I’ve been acquainted with Johanna Sophia for a couple years now – and had no idea what a colorful life she has had! Her most recent endeavor – starting R-AwesomeLife foods, along with a school associated with the brand – is incredible. Enjoy reading about her life and recent accomplishments below. I really enjoyed doing this interview.
I wasn’t always a raw food person. I used to have the best part of animals you could get – even frogs legs! And I was infatuated with cheese – a day without cheese was not a day!
Little did I know – cheese contains the same addicting element as heroin [casomorphin]. I was physically addicted to cheese and dairy. I lived in Paris for years so a good portion of many meals there is the different array of cheeses. What was the result? I was sick all the time. As a child I had lots of ear infections, lots of phlegm, I used to have really bad sinusitis and laryngitis. My first career I was a professional singer. During this time I was performing in a very popular show – a sold-out show in Vienna. After the second performance I fell deadly sick with laryngitis – and I didn’t have an understudy! We did everything we could to get me back in shape. I went to the best doctors, had electro-massage on my neck, they put me on all these different types of medications… but nothing worked. My voice did not come back. Now what am I going to do with my life? I had lots of interviews coming up as this rising star! I wanted to be this famous singer!
I remember looking back and some of the interviewers would ask me what I saw for my future. I would say “I’m going to start a new kind of school…when I’m done with my ego-tripping as a singer/actor”. I was very young – that was in my early 20’s. So now I needed to do something else. I decided to really get my body in better shape for acting – as there were acting offers still coming in. But my body was a mess. I was very weak, I was also born with a heart murmur. In order to get myself in shape – I began studying modern dance intensively for a year. I then got my voice back and started singing and acting again in Berlin. Then I was off to Africa with my first husband – to Zimbabwe. Being a little starlet over in Germany — I realized that I didn’t like being recognized in public and receiving silly fan mail. I wanted to see how the world worked – and boy did I saw it firsthand in Zimbabwe!
At this time the ballet school I went to – to keep myself fit – experienced white flight when the colonial situation started breaking up. Before the owners fled, they asked if I would take over the school. “You can do it Johanna – I know you can!” they said to me. So I was only 27 years old – I then found someone who wanted to teach Zulu, someone else that would teach Zumba, and I would teach acting and modern dance. That was my first school. I ran that for 3 years.
Over in Zimbabwe you can get the best fruits and vegetables, and the best meat – but I would get severe bladder infections, or I would get a kidney infection, I got endometriosis, and all the while eating the healthiest food – or so I thought. I was still also eating a lot of cheese and meats – because there were a lot of both from good, local sources.
My first husband received a Fulbright scholarship to study film – so we then moved to NYC – but he was just another black man there – it put a lot of pressure on him. After living in New York for a bit the marriage fell apart because of so much societal stress. This was in the 80’s. The professors would say – “oh it’s all his wife’s talent, because she had already been in movies”. I started to write screenplays and made a couple award-winning short films. But now I really wanted to have kids – this was in my late 30’s at this point. And I’m still not understanding why I’m still getting sick…
So many people think its normal to feel this way – to have the occasional bladder infection or yeast infection. People think that it’s always been this way – for people to be sick. It was then that I realized I needed to go 100% plant-based. I’ve had an infertility problem throughout my life up to that point. They gave me in vitro, hormonal therapy, antibiotics – none of it worked. I finally went to a Chinese acupuncturist, and she opened my tubes – totally fixing my “unfixable” condition. Lo and behold I become pregnant, but I lose it. I decided to adopt. And as soon as my beautiful daughter is in the family, 4 months later, I’m pregnant again with my son.
So now I’m a single mom and I’m working for an international law firm. I worked for this firm for 16 years. Because I know 5 languages I was traveling with my job – and I could travel with my kids and make a very good income. I was in a stressful relationship – and I sometimes didn’t eat or sleep at all! I was just completely exhausted. I started eating meat and pizza again when I was in this crazy relationship – just to share some meals with this individual. Then at 50 when my kids were in middle school – I had a stroke. I keeled over but was fully conscious – out-of-body. I remember saying to myself “get the f_ back into that body – you have children that need you”. Every doctor will tell you – once you have had one stroke, the next one is around the corner – and that could be your last one.
I decided from now on I’m going to do for my body what is the absolute best that I can, so this can never happen again.
When I started eating all raw – around 2003 – I developed all these recipes. I’ve always been a foodie. I always enjoyed fancy restaurants and interesting flavors. There wasn’t much [pre-packaged raw food] out there that you could buy. Online ordering had just started. I would start making some food items and selling them at farmers markets and area events. Me and my kids would go around and sell little packages or our items. And of course the pressure mounted – people would tell me “you have to sell to your products in stores!”. After a lot of hard work we opened up this little factory and within a year we got into over 200 stores and had 3 distributors. But we just couldn’t keep up with the production. Whole Foods wanted us – and they were just being purchased by Amazon. We couldn’t keep up with the cash flow. In food, unlike say technology, you have to buy your ingredients, keep them cool, have large coolers and freezers plus a lot of space for the units. You then make the product, sell it to the distributor, then the distributor eventually sells it to the store. But you don’t get your money for at least 3 to 6 months later! 
When Covid hit – I knew immediately that this was a new form of colonization. This time it was the entire global population. And people like my son, who is a journalist, will say – “but you could never convince all the countries to play along with it.” I would tell him – 200 people in a room is not so many! [The 200 countries are represented by individuals]. I was always interested in the empire era of humanity – particularly after living in Zimbabwe and experiencing it. This era is slowly coming to an end. This is just another grab of “let’s see how we can pull the strings just one more time”. It’s the same crew who have operated in the world throughout history. There have been many empires and the people were always subjects. And even now many of our people today are still subjects. They do what they’re told – because that’s what they’ve learned in school and what they learned from their parents, and what the politicians are telling them. There’s a supply and demand as well. There can’t be tyranny if there’s not a demand for it. Meaning “kill the enemy for me – so I don’t have to do it, or if I don’t want to try and figure out what’s going on – I don’t want any of the responsibility”.
The R-AwesomeLife concept was born because I was locked up inside, like everybody else. It was born out of the pandemic. The demand for healthy products was greater than ever. Also the plant-based demand jumped dramatically in 2020. People wanted to really strengthen their immune systems and get healthy! Even the people that believed in the threat of the virus – were triggered to do more for their health at this time.
I’m not a promoter of 100% raw. I’m a promoter of 100% plant-based, high raw – but it should all be organic. There’s been an incredible load of electromagnetic fields that have been bestowed upon us since this pandemic. We have thousands more satellites now, we have 5G, and more and more of us are sitting in front of our computer screens. We also have an increase in glyphosate – particularly in this country. Now more than ever it’s time to wake up and start taking care of our health!
More about R-AwesomeLife:
https://www.facebook.com/RawesomeLife-Global-Studies-109867228477969
and: http://www.johannasrawfoods.com/
Interviewed and transcribed by Heather Wentworth