And So It Begins...

My fridge.

I'm going 100% raw for the next six months, and I have mixed feelings about it. But luckily, I'm sitting more on the "I'm totally committed" side of the fence, than the "WHAT HAVE I DONE!!" side.

Most of the time.

There are times that I stand aimlessly in my kitchen and whimper at the shock of it. But mostly, I'm excited to explore this new world of flavors and creativity. I'm learning to use a dehydrator, making raw almond yogurt, and buying ingredients I never even knew existed. Eating raw is like an art form.

Although at the moment, it often feels like a part-time job.

The Learning Curve

But as discouraging as it can be, I know this is just the learning curve. We went through this 11 years ago when we first went vegan (although it's been several years since we claimed that lifestyle). Actually, I guess it was closer to a raw diet, since we were striving to eat all living foods as often as possible. That's when we first swapped cow's milk for soy milk and started buying fridge-loads of vegetables that would mostly just go bad before I could use them.

I had no idea how to cook that stuff. Heck, I barely knew how to cook at all, having just gotten married six months earlier at the tender age of 19 (oh, I dare my daughter to try that one...).

But over the following months, we started to taste the cereal through the soy milk until we didn't even taste the milk at all. I started to find new and delicious ways to create vegan dishes that did not revolve around trying to copy my "regular" menu. I started to love making the food, and even began to enjoy eating it.

A learning curve - that's all.

Home-made guac with spicy eggplant chips -
fresh from the dehydrator.

So when we decided to go vegan again 12 days ago, it kind of felt like coming home to myself. After all, that's how we mostly eat at home anyway, since that's how I learned to cook. Besides, in California, there's no shortage of places that cater to that lifestyle. And I also left the door open for processed sugar - Icees were still on the menu. Not bad.

But then we went to a raw food presentation by this man, and I sat there the whole time thinking, "I could do this. I could do this!"

There were a world of excuses that kept trying to weasel their way into my mind, but it was like they were just flies buzzing around my head. Nothing ever felt like it was my own thought - I never made an emotional connection with the excuses. Instead, I just felt inspired.

That night, my husband and I stayed up late discussing the possibility of going raw. Could we? Would we? Why?

The Why 

There are several reasons. For starters, my husband and I both have various health problems that we hope the raw life style will help us overcome. In addition, we both have always intended to go back to eating the way we used to all those years ago, but meat and ice cream kept changing our mind.

I can't speak for my husband, but the thing that really inspired me to take this jump is the fact that we are trying to have children. There's a much longer version of that story, but the point is that I've always known I would go back to a living diet when I had children. I can't conceive of feeding my children anything less.

And since we're trying to have children now, this seemed like the most appropriate time. Especially because I don't want to change my lifestyle while I'm pregnant because I'm nervous about whether that would cause all of my dumping toxins to go into the fetus. I don't know if it really works that way, but why take chances? My husband and I already have a few odds stacked against us when it comes to genetics. Why take the risk?

The Time Table

Raw tacos from a restaurant my husband found. Yum!

So, we set the finish line to be six months from August 21. Emotionally, that's as far as I could handle. If I was getting into this on a "forever" basis, I would probably just buckle in a couple weeks and go get lost in a candy store somewhere. (Or at Fogo de Chao!)

However, I do expect that by the time we finish this challenge, our tastes will have changed and it will be easier for us to maintain a more moderate diet of living foods. I'm not even going to start setting goals that far out, though. For now, I'm just focusing on getting to tomorrow.

Even though I'm familiar with the principles behind eating raw, I've never been 100%. Ever. Not on my best day. So now I'm having to learn, unlearn, and re-learn so many things that I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the task ahead.

My Greatest Support

I am tremendously grateful that my husband is doing this with me. Otherwise, there would be no way I could do this. The moments that I sink onto the couch in despair are the moments he steps in and makes our meals like a hero. In addition, I love to cook for him. When I would be more likely to grab a couple carrots and a handful of nuts for dinner, I am much more willing to try new things when I'm cooking for him, too.

So far, this has been fun, amazing, discouraging, challenging, motivating, and surreal. But more than anything, I am just grateful that I have made it an entire eight days.

Eight down, 172 to go.