Raw Transformation: Energizing Your Life with Living Foods »

Wendy Rudell has spent the last 35 years living a very healthy lifestyle and pursuing her interest in all the healing arts. After working as head chef of a large vegetarian restaurant in British Columbia, Canada, and attaining a teaching degree, she became a coordinator and instructor for a Pritikin program in Maui that focused on reducing the effects of degenerative diseases. From 1984 to 1990, she owned and operated a raw food product manufacturing and distributing company on the the island Kauai.

Returning to the continent, Rudell attained a teacher training degree in Hatha yoga from the Vancouver Yoga Institute and later studied Ashtanga yoga for three years. She graduated from the Arica Institute as a trainer, and became a licensed massage therapist and practiced in Hawaii for 12 years. She also worked as a qualified colon therapist, gourmet raw food chef, and yoga instructor at the Tassa Hanalei Retreat Center on Kauai for 3 years.

At the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego, California, Rudell implemented a complete program of lifestyle changes designed to teach guests how to live a raw foods lifestyle when they returned home. This included teaching gourmet raw food cuisine, theory and application, breath work, yoga, meditation, and nutrition. Rudell currently lives in Cabo San Lucas, where she provides a similar program at a health resort, integrating bio energetic medicine with the other modalities.

Rudell has developed Transform 2000, a process of awakening the mind/body/spirit and transforming our consciousness. (Visit the website at www.Transform2000.com.) She recently purchased 750 acres of land in the Cabo area to develop into a conscious community based on a raw food lifestyle and high spiritual values.

This visually lively gourmet raw food recipe book provides all the information you need for increasing your health and well-being through a raw foods diet. The recipes will motivate anyone who wants to have more energy, vitality, and abundant health without feeling deprived of their former cuisine. In addition, the book introduces readers to the ways that we can transform our physical bodies and our consciousness through a combination of living foods, yoga, meditation, breath work, and much more.

The first third of the book introduces raw cuisine, giving information on nutrition and the benefits of adopting this lifestyle. It connects raw food to other modalities, to enable the whole process of physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

The next two thirds of the book features over 300 raw food recipes that are surprisingly diverse and easy to make. These recipes include entrees such as Indian Vegetable Curry and Pad Thai, desserts such as Banana Coconut Cream Pie, and a wide variety of salads, breads, crackers, side dishes, shakes, smoothies, soups, dressings, marinades, dips, and much more. Unlike many natural foods recipe books, this one uses only familiar, easy-to-find ingredients.

The book ends with a list of sources for blenders, juicers, kitchen gadgets, organic and specialty foods, as well as health retreat centers. It also includes a glossary and recommended reading list.