how to stay raw

[Alissa]

The last 4 people i did a consult with had the same questions about staying raw so i thought id mention it here.
There 's so much information out there now about going raw and staying raw. So many different ways to do this diet, natural hygiene, mono eating, 80-10-10, no nuts just fruits and vegetables, fasting, juicing, no fruit….

If you are new to raw there is no way you are going to be able to go on a strict mono diet (eating only one food at a time until your full) and be able to stay on it.. Ok, some of you may be able to, for a while. But this is the reason I see so many people fail on this diet.

For years I have worked with people who have spent time at some of the top healing centers, worked with the raw ‘gurus' and finally come to me and tell me they are sick of just eating salads, being so rigid or not feeling like they are having any fun with this.

If you have to 'white knuckle’ this the whole time your doing it, its not going to work.Yes, you may be able to do it for a while but eventually it will just be a matter of will power and that never works. You need to make this fun and easy and joyous! Otherwise why do it?! For health? Forget that. If that’s the only reason it wont work. You wont BE healthy because you’ll be so stressed and uptight and stress and anxiety produce acid in the body which is why you’re eating raw in the first place, to create an alkaline state not acid!

So, you need to make this fun, you need to make this something you can live with, something that resonates with you, something you enjoy and look forward to and not something you dread. So what do you do? Your not having fun, your getting bored, or you want to do it but the smell and look of other peoples food around you looks appealing and you find yourself wavering…
Well, if your dreading this way of eating, not having fun and not thoroughly enjoying yourself, you need to change what your doing, now!

Being new to raw foods, you cannot expect to go from a cooked food diet to a strict one of minimal amounts of food, this does not make sense! Think about this, please! So many times I go to peoples homes after they go raw and they have a small bowl of fruit on the counter. I ask, “where's your food” and they tell me, right there in that bowl. HA! Forget it! When you eat a cooked food diet, even when your are on a diet, there is plenty of food in the house to eat, in the fridge, in the cabinets, on the counters, etc… but for some reason when people switch to raw food they start eating minimally, they hardly have any food in the house or they go shopping and get just enough for what they need for a few days… stock up people! It is only logical that if you get hungry, run out of food and are new to raw food eating you’ll be headed to the nearest fast food place within days! Don’t be so hard on yourself and expect yourself to suffer through this diet with minimal food available.

Now, if your not one to prepare a lot of gourmet meals that’s fine. Many of my recipes only take minutes to prepare, but you have to have something in your house to eat. Stock up on nuts so you whip up a torte within minutes, buy a red pepper, scallion and walnuts to make the mock salmon, have some nori available to roll the mock salmon up with some avocado, so many easy things you can make. But you have to plan and think this out a bit. Its not hard, you would need to do this with any new plan or diet…. Teach yourself how to make a few things, buy the spices, ingredients, etc… and get used to preparing it. It’s so easy with raw food but there is a learning curve just like anything else. Take a couple of weeks to make all these mouthwatering goodies, get your body adjusted to the lighter feeling of raw foods, allow your taste buds to appreciate the pure flavor of fresh natural foods instead of processed cooked foods.

You should not feel deprived or cheated or hungry on this diet, if you are then your not doing this right. What is the ‘right ‘diet for everyone on raw? There is no right one, you need to figure that out for yourself. Ill write more about that in another post. But the only way to find what’s right is to allow your body to adapt and cleanse and shift while eating raw foods. Eventually you will begin to eat lighter and ‘feel’ what your body needs. Eventually after you have been eating delicious raw foods and having fun with it and making this a joyous adventure you will begin to feel better and heal and realize how this diet can be the most wondrous gift you will ever give yourself.

Once you have been raw for a while you know when to eat less nuts, when to eat more greens, when to cut out certain things, add certain things or change your diet and it won’t be big deal. It wont be painful and you will be able to do that with ease, but please don’t expect yourself to do that within the first month or two of changing your whole way of eating which you have known your whole life.

Its amazing to me that after 40 years of eating pizza and chips and cookies and candy, people go raw and after three days are worried they will be deficient in protein or certain vitamins! Come on, think about this, silly isn’t it? First of all you will be eating healthier then ever before, you probably have never eaten as much fruit and veggies before right? And it takes years to become deficient in most things…. After a couple of days of not rotating your food choices or having a green drink you’ll be fine really, trust me on this one. Most people have never had a green drink in their life!
So, closing thoughts – JUST DO IT! Stop talking about it, stop worrying about it, stop obsessing over it. Stop thinking you need to make this even more rigid (mono, natural hygiene, no fruit, no nuts, raw food is strict enough) Do it for a month and see how you feel, make the commitment and you’ll be floored!
Have fun, stock up on tons of food, make fun things to eat, talk to people about what your doing, stay connected (very important!) and discover your true self!

Best wishes on your journey to a new life!
Xo Alissa

[Sweet lips]

That was the best butt-kicking I ever had - I haven't done the right thing for a moment, So on tomorrow it;s just do it day!

You have my permission to kick my butt to get me on the right track. I printed this thing off -as part of my plan.

Thanks

Be blessed in your comings and goings!

[ehartmanf]

Alissa,

I have heard you say all this on your DVD, but thanks for talking about it again. I can't hear it too often. Thanks for making this all so much fun and so exciting! It's definitely something I can live with.

[lil]

One reason I like the 80/10/10 is that it's easy...I'm quite busy through the day and don't have time to prepare foods. When I ate SAD, I ate out ALL the time. Now that's less of an option, but it's easy carrying fruits around. It's a huge change for me because I never used to eat any fruit.

But after a week or so I'm craving flavour (chili, curry...)and different texture. So - eventually I'm going to have to get into the food prepping - you right - it needs to be an enjoyable experience.

