February 10 - Day 13

I decided that since my food doesn't vary much, I am not going to post my daily intake unless I try something new and want to share it. But speaking of sharing something new, I have been reading one of the books I checked out from the library. It's called Fit For Life, Not Fat For Life by one of the coauthors of the popular book Fit For Life. He proposes that rather than counting calories or carbs or anything else, there is one simple principle to remember: Eat More Living Food Than Dead Food! or put another way, more raw than cooked. Hear, hear! He lost 50 pounds and constant pain by following this principle. He advocates that you shoot for 50/50 raw and cooked food intake. When he had to lose weight and regain his health, he determined to eat twice as much raw food as cooked food - two-thirds raw, one-third cooked.

I think this is a very livable eating plan that most people can work into their lifestyles. He even said that there is no rush to be at 50/50 right away. The average person eats only 10% raw food daily and even doubling it to 20% will start reaping rewards. For me, since I eat oatmeal for breakfast, a big salad for one meal, and a fruit smoothie almost every day I could easily accomodate one cooked meal in my diet and still be a raw foodist. (traditional definition is someone who eats 75% or more raw food) This makes life very livable. I can go out to dinner with my husband for Valentines day and enjoy myself without worrying about the repercussions on my health. We can attend functions at church and I don't have to go hungry because it's nothing but cooked food.

I'm still going to eat mostly raw, but I just enjoyed reading about someone who has witnessed the power of live food in the lives of hundreds of people over the years without it having to be a 100% raw diet. It seems to me that many people get on the raw bandwagon and become food nazi's, wielding guilt and shame lest a morsel of cooked food pass through their lips.

So if anyone wants to try incorporating more raw food in their diets, please let me know how it goes for you and your health.

An update on me - the bump on my neck is now completely gone. I had written about it before - it has been around for a long time - since before Angelina was born for sure - and since I went raw has completely gone away - hooray!

Posted in: Raw_Vegan Lane on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at at 6:22 PM