Why stay on a Mostly Raw Diet?

In January I started the year on a 21 day church-wide fast. The church promoted a Daniel Fast which is refraining from eating meat and sweets. Because I already followed a relatively vegetarian  diet, I thought I'd step it up a notch and try a mostly raw or living food vegan diet for 21 days. That meant no meat or eggs or cheese and no cooked vegetables for 21 days. By the second week I noticed that stiffness and pain in my joints had gone away and that I had more energy and needed less sleep. By the third week I decided to extend the fast for another 19 days. And so for 40 days, I ate only living food.

Now it is six months later and I want to tell you what is happening now.  The truth is- I find it too challenging to eat only living food all of the time. So I listened to my raw food teacher NwennaKai.com and committed to eating a MOSTLY raw food diet. According to Nwenna, there are great benefits to be obtained by eating mostly or even 50/50 living food diet. So I aimed for 80%. That was in March. Now in August, I feel that I am slipping.

I still enjoy eating live foods but I'm more concerned about what I've started eating in addition. It started with salsa and chips. There is a raw food cracker recipe made with flax seed that I really like but it involves sprouting grain for 3 days and dehydrating for 24 hours. Much easier, I find to open up a bag of Tortilla chips. When I travel, I bring my own food but the last road trip emptied my stores of morning muffins- made with crushed, cashews and sunflower seeds (AlissaCohen.com) and Kale chips, so while at the health food store, I picked up a small bag of Kale chips from off the shelf. They cost nearly $7.00 for a 42g bag! I can make my own using a pound of Kale (300g) and cashew "cheeze" for about $5.00.

The one thing that can't be ignored about eating Living Food is that it takes times and planning. Raw food is not Convenient Food unless you have spent the time making it before hand.  Buying food closest to the source as you can and buying in bulk lowers the price substantially. Which is why the Farmer's Market or Food Coop is a better alternative to Whole Foods or Trader Jack's...but then your weekend is spent doing something with all of those vegetables.

Why go through all of this trouble? It has got to be worth it you. I have always been a yo-yo dieter and since making this life style change, I have dropped two dress sizes but more importantly, I feel better. I love eating as much as I want of foods that are good for me and I'm getting to know what my body needs to feel good.

So, now that I've given myself this little pep-talk, I will be going on another little fast this week, perhaps 1 or 2  days of  raw juices or green smoothies (1/2 greens to 1/2 fruit-) to get myself back on the wagon. After a couple of days of liquids, a crunchy green kale chip tastes wonderful!