"10 Essential Steps to a Natural Diet"

by Frederic Patenaude

Learn how to transition to a healthy diet now (Part 2).

In the first part of this article, I gave you the first 5 steps to a Natural Diet. Those are the essential first steps you should take first to improve your diet and your health. Here's the second part of this article. The steps are in no particular order!

#6. Give Up the Caffeine - Completely

In my experience, I have found that many people who otherwise lead a healthy lifestyle still some kind of caffeinated beverage. Many vegetarians, fitness maniacs and raw-foodists still enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. I know because I was one of them!

I cannot really count how many raw food people I've met (some of them are well-known names in the movement that I'd prefer not to reveal) who have admitted to me that they are still addicted to caffeine.

Caffeine and especially coffee is a physical AND emotional addiction that is at the cause of many, many, many health problems. As I've explained before in many articles, even just one small cup of coffee a day can be the cause of many of our daily pains and discomfort, without taking into account the long-term consequences.

Need more convincing? Check out the articles I have on coffee on my website (http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/articles2005.html#5).

#7. Eat one big salad meal a day

In addition to learning to make fruit meals and smoothies, you can also incorporate the habit of eating a big salad meal once a day. Usually, the best time to have a big salad meal is in the evening, but it could also be at noon for beginners.

A great salad meal always starts with enough fruit to satisfy your appetite. I don't want you to have your salad and then be looking around for something else to eat, such as a bag of nuts! To avoid this, have enough fruit before you eat your salad so you are completely satisfied.

A great tip is to prepare enough salad to last you for several days. In a big plastic container, prepare a mixed salad with ingredients such as: chopped lettuce, grated carrots and beets, grated or chopped fennel, zucchini, spinach, etc. Avoid wet ingredients such as tomatoes. You can add those at the last minute, when you are ready to serve your salad.

Salad dressings need not to be complicated. I usually prepare very simple salad dressings using a blender. For example, I might blend some tomatoes with tahini (or another nut butter) or avocado. It's really simple but makes a great dressing!

Here's a simple salad that my mother has been making almost every day. It's her idea, and she always makes some for me when I visit her!

FRED'S MOM'S SALAD

- 2-3 mangoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped.
- 2-3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 handful of cilantro, chopped
- 1 small sweet red onion, chopped (when mixed with the other ingredients, the “spiciness” goes away.)

Mix all ingredients together. You can serve as it as is or mix in an avocado dressing, and serve onto lettuce leaves. I prefer it plain - just great!

# 8. Simplify Your Meals (Food Combining)

We're used to making big meals with hundreds of ingredients and spices. Going back to the simplicity of eating just one food at a time may seem impossible, but I must say that it's one of the most important steps towards eating a truly natural diet.

My lunch these days usually consists of just a big (I mean big!) fruit smoothie. Morning is just fruit. My lunch usually starts with fruit or a smoothie, and is followed by a vegetable meal, which is the most fancy meal of the day.

Nonetheless, I really enjoy this simple way of eating! I don't necessarily expect you to follow my steps and eat a simple raw diet too, but there's some things you can do to simplify your meals.

First, realize that it's okay to do that. You don't need to have dozens of foods at every meal to eat a balanced diet. The important thing is to eat a varied diet through the course of the month and year, but not necessarily at every meal!

Then, you can pay attention to really simple food combining rules. Generally speaking, you can follow the 5-5-5 rule: a good simple meal should have 5 ingredients or less, be ready in 5 minutes and cost less than 5 bucks!

#9. Read at least one book on the raw-food diet.

I still get a lot of questions for my e-zine from people who are interested in the raw-food diet, yet have not read any book on the subject and therefore have little clue as to how to do it.

They are trying to get by on the free information they can find on the Internet. Unfortunately, that can only go so far.

I make a huge effort to provide loads of free information in my articles and e-zine, I also spend a lot of time answering your questions and will even be preparing a special Sunday Edition of Pure Health and Nutrition just so I can address even more of my reader's concerns. Even with all this, you have to realize that it's impossible to summarize 200 pages of information, years of trial, error, experimentation and success in 2-3 paragraphs or even a few articles.

If you're new to the raw diet, you need to make sure you have access to as much quality information as possible on the subject. We're talking about a major lifestyle change here - so it's important to do this with quality tools and guidance.

In my book “The Raw Secrets” I spill the beans about the raw-food diet and how to make it work “in the real world.” If you want to succeed on the raw food diet, and you do not yet have this amazing book, just click here.

#10. Decide to try a 100% raw diet for 7 days.

I know a guy who was so excited about the raw-food diet when he first heard about it, that he eventually got a tattoo on his arm that said “100% Raw For Life” or something like. Apparently, he eventually went back to eating burritos... What a tragedy!

The sad thing in this true story is not the fact that this person went back to eating junk food, but that he set his expectations way too high and was never able to meet them.

But I know you've got more judgment than that! You don't have to think about how you're going to eat this way for the rest of your life and how “oh my God I'll never be able to eat all the foods I love!!”

Take it easy. One day at a time! I would recommend that you at least try a raw-food diet for 7 days. Just commit to 7 days - everybody can do that. Get as much information as possible before you do that, and then jump in for a 7-day challenge, with no commitment to do this any longer.

That experience will teach you a lot. It will give you a taste but also will expose you to some possible pitfalls and this will help you avoid them next time!

Want to Use This Article In Your Website or E-Zine? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: “Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book "The Raw Secrets". He is currently giving away free access to his private library of over 100 exclusive articles along with a subscription to his newsletter Pure Health & Nutrition. Visit http://www.fredericpatenaude.com while charter subscriptions last.”