Welcome to the new Raw Food Scotland!

Hi! My name’s Lisa and I recently took over the Raw Food Scotland website from the lovely Emma.  Emma has very kindly agreed to leave all her old blog posts up, so feel free to have a dig around the archives and enjoy the wealth of useful, educational, thought-provoking (and not to mention hilarious) information that she has left us with.

As for me, I will endeavour to fly the flag of Raw Food Scotland in my own way, and will do my best to share any info that I feel may be useful.

So, by way of introduction, let me tell you a little of my own journey to living a raw life.

Hawaii – where it all started

I first discovered the joys of rawfood back in 2003, while sailing from San Diego towards Hawaii (I have a theory that you can’t visit the magical archipelago of Hawaii without having at least one life-changing experience).

I was working as a singer on a cruise ship at the time and, apart from being vegetarian, I ate a pretty regular type of diet.  We were at dinner and there was a guy at our table who seemed to be eating nothing but a huge plate of leaves.  We enquired as to why he should be restricting himself to salad (after all, one of the main advantages to cruise-ship travel is the never-ending supply of every type of food known to man).

He proceeded to tell us all about the raw food diet; how it was the most natural way to eat, and how it was healthy and beneficial in so many ways.

I think most of the others at the table wrote him off as some kind of weirdo, but I was enthralled.  I bombarded him with dumb questions (what about baked potatoes?  Can you still eat crisps?  etc, etc), which, to his credit, he answered with complete patience and kindness.  I was particularly impressed when he showed me photos of his kids, who he had raised completely on raw food – I didn’t believe it was possible, and had been expecting to see a couple of skinny malnourished urchins – I was therefore amazed when the pictures revealed two bright-eyed bonny children, both looking a picture of health.

I don’t know why exactly, but something inside me just ‘clicked’ and I decided from that day forward that I would eat a raw food diet.  And sure enough, almost immediately I started experiencing tangible benefits.  My immune system grew so strong – I was hardly ever troubled by the colds, sore throats and loss of voice that had plagued me throughout my career.  This was a very significant benefit, considering I relied on my voice to earn a living. Even better still, I soon noticed that the chronic back pain that I had suffered with for years simply vanished.  This was an absolute game-changer for me, as I had tried every therapy out there to heal it – I couldn’t understand how changing my diet could cure back pain, but I didn’t care – it worked, so I wasn’t complaining!

The raw food diet also brought its challenges, however.  I look back at that time now and wonder how I coped – for one thing I was living on the road (or more accurately, ‘at sea’), without any access to the raw equipment (blender, juicer, etc) that I now consider so essential to this way of life.  I also had NO idea what I was doing.  I knew noone at all who was on this type of diet, and had very little internet access to find online groups and support.  Back then the internet wasn’t the information superhighway it is today – I hadn’t even heard of facebook, smart phones didn’t exist, and I didn’t even own a computer, so I had to make do with the odd visit to an internet cafe if I could find one, in order to research this novel way of eating.

So it was a pretty steep, and lonely, learning curve.  I had to learn from my own mistakes, and believe me, I made MANY.

Throughout the next decade I think I went through just about everything rawdom can throw at a girl – the physical and emotional detox, the highs, the lows, the cravings, the juicy deliciousness, the social pressures, the falling away of old relationships and patterns that just didn’t ‘fit’ any more, the blissful (re)unions with like minds and soul mates, the crazy life-shattering exhilaration of it all, and above all the JOY that comes from living a healthy, vibrant, natural life.

I’m looking forward to sharing YOUR raw journey too, and hope to offer support and encouragement in any way I can.