Are there problems? Yes, of course.

But with our collective wisdom, we will solve them and move ourselves beyond what we now think is possible.

The short best answer is: It depends.

Expanding on that answer a little : Yes, it’s likely, but everyone is different. Besides the differences in individuals, there are many other variables: what you were eating before, how quickly you make the transition, what foods are in your raw diet, what you’re doing to moderate the detoxification symptoms.

Common Detox Symptoms and How to Think About Them

Not everyone has all or any of these symptoms. Here are some, just to give you an idea: (1) headaches, (2) grogginess, (3) fatigue and/or sleepiness, (4) sleep problems, (5) cravings for the familiar foods, (6) releasing from the releasing organs, such as runny nose, coughing, shift in bowel function, (7) increase in aches and pains, especially old injuries or conditions, (8) stress or irritability, (9) and others.

I name these to give you a broad perspective, and to more easily say this … when you notice symptoms such as this, think of them as part of the "healing" and not as a "sickness."

If think of yourself as sick, you might be inclined to reach for some over-the-counter remedy to lessen the symptoms, or stop the raw food eating. The symptoms are uncomfortable, for sure, but there are healthier ways to deal with them, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

If you think of yourself as now providing the nutrients to clear your system of toxins, you are well on your way to optimal health. With a perspective such as this, you are more like to reach for truly healthy ways to moderate the symptoms and stick to the raw food eating.

Transition May be the Key for You

I speak about transitioning gradually in Eating Raw: Must it be 100%? This one strategy alone can make a difference for many people. As you add more organic, fresh, uncooked food to every meal, you will likely have fewer detoxifying symptoms.

The transition can continue for many months until you reach a high percentage of raw, living foods, maybe even to 100%. Not many people achieve that, as it’s not easy socially. But you can still experience enormous health benefits at a lower percentage, and you are likely to have fewer or less intense detox symptoms if you take your time.

Your Pre-Raw Food Eating and Purpose for Eating Raw

Some people decide to adopt a raw food or mostly raw food eating plan for general well being; others for specific health conditions, especially losing weight. A raw food diet plan is a way to release unwanted pounds. The excess pounds are filled with toxins. When you get rid of toxins and waste from the body, you lose weight.

I write more about Losing Weight with Raw Foods, in answer to another reader’s question.

Many other conditions — related to excess weight or not — occur because of the body’s toxicity level. So if your purpose is to release the toxins or to lessen the negative impact of the specific condition, you must be prepared for some toxic release.

When you understand that you are purifying your body, the discomfort can be easier to endure. You might even be able to say (happily!), oh, goody, it’s working!

You want to feel better on the inside and look better on the outside. A raw food eating style can do that for you, over time.

Moderating the Discomfort of Detox

• Simplify Your Meals. For example, combine similar or compatible foods at one meal.
• Eat More Greens. Greens — especially when broken down in a high-speed blender — carry off the toxins more quickly and efficiently.
• Minimize Fruit. Fruit is an acceptable food for a raw foodist; however, by its nature, it’s a cleansing food. If you’re detoxifying too fast, reducing fruit may slow it down.
• Do Not Combine Fruit with Other Foods. Certain food combinations can be distressful to the digestive system, and be counter productive to the detoxification you want. However, apples, cucumbers, and lemons usually combine well with non-fruit foods.
• Drink Lots of Good Water. When you’re on a 100% raw food eating plan, you may find you need less water (because the foods contain water). However, if you’re still consuming or detoxifying from processed foods, drink plenty of water. The prevailing formula is: take your body weight in pounds, divide by 2, and drink that many ounces.
• Eat Small Meals. Eating very small meals is much easier on your system. Many raw foodists eat 5 smaller meals rather than 3 larger ones.
• Balance Rest and Exercise. Exercise is important, and so is rest. That’s true anytime, but especially when you’re detoxifying. Meditation is also powerful.

A Nice Blended Raw Meal

Here’s a wonderful raw meal you can prepare quickly to reduce the detoxifying symptoms. In any blender, add some water (1/2 cup – 2 cups depending on desired liquidity) and then add:

1 head dark red and green lettuce
5- 10 leaves of dark leafy green vegetables (examples include kale, spinach, collards, dandelion greens)
1-2 celery stalks
1 whole lemon, juiced with at least some of the rind
2 apples, cored (optional)

Blend until it is as smooth as possible and enjoy this healthy concoction!

