The Raw Food Guy: An awakening of the mind and creativity
Tim has been a 100% live food vegan for about six
years. Before that, he ate the SAD “to the max.” As
a young, single, working man, he fit the standard
profile of the fast-food junkie, even a connoisseur,
stopping at MacDonald’s since they had the best
fries and then popping over to Wendy’s to get the
best burgers. He claims he was in “fast-food
heaven.”

But fast-food heaven soon turned into
“health hell.”His health began a rapid decline after the stresses
of being exposed to PVC pipe glue at work and also
having to survive on canned foods during a
three-month electricity outage following Hurricane
Andrew in 1992. The toxic overload incurred by the
hurricane experience led to chronic sinus
infections, exacerbated by cheese and wheat
allergies.

In 1998, at the age of only 34, he was at “death’s
door,” suffering from chronic fatigue, listlessness,
and ear, kidney and sinus infections that had grown
worse and worse. He was 55 pounds overweight.
Once he had an ear infection that was so bad that
his eardrums burst, oozing pus. Experiencing the
worst pain of his life, he went to a hospital
emergency room.

The doctors struggled to find an antibiotic that was
strong enough: It took four different kinds of anitbiotics and 1½ months to
quell the infection. In the meantime, his liver and
kidneys went into overload trying to detoxify all
the debris from the infection, coupled with other
toxins he had accumulated, including residues of the
antibiotics themselves. His healthful bacteria
having been killed by the antibiotics, his chronic
fatigue worsened as celiacs disease took over.

Since his serum cholesterol was 285, he was put on
Lipitor, a cholesterol-lowering drug. A friend who
worked at the hospital said that since his liver was
shot, he could die from taking this medication. Tim
was so disturbed that his doctor hadn’t even tested
his liver before prescribing the drug that he became
afraid of drug therapy. He looked everywhere for a
naturopathic physician, but because the practice was
not legal in Florida, he had to ask around
discreetly.

Finally, a friend referred Tim to her teacher at a
massage therapy school. He spoke with her for just
two hours, but the encounter changed his life. She
empowered him with total responsibility for his own
health. Under her guidance, he did a liver cleanse
(see Glossary) and a two-week fast, cut out red meat
and sugar, and took herbs.

He gradually got better as he looked for a
health-conscious girlfriend. He got involved with a
vegan woman who encouraged him to get off all animal
products. But as he read Nature’s First Law: The Raw
Food Diet, he felt that they should be not only
vegans, but also raw. After two weeks on the diet,
they both became totally convinced.
Tim lost the last 25 pounds that he couldn’t lose
in
the cooked diet. With a gradual, full detox, he even
slimmed down to 127 pounds. People were now
concerned that he was too skinny. Although he
“looked like hell” for three or four months, he felt
fantastic, better than he had ever felt before in
his life! Most of the weight came back with healthy,
rebuilt tissue, leveling off at a comfortable 145
pounds.

“My creativity skyrocketed,” said Tim. He started
writing songs about raw food. As he describes it, “I
felt I wasn’t even writing but was just a vessel. I
was tapping into a higher source. I woke up with
songs in my head.” A former band member, he had
creative flows before but nothing like this.
Tim even experimented with starting a raw food
restaurant but later decided not to work so many
hours after so recently regaining his health.

Moreover, the community’s consciousness didn’t seem
ready to support a raw food restaurant at the time.
Tim's mental clarity also went through the roof.
Before, he hadn’t read much at all. After reading a
few pages, he would struggle to comprehend the
material, even having to reread it. So he would put
the book down and watch TV instead.
After going raw, he couldn’t stop reading! His
thirst for knowledge compelled him to devour books
cover-to-cover; thus he absorbed knowledge on all
manner of subjects.

He met www.annettelarkins.com who has been
a raw foodest for 20 years and has no problem
telling people her age because she looks 20
to 30 years younger and after that length
of time her raw food dishes are refined to
perfection as I can personally vouch for.
He also met Juanita Mazerrela who has a
website worth checking out: www.oaisishouse1.com
He now owns a car powered by used restaurant
vegetable oil as a result of information gleaned
from one of his books. He has become a self-taught
expert on composting after reading The Humanure
Handbook, as well as on solar and wind power.

He also learned the importance of re-mineralizing
plants and soil by reading Sea Energy Agriculture by
Maynard Murray and Fertility From The Ocean Deep
by Charles Walters. He got his dying citrus trees to
produce wonderful fruit once again by employing
methods taught in that book and every plant he grows
has access to all the minerals by using ocean water.
His friend and mentor Don Jansen www.meetdonjansen.com
taught him how to grow wheatgrass veganically without soil so
that it is clean and ready to juice or chew with no washing necessary
or fear of ecoli from animal products.