Am I really too thin?

Wow, it's been nearly 1 month since the last blog entry. In that time we have been to New Zealand to teach a class in Auckland to 50 mostly male executives, (see photo of our wonderful team in Auckland with Steve and Renata on the left) hot mud baths and thermal spas in Rotorua working on our not-for-profit community projects The Green Smoothie Challenge and Rawcovery, participating in the Self Expression and Leadership program with Landmark Education and generally taking it easy (not!)

ok, I am getting the message from all sides (including my beloved Runi) that I am looking too thin! Since I lowered my fat intake and stopped surfing I have lost 4kg. The funny thing is I feel great, but how I am often perceived is skinny. So what is the benchmark by which we judge someone as too thin? If we are to look at the average 46 year old Australian male, I must look malnourished. Interestingly the longest lived communities on the planet are all very lean and they consume an average 2000 calories of high quality food a day. The average Aussie consumes between 3500-4000 (mostly dead) calories a day In fact one Big Mac with fries and coke is 3500 calories alone!
Anyway, I am succumbing to the pressure and have decided to bulk out a little by working out at the local gym. I will keep you posted. Expect semi naked photos of me with rippling muscles :-)

Also, we have an wonderful opportunity for a leader to spearhead the amazing Green Smoothie Challenge. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop skills in running a not-for-profit community project which will really make a difference to the health of our communities. For more info call Anand on 0412 723 577.

To subscribe to this blog visit www.rawpower.com.au and fill in the blog form.

Lorne Class and Green Smoothie Challenge

We are now back from an awesome raw class and lunch for 150 in
Lorne, Victoria and are already preparing for Auckland. Again I would like to knowledge the incredible support we received, this time from my mum, Anne (on the right) my sister Catherine (third from left) who let us take over her kitchen for 2 and 1/2 days Geraldine (far left) and Shey 2nd from left. Holding a gourmet raw lunch and class for 150 is a huge operation and it went so smoothly - thankyou all!!!!!!


Green Smoothie Challenge
We have had an overwhelming response to the Green Smoothie Challenge. If you would like to volunteer in any way to help make this happen I would love to hear from you. You can email me at anandrah@gmail.com or call 0412 723 577 (Australia) or +61 412 723 577 for international calls. We are still looking for someone to build a simple website and someone to work on art work/logo.

In case you haven't heard I am involved in an awesome course called Self Expression and Leadership with Landmark Education and the course involves creating a non-profit community project. It is from this that I have created the “Green Smoothie Challenge” which aims to create the possibility of vibrant health and empowerment for all who participate. My goal is to have 5000 people drinking green smoothies by June 5^th 2008! and to record the results and testimonials and really increase public awareness of the amazing benefits of living foods and of course the Green Smoothie. We are going to hold national press releases across Australia and make sure this information reaches as many people as possible

If any of you have any feedback or suggestions I would love to hear. I have registered www.greensmoothiechallenge.org (not up yet) and will be giving away recipes and support. The world needs this information!!! Australia is a very sick country as are most other developed nations, and there is absolutely no reason it should continue to be this way.

Love peace blessings and deliciously good health!

Anand

Time flies........

I would like to publicly express gratitude for all the help we have received over the past few weeks. Holding large raw food classes is a team effort and we couldn't have done it without the amazing support we received in Adelaide from Sufio, Remedy Fiona and V and in Brisbane with Michael, Kate, Ishka and Neroli! Thankyou!!!!!!! xxxoooxxx

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since our last blog entry. In that time we have held a corporate training class in Adelaide for 70 and a public class in Brisbane for 45 and at the same time we are beginning 2 community projects which are part of the Self Expression and Leadership program Runi and I are doing with Landmark Education! We are really excited about these non-profit community projects and they both provide a great opportunity for any of you who would like to contribute to the health and wellbeing of our communities in a meaningful way. Runi's project is "Rawcovery" and mine is "The Green Smoothie Challenge".
We will be sharing lots more about these as they come to life. In the meantime if you want to find out more we have shared them in detail in our most recent e-newsletter.

Tomorrow we leave for Melbourne to hold another corporate class for 150 at Lorne we are then back for 2 weeks before leaving for Auckland for another class - so please excuse any lapses in our blogging :-)

Cansema continued
2 blog entries ago I shared about this herbal concoction called cancema which is meant to eat away skin cancers. Since mentioning it I have received a couple of reports of people having not such good experiences with it - including scarring and infections. My experience has been positive so far and here is a photo of the scar after 2 weeks. I will let you know how it continues to heal and whether the growth I had above my eye returns.

Love and blessings to all

Anand

Raw class for 100 in a night club!

Hi we are just back from Terrigal after holding a class at the Crowne Plaza for around 100 managers for a large packaging company. It was a very different experience holding a class for an audience who were put in front of us with little or no knowledge of the living food lifestyle. I loved sharing the information regardless and I trust that those who were ready to hear it benefited. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention this class was held in a night club which was also an experience in itself.

