Interview with raw athlete Tonya Kay

July 5th 2009

Q: How long did it take you to transition to a fully raw diet?

Tonya Kay: I was vegetarian for 18 years before I went raw. I was cooked vegan seven years before raw. Talk about a slow transition ... I'm always impressed with the new kids on the block doing it overnite and best of all, being successful with it!

My transition to raw was during my withdrawal from meds, so my transition was not all daisies and cumulus clouds, I have to admit. It was indeed, one of the darkest times of my life. For me, coming from over a decade cooked vegan and over two vegetarian, my transition to raw was perceptibly positive beginning at five months. Until then, it was ideals, drive and faith seeing me through.

My second year raw I began cleansing this and that, like many people do. Strange smells would mysteriously present themselves as if directly from my nostalgia brain lobe. Injuries I procured when I was a teenager started aching again and needed to be healed properly. Memories surfaced about things I had forgotten, or repressed. Dreams became powerful and my future was full of big ones. Odd substances came out of my body. But thankfully, my intuition and ability to listen deeply and intimately told me that this is stuff on it's way out. My job is to not impede the escape, no matter how long it takes. Yes, my diet changed, but more importantly, my concept of dis-ease and health changed.

The trick for me is to be flexible with my approaches and to transition between them as needed quickly and painlessly. In and out as it serves me. Within all of those transitions, somehow I do find a through line, and that is where I personally find the core of my being to identify with. "I" am most often raw vegan. "I" am most often energetic. "I" am most often an athlete. "I" am most often an artist. It's like the average of all my personalities let's me know who I most likely will be at any given moment.

Q: Why did you choose to supplement your diet with vitamin B12?

Tonya Kay: The only official supplement I do take is B12. I have a lot of respect for the work and writings of Dr. Gabriel Cousens and after reading an article he wrote on "The Elusive B12", I was convinced. Dr. Gabriel Cousens is a doctor and raw foodist who runs a healing center called the Tree of Life on the Mexico/Arizona boarder. I respect him for his freedom from dogma and idealism. His conclusions are based in results. He has 100% success rate healing blood sugar disorders and considerable success with depression as well.

To sum it up, Dr. Cousens writes in The Elusive B12 that vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters too are B12 deficient. It is a rampant problem in American society. He details research on raw vegan supplemental approach with sea weeds, fermented foods, nutritional yeast and nuts. He covers the inaccuracy of B12 testing methods in the past. He makes suggestions. I, for one, consider the B12 issue important for me to take care of early as a raw vegan because in my years and travels, I have met many raw vegans who undeniably exhibit the symptoms of B12 deficiency. The great news however, is that with supplementation, the symptoms reverse quite quickly.

My mentor, hero and close friend, Don Weaver, has been raw for 30 years. And he is the truly clean, pure raw vegan rather than the gourmet, city kind :-) For three decades this man, a 6'2 athletic statue of health has grown his own organic vegetables and fruits in Northern California and lived off the good Earth's pristine wide-open-space air and sunshine. He had his 30 year raw vegan check up this year and guess what? Everything is tip top! Except he was severely vitamin B12 deficient. That's right. Like Dr. Gabriel Cousens, maybe with national test results and limited raw vegan test results showing an epidemic of B12 deficiency, we might not judge the results, but heed them, looking only to increase our blood B12 levels as a goal. Why let our idealism keep us sick when science can aid this learning curve?

Don, like myself and other idealist raw vegans first shared with me that he intended on "doing it with natural raw food sources" like dulse seaweed, nutritional yeast and fermented products like kim-chee and kombucha tea, but only one month passed before he let me know that he has changed his mind and will be biting the supplement caps to elevate his levels and reduce blood vessel damage as rapidly as possible.

I'm starting early. And experimenting with supplement sources now.

Q: Are there any staple foods in your diet?

Tonya Kay: As a professional dancer, I train an average of 17 hours/wk. My activities include company rehearsals, gigs, dance classes, core training, physical therapy, Bikram yoga, hiking and dancing like at the club, of course! Unlike many other athletes, my sport is not competitive (with anyone but myself) nor does it involve a routine set of perfectible motions. A dancers' edge, rather, lies in her ability to maintain an expert level of strength, flexibility and coordination at all times, allowing her to master any motion the physical form might do, make it look easy, and bare her soul wide open while doing it.

