Advice for Wannabe Raw Fooders
Take your Time.
Your eating habits and your relationship with food is something that develops over your entire life. Every time you’ve ever put something in your mouth you’re reinforcing your eating habits. It takes time to change it. A long time.
How many years have you been alive? However long it is, that’s how long you’ve been developing your eating habits and your relationship to food.
Is it reasonable to expect yourself to break that pattern overnight? No Way! So Take Your Time!
A big problem is that people want to be 100% raw right away, never eat cooked food again or never even want to ever think about eat cooked food again. Our culture is all about instantaneousness. I’m not saying it can’t be done “cold turkey” but for a lot of people it has to be a process.
And when I say take your time I don’t mean give it a week. Years. Many Years. Really.
Here are examples of some of my favorite raw fooders and how long it took them to get to the longterm 100% Mark.
Dr. Doug Graham
Dr. Graham is the author of my favorite book on raw foods the 80/10/10 Diet. Doug was constantly trying to find a diet that worked for him even as a teen. Even when he began raw he failed on it for EIGHT YEARS before successfully becoming 100% Raw 80/10/10. Note: I wanted to source this with a link but can’t remember where I heard/read this.
Doug was developing his dietary habits for most of his life until he started doing what he’s since coined as 80/10/10.
Harley Johnstone
Harley Johnstone aka DurianRider - Was a vegan eating high raw for FOUR YEARS before going 100% Raw. Source He says it at about 0:50 into the video.
Notice that Harley’s diet evolved over a period of many years. If you watch the full video you’ll even see where he says that he hasn’t drank coffee in 10 or 11 years either. Again proving that it’s a process that takes a lot of time. So if you count from the time he gave up coffee to the time he started being 100% raw you’ll get a period of about six or seven years.
Steve Pavlina
Steve gave Raw a shot in 1997 and only lasted 3 Days! He gave it another shot five years later in 2002 and lasted 30 days. In 2008 he blogged publicly about his raw food trial and was eating 100% raw for most of the year. Steve Still doesn’t eat all raw and occasionally will still eat cooked food. Source.
Notice again that his diet evolved over a period of many years. Steve became vegetarian in 1994. Over 15 years of dietary evolution, and even now he still not at 100% raw.
I’m a Wannabe Raw Fooder
I’ve posted before about my diet, but for a quick recap I eat mostly raw and I have eaten all raw in the past for one 5 month period and one 4 month period, both in 2008.
I wrote this post because I too am a wannabe raw fooder. Sometimes I get upset or frustrated I’m not 100% raw not because I’m a freak or insecure or anything like that but because I know when I am 100% raw I feel amazing pysically. Better than my body ever feels.
But I too have to realize that this is a long process that takes a lot of time. I’ve been upgrading my diet since December 2006, and there’s still improvements I’d like to make.
I’m so happy for all the improvements I’ve made so far even though I know I’m not where I’d ultimately like to end up. That’s one of the great things about life, there’s always room for improvement if you want it.
That’s the real takeaway here. All growth, personal or social is a process, and it might take longer than you want but you have to be willing to accept that as part of the ride.
Are you a raw fooder? Or someone who’s been trying to improve an area of your life for a long time? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts! 
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Tom Holowka Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Glad to provide some help Alysa. Thanks for reading.
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Yes, yes indeed.
Part of every path is the discovery of each step.
Great post.
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Tom Holowka Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Thanks for reading and commenting Angela!
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I’ve lasted 12 days my first go around thanks to learning from Steve Pavlina’s trial. Although I had alot more to learn (such as taking it slow) the time seemed effortless. I believe I could have done the whole 30 but a potluck took me down. Lesson learned: as they say in AA, if you do not want to slip, don’t go where it is slippery. I plan to learn much more and modify the trial a little. I am going for 30 days this year!
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Tom Holowka Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Darby, Congrats!
Twelve Days is a big deal. Steve only lasted three days his first time around.
I’m positive that you can do 30 days straight this year if you really want it, but don’t forget doing one day here and there is excellent too.
You do 4 raw days a month that’s 48 days for the year!
Thanks again for reading and sharing your comment.
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Tom I tried it for 2 days to try and live life “in your shoes” to see what it was like. I’m a meatiterian though so 2 days is likely all that I WANT to do it for but you did influence me to try it.
Right now I’m on that NO high fructose corn syrup diet, feelin’ good!
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Tom Holowka Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Nice, Jason. Glad to see you giving it a shot. I’ll get you up to 3 days one day!
No soda/caffiene was the first step in my positive dietary progression. I cut out basically all of my high-fructose corn syrup then. You do know ketchup (most) has high fructose corn syrup right?
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Jason Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Yeah the craziest things have it man! I’m looking at all the ingredients now! Didn’t know about ketchup! So lame. I enjoy this cinnamon swirl bread in the AM for breakfast sometimes and it has high-fructose corn syrup, F. I never really drank soda/caffiene in the first place. I haven’t drank soda in years.
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