While waiting for Alissa's Book to arrive

[starborne]

... can anybody give a brief paragraph on what the 30 day transition into raw food is about?

I've read several posts on 100% and those going gradual. I honestly don't know what the best thing is for me. Right now I'm getting rid of a 'cold' and feel like crap... but hey, it's been 4 days since I've had a cup of coffee!

I'm doing more fruits, vegetables, and nuts ... but had a plate of pasta with a huge salad last night. Today I feel worse than before I went shopping for all the good stuff!

Now my husband wants to go visit friends for 2 days, which means finding raw food in a social environment.

Hugs,
Alyssa Rose

[Rawkinlocs]

Hi there!

Basically, Alissa started the 30-day raw challenge to encourage people to give the raw and living foods "diet" a chance - just for 30 days, to see how it impacts their lives. So, you make a committment, for only 30-days, to see how your health, weight, energy levels, etc. improve or just how good you feel and decide from there if you want this to become a permanent lifestyle change or not. The blogging area is to journal and document what you eat each day, how you feel and then at the end, you can see what changes have taken place from the start to the end of the 30 days. It is also recommended that you take a before picture and then an after picture to see differences in size, fullness of the face, brightness of the eyes, etc. I highly recommend getting Alissa's book if you don't have it as it has a LOT of information (not just recipes, although there are over 200 of them) on getting started and how to maintain the raw life. Plus, it has been said that it takes 30 days to establish a habit, so...

A quote from her book: 100% For 30 Days "Again, you're not like everybody else, and so you may very well experience different changes in your body at times different from other people. This is why I ask you: please make a 30-day commitment to follow this diet 100%. By the end of 30 days, you will have experienced significant - if not life-changing results!"

She recommends going 100% raw for at least 30 days because when you allow cooked food, it leaves that "window" open and you begin to possible crave MORE cooked food or even justifying other types of cooked foods that you probably didn't intend to allow in your healthier dietary lifestyle.

Some people can do a gradual approach and it not cause them to waver too far off...for others (MOST actually) this makes it more difficult because again, it just causes the desire for more and more. So yes, you have to figure what works best for you...but it's good to at least try all-raw for 30 days to get a feel and see how it will work for you!

[Eva]

The 30-day transition in Alissa's book is actually completely raw food, but she has a great meal plan of the simpler recipes that are still tasty.

Nice work on getting rid of the coffee. Man, my first couple days without it, I thought I might need to go to the hospital or something!

I found that the best thing for me was to read Alissa's book first, then go completely raw. She really lays out pitfalls and all sorts of useful information to get you going. :)

[Eva]

Cherie's just too quick, that one! :)

[starborne]

Thank you both so much.

I ordered Alissa's book on Sunday from Amazon. I'm greatly looking forward to it. I guess what I'll end up doing is increasing my intake of raw for the rest of the month of November, and then join others in December for the raw challenge.

By that time I'll have read the book, and had some time experimenting with recipes.

Again, thanks for the input.