I played a lot of sports in high school & college which kept me fit, but in my second year of college I developed a hip injury. It was treated as a muscular injury at first and it just wouldn’t go away. After 5 years of visiting different sports therapists, chiropractors & doctors it was determined that I had arthritis in my hip and I had to give up running. Running had been my escape and an easy way for me to stay fit, so when I had to let that go, the weight gain followed. I have struggled with those extra 10-25 lbs ever since ... that is until I discovered raw food! Today I am the same weight I was when I graduated high school 21 years ago!
My journey to raw food took years, and it really started at the age of 18, after I lost my mom to breast cancer. That experience made me very aware & health conscious, & I became a fish eating vegetarian. The more I learned about food, the more changes I made to eat better. For 18 years I ate as a fish eating vegetarian & I struggled with those extra pounds. And then 2 years ago I read the book “Skinny Bitch” and became a vegan. I thought it would be so hard to give up cheese, but I learned a few nut cheese recipes & I was fine. While I didn’t experience any weight loss by becoming vegan, I did experience changes in my menstural cyle--the moodiness & cramps decreased significantly.
Then about 1 year after becoming a vegan I kept having raw food appear in my life ... I saw something about raw food on the internet, something in a magazine I was reading, it came up in conversation with a couple of different people & then with a raw food restaurant opening in Portland. I was in a health food store poking through their cookbooks & saw Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen in June of 2009 & I took it as a sign & bought it. After reading through it, I told my partner that I wanted to try raw food for a week. Day 2 at the dinner table I said, “I could NEVER do this.” Then on day 3 something clicked inside of me & I knew that the raw food lifestyle was for me & it became so easy & fun! I can't explain what happened to me, except that suddenly it all made so much sense to me. I took off running with the raw & living foods lifestlye & haven’t looked back.
I will share that I was a MAJOR coffee addict for years & vowed that I while I will eat raw food, I will NEVER give up my coffee. Within a week of going raw, I couldn’t even drink 1/2 a cup of coffee--it made me feel AWFUL! And to this day, the slightest bit of caffeine goes straight to my head & makes me feel bad, real bad! I still enjoy the smell of coffee, but my cup of fresh juice or a warm cup of tea is what I reach for in the morning.
I can’t tell you how good I feel! I lost weight quickly & have kept it off without EVER feeling like I have had to sacrifice anything. I am energetic, happy, glowing, and now have a passion for preparing deilcious raw meals & sharing it with others. I hope you will join my mailing list & come take some classes with me--it will change your life!
Before & after raw food ... I think you can see the difference!
