Ok the raw food diet sounds really interesting. I'm over weight so I know I need a change. I'm a vegitarian. However I eat alot of ice cream, pasta and cheese. I love cheese.


My problem is I work 8-5, go to school and take the bus to get there. So I have to get up @6am just to get to work on time. I only see my house a few hours a day when I'm not sleeping. So how the hell do i find time to prepare raw food meals. What do I eat at work where all I have is a fridge and microwave. I kinda live in the hood so to speak. I'm lucky to find vegitarin stuff at the store. As far as raw is concerned it has your basic friuts and vegitables.

the most preparing i do is peeling an orange or shelling some nuts. takes not much time at all.

"basic fruits and vegetables" at most stores leaves a lot to be desired... my guess is even more so living in da hood. ideal would be to buy some land and grow your own fresh fruits, nuts... or live in an area with good farmers markets.

have you thought of packing foods that travel well?

(carrots, celery, banana, orange, apple, ect)

What did you do before raw for food on the go?

It might take a little planning ahead, but it's all good as long as you take a nice pocket/buck knife (for peeling and cutting), and a bandana (to clean up your mess, put ur peels before you throw them out, clean your hands, clean your face, ect). Out of all the things my mom ever taught me, the most valuable was probably to always carry with me a bandana and a pocket knife. Thanks mommy.

Simple raw food can be very fast as everyone so far has suggested. Nothing's faster than rinsing off fresh vegetables and fruit and then consuming them! Good luck, stay positive!

When you start out aren't you raviounusly starving? How do you fill up?

Hi, I started ou raw as a full-time researcher, with little excess time. I used to simply pack up bags of fruit and vegies and eat them like that, munch munch. For a lunch, I used to make a big salad out of ingredients that I brought. I still take bags of fruit to work ha ha!

Gosia


RawGosia channel
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my observation is that certain less affulent neighboorhoods usually contain the freshest produce (commerical) because people actualy eat it!

being away from the house most of the day can be a drag if you are doing mostly fruit and salads. it does travel well but sometimes not in the quantities needed to make a meal (or two). Since you are trying to lose weight this might not be as much of an issue (is for me). But I agree bring a bag of food, and find spots on your route that also have fresh ripe (possibly organic) produce...no preperation required!

Hi I'm new here as well and what I have done today actually is spending all day freezing juices and partial smoothies to last for the next 3 weeks. I have 4 children who are being homeshcooled and a 3 week granddaughter who lives with us. We juiced 25 lbs of carrots, about 15 pounds of beets, and 50 oranges. Also, my young coconut order came in today and my hubby and I tackled 18 of them and froze them in single serving portions (meat and water) for smoothies. Like I said, it took me most of the day but I feel good that we can just grab what we need. And that my hubby just can grab some bottles of juice and take them in the morning to work.

legalearthangel Wrote:
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> When you start out aren't you raviounusly
> starving? How do you fill up?


what helps to satisfy my stomach is to make sure i eat a good balance of fruits and veggies (particularly the green leafy kinds).

I have a similar situation. I spend a lot of days away from the house from early in the morning until near dark. Sometimes I'm driving in the truck commuting between classes or jobs for a couple of hours and want to eat while I'm driving or pulled over, so I look for ways to eat that require very little preparation and have very little mess and utensils to deal with. I have a small cooler bag that I can pack with enough food for the day in just a few minutes. Permanently stored in the pocket of the bag is my traveling kit: cloth napkin, fruit knife with it's wooden sheath, chopsticks, spoon, spreader, a small flexible plastic cutting matt and plastic produce bags for compost or trash. I have several sizes of freezeer ice packs to use depending on the items I'm taking and the dictates of the expected daily temperatures.

I look to take more than enough food so I don't worry about not having enough if I'm hungry. Living in a rural area and being raw means I can't just pull over just anywhere to buy food. If I prepare a more complex recipe for an evening meal I occasionally try to have some extra to take along for the next day's meals. When I was transitioning to raw and dealing with the anxiety of a new food lifestyle I carried along a precious jar of raw almond butter and spread it on celery or apple slices.

Part of the challenge of transitioning to raw is learning to get enough volume of fruits and veggies without resorting to high fat to get enough calories. SAD eaters may have one piece of fruit in their lunch bag, while raw eaters may have a dozen.

I'm constantly playing with this, but here's what is working for me right now. Bananas are always a good item; I call them the "raw foodist's rice" because they're cheap, easy to consume, and calorie dense. Typically I leave the house in the am with a quart jar of juice or a smoothie....today it was a 9-5 smoothie: 9 large dates and 5 bananas with a little water. Fresh dates in season are another staple item, again calorie dense and easy to eat. For green stuff I pack some romaine letuce, baby spinach and or celery. Seasonal variations include melons that are already cubed in a container if I am not going to be in a place where cutting up a whole melon is convenient. Citrus, particularly tangerines are easy to deal with; no utensils needed. Any other fruit that is in season is my next choice. Right now it's Altaulfo mangos. I'm working on my mango eating technique, so that all I need is my knife, cutting mat and napkin. Sometimes I'll take a container with a spread and maybe some flax seed crackers. Nuts are easy to deal with, though I try to eat those by themselves and give them time to digest before eating fruit again.

