Like it Raw?

Back in November, I began incorporating raw organic food into my diet. Now, I start every day with fresh juice made from green vegetables, ginger, and lemon followed by a fresh fruit smoothie. I also have a salad for lunch and lots of dried fruits and nuts—and carob—as snacks.

Two women were my inspiration to go raw and get healthier: Kris Carr and her documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer (www.crazysexycancer.com) and Natalia Rose and her book The Raw Food Detox Diet (www.therawfooddetoxdiet.com). Since November, I lost 20 pounds, but have since hit a wall. I’ve been searching for a means to break through that wall (I want to lose another 20) and I think I found it with a third woman who recently turned my inspiration duo into a trio: Bunny Berry (http://bunnyberry.blogspot.com/).

Bunny is currently one third of the way through a 100-day raw food challenge. In her words, she’s “37, fat, fatigued, and ready to change [her] life.” She has been keeping a blunt blog about her journey with pictures, video diaries, and terrific stories documenting her highs and lows. Bunny lets us all the way in, showing raw emotion (excuse the pun) and not holding back. Also, I adore her style. She’s funny, slightly sarcastic, and whimsical and she has big plans. I can relate.

I’ve been toying with the idea of conducting my own all-raw food challenge. Even though I eat a lot of raw food now, I never have a raw dinner. My only hesitation with going all the way is that I’m married to a guy who could eat a dozen Snickers a day and somehow lose weight and so I can’t ask him to go raw with me. I’m afraid he’d waste away . . . he’d also tick me off as I saw the pounds shed off him and cling to me like body paint. But that creates a challenge on top of a challenge: Preparing a cooked meal for Mark every night and preparing an uncooked meal for me. It’s not the extra work that concerns me. It’s having to sit opposite him while he devours steaming spaghetti while I pick at my mock hummus. In other words, I don’t want to be green while being green with envy.

Why do it, then? You might be asking yourself. Well, I do believe that eating raw is great for the environment and great for me. Eating raw most of the day has already transformed my life and I really want to break through and see all of raw food’s benefits. At this point, I don’t want to eat exclusively raw for the rest of my life, but I think I need a boost to break through the wall and never look back.

Thanks for the boost, Bunny.

Question of the blog: What’s your favorite raw snack or meal?