Create Your Own Seminar

The Vegan Era CREW were very blessed to have conducted their very first seminar. YAY! We had such a magnificent turn out, and it seemed that everyone really enjoyed being together and talking to like minded people.

On this point, we thought it only fitting to share all that we have learnt and a few things that we could improve on.

Know Who You Are?
For us, we had very little expectations. I guess, as long as it wasn't Mandy and I talking to each other we were very happy.
Along with this, we are two very relaxed people. Hence, we thought our presentation should reflect that. We made it our point to be very free and relaxed when talking and if people had questions they could ask them there and then.

Upon reflection, we found that this was the one thing that people loved about our presentation. The fact that they could relate to us and they felt comfortable. That was a real bonus. When you stand up and talk in front of an audience you all feed of the energy, so if they are relaxed, you are relaxed.

Set It Up
Although we did not intend for this to happen, the relaxed atmosphere just flowed. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that we were delayed with technical difficulties so I had the time to meet people before hand and they could all get together to have a little chat.

This actually leads me on to my next point, try your best to have all the technical issues ironed out before the day. We use apple computers, and they did not work with the hard ware available to us. luckily we had a back up computer, however a lot of the software we were using for the presentation did not work. We were able to get around it, however, if had of tested everything a couple of days before hand we could have been more prepared.

Mix It Up
The CREW has been lucky to have been to a few seminars previously. In our experience we found most of the them boring and distant. We wanted our audience to feel like they really knew us, and they could relate to the material.

In order to create this environment we changed between power point presentation, video and free talking. After the presentation was complete, we received very positive feedback for mixing things up.

PR/Marketing
You always want as many people as you can to your event. We made sure that we had time up our sleeve to get our message out to as many people as possible. The tools we used were letterbox drop, email outs, cafe posters, local media (newspaper, radio) and social media. We were also fortunate in that our local library (the place where we held the seminar) also promoted us.

To be very honest we found the most effective way to get your message heard was through social media. Set yourself up with as many groups and like minded people as you can. Don't be afraid to ask them to spread your message through their friend network.
You often hear that word of mouth is the best form of advertising. Well nothing has changed....well sort of nothing, it is no longer done through people verbally talking, rather typing on face book.

Give, Give, Give
Not only giving of your time, and of yourself but also give people other treats. People are really appreciative of little gifts especially when you are presenting vegan food. People like to know that they can cook beautiful little treats like cup cakes just as they used to.

At the end of our seminar we gave away books, bags and eats. People were left feeling happy and blissful and all it took was a little love.

Be Happy
Some of the information that we are presenting can be very confronting. We like to keep things very light and happy, however we did present one video that shows how many animals are killed per second around the world. It is confronting, but to finish of the talk we showed a happy video, something fun and light. This helped to uplift the  mood of the room.

What We Learnt
The CREW really enjoyed spreading the message, and as I mentioned we had very little expectations. So to have the outcome that we did we were so happy and motivated to do more.

We feel that we could streamline the presentation so that it flowed better when we changed between video and power point.
Set up a video camera and photographer and streamline the seminar on the web. Our next step is to work out how to get this information straight to you. There is a application on face book that allows for web-inars. It something we are looking into and could greatly improve the reach of your presentation.


We would love to hear what you think, so if you have any feedback please tell us. We love to learn always looking for ways better get the message out to the world.


Later Skaters.

Reclaim Your Health Book Review Blog

I don’t know about you, but it seems more and more people in my circles are suffering from so many illnesses. Every second person I talk to also have a loved one with some sort of cancer or diabetes....and you only have to take a tiny peek into our hospitals to realise the huge health problems in our societies. "Reclaim Your Health" is a great mentor guide to not only those who are suffering from cancers, it is a huge wake up call for all of us to SLOW DOWN and start looking after our bodies, and to BE CONSCIOUS of what we feeding those "cells’ that we so desperately need for everyday existence.

I recently had a sobbing seventy-two year old doctor call me for some health information. Her eighty year old husband who was also a doctor had been suffering from prostate cancer and had changed to a plant based diet. Not only were they amazed at the cell recovery rate of excluding the foods mentioned in "Reclaim Your Health," they were also saddened by the advice they had been giving their patients for the past 40 years. They are still practising physicians, and are trying their best to share their first hand experience of a plant based diet to cancer patients, other doctors and the general public.

