7 Tips for Adapting to a Raw Food Diet: Part 2
Today, I’m sharing two more tips for meeting the challenges of adapting a raw food diet.
Eat! Eat a lot! Eat more than you think you should be eating!
I’ve mentioned before in this blog that I’m not yet 100% raw. I will be. I’m still learning.
When I consume enough food, I have no problem with consistently maintaining a raw food diet. In fact, if I go someplace where tempting food is being served, I have no desire to eat it . . . if I consume enough calories every day.
However, if you’re like me, one of the reasons you were drawn to a raw food diet is to lose the excess weight you’ve gained over the years. And, like me, you’ve been taught that the way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you burn.
You’d be surprised at how many calories you burn, though!
I signed up for a free account at FitDay.com. When I poked around the site, one of the things I noticed was a graph that showed approximately how many calories I burn a day given my size and activity level.
I burn through a lot more calories than I thought!
Right now, I’m working on eating enough calories for what I believe to be my ideal body weight (if you play around inside of FitDay’s personal area, you can figure out how many calories that is for you). Believe it or not, my body seems to be sated at, or slightly above, that calorie level.
Keep Records!
Why keep records?
I choose to eat a raw food diet because it’s easy to prepare, consists of foods that I enjoy, and promises to bring me improved health over time. But, I have a more immediate goal of dropping weight to look better, make it easier for me to participate in the physical activities that I used to enjoy, and to qualify for certain kinds of insurance (e.g. life, diability).
In order to meet that goal, I need to have some way of measuring my progress.
So, I use the tools at FitDay.com to track my weight and my daily food intake (it can also be used to track other things . . . like physical activity). My records show me that when I eat foods that are high in water and fiber while being low in fat, I lose weight effortlessly. When I lower my intake of high water and fiber foods or raise my intake of high-fat foods, I retard or reverse that progress.
Tomorrow, I’ll share the last two tips. By the way, comments are open . . . if you have some additional tips to share, please don’t hesitate to do so.
