto
Us Magazine: Gaining 60 Pounds For A Movie Isn't Fun

Weekly Photos of Raw Produce [Raw Food Photography]

Napa Cabbage Never Looked So Good... (Photo by Rick Lee)

Need some visual raw food inspiration?

Now that you have declared fridge bankrupcy, it is time to get some new produce. Need some ideas on what to buy?

Well, we've got a solution for you.

Just take a moment and scroll through this collection of weekly produce photos from photographer Rick Lee. Although Rick Lee is not a raw foodist, his weekly photo sets of produce are very, very raw.

And very, very beautiful.

From pictures of sweet corn to delicate tips of asparagus, each photo is a vibrant delight of color and texture. I can almost bite into the crisp red cabbage. And I love how many of the photos play up the water mist on kale leaves or a large fennel bulb.

If you are an uncook like me, you'd enjoy daydreaming about all the wonderful recipes you would make from all this produce.

Imagine - a crate full of limes, just for you!

Check out Rick's blog posts of produce photos: Weekly Produce Photos!

Link via Slashfood

- Heidi
Raw Food Right Now

Is it Time to Declare Fridge Bankruptcy?

What is Fridge Bankruptcy?

Right when Heidi decided to Juice Feast, we thought it was a good time to clean the fridge out and start from scratch.

When we started cleaning the fridge out, we realized that there was quite a "backlog" of food from the last couple months that kind of, well, got hidden.

After pulling out some stuff that I wasn't quite sure was still good or not, I told Heidi:

"I think we need to declare Fridge Bankruptcy."

She spent the next five minutes on the floor, convulsing in heaps of laughter.

I wondered if anyone had ever coined the term Fridge Bankruptcy. I figured someone had, so I Googled it.

Nada.

So we are going to official coin the term now:

Fridge Bankruptcy: When you have so much stuff in your fridge, that you can't tell what is old and what is fresh.


Hey, Haven't I Heard of Email Bankruptcy?

The original idea for Fridge Bankruptcy came from a concept that has been floating around the 'Net for a while called Email Bankruptcy.

Micheal Fitzgerald, a writer for Wired magazine, did an article called "Call it the Dead E-Mail Office" back in 2004 about Stanford Professor Lawrence Lessig, who declared Email Bankruptcy after he realized he could not catch up with his thousands of unread email message cumulating since 2002.


How to Declare Fridge Bankruptcy

Ok, you know you have a problem. There is so much stuff in your fridge, that you don't even feel like opening it.

And when you do, there is a cat in there. Or worse.

Don't worry, we're here to help you:

1. Admit you have a problem. The first step is admitting it. "Yep, my fridge and/or freezer are a complete and utter mess. I have no idea what's old and what's fresh. It's all my fault."
   
   
2. Determine how bad it is. Is it Chapter 7 (Slightly Icky) or Chapter 11 (Very Icky)? Get a hold of it and determine your action plan.
   
   
3. Take everything out. Take it all out. Everything. Set it all on the counter and throw out what is immediately bad.
   
   
4. Save anything that you are absolutely sure is good. Maybe you just bought a fresh bag of carrots that you just put in the fridge. Keep 'em. Or...
   
   
5. You can throw it all out. It might be completely hopeless. You are just not sure what's good or bad. Or maybe you had some very moldy fruit or greens. If this is your case, throw it all out. Everything. No exceptions.
   
   
6. Clean, clean, clean. Obviously, you are going to want to thoroughly and utterly clean this thing out. Top to bottom. Do it now. Warm soapy water. Disinfectant with your personal choice of natural cleansers if you need to.
   
   
7. Buy some fresh new stuff! You should reward yourself! You just did an amazing feat of kitchen mastery...you conquered your fridge. Time to get some new stuff to fill it up!
   

Breathe a Sigh of Relief

After Heidi and cleaned everything out, it was such a relief...we felt free!

As a recovering overabundant-produce-aholic, we recommend starting slow.

Here is a tip to get you started on your new life: Only buy what you plan on using. This can be tricky at first, but you'll get used to it. Go to the market, co-op, whatever more often and buy less. Use it.

Better yet, use it quickly, it's better for your health!

The ideal situation is to only have something in your fridge as long as the fridge can keep it fresh. Dream scenario, I know, but with practice you will get there.

Being a raw foodist makes this a little more difficult, we usually don't have bottles of ketchup that will last longer than our fridge. We buy fresh, we eat fresh. It's just par for the course.

Speaking of Fridge Bankruptcy, I believe last time I looked in our fridge, it was a little overstuffed.

I sense another cleaning in our future.


~ JS
Raw Food, Right Now

P.S. Have you declared Fridge Bankruptcy recently? Tell everyone your story in the comments. Let it all out. We'll love you no matter how bad your fridge is. We promise!

Photo Credit: scottfeldstein

Tell Us: How Was Your Holiday Weekend?

Please tell the Easter Bunny that you liked the raw carrots and raw chocolate he gave you in your Easter basket this year.

We (Heidi, JS and the Easter Bunny) are taking a moment to check in with you to see how your weekend was.

Hi! How are you?!

