Another big part of exercising is nutrition. You can’t expect to lose weight just by working out alone. You have to incorporate good eating habits as well. There is no “one” diet or eating habit that works for every single person. I chose to eat raw foods. While I’m not 100% raw (I’ll explain later), I eat enough so that I can see the results and feel them as well. I’m not just talking about weight loss here. A raw food diet consists of uncooked, unprocessed plant based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and dried fruit. On a raw food lifestyle, food is not cooked above 116 degrees as it is believed that cooking food above this destroys enzymes. These enzymes help absorb and digest food. Raw food eating isn’t just a diet. It’s a lifestyle. You don’t have to eat 100% raw food in order to reap the benefits. Eating a diet of at least 75% is enough to allow you to start seeing results. For example, you could eat a smoothie for breakfast that has 3 to 4 different fruits such as bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and pineapples, a salad for lunch with lemon, and olive oil, and a normal dinner. I chose not to consume beef, poultry, pork, dairy, and little to no processed foods. However, I do still eat fish.
Why a raw food diet?
For me it’s what works. I actually started out with a vegetarian diet. Not because I wanted to lose weight, but because I was having a lot of digestion issues. I talked to my doctor about my concerns and unfortunately, they didn’t have very much advice. What they did offer didn’t help. So I began what I call the process of elimination. I started with dairy. I cut out all dairy and I listened to my body. It helped some but the aches in my stomach still continued. So from there I stopped eating pork and beef, and eventually chicken and turkey. Upon further research, I discovered that your blood type has a lot to do with what type of diet and foods you consume and their effect on your body. My blood type (I’ll talk about this in detail another day) just so happens to thrive off of a vegan/vegetarian diet, and I concur! Not only did the weight just fall off, I felt great, and I was full of energy and my skin.. wow! As you can see, this is what works for me. After taking a nutrition class I further learned that there are some vitamin deficiencies with this diet. Vitamin deficiency is normal when you eliminate and entire food group. So in order to keep things rounded and balanced, I occasionally eat brown rice and grains (and chocolate..shhh!). In addition, I drink liquid multivitamins and organic antioxidant drinks daily such as Le'Vive which has the worlds top 5 superfruits.
With any diet it is important to educate yourself about nutrition. You have to find out what’s good for you. Trendy diets come and go and eventually so will the pounds. Finding a balance and making a healthy lifestyle change is your key to weight loss success. I encourage you to find your own path. Vegan or not, tell me what’s working for you and what isn’t. Lets go on this journey together and better our own health.
Disclaimer *I am in no way discouraging anyone from consulting a doctor*
