Youth and Anti-Aging

Raw Food Weight Loss

The absolute best way to lose weight is to embrace a raw food lifestyle. It not only feeds your body high quality nutrition, but it detoxifies your body and helps you to clear food addictions.

Listen to an interview by David Wolfe

Every body is different so the amount of weight that is lost the first thirty days on raw varies from individual to individual. When you fast for ten days on raw juices it will help you to transition to a raw food diet more easily and also help the weight loss along. But how fast one loses weight is not the real issue. It is knowing that you are headed in the right direction and having results.

If you think about it, your overweight body is the product of years of wrong eating. It is an accumulation of toxins and waste products. When you begin eating a high raw food diet you are slowly reversing the toxic conditions in your body. The weight loss is a natural result of shedding toxic waste.

Since cooked food is primarily dead food it doesn't have the much needed nutrition and enzymes. By eating a diet of cooked food you are continuing to add to the toxic waste load in your body. Not only are you taking in filler without the benefit of good nutrition but you are continuing to harm your body by loading it down with these toxic wastes.

When you take in food that has not been destroyed by heating over 104 degrees you are benefiting from the pure food value available.

Eating a high raw food diet is a process of education. It is important to understand what exactly raw food is and how to implement it into your life. It is not only about eating fruits and vegetables in their raw form. You are not just existing on lettuce, carrot sticks and apples. Eating raw food is an extremely satisfying gourmet world full of enticing flavors, textures and tastes. However it involves a commitment. You have to leave the convenience of restaurant eating and return to the kitchen. Food prep is mandatory!

When you are tired and you don't want to take the time to prepare food there are plenty of healthy fast food options available. You can grab a piece of organic fruit, some soaked nuts or trail mix. You can eat an avocado with lime and celtic sea salt. You can have some raw nut butter on celery or apple slices. You can whip up a quick green smoothie or cocao shake.

There is a fast food world available to you when eating raw. You just need to be simple and creative. There are plenty of premade raw food mixes carried by a lot of whole food stores now that are delicious. They are more expensive than the cheap processed foods but also very nutrition dense and can last much longer.

You can also get into the habit of preparing lots of food at one time to eat throughout the week. You can make raw granola's, carrot cake, chocolate treats, dehydrated fruit slices, Spiced raw or dehydrated nut mixes, sliced vegetables soaked in sea salt water, marinated kale and other salads. You can make raw soups and refrigerate or freeze for a later time. Your options are unlimited. It simply takes a bit of creativity and foresight.

I travel with goji berries, cocao nibs, raw nuts and fruit. It is highly satisfying and great for hours on the road. It is important to always have food with you so you are not caught hungry without options. It is also good to know where you can get good raw food in your area so you are always well stocked.

Eating raw is a sure fire way to losing all the weight you have to lose. It is simply a matter of implementing the lifestyle and sticking to it.

Sticking to a raw food lifestyle is different than going on a diet. A diet is a temporary solution that doesn't last much longer than the diet itself. Diets are often very restrictive and take away the goodies.

With a raw food lifestyle we come to the understanding that this is our new way of life. There is no going back to cooked food. Once you've gone raw it is difficult to eat cooked food again without remembering just how good you felt on raw food. For me there was always a part of me that remembered that I never felt so good and that part continued to pull me back again and again. Each time I re-committed to a raw food lifestyle I felt so much better.

The key is to do the time! Once you've eaten raw food for a period of time you simply get accustomed to it. You begin to enjoy the food and look forward to the different meals made of raw. When you do eat cooked food you can feel it sitting in your stomach like a rock and this is an instant warning to your body.

The irony is that you could have eaten that same food every day for a lifetime and then suddenly it doesn't work for you anymore. Why? Because it was never good for you only your body wasn't sensitive enough to recognize this.

Our bodies become much more sensitive on a raw food diet. We become aware of what works and doesn't work for our unique body type. We most certainly recognize foods that don't agree with us very quickly.

I had a friend who was implementing raw food into her diet and she lost weight in her first four days. She ate a piece of raw cheese and instantly felt discomfort in her gut. This was a sign that the raw dairy wasn't agreeing with her. She realized she couldn't do raw dairy.

Most raw foodists are vegan and don't do any animal products whatsoever. However some raw foodists will do dairy and some will even do sushi and other raw meats. I don't recommend raw meat however.

