From Russia with love: raw food diet and insights on surviving revolutionary change with a garden

Lovena Galyide, raw food chef Audience at Raw Food Evening

Lovena Galyide immigrated to Canada from Russia 6 years ago and is now a Canadian citizen. She told me that when she first came to Canada, it
was like moving into Disneyland for her. “You have so much here in
Canada that you take for granted. Because you have so much that you are
attached to, that is why you live in fear. Russians have very little in
the way of belongings and so they do not fear the Earth changes.”

One misconception that she cleared up for me was the state of affairs for the people when Russia collapsed. She said we were told, untruthfully,
that there was widespread chaos and suffering for people in 1991 when
the country dissolved. In fact, people went on with their lives
relatively undisturbed by the changes because most of them have gardens
that they use to feed themselves with. After the changes, many more
people started growing their own food. A huge tip for Vancouverites,
who are seeking to move to food self-sufficiency, is that not only does
every Russian house have an underground root cellar but every apartment
building does as well. That is how the Russian people provide for
themselves through the winter.

Lovena also told me that, during that time, people made do with what they had which they have always done and so they bartered with each other for goods they
needed. Because they do not live in a consumer society driven by the
insatiable, conditioned drive to constantly buy more items, like we do
in North America, the Russian people were not seriously impacted as
their country totally broke apart and transformed.

There are many lessons, in what happened in Russia, for us here in Canada.

Lovena started a match-making business over one year ago because she has a talent for successfully connecting people with each other. It was an
act of love for her yet it did not thrive as a business.

What Lovena did, in the last six months, was re-invent herself and transfer that love of people into sharing her love for food and teaching people
how to be healthy by eating better. She is now a certified raw food
chef who is offering classes and personal coaching in people’s homes to
teach people how to eat raw. She said she is very excited because she
always wanted a business that was not just good for her but also good
for others and the whole environment. Now she is living her dream.

This past Friday night, Lovena launched her new company, Indigo Food, by sharing her joy in raw food with over 40 grateful people in attendance.

Lovena told us we do not need as much protein as we are taught. Animals get protein from grass and greens and we can do that too. All we buy as
food we can eat raw and the food of any culture can be eaten raw by
just changing the recipe.

Cow’s milk is not good for us when we become adults and we can easily make milk from any type of nut or seed. Lovena made almond milk and chocolate almond milk for us and
both were good. As sugar is not good for us, the sweeteners Lovena used
in the drinks were dates and agave.

Lovena told us that now she feels completely different after gradually eating more raw food over the last four years. Her skin colour has changed, she has lost
weight effortlessly, she looks younger and has more energy, and her
eyes sparkle.

Eating food that is alive and noticeably delicious means we like it and naturally want more. Because we can only eat one bowl of salad a day,
we need a way to get more greens in order to get all the daily vitamins
our body needs. Lovena made a green smoothie with mango and chard and
it was very good.

We all love sweets but they are not good for us. We can have absolutely guilt-free chocolate with raw food. Lovena indicated that raw food
sweets make her happy because she can eat them for breakfast, before
exercising and even before going to bed. All of the raw sweets are made
of super food that is good for us so we can eat as much as we want.

We need good fat in our diets. Lovena addressed the question of how we can eat chocolate mousse without butter by showing us how to use avocado as
a major ingredient. We got to try her recipe and it was very, very good.

Lovena told us that the more we eat raw food, the less addicted we become so our cravings for coffee, meat and alcohol just fall away without
effort. She said that all her senses have come more fully alive and she
feels more alive on this diet. She said that she has never been
interested in religion but raw food has opened up a whole new world for
her. Understanding how it has totally changed her life with amazing
results means she wants to share this with everyone and now this is her
religion. She indicated that we can just change a small portion of
what we eat daily to start putting raw food into our diets. Starting
with little changes day by day, without effort, we can grow younger,
healthier and happier by eating raw food. It is not about building a
new body as much as it is about building a real body because raw food
actually changes our molecular structure so we grow younger and more
energetic.

Lovena commented on how hard everyone works in our society, to the point of having no private life outside of work, and how we then spend our
hard-earned money on food that is not good for us which makes us ill.
Rather than supporting big food companies and Monsanto’s
“genetically-mutilated food” which sicken us, Lovena pointed out that
when we consume more local fruits and vegetables we are supporting our
own farmers so the local food farming industry grows and thrives. She
also talked about the need for everyone to grow their own fruit and
vegetables in their own back yards.

We ended the evening by feasting on a bounty of raw food delights. The vegetarian sushi was the best I have ever eaten. As I walked home, every little
cell in my body sang in joy. The food was good… very, very, very good.

Lovena’s cooking classes start March 29 and continue through the following months. You can Google her web sites for details at www.indigofood.org and www.rawteacher.com/lovena/