Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can offer me some advice please. I'm brand new to a Raw food way of eating and doing reasonably well. I'm making green juice every morning and trying to eat just fruit until lunchtime. My typical day is as follows:
Breakfast - green juice
green juice and fruit till lunch (just making it to lunchtime - starving by 11am)
large salad including cheese, avocado etc
afternoon tea - STARVNG and light headed, trying to eat nuts and vegies
Dinner salad with guacamole etc. or something cooked.

The questions I'm hoping to get help with are as follows:
* Should I be watching my food combinations - not sure if others adhere strictly to this?
* Some books say not to eat for three hours after lunch but by that stage I'm beyond hungry. I'm light headed and the other day I got so hungry I had a bad migrane. I'm still eating cheese to try to 'pad' my lunch out. I don't know whether to give up on the food combining and just eat anything raw to try not to get so hungry.
Can someone please give me some advice? I really don't want to give up this way of enjoying food and my life but I do need some guidance. I have bought two books but one was in so much depth it left me feeling quite overwhelmed.
Thanks everyone so much!

I'm probably the wrong person to give advice as I've never really studied any books etc on the raw diet but what I do is just listen to my body. I never really let myself get hungry. If I had just had a salad a half hour ago and was still feeling hungry , I would eat a bannana and a couple of apples or maybe more. I don't really watch my food combinations but its generally fruit in the morning,either in a green smoothie or just as they are. Salad at 1 ish. I will top up on fruit during the afternoon if still hungry and either salad/fruit/cereal for supper at 6 or 7ish probably followed by another apple and bannanna at 9. Not sure if thats any help but thats my raw regime!

Hi,
If you are brand new,I would say it just takes time to adjust to perhaps less calories and fat that you were eating before.
When I started I was so brainwashed in thinking I needed a heavy breakfast with lots of protein.Now I just have lemon water and fruit for breakfast and although I may have some hunger pangs,most days I go out and do my daily one hour walk just on that lemon water and fruit,and I feel fine.
Then a big salad afterwards.
IMO you are eating pretty much the right way.

I think the gradual weaning off the cheese might be a good idea,but as a "transition" food I did that too in my salads.At first I looked forward to my salads just to eat those little chunks of cheese.Now I look forward to just the veggies.
Just give it some more time.

Vinny

It's difficult to immediately eat enough fruit - but if you do eat more fruit, you may find that you aren't so hungry later.

By more fruit, I mean, start off with a pound or two of fruit. A half melon, then some peaches (this is their time of year!), like 4 or 5 peaches, followed by 2 bananas. This should provide your tummy with lots of bulk, which will make it happy, and your system with lots of fast energy, which will keep you going for awhile.

When you have a salad, make it a huge one! There are very little calories in a head of lettuce, and other veggies are similarly low on the calorie density meter. Pile on the non-sweet fruit: tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, etc. Don't expect it to keep you full very long, however. Part of the raw transition is learning to have an empty tummy feeling, without equating that with hunger.

I snack on fruit most of the day - I have a half melon, then some peaches, pears, plums, etc., then a few hours later I'll have some more fruit, then a bit more for lunch... dinner I'll put together a big salad or other veggie food for DH and myself, with some dressing that includes avocado -OR- nuts/seeds. Later in the evening, we might eat some grapes with a movie.

It's taken a while to get to this point, however.

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
We are all in this together!
Namasté

Welcome, Juliel!

I think the important thing to remember is that you ought not to go hungry. Eat as much as you want of raw fruits and vegetables(I generally eat them separately, except that I'll put bananas or berries in a green smoothie). Eat to satiety. This is not like counting calories or even volumes, as with cooked food regimens. It's about the cessation of hunger, and letting that tell you when you have eaten enough. There are lots of different responses to swtiching to raw, generally attributed to "detox." Hunger isn't one of them, IMO. It is a sign that you aren't eating enough. Eventually, gradually, your appetite may wane and you may find yourself eating far less than when you started. The metabolism has to adjust to this, however, and at the start is too soon to start restricting yourself. We want you to succeed!

