5 tips that will make the raw transitions easier

Well, no one said that it's going to be easy. But again, nothing in life worth while is easy. So as a person who is personally going through the process of going from cooked foods to raw foods... here's a few tips that will help you succeed...


1. Keep it Simple
Dehadrators? Sprouting? What? As a newbie I definitely don't want to deal with all that stuff. I mean if you want to go all out, then go for it. But in my case it is definitely easier, at least for now, to keep it simple. And by simple I mean basing your diet on mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and of course juices and smoothies. For the latter two, you do need some equipment like juicer and a blender but again those are easily found and obviously not too difficult too use. And if you still can't figure out what "simple" means, here's an example:
Breakfast - Green Smoothie or Fruit Juice
Lunch - A fruit salad
Dinner - A large green salad
Snacks - nuts and seeds
Of course, you don't want to eat the exactly same thing everyday which brings me to my next point...


2. Get Creative
With so many health food stores popping out everywhere you have more than enough choices to get creative. Many raw foodists like to stock up on raw products so they always have many choices and never have to reach for cooked food. I usually stock up on fruit so I can always make a fresh juice or smoothies, but as far as lunches or dinners go I tend to follow my taste buds and go day by day. So you'll often see me in a local Whole Foods or other health food store, by the salad bar creating my own Salad Creations. Also with raw food getting more and more attention everyday, you can now purchase raw goodies like Raw Granola, Raw Cookies, Sprouted Bread, Raw Honey and chocolate... as you can se the possibilities are endless. And with the endless possibilities comes the pressure so...


3. Take it Easy
Many people try to jump into raw food overnight and some are successful but some not so much. When I started out, I would go for few days 100% raw and then give in and eat some cooked food which is not a bad thing but for some reason made me feel like a failure. Which in turn would make me think that "hey, since I ate some cooked food, now the whole day's ruined and I might as well go and pig out". This is the kind of thinking that made my efforts fail one diet after another. Start slowly, it's ok not to be 100% raw right away. It's better to be 50% raw and 50% healthy cooked food than 100% raw for few days and then eating a large pizza in one sitting. So once again, take it ease.. take it slow! You might want to start of with just a raw breakfast then when you're comfort do raw breakfast and raw lunch... you get the point. Another way of transitioning is to slowly go from a meat eater to vegetarian, then to vegan, then to raw. Start with eliminating red meat, then all other meat, then fish, then dairy products... just go at your own pace and see what works for you. The main thing is not to punish yourself. We're all humans and we make mistakes. And speaking of humans, it brings me to my next point which is...


4. Make New Friends
Now a days there's so many online communities which of course includes raw food communities. Go online, do your research. Join groups, talk to people and learn new things. There are meet up groups in every city. There are people out there just like you looking to help you and make new friends. Seriously, just be open and willing to learn and the opportunities to make new friends will just present themselves. This doesn't mean you have to forget all your all friends, but now you can be the teacher too. You can inform your friends on raw food diet and healthy food choices. Take your friends and go explore some raw food restaurants in your city. Just be open and have fun with it. Yes, that is the main key...


5. Have Fun!
Seriously...what does it all matter if you can't have fun. There's no way you can stick with something if you don't enjoy doing it. So learn, research, involve your friends, get out there, move, walk, run, laugh...do it all. Do it now! Because there's no time like today and the benefits are tremendous! Love and Sunshine to all of You :-)