I don't mean to put a dampener on everyone's enthusiasm about Don Tolman, but I found him really disappointing :-(  I went along to a free night and thought he was an amazing speaker with an incredible way of story-telling and extremely entertaining.  However, on the free night they were selling tickets to a 2 day "Bootcamp for Brains" seminar and my partner and I signed up for $1500 each for the two days - very expensive!

The two days were very, very disappointing.  Don was still very entertaining, but he gave away very little when it came to raw food.  Anyone on this site would already know more than he gave away - but I guess anyone who was a brand newbie to the concept might get something more out of it...  There was also more hype than substance, and I find the whole "guru" thing a bit sad.  I think empowering people with knowledge to make their own informed decisions about health is much more genuine, than setting yourself up as a guru with all the answers - "just pay a fortune and I'll tell you the secrets of the world...."

Maybe I'm a bit cyncial but I paid $1500 and felt like I got not much out of it except a weekend of great entertainment - he is a great storyteller and the concepts he talks about are fantastic - no doubt there - but as for actual nitty gritty stuff you can use - nothing.

Just my opinion though!

Hi guys!

This is Leisa here who's putting on the retreats - thanks so much for your interest!

Yep, I'm a local here on the Gold Coast and was the Naturopath out at Hippocrates for several years before they closed.  I loved working with the program out there, the full on detox, raw vegan foods, education etc - but of course there were many limitations there as well...

I have had this idea for quite a long time, to set up a space where people could do a detox while learning about raw food, basic food preparation, healing, emotions, natural medicine - the whole deal, as well as enjoying the full R&R (yoga, massage, sauna) experience.

Having people for a whole week has so much more impact than trying to educate them in a one hour naturopathic consultation, so this will be great for people that are already into raw foods and want a nice place to do a detox and maybe learn a bit more - but it's also for people who don't know that much about it but are interested. It will be very eye-opening for newbies, but in a really nice way :-)

I'm just planning out the schedule for 2009 now - this year I'm doing Sept on the Sunshine Coast which is almost booked out, October is Perth and November looks like it will be on the Gold Coast or maybe Byron.  I'll put up the new dates as soon as they're released on the site.

If anyone's got any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.  I've been into raw food for more than 20 years - starting as a teenager in the 80's with Leslie Kenton's The Biogenic Diet.  Not to say that I've only done raw all that time - I've been my own guinea pig for every type of healing diet, so that I could see what effect it had on my health, but I always came back to raw!

Thanks,
Leisa

Dear Bumble Bee,

I am a Naturopath and have read the other posts with interest and there are a lot of really great points in all the posts.  There is one area though, that I don't think has been covered and it might be of some help.

Sometimes being light headed or dizzy is actually low blood pressure rather than low blood sugar, and low blood pressure can often be found in people who may have some level of adrenal fatigue.  If you have really been pushing it the last few years with work, study, babies, social life etc, then it is likely that you have given your adrenals a good work out and they may be suffering a bit.  When the adrenals struggle, you can excrete a little too much sodium in your urine, and water follows salt - so you can become a bit dehydrated, lose some blood volume and therefore have low blood pressure.

It would be interesting to see if you checked your blood pressure levels when you were feeling dizzy, if they were a bit on the low side.

If this is the case, not just for yourself, but for some others who have posted here with a similar issue - then having a juice with a lot of celery may very well fix the problem, as celery contains quite a lot of natural sodium and you will therefore balance your fluid levels and blood pressure that bit better.  Some people do well with a little bit of Himalyan salt in their water of a morning to help their hydration.

In adrenal fatigue, the adrenals also do well on regular protein - so you might find that you do better on a green smoothie of a morning, maybe with some sprouted lentils or chickpeas in it to boost the protein content. 

I agree that different stages of life and different situations call for a re-evaluation of what we are doing with our food.  If you were able to rest and do very little for six months and let those adrenals recover, then you might find that you can do well just on fruit until midday.  But if you are still living your busy life, then you may need to do things a bit differently to support that. 

