The School of Greatness - 183 Eating Raw and Living Your Passion with Fully Raw Kristina

Episode Date: June 1, 2015

"Everything we put into our body, we have an emotional attachment to it." - Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video and more at lewishowes.com/183.

This is episode number 183 with Fully Raw Christina. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Now today's guest is a special, wonderful, magnificent, magnetic individual.

Her name is Christina Carrillo Bacaram, and she is a bundle of joy. Christina is the founder of the largest raw organic produce co-op in the U.S., and she's been 100% raw for over nine years. Christina's inspiration for being fully raw came after she was able to rid herself of hyperglycemia at the age of 18, eating nothing but low-fat raw vegan diet. And at the age of 20, before she graduated college, she started a non-profit organization called Rawfully Organic. The organic produce co-op in Houston, Texas grew from 12 people in her living room to

over 15,000 families in the greater Houston city limits. She's a coach and a speaker for the Raw Organic Lifestyle and has a massive following over on YouTube, over half a million over there on Pinterest and Facebook and Instagram as well, half a million plus everywhere. And I'm extremely excited to dive into the lessons and the lifestyle behind being fully raw and what that actually means. Now, this may not be for everyone. This diet may not be for everyone. But I think there's some great lessons you can pull from this if you want to try this or incorporate some of this into your lifestyle. And I'm very excited to dive in and make sure to head back to the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 183 to see

the full video interview of this as well and some additional video where Christina breaks down some of the foods that I eat in the kitchen. Yes, that's right. Without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in with the one and only Fully Raw Christina. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got Fully Raw Christina on. How's it going? It's going so good. Thank you for having me. I want to say your name, but I can't say it still.

So it's Christina. Carrillo Bucaram. And I'll say the white boy version, Carrillo Bucaram. You dig great. How do I say the third one, third name? Carrillo Bucaram. Bucaram. Yes. Carrillo Bucaram. Bucaram. Yes.

Carrillo Bucaram. That is my full last name. Okay, cool. So that's why you came up with Fully Raw, Christina, because people couldn't say your last name. People couldn't say my last name. Okay. Now, before I get into anything, what does Fully Raw actually mean? Fully Raw means living a lifestyle that is true to yourself, but primarily eating a raw

vegan diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, all uncooked in their natural state, unprocessed, unfiltered, just raw, fresh from the earth, fresh, ripe, natural, organic when possible, and allowing that to heal your body from the inside out. That's a long definition, but that is what it is. So why did you, were you always raw your whole life? No, I've, on July 15th, I will have been raw for 10 years, which means I have not eaten cooked food in 10 years. Since 2005. Yes. Zero cooked food has been in your system.

Zero cooked food, zero salt, oil, sugars. Wow. Okay. Grains, dairy, pasta, rices, oil, sugars, grains, dairy, pasta, rices, all the things. Now, you're from a Lebanese and Ecuadorian background, right? Yes. I know where you're going with this. Aren't those families traditionally eat lots of pastas and cooked meats and

butters? So the reason why I got into this is because I was diagnosed with hyperglycemia when I was 16. Hyperglycemia. Which is the onset of type 2 diabetes. And I was being weaned on to insulin at the time. Didn't you have that as well, Chris?

Hypo. Hypo. I was hyper. So my blood sugar was high. His was low. Your blood sugar was high. My blood sugar was way too high. Which is meaning you were eating too much sugar.

I actually wasn't eating that much. I was actually eating my mother's Lebanese food. Wow. Which is delicious food it is amazing food but it is extremely fatty and it's drenched in olive oil all the time i know look at your face right now it's a way you're like i want to eat your mom's exactly well if you want diabetes i can show you the way to my house actually um and she eats a little differently now because my whole family's changed their habits. But the coolest part is I was totally averse to it. I didn't even know what vegetarian was or vegan was at the time when I was 18. And it was something that I, you know, you only hit rock bottom once in your life when you're like that physically ill. I was

as tall as I am now. I'm 5'7 and I was was 87 pounds and it wasn't because I wasn't eating. It was because my body was so starved for nutrients and I wasn't responding to the insulin and I would have awful migraines and I was extremely weak and frail. And, um, yeah, my life totally sucked at that time in my life. And I almost didn't graduate from high school because I couldn't go to school. 87 pounds, that's really tiny. Yes. Do you have photos of this? I do.

They're not pretty. Are they on your website or anything? There's some of them. I want to get one from you and post it up on the show notes. Okay, great. I was in the grocery store one day and I'd just gotten out of the hospital. And a stranger walked up to me and he must have saw that I needed help. Like I even had like my arms still wrapped from having IVs.

And he was like, are you a raw foodie? And I kind of looked at him and I'm like, all right, older man approaching me in the grocery store. This is really not cool. And he was like, started telling me about how he juices fruits and vegetables every day. And day and how you know he teaches people how to juice and he's been doing it for a living and his name was john rose and at first i was like oh this man is super creepy you know and but i'm a very open person so i took his car and i remember i went home that day and i was like i met a rabbit man today at the grocery store and my mom was like, oh, just let it go. Just let it go. But I'd never gotten out of the hospital one day and gone back in the same night.

And I knew I was just like head hit rock bottom. I'd never, ever felt that awful in my life. And I didn't know what was going on in my body. It's a very scary feeling to know it's like you can eat all you want, but then your body's just can't handle whatever it's doing. So when I'd gotten out three or four days later, I'd called him up. I was like, look, I've never tried anything alternative before. I was like, I've grown up in a very cultural family. Everything has always been done ABC.

