Just starting out raw - Raw Food Chat

MarthaT · 08-05-2006

5 years ago I picked up a book about eating raw, the name of the book has escaped me, but I remember thinking to myself that I would love to be able to eat like that. Not because of health, beauty or to lose weight, even though I need to lose about 65 pounds... but the simplicity of eating raw. I HATE cooking, it is SOOO time consuming. Making a mess...cleaning it up. I have better things to do with my time! Many times after cooking I'm unable to eat because the food just doesn't appeal to me. I was raised eating foods from a garden, but I took on the fast paced lifestyle and never had time for a garden. The fast food lifestyle was how I ate for many years. I have been moving toward the raw lifestyle for a long time, but just never realized it. First reading Adelle Davis- moving to herbs for healing and never using drugs, eliminating the "whites", and sodas and adding in more salads without bottled dressing, then adding things like spirulina, tahini, almond butter etc. Just simple things really, but I could never say to myself that I was going to go Raw, until now. I don't really worry about what my friends or family will say - they already think I am strange, because I "DO HERBS". I read labels and tell people that milk is NOT good for them. So to go raw wouldn't even phase the people in my life. The real reason I want to go raw is for the simplicity of it. I won't be one of those who spend a lot of time making raw tacos, or raw spaghetti, not that I never will make those things its just that I want eating to be a simple pleasure. And I want my grand kids to eat better, so I have to be the leader and just do it!
I don't really have any health issues other than the weight issue. I gained 50 pounds when I quit smoking. I haven't missed a day of work due to illness in at least 8 years. I'm not saying I haven't been sick however, I have had a head cold, sinus problems and one time a toothache, but I usually get over these types of problems in 24 hours or less. The tooth problem was due to losing a filling and not getting it replaced. I'm thinking that I should just go for it - cold turkey - just eat raw, but reading lots of raw books some suggest going slower. Hopefully I will be able to make my transition a little faster with help from this forum.

greenbunny · 08-06-2006

Welcome Martha. You know, the simplicity is the thing that I love most about raw foods. It ??s downright strange to me when people say that they can ??t eat raw because they don ??t have the time or the money. I just grab some fruit when others have to cook and clean up or drive to a restaurant. I waste sooooo much time going out to restaurants with my husband. Good thing he ??s good company!

Also, when raw, I need to eat so much less that it costs almost nothing. I get the life force and nutrients I need with little consumption so don ??t crave so much food. I had a tough last couple of years. Was 100% still eating all my fatty, but extremely high quality, oils and salad dressings. I was my normal size 8. Then we went through moving trauma, I went off live foods and I just couldn ??t stop eating. When I meditated on it and asked my body what was going on she told me that she was trying to get enough nutrition and life force and never did, so kept on wanting more. I went up to a size 12 ?? 14. About 6 months ago I started to listen to my body again. I ate a gigantic fruit meal every single day and cut out all sweeteners and all processed fat - only got fat from lots of avocados and bananas. That ??s all my body was asking for. She mostly wanted fruit. That was all I changed I still ate like a horse for awhile anything else I wanted - pasta, bread, fish, eggs etc. In the last 6 months I went from size 12 to size 2. I feel more flexible, more healthy and better about myself in general. Over the last 6 months with adding the fruit (no salads ?? just added fruit ?? whole fruit, not smoothies and not refrigerated ?? or at least allowed to warm up before eating) I have stopped wanting most of the other food I was eating besides the fruit, but don ??t deny myself anything except what ??s on the list above that my body doesn't want: sweeteners and processed fat. I don ??t exercise. I just started to want to stretch and do yoga again. When I go live long enough I start to WANT to move. When live I just start jumping around a lot and dancing spontaneously. I just can ??t help it. It happened yesterday. Once, when I was 100% live for awhile about 10 years ago in NYC, I started to have so much energy that I just started running up and down the stairs of our building. Before that I could barely move and the idea of exercise was frightful. I guess the gist of what I ??m trying to get at is that the weight and exercise thing will take care of itself if you give your body what it needs. Don ??t sweat it too much how to start. Let your body take over and give it the real stuff and it will take care of you.

greenbunny

GP94E3 · 08-08-2006

I completely went through the same thing Greenbunny! I think most people that try raw foods do. I started eating raw for a while, lost weight and had SOOo much energy, it was crazy! I was running miles and doing things I would've never done before. Unfortunately, I went back to cooked foods after something bad happened in my life, it's true, cooked foods are an addiction. I finally understood that concept, because after feeling SOOO great, i went back to feeling like crap and I didn't even really want to. Like greenbunny said Martha, you have to listen to your body, what does it really really want? It wants nutrients, it wants live foods. I would recommend that you read the book "12 steps to end your addiction to cooked foods." I think that's the name. It doesn't sound like you have a problem with having an addiction to cooked foods, but the book does tell you how to transition into raw foods and other interesting facts.

GP

The Vej · 08-09-2006

Wow that's a great welcome, and welcome again! MarthaT that's why I love raw foods too! Greenbunny has a lot of good advice. She's pretty smart.

