Can the people who have successfully stayed off cooked foods for 3 months or more share their tips on how they did it?

People who I think have done this and more are John Rose, fresh, Prana, Suncloud, TSM, Utopian life.

Anyone else who have now or in the past not eat cooked foods for 3 months or more in the pursuit of a raw vegan diet please share too.

For instance, tips on social pressure i.e. family and their own birthdays, cravings, times of stress i.e. needing some comfort foods and any tips for any other situation they have experienced in their lives.

Please go into details.

Thank you all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2014 12:18PM by Anon 102.

The best tip is to love your body your health more than the food.

The Conductivity Diet works very well for that. You can make quick, delicious, and satiating dishes that can be taken to social events to share with others, too. This makes it easy to pass up cooked foods in any situation and takes very little time and foresight to plan ahead for.

A fast and easy comfort food for yourself is a halved avocado with raw walnut oil sprinkled over the halves - all the problems posed solved instantly and well. If your digestive system is in too poor of shape to handle that you should be OK with keeping an oz. or two of walnuts with you which make a good snack you can eat discreetly pretty much anytime or anywhere if you are shy of eating well in public.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2014 01:45PM by SueZ.

Why would one put walnut oil on an oily food like avocado?
Some diet are just very ...

RawPracticalist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why would one put walnut oil on an oily food like
> avocado?
> Some diet are just very ...


The oil in avocados is one of those oils which is "sticky". The walnut oil removes that sticky texture and adds a wonderful flavor of it's own. Although it's a very simple dish the depth of flavor is complex so it's surprisingly delicious even though it doesn't sound like much.

I sprinkle a little black salt on it but your really don't have to for it to be delicious.

OK.
Will give it a try, never had walnut oil.
My problem with oil is that you cannot find it in nature.
It is man made.
It does not grow on trees.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2014 03:02PM by RawPracticalist.

anon102,

of course you'll get wildly different responses here, so obviously whatever makes sense to you.

(although it really depends on your food availability and quality
and your preferences)

what worked for me is....

since dehydration causes false hunger, try to eat as much
high water content foods as possible.

then have a few items that you can go for if you feel unbalanced or cravings,
like dulse or other seaweed, quality raw low salt olives, or maybe a few raw nuts.

if you're driven to cooked try and eat it totally unsalted and unseasoned so you can see how unappetizing it really is.

give some more details about what you like and/or crave and some more ideas might appear.

as far as social, try to take the focus off of food and engage with people more verbally instead of the food focus ... or of course just bring/make your own foods.

BUT IS COOKED FOOD NECESSARILY BAD?

I wrote this in another thread but it could apply here...

"If you're coming from the SAD or high-cooked foods, it might be a good idea to go high-raw for a while instead of 100% raw. For example you could include lightly steamed veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. Get your hands on the highest-quality, most fresh organic fruit. Lots to choose from... strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, bananas, dates, oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, kiwi, peaches, mangos, pomegranates, avocado, papayas, etc. Fresh fruit and veggies, SPROUTED nuts and seeds are what most raw fooders eat, but other things like algaes (chlorella, spirulina), sea vegetables (nori, dulse, kelp, wakame), and sprouts are necessary. Raw food snacks, juices, and smoothies should ease the transition. You're probably going to go through an intense detox, called a "healing crisis", where you have symptoms which may make you feel like the diet isn't working, but this is just your body ridding itself of the the toxins from your previously lifestyle. Sauna's, exercise, and colon hydrotherapy will rapidly speed this process up. Beverages will be distilled water, coconut water, fresh juices, and teas. You'll likely want to take a soil-based B12 supplement unless you get your levels checked and find you are creating your own, D3 if you live in an area without sunlight much of the year, and probiotics to restore healthy gut bacteria. The source of your supplements is vital, make sure you get high-quality one's without chemical fillers or additives, the wrong supplements can cause harm. You may also find superfood powders helpful, such as camu camu, mangosteen, pine pollen, royal jelly, chaga/reishi mushroom, acai, maca, etc.

Here are some good raw food websites:

therawfoodworld.com
longevitywarehouse.com
rawpower.com
goraw.com

As you progress, you may want to think about growing your own sprouts and grasses (wheatgrass, barley grass, ryegrass). You'd be juicing the grasses and juicing or eating the sprouts."

CommonSenseRaw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BUT IS COOKED FOOD NECESSARILY BAD?


If it affects you negatively, it is.
does it?

of course we cant tell until we go high raw.

When we say cooked, most people are not just eating steamed veggies and other unspiced foods but even then it causes many problems for me

The key to starting out is to eat enough. In my experience you don't need to start off perfect because it takes a while to refine a diet. In my experience you need to eat lots of the high amino acid foods like soaked nuts, sprouted seeds, sprouted legumes and some sprouted grains along with seaweeds and algaes. These foods will stop cravings for heavier foods if they are eaten in good amounts. I never had physical cravings, but l had mental cravings, but l was always determined to stay raw and it wasn't hard to do that.

