183 Eating Raw and Living Your Passion with Fully Raw Kristina

"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. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 183 with Fully Raw Christina.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a 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.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Today's guest is a special, wonderful, magnificent, magnetic individual. Her name is Christina Carrillo Bucaram, and she is a bundle of joy. Christina is the founder of the largest raw organic produce co-op in the US. 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 nonprofit organization called Rawfully Organic. The Organic Produce Co-op in Houston, Texas grew from 12 people in her living room

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  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 a 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, behind being fully raw and what that actually means. Now, this day 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/183

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 2:20Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got Fully Raw Christina on. How's it going?

• 2:26Speaker 02

  It's going so good. Thank you for having me.

• 2:29Lewis Howes?

  I want to say your name, but I can't say it still. So it's Christina.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  Karrio Bukaram.

• 2:35Lewis Howes?

  And I'll say the white boy version, Karrio Bukaram.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  You did great.

• 2:40Lewis Howes?

  How does it say the third one, third name?

• 2:43Speaker 02

  Karrio Bukaram.

• 2:44Lewis Howes?

  Bukaram.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:45Lewis Howes?

  Karrio Bukaram.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  That is my full last name.

• 2:48Lewis Howes?

  Okay, cool. So that's why you came up with Fully Raw Christina, because people couldn't say your last name?

• 2:52Speaker 02

  People couldn't say my last name.

• 2:53Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Now, now, before I get into anything, what does Fully Raw actually mean?

• 2:57Speaker 02

  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.

• 3:25Lewis Howes?

  So why did you, were you always raw your whole life?

• 3:28Speaker 02

  No, I've, um, on July 15th, I will have been raw for 10 years, which means I have not eaten cooked food in 10 years.

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  2005.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 3:38Lewis Howes?

  Zero cooked food has been in your system.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  Zero salt, oil, sugars.

• 3:44Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay.

• 3:45Speaker 02

  Grains, dairy, pasta, rices, all those things.

• 3:48Lewis Howes?

  Now, you're from a Lebanese and Ecuadorian background, right?

• 3:52Speaker 02

  Yes, I know where you're going with this.

• 3:54Lewis Howes?

  And those families traditionally eat lots of pastas and cooked meats and butters and...

• 4:00Speaker 02

  So the reason why I got into this is because I was diagnosed with hyperglycemia when I was 16.

• 4:05Lewis Howes?

  Hyperglycemia.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Which is the onset of type 2 diabetes, and I was being weaned on to insulin at the time. And...

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  Didn't you have that as well, Chris? Hypo.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  I was hyper, so my blood sugar was high. His was low.

• 4:17Lewis Howes?

  Your blood sugar was high?

• 4:18Speaker 02

  My blood sugar was way too high.

• 4:20Lewis Howes?

  Eating too much sugar.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  I actually wasn't eating that much. I was actually eating my mother's Lebanese food.

• 4:24Lewis Howes?

  Wow, which is delicious food.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  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 Lebanese food.

• 4:37Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  Well, if you want diabetes, I can show you the way to my house. Actually, um, 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 is 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 five, seven, and I 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.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  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. So.

• 5:28Lewis Howes?

  Eighty seven pounds, that's really tiny.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 5:31Lewis Howes?

  Do you have photos of this?

• 5:32Speaker 02

  I do, they're not pretty.

• 5:34Lewis Howes?

  Are they on your website or anything?

• 5:35Speaker 02

  There's some of them.

• 5:36Lewis Howes?

  I want to, I want to get one from you and post it up on the show notes.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Okay, great.

• 5:43Speaker 02

  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 then 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 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?

• 6:14Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  And but I'm a very open person, so I took his card and I remember I went home that day. And I was like, Nushkhat Allah, 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 had 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 A, B, C. And if you don't pay attention to tradition, you are kicked out.

• 6:57Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  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 weekend, 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, because I didn't.

• 7:16Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  My diet consisted of olive oil, olive oil.

• 7:19Lewis Howes?

  Correct.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  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 where I wasn't eating fruits or vegetables.

• 7:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:33Speaker 02

  And he was like, look, why don't you just give this a try? He's like, to eat raw. So let me just put this in perspective for you. In Texas 10 years ago.

• 7:42Lewis Howes?

  Where it's all barbecue in Texas.

• 7:44Speaker 02

  And going vegetarian was like, oh yeah, I done heard 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, she, 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.

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  She's crazy.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  Somebody sent her to Looney Band, you know, like. So I remember sitting with John Rose in the grocery store that day and he was 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.

• 8:22Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  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 gonna eat peaches every day for two weeks straight? And I just looked at him and my jaw dropped. I was like, I have type 2 diabetes pretty much. You're gonna tell me that I'm gonna 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.

• 8:50Lewis Howes?

  Doctors telling you to eat that?

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Yes, absolutely. And I wasn't allowed to eat fruit.

• 8:53Lewis Howes?

  They didn't tell you to eat any raw or organic or?

• 8:55Speaker 02

  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.

• 9:05Lewis Howes?

  So you're not supposed to have sugar, but he's telling you to eat sugar, essentially?

• 9:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, essentially, right? So I was eighty seven pounds at the time and I walked out of that Whole Foods with eighty 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.

• 9:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow, you only ate peaches?

• 9:28Speaker 02

  Only, I ate peaches for two weeks straight.

• 9:31Lewis Howes?

  Did you eat it like, did you mush it up? Did you eat it like?

• 9:34Speaker 02

  No, I mean, what does an eighteen 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. It's like what you know how to do. So I, but I remember after just like a full week, I'd gained a few pounds.

• 9:51Lewis Howes?

  Breakfast, lunch and dinner, peaches?

• 9:52Speaker 02

  Peaches.

• 9:53Lewis Howes?

  Nothing else?

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Nothing else.

• 9:55Lewis Howes?

  Water and peaches?

• 9:56Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:57Lewis Howes?

  Okay, no peaches and cream?

• 9:58Speaker 02

  No peaches and cream. But it was, honestly, I, I noticed such a shift. And then after two weeks, it was like, okay, I'd put on weight, my hair stopped falling out.

• 10:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:10Speaker 02

  I didn't have migraines and I hadn't been back to the doctor. And for me in like ten days, I was like a big girl. So I started eating more fruits and vegetables and then thirty days had passed and it was kind of like this eye opening moment. It's like, holy poop, you know? I haven't eaten cooked food in thirty days. And it's like to think about that is a crazy thing, but then to do it is another because then you realize that it's really not as bad as you thought that it was. Because I was starting to learn to love other things like watermelon and kale and, you know, you have fun with it.

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  And I never told myself that I was not gonna eat cooked food again, but I did keep telling myself that I was gonna 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, oh, we've lost our daughter forever.

• 10:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow. But you weren't as sick anymore, right? Like you were?

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Yes, and both my parents said, yeah.

• 11:03Lewis Howes?

  After thirty days, you were back healthy again?

• 11:05Speaker 02

  No, no, I would say after thirty days, I was like, looking not sickly. So I mean, I probably gained about ten pounds and-

• 11:13Lewis Howes?

  They had to be happy with the result.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  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, "Mijita." 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 mijita."

• 11:42Lewis Howes?

  In Ecuador.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  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. Colin 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 were having, like, higher risks and higher disease and cardiovascular. They actually are the wealthier people. And those studies are pretty cool. But, um, 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."

• 12:28Speaker 02

  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." And I was 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.

• 12:54Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  My mother, on the other hand, she was, she's very ingrained in culture. Like, so ingrained in culture.

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  She probably likes to cook her foods and, yeah.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  Me not eating what my grandmother or her put in front of my plate was not just, like, not eating the food, it was like a rejection of family. It was a rejection of culture. It was a rejection of everything that they'd given me, which is, like, generations and generations of whatever. And, um... 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?

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Like, I walk in the other room and she's sitting and she has like my smoothie next to her and she was drinking it. At that moment, I was like, I was like, I walked away. I was like, I'm just gonna let this happen right now. Just gonna enjoy this and let this happen.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  So, yeah, but those transitions happen, but.

• 14:00Lewis Howes?

  Does your family still eat the traditional foods or are they free now as well?

• 14:05Speaker 02

  They're not. So, long story put into a year span. I, I went off to college about six months after like 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.

• 14:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  I wasn't taking any meds. I wasn't doing anything else. But 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, I'm what? 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.

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  It takes more time.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  It takes more time.

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  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?

• 15:05Lewis Howes?

  Does your family transition from eating those foods?

• 15:07Speaker 02

  I would say my dad has, yes. My dad has.

• 15:11Lewis Howes?

  Is he fully raw or is he?

• 15:12Speaker 02

  He's pretty vegan. He doesn't eat meat or dairy anymore.

• 15:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that, 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.

• 15:32Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  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.

• 15:51Lewis Howes?

  What's the best alternative milk? It's almond milk or?

• 15:55Speaker 02

  There's so many different kinds of nut milks out there now that are so good. I avoid soy because it's like you have macadamia nut milk or almond milk or cashew milk. I know, they're so much more delicious than animal milk. And it's like so much richer and sweeter. Okay.

• 16:11Lewis Howes?

  Okay. So you reversed this disease that you had, right?

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:16Lewis Howes?

  And then what did you start doing after that? You started your own co-op in Houston, right?

• 16:21Speaker 02

  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.

• 16:45Lewis Howes?

  Whole foods can be expensive.

• 16:46Speaker 02

  We were going to Whole Foods and spending like $500 a week as a family. That was like crazy. It was crazy. So 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. But.

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 17:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 17:25Lewis Howes?

  So more students were coming to get the produce and they didn't have enough?

• 17:27Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 17:28Lewis Howes?

  Well, that's cool.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  It was, yeah, I mean, it's Texas 10 years ago. Now is 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.

• 17:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:57Speaker 02

  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, Albertsons. 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 month 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." And he's 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

• 18:39Speaker 02

  what you want." 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 in normal grocery stores."

• 18:52Lewis Howes?

  Save a lot, right?

• 18:53Speaker 02

  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. But 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," he's like, "Yeah, I'll deliver to your house." And I was like, "40 cases?" Like without even thinking, I was like, "Done, I got this." So I was like, "All right, Thursday, after class, you're gonna 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."

• 19:35Speaker 02

  Put this in perspective for you.

• 19:37Lewis Howes?

  And how much is that?

• 19:38Speaker 02

  One case of lettuce. I was more concerned about the amount. One case of lettuce has 24 heads of lettuce.

• 19:44Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so 40 cases.

• 19:45Speaker 02

  Oh, one case of peaches has 64 peaches in it.

• 19:48Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 19:49Speaker 02

  One case of cantaloupe has nine cantaloupes. And I had, I had just committed myself to 40 cases a week on a Thursday.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  40 cases total, not of each thing?

• 19:57Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:58Lewis Howes?

  Okay, and how much, how much is that cost, 40 cases?

• 20:00Speaker 02

  It depended on whatever I ordered. And he was gonna let me.

• 20:03Lewis Howes?

  On average, what would, what was like an average cost be?

• 20:05Speaker 02

  Our first bill was more than a couple thousand dollars.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha, okay.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  I had just committed myself to that.

• 20:11Lewis Howes?

  For the wholesale?

• 20:14Speaker 02

  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 like 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 had 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 Buchram girl doing now? And the next week, we had 40 people picking up produce out of my house.

• 20:48Lewis Howes?

  At your house?

• 20:48Speaker 02

  At my house, because everybody wanted in on it.

• 20:50Lewis Howes?

  So you would sell?

• 20:51Speaker 02

  I started, I was like hustling produce out of my garage.

• 20:55Lewis Howes?

  So they would come to your garage, you'd be like, here's our produce for the week.

• 20:59Speaker 02

  Well, I didn't even have a system by then. Like literally, they'd drop off the boxes and I just started handing out stuff. And I said, everybody, we're gonna split up the check. Everybody hand me your check for an equal amount. I'm gonna start dishing it out. And that's exactly how I did it. But then

• 21:12Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Some of the women in my neighborhood were like, alright, 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.

• 21:26Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 21:27Speaker 02

  And yeah, it was pretty cool.

• 21:28Lewis Howes?

  It became a basically a grocery store for produce.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  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

• 21:41Lewis Howes?

  It became a farmer's market.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, and a few weeks later, I had 100 people picking up out of my garage.

• 21:46Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 21:46Speaker 02

  I swear to God.

