Well, like the title implies, this is just another raw journey, made by just another raw-foodist. So, here goes nothing (or everything):

I was never unhealthy, never overweight, never had any serious health challenges. I was a little better off than the “norm”. I was breast-fed for the first eight months of my life. My mother didn’t vaccinate me as an infant, and instead had me immunized at a less dangerous period of my life: when I was three. I was fed healthy cooked food, mostly homemade, and always minimal amounts of fast food. Pretty good. Great, actually, compared to the normal standards.

But then it happened: my mom became too busy. I was about five, more or less. You see, my mom had always been the type to do all the cooking, all the housework, entertain my sister and I practically by herself, and until I was two, she managed this spectacular feat with a job! Now, you don’t see that very often, do you? However, suddenly the burden she had been carrying for five wonderful, but strenuous years, came crashing down upon her. She began to relent. And, thus, we became more normal. We ate a little more at fast food restaurants, she bought more “no prep” meals, and all the while, my dad was too busy providing for the family to help much.

Well, by the time Ciara, my youngest sister, was born in ’94, we were slowly being sucked into the unhealthy world. Now, to give the audience a perspective of how healthy “unhealthy” was for us, I’ll share this story as an example:

In kindergarten, at the age of six, my class and I were playing a game with gummy bears: those delightful, but deadly, little creatures. When we finished the game, Mrs. Burnside, the nice kindergarten teacher there, told us we could eat our gummy bears and then walked around the little circle of kids, holding out the bag of candy and asking each child if they wanted anymore. Now everyone knows that a little child will naturally gravitate towards candy, or anything sweet, for that matter. However, because of my mother’s teachings, I just stood there, holding my gummy bears, which were now melting, in my hands. The teacher noticed me and offered me more gummy bears, looking quizzically at the remaining lonely bunch of bears in my hands.

“No thank you,” I said, meekly, “my mommy doesn’t like me to eat sugar.”
The teacher gave me the oddest impression, as if thinking: What type of mother doesn’t let her kid have a little treat once in a while? Like gummy bears would actually kill a kid… Ironically, they will kill someone eventually.

Now, by the age of eight, my siblings and I were occasionally frequenting fast food chains and restaurants. By this time, I was accepting candy willingly, no longer afraid of my mother’s warnings about the junk. I went to the doctor only for check-ups and he assured that I was healthy and fine, if a little short and scrawny for my age. My mother still knew that this was not the way to go, this food was not healthy. But heck, who can do everything: feed their kids right, be a good wife, and be superwoman at the same time? The answer is nearly nobody. My mother was tired and, consequently, we began to become unhealthier. I became angry and agitated easily, Chelsea (the middle child, born in ’90) was beginning to put on a few pounds, as my mom was, and Ciara was a little tired and whiny. By twelve, I was way below average height, and was just starting to gain a little unhealthy weight. Chelsea on the other hand was overweight and Ciara still healthy, but easily hurt (emotionally and physically).
At this point, we ate close to what most people eat and consume everyday: the SAD diet. Scary huh? I know, tell me about it.
At thirteen, I was becoming unfit, but still skinny, heavy circles were forming under my eyes, and I was less active and creative than before. Chelsea was getting heavier and heavier and Ciara was becoming snippier.

Then, at fourteen, as suddenly as our downfall had occurred, my life changed for the better. I became a vegetarian.
This was not all my own doing, however. In 2000, my mother had gone veggie. She had become trimmer, and more upbeat. My father, whom had always been a big meat-eater, disapproved. Then, in ’02, I finally realized, yet again because of my wonderful mother, the horridness of slaughtering defenseless little animals, which all have souls and a place upon this planet, to fill our bulging bellies, and to ease our worries about protein and B-12. I began to cut out my favorite foods: baby-back ribs, spicy buffalo wings, pepperoni pizza, sautéed shrimp, and, of course, hot dogs. It took quite some time to transition from red meat to poultry to veggie. However, somehow, despite my dad’s best attempts of taking me to the ballpark to get “some big hot dogs where mom can’t see us eating them”, I made it. On September 27, 2002, I passed my final test (or so I thought) and gave up shrimp making me a true vegetarian. My dad couldn’t believe it; neither could my mom.

But still, I wasn’t healthy. I believe I frequented more fast food and tasty restaurants in the year I was vegetarian, than I ever had in my entire life. Soon, however, that changed, as all things, good and bad, seem to do. My mother discovered, to her amazement, a miracle, a Light-sent gift: the raw-food diet. I will assume that since I am writing in an all-raw newsletter that most of the audiences reading this will be raw, or know something about the best diet ever, so I will not take the time to explain this diet. She had asked, prayed for a miracle, and she had found it. My mother had spotted a copy of David Wolfe’s The Sunfood Diet Success System at Whole Foods Market one day. She read the book with the nagging feeling that I believe most of us feel when we discover raw: Why didn’t I think of this? It’s so simple, so clear. I always knew fruits and vegetables were good, why didn’t I just consider eating only them for a diet? The more she read, the more it sounded right. After finishing the book, she told me all about it. WHAM! Something clicked; this felt right. Soon I went 100% raw for a week, following David’s diet plan in the back of his book. It was the most challenging thing I have ever done. After years of eating out, eating cooked foodmade of eating excito-toxins and GMO foods, raw food was, to put it simply, and bluntly, plain bland. It tasted utterly boring. After the week was over, I binged myself at one of my favorite restaurants. I believe it was this week of all-raw that created an even larger desire to eat junk, to eat yummy, yet still vegetarian food, knowing that someday, somehow, I would become another raw-foodist. Never did I imagine that this would happen within the year.
A few weeks later, we saw David Wolfe in a small seminar in downtown Dallas. This motivated my mother and I further. However, my siblings and father still remained unchanged.

After trying to go raw and failing, and trying once more, I finally decided that this was it; it was time to GO RAW! On September 27, 2003, the one-year anniversary of my vegetarianism, I went 100% raw. My mother followed suit. I remember a peculiar feeling, a sensation if you will, the first couple days of being raw. It was as if I was in the cockpit of Apollo 13, and the ground control had just blasted that memorable statement: “All systems go, Houston. All systems go.”

Some people might wonder what drove me to make such a “radical” decision? That’s easy. For quite some time, ever since I had become vegetarian I believe, I had had some amazing visions of a perfect future. They were of me as a young man with amazing vitality and physical and mental fitness. They were of me as a loving husband with an awesome wife, who was also raw. And of me as a father of several children, all living in perfection, in abundance. I wanted this reality; I wanted it so badly that it is impossible for me to portray this feeling to my audience. This was my driving force; this was my motivation.

Today, 13 months later, I am stronger both physically and mentally than I ever was when I was cooked. I am very happy, a happy feeling that I believe only two things in the world can create: love, and, of course, raw. I am clear of mind, and am on the way to a new, better future, where nature and man live in total peace and harmony. I am writing a new fantasy series, which includes several elements including unconditional love and the raw diet, that I could never have even imagined writing while being cooked. And I am in an amazing relationship with another raw-foodist, whom I care for very much.

I am following my dreams, my ambitions, my life’s purpose. And all of this is possible because of raw. Even though neither my siblings, nor my father, are partaking in the raw diet (yet!), they are eating healthier and making wiser choices now, thanks to the tremendous influence of RAW!
That’s my RAWsome journey. Go ahead, don’t be afraid to make one of your own. And in closing all I have left to say is: Thank you, mom.

Derek Cornett
Author of The Chronicles of the Light
www.chroniclesofthelight.com

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