I was told by a friend and long-time vegan and health nut a few days ago that a large percent of our diets should be raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Ideally, he said, you should try to eat 100% raw. But, he acknowledged that he tried and decided it wasn’t worth it to him and settled for about an 80% raw diet. I don’t blame him. Eating should at least be a little bit enjoyable.

I, on the other hand, have never been a health nut—not really anyway. Past not wanting to feel like crap after my meals or have my a$$ jiggle for a week after a cupcake, I have never really focused too much on the health benefits of my food. My stance has always been that as long as you aren’t McDonalizing every meal, you are probably getting all the nutrition you need.  I became a vegan because I didn’t want to hurt animals, and the health benefits and everything else associated with dropping animal products just came along with it.

But, I am beginning to see that if I want to promote others to change their diets I have to really hype up my own. Saving animals and the environment, it seems, is not enough of an argument for most people, so as an experiment for a week I am going raw to see if fruits and veggies in their most basic form are really everything people have made them out to be.

Today is my first day and I will admit that after 24 hours I am a little hungry and definitely a little bit cold. I think maybe this diet is better suited for sunny Southern California than rainy Eugene, Oregon.

And I’ll admit I went into this mis-informed and already made some mistakes. I put pasteurized orange juice in my fruit smoothie this morning. Usually I enjoy a nice bowl of warm oatmeal, toast, and hot coffee. The smoothie was not a very adequate substitute but I bought all this fruit so I’ll have to figure out how to make it again. Maybe I’ll use water (that just sounds depressing). Or maybe, as one site suggested, I’ll make my own almond milk. But, I have to say I usually plan out my days sort of far in advance and milking almonds is almost never part of the schedule.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes. If I can find a way to dehydrate some Watermelon slices I can enjoy this “special summertime treat.”

Is this serious?

I’ll probably be double fisting cheeseburgers by Friday.