Raw food a go-go!

Well I never thought I'd be here! Raw food was for, well, other people. Having said that I've always enjoyed enormous bowls of salad, fruit and love the fresh produce of the supermarket bit the most (get quite excitable am sad to say) so I suppose in a lot of ways it's not such an enormous surprise.

I'm still putting it down to our Tri club chairman recommending Chrissie Wellington's autobiography back in July which started me on my journey closer to this.  It's been amazing and from my decision to go totally veggie in September it's been incredibly quick to get here. Vegan (badly) was my November challenge and now, the 3rd of February I've just completed my day 2 of 100% raw.  Having spent 2 weeks preparing myself for this (one week of green smoothies for breakfast and continue as normal for the rest and one week with the smoothies plus one raw meal) I feel totally ready and excited. 

So far I've been lucky enough to follow Tracey Russell's Incredible Smoothies 21 day transition plan which I've found really helpful (shopping lists and meal plans laid out).  I like a bit of organising if someone's prepared to do that!  It's been easy, delicious (not found anything I've turned my nose up at yet - apart from the time I didn't blend the kale in my smoothie long enough... still it's a learning curve).  I've also had a raw coaching call with Rebecca Kane which I found really helpful and am looking forward to working with Maria Ingham from Food4Fuel (website coming very soon).  There's masses of YouTube videos which I've taken to listening to as I play in the kitchen, lots of facebook groups (our local Raw Next Door people Bonnie and Jamie are very supportive) and loads to learn which I love. 

However my biggest learning has been in how I feel. It's been very much about that for me.  This year I'm planning lots of personal development stuff especially around mindfulness and I'm finding the raw food has really tapped into a groove that makes so much sense.  My energy has shifted up a gear with increased clarity and focus.  I've been feeling pretty good on my mostly vegan/plant based diet but this is something else.  The sugary cake of 2012 has gone.  For good. I'm loving how good this feels and can't wait to discover more as I continue...

And in other Alt Tri news (aware as I am that my blog has become ALL about the food!) the barefoot running is going well, swimming about a mile a couple of times a week and the cycling... well the cycling. Let's hope tomorrow's a nice day as I'll get a quick spin on the bike then for the second time this year...

Bienvenidos. Welcome to my new raw food challenge.