We are off to Brisbane tomorrow to do the first day of the Self Expression and leadership course with Landmark Education. Then on Sunday we fly to Adelaide to hold another corporate class for 70 delegates from the same packaging company there. Back on Wednesday and then a public class in Brisbane on Saturday which is very close to booking out.

I am looking forward to spending some time at home in the garden!

Our next blog entry will probably be in one weeks time - stay tuned in.

Love, peace and amazingly good health

Anand

The be notified by email whenever we add to our blog visit www.rawpower.com.au and fill in the blog form.

Corporate goes raw + clay house painting + cancema

I have been a little inactive with my blog these past few days: busy, busy - we are having our living room/kitchen painted with this amazing 100% clay paint. I love it, absolutely no fumes and you can tip the clean up water into your compost, plus we are preparing to do our biggest raw class to date. A corporate training for 100 managers for a major packaging manufacturer. This will be the first of 3 such trainings held across 3 states in 3 weeks! I am really impressed that a major corporation is willing to invest in the health and well-being of their people in this way! There is hope yet!!!
Here is a photo of my beloved Runi slaving over a warm dehydrator making flax/sunflower/buckwheat crackers for 330 people!

Back to houses and paint.

Our homes (especially new homes) are one of the most toxic environments we can live in. New carpets out gas volatile organic chemicals or, VOCs such as 4 -PC for up tp 12 months which give new carpets their new carpet odor. It is actually a by-product of latex used in the backing of many carpets. Other VOCs in carpeting nclude toluene, formaldehyde, acetone, dyes, and benzines while derivatives containing VOCs are, resistant coatings for stains, fire, mildew, fungus and pesticides. Nice!!!!

House paints are not any better...... "Heavy metals and other toxic chemicals are also often used in the manufacture of paints and finishes, or their colouring tints. These include chrome, mercury, cadmium, formaldehyde, preservatives, driers, fungicides and odour suppressants. A paint can be labelled zero or low VOC and still contain many of these other toxic chemicals because some VOC ratings only refer to compounds that contribute to external air pollution by the formation of low level ozone (smog), and not to other compounds that can be Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP's) or toxic substances"

This is why I am so excited about these wonderful Volvox clay paints. If you are interested in finding out how you can paint your house without poisoning yourself and the environment I highly recommend you get in touch with Deb at Painted Earth She is based in Yelgun near Byron Bay and will ship paint Australia wide. You can call her on 02 6680 5729 or visit her informative website. And while I think of it if you would like to hire a fantastic painter who loves using non-toxic paints call Pramad on 0488749709 - Here is a photo of Pramad at work on our ceiling looking very angelic.

The next photo is not so pretty. It is a close up of a skin cancer being eaten out by an amazing herbal concoction called Cancema. It is illegal to sell it to use on humans so I am trialling the "pet" version. The original Cancema people ended up in jail in the USA because their product actually works and the drug companies and authoritues don't like herbal remedies that work! Cancema actually targets cancerous cells and leaves healthy cells alone. I am impressed so far. For more info on Cancema and where to get it visit Elaine Hollingsworth's awesome website www.doctorsaredangerous.com

I am treating the wound with a mixture DMSO (liquid MSM), fresh aloevera and hydrogen peroxide. I will post more photos of the healing process over the next few weeks.

We will be away until next Thursday so I may not be able to make another blog post until we are back.

Until then all love peace and blessings to you!

Anand and Runi

Where do you find your ecstasy?

To me a living food diet isn't a dogma or a religion. It really is about feeling really GOOD, in my body, mind and spirit. If I am not feeling intrinsically good about myself and my life, I see this is a message from existence that I need to make change. As I have previously shared in this blog in my early years I used drugs to feel good. Unfortunately (or fortunately) drugs didn't do it. The higher I flew the harder I fell. And fall I did! Then at the age of 23 I turned to spirituality, meditation, therapy all of which gave me experiences of feeling good naturally without the come down of drugs.

In all of my exploration I have discovered that almost nothing takes me to bliss like dancing! Many indigenous and ancient societies have known the secrets of ecstatic dance to experience the divine and expanded states of consciousness. With our busy and driven 21st century lifestyles many of us seem to have lost touch with the sacred and dance has become something we do in nightclubs or parties intoxicated on drugs or alcohol.

Around 18 months ago I was so happy to discover a dance class/event called 5 rhythms held at the Byron Bay scout hall every Friday night. This class involves no religion, no drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or dance steps, no talking. It simply involves letting your body move very freely and naturally through a series of 5 distinct stages. 5 rhythms was brought into being by a pioneering American dance teacher Gabrielle Roth who teaches dance as a means to connect with the divine. Here is a short video of Gabrielle explaining the 5 Rhythms.

During the class I just let my body move exactly as I feel. To begin with I can be a little self conscious and then at some point my body takes over and I am taken by the music and the dance. I can't express in words how liberating it is to move and express whatever I am feeling without my everyday masks on. To experience this level of wildness is real ecstasy! The class goes for 2.5 hours and it is both a meditation and an amazing work out all in one.

