For those of you that have been raw for a while, what are some of the tips you would give to a newbie for transitioning to all raw? I am trying to go into it slowly, but I guess I am just not sure how slow, or what I should do each week to make the transition. I would say that I am about 80% raw right now. And I am feeling pretty good...I don't really feel like I am going through a detox period or anything. I have been vegan for about two years, and have always eaten lots of fresh, raw fruits and veggies. I also did a colon cleanse about a month ago.

Also, how many of you exercise and how much? I run 3 days a week, strength train three days a week and do yoga about 3-4 times a week. Will I be able to keep up with this exercise regime when I am 100% raw?

your exercise reutine sounds simelar to mine! I'm going into natural women's body building and transitioning to raw. I haven't noticed any tiredness, though. I actually think I have more energy with a raw diet. I think if you're already at the 80% mark, the rest should be a cake walk for you. Keep adding more and more raw meals and you'll be there before ya' know it.

Thanks for the reply. So maybe just keep adding one mroe raw food each week, or does it matter at which pace I do it, really?

Can anyone tell me why it is NOT a good idea to just go 100% raw right away? Is it beause of the detox phase? Is it too much to handle if you go 100% raw right away?

This is my opinion;

-Eat your calories. Eating enough calories makes it impossible to get protein deficiency (if you don't exclusively eat fruits and oils). You can get plenty of COMPLETE protein from nuts, seeds and sprouts.(1)

-replace cooked rice, pasta and more with sprouted wheat, barley, rye, oats and more. Sink and sprouting mentioned above takes a total of 48 hours.(2)

-Most accesible protein for the body can be found in spirulina, algaes, hemp and sprouts like alfalfa and mung.(3)

- Eat a broad variety of everything. Juicing the same vegetables everyday day is not the way to go. No matter how nutritional a food seem to be you can get to much or imbalance all the micro components if you overeat it.(4)

- 100 grams of alfalfa or mung beans covers about 30% of the the daily RDA of Amino acids in a 79 kg person.(5)

- Don't forget to eat a medium/large sallad atleast two meals a day. Green-leafy vegetables contain much minerals to alkalize the body.(6)

- Include powdered seaweed or atleast two grams of salt (2/5 of a teaspoon) everyday for Sodium. a teaspoon contains 2300 mg sodium (RDA: 1100 mg - 2000 mg)You DON'T want a sodium defiency. I f-ked up myself totally from just eating 500 mg of sodium from juiced celery and exercising almost everyday. It is very, very dangerous. For every 2 litre of water you drink add one teaspoon salt.(7)

Deficiencies : Sodium deficiency (not enough) can result in:
appetite loss
confusion
cramps
dehydration
eye problems
fatigue
heart attack
intestinal gas
irregular heartbeat
lethargy
low blood sugar
low resistance to infection
muscle wasting
vomiting
weakness (8)


1. [waltonfeed.com]
2. [www.living-foods.com]
3. Eating for beauty - David Wolfie
4. Conscious eating - Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
5. [www.fatfree.com] and [www.fatfree.com]
6. Eating for beauty - David Wolfe
7. [www.causeof.org]
8. [www.foodanddiet.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2006 08:25PM by Brand new heart.

If you are already eating 80% raw then I don't see a problem with going straigh to 100%. Especially as you have been eating high raw for a while.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

I agree with rob on that score. After a couple days of raw, I ended up going all raw. My system greatly appreciated it. You'll do fine!

-Set small goals (with timeframes) and keep them. After doing the research...decide what YOU think is best.....and try to implement it...at least to a small degree.

-If you fail, set smaller goals and be accepting of YOUR level.

-David Mason

Yogamama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can anyone tell me why it is NOT a good idea to
> just go 100% raw right away? Is it beause of the
> detox phase? Is it too much to handle if you go
> 100% raw right away?

I went from SAD to raw overnight, 7 years ago and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to work nuts and seeds into my diet, I basically ate citrus and salads for two weeks and then I just had to go back to cooked (vegan this time). It was a HUGE shock to my body and it took a long time to go back to raw. I don't think I have ever done %100 for two weeks straight since, it was as though there was a bad memory that was aquired at that time and I've been sporatic ever since.

I think is it better to work up to 100% and know what you're doing the first time. Like I said, I'm sporatically raw now and now that I know what I'm doing, I'll be cooked vegan one day and raw the next, but, I definitely regret that first time.

I have a feeling that going from Sad to Raw overnight might be a big shock to the system and maybe pretty hard to stick with. But, since you've already been Vegan for a while and are already at about 80%, you would probably find that you can do what every you feel is right. We intuitively know more than we know we know. (did that make sense?)

Anyhoo, good luck and happy raw lifestyle!!!!!

Life Is Good!

alive!

-Like David said, figure out for yourself what you do best on. Don't listen to experts and their facts because you are an unique individual with your own genes. See facts as suggestions.

