Matt Bennett shares his Top 5 Tips for Long-Term Raw Vegan Success. He is a Holistic Health Educator with an emphasis on detoxification and raw, living foods. Matt grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota, where, from a young age, he suffered from a variety of health issues that his doctors could not resolve. Through his search for answers, he came across the concept of juice fasting, which eventually led him to discover a raw vegan lifestyle. Over the next several months, Matt watched virtually all his health issues fade away, and, now, after more than 10 years of practicing a raw vegan lifestyle, he continues to experience the best health of his life.
In 2014, Matt earned his certification as a Level II Detoxification Specialist through the International School of Detoxification, and, later that year, he became a Certified Raw Food Chef and Educator through the Graff Academy of Health Science. In 2017, Matt founded Raw Intuition LLC to help people reconnect with their intuition and gain the clarity to identify and remove the obstructions that are sabotaging their peace, health and happiness. Learn more about Matt on MyRawIntuition.com, where you can sign up for the Raw Intuition Newsletter and receive Matt’s top five breakfast smoothie recipes for free! You can also connect with Matt on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Presenting Matt Bennett’s Top 5 Tips for Long-Term Raw Vegan Success
Over the past 10 years that I have been practicing a raw vegan lifestyle, I have noticed many commonalities between those who succeed on this path and those who don’t. If you embody the following five tips, the probability of your succeeding with this lifestyle will increase exponentially.
1. Patience: Especially in the beginning of your transition into this new lifestyle, you must be patient with yourself. It likely will take some time before you feel completely confident in your understanding and application of the lifestyle. Nobody gets it perfect from the start, so don’t get down on yourself if you “mess up” occasionally. Have fun, be compassionate toward yourself and approach this lifestyle as a journey, not a sprint.
2. Persistence: Building off of the first tip, don’t give up if you “make a mistake” or need to adjust your approach here and there. A strong and healthy mindset is essential to staying persistent in the face of any challenges you may experience. With each challenge or setback you face, there is an opportunity to learn, fine-tune and move forward with a deeper understanding.
3. Practicality: To make a raw vegan lifestyle sustainable, each person must be practical with how they approach it. You do not need to 100 percent duplicate your favorite raw vegan teacher’s diet. Use their approach as a guide but personalize your diet based on your unique circumstances and what is practical for your situation. Family life, geographical location, accessibility to quality produce, occupation, financial status, living situation and so much more will affect how each person needs to structure their diet to make it practical and sustainable for them.
4. a) Study the veterans: If there is something you want to accomplish, study the people who have already done it. Learning from successful long-term raw vegans will allow you to streamline your own path to success. They have already gone through many of the challenges that you likely will face on your journey, so learn from their mistakes so you don’t make them, too. Raw food festivals, meetups, online summits, courses, books and YouTube are all great ways to learn from long-term raw vegans and deepen your understanding of what it takes to be successful with this lifestyle.
4. b) Follow your intuition: As you begin learning from different raw vegan teachers, you will quickly notice that they do not all agree with one another on every subject. I suggest that you approach your education with the understanding that no one person will have all the correct answers 100 percent of the time. It’s not that anyone is intentionally giving occasional inaccurate information, but we all have certain known and unknown biases that may influence how we think about any given subject. For this reason, I advocate the philosophy of “Listen to all, blindly follow no one” and use your intuition to decipher which information you will use to make the best decisions for yourself.
5. Go beyond the food: It takes more than just a good diet to create a high level of health. Eating healthy food is important, but it is equally important to incorporate healthy nondietary lifestyle habits into your routine as well. Habits such as exercise, stress management, laughter, breathing fresh air, exposure to sunshine, meaningful work, healthy relationships, spiritual connection, spending time in nature and avoiding harmful chemicals in your environment will synergistically amplify the beneficial effects of your healthy diet far beyond what diet could do alone. Just as the cells, organs, glands and supporting bodily systems work cohesively to keep us alive, so do the various diet and lifestyle habits work together to keep us healthy.
