When I talk to people about eating “raw food”, most of them have one of two reactions. It’s usually either, “but isn’t it too cold, in winter?” or “but why would you want to miss out on all that lovely cooked food?”. Discover why raw food isn’t about restricting your choices – it’s not about “either or” – if you’re flexible!
Firstly, regarding the “raw food is cold food” myth – let’s get that out of the way with an article I wrote recently : Raw Food Doesn’t Have To Be Cold
Now, moving on to the topic in hand:
“Going raw” doesn’t mean you’ll be chucking out your saucepans. It doesn’t mean you’ll never eat cooked food again. It doesn’t have to mean that lasagne is off your menu for ever…
… Unless that’s what you want.
I’m going to be slightly provocative here and speak my mind (please forgive any offence I cause!):
If only the ‘raw food fascists’ would stop judging everyone for not being ‘100% raw’, then probably lots more people would move towards a raw food diet and the nation would become a healthier place.
There you go – soap box neatly tucked back in the corner!
Aside: actually – if only we would stop allowing ourselves to feel like they’re judging us. As Eleanor Roosevelt wisely said: “No one can make you feel inferior, without your consent.”
With any lifestyle change, someone who has ‘converted from the dark path’ can end up a little evangelical. Just as a reformed smoker can be the one who complains most vocally, when someone else smokes, the same goes for some ‘raw foodists’.
It’s as though cooking food is something that would only be considered by Blackadder’s Baby-eating Bishop of Bath & Wells (apologies to those who haven’t got a clue what I’m on about 😉 ).
- The fact is that cooking food isn’t terrible.
- The fact is that you don’t have to give up cooked food, in order to benefit from raw food.
- The fact is that making people feel like failures, before they even start, because they’re not immediately 100% raw, is unlikely to motivate them much.
Enjoying raw food can be about “both – and”, instead of “either – or”. You can eat raw sometimes and cooked sometimes. It’s your body! You choose! You don’t have to agree to forsake cooked food for all eternity, in order to pass some kind of initiation test to begin eating living food!
However, once you have dived into the world of truly living food, and you have experienced how you feel after eating raw, you’ll find yourself much less likely to want to eat things that are heavily cooked.
Living food can make you feel vibrantly alive, full of energy and somehow ‘lighter’ inside.
Cooked food can often make you feel sluggish, tired and bloated.
Living food is packed with enzymes that make it easy for the body to digest and absorb the nutrients, which are generally reduced by many cooking methods.
The choice has to be up to each individual.
I’m about to run a raw food course for my children’s school and, as part of the preparation, I’ve been asking people what they think about raw food. Most of them are very interested, but the overwhelming problem is raised by nearly all of them:
“I’ve tried it and it felt great, but I couldn’t do it all the time.”…. so I don’t do it at all.
And I completely understand!
By setting ourselves an impossible target (to go 100% raw, practically overnight, whilst working and having a family), we know we can’t succeed, so it’s easier and less demoralising not to bother at all.
That’s human nature.
But how much easier might it be if we were to look at eating living food as a journey, rather than a destination?
Instead of beating ourselves up for not leaping straight to raw food perfection, how about planning 2 or 3 living food meals per week? Then, once you’re in the routine, it will naturally grow to a level that’s right for you, your body, your metabolism and your lifestyle.
One of the easiest meals to begin with, on a raw food journey, is breakfast.
Instead of reaching for the toast and butter, how about choosing an quick and easy breakfast like Super Scrummy Raw Food Granola? Or you could make yourself a semi-instant smoothie, to really wake yourself up and fill you with energy for the morning.
Wherever you want to go on your raw food journey, don’t let anyone else tell you what your route ‘should’ be. By tuning in to your body, you’ll know whether you’re on track and how far you want to go.
I hope this article has inpsired you to take the leap to explore further and to set yourself free from others’ expectations.
Let me know how you get on via the comments box, below or via our private Facebook group – Soul-Sized Living (joining is free – simply register using the form at the end of this article).
See you there?
With love, Namaste,
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