Add Raw Food in Moderation

You are more than just a physical being with a few thoughts and experiences. You are a whole person who needs to be fed on many different levels of your being.

Intellectually, you may have accepted that eating more raw foods is a good idea. Previous choices may make this difficult for you to embrace or act on. Or it may be the most natural idea to integrate into your life.

Be gentle with yourself. When you simply think of raw food as something to add to your meals, it is so much easier. If you think that you must “become raw” as a full-time eating cuisine, it is one of the best routes to failure. It’s not impossible, but it depends on how you currently eat as to how easy it is to consume living foods.

You don’t have to abandon a lifetime of favorite foods just because it seems like a good idea to eat foods in their raw state. Choices made in moderation and joy are so much more successful than choices made because you think you should.

If you resist doing something 100% and end up doing it 0%, you are nowhere. Instead, joyfully choose another percentage. Or forget the numbers and percentages all together. Choose joy. Choose health. Choose at each meal.

The most healthy mind set is to think of ADDING more raw foods rather than DEPRIVING yourself of the foods that have become familiar. The more often you add in raw vegetables, sprouts, fruits, nuts, and seeds, the sooner they will become more familiar to you. Your hunger will diminish. And when you are hungry, you will more likely reach for raw vegetables, sprouts, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

If you want cooked food, plan for it and enjoy it. Once you start eating more raw foods, you will begin to notice that you feel better and more energetic, and the cooked food will have less appeal.

Your body needs a wide variety of nutrients, which are found in a wide variety of foods. As full of nutrients as raw foods are, eating only a few items will not be adequate. Any single item might be packed with a lot of nutrients your body needs, but a variety will nourish you more fully.

I suggest you read and experiment. Raw food eating can nourish your body fully, but being raw haphazardly is not the same as understanding sound principles and practices. You need to balance your raw foods so that you consume proper nutrition.

Here’s my challenge to you (if you choose to accept it): each week, try a new raw food or a new combination of raw foods. You might buy a vegetable or fruit you have not eaten before or try a recipe that’s new to you. Try new textures, new tastes, new experiences. Choose joyfully.