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In
May of 2006 I got my biggest health scare
to date. I got my period (sorry, guys, if
you are reading this!) and everything was
“normal” (the usual PMS symptoms,
cramps, heavy flow) but it didn’t
stop when it was supposed to. Instead, I
bled uncontrollably for three days until
I was taken to an emergency room. I felt
like I lost most of my blood and I looked
like a mummy, pale and waxy yellow in color.
I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids and
put on an operating table. After the surgery
I made a decision to research why I got
ill and what I could do to prevent it in
the future. Shockingly, I discovered that
soy was probably a big contributor to my
disease, the product so widely advertised
to the vegetarians and consumed very often
by me. “The truth shall set me free,”
I thought, and started reading more and
more and eventually stumbled upon the raw
food diet.
At first I was excited
about this way of eating; I spent weeks
visiting numerous websites and blogs and
read every book on the subject I could lay
my hands on. I also got interested in longevity
subject at that time and one of the books
I read was “Essence Gospel of Peace”,
which was a 2000-year-old teaching on raw
food! It made complete sense to me that
dead food created dead bodies and live food
created live bodies; I was flabbergasted
it never occurred to me before! It’s
amazing how we learn so much in our childhood,
but we never learn how to care for our most
precious possession – our body. And
when we grow up eating the way nature intended
sounds extreme to us! But putting junk in
our bodies and slowly killing ourselves
with food is completely “normal”,
being sick is taken as just a part of life.
What happened to us? Where did we go wrong?
Anyway… My
first attempt at raw food was Frederic Patenaude’s
Green Cleanse, which I thought went very
well for me. I drank lots of green smoothies
and felt amazing. My energy went up, I didn’t
feel hungry at all, I slept better, and
wasn’t crushing in the afternoon.
During that time I also bought Victoria
Boutenko’s books and DVDs and I was
really impressed with the information she
presented, it made lots of sense to me and
I felt very inspired by her lectures. After
the Green Cleanse, however, it got challenging
for me to stay on a raw food diet.
First of all, it
took a lot of preparation. I had to get
up at 4:30 in the morning to get my breakfast
and lunch prepared for the day and then
carries those bottles and containers on
the train with me. Then came attention at
work. People would see me eating my foods
or drinking my smoothies and make faces
or comments like “Oh, this is too
weird”, “What is that awful
colored food you are eating?” It made
me very uncomfortable and even angry, like
I had to defend myself constantly. I didn’t
participate in office birthday cakes, ordering-in
lunches, pizza days. I was a bit of an outsider
already because of my vegetarian diet, being
raw brought it to a whole new level. The
more raw food I ate, the more I became aware
of how toxic my office environment was:
gossip, office politics, and judgment. Sprinkle
lots of stress on top of that and I got
to a place where I didn’t know how
to deal with any of the issues coming up.
And after that came boredom. Since I never
liked spending time in the kitchen and wasn’t
much of a cook, my choices were limited
to smoothies, salads, and fruit platters.
And one can get tired of eating salads day
in and day out, believe me. I had several
recipe books but most of the recipes involved
elaborate ingredient lists and hours of
preparation. I just couldn’t take
that much effort and time required. To add
to that I wasn’t very good at planning
when it came to my own diet and I rarely
thought ahead what I would be eating at
night or the next day and I often ended
up with having no raw food around, which,
in turn, led to me ordering in or eating
some of my husband’s food. Another
reason, a bit minor but still there, was
the money I needed to spend on it –
buying organic, buying superfoods, supplements,
I felt like I couldn’t afford it as
much as I wanted to. Bottom line - I was
unprepared, felt lonely in my raw food journey,
thought this diet required too much effort
and money, confused by too many opinions
in the raw food movement (often conflicting),
and, although I realized that it was the
best way to eat and I would be amazingly
healthy on it, I could never really sustain
it for a long time.
