Forum Suggestion

[TaupeRawMan]

Hello ~

I had a thought the other day I wanted to share with the moderators of this forum. I have read Alissa's book and watched her DVD many times. My impression of her philosophy and focus with raw is that it is a healthier way to eat...that eating raw helps improve overall health. I agree with that philosophy. I am also thinking that was her intention for starting this forum...to have a gathering place where people could learn how to eat raw.

What I find happens often on this forum is that people are drawn to the raw lifestyle in order to lose weight....weight loss is the primary goal and overall health is a secondary added bonus. I haven't done a statistical analysis, but I think that a large percentage of posts are involving weight...weight loss, weight gain, etc. A lot of the forum members have weight-related information in their signatures as well. If I were a newcomer, I would think that this forum is about losing weight through a raw diet.

I know that some people that come to the raw diet have disordered eating thinking and/or behaviors (myself being one of them). That is one reason I like Alissa's approach as it doesn't focus on weight. Over the past 30 years, I have read almost every book about diet, weight loss, nutrition, healthy eating, etc that I have found. Alissa’s approach helps keep me connected with food without worrying about calories, quantities, right foods, wrong foods, etc. I have been 100% raw now for a few years and I love coming to this forum to learn new things about raw and share ideas. As time goes on, however, I find there are more and more posts on here where the focus is about weight. For those posts that it is obvious from the title that it will be discussing weight, I can bypass them. There are many threads, though, where the title appears to be about one topic, like chia seeds, but then the actual post is about someone trying to lose weight with chia seeds. I get blindsided by these posts and then have to deal with the weight issue again. I am thinking other people on here might feel similarly.

I have a suggestion as to how to handle this. Since the focus of this forum is about eating raw, not weight loss, how about having a specific area where threads about weight (weight loss, weight gain, etc) can be discussed? This would help bring the focus of the forum at large back to the topic of eating raw for the sake of eating raw and health, not weight.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Aleesha Sattva]

Actually that would probably make the forum seem more about releasing weight... which it is not. You are correct... this forum is about raw live foods. Eating them, allowing them to heal our bodies and assisting us to create yummy recipes using them.

We can only hope that others will follow that and not focus on weight release. But hey, anyone who is overweight and wants to release some is going to have that as part of their focus.

We can't make this forum into what only meets our needs... it needs to meet everyone's needs.

And that balance is a challenge but we are doing our very best to do so.

Thank you for your post,
Aleesha

[Revvell]

If I remember correctly, Alissa and I talked about that one time on Rawkin' Radio. I think it came down to, whatever draws folks to eating raw, works for us. Once they realize how good they feel, they'll focus more on health (which, in my opinion, is a better option yet, statistic have shown, many are eliminating extra weight more for looks than for health.) I say, focus on health, the rest will come.

I do agree with TRM about a separate section just for people who are beginning raw for weight elimination ~ whatever their reason. Yet, it not be MY forum. :D

[Aleesha Sattva]

Not mine either. :D

[Veganforlife]

I can't agree with you more and I have said time and time again if I were to remain heavy but not have the life-debilitating illnesses; a non-functioning thyroid and migraines my entire life (50+ years), then that would have been fine. Releasing the weight was secondary to how healthy I feel. When people post how much they have eliminated, I often have commented, "how do you feel?".
I think too folks want an instant fix. They want to instantly get thin...but I don't hear they would like to get instantly healthy nearly as often.
Thank you for posting this and I will run this by the powers that be. I don't know if it will come to fruition or not...

[snoops]

Although I would love to lose some weight and am constantly working on it, that was not what drew me to raw foods. I came here looking for better health, even though I am relatively healthy. I just have been seeing so much disease lately that I have been trying hard to maintain and increase my health. This is the way to go and if I release some pounds in the process so be it:D I guess is is one of the most obvious benefits of raw. The better health etc may not show for years. So that is what ends up being discussed more than other things.

[gabriele]

Well, i came here looking for a healthy way of eating that can restore health and prevent disease. I also have to lose weight. I don't want to look better, i want to be healthy. I think this is the best way to do that. Since our country has an epidemic of obesity, this may explain why it seems that more and more people seem to be coming here with weight loss in mind. I think this is a fabulous thing, imagine going from eating doughnuts and pizza to eating raw because of a great forum like this, what a gift this is!!

When i see threads that don't interest me i just skip them. If you see a chia seed thread that turns into a weight loss conversation, why does this make you feel you "have to deal with" the weight loss issue? Why not just skip it?

[Veganforlife]

Per Alissa, she has the forum set up the way she wants. Weight elimination AND eating Raw are inter-twined...