IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS since I began this raw-food-eating-lifestyle experiment, and it’s been a month since I wrote about my raw-food experience.
What does this mean? Does it mean that I’ve gone off the wagon, as you may have surmised from my last post? Or that I’ve given up? No. On the contrary, what it means is only that I’ve been crazy busy. Too crazy busy, in fact, to think pay much attention to food. More importantly, perhaps, it means that raw food has become such a part of my life that I don’t HAVE to think it about it that much.
I’ve settled into a food routine that seems to work well for me and my family. For me, that means about 70% raw to 30% cooked food. Of the cooked food, except for when we’re out at restaurants, it’s mostly organic and unprocessed foods. And that makes me feel good.
What have I learned during these last six months?
- A raw food lifestyle is difficult at first, but like any change of habit, it becomes easier over time.
- It’s better to ease into it than it is to go “cold turkey” from cooked to raw foods.
- It isn’t a magic weight-loss pill (I haven’t lost a pound since I started).
- It isn’t a magic energy pill. I’ve always owned a pretty high level of energy, which fluctuates from time to time, as it does for everyone, based on hormones, amount of sleep, etc. I haven’t experienced a significant change of energy, one way or the other.
- It isn’t a magic health pill. I’ve read countless testimonies of people who swear that a raw food diet does everything from cure cancer to eliminate allergies. Perhaps it does, for some. I’ve always had a strong immune system and enjoyed exceptionally good health. In fact, during these last six months, I’ve probably experienced more health problems than usual. I can’t chalk that up to the raw food diet, however, as it’s much more likely a result of perimenopause.
- Raw food, prepared well, tastes absolutely wonderful.
- I feel better when I eat raw. At first read, this may seem to contradict numbers 4 and 5 above, but this feel-good is of a different kind. It’s like the feel-good I experienced when I switched back to vegetarianism after a period of eating meat. My body seemed clearer, cleaner, somehow. It’s the same now. The higher the percentage of raw food, the more my energy feels cleaner. It’s not that I have more of it; it’s that the quality of my energy seems higher. Certainly not something I could quantify.
Where do I go from here? The experiment isn’t finished, though I’ve adjusted my overall raw-to-cooked food goal from 80/20 to 70/30. I think, from here on out, I’ll be blogging less often (though not as infrequently as once a month) and focusing on new bits of information, recipes, and experiences.
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