The Raw Food Challenge

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Not long ago, while holidaying on the Gold Coast, I stumbled across a gorgeous little raw-food restaurant. I was meeting up with an old friend for lunch, and we were both keen to try it out.

(Now let me just say that I have never been a huge fan of salads or sprouts. I love cooked carbohydrate foods, like pasta and breads. But for a while now, I've been thinking that I really need to increase the amount of raw foods I eat.)

So we tried it.

And it was awesome!! I loved it.

I had these spiced sweet-potato "pancakes" topped with avocado salad and macadamia feta, all displayed to perfection with tiny edible flowers and pomegranate seeds strewn over the plate.

Then we shared a raw choc-orange cheesecake for dessert.

I came away inspired to try out more raw food recipes at home.

However, working five days a week, studying part-time, with two young children and another on the way, while getting your home ready to sell, and - more recently - a husband in hospital, does not exactly lend itself to researching and trying out new recipes!!

But...I am now finished work, my husband is home from hospital, and our house is just about ready to go on the market, so....I am back with a vengeance.

The last few days, I've been having a look around at some of the raw food blogs and websites.

And if I wasn't already inspired to be more raw, I certainly was after reading through this raw-food blog by an absolutely stunning woman, radiating health and vitality at 53 years young.

I want to glow like that!!

I discovered the Raw Chef's thoughtful blog, and his divine-looking Choc Torte with Whipped Cashew Cream. He's even released his inner hippy, and is offering his full collection of e-books for whatever price you can afford. I'm terribly tempted to take up the offer...

So. I've come up with a challenge for myself (and for any other pasta lovers out there) to increase the amount of raw foods I eat.

Currently, on an average day, I eat probably 20 - 30% raw, mostly as snacks, such as fruit or raw nuts and seeds, and an occasional salad served with dinner, or on a lunchtime sandwich.

That is simply not good enough, for someone who wants to radiate with health!!

While I consider my diet to be an improvement over the "Standard Australian Diet", there are still a number of changes that can be made, including more raw and fermented foods in my diet.

My challenge is to increase the amount of raw foods in my daily diet, to around 70 - 80%. That's roughly all but one meal per day. Some of the things I'm really keen to try are: making kefir and rejuvelac, making nut cheeses, experimenting with sprouted essene bread (I tried it once, but it wasn't really to my taste. I'm keen to experiment and find ways to make it enjoyable.), making a raw cheesecake, and experimenting with different salads and dressings.

I'm giving myself 12 months to achieve my goal of 70-80% raw, seeing as there is a lot of major changes happening in the next 6 months, including a new baby and moving to a new town.

I have three conditions for my challenge.

1. I'm a busy mum, with a lot going on. I simply do not have time for food that requires a lot of fiddly preparation. Not on a regular basis anyway. The food must be relatively simple and easy, and won't keep me in the kitchen for hours on end, while hungry children hang off my legs, whining for dinner.

2. Since making the switch to healthier, better quality foods, our weekly grocery shopping bill has roughly doubled. Given our current situation, I really cannot stretch that budget any further. But eating more raw foods is probably going to cost a little bit extra, (especially with all those nuts). So, I'm going to need to be creative, and find other ways to save money. I'm going to be thinking over this, and my next post will be some of my ideas for being healthy on a budget.

3. Until I'm settled into my next home, which won't be for a number of months, I won't have a dehydrator, so recipes that require dehydrating are out. I know that you can use an oven on low temp with the door partly ajar, but a gas oven running for 8 or 9 hours seems like an awful waste of energy to me, so I'd rather prefer just to wait until I have a dehydrator.

I'd be thrilled if there are any cooked food lovers out there, who might join me on the challenge. You can amend it in any way, to suit your own circumstances and goals. Your goal might be to simply eat one salad every day. Or you might wish to become 100% raw. Whatever takes your fancy, as long as it gets people eating more raw foods, I'm happy.

And if you're not convinced that eating raw foods can take you to new levels of health and vitality, then just take a look at these unbelievable before and after photos. Actually, when I re-charge my camera, I'll add my very own "before" picture to this post, to keep me accountable, and give me a reference point.







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