My Story, So Far...
My journey to raw foods began about 30 years ago, while still a young teenager. An A+ student, pianist, camp counselor, and frequent MVP recipient in various sports, I easily excelled at most things but as my teen years went on, everything began to take a lot more effort and I started feeling that something was physically not right. As my energy continued to decline, I also began to gain weight. As a result of this, and some probable chemical imbalances, I began to get quite agitated and depressed. Although no one else seemed to notice or agree, I did not feel that I was living in my peak physical state by any means and began a fervent search for answers. For this reason, as well as desiring to study in a more holistic way (i.e. with emphasis on how all the information I was learning was inter-connected and most important, how it was relevant to my life), I decided not to apply to any of the top traditional universities I was encouraged go to, but instead sense and trusted that something better was coming. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found out about a university where the main focus was on exactly that – personal growth and understanding and connecting with the unified basis of all knowledge. So, off I went to the cornfields of Iowa, a thousand miles away from home, on a quest for optimal health and happiness…
Thus began two decades of investigation, study and experimentation with all sorts of healing modalities, diets, philosophies, exercise programs, therapies, and more (including Ayurveda, in which I received a Bachelor of Arts, Macrobiotics, Naturopathy, Body Scan Technology, eating disorder counseling, special herbs and other formulas, energy healers, meditations, affirmations, calorie restriction, intense exercise, prayer, blood type diet, holographic re-patterning, homeopathy, etc.), with much learned, but unfortunately, no tangible, or at least long-lasting, progress made. In fact, having become a vegetarian with no knowledge about nutrition, and with what I later discovered to be an eating disorder, I gained even more weight, lost more energy, and acquired many other disruptive symptoms which ultimately resulted in severe depression and suicidal thoughts. Much money, effort and time was spent trying harder and harder to find a solution, with little than temporary periods of relief and a progressive decline in health - the exact OPPOSITE of what I was working so hard for!? The frustration became so unbearable that much of the time I simply resigned myself to living a miserable life for the rest of my life. Underneath, however, I still believed in miracles and that one day, I WOULD succeed. Ten years later, that day did come. In July of 2002, after a long night of praying for a miracle, my mother mentioned her raw-foodist friend casually in a conversation. I had heard her mentioned before but never thought anything of it. This time, it caught my attention and I decided to find out what the heck this “raw foods” thing was. Within minutes of surfing the internet, I was amazed to find that a whole raw foods “world” existed. I ordered two books to read on the subject right away. Those books came, I read them immediately, and literally overnight, raw foods became my new way of life…
Living on an acre and a half of land with a large garden, and it being the middle of summer, eating 100% raw was actually surprisingly easy for myself and my partner, who willingly came along for the ride. Coupled with my intense motivation for health and energy and the novelty and newness of raw foods, I immersed myself into it completely, reading book after book and experimenting with every possible recipe and idea. Within a mere two months, I had FINALLY and MIRACULOUSLY achieved virtually all of my physical goals, with many other unexpected side-benefits. It was so miraculous and FAST in fact that a great passion began growing within me to become as educated as possible on the subject and thus be to help others, struggling with health issues like I had for so long, move to the same glorious levels of energy, resilience and strength.
In September of 2003, I began the Vegan and Live Foods Masters Program through the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona, under the instruction of Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Over the next 2 years, I read over 100 books and wrote over 20 papers on the subject of live foods and the harmonious living principles of the Essenes, culminating in my Masters Thesis – a study of over 850 people internationally that have practiced raw foods for over 2 years.
As a Masters Graduate and Essene Minister, I went on to apprentice at the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego for several months. OHI is still my cleansing retreat of choice without question.
Over the next three years, in an effort to better customize a raw foods diet to my particular physical and emotional needs, I continued to experiment with different proportions of live foods in my diet, different superfoods and supplements, and also non-vegan live foods such as raw goat and cow’s milk products. I also continued to move to different parts of the country in search of a place where I would have a feeling of “belonging”. In May 2008, I was blessed to be able to move to magical Boulder, CO and immediately felt this was home. I feel so privileged to live here now, with more energy, joy and clarity than ever before. I also feel a tremendous sense of gratitude for being able to do one of the things I love most in this world – making and serving healthy, delicious, and life-giving food to anyone who seeks it. Lenka’s Live Foods was born of a desire to provide such food to the community - food prepared slowly, consciously and with much love - and it's been going strong for 10 years now. I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you too find more energy, joy and magic in your life…
