When you first started

[Serbbral]

Hi, this is not my first time posting, however, I am new to the whole raw food thing. I would like to know out of curiosity, how did some of you start your raw life. I mean, I bought Alissa's book, I've done some of the meals. This is my 5th or 6th day, going into my second week. I want to know how did some of you who were not 100% vegetarian or vegan do this in the beginning. Did you do the meals and slowly build yourself up to complete raw? What I mean by this is did you still indulge 'a little' as you started on your raw journey. I am eating as much fruit,avocados, and some smoothies/drinks as possible for my snacks but still find myself VERY hungry and still want to get some chips or something from the SAD way. I am proud of myself so far, because I have been eating more whole foods and less preserved foods but I have not completely gone raw. As far as the meals, it has not been hard for me. I am asking for ideas as well as insight. Thanks. Come on, you all, is there anyone who can give me some advice?

[Riiiya]

to my surprise, i jumped into 100% (well probably it was 95% realistically) and did not really want anything cooked... i didn't have any raw books - just this forum and i was reading a lot of stuff about raw from different websites (just googling it).... it was exciting to me- i intuitively felt that THIS is the ultimate way to eat, and i LOVEd the idea of not counting calories FINALLY, so it went rather smooth for me.

I just experimented with salads and green smoothies- i didn't have much variety but i love fruit so that kept it exciting for me.

Eventually i tried to dehydrate something and ended up eating some SAD food and that night i went drinking and felt HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE.... since then i really am sticking to raw, it was a good lesson

(sorry for such a long answer, i kind of got off-topic there :) also, looks like i'm giving no advice- my tough lesson was with SAD/alcohol and it made me stick to raw like glue!!

[ShelShel]

Oh, boy...this is different for every person. How to go raw? Alissa suggests cold turkey just do it. This works great for some.
I didn't have her book until I was already 100% raw. :rolleyes:
I went gradually. Not because I wanted to, but because I didn't know any better. I learned after reading this forum what was raw and what wasn't. I started with breakfast, then lunch, then dinner. Stumbled my way through eliminating this, removing that...until I finally had found 100%.

Yes, you are very very hungry at first. At least I was. But if you stick with it, you will find that your stomach gets used to raw. If you are hungry eat. Anything and everything as long as it is raw. Let your body get used to this way of eating and knowing that more food is coming. It took a little while, but I finally slowed down. It's always a shock to me that I've purchased too much food for the week. :p

It's well worth the benefits and I encourage everyone, if you aren't 100% try to get there. It is a huge difference from being high raw.

[StarFire]

aloha!! I just followed the 30 day plan in Alissas book because I had no clue what to do or how to do it! It was easy to follow, the recipes were delicious and it made transitioning to raw a lot easier for me. Without Alissa's book I don't think I would have stayed 100% raw!! :D


Again -- personally ~ I think if I had tried to eat some SAD / Vegan or Vegetarian meals while trying to transition to raw -- I would've completely failed in time. I'm the kind of person that needs to jump in 100%.

It will be interesting to see what you decide to do... RAWK ON RAWBIE!! .... blessings!



http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s43/FireStar_830/naked.jpg

[tisha]

I am not 100%. I am about 80-95% on any given day. The more I eat living foods, the less I want cooked foods. Even foods I crave and eat taste "off". The joy is not there. My tastebuds are changing. My cravings and desires are changing.

I don't want to deny my cravings. If I want something, I think about it and if I really, really want it, I eat it. Then I see how I feel. How did it taste? Did it make me feel good or bad? I try to evaluate from there. This is a process. Some people jump right into 100% raw and don't look back. I am not one of those people. I do believe that living food is the way to go, but am not at the point to abandon some cooked foods. I am getting closer, though.

