I have learned a very powerful lesson when it comes to enlisting the help of a coach. Several times throughout my journey to get help with food addiction, I failed miserably.  While going through my coaching I found that I was not opening up myself enough and also I found out that I was not willing to do what it took to make the necessary changes that were requested of me.

I learned that coaching can only be effective if you put your all into it. You have to be ready to give your all or else you will be wasting money. It is not the coaches fault if you do not meet your goals, especially if you do not allow them to help you.

So, if you decide to enlist the help of a raw food coach, be ready to work hard, be ready to be accountable and be ready to meet your goals, and most of all be ready to be open.

If you want change, you have to want it first than you can enlist the help of someone else.

Have you found yourself eating ‘just because’?  Well, I know what you are going through. Many of us are so used to eating and snacking all day. When you discover the raw food lifestyle, you find out that snacking all day would take a lot of planning. Most of us don’t have access to stores that carry a wide variety of raw foods.

A lot of the time, we feel the need to snack for several reasons. One of the reasons could be because you see another co-worker snacking, or there might be some unhealthy food sitting around your house or at your workplace. Even though these are some of the reasons why we snack, I believe it is the snack that might be keeping you in the snacking habit.

If you don’t know, processed food is void of nutrition. If you find yourself snacking on processed snacks then you can be sure you’ll continue to crave those snacks. I know at first it might be a bit difficult to move away from the processed foods, but it can be done. Here are a few tips.

Make your own snacks ahead of time: Find one or two good raw food recipes, like a granola or something you know will travel well, and have it with you at all times. If all else fails, I always try to go for nut and fruit snacks if I don’t have access to my own raw food snacks.

Buy pre-made raw food treats ahead of time; this way, you are covered. Some of my favorite raw food bars are Carolyn’s Agape bars, which are like no other. I absolutely love these bars and they are raw. Agape Nutrition Bars

Start drinking Green smoothies, if you haven’t done so already. Green Smoothies will help you get rid of the cravings. Why? Because you are feeding your body with plant-based nutrition, the best nutrition there is. When your body is given the nutrition it needs, it doesn’t crave the bad stuff as much as it will when it is void of nutrients.

If you are really looking to gain some control over mindful eating, you have to get away from the processed foods.

I have come to realize that the quantity of the food we eat is just as important as the quality of the food we eat. Regardless of which diet you follow, the quantity of food that you eat will affect your health either positively or negativity.

Overeating raw, vegan, or vegetarian foods is very unhealthy for you. Most people feel that a raw food diet is the healthiest diet you can eat, but eating raw can be unhealthy if you overeat.

It takes a lot of energy for our body to process the food we eat, especially if the food is cooked. If we constantly stuff ourselves with more food then our body needs, we create disease within the body. If you want your diet to be a really healthy one, you will need to  eat just enough food to satisfy your needs.

When you are in the beginning stages of including more raw food in your diet, I suggest that you don’t worry about the quantity of food that you eat. But, as you continue to eat a mostly raw diet, you should naturally see your eating habits change. You don’t want to eat a ton of nuts all day, everyday; this is not healthy. Eventually, you want to start leaning toward more fruits and veggies and less nuts, salt and oil.

As you advance in your diet, you’ll want to move on to eating smaller portions.  I believe that this alone will add years to your life.

It is great to eat high quality food, but a waste to overeat it.

I must admit that when I was growing up, I used to put many different people up on pedestals. I imagined them as always having it all together and wanted to be just like them. So what exactly do I mean by pedestals? The figure of speech refers to idealizing another person and imagining that person to be superior to us in some way. Often, we assume that the people we idealize have all the answers. Sometimes, we even come to value their opinions to such a high degree that we start believing everything they say, so consumed are we by their imagined perfection.

Enough with such delusions. It is time for us to stop putting other people up on pedestals, for this action has rather dire consequences. Indeed, as soon as we are forced to admit the flaws and imperfections of those we idealize, our world tends to come crashing down. As humans, we all have flaws and no individual is somehow better than another individual. Of course, admiring others for their actions, skills, or knowledge is perfectly acceptable, but when the revelation of their flaws saddens us or leads us to depression, we are probably putting too much energy into our opinions of said person.

As some of you may know, several well-known raw food teachers recently announced that they no longer follow a 100% raw diet. As this situation unfolds, I can see people becoming distraught, often emphatically declaring that they will never again purchase another of their books again. They come to regard these people as losers and can hardly believe that these idealized people who once represented a perfect 100% raw food lifestyle no longer exist as such in their minds.

