Hi!
I am looking for inspiration/tips/ideas about how everyone deals with the practicalities of eating raw, mostly as far as how much time it can seem to take for learning, preparation, etc.
I am at a place where I will do whatever it takes to make this work for me, but shopping and being in the kitchen has always frustrated me and I am trying to come up with ways to make this enjoyable and workable.
AT the time it kind of seems like an insurmountable undertaking, but as I will do whatever it takes...but I am not sure what that is!
Thanks for any input any of you have. Anything at all will be appreciated.

To make this diet work you have to eat very simply, have most of your diet be just "peel and eat". Do things like buy frozen berries and dump them in a bowl and eat them and freeze bananas and wrap a paper towel around one end and eat them like popsicles.

Don't worry about the complex recipes you see in books, learn how to make the simple staple recipes that everyone uses like brownies (here's a good recipe the frosting is optional),
[www.rawfoodtalk.com]
green smoothies and zuchini pastas.

Use your old favorite spices on your new foods to make the transition easier, don't eat anything you don't like and most importantly realize that even the gurus take years to transition and perfect their diet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2010 06:52PM by tropical.

Yes, yes, yes, tropical! A raw diet can be the easiest diet ever. Forget about the lengthy dehydrating and complicated gourmet recipes that mimic cooked foods. Just peel and eat.

Sometimes I blend a smoothie and drink right from the blender so there's just the container and one knife to rinse. (Nobody needs to know.) How fast is that!

About as complicated as I get now is tossing a combo of fruits or a combo of veggies into a food processor to make a mish mash of stuff to fill lettuce leaves. A while back I wrote a list of many wrap fillings on the recipe strand (Wraps Galore!), but I never look at it now and I really listed too many ingredients for each filling. Now I just toss in a few things, whiz, wrap in a lettuce leaf, and eat!

Go with what you feel like eating at the time. Don't let it intimidate you. Have fun.

Once you start feeling relaxed about it, take time now and then to read and learn about good nutrition. Write your questions on this forum. There is a resourceful group here. I enjoyed reading sites like [www.rawforlife.co.uk]

In the mean time, eat lots of fruit, lots of leafy greens, some veggies (a variety for minerals), nuts and seeds (but not too much because they have a high fat content - although do include some because they are good for you... oh, and vary them), and take a supplement (not everyone would agree with this, but it's a way to get some of the hard to get nutrients).


My favorite raw vegan

I'm on raw day #3 (Yay me) Haven't noticed how much better I'm feeling yet but just came home from "WholeFoods" shopping and thought I'd share this with you. They now have a small but representative stock of (Raw) "Baked" goods like crackers, cookies etc. For beginners like us, or busy people like us, this is a MAJOR help LOL I don't know about y'all, sometimes I just want a salty little cracker /chip with my guacamole but, because I'm new, I haven't the skills to plan it ahead! Just thinking I'd share that ))

Shopping i find is the hardest point everything is mostly fresh and only lasts a few days, on SAD you obviously have processed/freezed food that lasts months, so you have to go to the shops more often raw.

But that really isnt a problem i now enjoy shopping just picking up little bits and pieces of different fruits/vegetables, going to the health store etc.

Its almost simplified that you dont have to wander round picking this ingredient up etc.

It does take some dedication though but if you stick with it you get good results much like anything hard really such as exercise.

"Go with what you feel like eating at the time. Don't let it intimidate you. Have fun."

Trive you always know just what to say ))

I agree with simplifying. I tried this once before but didn't stick with it because I was too focused on making the recipes and not on just enjoying eating. Green smoothies are so easy and are easily the staple of the diet. I don't think I could have combatted cravings without the green smoothie. Other than that, just enjoy and don't get too hung up on all the little details. Its actually pretty simple.

Agree that simplifying is the way to go--just eat whatever's fresh and ripe in as close to its natural form as possible until you feel satisfied, and you'll find it's no trouble at all. Just to remind myself of this, I spent an hour and a half this noontime making raw zucchini "pasta" with a raw marinara sauce. I enjoyed making it, and it was initially tasty, but became so weirdly damp and processed tasting midway through, that my now refined fruit and salad-loving palate rebelled. Verdict: big ol' waste of time--I shoulda had a green smoothie!

I'm new too. What has helped me is drinking green smoothies every day. Salads are easy to make too and so I make those often. Buying nuts, seeds and grains raw, you can store those for months or even years. So if you stock up on a few things don't worry about it spoiling. The only thing you have to do is buy fresh fruit and veggies like every 3-4 days. Start small, and then see how fast or slow you go through the food, and if any gets wasted etc. This will help you learn what to buy and how often.