For many people it was a very juicy weekend. Those juice feasters kept on with juice feasting despite the fact that it was a major holiday for other people. No holiday is going to stop some juice feasters out there! For example, our friend Penni seems to have had a great Easter weekend, including some days of water fasting and parasite removal...you'll have to read her blog post about this to understand what I mean.


And for all the Divas out there, you probably had a "last meal" before starting Body Enlightenment System today. Good luck and happy times ahead to everyone starting BES! And have fun with Tera and Amy; I know you guys will all have a blast together!


How was the Raw Film Festival? This weekend was the Raw Lifestyle Film Festival in Los Angeles this weekend. I bet it was a blast! We know many many people who were scheduled to go out there, including David and Katrina Rainoshek. If you are reading this and you were there, take a moment and tell us about it! I'd love to know how raw foodies enjoyed Louise Hay's film, You Can Heal Your Life...JS and I viewed it a few weeks ago and it was great!

What recipes did you make this weekend? Did you make any fun and festive recipes this weekend? Any culinary adventures you want to share?

If you did buy our Easter book and tried out my recipes, I always nice to hear from you. It's always helpful to know how things turned out in kitchens outside my own. So far I've heard good things about the Carrot Cake, which was one of my favorites. You can tell us what you thought about the book if you want to. But this post isn't about our book. This post is about what happened to you over the weekend. If you have a favorite new recipe you came up with and shared over the weekend, please tell us about it.

I am hoping to hear back from Heather in Minneapolis on how her raw Easter pies turned out from the Cafe' Gratitude uncookbook, as she emailed me with quite a last minute dilemma on Saturday night!

And finally, send some love. For those who love Oscar and Tanja and Freshtopia, according to Oscar's latest blog post, they had quite the adventurous past couple of days, and I don't mean that in a good way. Please take a moment and send them warm happy thoughts, or send some love via a comment on the Freshtopia blog.

OK! Time to dish! Tell us about your weekend!
Leave a comment!

~ Heidi and JS Raw Food Right Now

photo credit: Photo derived from G-tastic-7, via Flickr

Stay Raw this Easter and Keep Your Family on Your Side

The Apricot Easter Roast - "Roasted" in the dehydrator!

It's No Surprise that We've Got Raw Easter Recipes for You

After seeing both our Raw Thanksgiving and Raw Christmas recipes and ebooks both pass through the blog in the last year and a half, we've become known for Raw Holidays. So it's probably no surprise that we've come up with a Raw Easter ebook.

Our Latest Favorite Fruit Salad:

Pineapple Passion Fruit Salad

Raw Food Is Our Passion

Raw food is what we do. It is our passion. It has become part of who we are. This wasn't what we expected when we first went on our journey into raw food together nearly four years ago, but this is where we are today. And we are loving every minute of it.

We have written each of our recipes from a complete devotion to the raw food community. We love seeing the emails from people who are truly helped by what we do.

We've always asked ourselves this question: "How can we further support the raw community and support ourselves, without resorting to ad bombardment, Google AdSense, and, well...ads ads ads?"*

RFRN is continually getting email after email asking us "How can I support what you do? Your blog has helped me so much!" Good question?


How About... "How Can We Support Each Other?"

This is an ever changing and ever-growing community, this raw food community. We all support each other in various ways, paid and free. Some people have advertising on their website. Some people sell books, products, coaching, memberships into special clubs, etc. One way is not better than the other. And everyone is offering something special and unique, in their own way.

If someone has truly been helped, if all involved have been served, good work has been done.

We believe firmly that everyone should be doing exactly what they love. No matter what it is. Even if it is making home made Cabbage Patch Kids. Or making robots from junkyard parts.

And right now, we'd love to introduce you to our latest art project:

The Raw Easter ebook:


We are overjoyed to bring you our newest creation. The Raw Easter ebook is not just a recipe book, but also a solution.

What does that mean? Well, we're describing this ebook as:

"Raw Easter Recipes, Tips, Tricks, and Solutions to make your Easter raw...and your family happy!"

Heidi's Famous Deviled Eggs....Oh So Good!

There's No Way Around Food and Family on a Holiday

Holidays are often times associated with family, friends, and yes...lots of food! For some of us, it's one of the most trying times of the year to stay raw.

Every holiday tests each of us: our temptations and cravings; our ability to stand behind what we believe and how we want to live our lives (not mention eat). We are no exception to these tests, but we have studied each holiday and have come up with solutions to help make it easier for everyone. We will continue to find every conceivable way to make the raw food diet easier, and easier, and easier to do each year.

Every year it has gotten easier for both of us to stay raw, because we have scrutinized every holiday event, and have learned from each and every experience. And now we want to pass that knolwedge onto you.

Did You Know... Your Relatives Love It When You Make Food

We've found that nothing eases a holiday like raw versions of classic holiday dishes, sprinkled with plenty of tips and techniques for dealing with friends, family...and even taking care of yourself!

Even if you don't celebrate Easter, these are still awesome recipes and tips for other holiday celebrations and family events. Feel free to bring over any of these recipes to your spring celebrations and parties. Graduation parties are coming up!

So if you're keyboard is already wet from drool from seeing the pictures above, and you are ready to jump at the opportunity to try out our newest creations and tips, go grab yourself a copy here:

Raw Food, Right Now Presents: Raw Easter.

