There is a movement within the raw vegan movement away from vegan and also sometimes away from raw. You have asked me what I think about it, so here goes…

The raw vegan diet isn’t easy for everyone to stick to in the long term. Some people are coming to realise that for whatever reason, it didn’t work well for them. And that’s fine, the universe does allow U-turns and life is just a beautiful journey. I think above all, what we’re really seeing is a shedload of honesty, and I really appreciate that. I much prefer it when people are honest about what they do, especially if they have a “following”. I can’t bear it when people say “raw chocolate is poison” and then are seen eating chocolate cake in public. That doesn’t sit well with me.

Well, I'll eat my house

Where am I at?

In my 2008 book Evie’s Kitchen, I wrote about the issues surrounding a vegan diet, so you know that I don’t sit on the puritanical vegan side of the fence. I don’t believe it’s possible to raise a child on a vegan unsupplemented (non-fortified) diet and yet for personal reasons I want myself and my daughter to eschew animal products as much as possible. This is where I am right now:

• I am still vegan (about 25 years now, but really can’t remember).
• I’m still mostly raw (about 95-98%).
• I still have the odd glass of champagne or wine. Sometimes it’s not so odd, sometimes it’s not there at all.
• I still have superfoods with everything I eat at home.
• Much of my food is in liquid form.
• I still go heavy on medicinal plants.
• I partake in a lot of other healing modalities such as reiki, affirmations, kambo, ayahuasca and iboga because food isn’t our only medicine.
• I still supplement B12, bone formula, vegan DHA, MSM and a few other things.
• I still feel healthy, but document when I’m not because I know you also value honesty (such as when I got a frozen shoulder).
• I feel really really satisfied with my diet.

However, I have felt very disconnected to the “vegans only need to supplement with B12” party line, because it’s just not true. If you could see the emails and letters I get from mums who tried that diet with their children (high fruit /low fruit / high fat / low fat and all combinations in between) and their children didn’t thrive, you would feel heartbroken. And you would speak up, too.

So in the name of honesty, I want to tell you what I did last year which may shock you. I ate some raw sheep cheese. Gosh, it was WEIRD, after twenty odd years without it. I did it really consciously, and it was a teeny tiny amount (about a 1cm cube). It took me about 30 minutes to get it in my mouth. It felt odd, unnatural, and not something my mind wanted to do. But I repeated it three times on three different days, because I wanted to know if my body wanted it.

It didn’t feel at all right to me, but I was glad I tried it, because after so long, I wondered if I was just being a vegan for the sake of it. Afterwards, I kind of felt remarried to veganism. I was glad, because I really really like being a vegan. BUT a vegan who supplements properly and continually evaluates her diet.

Where is Evie at?

• Evie still eats a few organic free range egg yolks. I’m trying to increase them to about five a week.
• She has a teeny tiny amount of raw organic local yoghurt.
• She loves honey, and has a local honey as well as a manuka honey.
• She eats as much raw food as I can get into her.
• She has superfoods in almost everything she eats.
• She has medicinal herbal drinks every day.
• She has multivitamins every day.
• She has other supplements every day (such as bone supplements in her food).
• She has vegan DHA when I can get her to have it.
• She tried (organic) meat once when I wasn’t looking. She liked it but didn’t want to try it again.
• I asked her if she wanted some salmon once but she wouldn’t.
• She likes not eating animals.
• She is happy with the non-raw compromises I allow her.

So should you be vegan?

I don’t want to ever convince anyone to be vegan, it’s a huge choice to make, if you’re going to do it properly for a long time. There are nutrients that are low or missing on a vegan diet, and I’ve written extensively about this and what to do about it in Evie’s Kitchen. I supplement, and always have done. I would never ever be an unsupplemented vegan, and I would never recommend that to anyone either. Deficiencies often creep up slowly, and second generation deficiencies are heartbreaking to witness. If you want to be vegan, get full knowledge of it first and go easy on yourself. It does feel great to not eat animals, but you need to choose that from your heart. Never do it because someone else tells you to do it. Well, that goes for everything in life, doesn’t it?!

But it’s not natural to be vegan

No, it isn’t. Even “vegan” horses and cows eat a lot of insects and poo. That’s why I supplement (which is also not natural). I’m heavily into being as self sufficient as much as possible. I am looking at how to create that reality here in my new home in the south of the UK. I am a being of limitless possibilities and I know it can be done, with the help of a few non-local supplements. My personal feelings are: Would I rather eat part of an animal than take a very tiny small unnatural supplement? No. You may choose otherwise, and that’s totally fine. But for my daughter, it’s slightly different. She’s not me and she’s got a lot of growing to do. I want to make sure she doesn’t even have borderline deficiencies, which is why she eats a small amount of non-flesh animal products.

Why the shift?

There are always shifts. They’re just more prominent now because people are famous in their own Facebooks. Ultimately, my aim is to spread information on how to be the most healthy while feeling good about your ethical choices. The practical combinations of this are endless. Take a bit of what you like from everyone you vibe with, and make your own world up. That’s so much fun!

So what do we do?

There will always be people who follow the next big diet trend because they didn’t feel truly satisfied on the last big diet trend. So it’s great if you get involved in this unvegan unveggie thing: just don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If someone is telling you saturated fat is good, great, eat it. But remember what you learned about how harmful that fat is when it’s cooked. If someone is saying eat colostrum and it vibes with you, then eat it. Just don’t expect everything that everyone says to be the thing that rescues you. That is only something you can do by eating a variety of organic, raw and nutrient dense foods over the long term. If you remain vegan, please supplement. If you’re not a vegan, please do all you can to eat from non-intensive farms. And whatever you choose, be happy, smile and be grateful you have this abundant choice.

Bliss U.

PS: Have you made your wish yet?

Today is a very special day! One of my favourite pleasures is showering you with gifts and today I get to shower you with hundreds of them! Gifts from Me! Gifts from Rev Michael Beckwith! Gifts from Crystal Andrus! And hundreds, yes HUNDREDS more!

What Does That Mean?

You know how much I love the work of New York Times bestselling author Eldon Taylor, the genius behind Innertalk. Well, I have some very exciting news for you. Today is the launch of his brand new book, What Does That Mean? When they sent me the manuscript last summer, I couldn’t put it down. I was reading it in the Jacuzzi!

So to celebrate the launch of this amazing book, myself, Rev Michael Beckwith (from The Secret), Crystal Andrus, Bruce Lipton, Lynne McTaggart and many many more are offering gifts galore to you once you buy it.

And I mean hundreds of gifts, worth hundreds of dollars, all given with love from some fo the world’s most exciting visionaries!

When you read the book, look out for my introductory quote in there, too! I couldn’t do anything but endorse this wonderful work of heart, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same. Click here to read more about What Does That Mean?

Bliss U

PS: Have you joined the free international tapping conference yet? Over 80,000 people did last year and it’s changed lives beyond measure! Sign up here, it’s only just started!

Thank you all so much for your moving, beautiful, funny and inspiring entries in “Win 23 things”, my birthday competition, to win a hamper of raw foods and superfoods and goodies.

Pandora said I needed more volume

There were over 100 entries, and most had a list of 23 things on, so it took me the best part of a day to read through them all. In true Visionary In Paradise style, I did this in bed after recovering from a week at er… Butlins! And how inspired was I as I read them? If you haven’t read some of them yet and want some uplifting, go here or here and perhaps shed a tear.

 I was fascinated by some of the wishes, such as the lady who wanted to go back in time to ask the aliens what they were doing in her bedroom when she was 16! I felt so much love for those who wanted cures for diseases that their loved ones had. And I smiled at all the answers that wanted “the standard Miss World answer” (as one lady put it) of world peace. Well, it seems we get what we ask for so here, now, is world peace. What would happen if we all believed that?

My next wish for everyone who entered  is that all their wishes come true, and now they’ve focused them into a list, maybe some of them can be worked through?

My toes on their birthday

I loved watching the entries roll in over the past few weeks and I loved the fact that the winner has created a totally cryptic answer that was fun, clever, superfoody, poetic and multi-dimensional. Actually, it was so cryptic, I had to email her to ask what the actual answer was. The answer is below, in case you can’t work it out!

So the winner is Emma Couttie MacDougall from Scotland! CONGRATULATIONS, Emma! We will be sending your parcel direct from Detox Your World this week!

Emma wins this!

Superfood hamper from Detox Your World

And here is her list. Beautiful.

 my first is in Incan but not in cranberry

my second in raw but not in black cherry

you’ll find number three in omega you see, but you won’t find it in this game

my fourth in lucuma, but not in exclaim

my fifth is in aloe but not doe a deer

my sixth is in doxtor not foxtor or beer

number seven is not in heaven but you’ll find it in nettle and petal and olive

and speaking of olives, the peruvian kind, you won’t see eight in liver but in olive you’ll find

my 9th is in lover, who always gives more, i’m sure they exist, it’s not in folklore

ten is in Omega Zen and in E3 Live, which a raw fooder will tell you will make sure you thrive

number eleven is in hemp and heaven but you won’t find it in yerba mate tea 

twelve is in chocolate both empress and temptress but in intacta you will not see 

when it comes to thirteen in tahini it’s seen but not in etherium pink

fourteen is in vitamix and vitasynergy and vitamin but not in thai coconut drink

fifteenth is in agave, which tastes nice and sweet, but it can also be found in that lovely mesquite…

in grawnola you’ll find number sixteen but not in goji, flax or raw beauty cream

seventeen is in nori and noni and goji all very good for you

eighteen is in manna (both crystal and blue) but not in MSM or carob it’s true

nineteen is easy and well to be found in e3 renew me of which it’s abound 

twenty is in camu, full of vitamin C, but not in cucumber a fave of shazzie’s 

twenty one is in carob and pure synergy (a remarkable supplement for vitality)

twenty two is in tea but not olive leaf

and as it’s my last i’ll try to be brief 23 is in hempini and DHA

put it all together and you have what i’d like to say xxx

And the answer, in case you can’t figure it out: I Would Love Heaven On Earth, 23 letters.

Thank you once again to all who entered. I really hope you enjoyed writing the wishes as much as I enjoyed reading them.

Bliss U

PS: Remember you can still download for FREE Shazzie Whispers: 100 Messages Of Love, or tell your friends if you’ve already got it and love it!

 

Doxtor's orders

If it wasn’t for the ridiculous amount of greens I eat, I wouldn’t be half as healthy as I am. I usually eat a meal like this twice a day.

Serves 1-2 people. Keeps for a day when refrigerated in a sealed container.

100g alfalfa and broccoli sprouts
50g kelp noodles
2 heaped teaspoons raw tahini
20g Salba or chia seeds
20 shelled hemp seeds
1 teaspoon spirulina
2 teaspoons Udo’s oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Put the oil, tahini, spirulina, apple cider vinegar in the bowl you’ll be eating out of and mash together. Add the seeds and mash again. Add the sprouts and mix. Rinse the kelp noodles and add those, mixing for a final time. Eat with love and appreciation for all things green.

Tell me what you think!

When you’ve made this recipe, let me know what you think in the comments. Did you adjust it? What did you add? Did you feel like a Visionary In Paradise after eating it?

Bliss U

PS: I’m looking for quotes for my Shazzie Speaks Program. If you’ve got it and love it, please leave me a quote in the comments box, with your name and country.

I am celebrating. Actually, I’m always celebrating, but today I’m celebrating for a reason. Evie has been head lice free for two weeks.

Is that something to celebrate? Yes. Why?

• She’s got the longest hair in the world (she’s never had it cut).
• Head lice is rife where we live, in her school and amongst her friends outside of school

No more head lice

Why are head lice hard to get rid of?

Lice are very clever at resisting all conventional treatments and it seems many parents have given up trying, preferring instead to wait until they “grow out of them”. More children have lice than in our day, and so it’s much easier to catch them. Chemicals that are toxic to our children don’t make much of a difference to lice. Even if you get rid of the head lice with chemicals, the head lice will come back when your child comes into contact with head lice again, and so your child has to be subjected to more toxic chemicals. Not a nice option, and I wouldn’t do it to Evie.

So I’ve been working my way through Evie’s hair for months using a combination of an electric comb and essential oil spray. Sometimes she’d only have one or two lice a day, sometimes she’d have none, but they’d always come back. Only when I added tea tree to the oil spray did the head lice disappear properly.

I’d read about tea tree oil being the magical head lice ingredient a while ago, and in tests the oil kills both the lice and the eggs. But spraying a child every day with any substance isn’t really what I want to do, so I figured I’d use the minimum amount possible. This is what has been working for us: Using a 200ml bottle, I filled it up with water and added just 10 drops of tea tree oil. After combing Evie’s hair with the electric comb to detect and kill the lice, I spray her hair, making sure I spray in all the areas head lice like to gather. Since using tea tree oil spray, she hasn’t caught head lice at all.

