hi everyone!

i've been 90% raw for almost two weeks now and i've been having the following observations. everytime i try to make a gourmet raw meal (i.e.alissa cohen type) like imitation pesto or dessert fruit tarts, i feel SO sick afterwards. like i am nauseated and i want to vomit. i also feel wayyyy too full although i really didn't eat too much. overall, i feel horrible not to mention that i think i've started putting on weight from all the nuts involved with those meals! really, everything involves nuts and a substantial amount of them and they think they are the main cause of my feeling like crap.
when i eat more simply though, i don't have these problems. but, another problem is that i don't eat nearly enough calories and i feel weaker when eating simply than when eating those commercialized raw meals.
do you have any advice as to how i can up the calories with the simpler meals but keep the fat intake not insanely high?
thanks for your help!!

probably just due to bad combining, as well as the high fat intake. You should be able to get enough calories and feel good by eating simply - like only 3/4 things per meal, and not combining fruits with fat. Many folks follow a high fruit diet and do well on it - but of course it's important to remember to get enough greens and other veggies in - juices and smoothies help.

something really simple such as a few bananas and a bunch of celery blended up in a smoothie with some water can be really filling and energising.

x

i'm with U ariel!!! those r not for me! delicious but the aftereffects! not worth it! my body is not thrilled about smoothes & green juices either! while simple meals work great!
one advice for U...Storm (one of the raw gurus) advices to blend nuts/seeds the way we make milk , that they r better/easier assimilated then, also making sure to consume some olive oil every day & the flax seed oil...sooooo, maybe that will help
LOTS OF LOVE & BLESSINGS, Namaste, Basia

I agree with the ideas that lisa and Basia suggested. When I was first going from SAD to raw, my body could handle all those fatty combo-a-bombo meals. But over time, as my body began to heal from the excesses of the SAD diet, eating those gourmet fatty rich meals at every meal began to take its toll, and I was naturally moved towards eating simpler foods. Still, I like to indulge every so often in some raw restaurant food or go to a potluck.

Tropical fruits are a great way to get low fat calories without having to eat a ton of food. A banana has around 90 calories, and mango has 130 calories. I have been loving the Ataulfo mangos that we get here in California that are imported from Chiapas Mexico.

thanks for your advice everyone!!

makes a lot of sense. when i was on SAD, i was vegan and eating like 50% raw without even realizing it. so, i think thats why i can't handle those overly fatty gourmet raw meals so early on in my raw journey, cause they're targetted more for those hardcore SADers transitioning, like you were all suggesting. funny thing is that avocados don't have such a bad effect on me although they also have a lot of fat! but i have another question. i'm pretty turned off from all nuts and seeds (mainly cause i've been overdosing on them lately), but are they really necessary? what if i got my fats from avocados and oils? how often should one consume nuts/seeds? twice a week? not to include them sounds like a bad idea, but is it really?

anyways, i'll definitely try to include more bananas and mangoes and more smoothies so i can eat more without actually feeling like i ate 5 bananas (can't do it in one sitting).

thanks again, everyone!!

A lot of prepared meals don't sit well with me either. My favorite 'recipes' so far have been from Storm and Jinjees "The Garden Diet 101" e-book.

As for calorie intake, that's tricky. I find it's actually quite an effort to meet my 1500 calorie goal every day. Here's what helps:

1. Eat often
2. Plan your days' meals ahead
3. Add a few calorie-dense foods to bump up the calories; avocados, bananas, apricots, anything dried like raisins or currants, nuts.
4. Try nuts and dates on thier own, without mixing them into a recipe. Maybe nut-milk.

nuts and seeds are not something you need a lot of, nor do you need them frequently. i go months without looking at them. and feel great. i agree about the prepared raw/gourmet raw- i don't waste my time.

except for banana sorbet with raw cacao- once a month.

avocados and olive oil are pretty good. i can live with those pretty well.

coconut oil, when desired.

i just adjust- seasons affect me (up here in NE), summer is almost fat-free and veggie free for me. seeds and nuts make more sense in the cooler winter months. but i listen to my body. i keep some things on hand (sprouted dehydrated almonds, flaxseed crackers) for when i do want them, but sometimes they're around for a very long time.

i prefer my fresh produce for every meal.

since i juice three apples, two carrots and four kale leaves for breakfast, snack on dates, bananas and apples, lunch on avocadoes and salsa fresca (with cucumber chips), snack on spinach salad with other veggies, and then do a partically-cooked dinner, (sometimes i've started eating my cooked meal for lunch, and then walking a couple miles in the afternoon to keep it moving) calories are not such a challenge for me. but since i'm now 15 weeks pregnant, that's a very good thing.

peace-

I can't eat prepared raw either, never have.....nausea central.
I get my cals from green smoothies, fruit and avos when I'm in the mood.
good luck!

