Extended Story

Here you can read the truth behind my personal story of Raw Reform, step by step from my astonishing all-time high of 21stone (294lbs/133kg) to my current healthy and happy 9stone 9lbs (roughly 138lbs/62kg).

*** Feel free to click on any of the links – they will open in a new window/tab so that you can continue reading when you are ready! :)

The Background

I was not overweight as a child. I was an active youngster with normal weight – proud to be the fastest runner in my year. In summer I’d play all day in the fields behind my house with friends, until the summer I turned 11, when my thyroid went underactive and I rapidly gained weight. My condition was not diagnosed for a couple of years, during which time the weight piled on, I developed unhealthy emotional overeating patterns and lost interest in physical activity. Despite taking traditional Thyroxine medication for my hypothyroidism, my weight continued to increase, so that by the age of 16, I was 16 stone (224lbs/101kg). I continued to gain weight – a stone a year – until by the time I was 21, I was 21stone (294lbs/133kg). In my family the young women are air hostesses and models – I too was considered good model material until my thyroid dysfunctioned – at 21stone (294lbs/133kg) I was very far from model size and life felt difficult. I didn’t want to face reality, so I blocked out the truth and refused to speak about my weight, so that I could live in denial, believing I was still a normal size – I created a safety bubble.

The Bubble

I lived in a bubble, protecting myself from reality. My weight was strictly taboo and I blocked out hurtful comments. I especially avoided contact with children, terrified of their potentially painful honesty – I feel sad about this loss of contact now, but at the time, I saw it as an essential part of my defences.

With hindsight I see clearly how my weight affected my mobility and my confidence, especially with men, but my denial was solid as I embarked on numerous international trips to see the world. During university and after graduating with an MA in Linguistics, I undertook numerous volunteering projects. Much of the work was manual – shifting furniture, making fences or working on organic farms in New Zealand for example. I’m amazed now at how much I did – I simply would not acknowledge that my size was an issue, though I was often tired and sluggish by the end of the day. I tried hard to convince others that I was capable and strong, frequently working much more than fitter colleagues. I took a lot of pride in my work and developed a taste for manual labour, where I got valuable exercise whilst working.

Then one day in late 2000, whilst working in New Zealand, I overheard someone say she believed I had diabetes. I was particularly sluggish and run down at this time, weighing about 21stone (294lbs/133kg) and sleeping a lot. Very concerned to hear her opinion, I looked diabetes up in a medical encyclopaedia and was convinced she was right. I also realised that if I had it, I had brought it to myself and would live with it for the rest of my life. I was terrified – I literally had every single symptom and when I got back to the UK I went secretly for tests, too scared to tell anyone what I’d done to myself.

To my utter astonishment, the results were negative – it was like being given a second chance. It really was the wake-up call I needed to realise that I couldn’t go on abusing my body. The bubble had to be burst.

First Steps

From receiving that second chance in January 2001, the next 18 months or so saw me trying to be kinder to my body, but in a pretty unstructured way – I basically cut back a bit on snacking, went more or less vegetarian and increased my physical work.

During this time I undertook two major volunteer projects. First, a 6-month VSO exchange with Sri Lanka – an intense experience, where I struggled in the heat and often felt awkward in a country where obesity is rare. I had an active job teaching at a primary school and the food was quite healthy – lots of vegetables, fruit and rice – this led me to lose a bit of weight (along with the less pleasant and seemingly inevitable ‘Delhi-belly’).

Then I began a 1-year placement in an eco-village in Iceland, where I continued with mainly vegetarian food, had active jobs in greenhouses and creative studios and swam at least once daily. I continued to slowly lose some weight, so that by spring of 2002 I was about 19 stone (266lbs/120kg).

I’d managed to shift a couple of stone (approx. 28lbs/13kg), but things weren’t really that different – I was still sluggish, still overeating, still single and still very much in a bubble.

The Bubble Bursts

It was about this time that I became disillusioned with my social interaction, as I came to realise the superficial level at which I communicated. My pride and unwillingness to discuss personal matters, especially anything about my weight, kept me isolated in empty relations. I began to investigate ways to open up, leaping, in my typical fashion, from one extreme to the other, researching a community where the inhabitants are always entirely honest with each other. The concept fascinated me and I contacted residents there. This would not be the pin that truly burst my bubble however – my true awakening came on the night of May the 30th, 2002, a date I’ll never forget.

