If you don't know yet, I transitioned to a raw diet effectively overnight. I celebrated New Years with a roasted lamb dish and the next day, January 1, 2021, I decided that I would be raw vegan from that moment onwards "unless something crazy happens".
In 1 month, I already felt and saw the results, and I have been a raw foodist since without any struggle and it is my favorite system that turned out to be in synergy with all other significant areas of my life.
But how did it happen so effortlessly to me?
First, I took my time to actually expand my knowledge base to be able to come to peace with the idea of raw veganism. It took me perhaps 3 - 4 years total of learning to come from the mianstream, surface health and nutrition, fairly well-rounded knowledge that we typically find online targeting an average information consumer to a more fundamental and complex knowledge of nutrition and physiology. I can't count the lectures and articles I studied (in my spare time or while doing some mechanical work) to be able to connect the dots and feel confident enough that a raw vegan diet can be complete, sustainable, and healthful. My take is that even if something feels intuitively right, if you don't possess enough rational knowledge and understanding of the subject, you will be vulnerable and uncertain in any circumstance challenging your beliefs. Developing a skill of at least being able to determine what to search for, how to look up the necessary information, how to educate yourself is very very important. So...
Having a very firm rational foundation developed by the moment of transitioning, knowing what to do and why, how to implement a raw diet in practice, what options exist, what to buy, what to eat, what to focus on, etc. made my transitioning very fast and led to very satisfactory results. Besides, I was able to select the most nutritions simple meals to build a diet plan that I could stick to on an average busy day without much effort.
Second, there was a huge psychological moment that may be unique for me because I underwent a major, multi-level, and long-lasting identity shift. Even though everyone goes through some form of transformations from time to time, I consider mine to be relatively unique because I immigrated to the U.S. alone and basically abandoned any factual support and relevant experiences from my past. I faced a choice: to live a mediocre life holding on to my previous adaptations and memories by sticking to some nationality-based immigrant union and discuss Russian politics my entire life listening to some sad songs OR to embrace my ambitions and transmute my entire self to live to the maximum of my potential in a new environment and conditions. I found the second option to be more interesting and productive.
I gradually came to realization that I needed to take a huge responsibility for my life, to become an adult who can formulate and stick to her goals, values, who can access her own power and mind, who can make decisions, take risks, exercise trust in the previously unknown circumstances, to finally create the suitable reality and learn to give to others. If before I knew that there were parental figures to fall back on, some family experiences to learn from, some connections and friendships, I knew that I was a part of a system with its at times helpful, but often times dysfunctional interactions and patterns, then after I moved to the U.S., I was suddenly immersed in a huge space with vacuum in which I could technically develop in any direction, choose any belief system, choose any reality for myself. That vacuum felt like a terrible emptiness that I didn't know where to hide from, and the only way to get rid of that discomfort, as I realized eventually, was to grow (metaphotically) myself to fill it in with my persona and creativity and to give to people building a community and forming social connections.
The task that I chose for myself made me feel like I needed to be as powerful, as energetic, and autonomous as possible to be able to focus on my goal. This is why after I moved to the U.S. I immediately prioritized healthy lifestyle in the capacity I had awareness for. And it was amazing to find so many healthful options being so readily available!
And when I discovered raw vegan diet and learned more about it, it was perfectly timed. I was facing another major leap in my life on the background of a super deep critical moment of my personal, internal life and yearning for a path, and raw diet unlocked the necessary energy for it. In my case, I never really had a choice to stick to a raw diet or to abandon it because what it gave me was so grand and invaluable that I could hardly imagine a scenario in which I would neglect that gift. Hereby...
I had a very strong understanding why I needed to do it and why I needed to make it work for myself. There was a much greater power in the context of my life that was pushing me on this path and I only needed to ensure flawless execution.
Those are, perhaps, the main factors that made my raw transition so easy and fast.
Thank you for reading!
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