Let Spring's Energy Propel You Toward a Raw Diet

Bears, squirrels and raccoons aren’t the only animals that hibernate in the winter—humans do it too.

For many people, winter tends to be a contractive time of the year. We stay indoors more than usual, we socialize a little less and we eat more hearty, comforting foods. It is a very inward time in our lives.

By the time the first breath of spring rolls around, we can’t wait for the sun and the warmth to draw us back outside so we can emerge back to life. We wait for the glorious burst of spring to expel the gathered energy that has accumulated inside of us.

Unfortunately, just as the melting snow reveals a winter’s worth of litter on our sidewalks, trying on our summer clothes again reveals the few extra pounds that we always seem to accumulate each winter.

That’s because winter is a time of thinking rather than a time of doing. Maybe you have been thinking about a new exercise regime, or a new diet plan to enhance your health—maybe even a raw food diet.

This is the best possible time of the year to give this lifestyle a whole hearted try. Why? Right now we are being supercharged by the sun and it is really hard to fight the underlying excitement we feel as we come out of yet another cold winter season.

Spring makes us want to be light, to dress light and to eat light. Plants are growing, our food is growing and life breeds life.

Have you ever noticed that in the warm weather you want to eat fresh and juicy fruits and vegetables?

Today your journey begins. Forget about the bad destructive habits of the past; they are yesterday’s news. It is all about living in the now.

Spring tends to write this message on our hearts and using this moment to your advantage to begin new habits is the key. Once you make a change, it only takes a few weeks to make a habit. A habit involves little pain and struggle. In a few weeks from now the freshness and newness of the season will have grown on us and be forgotten. Use this force of nature you are currently feeling to give you that extra push.

If you do decide to transition your diet to include mostly raw foods, this is great news. You are likely to lose weight, you will glow and have so much energy you won’t know what to do with it.

To begin this new life, you must be excited and committed and there are many levels in which to do this. I would like to share one simple thing you can do to begin: Spring cleaning! The raw food diet will cleanse your body but first you must “detox” your home. This gives you the signal that there is change and room for something new.

Caring for your environment is showing love to yourself. Give clothes you don’t wear to those in need, give away that chair no one sits on, sort through files, papers and try and get rid of as much clutter as possible. Pay special attention to the kitchen—and do this on a day when you are truly pumped up about changing your diet—to get it ready: Clean, scrub and make space for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Think clean, fresh, healthy, welcoming, joyful. I always consider the kitchen as the heart of the home and also a reflection of the inner you. If you have a blender, a juicer, a dehydrator, a fruit bowl, put them all out in the open on your countertops in place of your toaster, microwave and coffee maker.

Now, it’s time to shop and add some edible art to your kitchen decor.  Red apples, yellow bananas, green leafy vegetables, orange carrots, purple beets, blue blueberries—let their colors brighten the room and provide an energy nothing from a box could possibly supply. In the process you will notice a vivid lifting . . . your head will clear and if you thought you were ready for raw food before you most certainly will be ready for it now.

Yes, it might seem like there is much to think about when making such a shift, but my advice is this: Don’t think. Put those thoughts into action and go for it.