Joy For Life Retreat - Part 3

One big happy family hey! Awww. I love it!
But in wrapping it all up (coz I'm itching to tell you guys about what I'm doing now) here are the last little tid-bits from my retreat away...

We continued the green smoothies of course, along with The Work with Tom which took us deeper and deeper into our own selves... the bare foot running crew were out in force each morning with Sergei getting the bodies moving and the fresh air into the lungs before yoga...

...even on the muddy days!

Valya did her smoothie demo which was FAB - letting us in on her hints and tips of GREAT smoothies versus those "don't serve them to anyone smoothies" we've all made at some point in time...

Psychadelic green pudding one evening... topped off with slices of kiwi and what's known to be the oldest citrus fruit in existence - Buddhas Hand.

Don't ask me why the "buddha" bit, but it does look like a freaky hand of some sort...

Sergei did a talk on wild edibles that got me SO PUMPED to go out and try more new greens that I've never had before (some I've never heard of)...

And before we knew it our wonderful week was over :(
We had our first "solid meal" of the week (minus the fruit binge at Tropical Fruit World) as our celebratory goodbye lunch; but to be honest I was feeling like a green smoothie! And then I saw the spread put before us and was more than happy to dig in!

It was perfect. Fresh. Crisp. Crunchy. And so so good!

There were hugs and kisses, songs of love and jokes of the week we all had and shared together.

Sergei, Valya and I. Beautiful beautiful people.

I will definatley be going again next year and already cannot wait! Joy for life. Friends for life. Health for life. Love for life.

Joy For Life Retreat - Part 2

Am I the world's slackest blogger? Life has been a whirlwind of finishing the college term, organising my holidays, still working etc etc etc that I've left you guys hanging with nothing but the lure of what tropical fruits I had during my trip to Tropical Fruit World...

It was Day 3 of retreat, we all jumped on the bus to head into town. I felt like I was on a school excursion! There was chatter and laughter as 60-odd of us sat and tried to split apples in half with our bare hands, as Sergei seemed to show us so effortlessly... I think maybe 3 of us managed to do it! Anyways, when we got into town and off-loaded from the bus, and like a kid in a lolly shop... I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into some of the things we were getting for our lunch...

 Ruby red dragonfruits...

Sweet and juicy custard apples...

Yellow dragonfruit! Yep I had never heard of it myself and I'm pretty sure it was everyone's favourite. Imagine passionfruit sorbet... YUM!

Then my favourite - and the one thing I knew was in season before heading north and the fruit I was telling Alex, Jain and Rosemary about all week. The mamey sapote. One of my all time favourite fruits. Put sweet potato/pumpkin pie together with the texture of avocadoes and you've got mamey sapotes. I absoultley LOVE this guy!

It was utter bliss :) The day was miserable, cold , wet and rainy but nothing could dampen my spirits as I sat there gorging on fresh tropical fruits. A few people didnt feel so good afterwards but being used to such a high fruit intake I felt AMAZING!

We were taken on a tour of the property after lunch and I had no idea how big this place was. I'm talking HUGE! We drove through checking out trees of fruits that I had never even heard of! Abiu, rollinias, babacos... amongst olive treees, manadrin trees, all different types of bananas, saoptes, apples, papayas, mangoes, massive jackfruits, coconuts... everything you could think of! There's even an entire undercover section devoted to Asian fruits alone!

We had a boat ride through the river watching ducks swim past, saw the Australian bush tucker fruit section, flew around on a mini train when we got to an island in the middle of the property... saw, patted and fed a horse, a donkey, chickens and a few other animals (yep, all still on the property), and then got back to the main entrance for one last hoorah - more fruit tastings!!
We all loaded back onto the bus, said goodbye to town, mobile phone reception, civilisation, and headed back to our little sanctuary to begin our Work again, and continue the detox (Grand Finale Part 3 still to come).

