Thank you to everyone who supports our endeavor here at New Family Naturals, whether that includes buying our products, telling your friends about us, and/or just offering encouraging words. You have all meant so much to us these past 7 months! Many of you have become more than “just customers” – you have become our friends. We couldn’t do this without you.

As a few of you know, Toya has been dealing with chronic illness that’s caused a few store closures and product backorders this year. For that, I truly apologize. However, part of my belief and message as a holistic business owner is that Health is True Wealth; not feeling my best these past few months has been a humble reminder of this.

With that in mind, I have decided to temporarily reduce the store hours to allow myself the extra time my body needs to rest and recuperate. Effective immediately, our new store hours are:

 
Tuesday-Saturday: 11am – 4pm
Sunday-Monday: Closed

In the end, the more fabulous I feel, the better I am able to help and serve you – so that we all may achieve the health and vitality we deserve.

All the best in everything,

Toya

PS: Smile and eat your veggies.

We are excited by all of the interest in our Wellness Programs, particularly the Raw Food Detox plans. It is so gratifying to witness people ready and determined to take their health and healing into their own hands. And we are here to help you! If you are interested in using nutrition to heal, we urge you to take advantage of the great discount we are offering this week over on Living Social.

Our Juice Cleanses and Meal Plans are all meant to support the healing process, by providing optimum nutrition to put your body in the best position to start healing itself. The New Family Naturals healing program involves temporarily “detoxing” or eliminating certain substances from your diet and replacing them with nutrient-dense, raw foods and vegetable juices.

Here are just a few of the things you should know about our healing meal plan.

What to Expect - The Food

All of our Cleansing Meals are:

• Gluten Free
• Dairy Free
• Low Fat
• Free of Refined Sugars
• Nut Free
• Vegetarian and Vegan
• Organic and All Natural

Everyday includes a shot of Wheatgrass Juice, an abundance of green, leafy vegetables, a hearty entrée, and a serving of nutrient dense sprouts. All meals are meant to optimize cleansing and therefore are lower in salt, sugar and fat. There are no nuts, unlike many other gourmet raw programs, as nuts may slow the cleansing process. Limited amounts of avocado, as well as a variety of seeds are used to provide complexity as well as added protein and calcium.

Here is a sample of what some days might look like:

Breakfast: Spiced Melon Soup

Midmorning: Shot of Wheatgrass

Lunch: Taco Salad with (vegan) Queso, avocado and Flax Crackers

Dinner: Fresh Collard Wraps with Zesty Dipping Sauce

Breakfast: Citrus Platter

Midmorning: Shot of Wheatgrass

Lunch: Large salad with sprouts, raw crackers and fermented veggies

Dinner: Living Lasagna, with zucchini noodles, marinated vegetables and fresh basil marinara.

Breakfast: Green Vegetable Juice

Midmorning: Shot of Wheatgrass

Up Next on the NFN Blog:

Raw Food Detox: What to Expect – Pt. 2

It’s more than just the food. A short primer on other aspects of the Wellness Programs, including program materials, meditations for movement, changing behavior, and eliminating negative thinking.

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Top 10 Reasons to do a Juice Cleanse or Raw Food Detox

1. You want to feel better.
2. You want to look better.
3. You want to have more energy!
4. You want to lose a few extra pounds.
5. You want to make healthier lifestyle choices.
6. You want to detoxify – mind, body and soul.
7. You want to heal digestive issues.
8. You want to prevent and heal degenerative disease.
9. You want to develop a healthy relationship with food.
10. You want to take control of your health!

The holiday sugar season doesn’t need to stress you out—and you can even enjoy the season without overindulging! In this fun and informative workshop, you will learn:

This class is for you if you are interested in learning how to make
your own juices at home – without investing in expensive equipment. You will learn (and taste!) how easy it is to get juicing with just a few simple tools and tricks.

Class is FREE and will be held at Caffe Amouri Coffee House: 107 Church St NE Vienna, VA 22180. Stop by Caffe Amouri and sign up in person or send us an e-mail at info@NewFamilyNaturals.com to register.

We’ve all experienced times in our lives when things do not go according to our well-laid out plans. And, when things do go wrong, it is easy to get stuck in wallowing, self-pity and a big fat rut.

A few years ago, I finished a master’s degree in Linguistics. I was studying the theories of language systems, sounds and patterns. After graduation, I thought the next logical step would be to get my PhD in what I had spent my grad school years studying. I took out loans, and enrolled. But, from the very beginning, I kept hitting wall after wall. I experienced annoying conflicts with students and professors, which included getting and quitting a grad teaching assistantship (pretty much a coveted, holy grail for PhDs). I was the QUEEN of procrastination. After nearly a decade of going to school, I was fried. I did not want to read one more scholarly article, let alone write one!

