Your Raw Wellness

It is a known fact that there are more overweight kids now than about 50 years ago. Naturally, some of those overweight kids carry their weight problems all the way to their teenage years, and even to adulthood. If your kid is in this situation, here are some tips for quick weight loss for teens, without having to resort to drastic measures like invasive surgery or even getting him or her on diet pills or enrolling your kid under an expensive gym membership.

Quick weight loss for teens # 1

Good nutrition always starts at home. You have to keep this in mind. Instead of keeping in check or even limiting severely what your kid eats, take a good, hard and honest look at what the entire family is eating. Teens develop their eating habits from what you teach them. So if you are a family of potato chip eaters, you need to wean the entire family from the chips and go for healthier options like fresh fruit and vegetables. Try not to create a meal plan only for your overweight teenager, while the rest of the family chows down on the unhealthy stuff. Your kid will only resent this and may sneak in meals outside your home.

Quick weight loss for teens # 2

Speaking of meals, try to ditch all the processed food you have at home – and that includes the frozen dinners and the “diet food” that you have been stocking up. These are loaded with extenders, preservatives and sugar in order to become palatable. Unfortunately, these are the same “low calorie” food that triggers hunger pangs which will subsequently make your kid eat more. Go for the fresh produce instead. This does not mean that you limit your kid’s diet to raw fruits and raw vegetables. You could try buying fresh meat from the grocery, use sea salt as marinade and cook this with fresh (not canned) vegetables or even fruits. You kid will learn how to prepare healthy food in the process.

Quick weight loss for teens # 3

Forcing your teen to exercise when he or she does not want to, can be a vicious fight. Why not engage him or her into an activity that you know your kid will like – and you will know this by simply asking them what they would like to do. If your teenager wants to learn skateboarding, then let them do so, even if you have misgivings about possible accidents. If he or she wants to learn to dance or learn how to play the drums, then let them do so. Try not to force your kid into activities without even consulting him or her. This makes your teenager more resentful of the fact that you did not ask in the first place.

Quick weight loss for teens # 3

Encourage your teen to drink more water or freshly made juice as a substitute for unhealthy snacks. You can do this by buying a juicing machine and even increasing your weekly supply of bottled water (which they can take to school.) Freshly made juice (without sugar) satiates hunger pangs without adding too much calories. Try to discourage the entire family from making protein shake smoothies, but go for the fresh fruits or vegetable juices instead. Water helps flush out more toxins from the body.

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Joel Odhner shares raw food tips for busy families.

Renegade Water Secrets with Joel Odhner, restaurant owner, chef, and raw food chef with clients from Delaware to New York.

Kevin: So let’s get onto today’s guest, Joel Odhner, is a raw food prep chef who has quite an interesting story which I’ll let you, I’ll actually let Joel explain his story. I’m not going to go into it. I think it’s great that he’s got the story that he does have and he’s made a massive transition and he provides raw and vegan meals to a bunch of private clients along the east coast. And when I asked Joel what his range was, I was actually kind of shocked because he drives all from…?

Joel: Delaware to New York.

Kevin: Delaware to New York. He’s got a huge range of clients and a lot of them are just really great people and what’s even better is he’s just now been recently been in Dr. Oz’s most recent DVD preparing food which is really cool. So without further ado, I want to welcome Joel Odhner to the call.

Joel: Well, thank you, Kevin, I appreciate it. Hello, folks, and I guess as Kevin said, I’ll give you a little quick history of where I came from, probably about eight or nine years ago, I was running a restaurant, a good old standard American diet restaurant. And I also decided that I would be doing more partying than working.

So what I did was I quit doing that because I realize that that was other than the best type of lifestyle. And right after I quit that I got introduced to raw foods. I actually went through a Victoria Boutenko talk and she ever talk about raw foods and it kind of really made a lot of sense to me and I said I’m going to do this. She, her last statement in her talk was to try it for two weeks.

