Transition To Raw Diet

The best transition to raw diet is one that is fast enough to represent real progress, yet slow enough to be sustainable long term!

There is no point in trying to eat perfectly from day one, if that is just going to result in rebounding to burgers and fries in a few month's time.

You need to transition at a pace that is comfortable to you, so that it feels normal and natural and keeps moving forward without too much of the yo-yoing or rebounding that is common to many on the raw food diet.

Transition To Raw Diet Step One - Becoming A Vegan

I do believe that Becoming A Vegan is a wonderful initial step in the transition to raw diet.

By becoming a vegan you are making enormous forward progress towards healthier foods and towards more conscious eating.

Moving towards a cooked vegan diet allows you to eat vegan versions of all your current favorites. So there is NO sense of deprivation at all, on the contrary you experience a taste explosion like never before!

Transition To Raw Diet Step Two - Go 'High Raw' First!

When you are ready to move from a cooked vegan diet towards a raw vegan diet, it is often best to go 'high raw' first. What this means is you simply begin to add raw foods IN to your current diet, gradually replacing the foods that were there before.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to first decide to be raw until noon each day.

Raw Food Breakfast

Raw Food Lunch

When you are completely comfortable with a raw breakfast and can't imagine it any other way, then it's time to make lunch all raw.

You could try having a big salad at lunchtime, with tons of raw vegetables and perhaps an avocado or some nuts thrown on. You could also mix some acid or sub acid fruits into the salad such as mangoes, apples or oranges.

OR, you could just have plain fruit, as much fruit as you care for, or a fruit smoothie. The picture below is a mono meal of chopped mangoes!

You can instead have a major part of your dinner raw, such as a large salad as the main dish, but include SOME cooked vegetables, such as butternut or baked potatoes or yams.

As you go, start including cooked food only a few times a week, then only once a week, and gradually as it feels comfortable to you, cut the cooked food completely.

Many people feel that it is easiest to go 100% raw overnight as the clean break allows you to move forward more effectively.

This does work for many people, however the chances of you making crucial mistakes and then finding the diet unsustainable is very high. You then take the chance of losing all forward momentum and perhaps wanting to give up completely.

I therefore feel that a slower transition does have much to recommend it!

It doesn't have to take place over an extended period of time, it can go at any speed you like.

Transition To Raw Diet Step Three - Rebounding to Cooked Food Is Not Necessarily Backsliding!

Going 100% raw successfully does require a high level of commitment and planning.

If you find yourself without any ripe fruit for example, you could be in a bit of a pickle.

See this video detailing how much fruit we buy in a week!

Eating cooked food after declaring yourself 100% raw is almost inevitable in your first year or so and should not be seen as backsliding.

It has valuable lessons to teach us.

Why did that food look so good to you? Were you perhaps just hungry? Had you planned your week properly, did you have enough ripe fruit? Could you buy more next week so that it won't happen that way again?

Monitor how the cooked food makes you feel and learn from the experience. Allow it to SOLIDIFY your commitment to a wonderful raw diet, don't let it throw you off!

Transition To Raw Diet Step Four - DO NOT FEEL GUILTY

Guilt has no place in this. Eating raw or not is not a matter of right or wrong. It is just a matter of different choices with different consequences.

When you want the BEST for yourself, then you probably want a 100% raw vegan diet, but that doesn't mean you are going to get it right from day one.

From most of what I've read, it takes most people between 3 and 7 years to REALLY GET IT RIGHT AND 100% RAW ALL THE WAY!

Wow! That's quite a bit of transitioning! That doesn't mean that they are not making major forward progress with their health. It just means that they make some mistakes and it takes some time to learn everything they need to learn.

So be gentle with yourself, you're going to be reaping ENORMOUS physical, mental and spiritual benefits at ALL stages of the process, so just enjoy them.

And when you eat some cooked food and don't feel quite as good, ENJOY those feelings too. They are the new associations taking place in your mind, and a new you is gradually emerging.

Transition To Raw Diet Step Five - You Should Be Feeling BETTER and not WORSE

Even allowing for some occasional rebounding, you should still feel better than you did before. Even on my worst day now I still feel a thousand times better than I did on my egg and cheese and wheat diet a few years ago.

If you DON'T feel better, then chances are you are making some crucial mistakes. Refer to my article: Starting A Raw Food Diet to find some of the most crucial mistakes new raw fooders make. Among them are not eating enough, not hydrating properly, and eating too many calories from fat.

Transition to Raw Diet Step Six - Focus on what you WANT!

Keep looking forward and focusing on the results you DO want, not on what you don't want.

Keep your eye on the goal! Keep your eye on your reasons for wanting to do raw in the first place!

Find people who are achieving the results you WANT, and get them to mentor you, or just find out what they're doing, and apply the same strategies to your life.

This is ultimately one of the most rewarding paths you can ever begin on, so just get started.

Make whatever small changes you feel comfortable making RIGHT NOW, don't wait until tomorrow. And just keep taking those baby steps forward!

Before you know it you'll be exactly where you want to be!