Struggles on Raw or Raw till 4

Some love it, some hate it, and some...well they are still torn. Fully raw and Raw till 4 are both excellent lifestyle choices, both are loaded with whole foods, nutrient packed meals, and the promise of optimal health! Yet both come with struggles for many people. Let's take a look at some common struggles:

1. Weight gain!!!! Ahhhh, the dreaded weight gain! This is more common on raw till 4 as the program does have calorie recommendations. Many people join this lifestyle because they have dieted on and off for their entire adult lives, some are even underweight when they begin. Why do you gain weight? Many factors come into play:
-you are eating a proper amout of calories consistently for the first time in a very long time! It does take time for the body to adjust and not feel the need to hold on to fat incase of another bout with calorie deprivation!
-you finally quit caffiene! Caffiene, alcohol, and drug use is not allowed on either raw till 4 or most fully raw (80/10/10) lifestyles. This means you will experience some weight gain as caffeine speeds up your metabolism, and now your body must learn to function properly without it!
-you may be over eating? Even though raw food is super healthy and nutritious, you will NOT GET FAT, but you may put on a few pounds...and to some that makes them uncomfortable. Get an app like Chronometer and track your food, this way you are aware of how much you are really eating! If you are not active, 3000 cals is too much! If you are not active at all, please start! It will not only help with weight loss, but it is excellent for your health!
-you are still eating too many nuts! A high fruit diet must be low in fat to be successful! The most common mistake I see made by those new to the lifestyle is the over indulgence in nuts! It is very easy to over eat on nuts and seeds, they are little and crunchy and taste delicious...but they are high in fat!

2. Hair loss! A very scary problem and it happens often when making huge changes in your diet! I   experienced hair loss when I quit caffeine! Within a month after I quit, I began losing massive amounts of hair, I was very nervous and wasn't 100% sure what was happening. After doing some research on detox, caffeine, and proper nutrition, I learnt that detox for some is hair loss, it is very common! So if you are experiencing hair loss on a raw diet, or raw till 4, don't quit just yet! Chances are you are in need of some additional nutritious to get you through the detox, a simple addition like Chlorella or Spirulina can make all the difference! Both are a vitamin powerhouse which can help provide some much needed support as your body deals with massive changes. Make sure the fruit you are eating is ripe, high quality, and organic (when ever possible). Also a simple addition of extra veggies and greens will also help!

3. Bloating! Ugh, it is awful, we all hate it! For some bloating can be severe! Many experience painful bloating, evening appearing pregnant! It is so uncomfortable! You may be bloating because:
-you are not eating ripe fruit! This is probably the most common error! So many times I hear people say they prefer to eat their bananas a little green! Noooooooo! That is a disaster for your digestion! If  you don't like a banana when it is ripe, then guess what? You don't like bananas, so don't eat them! Find a different fruit that you enjoy at it's peak ripeness!
-eating too fast! Most of us came to this lifestyle from a standard diet where food is pretty much inhaled, lol! Fruits and veggies are high fiber and need to be broken down in the mouth! Chewing your food properly will make a huge difference! Digestion begins in the mouth, so take your time, chew, chew, chew!
-drinking smoothies, and drinking them quickly! I love smoothies, but some times after I drink too quickly I do get bloated! Imagine eating 8 to 10 bananas in just a few minutes!!!! That would be difficult! That's a lot for the body to handle! So if you are a smoothie fan, drink slowly, enjoy small sips!

Those are the top three struggles on the raw/raw till 4 lifestyle! If you are experiencing other issues please share your journey! You may not be the only one! Overall these two lifestyles can be extremely rewarding and health promoting. These struggles are not an end all, most can be fixed with some minor adjustments. But if you continue to experience long term health issues, please consult  with a natural health practitioner!

Starch Solution Review

If you are a fan of Dr. McDougall, then you probably have heard of or read The Starch Solution. I am a huge fan of Dr. McDougall and for the past few years have followed him closely. I love the work he does, he plays a huge roll in the plant based movement, especially the low fat vegan lifestyle. After hearing so many incredible reviews and testimonies from his recent book and diet plan, The Starch Solution, I decided to give it a try!

