I hope that you are resting and relaxing on this Memorial Day Week! Summer is officially here, and I am sure that you can feel the amazing summer warmth! We had our first white peaches come in on Thursday following with WATERMELONS, cantaloupes, and honeydews on Saturday!! Watermelons make the most memorial Memorial Day weekend! I am sure that all of us can remember growing up and eating a watermelon with our families or grandparents on Memorial Day weekend. This holiday celebrates not only those who have offered their lives for our freedom, but also it celebrates all of the amazing memories that we have in our lives because of that freedom. We are free to have good memories, and we are free to share this gift with others! What is your favorite Memorial Day Memory? What memories in life do you want to create?

When I initially think about Memorial Day, I think about MEMORIES. I think about sunshine, spitting seeds in the sun, the American flag, and…the infamous American pastime revolving around hot-dogs, barbecues, and pool parties. Some of these memories may bring up good emotions for you, and some may not. Ironically, many of us forget to think about the memories that we WILL CREATE in the FUTURE. Can a memory be a future tense? When you look back on your life thirty years from now, how do you want to see your life? Will you be able to say that you achieved all that you wanted to achieve? Were you able to envision your future? Did you live your life to the fullest? Did you fill up your belly with juicy melon?? Did you get the hot body you always wanted? Did you have PERFECT health?

You cannot make a memory unless you have an idea of what you want to Memorialize. Americans knew that they wanted freedom, so they fought for it. If you want freedom in your life–whether it be for your mind or for your health–you have the power in your life to create that freedom! Too many struggle with making bad food choices. They feel victimized to the globalization of mass-produced and packaged foods that “kill” on every corner.  Many individuals feel that they cannot get out of the same rut of eating foods that they KNOW do not make them feel good. What you purchase and what you put into your mouth is a choice. No one else will spoon feed you what you do not want to eat. If you want to create a health change for yourself, JUST DO IT. Take it a day at a time, and incorporate one rainbow meal out of your box. Email me afterwards and tell me how free you feel! Make good eating and eating raw a daily Memorial.

Think about your life in the future tense. Think about your body, mind, and spirit in the future tense.Think about your relationship with your family and friends. Think about your work. Think about your community.  Think about your world. Think about OUR world. When I think about all that I want to create, I think about sharing health with all of you. I have the secret to health, and I cannot hold it within my being! I only wish to share this abundance! I want to manifest an abundance of good health, a plethora of individuals who share this passion with me, success of our beloved co-op, a giant harvest for the entire planet, and a shifted awareness in every mind about eating rawfully-loved foods. I think about not only touching our local friends and families, but everyone–literally, everyone. I want to REACH PEOPLE on multiple levels.  This is a gift to share, and I want to share it!

Summer is here NOW, and it will be gone before you blink. NOW is the time to change anything that brings you even the slightest tinge of unhappiness, especially about yourself or your image. If you have self-doubt, NOW is the time to face your fears and show the world of what you are capable! Can you envision yourself with the perfect body of your dreams or with the confidence of your favorite animal? (I am a sea otter!) Go grab some fruit, and make it a meal! Make every eating experience that you have from this day forward the BEST MEAL EVER. Enjoy each color, each flavor, and each bite. Eating PURE food will fuel your body, mind, and spirit to be free, so live it up!

MAKE EATING MEMORIAL.

Now is the BEST time to enjoy the outdoors, the amazing fruit bounty that we receive, and the extra time to spend with family and friends. I don’t think that I have ever been so grateful to have so many beautiful people in my life. You all have enriched me and brought more to our community than solely food. We are the color in the boxes! We are the love that is spread! We are the ROC

I hope that you had a relaxing and fulfilling weekend filled with happy bellies and great company! Everyone is in local heaven this week! We have officially seen our first local peaches, corn, blueberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pickles, basil, squashes, carrots, and more!!! We are also anticipating more cantaloupes and possibly grapes this week! What is not to love about this summer abundance?! We are so blessed to have such beautiful and bountiful food available to us. Please lettuce not forget it, but be able to celebrate it all of the time! A quick announcement for the week will be one request: if you show up early to pick up your share and the volunteers are not done sorting the boxes, please wait patiently until we finish. If you grab your box before, you may not get all of your goodies! Tragedy! The volunteers can only go as quickly as however many helping hands that we have. If you want to come and help sort the shares (and play with your food!), simply show up or visit the volunteer page before you come! All are welcome!

With so much goodness in our boxes this week, it is hard not to feel like goodness is coming into our lives. Our beautiful cornucopias are only reflecting the beautiful bounty of colors that exist within each one of us. As each week passes, I always try to look back and reflect upon something important that I learned that week. This past week, I learned to let goodness grow. I have seen so many struggle this year, and I have experienced changes in every aspect of my life. While change may be scary at times, you will ALWAYS hear me say that I believe in change and that all things happen for a GOOD reason. I truly believe that everything that happens in life is for the betterment of ourselves and our lives. My life is a testimony to show that when we listen to our hearts, this is absolutely true.

Life is an uphill step each day that we are alive. Should we choose to see the greatness in each opportunity before us, we can always progress forward and LET OUR GOODNESS GROW!

Whether you struggle with food, family, life, work, exercise, focus, etc., it becomes irrelevant if your heart is open to change. Anything is possible if we deem it to be.  Let’s face it; we tend to fight off change before we defend it, and sometimes we are closed minded so that we cannot even a the potential outcome of good from change. What if I told you that everything that happens in your day is a message from an angel trying to help you out? Would you listen? Heck yes! We all want little angels sitting on our shoulders guiding us towards greatness and helping us make the best decisions ALL of the time! The truth is that those angels live in our hearts; when we feel carefully, they guide us to feel confident and wise.  While the phrase “listen to your heart” sounds very generic, it has deep potential. These emotions triggered are our compasses, and we hold the steering wheel. What goodness do you want to grow in your life??!

Just like growing a garden, your body, mind, and soul require frequent, tender care. Physically, we require water and nutrients just as plants do. We require time, good soil (foundation), and good company. When we feed ourselves with goodness, our bodies become filled with goodness! How can one not become a beaming body of goodness when he is filled with it?! Similarly, how can one not share goodness with others if he is filled with it?! He will naturally rub off this goodness as if it were a bee spreading pollen from flower to flower!

I have had so many lately confront me to tell me all of the wonderful things that they wish to accomplish with their health and with their lives. I am here to tell you that YOU CAN do all that your heart desires, and this includes getting healthy! If anything, loving your body is the first step! The only way to do that is to eat well and exercise. All else will follow naturally. However, you must be open to the journey, and you must be open to healing and change. Imagine the possibilities of great change! That’s right, imagine your ROC’N body, your positive attitude, your confident aura, your gifts to share with others, and your humble mind. We all have heaps of goodness that exist within us; now, let them out! Nurture your goodness and allow it to grow. Watch this goodness affect all who surround you!

What is ONE thing that you can do to make yourself a healthier person this week? Can you do it? Of course you can! Open your heart, and let your goodness grow! You are not alone in your venture! If you need support, please do not forget that you have a co-op of over 2600 individuals who are probably in the same boat as you, striving to achieve great health and striving to make yourself the best person that you can be!

I hope to see you ALL this week as we celebrate an enormous bounty! I will be celebrating my very RAWfully FULL belly! I can’t wait to see you all!

Hugs!

Kristina

I hope that you have had an incredible weekend! We have had the most PERFECT weather! I am SO excited because this past week we picked our first peaches, corn, pickles, tomatoes, carrots, and squashes of the summer season! Woo hoo! Summer is nearly here! You can expect the sweetest, most abundant boxes this week and possibly more summer crop surprises!

Speaking of summer, it is time to get ready for that HOTT summer body! I have been getting tons of emails and questions from people about the best and quickest way to get in shape! My answer has been simple:

LOVE RAW,

LOVE BODY,

LOVE SELF!

These three things are literally ALL-ENCOMPASSING, and I will explain them for you. When you think about each, they tell you exactly what you need to hear but most likely what you may not want to hear: IT’S TIME TO CHANGE. People search for help outside of themselves because they most likely want a quick and easy fix to their problem. The problem with that is that REAL change takes time, dedication, devotion, and development. No real physical changes happen overnight, and learning to love oneself takes TIME. Gaining confidence in one’s lifestyle can take even longer; the process of growing and learning to get healthy is a trial and error run. Everyone’s body is different, and we must take the time to get to know what works for US!

First, LOVE RAW. If you want to get healthy, there is no better way than to either GO RAW or to increase the amount of fruits or vegetables that you are eating. If you are going to get healthy, you MUST learn to love eating fruits and vegetables. There is truly no way around it! You can try a million fad diets, but the weight will come back on, and you will feel UNHAPPY and MISERABLE with yourself. Why beat around the bush? Dedicate yourself to TRULY getting healthy, and never have to change again! This is the BEST way, the HEALTHIEST way, the EASIEST way, and definitely the most ENJOYABLE way! The formula is simple: when you eat vibrant foods, you will come to life! When we eat living foods, we will also feel alive physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, and we will naturally gravitate towards WANTING to do better things for ourselves. This goes across the board!

Secondly, LOVE BODY. When I say “Love your body,” I mean that you must care for it as you would a precious gift. When individuals give health advice to their friends, they tell them that they must exercise more…but then why do they not exercise themselves? When we exercise, we MOVE. We move cellular, we move forward emotionally, and we change. Find an activity that appeals to you, and stick with it EVERYDAY. The surgeon general recommends at least 3o minutes a few times a week, but I say that is WAY too little. Our bodies are meant to be moving and shaking EVERYDAY while the sun is still shining. I run 6-8 miles A DAY, and this time has become my BLISS time. It is a time where I show love to my body. Afterwards, I show more love to by body by refueling on utterly FANTASTIC foods. There are a million ways to show your body some love. EMBODY LOVE.

Thirdly, LOVE SELF. When one decides to go healthy, he/she discovers something that they will not expect: when you cleanse your physical body, the emotional side will follow. You cannot cleanse one aspect of yourself without the other soon following. Be prepared to deal with some surfacing emotional issues, and be compassionate with yourself. We all have some skeletons in the closet that WANT to come out! However, we cannot do this unless we face them up-close! These skeletons are hidden in your body like dormant toxins that slowly wither us away. We WANT to get rid of them so that we can feel LIGHT and FEED LOVE to all that surrounds us. It may sound corny, but it’s totally true. You may not love yourself 100% now, but if you decide to take on a journey of love, light, and health, you will eventually get there. I am going on my 6th year of eating raw soon, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I FINALLY understood the true meaning of confidence and loving my WHOLE self. Breathe in patience and envision, breathe out hurt, anger, and pain. Release everything that you don’t want festering around inside of you. HENCE, LOVE SELF, and keep loving yourself until you can finally say that you feel 100% confident in your own body.

Lastly, wish the best for yourself and everyone around you. Enjoy the journey! Feelings of hopelessness only keep us in a negative state that wish unhappiness for others. Sadly, when we feel sad, it becomes very painful to watch others around us feel happy; however, use this to your advantage. By shifting our perception, we can grow to learn that we can choose to feed off of our own hopelessness, or we can choose to defeat it. We are the key. When we wish sunshine upon others, we too will receive sunshine all around us. Watch out for sunburn!

I got to go and talk to Elementary Schools this past week to educate children why EATING fruits and vegetables are good for their health! I had a blast, and I wanted to share this picture with you all. We are all like children who want to be inspired and play with food! The co-op gives us an opportunity to do that and to enjoy our amazing community along the way. You shall never find yourself without a support team here! Thank you for being my family!

I hope to see you all this coming week! If I look pregnant, I promise I am NOT! There is simply a massive amount of local food in there!!!

Hugs and love!

Kristina

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you have re-vamped this weekend and that you are ready for a full and productive week! We all got to enjoy abundant pineapples, strawberries, and apples this past week, and I may have some surprise peaches up my sleeve this week or next! Summer fruits are coming soon!  But, of course, I won’t ruin the surprise!   I also had an exciting past week as I was invited to be on the Great Day Houston TV show! I want to thank everyone who watched, and if you missed, it, no worries! I have posted the video on you tube as well as on the Rawfully Organic Video Page! Enjoy!

This week has been filled with SO much energy, and I simply cannot thank everyone enough for his continued support and enthusiasm in helping our co-op be the coolest thing since raw banana ice cream! You all ROC! My goal is simply to REACH PEOPLE and to FEED not only food, but also encouragement in eating raw and in creating supportive and healthy communities! People are sometimes shocked to hear that I have been 100% raw for almost 6 years, but I will share that it fuels me to spread this message. I have people who ask me all the time, “Where do you get the energy?!” and “How do you manage to stay happy and positive ALL the time?!” To me, the answer is simple, and I want to share it with you:

EATING RAW IS THE HAPPY PILL!

I know to many of you this may seem odd, but it is the truth! There is something exciting about being raw–it’s almost like a secret, but you simply cannot hold in the excitement, so you want to blurt it out to the world! The only catch is that not everyone wants to hear the message. Change is scary and getting healthy is a battle for 99.9% of the population. Why is it so hard for us to find peace, discipline, and happiness in the foods that we eat?

There are several reasons why eating raw makes you a happier person. Firstly, the food is simply vibrating with color and energy! Because the food is not cooked, no protein is denatured, and you are eating foods that vibrate at higher frequencies than cooked foods. If you want to feel alive, why would you eat something that is dead? Check mate! Everything that I eat has vibrancy and high energy, and when I eat that food, I am fueled with that same energy and life! Many find difficulty in understanding the connection between what you eat and how to feel physically; yet, it exists. We are what we eat. This connection goes beyond the physical, and it also effects our mental and spiritual. I am sure that you have heard this before though, right? So why is getting healthier or eating raw so hard?! I will share with you a secret: 95% of the struggle is all in your head. Eating raw is as simple as peeling a banana and eating it. You must dig deep and explore the emotional part of yourself that fears change.

Secondly, eating raw makes us happier people because the live food brings life to our thoughts! When we eat color-rich foods, we exude that energy. Our minds are also fueled by the foods that we eat, thus affecting our attitudes towards any challenges that may be in our days. Since I have been raw, I have had to face deep emotional issues that I have had–whether they have been attachments to food or whether they involved past situations that I needed to overcome to help me feel like a free bird. We all have ghosts in the closets that want to come out, and that is ok! We want them out! Being raw can scare people because many of our emotional issues are surfaced when we eat healthier because we are cleaning out toxins. Yes, thoughts and negative emotions can be toxic to our bodies! If you are not ready to look in the mirror, then you may feel tempted to go back into old habits. However, the secret is to have a support team of individuals who truly love you and want to encourage you to get healthy. Don’t know anyone? Look at the HUGE co-op community that we have…and everyone is here because he WANTS to be healthier! Eating happy foods make us think happy thoughts. It may take time (took me almost 6 years of eating raw to feel euphoric all the time!), but by-gosh-golly I feel amazing! Some fear feeling amazing all of the time, but there is no need! If we look at every situation as a growth opportunity, then we have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Thirdly, dedicating ourselves to eating healthier gives us confidence and self-love. When we make the effort to change our lives, we feel empowered. We feel self-love, and this love is unthinkably vital.  We feel good about ourselves because we are making good choices for ourselves. The simple act of putting good food in front of your mouth literally changes the essence of who you are and how you feel about yourself.

Fourth, when we eat foods that come from the earth, we also feel that connection and gratitude for everything around us. Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions that we have, an dit can only attract more good blessings into your life. Some may ask me, “How do I know if what I am eating is good for me?!” My simple answer is that you must trust that what God/mother nature provides for us will truly FEED and NOURISH our beings physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Consider it a small lesson of faith, but a truly magnanimous one at that.  When we eat foods from the earth, we are not eating “things” that are man-made. We become connection with the earth, and we find gratitude and peace more often in our daily lives for the real abundances in our lives.

So now that I have given you four awesome reasons why eating raw is like being on a happy pill, can you come up with a few more on your own!? I know that you can because the list is literally NEVER-ENDING! FEEDING people has much more than to do with food–it’s about living as an example so that we can all live in a happier and more abundant world. The earth and our lives in it are a gift. We must not take it for granted. Hopefully, this newsletter encourages you to take one small step in your regular week to make great strides in feeling good about yourself. Even the smallest changes in our daily lifestyle have the capability to shake our worlds. Start your day with eating fruit and smile knowing that you have loved yourself a little bit more just by eating that fruit! IT LOVES YOU BACK!

I hope to see ALL of your faces and smiles this week. I have missed many of you who have been away from Easter vacation! You all know how much I love my hugs!!!

Hugs,

Kristina