Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 10:48 AM
Hey luvs
Glad to hear you all have been enjoying our story of how we started up our bakery. And thanks for all the nice compliments on the pics!
And our story continues….
So we looked into selling our baked goods at local farmers markets. We were terrified!! I can remember our first market. It was selling at the downtown market on Wednesday afternoons.
Lori and I packed up are the car and headed out. We both we were not talking much, which is unusual because the two of us together we sometimes can get carried away, so we both were scared. This was the first time we were ever doing something like this. Sure sure we have been cooking for people and made treats for others as gifts but to sell our gluten-free vegan peanut-free no refined sugar baked goodies was something new.
I remember we both recited the Lord’s Prayer in the car….we need HIS help!!
We put up our tent and table. Put up our sign and said, “Okay here we go, no turning back!” And then people came (this market was for the lunch crowd) so a lot of people wanted dessert to get them through their afternoon full of meetings!! We had samples, lots of samples (which we learned is a must when selling your product, especially if it is gluten-free and vegan!) A lot of people we shocked to try something that was “free” of so many things. Some liked it and others did not get it (which is a whole other topic).
First let me back up a little.
How did we know we wanted it to be a gluten-free vegan peanut-free sugar-free bakery?
Well because that is how we ate and thought that is what our bakery would be as well. Ever since we moved here we find out there was no allergy friendly bakery. So we started taking some of our family recipes plus created our own to be gluten-free vegan all naturally sweetened treats. Finding suppliers was a headache all together because we wanted to be peanut-free as well. Over time we perfected our recipes and Twin Cakes Bakery was born. And let me tell you, we spent hours in the kitchen creating recipes over and over again till they were perfect!! We had a lot of failures….trash full of bad recipes plus we enjoyed some of the not so bad ones ; ) We wanted our products to be different…to be better…to be healthier!! Our gluten-free baked goods are not your typical white rice flour, evaporated cane sugar, potato/tapioca starch filled, tofu infused gluten-free vegan treats. We wanted texture, flavor, so we created our own blend of wholegrain gluten-free flours, plus a few other tricks.
At the market, I remember some people’s excitement to find a treat they can eat…some could not have sugar, solved, some could not have eggs, solved, and most could not eat gluten, solved! It was a success!! Word was spreading fast about us. The only advertising we did was through word-of-mouth at the farmers market ; ) We love our customers!!!
Now the madness began…
Throughout our first months selling at the farmers market we got more and more request from individuals do we offer soy-free, corn-free, casein free, potato-free, rice-free products. I mean the request kept coming for us to make this without this and that. It was crazy. More light bulbs went off. Hearing all these request made us recreate all our products again to meet all these food allergies request. Which looking back on was not a very smart business decision, because we wasted more ingredients and time. Not good for a company just starting off….we are just people pleasers. Having this type of personality ended up hurting us…we eventually had to learn to say no.
By turning our bakery more into an overall allergy friendly bakery, it made our own personal diets to more allergy friendly. We started taking out soy and corn from our own diet. Finally we got some relief with our stomach issues!! The more we took out the better we were feeling.
Our mom made our table cloths and sign!! love u mom ; )
So what about our raw products?
Well one day at the market a new regular came to our table and asked us to create her some raw foods. She was already vegan but wanted to try raw. She just got back from NY and ate at the prestigious Pure Food and Wine. After a long interesting conversation we were intrigued. So immediately after the market Lori and I started researching….and we fell in love!!
We loved everything about raw foods!!! The idea, the health benefits, the people…it all seemed to make sense. So back to the kitchen is was…but with new tools!! And then Pure2Raw products were born ; )
A few months after we started this blog, to share our journey of raw foods.
Over the first two years of business we sold at 4 different farmers markets, done so many events for various charities and schools, done one TV show, and been in the local paper and magazines.
And then Lori became a certified Raw Vegan Chef and counselor and then we heard about the new culinary school opening…105 Degrees Academy, (check out my picture) and we knew we had to go!! Hello Matthew Kenney was running it. One of our biggest raw chef idols.
