The Exploding Blender and Other Stories

I’ve been busy launching a new product on “How to Travel the World for Free”

I know this is TOTALLY off topic but I also know that many raw foodists love traveling and would like to do more of it.

I created this product along with my old friend Shelli Stein, who’s a fitness trainer in Hawaii but also an expert in traveling.

I asked Shelli to write a little intro article on her side of the story of how we ended up doing this project together.

The Exploding Blender and Other Stories, by Shelli Stein

There are two sides to every story and two sides to every coin, but only one Frederic!

Last week Frederic told you how we met, so now it’s time for Shelli’s version.

In the 90′s when the raw food movement was rapidly gaining momentum, both Frederic and I were part of that scene.

Its hub was in San Diego and that’s where I lived at the time. I had been an on and off again vegetarian since high school, so switching to a raw food diet wasn’t too big a leap for me.

Frederic had come to San Diego to immerse himself in the raw food culture, so it was only natural that our paths would cross.

It was an exciting time in raw food history.

I had this idea to hire him as a chef and have him cater a raw meal at my house for me and some friends. Have you ever cooked (or “uncooked”) in someone else’s kitchen? I have, and it’s always a challenge. Here’s what happened.

I left the meal choices up to Frederic.

It didn’t matter because I knew if he was “cooking” it would be delicious.

At the time I had an old fashioned blender. Frederic swears he was blending durian, I seem to recall it was almond milk, but in either case because I hadn’t put the blender together properly the whole thing exploded.

And by explosion I mean a massive blender bomb in the kitchen!

Are you the kind of person who keeps tons of dish towels in your kitchen “just in case”?

I am, so we started throwing every dish towel we had on the floor and counters to clean up the mess. The dinner, once we got the mess cleaned up, was perfect.

We do laugh about that day now though.

So that was how we met. Frederic stayed at my house and watched my dog for me when I was out of town but soon after those times we lost touch.

He was busy writing and helping to grow the raw food movement in California and I was busy teaching Yoga, working as a health and fitness coach, and falling in love. You know, living life!

Fast forward to 2009. Frederic’s name came across my radar over the years but I never followed through and contacted him, until 2009.

You know how it is when you talk with someone from a long time ago and you immediately pick up again like time almost never passed?

So we quickly became great friends, and I also coached him through his attempts at running a marathon. Things didn’t work out for the marathon because Frederic got busy getting married, but I’m sure he’ll get back to it sometime soon.

One thing that we loved talking about was traveling.

Frederic has been everywhere, or that’s how it seems. I haven’t, but I’m quickly gaining on him!

When we started talking about traveling, where we wanted to go and how we were going to pay for all our travel dreams,

I told him about all the trips I had taken in the last year. For example, going to Hong Kong and Bali, flying first class and staying in five star hotels.

Or how I went to New Zealand or Italy for a three week trip each… in the same year!

Or how I’m about to fly all the way from Honolulu to Switzerland in First Class to visit some friends.

Frederic was shocked when I told him my travel plans weren’t going to cost me much at all.

I told him that I essentially don’t pay for most of my trips, especially the high-end ones.

One day he finally said to me, “Okay Shelli, what’s the deal? How do you do it”?

Knowing that over the years he had paid big bucks for all his travels and that I was traveling for pennies on the dollar, I started sharing my system with him.

This is a system that I developed over many years. Something that you can only learn by doing it. And I knew Frederic was the kind of person who would be using my tips, tricks, and tweaks for maximizing traveling dreams yet *minimizing* costs.

After a year of Frederic testing out what I’d be sharing with him, we decided that other people who love to travel, who enjoy experiencing other cultures need to know all these tips, tricks, and tweaks too, so they can make their travel dreams come true.

That’s how the project happened!

Shelli