So, as they say, I’m still trying it, eight going on nine years now. Trying raw foods in different ways and after I was just planning out to do it myself, I started a business called Raw Lifeline and we ship raw meals all over the country including Hawaii, too. We have a couple clients in Hawaii that would get food. And then I decided I really wanted it to be more personal and go more creative, so about a year or so ago, I moved into the private chef area and so now I have private clients from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. And what I do is I go to their homes and make them delicious raw vegan and vegetarian meals and lasts about, depending on how much they eat, you know, three to five days with the food and I really enjoying it. So that’s a little bit of background and I’m up for some questions.

Kevin: We’ve got a ton of them and there was a theme, my friend, that I think kind of echoes through every single one. And we’re going to start right with the big elephant in the room here. It’s how do I fit my busy schedule and how do I prepare raw foods with what I’m doing. That’s seems to be the bar-none question that we got the most of. So I think this will answer a lot of peoples’ questions. Right here, what are some tips, tricks and techniques that you use to really break through the time barrier?

Joel: Okay, well, one of the things that I want to say is that some of that is kind of a mental thing. People have it that it’s going to take long and there’s a lot of steps and what I’ve learned over the last seven or eight years is that there are some shortcuts of which I will talk to you about. But I remember one of the questions was just even about washing, when you’re getting your produce, whether it’s organic is ideal and if not, about washing it and a couple times people ask me about that. The quickest way is literally to just fill up your sink with water, put in a capsule of hydrogen peroxide. Soak your veggies in there for maybe three to five minutes. Wash them around, get all the dirt off and everything and then pull them out and let them dry off. And that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. And my feeling and my experience is that you’re not going to get it much cleaner than that. If you really want to take it and scrub it and go for it that’s a choice you can make. I just don’t think that you’re going to get much more off, either. If you’re not using organic and you are only able to get non-organic, you’re only going to get the outside pesticides off anyway. Anything that it is in the produce, it isn’t going to come off no matter how hard you scrub it.

Kevin: Right.

Joel: So there’s that. And then, the other thing, another trick is, what I’ve learned is there’s a handful of items that you can make that will last three and four days. And when I say that, clearly, in raw foods optimally you want to make it and eat it. That’s the optimal solution, but we have lives. A lot of people are busy. They either have kids, they have jobs and all these different kinds of things and they don’t have two hours, three hours a day to be making an individual meal. And I’ll be honest with you. Even me, personally, I hate making food for one person. I mean it takes just as much time to make it for one as it does for eight if you really think about it.

Kevin: Right.

Joel: So some of the tricks are to make things in larger batches. And making food easy, so you can make like a burger base, which is kind of like a carrot and nut base which will last an easy three to five days. You could make a kale salad. That’s like one of my number one favorites, kale with basically, just lemon-lime and olive oil, salt and pepper. And you massage that in and if you’ve got two or three heads, chop it up, put it in your fridge. It will last literally three to five days. In fact, it’s actually better the second and third day. So if you make a large batch of that, grab a handful, you’re all set rather than having to slice and dice every single day.

Kevin: When you talk about the washing the vegetables, are you talking about when you buy them. Just bring them home and wash them and then dry them and store them?

Joel: Yeah, okay. Yeah, unless you’re going to make them right there and then, yeah, just bring them on back, just everything you have right out of the bag, wash them up and then store them in your fridge. And that is one less. It’s easier to do en mass than individually every time you’re going to make it.

Kevin: Got you. And you mention the burger base. I think a lot of people would be interested in what are the kind of things you put into a burger base and do you sprout, if you’re putting lentils or any sort of grain in?

Joel: Sure. No, I don’t use grains. The basic one I was thinking of is I take raw almonds put them in the food processor, chop them up as fine a consistency as you want, relatively fine. A couple carrots, do the same thing, grind them on up and then that’s what I consider sort of the base and then I will dice some peppers, celery, onion and then mix that in. And if you want to put in, like, maybe, some fresh parsley or something like that, that’s great. And that’s what I consider sort of a base. It’s pretty plain and the advantage to that is you can take that base, that you made the large batch of it and then tomorrow you take a handful and make a burger out of it and maybe you want to sprinkle a little bit of chili powder on it so you have like a chili flavor on it or the next day you could sprinkle a little Italian seasonings and fresh herbs and stuff a pepper with it or you could roll it up in a collard green or romaine leaf. If you’re not totally raw, you could roll it up in a in a tortilla, like a sprouted tortilla wrap. So there’s lots of different options or just take a handful and throw it on your kale salad or any other type of salad you’re having. So the nice part about it is you can literally change the flavors each day with that base. You’ve only had to make it once. Another great thing is to stuff a Portobello cap. You can put that with a little slice of tomato, a little slice of onion on it and you have a great, great burger. Ideally, if you do that do it in the morning, by the time it’s lunchtime, the moisture from your burger has sort of soaked into your portabello cap and it’s sort of like an open-faced bun.

Kevin: Oh, wow. Now you are making me hungry.

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Nomi Shannon shares on strategies and tips for starting a raw food lifestyle.

Renegade Water Secrets with Nomi Shannon, raw food chef and author of The Raw Gourmet and a new book, Raw Food Celebrations.

Kevin: Let’s talk about raw and let’s talk about percentages here, because there’s a few questions about percentages. What’s the difference between 70-90% raw and 100% raw?

Nomi: OK, yeah. There’s actually a big difference between 70, 80% and 100%. Not to say that…I am a very middle-of-the-road raw-food person. Because I really believe, I’ve seen people go all just gung-ho, all raw and three weeks later, for whatever reason, they feel like a failure. Whether they just jumped into it too fast or can’t handle the detoxification they think is there or whatever, really not good in the kitchen. So, they’re almost like a rubber band, they bounce back and in three weeks or six weeks or two months they’re back at whatever, McDonald’s.

I’d honestly rather see someone just have 50% raw for the rest of their life than be a 100% raw for three weeks because that is going to make a profound difference. Now, I personally decided that 50% was like the tipping point. But, honestly, if there are people out there and they’re eating 100% cooked food and they start eating 25% raw, that’s better than 0% raw. I do think though that, and I think we all understand the phrase the tipping point, now, I do think that tipping point where you truly notice a difference in your health is going to be at 50%. I really think it’s quite a rare person that’s 100% for a really long period of time. And that’s another thing, people beat themselves up. They go, “Oh, I was 100% for a year and then I ate a Rice Krispie and I felt like such a failure and so I stopped completely.” I mean, that is really undesirable thinking.

So, if you want to be raw and you were trying to decide on a percentage, it’s a really great idea for anyone who can to work their way up to 100% and stay at 100% for as long as they can. So, say three months, let’s say six months, because that’s going to give your maximum amount of sort of self-cleansing, especially if you include juicing, all right? And then settle somewhere where you’re comfortable and where you’re happy. It’s not like philosophy or like religion. It’s not like you’re converting and you have to buy the whole package and the way you celebrate this religion in order to be accepted, this is really just the food you’re eating. And once you allow yourself to get over the hump, there’s even the question of people saying, “I hate the way greens taste.” Or, “I don’t like this or I don’t like that. Literally your palate changes.

Most of us who are eating the standard American diet are addicted to the stuff they put in the food. It just tastes delicious. It takes a while for your palate to get used to simple greens, simple salad, plain almonds, that kind of thing. So you have to give yourself the chance to do that. If you are never a 100%, so what. But it would be good to be a 100% in the beginning, work up to it for as long as you can, because that is the ultimate, wonderful thing to do for yourself. If you are ill, again, if there are people listening that have a serious illness, whether it’s obesity or blood pressure issues, or cholesterol issues or cancer, you would be very well advised to get yourself to a 100% level as soon as you can and stay there for as long as you can.

