Okay. So..

[mud]

0kay, so living raw means No: Bread, pasta, cooked foods [ You can't cook potatoes? Squash? O.o ], processed foods, salt, pepper, sugar [white/brown/any sugar in any other form besides fruit], condiments, milk, cheese, butter, oils, meats - ?

Sorry i'm so naive. Just trying to get to the basics. So am i right with this list? Are there any i'm missing?

0ne thing i'm worried about is losing my hair. Sounds silly, but for a girl it's like, well.... A major part of you. How many people have actually had their hair grow back like, really well? i'm not afraid of it thinning out for a while, just as long as i know it'll come back in full.. Cuz it's like, kinda` freaky to think about.

Thanks a lot!

[Sharon in Colorado]

You got it girl.

Anything that has been homogenized, pasteurized, cooked, baked, steamed, broiled, sauteed, roasted, fried, bottled, canned, jarred. packaged, deranged, denatured, or processed in some kind of way is what you should avoid.

Avoiding these harmful substances is what is going to allow your body to heal itself.

Primary foods - fresh fruits, veggeis, greens, nuts, seeds. The natural state is what is recognizeable to the body.

If you choose to do recipes you may choose to add in some processed "living" or "raw" foods like seasonings and such available in health food stores and on some websites but that is entirely up to you.

You might lose more than hair - weight, acne, tiredness, lethargy, bad breath, etc. Your body will not get rid of anything that is healthy. Whatever it loses under healthy conditions, is something it does not need to function properly.

[Graciebeliever]

0kay, so living raw means No: Bread, pasta, cooked foods [ You can't cook potatoes? Squash? O.o ], processed foods, salt, pepper, sugar [white/brown/any sugar in any other form besides fruit], condiments, milk, cheese, butter, oils, meats - ?

Sorry i'm so naive. Just trying to get to the basics. So am i right with this list? Are there any i'm missing?

0ne thing i'm worried about is losing my hair. Sounds silly, but for a girl it's like, well.... A major part of you. How many people have actually had their hair grow back like, really well? i'm not afraid of it thinning out for a while, just as long as i know it'll come back in full.. Cuz it's like, kinda` freaky to think about.

Thanks a lot!

Hey Mudkins :)
You are taking baby steps and asking the RIGHT questions and have valid concerns!

I started raw for weightloss but it turned into VASTLY more than that.. I just can't get over how good I feel!!

Take one day at a time or one meal at a time, forgive yourself for stumbling but keep going and step by step you will reach the place you want to be.

For me? it was 100% from day one and I am on my 55th day. I have not gone back to cooked or non raw and I believe that the ONLY reason I have not was I was facing severe illnesses from my weight and I am DEEPLY DEEPLY motivated not to live the path my mother chose which was daily illness and early death.

We all have our weaknesses and strengths and you will need to read a lot and see where others share your path more closely.

You will find that every time you read or share what someone else goes through, your convictions will grow as to what is best for you. 50% 75% 90% or 100%. It is better for you then a SAD diet.

You will have to change your thinking about what you knew before and relearn the right way. Be patient with yourself, kind and be very good to your body. Look at eating Raw as an act of Loving kindness to YOURSELF :D

So,

"No: Bread, pasta, cooked foods [ You can't cook potatoes? Squash? O.o ], processed foods, salt, pepper, sugar [white/brown/any sugar in any other form besides fruit], condiments, milk, cheese, butter, oils, meats - ?"

Other than certain Salt, condiments and Oils, NOPE NIX EM :p
But aren't you ready for the AWESOME stuff you CAN HAVE???
Get ready!!

Just look at the food and the joy it brings.
Your Journey begins :)

[Helen Of Tennessee]

As for the hair. Do a search on losing hair from the search button at the top of the page. You'll find some real good threads on it. Basically, yes you may lose some hair as part of detox, but it will come back, so don't panic. Some people have wrote that they have more hair now than before they started losing some of it.

Oh, and for what you can have . . . did you know that there are over 2,000 variety of fruits out there? Hmmmm . . . lots to pick from :D My favorite right now is Red, juicy, sweet, crisp WATERMELON!!!!! Then you have the wonderful crunch lettuce with whatever fixings you want on it. It's so hot here that I'm enjoying smoothies!!!!! There's no limit to what you can put together for a meal or snack. So many things to pick from!!!!

[Rawkinlocs]

Well, I'd like to clarify some things.

It depends on HOW you intend to do raw.

A raw vegan will eat no ANIMAL-based milk, cheese, etc. and no honey but there are some raw fooders who consume raw animal products (we don't get into that on this particular forum, though...but there are those out there that do)

A raw vegetarian may eat raw honey

A raw fooder who chooses to eat more simplistic and totally natural will eliminate condiments, dehydrated foods, etc.

A raw fooder who just wants to EAT RAW and enjoy the prepared meals etc. (and especially someone who is just starting out and transitioning from a SAD (or cooked, period) to raw food CAN have milk (nut milk), cheese (nut or seed-based cheese we can make), ice cream (non-dairy), pizza, bread, crackers (dehydrated at low temps) condiments such as Nama Shoyu (a non-pasteurized soy sauce), agave nectar (can be used instead of sugar), spices, seasonings, olive oil, coconut oil/butter, flax seed oil, SEA salt, and much more. It's just a matter of changing WHERE you buy and the sources of your products.