When you embark upon a raw food lifestyle to lose weight it is best to begin a program to deal with your food addictions along the way. You will be much more successful this way.

Many people can easily lose weight on raw food because they can have dessert for breakfast, lunch and dinner if they want. Raw food desserts are highly nutritious. All of the pleasure, none of the guilt.

What I have found is when you set out eating dessert for every meal your body will automatically seek balance. It will begin craving greens and vegetables. You will actually tire of eating desserts.

At first it is fun to know you can have cake for breakfast and you are doing your body good. But after a while the sweet needs to be balances with something else. As you develop a closer relationship with your body you will learn to listen to it and know what to eat simply by following your cravings.

There is a raw food solution to just about every craving out there. Raw fooders make wonderful raw pizza's, raw lasagna, raw soups, raw meatloafs (nut loafs), raw burgers (nut burgers), breads and crackers. There is a whole new world in raw chocolate with unlimited chocolate treats that are super good for you because raw cocao is a superfood.

I've made a raw carrot cake that is out of this world with wonderful spicy, sweet flavors that melt in your mouth. When I make this it doesn't last long around my house as everyone loves it, but I always eat it for breakfast. It is made from carrots, raisins, pecans, coconut, fresh orange juice, dates, and a frosting of coconut oil, cashews and agave nectar. It is so delicious.

When you are eating high quality, nutrient dense foods you are much more satisfied than eating anything cooked or baked so you don't find yourself overeating as you would in the "non raw" world. I can only eat a little bit of the carrot cake at a time because it is so rich and filling. It is pure nutrition! But I could have eaten much larger portions of baked carrot cake without feeling full. Go figure!

Another thing I noticed that is shared by others in the raw food world is that our need for large amounts of food dwindles quickly. When you first begin eating raw food you might find yourself consuming enormous amounts of salad and other raw food. But after a few weeks you begin to feel the effects of eating a high nutrient dense diet. You begin feeling satisfied with smaller and smaller amounts of food. You may even find yourself just wanting to nibble throughout the day without any big meals. The reason for this is our body signals hunger when it needs nutrition. When we eat a large amount of empty calories we are not meeting our nutritional requirements so the body continues to signal hunger.

When we are eating a high nutrient dense diet our bodies are satisfied and signal that is is fulfilled. So we lose the desire to continue eating long after we are full. This is another reason we can lose weight so easily.

When I first began eating raw food I was concerned about the price of high quality food. But after a month or so I realized the food was lasting much longer. I just wasn't eating that much. The more variety I had in my diet the more the specialty items lasted. For example my staples might include raw cocao powder, cocao nibs, maca, goji berries, hemp seed, coconut oil, cocao butter, agave nectar, and a variety of nuts and seeds as well as the fruits and vegetables I like. The superfoods I named are used sparingly and go a long way. As we reach that point of not needing so much food on a daily basis our stables go much further. So at first it may seem much more expensive to eat raw and organic but it levels out over time.

When looking at the expense of being raw it is also important to look at where you are no longer spending your money. You have stopped buying weight loss products, daily coffee drinks, unnessesary food supplements and paying high medical bills.

I spend less on cosmetics and clothing because I simply look much better without make-up now then I did pre-raw. I also don't like shopping in intensly lighted malls and prefer to purchase a few quality clothing items to a bunch of cheap items that provide temporary gratification. Our lifestyles are like our food. When we improve the quality of what we eat we automatically seem to improve the quality of our surroundings.

If you are serious about losing weight and being healthy I can't recommend a better way for you to reach your goals than to implement a high raw food lifestyle.

High raw is 90% or more raw food in your diet. The ten percent non-raw might be reserved for some non-raw condiments, or accidentals. It is always good to have a little margin to prevent us from being too rigid and obsessive.

I strive for 100% raw right now however my margin allows me to eat salads in restaurants that might have included some non-raw olives or dressings. Many raw-foodists bring their own dressing with them. If you don't, try not to stress too much over it. This is not meant to be stressful. You can make changes as you become more educated.

The objective is to begin educating yourself now. It is impossible to embrace a raw food lifestyle without education. The education helps you know how to eat and how to deal with the obstacles. It also offers the inspiration you will need to stay committed to a high raw diet.

To See some Before and After photos of people who have had great results with the raw food lifestyle check out these search results.

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