The Start of Something Rawesome!

My "raw food is awesome" face, having just

sampled the "batter" for my Superfood Taffy

Rawesome!

It’s a word that I’m using to describe a phenomenon I hope to capture in this blog: the awesomeness of raw food. Over the past months, raw food has become a guiding principle in my life, and while it is something incredibly tangible and practical, I often have a hard describing the concept of it convincingly to others in one sitting. My classmates, family and friends often ask me about my dietary and lifestyle habits; I’m usually walking around with my homemade apple-pie leather or breakfast bars, or sipping a green smoothie when others are drinking wine. This tends to invite the suspicion of my peers, along with smirks and gazes that betray their labeling of me as a “food hippy.” This is all until, I give them a bite…

The delicious changes that I’ve experienced in my body, study habits and lifestyle over the last few months have led me to want to track my progress and to share my stories and recipes with others. This blog, Rawesome!, is part of my attempt to do this. There are four “guiding principles” that have led to my creating this blog, behold:

My Four Pillars of Rawesomeness

1) I feel great, look good and have more energy, naturally

This is without a doubt one of the most practical benefits of incorporating lots of raw food into your diet. When I’m eating raw, I wake up feeling light and refreshed, I crave fruit instead of coffee, I feel naturally inclined to practice yoga and be active, and small amounts of high-energy food keep me focused and supercharged throughout the whole day. It feels amazing! Moreover, since starting a mostly raw diet, I’ve lost more than 35 pounds and gone down two waist sizes. See my before and after shots for yourself.

2) I sleep better and I require less sleep (!)

I put an exclamation in parentheses next to this item, because until I experienced it for myself, I never would have believed it. I used to swear by 8+ hours of sleep every night, any less of which would incur my wrath (severe whiny irritability, all day). However, I have come to realize that eating healthy raw food, especially lots of greens, cuts down the amount of sleep my body needs. At times when I’m almost 100% raw, I’ll wake up fully charged after only 5-6 hours of sleep! It still sometimes seems unbelievable to me, but it’s true.

3) I eat economically and deliciously

The lifestyle of a student is uh… frugal, at best. Which is something that makes raw food so attractive! Eating out is expensive and more than my pittance of a stipend allows for. I’ve learned the economy of shopping at my local farmers markets and making my own food. Through this, I’ve realized something: eating out is overrated. Raw food is not hard to prepare, and the flavor is incredible! Just ask someone who has had my Japanese salsa before. Where taste buds and wallets meet, raw food is definitely a win-win.

4) I want to share my tricks and recipes

Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating; the fact that I have more energy, look good, feel great, never get sick, sleep less, eat delicious food, and save money on top of it all just seems too good to be true. But I’m here to try and document my conviction that it isn’t! It’s very true, and I believe that with a small mental shift in dietary outlook, you too can incorporate delicious, healthy and economical food into your life and experience amazing results.

At the end of the day you are your own best expert, and as far as raw food goes, all I can really offer are observations on what has worked for me. Here I’ll attempt to keep track of my kitchen and appliances, my recipes, my tricks and my stories. I also hope that this blog will be fun, and that others will discover that raw food is awesome!