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
Hey, I’m thinking about trying a raw vegan diet, I’ve noticed that raw vegans tend to have this glow but I’ve also noticed in a lot of the before and after pictures they look so much more tan. What do you think causes this?
Hi Claudine,
Great question and funny you mention this tan glow as I often had people ask me if I went to tanning beds or used self-tanner after I cleaned up my diet. This ‘glow’ you mention is due to the cells being nourished! Skin is the largest organ of the body and usually the first to show signs of dis-ease, illness, infection, malabsorption and inflammation – you often see this in peoples faces and can show up in pale, beige colour, blotchiness, redness, acnes, dryness, black circles under eyes, puffiness.
When the body heals, the body glows! The eyes become noticeably clearer, the skin is smooth and the colour radiates and it appears the person has tanned. This is a wonderful natural result of feeding and nourishing the body on a cellular level! Eating the rainbow of plants/fruits/veggies = colourful phytonutrients in the food that protect the cells and keep us looking vibrant!