about; updated

 "life, raw: unprepared or imperfectly prepared for use... 

not in a polished, finished, or processed form. 

global adventures.nourishing practices xx"

This crazy blogging journey started out with food… a diet… an all consuming passion for everything raw vegan. It turned out that it was a very little box I put myself in, in the ongoing pursuit of a happy, healthy tummy. The journey has continued to evolve and defining myself by what I eat is no longer enough. And I’m no longer vegan…

From a food perspective, this will probably be better classified as a vegetarian blog although I still predominantly prefer a vegan diet. I’ve added (happy chicken) eggs back in for a variety of personal reasons and occasionally have a bit of (vegetarian) cheese. I still prefer gluten-free and despite bouts of serious sugar addition, strive for less in my life. My old crazyrawvegan recipes are still a mainstay in my kitchen but it would be hypocritical to pick up where I left off over two years ago in the same vein. I got enough grief from people adding honey to a smoothie with the ‘vegan’ label attached to the blog. If I lose some of you here, that will have to be ok, but dont’ judge me, as I don’t judge you for your food decisions.

From a life perspective, I’m back in Australia. I’ve overcome a third ’bout’ of depression and still deal with anxiety. I work hard and too often struggle to find balance. I travel a lot, exercise too infrequently. I love my tribe like, well, crazy and I fight hard every day for my relationships, to have the difficult discussions, to get to what’s real. I am also crazy; I dance randomly, wiggle my bum when I’m happy, laugh at myself and find joy in the little things.

The intention is to share more of that, for whatever it’s worth. Would love you to join me.

I hope you all find health and happiness, in whatever form it takes.

Sara.

 

PS. below is the original crazyrawvegan journey and subsequent evolution, for any context that may resonate…

…my journey to raw foods was a long and winding one. About eight years ago, I accepted the fact that I simply can’t digest red meat. I had been ignoring the aches, pains and ahem, gas, for years because I loved red meat! After acceptance, I was on and off the red meat. I’d go without for ages, then collapse under the pressure of the Sunday afternoon steak in the beer garden in the summer sun. I’d feel sick, I’d go without, and collapse again. During this time, my mum got me on to Eat Right For Your Blood Type (note – I don’t recommend this!), and it said that as a Type A I should be eating fish and tofu instead. This seemed to work for me, but it also said that cheese wasn’t optimal for Type A’s and I had a (huge) problem with this… I was addicted to cheese! Like red meat though, cheese and other dairy products gave me all sorts of intestinal issues that I desperately ignored to satisfy the almost constant need for the thick, creamy, tastiness of CHEESE – goats cheese, blue cheese, sharp cheddar, creamy brie and buttery camembert. And organic fetta marinated in marvellous magical herbs and olive oil definitely has to be good for me right?? Eeek.

Fast forward two years and I moved to London. A new scene = a new me. I turned up claiming that I was a vegetarian, and that was that. I ate bread. I ate pasta. I ate cheese. I’m a slow learner. Then, I learnt that the run-of-the-mill cheese is not actually vegetarian – it contains rennet, which is “extracted from the inner musoca of the fourth stomach chamber of young, unweaned calves”! That stopped that pretty quickly… until I discovered a source of vegetarian cheese just down the road… whoops, but an addiction is an addiction. It did, however stop me from ordering cheesy dishes out, which reduced my cheese intake a lot as who actually cooks in London??

Fast forward another two years and I moved to Boston. A new scene = a new me. I turned up claiming that I was a raw vegan. What?? Well, I had been ignoring the fact that a vegan diet was going to be the most agreeable diet for me for years. Something had to give – I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and feeling plain ordinary. I had met raw vegans in London who were positively glowing and decided that I wanted in on the action! I bought a whole lot of books, a dehydrator, a blender, a food processor, heaps of mason jars and some good knives and I was a raw vegan… with a crazy blog :)

Three years on, things have continued to evolve, as all good things do. When I started my crazyrawvegan journey, the destination was 100% raw perfection. After about 18 months, I started taking detours into cooked vegan foods, whether to be social, or to deal with the cold winters, or simply because I felt like it. But I couldn’t see these detours as taking the scenic route – I saw them as dead-end roads. Guilt, self-loathing and proper craziness ensued…

Having realized it was indeed crazy behavior, I started to embrace a balance that worked for me. It’s harder because I can’t explain myself in a single sentence; instead it goes something like… “I’m whole-foods / plant-based vegan, high raw, gluten-free, (mostly) soy-free, low fat, low sugar… I juice a lot and love green smoothies; but some days I eat a box of vegan cookies…”

Motto: don’t worry about putting yourself in a diet box to make other peoples life easier: find what works for you. Make the best decision you can every time you sit down to eat, treat yourself occasionally, and love your body.

21 Comments on “about; updated”

  1. Pingback: the quirky side to raw : thaoski's blog

  2. Pingback: from cheese addict to raw vegan – a true story « crazy raw vegan

  3. Hi I cant open the recipes for mains, savoury etc as the tabs at the top of the page are not clickabel, only the breadkfast tab is working for me. thanks a lot

    Reply

    • Thanks for the feedback! I have put in a query to wordpress to see if I can fix them. In the meantime, you should be able to use any of those menus in the search bar I added last night. Have a great day!

