Hello~

I am new to the raw diet, I am determined to keep this going, however I am having all sorts of questions. I have always been very "health" minded or at least to current levels of my knowledge at what ever time. I have been eating organic food for 3+ years now almost completely, not eating much meat and very little sugar, no white anything (bread, pasta, sugar etc.) I have been eating raw foods now for a week and I am so tired. I have bursts of energy and then I am drained at night. I am hitting the sack way earlier than usual, I have brain fog during the day as well. I am having craving for things I don't even normally eat very much, bread and crackers mainly. Hmmm.......I love raw vegetables and fruit, not a problem, actually enjoying them more this week than I ever have, I can taste them and have many times not prefered the salt or seasonings, so that is good. The rest of my expirience so far is as stated above, tired and foggy. Any words of wisdom?

It sounds like you aren't getting enough calories. Have you compared your calorie intake before and after you tried raw? Sounds like you might benefit from some cooked starches such as sweet potato for an easier transition. Or if you want to stay raw try adding bananas for more energy, they are pretty concentrated for a fruit, and avocado along with a handful of nuts/seeds/coconut if you need more fat.

Do you eat any dried fruits? rasins and dates seem to be staple pick-me-ups for rawfooders and it might help with the cravings for bread and crackers.

Yes. All your experiences sound very normal. Continue to gradually increase your intake of fresh, raw plant foods until you reach YOUR raw goals. Accept that you may feel tired...and go through some detox. This CAN last only a few weeks....or sometimes many months....in one form or another. Its all good.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

GREEN JUICE!! Good Probiotics! Raw Cacao Shakes! Blue Green Algae! All these things will give you sustainable energy throughout the day. Yes your body is detoxifying..Yes your energy will be soaring very soon..Yes you can make some adjustments to up your comfort level though.

When transitioning you must remember that your body will detoxify and your elimination channels must be open. I highly recommend Bowel cleansing and Colon therapy (colonics and/or enemas)..and really good pro-biotics ( i love conscious planet)

Also Super Green Foods for lots of Chlorophyll content will minimize the toxins before they exit your body. E3Live and Blue Green Algaes are awesome!

Prepare yourself at least 2 liters of fresh vegetable green juice per day. My favorite is Kale or Spinach with Celery and Cucumber and about 3 cups of ionized water. I blend them all really well in a blender and then strain through a nut milk bag. I find this to be the most amazing source of energy I could ever ask for.

Conscious Planet products have transformed my life also. I discovered that I needed a solid base. Minerals, Real Protein Shakes, Probiotics, The Best Hemp Seeds, Everything you need for balancing your system in the most simple form that your body can understand and utilize properly. I love the products so much I joined the company. I cant help but recommend it all the time. See my Signature File for the Website.

I love aiding in transitions..If you need any meal ideas or have any Q's lemme know.

Stacey~Queen Green

Thank you all for responding. I am not sure how many calories I should be getting on this diet (arugula What do you recommend for me? 25 years old, I want to lose 10 pounds (i weight 120), and am 5'3. I also didn't think that I would be feeling the detoxing yet......It works very fast?!? I have been trying to clean out my body for years via: no chemicals in my food, water,toothpaste,soap,lotions well all toiletries, I mean anything I can think of. I have tried organic apple cider vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, coconut oil, this that and the other! But nothing made a detox cycle progress, I waited and nothing made a difference. So this really surprises me how fast it has come. Well anyways, thank you all again, I am optimistic about the process Richelle

I was in almost the same place as you (ht/wt/age), and was eating lots and lots of raw veggies, some raw fruits, about a cup of raw sprouts (like legumes) and about 2 oz fat per day--it came out to about 1300 calories a day and I lost the ten pounds FAST. I was also physically active and then started just *binging* on dried fruit and fat and a small amt of cooked food and gained it all back (luckily not more--you can gain weight binging on plant foods, but only so much)--why?

Because as arugula said, I was not getting enough to eat! At first I thought it was lack of discipline, but then I realized it was purely physical, too much change and too little calories with my high level of physical activity. I would fill up on all the fiber from the greens and could NOT get enough to eat.

I still don't know how many calories I need exactly, but I am now being careful to get enough and SLOWLY make sustainable changes. I am doing some juicing, because I can get full from 300 calories of kale, and that just doesn't cut it right now! I am seeing how things will go around 2000 calories and will adjust as needed. You could try one of the online calculators that estimates your needs based your weight and activity level, and then go from there. Just make sure you don't get too little food or it may boomerang after a few months, like it did for me. I would like to see argula's response as well.

