If you are interested in diet, health, raw foods, or any offshoot of the detox lifestyle, you must understand the beauty of simplicity. No matter what level of health you are coming from—be it decades of raw or right off the hot dog cart—the quickest, most painless route to health and weight loss is extreme simplicity in your diet.

To practice extreme simplicity, you must ignore all the labels like “raw” or “vegan” or “vegetarian” and focus on foods that move through the body easily, or what I call Quick Exit foods. This boils down to the following foods and food combinations:

• Fresh vegetable juices (ideally on an empty stomach either for breakfast or in the late afternoon)
• Fresh vegetables (as a raw salad, whole, or steamed with a little organic butter and sea salt if desired)
• Avocados (with a raw salad for lunch)
• Baked (and raw) root vegetables like parsnip, butternut squash, and sweet potato (try these wholesome comfort veggies for dinner with your raw salad with a little organic butter, sea salt, and agave)
• Raw goat’s milk cheeses (use it liberally with raw and cooked vegetables)
• Fresh fish (ideally wild/organic, enjoyed along with a raw salad and steamed low-starch vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, nightshades, leafy greens, etc.)

These foods, while not all “raw” or “vegan” by definition, are the easiest to digest when properly combined per the instructions in my books, enabling the body to release the built-up waste matter that’s causing your ailments and excess weight. I deliberately omitted fresh and dried fruits, nuts, and grains because nuts and grains are very dense and difficult to digest, and both fresh and dried fruits can create a lot of carbonic gas in a body that’s awakening old waste matter. The discomforts and symptoms that come with transitioning to a raw diet are usually caused by abundant intake of those foods.

If you’re sailing along smoothly while indulging in raw nuts, grains, and fruits, by all means keep doing it. But if you are have trouble boosting your energy, losing weight, or reaping other benefits that the raw world promises, it is time to practice the beauty of simplicity. It solves the problem every time!

Remember, whether you are a beginner or a lifelong raw devotee, simple food from its source, in the simplest combinations possible, is the secret to cleaning your cells and lightening up! Labels do not matter. What matters is that the food you eat moves rapidly through your body. Accept this simplicity and you will overcome every dietary puzzle and will experience the true bliss of a clean, harmonious, energized body!

Don’t get caught up in complicated raw/vegan concoctions like nut-patés, tempeh, soy foods, grain mixtures, and dense desserts—all of which lead to gas, gas and more gas, along with reduced energy and a heavy burden on the intestines. This is not to prohibit you from enjoying these raw/vegan gourmet items in small amounts if you really love them. Just don’t kid yourself into thinking they are healthy and energizing or support your weight loss efforts.

Remember, simplicity trumps all. You don’t need unusual, hard-to-find items that mimic mainstream fare in raw or vegan form to succeed. In fact, you can easily find the simple foods listed above at restaurants or prepare them at home.

The goal of working toward a raw diet is to eventually feel completely content and satisfied with some fresh raw fruits and vegetables—not to require huge volumes of raw nuts and grains. Don’t fall for the marketing of so-called health foods by building your diet around the denser, more complicated raw products.

Until you are truly ready—emotionally, socially, and physiologically—to embrace a diet of 95% (or more) of simple fruits and vegetables, you are much better off bending to include steamed or baked vegetables, raw goat cheese, and even the occasional piece of fish. Do not place unrealistic pressure on yourself. Raw is not a race. Nor is it a goal unto itself. The goal is joyful, clean, vibrantly oscillating cells, which comes from eating simply, eliminating fully, and treating yourself and others with loving devotion.

Do you see the difference, my friends? Forget all the raw, vegan, and vegetarian dogma. Simple foods, whether cooked or raw, in simple combinations, is the fastest, most effective way to cleanse and rejuvenate.

Guided Meditation: Another Way to Raise Your Vibrations

If you are looking for non-dietary ways to raise your vibrations and become more peaceful, I highly recommend guided meditation. It always leaves me deeply relaxed yet surprisingly revived afterward. Those of you who are not excited by the idea of sitting in a lotus position and following your breath will love this approach.

I actually recommend lying down for optimal results. Lying down allows you to go into the deepest meditative states because no thought or effort is required to hold your body up. This approach can also be a doorway to traditional meditation, which is also useful at certain stages. Expect an intensely enjoyable experience as you start to connect with your true nature. These meditations leave you feeling unburdened, refreshed, and enlightened, and improve sleep as they awaken your mind and heart for what is to come.

Moreover, doing a simple meditation before eating helps remove so much of the pressure that causes us to over-consume. Overeating is often the result of feeding the body from the intense, spinning energy of the brain. Our eating habits reflect our thinking. If you practice meditation during the times of day when you typically binge or eat a large meal, you will find yourself eating much more slowly and recognizing when you have had enough.

The following CDs (all available through amazon.com) were created for the utmost spiritual, emotional, and physical advancement, and have been the most instrumental in both my personal and professional work. They will help bring you into an ideal frequency as well as help you heal your subconscious and unconscious imbalances. Lie back, close your eyes, and prepare for transformation!