I was resting outside in the eco-village in Iceland, when a friend asked if I wanted a book to read. She brought an assorted pile, one of which was the classic raw book ‘The Raw Family‘ by the Boutenkos. I believe it was no accident she’d included that book in the selection, but she was wise enough to see how sensitive I was about my size and that this needed an indirect approach. I will always be grateful for her action on that evening. This was the pin that truly burst my bubble. This was my way out.

I read the whole book in one go – I was utterly absorbed by the raw lifestyle. I had never bothered with structured ‘diets’ or slimming plans, and now I felt like I knew why – this was the answer I’d been waiting for. It made complete sense to me – a healthy, simple life of raw food, in tune with nature, shorter food preparation times, less washing up, less kitchen equipment, natural skin care and medicine, and so on. However, I still managed to spend the rest of the evening wrangling with myself internally about the feasibility of actually going raw. I reminded myself I was in a prime position to do this – I owned no kitchen equipment that would suddenly become redundant, I had no-one else to feed – no partner or children, I was working with organic vegetables, so could get free food and above all I had a serious health problem and nothing to lose but all that weight.

I made up my mind to go 100% raw the very next day.

The First Week – 100% Raw

My first week of going raw was quite extraordinary as it coincided with an adventure trip to northern Iceland with my fellow volunteers. We had to bring with us all the food we’d need for the week and full of enthusiasm for my new lifestyle, I packed a completely raw bag of fresh fruit and veg, seeds, nuts, dried fruits and oils. The other volunteers were amused and rather sceptical, but definitely interested and as the week progressed, some began to snack on similar things to me. The physical effects of going 100% raw overnight were very draining for me – I found I was almost grazing on dried fruit and nuts to keep my hunger at bay and the constant chewing gave me painful jaw-ache. Furthermore, the inevitable detoxing of my colon began and dealing with diarrhoea whilst horseriding, white-water-rafting, hiking etc, was an interesting challenge. Overall, the trip was quite exhausting for someone coming from such an unhealthy starting point and embarking on a major detox programme and I certainly don’t recommend such a dramatic launch into a raw lifestyle to anyone else.

In hindsight, however, despite the physical difficulties, this trip was a sort of blessing in disguise – the fact that I only had the food I’d taken with me was a superb exercise in staying 100% raw – and I did it. Afterwards though it was clear that the change to 100% raw overnight was too severe for me – I needed to take things more slowly.

The Following Months

Over the next few months in Iceland, before returning to the UK, I experimented with different transition foods, whilst maintaining a roughly 70% raw diet. I discovered pumpernickel and sprouted wheat bread and often ate them with sun-dried tomatoes and cottage cheese. I still ate a little cooked vegetarian food with big salads at lunch, rice cakes replaced bread products and I started juicing. I found interesting recipes in raw books and a gorgeous raw cake with fresh pear and almond butter became popular with everyone. (I also made a lot of bizarre food combinations in the beginning, as I experimented. I didn’t have many raw books or much support from others at the time and so I just made things up as I went along. Luckily my friends were understanding and no-one ever actually got ill from eating my strange concoctions;) At 70% raw, my body now adjusted healthily to the new way of eating and I noticed differences in the way I felt and looked. By the time I returned to Britain in July 2002 for a friend’s wedding, I’d lost a couple more stone (about 28lbs/13kg) and everyone was impressed with the change. I was proud.

Summer 2002

That summer I travelled a lot and realised how socially unacceptable raw-foodism can sometimes seem to others. People often found it hard to understand and my pride did me no favours, as I wouldn’t explain the main reason I had begun eating like this – for weight loss. Staying with people, or being invited to dinner became complicated, though my French boyfriend of the time was surprisingly supportive and made appreciated efforts to purchase extra vegetables. I remember hearing a quote at the time that ‘people would rather change their religion than their way of eating’ and I began to see just how true this was. Not only was I vegan – enough to scare most hosts, but I ate mainly raw food?people seemed lost and I generally catered for myself or said I’d just have salad. One host, an elderly gentleman, was seriously concerned that I was anorexic and would follow me into the kitchen, challenging me daily about my lifestyle.

Winter 2002

That autumn I went to live in Wales for six months at the Centre for Alternative Technology. I continued to be about 70% raw, though I often ate wheat goods at this time – for example pasta, garlic bread and cake, which bothered me and I eventually cut it all out. My work was manual, so I got a lot of exercise that way, and also cycled often. People were very sceptical about what I was doing – in particular my housemates, two ardent carnivores – and I was frequently questioned. Again, I didn’t help myself by letting my pride stop me explain the main reason I had gone raw – I was about 14.5 stone (203lbs/93kg) by then, but still not open to discussing my weight. During my time in Wales I lost about 1.5 stone (21lbs/10kg), so when I left in March 2003 I weighed roughly 13 stone (approx. 181lbs/82kg). Incredibly, no-one there, not even my boyfriend of the time, had noticed the difference – I think because they didn’t know that I was losing weight, no-one looked for changes.

