Raw Food Diet – Free recipes and tips by The Rawtarian

This is the story of how I began my journey into raw veganism.
But it isn’t really my story; it all starts with my in-laws–my husband’s parents. In their early fifties, they were very normal, nice people.

But one day my husband and I got this telephone call. My husband was talking to his parents, and I was in the other room.

I could make out my husband saying things like, “Wow, that’s amazing. I’m so happy for you. Wow. Amazing. Fantastic. Incredible!”

Inspired by raw family members

Yes, you guessed it: my inlaws were telling my husband about their first few weeks on the raw food diet. How they felt amazing. How they were losing weight, how their energy was through the roof, how they were convinced that THIS WAS IT.

I had never even heard of the raw food lifestyle or raw veganism, so I was shocked.

I’ve been with my husband for eleven years, and his parents, though wonderful people, were very normal. So to suddenly hear about this dramatic shift in their lifestyle was shocking. And awe-inspiring. I knew something serious was going on. I realized that whatever they were talking about was very serious indeed.

My mother-in-law sent us a raw food cookbook and I’ve never looked back.

My past journey

I’ve been a vegetarian since 2001, although I did continue to eat some seafood (especially tuna) until I went raw in 2009. However, although I was a vegetarian, my diet was not healthy. I knew it, and my weight fluctuated quite a bit within a healthy, average range. I was often snacking on pizza, chips, and lots of processed fruit juices. I didn’t feel good. I was often moody and depressed.

I wasn’t much of a cook and the foods that we ate were simple and unhealthy. For example, pasta with pesto sauce–with no salad or veggies. Breakfast was sweetened soy milk with mini wheats or another processed cereal.

I barely bought or ate any unprocessed vegetables.

Every year I gained five more pounds.

In the back of my mind I realized that if this five-pound-a-year-weight-gain continued, by the time I was forty I’d be at least fifty pounds overweight. I looked around. Many women at forty seemed to be fifty pounds overweight, so I accepted that this was the way it would be for me, too.

My raw journey

But enter raw food…

Fruit plate

After the first two months I had released ten to fifteen pounds. I looked great and I felt even better.

I’ve found preparing delicious raw foods to be so simple. Inspirationally simple.

Before I began my raw food journey, I was not comfortable in the kitchen. I had absolutely no confidence and no idea how to cook. I just made pasta and sandwiches and ate frozen pizza.

Learning how to prepare raw food has been an amazing and empowering experience for me. I started very rigidly following raw recipes, but after just two months I was creating some of my own recipes. With a limited number of ingredients–fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds–I find that I now understand more about how to combine food. I experiment so much more than I ever did before.

Will I be raw forever? I have no idea. All I can say is that right now I am still excited about the raw food lifestyle and being 100% raw.

Only time will tell where this journey takes me.

The purpose of this blog is to inspire others to try and love this amazing lifestyle.

Please join me as we explore the wild, wonderful, delicious adventure of raw food!

Photo credit: Fruit plate – Avocado salad