I want to scream it from the rooftops: I have been a raw vegan for 30 days! I wanted to try raw eating for a while now. Raw Vegan is even written on my vision board. I have always been a health food nut, always eating fruits and veggies, but inevitably I end up eating all the garbage on top of the good stuff. I have spent various years being vegetarian and this past year, I drank tons of green drinks and was close to being vegan. At that point I knew I was ready to eat raw in 2011! I did not pressure myself; I literally took it one day at a time. I started out not knowing if I would make it past the first day. But so far I have done it for an entire 30 days. Now I feel like I can do this for a lifetime. I have had hardly any cravings and I'm hardly ever hungry, probably because I have been able to eat as much as I want! I started out the first two days just juicing! The remaining days I have eaten raw food. It has probably been the best 30 days of my life...
What I eat: raw fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds (mostly organic) and a small amount of cold pressed olive oil, Bragg's vinegar and almond milk!
Sample day: Fruit, Chia Seed pudding, green juice, big salad (w/avocado basil dressing), carrot ginger juice, guacamole and cauliflower chips, 3 macaroons and 2 oranges.
My gurus: Gabriel Cousens, Diana Stobo, Philip McCluskey, Dr. Joel Fuhrman and The Life Regenerator.
Slip-ups: peanut butter, couple glasses of wine (I came to find out wine is considered raw but in many cases not vegan, so that was a slip-up), a tiny bit of mayonnaise, carob powder and soy milk. Yes, I did have some slip-ups and it was mainly from a lack of knowledge.
Supplements: Vitamin D3 and B12 (my favorite brand is Mega Food). I'm not a big supplement person but I always take vitamin D in the winter and if you are going to be vegan it is good to take B12!
Habits I incorporated that promote raw lifestyle: Dry Brushing, Rebounding and Lymphatic Massage.
Tools: Good juicer (my favorite is Green Star) and Vitamix (or good blender). In my opinion, these are two tools you must have if you are going to be raw.
Life savers: Once Again Organic Raw Almond Butter with apples, Chia Seed Pudding, Two Moms in the Raw Blueberry Bars and Emmy's Raw Organic Macaroons.
Toughest Day: I live in New England and we have had the snowiest winter on record. There was one night when my husband made the most incredible pot of soup for him and the kids. I wanted some soup so bad especially because it was so cold out. The next morning I was glad I had chosen to drink a green drink instead!
Results: I lost 17 pounds and feel amazing; everything works better, mind is clear, my poops are better, skin is clear, and I'm sleeping deeply! My body is on its way to a full recovery!
You can keep up with Sandy by signing up for her daily living tips, following her on Twitter or becoming a fan on Facebook.
Follow Sandy Henson Corso on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sandyssalad
I'm glad you've managed to get all the "garbage" out of your diet! That's not an easy task when so much of the food around us is processed artificial crap invented by food scientists that get us hooked on unnaturally intense flavors, and sugar in concentrations never found in nature. We've somehow become convinced that the artificial is superior to the real. How many people will go to WalMart tonight, find themselves craving the flavor of strawberries, and pass right on by the produce aisle, it never even occurring to them to pick some up, and head over instead to McDonald's for a "strawberry" milkshake that contains 59 ingredients, with one particular ingredient noticeably absent - actual strawberries. Part of the intractability of our processed food addiction is that we've now raised a couple of generations of people to actually prefer man-made flavors to real ones.
Even something as seemingly straightforward as a prepared pasta meal seems more like something dreamed up in a science lab than a home kitchen. Look at the ingredient list on a can of "Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli in Tomato and Meat Sauce": I seriously doubt that chef Ettore Boiardi, who started the company, would have recognized high fructose corn syrup, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, sodium phosphate, and potassium chloride as ingredients in cooking.
And, of course, many supposedly "healthier" processed vegan convenience foods contain similar long lists of ingredients that belong in a chemistry set, not a kitchen cabinet.
I realize that one does not have to become a raw vegan to avoid processed crap. This was the first of a two-part comment, the second part of which didn't even make it into my friends circle, let alone to the actual board itself. In part two (you know how I tend to go on a bit!), I specifically questioned the author as to why she thought raw veganism was the only alternative to the standard American diet.
I also remarked on her rather odd belief that eating peanut butter was a "slip-up" (assuming she's talking about REAL peanut butter - i.e., made from only peanuts and salt - and not the stuff with all the sugar and hydrogenated oil in it), since she listed almond butter as a "life-saver".
Anywho, I thought you'd enjoy this cute little video - really captures the heart of it. I laughed when I saw that one of the products it featured was the exact same Chef Boyardee product I mentioned in my comment!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9fD2c1mKw
AMAZING that your daughter downed a glass of kale juice. STRAIGHT KALE??!!!! Whoa!
feeling like no other. I read the comments on this page and want to share with everyone, that being 100% raw is a very strict lifestyle, and one with great rewards. However, being raw for 30 days- 6 months or even a year and then incorporating more cooked foods, like warm soups or grains, is equally rewarding. Ultimate health is more about consistency and purity of diet then the label RAW. It is about the awareness of food and what it does to our bodies.
What Sandy gets to share is the experience of cleaning the body. Even a day or week of eating live plant food will make a huge impact on your life.
For more information- go to www.dianastobo.com
Many people tell me how "energized" they are after eating raw food, unlike most people who eat a cooked meal and need a nap. I also hear many comments about being more clear thinking.
You lost me when you made a delicious soup for your family & then denied yourself any of it.