New at Abundant Raw Life

I'm pretty excited!  After two juicers, followed by lots of research, I've ordered what I think will be my favorite. Check it out.








And to go with it I just ordered a book I think I will love, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Raw Food Detox, just as I loved its predecessor The Complete Idiot's Guide to Raw Foods. Take a peek.












I'm also trying out a new partnership with Amazon.  If you like one of these things I recommend, you can click into Amazon right from here and order what you like.  I get a small percentage, so everyone wins.  See how you like it.

RAGBRAI Raw -- Food I Brought from Home

I've been a high raw traveler for a number of years now, so I didn't have to think too hard about what foods would pack well.  As usual, I brought about 3 each of apples, oranges, and bananas.  I could rely on those to hold up for a few days in the air-conditioned RV. I had made a big batch of homemade trailmix, which I then packaged in 1/2 cup servings inside snack sized baggies.  A couple of those will fit nicely into my biking jersey back pockets. It's fun and easy to put together a trailmix. Into a big bowl I put 1 cup each of every raw nut I can find at the health food store--almonds, cashews, brazils, filberts, pistachios, pecans, and walnuts. (Pinenuts and macadamia nuts don't hold up well in the heat, so I leave them out.)  Then I add 1 cup each of raw sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.  Afer that I add one cup each of all the dried fruit and berries that I can find.  I take care to avoid the ones that have sulphur (for color) added to them.  Cranberries, apricots, figs, date rolls, raisins, mulberries, etc., dried mango, pineapple, apple, pear pieces work well, and provide some much appreciated sweet and tart combinations, in addition to their considerable amounts of various vitamins and minerals.  Sometimes I add a cup of raw shredded coconut, but I didn't for this trip.  My favorite thing to add is 1 cup of raw cacao nibs.  They add a little caffeine (my only source of caffeine), magnesium, and the wonerful taste of chocolate.  Somehow that little bit tastes really good after a long day on the bike! This homemade trailmix, while I usually pack some in a back pocket, I typically don't eat until the end of the day's biking, when I appreciate taking the time to enjoy the chewing.  But I do pack some with me, just in case I decide I want it enroute.  More on that later.
Other things that I brought along with me for snacks later in the day and into the evenings after supper were some packages of dried figs, mangos, papayas and  some raw bars from the healthfood stores.  These bars are pricey, so I don't eat them usually, but they provide some variety on a trip, and are satisfying when others are enjoying ice cream or some other dessert.
I didn't need much of the food I had brought from home.  The point is that I knew it was there if I needed it, and that was a comforting thought.
I do tend to overpack food from home, I suppose.  It works better for me to know that I've got plenty of the foods that I know will help me to perform well, than to wonder if there won't be enough along the road and in the towns, and then not have enough calories----and I need plenty of them riding many miles a day. I was able to replenish fresh fruits and vegetables along the way, mostly in the towns where we stopped for the night. These healthy raw snacks from home, however, are much harder to find along the bike routes.  Next time I'll talk about how and what I ate when we did get off our bikes at the end of the day.

RAGBRAI Raw --Getting Started

The 39th running of the Register's (DesMoines) Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI)  was held the last week of July. It is the oldest, longest, and biggest ride of its kind -- not a race, but a gathering of between 10 and 15 thousand cyclists, and hundreds of support vehicles and camping tents.  My husband Bob, 4 other friends,  and I rented an RV for the week. We slept in the cool of our generator-produced air conditioning every night, and had the benefits of a refrigerator and running water. We took turns, each driving a day, and sometimes a little extra.  The other days we rode and average of 64 miles each day.  Well, some of us did.  I, for one, rode more like 35 miles a day in the mornings before it got blistering hot, and the numerous hills got the best of me.  Still, it was lots of riding, about which, at age 70, I feel quite proud.  Part of the challenge for me was to ride raw all week, not as a contest, or to prove anything.  Rather, I knew that if my nutrition was clean, and I was giving my exercising body raw, living, whole, easy to digest foods, I would have maximum energy for the riding itself.  I knew that my body would not be working extra hard to digest things (like preservatives) that it was never designed to digest, nor would  it be working overtime to handle meat, which takes a long time to process, nor cooked things which would also be toxin laden.  In other words, I wanted to give myself the optimum situation to ride well, and be burdened with things like undue muscle fatigue, digestive upset, or  unnecessary fatigue because of my diet.
So, if you're a biker, or other endurance athlete, or just want maximum performance from your beautiful body, stick with me for a few blogs here while I share with you just how I managed it all, and what I think were some really fine results.  Next time I will write about the foods that I packed along with me for the week.