* What’s New: End of E-Book Launch!

* Feature Article: My Transition to Low Fat Raw Vegan: Part III

End of E-book Launch!

As most of you know, the week-long launch sale of my new program “21 Days to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings” ended last Tuesday.  The turnout was terrific – way more than I imagined it would be – and I want to send out a big thank you to everyone who purchased.

Thanks so much, guys!

And even if you missed the sale, you can still purchase the full program – including all 4 bonuses – to help you conquer your cravings and finally maintain a healthy raw food diet.

Simple visit the link below:

www.cookedfoodcravings.com

And with the cooked food-focused Thanksgiving dinner just over ONE WEEK away, now is really the perfect time to get started!

Swayze

My Transition to Low Fat Raw Vegan: Part III

In My Transition to Low Fat Raw Vegan: Part II, I talked about my first 30 days low fat raw, my less-than-successful attempt at staying raw during the Holidays, and my longest 100% raw stint yet.

Today, I will continue with the 7-day vacation that soured my 4 months of success.

Month 10-13: A Non-Raw Vacation and Back to Bingeing

In August 2008, my family and I took a week long road trip in which I was determined to stay raw.

Unfortunately, I was not prepared. I barely brought any fruit along and I had not scheduled any shopping trips in advance.

To make matters worse, I was in no way emotionally prepared either!

It had never occurred to me until this trip what a big role food played in vacationing. I was so used to going junk food crazy during our trips and not being able to do so really depressed me.

Everywhere we went and everything we did constantly reminded me of all the delicious fatty, salty foods I was missing out on.

By day 3 or so, I just gave in.

I don’t know if I ate anything raw for the rest of the trip.  At some point, I even abandoned my vegan status and began eating anything and everything, including fast food!

One evening, I ate 5 LARGE pieces of pizza from a little restaurant inside our hotel and followed that with candy and chips form a vending machine.  Needless to say, I felt extremely sick and was determined to stop the madness when the vacation was over.

Unfortunately, this frenzied eating continued even when I returned home.

With my foray back into burgers and fries, I really began to see changes for the worse. I gained back all the weight I had lost from going raw almost immediately.

After just a few months of weekly cooked food consumption, I was actually back up to 130lbs, a weight I had not been at in years. My digestion was horrible. I was getting regular headaches. My menstrual cramps were back in full-force and I was beginning to feel very lethargic again.

As a result, I stopped exercising for the remainder of the year. I had been a fitness buff since 2005 and had NEVER missed more than one day of physical activity in a row prior to this.

It seemed I was headed for the proverbial rock bottom.

Month 14-24: A Much-Needed Wake-Up Call

Here is a quote from my e-book “21 Days to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings”

It was a cold afternoon in December 2008 and I had just finished a whole basket of tortilla chips with salsa, a Caesar salad, and a bowl of vegetable soup at a local restaurant. I had class in an hour, but I didn’t anticipate any ill effects by then.

Boy, was I wrong.

By class time, I had an intense headache. I felt groggy. My throat and tongue hurt.  AND I was sweating so profusely that I could actually smell what I had just eaten.

I thought to myself, “What am I doing? I have been a low fat raw vegan for over one year now. I know how wonderful I feel when I stay raw. Why am I wreaking all that for cooked food that doesn’t appease my taste buds anymore and makes me feel like crud?

And I’m not even hungry!”

Suddenly it hit me. It wasn’t about the food at all.

This would be the last time I ever binged on cooked foods.

This quote may make it seem like I had some “ah hah” moment where learned some secret truth that suddenly made me impervious to cooked food temptation.

*Sigh*

If only life were that easy.

As you have seen, my journey to 100% raw did not happen overnight. In fact, it began YEARS earlier – before I ever knew what raw was – when I first began dieting and came face-to-face with my unhealthy eating habits.

And even in December 2008, going raw was not 100% no salt, spices, condiments, etc. at first!

There were definitely times that I added salt and maybe a little red onion or garlic to my dinner meals and there were plenty of nights when I ate more than my fair share of avocado and/or raw pistachios (my favorite nut).

I still can’t keep these little green gems in the house without risk of a gorge fest!

My goal was to take it one step at a time and eliminate the foods that I wanted (and really needed) to eliminate. In December 2008, that was any and all cooked food.

And I’ve been flyin’ high since then! Not only have I stayed raw during everyday life, but I’ve managed to stick with my fruity fare during stressful situations as well.

As you can see in this little vid I made on traveling raw, I even redeemed myself this past summer with a 100% raw family vacation!

There’s a pretty kooky picture of me from this trip eating some particularly juicy AND sticky fruits in a sit-down restaurant! I included it in my special bonus e-book “Surviving Sticky Social Situations on a Raw Food Diet.”

Benefits

So as I mentioned in Part I, I made the jump to 99% November 1, 2007 after just a few weeks in October of about 75% low fat raw (fruit for breakfast and lunch, cooked dinner meal).

I know it sounds like a bad infomercial (or maybe that’s redundant), but I really did see results immediately.

Not only did I become more alert and energetic, but the restless leg syndrome that had plagued me for years was gone in just a matter of days.

