I tried raw for a week; it just drove me crazy,

Because you can’t just eat raw. That’s a misconception; you can’t go from A to Z overnight.

Thank you for saying that. Because I felt like such a failure.

No, no, no, and that’s the problem with all diets, people expect to go from A to Z. It’s a process.

Welcome back, lively viewers, to part 2 of our interview with the beautiful and extraordinary Ms. Karyn Calabrese. As we found out in part 1, Ms. Calabrese has been nationally recognized for her innovative work in the current raw and vegan food evolution, helping thousands of individuals create healthier, happier lives for themselves. On today’s show, we’ll learn of Ms. Calabrese’s own A-Z journey which started about 30 years ago when her mother bought her a juice maker.

This intuitively sparked her search for self-healing, which led her to discover the works of famous nutritionist Dr. Ann Wigmore. Later on in 1985, she established her own greenhouse called “Karyn’s Fresh Corner,” where she grew her own wheatgrass and sprouts. Seven years after, she opened one of the United States’ first raw foods eateries, which is still thriving today as an incredible raw, vegan gourmet restaurant plus café.

For those who preferred to keep cooked food in their diet, Ms. Calabrese considerately opened an amazing vegan restaurant, aptly named, “Karyn’s Cooked.” Then due to its popularity, she opened her third restaurant in early 2010, named “Karyn’s on Greens” described as a “contemporary American vegan restaurant free of meat, seafood, poultry and dairy – a gateway to veganism.”

Truly, Karyn’s vegan entrepreneurial ship knows no bounds! Another way Karyn has decided to help people achieve their dietary goals is with “Karyn’s at Home,” where customers can pre-order a week’s worth of raw or cooked vegan cuisine and have it delivered right to their doorstep! Scrumptious meatless meals include stuffed mushrooms, roasted veggie sandwich, mashed sweet potatoes, chocolate mousse and blueberry cheesecake. WOW – sign me up!

Every month Karyn’s Inner Beauty Center offers classes and events to help individuals along their path towards wellness. Movie nights include important documentaries such as “Food, Inc.” or “Meet Your Meat;” yoga and meditation classes, raw food preparation classes plus seminars by well-known experts in the health and wellness industry.

So let’s return now to our in-depth interview with Ms. Karyn Calabrese at her holistic healing center, “Karyn’s Inner Beauty Center,” located in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

I really started all this for me, and the beauty of it is, I’m able to share it with other people. I do free information seminars twice a month. I hold them here in my Wellness Center. I speak for 2 or 3 hours; people can come and ask me all the questions they want. I have a lot of this on YouTube. I answer the calling – any time somebody asked me to come and speak and talk, you’ll see that I’m right there because I believe that I’ve been given a mission to do.

And so I think it’s educating the public, because once again, we all know what’s right, we’ve just forgotten. So when you help people uncover those layers, you don’t have to talk anybody into anything, you don’t have to convince anybody of anything, you just have to wake them up a little bit, and they jump on themselves.

Karyn has said the reason traditional diets don’t work is because people expect instant results, whereas her philosophy is to take the transition step by step, according to your body’s needs.

I think the best recommendation that I could make is you don’t go from A-Z overnight. It’s a process. People tend to think, or they’ll hear me speak today, “Oh I need to do that.” And then they may try it for a day or two and they can’t succeed, “Oh, I can’t do it.” And so to find comfortable baby steps for yourself so that you can reward yourself along the way. Make comfortable goals, don’t try to go from A-Z overnight, and be kind to yourself. Don’t judge yourself, don’t put yourself down.

Find a comfortable journey for yourself, and find a comfortable group that believes in and feels the way that you do that you’re comfortable with. And take baby steps. Find steps that work for you. Find something that works for you, and then after that’s worked for a week or two, say, “Okay, now I’m going to try something else.”

And you build on it, because no other endeavor in our lives do we hear at once and expect to get it. You don’t hear one lecture on law and you’re a lawyer, you don’t want to hear one lecture on math and you’re a mathematician. It is a process. And it’s the same thing with lifestyle. You have to allow yourself the process.

Ms. Calabrese shared with us of some of the success stories she has met with in her work.

In the 1800’s, the only people that died from heart disease were the rich people, because they were the only ones that could afford to eat meat all the time. The older guy who was 87 I spoke of. They were ready to amputate his toe from diabetes and he took my detox class and it healed.

I had a woman with fibromyalgia. She could barely walk. She can run up the steps and went back and got her master’s degree. I’m working with a young man right now with tumors, given six months to live. Eight years later, he’s still doing fine. And I believe once again, that’s the detox classes that I teach.