You can also add tea tree oil to your shampoo, but I don’t know how effective this is as it gets washed out. Adding it to a leave-in conditioner would probably work better.

So there we are, a child with no head lice, and still with the longest hair in the world. Yipee.

And no, I have no idea how I can call myself a vegan now, after intentionally killing animals living on my daughter. Where do you draw the line?

Bliss U.

My good friend Nikhil has some of his paintings for sale. I love them so much, I want them to go to the best homes ever! And how’s this for a generous offer? He’s saying they’re £500 (GBP) each or £2000 for the whole collection. (Postage and insurance are extra, and that depends on where you are in the world).

If you are a serious (or silly) buyer, let me know and I’ll pass your details on to Nikhil.

Each stunning painting is is a huge 1m x 1m, oil on canvas.

Relationships

My Love

Waiting

Paradox

Surrender

So if you love these paintings as much as me, you’ll be wanting one before it’s too late! Comment me and I’ll give your details straight to Nikhil. First come, first served.

We’re also getting Nikhil’s web site set up, if you have any comments that we can use on his site about his art, post them here, too! Looking forward to them!

Bliss U.

(To make it easier, you can just enter the competition here!)

In bed. Organic sheets. Still and silent after productive day. Popple with her daddy. Painting town pink tomorrow. Minutes to my birthday. On the magic 23rd. My birthday present? A brand spanking new Land Rover so I don’t get stuck in the snow ever ever again. And I’m keeping Lottie because I love her. Eco irresponsibility gone mad, but no-one told me that country folk have 4×4s for a reason. Now considering telling mental government to put 4×4 tax down for those who live on roads that aren’t gritted (by the government) and are only 1 car wide with a ditch either side. Council tax through the roof and rear wheel car which has a mile to go either way before civilisation won’t drive on ice. 15 days in a month being unable to go anywhere doesn’t work in Shazzzie’s head. I will plant more green things to make up for it. Sorry. But not sorry, if u get me. 23 in number plate. Magic.

23 + 41 = infinity

And anyway. I love to give u things. Birthdays are the best time to do that so here we go. U have 23 days to answer me and u win 23 prizes. Worth a go?

These are the 23 things I want the most in the world on my birthday…

1. Peace in Haiti
2. Peace in all our hearts
3. An end to all religion
4. An end to all suppression
5. Equality for snails, women, children, men, martians and jellyfish because we are all just love
6. Shelter for the homeless
7. Food for the hungry, but make it raw and organic, for goddess’s sake
8. Open arms for the lonely
9. Truth
10. Telepathy
11. A teleportation device
12. The end of the fake monetary system
13. Worldwide empowerment
14. Self love, for everyone
15. All gardens to be made edible
16. All ornaMENTAL trees to be replaced by fruit and nut trees
17. Clean gorgeous air
18. Clean gorgeous seas
19. Clean gorgeous earth
20. The end of BIG PHARMA
21. The natural medicine revolution
22. Dolfish liberation
23. Unity consciousness

Still excited about winning 23 things?

Tell me the top 23 things you want the most in the world. I pick the winner. You can enter here in my comments or on my Facebook page. You’d be hard pressed to enter on Twitter, unless you just wanted letters or numbers or something. You have until midnight 11th February to enter. I’ll pick the winner and publish here. Worldwide. No purchase necessary. One winner only. Blah. Put your name and where you live on your entry and be fun, creative and authentic. Remember, we’re all everything so I’ll spot BS a mile off if u get too pious…

What are the 23 things?

A selection picked by me, valued over £150 from my online shop. All in a gorgeous hamper, wrapped with love by my big sister, Jennie.

Have too much fun…

Bliss U. Go!

So if Russell Brand has committed his mind. body and soul to the lovely Katy Perry, where does that leave his millions of admirers?

Cake. That’s where. Even if Russell has gone all mahogany on us, we are allowed to dream that one day he will come round to our house and have a chatchup, cuppotea and cake. And here’s the cake that we’ve invented for Russell, called (imaginatively) Russell Brand’s chatchup cake.

Russell Brand's chatcup cake

Invented by Jazzii and Shazzie (yes, we rhyme as well as have the same delicious taste in men. I mean cake.), this cake is easy for all of Russell’s admirers to make. It’s vegan and requires no cooking.

So make cake, invite Russell round for a chatchup (a chat and a catch up) and turn him even more of a superbeing with all those yummy superfoods. That’ll give other, more *single*, men something to aspire to.

Ingredients

3 cups almonds
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 tsp he shou wu
1 – 2 tablespoons maca
A pinch of Himalayan crystal salt
A pinch of nutmeg but not to much
3/4 (1/4 cup reserved for frosting) coconut butter
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
1 vanilla pod
Vanilla Bean Frosting (see below)
Goji berries (For garnish if you have them harvested pre-May 2009)
Slivered almonds (for garnish)
Extra cinnamon (for garnish)

To make the cake

Grind the almonds and walnuts in the food processor until it becomes a powdery meal.  Open the vanilla pod and scrape all the seeds out and put into food processor with the ground nuts.  Pulse a few times to get the vanilla seeds mixed in well.  Empty contents into a bowl.  Add the cinnamon, he sho wu, maca, salt and nutmeg mix well.  I find using a fork mixes it all best.

Take your coconut butter and slowly melt it over a double boiler or a low heat.  Once melted then pour over the nuts add the agave and mix well.  This will make the cake sticky but not liquidy.  If you find its somehow looks thinner then it should.  Grind some extra almonds in the processor and then add them to the mix until it become pliable like dough in your fingers.

Vanilla bean frosting

3 cups cashews
2 vanilla bean pods
1/4 cup coconut butter
3 tablespoons raw agave nectar 
3 tablespoons almond milk

To make the frosting

Grind the cashews in to a powder.  There will most likely be chunks in there but you can smooth them out later.  Open the vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds into the cashews.  Grind again for a few seconds to mix them over well.  Empty contents into a bowl and the agave and almond milk mix well.  To get this frosting even smoother put it all back into the processor and run again with the liquids in.  

To assemble the cake

Take 1 cup of the cake mix and form it into a round and let the first layer chill in the freezer for about 15 – 20 minutes just to firm ir up and bit. Remove it and top it with a layer of frosting.  Repeat this step by adding more cake mix formed into a round and then place back in the freezer for the same amount of time.  You can make about three layers of the cake with the mixture.  Once all the cake layers have had a chance to chill then top all of the cake with the remaining frosting.  

To decorate take cinnamon and sprinkle on the cake to dust it, place goji berries individually in a circle and then sprinkle the slivered almonds into the centre.

PS: I do recommend Russell reads the all important “mahogany, monogamy, monopoly, monotony” article in Ecstatic Beings if his love for Katy is to withstand the pressures of togetherness for all time.

Bliss U.

Tonight I’m being interviewed by one of my all time heroes, Eldon Taylor, Hay House author and the genius behind Innertalk. The interview is on Hay House Radio, 7pm (UK time), 11am (PST). Straight after me is another hero, Esther Hicks.

Shazzie on Hay House Radio

I love Hay House and all Louise Hay’s creations so much, it feels like the biggest honour to be interviewed on their radio station. It’s not a fame thing because I’ve been on national television and that didn’t phase me. It’s more like a biggest love and respect and adoration and gratitude thing.

Over the years, Louise Hay and her authors have altered the face our our bookshops and even our language. We wouldn’t be what we are without them, for sure.

I hope you can listen to and enjoy the show. It’s going to be such fun for me and a bit peeky experiency too!

Bliss U.

With new people joining our group every day, it looks like The World’s Biggest Juice Cleanse is here to stay! Tell your friends! Tell yourself! Come and visit any time for juicy support and love!

Get juicy with us!

Now in day 7, I’m feeling sparklier than I was before I started, full of excitement and finally ready to start the new year. If the snow ever stops! I walked for 3.5 hours yesterday and even found our local shop, almost a year after I moved here! It’s a gorgeous Narniaesque scene from my window. Evie has been shouting for Aslan, and we think there may be faun prints in the snow… I’ve been unable to drive for five days, and it just keeps snowing more! It feels like the end of the world has happened, but seeing as I’m still on the Internet, it’s probably still hanging on by a thread!

Bliss U.