However, after months
of going back and forth between raw and
cooked food, I finally knew deep in my core
that raw food was not just another diet,
but a way of life for me. I knew that I
was feeling great on it, that my mind was
much calmer and clearer, that my yoga and
meditation practices were different, deeper,
I knew that my environmental impact was
different, and I just knew, without a shadow
of a doubt, that my physical, mental, and
spiritual growing were directly connected
to the food I was putting in my body. I
just needed to learn how to sustain it.
I thought about
why I was yo-yoing and I realized that it
had much to do with lack of support, having
no raw friends, knowing no raw people, and
not being completely clear on why I wanted
to go raw. I knew I needed support and guidance.
By that time I was already subscribing to
Karen Knowler’s eZine (she is a UK’s
leading raw food expert). Then one day I
read in her eZine that she would not be
running any more 30 Days to Raw programs
and she announced the last one in September
of 2007. Well, lo and behold, I didn’t
want to be left out of that experience,
it was now or never, and I jumped on that
train for, what I later discovered, an incredible
ride. My life was completely transformed.
I never thought a coaching program could
become such a life changing experience.
I had daily support, easy to make recipes,
and, most importantly, a group of wonderful
women supporting each other, sharing sadness
and cheering on, holding each other up.
It felt wonderful to have support instead
of judgment, to talk to people interested
in personal growth instead of gossip, to
have a coach who says the right things,
leads the way, and makes my experience very
easy and fun. I didn’t think that
going raw would be so hard for me because
I was never aware of how emotional my eating
was. By the end of that program I had no
doubt in my mind that having support was
a crucial step to going raw. Things got
even better when we continued with coaching
and dived deeper into raw experience and
what came with it. As Karen so knowingly
mentioned, having a big enough WHY is what
makes or breaks one’s raw experience.
Knowing why I do it and what I can get out
of it, bringing my hidden emotions and issues
to light, having the tools to deal with
them made me stronger in my convictions
and commitments. The toughest part for me
was looking into my emotions, fears, and
believes around food and bringing them to
light and changing them, which is an ongoing
process.
I now eat a high
raw diet (slowly switching to all raw) and
I feel better than I’ve ever felt
in my life. I no longer doubt myself in
choosing a raw lifestyle, I feel peaceful,
I have moments of unexplained joy and euphoria,
I sleep better, I feel happier and I am
really excited about my life. When I take
care of myself (and raw food is a huge part
of it), I love and appreciate myself more,
I take good care of my body, mind, and spirit,
which, in turn, reflects on my outside world.
Decision to become
a raw food coach came to me during the 30
Day to Raw program. Listening to calls and
hearing Karen coach other people resonated
with me. I was in a place where I quit my
job and was searching for new direction
and trying different things but nothing
resonated and felt true for me until the
program. That’s where I felt like
this is what I wanted to do, I wanted to
help people discover raw food and what it
could do for them and see them get healthier
and happier. Karen’s work was just
so inspiring to me, I really wanted to follow
in her steps and create such an amazing
and gratifying life for myself. I wanted
to create a business that would be a reflection
of who I was and what I believed in. I could
no longer sacrifice my authenticity, my
convictions and believes just to “blend
in”, I wanted to be free to be who
I truly was and live this truth bravely
and happily.
I aspire to be vibrantly
healthy, have a high level of energy and
mental clarity. I want to lead an authentic
life where the inside reflects on the outside,
to have a life where I can be true to myself,
live my truth, never have to sacrifice my
integrity to make someone else comfortable
or happy, and live a life of purpose and
vision that no only is inspiring to me but
also to people around me. As Gandhi said
“if you want to see change in the
world, you have to be that change”
– and that resonates very true with
me. I want to live in a better, happier,
healthier world and I change my life so
others would be inspired to change theirs.
As a raw food
coach, I hope to serve as an example of
what’s possible to achieve, in health
and in life. I want to educate people about
how to achieve optimal health, to show them
how raw foods can add to their enjoyment
of life, and I want to make it fun and easy
for them. I want to inspire people to be
true to themselves, to help them recognize
and break through their false believes and
sabotaging behavior. I am passionate about
raw food, about personal and spiritual growth,
about possibilities we can have as human
beings, and I am keen to share it with others.
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