Yearly Archives: 2009

Health, Reviews, Success

Vita-Mix Review For Your Health Plus 10 Smoothie Recipes

(Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano ‘Mango Tree’ Tulum, Mexico)

We all know that maintaining our health is an important part of life. If you feel tired or sick, it is hard to conquer your dreams each day and live a fulfilling life.

To help maintain our health, we make fruit smoothies with our Vita-Mix blender almost every day. We have been using our Vita-Mix almost daily for 3 1/2 years (except when traveling).

These smoothies jump start our day with energizing vitamins and taste fantastic. We have experimented with many different lifestyles including veganism and one constant that has always stuck with us is our smoothies.

There are many other things you can do with a Vita-Mix besides making fruit smoothies such as creating instant fresh soups. However, right now our primary use is to make morning smoothies.

Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano 'Man with Cashew Fruit' Canoa Quebrada, Brazil
Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano 'Man with Cashew Fruit' Canoa Quebrada, Brazil

We use the Vita-Mix instead of other blenders as part of our overall health consciousness because it does the following:

  • Better Health: The Vita-Mix breaks through the cell walls better than your teeth can to release the hidden nutrition in whole foods. Research has shown that when you break down the cell walls of your foods, more nutrients are released into the blood stream.
  • Fast: It takes 60 seconds to make whole food juices and smoothies, 4 minutes for hot fresh soups, and 30 seconds for healthy frozen treats.
  • Flavor: The Vita-Mix completely pulverizes whole foods to release full flavor.  This means you don’t have to add sugar, salt, or other condiments to make the meals taste good.

The initial investment of a Vita-Mix seems a bit pricey. We thought the same at first. However, Elliot, being of an analytical mind, wanted to know for certain, so he did a data analysis.

This analysis compared the costs of purchasing the necessary ingredients to make a smoothie at home compared to a retail smoothie shop.

He found a price difference of 4 to 1 per smoothie with the Vita-Mix being 4 times cheaper to make at home versus buying at a retail smoothie shop.

This shows that the machine will pay for itself in no time in terms of cost savings by spending less in the long run and increased nutrition for your and your family’s health.

We have used ours almost daily for 3 1/2 years now and there have been no problems with the machine malfunctioning or breaking down. And, even if it did, the Vita-Mix comes with a 7-year warranty.

So go ahead and purchase a Vita-Mix. We have recommended it to many family members, who have since purchased it themselves and are also enjoying the many benefits.

It even makes a great gift. One family member actually bought one for their son after we recommended it to them initially.

Also try the recipes below and let us know what creations you come up with! All recipes below are good for vegans as well.

10 Vita-Mix Smoothie Recipes For Your Health! Continue reading Vita-Mix Review For Your Health Plus 10 Smoothie Recipes →

Articles, Change, Inspiration, Philanthropy, Travel

13 Life Lessons Learned from My i-to-i Travel Experience

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(Photo: Brazilian Favela Recife, Brazil)

In this article, I provide some insights in the form of life lessons I learned from my travel experiences. Travel to me is a vital component of living a fulfilling life experiencing the world.

You probably know someone who has spoken about having a travel experience. It might be you, it might be your son or daughter, or someone else close to you. I hope through writing about my experience it enables you to approach this conversation from a different view.

If you are hesitant and afraid of allowing yourself or your loved ones to travel, please be open to obtain a new perspective of the life experience you or they could gain from it. The hesitations and fears will never be eliminated, but through proper research and education, I hope that you are able to contain them. One such program that I utilized that may help contain your fears was i-to-i.

A little background information…

During my junior year of college, I did a 6-month study abroad program in Europe where I was based in Rotterdam, Holland. When not studying, I would travel and spend my time in several countries including Ireland, England, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Denmark, and Holland. I thoroughly enjoyed the unique cultures of each of these countries and it was then that I came down with the ‘travel bug.’

Everyone should have an experience like this in their lifetime, especially while in college. It should actually be a required experience because it is a real eye opener to look at your life from a different, outside view perspective.

You re-think everything and learn to follow your heart. This is a great characteristic to have while going through life. This study abroad experience, for me, was the start of a never ending travel bug that, like many others with similar experiences, will never go away (thankfully).

After my initial study abroad experience, I completed several more trips including going back to Turkey and visiting Mexico.  However, after all this, I wanted a unique experience.  I came across the prospect of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and a company that offered a quick way for me to get this certification by doing my training online. This company was i-to-i.

Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano Salvador Brazil
Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano 'Sarong of a Brazilian Flag' Salvador, Brazil

Through i-to-i, I immediately completed all the requirements including TEFL certification, several inoculations, visa work, red cross CPR training and many other travel related tasks. (Seem a bit overwhelming? Don’t worry because i-to-i
provided a checklist depending on the country and program you chose to get it all done.) I then decided to enroll in one of the volunteer programs offered through i-to-i.

In late summer of 2004, I was off to Brazil for an 8-week volunteer experience teaching English to Brazilian teenagers. I had also scheduled in an extra few months of solitary travel afterwards (which I recommend for you as well) in which I traveled around the vast country of Brazil visiting its towns including Olinda, Jericoaracoara, Recife, Joao Pessoa, Salvador, Lencois, Ilheus, Rio De Janeiro, and many others along the way.

Like all travels, my experience in Brazil led to many unexpected turns including discovering a favela (a Brazilian slum) in which the community lived and thrived on a landfill. I was able to visit this community as a side project each week to visit the children and bring food. These experiences were incredibly humbling and can never be replaced.

Now, here are 13 life lessons I gained from my i-to-i travel experience:

  1. Walking away from your daily life gives you an opportunity to really find who you are and what your passions truly are.
    • I have the opportunity to get to know something new about myself each time I travel. When you are experiencing something new you see yourself in a new light. You enjoy things you maybe never saw yourself enjoying and this is how you find your passions. You are able to look inward and find yourself.
  2. Being away from the modern conveniences of the first world and the routines of home take you away from your comfort zone. Continue reading 13 Life Lessons Learned from My i-to-i Travel Experience →
Articles, Friendship, Love, Philosophy, Relationships

A Love Story and Philosophy on Balancing Love and Friendship

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(Photo Copyright Terrah Lozano – New Mexico, USA)

“Indeed, love is only truly manifest when expressed through the medium of friendship.”- Andrew Sullivan in Love Undetectable

This quote is something I actually wrote in one of my first emails to Terrah after we first met. I’ll come back to it later.

Here’s the story…

I was coming out of my business course in college and she was canvassing for Greenpeace just outside the entry.

She stopped me to try to pitch me on the issue so I would donate.

I stopped because I thought she was attractive. Continue reading A Love Story and Philosophy on Balancing Love and Friendship →

Films, Quotes

6 Inspirational Quotes from the film World’s Fastest Indian

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1. “If you don’t follow through on your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable.” – World’s Fastest Indian

The above is a great quote from the film and it is part of the message we aim to write about here at InspirationTheRide.com.

We want to provide great quotes that we hope inspire you to take action because they have inspired us to take action.

And, if you don’t take action on fulfilling your dreams that only you know in your heart, you may as well be a vegetable….

The World’s Fastest Indian is about a man who never gave up on his dream regardless of his critics and the naysayers. Watch a clip and the trailer here:

2. “Danger is the spice of life. You got to take a risk every now and again… That’s what makes life worthwhile. I’ve always tried to never be scared of anything. Of course I get butterflies and nervous.” – World’s Fastest Indian

The above is another great quote we pulled from the film. Danger can also be interpreted by some as change and this prohibits them from taking action. What you have to do then is acknowledge that we all get these “butterflies” of nervousness, but that shouldn’t stop you from making life worthwhile. We all have our setbacks and get nervous about the fear of failure, but what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

3. “It’s not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could’ve done them better – the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”- Theodore Roosevelt as quoted in World’s Fastest Indian Continue reading 6 Inspirational Quotes from the film World’s Fastest Indian →

Articles, Inspiration, Philosophy

Waking Up to Life – A Philosophy of Life

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(Photo Copyright Elliot Lozano – Riviera Maya, Mexico)

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

When it all boils down to it, we are all trying to attract or intend something (or many things) into our lives, whether it is a job, more money, a better relationship, happiness or any other desire of life. The list goes on and on and is individual to each of us. We all just want to be happy and fulfilled. The definition of happiness and fulfillment is in itself unique to each of us and gives life meaning.

For us, we have gone down the path towards fulfillment. We have had lots of great fun and enjoyment traveling, spending time with friends and family, endeavoring in many business opportunities, and seeking spiritual enlightenment. All of this has led to us waking up to life and creating a philosophy of life. Continue reading Waking Up to Life – A Philosophy of Life →