I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I have written in this Blog. After leaving Living Light school in California, I headed up to Scotland to spend some time with my family. The screen on my laptop was damaged and it had to be sent away back to the suppliers to be fixed. I felt I'd lost a limb without the laptop and it amazes me how reliant we are on such items. But it is back now, in fully working order and I’m back on line. Thank you to those who have missed me and have prodded me to write more. I’m now at home in familiar surrounds setting up my business with the help from Karen Knowler. But before I get into that, I just want to write a little bit about my experience at Living Light. This might seem extreme, but it has literally changed the way I think of food. Its not just the high nutritional value raw food contains, but also how it is presented. As Cherie will tell you, there are three main elements to consider when creating raw food and this is texture, flavour and colour. Every time I put food in my mouth I’m much more aware of how it tastes, how it feels and how it looks. Even when I’m slapping something together for quick bite, I want to enjoy every moment whilst I’m eating raw. I now find I’m much more experimental with raw food and when I open the door to my fridge I will try to create something tasty with whatever is left in the fridge, rather than thinking I’ve not got enough ingredients to make a single recipe. It doesn’t always quite work out as intended but I hope in time and with more experience I will come better at it.
The whole experience at Living Light has been worthwhile and if anyone is thinking about going, even if it is just for your own health reasons or to make a career out of it, I recommend you go. I only wish we had something like the Living Light school here in the UK. I was in California for around 7-8 weeks and took a total of 8 courses. You don’t have to go as long as I did, you can split the courses up and take them at different times over a period of time. However, there are certain courses you have to take before you can progress onto others. But be warned, there is a lot of homework issued almost each night during almost every class.
There was only one course that didn’t go quite as I expected and this course was titled ‘Ethnic Flavours in Recipe Development’. This course and ‘RawFusion Gourmet Spa Cuisine’ are heavily focused on recipe development. You’re given a limited amount of time to create your own new recipes from a limited list of ingredients. You then present your recipe idea to the class, 6 recipes are then chosen by the class and we split into groups to make each recipe. After the recipes are complete, we all had to judge the taste, texture and appeal of all of the food. I felt there was not enough information as hoped focusing towards the flavours and spices that make these foods ethnic, but I still consider these courses worth going on. It opened my eyes to new recipes created by other students, swapping ideas and experimenting with new ingredients. It is probably these courses that have made me much more experimental with raw food.
Since being back in the real world, it has been harder to maintain a high raw diet. During the whole time at Living Light I maintained 99% raw diet and didn’t miss cooked food once and felt great. But now I’m surrounded by other foods, temptation has led me to stray a little. Eating these 'other' foods hasn’t really given me any great satisfaction and now I’m back home (not travelling around visiting) I feel more in control. I feel I’m now naturally drawn towards raw foods much more than the processed foods so really available in our supermarkets. I can feel my body really starting to absorb the good food when I eat it.
So what happens next? I’m now in the middle of getting my business together with the support of my business mentor Karen Knowler. I want to combine my Interior Design experience with raw food and help this country to be more aware of raw food and make it much more mainstream. I want to help other business set up raw food business such as café’s and restaurants and also help people adapt their own kitchens to support a raw food lifestyle. There it is. Sounds simple! We shall see………………………….