And if you don't pay attention to tradition, you are kicked out. So this is scary for me. I was like, can you tell me what you would recommend? And he's like, well, just, you know, meet me at Whole Foods and I'll explain to you what's going on with your body. He met me at Whole Foods every day that week and started telling me about like what I was eating that was wrong and why, you know, me growing up, never having really eaten fruits or vegetables that were raw. Cause I didn't. My diet consisted of olive oil, olive oil, olive oil, chicken, beans, and rice on my dad's side of the family and my mother's side was like grape leaves and baklava like every single day and it just it got to a point to where i wasn't

eating fruits or vegetables yeah and he was like look why don't you just give this a try it's like to eat raw so let me just put this in perspective for you in texas 10 years ago where it's all barbecue in texas and vegetarian was like, oh yeah, I've done hard of that. That's where they don't eat them cows, right? And then it's like going vegan was, I don't even know what that, she don't eat, wait, why is she doing that? Why is she doing that to herself? And it's like telling somebody you just went raw vegan. It's like, oh, she done gone off the deep end.

She's crazy. Somebody sent her to theoney bin. So I remember sitting with John Rose in the grocery store that day and he's like, I want you to just pick your favorite fruit. I was like, well, I don't even have one. Like I didn't even have one at the time, which for me is like incomprehensible because at this point in my life, I've eaten so much fruit and so many varieties. It's like my life. I was like, I saw in the corner of my eye, I saw like this table of peaches at Whole Foods. I was like, okay, peaches. He's like, all right,

so you're going to eat peaches every day for two weeks straight. And I just looked at him and my jaw dropped. I was like, I have type two diabetes pretty much. You're going to tell me that I'm going to eat fruit for two weeks and that I'm going to be okay? Because at that point,

doctors were telling me to eat nothing but sugar-free this, you know, this, you know, carbohydrate, this. And it was all in a package, all chemicals, all processed. Doctors were telling you to eat that? Yes, absolutely. And I wasn't allowed to eat fruit. They didn't tell you to eat any raw or organic or...

I mean, I was allowed to eat vegetables, but they were cooked and it was like broccoli or rice or whatever. But you don't, you're not properly educated on that. So you're not supposed to have sugar, but he's telling you you're not properly educated on that. So you're not supposed to have sugar, but he's telling you to eat sugar. Essentially. Essentially. Right. So I was 87 pounds at the time and I walked out of that Whole Foods with 80 pounds of peaches to eat for just a few days.

And he taught me how to eat enough so that I was getting in enough calories for peaches. And it was just crazy because after three days of eating nothing but peaches I actually felt better. Wow. You only ate peaches? I ate peaches for two weeks straight. Did you eat it like, did you mush it up? Did you eat it like, slice it up? What does an 18 year old do with, you just

eat it, you don't even know how to chop a salad when you're that young. You know, it's like you eat lettuce wrapped up in tomatoes and eat like a hoagie. That's like what you know how to do. So I, but I remember after just like a full week, I gained a few pounds. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, peaches. Peaches. Nothing else.

Nothing else. Water and peaches. Yes. Okay. No peaches and cream. No peaches and cream. But it was honestly, I noticed such a shift. And then after two weeks, it was like, okay, I put on weight.

My hair stopped falling out. I didn't have migraines and I hadn't been back to the doctor. And for me in like 10 days, that was like a big deal. So I started eating more fruits and vegetables and then 30 days had passed. And it was kind of like this eye-opening moment. It was like, holy poop, you know, I haven't eaten cooked food in 30 days. And it's like, to think about that as a crazy thing, but then to do it as another, because then you realize that it's really not as bad as you thought that it was because there,

I was starting to learn to love other things like watermelon and kale and, you know, you have fun with it. And I never told myself that I was not going to cook food again, but I did keep telling myself that I was going to have fun taking it one step at a time because I was feeling so much better. We can talk about what my family thought later because they all thought that I was going through like some psycho crazy phase of like, we've lost our daughter forever. Wow. But you weren't as sick anymore, right? Like you were. Yes.

And both my parents. After 30 days, you were healthy again? No, no. I would say after 30 days you were healthy again no no i would say after 30 days i was like looking not sickly so i mean i probably gained about 10 pounds and they had to be happy with the result yes and no my mother wanted to send me away and my father was just confused like my father was actually pretty easy to win over because growing up he grew up in poverty so I'll never forget this. I'm sitting in the kitchen and I'm cutting up some mangoes to make a smoothie and he

walks in and he's like, he's like, why are you eating poor people food? And I was like, say what? These mangoes were $2.99 at Whole Foods. You know, like this is not poor people food. And he was like, no in Ecuador, it's like mangoes are falling off the trees

everywhere and he's like only poor people eat this food everybody wants to eat you know the steak and the leche the milk when you're there and i was like okay i think i get it now because after reading the china study and reading some of t con campbell's studies it's like people always wanted what the most expensive food was and there those are the things that people couldn't afford nobody wants the things that are falling off the tree in front of them. Why, why that? Yet in those countries, the poorest people are actually the healthier of the two. And the people who are having like higher risks and higher disease and cardiovascular attack, they actually are the wealthier people. And those studies are pretty cool. But anyway, so once I told my dad, I was like, yeah, dad, I'm doing

this for my health. Don't you see I'm doing so much but he's like yes yes i see you happy and he was like so okay but why are you eating the mangoes like because they're good dad and it's good for you and he's like this is the cool thing he's like oh okay i want one i want a smoothie too and it was like from that point forward my dad has just been like a winner it's like you put it in front of him he's pretty much and he is vegan now it's just he i think he has a hard time when he travels to stay like more so raw but like my dad loves it now it's like the second you told him that it was okay to do that and that it was just like socially acceptable he was in wow my mother on the other hand she was she's very ingrained in culture like so ingrained in culture she probably likes to cook her foods and yeah me not eating what my

grandmother her put in front of my plate was not just not eating the food. It was a rejection of family. It was a rejection of culture. It was a rejection of everything that they'd given me, which has been generations and generations of whatever. And I know with my mother, it's just taken a lot of small steps and communication and working through like nonviolent communication and just like ways of like being like, I love you, mom. It's okay. Which it's taken a lot for both of us. But it's kind of funny because I knew that my mom was transitioning.