Either way, we support you, with love, integrity, and joy,

~ Heidi & JS Ohlander
Raw Food, Right Now!



*P.S. We both want to publicly say that we are not against blog ads, sponsorships, or even Google AdSense ads...if done tastefully. If ads are done with integrity and with an honest want to help out others, ads can actually help people find what they are searching for. It is our choice, however, to handle advertising with the highest amount of integrity.

P.P.S. To see an awesomely tasteful way of advertising in the raw food world, check out Freshtopia.

The Absolute Best Price on Raw Agave Nectar [Raw Food Deals]

One of Our Favorite Online Raw Food Deals

Recently, Dhrumil and the WLIR team have been posting a weekly Deal of the Week over on their blog.

What an awesome idea.

We absolutely could not pass up giving you one of our favorite online raw deals too. Last year, we excitedly sent this deal out to our mailing list, and the response was overwhelming. So many people profusely thanked us for pointing them to this deal.


The Absolute Best Price on Raw Agave Nectar


Check out this astounding price on bulk raw Madhava agave nectar over at Amazon.com.

Agave can get quite pricey, and if bought at your local co-op (even in bulk) can be as much as 50 cents an ounce!

Right now (as of the day we are posting this), Amazon is selling a pack of 12, 23-ounce raw agave bottles at $30.37. And they offering free shipping on orders over $25. That's 276 ounces of sweet, yummy, ice-cream making agave!

At that price, it comes to 11 cents an ounce.

Ok, super sweet deal, right?


Um, It's Even Cheaper Than That

What we love even MORE about this, is that Amazon is now offering what they are calling "Subscribe & Save", which means that they will ship a particular product out to you at regular intervals.

And if you sign up for Subscribe & Save (which you can set to be on whatever interval you want, based on months), they give an additional 15% off your order.

So that means, you can get this for $25.81 (as of this writing), which comes out to be an incredible 9.4 cents an ounce!

This is truly one of our favorite deals and falls inline with our Raw Food, Right Now! philosophy of making raw food, the smallest, quickest, easiest part of your day. Not only do you get in it bulk (so you don't have to waste time going to the store over and over), but with Amazon shipping it to you automatically (we signed up for every six months) just saves you even more time. This deal is basically a no-brainer to us.

We just ran out of agave and ordered some more today. Good timing!

Grab yours here: Raw Agave Deal.


Found a better price on raw agave? Have another deal? Let our readers know in the comments or shoot it over to us.


**Update** - Because of all the Raw Food Right Now readers who took part of this deal, as of 3/17 2008 Amazon has run out! If you are interested in getting agave nectar you have two choices right now:

1. Buy the current bulk agave nectar that they do have in stock. This deal is for 17 oz. bottles in a 12 pack. If you are buying agave in the grocery store, you will still be saving money.
   
   OR
   
   
2. If you can wait, give your email to Amazon, and Amazon will notify you when the 12 pack of 23 oz. bottles of agave are back in stock! To sign up, go to the top right of the page, and it will say "Alert Me". Click the button that says "Sign Up"!
   

~ Heidi & JS
Raw Food, Right Now

P.S. Oh, and please make sure to recycle all those bottles. Or better yet, use some of them in your kitchen. You can use them for dressings, frostings (easy decoration!), oils, or just about anything that's liquid.

Raw Food Blog Roundup: March 14th 2008

Ani Phyo, Future Raw Race Car Driver

Here are some of our favorite recent blog posts from around the raw blogosphere.

Raw Food Blog Roundup: March 14th, 2008:

• Ani Phyo is training to be a race car driver?! OK, not really. It turns out her brother is a race car driver! After spending two months living off the grid in Mexico, it appears that Ani is back in action! Check out her blog to see her latest raw food recipe for Fast and Furious Wild Wild Rice. Glad to see you back to the blog world, Ani!
  
  

• Our friends over at Fruit Species are continuing to show us all beautiful and tropical and ususual fruits. This week's fruit is no exception - the Indian JuJube. JS and I have tried the Chinese JuJube, but we have not had the opportunity to try to Indian variety. Fruit Species have also created a link where you can choose to learn about 32 fruit varieties! Check it out!
  

• Are you wanting to lose weight, but are constantly tempted by smells? Connie over at Naked Food Cafe' is here to share with all of us some of the smells that help suppress appetite. According to a researcher, bananas are just one smell that helps curb your appetite. Other scents include vanilla, green apple and peppermint. Keep in mind that you don't want to smell all of these things at once, as your appetite may be permanently ruined!
  
