No one knows you better than you. So why are there so many raw food experts telling you how much fruit you should eat, how many nuts are too many nuts, when you should eat, how much raw you should eat…I thought raw food was about freedom!
I am beginning to see a trend in raw food diet coaching and raw food articles encouraging raw food followers to focus on what makes them happy about raw food and not feel pressured to be 100% raw. Eating all raw food may work better for one person than another. Most people quickly see that they feel better when they increase the amount of raw food in their diet, but the extreme side of eating only raw might be stressful enough for someone to negate the good of so much food in its natural state!
As you navigate raw food sites, look for stories and sites that promote raw living in a way that works for each individual person. Only you know what is best for you!
I started to find myself stressing about what I was eating after I had enjoyed such a honeymoon with raw food. There were months of freedom and confidence in my eating. Then all of the sudden, I started to feel guilty again over food choices as I worried about what I should or shouldn’t eat. What had changed to make me feel this way? I was reading too far into raw food and making it a “diet”. In reading about cleaning, was beginning to believe I needed to cleanse and cleanse beyond eating a raw food diet. It became very stressful for me for a time just because I was relying on the advice of so – called “experts”. Thank goodness I remembered the freedom I tasted before I started getting trapped. I kept focusing on that to get me back to where I started.
I have been blessed with the personality type that quickly becomes passionate about something I love. This can be good or bad, depending on what it is. When I first went raw, it was almost like being born again. I just wanted to shout from the roof tops that I had found the answer to my food problems. I believed that everyone needed to quit eating hot dogs and potato salad at a picnic and choose raw food. Obviously, I still believe this to some extent or I wouldn’t spend so much time writing about raw food. I have learned quite a bit over the past several years, and I have toned it down enough that people are comfortable having me over for dinner and very intrigued by what I believe.
Be comfortable with how you feel about eating and raw food. Your desires and perceptions will change as your life changes. Your journey with raw food will deepen at its own rate as you go along. Don’t let anyone tell you how you should do it. It is not a race to the finish to become an expert, but about enjoying getting to know yourself along the way. Anyways, who decides who the experts are? Are you not an expert in your own life? You are if you are taking the time to get to know yourself and taking care of your needs. No expert can do that for you. When you rediscover who you are, you will know when it is time to take it to the next level.
In my study of raw food and healthy living, I have read so many conflicting blogs, articles, chapters, etc. about whether or not raw chocolate is good for you, candida and cleansing, nutritional deficiencies, the agave controversies, you name it. Because I love my health so much, I have thought long and hard about going back to school and getting my holistic nutrition degree, but I can see that with all of the different schools of thought it is way too controversial for me. What is right or wrong? I also decided that my passionate personality might take it to the extreme and worry too about what everyone put in their mouth because I might know to much about food. I just want to be happy. Fretting over food will never make us happy. For now, I will write. Writing enables me to share and support, because in my “expert” opinion, support will carry us further than obsessing over food ever will.
By the way ~ we all think we are an expert. When something works to dramatically change our life, we want to share it! It is very easy to believe that because it works for us, it is the answer for everyone. My answer is not always your answer, but I hope my support can help you become your own expert.
