My business is called R.A.W. Inside Out. Those letters spell RAW in big. But notice the full-stops. These make it an acronym for Radiantly Alive, Awakened and Aware Well-being. Yes, that’s 3 A’s crammed into 1.

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R.A.W. is designed to evoke feelings of health and happiness from a perspective wider that just (raw) food.

Raw food has become quite the hot thing in recent years. Many say it’s not just a trend, but it certainly is trending at the moment. I love raw food, in fact so much so, that I did one training with Elaine Love in 2013 in Ubud, Bali, and am now doing a second one at the Matthew Kenney Academy, Huahin, Thailand. I market myself as a raw food educator and chef, as well as a TheraChef, my own word for someone who is an alternative therapist as well as a raw food chef.

To some extent, this branding has been so successful that many people associate me only with raw food. I write a lot about my personal life, ups and downs, as well as the realities of what I eat. For anyone who follows my posts, it must be coming clear that I eat a lot of cooked food, I drink champagne, cava and shiraz, and I eat salmon, the occasional egg and honey.

Therefore, although I have a largely plant-based diet, and have real ethical qualms about consuming those three products from the animal kingdom, I still do eat them.

Although I love raw food and need it every day, on many days I just as much need a warm meal and like to eat locally, socially and culturally, which means food heated and or prepared in ways I don’t consider good for my body. But I do consider it good for my soul. It would be a dull life for me it I were fully raw. And I would be naughty to tell anyone to go fully raw.

Why? I’ll tell you why I think you should take it easy and not aim for a 100% raw.

1. Fast and extreme raw food diets equal extreme physical, mental, emotional and psychological shifts in your body. These shifts are fast as in “not lasting long”. Aim instead for slow, gradual shifts that lead to sustainable habits. If you are new to raw food, start with a smoothie and gradually work it up from there.

2. When you try to be 100% anything, your choices are made based on shouldn’t and can’t and won’t. If you are familiar to raw food, the same applies. Sense what feels good to you, not what you heard someone say made them feel good or what you imagine is so healthy for you that you will do anything to stick with the plan. Keep on adding new recipes to your repertoire and see what feels good.

3. 100% raw can make you socially frigid. Be flexible and accept that some meals you are just going to have to break your obscenely clean eating habits and dirty your body with crap. I am, of course, exaggerating, but this is the thought pattern of many people who have fasted, cleansed or detoxed, or who are far into their “clean” eating journey, or who have an eating disorder.

4. 100% raw works for very few people. I have seen so many ex-raw food fanatics over the past few years increase their amount of cooked food. 100% worked great for a while, and then it didn’t. And then it does again. And then it doesn’t. See my drift? Just listen to your body, mind and soul, and all the different seasons they go through. And then eat accordingly.

5. Remember to not go all fanatic about the letting go bit. Just by letting go of one extreme, doesn’t mean you get to go to another. If you have this tendency, I recommend seeing a therapist. Moderate and balance.

6. Being rigidly 100% takes the pleasure out of eating and it becomes a headache. An organic, raw food meal prepared with the best ingredients but eaten with frustration over “this lifestyle” and “these restrictions”, can give you much more gut reactions than a stir-fried rice dish, which is eaten with satisfaction and presence. Consume your food lovingly, with pleasure, gratitude and presence. See if it assimilates better into your body.

And so next time you meet me, please don’t feel the need to explain to me how you eat raw, but you don’t know if you can go fully raw. Because honestly, I don’t want you to.

With love, 100%.
Pauliina

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