Hi Everyone,

I am interested in starting a raw lifestyle. I am a person who has battled with weight since I was 14 years old. I am now 26 and within the last 5 years I have gotten some control with my weight. I work out with a personal trainer and have maintained my weight at around 145 (5’8). The issues I am facing are that I seem to always crave terrible food, have no energy and my moods are blah. The last one could be because of the Chicago weather :-) My health goals are to have more energy, sleep better and shed the 10 lbs I’ve gained the last year.

I have read through many of your posts and have found much of what you are saying is very intriguing. Thank you to the poster a few down who is new also - had a couple questions answered already! Before I begin, I still have some questions and hoe you can help with using your past experiences.

1. Through a nutritional standpoint – how do you make sure you are getting all the essential vitamins and minerals? Do you take a multivitamin? From what I remember from health class, only items that are from animals can give you B12 Vitamin?
2. I am not much of a salad person. Green veggies are ok but I am so much more of a fruit person. Can people really live off fruit and nuts and be completely healthy?
3. How do you tackle going out with friends? What do you eat at restaurants? I understand it’s personal but how do you deal with alcohol?
4. How do you battle hunger? I feel like after I have a huge bowlful of watermelon and sit at my desk and drink water, I am hungry again in about 2 hours. I am used to using carbs to fill me up – what do you do to curb your hunger?
5. I have been told I am a great cook. My boyfriend really loves everything I cook – how do you deal with others in the house? Do you “cook” 2 meals? I don’t want to force my lifestyle on him but it’s a bit of a challenge when you live with someone…..


A lot of what you all have done for yourselves is truly inspirational and I hope to do that for myself as well. Thanks for any or all the help you can give me.

Rachel

1. Use the pantry and nutrient search tools at nutritiondata.com and make better choices or supplement for what you lack. Human animals have used their brains to figure out that b12 is from bacteria and grazing animals get theirs from bacteria. You don't have to kill or use an animal (an indirect source of b12) to get it because you can take it directly in supplemental form.

2. I doubt it would work for me but some seem to do ok. It would be a lot easier to meet mineral needs with greens (3-10% of ones kcals is a good range)

3. Not a problem. I get salads usually. I do alcohol. Most people here probably don't.

4. Another piece of fruit! Or a brazil nut. Or something like that.

5. Not a problem so far.

Welcome!

I'll tackle #4. the rest of your questions have been answered in some form or other fairly recently in other threads started by the seemingly large influx of new people, so I'll avoid repeats.

> 4. How do you battle hunger? I feel like after I have a
> huge bowlful of watermelon and sit at my desk and drink
> water, I am hungry again in about 2 hours. I am used to
> using carbs to fill me up – what do you do to curb your hunger?

Identify why you are hungry. Is it carbs (probably not if you've just eaten a watermelon)? Is it nutrition (maybe, if you're mono eating)? Is it entertainment? Or it might be a combination of the three. Once you've identified why you are hungry, you can go about satisfying the hunger.

Cheers,
Ian.

What's mono eating?

Mono-eating is eating just one type of food. For example, an entire meal of watermellon would be considered mono-eating, an other meal might just consist of oranges. Seems to work for some people, but I think it would lead to a diet that is too boring for me to follow long term.

Ian.

1. Another good search tool is the USDA Nutrient Database. You can reach it here: [www.fatfree.com]


2. I don't know how to get enough sodium, calcium and iodine on a diet consisting only of fruits and nuts. Use a search tool, calculate and see if you get enough nutrients.

3. I don't go to restaurants but if I do I'm kind to myself and drink and eat whatever I want to. There's almost always a vegetarian meal on the meny.


4. I eat sprouted grains - slow carbs. They fill you up.

5. What about asking: "Would you like to eat this dinner with me?"? And he says yes or no. When I invite friends over I ask if there is anything they don't want to eat or drink. Usually it's very easy to prepare raw foods so there's really time left to make another meal. The important thing is, can I enjoy the time I spend with my friends without necessarily eating the same thing as they do?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2006 05:01PM by Brand new heart.

Have you ever tested your urine Ph? Your body sounds like it is very acidic rather than alkaline. You can buy ph test strips from some health food stores. The best thing to do if you are too acidic is to reduce or eliminate any acid forming foods you eat and replace them with alkaline forming ones. You can search the internet or get books that flesh this out more.

When our bodies are too acidic, we grave acid forming foods, but I don't know why. Also, when our bodies are too acidic we are also extremely low in oxygen on a celular level. It is no wonder we have so little energy when we are too acidic.

Only liking to eat fruit is common in the beginning stages of a raw diet. If you go %100, It helps to detoxify you quickly. I ate so much watermelon-- and yes, I had to eat it every two hours, or constantly, like grazing, but it was all I wanted. I think that greens are very important, but it might take a little while before they are attractive, as your body becomes more alkaline. You can work your way into them after a few weeks or months by either eating a little at a time of the greens you like best (try plain lettuce or organic baby spinach), or drinking green juices or smoothies. I think that a shot of wheat grass juice every day for a month will addict your body (in a good way) to wanting greens! Add a bannana or some avacado to your smoothies to help your body digest the greens.

Mostly listen to what your body wants/craves, while also giving it opportunities to try lots of different foods so that it will have a greater base to choose from. You can't crave wheatgrass juice or brazil nuts if you've never had them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2006 08:50PM by anamnesis.