Here’s what I’m doing, in case you’d like to know, and I’ll also give you some books and websites as resources if you’d like to feel better than twenty, too.

For starters, I’m eating about 95% raw. I pull that percentage out of a hat. I know that in the past six weeks I’ve had two cooked meals (at Chinese restaurants where I went with people who really wanted to go to Chinese restaurants), and some steamed veggies along with a raw meal three or four times, and at Vegetarian Summerfest last week I had a gluten-free muffin one morning when fruit was just wasn’t filling me up, and a piece of wedding cake because, gosh, friends were getting married. Otherwise, I’ve been all raw. I don’t know “how raw” a person has to be to feel this renewed and rejuvenated; my hunch is: any raw is good, and the more the better.

So, what do I eat? Most mornings I start with Natalia Rose’s green lemonade (the recipe is in the archives of this blog: 3/16/09) and after the gym I have breakfast — either fruit alone (maybe a mango and a banana), or fruit (sliced peaches or nectarines usually) with almond or Brazil nut milk, or a “cream” I make by blending the nut milk with a ripe bananas. I’ve been known to have a raw walnut brownie for breakfast, too. 

Midday, if I’m by myself, I usually make a huge salad. HUGE. (That’s for emphasis.) I use arugula or romaine or mesclun greens, tomato, maybe some raw sauerkraut or kim-chee, a sprinkle of Parma! (a commercial raw parmesan substitute made from ground walnuts and nutritional yeast), and a nut-based ranch dressing. (I only use extracted oils if I’m having salad at a restaurant or if a tablespoon or two of olive oil is called for in a recipe.)

If Monica, my assistant, is working, I make lunch for the two of us in the blender, either a raw soup (greens-based or tomato-based, either light and fat-free, or creamy with the addition of an avocado) and some raw flax crackers (you can make them with a dehydrator or buy them at a natural food store); or a green smoothie — bananas, frozen berries, Raw Power supplement powder, and whatever mild greens are on hand — romaine, kale, spinach — and a little agave nectar if it needs to be sweeter.

When I eat cooked food, I’m pretty tied to three meals a day, but with raw I eat when I’m hungry and usually have something in the afternoon — a piece or fruit, a bottle of Kombucha (a fermented green tea beverage, good for digestion), a raw candy bar, another glass of vegetable juice, whatever feels right and is available.

Dinner is either simple, simple, simple, i.e., another big salad with maybe some hemp seeds (42% protein) and flax crackers, or something more creative. Last night I made William and myself raw fettucine (you make the “noodles” from zucchini with a vegetable peeler) with a tasty, homemade, uncooked marinara sauce, salad, and steamed asparagus (there’s some of the 5%). After dinner we went out for a walk and when we came back, I had raw ice cream (Organic Nectars is the brand name) and it was delish.

Going out is easy: I order salad. I keep raw crackers and maybe a raw candy bar in my bag. And for a real treat, we go to Caravan of Dreams or Pure Food and Wine or some other raw or high-raw vegan restaurant where there’s a whole menu to choose from.

Do I take supplements? Only a couple: B-12 (which I’d take anyway as a vegan; B-12 isn’t found reliably in plant foods), and vitamin D (which I’d take no matter what I ate, since I live in the North and use sunblock; there’s no way I can make enough vitamin D the natural way, from sun exposure on my skin). I sometimes also take a vegan EFA/DHA capsule, but I’m not as religious about that as the B-12 and D.

Here are some resources if you’d like them:

COOK(LESS) BOOKS:

Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People, by Jennifer Cornbleet. (I use this book every day. It’s the source of the walnut brownies, the marinara sauce, the ranch dressing…)

The Raw Food Detox Diet, by Natalia Rose. (A great starter: she’s not vegetarian and I think she’s overly enthusiastic about colonics, but she gave me Green Lemonade and introduced me to Lara bars, so I’ve got to love the woman.)

The Raw Revolution Diet, by Cherie Soria, Brenda Davis, MS, RD, and Vesanto Mellina, RD. (Gourmet recipes from the co-founder of the Living Light Culinary Institute, with solid nutritional info from top-notch dieticians.) 

There is a wealth on info on the web as well:

www.giveittomeraw.com (social networking for raw enthusiasts)

www.rawspirit.com (60s-love-in-style raw celebrations around the country — I’ll be speaking at the one in the DC area August 29)

www.rawfoodchef.com/events/rawFoodsExpo.html (the Expo at Living Light, coming in August in Fort Bragg, CA — I’ll be there)

www.rawfoodinfo.com (raw food chef and educator Rhio tells all)

www.rawfamily.com (Victoria Boutenko, who practically ‘invented’ raw smoothies tells her family’s healing story)

Now, what do I expect you to do with all this? Whatever you like, even if that’s nothing. Although I would certainly love it if the whole world turned vegan since that would alleviate so much suffering of animals, I have no axe to grind about anybody becoming raw. I can’t even promise that I’ll do this forever. I just know that today I don’t want to do anything else, and if you felt how I felt, I’ll bet you’d want it too.