But which one of us would go?? We debated over this for weeks…time was ticking and we had to make a decision. So I enrolled. And the experience was amazing and I was lucky enough to spend it with another person I was thrilled to meet, GINA!! Love her!!
I sometimes still cannot believe I met Matthew and got to work at his restaurant….amazing!!! I was truly blessed for such an unbelievable experience!
Where we are now?
We still sell at farmers markets in the local area, side orders all the time for birthdays, etc, launched a mini online store here on P2R, and getting ready to launch our Twin Cakes Bakery Online store….finally are online bakery that we have been talking about for years….our dream is coming true ; ) We even more surprises ahead….much more to come from us.
Mom makes our aprons too!!
It sure has been a long and hard journey, but all the ups and downs were worth it. We have learned so much about ourselves, how to run a business (out of your home), how to start up an online store, how to wear all the hats of running a business (bakers, cleaners, accountants, sales personnel, marketers, errand runner, financial advisor, etc) all while trying to have a personal life (eat healthy, workout daily, blog, travel) and relax somewhere ; )
Who do we did it for?
You!!! All our customers, our readers, our family and friends. For the little boy or girl who gets so excited when they can come to our table and PICK ANYTHING off it because it is SAFE for them to eat!! And now we get to share that with more people….
Blessed, I think so!!
Lori and I thank everyone for their support and patience. We have many more business ideas to come so please hang around for the ride!!
Phew….that is how we got to where we are today!
Man I am hungry talking about all this food ; ) But before I go check out our amazing giveaway plus our friend Betty is have one too!
Till next time,
Michelle
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Giveaway, Hot Topics, Miscellaneous
Tags: farmers markets, online bakery, owning a business, pure2raw, raw foods, shopping online, Twin Cakes Bakery
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 07:44 AM
Good morning friends,
Thanks for all the lovely and inspiring comments about staying true to yourself 
They really helped and brought a smile to our faces! So thank you!!!
As it is a nasty,cold and wet day here in NC we thought about trying to bring some joy and happiness to our blog today to help get everyone’s mind off the weather
Today we are going to share how we made our coconut rice stacked dish! This is a re-creation of Michelle’s final dish at school!
Seriously has become one of my favorite meals! It is easy to make, pretty to look at, and leaves your taste buds satisfied.
Pure2Raw Recipe: Coconut rice stacked avocado dish
Ingredients:
- 1-2 avocados
- 1 small red onion
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- pinch sea salt
- couple pinches of your favorite jerk seasoning (we created one by using cinnamon, cloves, thyme, nutmeg, & cayenne)
- 1 small head of cauliflower or half of a large one
- 1 cup coconut flakes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 tsp curry powder (mainly for color)
- 3/4 cup softened coconut butter (not the oil, though if you need use the oil I will up the coconut flakes)
Directions:
Take your red onion and slice it up into thin strips. Place on dehydrator sheet and coat with olive oil, pinch salt, & your jerk seasonings. Let dehydrate for at least 5 hours. *Or you may lightly sauté the onions and spices on a skillet. You want the onions to be lightly caramelized.
Next, take your head of cauliflower and lightly chopped it up (this helps when you put it into the food processor to keep them all similar in size)
Place chopped cauliflower into your food processor. *we used our small food processor so it took us two times to get all the cauliflower chopped finely
Pulse till finely chopped
Next add in your coconut flakes
Place into food professor with spices, garlic, and pinch salt. *we added in some lemongrass to ours love it!
Pulse till finely chopped again
Combine finely chopped coconut flakes with your finely chopped cauliflower and add in the 1/4 tsp curry or turmeric
Next add in coconut butter and stir till well combined!
Our all time favorite brand of coconut products Artisana!
That’s it. Time to put the whole thing together! 
Slice up your avocado, grab your onions, and bowl of coconut rice.
Time to build layers. We used a large circle cookie cutter to build our layers in. You can use anything you can find that is deep to build up the layers in but easy to remove.
What we did: first put a layer down of the coconut rice, next top with top slices of avocado, than top with red onions. Than repeat that same thing one more time. And it is done!
*note- there will be leftover coconut rice which you can save to make more stacks with or create another delicious meal out of it. Or you may eat plain Lots of options to play around with!
