Post Raw Food Diet

As some of my readers already know I was on a raw food diet for 9 months. I wrote “I was” because in the last 3 months I decided to quit this diet. In today’s post I’ll explain the reasons behind this decision as well as some of the most important consequences of this change.

Reasons

The main reason behind this decision was social interaction, which was dramatically affected by this diet. When you eat raw, prepare yourself for a serious wave of rejection. And this rejection will come from various sources: close friends, random acquaintances or even close family. This rejection will also come in various forms, from aggressive attitudes to feelings of inadequacy.

For instance, every time we ate out, the waiter put the steak in front of me and the 3 salads I ordered in front of my wife. Every time I had to tell him is the other way around. At parties or other social gatherings I had to explain all the time that I am different. When the gathering was a little bit casual and the hosts knew us, they were doing their best to prepare in advance some raw food for me. I was the only one eating raw, of course. And instead of feeling nice because they were prepared to meet my food demands, I always felt isolated. No matter how many explanations I gave, they were still looking at me like I was a nutcase or something.

I have to tell you that in Romania, the country where I still live, being vegetarian is extremely rare. Meat is natural here. Even those who are eating white meat are considered “weak”. If vegetarianism was so strange, imagine then how a raw foodist was perceived.

But it was not only the outside world who was rejecting me because of that, it was also my close family. Diana, my wife, was not very happy when I started this. She is omnivorous and I have nothing against it. Even if she was not happy with my diet change, she accepted it like any other crazy experiment I did. But after a couple of months, when she realized I’m not going to stop, she really freaked out. I still don’t know why, but she did. At some point, she tried switching to raw but couldn’t keep it for more than 2 weeks.

The bottom line is that modifying your eating habit in such a drastic way will heavily impact your social life. At all levels. The benefits of the raw food diet were enough for a while, it was a fair balance, but after more than 6 months things started to get out of control.

I hit the first wall during my trip to Japan, a couple of months ago. It’s simply impossible to keep a raw food diet while in Japan. Not only because everything is so expensive (Tokyo being the most expensive city I ever been in) but because the food offer has almost nothing completely raw, everything is cooked. So, while I was traveling to Japan I had to make the first compromise.

After I got back, I also had to make some compromise because of the social life which was getting a little bit crazy. In less than a month, I was half raw and half cooked. And after 3 months, here I am, a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, as I was one year ago.

Consequences

There are positive and negative consequences of switching back from the raw food diet. I will outline them one at a time below, but before that, I will try to depict the main difference between those two lifestyles (because being raw is more of a lifestyle than a diet).

When I was raw, I felt like I was a train functioning on electricity. The energy was pure and I had a lot of instant energy. After I’m back to vegetarianism I feel like a train functioning on coal. The energy is not so pure, but it’s constant. The electricity train makes almost no garbage, the coal train makes a lot of garbage (and I’m talking at all levels: mental, spiritual and physical). The electricity train was somehow pure, but out of sync, an alien in the world of coal trains. The coal train is not so pure anymore, but seems to be accepted by many more.

Positive Consequences

It certainly seems that I’m enjoying a much smoother social life. Everywhere I go, I can pass disguised as a normal person. I can eat some eggs, a salad, pasta, even pizza. I’m normal. The freak is gone.

Another positive consequence is that I’m not feeling restricted anymore. During the adaptation period from cooked to raw vegan I experienced a lot of cravings, and somehow this attitude of restriction was extended at other levels. I had this constant feeling of restriction, which is now gone (let aside the social restrictions I had to face). Eating some cooked food made me a little more comfortable with myself and with the whole world.

I also enjoy a little bit of a normal family life. And since we’re here, one thing I really want to mention is how Bianca, our 3 year old, dealt with this. First of all, when eating raw food you’re going to naturally eat far more less than a person who’s eating cooked food. I don’t have a scientific explanation for that, although I could imagine a few right now, but it was just a fact. When I was doing my research on raw food diet I thought it was something related to fasting, but it wasn’t. You simply eat a lot less than on a normal cooked diet. But the downside of this was that Bianca started to eat less too. She was imitating me. At this age they’re so flexible. She didn’t actually said anything but we did some tests and it was clear that she was imitating my eating behavior. Well, while I’m free to do whatever experiments I want with my life, I don’t feel entitled to do the same with my daughter’s life. So, I switched back to cooked and that instantly changed her eating habits too. Now she’s eating what a normal 3 year old will do. Smoother family life, like I told you.

