Hello,

I have known about eating raw for a little while, but I don't feel I know enough to truly practice it yet. I have signed up as a member here to hopefully learn more because ideally, I would like to take on this lifestyle, as it appears to be the healthiest for you.

It saddens me, though, I'll definitely admit to think about giving up cooking and such. It brings a lot of emotion because food is so involved much of what I and most people do - family, socializing, traditions, etc. Not to mention flavors!, that is one thing I do not want to sacrifice. I have no doubt though that somehow I will be able to find a way to get there and make good recipes with spices and herbs to help make flavorful dishes.

So hello everyone, I hope that I can find help here and hope to help others as I learn too:-)

Hello, meshelly129,
WELCOME! I know what you mean about giving up cooking. I have always enjoyed cooking. I finally built a house with the kitchen of my dreams and then gave up it up for raw food! Well, that's not exactly true. I still cook some things for him and some day we might open our house as a bed and breakfast.
I've only been eating raw foods for about 4 months now, but to get started it really helped me to see lots of recipes. There are some good ones on this site, of course, but there are lots of other sites with recipes. Have you seen goneraw.com fromsadtoraw.com allrawrecipes.com ? At first I tried replicating cooked foods in raw form. You know, things like lasagna. (Now I am eating much more simply and still love it.) The bad thing about many of the recipes on those sites is that they are often heavy on nuts and I like to keep my percentage of fats pretty low. However, those recipes can help as you transition from a cooked diet.
Food is VERY connected to emotions. You were smart to connect with this forum for support. It helps to have a place to express yourself, ask questions and celebrate your successes. Once you get into it you'll start feeling so good that it'll all seem easy. As to flavors... I find foods to be MORE flavorful. I haven't noticed anyone else saying this, but in my experience oils/fats coat my tongue and hide flavors. When I made soft-serve "ice cream" by blending a banana with a handful of frozen blueberries, I couldn't believe how flavor-packed it was!
Good luck!

meshelly,
Just wanted to say hi.
I know what you mean about the foods and family and socializing.
A plate of carrot and celery sticks for Thanksgiving dinner in my family is only the......appetizer.

Vinny