Raw 101

Now, to explain the raw diet. You cannot eat anything that at any point of its existence has been cooked, processed, or heated over 110-118 degrees.  This means anything, even liquids, if you are attempting at 100% raw foodism.  I, however, am not.  My goal is somewhere around 95-99%.  I still drink tea and some fruit juices because I have problems ingesting water and don't want to dehydrate.

I first encountered the raw food diet when I was 17.  At the time I was five years into enabling, recovering from, and relapsing into anorexia.  Food and weight plagued me.  I had grown up a somewhat overweight child, only to drastically lose a third of my body mass during 7th grade.  From that point on I moderated my underweight body through fasts, diets, calorie counting, etc...  When I was 17, a friend of mine introduced me to vegan theory.  Being quite intrigued, I researched into the lifestyle and stumbled upon raw foodism.

Basically, if it's raw, you can eat it.  As much of it as you want. There's no thinking or counting.  It's either raw, or it's not.  I remember I "went raw" May 30th of that year.  By the end of the first week, I felt amazing.  With more energy than I knew what to do with, I bounced around school as if on crack.  But more importantly, for the first time in years I no longer thought about food.

Being raw, I felt healthier than I have at any other point in my life.  My skin cleared up.  What flab I had on my body turned into lean muscle.  I had excessive energy.  My allergies cleared up.  Health issues I had had for a while began to clear up.  It was as if I had happened across a miracle diet that provided perfect health and frame.

However, the diet is incredibly hard to maintain.  Stress early that summer caused me to falter, and I went back to previous eating habits.  Since then, something or other (whether convenience, mind set, desire) has prevented me from returning to that lifestyle whole heartedly.  Until now.

To bring back to school with me, I had bought a number of pre-made raw dishes (including pizza, blueberry pie, and spaghetti and meatballs), produce, and certain stables like Bragg's Liquid Aminos and my "cook" books.  So far, as I begin day three, so good.