About Me

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Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
My name is Peace Ravenwood and I am a Living Foods educator and experimenter, founder of the School of Living Foods and Alchemy Elixir Cafe ~ based in Northamptonshire UK. I love sharing the gifts and benefits of a life rich in raw foods, and also love spending as much time as possible outside in the garden, growing lots of fresh organic produce to use in the recipes. Wild foraging is also a passion of mine, one which I am constantly learning more about. My life is dedicated to learning and sharing every aspect of life in the raw, from seed ~ stomach ~ spirituality and sensuality. My other loves are of spending time with loved ones Anthony and our tribe of furry companions, reading, researching, writing and a little radical rebellion...my aim here to you is to walk with you while we change our world, one meal at a time Inlakesh Peace xxx

Monday 28 March 2011

Getting Deeper into Raw

The last week or so has been a bit of an uphill hike through lots of issues around diet and life pathways, and I really hope that now, on Monday, I have come to a turning point.
Go Fresh will be my first real commitment to finally change my diet fully to a higher level of raw than ever, and was a decision I felt needed to be made for me to step up onto the next part of this awesome life.
Until this point I had been working on so many layers of healing through raw foods, some meditations, being my authentic self like never before! And just learning peace and stillness rather than pushing the point all the time.  But, cooked food has remained a hook for me, and one that has been the most stubborn to move from.  Even as I write this I am having a little be of childish tantrums at the thought of releasing me addiction to cooked starches.  But I have to do this if my body is to fully cleanse and heal, and the last week or so the pains in my body have not been good at all, to the point that I had to really look at what is going on with me deeply, painfully and honestly.
Although being high raw has been really helpful in getting more energy and wellness, this refusal to leave the cooked starches alone has, I feel, been the downer in it all, as well as a few coffee's a week, with dairy milk (when out socialising), the odd slice of bread (not often, but still a set back) and even perhaps cooked eggs (no way to eat them raw!)...all this has added up over time to cause the issues now, and, perhaps, it is this cumulative effect that has moved the position to where I'm at right now.
So, the commitment to go low fat raw vegan has been made, for the period of Go Fresh at the least, to see what the next 11 weeks show up.  When I don't think about it it is easy, but once I start thinking about food the triggers come up...how will I deal with food for me and food for my husband, who does not cook or want to, and who cannot stand the thought of raw soups or not eating his normal meals to assist the process whilst at the same time improving his own health?  To be fair, if I put a plate of food in front of him he eats it and invariably enjoys it, but this time I am not sure he will go with it, not every day anyhow.  So, keeping meals simple and low fat raw is my personal challenge for my beloved Anthony, so that he loves the meals he is eating and feels so good after them that he wants and begs for more!!! LOL
Back to body stuff - for several weeks I have been in some amount of pain daily, or rather at night...my right hip, which was badly out of line, hurts like a bugger if I lie on it too long, and my spine is generally tight and sore - something that I really hope cutting out the non raw foods will assist, along with some more treatments from my friend.  This pain, as you know, is debilitating over time, and darn boring to live with when I am the kind of person who love life and wants to go out and get on with it!  But, one thing I am learning is to be gentle with my self, and so long as I am moving around lots and resting when tired, I can't really do more than this, right? 
Considering my past 40+ years, most of it eating high fat processed, glutinous, meaty, dairy foods with limited fruit and veg, added to several years of hard graft with horses, getting bashed around, falling off, over working the body etc, and then carrying over 6 stones too much waste for the last 16 years, I feel that my body is taking the time to really get all the detoxing and mending done, but this is being hampered when I eat the wrong foods - I have a super sensitive body, I know this, but still I do it...self sabotage!  For all the days of eating really pure raw vegan smoothies and juices, then I go and put in a quart of decaf coffee dairy concoction and some starches and eggs...NOT the good thing to do to a system that is attempting to heal!  Stoopid!!  LOL
Today this is changing...
Today I began with half a water melon for breakfast, which I shared with my dog Aura (she is so beautiful)...it took me ages to eat it, but I did it and loved it, for I love fruits and could happily live in a fruit growing country and thrive on greens and fruits and fresh avocados and coconuts all day!
I'm still working out supper, but it will either be a soup - to use up the cauliflower and broccoli in the fridge, or some marinade greens, or perhaps both!  MMmm sound like Anthony will love that xxx
The rest of the day I will make a juice and then a fruit and spinach smoothie - left to my own I would just have this all day :0)
I'm just about to order a spiroli to make raw veggie pastas, then this will become an amazing addition to the evening meals, which my love actually really devours with gusto!
I feel this point in the path is really liberating and at the same time a little scary, but in a good way.
The more I learn and the deeper I go, just confirms to me the direction to take with this, and that is to teach and document everything, so others can see and benefit from our progress and transformations.  I have never before been so active at documenting emotions and life changes, and hope that it is of use and benefit to others and perhaps will encourage more to do the same?
Life is truly amazing and once we place trust in the Universe to show us the direction to take, so much opens up to us that it can feel overwhelmingly powerful, like meeting your Dragon and knowing you need to sit up there and take a ride!

Love Peace and Faery Dust xxx

Friday 25 March 2011

New Energy and Adventures

Wow, what an amazing year it has been so far, and it is looking like continuing to be an inspiring and enlightening year all round.
As usual lots have happened since I last wrote here, sorry not to have been logging it all down, but getting round to pouring out lots of emotions and thoughts is often not the easiest of things to do.
Life has been turning on though but not as manic as it was last year, mainly due to the bereavement process of loosing Tom (Ant's father) in January.  There is so much to deal with and sort out, and so we have been spending time with this.  The estate is now being wound up and the house has been sold, so again, an emotional time and quite surreal in a deeply meditative way.  Whilst there today I really felt Tom's presence sat behind me in the conservatory as I sat in my favourite place on the top step...nice to know he is keeping any eye on us, even now.
We have has much quiet time to contemplate what we are going to be doing in the coming years, and have not decided on anything for sure, apart from the possibility of investing in a small acreage of land over the channel to have as a bolt hole and a place for friends and family to go away for respite when ever the need arises.

We have no desire to buy a home over here and are content renting our peaceful cottage.  We feel so blessed to live here and have been working on the garden for the coming seasons food supply.  Soon we will add a large poly tunnel to extend the season through winter - lots of winter greens!  Already there are pots full of rocket, kale and pak choi looking healthy, I so look forward to the first pickings.  I have decided to start running some weekly workshops in basic organic food growing to help others get more clean fresh foods on tap, including sprouting and wild greens.
In addition I will post pictures on here and recipes to log all the adventures.

This is all following on with the raw transition, growing deeper over the weeks and I will add more recipes here to follow the learning  experience.
As a member of Raw Food Rehab I have just signed up for the next 11 week initiative - Go Fresh, logged in to the Vault and Weight Room, as a commitment to change and releasing the remaining emotional baggage that has been stalling my progress so far.  Although there has been amazing changes in the last year, with my overall health and spiritual journey, the waste has remained somewhat the same, although I have noticed areas where there is less flesh than there was, but it has stuck around my 'centre' of who I 'am' if you know what I mean :0)  This has, for me, to do with genetic and historical beliefs and patterns and is also part of the collective conciousness 'stuff', and a lot of us are dealing with many levels of stuck energy that ultimately needs to move and clear for us to be free to evolve into our birthright of longevity and wellness. Every day is a new day, one to release yet more emotions and patterns and allow in the new frequencies -this I wholly embrace even if at times I have no idea what to do that day or even if I want to do anything!
Spending time in the sun helps greatly and thank the Earth for this!  Feeling the warm rays brings so much joy.

So, to add new energy in to this next 11 weeks I will begin omitting cooked meals in the evening, in favour of huge salads, raw warmed soups and sometimes just a raw dessert for supper - needing to keep Anthony well fed and not feeling he is missing out is the challenge as he remains a little bereft of the will to cater for his own food needs :0)  But, a nice dessert would certainly disguise the fact there is not a hot meal on the plate!
The initiative begins on the 1st April and runs through until June 16th, so I will aim to log in and record my thoughts and journey work each week, more than likely at the end of the week rather than the beginning.
Please do share your comments here, and if you want to join me on this amazing walk through life, please do log into Raw Food Rehab and gain some awesome support your selves xxx love, peace and faery dust xxx