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Today is a special day because my guest is, in fact, the chef here in our kitchen at The Blue OK. Her name is Amy McCarrel and I want to introduce Amy to everyone. Amy is an extraordinary raw food chef and I, myself, used to own some vegetarian restaurants and cafes. And I was beginning to explore the raw food diet when I met Amy.

Amy has been a raw food chef for many years and she has cooked for a whole lot of people. And I want Amy to tell all of our viewers how did this get started and how did you get into raw foods. And I certainly know why I asked you to be the chef of this kitchen because I’ve eaten your food and it’s just the best. I hope our viewers will check out your videos and find out about what you make. But let’s tell people how this got started. How did you get into raw food, Amy?

Amy McCarrel (AM): Well, I was living in Boulder, Colorado and studying yoga at the Naropa university. While I was studying yoga, I became interested in the yoga diet and the diet given as part of the yoga practice. Initially, I started to learn a little about the Ayurvedic Indian diet but the more studied it, I found out that the traditional yogic diet is much more raw fruits and vegetables. Around the same time, I actually had a health crisis where I began getting chronic kidney infections from – I was going to school, working several jobs and was not eating incredibly toxic foods but lots of caffeine and things to stay awake for all the studying I needed to do.  And just the stress of my life caused a sort of health crisis. I spoke to a Chinese doctor who helped me discover that the raw foods diet in conjunction with exercise which I took my yoga practice to a different level at this time as well, was actually one of the things that was the most beneficial for the organs particularly the kidneys because there’s a filter for the human body for everything that goes into your body as well as environmental stress, environmental toxins. So he basically said when the organs, particularly the kidneys, are under any kind of duress, you want to be giving them raw organic fruits and vegetables with lots of water, where they basically don’t have to do anything to filter, that makes their job much easier.

SM: Meaning the liver knows what to do with raw fruits and vegetables.

AM: Right! The kidneys do, the liver does, all the organs do… it turns out. And the change in my physical well-being was so profound at that point. It was like somebody took a cork and plugged up a leak in my back. It just felt suddenly my energy in my body returned to me in a way where I would say… you know, I occasionally would have a good day where I felt well, but mostly, I didn’t . And suddenly every day I felt like “Ah, this is a good day. My energy is normal. I am not crashing at two in the afternoon and again at four and looking for caffeine or something to pick me back up. But the natural well-being, feeling of well-being and the natural energy of my body returned to me and I just felt like, “Oh, I’m not having to work so hard, to digest foods, to eliminate toxicity and every time I eat lunch.” There’s not an entire digestive process that’s taking a lot of my energy to metabolize them.
SM: So, it’s almost like a shoe that really fits.

AM: A shoe that really fits, yes!

SM: It was the diet for you.

AM: It absolutely is.

SM: Well I know, since I have known you, I have been experiencing… I’ve been experimenting a lot more with raw food. It’s really surprising to me what I have discovered. I have more energy than I have ever had. I am somebody who has a fair amount of energy.

AM: You are.

SM: I haven’t really needed things like caffeine or stimulants to energize me. I have a lot of energy. But as I’ve begun eating more and more raw food, I was always 50… 60% raw anyway, but now, you know, I’m really eating a lot of raw food on a daily basis… monthly, you know. And I have a ton of energy. In fact, you started helping me with green drinks. For our viewers, I’m having some collard greens, a little kiwi, some ginger and some lemon juice. And this drink refreshes me. It makes me have energy I didn’t know I could get from food because I am such an energetic person. But now I am experiencing energy from foods that are raw, I put them in a blender and make myself a green drink. So Amy, you have been doing the raw food thing for several years now, right?

AM: I have.

SM: I know, you have fed a lot of people. I want you tell our viewers that you are not just at-home raw food chef. You’ve actually done it professionally.

AM: Well yes, this is true. Once I had made such a difference in my life in conjunction with teaching yoga, I began also teaching people about the benefits of raw foods and I began doing retreats, first in Colorado up in Crestone Mountain Zen Center doing yoga retreats in combination with vegetarian diet or raw food diet. And then I began taking people to Costa Rica, to Hawaii, to different places…  beautiful places to really just soak up the information… absorb the wellness that you feel from this diet in conjunction with a conscious exercise program like yoga, or really, tai chi, walking… anything  where you are putting your attention on the breath and then on the reception and release process that the raw foods really help facilitate.

And it’s been remarkable how many people continue to email me, call me, stay in touch with me and say, “I’m still making my green drinks, I’m still making the raw chocolate” And everybody keeps their favorite recipes that really work for them and it impacts their life. And from that, the people they work with, their families, their children. They are able to do things like remove sugar from their children’s diet by things that their children want even more than the sugar, which is a hard thing for mothers and fathers to replace. You know, children want their sugar. But when you find something that they want just as much, that you can give them that they enjoy is really a victory. And same in the workplace, everybody wants things fast and convenient. You don’t want to spend all of your time making food, but when somebody shows you there is something that you can get your energy from that’s easy for us to do together here, like making the green drinks instead of smoothies or coffee. They really get behind it and keep it in their lives and that’s been a wonderful thing for me to keep hearing all from the people who are benefiting from eating this way, from the retreats and workshops I’ve done.