Return to Iceland

In April 2003 I returned to the eco-village in Iceland. By now I was about 12stone 3lb (172lbs/78kg) – a far cry from the 17stone (238lbs/107kg) me the villagers had last seen about 9 months before and a VERY far cry from the 20stone (279lbs/127kg) me they’d first met. People were astonished – I’ll never forget the reactions on the day I returned – people stared in amazement, exclaiming that only half of me had come back – I became the talk of the town and felt very proud. Meeting again the friend who almost a year previously had lent me that raw book was also a joyful experience – she was not as surprised as the others to see the changes though – she had always anticipated them, but she was extremely pleased for me and I was full of gratitude for her part in my transformation.

Summer 2003

My original plan was to be 100% raw again by May the 30th, 2003 – my 1st anniversary of going raw, but as the date approached, I realised it wasn’t a goal I wanted to honour anymore. I was about 75-80% raw, weighed about 11.5 st (161lbs/73kg) by then and my health was fine, so I decided to continue as I was. On the 30th of May we had a raw feast – I’d lost about 7.5 st (105lbs/47kg) in a year and it was just superb to celebrate my transformation, especially with my friend who had lent me the book – the reason why I’d gone raw – and my beautiful new boyfriend – one of my many ‘rewards’ for going raw.

We passed summer 2003 in Greece and Thailand; both places provided a wealth of gorgeous fresh fruit, veg and nuts – before returning to freezing Iceland for the winter…

Winter 2003-Summer 2004

Winter to spring, 2003-2004 saw my life undergo some rather significant changes, in particular, the discovery of a serious candida over-infection which was affecting my entire body and well-being. I also moved from the countryside in Iceland to the city – Reykjavik, to a new place and a new life. I continued to eat as high percentage raw as I could manage, despite being advised by my health consultant to avoid eating any sugars whatsoever to combat the candida, including all fruit – leaving me with what seemed like an extremely dull diet. This also proved to be a challenge when I gained employment in a mainstream cafe in Reykjavik – old overeating patterns started to rear up and I found my overall health going into decline.

A simply superb raw detox/colonics retreat in summer 2004 in Devon, England with Karuna Retreats helped me immensely to get myself back on track. The facilitators were absolute experts in their fields and it was such a wonderfully educational, relaxing, cleansing experience – I came away fully charged on the wonders of the raw lifestyle again.

The Festival of Life, held in London that September, was also a very inspiring and humbling experience for me – so much innovation, interesting speakers and amazing raw food. Attending raw food gatherings, self-help groups and continuing to read inspirational literature also helped me try to keep things balanced. My weight fluctuated up and down by about a stone (approx. 14lbs/6kg) during this period, but overall I had no significant weight increase or loss, which I actually found a bit disappointing, as I wanted to lose a bit more to feel truly healthy.

Winter 2004-2005

This was a long, cold, dark, challenging Icelandic winter for me. My candida was still quite bad and my overall health not brilliant, but I spent a lot of quality time piecing my first book together, which was an amazing process. I also got into some highly beneficial, life-transforming recovery work with some truly beautiful people. I began to see how my recovery so far had been very much on a physical level and that on the emotional and spiritual planes, I still had a lot to work through. This was a real breakthrough period for me and I felt so happy to have the guidance and support of others on this path. I started to enjoy a blissful new clarity of truth, directness and happiness in my life, as I got back into contact with my genuine needs and desires. I was reconnecting to the real me on all levels – a holistic re-awakening, clearing away the debris of my past and embracing the power of the present.

Spring-Summer 2005

Early 2005 saw the start of a powerful time of expansion into all things raw for me, which has seen the completion of my three e-books, the complete redevelopment of this website, the beginning of my popular e-newsletter and consultation services, tours, retreats and talks, plus my own personal ongoing development and raw research.