If you aren’t able to take one of Ms. Calabrese’s effective detox courses, then you may want to read her newly published book called “Soak Your Nuts,” which details her cleansing program and provides much more fascinating information on healthy living.

The title “Soak Your Nuts” refers to the best way to eat nuts and most nuts are wonderful source of calcium and protein. Everybody worries about their calcium and protein when they give up the animals. I always joke and say, nobody worries about it when they’re eating garbage, but when they come into the healthy world, “Where am I getting my protein?” “Where am I getting my calcium?” So, nuts are a wonderful source of protein and calcium.

And if you soak them before you eat them, you break down the enzyme inhibitors, you break down the fats and they’re easier to digest. We have seven doctors that have given me a testimonial for the process that I teach. I love my process of detoxification, but I don’t believe mine is the only way. I believe there are many roads to the top of the mountain. So if your viewers find somebody that resonates with them, a book, a person, a class, whatever, as long as you take the time to clean the body out four times a year, you’re going to get results beyond your wildest dreams.

Ms. Calabrese’ reminds people to follow their intuition.

Well, I think that leading by example is the best way to get people into your camp. And being a gentle proponent of what you believe in. I don’t believe in judgment of anybody’s choices. In fact I just opened a cooked vegan restaurant downtown. It says: “There is no judgment here, no right or wrong, or good or bad, or yes or no, just a chance for an Earth-friendly experience.”

Would I love everybody to be a vegan? Absolutely! By being a loving proponent of what you believe in, by living by example, I think is the best way to become what people look to as a leader. But I’m certainly not a leader. I like to tell people that we all intuitively know what’s right. We’ve just forgotten.

Karyn’s loving and compassionate heart naturally extends to our animal co-inhabitants. She has a deep sensitivity to the plight of any animal who is being abused and mistreated and willingly contributes her time and finances in order to do what she can to help alleviate their suffering.

Yes, I definitely have a strong love of animals. When the trucks go by with the pigs and cows in them, I say a prayer and my heart cries, because I feel so sad for them. I don’t even like watching the horses with the carts go by, drawing the people around. I don’t like going to the zoo. I do belong to PAWS. I do a lot of fundraising with them. But there is also a small group here in Chicago called Chicagoland Rescue for Dogs. And my son who passed away three years ago was an animal lover, too. So I do fundraising for them. Like my birthday this year, rather than give me gifts, I asked people to make donations to them.

A very selfless request indeed! Since leading a vegan lifestyle is the best way to save animals lives, let’s find out about Ms. Calabrese’s latest vegan ventures and how she plans to make her raw and vegan foods even more accessible throughout the world.

I want to start streaming my classes all over the world. And we’re building a professional kitchen in there, so I’m going to start teaching food, cooked vegan and raw vegan, where people will be able to type me up on their computers and pull me up and make food in their kitchen with me.

So yes, we’ll want people to come to the class. We are going to do a cooking certification classes for people who want to do something with it, with their livelihoods. But I want the person at home to be able to dial me up on the computer and do classes with me also. So that’s a huge project.

We have started a meals-at-home program, where people can order a week’s worth of food from the cooked vegan or the raw vegan, and we actually ship it around the country. So we’re doing that; it’s in its infancy stages, and I am working with some manufacturers about getting some of my food out in more in the mainstream supermarkets and things. Because the more mainstream you make it, the more people you’re going to attract. So, it’s about finding bridges and transitions for people, that’s what I’m all about. I’m not about absolutes and perfection, it’s about bridges.

The beauty of the way my life lives is, as soon as things start to get completed, more visions come to me. So I don’t think I’m ever going to retire; I don’t think I’m ever going to stop; I just see myself growing with the needs that are needed for the planet.

Our sincere gratitude, Ms. Karyn Calabrese, for sharing your precious time with us, and for your incredible work in helping individuals smoothly transition into the Earth-, health-, and animal-saving plant-based lifestyle. Your many ventures, including Karyn’s Raw Café, Karyn’s Vegan Cooked Gourmet Vegan Restaurant, Karyn’s at Home, Karyn’s Detox Program, and the upcoming Karyn online cooking classes are an amazing array of loving offerings! We wish you all the best luck to continue expanding your raw and vegan world, with Heaven’s abundant blessings.

Fabulous viewers, thanks for being with us today for our conclusion of our informative program featuring raw, vegan food pioneer Karyn Calabrese. Coming up next is Between Master and Disciples. May Divine grace lead you on the path of peace and brotherly love.

For more information on Karyn Calabrese and staying healthy and forever young through veganism and detoxing, please visit: www.KarynRaw.com