Vibrant Living Expo

Last weekend I had the opportunity of attending the Vibrant Living Expo in Ft. Bragg, CA. Put on by Cherie Soria, gourmet raw food chef and founder of Living Light Culinary Institute, the expo featured dozens of raw food and medical experts, motivational speakers and gourmet chefs. Four hundred people were in attendance to hear lectures from those on the forefront of the raw health and wellness community. A few of the highlights:

"Diet For a New America" author, John Robbins, was the keynote speaker.

The mad cowboy, Howard Lyman, was there to tell his story about his battle, along with Oprah Winfrey, against the cattle growers of Texas. His book "Digging the Grave with our Fork" is a real eye opener.

There was a heated Q&A among some of the raw food experts. The panel included Viktoras Kulvinskas, Douglas Graham, Dr. Karin Dina, Brian Clement and Dr. Tom Lodi.

Made a few stops at the Artisana booth. Mmmm...

Matt Monarch and Angela Stokes-Monarch made a few appearances during the weekend talking about raw transformations and raw travel tips.

The main hall was lined with exhibitors and plenty of good eats.

Kevin and Annmarie Gianni spoke about plant-based diet pitfalls and meal planning for optimal health. Get their new smoothie book. Now!

Lots of fun stuff to buy at Matt Monarch's booth.

Good eats everywhere you turned.

The rising stars of the raw culinary world were there to tantalize your palette. You could forgo buying food by just attending all the culinary demos.

Fellow Lithuanian and the father of living foods, Viktoras Kulvinskas, spoke about superfoods, enzymes and surviving and thriving into 2012.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. There were yoga sessions, meditations, bodywork, film, music, pie contests, raffles, auctions and more. I loved every minute of it. There were four different events happening every hour on the hour totaling about 100 hours of lectures and demos. It was truly raw foodist heaven. For those of you who couldn't make it, they are offering an online encore presentation that allows you 60 days of unlimited access to all the events. I signed up for the encore because there was so much I missed! Yes, I'm really into this. If you would like to sign up for the encore presentation click here. I highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in health and who wants to know what is happening in the raw food world.

After the expo I stuck around to attend the Science of Raw Food Nutrition classes being offered at Living Light. I'm on day 4 of 8 and absolutely loving it. I'll write a post soon as I complete the course. It's extremely interesting and the most comprehensive information I've ever had on raw food science. Definitely recommend it for all of the aspiring raw food coaches out there.