Hi!

The goal of this blog is to:

I was introduced to the concept of a raw food lifestyle near the end of 2008 by Steve Pavlina via his blog. Shortly thereafter I started incorporating more raw foods into my diet. Over the course of 2009 I flip flopped back and forth on a raw diet and a junk food fast food diet. I'd have a really good month followed by a really, really bad month. Overall, I made a lot of progress and learned a lot. I also released 50+ pounds (I was over 300 pounds at the beginning of the year).

2009 was a year, especially towards the end, where my inner self started waking up. I was making personal changes and doing a lot of inner searching. I realized where I was and it wasn't where I wanted to be. You could say that the biggest change in 2009 for me was my choice to start living consciously; at least trying too. I started finding the things that resonate with me, the things that drive and motivate me; truth, energy, light, simplicity. I wanted to align myself with these "new" ideas. I have a long ways to go, but being aware of them and of what I want is a big, really big, first step.

I ended 2009 with a 10 day master cleanse. Afterwards I crashed. Apparently, I have some severe emotional eating issues. I spent the first couple weeks of this year coming to grips, dealing and learning more about myself and my connection with food. A big help in this process was Angela Stokes-Monarch's book 'Raw Emotion'. I was in a pretty bad depression carried over from the previous year and continued binging on junk/fast food. I woke up one day and something inside had changed. I felt peace inside and a new energy that was different than anything I've ever really felt. I consciously made the decision to go 100% raw without any cheating. I want my physical body to heal so that I can heal emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Raw food is also a spiritual journey for me (this is where it's complicated). I have struggled with religion and spirituality for many years. I come from a very religious and spiritual upbringing of which I fell away from. Since then I have been trying to find and identify 'God'. Since I have started my raw journey, more and more pieces of my spiritual identity have been coming together. I am exploring things very foreign to me, but that feel very good to me as I start learning them. It is my plan to go deeper down this path and to explore these new feelings and embrace them if they resonate within me.

Raw food is also an emotional journey for me. As I said above, I have very serious emotional eating issues. Part of that is driven by mental issues (I was diagnosed bipolar late in my teens and struggle with it to this day). I have always buried my emotions and never shared them. This is bad. I attribute last years flip flopping to emotional detox and, very clearly, not dealing with the release of these buried emotion very well. My plan going forward is to approach these issues head on, deal with them, acknowledge what I have learned from them and to move on.

To me the raw food lifestyle is the way Nature intended us to live. It is alignment with our true selves.

As I watch other raw foodists and read the things they've written in blogs and books, I want what they have. The peace and serenity, the completeness and especially the happiness. I want to be a member of their community and inspire others to follow the path on which I am embarking.

I do not know everything my life has in store for me or where my journey will take me, but I am very excited and I am very ready.