Another one bites the RAW...

[mcster]

I met this guy two weeks ago who recently became vegetarian. We had a chat about health for about half an hour and haven't spoken to him since. I just received an email from him this morning. Check this out:

"You look so healthy and vibrant that I have decided to take another step and go raw." Haha!

How many people have you inadvertently (or not) "converted"?

[bananaberrie]

Wow, that's awesome!! Congrats on your positive influence. :woohoo:

[green goddess]

That's awesome, mcster! I love the power of positive influence! :woohoo:

A couple of years ago, I first became aware of green smoothies via my mom lending me her 'Green for Life' book by Victoria Boutenko. I ravaged that book, bought myself a vitamix (and my own copy of the book ;) ), and started talking about green smoothies to one of my best friends. She in turn talked to her parents, and they jumped on the green smoothie bandwagon, and went a step further with becoming raw! This influenced me to try out raw, and here we all are!

So, I guess we influenced each other! Though I'm credited as the person that 'showed them the way'. It's so nice to see them go into their sixties looking and feeling so vibrant!

[klomasius]

For me it spreads out like water into a delta. I do a lot of volunteer work with my local vegetarian organisation and have been influencing people (not really trying) to make small changes towards raw for years. Some have gone high raw as a result of the round the table conversations we have and the fact that many people think I'm younger than I am.

Now, when someone brings food to share at our workshops and events, it's far more likely to be raw than it used to be, and people are delighting in telling me about their latest raw recipe experiments!

I also do a lot of outreach work in the community through the organisation, volunteering on stalls at events and festivals and so people can talk to a real live example of this strange lifestyle they've heard about. And so I'm talking to many people I wouldn't normally come across and introducing them to the wonderful world of raw.

We never really know the full extent of our influence as we influence people we may never meet again.

I have a number of 'raw children', we have this joke where we keep track of our lineage. My 'raw granddad' owns a vegan guest house in the country and has been raw for decades, he influenced my 'raw dad', a friend of mine who introduced me to raw and now I have some 'raw kids' who I have influenced to go raw. I also have lots of 'vegan kids' too. It's fun! The way you know they are your kids is of they willingly and off the bat tell you that you were a big influence in their decision to go raw and/or vegan.

I also think I may now have some 'raw grandkids' but I'll have to check up on that one! :throwhearts:

[streetsurfer]

Bless you all. You're paving the way for a better world!

[mcster]

Cool to hear so many stories. I have to say that I have a hard time containing my enthusiasm for raw. I can't stand people who impose their beliefs/ides on others so I'm sensitive not to cross that line but seriously...who doesn't want to share a cool trip??? The rest is just osmosis.

The best experience so far has been sharing my raw story with my parents, both of whom are vegetarian and extremely knowledgeable about health but somehow seem to have gotten a bit lost and strayed into SAD territory. My dad loves his chips and my mom her dairy. I've learned so much from them about health through the years and now I get to give back by sharing my experience and hopefully help them get back on course. They're not raw yet but since I started on this, they have drastically improved their diet and eat much more raw. Nothing beats being able to give back to your parents. :)

[RawHealthyBeauty]

Very cool!! :woot:

For me by being a great example of eating raw food is louder than words!!! That really gets the ball rolling!! :dance:

[Bananna]

it's so surprising to me when I have an effect on people! I have, just by mentioning it sometimes, made a number of people go veg, or gluten free, some clearing up some serious health issues. I have made some others go all raw for lengths of time...just simply by mentioning it...then you see them some months later and you can have a grand old talk about it!