…could you address eating fruit and vegetables late in the evening. I get hungry. Lots of articles state eating after 7 or 8 is a major no-no.

Sure thing, Michelle! Check out my thoughts on late night eating in the latest Fit On Raw video below:

Is Eating Raw Food at Night Really a Major No-No?

What About You?

Personally, I find that I sleep best when I stop eating around 7pm, which is why I made it my raw food resolution for 2012. What about you?

Let me know in the comments below!

Go raw and be fit,
Swayze

P.S. Want to achieve permanent weight loss, optimal digestion, abundant energy, and optimal overall health, well-being, and longevity? You can, but you have to stop focusing on the little things (like eating before 7pm).

Instead, you need to focus on the things that really make a difference health-wise. Primarily, this means limiting the processed foods and making fresh fruits and veggies your mainstay.

But if you have crazy cravings, giving up your favorite fatty, salty, meaty, processed dishes can be all but impossible. I know because I too struggled to stay raw because of cooked food cravings.

Meal time was always a battle. What my brain wanted to eat and what my belly wanted me to shove down my face were too completely different things!

But today, I eat a 100% raw food diet and love every minute of it. I have no cravings for cooked food whatsoever, even though I live in a household with 3 COOKED FOOD EATERS! 

I’m surrounded my tempting treats and yet I’m never tempted in the least. And I know that simply by following my top tips, tricks, and raw food know-how, you can finally break from the diet-binge-diet cycle, go raw, and experience the best health of your life…

Just like I have.

And I’ve laid it all out for you in my how-to go raw guide + cravings crushing program…

“How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All”

A Guide for Destroying Cravings on a Raw Food Diet

www.CookedFoodCravings.com

In How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All, you’ll learn all you need to know about going raw the RIGHT way and eradicating your cooked food cravings for good.

Click on the lick below to learn more and purchase your copy today:

===> www.CookedFoodCravings.com

*hint, hint* Hunger is NOT painful!

You Aren’t Hungry…You’re Sick!

What Does Hunger Feel Like to You?

Leave your answer in the comments below!

Go raw and be fit,
Swayze

P.S. Having trouble giving up the crap cooked foods so that you can experience true hunger for yourself? I’ve got some tasty and healthy raw recipes that should do the trick…

“Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes”

Delicious and Healthy Raw Vegan Favorites for Every Meal

 www.fitonraw.com/low-fat-raw-vegan-favorites

To learn more about the book and order your copy, click below:

==> www.fitonraw.com/low-fat-raw-vegan-favorites

I recently received an email from raw reader Caryn with a link to this New York Times article on decision fatigue. She also suggested that I post an article about it with regards to raw foods, so that’s what I’m doing.

Great suggestion, Caryn!

What’s Decision Fatigue?

According to the author, decision fatigue:

…helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy.

It’s all about will power. The more decisions we make, the more our will power weakens and the less discerning we are.

And when we’re less discerning, we tend to respond in either one of two less-than-optimal ways:

1. We make a rash decision or
2. We do nothing

#1: Rash Decision

You’ve had a long day, you’re tired, and you’re hungry. Instead of expending the little bit of extra energy it takes to make a healthy and delicious raw meal, you take the shortcut. You make a rash decision and go for the cooked leftovers in the fridge.

This actually helps explain why many of us feel like giving in to our cravings is beyond our control. It isn’t that we lose control, it’s simply that we don’t take the time to stop and think. We behave rashly and before we know it, we’re chowing down on any unhealthy foods we can get our hands on.

This also helps to explain why dietary discretions tend to occur later in the day, when you’re worn out from all the decision-making of the day.

#2: Do Nothing

You’ve read so many different books, listened to so many different lectures, and watched so many different videos that you can’t discern one raw food guru from the next. You feel overwhelmed.

What do you do? You do nothing. Instead of getting healthier, you stick with the same diet that, while familiar, has left you unhealthy, overweight, and unhappy.