I am guessing you need about 1800-2200 depending on your activity level and the amount of fiber in your diet. If you juice a lot and eat a lot of fat the lower end of the range is more appropiate. If you are doing 80-10-10 and not juicing and exercising, the higher end is more appropriate. The more fiber in your diet, the less usable energy, regardless of what the charts say.

Here is an estimator of your needs.
[www.nutritiondata.com]

20 pieces of fruit, a head of romaine, and a handful of nuts/seeds is about right. If you placed all this food in front of you at once it would be a small mountain. If you choose more fat--more nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut, and oils, your "mountain" of produce might be just a small mound.

For me, 2 c green juice, 2 c rice protein shake w/ fruit, and my normal intake (soymilk in coffee, soy yogurt in fruit salad, very large green salad, a couple of light domestic beers) was enough to maintain with stenuous exercise and lots of energy. But when I omitted the juice and the protein shake along with one hour of exercise (I am down to 1/2 hour per day) I found that I had less energy.

I do better with the higher calorie, higher exercise option. I am guessing this is not just a calorie thing, and not just an exercise thing, but also a micronutrient thing. I must need more of them than what the charts say, or my diet is so high in fiber that I need extra to compensate for what doesn't get absorbed.

Which brings me to a point that I think is important: RDAs. A lot of people dismiss some of them because they are designed for a SAD-eating populace. And this idea does have some merit. But we as vegans tend to get higher fiber intakes and we don't uptake as much of what is present in our foods. Also some of our foods have forms of micronutrients that aren't so readily available. So I think it's a good policy to aim higher.

Thanks for that! I do feel really good when I get a lot of greens in my diet (lots of micronutrients), but having the equivalent of two heads of greens a day was filling me up SO much that I just stopped eating them and went nuts, over on the other extreme--few greens, dried fruit, tons of fat. I just felt like I needed to eat and eat to make up for the weeks of being so hungry. Finally I feel like I can find a middle ground and lose *slowly*.

I should have been able to figure this out on my own, but sometimes it's easier to figure things out for others and harder for yourself. At least for me

I will be physically active, just because I don't have a car and it's part of my lifestyle. Otherwise I may have been fine on a lower-calorie diet. But now, no way.

Also--how many g of protein is in your rice protein shake? How much protein do you aim for? And why rice versus, say, hemp or pea protein?

Okay, I am definately not eating enough calories then.......How much protien should I be getting?? (rost0037)

By the way thank you arugula for all your info

According to this, from the UK, I would need 45 g protein. [www.vegansociety.com]

The World Health Organization recommends less as a minimum--0.75 g/kg ideal body weight, which is 35 g for me.
[www.fao.org]

But I know some people say they feel better on more protein, or believe that more protein is optimal (obviously there are people who say the opposite as well)--I was just wondering why arugula takes some protein powder.

Yeah, I figured I needed about 35 g/day of protein according to WHO. But I bumped it up for a couple of reasons: 1. my natural body is stick insect arms and I wanted more beef in my upper chest, back, and arms, 2. my diet is high in fiber and I was getting maybe 85% of the protein that I ate, 3. my protein is all plant protein and it isn't close to the highest nitrogen utilization protein source (whole cooked egg), I figured this was limiting another 15%.

I have tried hemp, rice, and soy proteins. I feel hemp is the best and soy is the worst, but hemp is only 37% protein and $10/lb, while soy is cooked and my legume intake is already nonzero, I didn't want more of it. So I use nutribiotic rice protein powder, I found a source for about $7.50/lb and it's processed below 110 degrees F. It also tastes excellent in my shakes.

I experimented with adding 15-45 extra grams of protein each day. 45 was too much, I could smell it in my sweat and my urine and my breath and I felt that it could not possibly be a good thing to generate more smelly biogenic amines in my body fluids. Sorry for being graphic. You will notice these things if you experiment.

15-30 is about right for me, the higher end when I am doing extra work in the gym and the lower end when I am doing light gym days. This is 1-2 tbsp of nutribiotic rice protein. Not that I think rice protein is ideal: I don't. But at least it comes from plants. Also it makes my fruit salads more satisfying, gives them some body and I have come to love the taste of it. This particular brand I use is very tasty. I've tried other brands which are a little bit cheaper and they sometimes have a rancid taste.

I should also point out as I have previously written, about 10% of my calories are empty (beer) and this is probably another reason why I benefit from exceeding the RDAs for certain minerals. I don't recommend beer to anyone, it's a failure of mine. But I don't think an occasional glass of wine does much harm.

I love getting my protein from kale. And some days I'm at 80 g. (which is 2-3 times what I need).

Thanks arugula! Makes sense. There's a CR blog where she sticks with eggs whites for extra protein because she can't give up her wine habit--it's funny, sounds like your situation is similar (but you kept it vegan!).