Hello everyone — brand new to raw, as in haven't even started it yet

[kailynleto]

I'm Allyn and I haven't even started this diet, though I plan to as soon as I find a job (3-4 weeks). I'm hoping that y'all can arm me with the information I need to succeed at this diet. It's my first dietary change ever.

[Joyful]

You tube.com has some great videos on preparing raw food, sprouting, living foods, raw food transitioning, growing wheat grass, it is nice to see other people and what they are doing.

[Double Helix]

You'll get a lot of different routes to take raw. The easiest and tastiest way is good old fresh fruits and vegetables, eat until full. Then you have your nuts and seeds to eat in moderation.

You'll see a lot of stuff about superfoods, cacao, nama shoyu, Celtic sea salt and all kinds of other condiments and seasonings. You'll probably be curious about a lot of that stuff. It tends to get expensive and some of the recipes can be time consuming for some, and for others they enjoy eating that way as it mimics cooked food.

Try googling about raw diets to get different ideas on how to eat raw.

[temineth]

Welcome and good luck on your raw journey. Drinking a green smoothie everyday is the first change I made to my diet when I was thinking about going raw. You can find a ton of recipes on the internet, but my favorite are:
strawberries, banana, spinach, and water
and
2 oranges, banana, pineapple, spinach, and water
I found that with that one small change I sleep better at night and have more energy during the day.

[RawFoodGrl]

I recommend starting now!

It's very easy to make a smoothie or salad for breakfast, and make sure you get a salad or some other raw food with every meal. Snack on fruit, veggies, nuts or seeds. Heck, you just do that and you're 50% raw already!

Get a book - there are a lot of great ones out there - and learn. There's a lot you can learn from the internet, and websites are valuable, but to me, nothing takes the place of having a good book.

My current favorites are Rawsome! by Brigitte Mars and Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens.

For starting out, I highly recommend those.

Just one thing I want to mention - everybody is different and needs different foods and balances of foods (more of this, less of that) to feel vibrant and alive (and nutritionally balanced). Listen to what everyone has to say, but follow your own body's wisdom.