How I'll Spend My Summer Vacation

I'm looking forward to the next few weeks of my life.  On Wednesday, I am leaving for a week in Seattle to visit my girlfriend's aunt.  Then I come home for about a day and a half, then I leave again to drive up into the mountains near lake Arrowhead to be a counselor at Camp Bravo, a theatre arts camp where I spent some of the best weeks of my life - and now I can give that experience back to a new generation of campers.

Now, my biggest issue is that I'm not really a "food" person.  I'm a very picky eater.  I don't eat any meat, I rarely eat vegetables, and as a result my food options are limited.  By choice, not blaming anyone.  I manage well enough, and I've never starved.  But every year at camp, the options become very slim.  It's burrito night or hamburger night, and while the food is expertly prepared and beggars can't be choosers, finding a viable food option for myself that'll give me the energy to help take care of 24 or so kids is definitely a challenge.  I am hoping that Reliv can be the answer for me this year.  Previous years I've taken cases of SlimFast with me, since they're filled with protein and such, but it's still not a great option.  Taking up a few cans of powder, though, to a place where drinking 8 glasses of water is the bare minimum for survival, I think I'll be able to manage a little better.  I'll not only be getting the protein I need, but also the calories, the fiber, the energy (Innergize), and some muscle help (ProVantage)!  Compared to other weeks, I'm going to be a superhero!

On the subject of travel, though, I'd like to make a few recommendations to anyone reading this blog for things I've found useful in day-to-day travel (weekends at relatives' houses, etc.) to keep me steady on the Reliv.


Ziploc Food Containers.  Definitely a must have.  There are two options for transporting Reliv.  One is to take all your cans with you, measure it out every day, and make your shakes.  You do it at home, why not on the road?  But if you're only going somewhere for a day or two, or if you'd rather make your shake at work or school or some such, it's a lot easier to have all your powder premixed in a little round cup thingy with a lid.  Just saying.








The Aerolatte to go is great for the road and for home.  When you're staying overnight in a hotel, for instance, or in a cabin in the mountains, you just might not have access to a stirring stick.  This little bugger is intended for frothing milk, so it spins fast enough to quickly and thoroughly mix your shake - and to turn it into a nice foamy shake-like substance while it does so.  If you're traveling, you'll probably be mixing with water (unless you intend on packing a Magic Bullet and some frozen fruit or several bottles of milk) and this doohicky makes that water do the most for you.  Also, if you're drinking your shake and you have to leave it for a bit and come back later, it's a great way to remix everything.





Well, that's all I've got for you for now.  We'll see what these next few weeks bring.  I'll keep updating as frequently as I can, although it may be just over a week in between posts.  Here's to you, and here's to nourishing our world!

Now I'm Back from Outer Space

For those of you who have been reading this blog, or have recently seen one of my business cards with this website listed on it, you may have noticed that there has been absolutely nothing going on here for the past two months.  This is the equal yet opposite reaction to a life with far too much going on.

Unfortunately, this has also caused a deep dent in my ability to keep up with my Reliv business and even my own health.

The first trouble that I ran into was that the show I was producing was getting ready to open, so we transitioned into what the theatre aptly refers to as "hell week."  This is the week when all the major technical elements fall into place and everything gets ready for the opening.  This is also the week when the production team tends to stay at the theatre until 5 in the morning, having been there since 7 the previous evening.  I went home, slept, woke up, then ran around trying to find props and other necessities.  I lacked the time to make my daily shakes, I started drinking sodas again, and my sleeping patterns got thrown so off track I may as well have been living in another time zone.  The show opened on Friday, and the next day I was hit with a 103 fever, I was extremely ill, and could not get out of bed, drive myself anywhere, or go to the gala opening of the show.  It was the sickest I had been in a while.

On the other side of life, I was still going to school full time, and finals were coming up.  Lots of projects, lots of studying, lots of difficulty keeping up with Reliv.  A few weeks ago, I was hit again, even harder.  I spent the entire night shaking violently, and my fever came back.  Twice in two months, I was more sick than I can remember.

It's taken a while, but I'm finally getting back into my previous habits of drinking my shakes daily.  The one thing I've learned from this experience is that the five minutes it takes a shake is definitely worth the 24 hours I will most definitely miss out on if I don't keep up with the regimen.  These products work, and they give me the nutrition I need in order to live this kind of life.  Just like you need to have a certain amount of income before you can afford to live an expensive lifestyle, you need a certain amount of health before you can afford to live a nutritionally taxing lifestyle.