Progress NOT Perfection

January 12, 2010 · by admin · Filed Under Blog · Leave a Comment 

The other day, I was reading the blog of a well-known raw food chef. Normally she’s upbeat and positive. She creates yummy recipes and exudes the goodness we associate with raw food diet followers; positive, joyful, upbeat.

The reason this blog post stood out to me was the sheer honesty of it. No sugar coating the truth here, if you’ll pardon the expression. You see, her entire post was on how she’d indulged in sugary baked goods at an office holiday party…and how she felt afterwards. Crummy, as you can imagine. She spent a week focusing on detoxification to help her body deal with the sudden onslaught of not only cooked foods but sugar and white flour filled junk that she found herself eating when faced with the holiday cookie tray.

Now here’s a gal who’s been raw for five years, and who lovingly guides many people through the raw food journey – and she over indulged at a party. As you can see, nobody is perfect! Yet I hear so many people beating themselves up if they’re not “perfect” on their diets. “Oh, I tried raw foods, but I couldn’t eat 100% raw, so I just gave up,” they tell me.

Percentages are silly and are generally meaningless. Statistics applied inappropriately do not provide any usable information. I have seen several people that were 100% raw overeat 100% raw pies and gain a lot of weight. Eating an entire 100% raw pie is disastrous to your digestive system. I have worked worked with several bulemic women that binged and purged on 100% raw carrots and bananas. The point is that as Ani Difranco says “Every tool is a weapon if you use it right.” We can harm ourselves in many ways with things that are generally beneficial. It all depends on the intention behind it. Am I eating to avoid living the life I want? Am I eating because I don’t know how to speak up to get my needs met? You get the idea.

Did you know that nature never, ever creates a perfectly straight line? Even if something looks straight to the naked eye, like a tree branch, it’s actually always slightly off. That’s because perfection is an illusion. I want you to reread that sentence. Perfection is an illusion. Our friends in 12 step programs have the saying, “Progress, not perfection” and I sincerely wish that anyone reading this who is making positive steps towards eating better thinks about that statement a lot.

There’s no such thing as perfection, no such thing as a perfect raw foodist. So stop beating yourself up. Just pick up right where you are, today! Every little step you take to enhance your health and well being, whether it’s weaning yourself away from a bad habit or cultivating a good habit, will help your body.

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Kristen Overlock & Anna Forkan. We are life loving, conscious living, raw food eating, adventure taking gals. Co-founders of RevitaLIVE Health & Wellness, a raw food education and wellness center north of Boston.