Raw Thoughts

This blog is being created with one intent: To document the journey of healing asthma and allergies with a vegan, raw food diet.

Why raw food? Because the only thing that makes sense to me for vibrant, radiant health is eating real food, the way it grows. Because eating processed foods, dairy, wheat and other things make me sick. Because I've been watching the raw foods movement long enough to know that it works and that it is healthy. Because many people have documented their journeys to losing weight, healing cancer, asthma, diabetes, allergies and other conditions, from eating live food and cutting out toxins in their diet.

Why today?

Today I woke up at 4am and took Proventil and Bronkaid. This is a normal morning occurence. Later, I took Alavert, Proventil, and Bronkaid. This is something I do daily as well. After crying to a friend, walking, meditating...I went to Urgent Care because I still could not breathe. My blood pressure was high due to the stress of trying to breathe and I was prescribed ProAir HFA, Prednisone, and Singulair. I can tell you that this article does not make me feel warm and fuzzy about trying Singulair for the first time. My health, mainly my breathing, is out of control. It hurts to live this way.

Today I was prescribed a 30 days prescription of Singulair and six days of Prednisone - which I will take. I have an Albuterol inhaler in case I need it. In 30 days from today I would like to be living a radically different life, thank you very much. I was born with asthma, but the last three years have been particularly difficult for me. It just keeps getting worse. This was never an issue in this way until about 3 years ago.

I am a holistic health and sustainability writer and marketer. I know A LOT about health and healing. Being dependent on these medications and not living my truths does not make sense for me. It is time for me to take control.

I've been reading about raw food for years. It makes sense to me. I'm not jumping in without a few things set in place. I have an old Champion Juicer that I got from craigslist.org for $25 and an old Vitamix Blender from craigslist for $80. They both work just fine. I also have a fancy food processor. My best friend has a dehydrator and lives less than two miles from me.

It's crazy - I've been thinking about and reading about this diet for years. I slowly gathered the tools, only to have them adorn my kitchen countertop, almost entirely untouched. It feels like I've been getting ready for today - the day I was pushed over the edge and realized that I need to make a huge change in my life. HUGE.

I picked up some kale, collards, bananas and cherries (all organic) at the store for my morning green smoothie. I figure that will hold me over until I can search for some easy recipes and go to the store tomorrow. I'm super excited about trying out green smoothies.

Make no mistake, I am not a currently a raw foodist. I eat meat. I eat out at restaurants. I drink wine. I just quit smoking. I currently have a kitchen full of processed foods. I am also very sick and am ready to change everything for vibrant health.

In the past I have been a vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan. I know food is medicine and I also know that food can be poison.

Of course, I'm documenting this journey because I want to be held accountable and responsible. I want support, words of encouragement, and raw connections. I want to document what it is like for me to make this change. I want to write about my challenges, successes, thoughts and epiphanies.

Please subscribe and follow me on my path through Raw Respire...and I promise to be more joyful and playful on my blogs, when I am not so exhausted and drugged up! Today was quite intense!