The workshop was advertised as:
‘Moving From Sedation To Living On Soul Vibration – Rites Of Passage’.

From the content of Genesis’ website, I had no idea what to expect.

I was more or less just accompanying my wife Fiona who was going to make a documentary of the workshop and report on her own personal experiences (you can find details of the workshop on her site).

Generally, I do like challenges and workshops, and it had been a while since the last one.

this is me at the last day of the workshop - end of Nov - before the big changes

And on some level, I was at a point where a change to my lifestyle seemed to be something worthwhile to consider.

I was overeating on a ‘standard’ omnivore diet, binging from the fridge and biscuit cupboard, and gaining weight constantly.

I guess my BMI (body mass index) with an estimated 28 was well into the ‘overweight’ region; even being 1.83 m (over 8 ft) tall, my weight of over 93 kg (appr. 14 st 9 lbs) was definitively slowing me down.

Theoretically, I thought I knew about healthy eating, because, apart from many other qualifications, I have a diploma in Diet & Nutrition – but in real life, this had no effect on my eating habits.

Just to repeat: I was totally unprepared for what the workshop really was about.

The Friday evening was about the introduction to the two days of the ‘bootcamp’, to be prepared for eventualities, and about a assessment of each individuals fitness, and the proper preparation and use of the ‘salt water flush’. The goal of the workshop was to step the eating habits one step up towards freedom from food; i.e. from cooked food onmivore to raw food vegetarian; from raw food to living of fruit alone, and then to juices, and further – starting with the first day of the workshop.

The practical part started on Saturday morning at 5am with the actual salt water flush, and continued with physical exercises designed to carry each participant way beyond any pre-perceived limits (I must admit this was really hard work and totally exhausting for me).
The day ended with motivational talks by Genesis.

Sunday morning – again at 5am – saw another salt water flush, and more physical exercises (phew!! more hard work). And a final talk by Genesis about the downfalls of processed food, and the way ahead.

This guy is a brilliant teacher and motivator, who really knows how to deliver the message.

During these days I ate just one carrot and an orange, plus drank plenty water.  I must say that I have spend days in the past during which I virtually did not eat anything until tea time, so that was nothing particular diffficult for me. Although i had never in my recent past eaten so little.

Homework was to continue with the salt water flushes for the next five days, and to continue with a strict raw food diet focussed on fresh fruit and juices during that time – which we (my wife and I) did.
Since then we are eating mainly raw food daily (definitively over 98% raw), and are now enoying our new raw lifestyle.

first time on the scales - 1 month after the bootcamp

One month later, which happened to be on Christmas day: I got some new scales, and weighted myself for the first time, and the result was amazing – just below 80kg (appr. 12 st 8 lbs).
This is an estonishing estimated weight loss of 13 kg (appr. 2 st) in just over four weeks!
And without any hardship, no deprivation of tasty food, or extreme exercise; and despite continuing to prepare cooked and fried meals for the kids (who as a side effect started to accept salads and freshly juiced drinks as well   )

In these last four weeks I simply felt lighter, stood straighter, had general more energy.

We are continuing the raw food lifestyle, and are having fun with it.

smoked scottish salmon on mooli with wasabi, dill and lemon

On Christmas, day we started off with a (nearly*) raw brunch:
smoked Scottish salmon (my first animal product in these four weeks) on oat crackers*, with  mooli, mushrooms, wasabi, dill, and lemon, together with one glass of bubbly*.

coleslaw with brussel sprouts, red cabbage, parsnips and carrots

Christmas dinner was a raw nut loaf with a coleslaw of Brussel sprouts, red cabbage, parsnips and carrot (just olive oil, no majo) with guacamole – (plus two roast potatoes* and other trimmings* borrowed from the more traditional cooked dinner the rest of the family was eating).

 My advice: don’t take things too serious during your transition to total raw food, and enjoy every new discovery of appetizing raw food combinations. Eating raw is fun. Get inspired by raw food recipes but don’t get hung up on replicating those ‘gourmet’ raw food ones with all those exotic ingredients. The simpler the better.

And do book the next available workshop with Genesis - you’ll never know where the changes will lead you.

update: 7 weeks after the retreat – my weight is down to about 78kg and seems to stagnate; I feel I have reached some emotional barrier which makes it more difficult for me to focus on this pure raw food lifestyle.

Caveat: if you have watched the articles and video documentation of the workshop, do not attempt to do this transition just based on this information alone – there is far more to it than any video or textual instruction can teach. You will be very likely to meet  major obstacles much earlier than anticipated. This is not a weight-loss diet – it might happen, but weight loss is not the main goal for this transition.

Disclaimer:This article is not designed to provide medical advice or professional services. It is intended to be for educational use only. The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health problem you should consult your doctor.

SHREK: No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

The obstacles that separate us from enlightenment also form layers of various energetic composition – and have to be dealt with individually with specialized methods – there is no panacea!

If you have read ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz, you might know that your reactions are guided by the way you agreed, at a very early age, to certain pattern and conditioning by those whom you trusted to be superior to yourself.
Every single one of these agreements forms a layer.

Every time we make one of these agreements, it removes us further away from who we really are. As we grow older, these agreements form layer after layer after layer ….

Each of these layers can have very different ‘energy’ to it.

To make my point clear, let me go over to the physical world and compare this to archaeology – some ancient artifact is covered by different layers of debris, mud, slime, hard crusts, rubbish, concrete, more slime, scrap metal, compost, gravel, ………

To get that cleared and removed to get to the core, the ancient artefact, you would need to use more than one single method – particular as you don’t want to risk and damage the core.

You would start with a heavy excavator to remove the rubble, then use a pick-axe and spade, and the little trowels. You can then investigate what you have unearthed, and try to make sense of it. If you are satisfied with your explanation, this layer is no longer of any interest to you, and you proceed with the next one.

The next layer can have a totally different structure and composition.

( more to come …
- - - work in progress )

If you want to discuss sustainability further, you can download the book for free at www.withouthotair.com, and you can also buy it as hardback or paperback, for £45 or £19.99, resp.

To give you an idea of the tone of his book, here is a quote from the 10-page pdf synopsis:

Turning phone chargers off is a feeble gesture, like bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. The widespread inclusion of “switching off phone chargers” in lists of “10 things you can do” is a bad thing, because it distracts attention from more-effective actions that people could be taking.

–
David J.C. MacKay. Sustainable Energy – without the hot air.
UIT Cambridge, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9544529-3-3. Available free online
from www.withouthotair.com.