Raw Food Diet | Before & After, My Story
Before (Raw Food) I had no life-changing story to share.
Little of what I experienced or accomplished with ‘dieting’ up until that time was worthy of changing other people’s lives and by age 30…
…I never thought I was ‘fat’
..I identified myself as ‘healthy’..
And did everything right – worked out at the gym 5x/week (sometimes 2 times/day), avoided alcohol, slept 8hr/night, took my shakes, vitamins…
Boy, was I in denial, because a picture NEVER lies
The first photo was taken in 2010, age 30.
At that time, I ate a very meat-centric diet (bodybuilding days). And, I also consumed dairy and gluten and drank coffee regularly.
My Typical Day Looked Like This:
❌ 6-8 egg whites, 1/2c oatmeal
❌ 4oz fish, 1/2c rice, veg
❌ 4oz chicken, 1 sweet potato
❌ 4oz steak, 1 potato, veg
❌ Protein Shake (whey) and banana
❌ Peanut butter on toast
??There’s my (proverbial) six meals/day!! ?
Healthy? Well, I figured I was doing better than everyone else because ‘they’ were eating chips and drinking wine and soft drinks without exercising
By age 30, I had Rosacea, terrible digestion, flatulence, burping, IBS, achy legs, irregular menstruation, headaches and dry skin patches.
Yah. I was ‘healthy’ right?
Fast Forward… Summer of 2010. (4 months after the first photo)
My SHIFT? Meeting a fully Raw Foodie at my local Farmers Market.
From that first encounter my interest was piqued, I wanted the GLOW they embodied!
Firstly, I began by adding more veggies into my diet. Then, decreasing the amount of meat I ate; then, stopped using shakes and made smoothies with real food, then started to increase more gluten free items and limited wheat; then dabbled in the kitchen with making my own hummus and spreads, then stopped meat entirely, then stopped dairy, then increased fresh/raw veggie meals…
Additionally, I attended as many free live talks, watched food documentaries, read vegan books and raw-vegan cookbooks and joined a Raw Food Meetup group in my city–never missing the bi-weekly events and returned to the Farmer’s Market weekly for my groceries and to talk to my new foodie friend.
I immersed myself in the culture and began to see health in a new way
I went as far as reaching out and professing this new-found desire about wanting to learn to a Natural Food Chef in Toronto. She took me on as an apprentice in her business and I started immediately!
I trained under her for 10-months, happily making the total 2+ hr drive without ever being monetarily compensated.
I simply WANTED to learn, I WANTED to be someone that others saw with that GLOW.
September 2011, I opened my own Raw Food Restaurant and this catapulted my new Plant-Based Lifestyle.
By 2013, I was fully raw-vegan.
I eliminated all meat, cheese, dairy, gluten, processed foods, (no alcohol–I never drank so this was easy), coffee, lattes… you get my point
I became a bona-fide raw-vegan whole food plant-based eater!
My typical meals began to look something like this:
✅ Smoothie
✅ Salad with chickpeas/beans
✅ Nuts/seeds and a fruit
✅ Stir fry with veg with tofu or nuts
✅ Homemade sweet treat–like a date ball or ‘nana ice cream
✅ Blueberries if still hungry
Today, Age 40, I take 0 medication, no multi-vitamin, no supplements..
My digestion is balanced, no more achy legs, or menstruation problems…and, my skin – its radiant!
I continue to eat whole food, colourful food, and follow the same advise I was given when I began – keep it simple.
If you’re keen to get started on your own journey I created a simple 30-Day Plant-Based/Vegan Meal Plan to get you
started.
Hugs,
Jess
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