Yesterday, we covered the concept of "unsubscribing" from unhealthy practices. This was of course based on the common Internet practice of subscribing and unsubscribing to various things like newsletters and email lists. I receive quite a few of these each day, many raw foods ones and many non-raw ones. Among the non-raw, one that has been interesting to me lately is called the Art of Non-Conformity, penned by Chris Guillebeau. Basically, Chris' site chronicles his adventures in reaching his personal goal -- to travel to every country in the world! Along the way, he writes about all sorts of out-of-the-box things, as the blog name implies.

Today, he posted something that is remarkably insightful and applicable to our subject matter here, even though his context was completely different. The entry, entitled simply "Before and After," discusses the drinking water problems in much of Africa, focusing for the moment on Liberia. Atop the piece (the "before" picture) is a muddy water hole, the only source of drinking water for one village. The next picture (the "after" shot) shows a different, very happy village obtaining fresh, clean water from a newly installed well. Chris closes his article with the following quote:

The thing about before and after ? it s hard to go back to before when you ve experienced the after. This is true in life, clean drinking water, and transformation of all kinds.

So true!? One huge difference between the raw food lifestyle and other diets is that true transformational aspect. Sure, success stories abound about fad diets and other diets, but more often than not, they're within the context of yo-yo weight loss/gain stories. Personally, I never would have tried, say, Atkins. But, I do know a number of people who used that protocol to lose weight. ...And then they regained it!! Why? No core transformation took place, so it was easy to slip back to unhealth.

Raw isn't like that. It's a whole-being transformation. I've yet to meet anyone who was truly transformed by raw who later went back to eating junk. I mean, sure, maybe it happens and I just don't know about it. But, I think Chris is spot-on here; It's hard to go back to your "before" state once you've truly delighted in the existence of your "after" one. That's because, in order to truly revert back to your unhealthy self, you'd have to either consciously do it or actually buy back into it all again -- and I just don't believe many people would willingly do that (barring some traumatic event or something, that is).

Let's face it: ?Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, salads, smoothies ... These things are WAY more exciting and life-giving. They affect your entire being -- mind, body, emotions,and spirit. And that's powerful, powerful stuff, my friends -- sometimes staggeringly so. I'm absolutely bursting with positive energy as I write about this!? I might waffle on other things in life, but raw is edefinitely here to stay! :-)