I know, this is long overdue.    November 25th was the last entry I made with Part II of my interview with Philip McCluskey who lost half of his body weight (went from 400 to 200 lbs) on a raw food diet.  Have you seen his incredible weight loss photos?   If not, take a moment to visit both interviews and see for yourself.

Then BOOM, the Thanksgiving holiday came and went and now it’s DECEMBER!!

For those of you who are on my RSS/email subscription list, you will see two blog posts today.

The first, of course, is this “End of the Week Gratitude Theme” that was supposed to have been delivered last Friday.  The second is a short interview of myself…once again, giving you yet another opportunity to get to know me while I wait for future interview guests to get back to me with their responses.

I thought it was funny because when I didn’t write my gratitude post, one faithful subscriber wrote and asked if I was down and out without anything to be grateful for last week.   She jokingly asked if I wanted some chicken noodle soup to nurture and reassure my soul that all was well.   The thing is I have MUCH to be grateful for!   Time just flew by so quickly!

Where shall I start?

My First Semi-Raw Thanksgiving Dinner

You see, I knew embarking on a raw food journey was not going to be without challenges, especially around the holidays.  I don’t know about you but I grew up eating traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas meals in the Hopson household.  Not very much of it was raw food, heh heh. (Photo credit:  stephgum32807)

But since I live in Ohio and my folks are in New York, I made the choice to only go home for Christmas and stay here for Thanksgiving.   With the two holidays being so close together, it’s an arrangement that’s worked out rather well for me as well as the rest of my siblings (all of whom have their own families to contend with).

Since moving here to Ohio in September 2005, I’ve gone to my church for Thanksgiving but this year I went to my friend Linda’s house.  Linda is the lady who did my first-ever colonic on me several weeks ago, remember?   Take a look at this post and look for the sub-heading “Take the Garbage Out - A Visit With the Hydrotherapist” if you haven’t read about it.

Fortunately, Linda understands my raw food journey and made a concerted effort to ensure that healthy portions on the dinner table were of raw nature not just because of me but because it’s healthy for everybody.     I had a fabulous spinach salad (that I made!), grilled asparagus, grilled red peppers (I used to hate them!!), cranberry and morsels of stuffing and turkey (just a few pieces).  I’d say this was my first substantially raw Thanksgiving and I’m very grateful to Linda for going out of her way to accommodate me.

Declining Gas Prices

The supermarket where I buy most of my food is Giant Eagle.  They have a program where the more you buy, the more of a discount you get on their gas.

Because of the 60 cent gas discount I racked up last month, I was able to fill up my car for only 99 cents a gallon!   It’s been so long since I was able to fill the tank for only……

EIGHT BUCKS!

I thank God for little things like that.

Toshiba Laptop Finally Brings Me into the 21st Century!

I know many of you will be SHOCKED when you hear this but up until now, I’ve never owned a laptop!

Yes, my fellow friends, It’s heartbreakingly true. (Is there such a word?)

I don’t know why but maybe I’ve been afraid of technology when I should have been embracing it.   I’ve watched virtually everyone in America carry their laptops on planes, buses and into various coffee shops.

My problem is that when I buy something, especially if it’s electronically-based, I want nothing but the best.

While there’s nothing wrong with that, when you select top of the line, it not only adds up (and you end up getting more than what you really need) but based on historical experience, prices almost always tumble rather drastically after only a few months on the shelves.  Look at what happened with PDA’s, desktop computers, laptops, state of the art television sets, GPS’s, etc.

As a result, I’m always waiting for the prices to drop except when they do, faster and more efficient products come out, making what you just bought virtually obsolete overnight.   It’s like a never-ending cycle.    I’ve learned the hard way - with electronics, you just have to bite the bullet and get what you want!

One day I was scouring the Internet and found a website called something like Black Friday dot com   Curious, I went online to see what was going on.  One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was staring at an ad for a Toshiba laptop with 3 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard drive with wireless WiFi capabilities for just under $600.    A brand name laptop with those features would have fetched a couple thousand dollars a few years ago!

My heart lurched.

But there was one problem.

It meant I would have to join the mass onslaught of bargain hunters at 5 am on “Black Friday.”   I’ve avoided that for as long as I can remember because I’ve never wanted to become part of the herd mentality, desperate to snatch up rock bottom bargains.   But this time I succumbed and became part of them, I’m sorry (and not sorry) to say.

The alarm on the day after Thanksgiving woke me up at 5 am.   I quickly showered, dressed and sped to Walmart.  Imagine my shock when I saw that ENTIRE parking lot was full.   I couldn’t believe it - it looked like the whole town was there at that hour (5:30 am)!    Before I got out of the car, I made a firm, prayerful resolve that I was going to be calm, collected and centered amidst the chaos that I was surely going to greet me inside that store.

As soon as I was directed to the backroom for the laptop, I joined a very long line.   I took a deep breath and waited patiently for over an hour.   Somehow the time passed quickly and I was soon within reach of the cashiers.

From where I was standing, two laptops were left standing on the counter behind them.  There were 8 people in front of me.

My mind did a quick calculation.

My heart picked up a beat.

I felt a slight change in body temperature.

And my eyes suddenly became shifty.