Blending lots of food is the key when you first start out because you need to fill up that stomach like an SAD person.

I started out doing four huge smoothies (no fruit in them) per day. It was crazy...would even have a smoothie at 11pm because l needed to get those calories LOL. In time you find you don't need to eat near that much, and you only eat when hungry.

The desire to eat cooked foods takes a long time to get out of your system, but if you eat the high amino acid foods and fill up with blended foods you will get by without being tempted. Just be determined to stay raw and you will do it easily on the foods l suggest.

When l started l only half tasted the foods until my taste buds adjusted because those foods are very strong. The 100% raw diet will clean you right out.

Another trick is to kill the nice taste of cooked foods so you won't go back to it. What l did was eat large bowls of alfalfa sprouts and mung beans sprouts before a cooked meal. Why? Because those sprouts are so strong that any cooked food is tastless after eating such large amounts of those sprouts. Also, the alfalfa is very important to quickly and dramatically change the taste buds towards eating strong raw foods. Alfalfa can radically change the taste buds within a week.

And when you ruin the taste of cooked foods via having lots of alfalfa/mung beforehand you can let go of the cooked food pleasure memories so much easier. You realise the cooked food may smell good, but it doesn't taste good and is over-rated so you leave it behind.

I simply told friends and family the way l eat. No compromises ever. I've done all types of things over the years...i've juiced wheatgrass at work, blended etc. At Christmas everyone eats roast dinner, but l blend/eat my food. Friends and everyone know what l am like and respect my choice. I tell people l eat this way and will take foods to their place and have those.

If l am forced to go to a restaurant l speak with the manager beforehand, mention l have special needs, give them a big plate of sprouts to prepare and eat those. I will not eat their food.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2014 08:21PM by The Sproutarian Man.

Here is an article I wrote for Gosia's website in 2004.

=========================
Success on the Raw Foods Diet

People come to the raw foods diet because of the promise of vibrant health. Many who engage in the raw foods lifestyle heal their chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. But for every story of success on the raw diet there seems to be ten stories of people who were unable to remain on the diet, either because their health was failing or because they were unable to stay away from cooked foods.

On the raw foods diet we learn that the body heals when we provide the conditions for good health; a nontoxic diet, plenty of rest and sleep, clean water, an environment free of toxins, fresh air, sunshine, exercise, mental and emotional balance, etc. So if we understand the necessary conditions for good health, why isn't it a simple matter of practicing these healthful habits and healing our illnesses?

We could do our homework, discover the diet of other successful raw foodists, eat that exact diet and have problems. Certainly there are issues of detoxification and transition and adaptations to the raw foods, but even if we accounted for all that, we could still fail on the raw foods diet.

Often before the body can heal, there is a spiritual and emotional healing that must first take place. This spiritual healing involves confronting our difficult emotions, releasing behavior patterns that are destructive and drain our energy, and making ourselves whole and complete again.

Part of the problem is that we've become fragmented people. Our minds often act as separate entities from our bodies, disconnected from the body, unable or unwilling to feel. The cooked foods help us avoid feeling our bodies; for example grains like wheat contain opioids that are addictive and sedate us. Many of us learned how to use a pizza to not feel our difficult emotions, or pasta to free us from our emotional pain. When we go to a raw diet, without the grains to sedate our emotions, we find ourselves in emotional crisis as we try to use heavy foods like nuts and avocados to provide the grounding to avoid our emotions. While these high-fat foods are hard to digest and consume a lot of the body's energy, they don't numb us in the same way that wheat does, and for perhaps the first time in our lives we are faced with confronting our emotions.

While some cooked foods serve to sedate us, other foods stimulate us. Everyone knows about the stimulating properties of foods that contain caffeine, like coffee and chocolate, and for this reasons heath-conscious people often avoid these foods. But less understood is the stimulating nature of animal products, spices, and condiments. In fact, any food with toxins in it, whether it is from the process of cooking, external additives or preservatives, or naturally occurring toxins, will have a stimulating effect on the body. As our bodies work extra hard to remove these ingested toxins, we feel a stimulating effect and it feels like these foods give us energy. If we were listening to the needs of our bodies, we would simply sleep instead of providing external stimulation to keep ourselves going. There is a disconnection from the body that prevents us from listening to its demands, which if denied long enough would result in disease.

So when starting on the raw foods diet, we are potentially faced with confronting our emotions and turn to high fat foods to attempt to sedate them. At the same time, we can find ourselves lacking in energy, which in reality is lacking in the stimulation of toxins, and we have to deal with the ramifications of stimulant withdrawal. Many will find this new state of being somewhat abusive and return to cooked foods to relieve the symptoms of a life that isn't working.

