"5 Essential Steps to a Natural Diet"
by Frederic Patenaude
In this article, I'm going to go
back to some basics. I will be giving
you specific, concrete action steps
you can take right now to transition
to a healthy, hopefully raw or mostly
raw diet. Even if you're a seasoned
raw-foodist, I'm sure you will find
some key insights in this article that
will help you refine your diet and improve
your program. These steps are in no
particular order.
STEP #1 - *Workout and Exercise*
It's not possible to be healthy without
being fit. We know that, at least intuitively,
even if we tend to forget the importance
of fitness in a healthy lifestyle, by
focusing too much on the importance
of diet.
But more importantly, your physical
condition has a major impact on your
digestion, assimilation, and overall
“nutrition.” For example,
your ability to uptake sugar, called
“insulin sensitivity,” is
greatly influenced by your level of
fitness.
If you are sedentary, insulin sensitivity
is greatly reduced. Therefore, sugar
is not carried as rapidly as it should
to the cells. This can lead to or worsen
blood sugar problems of all kinds.
If you've read my book “The
Raw Secrets.” You are aware
of the importance of hunger in health.
One problem is that most people do not
eat when they are truly hungry, and
mistake “appetite” for hunger.
Once they learn how to make the distinction,
they soon realize that they are rarely
if ever truly hungry!
By exercising on a daily basis and eventually
engaging in cardio-respiratory activities
(jogging, cardio machines at the gym,
cycling, etc.) every day, you will awaken
that forgotten sense of hunger.
So exercise is very important, and the
lack of a fitness program may be one
of the reasons why you have difficulty
eating a healthy diet.
STEP #2 - *Eat Fruit Before Each Meal*
One of the easiest ways to transition
to a raw-food diet is to start eating
fruit before every meal, including lunch
and dinner. The idea is to eat fruit
when you are the most hungry, which
is at the beginning of the meal. Eat
as much fruit as you desire then, and
you will find that you will eat much
less of the meal itself!
This is what I call an “automatic
transition strategy.” Just start
getting the raw-food in by eating fruit
before each meal - just what your mom
told you not to do when you were a kid.
But now that you're a grownup and that
the Standard American Diet didn't work
for you, you need to go back to your
natural instincts and satisfy your natural
sweet tooth by eating as much fruit
as you want before every single meal.
STEP #3 - *Learn to Make 7 Raw Food
Recipes That You Enjoy*
It's been found that most people know
about 7 to 10 good recipes very well,
and just rotate them throughout the
months, adding in other stuff occasionally
for variety.
Or look at when you buy a recipe book.
You might try many recipes but eventually
you'll only retain a few that you'll
continue making for the years to come.
So what I want you to know now is to
find 7 simple raw-food recipes that
you really like, that are easy to make
and that are properly combined. (INSIDER
TIP: My recipe book “Instant Raw
Sensations” is just about that:
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/instantraw.html)
Ideally, I'd like you to know:
About 2 dressings
About 2 great salads
2-3 smoothies you really enjoy
1-2 more gourmet recipes
Those 7 or 10 recipes should be things
you can make often, with ingredients
that are easy to find, and some of them
should have an instant appeal to your
friends and family.
You'll find that once you know what
those recipes are, and you can make
them without opening a book, that you'll
be wondering a lot less often “What
should I be eating now?”
STEP #4 - *Get Rid of Cheese and
Dairy*
Improving your diet isn't about the
things you ADD IN. It's mostly about
the things we LEAVE OUT. I know this
reality is hard to take, but even if
you eat all these fruits and vegetables,
drink those fresh juices and make those
huge smoothies, you won't really feel
great until you remove those offensive
foods from your diet that are hurting
you.
There's one thing you need to say goodbye
to forever, and it's milk and cheese.
In a previous article, I talked about
the top-5 worst foods, and cheese was
one of them.
Really, I see it all the time. People
have this thing for cheese. They still
eat it occasionally, and they still
are addicted to it. (Actually, cheese
contains some compounds in it that make
it addictive for real, not just in your
imagination).
If there would be just one category
of food you could remove from your diet
and feel much better for it, it's got
to be cheese and milk.
STEP #5 - *Eat Fruit in the Morning
or Skip the Morning Meal*
The morning meal is the easiest to switch
to raw. Most people find that once they
start listening to their body, they
are actually not truly hungry in the
morning.
I've watched how many children generally
don't eat in the morning if they are
left to themselves and not being force-fed.
My suggestion is that you can skip the
morning meal altogether or replace it
with a smoothie or some fruit. I know
that this goes against all the advice
you've heard about “never skipping
meals” or that “breakfast
is the most important meal of the day.”
What I'm telling you know is that this
advice isn't based on any solid facts.
The “breakfast” is when
you break the “fast” of
the night, and this doesn't have to
be at noon. In fact, the French word
for breakfast means “lunch”,
because for thousands of years the French
didn't eat in the morning. When they
started doing so, they had to come up
with a new word for that meal so they
called it “small breakfast”
(petit dejeuner).
Skipping the morning meal or eating
some fruit will help you get in touch
with your true sense of hunger, which
will make it easier to eat raw. Plus,
it will be good for a while to help
you detox and lose some weight (if that's
an issue for you).
As you start exercising more, you will
eventually get hungry in the morning,
believe me!
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