High Raw Health Retreat
3rd to 8th August 2025

Would you love to spend five days eating fabulous low fat, high raw, plant-based food with other like-minded souls in the stunningly beautiful surroundings of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park in North Wales? Think clean air, clean water, natural movement (walking, climbing, wild swimming, improvisational dancing...), and deep, refreshing sleep. Think mountains, beaches, woodlands and lakes. Think eco-community, co-creation and spontaneous creativity. If any of this appeals, read on...

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EARLY BIRD PRICE

Available ONLY until 31st December 2024

Foxglove_ spotted on a beautiful walk out from Rhiwlas_around Moelyci.._

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the first EVER U-Turn Health retreat!! I took this foxglove on 1st June 2024 on a beautiful walk out from Rhiwlas and around Moelyci, and it was on this walk that I made the decision to host this retreat next year. I have been eating high raw for just over ten years now, and living and working in North Wales for just over three. Both of these have been unexpected, fascinating and joyful journeys of discovery, and it will be my privilege and pleasure to bring these two passions together and to be able to share all I have learnt with you now. Whether you have a specific health problem that you wish to address, or you want to plan some time out for rest and recuperation, or you simply want to learn (or learn more) about this way of living and eating, I very much look forward to meeting you !!

Venue?

The retreat will be held at TRIGONOS retreat centre, which is located next to a lake and looking up a beautiful valley towards Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), which is the highest mountain in the UK outside of Scotland. The centre is well equipped and very experienced at hosting this kind of event. There are a variety of different room types sleeping a maximum of 38 people. All ages, genders, ethnicities, sexualities and abilities are welcome (there are three rooms with disabled/wheelchair access). I hope our group will be large enough to feel like a group but small enough to still be able to accommodate individual needs and preferences. Because this is the first event of its kind, nothing is set in stone. We (the group) can make it what we want it to be. I have some ideas but I am also passionately committed to co-creation and the conscious creation of community. I have spent time in Buddhist community and also at the FINDHORN FOUNDATION in Scotland (studying Open Floor with Deborah Jay-Lewin from VITAL MOVES), and KALIKALOS HOLISTIC RETREAT CENTRE in Greece, so I hope to bring some of what I have learnt in these places with me here. Whatever we do, we will do together.

Here are two sheep-friends I made on my walk. Yes, there are a lot of sheep in Wales, but we will be loving them not eating them :-)

Activities?

Here I would like to share with you what I hope this retreat will be, and a few of the ideas I have. There are also a few things it will not be, and a few things we will not be doing, that might be worth mentioning. The main purpose of the event, in my mind anyway (!!), is for everyone who attends to have better health at the end than they did at the beginning - better physical, mental and spiritual health - and to have had an experiential learning experience in relation to what that means. What does that mean?!? It means we will be living health, rather than learning about how to live health in talks or lectures. We will be experiencing with our bodies what true health looks and feels like: where and how we have to physically move and place our bodies in order to achieve it. We will learn how to prepare and eat truly healthful food, how to move in ways that work for our bodies, and how to allow ourselves to rest. We might go on one or two outings (come on... Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon might have to be done, or maybe Caernarfon Castle??), but for the most part I hope for a week without clocks or alarms, eating our natural human foods, listening to our own rhythms and the rhythms of nature, and meeting our physical, mental and spiritual needs together.

Finally, the food...??

Okay, last-but-not-least, I'd better say something about the food! The food will be low fat (not no fat - there will be raw plant fats like avocados, raw tahini, soaked or sprouted seeds and maybe even durian!), high raw, plant-based, SOS-free (no salt, oil or refined sugar) and free from nuts, soya and gluten. The retreat will be fully catered-for by the Trigonos chefs. Trigonos is Demeter-certified (biodynamic and organic), and grows its own fruit, vegetables and herbs. There will be as much locally sourced and organic produce as possible, with some imported/tropical fruit as well. Food will be predominantly fruit (low fat, high raw is a fruit-based diet... it can't be anything else) and salad. There will be no cooked meals, but there may be some low fat gluten-free cooked additions (such as brown rice or baked sweet potatoes) for those that want them. Smoothies, smoothie-bowls, fresh juices and nice-cream will be available sometimes. Fermented foods and sprouted seeds, grains and legumes will be available for those that want them, but will be kept separate for those that don't. A range of caffeine-free herbal teas will be available, plus distilled or filtered water. There will be no cacao or any other stimulants, food-drugs, drink-drugs or drugs of any kind (sorry, along with no animal products, this bit is non-negotiable). There will be no alcohol and smokers will be asked to smoke off-site (alternatively, now might be a great time to consider quitting?!?). Fruit monomeal options will be available at all times, and some higher fat/dehydrated ('gourmet raw') options will be available in the evenings.

This picture is of a banana-apple-tahini (BAT) 'cereal' bowl with dried mulberries and cinnamon. Seriously good! Thanks to Karen Ranzi from FEEL FABULOUS WITH FOOD for this recipe...