If you aren't familiar with The Starch Solution, it is a low fat vegan diet based around starches. It allows you to eat the foods you love like pasta, rice, potatoes, pancakes, and all the other yummy carbs...even bread and LOSE WEIGHT! Foods that are off the menu are meat, dairy, eggs, butter, and oils, which for me was easy since those are already off my menu! My biggest concern was the 3-5 servings of fruit allowed, coming from a high raw lifestyle, fruit is huge part of my life! I love the taste of fruit, I eat it in abundance, I absofruitly love it! But...

Fruit stayed on my menu. I continued to eat fruit for breakfast as well as for snacks. My typical day looked something like this:
Breakfast- fruit meal or banana smoothies
Lunch- rice, potatoes, or pasta with fresh or steamed veggies
Snack- fruit, usually grapes or pomegranate
Dinner- salad, rice, potaotes, pasta, and veggies

Pros: This program is super easy to follow. All the foods recommended are highly accessible to everyone. No need to purchase any superfoods or supplements, which is always a plus! The book offers a 7 day program to help you get started as well as a fairly large recipe guide for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The recipes are all very simple, no hard to find ingredients, and all budget friendly.
This is also something the entire family can follow. All the meals are kid friendly which as a mom that is important! Foods like mash potatoes with gravy, pasta with marinara sauce, oatmeal, veggie pizza are all favorites in my home already! I was really impressed with how tasty the recipes were. I already cook oilfree so that was not a difficult adjustment for us, but the book gives simple instructions for cooking without oil, and keeping the food delicious! Trust me, no flavor is lost!

Did I already mention budget friendly? Yes, but let's talk about how inexpensive this lifestyle is! Potatoes and rice are some of the cheapest foods on the planet! They are available in every grocery store as well. The program does not require you to purchase a high price blender, juicer, or dehydrator. All you need is what you already have in a standard kitchen.

It is also very easy for busy families! Breakfast foods like oatmeal are great for kids trying to run out the door for school, even toast with a simple tofu scramble takes no time to make, or just pop some waffles into the toaster!  Lunch for me was dinner leftovers, quick to pack up and take with me to work. I made dinner nightly with leftovers in mind so everything was made to feed 5 instead of 3, that way my husband and I always had leftovers for lunch. None if the recipes were complicated or very time consuming, so if you are not great in the kitchen or just don't have time, this is perfect for you!
Did I lose weight? Gain weight? Stay the same? I actually lost 3lbs, (7lbs actually, weighed myself the day after I wrote this, which was a week and a half since the 3lb loss) though I was not looking to lose weight it was a pleasant surprise.If you are concerned with weight gain on this high carb program, please don't be, it will not happen!!
Cons: None! I really think this program would work well for everyone! Not only is it great for weightloss, but also great for those already at an ideal weight. The Starch Solution is a whole food diet which means you will be eating healthfully and really what are the cons of that? Lol!

Does 'Fit' Represent Health?

We are bombarded with images of 'fit' women and we have been conditioned to believe this image represents health...but does it? Have you ever met a girl that is really fit? Have you talked to her? Or have you met the guy who looks like an athlete from Sports Illustrated? Chances are you have! You also envied them for their beautiful body and probably thought 'wow, they are so healthy'. This is where the line is very blurred.

The guy who resembles an athlete is not necessarily healthy, just like a body builder is generally NOT healthy. Being around 'fit' people a lot, I can tell you what it takes for this athlete to look this way. Let's start with his horrible diet of meat & protein shakes! I once asked a 'fit' guy at the gym what his diet was like, and he said I eat a ton of meat and drink protein shakes a few times a day. He said 'I try to stay away from carbs, even fruit, then I allow myself a cheat day and I binge out on pizza and junk food'. Sounds healthy, right? No way. We know a high protein diet is acid forming and contributes to numerous health issues, cancer being one of them! Depriving yourself fresh fruit is extremely harmful. Fruit is nutrient rich, unlike meat. A diet without fruit is a nutrient poor diet and that is not healthy.

