For my entire life (I'm 21) I've been the poster child for the SAD eater. As opposed to getting a gastric bypass (which I had scheduled for mid April), I've decided to give raw a go and postpone the bypass (hopefully forever!).

I've tried other diets in the past, but never have I been excited about changing my lifestyle. That is not the case with raw foods. I'm so excited to be healthy and eating to live, and not living to eat.

So that brings me to my question. What is the ideal transition time? Here's some more background on me: I am used to eating breakfast and dinner at fast food resturants. Large soda, fries, and buger. Sometimes add an extra sweet food. I've been doing this for years.

My plan for transition is this: raw breakfast (been doing green smoothies), mostly raw lunch (I've had a quarter of baked chicken on salad), and then tuna for dinner with an apple and cucumbers. I've been doing a ton of snacking the last couple of days.. cut up fruits, almonds, snow peas.

I have completely given up going out to eat, soda, beef. Pretty much the only things that are not ideal is tuna and the bit of chicken.

I plan to completely go off the chicken in a week (just eating up what I had in the freezer).

Is a month of eating tuna about right, or would I be alright to eat the tuna for the next two weeks or so and then be able to completely transition?

Woo.. lots of text. Thanks in advance for your advice!

The millisecond I learned that not eating animals was a viable option I dropped them completely. No transition for me, I was repulsed, disgusted, and distressed to realize that I had wrongly been told I needed them.

I think those with a history of poor eating should give themselves at least 30 days to make some basic life adjustments...and decide how they are going to approach social situations....which is what kills this process for many anyway. Then a gradual 6 to 12 month process is not an un-reasonable time frame to learn a healthy and care-free eating style...and undo (in some cases) 10, 20, 30 or more years of unhealthy habits. I like to say that if things are going TOO well...you can always speed up your processes. If things are difficult, then slowing down and regulating one's own detox could often be recommended (in my opinion).

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I feel sure David is right - too fast and you might feel really uncomfortable.

Cutting out the fast food and adding fresh fruit and vegetables is a fantastic start.

As wise people have said before it's often more important what you leave out rather than what you put in - certainly in the early days.

You have been so honest with your situation as of now - i feel a longer, gentle transition time would be good for you.

You are very young - a year transitioning will be just a drop in the ocean of time.

Well done and best of luck