You may be wondering about this radical-sounding way of eating and thinking that it is more like a lifestyle and less like a diet. In fact, my experience is that this is the case. Being into healthy eating, raw electrical foods, feeling good all the time and being highly energized is definitely a lifestyle. Each indulgence to eat cooked comfort foods comes with a crash from the buzz of being on a high-raw intake of foods, much like a druggie will crash whenever he gets sober. In this sense, when done right, eating lots of raw foods should not feel like you are on a diet.
I’ve tried diets before, withholding from eating foods, and so forth, and I know how not fun they are. I struggled with my weight from a young age and into early adulthood, gaining and losing as much as forty pounds and cycling back and forth, so I understand the unsustainable nature of dieting.
What is the ultimate point of eating healthy and raw and how long should you keep it up? The point is to get yourself healthy and well and solve your health problems. In terms of how long you keep it up — ultimately, that is up to each individual. This topic is covered in greater depth within the segment: ‘What is the End Game? Do You Have to Eat Healthy Forever?’
My personal goal is to supply somebody with the informational tools so they can transport themselves out of the current health problems they are having to a better place where they no longer are experiencing them. If they can do that, I will feel very much accomplished. What that person chooses to do after that and if he or she chooses to go back to eating more regular cooked foods or stay up with the raw and healthy foods is totally up to him or her.
At first, when making dietary changes, for me, it felt a little strange. However, I want to emphasize that I transitioned very slowly (this is covered in the segment entitled: ‘How to Transition’). Changing what I was putting into my belly made me feel some strange sensations and more hungry for a couple hours of the day, because I wasn’t giving my body the typical ‘meat & starch’ it was used to.
However, it was not like dieting really — at least for me specifically — because I never really held back too much. While in the beginning when I was incorporating more raw foods and fruit, I was still eating my regular indulgence foods, including grains, meats, chips, alcohol and even in some cases I was still eating fast food. In the early days, I was still eating almost as much regular foods as I would normally, while just adding in some fruits throughout the day.
Later, I got to the point where I just wasn’t eating quite as much of my favorite cooked foods because I would try to swap out a meal for more raw foods. For example, I would try my best to have a big bowl of fruit for breakfast. Or, if I did have an omelet or breakfast tacos with eggs for breakfast, for lunch I would try and have a big bowl of guacamole and chips and salsa, or nuts, or maybe a big snack in the afternoon of more fruit. In other words, rather than having ‘three square All-American meals per day’ I would just have two, and I would swap out the third meal for something raw, or at least mostly raw.
The beautiful thing about eating raw also is that it does not implore you to limit the amount of calories you are taking in. Unlike a diet, which specifically limits your calories and sets restrictions on macro nutrients, you can eat however much fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds that you want. I certainly did as well in the beginning.
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