[KristensRaw]

This is what worked for me:

It’s important to reduce or eliminate unhealthy food from your diet. The first step (and maybe obvious) is to eliminate junk food, packaged snacks, fried foods, caffeine, alcohol, white sugar, and white flour. Then begin to reduce or eliminate cooked starches, especially wheat. Going cold turkey wasn't the route for me when I first started because I was learning as I went. And, this was a few years ago, when there weren't all these great forums to quickly learn from. Some people

go cold turkey or
split the day up between Raw meals and non-raw meals or
some people do what I did....which is the following:


Start out by picking just one day a week (or more, if you want) to eat 100% Raw. You'll see how easy it is and how amazing you feel that you'll be excited to do it more than one day a week, maybe two to three days. After that, you start increasing to one week straight, then two weeks, then up to a month. Find what works for you. The reason this plan worked better for me, as opposed to just gradually adding Raw food into each day's diet, was that I was finding it too hard to give up the addictive cooked food. I found that, if I had even just a little bit of cooked food in the course of a day, it was a slippery slope — it made me want to eat more and more cooked food. And, going cold turkey wasn't appealing because as I wrote earlier, I didn't know enough about Raw (food prep, things to expect, detox issues, stocking my kitchen, etc.) to succeed with going cold turkey and BEING HAPPY while doing it. Moreover, caffeine, for example, was the hardest thing for me, so I had to gradually eliminate that from my diet. My lifestyle was best supported by doing it the way I described above.

I noticed that it was during the 100% Raw days that I felt the best and I soon became addicted to that high energy, waking up without headaches, feeling so great that I couldn't stop smiling. Over time, quickly at that, I became close to 100% Raw.

On the days that your goal isn’t to be 100% Raw, simply start adding more Raw foods to your daily food choices. (Like I wrote, maybe you commit to 3 days of 100% Raw and 4 days of 50% Raw. Don't let the other 50% cooked be junk or processed foods) Some people do this by eating a salad before lunch and dinner or having their traditional cooked vegetable side dishes made from Raw food instead (and then having only the main entree be cooked). Or, some people start having a piece of fruit before their normal cooked breakfast, for example. Or, have cooked dinner, but have Raw breakfast and lunch on the days that aren't 100% Raw.

[Random Violin Guy]

Well personally, although I wanted to go raw in the beginning, I never denied myself cooked vegan food if I wanted it. I still haven't denied myself it. This way it's never about willpower - which always fails in time - but about motivation. I'm 100% raw right now, but if I wanted cooked food, I'd eat it.

Thing is, if I eat cooked food, I feel sick. And why would I want to feel sick? Besides, raw food is more appetizing; it looks better and tastes better.

[EZ rider]

It's well worth the benefits and I encourage everyone, if you aren't 100% try to get there. It is a huge difference from being high raw.I was high raw when I found Alissa's site and I went for the RAWgust 100% (28 days and counting) and stopped eating anything that wasn't fresh raw garden foods and you are so right -- being 100% is a huge difference.

[EZ rider]

KristensRaw --- I like your post and the way you went into raw seems like a very good plan for someone who isn't going to go cold turkey. It allows for a comfortable transition. For me jumping in all at once and leaving the SAD behind saved time and worked great. :)

[sagebabies]

I'm raw till dinner. That has been a good transition for me because then I can have a healthy dinner w/ my family. Still don't know if I'm ready for 100% or if that is what I want to do short/long term. I'm just finding my way.

[Dj 247]

The first thing I did was quit eating meat. I had been slowly going meatless before I even knew about raw foods. So that was no problem. Next went the white sugar, then dairy, and then breads. The last and hardest to go was coffee. I might still have one cup as a treat once or twice a month, but no more than that or I will be back on the stuff. I know my trigger foods and I avoid having them around or even thinking about them. I try to refocus or remove myself from these foods.