Thanks for the inspirational words!

[Curtis]

lol okay, okay I hear you. :)
Haven't been keeping enough food in the house and I will change that now.
Thank you Alissa for the pep talk. You have a way to challenge folks without talking down to them.

[NWgal]

Thanks Alissa :)..
Good stuff.. always good to hear this !!

[Shay]

Oh, that was perfect timing! I have painlessly been able to switch to raw foods...even cut out the coffee last week, yeah!!! BUT, was starting to feel like I am really doing this *wrong*. I haven't had alot of greens, stuck to mainly fruit and sweet potatoes with homemade salsa, and a couple of frozen bananas in a blender at night, (my ice cream). I feel great, look awake but haven't lost a pound. So I thought maybe I should cut out the banana's at night, but after that message, maybe I'll keep them. I only have maybe 20 pounds to lose, but that isn't the main goal here, I want to stay healthy and get some energy back. And knowing I'm getting a treat every night is very nice! Thank you for the encouragement to do it my way....atleast until I'm solid enough with this lifestyle to start tweaking it.

~~~Shay

LOVE this message board!

[sunshine14127]

Thank you Alissa!
I think that I too have the problem of not having enough food in my house. Hopefully, the last remaining child that is living with me will be gone soon, and then I can have an ALL RAW house!

[nobletroll]

OK as soon as I get a couple of dollars I will be getting you book.

I have been on more than one sight and I go crazy when I see post about people being all scared about raw foods because of this deficient or that. I want to scream. But I didn't want to say anything because I have only been doing this for 5 months and for the last two I have not been doing well. But even with that I can now see I have been buying into the make the raw complicated bandwagon.

Your post was what I needed. I have been trying to be strict with my diet because I haven't been losing the weight as fast as I want, but then I drive by some place and get some cooked food. I worry about eating to many nuts then have a pizza. Basically acting like a crazy person. I will try to have more fun. Even before I read your post I had made a promise to myself to be 100% raw for a month. I am also going to try to have fun with my raw journey.

[Alissa]

hi guys,
so glad to hear that this post helped. Sometimes we just need reminders like that.
Xo alissa

[Analeah]

Thanks so much for your inspiring post Alissa! It's definately important to have enough food around the house otherwise it is easy to go off raw. Last week I ate cooked food for the first time in awhile and it was definately a big mistake but I just feel so discouraged sometimes by the fact that I don't always know what is raw. I always read different things about nuts and seeds and grains etc and I see controversial opinions all the time and I just don't know what to think. I emailed one major supermarket here in Switzerland and asked them at what temperature their dried fruit was dehydrated at and if the nuts were heat processed in any way and the response I got back from the company was "The fruits are sun dried, and all nuts too. There is no heat process." I was really excited to learn this at first, but I am a little skeptical by this response because I would think at least the cashews or some of the other nuts had been heat processed. Then again the cashews say they are from India and I think that is where NFL gets their cashews so it is possible they are truly raw (and they do taste better than other cashews I have tried) but I just don't know. My problem is that I tell myself what is the point in trying to be 100% raw when some of the food I am eating may not be raw when I think it is. I am kind of an all or nothing person which can be either good or bad, but in this case is not so good for me because I feel so discouraged and feel like it is impossible to be 100%. I look at the 100% thing like an addiction similar to heroin in that if you were addicted to this drug and decrease by 90%, it's really great and better than doing what you were doing before but you are still doing the drug and your body is still being damaged by the needle. So I really want to be clean and pure and 100% raw but my body almost always is craving nuts and seeds and grains so I don't feel cutting them out completely would be a good thing. Lately I have been trying to cut out the seeds or grains that I haven't been able to sprout because of my uncertainty of them being raw (whole oats and rye to name a couple). But on the other hand it's hard because those are two of my favorite grains lol so I would really like to eat them but since I have not been able to sprout them I question their viability. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem of feeling discouraged or not but I just thought I would ask for some advice. Thanks!

[Rawkinlocs]

Analeah,

Those are the types of things I simply refuse to concern myself with at this time and maybe ever. I mean, it's enough trying to stay raw and not INTENTIONALLY eat cooked food. But whatever is beyond my control or your control...you can't sweat that stuff or worry about it because you can only do the best you can. If they say it's raw, then that's good enough for ME (can't speak for you). But if I began concerning myself with what nuts or dried fruit are truly raw, then I'd end up throwing my hands up and grabbing the nearest bag of chips. For me, it's just not that serious. As long as I'm not knowingly eating roasted nuts or irradiated dried fruit or what have you, then I'm cool taking their word for it when the label says it's raw.

Just enjoy where you are Analeah...you're doing great and have been a big inspiration to me and I'm sure others as well! :)

Hang in there and try not to worry so much.

[Sadii]

Amen to that, Rawkin'!

[Curtis]

Analeah,
I agree with Rawkinlocs,
Isn't this a journey for us all? If so then as we learn and grow many of these things will fall into place. My goal and prayer is to one day have a place of my own like Kirk does so I can grow everything I eat. :) Until then I will just do my best to find organic and raw foods and live each day in love and peace. I think sometimes we "sweat the small stuff to much". :)
You are a inspiration to all of us and you are doing fine, give yourself some room to learn and grow. :)

[Alissa]

I agree!
Again, nothing wrong with being a strict raw fooder but there are so many different levels. On that note... i really believe that there are times when you may go back and forth from being a little easier in terms of what to eat i.e.. Dried fruits, nuts, miso, etc... And then times when you may not. We are always changing and growing so shouldnÂ’t our diets reflect that. I donÂ’t think its a good thing that our diets always stay the same as we go through different phases of our life, emotional stuff, environmental changes, hormonal changes, etc... Life is fluid, so should our diet be.