[jroo]

Originally Posted by Naossoan

Each smoothie I make is roughly 2.5 glasses and I feel quite full afterwards, though I only feel that way for a few hours.

There are a few things to remember about the raw food lifestyle:

1. There is more than one type of hunger. Our stomach tells us when it's empty and we feel the need to fill it, because we're used to eating when our stomachs finally empty after sticking a bunch of slowly digesting stuff in them. When your body is resting from digestion, it can heal better, so it's good to wait until you are truly hungry to eat. Depending on your current health, and once you've detoxified somewhat, you may want to try a 24-30 hour water fast. During that time, you will experience different types of hunger and your energy will have highs and lows. You can use that to understand when your body is really asking for food. I find for myself, that it also breaks the need to keep the stomach full. If you aren't ready for a fast, you can also try making sure you fast at least 12 hours per night.

2. This diet is inheritantly low calorie. If you calculated the calories in your smoothie, they might be anywhere from 300-600, and most of that is coming from the fruit, and fat if you added it.

3. That said, you may not need as many calories as you would on cooked food. I believe that the SAD diet relies on 2000-3000 calorie intake not for energy, but to make sure that we get enough nutrition every day. Yes, we need calories, but no, I don't believe they are our only source of energy. Raw food can have 80% more nutrition than cooked, and organic food can have 1-2 times more nutrients than non-organic. Dr. Cousens says that a person on live foods can eat as little as 60% of the calories he/she was eating, and not necessarily feel deprived (because you are filling your stomach just as full, just not with high calorie food.)

Raw requires so much less energy and resources to digest, even if you are poorly combining it. You eventually start digesting so much more of it (instead of packing it in your colon undigested), so you're more efficient. Your body is not continually trying to push out the junk that you are putting in. There are other things that go along with this as well.

By green I mean a "mixed greens" container I purchased which has various types of lettuce and some other stuff, I'll have to look at the package, and the same type of just Spinach... ...I find those smoothies don't taste all that geat so I'll have to experiment with different fruits that will overpower the poor taste of the greens.

Mixed greens have a bitterness to them which is normally balanced and harmonized by the fatty salad dressing. Spinach also has a strong flavor. You might want to try something less strong like kale, collard greens, romaine, or green cabbage. Or try a tablespoon of coconut oil (once again, I don't follow strict food combining).

Greens are life. They are detoxifying, alkalizing, and loaded with minerals. Pound for pound they can equal the protein in meat. Except for strict fruitarianism, all raw food diets stress greens (the only food group that they don't limit). I think it's worth learning to consume them in larger quantities. But you can increase them slowly.

every time I see an ad on TV for a Pizza Hut P-Zone I start getting huge cravings for that kind of food.

It's certainly no problem to eat cooked foods during your transition (or beyond). As long as you have a realistic goal and don't guilt yourself. However, if you want to minimize your cravings, turn off commercial TV for a while. Visit your library and stock up on TV shows from there. You may need to watch them on your computer, it will ignore the scratches more than your DVD player.