12 Steps to Raw Food By Victoria Boutenko »

Victoria Boutenko believes that our bodies are designed to be healthy, that our bodies are perfect, and that sickness is not normal. For Victoria, absolute health is having enough energy to manifest dreams. Yet many people simply do not have enough energy to do so, or engage in a mental and physical struggle of ups and downs which make it difficult to remain joyful and fulfilled. For Victoria, the health and joyfulness that is our natural birthright can be found in nutrition. Standing in the way of optimal nutrition is a dependency on cooked foods and a corresponding belief that it is simply too difficult or not possible to change eating habits in a significant way.

Are You Slowing Down Your Own Metabolism? »

Calories are fuel for your body. If you don’t give your body enough fuel, it will start to slow down your metabolism to conserve energy because it thinks you’re starving. When your metabolism is in the slowed state, it’s called “starvation mode.”

The second your body starts to run low on energy, your body slows and enters starvation mode. Some days you burn more calories than others- you work out more one day, walked around more often than usual, or perhaps you laid down all day because you were sick. Perhaps you conserved energy (calories) on that day you were sick, but used them up, plus some, on the day you started feeling better. Even though you ate 1700 calories on that day you worked out, you only consumed 500 calories the day you were sick (I’m guessing you ate some bad sushi the night before.) It is still possible for you to enter starvation mode on the day you ate 1700 calories, because you burned 4,000 calories through your BMR and activity