I personally know literally hundreds of people who feel that they’ve cured themselves of the incurable simply by eating raw food or taking wheat grass juice and that kind of thing.

Kevin: And you have seen it at Hippocrates.

Nomi: Yeah, that’s one of the beauties of working in a place like that. You see it over and over and over and over.

Kevin: I think that’s what makes what you say a little… it weighs it more than someone else who talks about this or that or this type of program or that type of program. Whereas you’ve been literally in the trenches seeing this happen, which is a lot different than reading the book and then talking about it.

Nomi: I’ve seen it happen a thousand different ways with a thousand different issues and I’ve experienced it myself. I wasn’t looking at it when I was there as anything but a really profound experience for myself. But looking back I realized I have engaged in a lot of conversation. This was a wonderful program, really, really. First of all, the food is delicious and they really, really show you how to make your food when you get home. And literally every person, as they were walking out the door, was going, “Oh my god, what am I going to do when I get home?” And I’m sitting there going, “Are you kidding? They’ve just shown you everything.” But some people are better in the kitchen than others. So I followed through with a lot of people.

And that is also where I learned what people want to know, and what then I based “The Raw Gourmet” on. I really knew what people wanted to know.

Kevin: Let’s talk about some of “The Raw Gourmet” tips and information that you give in that book, because there are a lot of questions about prep. Let’s start first with washing your vegetables. Let’s talk about it. Not only washing them, where do you store them, how do you store them to keep them fresh for the longest and what’s the best way to do that?

Nomi: Wow! I think there are a gazillion different ways to wash your veggies, there is no one right way. I used to use a product called Botanic Gold and I’m going to actually start to carry it. It’s now called Enviro One. It’s just made out of plant stuff, it’s like soap. You dilute it very highly to soak your veggies in or to brush your teeth with, or clean the house there are different dilutions. And I really loved it and I actually haven’t used it in a while and I miss it terribly. It’s hard to say, other than to say it’s a good idea to wash off your produce. You can’t wash everything off non-organic produce. But you just have to do the best you can with that.

Storing it, the big thing about storing it is don’t overbuy. Have a good refrigerator, if you have a 15 year old refrigerator you might want to start saving up for a new one, because the newer ones are more efficient. I go to many people’s houses and they often don’t utilize the drawers in their refrigerators well enough. But if you can’t fit it all in the refrigerator from one shopping then you’re buying more than you can eat before the food starts to go bad. It’s unrealistic to think you are only going to shop one time a week for all your produce. You need to go out at least twice a week.

You can find thousands of quick weight loss tips that promise fast results but you have to know that some of these weight loss tips offer only short-term effects. You need to understand that to be able to lose weight effectively, you have to be patient and determined. Some important quick weight loss tips include eating healthy and incorporating exercise routines.

Our body requires more than forty vitamins and minerals everyday to function efficiently and maintain good health. Having nutritious diet allows you to be in control with your meal portions and it can ensure that your body gets the right nutrients. A lot of people have the notion that quick weight loss tips involve eating tasteless, bland foods and skipping meals but that is not actually the case. Having a healthy diet to lose weight means that you have to eat different varieties of foods in moderation.

Healthy eating is all about having a well-balanced diet that includes plenty of raw vegetables, fruits, protein and whole grains. Eating different kinds of healthy foods can ensure your body the best nutrients needed. You can choose from a wide variety of foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, organic poultry products, seafood and organic meats.

Make sure to eat food in moderate amount in order to lose weight effectively. You do not have to starve and deprive yourself from eating your favorite foods. All you need to do is to control the portion of your meals. It is recommended to eat smaller portions of meals during the day. In addition, you have to keep in mind that there is no such thing as bad food but you have to consume unhealthy foods such as junk foods in smaller amounts.

