I wanted to take this time to express exactly what my plans are long-term concerning the raw food diet.
I am a huge believe in the great success and changes the raw food diet can bring to a person's health and vitality. I understand the great need for a toxic body to detoxify and heal itself.
I truly do believe that a 100% raw food diet is ideal for human health, however I am also a realist and understand that it is near impossible to be 100% raw 100% of the time.
We live in a society that is based around food. Family get togethers, business lunches, weddings, birthdays, etc... Plus, with all the tempting food advertisements out there it is very hard to stick to any diet perfectly forever.
Trying to stay 100% forever can easily cause someone to become socially isolated or secretly binge on food they have been craving, but have been denying themselves "for the greater good."
I had these same thoughts when I tried to go raw in the past. I would think: "Wow, I can never eat mexican or italian food ever again." This caused me a lot of anxiety and I would actually try to find excuses to end my diet so I could go back to those foods I used to enjoy.
My 100 Plan
That all being said, I want to detox and heal my body. I have some serious health issues, especially in my colon that I want healed. I want to quickly lose my pregnancy weight once the baby is born and I want a healthy pregnancy and birth.
My body needs to be able to detox, heal, prepare for birth, and shed the pregnancy fat without interruption. I need to let go of toxic foods and allow my body to do its job. This would be the same for anyone who has health issues or is suffering from being overweight.
Sticking with the raw food diet 100% for 100 days will give my body a chance to get ahead and work on the issues. I am not saying I will be completley clean of all toxins by that point, I know that detoxification can take much longer.
I do know that I can mentally prepare and commit to a 100 day period. If I commit to much longer than that I will start to think about everything I cannot have, which I shouldn't, but it just happens that way for me.
At the end of the 100 days of a pure raw food diet, I plan to switch to a slightly modified plan.
My 7 Plan
After the first 100 days I am going to allow myself (if I choose to at the time) a cooked meal once every 7 days. That allows for one meal a week.
This plan only remains intact as long as I can stick with my 100% raw plan for the rest of the 7 day periods. If I find myself backsliding and not being able to stay disciplined enough to only eat one cooked meal every 7 days, I will have to cut it out completley.
The seven day period allows me to consume a cooked meal and be able to completley process and detox from it without overloading my system. Yes, this will set me back some. I see this as 6 steps forward and 1 step back (or maybe 5 steps forward and 2 steps back), but as far as I see it... I am still moving ahead.
Why I chose this plan
I customized this plan so that I can eat healthy and not obesess over food anymore. If I crave some mexican food, I can just tell myself that I can have that as my meal on my 101st or 108th or 115th day meal and so on.
This gives me room to occasionally still go out with friends and family to resturants. It also helps me get rid of those nagging voices in my head that say "Life is too short not to enjoy some good foods."
I can enjoy anything I want, just as long as I stick to my 100/7 plan. 100 days at all raw to detox and cleanse then I take it one week at a time.
I know I may get some flack from other fellow 100% raw foodists, but we all have to do what will work for us. I am a free spirit and need some freedom to eat at a mexican resturant or have some pizza on occasion.
I set this up structrually to keep me from going overboard on cooked foods, but still know that I have the opportunity to eat it if I chose.
If I just said I could eat cooked whenever I wanted... I would overeat, gain weight back and end up where I was before I started. I set up this system to keep that from happening.
(Pizza photo is from freerangestock.com)
Get FREE SHIPPING at MotherNature.com on orders over $49. No coupon necessary!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
My 100/7 Raw Food Diet Plan
Posted by Amy Bass at 5/02/2007 03:29:00 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 Comments:
Hmmm, you might get very sick going back to cooked after 100 days raw. After only 25 days of doing high-fruit, low-fat raw, I got VERY sick on cooked food. Horrible stomach cramps that were worse than labor, diarrhea, nausea, headache...it was no fun. You might find your cravings will be a thing of the past after 100 days anyway. It's only impossible if you tell yourself it's impossible. You can do anything you want to do when you want it bad enough. GL!
I think it sounds like a great plan you made there for yourself. I've thought of sticking to a plan quite similar of allowing myself one cooked meal a week. I've had problems staying completely raw in the past cause I am the cook of the family and boy do I loooooove to cook... so for me it keeps me on track knowing that if I ever do want to eat a cooked meal every once in a while, I shouldn't feel guilty about it.
Interesting plan.
There is some difference of opinion here whether or not the raw diet, as a healing diet, should restore healthy digestion and overall systems functioning to the extent that a person may partake of healthy cooked foodstuffs without any adverse affects. Some say yes, some say no. (some here deny that there is any such thing as "healthy" cooked foodstuffs)
I found it interesting that Brian Clement was quoted on this site as saying that "ill people should stay on the 100% raw diet for an average of 1.5 years, after which some portions of healthy cooked can then be eaten."
This question interests me a great deal, perhaps because I am looking for a loophole; perhaps because I am still questioning the viable health benefits of a long-term 100% raw food diet, and perhaps because I see a great many people panicky when considering a 100% raw food diet for life and the thought of NEVER having (fill in the blank) again.
I do know Amy, that after 100 days 100% that a mexican food meal is gonna hit your stomach like a pound of bricks! and pizza? I can almost feel the food hangover now! In my opinion, the span between raw and cooked in your plan is too wide. It would be better, if planning for cooked is your goal, to include small amounts of cooked more often than bombarding your system with it after 100 days raw. I think it's helpful to consider a 100% raw food diet as technically kin to a fast or cleansing diet. You wouldn't break a fast with Mexican food and I'd venture to guess that after 100 days raw you aren't gonna want to break it with mexican food either. Your enjoyment of this meal will be very fleeting indeed.
I went raw for 30 days the month of Sept. 06 and then have had one to three cooked vegetarian meals a week since. If you want to wean yourself I suggest doing it gradually because you get really sick even when going slow. The last time I ate mexican food I barely made it home and I was on the couch for two days. It seems silly for me to think about eating mexican food now, unless it is a mostly raw taco salad. I haven't gone all raw yet but if I continue to eat any cooked for much longer it will be rice with raw veggies and maybe cooked beans, but these are only for transition and eventually I anticipate the need to give those up also. I totally understand not having "forbidden" food. That is why I chose to transition slowly. I think after 100 days you won't be giving yourself that choice anymore. I think you would have to take baby steps toward building up your immunity to cooked again. If it makes you feel better I have been successfully healing on mostly raw and am successfully losing my, not just cravings but also, want of cooked foods. Raw food is getting better and better. Raw has become almost magically tasty to me. Like food has never been before and cooked is getting sucky. My kids had pizza a month or so ago and I took a bite and really felt it in my mouth and tried to really experience it. It was greasy and rubbery and I had a repulsion to it. Now I just remind myself of that when I think I want it and I think of something yummy and raw to eat. I don't anticipate a problem going raw socialy anymore. I just take simple foods with me and just eat what I eat. Since I have been vegetarian for eight years I am used to eating a little bit differently.
Sorry for the leangthy reply. I hope it helps with your decision.
Hi Amy,
I tried something similar to this all last year (skipped the 100 days part) and found it very difficult to not keep slipping more and more into the realm of cooked foods. But that doesn't mean that you couldn't easily handle it. I'm not trying to discourage you - just sharing my experience. Cooked is an emotional AND physiological addiction and I found it impossible to be healthy and raw or mostly raw when I had a big toe still dipped in cooked. But that is my personal experience and I know others here have had success doing different things.
As for eating out socially - I have found that it is not a problem at all if I don't announce it to anybody and don't make a big deal out of it. Most people will never notice if you are eating cooked food or not - esp with all the different diets and allergies people have these days.
Good luck! :)
Sarah
I would deffinetly not set things too rigidly in general. If you want to have the GOAL of 1 cooked meal per week that seems plenty challanging for most. although I agree with sarah that in a way it will take more dicipline...but thats a good kind of dicipline I think, a small manageable goal. setting some kind of 100 day mark sounds more strange to me than cold-turkey. and depending on how 'light' your raw diet is, you certainly will lose the ability to eat unhealthful foods with digestive (and possible other) consequences.
I did a raw 'diet' is what I called it for about 2 1/2 months after the birth of my son. Out of ALL of the diets out there. This one is by far my favorite. Every 2 weeks I would have a salad w/ meat in it or a light sandwich. When I ended my diet it was horrible I became really sick. People need to come off of this type od diet really slow.
I would do this diet again if needed. I felt wonderful on it. GL
Post a Comment