Seriously much better than rice out of a box in my opinion! And a lot quicker to make
Great way to ‘add’ more veggies into your diet and kids diets too!
Love how the red onions bring so much color and height to this dish 
We love this dish: easy, full of nutrients, full of the healthy fats, raw, vegan, gluten-free, and nut-free!
Dinner is served! We hope you and your family give this a try and let us know how it is It is a fun way to experiment with new veggies and spices to bring in color and variety into your diet
Thanks for stopping by for another twins un-cooking lesson.
Till next time,
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Raw Recipes, gluten free vegan nut free recipe, ingredients
Tags: avocado, caramelized onions, cauliflower, coconut butter, coconut flakes, raw dinner, rice, un-cooking lesson
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 09:01 AM
Winter is still here!
We are currently being snowed in for the day, maybe even the weekend. It is not supposed to get above freezing temperatures till Monday.
Don’t worry we got plenty of good food, wine, movies, and lots of work to do to keep us busy Especially now that we are live!
Glad in see everyone liking the vegetable puree mash recipe Promise it is keeper and will help keep you warm during these cold days! This beautiful lady I know loves her vegetable root mashes!
Speaking of good eats we have been enjoying lots of delicious green smoothies
We enjoyed this beautiful dish (a little blast from the past) a few nights ago
Raw Coconut Rice Avocado Stacked Dish
Michelle’s final dish creation that she made while at school. Unbelievably yummy! I remember eating it when I visited her for her graduation – eating it with these great guys
Anthony and Philip The dish was superb not only back then but this time seemed even better Way to go sis!
Michelle and I even went back for seconds – though second time around was not so pretty as the first!
We got lazy
I must admit it was weird going back for seconds because we have never really done that before with raw foods. I am just a little obsessed with the coconut rice Doesn’t it look like scrambled eggs?!?!?!
Michelle will share the recipe with you all soon
Also been enjoying some simple salads like this one
Our sauerkraut with some watercress
Last night’s dinner was a glorious salad with tahini
Earlier in the day we enjoyed a delicious mint brownie ‘coconut milk’ kefir shake
All we did was take our coconut kefir blended it with some fresh mint, stevia, coconut oil, and put in some of our raw brownie bites into the shake. And topped with cacao nibs. Tasted like a real ‘milk’ shake Fabulous!
And we treated ourselves to a nice glass or two of wine Hey it was snowing and we were celebrating our launch of our site!
We did some work last night! But than decided to take a break and watch some Bourne We love Jason Bourne! Seriously one of my favorite action movie series ever!!!!!
Love it! Let’s just say went to bed with happy thoughts
What is your favorite action movie?
Till next time,
Lori
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Miscellaneous, ingredients
Tags: coconut kefir, coconut rice, milk shake, movie, raw brownie bites, raw cacao, raw foods, raw sauerkraut, store, wine
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 03:57 PM
Hello friends,
Glad to see that everyone is enjoying our raw lasagna recipe It is a lot of fun to make and easy to once you got all your layers ready to go! It makes us so happy to hear that many of you would like to try raw lasagna!!!
And we are happy to hear we have inspired some of you to make fermented veggies like our friend Elena.
Re-cap of our eats from Monday!
Our day started with our morning workout!
Followed by a delicious green smoothie of green kale and apples 
Due to having a colonic we did not really have lunch.
But after our colonic we were starving so we made kefir mint kale shake
And we hand a new snack, we dehydrated our leftover butternut squash strips leftover from our raw lasagna
They were a little weird at first, but we kept eating them and ended up really liking them. We can see this as a new snack in the near future
Just coated them with olive oil and spices then dehydrated them overnight. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Later on we were still hungry so we had ourselves our leftover beet cheese spread from the raw lasagna with 2 slices of our raw onion flatbread
YUMMY!!! Great way to use leftover spreads…perfect companions ; )
Then for our raw dessert we created something fun.
Pure2raw Cookies-n-Cream Mush
What is it?
A blend of coconut flakes, coconut oil, and crumbled in our Pure2Raw Brownie Bites. PERFECTION!!
I know these lovely ladies, Averie and Katie, love some raw brownie bites.
Great way to end a Monday!!
Now for some of our newest readers welcome! Many of you have requested about the raw nut free coconut yogurt that you have been seeing a lot lately, well we have shown how we make that a few times on our blog!
Here are the links:
First time Michelle made raw yogurt at 105 degrees and fell in love with it!
Second time we tried to re-create the yogurt but with out using nuts (remember we like to use the least amount of nuts if possible)
Third time we just keep on trying to make a different version of the yogurt.
As you can tell we love our homemade coconut based raw yogurt! Though you have to be willing to open a lot of coconuts!!! But promise it is well worth it!
Although another time we made nut free raw seed pulp yogurt we were inspired first my Gena’s sesame milk, and we used the pulp to make yogurt.
Okay time to get back in the kitchen. We have been making some new recipes ; )
Till next time,
Lori
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Raw Recipes, gluten free vegan nut free recipe, ingredients
Tags: green smoothie, nut free, raw brownies, raw dessert, raw lasagna, raw onion flatbread, raw yogurt, snacks
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 08:07 AM
Good Morning Friends,
Due to the request from our lovely readers we are sharing our raw lasagna recipe with you all!!! Plus we will share due to more request about our homemade yogurt!
Pure2Raw Recipe: Raw Gluten Free Nut Free Vegan Lasagna
We like to call it our winter flavored lasagna because we tried to use a winter/fall squash and more earthy flavors than the typical tomato and cashew cheez raw lasagnas out there We we find can be too heavy for us.
Now for raw lasagnas there are a few more steps due to all the layers but well worth it in the end!
Ingredients:
Base layers or a.k.a the noodles
- zucchini
- butternut squash
The beet and basil are for other layers, but the squash we already went ahead and skinned it!
Now time to make our noodles
First we did this on a mandoline though you could always hand cut yourself into very thin stripes. Though mandoline makes it very easy and quick A great kitchen tool to have!!!
You are left with a bowl full of noodles
Repeat for the zucchini
We cut the zucchini in half to make the noodles the length we were looking for.
You get very thin pasta zucchini noodles. *you might have to change your blade settings to get it just right thinness
We also soaked our butternut squash noodles while we made the rest of the layers, we feel it makes it a little easier on our tummies to digest.
Now time to make the reminding layers.
Next layer is the beet sauce our ‘tomato layer’
Pure2Raw Recipe: Beet Zucchini Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1/2 zucchini (about 1 cup)
- 1/2 small red beet (about 1/2 cup)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp organic hemp seeds
- 3 fresh sage leaves
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Place in food processor or blender and puree till well combined.
Next layer our ‘cheez sauce’
Pure2Raw Recipe: Pumpkin spinach pesto
Ingredients:
- 1 cup lightly packed spinach
- 1/3 cup soaked pumpkin seeds, drained and rinsed
- 2 garlics (depending our your love for garlics can just use 1 clove)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1 whole lime juice
- 1 fresh sage leaf
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp coriander seeds or powder
- 1/2 tsp agave nectar
Place in food processor or blender and puree till smooth.
We left ours a little chunky
Time to bring the whole dish together. This is the fun part building the lasagna!
Base layer: zucchini and butternut squash noodles
Next we put fresh basil as a layer, really adds a whole new level of flavor for the dish!
Next cover this layer with your ‘cheez’ sauce – our was the pumpkin spinach pesto
Next layer is the beet sauce
Than we just repeat the layers once more
And we put the final layer as our zucchini noodles and a little more pesto
And than it is time to inhale eat your delicious fall/winter themed raw gluten free nut free vegan lasagna!
Well that is all folks for your raw un-cooking lesson with the Pure2Raw Twins
We were a little nervous about this recipe because we took what Michelle learned at school for her raw lasagna and tried to put our own twist on it. One we wanted to be very different than most raw lasagnas with having no ‘nuts’ and two we like to use different flavorings like cinnamon and coriander. We just love those spices But if you are in the creative mood go ahead and try creating your own version and play around with different spices and vegetables. The possibilities are endless!
We will share more about our homemade yogurt later today
Till next time,
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Raw Recipes, ingredients
Tags: gluten free vegan food, kitchen tool, mandoline, nut free, pesto, raw lasagna, sauce, zucchini noodles
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 08:47 AM
Good Morning Luvs,
How was everyone’s weekend? Good I hope!
Michelle and I took yesterday off from blogging and tweeting. We tried to take a little down-time and really focus on other things that are going on in our life! Sometimes you really just need a break
Let’s rewind here and get you all caught up-to-date with our daily eats
Saturday’s morning breakfast before heading to our farmers market was a delicious bowl of our homemade coconut yogurt with chia seeds, maca, stevia, and a little yacon syrup and cacao nibs!
All stirred together now
Tried to make it somewhat substantial because it will be 5 hours till we ate again. This breakfast hits the spot for us every time we have it which is becoming our weekend morning rituals!
Michelle and I split this little treat – it was the only one left from the market – I guess our clients liked them
Raw KEY LIME KREAMCAKE (as we like to call it)
Upon arriving back at the house we whip warm hot cocoa and ate one slice of our raw onion flatbreads.
Little bit later we made ourselves a romaine grapefruit smoothie with some stevia, coconut oil, and msm powder (un-pictured)
Dinner was a glorious romaine, cilantro, fermented veggies, raw sauerkraut salad with some lime juice and hemp seeds
Now this might have been too much fermented veggies for some people but since we eat them all time we wanted to see how our bodies did with about 1 cup fermented foods at one time. Conclusion: did great!
We also treated ourselves to a glass of wine for a job well done at the market
Continuing with our weekend ritual of our homemade yogurt we enjoyed our last bowl of it Sunday morning 
So satisfying and delicious!!! Great way to start a Sunday!
Lunch was this amazing little bad boy
Our first attempt at making our own RAW lasagna with of course the twins twist on it Michelle made her first raw lasagna while being at school
Our raw lasagna is NUT Free along with being gluten free, soy free and vegan! And it was full of great ingredients and flavor!!!! We will share recipe if you all are interested?!?!
Dinner was another fermented jam packed salad with a side of wilted arugula and a slice of our raw onion flatbread with some left over sauce from our raw lasagna! SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!!
Another night full of flavor, texture, nutrient packed dinner Tummy happy!
I think you all had enough food pictures for now Can you ever really see to many food pictures?!?!?
Workout:
Saturday was yoga, lots of core work, and push-ups.
Sunday more core work, and a 30 minute walk.
Felt nice to really move the legs though we have been loving our yoga time
Have another colonic session today, first one since the marathon.
Till next time,
Lori
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Miscellaneous, gluten free vegan nut free recipe, ingredients
Tags: fermented veggies, gluten free vegan food, nut free recipe, raw cheesecake, raw lasagna, raw onion flatbread, raw recipe, raw yogurt
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Hey friends,
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! We wish you all the best for 2010!!!!
Things that the twins accomplished in 2009:
Started our Pure2Raw blog
Sent samples out to our favorite bloggers – Heather, Gena, Gina, Liz, Katie, Lori
Completed our second year of business
Certified RAW Vegan Chefs
Michelle attended the first Raw Foods cooking school
Met Fitnessista
Met the Pilot
Met Matthew Kenney
Met Ani Phyo
Met Anthony (Raw Model)
Met Karen Knowler
Met Courtney Poole
Met Philip McCluskey
Met Tim VanOrden
And Ran in our second half marathon at Disney with our sisters
And of course we ate very well…
Delicious Raw Foods
Kelp Noodles
Final Dish at 105 Degrees
Raw Desserts
Smores
Raw Ice Cream
And much more…just too many to list : ) We love food!!
Well, that is all that we can think of that is big that we did this past year. Now to start our 2010 year off right we are running in our second Marathon!!! And many new and exciting things happening with our company. We see an online store coming soon!!!!
Cheers to good health!
The twins do plan on drinking some red wine tonight to celebrate our accomplishments and to prepare for a great new year!