• 21:47Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  No, it's hilarious. We got kicked out of our, our house, actually, by the neighborhood association. Six months later and they-

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Selling from there or what?

• 21:58Speaker 02

  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 HEB there and we were taking away business from them. So they-

• 22:19Lewis Howes?

  They kicked you out?

• 22:19Speaker 02

  They kicked us out.

• 22:20Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  And so I can't even tell you how traumatized it was because 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, Napier Museum, like science, of science, the Houston Arboretum. And 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

• 23:03Speaker 02

  we were just counting our numbers the other day. We have 50,298 registered members in Houston who regularly buy with us.

• 23:10Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  So-

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  So do you have different locations around Houston? It's basically-

• 23:15Speaker 02

  We have three locations around Houston and we're-

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  Essentially like a farmer's market, right? Is that what it is?

• 23:18Speaker 02

  It is essentially, but it's a community. It's a cooperative. So people come and they actually preorder their boxes and they reserve and they come and they pick them up.

• 23:24Lewis Howes?

  Pick it up.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:25Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 23:26Speaker 02

  And we're starting home delivery in May. So and now it's-

• 23:29Lewis Howes?

  That is big.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  That's a big undertaking. Yes. So we've partnered with a company that has like 90 refrigerated vans and we're gonna just start dishing them out in Houston.

• 23:39Lewis Howes?

  50,000 registered users who buy every week?

• 23:42Speaker 02

  Who don't buy every week, who don't buy every, buy, have bought with us or come back and we, we don't have like tabs on who does, but it's random.

• 23:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:50Speaker 02

  So, but yeah, it's definitely hundreds of family each week that come and pick up. It's really awesome.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  It all started from your garage.

• 23:57Speaker 02

  My garage.

• 23:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's impressive.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  It's fun. It's very fun.

• 24:01Lewis Howes?

  And how many people are working in this co-op? Like how many people are running it?

• 24:04Speaker 02

  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. 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

• 24:46Speaker 02

  supporting them over these past eight years, they now have 500 acres and they grow for us full time. Yeah. And that was the picture that I'd sent you that day. Yeah, exactly. They have 500 acres and we like they grow so much amazing produce for us.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  And it's all for you guys, for Houston?

• 25:01Speaker 02

  They know they can grow for everybody. Now, now they send to grocery stores. Now they do this. It's like really cool. Yeah. And that's just one of our farmers. And so it's, it's kind of spread out to them and it feels really good to be able to support that too.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Did you realize that you had something going when you had to, you know, move out of your garage and into their 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, it's just for me because I want some fresh produce?

• 25:25Speaker 02

  Do you want the honest answer?

• 25:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  Um, 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.

• 25:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  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.

• 25:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  And I found my heart in both and I still do. It's just, I love what I do.

• 25:58Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  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.

• 26:13Lewis Howes?

  It comes 24/7.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  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.

• 26:25Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 26:26Speaker 02

  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.

• 26:39Lewis Howes?

  Right. Now what?

• 26:40Speaker 02

  This kale looks beautiful on my Instagram, but I have no idea what to do with it.

• 26:44Lewis Howes?

  How do I put this in my mouth and eat it?

• 26:46Speaker 02

  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.

• 27:14Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  And the smoothie was literally just like blueberries and kale and bananas or something else. I don't remember. And before I knew it, like people in Japan were emailing me. They're like, I love your recipes. You know, and I was like, wow, that's crazy. People outside of Texas are watching my videos. And it just, it grew from there.

• 27:34Lewis Howes?

  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...

• 27:41Speaker 02

  At that point, I did. At that point, I knew I wanted to.

• 27:43Lewis Howes?

  Got you.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  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.

• 28:11Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 28:29Speaker 02

  Right.

• 28:30Lewis Howes?

  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?

• 28:45Speaker 02

  They're not the same thing.

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so you're fully raw.

• 28:48Speaker 02

  I'm fully raw.

• 28:49Lewis Howes?

  Vegan is completely different.

• 28:51Speaker 02

  Yes, I'd love to distinguish the difference.

• 28:53Lewis Howes?

  What is the difference?

• 28:54Speaker 02

  Okay, so vegetarian means a meatless diet. You're not eating cows, no meat.

• 28:59Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 29:00Speaker 02

  But this can include animal products.

