Twenty-Eight Years in Three Minutes
Before We Meet
The Woman Behind The Work
Where It Began
My search began early.
My father became ill in his youth. He was given the wrong medication, and type two diabetes followed. His doctors then advised him not to exercise and not to move, because at that time rest was believed to be the best medicine. I watched the disease gradually affect his heart, eyes, legs and kidneys.
His experience left a profound impression on me and awakened a question that would shape the rest of my life:
Is there another way?
My own struggles with weight and health eventually brought that question very close to home. By my mid-twenties, I had reached 258 pounds and knew I could not continue living as I had been.
I began searching. Not for another temporary solution, but for an entirely different understanding of health. That search became a path of study, discipline, discovery and transformation.
The First Person Who Taught Me
Before any school, there was Esther Masel. She was a dietitian trained in France in hygienic nutrition, and a kinesiologist, and she was the first person to teach me something I have never stopped believing.
Love heals.
Her practice was unlike anything I had seen. She did not simply write me a menu. She massaged me. She stretched me. She put her hands on me and told me I was beautiful.
I was very young, and what she gave me shaped more than my health. It shaped the studio I keep today in my own home, where there is art, and touch, and acceptance, because that is what I found in hers.
From Student to Teacher
My education in Spiritual Nutrition began at the Cousens School of Holistic Wellness, founded by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D., a physician, psychiatrist, spiritual teacher and internationally recognized authority on raw and living foods, vegan nutrition and holistic health.
I studied directly under his mentorship, completing the school's two paths of study: Spiritual Nutrition Counseling and the Essene Priesthood. I became a graduate of Spiritual Nutrition Counseling and an ordained Essene Priestess. There I was immersed in conscious eating, live food nutrition, fasting, Ayurveda, herbal traditions, meditation, spirituality and the understanding of the whole person.
But my relationship with the school did not end when I became a graduate. I became a teacher of conscious eating and travelled internationally with Dr. Cousens, teaching alongside him and sharing this work with audiences around the world.
I was also entrusted with bringing his teachings to the Spanish-speaking world. I worked on the translation of his books, with particular care to preserve his meaning, his voice and the integrity of his teachings.
That journey is the foundation of who I am today.
A Life of Study and Practice
My education continued beyond the classroom.
I earned a Master's degree in Vegan and Live Food Nutrition from the University of Integrated Science, building upon the foundation of my work at the Cousens School.
Over the years, I continued to study across many traditions, including Ayurvedic science, Amazonian herbalism, Chinese tonic herbalism, meditation, biofeedback, bioresonance and energetic approaches.
My recipes have also lived inside other people's work. In the revised edition of Dr. Cousens' There Is a Cure for Diabetes, he introduces me by name and I lead the reader through the 159 recipes. I co-authored the recipes for La Nutrición Inteligente by Sacha Barrio Healey, the Peruvian herbalist and Oriental medicine practitioner.
I have taught, counselled, written and travelled, always returning to one principle:
There is no single path that is right for everyone.
The deeper our understanding becomes, the more we learn to listen.
What I Know Now
The Question A Student Asked
Many years ago, a student who had been working with me for some time called and asked me a question I will never forget.
"Marce, can you tell me who I am?"
I remember being struck by the question. It was not something I could answer casually. I told her I would have to sit with it. When I came back to her, I answered with a poem.
Remember Who You Are
Holy glorious brilliance
Originating from the One.
The Great One plays through you.
Who is keeping you here?
Holy brilliant resplendence;
Is it your form, limitations and fears,
The loyal guardians of your ego.
Make room for brilliance!
You are a cosmic mystery!
There are galaxies within you
Brilliantly shining infinite love,
love, love, love…
Marcela
She laughed when she read it and said, “Of course you would answer this with a poem.” But that question stayed with me.
Because in many ways, it is the question beneath all of my work:
Who are you beneath everything you have been taught to believe you are?
I do not believe my role is to give someone that answer. My role is to help create the conditions in which they can begin to discover it for themselves.
Sometimes that means listening. Sometimes it means reflecting something they cannot yet see. Sometimes it means telling the truth when the truth is difficult to hear. And sometimes it means simply being present for that extraordinary moment when something shifts and a person recognizes themselves in a new way.
I have learned that this requires more than knowledge. It requires ethics, discernment, courage and love. My own teachers taught me that truth is not always what we want to hear. I learned to sit with difficult truths myself, and that a teacher's responsibility is not to tell someone what they want to hear simply to keep them comfortable.
Truth, when offered with love, can become an opening.
And when I see a student becoming comfortable in their own skin, no longer fighting against who they are, but beginning to understand themselves with compassion and freedom, I feel something very simple. Yes. Job well done. There is nothing better than that.
Love, Peace, and Vegetables
Enter the World of Love, Peace, and Vegetables
There are some things that cannot be fully explained. They have to be experienced.
Love, Peace, and Vegetables: Recipes for Conscious Living took me ten years to create. I never wanted to make simply another cookbook. I wanted to create a transmission: something that could carry the philosophy, beauty, nourishment and consciousness that have shaped my life into another person's home.
Every part of the book was considered with that intention: the recipes, photography, poetry, art, materials and the way the book was produced. At 10 by 13 inches and 444 pages, it was created as a substantial, lasting object. I chose forestry-free paper, non-toxic inks and recyclable packaging because I believe the way we create something matters as much as what we create.
For me, conscious living cannot stop at what we eat. It extends to what we make, what we consume, what we leave behind, and the energy and intention we put into the world. This book is one expression of that understanding.
I met Marcela about 15 years ago; her life story, knowledge, and teachings no doubt helped awaken my awareness. Her presence was like giving water to a seed waiting to sprout.
Gabriela Cardozo
Fitness Instructor, Argentina
If You Feel It Is Time
Perhaps you have been searching for something you cannot quite name. Perhaps you know that something needs to change, but you do not want another generic plan telling you what to do. Or perhaps you simply want to understand yourself more deeply.
This is the work I have devoted my life to. If something in my story resonates with yours, I would be honoured to meet you.
Your next step begins with a conversation.
Work With Me