Raw Love...for Beginners!

I've been researching the raw food lifestyle for about 5 years now and, every year, I increase my raw food intake. I like to call my style High Raw. I'm not big on packaged 'raw' foods, and am certainly not going to get myself a dehydrator any time soon. I use a simple Oster blender and a small Cuisinart food processor. I augment my creations with help from the kitchen at Organic Lives and the juice bar at Whole Foods. I buy organic as often as I can.

Friends and family ask lots of questions about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Basically, my premise is simple. Food attachments are what get us into trouble. As a society, we no longer eat for nourishment; we eat for entertainment and, thus, we eat for flavour, not health! If you've listened to any of my talks in the last few years, I've coined the phrase 'the yumminess factor'. This is the guide by which most of us choose our foods. 

In the mid-80's, I attended a 6-day workshop in California. The week's menu was based on Nathan Pritikin's model, which included very limited amounts of sugar and salt. I was pretty dismayed by what they called 'soup', which was an almost clear liquid with a pea pod floating in it! It had almost no flavour. But sitting next to a fellow workshop attendee, Jack gave me my first introduction to the concept of eating for health, not flavour. Jack had recently experienced heart failure and heart surgery; he was exhilarated at his new lease on life and had come to the conclusion that his poor food choices had been the cause of his heart problems. That day, much to my astonishment, Jack relished in the soup!

We were told that our 'snacks' could be found in the fridge; they consisted of raw carrot and celery sticks in copious amounts. I was hardly impressed but so began my humble journey. It's been a roller coaster ride, a pendulum swing, a dance between my taste buds and my conscience! But I've successfully navigated a complex world to make it work for me and I feel like sharing this win!

So I'm compiling a list of my favourite raw recipes, as well as some guidelines about a simple and easy way to introduce the raw concept slowly into your life. I'll be putting all this into an E-book, and starting a workshop series next year. Stay tuned and love raw! 

My Raw Vegan Journey...

Last month, one of my daughters told me she wanted to go on a Juice Feast. Ten days of feasting on nothing but fresh, raw, organic juices. I'd already added green smoothies to my diet over a year ago and had a desire to go the next step and try a fully raw vegan diet. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity, within the supportive partnership of my lovely daughter.

We set a date, and I proceeded to eat up as much of the solid food in the kitchen that I could. I ate the flour tortillas, eggs, peanut butter, bread, corn chips, chocolate...anything that might tempt me during the 10 days. I went shopping and loaded up the fridge with celery, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, about 5 different fruits, and some young Thai coconuts. I bought some mesh produce bags, as I planned to make my vegetable juices in the blender and use the squeeze method for my juice, in place of a juicer.

Well, we're now on Day 8. Unlike Jenn, who has been drinking juice exclusively, I've been including green smoothies, a daily coffee, and a fresh fruit, once in a while. The blender's been getting lots of use.  I've also been getting some of my organic juices from Whole Foods, and mixing and matching my favourite flavours.

My husband has been eating his regular diet, and it's really interesting to observe my internal machinations as he chows down on some of my favorites. Like Ripple chips with dip, microwave popcorn, sausages, tuna, and fried chicken. Sure I was eating lots of salads, but always found the urge to munch on the tastier choices in his menu. For these last 8 days, I've watched all those foods go by...without a bite!

Whenever Jenn or I are facing a tough food challenge, we text or call each other for support. We've been keeping each other on the 'straight and narrow'...

Why am I doing this to myself, you might ask? For starters, I know that my food attachments have nothing to do with my health. And since I can't quit eating altogether, I wanted to have a really strong barrier that I could wrap my raw vegan convictions around. Once the 10 days are up, I plan to have a lovely raw vegan meal at Organic Lives.

I'm down 7.5 pounds and I enjoyed the way my jeans fit this morning.  You never know, I might just do another 10 days...