Day 23 of My Top 30 for 30:
When I first started with raw food 30 years ago, there was a general expectation that one would go raw overnight and stay on the path forever. However, I have only known a handful of people who went raw and stayed on the path unwaveringly.
Since there are so many changes that take place when one moves from a standard diet to a raw food diet, there may be a time of adjustment.
Some of these changes include: elimination of all or most cooked foods, elimination of industrially processed and packaged foods, introduction of foods that you may not be familiar with, elimination of animal products, moving to a diet that is higher in water content which may lead to the need for larger portion sizes, moving to a diet with foods that may have more delicate flavors or flavors that one is not used too, shifting to foods with different textures and missing old ones, changes in one’s social dynamics, and so much more.
These changes are real, can make a significant difference in one’s life experience when they first get started, and can even continue to present challenges for a time afterwards.
Building yourself up, celebrating your wins, and learning from your challenges can help frame your experience and help you enjoy and appreciate how far you have come!
Practical strategies can help, like increasing portion sizes to feel full and satisfied or creating replacements for one’s former favorite foods, or others.
For me, a couple of mindset shifts really contributed to my success. The first was reminding myself that my new dietary approach was not just one change but many rolled into one, each of which is individually big. The other was having patience and self-compassion around challenges that arose. These mindset shifts really helped put me in the driver’s seat and made a big difference in both the short and long term.
What mindset shifts have made the biggest difference for you on your path of health?