Preparing For The Second Transition

I’m not 100% raw right now. On a good day, I’m about 50% raw.

To make a long story short, I went 100% raw in a way that was not intrinsically sustainable. While it worked for a few months, in the long run I simply could not keep myself internally motivated and eventually went back to cooked food.

I’m still 100% convinced that a raw vegan diet is the best for me. While I’m not sure that the low fat prescription of the 80/10/10 diet is going to work for me long term, eating the high fat raw diet is not good, either. Perhaps a 70/10/20 ratio might work better.

I don’t have to figure that out right away, though, and this time I’m not going to make a sudden switch. We, as humans, are evolutionary — not revolutionary, and unless there is some strong extrinsic motivating factor (such as a life-threatening health issue), we do better with small, incremental changes. Having said that, here’s where I am right now in my own personal evolution:

• For the most part, I’m 100% vegan. The occasional bit of dairy and/or meat (especially broth) does creep in. My immediate goal here is to eliminate the “For the most part” and become 100% vegan.
• Eliminate processed sugar from my diet. These sugars include such substances as refined cane sugar and corn syrup. Especially corn syrup! I read in a book recently that corn syrup was not a large part of the American diet until the early 1980s, which was when obesity started becoming a large (pardon the pun) problem in the States. Corn syrup contains some sort of substance that suppresses the signal the stomach sends to the brain when it is full, causing us to eat more. It’s a good thing to eliminate from any diet.
• Eat 100% raw until noon every day. I am doing this on most days, on some days I’m going even farther.
• Continue to say “no” to coffee. This is an easy one for me. And if this is easy (at one time I loved coffee), then the rest of 100% raw vegan will also be easy some day.
• For my non-raw food, I’m almost (but not quite) eating a slightly modified version of the McDougall Diet. I am eating a bit more fat than what it calls for, and since I went back to eating sweet foods with sugar, I need to eliminate those again (as explained above). I want to be 100% McDougall for my non-raw eating just as soon as I can.

I’ve decided to resume blogging on this blog, partially because I promised to be honest and partially because what I write here may help somebody someday. Another reason to do so is because it will help me stick to my goals.

I am looking forward to eventually getting back to 100% raw. My goal is to be back to 100% raw by the end of 2009. I have gained back some (but not all) of the weight I lost. While that isn’t good, the thing I miss the most is the mental clarity. My mind sometimes seems as if it is in a fog, and I simply cannot afford that. I loved the way I looked, felt, and thought last summer and want to get back there.

And I will because I am, at heart, still 100% raw. Just got to work those last few inches to my stomach…

Smacznego,
Tom