I want to share all the deets (check at the bottom for sign up bonuses) of the upcoming Mexico Retreat with ya’ll!  I’m really excited for it and we have some awesome fun times planned for you.  It’s going to be a very intimate retreat and you’ll get a lot of one-on-one with Chris and myself, so you can pick our brains.  I think this cozy atmosphere will foster an extra special bond between all of us attending.

Here are some highlights of the retreat that might tickle your fancy:

* 7 nights accommodation at Casa Axis Mundi – A beautiful new raw vegan retreat center and bed and breakfast on a gorgeous property owned by Beate and Paul Epp

* As much organic local raw fruits and veggies as you want

* Simple 80/10/10 style cuisine workshops and meals

* Up to 3 low-fat raw gourmet dinner workshops and meals

* One-on-one raw lifestyle coaching with Megan And/or Chris

* A range of raw food classes and workshops

* A raw cosmetics workshop with Megan

* Discussions on the social and emotional aspects of the raw food lifestyle

* Local permaculture farms to visit

* Natural caves and stalagmites to explore

* Daily yoga class every day ranging from Raw Power, Kundalini and Kendalini

* Surfing – including rental and transportation

* Swimming

* Amazing Mayan ruins and pyramids to visit

* Learn to apply the different aspects of healthful living

And now for the fun bonuses!  (sorry the first 5 spots are already filled and we are on to the second bonus group)

The first 5 people to sign up to either retreat will receive:

1 Easy To Be Raw T-shirt courtesy of Megan Elizabeth 

1 T-shirt of your choice from the TRAshop 

1 Paper copy of Chris’ “Cravings Busters Transitional Recipes”

1 Paper copy (your choice) of Megan Elizabeth’s books 

Plus a 1 hour consult with each Megan and myself separate from the retreat one-on-ones

Over a $200 value! 

First 6 to 10 people to Sign up for Either Retreat you will get:

1 T-shirt of your choice from the TRAshop

1 e-book copy of Chris’ “Cravings Busters Transitional Recipes”

Your choice of one of Megan Elizabeth’s ebooks

Plus a consult with either Megan or myself separate from the retreat one-on-ones

Over a $125 value!

First 11 – 15 people to sign up for either retreat you will get:

1 e-book copy of “Cravings Busters”

Your choice of one of Megan Elizabeths e-books

A consultation with Chris, The Banana Commander!

Over a $50 value!

Retreat dates:  December 15 to 22nd

Sign up here:

http://www.therawadvantage.com/retreats/mexico-2012/

About ooooh maybe 5 months ago, I saw a video of the Disney Princess Half Marathon Run.  I thought, “Oh my gosh!  That is SOOO my kind of race!  Obviously, because I am a princess (this has been one of my many nicknames and I think every girl secretly wants to be a princess) and I love to run.  You get to run through the Magic Kingdom dressed up as a Disney Princess, only with added spandex and some sneakers.

Up to that point I had only run 6.2 miles at one time, but 13.1 miles didn’t sound too scary.  I’ve never had the thought or intention to run a full marathon, but this half marathon sounded really fun.  Shortly after I found out about it I made a youtube video about setting goals.  One of the goals I set a goal for myself was to run 13.1 miles and I wanted to do it within 90 days.  I wanted to do this mainly to prove to myself that I would be actually able to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon and also just to set a goal and have something to work towards and stay motivated.

Then I remembered I was writing a book.  Whoops!  I’m sure I could have figured out how to fit in a training schedule along with working on it, but at the time it seemed a little overwhelming.  A few people asked me, when I was getting very close to finishing my book, if I ever did complete my running goal (I’m glad you guys are keeping me honest).  I said I hadn’t yet, but I still planned on doing it.  So, I made an amendment to my goal by extending the time and I decided to start up with training as soon as I finished my book and came home from the Woodstock Fruit Festival.

I want to point out that 13.1 miles might not sound like a lot to some people, but it is a lot to anyone who has never run anywhere close to that distance.  I have amazing friends who will sometimes run this much every day for weeks in a row.  I find this incredible because I have always struggled with running, although I have seen big improvements over the past couple years.  I only started doing it regularly and enjoying it about 2 years ago.  Before eating a high carb raw vegan diet I didn’t even have the motivation to think about running.

I figured that many first time marathon runners train by running half marathons, so maybe it was okay for me to train by running 6.2 miles a couple times a week (this is the distance of one loop around the lake near my house.)  I did this 4 times.  Then I decided I was ready.  I picked a day.  It was September 23rd.  Then it was September 24th, then the 25th.  Hmm, I seemed to be procrastinating.