• 29:01Lewis Howes?

  Butter and...

• 29:02Speaker 02

  Exactly. Most people...

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  Honey.

• 29:04Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yes.

• 29:05Lewis Howes?

  Honey.

• 29:06Speaker 02

  Vegan, vegan is no animal products. And there are two different ways you can go here. And then I've learned a lot over the years.

• 29:17Lewis Howes?

  A lot of bad pollutants and pastas and...

• 29:20Speaker 02

  Okay, so we're gonna say, we're gonna say no animal product. We're gonna say no meat, no dairy, no honey, anything that comes from an animal.

• 29:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  There are two different ways that you can go here. And most, some people get into it for health reasons.

• 29:32Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  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.

• 29:50Lewis Howes?

  Right. You can eat lots of crap.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  You can eat a lot of...

• 29:53Lewis Howes?

  Sugar, candy, junk food.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  Oh yeah, cookies, pastas, all day.

• 29:56Lewis Howes?

  And you're overweight and unhealthy.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  But does it, but some people say that it doesn't matter because you're saving the animals. I'm one of those that's gonna 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.

• 30:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:15Speaker 02

  Which is also a being, which is also, you're important too.

• 30:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we're animals too.

• 30:18Speaker 02

  Exactly. 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. And being raw is kind of like taking it to the next level.

• 30:31Lewis Howes?

  Extreme.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  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.

• 30:38Lewis Howes?

  It's deciding to make a choice.

• 30:39Speaker 02

  It is. I mean, I think people eat McDonald's every day are extreme.

• 30:42Lewis Howes?

  That's true. I would agree.

• 30:43Speaker 02

  I'm on the other end of extreme, but yeah, 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.

• 30:52Lewis Howes?

  Right. There you go. Okay.

• 30:54Speaker 02

  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.

• 31:06Lewis Howes?

  Uncooked.

• 31:07Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  Now, why uncooked?

• 31:09Speaker 02

  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.

• 31:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  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 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.

• 32:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  A little slimy.

• 32:05Lewis Howes?

  Soggy.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  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.

• 32:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:16Speaker 02

  Crispy, sweet.

• 32:17Lewis Howes?

  Crunchy.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Yes. And it's like, okay, wait, if I'm going to emanate the words that are on these plates.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  I want to be the fresh green bean. You know, it's a weird way of putting it, but it's, 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'll, I asked him the same question, and I'm 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

• 33:05Speaker 02

  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, never knew on new fruit, every single day for the rest of your life, you still would not have tried every fruit on the planet.

• 33:23Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 33:24Speaker 02

  And I was like, that's crazy.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  How many fruits are there?

• 33:27Speaker 02

  There are that many.

• 33:28Lewis Howes?

  How many?

• 33:29Speaker 02

  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 have not tried everything there.

• 33:38Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 33:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:39Lewis Howes?

  How's that possible?

• 33:40Speaker 02

  It's possible. It was so like, you have an example, there are hundreds of different types of mangoes, like different varieties, there are big mangoes, small mangoes, pears, how many different color pears have you tried?

• 33:51Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. There's like a hundred different apples at least.

• 33:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, even just through our co-op, we've, we've had more than 2,000 different varieties of fruits and vegetables come in just within

• 34:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 34:00Speaker 02

  the past, you know, year. Think about that. That's just in our Texas area. That's, you know, 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.

• 34:10Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  It's fun. It is so much fun.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  Why is it so hard? You know, I love cooked food, and I love meats, and

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Okay, so you want to get all, you want to get all deep and emotional about this?

• 34:22Lewis Howes?

  Well, I'm just curious, you know, because I'm like, I had 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?

• 34:35Speaker 02

  I get my protein from grains. I'm sure you've heard that from him, too, and you can get protein from fruit.

• 34:39Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  And you know what? Honestly, it's, it's, it's a choice.

• 34:43Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 34:43Speaker 02

  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 it comes.

• 34:51Lewis Howes?

  Or reward.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  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.

• 34:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:00Speaker 02

  The thing is, 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.

• 35:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  And that emotional attachment is huge.

• 35:11Lewis Howes?

  We may not even know it.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  So what's the biggest misconception then about eating raw?