In March 2005 I learnt that I had won an award for my research into raw foods and obesity that was to be presented in the House of Lords in England. This was a very exciting event for me and I was delighted that my work had won such recognition. Following the presentation, I went to live with a friend in the south of England who owns an extraordinary range of raw food kitchen equipment. We had great fun playing with different recipes and found that spontaneously we both suddenly became 100% raw. It was a very natural and smooth move to 100% raw and just felt totally right to me, especially as summer came in, laden with its incredible range of juicy fruits. I was delighted too that as May the 30th came around again and I was celebrating my 3rd anniversary of going raw, I was actually 100% raw again, and now in a completely natural and effortless way. I started to get into juicing at this point, but was not really into greens yet and tended to just have simple combinations like carrot, ginger and apple. I continued to lose more of the excess weight that I had been carrying, so that I ended up weighing in at 9st 9lbs (roughly 138lbs/62kg). Apparently the current metabolic age of my body is 21 years old, compared to my chronological age of 28, which I find impressive…

For a while I experimented with eating fewer fats and more fruit to try to resolve my ongoing candida problems, but although it seemed to help at first, this approach soon led to further problems and my candida actually worsened, with spacey-ness and severe psoriasis on my forearms being my main symptoms.

Around July 2005, I began helping out at Raw Living, the Brighton-based raw food supply company, alongside raw author Kate Wood. This was the start of the next phase of my raw adventures. Until then, my diet had been pretty simple – veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, seaweeds and so on – now things took on a whole new dimension as I entered the UK’s superfood central and discovered the wonders of goji berries, spirulina, green powders, maca and cacao, amongst other things. My head spun with new info and my health and energy improved dramatically – I felt like these nutrient-dense foods helped my body to ‘join the dots’ in many ways that I’d been missing out on before. The green powders in particular felt so good to me for re-balancing and alkalising my system and I also got into daily green veggie juices.

Autumn 2005

After a summer of super-nourishment, travels and amazing festivals, autumn 2005 held an explosion of publicity for RawReform, with a flurry of newspaper, magazine and TV items about my transformation appearing. An exciting and vibrant time, this period led into the release of my first popular e-book ‘How to go Raw for Weight Loss‘, which met with great feedback and praise.

Winter-Spring 2006

Things really blossomed during this period, with the fantastic news that I was to receive a substantial grant from UnLtd to completely re-develop this website to better serve the growing community of people using the site for support with natural weight loss. The ‘RawReform: Recipes‘ e-book was also released during this period and in March 2006 my first 2-month lecture tour of the USA began, all along the west coast. I had a simply fantastic time in America. I was AMAZED at the scale of the raw food movement on the west coast – whole aisles of raw foods in health shops, raw restaurants abounding and so much enthusiasm and positivity from the crowds at events. I felt so welcomed as we spoke in all kinds of venues, from tiny yoga studios to home potlucks to lecture halls. I had come such a long way in terms of my health in four years and I felt so blessed to be on the road, sharing this message of hope and recovery.

Summer 2006

June the 4th 2006 saw the first ‘Food of Life’ festival held in Brighton, England, celebrating raw foods and vibrant living. The day was a RAW-ing success and I thoroughly enjoyed giving my first UK public talk. Following this amazing event, I headed south to experience being raw on the road again for another few weeks, while visiting friends and raw communities in southern Spain and Morocco. I really enjoyed the delicious local produce (especially the divine cherries) and did my first watermelon fast – for 4 days – which was an amazing cleansing experience.

Back in England I held the first ‘RAW-some Results’ raw weight loss retreat in Sussex with the extraordinary living alchemist Jeanette McKenzie. It was an amazingly powerful event and just incredible to witness the transformations that occurred in the women who attended.

August 2006 saw the exciting re-launch of the RawReform website after many months of re-designing. The gorgeous, clean new look and user-friendly site were an instant hit. At the same time I released my third e-book ‘RawReform: Revealing the Physical Changes‘ to answer the key questions that people have when starting to lose weight and detox with a raw lifestyle.

Second USA Tour

Later that summer I headed back to the States for my second lecture tour with Matt Monarch – all along the east coast this time. I enjoyed seeing the other side of this vast continent and again meeting many hundreds of enthusiastic raw foodists. I really appreciated the way that people in the US seemed to me to be so open and positive – I felt a huge sense of opportunity, joy and potential there.

After my tour, I spent some time fasting alone in a cabin in the woods in Washington State, which I found very grounding and enjoyable. Then I travelled down the whole of the west coast again, to Arizona, for Raw Spirit Fest in Sedona. It was the second year of the festival and SO much fun – I loved it. I connected with many incredible raw beings, presented my story on stage, spoke to people at my booth, enjoyed the beautiful music and entertainment and dined daily on fabulous raw food creations. It felt like a true coming together of the raw ‘tribal family’ and I buzzed just from the energy of the group gathered there (around 300 people that year).

