Rawkin' Off the Weight

I'm 49, male, 5'7". I've always been active, always ate sensibly, but as I've aged I nonetheless have struggled with middle aged spread, and could never get under 180 lbs. My ideal weight should be around 160 or 165. Last November I was back up to 190 lbs. After reading an interesting book on the raw food diet, I decided to take the plunge. I'm now about 170, having lost almost 20 lbs. This has been revolutionary! Not only that, I feel so much better about what I'm eating and am very strong, able to swim, run, do yoga, lift weights,dance and have a good time. It's all about fitness, not just weight control. Going raw made all the difference. There are many books out there. Read a few.

Anything that becomes a part of your life will have a few repeats. Including the meals themselves. The key meals are the morning smoothie, which is sweet fruits, spring water and various nuts or seeds mixed in. Also another key meal is my kale salad,which I have for dinner many nights a week. Let me add that I try to be a raw organic vegan. I realize that this is probably not something most people can handle, but for me it's had a lot of side benefits, as I've found a community of folks who, like myself, are really into the raw lifestyle and who care a lot about the same kinds of things I do: Tribal community, indigenous wisdom traditions, free dancing, yoga, West African drumming, the diet / spirituality connection, hot springs soaking, being in wild nature, sustainability, renewable energy, deep ecology, emoting, creativity, youthful vigor, hilarity, vitality and breath work.

The way in to connecting deeply with yourself and your emotional vitality is to feed yourself the best that the planet has to offer. An organic vegan, raw food diet is a way to love yourself that is very different that what you may have though loving yourself meant before. The only way to know what I'm talking about is to try it for yourself.

Interestingly, weight loss is only an outward manifestation of deep internal changes that are made mentally and spiritually. Ask anyone who successfully has lost a decent amount of weight and kept it off and they'll tell you the real challenge is the emotional and psychological one. An organic, raw vegan diet naturally works to change not only your body's biochemistry but there's a deep spiritual component as well that can't be overlooked.
This spiritual/psychological component is something that's hard to describe except to say that in eating plants, with an extremely high nutritional content, changes really begin to occur and a synergy begins to take hold. You feel lighter, you need less sleep, so consequently you have more time to do things like exercise, or do stress relieving activities that also help you to feel lighter, better, happier. It's a positive feedback loop. The behavior of going raw gives you the energy that you've been looking for and then you have time to feel more refreshed, more relaxed, more content. More energy equals more positivism. More positivism equals more motivation to do things that truly satisfy. More satisfaction has the spill over effect to your family and friends who notice big changes and want in on the action. They become happier and more energetic, and you all go there together, creating more love and synergy along the way. It's all good, and all because of the raw food diet.

I could say more, but I'll stop now. Be interested to hear what others think and if anyone else is raw out there. Let me add that I'm not 100% raw. There are days when I am, but most days it's 2 out of 3 meals. However, even the meals that are not totally raw usually have raw elements.