The best way to increase your metabolism and fuel your body is to eat raw fruits in the morning. Never skip breakfast because this will result to slowing down your metabolism. Eating four to six smaller meals can also help increase metabolism and keep your body active. Do not ignore your hunger or starve yourself because this will only slow down your body. In order to stimulate metabolism, consume energy foods such as beans, whole grains, vegetables and fruits. In addition, it is best to include physical activities in your daily routine. If you do not have time to go to the gym or do regular exercise, you can walk from your house when doing some errands. It is better to use the stairs than the elevator and take your dog out for a walk. You can also do simple exercises at home to increase your metabolism and burn more calories.

Though diet and exercise are necessary in losing weight successfully, there are other several things that you need to consider. For instance, getting rid of stress can help in weight loss. It is a fact that stress is one of the causes of obesity. In addition, people who are experiencing stress tends to eat more junk foods so once you eliminate stress it will be easier for you to lose weight. It is also helpful to avoid unhealthy habits such as drinking alcohol and smoking. These bad habits can cause weight gain and smoking and drinking regularly can increase health risks.

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101 Weight Loss, Fat Loss And Diet Tips.

Cutting-Edge News Room

Just mention the raw food diet and people think you have gone a little loopy. Well, when you get this reaction and you are tired of explaining just give them one of these weirder examples (hahaha)! Trust me, after this, raw food lifestyle will seem pretty mainstream But guess what none of them date further back than the raw food lifestyle, of course!

Leech Therapy

Leech therapy has been practiced since medieval times and probably much before. It is very popular in Iran today. Leeches have been used to help cure problems with gout, which accompanies a lot of inflammation in the body and for helping regulate a person’s blood pressure.

The leeches are placed on a person’s body to draw blood from the individual. The practice is similar to use maggots, which are often placed on live creatures to help eat away infection (which is what they do, see below).

Here are some benefits of using leeches that are widely publicized:

Leech therapy can help improve venous congestion, making surgical maneuvers including the re-attachment of appendages more possible.

They assist with would care.

They can help clear poison from the body.

They help reduce swelling.

They release pain reducing and blood thinning chemicals in the body which may help prevent clotting while reducing discomfort.

They can vaso-dilate meaning open up the venous system in some respects.

While leech therapy has long been used by mankind to help heal and cure many symptoms and diseases, it has only recently begun surfacing again. Even so, you may be hard pressed to find this popular therapy in most doctor’s offices, because it would take some time for it to become mainstream.

Maggots

Maggots are used in various places of the world to help cure infection. In surface wounds, one might place maggots inside to help rid the body of a skin infection. It may sound unhealthy, but it is practical in some cases and certainly useful in situations where one has an infection and is not near a medicine chest.

Despite the popularity of leech therapy, maggot therapy has not yet caught on as widely. There are documented benefits of this form of therapy; however it is more likely to be used in alternative practice rather than in a traditional setting. This may change with time however.

Tree Stick

In many African countries, people use a natural substances, a small stick or twig cut from wild trees as a toothbrush they carry around in their mouth all day long. This natural tooth brush helps them save a few dollars in the grocer so they don’t have to buy toothbrushes and paste.

Many know that these particular twigs are not fancy but often do a better job of cleaning the teeth than traditional brushes made of plastic. A tree stick or chewing stick of more commonly known as a “sothiou” or in some cases it is called “mswaki” which translate into “to clean” or “clean”.

Often called chew sticks these sticks are now available in many raw food stores because they are plant based. You do not need to use fluoridated toothpaste with them. You can actually munch on the stick all day, as it emits a type of liquid most believe help with the tooth care process.

Because most raw food diets do not consist of much junk food, the sothiou does a good job of getting rid of most of the germs and bacteria that would cause tooth decay.

Twigs For Toothaches

Natives of some villages in Africa even use twigs to help fight toothaches. While this may sound outrageous, it is true. There are certain trees, including the gum trees that apparently have pain relieving properties.