I found myself disheartened by the emotional upset spreading through so much of the raw food community caused by the decision of certain raw food leaders to discontinue the 100% raw lifestyle. It is time to recognize that we have all changed our minds at one point or another and will certainly do so again. But altered points of view don’t diminish our value as human beings. As for the various leaders and teachers of the raw food movement, they have much to offer us, and we would do well to take what is applicable to our journey from them and leave the rest alone. Each of us bears complete responsibility for our own health, and the so-called experts have nothing to do with this responsibility. We cannot lose all hope in our diet and lifestyle now that so and so is no longer 100% raw. We cannot afford to rely upon others to keep us on track. It is up to us to encourage ourselves and keep ourselves excited and motivated about our journey.

I still have great admiration and love for those raw food teachers who have veered away from a 100% raw diet. In particular, I admire their openness and honesty regarding their decision, as it seems immensely challenging for leaders of the raw food movement to admit to such a change of heart. I admire their courage to speak plainly about new directions in their lives. Such openness is indeed rare, and I am quite sure that, unbeknownst to us, several other well-known raw foodists may not actually be 100% raw while claiming to be exactly that.

When someone else decides to change course, this decision should not rock our world nor call our entire worldview into question. If it does, it is quite likely that we have been putting this person up on a pedestal. Each of us is entirely responsible for our own individual health! We must not allow other people’s decisions to take us off course.

A lot of people are saying that they have struggled to maintain a mostly raw diet. I can say that I, too, have run into this problem, but I have an idea why most people cannot stay mostly raw.

I believe that most people cannot stay on a mostly raw diet because they have not truly dealt with what is going on within. The root of the problem usually is not the food. Rather, it is what is going on inside of our bodies. For this reason I find that staying mostly raw on a consistent basis can be hard. We definitely use cooked food as a crutch.

I’ve faced this problem many times, continually falling off track. Finally, I realized why! For me, food has always been something I could count on in my life. I couldn’t always count on people to be there for me, but I could count on food to be there. So, naturally, I always gravitated toward food whenever I was feeling emotionally down. This not-so-great act went on for more than 20 years. Don’t you think that after two decades-plus of stuffing emotion-laden food into me that it might not be so super easy to just switch gears on my diet just because I am eating healthier? This takes work.

I think that as we work toward our ideal eating lifestyle, we have to start doing some inner work. I’ll be honest, I did a lot of that on my own. Still, it takes 10 times longer to do this alone. I wish I would have gotten some help along the way. Looking back on my journey, I can tell you that cooked food really doesn’t do anything for me emotionally. I can say this now, but it first required doing the inner work.

I believe that once you have done this work, you will find that you can be a lot more stable on a mostly raw diet.

So many of you have been wondering, how do I properly transition to a mostly raw diet? I know there is much confusion around this subject and believe me there are several ways to transition.

There are 3 things you need to properly transition to a mostly raw diet:

• You need a plan
• You need a support system
• You need to figure out how you plan to transition

You need a plan:

Quote “Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”

You have to create a plan. Without a plan you are definitely setting yourself up for failure. I remember many times saying I was going to eat raw but never really took the time to make a plan. As a result I never ate raw or as raw as I would have liked.

So, the first thing I suggest is that you sit down and decide what your ideal diet looks like. Take your time here and really think about it. You want to create an eating plan that you know you can follow the rest of your life.

Once you know how you want your diet to look, write it down on a piece of paper. Please do not type it into the computer. I find that when you write it down with your own handwriting it means a lot more to you than typing it into a computer.

Now that you know what your ultimate diet looks like, you can now create a plan of how you plan to achieve it.

You need a support system:

One of the mistakes I have made was trying to make some very difficult changes all by myself. I did not really think much about investing in coaching. I know that if I had, It would not have taken me so long to reach a high raw diet.

Of course you can make any change you desire on your own, but it can take quite a while longer when you are working on it by yourself. If you would like to move at a more rapid pace I definitely suggest that you become involved in some type of 1 on 1 coaching or group coaching program. By reaching out for support you can and will move 2-3 times faster towards your goal.

Support is so important because as you start to transition toward your ideal diet you will find that things will come up, like fear or things from your past. Sometimes blockages appear that may hinder you from moving forward. If you are working with a coach they will be able to quickly see the blockages and point them out. By having a coach you would be more likely to work through those blockages immediately.

Recently, I discovered a blockage in my life. I had gone through a phase of not forgiving myself for a mistake I made and it was holding me back from accomplishing my goals. I spent months dealing with this blockage and it only caused me much stress and pain. Thankfully, I came out of it enough to realize that I needed help. With the help of a coach, in just 1 hour I was able to move past this blockage. I believe that if I did not take the step to contact a coach, I would not be here writing this article today.