  
  Angela Stokes and Matt Monarch Photo via Angela's Blog
  

• Matt Monarch was recently celebrating his lovely fiancee, Angela Stokes' recent success with her completion of her latest book, Raw Emotions. Matt decided that this was an occasion that needed something special....raw cacao. Matt decided to experiment with raw cacao after months of not eating any raw chocolate. What happens to Matt? He goes C-R-A-Z-Y! You'll have to read all about it! (Editor's note: We here at RFRN do not recommend consuming large amounts of cacao after an extended hiatus away from cacao. Use cacao responsibly. Love cacao responsibly. - H.) Read all about Matt's adventure here:
  
  
• Matt's Raw Chocolate Experiement, Part One
• Matt's Raw Chocolate Experiment, Part Two

• If you have not already checked out this raw food blog, you need to go read Love Life Be Happy, created by Maria. Maria has recently started eating a raw food diet after being a vegetarian for 17 years! Maria's posts are full of joy and happiness, and even some awesome personal success tips too! In particular, Maria recently posted about a simple test for dehydration that she found on another website:
  
  "A simple test of your level of dehydration is to soak in the tub. If the pads of your fingers crinkle badly you are dehydrated. If they are hardly affected by a 1/2 hour soak you are much improved."
  

We had not heard of that particular test for dehydration, but it sounds logical!
Thanks for the tip Maria!

That's the raw food blog roundup for this week!

Want more raw food blog posts? Be sure to check out the Give It To Me Raw Blog Roll generated from our own Ultimate List of Raw Food Blogs.

- Heidi & JS
Raw Food Right Now

Get Fresh Magazine - Spring 2008 Issue [Raw Food Magazine Review]

The new, Spring 2008 issue of Get Fresh! magazine is out!

For days we have been checking the mailbox, waiting for a glossy raw food magazine to arrive. Each day would pass, and the mailbox would be empty, with perhaps a bill here and a check there. And then the day finally arrived, and we were so happy! Get Fresh! Yay!

This Spring issue of Get Fresh is JAM PACKED - and rightly so. This issue celebrates 50 issues of international raw food news and information!

We won't list every single article here, but we have listed for you our favorite highlights.

In this issue of Get Fresh:

• Get Fresh editor, Sarah Best, starts out this issue talking about the ironic Pepsi Raw, as well as touched upon the history of the Get Fresh magazine.
  
  
• Two book reviews in this issue: There Is A Cure For Diabetes, and Matt Monarch's Raw Success.
  
  
• It is amazing how many new raw events there are right now, and how more events seem to grow. In this issue alone they mention 11 events - we wish we could go to all of them!
  
  
• One of the best parts of this issue is a fantastic introductory article on juice feasting. It gives a great starting point of information, and talks about the Global Juice Feast that is already underway. In the next issue there are going to be some personal accounts of juice feasting! Exciting!
  
  
• Brendan Brazier has a fascinating article on what he calls "Borrowed Energy"...you know, the fake energy from caffeine and stimulants. This particular article was a thought-provoking read.
  
  
• Tonya Zavasta's article on sleep should be a must read for anyone who is having any issues with quality sleep, insomnia, or just wanting to feel refreshed in the morning. She even talks about her results of experimenting with sleeping nine hours at night.
  
  
• The interview with Gabriel Cousens is quite in-depth, and includes a beautiful photo of Gabriel and his wife, Shanti. The focus of the article is about diabetes, but it is always interesting to see what Gabriel has to say.
  
  
• Karen Knowler, former editor of Get Fresh celebrates her sixteenth year of raw food with this issue of Get Fresh by writing an article about the conflicting thoughts in our head about what we all should or should not eat. After sixteen years, there is one mantra that Karen holds... "I'm not giving up this magic for anything!" You just have to read this article, you might even want to paste it on your fridge to remind you to take care of yourself!
  
  
• The lovely Diva Tera Warner has a great article with a list of 7 tips to get kids to eat more raw food. Hey! We're all kids...and these tips are good for not just kids, but everyone!
  
  
• Shazzie brings kids of all ages something yummy to eat by providing three delicious, healthy, and super-powered raw food dessert recipes. Do you want a second helping? Yes, please!
  
  
• Brigitte Mars has a quick start guide to spring foraging for wild foods. Complete with full color photos, and ideas on how to use wild foods in your meals!
  
  
• Tips and Tricks on how to make raw food have the texture of cooked food from Cherie Soria. Lots of great ideas to inspire you in the kitchen!
  
  
• A lovely compilation of salad recipes from raw chef Chad Sarno...
  
  
• The final page of the magazine goes into detail of a Day in the Life of our blogging buddy, Dhrumil Purohit from We Like It Raw. He's a busy guy, but after reading about his typical day, he obviously knows how to manage his time! You don't have to have a copy of Get Fresh to learn about his routine; he posted it this week on We Like It Raw.
  
  There is even more articles and goodies that we didn't mention here. Lots more!

This may sound strange, but even the advertising is beautiful! Most magazines we never bother looking at the ads, but now that we have so many friends in the raw world it is so fun to see who is in the magazine, and to find new friends and contacts!

We would like to thank the Fresh Network for being kind enough to give us a gift subscription so we can give you, our readers, more bang for your Raw Food, Right Now buck!

Get Fresh is full color, professionally designed raw food goodness! Yum!

Now go grab yourself a copy over at your local Whole Foods or treat yourself to a subscription so you'll have something excited to look forward to in your mailbox.

It's just like getting raw chocolates in the mail, except you can't read chocolates!

We would like to take this moment and congratulate the entire Fresh Network and the Get Fresh team on accomplishing 50 issues. We are excited to see 50 more!

