I have been 90% raw for six weeks now, with the 10% cooked consisting of rice milk occasionally and sprouted grain tortillas occasionally with my hummus and veggies. During the first 4 weeks, I spent many hours in the kitchen making gourmet dishes from Alissa Cohens book as well as others that I had found. I guess this helped with transitioning into Raw, because these looked sort of like the real thing and had a little more substance to them. Well, I read that eventually you kind of wean yourself away from all of that food, and settle into fruit days, mono days, veggie days, but that has not happened. I always seem to be hungry and can't imagine having a day where I only eat all fruit. I will usually have a green smoothie and fruit first thing in the morning, or some mornings if I'm not rushing I'll do a bowl of granola with rice milk, fruit for a snack, flax crackers with hummus or salsa for a snack, a salad or collard wrap with hummus and veggies for lunch, and the same kinds of things for dinner. (I'm tired of eating) How do you all eat just fruit all day and a salad for dinner? Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or its just taking me longer to transition. HELP!

Don't worry about how long its going to take you to get out of the transitional phase of the raw diet. It will take as long as it takes. Remember, the SAD diet is pretty high fat, so it may take several months or even years before your body is happy with a lower fat diet.

At some point, your body will say its had enough of the rich transitional gourmet foods, and you will just naturally start to eat lighter foods, more fruits and salads, and less gourmet stuff.

However, that being said, its worthwhile to watch your fat intake, so that you don't exceed the fat intake of the SAD diet. The SAD diet is 40% fat, and many transitional raw foodists eat in excess of 60% fat as a percentage of calories.

You can use a nutritional calculator like fitday, nutritiondata, nutridiary, or Cron-o-Meter to see what your fat percentages are. A healthy fat intake is 20% fat or less.

One day, a long time ago, I discovered how to Knock Out hunger as a raw foodist. I had let some bananas get to ripe and they were slightly mushy to eat. I didn't want to throw them out so I put enough water into my VM to cover the blades and added the 4 ripe bananas and a little ice. I blended it smooth and drank it fresh. I wasn't hungry for a couple of hours or longer. Now I like mono meals with enough raw food to really get the job done. Not to much and not to little -- just right. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Experiment a little.

I'm new to all this so I'm probably not the best person to comment


I would try to move away from too many gourmet meals because they're usually quite (too?) fatty, BUT...

I don't think you need to force yourself to do "fruit days", "veggie days" etc - just eat more fruits and veggies in a way that feels right for you.

Good luck

Claire

I agree with Byran 100% It probably did not take you 6 weeks to develop the eating habits and 'comfortable' levels that you have now. It will probably not take you 6 weeks to change them in the 100% fashion that you would like. Be KIND and ACCEPTING towards yourself. Give yourself a GENEROUS time frame of at least 6-12 months to make the SMALL CHANGES and 'stretches' from your comfort zone. If you do it faster and easier....so be it! (but don't rush it or push it.....let the healthy food do the cleaning!).

-Stay full, make sure you are getting the nutrition that YOU need, set YOUR small goals (with timetables) and keep them. Be successful....even on a small scale....and in breeds success. Fail....no matter how big or noble the goal...and it sets the stage for depression and more failure. So: The real talent is goal setting and being tied into what YOU are truly motivated to do.

-Just some thoughts.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Getting past hunger is just a matter of eating enough food to satisfy the body's needs. For example I had tangerines this morning for breakfast and I ate them slowly and chewed them throughly and enjoyed the fresh, natural, raw taste of them very much. After I ate the first one I felt like having another, and then another etc until hunger abated and my body signaled that it was satisfied. When I did a count I found that it took 6 tangerines to satisfy me this meal (sometimes breakfasts are like that). But its not the count that matters but the body signal that is significant.

It took me a good year of mostly raw eating, plus about 6 months transition, to get to the stage where I felt best eating mostly fruit. I started out feeling like there was no WAY I could feel satisfied unless a meal included raw "crackers" or "bread" of some kind. Then I stopped wanting those and feeling like there was no WAY I'd quell my hunger unless I had a seed pate or avocado or something fatty at each meal. Then I got into green smoothies. Then, finally, I just started craving fruit and only fruit. Now I'm experimenting with mono meals, and I still feel like I'm in transition. I believe that one's diet, especially on raw, is an ongoing journey - your body changes, the seasons change, your mind changes...IMO, the only constant requirement is that you listen to YOUR body. Let go of the "shoulds," though I know it's easier said than done!

Thank you for all of the great advice and words of encouragement. I will just try and listen to my body and give it what it craves and just try to watch the fat intake.

On the SAD diet, we learned that for a certain weight/height our bodies need at least (x) amount of calories to survive, usually about 1800-2000 per day, but I guess that is not true, since those of you eating fruits most of the day and green smoothies can't possibly be getting that high amt. of cal.
(Any thoughts on the validity of this?)

I will just give myself time (as weight is not an issue - 5'8", 135pds) and go with the flow.

Actually, many people do get around 2000 a day eating fruit all day and some greens (the book 80/10/10 talks about this). The trick is to get enough fruit, if that's the kind of diet you're going for. People will speak up and post if they get less I'm sure, but plenty of us need even more calories than that on raw.

lovekk,

You have good advice here. Take your time to transition into raw foods. Do it your way, in your time. There are no raw food police and this isn't an all-or-nothing deal. That, to me, is really great! When it comes to other "diets" or medication, you have to be very precise and there is rarely margin for error. Not with raw foods! You can do this at a level and pace that's working for you! That's how it should be, isn't it?

I am so fortunate that my body is actually rejecting any kind of a transition. I am having a very difficult time eating cooked foods right now. (I start going raw, finally, tomorrow.) I got to go raw for five days and felt amazing. I couldn't stick with it because of cooked food commitments but I was in real pain after I switched back. Since then, my stomach has been ticked-off! I feel astonishingly sluggish and like a block of cement after I eat. I also have acid reflux that flairs up no matter what eat. (Funny, though, how that didn't kick-in while I was eating raw. I just thought of that.) So, tomorrow when I go raw, it will be 100% and I hope to keep it very simple, even at the beginning. I love to prepare food, so I'll make the occasional recipe, but I intend to embrace the simplicity of this lifestyle.

I really hope things get better and easier for you. Hang in there and check back in for support and to give us updates, ok?

Thanks, will do!