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Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
I sure hope I get to meet Victoria Boutenko face to face someday so I can adequately express the impact she and her family have had on my life. I've watched a total of five raw videos featuring Victoria speaking, preparing food, and/or teaching, so I feel like I know her. There is something about this woman that is so warm, open and genuine that comes through in her simple videos. They aren't grand productions, but her message comes through loud and clear. In fact, her motto could be "Keep it Simple." She teaches us what she's learned in her years on raw food, shares adventures and anecdotes from her family's journey, and she makes you realize that you can do it, too.
This 3-video set is filmed during one of her actual "12 Steps to Raw Food" workshops; she has led nearly 200! The first video in the series covers the basics of living and non-living matter and how your body adjust to toxins, which explains how a person can continue smoking, drinking, consuming caffeine, and eating cooked food for so long and stay alive! The body is a miraculous thing, and Victoria makes you realize that if you'll just allow you body to heal itself, amazingly, it will. She explains that our bodies are dedicated to healing, but we often fight against it, and gives example after fascinating example of how the body heals itself if only given the chance. In this section she touches on several topics on living a natural life
In her experience as a raw foodist herself and in helping others to go raw, she came to believe that cooked food is addictive, even the tiniest little bit - which is why she recommends going 100% raw and giving yourself 60 days to allow your body to change so that you no longer crave cooked food.
In tape two, she talks about how she came to believe that cooked food is addictive. She taught for six years, and she had wonderful responses from people about going raw - but zero success. Less than two percent of her students stayed raw after 30 days. It wasn't until attending an AA meeting with a friend that something clicked for her, and she created this program. Then she began to see results, and so did her students! She explains that cooked food is addictive on four levels: chemical, biological, mental, and spiritual.
Victoria admits that this is a radical idea, but when she explains it, it's so obviously true! She calls on the audience, the people taking the workshop, to share their experiences of hiding food or hiding how much they ate, for example. She asks, "Has anyone here ever overeaten? [YES] How did you feel? [BAD] Can you promise me that you'll never do it again?"
"12 Steps to Raw Food" closely follows the basics of all 12-step programs, including deciding you want to be raw, finding a sponsor, learning to refuse cooked food, etc. This video workshop could be used as a companion to Victoria's book by the same title.
Watching this workshop really helped me to understand why I've struggled so hard to stay raw in the past, and just knowing that they are so many people out there working against the same challenges to eat a living foods diet made me realize how our community is growing. Another round of applause for Victoria and her life-giving work!
Buy this video set now!
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