Hi all!

I've lurked around here off and on for at least a year. A couple weeks ago I decided to work on adding more raw foods to my diet. I discovered that I love to eat a lot of raw foods. Most days keeping myself above 60% raw isn't a problem. I can go a couple days 100% raw, but something cooked always seems to get me (or the cold gets to me). I haven't really gotten into raw "cuisine" so much as just eating the fruits and veggies that appeal to me

As someone who switched back and forth between SAD and high protein/low carb diets I am really not used to eating this way. I feel great and want to progress along this path. I haven't set any specific goals except to move toward a vegan diet that is mostly raw.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the information around here and listening to any suggestions you have for a "newbie".

To quote Stranger In a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein) "I am an egg"
Shann

Hi Shann..<hint> Ya don't want to mention the word 'egg' around here..hahahaha...ok, sorry but it's been a subject of contention around here..not in the context as you are using it though..so don't worry!

Welcome, and I'm glad you are out and about now here.

Love,
Prism

You are doing great and remember that high raw is fantastic too!

Tonya Zavasta and Angela Stokes both ate high raw for 3 years before transitioning to 100% raw. So, you don't have to do it overnight.

The two worst foods are refined sugar and starches, imho. Sprouted grains and raw honey are great replacements for those.

Take care!

Karen DeVeaux
[www.healingtype1diabetes.typepad.com]

Shann you're in exactly the same position as I am. I want to be able to go 100% raw instantly, and if I could flick a switch to make it happen then I would - but life isn't that easy, so I do what I can each day with the ultimate aim staying the same.

Right now I'm on day two of 100% raw and have an evil headache, not good as I'm filling in a job application form too! lol

Allie =^..^=

[www.stronger.me.uk]

It's cliche...but my opinion is it's all about the PROCESS. Putting one foot in front of the other...you know? Some one with a good running process will always do well in the race...regardless of the terrain or weather. Congratulations on your wonderful & healthier process!

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Hi I made the transition about a month and a half ago and it has been absolutely wonderful for me.

Before this happened, I made a very slow move into it; I was 50% raw for a year or so falling off the wagon and getting back on over and over again. I have tried macrobiotic diet eating lots of soy products. After a year of eating this way, I realized that my body really liked raw food much more and I felt great after eating raw, so I said to myself, "Why not trying eating raw for a month and see what happens?"

So I did and I am still raw! It was just such a natural choice to stay raw. Because it happens so naturally (well, I first had to teach myself how to eat raw for a month, though) that it is my life style now rather than a mere diet. If it were just a diet, I would feel like a loser if I ate something not raw. I would feel that I fell out of a raw wagon binging on cooked food. Because it is not a diet (I have tried so many diets only to fail. I had eating disorder as well), I feel so free and eat what my body wants, which naturally turned to be veggies and fruit!! Being on a diet feels like you are limiting what you can eat. Incorporating raw food in your life feels life you are emerging your border of what you can eat.

I am still a newbie like you, Shann! Lots to learn and lots of fun along the way! Yeah! Let's enjoy the path of raw food, not the goal of it. It is the journey that counts and is fun. I am not 100% yet and I don't know if I want to be, but I am so certain that I love to eat raw food not because it is a rule but simply because it is soooooo yummy!

All my love to all the newbies and experienced raw food lovers here in this support website.
Thank you all!
(Sorry for my grammatical mistakes if any, English is not my native.)

gadjoemi

Shann, sounds like your process is going great!

The first time I went raw I was so concerned about being 100%, it was really to my detriment, emotionally and physically. It was so dogmatic, and I was eating all this complex raw food cuisine that really wasn't serving my body.

The latest transition process I went through, I let myself go back to cooked food for a couple years, gradually increasing the amount of raw in each day until I was doing fruit for brekky & lunch with a cooked dinner of some starch and veggies. This was so much gentler. Then I would go raw for a day at a time and start to feel unsettled and go back to cooked. Then the one day turned into two then three, then a week, then a month, then my desire for cooked food pretty much fell away and there wasn't that anxious feeling about staying raw.

It was so much gentler on me to just have simple fruit meals and then a simple cooked meal each day, rather than all raw but all complicated, overstimulating and hard to digest.

So basically it sounds like you skipped the first thing I went through and went straight for being gentle with yourself in the transition. Right on!

Love,
Uma