Interview with Renee Maguire

Today we have a fascinating interview with Renee Maguire of Raw Chi Food and whose book "Raw Chi Chocolate" has been  released this month. Renee is giving a free talk "The Alchemy of Chocolate" at the Monastery on 5th October. We'd like to say thanks to Renee for answering our questions at this busy time in her career. You can find her online at www.rawchifood.com where you can find a wealth of information on the subject of raw food, delicious recipes and an array of detox and coaching programs suitable for everyone.  

To start, could you tell us a little bit about yourself please.

I began my working career as a chef, ran my own outside catering company in London for many years and upon traveling to Asia for 6 months and removing wheat, dairy and most meat out of my diet I began to notice significant changes to how I felt. This coincided with my first cleansing detox fast and the experience left me with a new vocation. I wanted to teach people how to provide more nutrition in there diet through delicious natural foods. I came back from my travels in 2008, set to work on studying nutrition and set up Raw Chi Food, initially it was a wellness coaching, but has progressed to motivational speaking, workshops and the online superfoods store.

Reading your story on your website, I get the impression you are on a mission, do you feel this is a vocation, a destiny almost?

Losing Nicola was a huge turning point in my life and for many years I was lost in grief. Raw Chi Food is not a mission, I see it as a natural progression for everyone, seeing how by making subtle changes to a persons diet you can see the health benefits and physical changes in a matter of weeks feels like a wonderful gift to share.  Raw Chi is my vocation and definitely my passion, i feel incredibly fortunate that I get to work at something I am passionate about and see the results in the people around me, my friends, clients,  customers. The raw chi philosophy is changing lives, I feel incredibly privileged, excited and energised by this vision that is now my reality.

Is your Raw Chi Detox suitable for everyone?

All adults, absolutely, you can not give your body a better gift than cleansing a detoxification, 5-7 days of literally pouring in green smoothie nutritious goodness, while allowing your major organs a rest, giving the colon a much needed holiday. Not to mention, how amazing you feel ridding your body of heavy metals and toxins. This is what I call pressing the reset button. You get to start a fresh, after 1 week, you are considerably lights, often 7-10 lbs, you have glowing skin, shinny eyes and are busting with renewed energy. This is very often the starting block for clients to take the steps to make changes to their diet.

Could you tell us a bit about your new book?

The Alchemy of Chocolate is finally on sale next month, it is my first cook book and I am half way through my second, the inspiration for the Raw Chocolate cook book, was simple, I wanted to create a cook book filled with delicious dairy free, gluten free, raw and optimally healthy  treats, as an introduction into how being kind to your body, by eating to live a long and healthy life, does not need to be boring, it can offer you abundant nutrients, just for starters raw chocolate offers an abundance of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin that lift our mood, offering  the body feelings of calm and relaxation. Raw Chocolate can assist with regulation our metabolism, therefore aiding weight loss, not weight gain, offers the highest amount of immune boosting antioxidants, and important for all is the richest source of magnesium than any other food. The Cook book is the first hook into healing foods for most and just by adding a few of the recipes in the book to your daily diet, you will notice a huge difference.

Which writer/thinker has influenced you the most.

This will be the same answer by most keen raw foodies, David Wolfe, is by far my biggest inspiration, I travelled to LA this year to attend his Life and Longevity 3 day conference in Orange County, because he leads the way in food to heal our body, his passion, energy and shear knowledge influences my teaching, my way of living. Listening to a seminar of his back in October 2011, gave me the confidence to come at my Mum's breast cancer in a completely different approach. There are many more, I particularly enjoy reading John Robbins books, such as No Happy Cow, to also offer the other side of the food industry, he uncovers the uncomfortable truth of just what in the foods we eat and awakens peoples consciousness.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given.

My sisters words, she gave me on my 16th birthday from a poem she read out have stay with me in everything I do, "Stay true to your dreams and they stay true to you!"