Related:

• Get your free PDF copy of Get Fresh!
• Raw Food Right Now review of the Winter 2007 issue of Get Fresh

~ Heidi and JS
Raw Food, Right Now

P.S. Dhrumil has passed on the torch, as we find out what a typical day is like for the team members over at We Like It Raw. Check out Shannon Marie's Day. Anthony and Philip are going to be featured later this week!

Freshtopia Interview [RFRN Radio Podcast]

Freshtopia Interview Now Available!

Want to get to know Oscar and Tanja of Freshtopia better? A lot better?

In case you don't know about Freshtopia, Freshtopia.net is a fun and engaging place to come for news and information on food, sustainability and the environment. Freshtopia is known for their entertaining and engaging videos, highlighting their recipe creations using fresh, raw ingredients.

Interview Length: 55 minutes

In this interview, Tanja and Oscar answers our probing questions. Find out:

• How Oscar and Tanja met.
• What was the inspiration for Freshtopia, and how the website started practically in an instant!
• How hip-hop music led them to raw food.
• In depth answers from Oscar about his illness, and his path towards health.
• How long does it take to create one episode of Freshtopia, from start to finish.
• Is Freshtopia just about food?
• What are Tanja's secret plans this year?
  

And of course...more!

Set aside some time or download it to your iPod.

This interview was a lot of fun, and we both have mucho love and respect for Oscar, Tanja, and the Freshtopia crew.


Listen now, right here:




~ Raw Food, Right Now!

Raw Food News in the Mainstream Media Roundup for March 9, 2008

Penni Shelton: Fellow Raw Food Blogger

Raw Food, Right Now!
Giving You Raw Food News
Faster Than You Can Blend a Smoothie

We've got some mainstream news for you this week!

Juice Feasting Hits the Mainstream Press

Fellow raw food blogger and now juice feaster, the always cheerful Penni Shelton, was recently featured in a Tulsa World article detailing her juice feast.

Overall, a very positive article. I must commend the journalist, Matt Gleason, for taking on a story about something that even some raw foodists find crazy!

The only "negative" view the article could point out was the classic question about protein. Of course, if you've watched the recent David Wolfe video posted by Jenna Norwood, you already know more about protein than 99% of the people on this planet.

Also mentioned in the feature is the Raw Food Inspiration Award that Penni won. If you don't know what the heck a Raw Food Inspiration Award is, check out who created it and how you can give one out today!

Congrats Penni!


Journalist Finds Raw Foods Intriguing... And Doesn't Know What to Think About It

Another journalist gets wind of raw food, this time from the Lansing State Journal. The article features Sheree Clark, another raw foodist currently taking the Juice Feasting plunge.

While the article isn't about Sheree's juice feast, it is a look into the raw food movement by journalist Rekha Basu. Basu didn't know what to think of the raw food movement even after attending a raw food potluck group's meeting and noted "If you went looking for hippies, you'd be surprised by the business suits that showed up for this meeting."

We find it interesting how outside the comfort zone of many people the concept of "eating raw food" is, let alone drinking only raw fruit and veggie juices for 92 days.


Jam! Television Thinks Carol Alt is Gorgeous

This small online article about Carol focuses on raw food and her appearance (and subsequent ass-kicking) on the Celebrity Apprentice.

Two very revealing quotes from Alt:

"Raw food is my mission," Alt says from Manhattan. "The closer you eat to God, the better. Everything I eat is as close to its natural state as possible. I haven't even been in a pharmacy since 1993 when I wrote my first book, Eating in the Raw. I'm not a guinea pig for big pharmaceuticals and food processors."

Nicely said.

Her other fascinating quote is about her experience (thus far) on Celebrity Apprentice and her history with The Donald:

"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," an increasingly ambitious Alt admits. "I've known Mr. Trump for 25 years. If you listen to him, he teaches you how to do well on the show, and in business. Being on the show, I've learned to become a good listener. I always thought of myself as having more of a head for math and science, but Trump has shown me that I could do well in business."

It's always great to hear what Carol is up to. If you haven't yet, check out our interview with Carol Alt from last year. And be sure to keep watching the Celebrity Apprentice - Thursday nights on NBC - Carol is still in the running to win!


Gary Gygax, We Are Sad to See You Go

And on a sad, totally non-raw, unrelated note, Gary Gygax, co-creator of the epic Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died at age 69 this week.

Yes, I used to be a D&D geek (ok, still am) but haven't played in years. Gary, a true visionary, will surely be missed.

I'll make sure to add a +1 Lid of Strength to my blender this week in his honor, and make a nice frosty green smoothie just for him.

Now where did I put that Cloak of Invisibility?


- JS
Raw Food, Right Now!

(Photo credit: Robert S. Cross, Tulsa World)

David Wolfe Confidently Answers the Ever Present Protein Question [Raw Food Video]

(via Supercharge Me blog)


Where Do You Get Your Protein?

Oh boy, it's that question again. You know the answer, you're satisfied with it, but you can never seem to get around this question whenever you explain to someone that you eat a raw food diet.

Jenna Norwood of the much talked about Supercharge Me movie just posted an informative video of David Wolfe getting confidently to the point answers on where raw foodists get their protein.