When an individual has a toothache, someone goes to the gum tree and cuts a twig. The twig must be chewed, which in essence helps remove particles that form between teeth. It can also brush the teeth.

While many find the process a bit bitter, this twig is just as capable of cleaning the teeth as any modern tooth brush and paste. There is even evidence suggesting the twigs contain compounds that can help eliminate bacteria in the mouth, including the types of bacteria that may cause diseases like gum disease or tooth decay.

Because these little sticks do not contain any fluoride, they are perfectly safe for anyone including younger children! For raw foodists looking for a natural source of dental care, the first place to start ma be a chewing stick or a few. You might want to look for a stick containing anti-microbial components because these are best at fighting bacteria.

This can prove especially beneficial in families with several children!

Radon Baths

In the Ukraine you can receive a radon bath treatment or shower to cure many different ailments. You can also receive radon treatment of your gums. They are even used for reproductive complaints. Radon is said to help fight arthritis and other diseases often caused by aging, and for treating skin diseases, diabetes, inflammation in the body, and even vascular problems or peripheral (in the arms and legs primarily) nerve problems. Can it really do all that?

Most people would say you have to try it before you buy it. There is at lest some medical evidence in all cases to back up these claims. If you are a true fan of nature as most raw foodists are, it is at least worthwhile to check into some of these treatments. At least the tree sticks, which is definitely a cure for bad breath that Mother Nature intended. And, you don’t have to worry about cooking anything, just grab a stick and start chewing, just what nature really intended.

Sincerely yours,

Omid

Thinking about, or starting a raw food diet? Here are a few points to consider and help you along the way.

Raw foodism is the practice of eating a raw food diet and is practiced by people known as raw foodists.

Raw food recipes can be found in cookbooks devoted to the category, or hidden away in more traditional cookbooks. When you find a recipe you like, be sure to save it so you can enjoy it any time.

Enzymes are proteins that are made in living cells and help certain biochemical processes. raw food diets focus on the enzymes that promote health and aid digestion. Heating food past 116F kills these beneficial enzymes, which is why raw food is better.

Most raw foodists do eat cooked food, but only sparingly, and even then with an eye on the overall quality and purity of the food. Cooked food is any food that is heated above 116F, this includes pasteurization which is designed to kill micro-organisms.

Sprouts can come from seeds, beans, or grains that have started to grow – or ’sprout’. This process unlocks more nutritional value and improves the taste. You can do it yourself or buy special sprouters, and sprouting kits.

Weight loss is a natural consequence of eating a raw food diet. Some people start a raw food lifestyle for the purpose of losing weight, but soon find it is about much more than just dropping a few pounds

Digestion is the process of breaking down food, absorbing its nutrients, and eliminating the waste. Raw foodists believe that by leaving naturally occurring food enzymes intact that it will aid in digestion – allowing the body to get the full value of the foods it is taking in. And because your personal energy is not being used more than needed for digestion, you will have more physical energy

Fruits and vegetables comprise a large portion of most raw foods diets. For those interested in raw foodism, fruits and vegetables are a good way start as they tend to be more familiar to us. Then you can simply add new, or more exotic, fruits and vegetables as you go along

Nutrition is the overall benefit that food imparts to us. However this benefit can be severely limited by poor digestion and other health issues. Raw foodism helps promote ideal nutrition at all levels.

Dried fruits make handy snacks. Be sure the temperature does not go over 116F if you are dehydrating at home. If you purchase store bought dried fruit be sure to check the label to make sure it is 100% organic and contains no additives or preservatives.

Nuts also make another handy snack and have the benefit of being high in protein and fat – the right kind of fat. People that worry about not getting enough fat or protein in a raw food diet need look no further than nuts. One word of caution, be sure to avoid nuts that have been roasted, as the temperature at which this is done is too high.