The Byron Bay class is facilitated by the lovely Deva Nandan, an accredited 5 rhythms teacher. When I began going there were 8 to 15 regular dancers, last nights class had 65 pulsing, sweating bodies. This is something worth experiencing! If you live near Byron Bay or are visiting drop in for a dance - you can find out more by contacting Deva Nandan on 02 6684 4176 / 0431 035271 or 5rhythmsdance@gmail.com She also holds classes in Brisbane.

If you live in Melbourne you can contact Meredith who holds regular classes in Fitzroy on 0408 881 557 For those of you who live in other parts of the planet you can visit the 5 rhythms website to see where the closest class to you is happening .

When I can't make it to classes I like to put on music at home and dance with Runi. By the way Runi and I met at a 5 Rhythms class, but that's another story we will share in another blog.

We keep hearing how much many of you like the photos, so here are a few more we would like to share with you. Top right photo - Anand in a playful mood! 2nd from top right photo - Goddess at the kitchen sink (Runi straining green juice through a nut milk bag - a technique we learnt from Mr Matt Monarch) 3rd from top right photo - a view of Mt Warning from on our 6km morning jog. 4th from the top right photo Anand's breakfast 2 huge mangoes, a big handful of goji berries, 2 TBS maca powder and 2 TBS bee pollen - YUM!!! (I was having a day off green smoothies) Top Left photo - My favourite place to shop - a wet Byron bay farmers market. Bottom left photo our new automatic sprouting machine - this is sooo cool. Just put in your seeds, fill with water and it does the rest - perfect sprouts!! We will soon have these for sale at www.rawpower.com.au Bottom centre photo - what's "not cooking". A few dehydrated delights - flax/buckwheat/sunflower crackers, dried bananas and mangoes, and sweet potato chips! If you would like to be notified by email whenever we update our blog, just visit www.rawpower.com.au and fill in the blog subscription form on the right hand side.

Love, peace, ecstasy and deliciously good health
Anand

2 free raw e-books, juice feasting, and Don Tolman Talk

Today Runi and I broke a 2 and a half day juice fast/feast. Wow, I am impressed that some people like Angela Stokes lasted 92 days on her juice feast. That's 3 months on liquids!!!I always find day 2 of a fast the most difficult - head aches, tired, grumpy, fuzzy brain. (especially if I am working) Often I feel like lying down and resting. Runi is quite different: she seems to power through day 2 almost effortlessly. During the feast/fast we drank around 4 litres of fresh juice each day. Around 50% green vegetable juice (with a small amount of carrot) and around 50% fruit juice - mostly watermelon with a little fresh green coconut. We found with the watermelon we could either put it through our trusty Oscar Vital Max juicer or blend it in our Powermill blender and then strain it through a nut milk bag.

I always feel so rejuvenated and fresh after fasting (even though I may complain during it!) It really gives the body a rest from digestion and the chance to clean out and heal and it shows in shining eyes and glowing skin and a sense of well-being.

I was recently passed on a couple of free raw e-book links which I will pass on to you now. One from the original raw food trail-blazer Anne Wigmore on Jim Carey's (not the actor's) raw blog (click here to download) and the other from Revvellations (click here to download)

Also, if you missed it our newsletter, you can be our guest for to an inspirational evening with the genius of Don Tolman (Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth) for free tickets while they last. All you need to do is enter our privilege code POWER when you book your tickets at Fortune Events and your $89 tickets will become free! I spoke about Don in our newsletter so I won't say any more here except GO! Click here to book your tickets.

If you haven't seen our "how to make raw nut butter" video yet I have included it at the end of this blog post. Since making the video I have discovered you can also make raw almond butter (yum) the same way- it just takes longer in the food processor (around 10 minutes). We soak our almonds for at least 8 hours to release anti nutrients and enzyme inhibitors and then dehydrate them at 45C in our Excalibur dehydrator until crunchy around 36 hours.

This last photo of 2 green tree frogs was taken at 2am out the front of our house. Does anyone know is this just an innocent hug or piggy back or is there more to this? I was returning home from a Landmark Education course in Brisbane. If you are interested in realising your greatness this lifetime I highly recommend you check out Landmark. Their courses are incredibly transformational. I will share more about my experiences with Landmark in later blogs. In the meantime if you are curious here's a little more about what they offer:

"Landmark Education is a global educational enterprise committed to the fundamental principle that people have the possibility of success, fulfillment, and greatness. The ideas, insights, and distinctions on which Landmark Education's courses are based and the results it has produced make Landmark a leader and innovator in the field of training and development.

The work of Landmark Education is the product of extensive research and development in individual and organizational effectiveness and communication. Landmark uses its leading-edge educational methodology to enable people to produce extraordinary results and enhance the quality of their lives.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Landmark offers programs around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people on five continents have participated in Landmark's programs. Find out what people say about Landmark Education."

Below is the "How to make fresh raw nut butter" video starring yours truly.

Love, peace and deliciously good health

Anand

P.S. Runi will soon be sharing more of her story with before and after photos - stay tuned in.