Interview with Kris Carr

As you may have already read in the current issue of VegNews, Kris Carr is a force to be reckoned with. She’s managing a rare, incurable cancer. She’s made a documentary, written books, and toured the country giving inspiring speeches to her fellow crazy sexy survivors. This unstoppable lady also just launched a brand-new, super-fun website that brings together a group of all-star “Blog Posse” of experts, news, events, a revamped forum, videos, recipes, and pretty much everything else you could ever want in a body-cleansing, planet-saving, veggie-eating, juice-making resource. VN chats with the very busy lady to expand on her crazy, sexy philosophy.

VegNews: You’ve gone through quite a bit to get to where you are now. How do you see your job?
Kris Carr: We get so caught up in our busy lives and I think women tend to definitely put themselves last. We’re the caretakers, and we always think there’ll be time for us if we finish these 100 things and freedom is just around the corner. That’s the first thing that you change when you get diagnosed. Those beliefs change immediately, and that’s a blessing. Why should I wait until I’m retired to live the life that I want to live? Why shouldn’t every day be the best life ever? It takes hard work to be happy. I quit my job, I sold my house, I went back to school for nutrition, I renovated my little black book. I cut the fat. The body is made up of all these different cubbies, and we’re stuffed. And if we’re stuffed with this bad food, we’re stuffed with this negative emotion, then we’re bound to get sick. So my job as someone who is healing and is helping to facilitate healing in others, is really just to unravel that. That’s what prevention is all about—waking people up before the tragedy happens.

VN: Can people wake themselves up?
KC: Each one of us has an inner physician. When you can find the space between the noise, that’s where your inner physician lives, which is why, first and foremost, setting up a daily meditation practice is key. I’ve never met one person, and I talk with thousands of people, who tells me that they didn’t know something was coming. They might not have known it was cancer but they knew it was something.

VN: What’s most important in your life?
KC: The most important thing in life is—this is going to sound really hippie-like, I swear I’m not making out with a tree right now—I would say it’s love and compassion. You can’t go wrong, you can’t make mad, bad decisions if you work from the place of love and compassion.