Raw For Thirty Days Preamable

A bit extreme I hear you say? Nothing but raw, vegan food for the next month? Yes. Lots of fruit, all kinds of vegetables, olives (they’re raw), herbs, pickles (yum!), nuts, seeds, dried fruit and sprouts. That’s it. No sugar, coffee, tea, processed carbohydrates, cheese and other dairy products, meat (we thought about some raw fish at one point but couldn’t be bothered when it came to it), pasta, bread, condiments (apart from olive oil and apple cider vinegar which are both raw), rice, grains, takeaway or fast food of any kind. Phew! Yes, a little extreme but an incredible experiment.

It all began when my husband and I watched this brilliant DVD over the Christmas holidays called Raw For 30 Days – it follows the journey of 6 people who have type 1 and type 2 diabetes. They are flown in from across the US to a health retreat in Arizona and put on a 100% raw food diet. The documentary is about their challenges and incredible success in getting off their medication purely through diet. Extremely inspiring! It made me cry at one point – seeing the wonder and awe of a couple of the residents discovering for the first time what it meant to feel good – really good.

So inspired we were that we decided to start our own 30 day raw challenge. Nothing heated over 42 degrees celsius to pass our lips for the next month. We don’t have diabetes but we do want to feel excellent all the time and know that all diets (no matter how well regarded or promoted, advertised or supported by the medical profession) are purely experiential – they must be tried to understand the full effects on the individual’s particular body and mind.

Generally going totally raw is not something people just jump into. I completed a 40 day fast last year and since then, we’ve been eating about 70 – 80% raw and living food. It just seemed natural for me and quite effortless. Through my research I also kept coming across the idea of raw food being the original diet – the way we are meant to eat. Certainly the evidence is clear and undeniable – as soon as food is cooked, vitamins, minerals and almost every other nutrient in it is depleted and sometimes even completely destroyed. Therefore, eating more raw food is one easy way to make sure you are getting the most out of the food you are eating.

It wasn’t a huge change of tack for us to undertake 30 day raw. It’s just, we’ve never been that strict with ourselves before.
We generally follow the 80:20 rule – eat well 80% of the time and the other 20% eat whatever you like.

Here we go!