Lifestyle Master Program

Author(s): Ellen Livingston
Publisher: Ellen Livingston

Page 15

Lifestyle Master Program
eBook 1.0 by Ellen Livingston
Transition is a uniquely personal process. Some people find it easiest to "just do it". The sooner your diet is all raw and low fat, the sooner unhealthy cravings and symptoms will become a thing of the past, and the huge rewards you'll experience will give you the motivation to keep going. On the other hand, for some people a transition as rapid as this is emotionally or even physically overwhelming and these folks may have more long-term success taking a slower route. It's the direction you head in that ultimately matters most. The speed of transition and detoxification can be customized for success.
Some raw food educators and health coaches today will encourage you to learn a repertoire of gourmet raw recipes that mimic common cooked dishes, with the aim of a "painless" transition to a diet of only the healthiest food. This approach has pitfalls. First, these recipes are often complex. Second, they are often high in fat. This makes them difficult or even impossible to digest, and thus harmful to your health! They may give stomachaches and gas pains, even many hours later, and they can leave you feeling sluggish. Third, you may tire of all the work involved to prepare the fancy dishes. And fourth, this diet generally fails to provide the correct ratio of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. This means the need for calories from healthy simple carbohydrates (i.e. fruit) may not be satiated, provoking food cravings. On all of these levels such a diet is probably unsustainable. The majority of people trying to transition to a raw food diet in this manner end up returning to a significant proportion of cooked foods in their diet, and thus never do achieve their full health potential.
For health, it is important to eat simply and to limit fat intake. A low fat, raw plant based diet is the healthy, sustainable way to go. In this approach, at least 80% of your calories are obtained from simple carbohydrates, mostly the simple sugars found in whole, fresh, ripe, raw fruits. The rest of this high water-content diet is comprised of leafy greens, non-sweet fruits (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers,
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