We are a husband and wife team,
Yvonne and Bob, and we’d like to share our experiences in the “raw” lane of
life with you in hopes of inspiring you to try this lifestyle or to continue
with it if you are trying it now.
Bob and I met about six years
ago. At that time, I (Yvonne), had been
transitioning to raw for about two years and was about 80% raw. I had been a vegetarian for a number of
years before that and when I was introduced to the raw lifestyle, it immediately
made sense to me that eating food in its natural, raw state, uncooked and
unprocessed, would be much more beneficial to my health. I remember the day I made the commitment to
go raw like it was yesterday, my birthday, July 3, 2000. I cleared all the processed food out my
cupboards and fridge, I either gave it away or threw it away, and from that day
on no more food was cooked in my kitchen.
I began juicing, dehydrating, sprouting and experimenting with a number
of different raw, living foods and recipes.
Although I was faithful in eating only raw food at home, I did eat
cooked food in social settings.
When Bob and I met in December
2000, Bob was a vegan and had been for a number of years, and although he had
eliminated meat from his diet because of a health issue, he was still eating an
unhealthy diet. When he got to be about
80 pounds overweight and feeling very unhappy with himself, he decided to take
control of his life. He changed his eating habits, mainly just quit eating junk
food, started exercising and lost about 60 pounds and felt so much better.
Then our life together began on
June 24, 2004. Of course Bob knew I
didn’t cook but that didn’t seem to bother him. He embraced the raw vegan lifestyle and loved it. We hadn’t made the commitment to be 100% raw
so when we ate out, and we usually ate out a couple of times a week, we would
have bread with our salad and sometimes a dessert. This went on for quite a number of months until it just wasn’t
satisfying to eat out anymore knowing we could make salads at home using our
organic, raw food that tasted so much better and was much healthier. I’m not going to tell you this was easy, we
did miss the enjoyment of going out to eat in a nice restaurant, being waited
on, chatting over a glass of wine before our meal was served and just enjoying
each others company, after all, we were and still are newlyweds!
Then a raw food restaurant opened
in Guelph, Ontario, Wild Organic Way Café (W.O.W), and we were ecstatic, now we
could get a delicious, interesting, raw meal out without having to drive to
Toronto! The food is delicious at W.O.W
and we go there whenever we get the urge to eat out and have taken our children
there a number of times for birthdays or special occasions.
And then we discovered something
else, Green Smoothies! They are
amazing, delicious, nutritious and so easy to make. Please check out our Green Smoothie Recipes. We have one or two of these everyday, it’s a
wonderful way to get the necessary nutrients that are in dark leafy greens,
especially minerals, without having to eat so much salad. We do like salads occasionally but much
prefer to get the majority of our greens in the smoothies.
It’s been a gradual, growing, learning experience over the
last two and a half years, as a couple, to get to where we are now. I really believe that cooked food is an
addiction, and should be treated like an addiction. For me, it’s much easier when I commit to being 100% raw because
I find that as long as I consume cooked food, my body continues to crave
it. We’ve had to go through the process
of elimination with each food we were particularly addicted to and the last
thing was pizza, so at the moment I am experimenting with raw pizza recipes to
come up with something we will enjoy as a once-a-week treat.
And so our journey continues and
we are very excited about our future as raw vegans. We’re planning to retire in 2008 and spend at least a few months
a year in Costa Rica. The fruit is so
good there, not to mention the sun, sand and rainforests! We would love to hear from you and if we can
help in any way please contact us.
Also, please continue to check out our website as it grows.
Yours in raw health
Yvonne and Bob
.
