Travelling Raw

I've been at my cousin's house for the last few days, and this has been my first venture outside of the safety of my own raw pantry. For any of you following my blog, you'll remember that I had an opportunity to travel about three weeks ago, and decided to stay home primarily because I didn't think I was ready to handle the raw thing on the road. Instead, I took those few days by myself to totally immerse myself into the raw lifestyle - watching videos, experimenting with different recipes and foods, and just generally trying to figure out what I was doing.

I'm so grateful that I took that time. I believe it has 100% made the difference in my success thus far, and this trip is no exception.

First of all, I brought a lot of food with me. At first, I thought that I'd brought too much, but as I'm nearing the end of my trip, I'm also nearing the end of my food stash. I've been surprised to find that I brought exactly enough.

Secondly, I tried to bring a variety of different foods so I wouldn't feel overly deprived, but I also tried to keep things super simple by not planning on doing anything that would require any processing. I've basically been having mono meals of carrots or watermelon, and a huge salad somewhere in between. I've found that I didn't bring as much of a variety as I thought, and that the repetitive meals, although easy-easy-easy, have put me in a little bit of a rut today after doing this for about 48 hours.

I think next time I will either prepare some of my more complicated foods ahead of time - like kale chips or burgers - and bring some with me.

Oh, I've also been eating a lot of FAT. I've been snacking on more nuts than usual while I've been here, but I don't care. Seriously, I'm just trying to get through this trip with my raw diet in tact. I don't care about doing it in style, making it pretty, or in appropriate proportions. I just want to get out of here alive.

All in all, I'd say this trip has been a raving success. I haven't been embarrassed to eat so differently, and I haven't been overly bombarded with other foods. My cousin is pregnant, so she's been keeping meals really simple for her family. In fact, one of my favorite parts has been sharing my foods with the children. They loved the watermelon and figs, and braved a sample of coconut water.

I've definitely benefited from having my cousin's full kitchen at my disposal. My next trip will be in a few weeks, and will be a bit more of a challenge, since I'll be at a conference for a week. But at least I get to ease into these experiences little by little. By then, I should be a pro :)