Below are two variations of the same issue: I'm too tired and don't have enough time to be healthy. The irony, of course, is that the more raw foods you eat, the more energy (and therefore time) you have!

By the end of the day I am so exhausted I'd rather not eat than go in the kitchen & try making something raw.

How do I stay raw with all the food prep and my lack of time and life's pressures

If you are running out of energy before bedtime, then you need to take a good look at your overall diet, as well as the stress in your life. If our bodies are not receiving proper nutrients, we'll be exhausted and unable to sustain a normal active lifestyle and handle the normal everyday stresses that arise.

Be certain you are not taxing your body by eating inconsistently or inadequately. It's important to eat when hungry, but also equally important to regularly replenish your body with quality water- and nutrient-dense foods.

One key concern when it comes to exhaustion is whether the body is handling sugar well , or not. There are many individuals who have varying degrees of insulin issues that result in overall body exhaustion when foods are not consumed on a regular basis (allowing too much time to go between meals) or by consuming meals high in sugars (which don't cause a problem for some individuals, but for those with any type of insulin issue this can be a big problem). So, monitor how and what you are eating to see if this may be part of the problem with overall fatigue.

Other kinds of stress (mental, emotional, spiritual) will also result in physical exhaustion. Check in with yourself from time-to-time to see how you're treating yourself. We need to pay attention to maintaining a healthy balance in all aspects of our lives, not just with diet. The more balanced we are, the better able our bodies are able to meet the demands of daily living.

As for food prep, it may seem time-consuming in the beginning because you're doing something different from what you're used to doing. In actuality, the time spent preparing raw food meals is almost always less than the time spent preparing cooked meals (assuming you're making healthy cooked foods -- not frozen, canned, and packaged unhealthy cooked dishes).

We've made raw meals in our home, but also prepared cooked meals for our child, and we were always waiting around for the cooked foods to be finished before we could eat a meal together. Not only that, but cooked foods require constant attention, so they don't burn or stick (and the clean-up of cooked foods is much more labor intensive than that of raw foods which easily rinse right off dishes).

Anyway, even if it did take longer to prepare raw food meals, it's worth it! Sure, we have time pressures because we are living busy lives, being stretched here and there until we feel we can no longer even have enough time to sleep. But, step back and take a look at the bigger picture. How will you ever have enough energy, enough health, to get things done over the long-term? If you stretch yourself too thin right now, without eating a healthy diet, you're going to become too unwell to do anything at all in the near future.

Your health is so very important. It should, in my opinion, be the number one priority in everyone's lives. Without our health we have nothing. We can never truly be happy, accomplished, or connected with others if we aren't taking care of ourselves, first.

So, our real response to this question is another question: Why aren't you making changes in your life to have abundant energy and allow the maximum time for your diet for long-term health and overall happiness?

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Photo Credit: Photo by motoyen on Flickr (Creative Commons)