I remember I came home from college one weekend and I made myself a smoothie and I put it in the fridge and I came back and it was gone. And I'm like looking, I'm like, where's my smoothie? Where's my mother? Where's my life? I walk in the other room and she's sitting and she has gone. And I'm like looking, I'm like, where's my smoothie? Where's my mother? Where's my life? I walk in the other room and she's sitting and she has like my smoothie next to her and she was drinking it. I thought I was like, I was like, I walked away.

I was like, I'm just going to let this happen right now. I'm just going to enjoy this and let this happen. Amazing. So yeah, those transitions happen. But does your family still eat the traditional foods or are they still involved now as well? They're not. So long story put into a year span, I went off to college about six months after going

raw in high school. And I ended up going to Vanderbilt and then leaving Vanderbilt to go and live in Costa Rica and study there. And then I ended up leaving there to go to Rice. And I didn't actually reverse my hyperglycemia until about a year and a half later. So it took me a year and a half to reverse it just via diet. I wasn't taking any meds. I wasn't doing anything else. People don't realize it takes time. Everybody wants like a quick fix or a quick pill or whatever it may be. But when you want to do it right, it takes time.

Like when I was 18 years old and it took me a year and a half to reverse 18 years of damage done to my body. Imagine people who are coming into this when they're 50 years old, right? And they want to reverse that. That takes more time. It takes more time. Yeah. But then it takes all of the facets of health that make you who you are that are pretty

cool. Anywho, what was the question? Has your family transitioned from eating those foods? I would say my dad has, yes. My dad has come along. Is he fully raw? He's pretty vegan. He doesn't eat meat or dairy anymore.

Wow. Yeah. And I think that was a pretty easy transition for him because, I mean, he's 70. So, I mean, I'm pretty, I love my dad. I'm like, go team. My mom has been a lot more, she has a lot more emotional connection with food and that's been hard for her, but she does smoothies in the mornings and salads at night. And then she's on her own for lunch. I can't, I don't know. I don't know what goes on in that office, but I know that in our house now it's,

there's not meat really and there's not really dairy we've replaced dairy with all types of like either nut milks or alternatives what's the best alternative milk it's almond milk there's so many different kinds of nut milks out there now that are so good it's cool huh i avoid soy because it's like you have macadamia nut milk or almond milk or cashew milk. Wow. I know. It's so much more delicious than animal milk. And it's like so much richer and sweeter. Okay. Okay.

So you reversed this disease that you had, right? Yes. And then what did you start doing after that? You started your own co-op in Houston, right? So that's, everything has a story with me. Let's see. When I transferred to Rice, I really wanted to be involved in the school, but primarily I wanted to be able to feed my family more because they were just getting into it at

the time. And me being in college, I couldn't afford like all these fruits and vegetables and I wanted organic and I wanted variety. and whole foods can be expensive. We were going to whole foods and spending like $500 a week as a family. That was like crazy. It was crazy. So, um, this is such a humbling story, but I'm going to tell it. I started a Tuesday farmer's market with 12 other students and we created an environmental committee at Rice, which I loved.

And it was like my life at the time. And we invited all the farmers, which there were only like 10 of them who came. But I ended up becoming really great friends with those farmers. And at the time, they weren't all growing enough to even like sustain all the students coming. Like it was a very, very small farmer's market. Really? Yes. So more students were coming to get the produce and they didn very small farmer's market, but. Really? Yes. So more students were coming to get the produce and they didn't have enough.

Exactly. Well, that's cool. It was, yeah. I mean, it was Texas 10 years ago. Now it's a little different, but at the time, so I started trying to reach out to different distributors in the Texas area. And I became like the girl who would call and be like, excuse me, do you have organic produce? Can you deliver to my house? Excuse me, do you have organic, can you deliver to my house? And Whole Foods has their own chain of distribution, which is, you can't touch that. But then you have many other different grocery stores who will carry organics. And I wanted to be able to be in that line of distribution.

So I got the number of one distributor and I didn't quite understand this at the time. The man is like a self-made billionaire because he distributes to every Randall's, Kroger, Albertson's. I mean, I think you guys have different chains out here than we do. But in the Texas area, he handles every single chain of organic distribution

and cut up fruit. That's huge when you think about it. And I stocked his office for like a good two or three months time period. And he finally took my call one day and he gets on the phone and he's like, excuse me, darling. I hear you've been calling the office quite a bit. He was like, can you please tell me what you want? And I was like, oh my God, my name is Christina. And I just told him my whole life story. And he's like, okay, I just don't understand what you want. And I was like, I would

like for you to deliver produce to my house. My family, we eat maybe like 10 cases of produce right now a week. And we would love to have the wholesale discount, which is like half the price of what is a normal grocery store. I was like, would you be willing to just send a truck to my house every week? He's like, sweetheart, let me just tell you something. I don't think you understand. Grocery stores buy like $2,000 worth of produce a day. He's like, you know, I'll make a deal with you because you're cute and you're endearing. And I just want to see this.

You know, I think he was just trying to test me. He's like, if you can get 40 cases of produce delivered every single day, you pick the day. Not every day. One day a week for the rest of however long. In Houston. Yeah. Yeah. I'll deliver to your house.