Check out the video...better yet, have your Grandma see it:

Here is the protein skinny from this video:

• Highest non-meat protein source: Spirulina
• A complete protein: Flax seeds
• Other good sources: almonds, hemp seeds, dark leafy greens

Still not convinced?

One of our favorite articles ever on protein and vegetarian/vegan diets is from Dr. Leslie Van Romer. The article is called "Do Elephants Eat Cows for Protein?"


~ Raw Food, Right Now


Related:

• David Wolfe Speaks at Google Headquarters

Raw Food Blog Roundup: March 6th 2007

A juice from Kathy's Juice Feast

Here are some of our favorite recent blog posts from around the raw blogosphere:

• Kathy wrote a great article about 10 tips on juice feasting. You have to check out her tips! These are great tips not only for juice feasters, but for anyone who likes to juice!
  

• Over at Raw Foods Wealth 2 Health, Alma shared a great image that visually shows what foods are acid forming and what foods are alkaline forming:

What a great chart! I especially love the color bar at the top!

• Annet Van Dorrser had her first experience with stinging nettles. The verdict?
  
  She likes it!

Annet even shows how she made her first stinging nettle smoothie! Very cool!

• We love seeing people who are passionate about raw food, AND passionate about other stuff. That is why I was touched to see that Darice took the time to show her professional photography skills for a wedding she recently photographed. She even spent some time with Photoshop CS3 and made them a gorgeous wedding album! To see pretty wedding photos, you have to check out Darice's work. Darice, do you do raw weddings? I bet there are some people out there who would love to hire you!
  
  
• Penni has been blogging about her juice feast, and is doing so in a lovely way. Her posts are not as "scientific" as some other juice feasting blogs out there (mine included). Instead, she has been posting in a fluid story-like way. Her recent post from Day Five is no exception, as she talks honestly about her love of grapefruit juice, her lack of food cravings, and her struggle with getting four quarts of juice in a day.
  
  
• Not into juice feasting right now? Still making raw food recipes? Karen Knowler has released some YouTube videos from her secret stash. Now you can learn how to make three more recipes from Karen Knowler. Check em' out on YouTube:
  
  
  • How to make a green smoothie
• How to make marinated mushrooms
• How to make marinated vegetables

• Finally, our favorite raw girl living in Japan, Em, is finally back to blogging. Apparently she has a back injury, and is not able to do yoga right now (her favorite passion). Please send her some positive thoughts and email hugs! Let's hope she posts more often!
  

That's the raw food blog roundup!

Want more? Be sure to check out the Blog Roll generated from our own Ultimate List of Raw Food Blogs. Thanks to the We Like It Raw Team for setting this up!

- Heidi
Raw Food Right Now

Heidi's Juice Feast: Post Juice Feasting Check-In

Beet Juice, surrounded by my pink and white "beet beat" headphones

It has been about a week since I decided that I would end my juice feast at 35 days.

At first, I felt bad that I had to stop my feast, but then I realized that this felt so right to me. Every part of my being felt like this was what I needed to do.

Sure, there were things I had planned on doing after my 92 day feast. There were obligations I had to other people regarding me finishing my juice feast. So I felt sad that I had not been able to meet those other plans.

But in the end, I have successfully transitioned out of a juice feast, and now the world is wide open for me to do whatever it is that I need to do. The choices are endless.

JS and I have been offered so many exciting new projects to be a part of, and right now we are just figuring out what we are going to do now!

It seems that as I decided to end the juice feast, that many more opportunities were being created for us. I went with the flow.

Since it has been some time after my juice feast, I wanted to check in with you and let you know how I am doing.

Post Juice Feast Check-In

• I continue to lose weight. I am not gaining any weight. The weight loss does appear to be slightly slower than during the juice feast, but it is continuing, which I am happy with.
  
  
• I am still drinking juice. Right now I have about 2 quarts today, in addition to some other raw things. Yesterday I had a huge green smoothie, and some juice, and some other things. I have a lot of food options right now.
  
  
• I am feeling good. I still have lots of energy, but I will say that the "energy" is different. I don't feel like I am detoxing all the time. I don't feel like my body is "working on something" all the time. My body is just back to doing what it does best.
  
  
• I am sleeping more. I did sleep up to 2 hours less during the feast. Granted, JS and I have been having some strange hours, staying up WAY past our bedtime, so that has something to do with it. I will say that my sleep continues to be very restful, and very productive. I am having very vivid dreams, strong dream recall, and very inspiring dreams. All of this is an improvement compared to my dream activity before juice feasting.
  
  
• I am excited about making raw food. This was one of the reasons I knew I had to stop the juice feast. The passion was back. At the end of my juice feast, I felt like a nun who needed to leave the convent to go find a man! It was lusty, it was passionate, it was beautiful. I had to start making raw recipes again. And so far, it has been a blissful experience!
  

Here are a few of the things I didn't want to have happen, but happened after I stopped juice feasting:

• My teeth are more yellow. Not as yellow as they were before, but they are not as white as they were on the juice feast. I know I can change that.
  
  
• My muscles have been aching a bit. Perhaps it is beacuse I have been working out more now that I am not juice feasting. Need some more MSM... (MSM really works for me!!! I love the stuff!!!)
  
