Eating "raw" on the road

It can be a challenge to eat a healthy plant based diet in this world... especially in this country! Fast food, buffets, processed breads, puss filled pasteurized dairy, carbonated synthetic sugar (soda), genetically modified fruit, cloned meat, and soy seem to greet you at almost every rest stop and grocery store. For a health conscious individual who is aspiring to eat a pure diet rich in LIVING FOOD... this can seem all but helpful. One of the most common "reasons" people say they "can't" eat a raw diet is because of time and travel. This post will focus on both...

Time is an illusion, we have all the time in the world to do anything and everything we choose to manifest. Time is abundant, it simply takes a shift in consciousness and priority. If eating raw food is the only option for you... you will find a way to make it work. Where there's a will... there's a way. If that means rising 15 minutes earlier to make a green smoothie and pack a salad for the upcoming day, so be it. If it means watching 30 minutes less of TV in the evening to prepare food for the next day, that seems like a small price. If it means dedicating 5 hours of "time" each weekend to prepare dehydrated food and snacks so you will have raw living food for the week, then do it! When you have the choice of health, of raw, fresh, living food, of abundance... the choice seems so clear. What better way to "spend" your time!

This past week while Dustin and I were on the road I didn't have access to my juicer or blender. I had prepared some dehydrated snacks but mainly brought of fresh fruit, a variety of greens, fresh vegetables to use in salads, and nuts. It's that simple. If you have a busy week and won't have time to prepare raw gourmet meals... go simple. It's quick and easy to toss together a salad or grab fresh fruit. After driving 25 hours from Colorado to California we arrived in Olema and set up camp, our next stop was to explore the area and head towards Fairfax.

There was an awesome grocery store that we enjoyed during our visit last year to Fairfax. We weren't "raw" then, I assumed the grocery store would have even more to offer now that the very thought of fresh California produce made my day. We arrived at Good Earth: Natural & Organic Foods, it is located in the heart of Fairfax, literally diagonal from Lydia's Organics. Good Earth has been opened in Fairfax since 1969, they focus on organic, fresh and minimally processed foods. You can read all about their mission on their website, these two sentences especially resonated with me, "We simply want to sell our customers foods grown and processed using the radical but ancient concept, care. Often care takes a back seat to the pursuit of the almighty dollar."

Holy Raw Heaven! Good Earth had more raw products then any grocery store I have ever seen. They had a section especially assigned for raw products. Everything from raw "slim jims," raw bread, raw granola, raw chocolates, raw truffles, raw energy bars... every raw product you could imagine... and then some. The front of the store is stocked with fresh ORGANIC produce. There was one item in the produce section that wasn't organic... it was labeled "not organic coconuts." How refreshing to see organic produce as the norm!!! I picked up a scaly green fruit called cherimoya. I had never seen or heard of this unique looking fruit, after learning from the produce man that they are delicious... I was sold. Cherimoyas are my new favorite fruit, they taste like sweet custard and have crazy huge black seeds. In the back of Good Earth you can place custom juice and smoothie orders, or you can pick an item off the menu. Each day I had an amazing green juice and a delicious green smoothie that was jam packed with spirulina.

We stocked up on so many raw products that the gentleman who was ringing us up looked at us and asked "are you on ecstacy?" We were glowing (more then usual) and felt like we had stumbled across the fountain of youth (well... in a way we had!)

Eating raw food is helping me be a conscious consumer. I am naturally finding myself drawn to farmer's markets, "mom and pop" grocery stories, and small scale raw companies... the kind that put love and thought into their products! When traveling, especially during the spring and summer months.. you will always "stumble" upon fresh farmer's markets. Oftentimes, we don't truly see things until we are looking for them. Since I have opened myself up to raw food the resources are popping up everywhere. It really is a world of abundance. If travel and time are holding you back from transitioning to a raw lifestyle, take a moment to think and understand the benefits of change. If there's one thing I will happily focus my time and energy on.. it's my physical and spiritual health and my overall well being. You can't put a price on that!