Juicy Inspiration

I spent October 2006 in Patagonia, AZ, just down the road from Gabriel Cousens’ Tree of Life Centre. I loved being in the dry heat of the desert – it’s a landscape I’d never lived in before and found I really enjoyed it. I also loved being so near the Tree and in-between writing sessions, would wander over there for meals or to meet with the lovely staff members. That was when I first met David Rain and the next stage of my personal healing began to unfold…

After months on the road, eating at raw restaurants, consuming huge amounts of cacao, eating messy food combinations and so on, I was SO ready to cleanse and take things more simply. One night at a durian and drumming party, I met David and he started to speak to me in the kitchen about 92 Day Juice Feasts. He started to speak and it seemed he may never stop… ;) David spoke for around 2 hours about how he saw living on a large amount of fresh juice for 3 months as an incredible healing tool. People could use this to cleanse, alkalise, rehydrate, re-mineralise and rebuild their health. I listened at first rather sceptically. 92 DAYS? It sounded very extreme to me… He talked about how people on SAD diets were Juice Feasting and coming out the other side into raw lifestyles. He talked about how he had got up from his own ‘death-bed’ after starting his first Juice Feast and was now into his fourth 3-month period of cleansing. He talked about how this was a ‘to the land’ movement, helping people heal themselves and get more connected to organics and food growing. He talked and talked and I listened and nodded – all the while softening a little further into the idea. During the following days, the concept stayed with me and jangled around in my conscious and subconscious – but 92 DAYS on JUST JUICE?? Come on – be reasonable…yes, I was looking for ‘the next big step’ for me, for my healing, but 92 DAYS??

It wasn’t until a great friend of mine came to visit, that things really started to get juicy. I mentioned Juice Feasting and something in him lit up too – some curiosity. We began to ask David a lot more questions and slowly the snowball started rolling that would eventually track its way around this entire globe, inspiring people to get on the juicy bandwagon. I felt more and more intrigued – as if I was standing at a crossroad again. This was the same feeling I had experienced back on May the 30th, 2002, as I finished reading the ‘Raw Family‘ book and knew this was a path to healing that I could choose, if I wanted. I had chosen the path less travelled back then, 4.5 years previously and it was a glorious adventure. Now here I stood at a healing crossroad again. Which way would I go?? As I said, I was tired of eating messy combinations, cacao and gourmet foods at that point. I was ready for some detox – and so it was that with the encouragement and pledge from my friend to see this through together, we decided to begin in a few weeks’ time… Eeeeeeek ;)

Costa Rica

At the time I started Juice Feasting, I’d already been raw for 4.5 years.

People were asking me why I wanted to do something like this. Compared to ‘the average woman on the street’ I was indeed very ‘cleansed’ and healthy. Yet I felt I still had detoxing to do to clean this body out more thoroughly. It is not surprising that 20-something years of very toxic eating and drinking creates a lot of un-eliminated waste matter. Juice Feasting seemed to me like the optimal solution – no unpleasant hunger, optimal nutrition, possible to do while working, and just three months down the line it’s virtually like having a new body :)

I went down to Costa Rica in November 2006, to avoid another cold winter anywhere. I got everything in place to juice and that was it, I went for it. I didn’t tell everybody in my personal life what I was doing at the beginning. This felt like a newly planted seed that needed protection and love and nurturing until it got bigger and more deep-rooted, more able to withstand winds and other external forces. I didn’t want to bring any potentially negative-feeling energies into this endeavour. I was SO happy to start and SO ready for this cleanse. Due to the density of all I’d been eating the previous months, I wasn’t even really hungry the first few days, which is when most people tend to find it most challenging. Once I’d got through the ‘mental hurdles’ of those initial days and stuck with it, I was totally into the ‘juicing zone’. It unfolded into an amazing detox adventure, the whole of which I shared online through the RawReform E-journal, which was created for that purpose in the beginning.

I went through a lot of shifts while Feasting. I LOVED it and felt so much more functional than I ever had before on a fast. My skin became more vibrant, my body threw out masses of old toxins and I lost weight again (around 18lbs). I was shocked to find that my weight had crept back up to 153lbs at the point I started Feasting. All of those raw restaurant meals and months of less-than-optimal raw combinations had piled some pounds back on, which were now released with the Feast.

