Tell us about yourself: your age, where you live, your job, your family, and the like.

Paul: My name is Paul Tarbath and I am 42 years of age. My wife Yulia is 33 years of age and we have an 11 month old baby girl Elanie. We have no permanent residence at the moment. We spend a lot of our time in South East Asia and especially Thailand.

Both Yulia and I are qualified nutrition and lifestyle coaches and run our online business called Rawsomehealthy, which promotes a high fruit low fat raw vegan lifestyle.

Do you eat 100% raw vegan?

Yulia: Yes, we do in the majority of cases. Paul does his best to manage our fruit stock so that we have ripe fruit. We take our own fruit with us when we go travelling. However, if there is no ripe fruit around to meet our caloric needs, we will go for the next best option – i.e. pasteurised juices or smoothies, non-raw dried fruit or steamed veggies.

Raw is very much part of who we are now. We enjoy eating this way. Physical health, emotional stability, mental sharpness and determination, spiritual harmony – nothing can beat the way you feel when you eat a raw diet!

How long have you been eating the 80/10/10 way?

Yulia: Since the summer of 2009.

Why did you choose this path?

Yulia: It was our natural progression. By the time I discovered a high-fruit raw food diet, I had tried everything I could, including various diets, supplements, tinctures, therapies and healing modalities.

My health, however, was not improving. I still struggled with Candida, hypoglycaemia, hormonal imbalances, weak digestion, depression, chronic fatigue and binging. I felt that I was falling apart!

So I knew I had to keep digging deeper for a solution. Through various synchronicities, I came across The 80/10/10 Diet book, read it and right away decided to switch to it. Paul took a bit of time reading the book and thinking about it. He wasn’t sure how could he live on fruit, especially since he wasn’t a big fruit lover.

Still, the information that we studied made so much sense to us and we started eating the 80/10/10 diet, and have never looked back.

Do you ever wonder whether you’re getting enough nutrition eating 811rv (e.g. protein, calories, or micronutrients)?

Paul: We understand that eating this way will give us enough protein and calories, including micronutrients, but we do check from time to time with blood tests to make sure everything is as it should be. In fact, we think anyone on any diet should do the same to make sure their health is on the right path.

Also, we supplement with B12 on a regular basis and Yulia currently takes an iron and a pre-natal supplement as it suits the breast feeding stage as well. We don’t take vitamin D supplements because we live in the tropics for most of the year and get plenty of sun.

What are some of the personal benefits you’ve experienced since transitioning to a strict 811rv diet?

Paul: First thing I noticed was how good I felt eating just raw fruits and vegetables with some nuts and seeds. My hemorrhoids, that had started when I was eating a cooked vegan diet and were causing me a great deal of pain, very quickly healed themselves, which was just amazing to me.

My overall energy levels increased considerably, to a point that I felt I had plenty of surplus energy to do more exercise and feel even better.

I also no longer suffered from general headaches, which I had endured for my entire life up to that point.

Getting a cold or flu now is very rare for me, even though I used to suffer with them a lot during my pre-raw years.

When, on a very rare occasion, I do fall ill, I don’t feel anywhere near as bad as I used to and bounce back much more quickly.

Yulia: My health started balancing right away. I overcame my Candida issues within a matter of days, having been on an anti-candida diet for 2 years prior with no success. I felt a lot more energetic and finally was not craving food constantly. My depression was lifted within a matter of days and I really liked the sense of satiation that I was getting from eating fruit. My PMS was no longer painful, my chronic fatigue was healing and I started to feel a lot healthier overall.

 

Also, I restored my fertility, was able to get pregnant, have a healthy pregnancy and give birth to a beautiful baby girl. I see this as the greatest gift of all.

How have you found it socially to eat this way?

Paul: Eating out for us has never been an issue. Even when restaurants don’t have everything that we want, we have taken some of our own food with us and they have been perfectly ok about it. We like feeling good and this is our priority.

Planning before you go out so you know what a particular restaurant might or might not have is a very good idea so you know what to expect and so you can prepare accordingly.

The great thing now is that more and more raw restaurants are popping up all the time so the options for raw vegans are increasing.

How have your family and friends reacted to your dietary choices?

Yulia: The usual way – rejection initially, followed by complete acceptance and even curiosity after a few years of us eating this way. They would see completely healthy, fit and radiant us each time we would see them, so eventually their fears dissipated.

I believe that it is very important not to allow other people to stop you from following what you do in life and keep pursuing your highest goals and ideals. Eventually, they may even want to join you as well.

My mum enjoys eating this way when she spends time with us. She even decided to spend most of her time in the tropics now because she loves fruit so much! My sister is also mostly raw vegan.

How long have you been vegan?

Paul: We went vegan just before going raw, back in 2009. We’ve been vegetarian since 2006.

Do you find yourself frequently debunking myths or inaccuracies about veganism?

Yulia: Yes, we do. Someone has to. Take protein, for example. The first thing a meat eater will say when you talk to them about veganism, or raw veganism is: “But where do you get your protein from?”

The protein myth was created by the meat and dairy industry to make lots of money. They don’t care about people’s health or truly caring for animals. So when people transition to a raw vegan or a vegan diet, they have many concerns. We had them too at the beginning and becoming educated in this subject area is really something that we must all take responsibility for, otherwise, we will continue living in a world full of injustice, ignorance and ill health.