I recommend getting Alissa's book if you don't own it already! It's chock full of good stuff that is especially great for someone just starting out!

[dreamrawalwz]

You're correct. Maybe instead of saying waht raw ISN"T (since that's a long list) and it can be daunting and get you to think "i can't have anything!" say what raw IS. Raw is a wonderful selection of fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, sprouted grains, and greens. Some use spices and sea salt, especially if you do recipies or are transitioning. Keep it simple :)

[lissomllama]

Welcome!

Well about the hair issue, I belong to a long hair based web community and have been growing my hair for years now. My goal is knee-length and it is now at tail bone, so trust me, I know about the importance of hair! I can tell you that my hair is thicker and faster growing now that I'm raw and my hair is partly why I went raw. I went through a small shed during my detox and then tons of new, thicker, shinier and stronger hair started growing in immediately. You must understand that a properly done raw lifestyle does not take away anything but the bad, and it gives far more of the good. This is not a diet, this is a lifestyle and it is contrary to anything you were ever taught (most likely) so it will help you more to not apply a 'cooked' mindset to things.

As far as food goes, it may help not to think in terms of what you can't eat, but rather, what you can on a raw, vegan lifestyle. You can have all kinds of fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, water, fresh squeezed, raw juices, leafy greens and even some grains, you can have raw chocolate, even and you can make all sorts of raw gourmet recipes to remind you of cooked things you might miss for a while. It takes adjustment of course, but a raw food lifestyle is full of abundance and you can eat as much as you want to. You can graze all day and not have a care in the world about calories, fat, overexercising or any of those cooked worries.

Later on you may choose to limit certain things that no longer serve you but at the beginning, as long as you choose this path and then as long as you know it is raw and vegan, chow down! Trust me, you probably will go through a painful detox and have bad cravings. You may fail numerous times or not at all, but each time, you'll want to succeed even more and trust me, even if you quit for a long time, you won't be able to stop thinking about raw foodism. It will haunt you beause your mind and body know it is right. I wish you the best of luck here! Read read read, use the search function and ask questions. Blessings to you!

[Pierre]

Hi Lissomllama, I knew you'd pop in on the hair question! :)

Lissomllama and Coriander and I are all LHCers (forums.longhaircommunity.com) and a few others have shown an interest in raw. My hair is nearing waist, stretched out, but it doesn't look that long because it's curly (I'm 3a, she's 2a/b). It's soft, strong, shiny, and sniffy (I like to smell it). I wash it with water (as does she) and use no manufactured products. I use only oils (usually jojoba, often with some essential oils mixed in) and henna mixed with some other plants.

Hair is made of keratin, a protein. Like vulcanized rubber, keratin is strengthened by cross-linking sulfur bonds. So you have the "how to get enough protein" question. On a cooked diet, protein has to be digested; since the enzymes are killed, you have to make enzymes (which are themselves protein) to digest them. On a raw diet, the same enzymes that built the food break it down; you don't need to make enzymes, so you don't need as much protein. And you can even eat proteases, such as bromelain, found in pineapple (a bromeliad).

My usual meals are fruit in the morning (fresh, or frozen pulp; I don't yet have a blender for making smoothies, so I mash pulp with a potato masher ;)), a salad which takes most of the afternoon to eat, a few more fruits, and more fruit in the evening. I eat 90-180 g of olives a day (until they run out, which they will in a few days) and occasionally peanuts or cashews. I sometimes put an avocado in the salad. I also eat a gram or two of dulse, which has lots of minerals.

[lissomllama]

Hey pierre, well put, I might add. Gilmore Girl is also a member of the long hair community as well.

Oh, I wanted to add that not all foods are edible in their raw state, this means that humans were not meant to eat them. While many raw foodists enjoy and eat potatoes and squash raw, others don't. There are some foods that simply aren't meant to be consumed, even if they are vegan and raw.

[mud]

Thank you all so, so much for all the information! This is wicked cool!

It's so exciting, haha :p It's like a journey or something to... Yeah.

i had absolutely NO idea that people would actually eat potatoes and squash raw! Last night i had actually tried bitting into a raw potatoe, out of curiousity. It turned me right off... But i know that there's so much more out there that God has given us, for our bodys, and it's exciting.

So losing hair is a sign of the detox symtoms. i see. i'll definately look into it some more. When i typed "Hair loss and the Vegan diet" on the Google search engine, i got all kinds of crud. Like if you're losing hair on a "Vegetarien Diet", then you are lacking protien and "other essential vitamins". i agreed on how that definately could be true, but that's like, if people aren't getting natural oils, right? Anyway, i went on to read all that messed up junk about how good sources of protien come from animal meat. [!] It was like.. "Whoa.. Whatever."

Anyway, thank's again for everyone's imput. (:

[Helen Of Tennessee]

When searching for hair loss, use the search on this board. It's the banana at the top of the page. There are numerous threads with some great posts.

[eachpeachpearplum]

Please please please if you can swing it get Alissa's book & DVD.

You may not know but this is her site that she set up as free support for all of us! Have a look at her main page www.alissacohen.com.

Also have a look at PAST threads they are so very helpful!

And WELCOME!