MarthaT · 08-10-2006

Oh, I will have plenty of trouble going 100% raw, you see, I live in SE Texas. We are addicted to rice, potatoes, meat and gravy. For the years before I ate fast food - that was always on the table. I have bought at least 15, maybe more raw cookbooks, and I have listened to everything I can to make my transition easy - I really am about 50-60% raw now, with some days more. Salads are easy for me, but they don't "fill" me up. I was never a big fruit eater, but I have found several that I will eat routinely. I have started the green drinks and I find them easy to do, but I travel with my job and the smoothies aren't an option sometime. I like nuts and seeds, and will eat them, but not all the time. One of the problems I have is - I will say ok - tomorrow I go completely raw, I get everything ready to go and something occurs to throw me off, and I say just forget it I will do it next week. Then next week gets here and I will get a call to go to work before my scheduled time and that will throw me off. If I could just get into the swing of doing the raw thing before things go crazy I believe I could get a handle on it. Does this make sense? I know that life is never going to be easy and things will come our way that challenge us, but i just wish I could get into the raw living foods and then..... let things go crazy. I don't have a problem with change, in fact I thrive on change, but I guess when you are trying something new especially something that is going to throw your entire life into a tailspin everything seems to conspire against you. Thanks again for any suggestions and I'm trying to take some time to read other posts.
Martha T

greenbunny · 08-11-2006

Aaah shucks, Vej - thanks. You have hear-by made up for all your jokes ?? hee hee.

Martha, been there. The worst thing you can do is say to yourself ??tomorrow I go 100% ??. You set yourself up for failure that way. Even if you do get yourself to go live it ??s hard to stay the long haul if it isn ??t organically accomplished and integrated into your lifestyle. It ??s better to keep on making small gains. Better to say, tomorrow I will make sure I eat one piece of fruit and do it. Then you get the reward and the good associations. Each day make a very simple goal. You don ??t have to do it all in one day, or month or even year. You have been eating meat and potatoes for a long time and it isn ??t fair to yourself or your body to shock it into live foods if it isn ??t easy for you. It ??s not even necessarily the most healthful way. Keep the 100% way back in your mind and stay with the baby steps that will make it actually happen. Even if it is ??today at the restaurant I will eat two side salads instead of the fries ?? you ??ve made a big step ?? bigger than 99.99% of Americans will have done that day. If you are eating 50% live foods I would like to tell you that most ??authorities ?? say that most of the gains of eating live are accomplished if you eat only 70%. You ??re almost there hun. No need to force the 100% perfectionistic, self-sabotage stuff. Also, if you can increase your live food even a little bit when things are crazy, then you are telling yourself that you can do this under any circumstances and be successful and it will easier for you to stay on it long term no matter what comes up.

Btw, I just moved to Texas July 4th. Yep, they ??re sure into their cattle here ?? but even if you still eat meat and taters and just about everything else that goes into your mouth is live ?? I would call that success. Eventually your body will start to crave alternative protein sources and it won ??t matter what state you ??re living in. All states have their favorite non-food food. Just count yourself lucky that you aren ??t living in Louisiana. There ??s almost nothing there that is fried. Tastes good, but that food has been rated the ??most unhealthy ?? in the country. Here in Texas you might even be able to get raw cheeses and goat yogurt like I ??m going to. I tried to get that all up and down the east coast and failed but I found it here in Texas!

greenbunny

MarthaT · 08-11-2006

Your right, I am just so anxious to not eat all the bad stuff, that I chastise myself if I eat anything bad. In fact I'm eating healthier than I ever have in my life. I do eat fruit and I never did that before, I do go without meat sometimes, and I rarely and I mean rarely eat at fast food restaurants anymore. I've added wheatgrass, lots of salads plus the green drinks, and I eat lots more fresh vegetables. I'm growing my own herbs now. So yea, I'm doing a lot better than I was. In reading all about people who have been raw for years I'm anxious to feel the way they claim they feel and it's not that I feel bad, cause I'm rarely sick, but I don't have as much energy as I would like to have. Of course the weight is an issue.
My husband and his family are Cajun - so I know all about their cuisine. Gumbo, fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried frog legs, fried chicken The only vegetables they eat are onion, green pepper and tomatoes. They are all at least 100 pounds overweight. During the hurricane they were all eating stuff out of the cans that FEMA provided to us, drinking tons of cokes and I went to a health food store while in dallas and picked up some vegetables and fruit and raw tahini and raw almond butter and thats what I ate - my sister-in-law said to me, You sure do eat strange". They all have high blood pressure, and some of them are younger than me. I don't even try to tell them anymore they are slowly killing themselves, because they can't see it. So yes I am going to just add in what I can and go with that. Thanks so much for the inspiration greenbunny, btw where in texas are you?
MarthaT

greenbunny · 08-11-2006

I just moved to Austin early July. The Whole Foods headquarters are here and they actually have a live food deli!!!! There is also a farmer's market right near us and several other good healthfood stores. I feel like I've died and gone to heaven.

Wow, fema food.- Can't even imagine. That must have been awful! We moved here from Florida and the 2004 hurricanes sure reaked havoc with us too. I went from 100% live to eating microwaved tv dinners - healthfood ones - but all the same. Evacuating 3 times in a row to far away because of my handicapped Mom. Oh, it was awful! We started the process of moving then and just got here now. I kept on thinking - oh - I'll be moved soon and I can go back to eating right - but it took over a year to actually move. I am so relieved to be able to go back to civilized eating - at least what I called civilized. The hurricanes and getting out of Florida set me so far back it makes me want to cry - but I'm finally in a place where there is hope. We have to re-do our kitchen here and our stuff is still in storage but we are on the down side of the mountain and I at least can get some real food. Don't have my vitamix of dehydrator or even a full set of dishes or bowls and a student refrigerator - but it's still so easy compared to what I came from. I'm able to eat mostly live. I feel like life is coming back to me.

It really sounds to me like you are doing great from what you described. Sounds like you did better through the hurricanes than I did. If you could do so well through that then you should really be patting yourself on the back!

greenbunny