  
• I want less juice. I was hoping that I would want tons of juice, but right now 2 quarts is all I can handle right now.
  
  
• Sometimes I feel dehydrated. While I was juice feasting I felt like I had never been that hydrated in all of my life. Probably true! I do miss that feeling. But that is why I plan to eat as many juicy fruits and veggies, like cucumbers, as possible. Hydration feels so good!
  
  
• I feel left out. I miss the community of juice feasters around the world. I feel like I am outside of the Garden of Eden. I arrived before the party started, and then I left early before the party started. At least I know that I did help get the party ready to begin, as many of you have emailed me such heartfelt messages, telling me that you found juice feasting through Raw Food Right Now. It's OK. I'm still trying to party with you guys!
  

That's my update for now. I am so happy to have had the experience. 35 days is actually a long time!

Before I started my feast I have to admit that I used to look at some of the people who only did a few days, and I wondered why they stopped. Now, after stopping my own feast, I have learned the stories of many people who have ended their feasts for a wide variety of reasons. After learning from others, I have found a new perspective. ANY amount of juice feasting is monumentus. EVERY juice feast is special, and sacred. Most importantly, every juice feast is personal. You can not judge what someone else has done. You can only love others, no matter what they do.

It is 3:33 AM. More magical coincidences. Yep, just another thing that continues to happen after juice feasting. I've had so many magical coincidences lately, including running into people from my past. I ran into 2 different people today. It felt amazingly magical.

Magic is everywhere...you just have to be open enough to let it happen.

Those are my words of wisdom for today.

With a wave of my wand (aka the mouse) I am clicking this post so you can read it.

*POOF!*

~ Heidi

P.S. JS and I have lots of great content coming up for the blog. Get ready for Raw Food Right Now, version 2.0! More news, reviews, and information you can use! (Don't worry, we will still get personal on here...we know you love it!)

A Juice Feaster's Handbook [Raw ebook Review]

Are you thinking of Juice Feasting?

Now with the Global Juice Feast in full swing, many raw foodists, and others who are new to raw foods, are contemplating jumping on the juice feasting bandwagon.

Then there are those who are not quite sure what to think of juice feasting, let alone juicing. Juice feasting is quite a stretch, even for many raw foodists.

You may have been to one of the many juice feasting blogs recently and have noticed that there are a wide variety of people taking an even wider variety of juice feasting journeys. Some, like Heidi, have recently completed their feast and have done less than the 92 days that is the center of the main Juice Feasting program.

Others have feasted to completion and have had amazing results.

You may have also heard the words Modified Juice Feast being thrown around quite a bit...

Confused yet?


Guidance In All This Juice Feasting Confusion

If you are at all interested in doing a juice feast of any length, it is absolutely required that you read though everything under the Juice Feasting Intro section on the JuiceFeasting.com site.

If you haven't yet, please read our full review of the JuiceFeasting.com Membership site to get an understanding of what it's all about.

After you've read through all of that information and are still thinking of doing any sort of Juice Feast, we highly recommend you grab a copy of Angela Stokes' Juice Feasting Handbook. Her ebook is a small investment for a practical, hands-on guide for anyone even remotely interested in juice feasting.

Why Angela? Well, as far as we know, Angela is the first person who publicly blogged about doing a juice feast on her Raw Reform blog. She has, perhaps, single handedly launched the juice feasting fire that has flamed the Internet and raw blogging world through her detailed online journey.

She gives the best highlights of her juice feasting journey in her book, while also including a post-feast update with her thoughts and advice now that she has achieved this momentous goal.


Her Practical, First-Hand Experience Gives Helpful Information

To have a book written about juice feasting by someone who has fully done it is an incredible resources to have.

Though Angela knows the Rainoshek's Juice Feasting program inside and out, she offers her unique perspective that will be a useful Juice Feasting tool for years to come. In her book, she answers all of the typical juice feasting questions, including the emotional ones that you may be afraid to ask, such as "What if I get cravings to eat something?" and "Isn't it difficult to stay just on juice?"

A couple of other excellent questions Angela addresses are:

• "Does it have to be for 92 Days?"
• "I feel fearful/depressed/anxious while Juice Feasting - is something going wrong?"
• "How do I avoid the post-feast overeating trap?"

Thank you for the recipes, Angela

One of our favorite aspects of her book, is the large list of quality juice recipes. These are a fabulous addition to the recipe ideas listed on the JuiceFeasting.com site.

Angela gives many excellent day-to-day juice combinations that you will probably end up making as daily juice feasting staples, and with enough variety to keep you interested as you go.

These recipes really helped Heidi with recipe inspiration as she began her juice feast and has given JS a great direction for his modified feast.


A Complete Juice Feasting Program

It is our opinion that if you were to combine the JuiceFeasting.com membership site and Angela's handbook, you would have a complete guide to Juice Feasting.

Maybe in the future this ebook will become part of the overall membership program.

Again, if you are at all interested in Juice Feasting, please do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this ebook and give it a read-through. It is a small investment that will give you an thorough, first-hand perspective and overview of Juice Feasting. By reading the book, you should be able to determine if Juice Feasting is right for you and how you will plan to go about doing it and for how long.

