Going Raw... What Have I Lost?

My coworker was talking to me about food the other day and I confessed that I hadn't eaten cooked food in 2 months (with the exception of one vegan wedding, which involved falafel.) Saying it out loud I will admit, it sounded mildly insane. Everyone cooks right? That is where food comes from! Well, it does for one species on the planet. For every other species raw food is the normal way of life. But what have I gained so far, and what have I lost?

Well, for starters, since my transition about 2 years ago from the Standard American Diet I have lost 30 pounds. Though I was vegetarian all my life 2 years ago I was pretty content eating veggie burger meals with fries and soda from Burger King. Giving up soda I lost 10 pounds immediately. The second 10 pounds was lost as I transitioned into a more health-conscious vegan and soy-free lifestyle. The last 10 pounds dropped since I went raw. It hasn't exactly been my goal to lose weight. My goal has been to be a healthier version of myself... to feel happy in my own skin. I wouldn't have said about myself 2 years ago that I thought I needed to lose 30 pounds, but I would have said that I wish I had a nicer chin, neck, and jawline. I am pretty happy with these now. I don't think most of what I lost was even fat so much as it was fluid. I have no scientific proof of this of course, just observations from my own detoxing. It is disturbing to think of what 30 pounds of excess fluid was doing to my organs. As you can read in my blog "Portrait of a Detox", I had some pretty bad problems with boils before this process.

I have lost some foods from my diet, which I sometimes crave, but I have gained the ability to experiment and invent and create something to fulfill those cravings from better food! In this droll everyday routine, I actually look forward to coming home and making dinner! I fail, a lot more than I show in my posts, but I learn, which adults can tend to stop doing after a certain point in their lives. I probably will eat some cooked food somewhere along the line, but now that is more of a special decadence... like a birthday cake or Thanksgiving dinner, and not everyday life. I may have lost Burger King, but I can feel that with these habits I have gained years of my life and more time and energy to share with my family. And I gained a jawline, so that's a nice bonus too.