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Hey there,

I'm Chad and I hail from Toronto, Ontario.

While I am still a little new to raw/living foods, I have been a vegan chef for nearly 3 years and have been cooking professionally for 8. My transformation to veganism began around 3 to 4 years ago when I was over-over weight, non energetic, and just didn't seem to care about my diet until one day I getting a physical done and my doctor told me that I had to do something about my weight and eating habits (I was vegetarian, but not eating to healthy). I also weighed nearly 340 pounds.

I immediately started eating healthier and started exercising, which started with just walking laps around a forest trail, which eventually lead into cycling.

Around August 2007, I moved to Toronto after I found out that I would be working at the popular vegan restaurant, Fressen and eliminated all animal by-products. I started cycling the city back and forth from work (about 15km a day total) and I noticed myself losing more weight and having more energy, sleeping less and generally I just became happier. By this time I now weighed roughly what I am now, which is about 240 pounds.

Fast forward two and half years, and I now work at a mostly raw vegan restaurant and have found myself falling in love with the raw food movement. The freshness and overall taste of food just seems to amaze me.

I wouldn't consider myself a raw vegan, but I am about 60 percent. But I choose to eat raw most of the time. Being a chef, my girlfriend and I continually eat the most fresh and homemade fare possible. (Although we have our vices, pizza night. Haha.)

Well that's a little bit of me for now, I hope to meet like-minded individuals on this forum and continue my quest for knowledge in the raw food movement.

Thank you!

Hello all! I have been raw now for about 2 months, since that time I have lost 55-60lbs. without really even trying. I started this because my wife had mentioned that she wanted to eat more raw, like 75-80%. I started researching the merits of raw and quickly seen the health advantages and common sense of it. I started immediately. I had always been a big meat eater, never thought I would do this, but my biggest goal is for my family to be healthy, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and finacially. I figure for this to happen I need to lead by example. I weighed 255-260 when I started, was not fat per sey, but was heavy I guess. I did not even try to lose this wieght, it melted away, I did not really exercise much besides the ride to and from work. Now I am a little less than 200, I weigh again in a week, been weighing about every 3 weeks. I had always thought I ate healthy but now I see the truth about health. I am somewhat limited here, on a mil. base in Iraq for what I can eat. Everything is geared towards cooked foods. I eat ALOT of fruit. Melon, banana, oranges, tangerines, celery, carrots, pineapple, pear, apples, kiwi, grapes; ordered a bunch of stuff online- almonds, cashews, pistachios, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, cracker things, almond bars, different sprouted cereals, a raw chocolate bar. I also have a fresh life sprouter, I have been sprouting for about 3 weeks now. I like the larger sprouts best, like the mixed bean sprouts. I also just started a program, the hundred pushup program. I just finished week one, and supposed to start week 2 today, but my arm is too sore. I recently got a resistance band set and started yoga also, not so good yet, but trying. I have bought a couple books, really like the Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe so far. Is pretty encompassing as far as health is concerned, more than just diet, takes alot of things into account. Well, wanted to say hello, and does anyone have suggestions for eating over here, or what to eat for a sore arm to help it heal? I went a little overboard on my last day of training, did the 100 pushup program last day of week one and went to town with my new resistance bands.

Hi everyone! I've been vegan for about 15 years, but my husband and I finally decided to eat a high raw diet after experiencing a very stressful 2009. I've been researching raw and lurking on raw vegan boards forever, but I had trouble sticking to it until my husband decided to join me. It's much easier when the whole household jumps on the ol' wagon.

So far, it's been three weeks, and we both feel much better. My eyes and skin are clearer and digestion issues have cleared up. Just before I made the switch I tripped and injured myself pretty badly. I had to have 12 stitches right between my eyes and over my right eyebrow. Since I've gone mostly raw, it's been really weird, though. The cut healed very, very fast, and the scar is diminishing rapidly. Granted I've been apply vitamin E oil to it, but I'm thoroughly convinced that shucking the alcohol I was consuming and powering through tons of raw fruit and veg has helped immensely.

We live in Southern California, so I've been very lucky to have an abundance of great produce at my fingertips. I'm looking forward to posting here. This seems to be one of the livelier, more pleasant boards I've encountered.

Hello everyone out there. I am so excited because I just made my first Raw recipe. I had some almonds on hand so I made some "Almond Nut Milk" and it turned out great! I know that my first recipe was a simple one but now I am really looking forward to diving into the bazillion Raw recipes that are out there and even coming up with some of my own.

Loads of love,

AnneMae