Hi everyone,
Thanks so much to all who replied to my desperate post! I feel much brighter now about trying to stick with things. I was so worried about the food combining and trying to watch so carefully what I ate that I was completely overwhelmed. Thanks again everyone!

I am new to the whole idea of a completely raw diet. I feel confident in its healing abilities, and its natural ways. My plan is to begin with a fasting detox: first, a short fast of 3-5 days with fresh juices, followed by a water fast of the same length, and last a juice fast (same length) to end. Then reintroduce whole fruits and vegetables and begin experiencing my raw food diet. My concern is as follows...

Sprouts, called the richest source of enzymes comes with a warning: Avoiding eating raw sprouts because of the food borne illnesses associated with this practice, even when sprouting your own at home. Also saw a recipe for brown rice which was soaked for 12 hours and not cooked, I also thought this was a no-no because of anti-nutrients. And lastly, raw potatoes--I thought they were never to be eaten raw, but I see lots of recipes that juice them. Would appreciate some advice. Thanks so much. Bye-bye to cooked food.

Welcome Juliel,

One of the things that makes raw work for me is mono meals. After you feel comfortable eating raw foods try a mono meal for improved digestion. A mono meal is a meal that has only one food in it. Its just for that meal and then the next meal is its own meal. The body digests a food more easily when it is allowed to provide a simple digestive environment. Then eat the one food until satiety is achieved which will happen much more easily with a simple meal. Happy trails.

marvalous,

Howdy! Juiced skin-on potatoes are a good source of Vit C. I don't eat sprouted grains, and that's a matter of personal preference. As everyone is no doubt tired of hearing from me, I'm a trained cook and I can assure you sprouts do not contain food-borne pathogens unless commercialy grown: in the past there were calamities involving E.coli contamination, because water used to grow/rinse commercial sprouts was found to have fecal matter in it. If you grow your own from organic seeds from a reputable source, and don't water them with @#$%&, you'll be fine : )

Hi Juliel

See my website at www.rawforlife.co.uk

Lots of basics, recipes, articles etc.

Many thanks - I look forward to looking at it.

It looks like you are not eating enough fruit. Also, you're starving by 11am because your morning juice has no calories in it.

Try eating some substantial amount of fruit in the morning so you'll have enough energy to make it to lunch without needing to snack. But if you are hungry, by all mean, eat more fruit.

Bananas are a great calorically dense food - each banana has around 100 calories for a medium ripe banana.

Hi Bryan,
Thank you for your message. My juice has usually one orange, two apples, celery, spinach, lettuce, carrots and any other greens I can get my hands on, like zucchini or kale. Any ideas for other things I could add?

Yep, eat more fruit. Don't go hungry, whenever you feel like eating, eat fruit. Try cron-o-meter, nutridiary.com, or fitday.com to plug in what you're eating in a day, you're probably not getting enough calories.

Also, because you're juicing, getting no fiber, that's not gonna keep you full. Try eating the whole fruits, or making blender smoothies.

It might feel like you're really stuffing yourself at first, but you likely need to, to get enough calories. Don't worry, your stomach will get used to it. Feel free to eat smaller more frequent fruit meals as it adjusts.

I agree with Bryan on bananas, eat em up. Melons, grapes, figs, pineapples, and mango also have decent caloric density. Or you could go the dried fruit route and do dates or raisins, this may be a good transition while your stomach grows to hold more fruit. Less than ideal though, whole fresh ripe raw and water-rich is ideal. Careful to keep the teeth and mouth clean after eating dried fruits.

Hang in there! "Cut the cheese"!

one thing that keeps me going all morning is taking frozen blueberries, a banana, water, and blending it.. makes a real nice smoothie and keeps me full all morning.