We got our fresh coconut water all ready for tomorrow
Till next time, from our wine glass to yours
The Twins
SEE YA IN 2010!!!
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Miscellaneous, holidays
Tags: 105 degrees academy, accomplishments, ani phyo, disney marathon, karen knowler, Matthew Kenney, Philip McCluskey, raw dessert, raw food, raw model, raw vegan chefs, Tim VanOrden
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 09:46 AM
Good morning friends,
How is everyone’s Wednesday going? Good I hope!
Our morning as been going great because we made some of these yummy treats
You may have saw us Tweet these this morning…a new holiday flavor to sell this weekend at the farmers market! And yes we will share the recipe with you all later : ) And yes this is not part of the Candida cleanse, Michelle such a small swipe to ensure taste, and it was hard for her not to keep eating. Anything mint or peppermint is her fav : )
Re-cap of our eats from yesterday
Morning: romaine,grapefruit, chia seeds, and ginger smoothie
Snack: a glass of homemade water kefir
Lunch: homemade raw coconut base yogurt – we sweetened with stevia and cinnamon
Snack: homemade kombucha tea
Pre-dinner snack: sauerkraut topped with spices and Udo’s Oil blend
Dinner: wilted swiss chard salad with black sesame seeds, salt, and lemon juice
Today’s meals were all simple, easy and delicious! So far day 1 of cleanse is going well. We also took all the ‘extra’ supplements throughout the day.
We decided to end our night with coconut milk. Last night on twitter we mentioned that we were going to make some. Now we made ours a little different than how Michelle learned at school
picture from when Michelle was at school - using mature coconuts to make fresh coconut milk
*again this picture from Michelle’s class when she learned how to make
After debating on how we will go about making our own coconut milk without cracking open a ton of mature coconuts. Because as Michelle learned in school they are not fun to open!!!! Therefore we decided to try being a little lazy creative we used plain spring water with coconut butter to our vita-mix and blended till smooth. Overall outcome…. not bad. Needs a little work though we did not add anything else to it like vanilla, salt, or sweetener.
We ended up adding stevia and cinnamon!
Twins Workout:
- 40 minutes of yoga
- push-ups, abs, and leg exercises
How we are feeling/doing:
Overall first day we went well! Though we did not drink a lot of water so tummy did get a little bloated as the night went on. We think it was from our colonics getting things stirred up inside us!
Our energy levels were good we managed to get a good bit of work done. Though I did start to break down again last night while I was washing my face but kept telling myself I am healing and my face will get better!
Well time to get back to work. And don’t forget about our first giveaway!
Till next time,
The Twins
L&M
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Health, detox
Tags: candida diet, cleanse, green smoothie, Kombucha tea, raw coconut milk, raw sauerkraut, raw yogurt, water kefir
Monday, October 5, 2009 at 06:41 PM
Hey everyone
We made it…despite having flight delays, which I used to get mad at but over time I have realized getting upset really does not change the situation. But I will admit I do get still get a little frustrated…hey it’s a work in progress.
We started our last day in OKC at 105 degrees for breakfast. I did wake up feeling a little better, and learned from my friend Averie that the is a reason for me feeling this way…the full moon. She it is okay for me to blame it on the full moon, sounds good to me : )
I ordered the banana almond muffin
Lori ordered the raspberry beignet
Guess we were both hungry!
I enjoyed my last meal at 105 degrees
We both ordered some smoothies to go! Can’t get enough of them.
Lori enjoying her Tropical Popeye on the way to the airport
Me with my Raspberry Rhapsody
We thought we would be productive while we wait to board.
Well at least one of us was actually doing work
As we waited for our connection in Atlanta we enjoyed a few snacks, a.k.a our dinner, that Lori brought with her…carob macaroons, our green onion breads, chocolate truffles….so we did not go hungry at the airports.
I always hear people complain about trying to eat good or healthy when they travel. From our experiences with traveling and having unique food choices all it takes is a little planning and flexibility. When you travel it is not the best time to set limitations in your diet because you are just creating unnecessary stress, which traveling in general is already stressful, so don’t create unwanted stress. Enjoy yourself…bring along some of your favorite snacks….drink water…and have a POSITIVE attitude and you will survive you travels! As we all know your mind will either break or make your trip!!
