It’s finally here!

Stephanie has been working on my website. She designed all of it, and I absolutely adore it! Have a look around and let us know what you think.

Lately I’ve been keeping busy with my new job and with weddings! Robert and I had four in the last few months, a perfect number for us since we both have day jobs.

View more images in my portfolio if you’d like to see more.

Now that things are calming down, I’d like to start booking shoots again. I’m available for weddings, seniors, family portraits, fashion, and more. All proceeds of my photography will go towards funding my missions trip to South Africa in 2010. Along with medical missions, I’d be continuing my documentary photography for Blessman Ministries. A lot of my  photographs were used for their website.

For those of you wondering, I’m still trying to eat mostly raw foods. I say “mostly” because I try my best, but don’t like to restrict myself entirely. It’s been 74 days–almost three months. Woah. I’ve made quite a few recipes but I prefer keeping it simple–green smoothies, larabars, fruits and vegetables. I can’t quite give up popcorn and soy chai lattes yet, and once in a while I’ll have pizza.

Since raw I’ve felt like I have much more energy without coffee, and I haven’t gotten sick yet this fall–normally I would be by now. I’ve also lost a total of 10 pounds with hardly any exercise, woohoo! I’m getting a tattoo to celebrate soon.

That’s about all for now! Check out my website and let me know if you’d like to book a shoot.

I’m day 17 of doing the raw thing, usually I eat raw until dinner time. It’s only been a little over two weeks, but already I feel more vibrant and energetic. I mean WAY too much energy. It’s amazing. If you know me, you know I don’t feed into diet hype. I don’t diet, I hate the idea of it. I don’t see this as another fad, though. I see it as a lifestyle change.

This decision to go raw seems out of the blue for a lot of people, but to me it was a long process to get to this point. I don’t consider myself a health nut, but I am always concerned about my health. I’m constantly ill. In the past three years I’ve been in the ER twice, urgent care multiple times, on antibiotics at least twice a year if not more, and had a splenectomy in 2006, now putting me in the category of immunocompromised. I am not considered overweight, but I know I would feel a lot better if I were at a smaller size. My mom found out about raw a few years ago and introduced smoothies and fresh juice to the family, which gave us both energy and healed some of our chronic ailments when we kept up with it.

A year ago, I decided to cut out high fructose corn syrup and lost 20 pounds. After that I’ve been slowly cutting out processed food. I even signed up for a three month challenge at a local gym this last June that specializes in small group training.

With my new job, it’s been nearly impossible to get to the class more than once a week. So to make up for that, I decided to focus on my diet instead of exercise. I remembered my mom’s smoothies and went digging for the cute videos she showed me, and decided to give this a try starting Sept 1.

I can’t express how much I appreciate the enthusiasm from Robert, my mom, and my friends through this. I know raw isn’t normal, it’s not even close. But to me, when I look at the “normal” American standards of eating, and the obesity, diabetes, and slew of other health problems that come with it–it’s not worth it to me. It’s not normal to feel so sluggish and old at 23. It’s not normal to wake up and drag through the morning, regardless of how much caffeine I’ve had. The way I feel now is so much better, and it’s only been two weeks.

I won’t try to convert you–everyone is different and needs different things. I am talking a lot about it right now though because I’m excited about it.

Please bear with me while I try this out. So far it feels right, and I’ll keep on going. I appreciate your support.

I’ve been neglecting my blog. Sorrryyyy.