(P.S. Thanks, Ray, for your question.)

Transition Gradually

For someone new to exploring a raw food lifestyle, just “adding more raw foods” is a great strategy. Later you can decide percentage, but “more” will make a difference in your life, especially if you add “more” on a regular basis.

And speaking of more … the more nutrients you consume, the less food you need. Raw organic plant foods have more nutrients than cooked foods.

It is not necessary to eat 100% raw to benefit from raw foods. Often a little shift will be easier to maintain. For example, if you are eating cooked jams/jelly with sugar, change to whole berries without any added sweetener. If you use sugar in your coffee or tea, substitute stevia.

Organically grown plant foods taste better than those treated with pesticides, so avoid conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. Instead of regular packaged crackers, look for raw, organic flax seed crackers. Simple adjustments like these are easier to make than strict rules that make you feel like a failure when you can’t or don’t follow the rules.

Drink the best water available to you and you will have less of a craving for bottled juices or soda or milk. Want a little flavoring in your water? Add some fresh lemon or cayenne pepper or cinnamon. If you want a sweet drink, select some of your favorite fruits, prepare for eating, put in blender with some water, blend and enjoy.

Honor Your Preferences

Your own habits and preferences are important. If you like the idea of a raw food eating style, honor your preferences, take your time, and transition slowly.

As you are discovering the proper percentage for you, ask yourself this question repeatedly: how does this taste to me? As you regularly have more raw foods in your meals, your tastes will change. Likely you will find that raw foods become more delicious and cooked foods become less delicious. Or perhaps, you will find that everything you choose is tasty and perfect for you.

Remember: if after one bite the food does not taste good, stop eating! If it tastes good at first and you continue to eat and it begins to not taste good, stop eating! Let your feelings and taste guide you.

Meal times are often social times for most people. You may find that by deciding to eat raw foods at home and cooked foods when you are with friends or on a business trip that you find the right balance for you.

Find Your Way

Experiment. Read. Ask questions. Find your own way. Be gentle with yourself. Enjoy the process. Keep a positive attitude. When you decide that your own well being is the priority, you will find the right balance or percentage.

What is the best percentage of raw for you? The one you can maintain!

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.

David Wolfe has prepared several videos to introduce you to his Longevity Now Program. The introductory videos, of course, are free. If you access any of these videos from the respective link, you’ll also have access to the others.

Food and Money

I’ve seen how powerfully a change in food choices can change a person’s outlook on life. With a new perspective, all aspects of life change.

Some people are focused so strongly on not having enough money, which, of course, attracts more of not enough money. When trapped in negative thinking, it’s often a good idea to change the subject to another one.

Some people also have some rather negative relationships with food. "I can’t eat this." Or, "I shouldn’t eat that." Again, changing the subject to something more pleasant can be helpful.

Better yet, create ways to think and speak about positive aspects of food and money.

Both money and food are subjects you’re likely to be faced with every day — in fact, many times a day. When you find ways to think and speak positively about each, you experience a more satisfying relationship with both.

As I said in My Raw Food Story, I found enormous inspiration in studying about raw food cuisine when I chose to make a change in my food consumption. In fact, I had been a rather healthy eater before my illness, and didn’t attribute my illness to food choices. But the focus on eating healthy, living, raw, and interesting meals gave me a positive focus and direction.

David Wolfe’s perspective is very powerful, and based on far more research than my own. I encourage you to watch Foods that Attract Money.

Changing Habits Requires Discipline

The easiest thing to do today is what you did yesterday. Habits simplify life. However, when the actions that form the habits are destruction, you owe it to yourself to change the habits. This requires discipline.

Discipline involves consistent action that strengthens or empowers you. How will YOU stay healthy, stand strong, and still have fun along the way? Discipline creates freedom when you approach it to the proper mindset.

David Wolfe says, "Health is simple; illness is complex." Absolutely.

You can reach all your health and financial goals and achieve maximum healthy longevity without forcing yourself to do anything you don’t want to do!

Make positive choices.

Check out David’s Discipline Video.

Longevity Now Program

These videos introduce you to the Longevity Now Program that teaches you step-by-step how to achieve stunning longevity, beauty, vitality, and prosperity… all through tiny, effortless, fun-filled steps.