And I was like, 40 cases? Like, without even thinking, I was like, done. I got this. I was like, all right, Thursday after class, you're going to come to my house. You're bringing the produce. This is on. And he was like, are you sure about that? I was like, yes. So I put this in perspective for you. And how much is that? One case of lettuce. I was more concerned about the amount. One case of lettuce has 24 heads of lettuce. Okay. So 40 cases. Oh, one case of peaches has 64 peaches in it. Okay. One case of cantaloupe has nine cantaloupes. And I had, I just committed myself to 40 cases a week on a Thursday. 40 cases total, not of each thing. Yes. Okay. And how much, how much is that cost? 40 cases?

It depended on whatever I ordered and he was going to let me. On average, what would, what was like an average cost be? Our first bill was more than a couple thousand dollars. Gotcha. Okay. I just committed myself to that. For the wholesale. For wholesale, that's good.

So I, at that point I started calling up a bunch of like my friends and neighbors and knocking on doors. I was like, Hey, do you want to split up produce with me in my house on a Thursday night? And believe it or not, I got like 12 of our close family friends and a few neighbors to come over that night. I'll never forget. It was the most abundant night of our lives and everybody was laughing hysterically at what I'd done.

But it was fun. And the coolest part about it is that people were like sticking their heads out their doors and like, what is that Bukram girl doing now? And the next week, we had 40 people picking up produce at my house. At my house. Because everybody wanted in on it. So you would sell.

I started, I was like hustling produce out of my garage. I know. So they would come to your garage. You'd be like, here's our produce for the week. Well, I didn't even have a system by then. Like literally they drop off the boxes and I just started handing out stuff. And I said, everybody, we're going to split up the check. Everybody hand me your check for an equal amount.

I'm going to start dishing it out. And that's exactly how I did it. But then some of the women in my neighborhood were like, all right, we need a system here because, you know, so they came and they helped me sort out the boxes and we set them up. So everybody got like equal portions because everybody was walking away with half the amount price-wise that they would have been spending at the grocery store. Wow, amazing. And yeah, it was pretty cool. So you became basically a grocery store for produce. And the coolest part was is that we hit our 40 case minimum and I ended up started like

buying from the local farmers too and saying like, hey, you bring your local stuff and you bring this stuff. And before I knew it, it's like- You became a farmer's market. Yeah. And a few weeks later, I had a hundred people picking up out of my garage. No way. I swear to God.

That's crazy. No, it's hilarious. We got kicked out of our house actually by the neighborhood association six months later. Because you were selling from there or what? Well, we had like parking lines and stuff and like so many cars in front of our house and we were disturbing the neighborhood. So they moved us into the front parking lot of our neighborhood. And three or four months after that, we had lines going out of our neighborhood all the way out to the grocery store. There was

like an ATB there and we were taking away business from them. So they kicked you out. They kicked us out. Oh my gosh. And so I can't even tell you how traumatized I was. Cause here I'm thinking like we have 300 families picking up at this parking lot i'm like feeding people and my passion it's like this huge blow of like they totally just shut us down but it was so cool because that like the next day i got calls from the city of houston natural museum like science of science the houston arboretum um the place right by Rice where I'd gone to college and support out like all these places were like, here, you need a parking lot. Come set up, do it.

So we went from having like one location in a parking lot in my neighborhood to having three main locations in the city of Houston. And it's just been consecutively growing. I went from having like that amount of people and we were just counting our numbers the other day. We have 50,298 registered members in Houston who regularly buy with us. Wow. So. So you have different locations around Houston.

It's basically. We have three locations around Houston. Essentially like a farmer's market, right? Is that what it is? It is essentially, but it's a community. It's a cooperative. So people come and they actually pre-order their boxes and they reserve and they come and they pick them up. Wow, they pick it up.

Yeah. Interesting. And we're starting home delivery in May. Wow. So people come and they actually pre-order their boxes and they reserve and they come and they pick them up. They pick it up. Yeah. Interesting. And we're starting home delivery in May. Wow. So now it's- That is big. That's a big undertaking. Home delivery.

Yes. So we've partnered with a company that has like 90 refrigerated vans and we're going to just start dishing them out in Houston. 50,000 registered users who buy every week. Who don't buy every week. Who don't buy every week. Who don't buy, have bought with us or come back and we don't have like tabs on who does. Sure, sure.

It's random. Wow. So, but yeah, it's definitely hundreds of family each week that come and pick up. It's really awesome. And all started from your garage. My garage. Wow. That's impressive.

It's fun. It's very fun. And how many people are working in this co-op? Like how many people are running it? It is still volunteer run. And I do have like my right and left hand people for sure. But primarily it's still volunteer run. Anybody can come and show up in the middle of the day and lend a hand and sort the boxes.

We just put on the music and we go. We have a little way to train people very quickly on how it's done. And everybody feels like they can give back. train people very quickly on how it's done and everybody feels like they can give back. And my favorite part about all of this is that we've been able to support local farmers along the way, which it started with distribution from local distributors. But one of our farmers, the Gundermans, who've been like family to me throughout this whole time, went from having 50 small acres and not being able to really support the boxes to now with the help of like supporting them over these past eight years they now have 500 acres and they grow for us full

time wow yeah and that was the picture that i sent you that day i was like yeah exactly the 500 acres and we like they grow so much amazing produce for us and it's all for you guys for houston or is it they know they can grow for everybody now now they send to grocery stores now they do to this. It's like really cool. And that's just one of our farmers. And so it's kind of spread out to them and it feels really good to be able to support that too. Wow. Did you

realize that you had something going when you had to move out of your garage and into other parking lots where you're like this is what I'm going to be doing full time from now forward or was it still kind of like this is just for me because I want some fresh produce. Do you want the honest answer? Yeah.

I honestly, at the time, I just felt like I was doing what I had to do. Like I felt like I was on some type of a mission and I still do, but I honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. Right. And at the time I was going to college to be a potter. I wanted to be a potter.

I wanted to be an artist. I still want to be an artist in some ways, but yeah, it was one of those moments in my life where I felt like, okay, where my heart is and what my calling is. And I found my heart in both and I still do. It's just, I love what I do. And it's kind of like my passion and whatever it was, it overtook everything else. And it got to the point where I was like, all I was doing was being a co-op. All I was doing was teaching people how to eat fruits and vegetables.

It was like, and I've had to learn how to balance it out because you can get so passionate about something. It's 24 seven. It's 100% every day you show up and you have to learn how to do it. And yes, so I've definitely learned how to balance that out. But it's something that I'm so passionate about just because it changed my life.

And so, yeah, that's been my baby company that has grown big. But since then, I've done quite a few different things. Like it's all these people coming, they're picking up a box of fruits and vegetables. Half of them don't know what to do with it. Right. Now what? This kale looks beautiful on my Instagram, but I have no idea what to do with it. How do I put this in my mouth and eat it?

Exactly. So I would actually print out little recipe cards and I'd put them in the boxes for people. But then it got to the point to where people would be like, oh, I missed my box last week. Do you have the recipe card from last week? I'd be like, no, no, I don't. So I started a YouTube channel where I would just start making my recipes. And it was intended for people at Co-op to be like, I remember one of my first YouTube videos was like,

all right, you guys just got back from the farm. Here's my box on the counter. Let's make a smoothie. That's cool. And the smoothie was literally just like blueberries and kale and bananas or something else. I don't remember. And before I knew it, it was like people in Japan were emailing me. They're like, I love your recipes. And I was like, wow, that's crazy. People outside

of Texas are watching my videos. And it just, it grew from there. You had no idea that you were trying to build something bigger around the world with these videos. You were just like dedicated for my co-op and for educating them because. At that point I did, at that point I knew I wanted to. Gotcha. And I wanted to reach people. And my main goal, anytime somebody asks me, I'm always like, I just want to reach people with this message. People need to be eating fruits and vegetables. They may think that that sounds mundane or too typical or, oh yeah, I eat an apple a day. But no, I'm talking about like on an entirely different level, like a lifestyle level, like a daily choice.

Like you get up, you choose to make your smoothie. You're not making a choice to eat bad food. Like you're letting health be your daily choice. Yeah. You know, I've had a lot of health experts on. I've had Rich roll on and we talked about, you know, being vegan. And I'm always trying to learn about the process of health because there's a lot of people who look healthy in that even maybe, you know, have a six pack and have a lot of energy, but they're eating, they can eat whatever

they want. Right. And how is that affecting them? And are they actually healthy? Even when they may look it and they may feel it, but the food is actually not giving them the nutrients, maybe long-term. So I'm always curious about this. And what I'm curious is what's the difference between vegan and raw?

Are they the same thing or no? They're not the same thing. Okay. So you're fully raw. I'm curious is what's the difference between vegan and raw? Are they the same thing or no? They're not the same thing. Okay. So you're fully raw. I'm fully raw. Vegan is completely different. Yes. I'd love to distinguish the difference.

Okay. So vegetarian means a meatless diet. You're not eating cows, no meat. Yes. But this can include animal products. You can have butter and honey. Exactly. Yes. I and honey. Exactly. Yes.

I love honey. Okay. Vegan is no animal products. And there are two different ways you can go here. And I've learned a lot over the years. A lot about glutens and pastas. Okay. So we're going to say no animal products.

We're going to say no meat, no dairy, no honey, anything that comes from an animal. There are two different ways that you can go here. And some people get into it for health reasons, you know, because it's healthier for the body. It allows your body to cleanse, like spiritual reasons, whatever it may be. Some people get into it for the ethical side of loving the animals, of respecting all creatures, of being compassionate. And it's like you can still be unhealthy and be vegan. Right. You can eat lots of crap.

You can eat a lot of candy, junk food. Oh, yeah. Cookies, pastas all day. And you're overweight and unhealthy. But some people say that it doesn't matter because you're saving the animals. I'm one of those that's going to argue. It's like, hey, you have to have a balance. You have to have a balance.

You have to, A, save the animals, yes, but you can't do that as a sacrifice to yourself because then you're killing yourself and then you're killing a human being, which is also a being, which is also, you're important too. Exactly. We're animals too. Yeah. So there comes that balance of health of you have, you know, so anyway, so vegan is not eating animal products, no meat, no dairy, no honey, essentially.

Being raw is kind of like taking it to the next level. Okay. Let's talk about the word extreme because people call me extreme all the time, but I don't think it's extreme. I think going to- It's deciding to make a choice. It is. I mean, I think people eat McDonald's every day are extreme.

That's true. I would agree. Okay. I'm on the other end of extreme, but I don't know. People call me crazy all the time. But if you think that eating fruits and vegetables is crazy, I would much rather you call me crazy. Right. There you go. Okay. Eating raw is not eating any cooked food, but not just cooked food. It's only eating fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds. So taking it one step further to only eating nature's goodness. Uncooked. Yes. Now why uncooked? Because there, well, I know some people argue the

enzymes. Some people will argue, oh, there's more nutrients in raw food. I love to say that it's just the life force of the food. Everything vibrates at a different energy and everything has different nutrient values. Yes, there are more nutrients in raw food. And so you're basically eating the highest nutrient dense diet on the planet, but it's really a lifestyle. I say diet, but it's a lifestyle. And I mean, even just the colors, let's use a green bean, for example. And when I was in college, I was trying to convince myself because I'm very mathematically oriented. I was trying to convince myself because I'm very mathematically oriented. I was trying to convince myself that raw maybe was the same as eating cooked food.

