Interview with Michèle Part II: 

Conscious Eating Lifestyle

1. What does Conscious Eating mean to you personally?

Conscious Eating relates to the choices I make regarding what, when, why and where I eat and how I feel when I am eating. This practice heightens my awareness of my relationship with food and empowers me to make loving choices to fully nourish myself in the present moment. Therefore, as I proceed on my voyage, my eating choices reflect the journey that is my life.

 At a higher level eating consciously also involves my awareness and support of both the plant and animal kingdom, therefore this practice acknowledges and supports taking personal responsibility for the impact my choices have on the environment. Likewise my eating choices and habits affect my life and have a knock on effect on other people too!

2. What does Conscious Eating have to do with your business?

Conscious Eating is central to a conscious lifestyle since what we eat affects us and the environment on so many levels. Each individual has to start with themselves and from that place of understanding and knowledge, choices which affect others and the world can be explored and commitments made. The food we choose to eat plays a significant role in our vibrational level which has a knock on effect on all aspects of our everyday decisions and actions.

Although fundamental to many of the services and programs offered by the business, conscious eating forms only one aspect of the many packages on offer.

3. Where does Conscious Eating fit in to your journey and life purpose?

Intriguingly and yet not surprisingly I believe that conscious eating and specifically, living foods need to be at the core of my life in the same way that God and the universe are at the core – they are essential to living, essential to living a spiritual life, the life I want and need to live. The most beautiful part of this journey is the new awareness, the learning, the process of peeling away the layers (much like an onion) and the rewards of participating which unfold throughout this adventure. By eating consciously and incorporating living foods into my daily menu I feel truly alive in every sense of the word.

As a practitioner I am able to impart my varied knowledge and experience in a variety of ways to help other people to fully embrace their life at a core level. I strongly believe that everyone’s needs are different and that those needs are never static, they change and develop as each person moves through their life.

4. What events caused you to discover and pursue Conscious Eating?

After many years of experimenting with and following various diets with mixed success,  including The Cabbage Soup Diet, Carol Voderman Detox For Life Diet, Weight Watchers, Ayurvedic Type Diet , A Gourmet Raw Food Diet, The Living Foods Programme and Juice Feasting to name a few I have finally  integrated all my experience into what I now term ‘conscious eating!’

Conscious Eating is underpinned by raw and living foods, juice feasting and listening intuitively to what my body needs. This provides a flexible, healthy and delicious approach to eating food and receiving nourishment at the highest levels.

There are 3 different levels of  conscious eating – the first and most fundamental is in relation to me and my body, the second brings in a greater awareness of the planet and the animal kingdom and the third and final stage relates to my lifestyle choices and a more global perspective.

5. What were your first thoughts about Conscious Eating?

I have always been interested in the role of the body, emotions, the mind and the spirit and took a while to relate them all to eating and food choices. As I have been travelling on my own path of personal, professional and spiritual development Conscious Eating evolved organically and intuitively for me.  I felt really excited when I finally realised what I had been searching for myself and the discovery that this approach really could benefit everyone at different levels! I came to understand the importance of consciousness in all aspects of life and our eating behaviour is one facet of living and contributes to our daily experience and therefore cannot be ignored!

6. Why did you decide to pursue Conscious Eating as a lifestyle?

I knew that I had to make changes to my lifestyle after experiencing prolonged emotional challenges which took their toll on my body. I wanted to find a way of eating that nourished my soul...

I have spent the past 2 years exploring this approach at a profound  personal level and have learned a great deal about myself, how my body reacts to certain foods, how I have allowed my mind to influence my food choices,  how my emotions affected my body and responses to food and  how my spiritual connection has strengthened as I eat more consciously.

I have learned to love myself and my body and am finally ready to take responsibility for all my life choices including what I eat.

7. What personal obstacles and challenges have you had to face?

My greatest challenge has been living in an obese body with the knowledge and experience I have gained from my studying and qualifying in various health fields. I have had to learn to love myself when it would have been easier to continue self loathing and disgust. I had to learn not to hide from myself.

I experienced extreme financial crisis which influenced my food choices for a while and I had to be flexible enough to eat what was available.

I had to be willing to go inside and face myself and accept how I had treated myself, I had to say goodbye to the old me...

8. What about obstacles and challenges with other people?

The obstacles and challenges with other people were those that I created in my head and were borne of my own low self esteem e.g. cultural expectations to eat and drink certain foods to please other people and the pressure this created at times when I really didn’t want to conform.

9. How have you conquered these obstacles personally and with others?

I have taken the time to fully understand how I respond to different situations, I have allowed myself the opportunity to explore my eating habits and have reflected on my choices. I had to take time to clear old behaviours and beliefs about myself and the various things that had happened in my life.

I made a choice to let go of the past, to let go of my armour, my weight and excess fat. I decided to nurture myself at the deepest level and had to accept myself before I could move on.

10. Where are you today with your conscious eating lifestyle?

I have undergone various cleanses in preparation for eating a high raw and living foods diet. I want to eat fantastic and delicious food every day.  I am listening to my body and taking care of it, I am being loving to myself and exercising and dancing with life. I still have a way to go however I believe that when we move with life our eating choices grow and change with us. So I consider myself as ‘raw in motion’, that is my life continues to unfold together with my consciousness.

11. Why did you train to be as an Associate Raw Food Chef and Instructor and subsequently as a Practitioner of the Living Foods Programme?

As someone who has always been passionate about learning and dedicated to being the best ‘me’ possible the training as an Associate Raw Food Chef and Instructor was a logical and essential part of my journey, and the missing piece of my jigsaw personally and professionally. This training expanded my world and introduced me to food options that will help to create the best ‘me’ from the inside out and support my life vision to empower others to change their lifestyle!

The Living Foods Programme was a continuation of my education and provided me with specialised knowledge and methods to provide myself and others with simple food choices which not only offer profound healing they are simple to make and nutritious.

12. Why are you now completing a 3 year Diploma in Naturopathic Nutrition?

I enjoy learning and want to be an expert in any of the work I undertake with people, I want to offer them the best possible service that I can. I want to support others to transform their life and having studied and qualified in numerous health related fields I want to underpin my nutritional knowledge with a recognised qualification to compliment my other studies.

Nutrition and food is finally being recognised in many of the illnesses that we see today and I believe it will become a more prominent subject in the coming years. People are realising that a lifestyle of convenience, processed, preserved, coloured and denatured food is beginning to take its toll.

Many people are searching for lifestyle changes and have realised that ‘quick fix diets’ don’t work. I want to support and empower people and I can only do that with the knowledge I have. I want to offer the best and most thorough training and services to each individual who chooses to work with me therefore I believe it is important to keep my knowledge current and at the highest level.