Listen to your own body and don't get too caught up in "rules" because that just adds more stress and will push those adrenals even more.   Within the realm of whole, raw, living foods you are not going to go too far wrong if you mix and match a bit to find out what works for you, at this point in your life.

If you thought you might have a little bit of adrenal fatigue and you wanted to look further, Saliva Hormone Tests can evaluate adrenal function; and  there is a good book called "Adrenal Fatigue - The 21st Century Stress Syndrome" by James L. Wilson which is excellent (but it's not a raw food book, so you just have to ignore those parts!)

Good luck with it, and I wish you well,
Leisa

Thanks Alegne,

My website is www.leisawheeler.info - that is my blog where I write every couple of days, and also you can sign up for the newsletter that I send out every month.  My other websites are www.leisawheeler.com.au - but that will now have to be re-done as it had a lot of Hippocrates information on it. 

Also www.emotionalaspectsofhealingdvd.com  and www.salivahormonereport.com are mine too :-)

Take care
Leisa

Dear Alegne,

I feel exactly the same way that you do, and as I said in my previous post, I tried to do everything possible to save the program, because having been the naturopath there for over three years, I have seen the amazing changes that happen to people and I believe that this type of program is SO needed.

The Hippocrates here in Australia is nothing to do with the Hippocrates in the USA, even though the underlying principles of the programs are the same.  This one here was owned privately by one person, who has made this decision and I don't think that anything is going to change his mind.

However, there are people who do want to see this program continue, so at the moment I am investigating the possibilty of starting up a similar retreat.  So all I can say, is keep posted here, or have a look at my blog every now and then, and if we do end up putting something together, then you will certainly find out.  I don't think there is anything else quite like this program in Australia at the moment....

This is from my blog www.leisawheeler.info

Hippocrates is Dead…

It is a very sad day today, with the announcement by Ronald Bradley, owner of Hippocrates Health Centre, that he has decided to retire and close the doors of Hippocrates for good.

Many of the hundreds of people that follow my blog and my newsletter, met me when they attended the Hippocrates program, and I know that they will be as shocked and stunned as I am, to learn of the closure of a very successful, viable and profitable business.

It was no secret that Hippocrates has been for sale; and also no secret that I was very keen to purchase Hippocrates – with my background in hospitality, naturopathy and journalism, and working there for over three years, I felt I was perfectly positioned to take Hippocrates to its next level.

However, as I attempted to negotiate the purchase, I soon realised that this was not going to happen.  So I came up with every suggestion you could think of to ensure the rightful progression of the business – I offered to take over the management, to lease the business, to purchase the business while the land was still owned, to purchase a 50% share in the business, to purchase an option to buy say 5 years in the future and manage it in the meantime….

But it was not to be…

Unless you have been to Hippocrates and undertaken the program, you probably don’t realise what a special place it is, and what sort of incredible transformations happen to people when they attend.  For many, it is life-changing – people regain their health, their confidence, their belief in their own ability to heal and to grow and change.  It is empowering for both of us, and so satisfying and rewarding for me to witness.

Programs like Hippocrates are few and far between and it is a devastating blow, not just for myself, who has lost overnight, the work I put my heart and soul into, my passion in life; but for all the regulars who have come to Hippocrates over the years and now have nowhere else to go.

I know many people are going to ask the same question that I am - “why”.  And I’m afraid that I have absolutely no answer to that.

As for me, I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing yet.  I feel like I’ve been kicked to the floor, but as always, I will pick myself up, brush myself off, and go on to bigger and better things.

The best way to keep in touch with me is through my newsletter – you can sign up for it in the top right hand corner of this blog.  There I will be making my announcements about what I will be doing in the future – I have some full day seminars planned for later this year, an exclusive membership site will be coming and there may even be a book in the pipeline!

I wish all of those beautiful people that I have met at Hippocrates over the years, all the very best in ongoing health and happiness.  I hope to catch up with you again somewhere, sometime on this rollercoaster journey we call life…