The 30 day challenge

So here is the accountability part of my challenge - announcing it to the "world"..... or at least those that take the time to read this, about my 30 day challenge.

I am going raw vegan for 30 days.  The idea of vegan has always appealed to me since I became a vegetarian, but most of the vegan websites I have visited included items I don't particularly enjoy eating, like tofu or tempeh.  So when I started researching the raw movement, it really appealed to me.

I recently watched the documentary Food, Inc. which made me realize something new about myself.... I always thought I was a vegetarian mostly because I never missed meat, I never craved it, I felt better without it, etc. I never thought it was ethical..... until that movie.  I still have thoughts of watching them kill and butcher the chickens. It actually disturbed me greatly in a way I never thought. If you have the chance to view that documentary, I highly recommend it. It talks about todays corn, culture, GMOs and many other really interesting facts about food in todays culture. 

So what does eating raw mean?  Well there are basically 2 ways to consume enough calories - obtaining calories from carbs in the form of fruit or obtaining calories from fat such as nuts and avocado.  I will be experimenting with consuming mostly fruit although encorporating fat at one meal minimum.  The rules are fairly simple - eat fruit and vegetables that haven't been cooked. Although most long term raw eaters purchase a dehydrator, I don't believe thats necessary. I unlike some will also remove all sweeteners from my diet including agave syrup, honey (which wouldn't be vegan if I included it just to be clear), stevia, etc.

So here's the second part to the challenge..... not buying anything except food and necessities (like tolietries) for 30 days. There is a lot of reasons for this, but I think we really overdo it with what we aquire. I brought so many items over the last month to agape house, baby blessings, and the thift store and thought each and every time, if I just wouldn't have purchased it in the first place, we would be 'x' dollars richer and I wouldn't be driving here wasting time donating it. (not that I think donating is a waste of time, but follow where I am going with this)  So 30 days near Christmas makes perfect sense to me.

So wish me luck, I may need it as I enter an extreme detox and face new challenges I've never encountered. I was thinking I'd start later this week, but as I've wrote this, maybe tomorrow is as good as any?!