What to Expect When First Going Raw

Going raw may shift more than just your physical health—The raw living foods experience impacts every aspect of your life: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical.  There is definitely a profound butterfly effect.

Here are a few changes to expect within the first couple days to first couple of months.  Typically, any ups and downs level will out after six months when the majority of the initial detoxing, or internal cleansing, is done.

• You may start to eat more or less.  Just go with the flow here.  For most people, they will lose weight as long as they are replacing their old foods with raw vegan foods.
• You may start to crave sugary sweets.  Your body is most likely calling out for the refined and artificial sugars you were previously eating.  Help your sweet tooth out by treating yourself to some dried fruit or some raw food sweet treats!  (unless you know you have Candida) Strong sugar cravings will typically go away.
• Your taste buds may change, causing any cooked foods you’re still eating to lose flavor.  This is a good thing!  You’re becoming more tuned-in to quality foods now!
• You may experience more regularity when it comes to going to the bathroom (you’re aiming 3 times a day ideally). Maybe you experienced this right after eating your first raw food meal? ;)
• You may go through some physical detoxing, or healing crisis, symptoms: This may look like more coming out of your body than what’s going in, colds, flus, headaches, migraines, nausea, depression, irritability, stress, tension, strain, etc.
• More or less energy than usual.   Give yourself a physical break when you feel fatigued for a day or two—you’re most likely detoxing.  This may be a good time to change up your exercise program.   You may want to down gear to some yoga or some daily rebounding if you’re experiencing a decrease in energy while detoxing.  On the other hand, if you find yourself with a lot of energy, you may need to exercise for a longer duration or stronger intensity than usual to be well relaxed and ready to get a good night’s sleep at the end of the day.
• You may experience some emotional detoxing.  Great tools for this are calling friends and family, writing down thoughts and feelings, writing letters to yourself or others, mediation, and/or yoga.  There are hundreds of tools you can use—you just need to pick a few out that appeal to you.
• You might need less sleep each night or you might experience deeper sleep.
• You may lose some weight.  Your natural weight may be 5-10 pounds lighter than what it says in doctors’ body weight charts.  Toxins, for the most part, are stored in fat cells so this is most likely toxic weight that you are releasing.  As long as you are doing regular weight-bearing exercise, you can minimize loss of healthy muscle mass.
• New friends and connections will appear in your life!  I’ve kept the old but I have so many new and wonderful people in my life now :)
• You may eat or crave more fat (percentage-wise) in your diet than you used too. However, raw fat is incredibly healthy for you, far healthier than cooked “healthy fats” such as olive oil.  Fat carries fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) IN and fat-soluble toxins OUT.  Fat slows the absorption/oxidation of sugars, and fat acts as a buffer against toxins and nervous system.
• If you have, or live with, a family who is not participating in a raw food lifestyle transition, you will most likely experience some family adjustments or backlash.  Keep some areas in the kitchen for their normal food or slowly start to upgrade their food to natural/organic–get healthier snack foods and cookies at the natural foods grocery store.  Get them involved in making the meals and make it fun for them!
• You may feel more energetic and creative as the days and weeks pass and will need to find ways to use that energy!
• You may experience some beauty perks such as clearer eyes, skin will start to smooth out and glow.
• I’ll stop there because I know there are so many more possible changes one will experience.  I hope I covered most of the behavioral changes though?

Question for you: Did I miss anything?  What would you add to this list?

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