When I went to Boulder, I met an awesome guy who refuses to throw out ANY trash. If he has any waste, he’ll create something out of it – but there’s isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell he’ll throw it away.

When he first told me about that, it sounded kind of extremist to me.

However, the more I think about it, the more I find myself gravitating to that kind of thinking. It’s really incredible how much waste we have. A lot of the “green” movement consists of people buying cloth shopping bags to carry all their stuff, or buying energy-saving cars. These are definitely better moves – though they’re of course not reducing waste.

I’ve recently been reading about people called “freegans”. Some of them refuse to buy ANYTHING new. They’ll either swap with people, use freecycle (where people give away stuff they don’t want anymore), or go dumpster diving (digging in the trash for new things). There are all types of people who do this – I even read about a doctor/lawyer couple who does it.

It sounds crazy I know, but what’s crazier is how EASY it is for them.

I read one NY Times article that was being written as a group of people were digging through the dumpsters from stuff that recently-graduated NYU students left behind. The freegans were finding usable stuff – half full bottles of detergent, furniture, etc.

The most fascinating part of the article for me was when one of the upper-middle-class freegans was asked if she stockpiles the stuff she finds. She said no. In her words: “The sad fact is you don’t need to,” she said. “More trash will be there tomorrow.”

How crazy is that? Not only is there an entire class of people banking on all the waste we throw out but they don’t even stockpile the stuff they find! They’re crystal-clear confident that more trash will be thrown out tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.

The United Nations says the leftovers in America could satisfy every single empty stomach in Africa.

I never really got into the whole “green” living thing until recently. That’s mostly because everything I read about was based on fear (“we’re ruining the planet!”) type tactics. Even though that may be true, negative spins on things just don’t appeal to me. If anything, they turn me off and I retaliate against them.

That being said, I freaking LOVE the beautiful world we live in, and I want to nurture it and make sure it’s here for a long time. I love the idea of everything living in harmony. Things like this or this make me realize how far ignoring things have gotten us so far.

So, even though I might not dedicate the rest of my life to green living, I find there are definitely things that can be done.

Even just yesterday, I was watching Sex And The City 2 and saw an awesome outfit Kim Cattrall was wearing. I thought, “Wow! I want that! It would look awesome on me, and I’m in the mall already…I bet I could easily find something just like it!”

Then I thought – “Do I really want more stuff?

The answer was no. I don’t need more clothes. I already have lots of clothes.

And that was it. For me, it was just a matter of taking a second to think and not act out of impulse.

Same thing when I went to go get a salad for lunch. I asked myself, “Do I want to get a salad from take-out, knowing there’ll be a plastic container given to me?” I was very hungry, so the answer was yes. (Maybe I’ll work myself up to the point of not doing that in the future – but for now, the answer was yes.)

As I sat and waited for my salad, I saw the staff at the restaurant taking every to-go order, putting it in a easily-carryable plastic box, and then putting the box in a plastic bag – complete with plastic utensils and another plastic bag holding a bread roll.

Just being CONSCIOUS of what was going on was really fascinating.

When the guy went to go grab a bag for my salad, I practically yelped, “NO!” I also didn’t take the utensils or the bread roll (which I wouldn’t have eaten anyway). I knew I had a perfectly good fork at home and it took no extra energy to carry the box.

It’s easy to do little things that really add up over time.

For me, I have a lot of fruit and veggie waste. That’s probably my #1 source of trash. Now I know I can use the scraps for compost instead of throwing them out. If you want to do that too, just Google “compost pile + your area” for more information.

Another easy thing is to give away clothes and things you’re not using, which helps other people not need to buy more.

Here are more ideas.

Oh, and lastly- if you haven’t yet seen Story Of Stuff, I highly recommend it. It’s quite interesting and not fear-based.

I just made a video (in 2 parts) about this guy I just came across, Jason Fladlien.

I think he may be the most underrated marketer in existence. I cannot tell you how freaking STOKED I am about coming across his time management product.

I never blog about products on my blog. I usually find it super-tacky. I’m telling you though… this thing is pure gold.

I’ve written time management products MYSELF! I’ve read books, listened to renowned experts, modeled people who did all sorts of productivity challenges…

This, however, BLOWS ANYTHING I’VE EVER SEEN OUT OF THE WATER.

You totally NEED it!!

I don’t think I’ve been this passionate about promoting something since Warrior Camp a few years ago.

Sorry if the videos come across confusing. After going through it, I had TONS of ideas running through my mind. Normally I’d have made a blog post but I’m just so freaking EXCITED about this product that I wanted the world to know about it RIGHT AWAY!!! I IT’S AMAZING!!!

I’ve only ever gone through one of Jason’s other products, and I found it incredible. If his other stuff is on the same par as what I’ve seen so far, I’d honestly contemplate  not even bothering to market any more, and just send all my traffic to him. It’s THAT good.

Get it NOW at rachelrofe.com/jason

You. Are. Going. To. Love. It!!!!

P.S. I haven’t even got to this part yet, but there’s a bonus in there called “Day Job Liberator” for those of you who WANT to become internet marketers but only have an hour or 2 per day to spare.

!!! It’s so damn good!!!!

For several years of my life, I let a machine (for under $20 at your local Wal-Mart) dictate my self worth.

Back when I was in junior high, I couldn’t even go near this machine. I was petrified of it. When I knew teachers at school were going to try and make me use it, I’d fake being sick and miss school. If I *had* to use it, I’d use all sorts of tricks to manipulate it. Heck, sometimes I’d be so scared of it that I’d close my eyes when I had to use it.

As I got older, our relationship changed. I got a bit more brazen. Not only did I not avoid the machine, but every morning I’d allow it to tell me my future. This thing was INCREDIBLE – it told me exactly how my day was going to go!

If the machine gave me good news, I’d be in an excellent mood. There’d be a little more skip to my step.  My smile would be extra friendly.

On the other hand, if the machine gave me bad news, my day would be tinged with a bit of annoyance and frustration. I’d feel less worthy… less confident… less attractive.

What a powerful machine this was.

This went on and on for several years, until one day recently.

I realized how there are so many other things that dictate my self worth – like… my SELF. How I treat other people. How much I contribute to the world. How I spend my time. What I’m learning. How I’m able to empower myself and others, and a SLEW of other criteria.

And that is why I threw my scale in the dumpster and will never look back.

—

I know for a fact that a lot of women (and men) feel the way I used to. Several of my female friends have confided in me that they go through the same thing I did.

If you are one of those people that could relate, I invite you to try on a few new thoughts:

1. I know someone who went down several jean sizes without the scale moving at all. She was literally shrinking by the day but feeling like she was a failure because the scale didn’t do anything. That scale is NOT an accurate measure of fat loss.

2. Even if the scale WAS a measure of fat loss, who cares? You don’t need it. Eat the foods your body asks for and get some movement in. If you listen to your body, it’ll tell you exactly what it wants. It’s the best ally you could possibly ask for. Once you truly get in tune with what it wants, you’ll be the healthiest you’ve ever been.

(Just use your intuition to know the difference between if your body is ASKING for something or if you’re CRAVING it – ie a Snicker’s bar.)

I bet you’ll save a lot of money on weight loss stuff, too.

3. Consider throwing the damn thing out – or at least giving it to someone to hold for a while. I know some people will say it’s a good barometer of where you are with your weight, it’s important to keep track, what is not measured is not managed, blah blah blah… but odds are, you’ve been measuring for a long time, and it’s only making you miserable.

I talked to an awesome guy on the phone today who gave me a great question to ask yourself. “If I would have known what I know now, would I have done it?”

His philosophy is if the answer is no, then why still do it?

If you could go back to the past with the knowledge that you would spend years making yourself miserable by giving your power to a scale, would you have done it?

If the answer is no, then stop.

Back on April 22, I started a challenge to attract certain things into my life.

Now that I’m slightly halfway through, things are interesting.

It seems like some of what I wanted just a few weeks ago is not as important to me any more, and new goals are taking the place of those. Things have been changing REALLY rapidly.

That being said, I’m still working on lots of stuff.

Here’s a play by play on what’s going on for each goal:

1. 7 days of juicing only.

I did this!! It went extremely well, I had no detox pains and had phenomenal energy throughout the entire thing. It was a much better experience than the last time and I’ll definitely be doing it again.

2. Connecting one on one with people.

This has been going great too. I have made several new friends and keep getting confirmation that this is the right thing for me to do. Take a look at this super-nice post Tim Castleman made after he visited me.

I am actually thinking of opening up my home to “x” amount of people per month. I think it could be a fun way to meet new people and do whatever I can to serve. Otto says I should charge for it and make it a business type thing, which could be a LOT of fun.

3. 1762 clients for Burn Your To Do List.

Well, as I posted in the initial challenge, that number is dependent upon a lot of factors. I can tell you that we’re converting like CRAZY right now. 19.6% of the people who find our page sign up to become a member, so it’s just a matter of getting traffic to the site. 19.6% conversions are pretty much unheard of, especially on COLD TRAFFIC to a MEMBERSHIP SITE.

Proof of conversions is right here.

4-7. Flight ticket home, to London, to Kenya, and to Dominican Republic.

I haven’t gotten any tickets yet, moreso because I’m trying to decide on the best times to go than anything else. Some of those places lose their sizzle to me depending on when I’m thinking about it, but at the time of this writing, I’m excited to go again.

8. 500 sales per month of this delicious chocolate drink I’ve been drinking.

I made a rubbish sales letter right here for it, and then lost a little bit of interest. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue promoting it, but as of this moment I’m interested again. Oy oy oy…

9. Tons and tons of energy as if I was drinking the chocolate drink every single moment.

My energy levels have been AWESOME! After some blood testing I realized some things I could do to make it even BETTER, which is even more fantastic.

(Some of those things include getting a cellerciser and doing rhythmic breathing)

10. Will weigh 142 pounds.

I AM SO OVER THIS ONE! That was a goal I no longer believe in, and I threw my scale in the dumpster. I’m not allowing my happiness to be dictated by a number on the scale any more. I will continue to eat healthily, exercise, and respect and honor my body. I am sure whatever I’m supposed to look like, I will look like. I’m at a super-healthy weight for a 5’8 female and I’m not putting any more tension around this.

11. A hair cut and color. This is a smaller one, but I’m overdue.

Will schedule soon

12. Starting up belly dancing again. I miss it!

Belly dancing classes are on Wednesdays, and because I haven’t been around every Wednesday, I started following along with some YouTube videos.

13. Keeping a super-happy relationship with Otto.

Our relationship is at an all-time high. We just spent the week together and had a WONDERFUL time, and we’re both looking forward to living near each other again. I can safely say we’re both more in love with each other than ever before. I know this is corny, but every time I look at him, all I want to do is hug him, kiss him, and tell him how much I love him!

Here’s a picture of us from our week:

We were walking around Santa Monica and got asked to go to the front of an audience for People’s Court (remember that TV show where they supposedly have people in the audience and they ask them their opinions on the case?). It was a lot of fun. The host just reads out the gist of each case to the audience and we give our opinions. This is a picture from between takes.

14. My income being passive again.

I barely worked while in California and the money just flowed in. I’m continuing to work on this. My amazing business manager has also just volunteered to do all my SEO on sites for a cut of the first few month’s profits, which is a no-brainer considering I haven’t done a thing on them.

All in all, I guess the major things I’ve been hemming and hawing on are the flights and Chocolate Jump. Even with those though, I’ve made great strides. I’m happy to be where I am at this stage of the game.

Lou Corona, the guy that I mentioned in my last post, can look at someone’s blood and tell them what areas of their body need to be worked on.

While visiting Otto in Orange County last week, I decided to take advantage and schedule blood testing with Lou.

The results were REALLY eye-opening.

First of all, this is what normal blood is supposed to look like:

It’s supposed to be nice circular round cells with fluid around them, not overlapping with other blood cells.

When I went to go get my blood tested, I thought my blood would look great. I’m part of the 1% of Americans who eat 5 fruits and veggies a day, I make healthy choices, and I do lots of cleansing.

…That was NOT the case.

Now, to be fair, there is a reason why my blood might look so bad at this particular time (I’ll get into that in a few moments). It was still very unexpected though.

Here’s what my blood looked like (keep in mind these pictures aren’t in color):

(You can see all the pictures here if you want. Some of the pictures there are listed individually or you can get the full 29 – including my “layer” pictures – by uploading the .zip. Please keep in mind I had to make these pictures smaller so they’d fit inside here, so stuff might be skewed.)

It was amazing how many pictures I was able to see. The girl who took my blood took ONE PINPRICK out of my finger but was able to find out landslides of information!

Our bodies work REALLY HARD for us.

I’ve got to say though -

Some Of These Results PISSED ME OFF!

For example – do you see the second to last picture where I have that disgusting black blob in there? That’s an indication of SMOKING… but I’ve never once smoked a cigarette in my life. I asked Theresa (the lady who did my blood) about it, and she said it could also be from smoking other things, or from second hand smoke.

Considering I’ve tried smoking weed like 3x in my life and hated it every time, I can safely reason that the big blob is from SECOND HAND SMOKE.

That kind of makes me mad! I don’t like how other people can influence MY body so much… but at least now I’m empowered with the information to do something about it.

Since the last time I was around second-hand smoke was years ago, this leads me to another point, too.

It’s INSANE How Much Our Body Remembers.

Theresa (the lady who took my blood) did a cleanse when she turned 50. The results she found were SHOCKING.

At one point 6 weeks or so into her cleanse, she saw tons of nicotine crystals in her blood. She had no idea why they were there so she called her mentor. She said, “I know these look like nicotine crystals, and I know you’ve told me these are nicotine crystals… but am I going crazy? Are these REALLY nicotine crystals!?”

When her mentor said yes, she was stunned. The crystals were from when she last smoked 23 YEARS AGO.

23 YEARS AGO!!!!

Our body holds on to so much stuff it’s insane. When we keep pummeling it with food, it has no choice but to “hide” the stuff it doesn’t have time to work on in order to keep up with the workflow of the new stuff.

When Theresa took the time out to cleanse, old stuff was able to get worked on. She eventually got it all cleared out, and it proved to be a very fascinating process.

For me, I think the reason my blood looks so awful at this particular moment is because I just did a 7 day cleanse. Lots of stuff had time to come out and get fixed.

This really makes me think, though… WOW. I still have MORE to cleanse. And it makes me wonder what other people’s blood is looking like… and what happens if they don’t do anything about it!

This Is Information People NEED To Know!

I mentioned to Theresa that if I learned THIS kind of stuff in science class, I’d have been a lot more interested.

This is CRUCIAL stuff. It affects how long we live, to diseases we get (do you know how easy it is to cure things like arthritis???), our energy levels… and on and on and on.

Theresa told me that one time a soccer coach had entire team get tested with her. The 14 and 15 year old girls, as well as some of their parents, were stunned at the results. Girls who were eating Skittles and Oreos for breakfast looked at their blood and were flabbergasted at the results — and the fact that their parent’s blood looked better than theirs. A lot of them made a lot of changes… QUICKLY.

I am willing to bet most people would be willing to eat healthier if they knew EXACTLY how it was affecting them.

Another interesting thing is,

One Look At Your Blood Can Tell You What Parts Of Your Body Need To Be Worked On!

The pictures I showed you were pictures of “live” blood. Theresa also took a picture of my “dead” blood so she could see what areas in my body needed to be worked on.

Because blood can change quickly in the short term, practitioners go back several layers to get a long-term view of what’s going on.

From looking at 8 prinpricks in my skin (remember, this is different from the first part), she was able to tell me:

- I need more green vegetables (I already have a ton, but I JUICE them. She told me I needed the fiber from them.)

- That my liver and gallbladder needed to be flushed out (Incidentally I passed about 50 gallstones that week!!!… without doing any kind of flush).

- That I should have some kind of “defect” somewhere around my chest or ribs. I actually DO have a weird looking bump on my back in that location.

In general from looking at my blood, I learned:

- I am enzyme deficient (so now I am taking multi-digestive enzymes with every meal)

- I am not properly digesting carbs (she gave me a 4 out of 10 on digestion there), and fats and proteins get a “6″ (taking proper supplementation to fix that now too)

- I have yeast in my blood (do you know almost every American has candida?)

- Glucose is fermented in my blood

- I need to breathe better

It’s also interesting that our EMOTIONS can severely impact our blood.

Lou told me that when we feel an angry word, every single cell in our body adjusts to that feeling. Say enough negative and bad-feeling words, and your blood gets REALLY ugly.

Theresa was able to tell me how much stress I had in my life just by looking at my blood. It was quite fascinating.

Like I said, I think a lot of my blood looked this bad because my cleanse had “opened” some stuff up. That being said though, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m going to stop cleansing any time soon. I want beautiful, clean blood effective IMMEDIATELY!

I respect my body too much to NOT give it that.

A lot of people have been asking me lately about recipes for juices, smoothies, and other energy potions.