Beans come in a lot of varieties, and are high in fiber and protein and low in fat. They can be combined in many ways. As they are not to be cooked, soaking and sprouting are two common ways to eat them.

Grains are very versatile and can be eaten any time of the day. You should choose whole grains that are certified organic. Grains can also be sprouted.

The vegan diet causes some confusion. Vegans that cook their food are not raw foodists, though it would be fairly easy to make the full switch. Raw foodists are not always vegans, as some do eat dairy products, or the occasional piece of fish

Health improvements of all kinds are claimed by raw foodists. While some of the evidence for a raw food diet to cure even the most harmful of diseases is anecdotal, there is no question that eating better food than the typical Western diet affords is a smart choice.

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Angela Stokes shares on finding or building a support group and steps you can take today to start down the road to better health.

Renegade Water Secrets with Angela Stokes, raw foodist, teacher and expert on raw food weight loss.

Kevin: You mentioned that finding a support group was important. Your family, you say, was filled with obesity and not a healthy group of people that you could probably find support from. Where did you go to find the support?

Angela: In the very beginning the main thing that kept me going was going to potlucks. There was potlucks about once a month and that really made all the difference to me. Because, as I said, I was out in the countryside in Iceland and I really felt isolated and just kind of crazy at times and I then would go to these potlucks and there would be all these people there and all this amazing, vibrant food. I would see people’s different creations and just that sense of community and it’s not just me. That really nice feeling of there’s other people who are on this path. And then of course everything’s just been growing on the Internet so much in the last years with raw food. So I started to get more and more into that and these days we have such wonderful communities online like giveittomeraw.com eat.rawfood.com and so that’s what I really encourage people to get into. If you can, meeting people face to face in your communities or if there aren’t any potlucks in your area create one. Just put some little signs up around your area saying, “Is anyone interested in eating more healthily” or you could even say “in eating raw food” or “eating vegan” or whatever it is. Or start a reading group around health books and develop it from there. You don’t have to feel isolated or alone. This message really is spreading. That’s what excites me, is to think about how it’s just going to keep on expanding. At the moment the infrastructure isn’t there so much in society for it to feel particularly easy to be a raw foodist a lot of the time. But it’s coming. It’s going to be so exciting in the coming years, I think, to see what unfolds.

Kevin: Let’s get into a question that I like from one of our listeners who’s on the line now, she basically asks what’s the best way to get started into raw foods without shocking the system?

Angela: Yeah, I recommend for people to start out eating at least 50 percent raw and preferably at least 50 percent of that to be fresh, raw stuff. So not all dehydrated and packaged raw foods but a lot of fresh stuff. And just take it from there and start building up the percentage of raw that you can handle. And maybe at some point you become 100 percent raw and maybe you don’t. Like this person says in the question, it’s really important to not shock the system. From what I’ve seen over and over again with people, so many people find out about raw food and they want to go 100 percent and they jump in the deep end and then they go into this huge detox and you never see them again. They jump completely off the wagon and that’s it. And I feel really sad when I see that kind of thing. I would much rather see people just slowly, slowly build new habits into their lives. This to me is a lifestyle. It’s not about going on some diet you’re going to go off again at some point. That’s not the mentality around it from my perspective.

So yeah, slowly build in, working with the foods that you already know you like. Everybody has some kind of raw foods they already know they like. Maybe it’s plums or maybe it’s celery, whatever. And this is actually one of the steps that I guide people to do in “RAW EMOTIONS” is to make a list of the foods that you already know that you like and have that visible in your house. Have it up, like on your fridge so when you go shopping or when you’re ordering online or whatever it is, you have this thing and you can keep adding to it as you try new things, as your taste buds adjust. And keep trying new things. Every week maybe try one or two new foods. And just slowly, slowly keep incorporating new things so that you don’t get this sense of restriction and deprivation. Which that’s so common that you’ll hear people when they go raw saying, “Oh, I can’t eat bread anymore.” Or, “I’m not allowed to eat this.” To me that’s just not really coming from a space of empowerment or a space where you’re really enjoying what you’re doing. It just seems to come from a weakened perspective. And so slowly build it up and make sure that you’re doing what you can to help the body as it detoxes. Because that’s really what this is all about. It’s really about coming into alignment with nature.

It’s like pressing the reset button in your body. It’s like pressing the release button. “Okay, I packed in heaven knows how many pounds and pounds of toxic stuff for years and now we’re going to let go of it.” And your body’s just going to go for it. Like I said earlier, the body just rushes towards optimal health and it will just be dumping stuff out of your cells like crazy. So do what you can to help with that process. Do colon cleansing, do skin brushing, keep your lymphs moving, do exercise, anything. Tongue scraping, netipot, whatever you can to help keep the detox process going. And be kind to yourself. Be gentle to yourself. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing in the beginning. Take it slowly.

Kevin: Some people might not know what skin brushing is. Can you just explain what that is?

Angela: Sure. You take a dry bristle brush, a special one that you can buy in health food shops and stuff, they’re really inexpensive, maybe ten dollars, and you go over your entire body with this dry brush, like before bathing or before you step in the shower or whatever. And that sounds kind of crazy when you’re not used to it but once you start doing it you might find that you just fall in love with dry skin brushing. It’s a wonderful way of removing dead skin cells from the surface of your skin. You know, the skin is our biggest organ and there’s such an opportunity for detoxing through our skin. But a lot of people just don’t really seize the opportunity. People where clothes all the time, tight clothes and they put deodorant on and body lotions and they really don’t give the body and the skin that much space to breathe. So when you do the dry skin brushing it’s like you’re removing all these dead layers of skin, you’re giving the muscles a nice workout, you’re moving the lymph as well and it’s just all around a very beneficial habit to do daily with your body. And it’s so cheap. Ten dollars investment in a brush and you’ve got it for like twenty years or something. So I highly recommend dry skin brushing.

Kevin: So what would you suggest for someone right now, listening to this call, enjoyed everything that you have said, what would you suggest is their first step to just either getting the weight loss or getting the raw food results that they’re really looking for?

Angela: I would definitely say if you still have processed or cooked food items in your house that you don’t feel great about, and it’s within your boundaries to get them out of your house, then go for it. Just get those things out of your personal space and start to get that list together of the things that you really enjoy. Start connecting to other people, build your momentum around this lifestyle so that it just becomes more embedded in your day to day things that you do. So that it just becomes habitual.

We’ve had so many years of living and eating this other way, and we’ve got all those patterns behind us to move out of now, just try and do what you can to every day just check in with what’s happening with you with raw foods in some way, whether it’s that you open a raw food book or go onto a raw food website for inspiration. Reach out to others, you’re not alone.

And I always say, I really feel like if I can do this than anyone can. Six years ago I was 300 pounds and had no interest in health whatsoever. And I’m still here. I wouldn’t be here still, six years later, if there wasn’t a good reason for it. So my health, my happiness, everything in my life was completely transformed from doing this. And there’s no reason why other people can’t experience that same kind of shifts if they just choose to do so and stay on that track.

Kevin: That’s great advice.

I HAD TO END CLEAN EAT WEEK! (No I didn’t go over my calories or anything…) Hear why in the video…also some tips from the raw food detox Diet Book (by Natalia Rose). SW: 145.2 EW 144.2 :] Happy February…lets start it RIGHT and on TRACK

Learn about the ingredients to make a healthy breakfast cereal recipe for a raw food diet in this free cooking video on making raw food breakfast recipes.

Expert: Denise Bennett
Bio: Denise Bennett, is the owner of Gentle Soul Cafe in L.A. CA, and a partner in Light &Love Cafe in Sedona, Arizona.
Filmmaker: Danniel Fishler

Duration : 0:1:48

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