I had invested a lot of time and money into my education. I spent nearly 4 years in grad school, and just a few classes shy of my dissertation, I gave it all up. That’s right, I (unofficially) dropped out of school. No more velvety robe or “Dr. Tanis” for me.

My supportive, but concerned husband said: “I’ll support your decision to drop out, but you have to do SOMETHING.”

At first, that something consisted of lying on the couch, watching hours upon hours of Netflix (Think: finishing a 5 season TV series in 2 weeks – Yikes!). I was ashamed for starting something I couldn’t finish. I felt like a class-A failure for disappointing myself, my family, my friends and my advisor (I’m still on his sh*t list, btw).

Getting over myself.

Once I peeled myself off the couch, I realized I could make a choice: keep beating myself up about being a dropout, or accept that I had put myself into this position, so it was time for ME to get myself out of it.

It was time to get over the embarrassment, hard feelings, and move on! Others didn’t and don’t have to accept my decisions. Our lives belong to us – it’s time to start living it like it’s ours!

I realized this was my chance to take stock, do some work, and set things right in my life. For me, this meant giving the finger to the idea of getting a 9-5 job, changing my mind-set, and starting off on the difficult, yet rewarding path of being an entrepreneur.

What do YOU do when life throws you a curve ball?

Whatever life throws at you, every situation comes with a choice. Two powerful questions that will help you take action and make a change when plans fall apart are to ask yourself:

1. What is it that I Want? Clearly identifying what you want from life or a particular situation can help provide focus. If it’s not part of your plan, you know you don’t have to spend your time or energy on it.

2. Why Do I Want It? Recognizing the motivation behind why you do or don’t want something will help you determine if what you want is coming from the ego’s need to save face (keep up appearances), or from the place of what is truly best for you and your highest ideals.

I’m not saying your choices will be easy or that all options will always be good. You may even have to decide between bad and worse. Sometimes, however, it’s just a matter of IDENTIFYING and shifting priorities to realize what it is you truly want, or, as in my case, DON’T WANT.

Either way, when things go wrong, you always have the choice to change gears and do SOMETHING about it, even if that something is just changing the way you think.

OK, it didn’t EXACTLY start quite there, but that really was how this company was formed to be the type of food business it has been for the past year – a collection of healthy snack foods, consisting mainly of our Kale Chips and Flax Crackers.

I initially planned to have a sweet and savory pie company; so I formed an LLC, and set out buying mixers, molds and other baking equipment. No matter what I would be making, I knew I only wanted to use wholesome, natural ingredients.

However, even good ole butter is an oh, so natural ingredient, just as much as any whole-meal flour is. My pie development days led to lots of pie, and therefore butter, being eaten by yours truly. This ultimately led to a complete body shut down, complete with INTENSE, incessant vomiting, as described above.

So, not only do I get intestinal distress from things I love like cheese, but now butter makes me violently ill. Great.

At this point, I had already formed my company and had started working with a logo designer. I was not about to give up my vision of cubicle independence just because I couldn’t make pies. The sense of urgency to keep going forward was made even stronger by the fact that I had just (unofficially) dropped-out of my PhD program at George Mason. I had the entrepreneurial fire BURNING, compelling me to keep going in the direction of natural foods. I knew that, like me, people are looking for better options when it comes to their food.

This ultimately led me back to my vegan chef training days at Living Light Culinary Institute in Fort Bragg California. I’ve ALWAYS struggled with my weight – lots of ups and downs – and thought that by making healthy foods that taste –well, tasty, I’d being making good choices for myself and also providing YOU with healthy, convenient options. Thus, began our exciting adventure as a healthy snack co.

Now, that you know how our company began, here is where we’re going…

As we move into this next stage of opening our Community Market and Juice Bar, we’re excited to offer even more healthy products, like fresh fruit and veggie juices, wraps, and amazing salads that go beyond your run-of-the-mill mixed greens. We are also committed to maintaining a Vegetarian and Gluten Free menu, which will appeal to everyone, whether you’re on a specialty diet or not.

We are hard at work getting our shop ready for our August 1^st Grand Opening. Besides our Take-Out items, we can’t wait to share even more fabulous things with you, like locally produced goods, workshops, and cooking demonstrations.

If you live locally and think you might like to shop at our little market, please consider contributing $25 to $50 towards our efforts. Or, if you’re not local but still feel inspired to financially support local, independent businesses, you can do so here, on our Indiegogo.com fundraising page. No amount is too small, and every single dollar you contribute will go towards making this a fantastic resource for YOU!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart,

-        Toya Tanis, Owner and Creativity Maker behind New Family Naturals

PS: If you like what we’re up to, don’t forget to share it with friends. Use the social media tools on our Indiegogo fundraising page, or you can simply copy, paste and send them this link! http://www.indiegogo.com/NewFamilyNaturals-Market