Cheat days. Why do so many 'fit' people have them, or quickly fall off their high protein diets? Cheat days happen due to lack of nutrition. The body will crave high energy food, looking for carbohydrates (that the 'fit' person denies himself) so when the craving is out of control one cannot make a healthy food choice. Turning to junk food, high in fat, salt, and sugar. Meanwhile a healthy person on a high fruit diet has no cheat days...we don't binge eat, we don't feel deprived. We don't need to cheat.

After these disgusting cheat days, he said he would hit the gym harder than ever out of fear all his hard work would go down the drain! WHAT???? He already works out for hours a day, some days twice a day. After a cheat day, his workout routine would be 1 and 1/2 hrs cardio, followed by an insanity style hour long workout. Why would you torture your body for the bad decision YOU made. Your body is your home, it is not your bodies fault YOU binged all day. It shouldn't be punished.

What does that do to your mental state? Does it feel good to binge? To deprive yourself of carbohydrates? To train for hours and hours? To feel like crap after the binge? To feel like crap after torturing yourself at the gym? NO, this is why this 'fit' person is not healthy. I once asked him why do this? His only answer...to look 'like this'. To jeopordize your health for looks is sad!

This is very common in the fitness industry, both 'fit' men and women follow this kind of lifestyle. Some women are even worse, over training on a regular basis, spending 2 to 3 hours at the gym, usually out of guilt from what they ate, or trying to lose weight quickly to fit into a dress or be ready for swim suit season.

Is it healthy to train 3+ hours a day if you only do it 3 times a week? Depends who you ask. If you ask a 'fit' person they would say sure it's fine. 'No Pain, No Gain' right? If you ask a healthy person, the answer would be it's NOT healthy. Over training for long hours puts unnecessary stress on the body, creating an acidic environment! If your diet is right, workouts can be short and efficient, keeping you lean & fit without the added stress! There are no binges when diet is right! There is no guilt when diet is right!

So does the 'fit' person always represent health? Absolutely not!

That dirty word...DIET!!

We have all been there, counting calories, keeping a food journal, cutting out carbs, cutting out sugar...you name it we've all tried it! Yet the majority discover none of these "diets" actually work. I remember being a kid when "diet" products were introduced and my Dad (born and raised in Poland) did not allow us to eat any of them! He didn't understand why would you take any food and change it, add a "sugar substitute" and take out the fat, and call it "Healthier"?? Now, look at the people who live on these foods, most are overweight!! The problem isn't the food (well, not the regular food), but the additives and man-made crap we have put into our food to make it healthy!
I don't diet, I don't eat anything "sugar-free", I stay away for HFCS as much as possible, I eat as much natural food as possible! Being a Personal Trainer, I hear the same story over and over again..."For breakfast I had an Atkins food bar, for lunch I had a Lean Cuisine, for a snack I had a sugar-free cookie, and for dinner I had a low-carb meal". I'm sorry...nothing you ate has any nutritional value, it's all man-made food substitutes, that's the problem! Take yourself back in time...remember having dinner with your family? It was always a balance of veggies, lean protein, and a starch/carb...all cooked at home! Breakfast used to be a hard boiled egg, or toast with peanut butter, a bowl of oatmeal, or just some fruit! An after school snack was an apple or banana, a glass of milk, or carrot sticks! Now...why did we ever stop practicing such normal and healthy habits?
I often tell people, the worst thing you can do to your body is look for fast, easy, and man-made fixes! The ONLY way to stay healthy & fit is to feed your body foods that are as natural as possible! fruits and veggies should be #1 on your list, lean protein, lots of beans & nuts, and whole grain food should all be a part of your diet. Sugar and dairy should be eaten in moderation, and man-made processed foods should be eaten sparingly! It's so simple...NO ONE EVER GOT FAT FROM EATING TOO MANY FRUITS & VEGGIES!!!
So, skip all the diet foods, sugar-free foods, low carb, South Beach, & Atkins, and eat whole foods as much as possible! Stop the diet madness!! The human body needs fuel...good fuel, so eat up...just think about your food. Is your food created in a lab and advertised over and over again on TV? When was the last time you saw a commercial pushing apples (not apple juice), or veggies (not salad dressing) or beans (not the baked ones)?? That's the food we need to eat, the food that gets very little attention!