-Try to figure out when you are eating to support yourself and do what you think is best for you and when you eat to damp some emotions or when you eat out of fear of sickness. Ask yourself: why do I want this? Am I doing this for pleasure? In my experience all pleasure is pain. When you eat to fill yourself up you focus out there so you don't have to face the causes of why you don't allready feel "up" there. So how can you determine the cause of the problem? Find what you wanted to avoid by eating that certain food and make friends with it.

-This is about peace. Discpline is stress. Acting from love is balance. If you're not there yet and don't know how to heal yourself mentally give yourself that junkfood. Not doing what you think is best for you is what hurts.

-If you discover your code to a healthy life you can change your habits in a blink of an eye.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2006 02:13PM by Brand new heart.

Thanks everyone. All of your posts are very helpful.

Now for my dumb quesiton...what is SAD??

SAD stands for standard American diet. I wondered about that too at first.

Great...thanks for letting me know!

certainly! Not a problem! !

Brand new heart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > - Include powdered seaweed or atleast two grams of
> salt (2/5 of a teaspoon) everyday for Sodium. a
> teaspoon contains 2300 mg sodium (RDA: 1100 mg -
> 2000 mg)You DON'T want a sodium defiency. I f-ked
> up myself totally from just eating 500 mg of
> sodium from juiced celery and exercising almost
> everyday. It is very, very dangerous. For every 2
> litre of water you drink add one teaspoon
> salt.(7)
>
> Deficiencies : Sodium deficiency (not enough) can
> result in:
> appetite loss
> confusion
> cramps
> dehydration
> eye problems
> fatigue
> heart attack
> intestinal gas
> irregular heartbeat
> lethargy
> low blood sugar
> low resistance to infection
> muscle wasting
> vomiting
> weakness (8)
>
>
> 1. [waltonfeed.com]
> 2.
> [www.living-foods.com]
> l
> 3. Eating for beauty - David Wolfie
> 4. Conscious eating - Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
> 5.
> [www.fatfree.com]
> UNG,%20MATURE%20SEEDS,%20SPROUTED,%20RAW and
> [www.fatfree.com]
> SEEDSx%20SPROUTED,%20RAW
> 6. Eating for beauty - David Wolfe
> 7. [www.causeof.org]
> 8. [www.foodanddiet.com]


Brand New Heart - I drink a teaspoon of sole mixed with water everyday...is that enough sodium? I use Himalayan Crystal Salt for my sole.

I'm not sure what sole is.

You have to figure out your own sodium need. It depends on how much you exercise, how hot the weather is, who you are and what constitutional type you have. These are my own conclusions. But, according to the link provided after fotnot #8, scientists recommend a daily intake of sodium between 1100mg-3300mg for adults. People who were on the 1500mg level had much lower levels of heartattacks statistically than people whose intake was higher. The RDA is for ALL salt eaten. And sea salt contains as much sodium as table salt (2300mg per teaspoon). That means a minimum of 3 gram salt (3/5 of a teaspoon) per day. I feel that about 4/5 of a teaspoon is about right for me. I feel balanced with that amount, but it could be an imagined balance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2006 10:21PM by Brand new heart.

We have to feel some things out for ourselves, and that's a good thing. I wouldn't want to have to go to bed at the time someone else tells me, or be told what I can or cannot read. Similarly, I like to just take in the available information and then play around with what I think will work for me.

It would be different if I had cancer and needed to be on a strict regimen, but that's a different scenario altogether...

All this is confusing me, I am so nervous about going vegan because I don't want to kill myself because of not knowing what I'm doing. But I also don't want to kill myself for the bad foods I could eat, too. I don't know what to do.

relax! keep with foods that you know for now. add one or two new ones each week to see how you like them. All of the people on this forum have probably been right where you are now. I know I was. It's a good change and you'll learn alot about yourself as you transition.

1) Eat raw foods you love.
2) Relax. Enjoy the journey.
3) Be open to change.
4) Be open to trying foods that you thought you did not like.
5) Don't dwell on the past. All experience can be used as useful learning.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

Wow, thanks everyone. I do need to relax.
I'd rather buy healthy foods than nonhealthy foods, I keep thinking to myself.

Also, is there a such thing is a vegan pyramid?

I don't know about the pyramid thing. Do you meditate for relaxation at all? I know it helps me to ground and center my nerves every day or I'd be a basket case by evening! 3 teens and my mom live with me.... YIKES! It's just a thought, though.

For relaxation I do a mantra. Also, devotional signing at group meditations that I attend. I am a very nervous person, I have to work on staying relaxed. I am also very sensitive to media. I do not watch violent movies. I also think that crying is important. Yesterday I heard a terrible news on the radio about a murder of an 8-year-old girl. (( I still feel shocked by it. I keep having thoughts about what she had to go through, what her parents had to go through. I need to cry. Letting feelings out is important. Repression leads to depression.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

I couldn't agree more. Since becomming a wiccan, I've found myself to be very empatetic toward others. It's frusterating at times.