The beginning

If you asked me five years ago if I would become a raw vegan foodist, the answer would have been an emphatic no. At the time, I was an omnivore who dabbled in vegetarianism (as in, I admired them, but lacked the commitment). But then, Madeline and I met, and one of the things that we shared was a love and respect for animals. Together, we became pescatarians, vegetarians, and then finally, three years ago, vegans.

It's always been about the animals, though, and within those parameters, we've always eaten whatever we wanted. Living together for the past year and a half has made matters worse. Left to our own devices, we have completely different eating habits. Maddie could eat the same thing day in and day out for months and never tire of it, so long as she sticks to a schedule and never feels hungry. I, on the other hand, get bored easily and like to experiment in the kitchen, but eat sporadically. Combined, we cook a lot, in large quantities, eat little throughout the day when we're at school and work and have heavy meals each night. The worst of both worlds. We've both gained more weight than we'd like and we definitely don't feel our best. The fried tofu and peanut butter cookies we make may be vegan, but they're certainly not healthy.

So about a month ago, we started talking about eating healthier, originally thinking about a regimented eating plan like Maddie used to eat. It sounded like torture to me. But then one night (literally, it was like 1am, we were in bed and had to get up early in the morning), Maddie pulled up sample menus from the Sunfood Diet Success System. Avocados, salads, coconut... it all sounded so good, and incredibly simple. We stayed up talking for hours, researching books to read, and decided that this was what we were going to do. We were going to be raw vegan foodists.

We didn't jump right into it, though. When we became vegan, it was a pretty quick transition, and every so often, we still say thing like, "I wish I could have tried xyz before." Maybe it's not very vegan of us, but we've never lapsed in our commitment. So we wanted to get into this raw thing without regrets. For the last month, we've been researching and reading, but most importantly, we've been on a farewell tour of our favorite cooked vegan foods. We have two final nights out planned for tonight and tomorrow, and then February 1st marks the first day of our raw life.

-Eloise