Joy For Life Retreat - Part 1

Well it’s definatley been one busy week (evident in my lack of blogging) since returning from Tyalgum Ridge where I went to be a part of the Joy For Life retreat with the Boutenko’s - Victoria, Valya and Sergei. Three of the most beautiful individuals I have ever had the pleasure to meet and spend time with.

I took a week off "life" -
wow that already sounds strange. And that feels like the total opposite of what I did.
Whilst I was away on retreat I could say that I was IN LIFE more so then I am when I am in Sydney. Not away from it. I was my true self there (and yep emotional and physical detox is all a part of the real me)... It makes me think about why people go away on retreat - to "get away from it all" I hear often. Get away from what exactly? The way we live our life everyday? Why would you want to get away from that? Why aren't we making our 'everyday' exactly the way we want too? Like we're away on retreat everyday? Why wait for one week of every year to eat well, rest lots, read, write, breathe, move... why not begin now and continue it each and everyday? Wow I've got emotion behind that I was unaware of...

I suppose things like retreats give us time to reconnect to what we want to be doing and incorporating and feeling in our everyday lives. I know it does for me. Even a day during my week to reconnect with what I want is enough. To connect with who I am. My values. Loves. Passions. An hour to do that is beneficial. But a whole week! WOW! So that was total luxury for me. Utter BLIS!

I tried to remember the last time I actually had “time off” from my beautiful daily grind and I think it was the week between Christmas and New Years. Since then I’ve been up early most mornings, off to the gym, then to work or to college, regular appointments with my kinesiologist, facialist, colonic hydrotherapists, the odd evening gym session, outdoor running, errands, study for college and online courses, multiple blogs and research, and ontop of all that there’s the usual female emotions running rampant we all love, spending time making smoothies and salads everyday, and wanting more time to experiment in the kitchen… attempting to keep the house clean, pay bills, do the shopping, quietening this beautiful mind that goes crazy every-now-and-then… oh the list could go on I’m sure you all know…

I'm totally aware that everything in my life is there due to a conscious decision I have made to have it there. So only I can complain that I have too much on. Funny thing is - I love it all. Every little bit of it! My only problem that I need to continually address (and thanks to the retreat I have been working on it ever since) is my need for, yet lack of, relaxation. A work in progress for a girl that thrives and loves being busy - or do I?

Ok enough rambling... the retreat... right... Joy For Life! Enough said. Victoia Boutenko (god love that woman) brought her nutrition and spiritual knowledge, along with many many stories, experiences, memories and love, providing about 70 of us with a detoxing regime of green smoothies 4 times a day all week. She teamed up with the fantabulous Tom Comptom who was facilitating The Work of Byron Katie for us and Wow! What a duo.
Having someone else prepare my (liquid) meals everyday for an entire week alone - omg TOTAL INDULGENCE! I can't tell you what that meant to me. Then team that up with intensive Byron Katie work that was life changing for me - I was destined to come out a changed woman! Add in morning yoga, barefoot running, nutrition talks, and more all in the quietest of green pastures up in Northern NSW… I was embarking on a trip to Heaven in my books.

I shared a room with these 3 amazing women I met on my way there and the 4 of us got on like a house on fire. Rosemary and Jain were like adopted mothers to Alex and I who immediatley clicked - it was love at first sight :) We shared our coconut oils, saponified olive oil toothpaste, pink pens, blankets, hugs, kisses, even hilarious failed attempt-enema stories (more about that later)!

The first few days away seemed to go very slowly (they always do on a detox don't they). At 8am, midday, 4pm and 8pm we were slurping down our calories in the form of GREEN SMOOTHIES! As much as we wanted! Victoria was busily and beautifully making our smoothies with her wonderful helpers each and everyday, transforming mounds of greens into delicious green smoothies that filled buckets and buckets and buckets...

We were sipping on multiple spinach varieties, sweet potato greens, parsley, kale, mint, dandelion, wheatgrass, bok choy, abeca, amaranth greens, sorrel, celery, basil, kang kong, curry leaf, silverbeet, cos, coriander, dill weed and more!

We gulped down sweet smoothies with fruit first thing in the morning and mid afternoon...

Savoury smoothies made with things like limes, avocadoes, tomatoes, celery, cucumbers and of course LOADS of leafy greens for lunch time...

And oh-my-god-yum green puddings in the evenings. This was usually the highlight of the day! Made thick like pudding from psyllium husks or chia seeds - to ensure working order out the other end!

That's the incredible dragonfruit sliced and perched on each glass above, and below was the WOW triple-layered-coconut-kiwi mint-melon pudding with crimson red grapes and fresh mint!

I was LOVING the smoothies, feeling great, and had no detox symptoms to begin with - unlike most others suffering from headaches and skin eruptions. However my bowels didn't seem to be doing their job so well. They were on break too I suppose. And with the amount of water I was consuming in comparison to the amount of solids - it made sense that nothing happened for a short while. However the discomfort then set in and I wasn't such a happy chappy. Perfect timing of course as Victoria then let us know she had brought ENEMA BAGS from the USA for us (if we so felt inclined). OH yes please! As an advocate of regular colonics, but having never done my own enema, I was super duper excited!! Rosemary and Jain were also keen to give it a go, but Alex wasn't so sure.

I'll spare you all the minor details as much as I'd love too give you the nitty gritty... I did do my own enema once everyday (twice on one occasion when I felt horrible), and they were my little lifesaver. Aside from physically clearing me out it was my 15minutes of meditation all alone, me time, blissing out, whilst cleaning out and I loved it!

But within 48hrs I felt like I hit a brick wall. My body had gotten used too a couple of days of resting and yoga, sitting down doing a lot emotional work, and cleansing on green smoothies. So it had appeared to have taken it upon itself to use the opportunity; assuming the rest was likely to continue (unlike the usual daily life of Christie Fischer). And boy my body obviously needed it. She rested alright. REALLY RESTED. On waking at 6am to go running the first couple of days, my body was like “pfft yeh right, dream on”. I felt I had no choice but to stay in bed, and just chill out with some yoga a little later on. My body was E X H A U S T E D. The days went on, I was very calm, slow moving, and a little emotional. I was hungry for calories but didn't have the energy to eat. I tell you getting to bed before 9pm each night was BLISS!

That was my detox. I wasn't expecting anything like it. Having eaten raw for over 18 months now, I thought I'd get away scott-free. Nup. I needed this physically more than anything. And I learnt that there is ALWAYS room to detox. There is ALWAYS something to detox. 

I'm grateful that those physical feelings only lasted a few days for me - before the aches and pains set in. And it seemed that everyone felt those at once. All 65-odd of us. Muscles. Joints. Every bendy bit of our bodies was aching. It was kinda cool that we were all winging and bitching at the same time tho – group bonding. We learnt to GET EXCITED with symptoms like that. YAY FOR DETOX! Shit I’m getting a rash come up all over my back – YAY FOR DETOX! My God these headaches are killing me – YAY FOR DETOX! I feel like I’m going to die – YAY FOR DETOX!

But it wasn't too long before I began to feel WONDERFUL again! And it was almost right after our little excursion to Tropical Fruit World!

Wait til you see the pics from that place!

Carrot Juice with Chocolate

I could say I went slightly carrot-mad last week, but I felt like my body was craving the orange beauties so I kinda went along with it. I was having between 500ml and 1L of fresh carrot juice everyday as an experiement to see how my skin conditions would fare having read so much on carrot juice recently (check out a blog post I did for the Raw Divas here). My skin didn't turn orange but my acne looks better :)

And with left over pulp from juicing so much I also made a big batch my my favourite carrot soup, and my favourite carrot falafels of Gena's you can find here, but never got 'round to making these delicious individual carrot cakes here. Another week perhaps coz you can freeze vegie pulp until you've got enough for what you want - or until you've got time to get in the kitch again!