[Bobbie]

I stupidly went on all fruit diet to begin with which I really regret. I started by having fruit salad for breakfast and lunch and then started having savoury fruits for dinner.
It wasn't hard. However after 6 months I couldnt cope with the peer pressure and started eating cooked food again and wham! it made me so ill and gave me massive cooked food cravings.
I found that all food made me ill except raw food. So I tried to go raw. I had a recipe book called Eat Smart Eat Raw and most of the recipes contained non-raw ingredients, so whenever I made them, it would trigger cooked food cravings and I'd end up eating some. So I was back and forth from cooked to raw for years before I read an article by Victoria Bountenko that said cooked food has the same effect on the body as drugs, and that as long as there is cooked food in your body you will crave it. And the only way to stay 100% raw and be free of cravings is to stick rigidly to 100% for at least 3 months. Then the danger period is over and your cravings will go. But if you eat cooked food again they will come back. So I stuck rigidly to raw 100% which was really hard but eventually the cravings did go away and it became easy.
For the first few weeks I drank shop-bought fruit juice, because cutting up fruit to go in the juicer is such a pain. It helped me stay raw and then giving that up wasnt so hard, because I could replace it with raw juice.

[Morn]

I jumped right in and committed to a 30 day raw challenge. The reason is I decided to force myself into really learning the lifestyle (the foods, where to shop, recipes, etc.) I was hungry in the beginning as raw foods didn't seem to fill me up the same way sad food did. I had to get used to never really feeling full. It is a different full feeling when you eat raw foods. You get nourished and then energized. When you eat sad - after eating you want to take a nap. Some can transition slowly others cannot. It truely is an individual thing where everyone is different.

[puzit19]

Well .. I just jumped into it ^_^
100 %
almost 2 months soon !
Cooked food is everywhere around me.. My family doesnt support me too much... But they get the idea and apriciate it...
Cuase they also know I had food disorders... so they prefer me happy ^_^
My boyfriend is still sad eater but getting closer to the raw vegan lifestyle ^_^
I can't wait to be as vibrant and healthy as I can and be a walking example for people so they would want to do this aswell !

As it was said on this forum I think you just need to jump 100% into it.. and the craving for cooked food go away...

I've been trying to go vegan before and by the "fit for life" way.. but found it hard at some point...

As much as cooked food is everywhere... Live and raw food are everywhere aswell :)

I always have something live in my bag- nuts, fruits or even juices i made... so if there's realllyyy nothing around- not even mcdonalds salad ! THAN I've got something of my own and I feel great ^_^

My best advice is don't consume too many fruits.. I mean do consum them but in a reasonable way...

Keep reading Alissas book over and over It seems to help to everyone ^_^ I personally have to admit I didn't get it yet because it cost quite a lot to get it to here (Israel) so meanwhile I ordered some other raw books from closer places like the Uk...

The best thing in this way of living... It is such a colourfull and amazing way, emotionaly, healthly, hapilly, weighthely lol :D so simple ! You don't have to feel bad for eating cooked food... You will learn to appriciate it aswell... It smells good? Enjoy it ! I tend to enjoy the smell of pizza for example and think "which ingrditians make it smell that good? and which raw herb or leaf or whatever will make my food taste and smell that good?" Though personally I adore the smell of fresh fruits... and also adoooore the smell of bazil when I put water on it in the morning (grows on my window bars) wow ^_^

I personally didn't go and shout and tell everyone I am going raw... I have to say I even kinda hid it in the begining... still growing into telling people...
I just wanted to be a bit more of "an example" and than tell people... and maybe get more knoweldge about it so if anyone wants to argue I will have exactlly what to show and what to say :D So far I didnt have too many arguments - I was just saying yea whatever to those who had something bad to say... and telling more about it to people who wanted to really hear and maybe try ^_^

Anyway good luck !!!
Lots of joy on the way...
P.S
MY BEST ADVICE - is keep smiling all through the way ! keep positive thinking.. no matter if you ate something bad today and maybe even the day after... everyday is a new day and a new life ^_^ Enjoy it !

Lots of love,
Mary