Rather than medicate the pain or symptoms away, real healing will come from removing the cause of the pain. The emotions that are stored in our bodies need to be experienced fully without judgment and released. This process requires courage, commitment and patience, to face and experience some potentially unpleasant emotions that have been bottled up inside for years. I find yoga particularly useful in reconnecting to my body, but any movement practice that requires breath consciousness can help. Reconnecting to the body provides a pathway for emotions to be experienced and released. Also useful to me is meditation, which for me is a practice of sitting in silence and focusing the attention on consciousness.

Another part of healing is letting go of that which no longer serves. Things to look at releasing are behavior patterns and thinking patterns that drain our energy. Removing our attachments like judgment, criticism, or having a preference of how the world or other people should be will release sources of our unhappiness and suffering, which should help prevent the draining of energy. Also important is to examine our relationships with people that drain our energy. Are friends and family and coworkers enhancing our lives, or does spending time with these people drain our energy? Getting in touch with the body will help us determine if these relationships are beneficial. When we become sensitive enough, we can actually feel our body become weaker in the presence of people who drain our energy. Some of these relationships may have served in the past, but now are no longer enhancing us, and we may have to let go of the ones that no longer serve.

We turn to stimulants when we believe that we need to do more work or expend more energy than is possible in a typical day. This may come from the demands of the job, responsibility to the family or loved ones, or from our own sense of self worth. The question to ask ourselves is, "What is it about myself that a normal amount of work or energy expenditure is not enough?" Do we think that we are special in some way, and need to work more than is humanly possible? Do we believe that if we don't do all this work, that we won't be loved or be lovable? Do we believe that if we can do all this work, we will prove ourselves good enough for our loved ones? These beliefs need to be examined and discarded. To heal ourselves, surrender is the answer. Because we don't have infinite amounts of time and energy, we must have faith that everything will happen exactly the way it is supposed to happen, and that abuse of our bodies is not an acceptable solution to solving the world's problems.

Healing ourselves involves becoming a whole person again. We must reconnect and make whole these fragmented parts: the separate mind, the suppressed emotions, the numb body, and the disconnected spirit. As we let go of that which no longer serves, what we are left with is the love and perfection that we already are.

Thanks for sharing Prana.

Cooked food being "necessarily bad" in someone's opinion doesn't seem relevant to the question posed.

Not to be repetitive, but my tips would echo those already mentioned as far as bringing food with you, having enough calories. Get rid of the salt and sugar and addictions first. Recognize that it's okay to not be your idea of "perfect" and to accept yourself as you are. Aside from bringing food with you (plannign for the future, as it were), live in the present.

I think there comes a point in every successful person's life where they stop caring what other people think. Live for yourself. Be you. You don't want to be 100% raw? That's okay, strive for more each day. It's really a great experience. Hard to describe until you've been there and done it. Like a light has brightened inside of you.

Great posts, everyone! And thank you Prana for this wonderful article.

Given the fact that up until March 12 this year, the only non raw foods I ate were frozen veggies, I can't say I've been 100% raw in the past 3 months.

But even so, from my experience, I can say that what keeps me now from cooked food is the way my body feels after eating those cooked foods. I don't want to go back to having slow digestion, feeling heavy, bloated, having stomach pain, gaining weight, having almost no energy, no desire to exercise, insomnia and just feeling low the whole day.

My health and my body is more important than 10 minutes of pleasure eating cooked foods. Besides, I'm not even sure I would still like cooked foods.

I love feeling light, energetic, happy, having a clear mind and thinking, having the desire to exercise, to go out and take long walks in nature, having a fast and great digestion, regular bowel movements, having a great relaxing night sleep of 10 hrs or more, waking up with a flat stomach.

I wouldn't trade all these wonderful feelings for any cooked food.

To me, the key is eating enough, eating a wide variety and eating water rich fruits.

Sweet fruit is my fuel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

It helps me if I internalize thoughts as GROSS...DISGUSTING, EWW in my mind everytime the thought comes up..which it is. Also to fill your mind with raw vegan books, and videos, purchase one a week..get INSPIRED!!

have foods that are very high in minerals
imo vegetables in all its variegations have more minerals than fruits
all raw foods have vitamins

its actually pretty easy to be raw in social situations
most people find it refreshing and inspiring if you are eating a healthful salad
u can also bring one to an event
or eat prior to the event
it takes a little practice but once u get the hang of it, you will be a pro and you will know how to do it with ease and blend right in

One thing that really helped me was to find some raw friends to share raw meals with. I started going to raw potlucks and raw food events meeting other raw folks. This kind of social interaction gave me quite a bit of support and made things easier for me.

The times when I've been successful eating an all raw diet I've eaten plenty of fresh fruit meals early in the day followed by vegetable juice meals including green juices followed by a salad for dinner. I think the reason that this has satisfied me is that the fruits are a good source of vitamins & fiber while the veggies are a good source of minerals. I have had two 10 month long stretches of all raw eating during several years of mixed percentages of raw/cooked eating. I tend to "slip" more during the winter when a bowl of warm soup looks good on a cold day.