I've done a few recipes so far, a few I didn't think were all that great and a few I thought were good. Try a new recipe maybe once a week. Another thing I hear that's helpful is to eat the foods you used to eat, but in the raw form. You like tacos and burrito's? You like spaghetti? Make it raw.

I decided to get a dehydrator because I like chips and breads alot, so I can make my own with raw ingredients. There's tons of recipes on salsas and dips too.


It all can be overwhelming, but take it slow. Even if you eat only 50% raw that's real good. I still have a few cooked meals but I don't get all angry or frustrated with myself. Its all a slow process. Another thing I hear is listen to your body it usually lets you what you want/need. As far as the motivation about prioritizing this diet, think about what it is that inspired you to start it. Good luck!

I had to make a lot of recipes in the beginning, at least until I got used to the idea that satisfied didn't have to equal stuffed full! I wanted a lot of taste sensation, that's pretty common when first starting out as far as I can tell. Eventually my tastes simplified though and food prep because as easy as grabbing a handful of this or that so all that earlier effort paid off.
Nothing is effortless when you first start out, everything takes a bit of learning and adjusting.

It really depends on which way you want to eat "raw". I'm not into the mockied cooked food thing like dehydrating for raw chips and making raw pizza. I don't even cook COOKED food so why would I want to do all that for raw? I love my blender that's about it..but I did on cooked too.

Just realize that everyone isn't eating the same and it doesn't have to be so complicated if you don't want it to be. If you're into mocked cooked foods that's fine. But if you just feel like eating watermelon for a day, then go with it. You're not going to die from it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2010 11:59PM by BackAgain.

Thank you all so very much for your helpful replies and information - its nice to have such a good response for all of you! Your replies gave me some relief (that I can keep it simple), encouragement (go with what I feel like and have fun), wisdom
(listen to my body) and don't worry (like don't feel like I have to do the recipes unless I want to). All very good advice, and just to hear about how others do t his is very supportive. There sure isn't much support in everyday life (if any!)
about this and having support here make me feel very good!

What I basically do is I plan specific recipes for specific days, and do what prep work is possible on my least busiest day, and keep the ingredients I need for each recipe close to each other so I dont have to search for them, I only do one recipe a day, on busy weeks every 2 days, just because Ive noticed im happier and feel better about my meal in general if I can take wonderful ingredients and make something even more wonderful out of them... its also something to look forward to doing, especially if you actually enjoy it, it can be rather meditative for me... then I fill in the rest of the meals throughout the week with just whatever I feel like, usually simple stuff, lots of juice, fruit, veggies, whatever I can afford, which lately theres been the best sales on fruit ive ever seen in my life, so theres been ALLOT of fruit, especially melons... so other than the pesto,tomato, sweet onion, red lettuce sandwhich I had the other day, ive been 100% raw for about 2 weeks now...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Curator - I like how you say making some recipes can be meditative for you.

OMG.. I love this thread and wow did I need to read this right now.
I have go to stop trying to make it so complicated, trying to mimic our old foods with gourmet raw.

Exactly, DaisyHair. I think there IS a place for the mimicking, but trying to do that when I was first trying this several years ago is what made it not work for me then and for right now, I won't be doing any gourmet raw. It is a relief to not set that before me as a goal. Maybe someday I will try some things like that.
For now, I just mashed a banana with a teensy bit of raw cocoa powder and I am in heaven. Easy, easy...and I am satisfied.

Thanks GR, its my favorite part of the week...lol... there are also simplistic ways to mimic cooked foods, things dont have to be so complicated... pizza is the easiest to do simply that I have done so far.

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Hmmm, getting hungry for a raw pizza...

My favorite type I had so far, was a pizza sauce I made, no real recipe was just doing it by taste, used a small amount of canned tomato paste, but also some fresh tomato as well, on a flax cracker, not raw, with nutritional yeast cheese,sweet onion, spinach, avocado, and s slice of veggie pepperoni... it wouldnt be difficult to make a completely raw version without the pepperoni...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

GoldenRain,

Seen these?:

[www.youtube.com]
[www.youtube.com]

yeah
raw pizza is easy
can use a lettuce leaf too for the base
and for tomato sauce u can use tomato , sundried tomato, dates, garlic, lemon juice and put in blender
then u can just top it with whatever

if u want cheese
just blend some nuts with lemon juice and put that on top of the tomato sauce
easy

oh and if u want GREAT raw wraps
just do a search on Trive's super duper list of all her raw wraps
very excellent