YES it’s that time again! Another random 11 questions blog for when it gets too much and I just have to share with you what other amazing raw peeps are saying. There are more of these fabby interviews waiting in the pipeline and I have to literally control myself not to go mad posting them all at once in one gigantasaurus blog entry but believe me I am itching to!
Today is the lovely Vicky Ewbank. You might remember I reviewed some of Vicky’s gorgeous Live Native products if not here is the review.
I seriously love these interviews 🙂
1.How long have you been in to raw foods?
I have been following an all raw diet for 8 years…and counting!
2. How did you discover raw foods?
I was managing a complimentary health centre in London and one of my co-workers embarked on a raw food diet. She was also studying naturopathy and was so full of enthusiasm for all aspects of new paradigm health that it was impossible not to be swept along by her enthusiasm. I am a homoeopath and nutritionist and had been working in the health industry since I was 19 – 12 years by then. I had already been vegetarian then vegan for 12 years prior to becoming raw, so really it was the next logical step for me to take…but I had first to suspend my disbelief that it was a) healthy and b) possible to live on only raw foods – especially as I had already undergone years of nutritional training that caused me to doubt this. Thankfully I had Camilla to prove to me over time that not only was it possible, but she thrived on her new diet. I just wished I had half the energy that she had!!
3. What were some of the first benefits you noticed?
Better night sleep and waking earlier and refreshed in the morning. For the first 6 weeks I underwent a mega detox – I didn’t ever think I’d have a normal pooh again!!! However, 6 weeks was the magic time period for me. After that my skin became really clear and smooth, my eyes became brighter and greener, and my teeth became much whiter. People I worked with all commented on how well I looked. And yes – normal pooh once again!
4. Were there any drawbacks? If so, what and how did you handle?
Only if you call mega energy and enthusiasm for life a drawback… no? Me neither!! But I did fill my days with all the things I had wanted to do and never got round to. I took up 3 instruments, wrote poetry/lyrics, meditated, had crazy ideas and traveled all the way around the world, twice. There was a phase for the first 6 months when I felt like I was walking on air and talking with God, but I did come back to earth after a while which was easier for all the people around me, I’m sure!
5. How did your family and friends react?
With stoic good will. My mum had already exhausted the threats available when I became vegetarian and then vegan (apparently over her dead body, but I’m happy to say she’s definitely still in excellent health). When I became a raw fooder she totally took that in her stride and just said ‘Get me a recipe book’! Now she has a hand blender and a dehydrator and makes the best ‘Neatballs’ for Sunday lunch.
My London friends loved all the food I used to make for them (we used to have regular, huge dinner parties) and they were all interested in learning more about the benefits, and trying recipes for themselves. Most people intuitively understand that un-cooked fruit and veg contain more nutrients than their cooked counterparts.
My Skye friends are a little more intractable and at the one and only dinner party I threw they ended up in discussing the joys of sausages and the pressing need for an abattoir on Skye… but that’s another story!
6. How did you handle reactions? any tips?
Enjoy the joy you give to others, laugh when folk don’t get you and keep on living the life that makes the most sense to you!
7. What advice would you give people who are interested in raw foods on how to get started?
Get a simple recipe book and a hand blender. I began with Kate Wood’s ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’. It’s full of simple recipes made with ingredients that are easily available. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination and try to reproduce you favorite meals with raw foods. We all do it and that’s what’s so enjoyable – just use the book as a starting point for your own creative kitchen adventures.
Nowadays so many more people are eating a raw food diet that you will probably find a group holding regular dinners near you. Do seek them out, it’s great to really share your enthusiasm for this new way of being with others who truly understand the benefits and delights as much as you. Being isolated can be difficult. Always fighting you corner can be tedious too, so time spent in enthusiastic company can really recharge your batteries, and strengthen your resolve to continue.
8. What is your number 1 raw tip?
Trust in your decision and know that you really are embarking on a journey towards optimal health. Let the benefits flow over to other areas of your life besides food. Take up exercise and follow your heart. Connect with your friends in new ways. If you stick with your new diet for long enough people around you will accept the changes in you, and when they see the benefits you enjoy will even start asking you to share recipes and tips too.
