Food and the Spiritual Connection

 As a society, we don’t make time in our lives anymore for food.

Let me re-phrase that

We don’t make time in our lives for making good food our priority.

We don’t grow it. We don’t raise it. We don’t kill it. 

We don’t prepare it

We no longer dine

 

As a society, we tend to consume excess amounts of all the junk we can get.

To my mind, food is our spiritual connection to our planet.  Making time for the ceremony of food, and the companionship of our friends and family is one of the most important facets of life.  This is the circle of our most intimate relationships.  Somehow this sense of the circle of relationship has gotten twisted and broken. 

We tend rush, even during social feast meals.  Proper dining requires at least 3 hours.  Dining is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with friends and family.   

Now Italians know how to eat!  They value good food,selected carefully, prepared lovingly; eaten slowly.  Whether lunching by oneself or with company, food is appreciated and savored. 

I have taught cooking in the past.  To me food and health are intertwined.  My focus is always about keeping preparation simple.  I like food with great taste, and good nutritional value.  I want to reduce animal protein and increase vegetable protein.  I like to keep things simple.  I want to appreciate food in its natural state.  I like to use herbs, spices and oils to enhance my meals with subtle flavours.

I will be co-teaching a cooking workshop in January.  Also Patti Robertson will be sharing her health and cooking wisdom in February.  March and April are an opportunity to study food and heath in a deeper context with Michael Fisher.

Here is an outline of what is coming:

Workshop:  Redefining Fast Food

These are hectic times, and trying to get quick and nutritious meals on the table can often times be a challenge. It is so much easier to make a run through the drive-thru at the end of a long work day. But you don't have to compromise your family's health for convenience!

Beginning in January, we will be present a series of workshops where we will demonstrate how to prepare easy recipes that can be made and put on the table in no time at all! We will redefine fast food and invite you to come and taste for yourself!

When: Saturday, Jan. 22, from 1-3 p.m.
Please pre-register by Jan. 20Cost: $40+HST (includes all materials)    
Instructors: Nelda McEwen and Amy Zoethout

Workshop:  New Choices in Eating and Healing 

Hippocrates once said “Let your food be your medicine and medicine be your food”. This is what this seminar is all about!!

How many of us struggle with allergies, high blood pressure, bowel and digestive issues, candidiasis, cardiovascular issues, celiac, cholesterol, constipation and diarrhea, diabetes, diverticulitis, immune issues or being overweight?

All of these issues can either be helped a great deal or cleared up completely through making different eating choices.

After struggling with health issues, Patti Robertson discovered that she needed to change her eating style.  No dieting – just a shift in her food choices.  And being a woman who loves delicious tasting food, she wasn’t going to live on rice crackers!  So, she began experimenting with the foods that really nourished her and got rid of those that didn’t.  In a surprisingly short time, her health issues were healed and what resulted was a fabulous new way to dine with delicious, nutritious food that truly heals our bodies with every bite!
What you will learn: 

• How to choose food for vitalization for your mind, body, spirit and emotional personality
• Food styling for the one and only “you”
• Targeting emotional eating
• Targeting your allergies
• Cleansing the body
• Weight loss and maintenance
• Eating out, the restaurants, the dinner party and social opportunities
• Being kind to yourself…the care and feeding of you spirit

Plus:  Patti will be bringing some wonderful snacks from her cookbooks.  We will have the chance to taste and sample how great eating well can be!

When: Saturday, Feb. 12, from 2-4 p.m.
Cost: $40+HST (includes all materials)
Instructor: Patti Robertson

Patti Robertson is the author of two cookbooks:  “KID YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN” and “CHOICES”.  She is a guest columnist with the “Rural Voice” on a monthly basis. She, along with her husband Ward, own and operate CLASSIC TOTAL CONCEPT, a tightly integrated Energy and Vitality Clinic. Their business also offers Interior Design and Professional Photographic services. www.classictotalconcept.com

 Course 1: The Way of Eating

Combine the knowledge of food and nutrition with self-awareness to help realize what lies beneath our taste buds and at the heart of who we are. Topics on health, basic nutrients, and emotional connections are woven into this course to initiate a foundation for personal renewal. Led by Registered Nutritionist Michael Fisher, this 8-hour course will be broken up over two Saturdays.
When: Saturday, March 12 & 26, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Cost: $175+HST - please pre-register

Saturday, March 12:
Finding Your Food Dharma

• Entering the Perfect Diet via Exiting the ‘Perfect’ Diet
• Developing Food-awareness
• Exploration of Healthful Traditional Diets
• Redefining Health

Carbohydrates

• The Plant-based Path
• Improving Digestion; “The Art of Chewing”
• The Bowels and The Perfect Poop
• Sugar, Cravings and Irritability
• Whole Grain Cookery

Saturday, March 26:
Oils and Fats

• Refining Healthy Oils
• Weighting and Waiting with the Liver
• Heart Health and Clogged Pipes
• Green Blood and White Milk
• Using Oils and Fats in Food Preparation

Proteins

• Animal-based Foods
• Too Much + Too Little = Unbalance
• Protein Power Strength vs. Vegan Tender Strength
• Lightening Adrenals and Rooting Kidneys
• Legume Cookery

 Course 2: The Way of Health

Introducing pre-revolutionary Ancient Chinese thought in this course, the subtle emotional, physical and spiritual connections are integrated in a system which not only encompass our being, but the ‘way’ of all things – personally, and as part of a greater more connected consciousness.
Led by Registered Nutritionist Michael Fisher, this 12-hour course will be broken up over three Saturdays.

When: Saturday, April 9, 16, and 23, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Cost: $275+HST - please pre-register
Saturday, April 9:

How Food Moves You

• Learning How to Know What to Eat
• Joy as Nourishment
• Five Flavours, Influences and Directions of Food
• Opening the Mouth and the Heart

Eating at Another’s Table

• Eating Rich, Sweet and Abundantly
• Nurturing Intentions and Deliberation
• Candida, Mucus and Resolving Congestion
• Reclaiming the Spirit and Purging ʻDemonsʼ

Saturday, April 16:
Savouring the Pits of our Fruits

• Routine, Order and Spontaneity
• Saying Good-bye: Breath, Bowels, Skin and Sinus
• Grieving and Sadness in Food; Detaching
• Creating Defense; Building Immunity and Probiotics

Enzymatic Deconstruction of Self

• Purification and Transformation of the Liver
• Resolving Resentment and Anger Compassionately
• Inflammation, Stagnation, Rigidity and Raw Food
• Renewal and Rebirth with Sprouting and Springtime

Saturday, April 23:
Entering the Dark and Exiting Fears

• Building the Adrenal Glands for Endurance
• Stress, ‘Quiet Foods’ and the Acid/Alkaline Balance
• Meditation; Sitting in the Dark and Not Knowing What to Do
• Traces of Minerals; Soil and Sea

Returning to the Earth

• Sex, Bling, Jing and Bone Health
• Radiation, Technology and Fluoridation
• Animal Foods Revisited
• Aging, Integrating and Passing On 

I hope to see you there.

Keep Well_
          Nelda