Day 1 - The 30 Day Challenge

"I think I want to become a vegan" I recently told my husband one rushed Friday morning after we had gotten the kids off to school. "What? Why?" he responded skeptically. "You're already a vegetarian!". "Yes...", I replied thoughtfully, "actually, I think I might go raw vegan...you know, try it for awhile." You can imagine the disbelief on his face increase at this point. After almost 12 years of marriage he knew me well enough to know though I was mentioning this casually to him in passing, but I had already decided that I wanted to do this & was currently trying to figure out how to make this raw food plan a reality.
As fate would have it, an hour later we were over at the Crossroads Farmer's Market, & I stopped into my favourite cafe there - Healthy Funky Foods & was chatting to Rayna, picking up a few of my 'hippie treats' as matt would say. She mentioned the 30 Day Raw Food Challenge she was offering - what a coincidence! It was just the sign I needed to know that the universe was pointing me in the right direction. I've always believed when there's a will, there's a way & here it was right in front of me.
After some negotiations on dates, deliveries & preferences I'm all ready to go - put my money where my mouth is as they say - & try this raw food revolution that has everyone feeling so good. Rayna's program seems pretty easy. She supplies all the meals, drinks, snacks & treats & delivers them to your door (or pick up at the market) for 30 days. Sounds pretty simple to me. Not cheap of course - but I figure if I'm going to do it - I might as well start out easy & learn along the way. Investing in my health is something I'd rather do now - starting with what I consume - rather than paying for it later in medical expenses & poor health.
As I start on this journey I have so many questions & obstacles & a very busy life to get through. Will I be able to do it? In the span of the next 30 days I have 4 weddings to photograph, both my daughter's birthdays (cake anyone???) 9 days will be spent out of town between camping, a white water rafting trip & attending & then teaching a  seminar. Whew! But I believe there is no such thing as the 'right time ever. Procrastination will always try find a way to stop me (you know those brilliant ideas you have that don't seem quiet as cool as time goes by as reality starts throwing up an obstacle course of making it difficult) so I'm not going to let it.
This blog will document each day as I go through it for 30 days - hopefully with some pretty pictures & some learnings along the way. I figure sharing will help explain the experience to someone new who wants to try & hopefully help take away some obstacles for them. Welcome to Keeping It Raw - thanks for stopping by.

This is the amazing tapas style lunch I had on my first day - totally as delicious as it looks along with a green drink. Truthfully, I ate my breakfast parfait (fresh fruit/cocaoa cereal/cashew yoghurt) as well with it all at once. I had waited to long to eat (skipped breakfast) so enjoyed a huge lunch. Tomorrow I will enjoy meals at regular intervals...hopefully :)

Lunch: