TOP TEN TIPS FOR STICKING TO YOUR RAW RESOLUTIONS
If you are like most people, as the calendar changes from January to February you may have already pledged and failed a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or change bad habits this year. British psychologist Richard Wiseman surveyed 3,000 people in 2007 and found that 88% had broken their resolutions by year’s end*, even though half of the people had felt pretty confident of success. People get into raw foods for a lot more reasons than just simple weight management, but it still takes a lot of resolve to stick to a Raw Food routine. Here are our top ten tips and tricks to setting achievable goals for yourself, no matter what time of year you’re getting started.
1) Be specific. An overly vague goal like “eating more raw food” is noble but nowhere near as achievable as a specific statement like “I will introduce at least one raw fruit or vegetable into every meal,” or “I will eat one entirely raw meal every day.” As you meet your goals consistently you can expand them to newer – but still specific – ones, such as eating entirely raw for X number of meals per day, or days each week.
2) Be realistic. Make resolutions that you think you can keep. Changing behaviors takes time, so if you are new to raw foods an immediate conversion to 100% raw overnight may be near impossible because it would involve changing more than one behavior at a time. In this case it would mean a complete overhaul of your shopping, food preparation and eating habits. A practicing vegan or vegetarian may be better positioned to make the leap into a fully raw diet; all others might be better served aiming to be incrementally more raw.
As long as we are talking about specific and realistic goals, it should be said that if you opt for a specific weight loss goal like “I will lose X pounds” – as opposed to a quantifiable healthy eating goal like being X% raw – realistically you may need to add a fitness regimen to your new eating habits in order to meet your goal. Again, this would represent changing more than one behavior at a time and may not be advisable. Personally we prefer sustainable lifestyle change goals over hitting specific weight targets, although some people find them motivational.
One final point about keeping it real, it must be said that no one of us is perfect. Expect to fall off the wagon occasionally. Accept it and build exceptions into your weekly schedule to accommodate it… and then get right back to healthier eating at your next meal. One slip up in a given week may feel ominous or discouraging at the moment, but if you plan for it, it will be happily forgotten over the long-term once you string together multiple consecutive weeks of being mostly perfect.
3) Be positive. More specifically, set positive/achieving goals, not negative/avoidance goals. Another way to think of this would be to “replace, don’t erase.” For example, if your weakness is candy bars, instead of cutting off your sweet tooth entirely, acknowledge it and substitute in a dried fruit when the craving hits. Dried apricots are plenty sweet and chewy too, along with being healthier. Simply trying to avoid unhealthy favorites is depressing, unless you turn it positive by giving yourself a better replacement option instead.
Since we are talking about replacing, not eliminating, behaviors, sticking to your raw goals will be easier if you rehearse a few “If/ Then” scenarios for moments when you know temptations will strike. For example, an “if/then” goal might look like this: “If I go to a restaurant, then I’ll at least look for vegan/vegetarian options first before ordering.” Or “if I have a late night/before bed hunger attack, then I will have a few raw fruits and vegetables in the fridge prepped and ready to go.” A little proactive if/then planning will enable you to make better choices when temptation comes.
4) Get emotional. Building an emotional attachment to your goal can be a tremendous motivator for sticking to it. Sure, you are committed to eating raw foods to “get healthier,” but it’s much more powerful to visualize the emotional reward you’ll get by being healthier. Being healthier is an abstract goal until you visualize it, for example, making you more confident in social situations, or helping you look your best for that upcoming vacation, or giving you the energy to keep up with your grandkids someday. Many of the Raw Food eaters we’ve met have a significant emotional motivation to learning healthier habits because of health problems, either personal or of a family member or loved one. The circumstances may be sad, but they can still result in a powerful emotional dedication to positive change.
5) Get visual. Make resolutions that are measurable and then create a visual representation of your progress. Visually tracking your raw efforts on a daily and weekly basis performs two important functions: it both reminds you of your goals each day and gives you the regular sense of accomplishment you need to keep going. Some examples we like include checking off successful days on your calendar, or better yet on your bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker so you’re sure to see it every morning. Set up a daily alarm on your cell phone to go off every day around lunchtime as a reminder.
6) Be short-sighted. Perhaps the reason almost 9 out of 10 New Year’s resolutions fail is because they are too long-term. It’s a lot easier to stick to a 30-day cleanse than a 365-day cleanse. Set shorter timelines, and when you reach them set up a new short-term goal. A yearly goal to be 75% raw doesn’t create the same sense of urgency as eating 75% raw this week or making two of my three meals today raw.
7) Go your own way. Choose goals that reflect your own values and ambitions, not other people. Trying out raw foods because someone told you that you’re lazy or need to get in better shape is no recipe for long-term change. Resolutions driven by a desire to please others are doomed to fail, no matter how much we care for them (or even want to spite them). A long-term lifestyle change can only come from within, for your own, personal reasons.
8) Feed your mind. Since you are resolving to make a change in your life, take advantage of the opportunity to enroll in a cooking class, attend a lecture or join an organization where you’ll get to actively learn more about your newfound goals. The brain may not be the largest organ in the human body but, with apologies to the skin and liver, it is the most important to changing behaviors and generating enthusiasm for staying raw. Or to paraphrase baseball great Yogi Berra, “half of the game is 90% mental.” A side benefit of getting out and learning is that you just might meet new friends that share your interest and can help you with our next tip…
9) Share your journey. Tell your family, your friends… whoever it takes as long as they’ll help you along the way. Engaging others in your raw resolutions can both build you a support group you’ll need when your enthusiasm waivers and function like a personal trainer that can hold you accountable when you get lazy. The buddy system is a tried and true axiom that applies to many of life’s great endeavors. Just remember to limit membership in your support group to positive people that believe in you and your goals, while politely cutting out the doubters.
Run a search for your city using subjects like “raw foods,” “vegetarians” or “healthy eating.” Depending on where you live, you may be able to connect with a local raw community you never knew existed.
10) Begin today. One final word on raw resolutions – start now! You do not have to wait until the calendar rolls around to January 1st again before making a positive change in your life. So set your goals, mark your calendars, call your buddies and get started. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll look and feel better, and the closer you’ll be to forging new habits and achieving your goals.
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