I must admit I am not a person who loves to unpack and clean when I get back home. I normally have a nice meal and then get to bed early, but I am going to try to change that….starting tonight I am going to unpack my bags, start laundry, and do some work, which has piled up over this last week since both Lori and I were on “vacation”.
We wanted to say we are sad to hear about Gourmet magazine. It was a one of the best…it will be missed!
Twins Question: Do you pack immediately when you get home from traveling? Or do you live out of your bags for a few days? What are you tips or motivation to unpacking and cleaning?
Till next time,
Michelle & Lori
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Health
Tags: 105 degrees, breakfast, smoothies, snacks, Traveling
Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 08:12 PM
Hey everyone
Well despite a great night, last night was also sad. I had to say goodbye to Jen : ( I will miss you!
Today I woke up feeling down…I knew I would be saying more goodbyes to my friends. Lori and I met Gina and Tom at 105 degrees for breakfast before they started their road trip back to GA.
I ordered a green juice with a cacao pear muffin
Lori ordered a green juice with the cinnamon-orange bun
And we shared a side of almond toast
Me, Gina, and Tom all enjoying our last breakfast at 105 degrees This is the sad part about when your vacation or some experience has to come to an end… you make all these new friends and than before you know it is time to say goodbye.
As we were eating Greg and Whitney came in to get a smoothie for the road. They both are heading out today…so I said my goodbyes to them : ( In addition I said goodbye to Sonja and Kelly. So not the best way to start the day and having cloudy rainy weather outside did not help my mood either. Though I tried to make the most of it!
I could not sit in the hotel, because I did not want to think. So Lori and I went for a drive. We had no real destination in mind, just drove around as we talked. We had a lot to talk about but were just not feeling happy. We tried to go workout but even that did not lift our spirits. Weird I know, but I have so many emotions and thoughts inside me that I am having a hard to time sorting them out.
I have learned a lot here, especially over the last 24 hours. I have learned I cannot make people like me, I cannot make everyone happy, all I can do is live my own life, try to be a good example, and hopefully along my journey help one or maybe 2 people along the way. All I want to do is help show people that living a raw foods lifetsyle means embracing life, chosing life, and respecting your body. All the presenters yesterday mentioned how we all have a choice, we have to find how choosing raw foods, choosing to exercise, can positively change our quality of life. We all have to take everything in that we read, hear, or watch because everyone has what they believe is the raw foods lifestyle. So remember you have to find what works for you.
I have also learned that people that choose this way of living are genuinely nice people. They all want to share their stories hoping they can touch someone to make a positive change. Well they all touched me…and well I came here with ideas of what I thought, what I believed, what I thought I knew but now I have a lot of things I want to sort out.
I am very grateful for this experience, for all the people I have met, and for all that I have learned. I am going to miss this place….having a place I could go and eat and not have to worry about what I am eating… is the best feeling ever, which makes it hard to leave. I always wonder why do raw foodies/vegans/vegetarians are the ones always having to explain themselves? What makes us different? Why can’t people understand that these lifestyle/dietary choices make us happy, they make us feel good, why is that so hard to believe?
Lori and I had our last dinner tonight at 105 degrees and both still were not in the best of moods. I don’t know what it was, something in the air, or a vibe we were feeling, but it is just making me even more confused because I thought being around people that shared similiar interest would be a good thing.
We both were not that hungry so we kept dinner light and simple. We split the red sweet pepper wrappers and the spicy vegetable summer rolls and both got a side of kale chips (in honor of Gina ) We also ordered the green tea tropical tea.
Hey it was cold outside
We plan on having our breakfast there again tomorrow before heading to the airport! Hopefully we both wake up with more mental clarity tomorrow morning. Time to get to packing.
Hmmm…well I will have a lot of time tomorrow on my flights to think…which for me is not always a good thing.
Till next time,
Michelle & Lori
Posted by: Pure2
Posted in: 105 degrees academy, Health
Tags: 105 degrees, breakfast, dinner, green juice, raw food, tea, vegan
