OK so I'm starting to progress to raw today. It's morning right now, and I don't really know what I should do breakfast wise. I was thinking I will eat a cantaloupe soon and then workout after it digests and then right to making a green smoothie. I hope the cantaloupe will give me enough energy! I have heard you are up and at 'em, FULLY awake by yourself after a while on a good raw diet, so I plan on only water in the morning after I feel that way, followed by a green smoothie. If today is not as great as I want, I will drink a green smoothie before and after a workout, or whatever.

Anyone with some good salad recipe combos would be nice (no oil/fat unless it's nuts though)

I got tons of different lettuce from the store: green leaf, red leaf, romaine
as well as green kale and cabbage, though I've heard lettuce is best. I don't know about buying weeds (lambsquarter, etc.) but it's a possibility. I also got whatever fruit Whole Foods had that was organic - so like strawberries, plums, dates, figs, nectarines, peaches, kiwis, apples, oranges. After reading green for life though, it was amazing the success stories people had, and I'm convinced that people are meant to eat greens.

Has anyone read 80/10/10 and able to give me some insight of what a "mono-meal" should be? Right now I'm going to do my best to follow my gooshy insides. I also got a few supplements to help with the transition, just until I fall into groove. (one is raw green supplement and the other is vega - a supplement by the author of "the thrive diet"

The Raw diet is important in the way that I'm describing for both overall physical and mental betterness. It's also important that I stay fit while on the diet, and sustain healthy muscle mass. I am only scared because there are not a lot of raw vegan athletes, and the subject is not very mainstream (I mean the real REAL subject - most people have heard of it, but don't really know what it is or how it works). So today I'm going to try to find "The Thrive Diet" book and "80/10/10" at this store near by and get on with my studying.

Don't be scared.....save yourself some money, you don't need to buy any books to tell you that you need to stay fit or how to do it on the raw lifestyle....just do the exercises/activites of your choice, get out and do it and do it vigorously!....have fun!

Don't let fear take the fun out of learning....have fun, I wish you the best.

Just my 2 cents

F1





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2008 11:18AM by fruitarianfitness.

When you get hungry...eat. I think that everyone's going to transition in different ways. We have different bodies and different emotional and psychological barriers that we might have to overcome. Part of being raw is learning to become highly aware of what your body is telling you. If you're like me, you'll try all this different stuff in the beginning and fret over whether or not you're getting enough of this nutrient or enough of that vitamin, but over time you'll develop confidence and figure out what's best for you and just go with it. You'll be amazed at how simple yet healthy a diet can be. I do agree with F1 regarding the books, but then again, when I started out the books served as a sort of security blanket for me. Not only did I find the books interesting, but they also gave me voices I could turn to when questions arose. Just go at your own pace and do what feels right for you. And remember, going raw can be a lengthy, transitional process. Don't pressure yourself to be 100% raw from the start. When I started, I set goals for myself in terms of how much raw produce I would eat and increased that amount with every week.

Thankyouu so much, this support means a lot. It's only scary because it's a new life in a way, but a GOOD way. Any big change will bring on doubt and confusion and fear in a human being, but I AM taking small steps and I will not set high standards at the start like I had before. Before I did have lack of information the first try, and I feel some understanding of what I'm doing when I do read about raw fitness/diet/lifestyle - getting to know people that are interested in this diet - really helps and does make me feel security knowing that this diet is amazing and that I can reach what I KNOW is best, I just have to get there first. You're right, F1, it should be a fun learning experience. I keep telling myself in the back of my mind, and it's slowly making progress to my emotions and doubts.

LOVE YOU GUYS

p.s. exercise and yoga REALLY HELPS


(my first yoga experience yesterday led me to make this decision; I was like, hey I'm living, let's just GO FOR IT and be a true human being. the natural way without waste. it made me so happy )

Right. The above advice is awesome. Thanks guys. The thing that psychs people out is how simple this really is. Start from where you are 100% comfortable....set small goals to eat more of the fresh fruits and vegetables that you LOVE......and do the small steps daily that you are MOTIVATED and PREPARED to do. Don't sweat the rest. Have fun!

