Let me start by wishing you all a very happy new year. I hope 2007 brings happiness, love and joy to you all. I am now back in Japan after my relaxing a much needed vacation home. How I loved spending time with my parents. I was simply content sitting in the living room with them, just listening, watching and laughing with them. Who needs Tvs with parents around? Hours of entertainment. Christmas week was spent visiting Tenerife, Madeira and Morocco. Madeira receives a big thumbs up. simply beautiful! And this raw foodist was amazed at the number of banana plantations there were. Morocco is a place I would like to return to and travel round. Colorful, interesting, but stricken with poverty. Heartbreaking. This world is so cruel. New Year was back in England. Spoiled by the media coverage of Saddams execution. Constantly on the news, in the papers. Made me appreciate not having a TV here in japan even more. So here i am. Not working. Relaxed. Eager. Full of energy blah, blah, blah. Started a yoga restorative training. Daily yoga classes. studying yoga, studying my raw food course and teaching English privately. Performing a 5 minute dance piece on Saturday nite. Looking forward to moving and pushing beyond the boudaries. looking forward to all that is ahead.

I have recently discovered I am at my most creative whilst walking through my local park/forest (yes there are trees near Tokyo). Those who are stuck for ideas, don't sit indoors forcing ideas. Get out, clear the mind and look around. breath. wait. breath again. the ideas will start to flow.

As I embark on my new life I have decided to detox. As of today I will be having smoothies and juices for the next 10-14 days. I'm wanting to see how it benefits my yoga practice, my studies and my way of thinking. Will document all here.

Why oh why do weekends have to end?? Hubby and I had a fabulous time, spent with lovely friends. Admittedly my detox didn't get off to the start that I was hoping (stupid to think starting on a weekend would be the best way). Not one of my brainiest moments, but I do allow myself one blonde moment a day AND I can say that cuz I am blonde! So, back to the weekend. Met up with a friend we hadn't seen in a ridiculous amount of time. We headed out to brunch and I had to opt for a vegetarian dish (hold the cheese). There really was very little choice for moi, but hey I live in Japan have come to expect it. Saturday evening was spent at the yoga studio attending a sayonara party. Twas a splendid evening. People sang, hugged, laughed. One lady hula danced, people played instruments and I danced. Yeah...I performed I LUURRVVVEEDD it. I pointed my toes, turned, jumped. Raised alot of interest in my future classes. Was a potluck event, so hubby and I took raw treats which again raised alot of interest. I was good and drank just water seeing that i had kinda failed on my initial juice. Yesterday was spent drinking water. Cleansing and peeing every 30 minutes. Attended the restorative yoga teacher training course. Is my second week and my head is spinning with lots of lovely, relaxing poses. Much needed here in Tokyo. If anyone knows of someone who would like to practice restorative yoga in Tokyo, tell them there's a new teacher who can not wait for them to teach them how to relax, restore and breath. So, back to my detox. Decided Monday (today) was the perfect day to start. Morning Filtered water with lemon slices Afternoon As I write this I am drinking a blueberry, strawberry, pineapple smoothie with filtered water and maca. Scrummy. Later I'm going to have the classic, apple, carrot and ginger juice. feeling positive, but now need to stop blogging and get on to my diploma. M xx

Not the greatest of starts with the juice and yoga blog thong..mean thing. God knows what i was thinking of there! There are reasons why. Will endeavour to start tomorrow.

New verb of the day. Smoothie-ing. And today I had: mango (of course), pineapple, banana, maca and fresh OJ. Totally scrummy. Oh, there was some flaxseed oil in there too. Try the above. Take in each fruitful flavor. Feel your body absorb the nutrients. My hunger pangs are disappearing and I found today that i simply wasn't that hungry. So, infact all I have is all thee above albeit LOTS of water. Water is the best. I was very lucky during my childhood as we never had sodas in the house. We had juices and that was it. But, I can remembering always being on tiptoe at the sink filling my glass with water - when it seemed perfectly ok to drink tap water. I have ALWAYS had water at my bedside and the first thing i do upon awakening is take a few sips. I have filtered water now and wherever I go I take my water bottle/flask. Saving money and the enviroment. Too many plastic bottles here in Japan. I also remember having a small glass of lemonade when I was around the age of 5 and being very sick. Fizzy drinks-NO GOOD. Maybe I should do a water fast?!?