GOOD GOD, WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!??

If you had been observing me from above, you would have seen me biting my lower lips while I watched each and every person in front of me advance to the front.  Thank goodness they were oblivious to the two laptops because by the time I got there, I was able to buy one for myself.

Last night, I took it to a coffee shop where wireless WiFi was available and had a great time getting it set up.   I kept marveling how much I was missing by not having a laptop all these years.   Now that I finally have one, I’m going to be able to create blog posts on the fly, regardless of where I am.  No longer will I have to wait until I come home to do them.

I also see myself creating persuasive PowerPoint presentations for future speeches.     My newfound mobility will surely increase my productivity tenfold.   New ideas will come to me because I’ll be working in a different environment, giving rise to the potential of stimulating new and inspiring ideas simply because I’ll be out of my element more often (i.e. not in my home office).

Whoohoo - what freedom!  Thank you God for leading me to this laptop.

Raw Food Journey Continues to Drastically Improve My Life

Despite the cold winter in Ohio, I’ve managed to make a success of eating mostly raw foods.  I’m in my 3rd, almost 4th month with this lifestyle.   To say at the least, it’s been incredible!!!

First Aqua Chi Footbath at Crossroads Education and Wellness Center (

During that time period, I’ve slimmed down to my lowest weight ever (151.5), bought a cheap juicer (I’m actually on my second day of a juice feast - more on that in a moment), went through 1 colon cleansing, 1 detox foot bath (see photo) and 2 or 3 sittings in an infrared sauna (all of which are designed to help my body detoxify).

On top of all that, I went out and bought a tight fitting top for use at the gym.  I no longer have a gut, which continues to shock and delight me to no end.  It felt so good to slide that thing on me (the kind that runners use - see the photo below).

My raw food journey has not only substantially enhanced my health and well being, but it’s also given birth to a sense of entrepreneurial spirit that I feel has been missing.    In other words, I feel reborn - perfect timing since we are almost at the end of the year.  2009 will be a chance for me to wipe the slate clean and refocus on my God-given rights to increased prosperity.   For those of you who have been long-time subscribers, you’ll agree with me when I say I’ve never sold anything on this blog.  There are no ads, no e-books to sell, no products or services (other than my speaking business).

Taken with my Blackberry - I took my digital camera to Linda's for Thanksgiving and left it there. Photo is a bit blurry but it'll do for now. Notice I no longer have that "belly"! This is what I look like after 3 months of eating substantially raw food! (151.5 lbs)

Well, folks, that’s about to change.

Thanks to opportunities that have come my way, I am now about to embark on two or three online businesses that I believe will forever alter the course of my financial future (and yours if you choose to participate).  I’m incredibly excited about this and can’t wait to tell you about it!

I mentioned earlier that today is my second day of a juice fast.  After reading a couple of great books (links provided below), I decided I would embark on a very short 3 day juice fast beginning yesterday.

It would take several articles to describe the benefits of juicing so I’m not going go into detail other than to tell you I managed to go through yesterday without eating any solid foods and still experienced incredible energy throughout the day.  I made myself juice every 3 to 4 hours, all of which were smacking deeeeelicious!

Technically speaking, I was not supposed to be working out (per the juice handbooks) but I went ahead and had a fabulous run at the gym doing my usual thing, running 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by some vigorous weightlifting.  I came home feeling a supernatural high.

Want the recipe?

Put the following in your juicer:

• Several sticks of celery
• 1 apple
• Handful of romaine lettuce (later on I will substitute kale, spinach, etc)
• Handful of parsley

Glass of Freshly Made Juice

While you’re juicing, soak one tablespoon of chia seeds in water for several minutes and then mix them in the glass of juice.

Chia seeds have incredible benefits - see Angela Stoke’s “The Chia ‘Cheat Sheet’ and Ten Raw Chia Recipes” to see what I’m talking about.

The key is to have fun with it.   Allow your intuition to dictate what you will end up creating.  Let your taste buds be the judge.  So far I have not made a juice (or smoothie) that I did not like (except for that one time when I tried to blend one whole lemon, which was too strong for me).

If you’re interested in learning more about juicing, I recommend you get Angela Stoke’s Juice Feaster’s Handbook as well as the The Complete Book of Juicing (believe it or not, I found the 2nd book in a Goodwill store while accompanying a friend who was shopping for clothes last weekend - while she was browsing, I made a beeline for the bookshelf and was thrilled to find this juicer’s book for only two bucks!).

By the way, for those of you who are interested in reading unbiased, independent news on natural health, nutrition and more, I also recommend you subscribe to a free newsletter at Natural News.

Their newsletters contain incredible information that the FDA and big drug companies do not want you to know about as well as useful information on superfoods, raw food diets, supplements and many other things.  I’m learning a lot through this newsletter and can’t recommend it highly enough.    I think they have a million plus subscribers.

I’m so very grateful for the continuing improvements I have been making with the raw food journey.  Thank you God for bringing it to my attention.

If I don’t stop, I’ll keep writing forever so I better end this post now and concentrate on creating another one where I’ll interview myself.    Stay tuned.

Food for thought:  Did you remember to tell everyone what you were grateful for during Thanksgiving?

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