What about veganism appeals to you?

Paul: We believe that veganism is a way to be more conscious of yourself and life around you. It’s like being given a key that can open up a whole new level of beauty in your life that you can share with the world around you. If people work on not just their physical health, but also their mental, emotional and spiritual health, then raw veganism is an incredible tool for growth.

Are there things about being vegan that you find challenging?

Paul: Understanding the large disconnect in consciousness that exists for people who buy animal products, whether it be leather goods or meat products for example. If they truly knew about and witnessed what these innocent animals had to go through, then I am sure the vast majority would give up buying these items without any complaints.

Yulia: Watching the masses gradually killing themselves with the foods that they eat. I’ve lost 2 family members due to cancer. They were both standard western diet eaters. I also find it challenging watching parents taking their kids to fast food restaurants and seeing sick children because they eat poor diets and lead unhealthy lifestyles. This is why I really love doing what I do and helping people discover their true health potential.

How old is your beautiful daughter Elanie?

Yulia: She is 11 months old.

How was the pregnancy and birth following this lifestyle?

Yulia: My pregnancy was beautiful and very healthy, thanks to me following a fruit-based raw food diet for many years before pregnancy and during pregnancy. I didn’t experience any issues, such as swelling, morning sickness, back ache, unhealthy weight gain, stretch marks and bloating. I stayed active throughout my whole pregnancy, running, cycling, swimming, hiking and doing stretches. I felt like a real Goddess of health and fertility during my pregnancy. It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had.

My birth was adventurous. Elanie was 10 days overdue and decided to come to this world in the middle of what was predicted to be a very bad cyclone in Queensland, Australia with severe wind and flooding. So it was natural for me to feel challenged by the environment around me, so I wouldn’t call my birth easy. Still, I gave birth to her naturally without any intervention. It was a powerful learning curve for both myself and Paul and we are grateful for this experience.

What have been the greatest challenges in following the 80/10/10 lifestyle as a family with a young child?

Yulia:

1. Fruit availability and ensuring ripeness.
2. Not a challenge currently, but will soon be – other parents that we come into contact with feeding their toddlers and children junk foods.

Of course people also get concerned about the protein issue and deficiencies. We’ve been on this lifestyle for a long time now and we have learnt to deal with such concerns. We accept the fact that people pass such comments because of their limited knowledge about nutrition and we don’t allow it to limit us.

What have been the greatest rewards in following this lifestyle as a family with a young child?

Yulia: Witnessing Elanie’s great love for fruit and high level of vibrancy, along with seeing her blossoming on so many levels.

Have you noticed differences between Elanie and other babies of the same age?

 

Yulia: Yes, absolutely. In fact, the difference is incredible.

Elanie was alert with her eyes wide open and her legs and hands kicking since the moment she was born.

She’s always looked alert, healthy and pink. In fact we have a little name for her which is ‘dynamo’, due to her having so much energy.

I believe that vegan and raw vegan children help create a healthy, peaceful and aware generation on the planet.

How did you learn about Dr. Graham and 811rv?

Paul: Yulia used to run her own personal growth and health club in London for the Russian community. She met a lady at one of the meetings and the lady told her about the raw food diet. Yulia resonated with it right away. Very soon after, we discovered The 80/10/10 Diet book.

What is your personal opinion of Dr. Graham’s book, The 80/10/10 Diet?

Have any particular points or messages in The 80/10/10 Diet stuck with you, above all else?

Paul: Both Yulia and I love how much sense The 80/10/10 Diet book makes with regards to our physiology as human beings and that humans are naturally fruit eaters. It resonates with us to eat our produce as we would find it in nature and to eat the healthiest foods for us. Thanks to The 80/10/10 Diet book, we learnt about the healthiest raw food diet, instead of following the mainstream, high-fat raw diet. So the book saved us from experiencing the common health issues associated with a high-fat diet.

We would like to see the book expanded a little in a future edition to go into detail on the topics of dental hygiene, health testing and supplementation, especially as far as vitamin B12 is concerned, because they are three topics that we consider very important to have a good knowledge of.

WRAP-UP

Do you plan to change anything or do anything differently with your 811rv regimen, going forward?

Yulia: We are very happy with the way things are going.

What one piece of advice would you give a newbie to 811, or someone who is looking to refine their program?

Paul: Make sure to test yourself for B12 initially, and supplement with B12 regularly. Also vitamin D is very important to check on as well especially if you live in a northern climate such as northern Europe, the United States and Canada.

We also recommend to our own clients to get general blood tests, including thyroid which can be a problem for women especially.

Yulia: My advice is to be consistent and not to expect miracles right away. Most people spend literally decades eating junk and processed foods that really do damage the body, so it may take some time before healing manifests. Healing is a process of self-nurturing, where you learn to love yourself and develop the higher qualities of a human being, including patience, acceptance, faith and gratitude.

And, of course, I recommend that people start following this lifestyle the right way, which comes down to a commitment to continuous learning.

---

You can find Paul and Yulia on Facebook, or at their website, rawsomehealthy.com., where they have books and products of raw food parenting, travels and recipes.