The One Month RAW Challenge

[milo]

Hi Sim,

I love reading your posts on your journey with the MC and going raw. I don't think you bore anyone with your details, it ALWAYS inspires me 1000% reading them and I'm sure it does to others. So post away, I love to hear from you. You are truly an inspiration.

Milo

[Pooper]

Kram and Sim: Thank you both for your input! I really appreciate it. I've done Weight Watchers before, too, and have been thinking of going back to it. I'm going to look into that today. I didn't think I've been stressed out because of my hectic schedule and starting a new job, but I must have transferred that stress to food and eating. Ooo that's scary--I've always known in the past that I was stress-eating!

I would love to never have to think about my calorie intake again!

[Sim]

Milo~
Soooooooo good to see you here again! Thank you for the encouragement...but really, I can be so longwinded! It's just that I'm so passionate about this...about raw and what it's done for me and what other things haven't done for me. If I can help even one other person feel the way I feel, it's all worth it.

Announcement: Yesterday, I paid my money...I will be a student at the Living Light Culinary Institute in California for their Associate Chef/Instructor Certification courses, hoping for an internship to follow. I will be attending in April for six weeks and I'm convinced that this is the right thing for me, a former teacher of Spanish who lost that magic and didn't know why...Raw and this BB and all of you have helped me find my focus and understand that clarity comes from within and not without. My plan is to become a raw food chef and return here to CT to open my own café and teach the merits of raw to anyone who just wants a bit more healthful eating in their lives. I don't believe in hitting people over the head with this, but really...everyone once in awhile needs a good salad that contains more than iceberg lettuce and a few shredded carrots. I've had many people tell me that I'm thinking pie-in-the-sky; that CT is not California and that people here won't take to it. Okay, we'll see. At my advanced age, I'm embarking on a career change and although it's scary, it's something I've come to believe in so strongly that I live, eat, sleep, and breathe it. And if I try and lose my shirt, well...nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have no money now, I'll have no money in that case either...but at least I'll have had the experience of going with a dream and sinking my raw vegan teeth into it! You will all come with me on my journey....I'm taking you all because you're no different than I am...it's just that we all have different obligations. I seem to be at a crossroads and my only real obstacle is money...but I've found out that teaching doesn't hold the magic for me anymore and raw food and raw prep and raw benefits are always on my mind. The path seems clear to me...I'm starting my hike and I've got all my supplies in my backpack! So, money? What the heck...beg and borrow, not steal...I'll be 100 years old and will still be worrying about how much debt I'm in. And all the while, I'll have had a great life anyway. Time to stop worrying about money.

Pooper! Are you kidding? A hectic schedule AND a new job? And you wonder why you're stress eating???? It would be nice to say that you have work on alleviating stress in a non-food way...but for many of us, that's just not a reality because old, ingrained habits are very, very hard to break. For myself, I've found that when the munchies due to stress, anxiety, time of month, any cause really, hit me, I have to have my arsenal of raw foods that I love at the ready. Find the right combination of raw foods that help you alleviate your food needs when you're stressed. It would be great to say, "No! Don't do that! Go get a manicure instead!" but that's just not always practical. Sometimes it's the need for a cookie (or a box of cookies ) that will calm us. The trick is to find the right raw substitutes AND IT CAN BE DONE without weight gain, I swear! I'm a living testament to this.
I have been very stressed these past couple of months after my wonderful trip to Ireland. I came home and the roof of my life fell in. But dehydrated tomatoes to chew on, sushi rolls with avo and nut paté and veggies to satisfy hunger, the best smoothies, green and otherwise, in the world for vitamins and minerals, tons of other snacks that I've found in my new raw books and yes, even our dear MC lemonade WITHOUT being on an official cleanse, all lend me clarity without weight gain. And peace of mind, which is everything. I will never go back to any of the other weight-management plans I've followed and even worked for. I will not ever have the need again. I'm Raw. And I love it because it's loving me to optimal health. The difference for me was that I started the MC with no thought of weight loss in mind...it was all for health. And the weight came off quickly and has stayed off, no matter how much avo I eat, olive oil I use on my salads, dates I consume, nuts I soak and use....my body has found balance. Just yesterday, my own mom said, "Are you still on that cockamamie diet?" Of course, I said, "No. I'm not on a diet at all." A complete truth. I am NOT on a diet. And that has made all the difference. This is just now the way I live and eat and sleep and breathe. Diets are something you follow, Raw is something you are. I like being, not following.