Consuming in-season, local, organic, raw vegan foods has been nothing short of miraculous in my life - as an athlete as well as a human being. Eating in-season, local, organic raw vegan foods, I am light inside, have a reliable energy source, recover quickly from stress and injury, sleep consistently and wake rested, fluctuate only five pounds either way around my average weight, build lean, long muscle effortlessly, and radiate a glow visible from the stage to the second balcony.

The raw vegan foods I find most beneficial to my personal athletic training are first and foremost; water. I consider it a food, for certain, and choose to drink simple spring water or well water I bottle myself. In lieu of that, I get my 4 - 5 liters/day from a basic charcoal filtered tap water or as a last resort, refill jugs from reverse osmosis vending machines. I use water to hydrate, nourish, and "keep things flowing". For me to really accept water's energy into my body, the water must be cost-free and waste-free. I don't believe that the basic necessities of life, like air, water, sunshine, sleep and love should have a price tag. I also don't believe requiring the manufacture, recycle or waste of a petroleum plastic bottle have anything to do with clean water.

Other vegan foods I find essential to my athletic training are leafy greens, like kale, romaine, green lettuce, and hijiki, nori, dulse and wakame sea vegetables. These foods have amazing alkalizing effects, which assure the body functions at its natural highest potential without inflammation, degradation, or exhaustion. And, contrary to popular belief, muscle is built from amino acids. It is true that the body breaks down hard-to-digest proteins into amino acids, but why not give it direct access to muscle's building blocks by feeding it the most amino acid dense foods on earth - easily to assimilate leafy greens.

Finally, water rich fruits, such as apples, kiwi, strawberries, cherries - AVOCADO! - they all have profound energy and mood effects. It's a natural high without the side effects, and when it comes to professional dance, the crowd expects more than a stellar athletic performance, they expect you to shine like a star doing it. Fruit highs are mandatory just before any performance.

Q: Some people fear deficiencies on a raw vegan diet. You mentioned supplementing with B12. What about protein, iron, etc.?

Tonya Kay: I co-authored an eBook - it's a raw nutritional analysis for all those people who want more facts than idealism about where they get their protein from. If you are one of those people, check out the Raw Nutritional Analysis: Spring Athlete's Diet ebook - it's paper-free, so you can feel good about not contributing to the cycle of production and consumption.

Well, Joanna Steven and I co-authored this eBook as an athletic follow up to the standard Raw Nutritional Analysis: Autumn's Diet and let's just say protein wasn't the only nutrient this raw foodist was wondering about.

My daily calcium intake averaged around a recommended daily allowance of 86%. All that 86% was comprised of was kale salads, wheat grass shots, sea weeds and algae. Then, I did a little talk down in Dallas, TX at Loving Food's Raw Potluck. Some wonderful chef placed upon the table Raw Tapioca Pudding. At least that's what I call it. I started making the pudding during my writing of this eBook, where I write down every gram of food I eat, and guess what I found: my recommended daily allowance of calcium skyrocketed from 86% to 106% by adding only 2 or 3T of chia seeds, the essential ingredient in Raw Tapioca Pudding! I eat them several times/week now, in addition to doing consistent weight-bearing physical play - my bones are definitely doing what bones do to be strong, that's for sure!

And most comically important, the next time someone asks me if I get enough protein, I can arm myself with a swift “I get an average of 103% RDA of protein from kale, seaweed, sprouts and avocados without even trying on this raw vegan diet.” And I feel light and energetic all the while.

Do I need expensive superfoods? For treats, maybe, because they taste good, but certainly not because I need more nutrition!

Q: We have already seen you in Numb3rs, an ad for Progressive Insurance, etc. Are you going to appear on TV again soon?

Tonya Kay: You can see me on television this July 16th at midnight performing my burlesque bullwhip solo on Showtime's LIVE NUDE COMEDY featuring Andy Dick, hosted by Shannon Elizabeth. This episode will reair the following days, so check my itinerary for updated schedules.

Also, I will be playing a reoccurring role on Comedy Central this October in SECRET GIRLFRIEND. I will be Cassidy, the lesbian burlesque dancer who beats up boys in episodes 2, 5 and 8.

This November, I will star in the long-running comic book series TAROT: WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE by Jim Balent. I crack whips, save the day and have the entire issue to myself, including the cover! Also, look for me modeling with fellow vegan, Russell Brand, in his follow up film to FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, called GET HIM TO THE GREEK. This is a huge year for me!