“Okay, okay!  I’ll do it!  I want to do it!  Why am I not doing it?”, I thought to myself.  Alright, the perfect day came and I had no excuses.  It was yesterday, September 29th.  Did I do it?  Yes.

Here is me before the run, super excited and optimistic:

This is about 3/4 through the first loop, about 4 miles in. Feeling awesome like I could go so much faster, but I wanted to pace myself.

 I wish there was a photo of my face just after I finished 10 miles.  I was hating life at that moment!  Thinking about how much my legs hurt and that I still had to run 3 more miles like that made me want to cry.  I had to stop for a few seconds and shake out my legs 4 times between about 9 and 13 miles or I may have just fallen over.

I should mention that I brought a few dates with me that I ate during the second loop.  Thank gosh!  They definitely helped improved my mood.  I did take a quick water and date break halfway through.  Also, I was running on black top in Vibrams… I’m not sure I would do this again.  I think a tiny bit more padding would have gone a long way for me here.

And here I am SOOO happy to be finished but I can’t seem to muster up a full smile because I’m walking like a penguin and my legs feel like wood.

 Somehow 2 miles into the run I managed to catch my toe on a bridge and scraped it through my Vibram.  Another reason to not wear the Vibrams on this particular run.  Thankfully it didn’t really start to hurt until after I finished running.  Sorry if this is super gross for some of you, I thought it was funny.

 How would I do it differently next time?

*Bring a few more dates

*Wear thicker Vibrams or sneakers with minimal padding

*Definitely run 8 and then 10 miles before running 13

*And fully charge my ipod so it doesn’t die during the last 3 miles!

I’m so glad I did it!  My time was about 2 hours and 20 minutes.  I’m going to try to make it a once every other month thing if I do sign up for the Princess Race in February.  Its a possibility that I’m super excited about.  I will also continue to run the 6.2 mile loop around the lake a lot more often now that it seems so much easier comparatively.

Quick reminder for ya’ll before I say goodbye!  My site was down last week, so sorry about that!  :(  Everything is fixed and working great now.  BUT!  This week I am giving 15% off all my e-books to make up for it  Yeeeha!  The discount code is “FRUIT”.  So make sure you take advantage of that if you were thinking about getting any of my e-books, there’s only a few more days left.

http://www.meganelizabeth.com/ns/books/

Thanks for reading guys!  See ya on YouTube <3

I feel like this thought I had the other day is worth writing about. It’s certainly not original, but the magnitude of it really hit me yesterday.

If you take a step outside of your little bubble and look around at our current world situation it can be scary and disheartening.  Sometimes we can feel helpless to the majority.  Smokers, drinkers, animals abusers, people killing and stealing, people that don’t care how much or what they are eating.  That’s not what I see regularly in my bubble of life, but I don’t need to see it to know it’s there and affecting me in some way.

When I think of all the of the major problems in the world, from people starving, to our dwindling fresh water supply, or even our energy and weather crisises, it makes me think… “if only there was one thing regular people had control of that would impact every problem in a positive way.”

Well there is something, and a small percentage of us already know what this is.  Eating a whole food plant based diet.  If you’d like information on why eating animal products is destroying the planet and our health, and why it would benefit both to eat a plant based diet check out, The Face on Your Plate, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (which I just listened to on audio book).

So as I was thinking to myself, “I can’t possibly reach enough people to really make a noticeable difference in the world”, I realized that I don’t have to.  Every person that I can reach can help someone else.

I thought back to when I was mentoring with Arnold Kauffman.  He had no incentive to help me other than enjoying my company and wanting to see me get well and be able to help others.  He had no way of knowing that I would actually follow this path once I wasn’t sick anymore.  I was planning to go into radiology since I was in high school.  He planted the ideas, convictions, and drive in me and to go out as a “missionary of health” if you will and share my story with people who could benefit from hearing it.

I realize that I now have a small platform for which I can shout my message, and although it may be small, the people I shout to also have a small platform.  If we can live our lives to the fullest, doing our best to develop ourselves into healthy, happy people, then we can be a beacon of light to those around us.

We can learn how to do anything today, with books, CD’s, DVD’s, Google, Youtube.  We have an abundance of information to help us learn how to exercise, eat a plant based diet, develop different parts of our personality and character, start a garden, recycle, learn how to pick up chicks, change the oil in your car, convert your car to run on veggie oil, whatever!   We shouldn’t feel helpless at all.

