Raw Food Cleanse Day 2

Feeling pretty good today! Woke up and gave myself an enema. Yes people, colon cleansing is where its at. With a cleansed colon you can speed up your detoxing, gain so much more energy, piece of mind, I could go on and on. It was great to do today, I immediately experienced more energy. I also got really excited to eat!

Today I've had:

WATER

2 mugs mate with raw honey

1 tall glass of Green Smoothie (this is for 2 servings): 4 org. bananas, 4 large org. kale leaves, a small handful of org. dates, 3 cups filtered water, 2 Tbs maca powder, 2 pinches himalayan salt, 1 tbs hemp seeds. Blend until smooth. Tip-if you dont have a high-powered blender, then you need to chop everything up as much as you can so the smoothie is extra smooth!

WATER-sprinkled with a little MSM powder

Some oil-cured olives

1 big local carrot

Big Salad: Org. spinach, org. kale, org. alfalfa sprouts, kim chi, soaked org. wakame seaweed, 1/2 small org. avocado, org. pine nuts, org. cold pressed olive oil and himalayan salt.

Raw Food Cleanse Day 1

Time for a change! Doing a strict raw food cleanse for one week starting today. I was feeling ready to take this on and like I wanted cleanse my body. So here we go! Please feel free to comment here and ask whatever questions you have!

2 mugs mate tea with a little raw honey--no not raw, but I love the anti-oxident boost. I may replace this with another herbal tea for the rest of the week.

1 org. apple

1 org. banana w/ 2T raw org. cashew butter

1 fresh org. veggie juice: beat, spinach, lemon, apple, ginger

1 Emmy's dark cacao macaroon :)

Salad: organic spinach, organic alfalfa sprouts, some mild white kim chi, soaked wakame seaweed, cold-pressed olive oil and topped with pine nuts and himalayan salt!

Extra helping of kim chi with pine nuts---awesome combo!

2 Emmy's coconut vanilla macaroons

LOTS of water

2oz wheatgrass juice

1 green GTs kombucha

Green soup (I didnt like mine, so Im giving you a recipe that I do like by Ariel Gold!): 1 packed cup chopped spinach, 1/2 medium cucumber chopped, 1/2 filtered water, 1 Tbs chopped basil, 1 Tbs miso, 1 Tbs himalayan salt, 1 green onion chopped, 1/2 avocado. Blend all ingredients except avocado until smooth, add avocado and finish blending. In the soup I added kelp noodles and wakame seaweed.

1 mug dandelion root tea

**All in all today was definitely an adjustment. Before today I have been eating moderately healthy food that was just easy. A lot of gluten-free toast! I also have not done any kind of cleanse for quite sometime so the effects of detoxing felt pretty strong today. I felt hungry this afternoon and a little tired, both effects of detoxing so I will not let that deter me. I am going to get in bed early tonight and possibly give myself an enema in the morning... to assist my body is getting rid of toxins. Please feel free to ask questions about this, its a big topic!

Dealing With Crises/Our Bag Shortage

Something that we have noticed while running a small business is that issues come up ALL of the time. This is life, right? There is always something you need to deal with. It is the WAY that you can deal with these issues that effects your life as a whole. When something comes your way are you going to run away, avoid or get angry? Or are you going to stand in the face of it and DO something about it? I truly believe that you are taking your life by the horns when you can stand in the face of fear and make a change. With a lot of practice with this, issues don't occur as issues. Your life is just happening.

I re-learned this in the past week when we came up on a serious problem. Here's what happened: We have put a down-payment on a packaging machine. We are so excited about this because it will help us SO much with production for about a hundred reasons. Our new packaging, which we are in love with, requires some lead time to order so it can be printed. With the packaging machine, we will need to order packaging in a different format to fit on the machine, rather than in the bag form that you see in the stores. We thought that we would have our packaging machine by now, honestly. We had been putting off ordering new bags in hopes that we could start ordering the new format and not spend money on bags we didn't need. Needless to say, the machine is not here, we waited too long and after a few large orders came in, we really needed bags. With a rushed order from the bag people, it looks like we wont have bags until the first weeks in March. So we're out of bags people! Ian and I did not take this news lightly. We got angry and tried to blame as many other people as possible. What we have to do now is put stickers on bags once again, the old school way. It requires some more work and it doesn't LOOK as good (to me).

After too many hours of frustration, we moved from having a problem into action. We are producing clear bags that have stickers on them for two weeks. And that's it. No more emotions making it mean anything more than it is. You might see clear bags on the shelf but it is the same quality, same brand, same commitment (yes, they are still compostable!). So now I am telling all of you and all of our distributors instead of being embarrassed or anything like that. Moving forward, powerfully.

Where in your life have your turned a major "problem" into some powerful action?

Thank you for your support,

Samantha

7 Tips To Beat The Winter Blues

Especially here in the northeast, the "winter blues" are common. This winter has been quite mild but it is still winter. Many people suffer from seasonal depression and general malaise during this season, but that doesnt mean you have to! Below are a few tips that work for me and I invite you to try them out. Please note that I am not a doctor, this is completely based on my educated opinions and experience!