Another positive consequence is that I created some perspective. I was able to close a chapter and identify all the lessons. And it was quite a lot of learning involved:

Habit creation

I learned tremendously about habit creation. When you keep a habit for more than 9 months you learn a lot. I already wrote about that in a post called How To Create A Habit in 15 Days and I will probably write more on this topic. There is so much to be analyzed and shared in this area, from the initial phases of a habit, the relapse, the get back or the long term shot.

Body Functioning

I don’t know if I would have the chance to learn so much about how my body is functioning if it wasn’t this 9 months raw food diet period in my life. I’m not a biologist, not do I claim to be one, but I was able to observe my body reactions and overall functioning and got some fantastic conclusions. Not only weight loss (I even made a chart with that) but sleeping patterns, intellectual and physical endurance and so on. It was really enlightening.

Setting Limits

Another fantastic lessons was about setting and crossing limits. I realized I had a lot of limiting beliefs and this period of my life served me really well. I learned that everything you want it can be achieved. Everything. I don’t really think there’s something I couldn’t do right now. Really.

Purity

Another lesson was on purity. During my raw food diet I realized we’re having a very deep, fragile and pure layer. We’re not always able to reach to it, but somehow this way of eating made it easier for me to be there for a while. I’m sure there are other ways to get there, like meditation or other methods, I’m just saying that I was able to peek a little bit there and I was charmed by what I saw and felt.

Negative Consequences

One of the most annoying consequences of getting back to cooked food was my weight. I am actually back when I was one year ago: 92-93 kilos. I gained those extra kilos during the last 3 months, only by eating cooked food. But there is something that makes me feel a little bit better about that: although I have the same number of kilos as I had one year ago I feel much better and healthy than one year ago. I guess the effects of the raw food diet will last several years. And since I’m feeling much better than before, there is also some planning for an extended exercising experiment, but will see about that.

Another negative consequence is that I lost all that clarity I had during raw food diet. I’m not confused, but it seems like some things are slowly fading out of my sight. It’s like I’m losing some parts of the picture. There is also this feeling of less color and contrast. I think I have to live with it now.

Ant yet another negative consequence is that I need slightly more sleep and food than before. It’s manageable but it’s a fact, I sleep at least 2 hours more and I eat almost double than what I used to when I was raw. Another thing I have to get used to, I suppose.

***

Keeping this raw food diet was one of the best things I’ve done so far in my entire life. I learned tremendously. I’m sure I will do raw food sessions again for 3-4 months each. In my experience this is the interval in which you attract most of the benefits of this type of diet.

If we all lived in a raw food world, I think it was normal to get on with that. But we don’t.

6 Degrees Of Integration

Where does your created value goes? Who’s the real beneficiary of your work? Ever wonder how this world is carrying your value to the final destination? It’s more and more obvious that the traditional way of spreading value is outdated. More and more people are losing jobs, more and more companies are going bankrupt, more and more standards are challenged. A worldwide crisis is starting to unveil a reality that we’re not yet ready to accept.

Lost In Translation

The huge structure created for spreading value – and that would be what we call “the economy” – is starting to decay. All those elaborated structures like “business”, “banks” or “stock markets” are breaking one after another under a huge pressure. The world economy is crashing. Somewhere, somehow, there is a deep crack in the model.

And the main problem with this outdated model is that your value does not reach the final beneficiary anymore. Before reaching out, your value is translated into money, stock options or shares. Between you and the beneficiary is a long line of frozen structures which are filtering away everything, except profit. Those structures are limiting your value. You might be an honest individual, a skilled person or a talented worker, but somehow, the mechanism in which you are performing is broken, and the object of your work is not reaching out the way it should be. Your value is lost in translation.

A Web Of Opportunities

The actual economical structures are imbalanced, that’s obvious. This is a linear model: a business, with a set of products / services, sold to potential clients and maintained by a hierarchical structure. If you look carefully will see that the most threatened organizations by the crisis are also the most hierarchically frozen: banks, stock markets. Every falling organization has a fixed structure. But the problem is the world is not on a fixed structure anymore. Things are going too fast and in such an unpredictable manner that a linear model cannot describe it anymore.

If we could take the hierarchy out of the model and instead of focusing on positions would focus on genuine delivered value, maybe the things will change. Maybe if we could create a model of interposed webs of relationships,  instead of a fixed business chart, our value will reach the beneficiary faster and untampered. Maybe if we could focus on value and not on hierarchy, on actual needs and not on profit the economy will change for good. For our good, of course.

6 Degrees Of Integration

You know the axiom of 6 degrees of separation? It says that on this planet, between you and the most distant person you can imagine are only 6 links. You could reach to anybody on Planet Earth just by making 6 connections, no more. If this is true, why not create a paradigm of 6 degrees of integration? A blueprint for delivering results in only 6 steps? A model in which you will deliver value totally different than before, in only 6 connections?

How would a paradigm like this will look?

1. You

The center of your value creation process should be you. You should do things that are empowering you, things that are making you happy and joyful. No guilt, no fear, no scarcity. Build different skills, get healthier, enjoy your life. Don’t compromise your true values for your boss or for your job. Start with you, because only when you’re complete and balanced you can start helping others.

2. Family

By family I understand your close relationship, as in a couple and/or your kids. The next step after you’ve balanced yourself is to reach to your closest ones and support. Or even enhance: train them, help them, give advice. Make them the second beneficiaries of your created value. They are the closest layer of social interaction to you, make that interaction valuable.

3. Friends

Have you ever tried to really support your friends, not just ask stuff for them? If not, try it once, it will turn out it’s a fulfilling experience. Spread your talents, your knowledge and experience in your circle of friends. Let them enjoy the benefits of having you around. Create the best value you can and share it freely with your friends.

4. Professional Community

You can have a series of skills that can make you part of a bigger community. Go there and share. You’re a programmer, a teacher, a healer; whatever you are, go spread your skills in your community first. Let them know you’re there and you’re available. Soon, the value you carry will be recognized and you’ll be associated with it. It’s a process called personal branding.

5. Clients

If you sell your value directly to the clients, that’s the layer in which you are making the actual exchange. That’s the layer in which you provide your product and you receive the associated value. This is the place where you are prepared to start a mutually profitable exchange. You don’t really need a business as a structure, but you need somebody who needs your service: your clients.

6. World

After the clients, world can be your playground. World is another word here for “everybody else”. And I mean it: after your value has reached the intended beneficiaries, you can actually interact with everybody else on this planet, and share your value. 20 years ago interacting with anybody on the planet would have been called a utopian scenario (and I’m aware that this 6 degrees of integration post is a somehow utopian scenario today) but after the Internet explosion you can actually interact with basically anybody.

Asking For More

Such a model could not exist if there is no demand for it. If there’s one rule that would survive any economical crisis this is the offer and demand rule. In order to start a new economical model you must start acting in a certain way. You must starting make a demand for that. Act like you need things in a certain way and you will see the web of relationships reorganizing to meet your demands.

1. You

If you will receive more from yourself, be ready to receive it. Want more. Ask more. Expect more from yourself. Challenge yourself and enjoy the results. Modesty is a healthy reaction but it can become a very boring lifestyle. Be proud of yourself and set higher standards. Every day.

2. Family

Ask things from those close to you. Interact and ask for things. They cannot start to deliver value to you if there’s no demand for it. Create that demand and make them understand they are able to give that value to you. They are the ones, not somebody else.

3. Friends

Expect that your friends will provide you stuff and appreciate them for that. Make them not only feel important for the services they are providing to you, but treat them as reliable persons. Expect that they can rely on you and that you can rely on them. Build stronger expectations.

4. Professional Community

Ask for advice. Reach out, promote yourself, let the others know that you are there. Share your experience and create a need for other doing the same thing. Involve and get involved, keep that community shaped and ready to respond to your needs. And be ready to respond in kind.

5. Clients

Reach out and look for clients. Don’t wait for fixed structures to grow between you and your potential clients. Let them know you’re there and you can provide. Be present, be available. Start identifying your clients and start meeting their needs. It’s not that complicated.

6. World

Participate in social networks. Make new friends. See new places and search for new experiences. Travel and look for opportunities. Don’t stay in a fixed place, let yourself flowing and trust your flow. Interact with new persons and let them know you exist. Be there.

***

Those 6 degrees of integration may change the way we deliver value to the world. A model based on that will be at least centered on humans and not on profits. And there’s no need for a full replacement of the actual value propagation model. I’m pretty sure they can coexist on the same universe for the beginning, only on parallel vibrations.

Imagine now what would be like to lose your job in a model like this. You can’t imagine, of course, because there is no job. But there is value, there is interaction and there is growth. There will be no structures to fall down and no walls between you and the ones who need your value. A dynamic web of relationships will always be more flexible than any linear and fixed model.

The only thing we need in order to start something like this is just a little more awareness. A little bit of honesty and courage. And trust in the others and in ourselves. Considering that the alternative would be to look at the macabre show of our falling economic structures, I think it’s better to start something new.

It’s up to us.