But then I would put like a plate of green beans in front of me that were raw and then a plate of cooked green beans in front of me. And then I would write down the differences and I would look at just the wordings, just the words. Describing the cooked green beans, it would be like, all right, dark green. Dark, yeah. A little slimy. Soggy. You know, need salt to eat it. You know, leaching water. You know, floppy.

And that's like describing the other ones. It was like bright green. Crispy, sweet. Crunchy. Yes. And it's like, okay, wait, if I'm going to emanate the words that are on these plates, I want to be the fresh green bean. You know, it's a weird way of putting it, but it's a great way of talking about that.

And I just, you'll notice that you feel better. It digests better. You feel better when you're eating fresh food. Your body is meant to be eating fresh food. And there's so many different things you can do with it. And people tell me all the time, like, okay, well, wouldn't you just get bored eating the same thing all the time? And, you know, I interned with Dr. Graham for two years in Costa Rica and in Seattle. And I asked him the same question and I'll never forget he told me, do you know that the same people tend to eat the same meal like every single over and over again?

It's like Subway's Thursdays, like Monday night Chinese, you know, Tuesday night Italian. And then they eat it consecutively throughout the span of time, throughout their whole life. Me having lived in so many different countries over my lifespan, it's like Dr. Graham told me, it's like, if you were to try every single fruit on the planet one day, every new on new fruit every single day for the rest of your life, you still would not have tried every fruit on the planet. What? And I was like, that's crazy.

How many fruits are there? There are that many. How many? So when I was living in Costa Rica, even just for a two year time span, I tried one new fruit every single day in just that time span. One new fruit, one new veggie. I still had not tried everything there. Yeah.

How's that possible? It's possible. It was so like, give me an example. There are hundreds of different types of mangoes, like different varieties. They're big mangoes, small mangoes, pears. How many different color pears have you tried? Gotcha. It's like a hundred different apples at least. Yeah. You know, even just through our co-op, we've, we've had more than 2000 different varieties of fruits and vegetables come in just within the past year. Think about that. That's just in our Texas area.

Try one new thing every single day. How can you get bored with that? Think of all the amazing possibilities of things that you can make. It's fun. It is so much fun. Why is it so hard? I love cooked food and I love meats. Okay, so you want to get all deep and emotional about this?

I'm just curious. I'm having this conversation with Rich Roll. And I have some good friends that are vegan. And I'll go have vegan foods and I'll have raw foods. But I'm like, I just love meat and I love cooked food. And I feel like, don't you get a lot of protein from these foods? I get my protein from grains. I'm sure you've heard that from him too.

And you can get protein from fruit. Yes. And you know what? Honestly, it's a choice. Of course. And there's no right or wrong here. And it's taken me a long time to say there's no right or wrong. It's a choice. But every choice comes with a consequence, whether good or bad. Or a reward. Or a reward. What is your reward? Some people consider rewards to be different based upon what you consider to be good for you or not. The thing is that every food, everything that we put in our body or we choose to consume, whether it be food or something else, we have an emotional attachment to it.

Yeah. And that emotional attachment is huge. We may not even know it. Yes. So what's the biggest misconception then about eating raw? Ooh, I would say that it's boring and that people look like weak and frail when they do it and sickly. boring and that people look like weak and frail when they do it and sickly. Cause sometimes you tell people it's like, Oh, you're a raw foodie. It's like, Oh, she must be sickly and hippie and looking all gross and stuff, you know, and all weird. I swear I'm a totally like functional

human being. I work the same as everybody else. I have dreams, aspiration goals. I'm not, you know, living in the middle of nowhere. Okay. I do live in Texas right now, but that doesn't mean that I'm not doing things with my life. So I would say that that is, and other people say that it's, it's boring or that it's not possible, but it's becoming more possible now at this day and age than it has been ever. Yeah. Okay. Uh, you've had a lot of food bullies and critics over the years, right? Yes. How do you handle that or deal with those? Do they bother you? I send them love. I send them so much love.

I give them a giant hug through the screen. How do you handle it? I've got a good friend of mine, who gets a lot of criticism. I'm always curious. I'll be 100% honest. I've been harassed online. I've had assaults. I've had people send weird stuff to my house. And I'm like trying to get people to eat fruits and vegetables here.

I'm not even kidding when I said I've had online public hate and there are a lot of different ethical reasons. And it's like when vegans are involved, people get offended about animals, about food, there's emotional connections. I think you're going to have haters no matter where you go. And I actually made a YouTube video about how to deal with food bullies. And I did. And what did you come up with? I think it's like, well, you first have to understand that the problem isn't you. It's you understanding what needs of theirs are not being met. Right. And then coming from a place of compassion, because the second that you understand that,

you realize they're offended about something that you said, because there's something deeply rooted within them that they're not emotionally processing and they can't emotionally handle right now. And it's coming from a place of disconnect within themselves and a place of pain and hurt in themselves. So that's number one, because that shifts everything. Sure.

Right. And then, then you have to take steps. I always respond with love. Like if I see somebody hating on my page, which I used to get a lot of it and, you know, after a certain period of time and like always, there's something always that pops up. But it's funny is that when you respond with like kindness to somebody or love to somebody, you know, they're like, oh my God, she replied. She replied and she's nice.

There's just so many different things. But dealing with online hate is different than dealing with people and their physical presence. Like being at a party and somebody walking up to you and giving you attitude about what's on your plate. Is that really their business too?