Here are some of my favorites:

Lemon-Ginger Blast:

I have this one every morning. Lou Corona was the one who came up with it, and the guy is a freaking BEACON of health knowledge. He’s 57 and looks like he’s 25, tops. I can tell you countless stories about him that would blow your mind (like how he started working with a paraplegic whose head was tilted to the left hand side all the time… and two years later, the guy become a yoga teacher).

Lou has been having this recipe every day for the past 20+ years.

I like to have it every morning, and then I wait an hour before having anything else to allow my body to fully digest it. The entire combination is WONDERFUL your metabolism.

1 lemon (super-alkalizing)
2 apples (for taste I think, but apple’s also a great blood cleanser)
1/2 inch to 1 inch of ginger (so amazing for digestion)
Pinch of cayenne (internal fire – really gives you energy, especially the more you add on – but use sparingly till you’re used to it)
4 oz of purified water

When I first started drinking it, the taste was too much for me to handle (I was also putting in just 1 apple). I put in pineapple to dilute the taste.

I don’t do that anymore, and I also put in a jalapeno instead of cayenne. As you get more and more used to it, you can increase the intensity of the pepper.

I’m not saying this drink is my favorite tasting out of all of them that I make – but because I know how wonderful it is for my body, I happily drink it. The pineapple made it a lot better when I was using that as a transition.

I know Lou adds stuff to it, and so do I now. The beauty with this drink is that you can add ordinarily bitter tasting veggies and you can’t taste them at ALL inside the drink. This is a phenomenal way to get your greens in without having to deal with not liking the taste I’ll usually add parsley, kale, cilantro, or dandelion greens. If I want a big batch I’ll also add celery. Celery is super-hydrating (they say 4x more than water), but I usually just add it because it juices really well and gives a lot of juice-base very easily.

Banana-orange-date-almond

This is a smoothie recipe I tell people about when they want to start having more healthy stuff, but want some delicious transitional drinks before committing to too much.

It’s incredibly filling and REALLY delicious. When Tim stayed here for a week, he tasted all sorts of delicious things (including my prized Tsoynamis), but said this was his favorite.

For this, you need a mason jar (they cost around $1 or less – I just got a box of 12 for $8 or something) where you soak RAW almonds with purified water. This helps remove the enzyme inhibitors so you can get all the benefits from them. Soak them for 12 hours, change the water (it’ll be dirty), and then soak for another 12 hours.

How much of each ingredient will really depend on how many people you’re making it for.

If I were making it for myself, I’d put in a small handful of almonds, some purified water, a small banana, an orange, and 4 dates.

When you put the dates in, it usually works better if you chop them up to lots of little pieces first – even if you are putting them in the blender.

This is incredibly delicious and VERY filling. I made Otto a mason jar full for his 6 hour ride home and he was stuffed – so stuffed, in fact, that when someone invited him to his favorite restaurant later that night, he had to think twice. (If you knew how much he loved that restaurant, it’d mean a lot to you ).

That means you can use this as a meal replacement. It’s super cheap, super filling, and much more healthy than most things you’ll find elsewhere.

Chocolate Jump

This is an insanely energizing drink I have.

I won’t list the ingredients since it comes in a mix, but there’s 23 of them. I like to have this when I want a healthy drink that’s fast. I’ll just mix the powder with agave or dates or honey and make a smoothie out of it. I’ve been meaning to buy an ice cream maker so I can make ice cream out of it, too!

My friends Steph and Todd sell it, and I’ve been thinking about selling it too. I made a super-quick (think: 2 hours or less) site for it at ChocolateJUMP.com that I desperately need to update, but as of right now I’m shooting orders their way. It was on my goal list to sell 500 this month though so I plan being more diligent about it soon.

(This post is not to sell it, though – it’s just to give my favorites. I thought this would be a good one to add because of how energizing it is and how QUICKLY you can make it – which I know is a factor for a lot of people).

Some of my other favorite drinks:

Yerba mate tea – Energizing, great for focus and clarity
Spinach/orange juice – Something about this combination just screams DIVINITY to me. It tastes so damn delicious!
Watermelon juice – Super-yummy. As my body gets cleaner and cleaner, I find that it almost gets TOO sweet now, so I dilute it with water for massive perfection.

If you haven’t read my post on the differences between juices and smoothies, that might be of benefit too