Raw Food Diet Diary

This morning, I read a post over on Steve Pavlina’s blog that bears reflecting upon . . .

I’ve previously written about my challenges in seeing myself as a raw foodist.  My challenges center around my social life and how that will change when I stop eating cooked food altogether.  I find it fascinating that Steve’s biggest concern was, “What will I do with all of the extra energy?”

At first, I found his concern rather odd.  After rereading the post a second time, I understand a little better.

A couple of years ago, I found myself in a strange position: Everything in my life was going really well!  I had just switched to a job that I’ve coveted throughout most of my teaching career, my finances had been on track for about a year, my wife and I were getting along better, my head was starting to clear after being off of Adderall for almost eight months.

Yet, I felt extremely uncomfortable.

I’ve experienced a lot of successes in my fifty years.  Most of the time, though, wild success in one area of my life was offset by miserable failure in another.  Two years ago, I was experiencing, for the first time I could remember, the most balance in my life that I can remember.

That moment in time was many years in the making.  I went through a lot of life experience, a lot of relationships, and a lot of professional assistance to get to that point.

However, it wasn’t a point of arrival.  Rather, it was a point of departure.

The departure of this new phase of my life actually started a year earlier.  I remember the specific moment vividly.  It is intensely personal, so I won’t share it here.  I will say, though, that it gave me the impetus to make a number of changes:

• I let go of the rage that had been crippling me, and my relationships, for many years.
• I made the decision to discontinue the medications that were keeping me moving.
• I made changes in my spending habits to become more financially responsible.
• I chose to participate in the Complaint Free movement.
• I started transitioning toward a raw food diet to improve my overall wellness.

Steve mentions that he attempted a number of transitions to the raw food diet, but that he became uncomfortable with the extra energy it provided him, and so he returned to his cooked food vegan diet because he found the familiarity of that state of being more comfortable.

I think it was Anthony Robbins who said that if one wants a better life, one must ask better questions.   Steve’s question to himself was a good one: “Why are you intentionally lowering your energy? What is it about that higher state of being that makes it so hard for you to contain it?”

His conclusion? “Since I was increasing my supply of energy, perhaps I needed to increase the demand as well.”

That falls into line with Dr. Douglas Graham’s philosophy expressed in The 80-10-10 Diet. Dr. Graham lists 32 Fundamental Elements of Health in his Introducton and asks the question, “Are you thriving or surviving?”  The raw food diet is only one of those 32 elements!

Steve listed seven positive changes he made in his post.  His changes didn’t appear to be so much new as they seemed to be his choice to bring increased focus to those things in his life that he values most.

All of those changes started with a couple of questions?

What questions do I need to be asking about how to make my transition to a raw food diet?  What questions do you need to ask about yours?