If I can tune in and listen to what my body wants I'll run with it - so when it was screaming CARROT JUICE, that's what I did. And I feel amazing from drinking it! The only problem I have is when my body feels like chocolate - alot of chocolate - then I'm not so sure if my body is telling me the truth or playing little white lies :)

So with Easter just around the corner I've spent the last 2 days mucking around in the kitchen trying to make some choccies. I had a couple of recipes to try and a whole load of different ingredients to experiment with I was like a little kid in a lolly shop full of exciement!

So what was the outcome? Well let's start with the question "What did I learn?"
To trust in my own abilities more that's what. To not put all your eggs in one basket (no pun intended), and to make sure whatever happens when you're in the kitchen, remember to LAUGH!

Why? Because even when I followed each recipe they both turned out horrible! One tasted disgusting. One wouldn't mix properly...

Then I had problems where my chocolate wouldn't come out of the moulds (more than once which really did my head in). I mixed the ingredients too much in the second lot which made my once glossy silky mixture turn kinda chewy and thick ...

and ontop of that going wrong I was thinking about the deadlines I had for other things going on in my life, college work, packing that I still had to do to go away, and the house was a mess... ARGH! I felt like I was wasting time TRYING to be the Easter Bunny and make yummy choccies but it wasn't working!

It's been a stressful last couple of days (with a head cold trying to rear its ugly head at the same time but I'm not letting it) but I have now made my choccies!

And you know what? It was the laughter that made the biggest difference! That and deciding to poo-poo the recipes I had and come up with my own. TRUSTING in my own abilities and you know what? The best tasting ones are the ones I came up with myself! They were the smoothest, silkiest, easiest to work with look amazing!

Easiest Tastiest Choccie Recipe Ever!

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup cacao powder
25ml maple syrup
1/8 cup cacao butter, melted (you can omit this)


Melt the coconut oil and cacao butter down then slowly whisk in the cacao powder and maple syrup (or any other sweetener you like - by the time I got to this recipe after mucking up so many others, maple syrup was pretty much all I had left but it does give a beauiful depth to the flavour).


Pour your choccie into moulds or into a container to cut up into pieces or squares later on.

You can add anything you like to these too. Be creative! Nuts, seeds, goji berries, bee pollen, buckwheat crunchies... I also made a bunch with a few drops of peppermint oil for a minty surprise!
The hardest part of waiting for them to set!

(Another super easy recipe that also worked amazingly well and tasted sensational - if you can get your hands on CACAO LIQUER, melt that down and add sweetener to taste. That's it. And it sets at room temperature. The taste is incredible! I ran outta that stuff real quick!)

This recipe is so damn easy coz alot of people would have coconut oil in the panrty, but not alot of people have cacao butter lying around. And to be honest with you - as I am yet to perfect a chocolate recipe using predominantly cacao butter, coz I just don't like the taste of it! At all. So I need to find a ratio where I do. Where as coconut oil - now you're talking! The only down side is that they can't be kept at room temperature or they'll likely melt. Cacao butter wouldn't. But the health benefits of coconut oil versus those of cacao butter - ENDLESS (and you can read a little here) !!

So when my body craves choccies that I have made from my own recipes with lots of coconut oil, there's good reason and I will listen intently :)

But from tomorrow I'll be goingn away on retreat for 6 days and consuming nothing but GREEN SMOOTHIES which I am SO EXCITED about!! So I wont be doing any blogs for at least a week if not a few days more, but will be sure to SPILL ALL when I get back! Have an awesome long weekend!

And a Happy Happy Easter :)

My Lazy Sunday (recipe)

The weather is miserable in Sydney this morning I had loads of enthuastic energy (and a fresh supply of gooey fudgy balls, and now I feel alot more mellow yet still very positively upbeat with a vitality of what I am bringing into my life.