Hey Ariel! I'm just into my second week raw too, and I was also vegan before going raw. At first I was eating lots of nuts and prepared stuff, but I can't do it now either. I've found that my body is speaking louder to me than it ever has, and it tells me exactly what to eat. I had planned on eating sushi tonight with nori, avacado, braggs aminos, cucumber, and carrot. I made one roll and i almost couldn't keep it down. I just ended up making a salad with it and putting lime juice over it instead of the braggs. Something about the seaweed and the braggs just turned me off. I still crave nuts a bit, but I try not to eat so much of them, because i definetly went overboard with them. I find I'm pretty satisfied eating lots of fruit in the beginning of the day and veggies later during the day. Just listen to your body, some days I don't eat much, but i just feel like i don't need to.

I don't feel so good on dehydrated foods either! I've felt bloated, and sometimes, the dehydrated foods aren't even all that nice. At first, my taste buds were like "yay! it tastes good and it's raw" and I don't seem to be getting that effect anymore.

I've had the same reaction to nuts lately and I thought something was wrong with me! I've been eating around 90% raw for almost 2 months now. I totally overdid the nuts as well and then almost overnight the mere thought of nuts makes me sick and I experience an awful sensation in my mouth-just thinking about them! I tolerate and enjoy them when made into a pate or something where they are mixed with lots of fresh veggies and seaweed but in any other case-I am suddenly no longer interested...avocados are a great way to get in those calories without eating something as heavy as nuts.

Apparently nuts should be bought unshelled--
or they are not really raw
and I don't just mean almonds
they are shelled using a number of harmful proceedures
heat, freezing, soaking, drying
and once shelled the nut and it's oils
are of course exposed to oxidation

I eat at home most of the time, but my sister was in town last weekend so we went out to a raw restaurant. I had a raw veggie burger and it hit my stomach like a bomb. It really hurt! I was in constant pain for the rest of the night. I had not been there in ages and the last time I was there I really enjoyed it. I realized how much and how quickly my body is changing the things it likes and needs.

I agree with you, nuts in almost everything in those raw recipe books. They taste good but the after effect does me in.

I do like dehydrating fruits, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, & making flax crackers.

P.s. Congratulations MaMa Cass, Are you going to find out if it's a boy or a gril?

Eating nuts & seeds as a staple, feels so instictively unnatural to me. A sprinkle here, or a tsp or tbps there, feels more natural, to me.

I get the "boring" stuff at raw restaurants, like green juices, smoothies, or coconut water. The standard raw plate, mean't for one person, is enough nuts & seeds, for a whole table of people to share.

I hate all the agave, cashews,cocao, and south american berries and hype, they put on everything, so I have to custom make my order.

you dont get sick with raw revolution cocoa and cashew bars!!!

So...I am not alone!

I'd been a vegetarian for a while, but am newly vegan (yea!) and and have also decided to become a raw-foodist. I've always tended towards simplicity, but got excited about a few "gourmet" recipes and decided to give them a shot.

BIG mistake.

I was so sick last night that I was glad I'm home alone for the week!

I've also realised that the more I eat raw, when I do go back to cooked food I feel totally off most of the time, so maybe I'm one of those individuals that needs to just go raw without even bothering about transitioning...

I've decided that looking as though I eat "normally" ie. dishes that copy cooked ones are mostly to make other people comfortable and us feel like we still "fit in" or are not way "out there" somewhere. I think when you've addressed all the psychological and social reasons tied around having a cooked / certain diet that you realise you need to do what works for you and screw what anyone else thinks...

What made me even more sick to my stomach last night was all the money I "wasted" on geeting some of the ingredients for those dishes - I did not purchase as many of the gorgeous organic greens and fruit at the market Sunday as I would have liked so I could buy that stuff instead - major bummer!!! I don't even want to look at the nuts in the fridge anymore!