I felt very good energetically while Feasting – doing yoga and jogging almost every day and getting through just as much work as usual. In terms of emotional and spiritual transformations, I also released more ‘baggage’ again through this experience. My clarity and ability to focus my attention became extremely clear – I procrastinated less. I felt more confident and relaxed – like I could really do anything I set my mind to. I also felt more connected to my physical body than ever before. When I later met friends who had not seen me in months, everyone remarked on how much ‘clearer’ I looked and seemed on all levels.

I drank around 5-6 litres (1.5+ gallons) of fruit/green juice a day on the Feast, and felt so blessed to do this in Costa Rica, with access to cheap, incredible exotic fruits and coconut. (My entire wardrobe of clothes seemed to gather juice stains from all the juicing action ;) I travelled in Costa Rica a bit and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, vegetation and natural hot springs. I also felt very fortunate to have the loving support of so many people around the world while Feasting, who were connecting to my e-journal.

I prepared my 4th book ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook‘ throughout this period, piecing together into one volume all the info that someone might want to know about JF, all in one place. It was released a few days after I broke my feast and became an instant hit. People seemed thirsty for this information and emails flooded in daily from people starting feasts. I was thrilled to be sharing this healing tool with so many enthusiastic people. I was also curious though – it seemed strange to me that so many people would be interested in this – then a friend explained something that helped me. She said ‘this is like a new toy for people to play with – it’s fun. It seems much less intense than juice fasting and people are excited to try out new things. We’ve all heard of the Master Cleanser or psyllium-bentonite cleanses and so on – this is something new…’

Transitioning back into the world of solids was quite a challenge for me mentally, as I had so enjoyed feeling ‘liberated’ on liquids for 92 Days. I put up a video online which was made just prior to me eating my first meal in three months – soaked dried prunes. Many people were moved to see this video, in which I expressed my fears about going back to solids and my desires for a simple eating pattern post-feast. A great deal of interviews and publicity then spiralled out after that, pushing Juice Feasting out there more and more.

Back on the road…

In March 2007 I returned to the US, for three more amazing months. After a blissful month back in California, I headed out east again and up to Michigan. I held my first ever Juice Feasting retreat, for women, at Ronora Lodge. It was an extraordinary event. Around 25 women juice feasted with me for 5 days. They LOVED it and all experienced amazing healing. It was truly a sacred experience for us all.

After that I made my way down the whole of the east coast on my third lecture tour. This was an intense time – between travelling by public transport, speaking almost every other night, managing media interviews and conferences, as well as up-keeping the usual day-to-day running of RawReform, things were pretty full-on. This was a HUGE contrast to the simple, inward, reflective, largely stationary time I’d just spent in Costa Rica. Now suddenly my life was all about direct service to others – meeting people, sharing my story, answering questions, holding the space for huge crowds: it was a very different pace of life. As the tour drew to a close in Asheville, NC, I felt a huge sense of satisfaction and relief. I retreated to the mountains to relax with a dear old friend, just in time to celebrate my 5th anniversary of going raw.

Summer of LOVE ;)

In the summer of 2007, I got engaged to my beloved Mr Matthew Monarch, fellow long-term raw foodie and all-round yumster ;). It was a time of much JOY :) He released his second book ‘Raw Success‘ that Autumn and we enjoyed time in both the UK and Canada giving talks and doing book work, before heading down under to Australia for the ‘winter’ months of the north (summer in OZ ;).

Summer 2007 also saw me post a collection of videos of me singing to YouTube – raw food versions of popular musical songs – yeeeeeeee-HAHAHAHAHAHAHaaaa ;) See my YouTube Page HERE.

This was also the summer during which I fell in LOVE with the Anastasia book series – WOW – a DEFINITE ‘must-read’. This series of books moves me far beyond anything else I’ve ever read…

Fun Down Under…

Nov 2007-April 2008, the Monarch and myself passed in the Southern Hemisphere – hopping around between wonderful venues and communities in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. I completed my 5th book – Raw Emotions – during this time (not THE easiest thing to do on the road ;).

I was SO excited to get this book out there, which is all about the emotional/spiritual shifts people tend to experience when they go raw – BEYOND the food…the feedback from readers was amazing, right from the very beginning…

My first six years on this raw path were an extraordinary time of transformation and change for me. I am so grateful. I certainly feel I have a lot to celebrate in life and am so thankful for experiencing this amazing, ever-unfolding process of my own Raw Reform.


To read more of Angela's thoughts on how to go raw successfully, happily and for the long-term, see her books HERE.