10 Essential Steps to a Natural Diet

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!



#6. Give Up the Caffeine - Completely



n 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!





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.