What's it all about, Alfalfie?

I'd been visited by the Raw Food Thing a few times before, I tried it for a bit, felt great then I lost it again.

This time it's  so completely different.  I started rawing a couple of months ago now - a result of winter sludge and sluggishness and after I had reacted with scorn and defence to a friend who mentioned she was 'doing the raw vegan thing'.  "Urgh" I though, here we go again, the whole unattainable, perfectionistic, holier than thou dietary regime of restriction and plain intolerance to variety and individual likes.

So it took me a bit to get through that, I just thought to myself "when spring comes around, i'll give it a go..."  And I did.

I began gently with the philosophy that if I pushed hard, my resistance would find greater strength than my intentions, so all that I asked of myself was to start the day with a fresh juice.  After a week of that I just dove  (not like the bird I painted for my spazzy first class homework, dove, like stove, you know I'm right).

There's so much fantastic information out there now: books, workshops, people, websites, blogs, experiments, strange looks, emotional detox, physical detox, queasy before easy and not so hard - a whole lot of fun with some great rewards.  My old lives of organic shops, health food stores, hospitality, catering and food promotions gave me a bouncy spot to jump off.

So here on this blog I want to share my discoveries, laugh at my misses and rejoice about the successes - starting this blog is one of them.  Yay me!

I'm aiming for beautiful, delicious, practical, tasty and easy raw food - just don't try to stop me from going gourmet and haute cuisine - I love it there too, and I'm inspired by so many others.

I'm in Perth, Western Australia, and far from being alone in this trip I very quickly found a group of wonderful people who are all a part of this for me.  I wish I'd taken more photos of my weekend at Samudra with the fantastic crew that Jazz got together, but honestly it was so much more important to be fully there and soaking it all up than preserving it for posterity.  We'll just have to go back!

Social eating for me is pretty OK - I'm always one for an impromptu dinner party or a bring a plate thing, and i'm not so worried about what others think.  There may not always be a raw choice on the menu, but for me personally, allowing myself to stray from the path keeps me on it much more securely.  Perfectionism is crippling, and nobody likes a carping proselytising um, what should I call them? carrying on about what you're eating.  Just do your best darling.