New here - Vegetarian going Raw

[rainstorm]

Hey,
I've been a vegetarian for much of my life other than when my dad tries constantly to force me to eat meat. I love being vegetarian but my vegetarian lifestyle is by no means healthy vegetarian.
I'm in my early 20's, college student, female, go by Rain or Nik sometimes. I'm working towards my degree in Nursing. I'm an environmentalist, my friends often times call me a rocker/hippie chick. I love being a vegetarian and living in ways to help the environment. Now I've just got to do more to really boost my personal health.
I literally live for potatoes and chocolate. Mostly french fries or good spicy mashed potatoes.
I'm going to try to at least get off of chocolate cold turkey because I've become too addicted to it where I become very crabby when I can't have it and I want it pretty much every day.

Anyhow, I'm hoping to get into being a raw organic vegetarian as often as I can afford it (I am a poor college student). I love my veggies but I very very quickly get bored with what very few recipes I know and I don't think my list of veggies I eat is very vast. I've never really tried seaweed veggies and the likes. So I'd like to try making some good recipies with some foods I've never even tried anymore.

Hopefully this will be a good place for me to get good ideas and support when I'm craving that damned chocolate! lol

Talk to you all soon!
~Rain

[rawpriestess]

WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME


you will find lots of great recipes here, and you don't have to give up chocolate if you don't want to,
you can make carob dishes, that are excellent.

[rainstorm]

I don't have to give up chocolate huh? Interesting!
Well at least I could learn to cut back on it. lol

I'll have to search around and see what ways I can have chocolate.

Good I definitely need recipes. I need some interesting tasty ways to prepare many different varieties of food.

[RawTruth]

Using carob in recipes gives you a lot of the taste of chocolate. But ... the best thing is to train your taste buds to be satisfied with fresh fruit or a couple of dates. It IS possible. I had a raving sweet tooth and, now, after being raw for quite a while, it's very much under control. Chocolate (or "raw" cacao) is such a stimulant for many people -- and you sound like one -- that it's a great idea to try to stay away. It'd certainly help those moods!!

I wish you a warm welcome here also. You might consider getting Alissa's book because it's the easiest way to go raw. She was also a cooked food vegetarian (as was I) before going to all living foods and she's written in it such a fun and upbeat way. And ... she explains everything so simply that you're just about guaranteed to have all your questions answered. Even those you don't know you had.

And, it's not that expensive. It's about the cost of, oh ... 10 orders of french fries ... or 5 trips to Starbucks ... or a pizza a beer. You get the picture!

By the way, something I learned recently is about french fries. It may help you give them up forever. It was recent research that shows that the combination of the potatoes and the high heat of the oil causes a substance called acrylates (sp?) which is 100% cancer-causing. It made the news and everything. It's not just that they're bad for you or fattening or whatever. It's that the substance that's formed is carcinogenic. Period. Eeeewww!!!

Well, anyway, here's wishing you the brightest future on your road to total health with raw and living foods. It's the way to go!

[rainstorm]

Rawtruth,
That doesn't sound good at all!
I've got to go do more research though and figure out if there's truly very little you can do with potatoes raw other than making chips with them. There's something about potatoes in general that have made them my favorite veggie for my entire life. Even as a good ole plain baked potato with some veggies. I've always loved that.

I agree that I really have to give up chocolate all-together because it's definitely affecting my health. Maybe after I'm off of it for awhile I can go back and try out some of the "raw" cacao but I'm really going to try my hardest to get off of it for awhile. I've realized especially during stressful periods in my life that I just crave chocolate like nothing else.

Thanks for the welcome and the info on french fries!

[RawTruth]

Potatoes aren't really made to be eaten raw. They don't taste good ... and I don't think they're good for you raw. The good news is I don't know anyone who misses them after being raw for a long time. That doesn't mean there aren't, but I've just never heard anyone longing for them.

There are SOOOO many other things to eat that are raw and/or living. When you get a bit more information about what you can eat (everything!!!) and how easy things are to make, I betcha you'll find one day that you haven't even thought of a potato in months!

It's just a completely different way of thinking from the way you have been. I know what it's like -- I was a vegetarian also and ate a lot of baked potatoes and rice and other fiber-rich carbohydrates. And I remember when thinking about going raw that I couldn't even figure out what I'd have for meals -- not to mention breakfast and lunch -- beside just salad or sliced veggies. Once I learned about it and actually did it for a couple of months (with the help of Alissa's book, naturally), though, it was all so clear and ha become the most natural thing in the world to do. Really.

[rainstorm]

That's exactly how I'm feeling! It's like "uh oh. Do I really want to go to JUST eating 100% salads and completely give up potatoes?" *gulp* lol

But I figure if I stick with it, get tons of recipes, and just try preparing it (it can't be too difficult, I don't even have to worry about cooking it and burning it!) and buy Alissa's book and some other recipe books even, I should be good to go.
I think I just first of all HAVE to do a detox. I'm already craving chocolate just thinking about it!! lol

[jjonak]

If you do wind up craving chocolate, I love the raw carob powder that Alissa sells on her site so much more than any chocolate I've ever tried! I have a horrible sweet tooth, and it's saved me being able to make shakes with bananas, ice and some carob powder. I'll probably eventually get to the point where I just crave fruit, but I'm not there yet so it's a big saver, particularly at night when I am most prone to cravings.

[rainstorm]

*runs off and buys some* Sounds like exactly what I'm going to need!

I've got a horrible sweet tooth as well. I love eating junky foods late at night. I'm a night owl really so I just enjoy my relaxing snacks at night while surfing the net.

I'm going to run off to her site and buy her book and some of that mixture.

[jjonak]

It is really great, honest! That and her agave nectar is also very nice, well packaged and great taste. I don't miss sugar one bit.

What's helped me were the posts on getting more greens. I start my mornings with the green smoothies. I find that the Cascadian farms cherries and strawberries (frozen) mixed with almost equal amounts of spinach and a touch of agave are delicious - you cannot taste the greens! Then I try to go fruits and veggies for lunch in whole form. I snack on bananas, and for dinner, I generally try something out of Alissa's cookbook that looks more like "comfort food" like zucchini pasta for alfredo. Then my nightcap is the chocolate (carob) smoothie, and that pretty much gets me through my day!

Another thing that really helped was giving away all the cooked food items in our house, literally, everything, even the condiments.

[RawTruth]

I think I just first of all HAVE to do a detox. . . . If what you mean is a cleanse ... NO -- you don't have to do this. When you start eating all raw, your body will detoxify in its own time and in its own way. You needn't worry about doing anything except beginning to eat all raw.

And, BTW, for green smoothies, you can use fresh fruit. It just won't be a frozen smoothie (like you get in the malls) -- it's easy to get used to and, even though frozen definitely gets the icy cold thing going, the fresher the better. But -- doing ANYTHING is better than staying with cooked foods, for sure!!!

I really admire your interest and focus on this!