Support is invaluable. Keep a look out for my upcoming group coaching program, especially if you are ready to make a change.

You need to figure out how you plan to transition:

There are two ways to transition to raw. You can shift into your ideal raw diet right away or slowly transition to your ideal diet.

So which one is better? Well, both, it just depends on what you feel works best for you.

Should you jump ship and go right into eating mostly raw?

For me, in the beginning of my journey I tried to jump right into what I thought my ideal diet was and after a while I started falling off the wagon. I had so many emotions coming forward and I did not know how to deal with them, so I used UN-healthy cooked food to stuff my emotions.

When working toward your ideal eating lifestyle you may start to have some emotions come forward that you may not have been dealing with before. This will affect your diet especially if you use food to hide your emotions. Most times people use food emotionally and have no idea they are doing this.

If you plan to go right into your ideal diet you need to figure out how you plan to deal with the emotions that are coming up for you. Once you have a plan of how you plan to deal with this, you may at this point decide to jump right into your ideal eating style.

Should you gradually transition to your ideal diet?

Slowly transitioning to my ideal raw food diet has been one of the greatest decisions I have ever made for myself. Do not get me wrong slow does not mean it will take forever. As explained above, if you work through this with a coach, you will find that you move forward at a more rapid pace.

Gradually transitioning can be good and it can be bad, it really depends on how you look at it. For me, gradually transitioning gave me time to work through much of my emotional baggage. Instead of giving up everything I just gave up a few things at a time. Now the downside to this, is that because I did not reach out for the support of a coach, It has taken a lot longer for me to reach my ideal eating lifestyle.

By gradually transitioning you are able to work through your emotions at a slow pace. On top of that you start to create better eating habits as a result. Since you are transitioning at a slow rate you are adapting to your ideal eating style with each change you make.

I always like reminding myself that when we came into this world, we did not come here eating what we eat today, we slowly transitioned to our diets! When you were a baby you most likely started out drinking only milk, then you transitioned to baby food and so forth. It was a gradual transition.

I believe gradually transitioning to raw is the best way to reach your ideal diet, but that is my opinion. You have to decide what works best for you.

When you are making a change to the raw food diet, you may find out a couple things about yourself. I know for me as I embarked on this journey I finally realized that I had a food addiction. later in my journey I started to have points where I would binge on food as if there were no tomorrow. This binging was much worse then I had ever seen even when I was eating 100% cooked food.

For a while I was quite alarmed that my problem somehow became worse. I thought something isn’t right. I want to eat raw but I am constantly binging on cooked as if there is no tomorrow. I think most of us want a quick change and we want instant results. We want it to happen right now in this moment. Changing over the raw food lifestyle or a high raw diet is a journey. The problem with us is we want change right now but sometimes it does take time and while it does take time some of us are not willing to wait.

After years of eating raw what I didn’t realize is that I was changing little by little and sometimes the change was so small I didn’t even notice it. But because I stuck with it and kept going I finally reached a point in my journey where I could really see that I was changing and that all of the binging and other things I was going through was just a phase.

If you find that you are acting out in a way that just doesn’t seem normal to you like binging, don’t give up. Remember what your goal is and keep fighting for it! I am not saying I give you permission to overeat; of course I am not doing that. I wanted to share this with you because so many people want a quick and fast change and don’t realize that most of us spent probably 20+ years developing the eating habits we have today. Give yourself time to change and grow, you can reach your ultimate goal, but the only way to do this is by Never giving up!! As long as you do not give up, you will reach your goals.

Tanisha Marshall is a Certified Raw food Coach, Author and Motivational speaker. Tanisha is dedicated to helping women transition to the raw food lifestyle. Be sure to sign up for my FREE newsletter for more great advice like this and upcoming events. http://www.tanishamarshall.com

When I first got started with raw my first instinct was to search for as much information as I could find. I love to research and learn so I spent a lot of time and money learning about this lifestyle. For me, taking on a raw food diet just made sense and really felt right within my Mind, Body and Soul, it just felt right.

For some people it takes a bit more then just following our own intuition, sometimes we want to hear from people who are experts or even doctors. We want to know the science behind making this change, or we just feel better hearing it from a qualified individual.

In the world today we are filled with movies and commercials, most of the time these are not really good for our health. There are a ton of fast food commercials and a lot of commercials based around perscription medication, but how many movies and/or commercials do you see about healthy living? Not many, and the ones that claim to be better for our health is not always good for our health.

When I discovered the movie Food Matters I found a movie that had a mix of viewpoints from doctors and those experienced with the food issues that we have in this world today. This movie brings together different perspectives, from doctors to those who are experienced with eating a healthier diet and those who have helped many people heal from diease.