The Sweet Solution

Oddly enough, the solution really IS is sweet! When researchers gave participants lemonade mixed with either sugar or a no-calorie sweetener, here’s what they found:

Again and again, the sugar restored willpower, but the artificial sweetener had no effect. The glucose would at least mitigate the ego depletion and sometimes completely reverse it. The restored willpower improved people’s self-control as well as the quality of their decisions: they resisted irrational bias when making choices, and when asked to make financial decisions, they were more likely to choose the better long-term strategy instead of going for a quick payoff.

This relationship between glucose and willpower also helps explain why people consuming your typical high fat, low fruit raw food diet struggle to stick with it. It’s next to impossible to go raw and avoid temptation when your body and mind are screaming for glucose! It then becomes all to easy to make a rash decision and just go for the cooked food.

This connection also explains why many raw foodists want high-carb foods like bread, pasta, and pastries when they’re having a craving. They need glucose!

So how do you avoid decision fatigue on a raw food diet? The answer is ridiculously simple and satiating.

Simply eat more fruit! In fact, the bulk of your calories should come from fresh fruit. The fruit will provide all of the glucose you need to stay alert, energetic, and focused, as well as tons of necessary nutrients to keep you healthy.

For more on following a healthy and sustainable low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet, be sure to sign up for my report The 4 Principles of a Healthy Raw Diet at the link below:

==> www.fitonraw.com

More Tips and Tricks

Even if you follow a raw food plan that’s glucose-rich, you’ll still come across decision fatigue now and again. Luckily, I’ve got a couple of simple tips to help you out:

#1: Be Prepared

The absolute best way to avoid rash decision-making is by being prepared.

For instance, if you know it’s going to be a long day, prepare dinner ahead of time. Chop up all the ingredients for a big salad in the morning or even the night before. Then when you get home, all you have to do is blend up a tasty dressing and start eating.

I know what you’re thinking. Raw food eating is supposed to be simple. You shouldn’t have to be burdened by meal plans, blah blah blah.

Well, you’re wrong. If you want to succeed on raw (or ANY diet), you need to be prepared. That means having at least some idea about what you’ll eat each day and making sure you have that food available, especially when you are transitioning.

#2: Pick a Plan and Stick With It

The best advice I can give when going raw is to pick one raw food plan and stick with it. Pick one raw food guru, follow their advice for 30 days, and see where it takes you.

I know, I know. You want to make sure you have all the knowledge available before you get started. You want to do this right.

Well, guess what? Even if you research going raw for months, you’re still going to make mistakes when you actually take action and go raw. Knowledge is power, but reading a book or watching a YouTube video won’t earn you any experience points.

How do you know how much food you need if you don’t eat raw? How do you know what a truly ripe peach looks, smells, and tastes like if you don’t see, smell, and taste it for yourself? How do you know which fruits and greens are your favorites if you don’t actually eat any fruits or greens?

Quite frankly, you don’t. And you won’t ever know until you take action and actually go raw.

Your Thoughts?

Got any tips for avoiding decision fatigue? Leave your comment below!

Go raw and be fit,
Swayze

P.S. Having trouble avoiding cooked food temptations because of cooked food cravings? Be sure to check out my cravings-crushing program…

“How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All”

A Guide for Destroying Cravings on a Raw Food Diet

www.CookedFoodCravings.com

To learn more about the program and order your copy today, click on the link below:

==> www.CookedFoodCravings.com

a) too many ingredients being used or
b) improper food combining,

But there is yet another often overlooked habit that could be causing compromised digestion of your sweet n’ scrumptious smoothies…

Chewing vs. Drinking

Even though it’s easy to drink down a sweet smoothie in just a few gulps, you really shouldn’t. If you want to get the most out of your fruity drink, you need to chew it.

That’s because digestion begins in the mouth, not the stomach. When you chew your food, you secrete saliva. This saliva helps to lubricate the food and your esophagus, but it also contains enzymes that initiate the chemical digestion of the food.

In addition, chewing also helps let the rest of your digestive organs know that food is on the way, i.e. the stomach starts producing hydrochloric acid and the pancreas starts secreting digestive enzymes.