As I look back, this raw way of eating away from home is more easeful than when I was vegan, vegetarian, or SAD. There is less prep time, less cleanup, less feelings of scarcity and enough variety to keep me from getting bored.

hi there....just make sure to pack some yummy fruits and veggies and you are set...this is the easiest food to prepare...you just rinse and eat or peel and eat!!!! you just have to make sure you eat enough like more then one orange or something is goig to be needed when first starting out!!! but it isn't as complicated as it may seem!!!
take care and goodluck
love earthangel
xoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Yes. The above suggestions are great! Eat before you leave the house....then pack a feed bag with your favorite fruits and vegetables. Stopping on the way to work to pick up pre-made salads also helped me when I was working 2 jobs. Just stash your goods in the desk at work! Eat only from the bag when you leave the house.......and you'll never be un-prepared or forced to eat crap at some one else's discretion / preparation. And as long as you eat periodically to keep your blood sugar up.....and are eating at a level that YOU are comfortable at.....you should never be hungry or dis-satisfied. If you are....then you need to go back to a level of eating that you ARE comfortable with....and stretch from there. What do you think?


-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

legalearthangel,

I am still experimenting with raw. I am in a similar situation where I do not want to spend the time on preparing the food. Here is what I typically have for lunch:

- 2 or 3 bananas
- sunflower seeds and raisins (about a third of a ziplock baggie)
- 4 apples and / or pears
- some baby carrots
- plenty of water (~2 Liters per day)

I eat this throughout the day.

ILoveJen,

You're joking, right?

I am a mother of 3 so I know what you mean about time. I took about 3 hours the other day to wash, cut, and rinse all my veggies and fruits that I bulk brought from costco. I placed them in large and small baggies. I made tiny holes in the larger baggies (spinach, romain, etc) to keep them fresh. Took some time on the front end though has been worth it the past couple of days!

So latley I just grab and go...... I am like a fruit stand on wheels. The fruit I pre-prepare are my berries. Sometimes I just a cantelope into my bag...no lie hahahaha and cut it later

I get up a 30 minutes earlier and prepare all food I will eat that day, meaning I make smoothies and fill them in empty water bottles and make a huge bowl of cut vegetables. Some of it I eat right away, some of it I put in tupperware and take to work, the rest is dinner. If I eat greens that day, I'll have those marinated the evening before. Works for me like that since years. I can't stand preparing each meal individually....

This is something I'm struggling with too. Nine times out of ten that I've eaten badly its been because I was away from home, hungry and not prepared.

I try and tell myself that it won't harm me to be a bit hungry and am getting better at waiting until I can have something suitable. But then there are the other days when I don't do so well.

Right now I'm finding this the most challenging aspect of the diet (and I'm not even 100% yet). Every potluck, every invitation to dinner, every impromptu or spontaneous gathering presents challenges. And I can't seem to get to the point where I'm willing to bring my own food every where I go. It makes me downright crabby sometimes, and more and more often lately, I've been canceling or refusing invitations because I just don't want to deal with it.

anyway, I can relate.

Good suggestions everyone,

khale

I totally hear you! I'm in the exact same position and there really isn't any way around it, aside from killer time management. Any free second you have at home, prepare your stuff. I've gotten really fast at making incredibly energizing smoothies that I take with me for the commute; I like to let my body wake up before I make it digest and that allows me a little time after waking up to do just that.

And if you work and go to school where raw food isn't available, you have to find a way to bring food, or you end up eating @#$%&. I'm a fan of literally bringing a big bag of spinach to munch on raw, during the day. That has practically no prep time, but I need to keep buying it at the store, fresh.

Grab a few bananas and bring those, and some soaked nuts or an avacado. Just do your best! If you think of anything during the day that's quick to prepare, write it down and grab it the next time you go shopping.

Really though...I hear ya!

A very common problem,

I have found best way to prepare my own lunch is to put some bananas, strawberries, spirulina, chrolella, raw cacao, maca, coconut butter and greens in the vita-mix and pour the "lunch" in a large bottle. Grab some fruits and nuts in my way out and I'm not hungry until around 7:00pm.

I have this routine every weekday when first I prepare lunch (partly raw) around 6:30am to my child for daycare (I hate the crap they are feeding to kids in the schools) and rush to work.

When I'm home I have light dinner and before going to bed I do hard 30 min workout + some tai-chi and yoga.

Imo the time is problem alright but if you have the right tools the lunch preparation is easy and quick.

cheers,

MJH

I feel smashing!