Most of us want peace, we want people and animals to be free from tourure, we’d love to feel and look our best, and to communicate in an effective and loving way to those around us.  But sometimes it’s cold and wet when we climb out of the water and we can’t wait long enough until we’re all dried off, so we jump back in before it can happen.

Yesterday I had to remind myself that I’m not in the water anymore, I’m not controlled by the current, and I’m not alone either.  There are other people that will stand with me and together we can pull out others.

Hi everyone!  I hope you’re all having a fruity and fun weekend =D  I promised to give you a blog post every week for the next 60 days and I’m determined to keep my promise.  I really do enjoy writing and I’ve got plenty of things that I would love to share with you, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

Today I want to talk about cravings.  This is one of the biggest issues for most people going raw or vegan or vegetarian.  Cravings for the things you used to eat, but in sound mind, don’t want to eat anymore.

Do I still have cravings?  Sure.  If I smell something vegan I will think about how wonderful it must taste.  If I smell something non-vegan I think about how great the vegan version of it would taste.

So how do I move beyond the moment of the craving and decide to have a delicious banana smoothie instead?  It does take some practice, but like most things, the more you do it the better you get and the easier it becomes.

Here are the top 3 ways that I personally use to combat cravings:

1. Focus on your goals or set a goal for yourself that will require you to perform at your best.  When I am trying to beat my last mile time, run a longer distance than before, look my best for an upcoming video, or finish a project within a limited time frame, I have to perform at my best.  I can’t give into a craving that I know is going to stop me from accomplishing my goal.  If I make myself accountable in these ways and focus on the end result and the joy it will bring me it will override what I know is a temporary pleasure with an unwanted overall outcome.

2. Don’t let yourself get too hungry and always bring extra food with you if you go out.  It’s a natural survival mechanism for our bodies to give us cravings.  The problem is that we have foods available to us now that would not be available in the wild.  Our body has a rolodex, if you will, of things we’ve eaten, how nutritious they are and how calorie dense they are.  If our blood sugar becomes too low we can feel like we NEED to eat that piece of cake we see or the hamburger we smell.  This is our body letting us know we need calories and those foods are a good source of calories.  When we eat regularly and do not calorie restrict ourselves we are more rational when meal time comes.  Then we are able to look at fruits and vegetables and choose which one our body is craving based on nutrients.  Some people might say it’s all just based on taste, but then why is it that when we eat a certain food until we are incredibly full our body stops us from craving it in the moment.  It still tastes the same but we’ve had enough.  You body does know what is in certain foods and cravings are ultimately to our benefit when we have a healthy body.

3.  Find your go-to raw food replacement.  If you’re craving something chocolaty then come up with your go-to replacement.  Mine is a banana, carob, and date smoothie.  If you’re craving hummus, put a little tahini on your salad.  If you’re craving indian food, make a nutty dressing for some zucchini noodles with some fresh cilantro, ginger, basil, and sage.  If you’re having a salty craving, add some dried nori or celery flakes to what you’re eating.  One time I was really wanting some spaghetti with tomato sauce, so I made a savory sun dried tomato sauce, put it on zucchini noodles, and added broken up pieces of nori.  I had that three nights in a row and then was done with it for a while.  Come up with your own list ahead of time of what your go-to food can be for different cravings that you have often.  This way, you know if you have a craving that you have something special to eat that is different from your everyday meal.

Every time you’re able to avoid giving into a bad craving you make another step in the right direction and your body learns what the real solution is.

Thanks for reading!  I hope what I shared has been helpful.  Please comment below if you have any additional tips you think would be helpful.  Also let me know what other topics you’d like me to write about different from what you want to see in videos

Ingredients:

2 Apples

8 Medjool Dates

3/4 Cup of Chopped Carrot

1/3 Tsp  Cinnamon

Watch the recipe video here:

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Ingredients

Dressing:

1/2 Cup of Fresh Orange Juice

1/3 Cup Fresh Coconut Meat

1/2 Cup Cilantro

1/3 Cup Chopped Scallions

2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

1 1/2 Tbsp Raw Tahini

2-3 Leaves of Fresh Sage

1 Quarter Sized Slice of Ginger

 Noodles:

4 Cups Spiral Zucchini

1/2 Cup Spiraled or Shredded Carrot

1/3 Red Pepper Sliced Very Thin

Place on a bed of greens and garnish with sprouts.  Then pig out!

Both very social creatures enjoy running, playing games (not card games though, pigs hate those), affection, connection with humans and other pigs, and both are intelligent enough to learn and follow commands.