      Reply

  4. crazy lady with a fun story! love it. I am a raw vegan, and gluten free – not sure if that’s typical of those who are raw vegan, but I find it absolutely necessary as gluten has posed a problem for millions, and many don’t even know it’s the source of their health issues. Are you gluten free? And what does a woman like yourself do exactly in the financial district? curious how you went from restaurants to finance? :)

    Reply

    • Hi Kristin! Great to hear from you :)

      I am gluten free – I think that’s inherent in raw, sprouted foods but would love to confirm that somehow…? I’ve never been diagnosed as gluten intolerant but I know it doesn’t agree with me. I do strategy and planning for a finance company… long story but it involved a cement ceiling in hospitality that inspired me to go back to university, then on to consulting, from Australia to London to Boston and an ever-evolving role in a big company. Life has a funny way of twisting and turning – I would never have envisioned me doing what I’m doing!

      Maybe one day I’ll open the raw vegan cafe I dream about though…

      Reply

  5. I love your ‘about’ page, it describes pretty perfectly how I feel about eating raw/high vegetarian road. It is a ‘long and winding one’ for sure. Since you love traveling (I do to), have you ever been to Wicklow Ireland? They have a raw restaurant which I had no idea was there until we had booked and left our hostel and then subsequently stumbled upon it. How’s that for beautiful fate? Glad Mimi shared your site on FB, hence my presence here – I’ll have to stop by again. Thanks!

    Reply

  6. You sound like me!! I lovvvve Europe… just got back a month ago from a week and a half whirlwind tour. It is NOT my last.
    I too work in a professional corporate environment, where my “radical” views about animal rights and not using styrofoam in the cafe are viewed as weird. Not to mention we are tempted nearly everyday by someone bringing bagels or cake for everyone to enjoy.
    I recently found out I am gluten intolerant, but with all kinds of crazy symptoms happening for 4 years, I have been on and off the raw vegan diet. It is the only thing that seems to help me when I am really sick and can’t figure out why.
    SO… all that said… now I’m back on the bandwagon. I just discovered Mimi Kirk, and she has inspired me to go raw again. I just saw your recipe posted on her page, which led me here. I love finding new delicious recipes like the ones you have posted. So good to see someone with a similar story!
    Keep on keepin’ on. :)

    Reply

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  8. I didn’t know you had a blog! I am so excited to follow this. I am starting to take myself off of cheese (the last thing, really). I have so much to learn about eating Vegan. For example, the 80/10/10 you spoke about in your most recent post about the green smoothie.

    Thanks for putting yourself out there and sharing all of this!

    Reply

  10. Pingback: raw vegan vs. whole food plant based diets « crazy raw vegan

  12. The Journey is always changing us. I had a similar experience with dairy, except my main problems were mucus buildup, allergies, and sinus infections. The Neti-pot alone didn’t solve it, so I cut out dairy about two years ago. My sinuses have been a great deal clearer ever since. I never had a physiological problem eating meat or fish, but my conscience eventually got the better of me completely. I am still experimenting and I am not Gluten Free…yet. I love Pumpkin raisin crunch cereal, and whole grain bread. But I am learning and soon I think I will implement the changes necessary for a wealth of health.

    The Motto is awesome by the way, I found myself worrying to much over the diet box recently, but that is unnecessary.

    Your blog is very inspirational and both the ginger green and the energy juice were amazing!

    To exponentially increasing health and happiness.

    Reply

  13. Wow- brave and hilarious all in the same boat. And all very much what I think sounds like a very good relationship with all the joys ethical food has to offer. Going to Portland this weekend and you bet I’m ditching the green smoothies for a bit…
    Anyway- I would love to send you some chocolate. We make coconut sugar sweetened, raw chocolate and it is pretty fantastic. I think your readers would appreciate learning about it and I think you would enjoy eating it! Let me know what flavours you would like and I will send them your way =)
    Thanks so much, Sara. Particularly for that raw hummus recipe (I sprinkle it with salad ;-) ).

    Reply

    • Hi Emma – thank you for your super kind note! Great to connect with you. Hope you had a great time in Portland and found some yummy good-for-you food.

      I always love to try new chocolates : ) Want to email me at crazyrawvegan@gmail.com and we can work out details?

      Reply

      • Thank YOU for your super awesome site!

        Oh yes indeed- I will send you an e-mail now =)

        I think you will really like these ones- they taste pretty fancy pants for something so healthy!

  14. Honesty-how unique! I’m smiling with lots of empathy. I struggle with veganism, whenever I feel an intense internal pull to do it, it’s a very short time until I’m pondering organic, local, free range bacon or steak. This is a vegan blog, forgive my openness.

    The balance is choosing consciously perhaps. Raw, vegan, organic, gluten free, etc. They all are aspiration of sorts based on availability, health, price, I guess for people like you and I that consciously decide what we consume, what fuels our bodies, and how we impact our surrounding by those choices. 3 years entirely cow dairy and gluten free by choice, once in a while I have organic, raw, goat cheese. I never knew it would feel so great not eating those things. Your Ugg line made me laugh, I have the same pair of Emu’s (basically Uggs), since 2004. Needing to wear them til threadbare to ease my conscience. Now in their 11th Canadian winter a small hole occurred, widening with each wearing. I think I will repurpose the uppers as arm warmers until those too wear out. Your pineapple juice led me to the blog, I will enjoy reading your posts!

    Reply

  15. You’re fun, I like you. Judgement free, I love that :-) Thanks for sharing.
    Signed – Mostly Raw Vegan, except for eggs haha x

    Reply

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