But if you swallow without chewing—even if it’s something drinkable like a smoothie that doesn’t need to be broken down mechanically—you miss an important part of the digestive process.

Chemical digestion in the mouth will likely be hampered because the food won’t spend enough time with your saliva and your stomach and intestines may not receive the signal that food is on the way.

Plus, if you don’t chew, you’ll be more likely to eat too much too quickly, which is an easy and quick way to impair digestion.

Take Home Message

Chew your food, even if you don’t need to. It just means you get to enjoy your food longer. Who doesn’t want that?

The easiest way to get into the chewing habit is to avoid all other activities when you are having your smoothie (a good rule for all meals, actually). It will be much easier to slow down and make sure you’re chewing if you aren’t distracted by TV or viral videos on YouTube.

Your Thoughts?

Do you chew your smoothies or do you swig ‘em down like many of us (not me, of course) tend to do? Leave your comments below!

Go raw and be fit,
Swayze

P.S. Truth be told, I used to drink all my smoothies. Correction, I used to GULP my smoothies! But since I began chewing them a couple years back, it’s become a healthy habit that I don’t even have to think twice about.

P.P.S. Not guilty of gulping your raw smoothies, salads, and soups because you aren’t eating any in the first place? Not a problem, because I’ve got just the thing…

“Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes”

Delicious and Healthy Raw Vegan Favorites for Every Meal

 www.fitonraw.com/low-fat-raw-vegan-favorites

To learn more about the book and order your copy, click below:

==> www.fitonraw.com/low-fat-raw-vegan-favorites

What if all of your produce isn’t organic? What if you eat late at night? What if you use condiments like salt and pepper in some of your recipes?

My advice? Stop sweatin’ the small stuff.

You Must Eat All Organic All the Time

Eating organic is one topic I get emails about quite often from newbie raw foodists. Many are so worried about pesticides and the like that if they can’t get certain produce organic, they simply won’t buy it at all and end up eating a less varied diet.

Some will even buy fruit that isn’t as fresh just because it has the organic label.

If this is you, stop worrying! While eating organic is important, it shouldn’t be your top priority. A healthy raw vegan diet is far superior to a cooked food diet, even if the produce consumed isn’t organic.

Trust me on this one. I’ve been on a low fat raw vegan diet for almost 4 years and have consumed mostly conventionally grown produce during that entire time. Nonetheless, I’ve seen amazing health changes in myself and could never imagine going back to cooked food.

And anyway, organic isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

You Must Finish Dinner 3 Hours Before Bedtime

More sound advice here. Because our ability to digest food lessens as the sun goes down, finishing your last meal for the day a few hours before you go to sleep is a great idea.

But if you eat dinner a little later or feel the need to have a snack before bedtime, don’t sweat it.

Your top priority should be WHAT you’re eating, not when. Some fresh fruit or a simple salad before bed likely won’t affect your digestion or sleep that much.

You Must Avoid All Condiments

Again, good advice. It’s best to avoid condiments like salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic. They’re just flavor-enhancing foods with little to no nutritional benefit. Many of them, especially salt, are actually harmful to your health.

But as long as you aren’t loading up on these ingredients, it isn’t a big deal to include them in some of your recipes. A pinch of salt here or a tablespoon of garlic there really isn’t a big deal.

Again, it’s more important to focus on the basics.

So What are the Basics of Eating Raw?

Great question! The basics are:

1. Eat as much fruit as you want
2. Get in your greens (typically at least 1 pound a day)
3. Limit your fat intake

Once you’ve got the basics down and it’s become second nature, then you can start worrying about smaller matters like cutting back on the condiments, eating more organic produce, and not eating too late in the day.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. Having a tough time getting the basic down because of crazy cooked food cravings? Be sure to check out my cravings killer…

“How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All”

A Guide for Destroying Cravings on a Raw Food Diet

www.CookedFoodCravings.com

Click on the link below to learn more and purchase your copy today:

==> www.CookedFoodCravings.com