9. What is your favourite raw food and why?
It’s too hard to say!!! Greens, greens, greens but also Inca Berries, cashew nuts, FRESH YOUNG COCONUTS, curry, chocolate brownies, sausages, sun dried tomatoes, strawberries and cream, blueberry cheesecake, nettle pesto, nasturtium leaves, pecans, kale salad, nori rolls…the list is endless! I have more variety in my diet now than I ever had before, and my delight in food just keeps growing.
10. If you could be any raw food what would you be and why?
Kale. Down to earth, honest to goodness…goodness! And I’d get to leaf around in the sun all day photosynthesizing – bliss!! Or maybe Nettle… top prize worth taking a few stings for…
11. How do you see the raw movement in five years time?
Continuing to grow really. Unlike fad diets the benefits of eating raw are truly sustainable, so in the long term more people are going to want to experience the lifestyle for themselves. I have been surprised at how quickly ‘Rawism’ has reached the mainstream. Specialty raw foods such as goji berries became available in supermarkets within a year of first appearing on the internet, and of course raw chocolate has had incredible hype over the last few years. It all helps to spread the word about the diet – but I do worry that the hype over refined superfoods such as chocolate and agave, for example, and novel ingredients like maca is really fuelled by commercial gain and not so much about proven health. When these foods are discovered to be other than healthy – as is the case with Agave syrup – the backlash could be damaging to the movement as a whole.
Green leaves, fruits and vegetables may not be so exciting – but they are the bedrock of a truly healthy diet!
**********************************************************************************************
Vicky Ewbank is a homoeopath, living foods coach and co-founder of living skincare company Live Native. Handmade on the Isle of Skye, Live Native is a new and truly unique collection of living skin care products inspired by the life-loving ideals shared by all who enjoy vegan, organic and raw-food led lifestyles. www.livenative.co.uk
Vicky also contributes regular articles to http://thegreenfamilia.co.uk/, and offers homoeopathic and nutritional consultations from her home in Kyleakin, Isle of Skye.
Lovely lovely lovely. Thank you so much Vicky for contributing. Me and Rod went to Skye for our honeymoon and it was bloody gorgeous. It always reminds me of Poirot now cos I made us watch Poirot every day we were there. You see we don’t watch telly but our cottage had Sky so I was on a Poirot-fest, much to Rod’s delight. Why am I telling you this?
Anyway, off on my travels tonight. Hoping I make it through security with all my potions and powders and lead lined bag and other raw paraphenalia. God bless whoever has to raid through my undies 🙂 So there’ll be silence on the raw food scotland blog front for at least 8 days boo hoo. Have fun amigos xx
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How long have you been in to raw foods?
I have been following an all raw diet for 8 years…and counting!
2. How did you discover raw foods?
I was managing a complimentary health centre in London and one of my co-workers embarked on a raw food diet. She was also studying naturopathy and was so full of enthusiasm for all aspects of new paradigm health that it was impossible not to be swept along by her enthusiasm. I am a homoeopath and nutritionist and had been working in the health industry since I was 19 – 12 years by then. I had already been vegetarian then vegan for 12 years prior to becoming raw, so really it was the next logical step for me to take…but I had first to suspend my disbelief that it was a) healthy and b) possible to live on only raw foods – especially as I had already undergone years of nutritional training that caused me to doubt this. Thankfully I had Camilla to prove to me over time that not only was it possible, but she thrived on her new diet. I just wished I had half the energy that she had!!
3. What were some of the first benefits you noticed?
Better night sleep and waking earlier and refreshed in the morning. For the first 6 weeks I underwent a mega detox – I didn’t ever think I’d have a normal pooh again!!! However, 6 weeks was the magic time period for me. After that my skin became really clear and smooth, my eyes became brighter and greener, and my teeth became much whiter. People I worked with all commented on how well I looked. And yes – normal pooh once again!
4. Were there any drawbacks? If so, what and how did you handle?
Only if you call mega energy and enthusiasm for life a drawback… no? Me neither!! But I did fill my days with all the things I had wanted to do and never got round to. I took up 3 instruments, wrote poetry/lyrics, meditated, had crazy ideas and traveled all the way around the world, twice. There was a phase for the first 6 months when I felt like I was walking on air and talking with God, but I did come back to earth after a while which was easier for all the people around me, I’m sure!
