MelonManiac
05-31-2007, 01:51 AM
I apologize in advance for the long post lol.
I have been "stalking" this site for a few days now, and through reading entries here and researching the raw food lifestyle, I have decided that I want to try it. The thing is, I do not know where to begin! I am a college student and home with my family for the summer (they will think it's crazy to eat all raw but I don't care). I have realized that when I eat all vegetables and fruit for a day (or mostly) I feel energized and ready for anything, but when I eat junk and meat and carbs (from non-raw foods) I feel depressed, sluggish, and like sleeping all day. I found this site because I was looking for pills to treat depression and came across a website that got me into looking for natural ways to cure depression, and somehow I just ended up wanting to try the whole raw foods path, and hope to stick to it once I begin.
The thing is, like I said before, I don't know where to begin! It seems simple enough yet I have so many questions. Like, I was thinking about buying Alissa's book and one or two other Vegan recipe books, is this recommended? Will I benefit from the recipes, or am I better off just eating raw foods unprepared. Also, just in case I don't make it to the bookstore, are there any good sites for raw recipes, I will probably start off with a lot of the smoothies so any input on this would be great.
One last thing, I know that this lifestyle change is not supposed to be about losing weight but I have put on like 14 pounds from a mix of college and depression (I am 5'1" and 114lbs but my normal weight before was 105). My junior year of high school I decided I wanted to stop eating for the summer and see what would happen (I didn't start out with a negative image of myself but ended up with one). I dropped to 90 lbs and gained it all back within 2 years (and more as you can see). Within those two years I have gone through phases of not eating, calorie restriction, and eating normally but hating my body and how I felt about it. Anyway, I now am focusing more on being healthy and feeling good about myself again and I believe this is the way to go, so weight loss isn't a HUGE thing but I wouldn't mind if I lost a few lbs (I don't know how I would feel about gaining weight though). So my question is is it possible if I stick to raw foods 100% to gain a large amount of weight? (I don't like avocados or bananas and I probably wont eat many nuts unless they're used in a recipe) I don't eat much as it is so I cant see myself eating too much of this good food lol.
Anyway, thanks for reading my intro/rant and I appreciate all the advice I can get!
Recap: 1) Any advice on transmission into raw-foodism? (Where to begin!)
2) Any recipe sites that are good?
3) How to stick to it? (wasn't in the above I just thought of it)
4) More likely to gain/lose weight from it?
I have been "stalking" this site for a few days now, and through reading entries here and researching the raw food lifestyle, I have decided that I want to try it. The thing is, I do not know where to begin! I am a college student and home with my family for the summer (they will think it's crazy to eat all raw but I don't care). I have realized that when I eat all vegetables and fruit for a day (or mostly) I feel energized and ready for anything, but when I eat junk and meat and carbs (from non-raw foods) I feel depressed, sluggish, and like sleeping all day. I found this site because I was looking for pills to treat depression and came across a website that got me into looking for natural ways to cure depression, and somehow I just ended up wanting to try the whole raw foods path, and hope to stick to it once I begin.
The thing is, like I said before, I don't know where to begin! It seems simple enough yet I have so many questions. Like, I was thinking about buying Alissa's book and one or two other Vegan recipe books, is this recommended? Will I benefit from the recipes, or am I better off just eating raw foods unprepared. Also, just in case I don't make it to the bookstore, are there any good sites for raw recipes, I will probably start off with a lot of the smoothies so any input on this would be great.
One last thing, I know that this lifestyle change is not supposed to be about losing weight but I have put on like 14 pounds from a mix of college and depression (I am 5'1" and 114lbs but my normal weight before was 105). My junior year of high school I decided I wanted to stop eating for the summer and see what would happen (I didn't start out with a negative image of myself but ended up with one). I dropped to 90 lbs and gained it all back within 2 years (and more as you can see). Within those two years I have gone through phases of not eating, calorie restriction, and eating normally but hating my body and how I felt about it. Anyway, I now am focusing more on being healthy and feeling good about myself again and I believe this is the way to go, so weight loss isn't a HUGE thing but I wouldn't mind if I lost a few lbs (I don't know how I would feel about gaining weight though). So my question is is it possible if I stick to raw foods 100% to gain a large amount of weight? (I don't like avocados or bananas and I probably wont eat many nuts unless they're used in a recipe) I don't eat much as it is so I cant see myself eating too much of this good food lol.
Anyway, thanks for reading my intro/rant and I appreciate all the advice I can get!
Recap: 1) Any advice on transmission into raw-foodism? (Where to begin!)
2) Any recipe sites that are good?
3) How to stick to it? (wasn't in the above I just thought of it)
4) More likely to gain/lose weight from it?