If you are looking for a different view point on healthy eating, you want to check out this movie Food Matters. I believe this movie goes into detail about why we need to take back control of what we eat and not only that it helps to educate us on why we need to make these changes.

Like Christiane Northrup, MD, Author or Women’s Wisdom states “Anyone who is serious about their health needs to see this Stunning Film” I agree with Christiane, this is a wonderful and information packed film. I can almost guarantee you that you will hear something new that you have not heard before.

I hope that you join me in making this world a better place by viewing this film.

By educating yourself you are able to help and educate others.

You can stream the video online right now at http://www.foodmatters.tv

Or you can buy it on Amazon.

Tanisha Marshall is a Certified Raw food Coach, Author and Motivational speaker. Tanisha is dedicated to helping women transition to the raw food lifestyle. Be sure to sign up for my FREE newsletter for more great advice like this and upcoming events. http://www.tanishamarshall.com

This is the time of the year where most people get together with their family and celebrate Thanksgiving and not to long from now Christmas. I know some of you are probably wondering how do I get through this holiday and maintain my raw status, whatever that may be.

For most of you on this list you are high raw or aspiring to be high raw and there are some of you that aspire to be 100% raw. Whatever your goal is you can make it through the holidays on track. Here are a few tips. Note: These tips are no secret but most people fail to do this:

Take your own food: I recommend that if you want to stay on track start creating your holiday plans right now! This is the perfect time. You want to be more then ready to not feel tempted and the only way is to make enough food. I suggest that you go above and beyond. Make at least 2-3 desserts and 2-3 main dishes that you can take with you and even share with family. By having these dishes available you are covering your needs.

But what happens if people ask me to eat something I don’t want to eat? You must be prepared to answer to family who may ask you to eat their food.  You have two options, either you can nibble on some of their food or have something prepared to say to someone who ask you to eat. If you are someone who is eating a 100% raw food diet it may not be a good idea to take a nibble. Tell them that you would love to taste their food but that you are currently following a different eating plan and in order to see the results you are looking for you need to stick with it. Basically have what you plan to say prepared and ready in case anyone challenge your diet.

As you can see the best advice I have is, be prepared. If you are not prepared, you are most likely setting yourself up for failure.

Below are some of my favorite recipe books. If you do not have a recipe book available, I highly suggest you buy one of the recipe books below.

• Ani Phyo – Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes
• Ani Phyo – Raw Food Desserts: 85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats
• Sarma Melngailis and Matthew Kenney – Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow

These are by far some of my favorite recipes books. Most if not all of the recipes taste so good. You can’t go wrong with these books.

Tanisha Marshall is a Certified Raw food Coach, Author and Motivational speaker. Tanisha is dedicated to helping women transition to the raw food lifestyle. Be sure to sign up for my FREE newsletter for more great advice like this and upcoming events. http://www.tanishamarshall.com

I just released my very first program “The 7 Quick and Easy steps to Getting Started with Raw Food” I am so excited to bring this program to you because within this program I share everything I have learned about Getting Started with Raw, in an effort to save you time.

In the beginning of my raw journey I spent a lot of time reading and trying to figure out the proper way to get started. I created this program because I wanted to help you save time and save you from some of the mistakes I have made. With this program you don’t have to read a ton of books to get started I tell you exactly what you need to know to start NOW.

Some of the information I share:

• I tell you exactly what you need to know to decide if high raw or 100% raw is right for you.
• I will share which trigger foods you need to get rid of and how to recognize which foods cause you to overeat.
• How to talk with family and friends about your raw food lifestyle.
• How to travel and stay on track when eating a raw food diet.
• I tell you exactly what appliances you need to buy and where to buy them. Best of all you don’t have to spend a ton of money on appliances.
• Chef Carolyn Akens and I put together 10+ Simple and Easy recipes that do NOT require a dehydrator so that you can get started right away.
• And much more…

 
If you would like to find out more about this program and take advantage of a special offer that I have available, please head on over to www.getstartedwithraw.com and find out how you can get instant access to:

• My “7 Quick and Easy Steps to Raw Food Audio Program”
• 14 day Menu plan and shopping List and
• 40 Page workbook

I wish you much success on your journey to Getting Started with Raw.

Warmly,

 
 
 
 
 
Tanisha Marshall is a Certified Alissa Cohen Living on live food Raw Food teacher and Instructor. In addition to training with Alissa Tanisha has trained with Chef Mehmet Ak in Chicago, IL and have also received an Advanced Practitioner of Health through Nutrition, Exercise and Education from the Creative Health Institute (Live Food Program created by Ann Wigmore).