From my own experience I can tell you that there is nothing more integral to ones health and diet then raw smoothies. There is no better opportunity to fuel your body with the things it needs then smoothies. It is the meal where I choose to get down stuff I don’t particularly care for i.e. marine phytoplankton, not taste them yet get all the benefits from them.

I heard David Wolfe say one time that if you give your child a raw smoothie before school that they would be 4-5x more mentally prepared for the day, when compared to some sugary cereal, because they would have the fuel they need to power their brains. If it is true for kids it has be to be true for us adults too. I can honestly say that I feel younger, more alert and bursting with energy when I take the time to make a smoothie.

How do I make mine you ask? I have developed a recipe that tastes like a chocolate shake and I love it. However I think it is best to experiment and make something that you like. I suggest making something that you think tastes awesome first then try adding stuff that you think tastes bad to it. Why? Most of the time you wont even be able to taste it and you will enjoy it and know you are getting something good into your system.

Here are some tips that I have learned:

-Put tons of spinach in your smoothies…you cannot taste it if you put enough other stuff in and it is a great source of all sorts of nutrients.
-Want your smoothie to be creamier? Try adding hemp seeds or cashews.
-Nut milk makes an awesome base for chocolate smoothies.
-For chocolate smoothies use nibs and powder for a more complete chocolate experience
-Bee Pollen and Chia Seeds create great texture

What are your favorite raw smoothie tips?

I am talking about man’s constant struggle with food. It seems that we all have our quirks right. Most of us are on the SAD. Some of us have been lucky enough to break through that and on to something better like vegetarian or vegan. And a few of us found out about and implemented being raw vegan.

However we all have our issues dont we? Who among us doesn’t have some sort of food issue (or fissues as my wife likes to call them)? We all do. The SAD guy is well…sad. The vegetarian loves her cheese pizza, oreos and whole milk. The vegan loves his bread and pasta. The raw foodie digs into a bag of cashews whenever they get the chance.

I am not saying that any of this is wrong but it struck me today that food wins…almost every single time. Food has an unbelievable control over us and most of us (including myself) struggle with this their entire life. The problem is that most of us don’t know and will never know why. Sure…if you watch enough TV you will hear that it is something emotional. Maybe that is true for some but I got to weigh almost 300 lbs and was happy as a clam all the way there so I dont think it is that way for everyone.

I don’t have any great advice for you on this topic. Sorry..wish I did. At this point I have decided to look at whatever it is that I want to eat and ask myself which object is stronger…me or X? It is a shame that I ever let food win.

What do you guys do to win this battle?

I found myself thinking about all sorts of things and I wanted to talk to you about a one in particular.  I realized that I have spent the past year (maybe longer) sitting back and watching people royally screw me over.  I am sure some of you have much worse stories than mine and for that I am… grateful? Anyway, you get the point.  But I have had my share of screwings.  I had began to think that I was unlucky or that something was wrong with me.  I began to expect bad things to happen.  The problem with this is that I used to never be this way.  I used to be the guy who always said good things would happen, never let bad stuff get him down and the eternal optimist.

While on the playa I started to think about those people that seems to always have something going on.  Their kid is always sick, they are always sick, their car is always broken down, etc. etc. etc.  I soon realized that I was quickly becoming that way and this bothered me.  I tell you all this to tell you that I am done with this.  I have decided that I have two choices.  1. Sit back and wait for something to happen to me.  2.  Get up and make something happen.  I am choosing the second one.

Now it is obvious to think that this is about diet, maybe business or maybe even both.  I am going on record to say that it is not.   This is about my life.  My relationships, my health, my work, my finances, my friends and so on and so forth.

This is more of a rant than anything and I appreciate you reading this far however if you are sitting around and waiting to lose weight, work out, eat raw, call your mom or get a dog get your butt up off the couch and get it done!

First let me say that I believe in God. If you don’t…ok. I will not tell you why I think you should or get preachy on you. Even if you don’t believe in God but think there is some validity to the Bible as a history book then I encourage you to at least read on.

