Raw Food and Weight Loss
You might want to sit down, I am going on a rant.
I have noticed lately that there are a lot of websites popping up promising weight loss with the “new raw food diet.” Honestly, this saddens me. Raw food for me is not just about weight loss, it is about health gain. It is about learning how to make better choices about the food we eat. It is about how our choices nourish our bodies. If we make good choices, we can have better health, bad choices can lead us to chronic disease, low energy, weight gain and poor health.
I abhor the word diet. The minute you say, “I need to lose weight”, you diminish yourself. You say, I am not what I should be. Personally, I do not have a skinny person’s genetics. But I am healthy. I exercise daily. Whether it be a 5 mile walk, or a power yoga vinyasa. But do I look like Kate Moss? No.
Now here is where it gets interesting. I was having breakfast with a new friend last week. Someone who knew about my raw food business before they met me. When we met, I am guessing that I did not fit her “image” of what a raw food person should look like. Halfway through our meal, she looked at me and said, “If you are into raw food, why aren’t you skinny?”
Honestly, I didn’t quite know what to say. I am not skinny. Nor am I obese. I would describe myself as curvy and athletic. Skinny? No.
Unfortunately, this brought up a ton of issues for me. I have had times in my life when I gained weight. And truthfully, I have lost weight by eating raw. I still fluctuate. Even though this friend told me that I had a “beautiful face and great skin”, I drove home fighting all of the past insecurities that I have had for years, feeling like I must look awful.
If you are a woman, you know what I am talking about. Society tells us that we are supposed to look like the fashion models on the cover of magazines. It’s interesting that those models don’t look like their pictures in real life. I have watched people starve themselves to fit a certain type. Is that healthy? No. You are still robbing your body of the essential nutrients it needs to be healthy. And if weight is your only concern, you are not going to be making good choices for your body.
At this meeting it was also suggested that I do a weight loss series on my blog. Take pictures of myself, post them and then show people how you can get skinny on raw food. Because, believe me, you can get skinny on raw food. Eat fruit, veggies and nothing else. You will get skinny. I actually considered it. For about 5 seconds.
Then the light turned on. I don’t believe in diets. I don’t believe in statements like, “oh, you cheated”, or “you can’t eat that”, or “is that on your diet?” I don’t believe in the negativity this creates around our bodies and what we eat. I think it sets you up for failure and self-loathing.
I believe in replacing the unhealthy food you are eating with healthy food. As you eat healthier, you will get healthier. If your body needs to, you will lose weight. Even with raw, it is not the wise choice to sustain yourself with raw Strawberry Cream Pie, raw cookies and raw ice cream. You still need to make balanced choices.
What happens if instead of saying, “I need to lose weight”, you replaced those words with, “I am making healthier choices about the food I eat.” One is negative and condemning, one is empowering. I am all about empowerment. It is a part of the whole process of being a healthy person. Healthy mind, healthy body, healthy attitude. Wanna join me in my “anti-diet revolt” and join my “choose health” movement instead?
julia abramson wrote on February 28, 2014
i just wanted to compliment you on wonderful blog, with amazing foods – gorgeous to look at and simply to make. as far as diet – can not agree more, it is a life style , i became vegan in november and now 99% raw, it wasn’t for weight issues, but health. thank you again
Susan wrote on November 11, 2012
Marsha, I just re-read the post. I think you missed the message. I have been over-weight. I fight it all the time. I am certainly not skinny, or even thin, now. I understand what it means to carry extra weight. I am well aware of how people treat you differently, you become invisible, etc. I understand the pain. It is one of the things that brought me to raw foods.
For me, the real light bulb went off when I stopped worrying about losing weight and started focusing on eating healthy. That combined with exercise is what works for me. I do not want to be a site promoting raw food for weight loss. There are plenty of them out there, many of them started by people just wanting to make a buck who know nothing about raw food. They start these sites because believe me, people will pay.
It has been said before and I will say it again. It is a lifestyle change. It is learning how to eat healthy and that includes moderation. I believe I covered all of that in the post.
I am confused as to why you think that I am not giving hope and encouragement and direction. Showing people they can love healthy food, and providing easy, approachable recipes, isn’t that the first step? And if it wasn’t “my gift or calling to care about them” I wouldn’t spend spend thousands of hours providing free content for people to assist them on their journey to health.
Weight loss does not always equate health. And people can use a raw food diet to lose weight in an unhealthy way. I stick by what I say. And I am sorry if somehow you interpreted it to mean I don’t care about people who are overweight. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Marsha Tennyson wrote on November 11, 2012
Hi, I am new to healthly eating. Well I have known how to eat right, just to busy to care most of the time. I was about 40 lbs over weight until I started to eat right. I still have 15 lbs to go but I have started eating my old way again and I have gained some of my weight back. I found your website today and typed in weight loss hoping to read something else that would inspire me to get back on the right eating train. I want you to know I agree that it is important to feel good about yourself. I talked myself into changing my eating to get healthy and stay healthy, but losing the weight has been the real motivator. I feel so much better about myself and I have been able to buy clothes that make me feel good. Before I would look for things to cover me up. The goal is to not look like you weigh as much as you do. Now I am able to find things that really look good on me. It makes me feel more like me because I am able to choose things I really like. What we wear is a part of self expression.
I understand why you wrote this comment about the talk you had with your friend and how it made you feel, but there are millions of overweight women who need help. They don’t want to stay the way they are. They want to change. Maybe it is not your gift or calling to care about them, but somebody needs to. They are miserable and I think what they need most is someone to tell them there is hope. They can do it but the most important part of choosing food is our health. I know it is a real struggle for me. It is really hard when you eat out all the time. Have meeting in resturants and coffee shops. I am sure its also hard for stay at home moms, women that have been raised on fast foods, or women who have to cook meals for their families that don’t want to eat right.
It’s great to want to accept yourself the way you are to a point. I believe we can all eat better and look better and acceptance is not a motivator.
I am glad to find your site and I will be recieving your newsletter. Just remember, it is important for all of us to be transparent and tell the truth and even to express it on line. But their are people that are looking for help. Since I think that is maybe one of the reasons you posted this site maybe you could have something that would give overweight people some hope and encouragement that would help them to want to take the plunge into better eating. Some directon.
Elly wrote on October 2, 2012
Susan, you couldn’t have said it better!