Day 3 @ Living Light

Excerpt from an email to my family
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Yesterday was the end of the first module of the course, "fundamentals". Today was the start of "essentials", which is an intensively hands on course that will carry through the next 4 days. Aprons on, hats on, knives out! The schedule runs very tight from 8 am to 6.30 pm everyday, and at times it can get quite stressful for my leisurely brain to work at such speed - but that hasn't stopped me from having a wonderful time. Today was our first real theory class on organizing a kitchen and general knife rules. We made sprouted buckwheat granola, sauerkraut, and almond cheese. We've actually been eating these things everyday since we got here, and they are ALL favourites with us because they taste so good. Today we got to make them! We were also assigned a batch of sprouts each which we have to take personal care of over the next few days (or weeks) depending what sprout we got. We carry them around in a jar. I got an easy one - clover. In the later part of the morning, we made garden blend soup, pizza crackers and black forest cherry brownies. All these things that we made became our meals or snacks at various points throughout the day. Now, these items are not raw foods which I have been excited about in the past, but I tell you, EVERYTHING we made today was so delicious, it really blew me away!

Finally time for lunch! Lunch was a massive salad spread with our garden soup. This doesn't sound delicious but the kitchen here has a way of making it delightful. The soup was what we made in class, and I really don't like these raw soups usually, but today's was SO GOOD. At every lunch, there is a sweet touch - we all hold hands around the buffet spread and feast our eyes on it. We say a big family prayer together and celebrate EVERYTHING! And then we eat. No doubt, this is a fully fledged woo woo school.

The afternoon was spent on learning to use our knives, practicing good knife etiquette and also learning the techniques of cutting various fruits & veggies. All the stuff we were cutting/dicing/juliening/chiffonading eventually went into our own sushi rolls, which we would then eat later in something Gastronomy Lab, which marks the end of each day. During this time, we are quiet and reverent with the food that we've just made, and eat our food with deep consciousness and intensity, paying really close attention to what we are tasting - the 5 different tastes, the effects of the textures, the effect of each different vegetable in the roll, where the different tastes occur in the mouth... it was so overwhelming that I could not begin to think of how I'd balance the food better, because I was just taken aback by how much was going on in my mouth as I consciously chewed and tasted my food. New dimensions indeed.

Day 2 @ Living Light

Excerpt from my journal
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Being at Living Light has been an incredible experience - and its only day 2 (the last day of FUNdamentals). So much has been happening, and so fast. People's lives have been unfolding in front of me, rich with experiences and diversity. All I can do is listen, ears and eyes wide open.

Tonight, Isaac and Mary brought Kelly, Evana, the other Isaac and Mary and myself to a beach spot behind some dunes, a spot probably only the local boys of Fort Bragg know. Isaac is local - he's the AV coordinator for Living Light - he built a huge bonfire in about 2 minutes flat!

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Day 1 @ Living Light

Bits of an email to my Da Jie
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Today's class was fantastic! Even I can't believe how good the food is!
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Today's classes were mostly on sprouting, juicing and fermentation - Living Light considers sprouting and fermentation to be the pillars of the raw food diet, and after eating today's foods I can see why! I had my first taste of Rejuvelac and herbed almond cheese - absolutely delicious! It tasted nothing as I'd imagined, a beautifully smooth, mild tasting cheese, alot like buffala mozzarella. The foods were unbelievably good! SERIOUSLY!!! They stuffed us with food today, continuously loading us with snacks and sample portions, in addition to sprouted buckwheat granola & almond milk breakfast and an incredibly tasty salad spread for lunch. I mean, I've already been a raw food convert and I still can't believe how delicious today's food was. And I find I don't have to eat as much to be satisfied! I think fermentation really adds a dimension of raw food that's very necessary that's been missing from my life thus far. And its easy!!! I already can't wait to come back and start setting up what I've learnt today.

The instructors are great - you can really tune into each one and feel how much love and passion they have for what they're doing. Some of them can really talk for forever, but they have so much ENERGY, it is infectious.
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No more gym

Yesterday's gym session was particularly depressing because it seems that I've grown weaker! Getting on the scale today reveals that I have lost more weight and in fact, I'm lighter than I've ever been at 62.4 kg. What the heck?
No doubt I've only been working out for 3 weeks, but I didn't expect to LOSE weight!

Taking a step back, I don't think the gym is a form of exercise that works for me though - lifting heavy weights really drains me and the result is that I'm more sedentary at every other time. I'm going to go back to what used to work - running, biking, blading, swimming and yoga.