The book of Genesis starts off by telling us the story of man…where we came from and what we ate. In Genesis 1: 29-30 God gives some pretty direct instructions on what to eat:

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

The world exists for about 1600 years before the world is flooded and Noah builds his ark.

People of the earth at this time live an incredibly long time…almost 1000 years in some cases. Ever heard of Methuselah? He and others lived a much long life before the flood and I believe followed the instruction handed out in Genesis 1.

Soon thereafter the flood hit and wiped out all living things on the earth. After it was over God also gave instruction on what to eat. In Genesis 9: 3-4 he said:

3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

So lets recap where we are at this point: Man created, told to eat greens of the earth as food, people lived a crazy long time, flood happens and every living thing on the earth (including plants) was destroyed, waters recede and God gave new instructions on food.

Following me so far?

So my hunch is that we were raw vegans for the first 1600 years of our existence. Why do I think raw? Well if you look at the Genesis 9:4 God tells man that they can eat meat but not if it has blood in it. How do you get rid of blood? Cook it out. I am not sure it even occurred to people to cook food at first. Why would it?

So after that man started cooking all their food and we got to where we are today. Why did God say it was ok to eat meat then? Well first…I am not going to judge God but I can tell you what I think makes sense.

1. Maybe it was supposed to be a temporary approval. Since everything was wiped out maybe that is what they had to have.
2. Maybe God saw that people were living entirely too long and that was causing problem (maybe the reason the flood was needed) and this was a way to control the population size.
3. Maybe he saw the same for the animal kingdom…too many animals.

Regardless I don’t know why but I believe that for the first millennium and a half or so humans were vegetarians, most likely vegans and probably raw vegans. I think that goes to show that the raw food diet is not some fad that will pass but in fact it is where we all started.

Why be healthy?  Why eat raw?  Why do all the things that raw vegans say is good for you?

Simply put…you must.

You must be healthy because you don’t have a choice.  Too much is riding on you.  You have too much to lose to not be.  Your family and loved ones have t0o much to lose for you to not be.  Your career has too much riding on you being a fat slob.  You are running out of time…start NOW!

You can’t make compromises or as Don Miguel Ruiz says agreements with yourself because you aren’t capable of living up to them.  You can tell yourself all day long that you will only have one cookie or one bite of ice cream but the fact of the matter is that you aren’t strong enough to do it.  The ambiguity of eating “healthy” is a joke. I recently heard a story of someone who decided to start eating “healthy”.  Snack of choice?  Grapes dipped in dry jello mix!

You are setting yourself up for failure if you don’t give yourself black and white directives and stick to them.  I give myself two rules when it comes to what I put in my body.  1. If it doesn’t grow out of the ground…I don’t eat it.  2. If it does grow out of the ground and it is cooked…I don’t eat it. Try giving yourself similar guidelines and see how much more progress you make vs saying “I am going to eat raw as much as I can”.

Remember you are doing this because you MUST.  Not because you should or because you want to or for any other reason.  You simply must be the healthiest person you can or you will die trying.

To borrow a quote from Tony Robbins, I was “digging my grave with my teeth” just 12 months ago today. I ate nothing of nutritional value and had a diet completely packed full of chemicals, antibiotics and horrible things I don’t even care to know. On the surface, I looked fine and fairly healthy. On the inside, however, I was really sick and didn’t even know I was heading down a very destructive path. I, like many of other Americans, felt that if I looked okay, then I must be healthy. Little did I know that the food the FDA says is not only safe to eat, but nutritious, was actually zapping my energy and potentially poisoning my body with chemicals. I watched Food Inc. – a great documentary designed to get you to ask yourself “Where exactly does my food come from?” It opened my eyes and along with the support of my husband, we decided to go raw.

Marion

30 bananas x 105 calories per banana = 3150 cal
2 liters (66 ounces) of orange juice x 15 calories per ounce = 990 calories

TOTAL: 4141 Calories PER DAY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UK-aX0_fAw

If that doesn’t give some credibility to my stance on calories I don’t know what will. So stop counting calories and start giving your body the fuel it needs to run. I know I am thinking about eating more after watching this and I know (like we all do) that I should be drinking more water.