If nothing else, it should inspire you to start adding more nutrient-dense juices to your diet.

I know it did for me.


~ JS
Raw Food, Right Now

Heidi's Juice Feast: Feast Breaking

Global Juice Feast is Today! (Click photo for larger image)

Date: Friday February 28th - Feast Breaking Day One

Daily Juice & Supplements:

16 oz. purified water
32 oz. celery, beet, apple, ginger
32 oz watercress green apple cucumber
16 oz. purified water
16 oz. grapefruit with MSM
32 oz. watermelon juice
16 oz. carrot cucumber with Vitamineral Earth
16 oz. purified water with a splash of lemon

Almost 8 oz of dried plums aka prunes, plus dried plum soak water

sprinkles of bee pollen
a little bit of coconut oil
one 5 mg sublingual tablet of B-12 complex


Total Intake: 128 ounces of juice

FYI: If I do not make it to a gallon of juice, the juice amount is in red.
If I do make it to at least a gallon of juice, the juice amount is in green!

Weight:

Starting weight: 176.8
Current weight: 164.0

Total weight loss: 12.8 pounds


Exercise:

• Stretching - lots of stretching today
• yoga
• rebounding
  

Energy Levels: 7/10

Emotions: I feel so amazing right now, I want to burst with joy!

Hours of Sleep: 7 hours, broken up into a strange sleeping schedule today

Dreams/ Lucid Dreaming: Multiple dreams, very small dream recall.

Positive Changes to note:

I feel so much better now that I have started to break the feast.

Food desires:

Salad. With avocado.

Daily Thoughts:

You are amazing. I never expected to see so many people with your positive and kind words towards my decision. You are all so very kind, and I am very thankful to have you in my life. All the comments on the blog, and the emails are incredible.

Thank you.

In particular, I really enjoyed the words that my friend, Penni Shelton, wrote about my feast breaking on her blog:

"I just learned that my friend, Heidi Ohlander, has made the choice to end her juice feast today on day 35. She has done so well and she's been a huge source of encouragement to me. I applaud her for listening to her body and resisting the urge to prove a point, to try to hang in there for others or to push through for some sort of level achievement when that is so not what all of this is about. She is going to continue on with a modified juice feast and she will keep us posted on what that is going to look like in the days ahead."

Penni truly captured not only the fact that I am following my heart, but she truly understands that I am doing this for the right reasons. I wasn't going to push myself just to prove a point, or to win an award of achievement. Penni obviously understands where I am coming from. I am excited to see Penni's juice feasting journey unfold!

.......

I feel like a rebel. Here, I had all these great plans to juice feast with everybody during the Global Juice Feast. I was going to do the full 4 quarts a day. I couldn't wait in January to start juicing. So I jumped right in. And I did it, for 35 full days. It was great until the very end. But in the end, I felt I needed to do something different. It was a tough decision to make, but I had to do it. Something is calling me to dig deeper, to create something new. I am called to create something, many things. It's not easy being a rebel. But that is just what I am right now. It is going to be worth it. Just wait and see.

I am currently in the process of creating my own program for the next 100 days.

I am still doing research to determine what this plan is going to be for us. I am in the exploratory phase. This is a good time for me to do this, as right now I am eating simply as I move out of my juice feast. I am following the feast breaking protocol created by David Rain. After those 6 days of feast breaking are completed, I will move into my new plan. The majority of the plan came to me in a flash, in my mind, immediately after I decided to break the juice feast. Right now the plan is 99% complete, but I want to tweak my system over the next few days.

As a result, I am not going to be posting my daily food logs until further notice.

If there is something I want to say about what I am eating now that I am moving into a modified juice feast, I will certainly let you know. The way I see it now, I will be reporting on my progress approximately once a week. If I feel like it, I will talk about my weight loss and other positive aspects of my new plan. And when there are exciting developments, there will be blog posts.

In addition, I have decided that I need to work on some new projects. In particular, I am doing some serious soul searching and looking into the various things I want to work on that do not involve raw food. Raw food is 95% of my life, but there are other parts of me waiting to be explored. I need to nurture those other parts of me as well.

Prunes: I will say that the prunes today were some of the most flavorful things I have ever tasted in my entire life. There has been nothing to compare to the bursting flavor of soaked plums. I think these soaked plums are going to be something I include in my diet occasionally, just because I think I felt so clean after eating them. Of course, I did brush my teeth immediately afterwards! Those dried plums are sweet! And in case you didn't notice, I hate using the term "prune". Dried plums are too delicious to be given such a derogatory word. Plums are amazing, and dried plums are even better!

JS and I will be moving Raw Food Right Now back into our original intention, as a news and information blog about the raw food world. We have many exciting plans ahead for the blog. What are these plans? Stay tuned to the blog to find out more news!

I just want to say thank you again to everyone who has sent in such kind words about my juice feast. There are too many people to name, but if you were one of the people who sent in an email or a comment, I want to say thank you. Thank you for taking the time to say hello, and offer your encouragement.

I love ya!

XOXO,
~ Heidi

photo by Heidi Ohlander

P.S. Hooray for everyone who is juicing right now! Let the Global Juice Feast begin!