The time factor

[Coonlie]

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to a raw food diet, although I've eaten lots of salads, smoothies and done some juicing for a long time. My husband has cancer, I am 75 pounds overweight and my mother, who lives with us, has dementia. I'm thinking giving the raw lifestyle a try could be beneficial for all of us. Recently I've been reading and learning about going all raw and have looked at dozens of great sounding recipes. The main thing that concerns me is the time factor. It seems that so many yummy and creative things have to be dehydrated for hours and hours, so there is no impromptu meal preparation! How do you make this work? Do you always begin your evening meal prep in the morning or do you plan menus several days ahead? I've always been kind of a "plan as I go" cook so the time involved in planning and dehydrating looks daunting to me. Any tips or help would be most appreciated.

Thanks!
Coonlie

[Rawkinlocs]

Hi and welcome Coonlie!

What many of us here do is to take a day or two out of the week and just whip up things to have through the week such as crackers, cookies, grawnola bars, etc.

It does seem daunting at first but once you get into it, it kinda becomes a second nature type of thing because you have experienced it and figured out how long it will take to make a pizza crust, etc. But again, you could make (and dehydrate) the pizza crusts, for example, ahead of time and put in the freezer. Then, when you want a pizza, take a crust out (probably best to individually wrap them), put into the dehydrator to warm and thaw as you whip up your sauce (which can also be made ahead and frozen if need be..but fresh is best and it doesn't take long to whip that up), cut up your veggies and if you choose to, make a raw nut cheeze. Top your crust and then dehydrate a little longer until dinner time.

But aside from that, there are a lot of recipes that don't even require dehydration...just whip up in the food processor and within minutes you have a delicious meal! You can make nut pate' and spread on lettuce (or other green) leaves or have flax crackers on hand to eat with it; make zucchini "pasta" and sauce (alfredo or marinara or other); or you can make it simple and just have fresh fruit or a salad with homemade raw dressing or a smoothie. The possibilities are endless and you don't have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen unless you want to by making more gourmet, complex meals and even with those, you don't have to make the daily.

But I'd say the most important thing right now is to just start incorporating more and more raw foods into you and your family's diet...fresh fruit, salads, fruit smoothies, GREEN fruit smoothies and the prepared raw meals can come later.

[Raine]

Sounds like you have your hands full with taking care of so many people. You have my respect and prayers.

I'm kind of lazy when it comes to food prep -- salads, raw fruit, sliced vegetables, juicing, green tea and water. Very little prep. Just whatever is on hand, maybe a few knife slices and rinsing out the juicer or blender and that's about it.

I did a 30-day fast in October - dropped 27 pounds. Never felt better in my life. Have slacked off for part of Nov - Dec, back to predominately juicing and weight is dropping again, tons of energy throughout the day, good sleep, etc.

[Coonlie]

Thank you for your prompt and helpful replies. I know I will need to do some creative things in order to persuade my mom to try raw. I like the idea of setting aside a day and making a few things ahead. I guess I just need to jump in and get going!

Thanks for your kind remarks and care!

Coonlie

[luckitri]

I have not gotten into the food prep yet. I would probably be closer to 100% if I had but it is just too much for me at this point. I live in AZ so it is too hot half the year to even think about. When I started raw I could not even consider a sugary fruit other than tomato. Now that it has cooled off I am enjoying them. Mostly I eat salads and just mono eat items although I have been peeling oranges and juicing them and then using the juice in the blender with a banana . . . . mmmmmm. Also green juice - spinach - cilantro - kale - I have no problem with just plain or adding water or lemon. Bananas, avocado and young coconut really help me feel full.

I have often heard people think that the dementia is actually something different. . . . a blanket term used for a syndrome common to our elders when other things are wrong that the Dr.s either don't know or cannot admit. For example some people have noticed great similarity between Gulf War Syndrome and chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia syndrome. Those of us who have been given the CFS or FS diagnosis often really think that it is something like toxicity overload that the docs do not know how to deal with. I do not wish to give you false hope but if you can entice your mom to eat and drink the healthy raw things you may find her symptoms ease up and so will your life. (?) As you read this site you will learn so much and click on peoples blogs so that you can read their success with raw stories of personal healing.

[Coonlie]

That's really interesting, Luckitri. My mom's diagnosis is Lewy Body Disease/Dementia, which is a hopeless diagnosis, as far as mainstream medicine goes. But I've felt that, even though the medical profession says there is no cure and no treatment, there must be a way for the body to heal itself, if I just knew what the right tools are to give it in order to help it heal. I know she won't go all raw for now, but if I can get her to start eating more raw (she eats practically nothing raw right now) it would surely at least give her more energy. I'll have to start sneaking in more and more "disguised raw" foods and see what happens. :p