For those of you who don’t know, restless leg syndrome (recently given a name now that Big Pharma has a drug to accompany it, of course) is this awful tingly/itchy/creepy-crawly feeling in your leg(s) whenever you attempt to rest…hence the name “restless” leg syndrome!

It’s not exactly a painful feeling. It’s just extremely annoying and aggravating, especially when you are trying to sleep or sit still during a movie or lecture!

My other major problem was the fatigue from my anemia. I struggled with this for years (sleeping several hours a night, needing a nap every afternoon, and still feeling exhausted) and yet after only a few weeks on low fat raw, I felt terrific!

I was no longer sleepy, I couldn’t even fathom wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day, and I had crazy energy. My workouts were (and continue to be) amazing!

And things just kept getting better from there!

Here are some more things I noticed within just my first month on raw:

• Weight loss – Everyone’s favorite!
• Improved digestion – This was pretty much immediate for me and continued to improve for months afterward.
• No more monthly headaches!
• No more achy knees! – I really love step aerobics (I know, totally dorky) and after going raw, I could do as many ultra-intense Cathe step routines as I wanted without any knee pain!
• No more seasonal colds! – I always, without fail, got sick in November when the weather changed. Not this time!

But my absolute favorite benefit of all, even more than the extra energy?

*NO MORE MENSTRUAL CRAMPS!!!*

I had absolutely horrible periods before going raw. They were extremely heavy, always lasted at least a full 7 days, and the cramps in my abdomen and lower back were just brutal.

I would literally take 2 ibuprofen 3x a day for the first 4 days of the cycle. That’s 24 pills EVERY MONTH, not including the pain killers consumed for headaches, joint pain, and other “normal” aches and pains throughout the month.

Of course, I can’t leave out the bloating, weight gain, food cravings, and more weight gain that accompanies each cycle.

And going cooked vegan did absolutely NOTHING to alleviate my pain!

Here was my experience after only 5 days of 99% low fat raw (taken from my blog at the time, “raw food and me”):

Today caught me off guard. Apparently, it is my time of the month. I usually expect it a few days in advance, as I feel bloated and crampy.

Not this time…I had absolutely NO SYMPTOMS this morning!!!

I am just so excited. I am used to having monster abdominal pains every single period (minus the 2 years I took birth control). I feel great even now. If I think about it, I can feel very minute cramps, but I have to focus on it. I have not changed anything this month expect for my diet.

Awesome!

Sorry about all that, fellas. No more gross girly stuff, I promise.

Detox

Since I was eating a relatively healthy diet before switching to low fat raw vegan, I did not have much of a detox. Here’s a quote from Day 2 of my raw transitioning blog:

Otherwise, my day was good…except for a pretty bad headache. However, this only lasted for about 30 mins or so. I experienced the same thing when I first started the diet two weeks ago. The only difference was I had it the entire day. I’m hoping that won’t happen again…

My old blender actually broke that morning…right after I had filled it full of fruity goodness…so that just might explain the headache.

The worst detox I ever experienced actually did not occur until months later in Spring of 2008 when I gave up salt completely. It started with these tiny red bumps on my forehead and in just a couple months the bumps had migrated all the way down to my temples!

Yuck!

Luckily, they began to gradually fade away and by month 4, they were mostly gone. Pretty icky, but nothing painful and totally worth all the benefits I gained from giving up salt.

But I’ll save that story for another day…

Next Time

In Part IV, I will be discussing advice I would have given to my past self, the main factor that helped me stay raw long-term, and how this might relate to your own transition to raw.

Stay tuned!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

You should expect a headache or two, some achy joints, and low energy for a few days.

That’s really it!

With that said, I do realize that there are some people – like those coming from cases of chronic disease or who consume severely nutrient-deficient and toxic foods (i.e. fast food) – who are worried about experiencing a more severe detox.

As I mentioned last time, the more toxic load you regularly place on your body, the more long-lasting and uncomfortable your detox symptoms will be when you reduce the load and go raw.

But no worries!  There is a way – a super simple way, of course – to adopt a healthy raw food diet without fear of yucky detox symptoms.

Transition Slowly

Adopting a raw food diet does not mean that you have to go 100% raw right away.

In fact, this usually is not the best plan.  It is much easier and much less stressful on your physiology and psyche to gradually replace the cooked foods you already eat with tasty raw fruits and veggies.

And you can do this at whatever pace you want!

For instance, I offer a 5-week mini-course The Fool Proof Transition to Raw with free subscription to my ezine.  Starting on the day you subscribe, one lesson is sent straight to your email inbox for a total of 5 weeks.  Each lesson contains a new step to take, as well as tips, tricks, and recipes for transitioning.

You can subscribe using the form in the upper right hand corner of this page or by visiting www.fitonraw.com.

And, of course, there’s more than one way to transition.

There’s the 75% raw method (sweet fruit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ending with a cooked dish).  There’s the “as much fruit as you want before each meal” method.

There’s also Tonya Kay’s No-Willpower Approach to transitioning to raw.

She’s such a cutie!

By transitioning to a raw food diet slowly, your body will gradually be able to release waste and adjust to the lower toxicity level.  This way, you will bypass most or even all of the detox symptoms.

Want to Up the Ante?

For those of you brave souls wanting to blast through your detox as quickly as possible, there’s no better option than fasting.  A short 1-2 day fast (that means nothing but water and lots of rest) followed by completely clean eating will allow the body the opportunity it needs for some serious repair work.

I only recommend a short fast of no more than 2 days (which is not technically a fast) because long-term fasting requires extensive knowledge, experience, and often outside care.  If you are interested in a long-term fast, be sure to check out Dr. Graham’s Costa Rica Fasting Retreat.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

Many people just learning about raw foods are completely turned off by one little word: detox.

They’ve read all the awesome testimonials from raw foodists, they’ve scoured for all the latest raw food research, and they know all about raw’s physical and mental benefits.

Then they also learn about this crazy detox process that lasts for years and makes your feet fall off and your eyeballs grow whiskers!

The decision to stay cooked and keep their feet and eyeballs whisker-free becomes a pretty easy one.

So what is this “dreaded diet detox” everyone is so consumed with?

What is Detox?

I like to think of detoxification in two different ways:

1.    Traditional Detox
2.    Withdrawal Detox

Traditional Detoxification, or “detox,” is simply the body’s method of neutralizing or removing toxic substances (those created naturally via our normal bodily functions or those consumed, inhaled, or absorbed by us on a constant basis).

This is done primarily by way of the liver, kidneys, and – if the first two organs are overloaded – the skin.  You’ll know your body is working overtime when you achieve that “awe-inspiring” armpit aroma after a sweaty workout!

So in this sense, detox is an on-going process.  Your body is constantly detoxifying every single moment of your life.

Withdrawal Detox, on the other hand, refers to the symptoms you experience when you reduce the level of toxins in the body.  This could come from adopting a healthier diet, beginning an exercise routine, or removing a known air pollutant.

The reason you feel cruddy when you give up your favorite cooked eatables in favor of simpler, whole ingredients is because you have reduced the toxic level in your body.

Your organs have become used to a certain level of toxicity and once that level is reduced, they finally have a chance to do their job and release the waste that has built up in your fatty tissues as quickly as possible…which means temporary yucky, but necessary side effects for you.

And the more toxic substance you eliminate, the harsher the effects will be.

Oh, what fun!

This is actually no different than the uncomfortable – and often painful – symptoms a drug or alcohol abuser experiences when going “cold turkey.”

Fortunately for us, the length and symptoms  of detox from cooked foods are typically much shorter and much less severe.

How Long Should Detox Last?

Well…until you’re dead!

Oh, you meant detox in the withdrawal sense…my bad.

Contrary to what many mainstream raw foodists will have you believe, withdrawal detox should not last years and years, months and months, or even weeks and weeks.

Withdrawal from cooked foods will typically only last a few weeks *at most*.  The norm is closer to just a few days.

In fact, if you *do* experience negative symptoms for weeks and weeks without any improvement, it’s safe to say that either:

a) you are not doing it right (i.e. not enough calories, improperly ripened fruits, improper food combining) OR
b) the diet is NOT working and you should try something new!

And remember, diet isn’t everything!

If you are following a healthy raw food diet absolutely perfectly and yet you are still experiencing negative health effects, your diet is probably not the issue and you should certainly look into other health issues (i.e. exercise, fresh, air, clean water, sunshine, etc.)

You are only as healthy as your weakest link.

What Should I Expect During Detox?

While there are cases of more severe symptoms – usually experienced by people with some form of chronic disease – detox is typically very mild.

Here are the usual suspects:

• Headaches
• Excess Mucus
• Salt-spitting (if rock salt is eliminated from the diet or greatly reduced)
• Weakness
• Constipation
• Loos stools
• Dizziness
• Skin irritation (i.e. rashes, acne)
• Foul mood
• Loss of appetite

These will typically last for a few days to a week.  The worse off your health is before making the transition, the more symptoms you will likely experience and the longer they will last.

For instance, if you regularly drink coffee or alcohol and decide to give them up, you can definitely expect some headaches and jitters for the first few days.

As I said, some people do experience more severe and long-lasting cases, such as hair loss, faintness, or acne, but this should not be expected in most cases.

Why All the Big Fuss About Detoxification?

My personal theory?

Raw foodists are big drama queens.

In all seriousness, going raw is not all lollipops and fairy floss.  This is especially true in the beginning when you are doing your best to figure out how to maintain such a “kooky” diet in the modern world, while at the same time battling low energy and digestive troubles.

It’s no fun, but it could certainly be worse. Just look at drug addicts who go cold turkey.

We’re talkin’ days and days (sometimes weeks, depending upon the drug of choice) of seriously scary symptoms like tremors, sweats, chills, depression, paranoia, and even seizures…and that’s WITH medical care!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met anyone needing hospital attention from a few healthy raw, fruit-filled meals.

So stop being a drama queen, go raw, be fit and embrace your detox!  That slight headache and minor mucus expulsion is just your body’s way of  thanking you for finally allowing it to get rid of all the nasty gunk and be the best body it can be.

Plus, it has got to “repay” you for all the toxic overload somehow, right? 

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze