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Question from Heather
Can I lose weight by being on a raw food diet?
Additional Comments from Heather
I’ve been up and down on the scales most of my life. I don’t even like to get on the scales any more, but there is no denying how my clothes fit and how I feel. (Answer: not well and not well.) I’ve heard that eating raw and living foods is very helpful for losing weight. Is that true?
Joy’s Response to Heather

The direct, simple answer to Heather’s question is: yes, absolutely, you can lost weight on a raw food eating plan if you’re currently overweight and eat cooked foods. But there’s more to the answer, so please read on.
First of all, I have to be clear that I don’t claim to be an expert on weight loss. Come to think of it, many people who claim this expertise have very limited views, mainly because they have a one-size-fits-all mentality and/or a product to sell. I don’t fault any of them, but I want to acknowledge that you’re an individual who needs to find your own successful approach.
Based on what Heather has said and what I know about raw foods and body weight, I’d like to offer an approach that puts you in charge of your eating. While I’ve never had a problem of being overweight, I have sensitivity to the problem, as many around me do. I’ve also experienced food addictions which would have led to excess weight if left unchecked.
The Starting Place: An Empowering Purpose
When you consider changing to a raw food cuisine for the purpose of weight loss, that can either empower you temporarily or serve to sabotage you. So sometimes, it’s just better to have the purpose of "going raw" or "adding raw" for general health benefits. Likely, you’ll experience a variety of benefits, including slimming.
What I’m suggesting is that you make health, rather than the bathroom scales or clothes size, the primary motivator. Let how you feel guide you.
You may also be successful creating a series short term goals with the broader purpose of health based on eating foods that are filled with nutrition. There’s so much conflicting data, so I’m suggesting you simplify your eating plan and use your feelings to guide you.
Choose One Rule for Yourself
I’ve seen many people change their eating or other habits drastically. While a drastic change may ultimately be necessary, so often people can’t incorporate the changes if the changes are too many or dramatically different from their familiar patterns. Take one step at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time.
Everyone’s different, of course, but I’ve found that if you have one simple "rule" or "guideline" for yourself, you’re so much more likely to follow through. A single idea will help you to organize yourself for success.
If you’re put off by the word "rule," choose another word. I’ve already suggested that "guideline" is an alternative. The key is that you want only ONE idea or action to remember to make the decisions at each meal easier.
In fact, this principle is the reason that so many people can lose weight if they follow one program diligently. However, you need to find a program or approach that can work for a lifetime, not one that you abandon after a period of time because you’ve reached your weight goal, experienced boredom, or passed the date (wedding, graduation, etc.) that served as an incentive.
One Rule I Chose Years Ago
I’ll give you a personal eating example, although it’s not related to raw food eating. It was many years ago when my children were very little and I was participating in various groups and meetings with other parents. And, oh, the food! People brought goodies that were enticing, pretty, laden with fat, and filled with sugar.
My One Rule was: Participate in these meetings without eating. It was like pre-making the decision so I wasn’t faced with re-making the decision each time. Of course, if the gathering was a meal, the rule didn’t apply, but I still passed on the dessert tray.
When I had made the "rule" — which felt good to me to make — I didn’t feel deprived. When I applied the rule again and again, I didn’t feel deprived. I simply was not tempted because I had a long-term purpose.
Perhaps you’d feel deprived under these circumstances. If so, it’s really important you create a different rule. You can choose a very difficult rule and still not be deprived. Or start with an easy rule that empowers you into success right away. Make it joyful.
One Rule to Stop or One Rule to Start
People feel inspired by different opportunities. My own example above was a rule I chose for myself to stop — to not take — an action. That worked for me, without making me feel deprived.
In choosing a raw, living food cuisine or just more raw foods, it’s so much easier to find a rule of something to start. That way, the stop actions are so much easier.
After mastering your first One Rule, you can add others or you can expand your One Rule. Be really gentle with yourself. Make joyful choices, one at a time.
Examples of One Rule Approaches in Living Foods
Here are some beginning places. All are stated positively, with nothing to stop, only items to include in your eating. With these few examples, you can easily construct your own One Rule. Remember, you want to start with something compelling, something that makes you feel empowered and not deprived.
1. Consume something raw every time you eat. This is a very helpful guideline if you feel ready for it. The "something raw" could be as little as a sprig of parsley. Or, of course, it could include a whole meal of raw food items. "Every time you eat" means every time and not necessarily every thing.
2. Eat two (or one or four or any number) Superfood items/servings each day. There are many superfoods. You can check the "Categories" in the left navigation bar for the articles I’ve written so far, with more to come.
3. When at home, eat all vegetables raw. At most restaurants, it’s also possible to ask for uncooked vegetables, but at least at home, you can have total control in your own food preparation.
Does any of these examples feel good to you? If so, adopt it adapt it and get started. If not, start with a different positive action you want to sustain about raw foods or start with One Rule that relates to a stop-action.
Examples of One Rule Approaches in Stopping Cooked Foods
Here are some beginning places to stop consuming non-living foods. You might find it very helpful to select one or two individual items to eliminate. However, this works most effectively if you make the One Rule broad enough to included many individual items, and specific enough to give you guidance at each meal or shopping trip, when you must make a single-item choice.
1. Stop eating cooked wheat. Wheat is not the staff of life anymore. It’s addictive and devastating to a large percentage of the population. I’ll write more about this as a follow up to this article.
2. Stop eating refined sugar. Refined sugar goes by many names, and the artificial substitutes are also extremely unhealthy. Both are addictive and play a large part in obesity and other gradations of overweight. More in a future article, including some sweet substitutes that are healthy.
3. Stop overeating. You’ve had enough food when you’ve eaten some and still feel comfortable. It’s surprising how little quantity the body needs when you’re properly nourished. One of the reasons that so many people crave large amounts of cooked foods is lack of nutrients in the cooked foods. With raw foods, and especially raw superfoods, the nutrients are dense so you naturally want less.
Does any of these examples feel good to you? If so, adopt or adapt it and get started. If not, start with a different stop-action you want to sustain or return to One Rule that relates to including raw foods.
I have Inspired Myself to Write More
Heather, thanks so much for your question. It has stimulated more ideas that I’d like to share in future articles. Quite honestly, when I received your question, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tackle it. It is a BIG question, and I’ve only touched the surface in this one article.
I plan to write a series of articles, returning to this one to expand on some of the ideas here.
You cannot expect to make a change in your body contour
without making some changes in your thinking and your behavior.