Welcome to rawauzzie.com! The beginning of your raw food journey.
My
parents raised their five children on an orchard in the Australian bush.
We had a wide
variety of different fruits and grapes from our vines.
When I was five years old my father
had developed some serious life threatening ailments. After giving up on
the failing medical
modalities of the time he, at the behest of his sister, went to see a naturapath
as a last ditch
effort to find a cure for his many health issues. This incredible man worked
with my dad,
giving him massage and chiropractic adjustments. He gave him herbs and supplements
and
encouraged my dad to eat a diet rich in raw fruits and vegetables, along
with daily exercise
and deep breathing.
My dad noticed improvement very quickly and managed to regain his
health and vigor.
After the dramatic change in my father’s health largely due to diet,
my parents decided that
our whole family should live this way. They bought an orchard in the country
and moved us to
where the air would be clean and their children would have plenty of space
to run and play. We
felt hard done by because we didn’t get to nosh into the cream buns,
cakes, sugared cereals
and a myriad other treats that our friends were enjoying on a regular basis.
We were made to
ride our bikes or walk to school instead of being driven like the other
kids. However, we rarely
got sick and we were filled with boundless energy as opposed to many of
our school friends
who seemed to get sick more often and later on in life I am finding out
that many of them are
dead! I keep hearing about this one or that one dying of cancer or some
other terrible illness.
I
was surprised at how many of my old schoolmates are having to deal with
severe mental illness!
I didn’t fully appreciate how lucky we were to have such enlightened
parents as a child,
however later on in life I began to see their wisdom and their influence
has led me to where I am
now, eating the best food ever and experiencing new levels of health and
vitality, and clarity of
mind and spirit.
I left home at 19 and moved to the states after marrying my husband Carl.
He was raised on
the standard American Fair. Soon my diet began to shift over to more processed
foods, meat,
dairy and heavy starches. I began to gain weight at an alarming rate which
began my yo-yo
dieting phase. This lasted for about 15 years. I would try crazy crash diets
to lose my weight
only to gain it all back and more after getting off the diet. During this
time I had three children.
I wanted healthy kids, so I tried to make fairly good choices in regards
to their diet. Looking
back I realize I could have done so much better. I was trying to give them
healthy food, but I
guess I didn’t realize the damage the unhealthy food was. I was under
the misconception that
everything in moderation was ok. I see now that moderate amounts of toxic
food is never good.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was developing a strong addiction
to the cooked foods I was
eating. It was mostly bread and starches that I was mostly addicted to.
When I would try to cut
them out it would result in withdrawals. Anxiety, depression, irritability,
headaches and lethargy
were some of the symptoms. I didn’t make the connection that these
feelings were in fact
withdrawals from food addiction. Not only was I dealing with food addiction,
but I was also
overeating past the point of full. The little internal switch that is triggered
and informs us that we
need to stop when we are full would be overpowered by the urge to keep eating!
When I
would diet I would have to have a strong willpower all the time. I would
do it to lose the weight
but I couldn’t maintain it as soon as I started adding in some of the
foods I had deprived myself
of to lose weight. I just couldn’t do it in moderation! I found that
as long as I kept eating even
small amounts of toxic food I would want only that. Trying to be strong
all the time would
obviously fail because I would have a weak day and it would inevitably start
the “eating
everything in sight phase” especially the foods I was addicted to.
This cycle continued until I
had reached a whopping 235 lbs. As a result of this I began experiencing
new health issues
such as Chronic Bronchitis, Asthma, high blood pressure and Chronic Fatigue.
One day after talking to my father, I decided to go back on the diet I was
raised on. I lost the
weight very quickly and the health issues went away, however, I was still
eating some cooked
food and eating sprouted grain bread. Again, I had to have a great will
power not to overeat
the breads and cooked foods that were “legal” to eat on my new
diet. I lived on the same salad
everyday which got very tiring and I would find myself only thinking of
when I could eat what I
really wanted which was the cooked foods and the bread and starches. After
losing the weight
the motivation wasn’t the same so the will power wasn’t as strong
for me. Soon the cooked
to raw percentage would favor the cooked and the weight and all the health
issues returned.
So of course after being disgusted in myself and my ballooning weight and
returning health
issues, I decided again to try to eat the healthy diet that my father had
suggested. This time,
however, knew I have to do something different. I realized that eating the
same salad every
day was not the answer so I started looking up salad recipes on the internet
to see if I could
change components of the salads to create variety.
One website led to another and before I
knew it I was reading all about the “raw food lifestyle.” I started
learning about enzymes and
the acid alkaline balance. I began to read testimonies of people whose lives
had changed
dramatically simply because they cut out cooked food. The biggest surprise
was when I learned
about how to prepare raw food in ways I never even dreamed possible! Desserts,
cookies,
pizza, spaghetti, pates and ice cream! All made with raw food and healthy!
Fat was not the
enemy! People were losing weight eating this way. I had to try it! I got
very excited and began
to try to eat all raw! I found this more difficult than I thought it would
be. The addiction to
cooked food was very deep. I soon began to yo yo back and forth from all
raw to mostly raw
to mostly cooked and every level in between. It took six years of this before
I realized what the
problem was and how to correct it. I figured it out in February 2007 and
I have been 100% raw
ever since.
After reading a book by Victoria Boutenko, “12 Steps to Raw,”
I began to realize how addicted
I was to cooked food. The cravings for the cooked food and the withdrawals
were too much
for me to handle and my will power would wane after a few days. Once I realized
what was
happening and that the cravings would stop after 2 months, I was able to
set a new goal and
begin again. This time armed with the knowledge that it would be over in
two months. This
kept my motivation up and my resolve hard and set even during the worst
times.
To my
delight the cravings stopped after a month. However, I still wasn’t
out of the woods yet. It
took four months before I knew I would never go back. I was enjoying my
raw diet for the first
time. I started learning how to make delicious gourmet raw food and became
a certified raw
food chef. I began teaching others how and seeing their lives change for
the better. What
a journey!!
The journey continues as I learn more each day. It just keep getting better
and
better… there is no ceiling! I will say, though that cleaning out the
body is a long process.
Although I feel that overall, my health is improving. I have suffered detox
symtoms. I started
out with the headaches, diarrhea, and skin outbreaks at first. That cleared
up quickly. After
that at intervals, I would experience other strange stuff. Buried toxic
emotions resurfacing or
old injuries flaring up were some of the symptoms of detox. Occasionally
I would also have a
healing crisis that felt like a flue. However, my weight came off slowly
and steadily, my blood
pressure is as good as it was in my twenties. I am continuing to heal but
more importantly I feel
a clarity of mind that I have never experienced in years.
My desire now is to teach others how to get into a raw lifestyle that is
easy even for a busy
person. I teach classes on, “how to get into a raw routine.” Many
people have told me that it
changed their lives and enabled them to, “stick with it this time.”
This makes me very happy. I
want to help people change their lives for the better.
I live now in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in the mountains. I am writing
books and teaching
classes, training chefs. I am also a private chef to people who feel they
are too busy to prepare
their own meals. It is a joy to create delicious raw food and see people
get well and find a new
level of health. You can always tell a raw foodist who has been raw for
a while. They always
have a beautiful clear eyes. There skin is clear and they are vibrant! I
call it the “Raw Glow”!
Hey!! Why don’t you join me in the best lifestyle ever!!!