• 35:17Speaker 02

  Ooh, I would say that it's boring and that people look like weak and frail when they do it and sickly because sometimes you tell people, it's like, oh, you're a raw foodie. It's like, oh, she must be sickly and hippy 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 boring or that it's not possible. But it's becoming more possible now at this day and age than it has been ever.

• 35:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay. You've had a lot of food bullies and critics.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 36:02Lewis Howes?

  Over the years, right?

• 36:03Speaker 02

  Um, yes.

• 36:04Lewis Howes?

  And how do you, how do you handle that or deal with those? And do they bother you?

• 36:08Speaker 02

  I send them love. I send them so much love.

• 36:14Speaker 02

  I give them a giant hug through screen.

• 36:18Lewis Howes?

  How do you handle it? Because I've got, you know, a good friend of mine, Bonnie Hari, who gets a lot of criticism. And I'm always curious to know how do people.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, 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, I'm like trying to get people to eat fruits and vegetables here.

• 36:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:37Speaker 02

  I'm not even kidding when I say 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.

• 36:54Lewis Howes?

  And what did you come up with?

• 36:56Speaker 02

  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're can't emotionally handle right now.

• 37:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:18Speaker 02

  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, 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. You know, it's like, there's, there's just so many different things. But you know, dealing with online hate is different than dealing with people and their physical presence. Like being at a party and somebody walking

• 38:01Speaker 02

  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.

• 38:11Lewis Howes?

  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 you know, choose what you want to?

• 38:20Speaker 02

  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. Cause that's easy enough, right?

• 38:30Lewis Howes?

  Is a smoothie considered a raw meal?

• 38:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:32Lewis Howes?

  Okay. I have that every morning.

• 38:35Speaker 02

  You're in the class.

• 38:37Lewis Howes?

  I feel great after a smoothie.

• 38:38Speaker 02

  There you go. But there's some people who don't even have that much.

• 38:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:42Speaker 02

  You know, and so it's like even trying to just reach people with that message.

• 38:46Lewis Howes?

  Right. Okay. Um, so is raw for everyone?

• 38:49Speaker 02

  Tricky question. You want me to be honest? I believe that raw can be for everybody.

• 38:54Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 38:54Speaker 02

  But for those who are not ready for it, I never push.

• 38:57Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 38:57Speaker 02

  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.

• 39:12Lewis Howes?

  So you feel like it's better to do one step at a time than to go all in at once?

• 39:17Speaker 02

  Depends on the person. Cause I was one of those people who jumped all in.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  You had to.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  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, mm, maybe lunch day will be my raw meal. Maybe no dinner. And then that indecisiveness comes in and you should, you know, it's for me, it's like I'm all in or I'm nothing at all.

• 39:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's good. Okay.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  So.

• 39:39Lewis Howes?

  What's your ideal healthy day?

• 39:41Speaker 02

  Define healthy.

• 39:43Lewis Howes?

  You define healthy.

• 39:44Speaker 02

  Okay, there are three different, for me, there's always three different aspects of health, you have 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.

• 40:07Lewis Howes?

  No yoga, though.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  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 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?

• 40:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 40:33Speaker 02

  That's so huge. Most people don't even understand that, but that's huge.

• 40:36Lewis Howes?

  If you could change one thing in the American diet, what would that be?

• 40:41Speaker 02

  That is the best question ever. But do we have to limit it to the American diet?

• 40:46Lewis Howes?

  No, I'm into any diet.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  That we would stop eating animals. I know this is gonna sound weird, but like-

• 40:54Lewis Howes?

  I was hoping you'd say like cheese or something for me to start.

• 40:56Speaker 02

  Okay, all right. Well, then let's go lighter than that. We can totally go lighter.

• 40:59Lewis Howes?

  Animals.

• 41:00Speaker 02

  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.

• 41:14Lewis Howes?

  Even if it's like farm-raised and healthy and they're-

• 41:19Speaker 02

  Okay, I don't know if you know that, but when I lived in the Dominican, have you seen my YouTube video on, have you seen my YouTube video on when I've killed my first chicken?

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  No, I'm not.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  I wanna watch this.

• 41:30Speaker 02

  You may want to.

• 41:31Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh. Did it really happen? Was it traumatic?

• 41:34Speaker 02

  It was very traumatic.