SM: Sure. There’s a transition of course. People have conventional diets and they are used to sometimes even white flour and sugar and so you help them understand, that you just don’t turn into a raw foods advocate overnight. There is a process involved. There’s a transition. And you help them with that.

AM: Right! That’s really…. I feel one of the most important parts about being successful on any diet particularly the raw foods diet is that if you base it on deprivation, at a certain point you are going to go for the thing that you’ve been depriving yourself of. But if you actually allow the body the time to transition from what it’s getting its fulfillment from, if you replace it first with something that it is able to get the nutrients, to get – where you are able to get full from it. And then slowly eliminate the choice that you are having either allergic reaction to or weight gain or weight loss from that you know is unwanted.

SM: Like you mentioned, dependence on caffeine.

AM: Dependence on caffeine, exactly. The green drinks are one of the most wonderful things because people start to drink them, and then they have their tea or their coffee. Then slowly, they start to forget to make their tea or their coffee because they have the same energy that they are getting from their caffeine but without the crash and the need for it 3 hours later. That they usually have from the caffeine. That’s the same with the sugar you know. The raw chocolate is a wonderful substitute for the refined sugar, because we use different sweeteners and natural sweeteners, and the combination of just all the mood-enhancing properties of raw chocolate as well as the anti-oxidant qualities with the sweet from the raw honey or raw agave nectar. When people eat it, it sustains them like a sugar high. It gives you that instant energy. But everybody crashes from sugar, whereas the raw chocolate sustains you and it tastes wonderful and it’s a delicious treat. So there are many things in the raw food diet like that, that if you attract your entire person to it, if you allow your body to be attracted to it, you eventually are able to replace those foods without feeling deprived of anything. You know, you really start to feel, “Oh, I want that green drink. I want that raw chocolate. And you enjoy it without feeling like you are depriving yourself. And that transition is where I find most people are successful. Because you are not saying, “For 3 months, I’m never going to have a potato chip.” Transition! If potato chips are your favorite food, increase your raw food, vegetables and have potato chip at night, have a handful. But really start to replace the bulk of what you eat with the raw fruits and vegetables. And I find, most people end up finding there are only a few things that they really care about keeping in their diet for a while. And a lot of it is just what we reach out of convenience, it’s just what’s there. It’s inexpensive. It’s easier. I pass by it. And I don’t really even want it. Those things you had ease eliminating because you enjoy what you are eating so much more. And then the things that you really love, a little slice of that usually doesn’t hurt for a while.

SM: Well, humans are creatures of habit as you know. And if you have bad habits, they are easier to do because their habitual. But as you were saying, I know in my case, that transitioning to more raw food, I was in a hurry. I had some cooked food whenever I want and still do but I don’t feel deprived of anything. And just like what you are saying, I have found less cravings for things I used to eat frequently. Nothing bad. I just wasn’t hungry for those type of things because I’m feeling so nourished from eating so many raw fruits and vegetables. As we all know, people… many people are sick. Health has become a big topic that everybody talks about. Your family talks about it. Your friends talks about it… how you are feeling… how you are looking. People are now concerned about their health. This is a good thing.

AM: This is a good thing.

SM: And when you start to feel good, you just feel a little more alive. And so, when I was building the café, I knew that I wanted a raw food chef. A dear friend of mine, your intimate I believe, mentioned that you are a raw food chef and that we should meet. And that was many months ago. Now, you’ve been preparing food here at The Blue OK kitchen for a long time. And you are making, like you mentioned, raw chocolates and oh gosh, we’ve made kiwi lime pie and we’ve made coconut wraps. And we’ve made kale chips. I want to encourage everyone to watch Amy’s videos here at The Blue OK. She got a lot of them. Our motto is, “Buy it when you have to and make it when you can.”

AM: That’s right.

SM: And Amy will show how to make delicious raw food, and if it’s something that you are interested in, if you want to feel more healthy, I highly recommend paying close attention to what Amy has to say here in the kitchen in The Blue OK. And in fact, I give The Blue OK to every one of your recipes and I’m sure other people will, too. So, as you know on your videos, people can watch them and even leave a comment.

AM: Sure.

SM: If they have questions on something that they didn’t understand something about your recipe. They can write to you. Send an e-mail to you here at The Blue OK, comment on the website. So I want to encourage our viewers to do that… to engage Amy. Amy is your best friend.  She will help you feel better and hopefully, everybody will make it to The Blue OK sometime and have a green drink like the one I am having some green tea. But The Blue OK is about introducing people to information and tools that will benefit mankind – the human family. And what you are doing here in the kitchen is a definite benefit. Thank you for being there every day and making the food in the café. I hope people will come back to The Blue OK often and watch what you are cooking in the kitchen or watch what you are preparing in the kitchen.

AM: Yes, me too. Thanks, Scott.

SM: Thank you and hope to see you soon.

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