It's like there are many different social settings here where you can be bullied and you really just have to know how to handle yourself in each one of them. Do you make claims like this is the way and it's the only way? Is that why you feel like people get hate on you? Or do you say this is just my choice and choose what you want to? I've always just said, this is what makes me happy. I know it will make you feel better. I think you should try at least one raw meal a day.

Like, that's my thing. It's like, I encourage people to try one raw meal a day because that's easy enough, right? Is a smoothie considered a raw meal? Yeah. Okay. I have that every morning. You're in the class. I feel great after a smoothie.

There you go. But there's some people who don't even have that much. Yeah. You know, and so it's like even trying to just reach people with that message. Right. Okay. Um, so is raw for everyone? Strictly question. You want me to be honest? I believe that rock can be for everybody, but for those who are not ready for it, I never push. Okay. I never push. I always say like, even if you have to do baby steps, try one raw meal a day, two raw meals a day. It's like the rest, leave them on their own. It's all about making a change, making a shift, making a difference.

And you can only hope that maybe perhaps that person will feel a little bit better to take more steps after that. So you feel like it's better to do one step at a time than to go all in at once? Depends on the person. Because I was one of those people who jumped all in. You had to. Yeah, I did. But I feel like if I were to have transitioned, I maybe would have had a hard time like wavering back and forth.

Like maybe lunch day will be my raw meal. Maybe no dinner. And then that indecisiveness comes in. And, you know, it's for me, it's like I'm all in or I'm nothing at all. Yeah, that's good. Okay. So what's your ideal healthy day? Define healthy.

You define healthy. Okay. There are three different, for me, there's always three different aspects of healthy of like the food, you have the spiritual, and then you have the physical. Every single day is healthy for me because I know every single day I need to work on myself in one of those three areas. The food, obviously. Healthy for me would be definitely making sure that my food is clean that day. getting in a workout, whatever that may be, just moving your body, breathing. No yoga though. You know, I am just a high intensity person. I have to be running. I love boxing. I just, I need something that keeps me moving. Dancing. You dance. We do. We salsa dancing. I love the energy around working out.

It clears my mind. It makes me feel good. And then the emotional aspect of it. Just really asking yourself, like, what needs of mine need to be met today and how can I meet them? Yeah. That's so huge. Most people don't even understand that, but that's huge. If you could change one thing in the American diet, what would that be? That is the best question ever. But do we have to limit it to the american diet no

limit to any diet um that we would stop eating animals i know this is gonna sound weird but i was hoping you'd say like cheese or something for me okay all right well then let's go lighter than that we can totally go lighter animals well i mean but that i say take away eating meat because i mean it goes far beyond making yourself feel better. It goes, you know, towards not slaughtering animals and not having slaughterhouses for animals that, I mean, there's always a substitute. Even if it's like farm raised and healthy and they're living forever. Okay, I don't know if you know that, but when I lived in the Dominican, have you seen my YouTube video on when I killed my first chicken? No, I'm not.

Okay. I want to watch this. You may want to. Oh my gosh. Did it really happen? Was it traumatic? It was very traumatic. Wow.

I lived in the Dominican Republic from when I was 14 to 16 years old. And when I first arrived, I had these baby chickens that I was taking care of and I'd raise them from being little chicks to when they're older. And I was living with a group of people there and it became like my turn one day to like make dinner and they're like, okay, you have to kill your chickens. We're eating them for dinner. And I, I freaked out. How old were you?

I was, I was like almost 16 at the time. I was 15. Okay. And I made a YouTube video where I'd taken pictures and I showed my friends slaughtering my chickens and killing them, plucking the feathers, ripping off the skin, gutting it. You know, like if more people had to kill their own animals to eat them, there would be far more vegetarians on this planet. Really? You think so? I do.

It's a very weird situation because I couldn't eat meat for years after that. I eventually did once I came back to America because I became desensitized. Because you go to the grocery store, everything's packaged nicely. Looks good. They've done all the dirty work for you. I know your face is like, it looks good. It was a very different experience for me. I became highly desensitized and you have no connection with animals. So it's just different, you know, but okay. So going back to

something a little bit more light for this audience and I'm, I do apologize if I offended anybody. Um, I love everybody here, no matter what you eat, I love and accept you just as you are. I would just like to say that, um, I would say one step that you could take to make this world a healthier place would be for everybody to have one raw meal a day. And whether that be a salad, a soup, a gazpacho, a smoothie, or a juice, any one of those are great because it's in support of something that's good. Your dollar goes in support of something that's good, and it goes good for your body as well. Now, if I have a smoothie and a juice in the morning, which I usually have, and then I have bacon and meat dishes the rest of the night. We're not going to talk about bacon and meat.

You had your one raw meal. Is that essentially like, you know, is it neutralizing it or is it still not even, does the raw, you might as well just throw out the raw because it's not doing anything for me because. You're still going to benefit from eating those nutrients. But at that point, it's like it's more about what you don't do

than what you do do okay okay yes I'm curious how can someone start their own co-op in their town the way that you did but in a much more efficient way starting out

is there a process for this? I love that question. I get it all the time and I've been wanting to create some type of a course. I just haven't had a chance to quite do that yet. But what are the steps they need to look at first? Who do they need to talk to? Step one, you need to source your food. You need to find distributors in your area.

You need to find your local farmers. You want to figure out who your channels of distribution will be. How do they find that? Go online and search for what? Search for local farmers in your area, local distributors in your area and you need to find your local farmers, you want to figure out who your channels of distribution will be. How do they find that? Go online and search for what? The search for local farmers in your area, local distributors in your area. Go to farmers markets maybe in your area as well. Do your research. Where do you want your food to come from?