The videos are free, with valuable information. They lead you to the Program with a price tag. It’s a reasonable price, IF you listen to and apply the principles and techniques. You will change not only your food, but your health, and your prosperity.

It’s your choice. I encourage you to at least watch the videos.

This blog is all about making choices joyfully. I’ll share with you as much as I can from my heart. David Wolfe is one of the person’s I am genuinely delighted to introduce you to.

Since becoming acquainted with Jeanie Marshall’s Ask Yourself Empowering Questions Video, I often consider what questions might be the most empowering for me to suggest that you ask yourself.

Perhaps you’ve come to this web site for answers. I certainly hope to provide you with some answers, or perhaps better yet, choices so that you can find the best answer for yourself. And today, I have some questions.

Do you Choose Food or Nutrients?

Some people who think "I’ve just got to have food" are likely to grab a pizza or candy bar or something else that’s readily available or advertised with an enticing jingle.

However, people who think, "I’ve just got to have nutrients" are more likely to think about getting such things as minerals, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, pH balance, range of nutrition, or energy.

Many of the items readily available in stores, even so-called healthy stores, are so highly processed that they have few nutrients remaining. These products are so familiar and available that they have become the norm. It’s not that everyone eats them, but the demand is extremely high for items that are manufactured into a box so that they can sit on the shelf for years.

On the other hand, choosing fresh food that’s closest to its natural state is a choice for nutrients. An orange that you peel and eat is a whole food with enzymes and vitamins and taste; it will hydrate your system. An orange drink sweetened with high fructose corn syrup will pull nutrients from your system and dehydrate you, making you hungrier for more of the same or similar foods.

Do You Choose the Same Type of Food Today as Yesterday?

I remember reading several years ago that most people eat essentially the same 12 items regularly. That doesn’t mean that everyone eats the same 12 items, but that most people choose from a very narrow and similar selection each day.

Initially, the body usually finds unfamiliar items distasteful, then the items became familiar, and then they become the norm. Let’s take coffee, for example. The first sip of coffee is usually quite distasteful. It’s bitter. Some neutralize or sweeten the taste with dairy or sugar in some variation. Coffee shops have some very ingenious ways to disguise the taste of coffee.

Without doubt, drinking coffee is the norm in many parts of the world. Most people who have become accustomed to drinking coffee and then want to stop drinking coffee must make a conscious choice, often struggling for days or weeks with that choice. If you regularly drink coffee, it’s much easier to keep drinking it than to choose something else.

I’m using coffee as an example only because most people can relate to it. I could have chosen another example: donuts or chocolate or sugar or popcorn or carrots or smoothies. The key is that we all tend to gravitate to familiar foods and create a habit of eating them.

Are Your Favorite, Familiar Foods Giving You the Necessary Nutrients?

If you feel great physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually day after day, the answer may be yes. As time passes and your body has less tolerance for non-nutritious food, you can maintain or regain your health by being attention to your food choices. And more importantly, to choose foods that contain nutrients.

Years ago, the Movie Super Size Me (2004) was in the theaters. My husband and I had heard enough about it to know that we were not the intended audience. I’ve never eaten in a MacDonald’s and my husband has only a few times when avoiding it would have caused more problems than deciding to be with the guys. Later when the movie was on DVD, we decided to watch it.

It was a very difficult movie for us to watch. At the same time, I must say that it’s a very powerful presentation of how devastating it can be to eat foods that are devoid of nutrients, meal after meal, day after day. Yes, Morgan Spurlock’s experiment was an extreme. Or was it? For many, consuming foods without minerals or enzymes is the very reason for illness with age.

When You Eat Today, Will you Be looking for Food or Nutrients?

You make choices all day long about a variety of things. When eating or choosing not to eat something, you make a decision.

I honestly don’t know what the right choices are for you. I just encourage you to ask yourself this or a similar question that empowers you to make a choice that nourishes your body.

This video was created by Jeanie Marshall, a Personal Development Consultant and Mentor. Without her, I would probably not have taken on the project of this blog. She has coached me and coaxed me. (Thank you, Jeanie.)

As you listen to the questions, you can apply them to any subject in your life. If you need more time between the questions, simply pause the video.

Ask Yourself Empowering Questions
By Jeanie Marshall

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKClfNyUNNw