Reflections on Raw Food

It's been about two weeks of eating almost 100% raw. I am committed to being fully honest and cannot say that I have not had a bite of cooked food. I have essentially eaten three raw meals per day the entire time--it's just that in between those meals have had either bites of other peoples' food, a snack while going out with a friend, and a soy chai twice at a coffee shop.

Which doesn't sound bad at all, I know, but I definitely hoped for "perfection" on my two-month commitment. The tough thing about raw food is that by being "perfect" and keeping absolutely any cooked food away from your mouth, you experience that over-the-top healthy feeling. For me, I don't seem to get it until I have been absolutely strictly raw for about a week. Seeing as I have not been so strict, although I notice changes, they are not the dramatic ones I enjoyed the last time when I did this diet for a month. Which THEN tends to make you less motivated....which is kind of where I am at at the moment.

The positive changes I have noticed are:
no interest in alcohol
no interest in sugar, cheese, or bread
absolutely loving all the raw meals I eat without missing anything
calmer mind
never heaviness after any meal
less hungry and less appetite--small meals will fill me for hours
no obsessiveness/cravings/compulsive thoughts about food
sleeping very well
much more energy in meditation

What I got the last time around (when I was strict) but not this time:
much less sleep needed--2 hours less per night
no negative thoughts/feelings
constant happy "buzz"

And this doesn't make it sound like I am missing out on a lot, but those three that I am not experiencing this time around are some big ones.

And, about that happy buzz, I have to mention a couple of powerful off-setting factors: it's winter (and feeling like a very long one to me), and my husband has been gone a week now on his 4-week contract job in Indiana, leaving me kind of lonely/bored. So part of that lack could be due to circumstance.

I think I am also not noticing as much drastic change because since doing raw last summer, I have added a lot of raw food into my life. It's been my habit for months to eat several raw meals per week, and I've been drinking green smoothies for months now. Before I ever tried raw food, I was eating zero and then went to 100% almost overnight. That exciting, drastic change probably won't be felt by me again unless I go back to eating significantly worse than I have been for the past 9 months. I am probably feeling 10 times better than a year ago but don't notice because I have added raw food gradually over a long period, so this 90% raw food diet of the last two weeks was just one or two steps upward.

I am reading lots of raw food dieting accounts online and it's kind of giving me an inferiority complex! Everyone seems to be doing a perfect job of it and having a fabulous time! This amazes me because the first time I ever did this, it was EXTREMELY difficult. I was tortured, craving my regular foods night and day for the first week. Then there was immense frustration in making the recipes which really took practice (as well as learning to avoid the difficult ones--and knowing in advance which ones will be difficult!). I am having a much easier time the second time around with no cravings and no difficulty making the recipes. I am just, somehow, not motivated to be super strict and I don't know why.

One important difference between me and a lot of people who start this diet is that I don't have any health concerns, nor am I overweight. Almost everyone who decides to do this who I have ever read about has health problems or weight problems. These are obviously enormous motivating factors for people. Who wants to go back to their old foods if they will be 50+ pounds overweight or suffer extreme pains or illnesses? I already rarely get sick in the first place. So for that reason, it's hard to be a perfectionist.

I think for now, I will accept taking my goal down to a 90-95% raw food diet for the remaining six weeks. This percentage is pretty comfortable and natural for me. Maybe I will change my mind and choose to be more strict later, but I am happy with this for now.