Figure out where you are today with your dietary habits and lifestyle. Where ever you are today, you will probably look back in the near future to that spot as just a distant memory, because you ??ll be climbing higher and higher to better health, with each step. Every little change you make for the better is going to help you improve your health. That ??s awesome. In my opinion, there is no need to go 100% all at once (unless of course, that's your style - more power to ya!).
You don ??t need to start at 100% Raw to start feeling benefits. Some people like the term ??high raw ?? which means you ??re about 85-99% Raw. See what makes you feel the healthiest and go from there.
Don ??t limit yourself with how much Raw food you eat in the beginning, or ever for that matter. Your body will guide you. It ??s an exciting evolution, so embrace it, enjoy it, and take it one day, week or month at a time.
I recommend the book Skinny Bitch, if you haven't read it already...it's about the vegan diet (not Raw, but this could be a first step for you while you're incorporating Raw into your life). You should reduce or eliminate unhealthy food from your diet and this includes junk food, packaged and processed snacks, animal based products, fried foods, white sugar, and white flour. Your life is changing. You are on a new path to optimal health.
Some people go cold turkey (something I could not do because I had to get off caffeine, which was going to be done gradually for me). And some people enter the Raw lifestyle gradually. When taking the gradual approach, some people choose to split each day between Raw meals and non-raw meals. The other option is to do the following: This is the way that I found worked best for me
When going Raw, start out by picking one day a week (or more if you want) to eat 100% Raw all day long. You'll see how easy it is and how amazing you feel that you'll be excited to do it more than one day a week, maybe two to three days.
After that, you start increasing to one week straight, then two weeks, then up to a month (leaving a little wiggle room here and there, for times you just "can't" do it, perhaps due to social situations). Find what works for you.
The reason this plan worked better for me, as opposed to just gradually adding Raw food into each day's diet, was that I was finding it too hard to give up the addictive cooked food. I found that, if I had even just a little bit of cooked food in the course of a day, it was a slippery slope ?? it made me want to eat more and more cooked food throughout the day.
It worked much better for me to completely eliminate all cooked food for one whole day at a time. I noticed that it was during the 100% Raw days that I felt the best and I soon became addicted to that high energy, waking up without headaches, feeling so great that I couldn't stop smiling. Over time, and quickly at that, I became 100% Raw (now, I go between High Raw and 100% Raw).
On the days that your goal is
not to be 100% Raw, simply start adding more Raw foods to your daily food choices. For example, maybe you commit to three days of 100% Raw and four days of 50% Raw (don't let the other 50% cooked be junk or processed foods though). Some people do this by eating a salad before lunch and dinner or having their traditional cooked vegetable side dishes made from Raw food instead (and then having only the main entree be cooked).
And remember, if you fall off the bandwagon, don ??t worry, just get right back on. Every single minute of every day is a chance to start new!