This morning I was up early to head over my beautiful friend Jess's place to hang out for half the day - in the kitchen! We loosely discussed what we wanted to try and create yesterday while at work together, and so we rolled our sleeves up and creativley got to playing...

After we made a big carrot, lemon and ginger juice first... and then a toxic-green-kale-apple-lemon juice (not something ud serve to a non-raw-foodie but we thought it was DE-LI-CIOUS!!).

So in concoting a few ideas in our heads and having our taste buds go WILD before we even had the first cup of dates in the blender... here's what we came up with -

Chewy, fudgy, sweet, and delicious Caramel Hazelnut Fudge Balls.

These were soo good. But before we made them we came up with these guys -

Some sort of  GREEN SUPERFOOD BARS! Jess and I both LOVE the green bars we can get at work and other health food stores so we though we'd try making one of our own.

2 cups dried bananas, chopped
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
1 tsp spirulina
1 tsp barley grass
1/4 tsp chlorella
2 heaped tablespoons hemp protein powder
1/2 cup seeds (we used a mix of pepitas and sesame seeds)
1 tbsp carob powder
1 tbsp dark agave syrup
1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 1/4 cup water (to make a gel)
pinch of salt

Throw it all in a food processor and whiz bang thank you mame!

Jess and I spread our mix into a small tin lined with baking paper, let it firm in the fridge, then cut it into slices and wrapped them so we have some yummy scrummy protein rich - super food - nutrient dense - high net gain raw food bars to throw in our bags and take with us wherever we go!

Or roll the mixture into balls and they are perfect with a cup of tea :)

Which is exactly what we did. We sat down and pondered our week ahead, wrote out the things we had on, what we needed to do, and made sure we had time to do the things we know we need in our daily lives - meditation, healing time, sessions with kinesiologists, journalling time, rest, exercise... Got clearer on where we both want to be heading, what we want to be doing, and how we want to be living. So it's no wonder I'm having such a great lazy Sunday!

Now I'm back at home listening to David Wolfe's Longevity Conference whilst I roll in and out of typing as I keep getting stuck into listening to it with such intent. I'm loving my lazy Sunday in my trakkies! Read bits n pieces of the paper, made a huge kale salad, blissed out of a couple caramel hazelnut fudge balls of course, and now chatting to you guys! Hope you're all having just a great a day!

Summer might 'technically' be gone...

So it's Monday morning, the sun is shining, the air is cool and crisp, and it seems to be a favourite time of year for alot of people I know. It is beautiful, but I'll be frank here, I much prefer Summer. Give me hot heat anyday! So when I got up and felt the hunger pangs for brekkie... this is what I made...


A Summer Smoothie (in a bowl of course)

1 small papaya
1 nashi pear
1 frozen banana
1/2 frozen mango cheek
2 slices pineapple
1/4 cup coconut water

Mmmm... brings back Summer memories doesn't it? Team it up with the morning sun on your skin eating it on the back deck, with papaya rubbed on your face for a morning exfoliation whilst slurping this deliciousness and you've got yourself a recipe for the best day ever!

This past week has FLOWN by I've only realised it's been almost a whole week since my last post! I had an awesome weekend tho - if you do care to know I will happily indulge you :)
I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen with my tunes on, dancing around making a mess, sun shining through the window and by the time I was done I had:

- carrot flat bread
- sweet potato crisps (althouth they're still in the dehydrator coz they were obviously too moist - Maya told me a trick I'm gonna try next time)
- 3 types of ice cream; Choc Chip Chai, Pineapple and Coconut (which had me singing "do you like pina coladas" all afternoon), and a Caramel Maple Maca...
- 2 type of a choc-orange slice; one "glued" together with chia gel which gives it a subtle lightness if you can even imagine that, and the other has tahini so it has a richer thicker flavour

These babies keep forever in the freezer, so when unexpected guests drop by I've always got something to offer them. Now they've got these and last week's brownies to choose from! People will be lining up at my door ;)

I also did some dehydrated walnuts and almonds, made some more seaweed rolls and a batch of Gena's amazing carrot falafels that i LOVE and have made time and time again

For a Monday lunch at home I don't think I'm doing too badly do you? I made a quick dressing simliar to Gena's but a bit different and teamed these babies with bok choy, tomatoes, mushies, sprouts and a biq squeeze of limone!

