Raw Food Challenge

Ever wanted to test out this raw food thing, but never had the courage because of a, b, and c?
I'm sure most of us are familiar with the health benefits of raw food diets. Let's start with better skin, easier weight loss/maintenance, higher energy, better mood, and numerous long-term benefits.

I've read a book, articles, and studies on the alkali diet (basically the same as raw food) and I'm convinced there's something to this.

My story:

I need to try something new. My current lifestyle isn't working. Right now I realize that I have the opportunity to eat ANYTHING that I want (a new phenomenon in my life). But thus far, I've filled myself with highly processed gunk. LOTS of it.

Any commitments that I've wanted to make have gone awol within days of making them.
Thus, I am making a somewhat grand leap into the raw foods lifestyle. Starting as of today.

I'm mostly trying this out of curiosity. I'm taking my knowledge of nutrition and biology and putting them to use here to create each phase. How many phases? As many as you want.

GUIDELINES:
It's not cold turkey, per se, but a stepwise approach to the new lifestyle.

I will introduce a new phase every other week. That gives you ONE week to CHANGE and another week to ADAPT.

Each 2-week phase is a mini-goal. If you can successfully 'get into the groove' of the guidelines of each phase, then you're ready to move on to a next phase.

*After phase 1, you can pretty much customize phases depending on where you are. I just think it's a good idea that we start off doing the same thing together for 2 weeks.

PHASE ONE: starts Sunday, June 12 (or whenever you read this)
Every day you get three servings of a non-raw food. You may choose what those 3 things are--it can be 3 servings of one thing or 1 serving of 3 different things.

Here's a sample of non-raw options:
- baked sweet potato
- soymilk
- cow milk
- boiled/canned chickpeas
- Coffee
- Tea
- Dark chocolate
- Steamed vegetables
- Grilled chicken/fish
- etc...

I would choose three of the above for one day (can't start my day going to 8am classes without my coffee with soymilk, and how better to get my protein in than with grilled meat?) You can choose ANYTHING for your 3 servings of non-raw foods! I would aim for something whole, though (potato instead of potato chips, broiled chicken rather than chicken nuggets...) but that's not a rule {yet...?}

Besides those 3 servings, keep your foods raw.

Examples of raw food staples:
- whole raw unsalted almonds/cashews/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds/pistachios
- raw nut butter
- spinach, kale, lettuce
- broccoli, cauliflower, carrots
- veggie fruits: tomato, bell peppers, avocado
- sweet fruits: mangoes, apples, berries
- olive oil
- spices: basil, parsley, oregano, and rosemary leaves
- sprouted plants
- beans (soaked rather than boiled--lentils take the least amount of time)

These are just ideas to get people started, not mandatory items.

Nota bene:
1) This is NOT a calorie-focused group. If you manage to eat over calories while staying entirely raw, more power to you. It means you're learning to love a once-stigmatized kind of food.
2) Supplements are allowed and even recommended. I'll be taking multi-vitamins and fish oil capsules every day.
3) Drink water
4) Friend others in the group and open your diary to them if you're comfortable with it.
5) Plan your non-raw foods ahead of time to avoid binges, slips, and losing count of how many NRs you've had.
6) This is not a gung-ho let's-do-this-for-life sort of thing. It's all about trial-and-error. We're starting with reasonable goals in mind, and learning how we can adopt SOME of the aspects of raw/alkali diets in our lifestyles.

Anyone else in?