*1. Stay Active*: Commit to doing at LEAST 30 minutes of exercise 4-5 a week. Exercise revs your endorphins, cleanses your skin, gives you a ton of energy and keeps you WARM!

*2. Get Outside*: Even if the weather is yucky, getting some light on you is so important. Make a reason to go for a short walk or run everyday. Even if its a walk around your house or block a few times. There is nothing more invigorating that a bundled up winter walk or run! The reminder of the outdoors does a lot of good for the mind as well!

*3. Eat Your Greens*: Often we forget about greens in the winter. We gravitate to more hearty food and start to miss out on the nutrients that greens give us. Try to incorporate greens wherever you can. Blend kale into a breakfast smoothie, get shots of wheatgrass whenever you can, add a handful of chopped raw greens to your bowl of soup, turn an entree dish into a salad entree or have a dark leafy green salad before your meal. Your body will thank you.

*4. Take Vitamin D3*: I have always been wary of this in the past, but I am taking vitamin D3 on the regular now and I have noticed a significant difference in my mood, brain power and energy. I highly recommend it! Even if we get outside in the winter, we are still missing out on lots of light. Supporting your body with the vitamin D its missing, just makes sense.

*5. Cozy-Up*: Getting outside is very important in the winter, but there is also a lot to take advantage of inside. I notice that I am naturally not as social in the winter, I am home more. Take that time to catch up on rest, books, movies, craft projects, cooking and self-care.

*6. Exfoliate/Moisturize*: Taking care of your skin in the winter is such a treat. In the past, I used to think that having dry skin was something that I had to "deal" with in the winter. I associated winter with dry skin, yuck! I have now found ways to combat dry skin and it feels SO great. There is something special about the act of taking care of your skin that feels so luxurious and special. Exfoliate on a regular basis, everyday if you can. I use a sugar scrub with essential oils that I really love. There are also many DIY videos out there on how to make your own! Moisturize with a heavier lotion than usual. I have been using a shea butter blend that has been working very well for me.

*7. Break Habits*: I find that I lose inspiration in the winter. I get in the pattern of my day and find that I am doing the same things over and over, same food, clothes, activities, blah! Breaking patterns gives us energy and inspiration. Try a new workout on a regular basis, wear fun and special outfits for no reason, learn a new skill, cook a new meal, spontaneously go to the movies by yourself--anything! Find the areas where you feel bored and try something new! I promise it will make the winter a BLAST!

Hudson News Locations

We have the honor of having Hudson News as one of our current customers! What a beautiful thing to provide healthy food at the airports...In the past I have always associated travel with gross food, so I have always brought my own. Now times are changing and more and more airports are offering healthy options.

See a list of the Hudson News locations we are in as of late below. If you happen to be traveling, see if you can spot them. Also, we LOVE seeing PICTURES!

Philadelphia, PA - Terminal A West

Cincinnati, OH

Burlington, VT

Atlantic City, NJ

Rochester, NY

Omaha, NE

Nashville, TN

Greenville, SC

Charleston, SC

San Francisco, CA

Miami, FL

Orlando, FL

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Boston, MA-Terminal C

Safe travels and Happy Thursday,

Samantha

Adventures in Granola

December was one of our craziest months ever. A little while ago we got an email from a woman who worked for Home Goods (yes, the furniture store) and expressed interest in carrying our granola in their gourmet food section. I was very excited about the prospect and passed her info on and let the process begin. We have had a lot of exciting prospects during the course of our, still, young business. Many of them have worked out while the others do not. At first, I experienced this as a let down and thought perhaps Ian and I had done something wrong to compromise an opportunity. Now, I realize that opportunities ALWAYS come. The ones that work out come at the most appropriate time and the others are just not for NOW. I think this can be said with a lot of decisions we make in our lives, no?

So the Home Goods idea was exciting, but I didnt think much about it until we got a call from our broker, explaining that we were moving forward. Home Goods is all over the country and we had no idea what to expect. After almost a month of presentations on their end and negotiations with our broker, an order was placed. This was unlike any order that we have ever gotten. The total weight of the order was about one TON. Yes, like the weight of a car. Because they had discovered us while we were still packaging our granola in bags, they wanted to try half new packaging and half old. When we learned this, Ian and I were in shock. We dont even make that much granola in a month, let alone one week, which they requested. There was no way. We immediately asked for two weeks and stayed in the kitchen to make granola.

For the two weeks following we spent every day packaging and making granola. We worked 16 hour days, went home only to sleep and got up to keep going. We begged pretty much anyone who could help to come in including our friends and family.

Just yesterday the last of the pallets went out and it was such a relief. During these past few weeks, we grew so fast. Not only did we have to design some new methods in the kitchen on how to do things more efficiently but we really got to look at the size of our business in perspective. If we want to keep growing, we're going to need to be able to fulfill some really serious orders (without working 16 hour days!). We are now starting to make plans for the future on what that could look like. Taking on this order was bigger than anything that Emmy's has ever taken on and it is proof that anything is possible. We are looking forward to 2012 and where our growth will take us. If you are near the Connecticut, Indiana or California regions of Home Goods, please go check for our granola.

Thank you for taking this journey with us.

May this be all of our best years yet!!!

love,

Samantha