Jul 23, 2019
In today’s episode we chat with Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram – AKA, Fully Raw Kristina – as she takes us on her emotional and spiritually transformational life journey of being a fully raw vegan for the past 14 years. Kristina is an extremely vibrant, service-oriented and passionate human being, whose glowing energy and health speak for themselves.
Named as one of the most influential people in Health and Fitness, Kristina’s story is compelling, powerful and so inspirational – from weight loss to preventing diabetes, founding the largest co-op for fresh produce in the USA and starting a massive movement of raw vegan lifestyle. It is not just about commitment to eat raw fruits and vegetables, it is about conscious choice to rebuild yourself completely, live the best of your life and go deep with yourself. In this episode, Kristina is not afraid to share her vulnerabilities and past traumas. For her, there is a lot of bravery in being vulnerable and sharing her own story. In fact, this completely raw conversation is a true healing and therapy for every soul.
Born and raised in a multicultural household with a Lebanese mother and an Ecuadorian father, Kristina’s childhood protagonist was Birdie (Berta), an angelic, passionate and most caring woman who took care of Kristina since the day she was born until she left for college. By serendipity and choice, Birdie raised her as if she were her own daughter, that provoked a deep misunderstanding and disconnection from Kristina’s mother. It took years (and a special course of Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg) to reveal her pain and overcome struggles with relationships with her mother, which now are prospering.
At the age of 18, Kristina was struggling of Type 2 Diabetes (Hyperglycemic) because of having an unhealthy diet based on Lebanese traditional cuisine (basically, olive oil everywhere and zero fresh fruits or vegetables). Now imagine that you are 18, you are always (and most probably forever) sick, your weight loses extremely and you are just out of the hospital. When a stranger approaches you in Whole Foods and offers you to go completely raw vegan and eat peaches for 2 weeks in a row, what would you do? Well, Kristina opened to this dramatic change in her diet and completely healed her body from Diabetes in one year and a half by eating a fully raw diet. Since then, July 15th of 2005, she never looked back.
"After 6 months of doing this, I felt better every single day, and I NEVER, never came back. Eventually I felt liberated. "
However, Texas and Kristina’s family were not prepared for something completely different like raw veganism. Struggling with society’s criticism and misconceptions, Kristina felt so inspired by the healing power of raw food that in 2007 she ended up opening her own grocery cooperative, Rawfully Organic, at different locations in the Houston area. For stable 11 years, Rawfully Organic served 50,000 people and became the largest co-op for fresh produce in the USA. By the time she had to close Rawfully Organic doors in 2017, Kristina has already started her YouTube Channel – that now is a massive platform for inspiration and learning – where she shared her knowledge and basic raw recipes.
After being completely lost and traumatised by Rawfully Organic closure, Kristina started her own journey, the journey of finding herself, trying new things, sharing and being of service. Now she is coaching people on how to start, heal and maintain a raw vegan diet and hosts retreats in beautiful destinations like Bali or Costa Rica to help people learn about raw food lifestyle, how to do yoga, meditation and go on adventures. What FullyRawKristina does is basically emerges people into this new world and provides Tony Robbins-style raw food coaching for re-educating yourself and taking responsibility of your health.
"I have never had an overnight success in my life. It’s always been a slow, steady growth and work. The most important thing you can do is to be consistent with your message and continue creating. I am still preaching the same thing I was preaching 11 years ago."
An artist, expert in health science and one of the largest raw vegan digital influencers, Kristina points out that the majority of people who decide to go for raw vegan lifestyle seek physical benefits: loose weight or get younger. But, what she has learned through the years is that if you come to this important life transformation with wrong reason, you are not going to last. “You have to be truly dedicated and consistent”, she insists. For Kristina, vegan lifestyle is more than an ethical choice to make a conscious commitment not to consume animals, this is a lifestyle that brings a lot of beauty to your life.
Here are 5 sustainable tips on how to adopt this lifestyle:
- Start with one fully raw vegan meal a day.
- Make sure you eat enough – there is a significant volume difference. Raw food is higher in water content, but lower in calories, which means you do have to eat more to sustain yourself.
- Learn how to feel good, be happy doing this and connect back to yourself.
- What you do should come from love, passion and willingness to learn more.
- Remember that even if you do this lifestyle, you have to be compassionate and not judge others.
Here is what we talk about:
– How having an honest conversation can help you change your relationships with parents
– How to set a healthy example for your kids
– Why pills will not heal your disease
– Struggling with society’s misunderstanding and criticism
– Why so many people stay away from eating fruits and vegetables
– How fears and mindset of money prevent people from creating abundance in their lives
– Why it is essential to find balance in life and create a space for yourself in business
– Why it is so important to support local organic farmers
– Organic produce difference between farmer’s market and grocery shops
– Big corporations VS. small businesses
– Top mistakes in becoming raw vegan
– How re-educating yourself brings unique life experience