How many of you are dealing with cravings and find them hard to deal with? Probably a good number of you.

I have noticed at the beginning of my raw journey that I always did better when I allowed myself to indulge in the cravings. Oddly enough this helped me maintain a very high raw diet.

Some will say indulging in SAD can cause problems for people with Food Addictions. I don’t doubt that this is true. What I do believe is that we have to find what works for us. Everyones method does not work for everyone. I believe that we might start our raw lifesyles following the advice of an expert but I think we should evolve into following the signals our body gives. When we are transitioning from a SAD lifestyle to a Raw lifestyle, most of us don’t even know what signals our body is sending so that is why it is necessary to follow someones method until you are able to recognize the signals your body is sending.

In the beginning of my raw journey I tried to obtain 100% overnight and I did for a couple of weeks and it felt great but one day the cooked cravings hit. It hit me so hard, but I tired to obtain a high raw diet with some vegan foods and that worked for a time and then I sort of feel off more as time went on. I was always high raw but there were times when I didn’t do my best.

I went through periods of trying to obtain 100% over and over again but one day I came to realize that that word 100% was causing me to fail. I am learning now that we do not and should not live by labels. I have mentioned this numerous times in my blog but I just thought I’d mention it again.

While many will disagree with me I believe that in the beginning of someones journey from SAD to Raw you should not be so strict on yourself. Your goal should be to start incorportating raw for breakfast and or lunch and use the weekends to practice on making some raw recipes. It is important that you build on your raw skills so that when you are ready to include more raw foods, you have a good idea of what raw foods taste good, this way you can stock your home with all of the ingrediants needed to stay raw.

I truly believe that going 100% raw is the best lifesytle for optiumum health but I don’t think we should become stressed over being 100%. If your goal is to be the healthiest you can be, start today by including 16-32 oz of green smoothies and work your way up. When you are ready to make the move to 100%, be sure to gather some support, attend as many raw food events as possible, possibly hire a raw food coach, order tons of raw food books, or take some raw food classes. You might also purchase a book that will help you deal with the emotions that will come up during this tranision.

The main peace of advice I can give you is this: If you have a slip up, that is ok. What you need to remember is to never ever give up. It doesn’t matter if you had 10 slip ups this week, keep trying never ever give up and I promise you will win. If you find that one method is not working to reach your goal, try another. We can accomplish anything we put our mind to, but remember you must not ever give up, this is the key to obtaining your goals.

Tanisha