The Beginning

Here I am, in my living room wearing pajamas and dreading tomorrow. Why do you ask-well tomorrow I start my new raw food life style. There are many reasons why I want to do this. 1. I want to live a healthier life style. 2. I want to rid myself of my health problems. 3. I want to lose weight. And finally 4. I want to see if it is possible to incorporate a raw food life style without being the person no one wants to invite to their parties or eat at their house!

So what is the raw food diet...the raw food is is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Basically I have read that 51-80% of each meal should be raw.

So what can I eat? I can now eat (in their rawest and purest form-organic if I can find it) uncooked and unprocessed plant based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and dried fruit. I will also be dabbling in Super Foods! Super foods claim to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Superfoods contain a potent collection of protection factors and therefore should be included in most diets. Some of the superfoods are as follows: Garlic, wheat grass, honey, echinacea, kefir grains, cacao, seaweed, acai and goji berry, flax seed, olive oil and green tea. This is not all of the super foods but a good start.

Sadly, but what I consider right now more important, what I will not be eating: Cheese, cake, white bread, cheese, pizza, coffee, white sugar, cheese, cookies, candy, cow meat, pig meat, cheese, soda, and cheese.

My commitment to this social experiment will be 4 months. I know even before I begin it will be difficult and I will have cheese withdraws. However, I figure in four months I will be able to decide if this is a lifestyle that I want to continue for life.

So far I have purchased a juicer and a dehydrator. Both I got off of craigslist so if this becomes a total flop I only spent $60. I was a little sad because right after I bought the juicer for $40 I saw one at a yard sale for just a couple of $$$. Also, a very supportive friend sent me "Ani's Raw Food Essentials" by Ani Phyo. I have book marked many websites with raw food recipes but this book is very informative.

Tomorrow morning I will weigh myself and take before and after pictures. I do believe there will be significant weight loss. Honestly as of right now I am not a vegetable/fruit person. I bought a bag of apples like two weeks ago and they are still sitting in a bowl on my table. They smell and taste great, however, when given the option I am going for cheese and chocolate.

I will also be committing to and taking vitamins. I have a cabinet full of them but rarely take them. Actually I make sure my dog gets his omega-3 every day but I actually can not remember the last time I took one! I will be researching the best vitamins for my health and I will list what I am taking.

Why I am here: I am been a proponent for organic living for years-it just makes sense. Why do we want to eat foods with chemicals in or on them. I have not bought milk or eggs that were not organic for at least 6 years. However, that is about the extent of it. The thing that scares me is that my mom in her 40s was diagnosed with PVD/PAD. She does smoke and has led a very unhealthy lifestyle but it still makes me nervous. In addition, several other relatives have been diagnosed with liver cancer. Again, heavy smokers but also terrible eaters. I recently watched a documentary called "Food Matters" (I will post a link for it at the bottom of this page). Anyhoo, it just made sense. Woke me up so to speak. It made me want to take action. So I gave myself a week to be a glutton, buy what I needed to buy and here I am, ready to take the plunge.

What I hope to accomplish: Realistically I won't be able to blog every day, but I will try. I will write down what I eat, how I cook and what I struggle with. If you notice I have the holidays coming up so I am in for a struggle! I will be doing research and hopefully have topic posts. This is all new to me so it will be a learning experience.

So here I go, one day down until rawfest 2010. Wish me luck!

Food Matters website: http://www.foodmatters.tv/