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Starting a raw food diet can be a scary thing for many people. Plenty of people dive straight in to a raw food diet, without educating themselves properly on the subject. They immediately try to 'listen to their bodies' but unfortunately they are not yet equipped to do so, and they go on to make many mistakes which then leads them to conclude that the raw food diet either 'doesn't work' or just 'isn't for them'. This is a pity. This article is intended to point out some of the most common mistakes made by people new to the raw food diet, and how to correct them so that you can be successful. Starting A Raw Food Diet - Tip 1 - EDUCATE YOURSELF Read lots of books! Make sure the books you're reading are from knowledgeable sources. Interrogate the source of the information (in your mind, don't interrogate the person!). Ask yourself: What experience and qualifications does the author of this information have? How do they look? Are they achieving the kind of results in their life that YOU would like to achieve? Does what they're saying MAKE SENSE? Does it really resonate with you as truth? Starting A Raw Food Diet - Tip 2 - EXPERIMENT Do not decide ahead of time how things are going to be, as you just don't have the experience yet to be able to do that. Be open to changing your approach. If something doesn't seem to be working for you, keep looking, keep experimenting. Find people who are achieving the results you WANT and follow what they're doing! Starting A Raw Food Diet - Tip 3 - OBJECTIVELY MEASURE YOUR INTAKE When you are new to eating a clean diet, it is almost impossible to 'listen to your body'. Your signals are completely out of whack. You are accustomed to interpreting your bodies signals
as calls for doughnuts or calls for sugary soda or coffee. Considering that your body NEVER actually wants harmful substances, it is fair to say that you are out of touch with your bodies needs when you have been eating anything close to a standard diet. What you need to do instead is to OBJECTIVELY measure your intake. EAT ENOUGH FOOD It is impossible to be successful long term on a starvation diet. However, this is exactly what happens when many people are starting a raw food diet. They do not understand how to objectively measure their intake, so they starve themselves and then conclude that the raw food diet is way too difficult or unsustainable. Raw vegetables are INCREDIBLY low in calories. If you were to try and fulfill your calorie needs with just vegetables, you would have to eat ALL DAY LONG, and even then you would probably still be seriously under-eating in terms of your caloric intake. So raw vegetables are just not going to suffice as a main source of calories. So if we can't get enough calories from vegetables alone, that leaves overt fat sources, such as refined oils, nuts, seeds, olives and avocados, or FRUITS. Refined oils are 100% FAT! Consuming refined oils is extremely unhealthy as oils are 100% FAT. They do not contain ANY protein or ANY carbohydrate. They are processed foods and not healthy for us in any quantity. Eating much more than 10% to 15% of our overall calories from fats is not healthy. In every major health study it has been shown that the MOST healthful level of fat consumption is less than 10% of overall calories. Some nuts and seeds, olives or avocados can be consumed each day, but not in large amounts. That leaves fruits. Fruits are the ideal food, perfectly cooked by the sun, they are our perfect foods. Containing beautiful ratios of protein, fat and carbohydrate, fruits are easily digested and assimilated, giving us lots of energy and hydration in each perfect package. Part of objectively measuring your intake, is finding out how many calories you need to maintain your current level of activity, and making sure that you get that. Go onto a free calorie counting website and start to count calories. After a month or so you will know how much to eat and won't have to continue to monitor this. However, if you DON'T objectively measure your intake when starting a raw food diet, the chances are VERY HIGH that
you will under-eat. Raw food is much higher in volume than cooked food, and much lower in calories per bite. Therefore you have to eat a LOT MORE than what you are accustomed to eating. While you are monitoring your caloric intake, also keep an eye on your other levels, such as your overall fat intake and protein intake. Provided you are eating enough calories from real foods (no refined oils etc), you are AUTOMATICALLY going to get enough protein. You will soon see that adding any refined oils to your diet just makes the fat percentage leap up into very unhealthy levels, and adds absolutely nothing in terms of nutrients. Starting A Raw Food Diet - Tip 4 - Drink Lots of Water Just because you are now eating a water rich diet, DOESN'T MEAN that you no longer have to drink water. In order to feel GREAT and to thrive on a raw food diet, you need to be hydrating yourself properly. Some of this hydration comes from food, but you still need to get a LOT from pure water. Do not wait until you are thirsty, if you wait until you're thirsty you are already dehydrated. When you are coming from a background of unhealthy dehydrating foods and lifestyle, there is a lot of catching up to do. As your body is cleansing itself it needs lots of water to help to flush out the toxins. It also needs lots of water in order to rehydrate all those parched cells after years of dehydrating lifestyle practices. So don't be scared to drink that water! Drink a liter upon waking in the morning, and around another 2 liters during the day depending on your activity levels. Make sure you are peeing CLEAR, (no yellow to be seen), 10-12 times a day. Starting A Raw Food Diet - Tip 5 - It's not ALL ABOUT DIET! There is more to health than JUST what you eat and drink. To be really healthy, you need to get all the factors in place, and this includes adequate sleep, sunshine, exercise and emotional poise. If your lifestyle is very stressful, you never see the sun and you're getting too little sleep each night, it doesn't matter how well you are eating, your health is going to suffer. So take steps to make your lifestyle more balanced so that you can create emotional poise in your life. Get to bed earlier each night. Do some outdoor exercise, that will take care of the sunshine and the exercise in one go. When you're eating enough and drinking enough, sleeping enough, getting enough sunshine and
daily exercise, you begin to thrive like you never imagined possible. You start to rediscover the joy of life that you had as a kid, where every moment is exciting and wonderful, and you love to move just for the joy of moving. You want to run somewhere rather than walk, just for the FUN OF IT! This is what we ALL deserve to experience. Starting a raw food diet is an important step in changing your life for the better! Educate yourself, experiment and enjoy the learning process, it's an incredible ride!
Alison Andrews is a raw food lifestyle writer and coach. She is also a singer/songwriter, actress and author. To find out more about starting a raw food diet, check out: http://www.loving-itraw.com/starting-a-raw-food-diet.html To find out more about the raw food diet, see Alison's website: http://www.loving-it-raw.com
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