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I can remember thinking how will I be able to run if I don't 'carbo load' in the traditional sense - and I couldn't believe that it would be possible to do a long run on a couple of bananas for example.

Now I only ever eat fruit for breakfast. I try to eat quite a lot before a long run - currently marathon training so last sunday was an 18 mile run fueled by a mango, a pear and a banana. I was out for over three hours - I had some grub with me too - dates and stuff.

but like the others said you will work out what is best for you. F1 is very confident and works entirely on his own instincts but I have found books like the Thrive Diet helpful.

Happy training

iLive,

Lots of good advice in the posts above. One thing about going to just fruit for meals starting from a normal cooked diet is that the stomach initially can't hold that much fruits. So in the beginning, it may be necessary to eat more than 3 meals a day. If you need to eat 5 or more meals a day, then just do it. I did that at first. But over time, my stomach was able to accommodate the high water content fruits to where I could eat just 2 meals a day.

As for salad dressings, Dr Graham explains how to make easy salad dressing from whole foods:

1. You take an acid fruit: lemon, limes, tomato, tamarind, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, pomelo, pineapple, passion fruit, etc.

2. You take a fatty food: sesame, hemp, sunflower, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, macadamia, cashews, avocado, coconut, etc

3. You take a filler vegetable/nonsweet fruit: celery, cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, etc

Blend. Given than you could easily find 20 acid fruits (there are easily 20 varieties of tomatoes alone), and 10 sources of fat, and 5 fillers, this would give you 1000 different salad dressing combinations.

If you want to get fancy, you could throw some fresh herbs into the mix, like cilantro, parsley, basil, etc.

I just tried the "design ur own" salad dressing mentioned in Bryan's post above and it was yummy. I put some strawberries into the VM along with some coconut pulp and a little celery. The directions are simple and make sense - thanks Bryan. ;-)

EZ rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
The
> directions are simple and make sense - thanks
> Bryan. ;-)

ditto
patty

Cool

I tried just tomatoe and celery, but it wasn't too appealing. I'll keep playing around with it

Pomelos are REALLY good - I wish they were more common here; Same with passionfruit They're everywhere in Australia.

My favorite tomato dressing during the summer is to make salsa. What I use is the following:

tomatoes - heirlooms are the best
tomatillos - remove skins
red bell peppers or sweet peppers - remove seeds
cilantro

Put the ingredients into a food processor with the S-blade, and slowly and lightly pulse until the salsa is chunky. Too much and you lose the yummy chunky pieces.

I put the salsa over a bed of shredded celery or grated cucumbers or cucumbers pasta made in a Spiroli.

To make it a more filling add a diced/cubed avocado on top of the salad.

OH yeah I was going to do salsa -like tonight. Thankyou for the recipe What about onions, do you think that would add something, or are they known for any disruption when you pair them with tomatoes?

Salsa is my all time favorite salad dressing, and it can be found or made just about anywhere == yum!!

iLive,

Onions are a bit too strong for me where I am in my process right now. However, tomatillos give the salsa a bit of zing. If you like onions, try it and see if it works for you.

Great post Bryan on how to make salad dressing. Thanks.

iLIVE, agree with you regarding tomato celery. I tried that and didn't like it.

I liked it with onion and garlic; i added some cilantro and lime as well as a small jalapeno. I used grape tomatoes and regular (local, organic, vine ripened) tomatoes as well. It's best when it sits together for a while in the fridge. I finished it off tonight with some sprouts and to make it interesting some crushed pecan to add some crunch - that was great.

I'm going to try to make a "burger" with sprouted lentils. I figure I will use popular, simple, spice combinations. I'm going to try cumin, coriander, and cinnamon with it, maybe some kind of sweetness..for a punch. I will eat that with a salad most likely. I'm trying to find some more dressings still.

I have no idea how that will turn out, but the lentils have to sprout first, so i have tomorrow to figure out a little bit more.