Okay, enough pontificating for one day. How can you all stand me?
Love you all. PM me if you still love me, okay?

[Res]

Of course we still love you Silly Raw Woman!

I'm so exited for you!!! So what about the money, etc! "What if?" What if it all works out and CT loves raw food, and people come from miles around and say, "We're so glad you're here. There are no raw food restaurants around and we've been wanting someone to open one". What if the newspapers pick up on it and curious people invade your restaurant? What if you're the one who changes the health of thousands of people? What if you succeed and get a spot in a Foodie magazine? What if you rub shoulders with famous Chefs and they incorporate some of your recipes?

What if you meet Curtis Stone, the Take Home Chef!

I'm really proud of you and the very fact that you quit your Teaching job and have a passion for being a Raw Food Chef says it all! You'll do it! You'll make it AND you'll succeed! I just know it.

Love,
~Res

[mtmouse]

I couldn't have said it better. And I didn't, LOL! I didn't even see that last tiny line of your note, Sim!

Anyway, Res said it all, perfectly. Go for it!

[aikenjoi]

Sim, never think that you bore any of us. When ever I read your post I feel like your passion ignites mine. It can be hard here since the people around me don't even think about there health and then grab some fried chicken. I want to show them that raw foods can be amazing and will offer a life time of health and energy. Every time I come to this thread I get more encouragement and it reaffirms to me that raw is the way to go. God revealed this to me and I'm so grateful. And I've made it to 8 days on the MC so I'll surely be able to eat 100% raw for a month if not always.

It's awesome that you're going to be a raw chef--You're going to do great!

And if you opened your restaurant in Oklahoma, I'd eat there everyday!

[milo]

Sim,

I am so happy for you, few people find their right calling in life because they are too scared to step outside the box, but you have guts and passion and love and you will succeed. I can't wait to hear all about it as your journey continues....

Milo

[Sim]

Okay, so how could I ever express how much you all mean to me? Since Day 1, there has been nothing but love and support, acceptance, happy curiosity, steadfast determination, and a desire to inform and help each other with things that may or may not have to do with being raw.

This is simply the best place to be at various times of the day, whether you have something so huge that it begs to be cut up into pieces for everyone to delight in OR whether you just need some momentary--or ongoing--support.

You are all beautiful.

I will try very hard not to disappoint any of you. Just remember: I am, after all, a crazy middle-aged perimenopausal woman

And by the way, last fall, I was definitely in that mode, with three skipped periods and all kinds of hot flashes and emotional weirdness...I do believe going raw has reversed time for me...After January, it all disappeared and now I feel like I should still buy stock in Tampax as opposed to last Fall, when I thought I was headed for Depends. Must be all that good live food I ingest that's making me younger. Whaddaya think?

[Res]

Ya know -- if I could run around this forum as fast as I can and then plop down on a sofa here with a grin on my face I would! But since I can't I'll let you know I'm grinning.



I'm SO HAPPY to be here! It's NEW CHAPTER time!


I love you all I love you all!

~Res

[kiropa]

hi sim,

i live in NJ (northern) and would absolutely come to CT to experience your raw cuisine.

raw works in NYC -- dh and i ate at pure food and wine. it was beyond enjoyable (for both my non-raw, carnivorous, husband and me) and it was PACKED!!!!!

follow your dream, the money will come. a mantra a truly believe in. you are wholly inspiring!