5. How did your family and friends react?
With stoic good will. My mum had already exhausted the threats available when I became vegetarian and then vegan (apparently over her dead body, but I’m happy to say she’s definitely still in excellent health). When I became a raw fooder she totally took that in her stride and just said ‘Get me a recipe book’! Now she has a hand blender and a dehydrator and makes the best ‘Neatballs’ for Sunday lunch.
My London friends loved all the food I used to make for them (we used to have regular, huge dinner parties) and they were all interested in learning more about the benefits, and trying recipes for themselves. Most people intuitively understand that un-cooked fruit and veg contain more nutrients than their cooked counterparts.
My Skye friends are a little more intractable and at the one and only dinner party I threw they ended up in discussing the joys of sausages and the pressing need for an abattoir on Skye… but that’s another story!
6. How did you handle reactions? any tips?
Enjoy the joy you give to others, laugh when folk don’t get you and keep on living the life that makes the most sense to you!
7. What advice would you give people who are interested in raw foods on how to get started?
Get a simple recipe book and a hand blender. I began with Kate Wood’s ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’. It’s full of simple recipes made with ingredients that are easily available. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination and try to reproduce you favorite meals with raw foods. We all do it and that’s what’s so enjoyable – just use the book as a starting point for your own creative kitchen adventures.
Now a days so many more people are eating a raw food diet that you will probably find a group holding regular dinners near you. Do seek them out, it’s great to really share your enthusiasm for this new way of being with others who truly understand the benefits and delights as much as you. Being isolated can be difficult. Always fighting you corner can be tedious too, so time spent in enthusiastic company can really recharge your batteries, and strengthen your resolve to continue.
8. What is your number 1 raw tip? (this can be anything at all)
Trust in your decision and know that you really are embarking on a journey towards optimal health. Let the benefits flow over to other areas of your life besides food. Take up exercise and follow your heart. Connect with your friends in new ways. If you stick with your new diet for long enough people around you will accept the changes in you, and when they see the benefits you enjoy will even start asking you to share recipes and tips too.
9. What is your favourite raw food and why?
It’s too hard to say!!! Greens, greens, greens but also Inca Berries, cashew nuts, FRESH YOUNG COCONUTS, curry, chocolate brownies, sausages, sun dried tomatoes, strawberries and cream, blueberry cheesecake, nettle pesto, nasturtium leaves, pecans, kale salad, nori rolls…the list is endless! I have more variety in my diet now than I ever had before, and my delight in food just keeps growing
10. If you could be any raw food what would you be and why?
Kale. Down to earth, honest to goodness…goodness! And I’d get to leaf around in the sun all day photosynthesizing – bliss!! Or maybe Nettle… top prize worth taking a few stings for…
11. How do you see the raw movement in five years time?
Continuing to grow really. Unlike fad diets the benefits of eating raw are truly sustainable, so in the long term more people are going to want to experience the lifestyle for themselves. I have been surprised at how quickly ‘Rawism’ has reached the mainstream. Specialty raw foods such as goji berries became available in supermarkets within a year of first appearing on the internet, and of course raw chocolate has had incredible hype over the last few years. It all helps to spread the word about the diet – but I do worry that the hype over refined superfoods such as chocolate and agave, for example, and novel ingredients like maca is really fuelled by commercial gain and not so much about proven health. When these foods are discovered to be other than healthy – as is the case with Agave syrup – the backlash could be damaging to the movement as a whole.
Green leaves, fruits and vegetables may not be so exciting – but they are the bedrock of a truly healthy diet!
and then a blurb about you/business/book and generally how fabby you are 🙂
Vicky Ewbank, homoeopath, living foods coach and co-founder of living skincare company Live Native. Handmade on the Isle of Skye, Live Native is a new and truly unique collection of living skin care products inspired by the life-loving ideals shared by all who enjoy vegan, organic and raw-food led lifestyles. www.livenative.co.uk
Vicky also contributes regular articles to http://thegreenfamilia.co.uk/, and offers homoeopathic and nutritional consultations from her home in Kyleakin, Isle of Skye.
Question? Favourite raw food = sausage??? x
hi Tash, i believe she’s referring to raw versions 🙂