I want to share an experience I had the other day coming home from the city.  I was on the PA turnpike about to get off at the Lansdale exit.   Quite often I see trailers full of pigs and cows there because Hatfield Ham and Rosenberger’s Dairy are in the next town over.

After paying my toll I was stopped at a light next to the truck.  Through one of the holes poked out a big, squishy, pink nose.  I rolled down my window and said, “hey piggy”, in a very high voice.  The pig pulled his nose out of the hole and replaced it with a set of eyes.  Again I said, “hi, there piggy”.  The light lasted another 15 seconds or so and I continued to talk to the pig because for some reason I had in my head that I was making him feel better.

When the light turned green and the truck shifted I could see the huge mass of pink that was filling up the truck smash back and forth until all the pigs became semi steady despite the movement.  I continued to ride next to the same pig and talk to it.

I could see the pigs eyes looking right at mine.  If the he could talk what would he say to me?  “Help me.  Where am I?  Why aren’t you doing anything about this?”  I began wishing I could do something, right then, for that pig who was looking me in the eyes.

I wondered what he would be like to sit next to and pet.  Or how he would enjoy running around playing in a big open field with his friends and family.

Wild fantasies of high jacking the truck began to enter my mind!  Then, where would I go?  Even if I could save every pig on that truck, where do you take a couple hundred pigs?  Where would I take one pig?

You don’t take them anywhere.  You say, “bye pig”.  I came to another light and the truck began turning left.  I knew for the next however many hours the pig had to live his life would only be filled with confusion and fear, people yelling at him, kicking or prodding him, and then he would ultimately die an OH SO HUMANE death of being shot in the head with a metal rod.

How can knowing these things not make you cry?  I began sobbing in the car because of the pig on the truck.  And what made me even more upset was that it doesn’t have to happen.  No human on earth needs to eat a pig to be healthy.  Not a cow, or a chicken, or a duck, or a fish, or an egg.

You’re not eating bacon, you’re eating a pig.  Your eating a pig who had a mom and brother and sisters.  A pig with emotions who could have been happy or sad or scared.  A pig that is now dead because you wanted to have bacon for breakfast this morning.  Make the connection.

If you think you don’t make a difference, you do!

*It requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day to produce food for a typical meat-eater but only 300 gallons of water to produce food for a typical vegan.  Our fresh water supplies are dwindling!

*Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Henning Steinfeld reported that the meat industry is “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.”

*Every meal you eat you make a choice that’s either helping or hurting the environment and yourself.  Choose health!  It’s sooo easy!

Swimming. Can you compare it to flying? I think you can.

After my run today I went for a swim. I try to do this almost every day. How could I not take advantage of a tide pool that is 5 minutes (walking) from my house?

This is not an ordinary tide pool.  Not the kind of tide pools we think of on the U.S. East Coast.  It’s big, clear and full of fish!

I tell myself I’m just going to take a quick dip, but I’m always gone for an hour or so.  I wish I could breath underwater because then I might not come up for an hour.  But I can settle for goggles and a snorkel.  It’s like a city, a city of coral buildings, and fish people, swimming, floating, eating, fighting, and riding the waves.

If I move real slow, like I’m just part of the scene, not making waves, some of the fish come up to me.  The yellow and black ones with cute little faces and bottle mouths are quite curious.  They mostly travel in pairs.

When your ears are underwater you can hear these little crackling sounds.  At first I didn’t know what it was then I realized it’s all the fish pigging out on coral.  There are huge parrot fish, some maroon and some rainbow colored.  It’s actually a little scary when they take big bites out of the coral.  They cruise about like sharks and you can see their big eyes looking all around… then without warning they turn quickly and chomp!  Eeek!  Don’t chomp this way!

Sometimes (when I swim alone) as I’m heading back for shore I look behind my back to make sure I’m not being stalked by a parrot fish… then I laugh to myself… what if I was?

Megan E signing off!

I often say, “raw food is as easy or as hard as you make it”, mostly for people who are just starting out or are struggling with what works for them.

Many people are overcomplicating things. Often situations, not just with food, can be so much easier if we stop telling ourselves it’s hard and complicated and really seek out the simplest way to do something.

Like eating fruit, it’s so simple. The hardest thing about it is actually shopping for the fruit. There’s low to no prep and clean up for fruit mono meals, they’re so satisfying, and it’s what our body actually wants because it’s so easy to digest.

It’s easy to make excuses and slip back to cooked food because it’s our history and our habit and we identify with it. We have to try not to identify ourselves with our old favorite meal or our old favorite place for dinner, because even though we might think “it’s part of me”, it really not, it’s just a thing we did.