I've also sprouted buckwheat that I'll start dehydrating tomorrow coz I wanna make some granola full of seeds and fruit that I can share with some friends of mine :)

I did the Spit to Manly walk with Brock Saturday afternoon which was beautiful, but as the sun faded it became dark very quickly so the walk back through the bush turned into a run - bare foot trail running - and I managed to stub my big toe which kinda hurt but I figured it was nothing too bad, until yesterday at work it began turning purple and blue and primrose too! Not sure what I've done, I can walk but don't think I'll be on my rebounder or out running again too soon :(

Yesterday I was at work til mid-afternoon and met a guy that popped in who inspired me :)
He came in bubbly and energetic wanting to talk to me having heard I was the "raw girl" at the shop (he had already read my beautfiul little blog!) as he explained he is just starting the whole "raw vegan" thing. YAY!
I love it when people come to me telling me about what they're doing in their diet and lifestyle, changes they are making and the benefits they feel from even the smallest of changes. I love it love it love it!! I get goosebumps and shivers, my energy levels soar with enthusiasm and excitement and I walk away (usually after quite some time) on cloud 9. It's like my drug fix!
We were chatting for a while about differnt things and he is already doing fantastic, knows alot, has read alot, was asking me for some advice and suggestions which I gave him, and I really look forward to hearing more about his journey. Shout out to you if you're reading hun :)

An intersting trip home in the pouring rain carrying bags of fruit and veg with a purple busted toe unable to keep my thongs on, had my train ticket fall out of my pocket on the way... but had Maya offer to pick me up, then Brock surprised me and showed up instead, and the three of us sat around drinking tea and eating these brownies all afternoon at my place over amesome chit chats.

(I feel like writing "and these are the days of our lives") Coz I suppose they are. Each day is only as good as you make it to be. And I've been very aware of that recently. I've been throwing a mixed bag in each day as I've always been very structured and planned about everything. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing coz I don't believe it is at all. But having always been like that, I've needed to see if I can be any other way... so I've been a bit looser... gotten on a different train to see a friend after college a few times instead of going straight home to study... went for a bike ride instead of a run... got a new hair cut last week...
I know they're all little things but in the end it's all about the little things I think. You never remember every detail about the trip to Italy you went on 5 years ago... but my god you do remember the best ever pizza you ate at the little pizzeria in Napoli... mmm... the little things

These are some of the little things that make me jump up and down!

- Talking to people on similar paths who are making positive changes in their lives and instantly reaping the benefits; physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally
- Hearing about people's health and lifestyle goals, progress, trials and tribulations, good, bad or indifferent; I LOVE this!
- Making love mess in the kitchen with my fav tunes blasting while shuffling about :)
- Spending time with Mother Nature (even if she does present me with lessons about my toes)
- Sun Sun and more Sun
- Working at the health food shop; chatting to customers, making changes, learning new things, whilst letting my inner perfectionist/organiser go WILD doing orders, writing signs, stocking shelves, and labelling things to a T ;)
- Educating myself and learning more and more and more about nutrition and lifestyle and health and fun and relationships and LOVE
- Having inspiring connecting motivating pure sharing conversations with people
- Jumping into bed after a long day and snuggling with my teddy
- Meditating on the cliff top at North Curl Curl beach
- Getting in the surf... it's pure food for my soul that one
- Getting big hugs from people I love, and from people I dont know :)
- Writing my blog :)


Have a beautifully sunny Monday wherever you may be :)