In the last week and a half I’ve gone from Dallas, to Toronto, back to Dallas, to Fayetteville and will head back to Dallas today. It doesn’t stop there though, Thursday I will be heading out to Miami for BlogHer 2014, with a side trip to Key West, then back to Dallas and on to Fayetteville. Whew, where am I? There is a old saying, “no rolling stone gathers any moss” (moss is my maiden name ironically), and this particular stone is a rolling!
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Urban Culinary Retreat in Toronto with my CNE colleagues, which was lead by the bubbly rock star nutritionista Meghan Telpner herself. There are no words to describe what this weekend meant to many of us. Having gone through the Academy of Culinary Nutrition virtually (http://www.culinarynutrition.com/) meeting some of the alumni from my class was a big treat! A lot of friendship, support, and love has been shared in our Facebook group. No doubt I found them to be just as friendly, supportive and loving in person.
Meghan Telpner
We spent a half day learning about fermented foods from Meghan. Making fermented foods is super easy and contain tremendous benefits in keeping our gut clean and healthy, which helps us to better absorb nutrients from the foods we eat. The workshop included a demonstration along with samples of fermented nut cheese too; it will absolutely make you forget about giving up the “other” cheese. I can’t wait to make my own crazy flavor.
Bowl of fermented food and nut cheeses.
Despite consuming a whole plant-based diet, which provides me tons of vitamins and nutrients, I learned from Josh Gitalis (http://www.joshgitalis.com) how tonics and elixirs can be used daily as a “proactive approach to achieving and maintaining radiant health”. That means these special drinks help take our health to the next level of protection. Winner!
Josh Gitalis
We of course made time to eat some amazing food around Toronto. There were several locals attending the retreat so they knew all the healthy “hot spots” but I also had a couple of incidences where I was out on my own and ran across some exceptional and very exotic vegan meals (cashew pate anyone?). Love Toronto for that alone!
The weekend wrapped up with a “rock your biz” workshop that left me with my head spinning, in a good way of course. There is so much involved in starting your own business and perhaps for me the learning curve is a bit bigger since it’s now done online. No more door to door selling! I’m grateful though that I have people who’ve been placed in my path that are willing to help me get there. In the meantime, I may not blog on the right days, I’m sure to post bad pictures in the wrong size, or break some rules tweeting but I will get there. For your sake hopefully sooner than later!
This was an experience I will never forget. Learning from Meghan and Josh, two of the most praised experts in the field of nutrition today, is a very rewarding experience. They got it nailed down on how to make it real, relevant and a lot of fun. The take away is I will be able to apply that knowledge to my own practice, which means sharing it with y’all. Winner, winner!
I highly recommend you check out both Meghan and Josh’s online workshops and classes on their websites, and of course the acclaimed Academy of Culinary Nutrition program. At the very least make sure you sign up to get on their email list as they offer a lot of insight on hot and controversy nutritional topics that you don’t want to miss.
http://www.meghantelpner.com/
http://www.joshgitalis.com/
Time to roll, again.