The wisdom found in "Reclaim Your Health" should be the compulsory medical manual for all cancer patients as well as for general illness prevention! Relax, stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and processed foods as they are toxic fuels that breed disease in your bodies. Give yourself a great big KISS, that's "Keep It Simple Stupid" and eat fresh fruits, legumes and vegetables to keep your "car" running smoothly for the rest of your life. ‘KISS’ yourself by slowing down and enjoying everyday moments, and feel happy and grateful for all that you have.

To me it seems that having cancer can also be a blessing, as the wisdom shared in this book soaks into your heart and soul. I too am now inspired to look after my "amazing house’ known as my body even more, and to be forever grateful to feeling healthy from a plant based diet….oh yes..and to be ‘Loosey Goosey', let go and go with the flow!

Accolade

"Reclaim your Health should be the compulsory medical manual for all cancer patients"

Build me up buttercup!

One of the Vegan Era Crew has started chemotherapy and so we've been very interested in how the vegan diet can support the body during this time. The usually high-raw vegan diet that we have become accustomed to, is not adequate for putting on the weight and protein that the body needs to handle periods of sickness and excess weightloss. Of course most doctors believe lots of dairy and meat are the key in this situation, so we have been researching ways to put on weight, vegan-style.

According to The Vegetarian Society, "In order to gain weight it is essential to increase the energy content of your diet. Also, in order for your body to make proper use of protein, you must ensure sufficient energy. The most concentrated form of energy in the diet is from fat. If you can tolerate fat then try and increase the fat content of your diet."

Have an Avo: Avocados are creamy and high in calories and nutrients. They are also soft and easy to eat during times when mouth ulcers and other nasty side-effects take hold.

Get Smooth: Smoothies are a great way to add extra protein in the form of a protein powder, and calories with the addition of soy or rice milk, soy yoghurt or ice-cream, nuts, seeds, bananas and even soft silken tofu.

Get Saucy: Have meals with a good sauce, made with pureed fried onions, perhaps with tomatoes or mushrooms. To increase the energy density of sauces use vegan margarine and add soya milk or silken tofu.

Beans: Cooked beans can be added to soups, stews, pies, salads, etc as well as being able to be pureed or used for dips such as hummus.

Soy Soy Soy: All of the over-processed soy products that we usually steer clear of are full of calories and protein. If you are looking to bulk up, delicious products such as Tofutti cream cheese will certainly help!

Go Nutty: Nut butters are a great way to get lots of the good fat and nutrients from nuts in an easily digestible way. Choose raw almond butter, sunflower butter, tahini, or hazelnut butter and add them to crackers, vegetable crudites, salads, deserts, baked goods or have them on toast.

Oily Goodness: Extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, etc are a healthy way to add good fats to the diet.

Rice, Pasta, Gnocchi, sprouted bread, vegan custard and yummy vegan cheese are some of the other things that spring to mind if you are looking to put on weight.

Unfortunately, there are not many vegan meal replacements, such as Sustagen, which offer all of the nutrients that the body needs in a liquid form for times when patients cannot eat. Vega Complete Meal Replacement is a powder that was formulated by a vegan triathlete and is available at www.pureprescriptions.com, but it contains some natural products that pharmacists and oncologists may not agree to.

If you are looking to put on weight as a cancer patient, then there will likely be other challenges that need to be addressed also, such as dry mouth, loss of appetite, sore throat and mouth ulcers, nausea, constipation or diarrhea and loss or change of taste. The most important thing is to get some form of nutrients in to the body each day, so whatever is tolerable and appealing is often the only consideration.

While some of the Crew are enjoying pigging out on all of these vegan delicacies, we are looking forward to the end of treatment when a return to a healthy RAW vegan diet will help to detox the body!!

Here is a lovely recipe for Lemon Poppy Scones to get your taste buds drooling...

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup margarine

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Cut in margarine until the mixture is the consistency of large grains of sand. I like to use my hands to rub the margarine into the flour. Stir in poppy seeds, lemon zest and lemon juice. Combine the soy milk and water, and gradually stir into the dry ingredients until the batter is moistened, but still thick like biscuit dough. You may not need all of the liquid. Spoon 1/4 cup sized plops of batter onto the greased baking sheet so they are about 3 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes the preheated oven, until golden.