• 41:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 41:36Speaker 02

  I, um, 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 were 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.

• 41:58Lewis Howes?

  How old were you?

• 41:59Speaker 02

  I was, I was like almost 16 at the time. I was 15.

• 42:02Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 42:03Speaker 02

  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.

• 42:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 42:19Speaker 02

  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.

• 42:30Lewis Howes?

  Looks good.

• 42:30Speaker 02

  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 do apologize if I offended anybody. 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. 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

• 43:13Speaker 02

  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.

• 43:22Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 43:29Speaker 02

  We're not gonna talk about bacon to me. You had your one raw meal.

• 43:32Lewis Howes?

  Is that essentially like, you know, is it neutralizing it or is it still not even... You might as well just throw out the raw because it's not doing anything for me because...

• 43:42Speaker 02

  You're still gonna 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.

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. All right. 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?

• 44:05Speaker 02

  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.

• 44:14Lewis Howes?

  Well, what are the steps they need to look at first? Who do they need to talk to?

• 44:16Speaker 02

  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.

• 44:23Lewis Howes?

  How do they find that? Go online and search for what?

• 44:25Speaker 02

  The search for local farmers in your area, local distributors in your area.

• 44:29Lewis Howes?

  Farmers markets, maybe in your area as well?

• 44:31Speaker 02

  Do your research. Where do you want your food to come from?

• 44:33Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  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.

• 44:42Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 44:42Speaker 02

  And splitting the produce.

• 44:44Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  Number three would be just keep doing that and allowing it to grow. Like, that's really as easy as it gets. All the little details in the middle, you'll figure those out.

• 44:53Lewis Howes?

  Figure it out.

• 44:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's gonna be different for everybody. But that's what a co-op is. It's a community that comes together to share something.

• 45:00Lewis Howes?

  Okay, I like it. This is a question, we've got a few questions left for you.

• 45:04Speaker 02

  I love questions.

• 45:07Lewis Howes?

  This is what I've been asking a lot of people, probably in the last 10 episodes. Cause 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.

• 45:27Lewis Howes?

  The plug is about to be pulled, let's say. But you're happy, you're loving your life, and 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?

• 46:06Speaker 02

  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-

• 46:12Lewis Howes?

  One page. He gets to write three lines down.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  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 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-

• 46:36Lewis Howes?

  It doesn't have to be.

• 46:37Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 46:38Lewis Howes?

  I'm just curious about how you'd answer it.

• 46:40Speaker 02

  That would be number one. This is so deep. I'm gonna start crying. I'm not gonna start crying. We're fine. You're fine here right now.

• 46:50Lewis Howes?

  You can keep it light.

• 46:52Speaker 02

  You're catching me at like a total off-guard moment.

• 46:55Lewis Howes?

  It's all good. What's coming up for you right now? It doesn't have to be perfect. I'm just curious.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  Hmm. 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, and 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

• 47:42Speaker 02

  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.

• 47:50Lewis Howes?

  I want that piece of paper.

• 47:51Speaker 02

  You want that piece of paper? I don't know if those are right or wrong answers, but maybe those would have been mine.

• 47:56Lewis Howes?

  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 do you want them to go and do?

• 48:12Speaker 02

  I would say, well, my website is fullyraw.com. They can find me there or they can find me in my YouTube channel, Fully Raw Christina, and I'm also on Facebook or Instagram. I just started a Snapchat.

• 48:22Lewis Howes?

  Uh oh.

• 48:23Speaker 02

  Fully Raw.

• 48:24Lewis Howes?

  Down the deep end.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  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.

• 48:44Lewis Howes?

  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 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 is what I would say. You're very present.

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 49:04Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 49:16Speaker 02

  Thank you. Can I say something in response to that?

• 49:18Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  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.

• 49:44Lewis Howes?

  I agree. Very cool. I like that.

• 49:46Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 49:47Lewis Howes?

  Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 49:51Speaker 02

  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 where 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.

• 50:22Lewis Howes?

  I love it, Christina. Thank you so much for coming on.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 50:25Lewis Howes?

  You rock.

• 50:26Speaker 02

  You are so awesome.

• 50:31Lewis Howes?

  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/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/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

• 51:16Lewis Howes?

  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/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.