Beyond Granola

Man, oh man, oh man...I feel a phase coming on...UH OH! It's all about the Raw Food Lifestyle in Claire World right now. I can honestly say a food movement has never captured me like this one. It just makes sense, people! I have been researching this for roughly 2 months, or so, after watching a show on the Food Network called "My Life in Food." This episode highlighted a diabetic woman (she was type II, but they do treat both types) who entered a Program at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. This center claims to have a huge success rate at curing, or nearly curing, by a raw diet alone (weight loss was not a factor at this point). Many of their clients either get completely off their insulin, or their drastically reduce their insulin dependency to almost nothing. I was so intrigued, I googled The Tree of Life Center, and then search train began!

I soon learned more about the raw food lifestyle, its history, the leaders, the philosophies, the recipes, the tools, the everything. You know me...I'm a research dork. Finally, with much hesitation, I actually bought a tangible book called The Raw Food Diet Myth. I say "hesitant" because there's something about that first purchase in a new interest that makes the interest "official." I didn't want everyone to think I was crazy, or buying in to some crazy ultra-granola fad...but maybe I was? Anyway, I was so pumped for the book to arrive; I even express shipped it! I NEVER express ship anything. The book came in about 3 days, and I haven't been able to put it down since. I think I have only read one other non-fiction book in my life; I am so shocked by overwhelming interest in this lifestyle.

I'm not going to go into details about "Rawism," on bombard you with scientific theories, pH levels, what "raw" truly means, or the like; that's what my precious, patient Steven is for ;-). But, I am here to announce to the e-world I am excited about integrating raw food into my life. I'm not going to be a nazi about it, as I would have no social life and be a royal pain-in-the-ass when being invited over for dinner, but I have started this week as a "vegetarian" to start my experiment. I don't have anything against meat, or anyone who eats, and I like meat, too...it's strictly an experiment I want to conduct based on learning more about select nutritional science theories. This transition has not, nor will be, hard for me to make as I love almost all vegetables, fruits, grains, and seeds, and already eat vegetarian many times during the week pre-official veggie switch. I'm not aspiring to be 100% raw right now, and may never be. Who knows, I might be eating meat again in a couple weeks. Whatever the results may be, I feel like I can't let this rawism interest rest until I give it a try.

So, with all this said, I'm going to try to be more active with this blog by sharing my experiences, research, photos, recipes, videos, and "funnies" during this time. It will be awesome, duh! Don't worry, I'm still going to update about non-raw stuff, as well. In fact, Steven and I went to his home town, Muenster, last weekend, and I brought my camera with the intentions of posting our trip on here. Of course, I accidentally left my camera in Muenster, which Steven's sweet mom is mailing back to me...thank you, Jeanette! 'Till next time...

Happy eating,
CC Bloom