Okay. That's number one. Number two, I would say is get a group of people together. I mean, I started off with 12, get like five or six friends, start buying in bulk and splitting the price. Okay. And splitting the produce. Okay.

Number three would be just keep doing that and allowing it to grow. That's really as easy as it gets. All the little details in the middle, you'll figure those out. I'll figure it out. Yeah. It's going to be different for everybody, but that's what a co-op is. It's a community that comes together to share something. Okay.

I like it. This is a question. We've got a few questions left for you. I love it. This is a question. We've got a few questions left for you. I love questions. This is what I've been asking a lot of people probably in the last 10 episodes because I'm just curious what comes up for people. So in 100 years from now, it's your last day and everything you've ever created has been erased. And you've got a pen and a piece of paper on your deathbed. All your family is there loving you.

You're finishing off with a smoothie. The plug is about to be pulled, let's say. But you're happy. You're loving your life. You're looking back and you realize that every video you ever created, everything you ever wrote, everything you ever talked about, somehow got erased and deleted.

Something happened. And you have a pen and a paper and you get to leave a message to your friends, your family, your loved ones, the world about three truths. And the three truths that you know are true about what you learned about the world, about life, about what you want people to know. What would you write down? Are there three things you could write down that everyone would see about life? Ooh. But they would be long because I'm not like a short-winded person.

I'm a very long-winded person. This would be like three pages worth of- One page. He gets to write three lines down. Number one would probably be life is about learning to love. Love yourself, love others, show compassion. Knowing that like you will get hurt

and you will get hurt and you will have pain, but it's making a choice to become the better, best version of yourself every single day, every day that you wake up. I don't think any of these would be food related though. I mean, yes. They don't have to be. Okay. I'm just curious about how you'd answer it.

That would be number one. This is so deep I'm going to start crying I'm not going to start crying we're fine you're fine here right now you're catching me at like a total off guard moment it's all good

what's coming up for you right now it doesn't have to be perfect I'm just curious so I said number one is definitely life is learning to love loving yourself and loving others. Because the greatest thing you'll ever learn is to be loved. What is it?

To give love and to be loved in return. Number two would be that you have to pour your heart into something. You have to find your passion. You have to go at it 100%. And if you don't show up every single day doing that and loving what you do, then you need to find something else because then you're not really living. Right. Because then you're not like totally giving. And number three would be is to always serve others, but never forget about also taking care of yourself because sometimes you can get very lost in giving and giving and giving.

But sometimes it's also very important to stay connected to your inner self and your spirituality and give back to yourself too. I want that piece of paper. You want that piece of paper? That's good. I don't know if those are right or wrong answers, but maybe those would have been mine. I don't think those are right or wrong. It's just what comes up for you.

So that's a good, good answers. I like them. Before I ask you the final question, what, where should we send people? Where should they go follow you? Where should they find you and connect with you? And what, where do you want them to go and do? I would say, well, my website is fullyraw.com. They can find me there or they can find me on my YouTube channel, Fully Raw Christina.

And I'm also on Facebook or Instagram. I just started a Snapchat. Fully Raw. Down the deep end. No, it's fun. It's fun. You get to show people little clips of your day of like, Hey, I'm making this at this moment in time. And if they want to check out my co-op, that website is rawfullyorganic.com. But that's local to Texas now. Who knows what the future brings, but they can at least check it out and see what we're doing there. Very cool. Okay. Well, one more question, but I want to take a moment to acknowledge you,

Christina, for your energy. This is the thing I've picked up from you from the very beginning, from our emails, from connecting earlier today, from going back and forth. Just your energy is so magnetic and present. That's what I would say. You're very present. Thank you. And connected. And there's not too many people that are like that on a consistent basis. And I feel like you are consistently in a positive energy. And I think that's a beautiful thing. So I want to acknowledge you for that. Thank you. Can I say something in response to that?

Sure. You said something to me when we first met today. You said, you just, you're a happy person. And I think I said, I choose to be happy because that doesn't mean that we haven't had a hard life or had horrible things happen to us. It means that we've decided to choose to be better every day. Everybody goes through their stuff, but you can still be a better person and be happy even going through a lot of awful things. I agree.

Okay. Very cool. I like that. Okay. Final question. What's your definition of greatness? Yes. I love this question.

My definition of greatness would be being the I am of me. I am greatness. I don't know if you've ever read Subconscious Language Therapy by Bob Randall, but I think that's what it, but really living the I am of who you're supposed to be. Like I am greatness. So the definition of greatness for me would be being my divine awesome self. That's it.

I love it. Christina, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. You rock it. I love it. Christina, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. You rock. You are so awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming on today. And thank you to Christina for coming on. She's a beautiful soul and I'm extremely glad to be her friend and to have had the opportunity to interview her. Again, please share this with your friends. The link is lewishouse.com slash 183. If you know someone who's looking to increase their lifestyle and their health

and they just don't know where to start, this could be a great interview for them to just get some wisdom and open up their mind about the possibilities of trying some things raw and seeing how that works and incorporating that in their lifestyle. Again, lewishouse.com slash 183. Make sure to check out the full video interview and additional bonus video that we've got back there as well because I think you'll enjoy seeing what Christina has to say

about what I eat and my lifestyle. I really appreciate this. Again, make sure to tag me over on Instagram and follow Christina everywhere online. We'll have it all linked up to where you can connect with her back at lewishouse.com slash 183. Thank you guys so much for all that you do. This community is amazing.

You bring so much joy to my life. And my mission is to be here to serve you in yours. So thank you guys again so much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.