Sunday, January 31, 2010

008-Raw enough for me!



I can't help wondering about all the new relationships I have established since I began my raw food and fitness journey's a few months ago. I wonder if all those who I have gotten to know are still active in their journeys toward a better life and being a better person. I can't help thinking that some have decided to alter their plans or cease altogether. Maybe it wasn't for a negative reason but for reasons I have yet to encounter in my lifestyle as a raw vegan. People demand so much from each other and when those demands aren't met, there's this total meltdown that occurs. A good example of this would be the typical scenario where a veteran of the raw food lifestyle is embraced by a novice and begins to provide the novice with information, guidance, and access to an array of food products to help them along the way. Then the novice decides they are better off adjusting their old habits toward healthier ones instead of following the suggestions of the veteran. It all falls apart when the veteran can no longer sell products to the novice and thus announces that the novice is no longer on the path of nutritional enlightenment. Why does that scenario have to turn out like that? Is it common for the nutrition Guru's to be so strict and unyielding that they push away those who have decided on their own parameters of raw-ness?? Who has bestowed upon them the right to make these judgments and who do these judgments serve?? If you have experienced anything remotely close to this type of situation, please find answers to the questions I have posed and decide for yourself and by yourself if the way you DO RAW is indeed Raw Enough For You!

For me, there are many areas of my level of rawness that I am still in the process of tweaking. I would like to reduce my carbon footprint in as much as is humanly possible and the structure of the raw food lifestyle doesn't support this because most of the items I require for food prep, meal planning, and recipe sharing require me to order from a location that is far outside of my local area. This means distribution which means trucks traveling across the country burning fossil fuels. So that by the time the product I have ordered arrives at my door step, it has endured just as much horror as the grocery's at your local market.

So what's the deal with the various descriptions and levels of being a Raw Vegan? It's an individual question with various individual answers and there are those who feel that if you aren't doing raw the way THEY do raw then you aren't doing it right. I say forget what anyone else thinks you should do with your raw food. Concentrate on YOU and if you should happen to have a conversations with these "raw food Guru's" then just tell them....

"The way I have chosen to do RawFood, is RAW ENOUGH FOR ME!"