I’ve been eating only raw food for six months now.  having mentioned that a few times here, but not really exploring the topic (though my posts are hardly verbose ) I thought it might make sense to list some elements that played into the choice:

1.  I’ve been a vegetarian for over 17 years (since I was 12).  However, veganism never felt ‘right’ physically before trying raw. raw food feels the best emotionally and physically.

2. prior to age 28 I was not terribly concerned about the ethics of eating animal products.  once I became more conscious about the cruelty of typical milk and eggs production, I stopped eating lacto-ovo unless I knew the sources very, very well (i.e. small maine farms, or my mom’s chickens…) since I was practically vegan at that point, i had to find a balance that felt good.

3. I’ve known about raw food for about 4 years, but didn’t really understand how to eat it until I did some research just before going raw.  the key for me:  lots of greens, every meal at first.

4. it has proven surprisingly easy for me to switch to 99% raw.  Occasionally I will have olives or some toasted nori, or a grilled slice of zucchini, but otherwise it’s 100%.  I don’t miss anything cooked, including coffee (though that took a few months to get over—- soy lattes from Arabica on free street were my favorite food).

5.  I believe the transition was made easier because, for the past ten years, I tended to eat salads for lunch and dinner anyways, thus my default mode was 50-60% raw.

6.  I didn’t experience any real detox, though was groggy from coffee-withdrawel the first couple weeks.

7.  Many people have quite incredible energy gains on raw food.  I don’t really think I have-  still sleep 7-8 hours a night.  however, my mental focus feels good-  typically, I work 60-70 hour weeks, exercise for 90 minutes per day at least 6 days a week, and juggle a quite wide variety of projects (ranges from govt contracts to web design to fashion design).  I didn’t work so much before going raw.

positive benefits I’ve had eating raw:
-losing weight while eating more calories per day (I’d guess I eat 300-600 more cals/day on raw)
-still very functional if I do sleep only a few hours a night
-better sense of my own spirituality
-better emotional comfort level with food (this was the biggest motivator, having spent the first half of my twenties with an eating disorder)
-minor skin cuts or blemishes heal faster
-warmer-  my physical sense of being warm enough in an environment is usually better than other women I am around.

things I didn’t expect:
-I got a bad cold this season.  For my entire adult life I’ve rarely been sick- 2 days would be a very long time for me to have a cold or flu. this cold took me two weeks to get over. I’m pretty sure it was due to not sleeping enough, under some stress from emotional changes.
-my mom has started to go raw!  she had her first 100% day yesterday.
-my dad thinks it’s amusing and tells everyone we have business lunches with.
-my co-workers and friends are all eating more smoothies.
-almost everyone I meet already knows what ‘eating raw’ means. it’s not that esoteric.