They're baaaack. Yup, I am finally back in a veggie girl groove with a few new Veggie Girl Power interviews up my sleeve. Today's VGP interview features one of my favorite inspiring vegan superstars online, Kristina of FullyRaw fame. I am bursting with excitement to feature this amazing lady so lets get to it....
If you have been following Healthy Happy Life for a while, you probably already know about my Veggie Girl Power Interview Series. In the past I have featured interviews with inspiring veggie voices like Portia de Rossi, Heather Mills, Sarma, Isa, Chloe Coscarelli, Kathy Freston, Marilu Henner and many more. You can catch up and read all my interviews here. Well, the tradition lives on! But instead of posting a bunch of interviews at once this year, I decided to simply make my VGP series more of an ongoing feature here on HHL and post interviews sporadicly. And I have changed up the questions a bit too.
So I am very excited to share today's interview with you! Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram of FullyRaw.com! I first discovered Kristina on Instagram and quickly became a fan of her sunny personality, passion for fruits and veggies, fun videos, creative and colorful recipes and tips and photos. Get to know this talented and joyful veggie superstar in today's interview..
Veggie Girl Power Interview: Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram
Who is She: Kristina is all about living healthfully via living a FullyRaw Lifestyle, or eating a diet consisting primarily of raw, organic, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Q1. Your Journey. When and why did you go vegan?
Kristina: I went FullyRaw vegan on July 15, 2005. I was diagnosed with hyperglycemia when I was 16 years old, and by the time that I was 18 years old, I was very sick. I was extremely underweight (5'7 and 87 pounds), had frequent migranes, constipation, dehydration, high/low blood sugar levels, chronic fatigue, and more. After hitting rock bottom in my health, I decided to give something alternative a try. Up until that point, I had only been eating my mother's Lebanese food and my father's Ecuadorean food, as well as "sugar-free" packaged goods that doctors recommended for me. I went into the hospital one night for my hyperglycemia, and when I got out, a stranger approached me in the grocery store and started talking to me about eating raw, juicing, etc. His name was John Rose. After that day, I decided to go raw for 2 weeks, eating nothing but peaches. This was only the beginning...
Q2. Your Work. What projects are you working on now? What can we expect from you in the future if all your dreams come true?
Kristina: I currently have 3 business that are independent, yet they work as one. Rawfully Organic is our community organic produce co-operative that aims to feed families weekly with a box of fruits and veggies. We use our produce from Rawfully Organic to make FullyRaw Juices, which we bottle and sell at co-op as well to other stores in the Houston area. I continue to make YouTube videos, sharing my experiences, recipes, tips, and tricks with my friends and followers. I am also working on a book that will be out in 2016. I feel that I am learning and sharing new things everyday, and I am happy to share a part of my life with you!
Q3. Some Fun. Create a dream dinner party guest list. Who inspires you? Name 2-5 people that you would love to chat with for an evening. Where would you go, who would they be and what would you talk about?
Kristina: If I were to throw a dinner party and if I could invite 2-5 people who truly inspire me I would invite Oprah, Beyonce, Brené Brown, Tom Hanks, and Doris Day.
Q4. Your Food. Describe your day of vegan food, what does one typical-yet-delicious workday look like?
Kristina: A day of eating FullyRaw looks like:
Wake Up: 32 oz. of fruit-infused water like a strawberry lemonade
Breakfast: 32 oz. of freshly squeeze orange juice
Lunch: Bowl of fruit like persimmons (6 or 7), figs, peaches, bananas, or any other fruit in season. Either this or a green smoothie with something like mangos and kale.
Dinner: Appetizer of fruit (usually something juicy) followed by a huge rainbow salad with as many colors as I can find in my fridge. I make my own dressings, and my favorite at the moment is my hot pink salad dressing made of orange juice, sesame seeds, cherry tomatoes, basil, rosemary, and a small slice of beet.
Q5. A Fave. Rave about something (anything!) vegan you recently discovered. (product, fashion, place, person, book)
Kristina: I LOVE 100% pure makeup products. They are fruit based and cruelty free.
Q6. Share it. Give us a link to one of your favorite pieces of work. (recipe, video, product, photo, article..) Give us the inside scoop on how you managed to think of this brilliant idea and why you love it.
Kristina: One of my favorite recipes is my FullyRaw Carrot Cake (video below) that I made for my birthday. It's the perfect cake to share with family and friends. When I was little, I used to LOVE carrot cake, but since going raw, I had never found a recipe that tasted like anything I knew growing up. So, I created my own little masterpiece. This cake is super sweet with the perfect consistency of ooey, gooey, light, fluffy, and creamy.
Q7. Soap Box it. Any last words you want to rant about, we are all ears.
Kristina: People think that eating FullyRaw, vegan, or even vegetarian is too difficult or too extreme. I think that not paying attention to one's health and eating junk foods is extreme. Eating FullyRaw is as easy as peeling a banana or biting into a persimmon. Fruit is REAL FAST FOOD. It's simple and delicious. People tell me it can't be done, I live as an example. Where there is a WILL, there is a WAY. Health and happiness are choice. What will yours be?
Find Kristina online
FullyRaw.com
Rawfully Organic
FullyRawKristina on Facebook
Kristina on YouTube
Kristina on Instagram
