30 Days Raw: What To Expect

Hereʼs what to expect during your first 30 days as a raw vegan:

Learn a new way of cooking (uncooking!)

While you're just learning, Itʼs going to take an abnormally long time to make meals, and sometimes youʼre going to think that the food doesnʼt taste quite right. Youʼre going to think, “Oh my, this is taking a long time to make this pudding.” But rest assured, this is normal and itʼs not going to last for long

Remember, you are learning and retraining yourself re: how to prepare food!

You will get super quick and will become better and better at preparing raw food meals. But for the first few weeks, everything is going to seem like itʼs in slow motion. Thatʼs what itʼs like when youʼre learning something new and when you have to follow step after step. Believe me, it will come naturally soon enough. Remember, everything is more difficult at the beginning and it will get easier as time progresses!   

Encounter obstacles

Youʼre going to encounter obstacles. Youʼre going to find yourself in a mall, ravenously hungry with nothing raw to eat. Youʼre going to be offered a cookie by your boss. Your kids are going to yell at you for eating complicated food. Youʼre going to have major cravings for the old stuff you used to eat. Youʼre going to wonder what youʼre doing this for. But you know what? You are going to do this and you are not going to cheat, not one bit. Do you want to know why youʼre not going to cheat?

Youʼre not going to cheat because the only thing that youʼre going to cheat is yourself. Remember, we are trying to get your taste-buds to be retrained, to forget what that old junk tastes like. So if you eat SAD foods, then you are simply shooting yourself in the foot. And for what???

No.... if you feel like youʼre ready to cheat, then youʼre going to go to your raw food cookbook and make the biggest, best raw snack ever. Because raw foods are delicious. You can eat raw raspberry crumble or pudding for breakfast lunch and dinner!

Just stay raw. I know you can do it.
 

Experience detoxification symptoms

You may feel a little out of it, and you may experience detox symptoms, which, for lack of a better word, might include a lot more bowel movements than you are used to. You might feel hungry a lot of the time and be unsure of what to eat. Please know that you are not supposed to be feeling abnormally hungry on the raw food diet. You are supposed to eat as much as you want as long as it is raw! Deprivation is not part of this program. We want you to eat a lot of raw food and feel satiated from it.

That being said, you do need to eat a good balance of raw vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. I am confident that you will have cravings for different food groups, like salty or sweet or savory. Be sure to eat as many leafy green vegetables as possible. Listen to your cravings and make raw food recipes to satiate your cravings.    
 

Weight loss

Weight loss is a side effect of eating healthily with raw foods. Itʼs up to you whether you want to track your weight loss with a scale. In fact, I donʼt recommend it, but thereʼs no harm in it either. I do recommend taking “before” photographs (a close up of your face and a full-body shot) so that you can see the changes in your body firsthand.

Stay focused on eating 100% raw with no exceptions, eat a lot to ensure that youʼre not hungry any more than you normally would be, and the weight will come off. You will feel your clothes becoming looser and it will become easier to move around. Follow the raw food diet plan meal plan as a guide, but feel free to stray from it, too. If youʼre still hungry, eat more. Be sure to eat a lot of leafy green vegetables and some healthy fats (like nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and avocados) every day.

As mentioned in the detox section, you may find yourself going to the washroom more than you are used to. Think about it. How frequently are you having a bowel movement now? (Sorry to talk about this, but itʼs your body and itʼs very important!) A person in ideal health should be having approximately two-to-three bowel movements ("BMs") per day, and they should not be difficult to pass. As I recall from prior to being raw, I would have a BM perhaps two to three times per week, and I always felt constipated. This was because I wasn't getting enough fiber, nor was I getting enough liquids/water. Increasing your intake of fresh fruits helps dramatically with both issues.

When you convert to a raw food diet you will be eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than your body is used to. Fruit moves through your body quite quickly, and thus you will be going to the washroom more. In fact, during my first couple of months I was going for a BM two-to-three times per day, and sometimes even more - usually once after every meal, but sometimes multiple times. I was a bit alarmed by this since I was used to being very constipated, but I was also feeling quite good and I knew that I was eating really healthily.

After the first couple of months my BMs slowed down to a regular pace (a small, healthy BM usually after every meal), so the high number of BMs per day were just part of the detoxification process that I was going through during the transition and also part of the weight loss cycle.

BMs are part of the process, my friend. When you lose weight, just where do you think that spare tire or love handles disappear to? :)

Above all else, you are an expert on your own body. I am not a medical doctor nor am I a nutritionist. If you have any underlying medical conditions, please talk to your doctor and nutritionist about your plans. If at any time you feel that the raw food diet is really not working for you, you have to trust your instincts.

You are the expert on your own body. Please take care of yourself. Everyoneʼs body and experience are different. Do not blindly follow anyoneʼs advice. I am even giving you permission to ignore my advice! Take your health very seriously, and do what feels right for you.