Enough is enough

[fatdogs12]

I think I have had enough of having a regular diet. I have been lurking here for a few months and have tried a few times to quit eating meat and other cooked food in general. At this point though I am done. I realized that my quitting eating meat and going ALL RAW was a real commitment I was making, not just something that I was going to accomplish half-heartedly.

I have stopped myself from eating garbage like candy, pies, processed foods for a while now (I mean to a real reasonable degree) but at this point I realize that the only way to not be sick, not be tired all the time and not want to not live is to really change my whole way of eating.

I went from being a crazy sugar obsessed, drinks 2 liters of soda a day with 3 or 4 candy bars and 2 or 3 trips to McDonalds (surpised I am still alive as this was my standard diet everyday for 6 years) to eating much better food, much less processed etc. and when I think back on that accomplishment I really encouraged.

So here it is once and for all I am switching my diet now. I am going to start a journal (here) and really be accountable to myself.

Wish me self-control :)

- Matt

[VeganVixen]

Great to hear your on the right track! Remember you don't have to go 100% RIGHT FROM THE START ,just eat foods that are whole , unadulterated and obviously centered around raw! Miso soup KILLS my cravings , it might help you? Also if your a former coke addict (soda ,but I like the dramatic effect ) then you might try sparkling water? If you "search" for soda you'll find a raw version.

I send you support ,esteem and great thoughts :)

[Revvell]

OR... if you WISH to go 100% feel free! There are a LOT of raw recipes here which will assist you in doing so. If you have a dehydrator, check out the Caramel Cookie thread. Simple, quick and easy. Within that same thread, I've posted a fudge recipe. No dehydration needed.

Best thing to do is, keep plenty of wholesome snacks and other "gourmet"-type foods on hand. Eat that first then IF you feel the desire to go out to Mickey D's, you'll not eat as much ~ or not go at all! That's how I cured my donut cravings. Told myself I would have myself a smoothie first then IF I still felt to have a donut, I'd go and get one. Never did.

Also, keep lots of fruit on your counter ~ and some veggies and fresh, homemade dip. If you ever need help, c'mon over here and ask for a quick-fix. There'll always be someone here to help ~ well, almost always. :)

Good luck in your endeavor (and remember, we all make our own luck) AND the more good stuff you put in, the less room for the bad.

Revvell

[Carlene]

Hey Matt,
Before you make the decision to go all raw or only a percentage of raw ask yourself some good questions. If you tend to have an addictive personality, as it sounds in your first note, go 100%. It's easier. I could never have done part raw and then worked towards 100%. I'm like RawTruth. All or nothing. And all for me is very easy. If you are the type that could eat just one candy bar when you bought a bag full, then follow VV's advice and try transitioning, if not try 100% first, you can always try transitioning later if it's too hard. And listen to Revvell when she talks about her donuts. I did the same with popcorn. Just knowing that you can if you want, takes away the need.

Whatever your choice, enjoy yourself with raw. It is an amazing adventure.

[RawTruth]

What a phenomenally perfect decision you've made, Matt.

You've already received some good advice here (did you ask for any? hee hee), so all I'll (very strongly) suggest is that, if you haven't already done so, you buy Alissa's book (and, hopefully, her DVD also). Clear out your kitchen and house of everything that isn't raw. Restock. Take her 30 Day Challenge. Post your online journal. Read everyone else's for support. Visit here daily -- the community will keep you going.

But that's just my unbiased (yeah right) advice!

I look forward to seeing more of you here.

[VeganVixen]

Of course shoot for 100% ,but if your diet was REALLY bad before raw transitioning can be less of a shock , but of course if eating brown rice brings memories of junk food ,then DON'T eat it !
'
Good luck!!!!!

[annieH]

MATT! 2 or 3 trips to McDonalds EVERY DAY??? are you kidding???
If thats true...thats utterly amazing...what was it you were eating on those trips everyday?
was it all big macs and fries?

I am impressed with two things.... first that you now want to change your diet...and secondly...that you frequented mcDonalds so MANY times a day and you are STILL breathing!!!

As a former hamburger addict.... i will tell you that i cant live without my raw burgers. I make them on flax bread that i dehydrate and put all the things i like thick slice of onion and tomato and i have raw pickles on the side too.

If you dont have Alissas book... you need to get it and make the meatloaf recipe into burgers and dehydrate them..... or... search the net or this site till you find a good burger recipe.
honestly ...i will tell you that once you get use to eating raw burgers.... you will not miss mickey D's. and Alissa has a recipe in there for wings i think as well....but i have not made it.

Just about anything that you were eating cooked you can eat raw. but... like everyone said..... dont try to do it all at once till you have foods that can take the place of the cooked things you liked.

take it at your own pace and then when you are ready to you will be able to do it. that was my biggest problem in the beginning.....finding raw recipes for the cooked things i liked..... when i did... it was all very easy.
get alissas book it has lots of things like that.... or search the net. theres alot of stuff out there to make...most of it really really good.

good luck

[fatdogs12]

Thank you all so much for your advice I really think it is fantastic. In response yeah i am an addictive type of person, if I eat one I will pretty much slide all the way back, so it' san all or nothing deal with me to a degree. I pretty much never ever ever eat anything with sugar at all so I am not so worried about that. Mostly what will be the most difficult is consistly getting meals together. I am so used to the drive through window that making my own meals has been a real chore sometimes.

At this point though I feel it's very worth it.




Best thing to do is, keep plenty of wholesome snacks and other "gourmet"-type foods on hand.

Revvell

Yeah the thing is that I adhor gourmet type food. I would rather pop something in the mircowave. If I had 10 million dollars and I wasn't raw I would probably still eat fast food. I think most of the reason is that I need to eat a lot when I eat and I don't really want fancy stuff ya know? I don't know it's kinda strage.

IN my first few attempts to go raw I tried recepies and I didn't really like it because they took so long to make and they just weren't a "Meat and Potatos" type meal (what I mean is something very filling". So I basically thought things out and created a bunch of recepies for things I could eat.
For instance if I wanted chips and dip I threw a tomato, some onion and garlic into a blender, use it for salsa, cut up a cucumber and I got chips!

I am body building too so it does make it a lot harder. I just got a figure out a good way to stuff those soy beans down my throat. I sprouted them before and tried to pretend they were french fries. lol. didn't taste real good.

Thanks for the support everyone. TTYL

- Matt

[Ginger]

Matt http://tinypic.com/6881gi.gif
I was the same way for most of my life except that I never liked soda! You CAN do it & it IS worth it!

[fatdogs12]

MATT! 2 or 3 trips to McDonalds EVERY DAY??? are you kidding???
If thats true...thats utterly amazing...what was it you were eating on those trips everyday?
was it all big macs and fries?


I guess I could have been more specific but it wasn't just mcdonalds it was pretty much all fast food places (Wendys, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell). But yeah pretty much 3 meals a day I would eat out at these places. Occasionally I would go to dinner with my girlfriend at some restaurant and the food would be better but I mean in context it's not much better.

I would pretty much eat any kind of chicken thing. Chicken Sandwich, Chicken Nuggets. I lived in Nebraska for a while (2 years) and there was a slaughter house in a town about 25 miles from there so I would frequently see the cows being carted off. Plus when I drove by it was the worst smell I could ever imagine. I don't know how people lived in that town, it was just really disgusting. So for those reasons I didn't eat beef. A few years later the BIG MAC lured me back and I was eating that stuff as much as possbile.

It's kinda one of those things, when you are down it's almost like a comfort. However I read a lot recently about how animals are treated at slaughter houses and before and I just find it really nasty. Then when I look at meat that I am going to be putting in my mouth I started thinking "This is dead animals flesh" YUCK. Then Finally I went to this East Indian restaurant with my girlfriend (who is indian) and I ordered chicken but forgot to get boneless so here I was picking this meat off the bone and eating it... grudgingly. That was pretty much the last straw.

But yeah eating out 3 meals a day, eating ice cream and all the junk food you want, I mean it made me real sick physically. Basically I was young had some money and thought I would just live a bit of a hedonistic lifestyle and thumb my nose at everyone who ate good things.

HAHAHA. I so deserve what I got. lol. Though I am real sick I feel in a way me eating that bad for so long was a great thing because if I didn't get sick from eating this way and just ate moderate cooked food and ate out occasionally I would have probably progressed the rest of my life like that. Where as now I am 23 and have set myself on the right path for hopefully the rest of my life, so I think it's a real positive thing! :)

Man I talk to much, lol.

TTYl

[VeganVixen]

Just so you know ,soybeans AREN'T raw ,and are controversial.

[Carlene]

One of the reasons I love raw is because I don't have to cook. What I want to blend, I put in my magic bullet and call it a meal. There are all ways to do raw, find the best way to suit your lifestyle and dig in.

[fatdogs12]

Just so you know ,soybeans AREN'T raw ,and are controversial.

Can you explain what you mean that Soybeans are not raw? I mean if I buy organic soybeans they are not raw? Does that mean that all beans are not raw? I guess I don't see how exactly they are not raw. As far as I know they are grown and sprout on plants and then are harvested. Are you maybe referring to Tofu? I don't know much about tofu other than that they are made from soybeans.

What negative things are you aware of about soybeans? I am bodybuilding so it is one of the few complete amino acid vegtables I can eat to build muscle. I read a pro meat article for body builders that dogged soybeans about how they are useless and bad and blah blah blah, but it's not like meat is good for you (maybe meat is better for actual bodybuilding, not really sure, as far as I know there are no really big bodybuilders who are vegitarian or vegan).

Let me know, I am interested.

EDIT:

Okay I have checked out some other posts by you VeganVixan and I get what you are meaning about soybeans. Allissa even said in a soy bean thread that she wrote that there is no good way to eat soybeans I believe that you mentioned that soybeans have to be cooked to be edible.

This is simply not true, I eat sprouted soybeans which are not cooked and do not need to be. I don't get why people start claiming things like 'soybeans are not meant to be eaten'. I don't get how anyone can make such a statement. Even if it was not eaten I don't see that that shows that soybeans are bad.

I can GUARENTEE that for every good healthful way of life, there are always critics, scientists and doctors that claim it's very bad. And conversely for a lot of bad things there are usually people who support it (like eating meat for example). I don't think there needs to be any kind of conspiracy by the beef industry to say soy is bad. Cause in truth there is really not a single thing I can think of in which there was a study done that has not shown that thing to be bad.

Sorry to sound frustrated and I hope I don't sound angry and in truth a lot the feelings I have came from that other post on soybeans

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2843&highlight=soybeans

I mean we all have a right to our opinions but I just don't see this as a fair
assesment of soybeans at all.

[VeganVixen]

Im not doggin soy beans , just speading what I know!

Maybe sprouting works ,Ive never tried it- but edamame (the green pods beans) have to be boiled!

I am still on the fence about them myself , there have been studies supporting soy and against soy , Here is an article about the con's http://www.rawesome.com/soy.htm

[annieH]

thanks for the head up on your former diet Matt.... that kind of eating does take money...but its really bad for you.
I think there is nothing wrong with eating sprouted soy beans...if you like them and they help you stay raw then why not. I think when you are starting something like this.... you do have to cut yourself some slack.

I dont eat them but i have other little bad things that sneak into my diet....not frequently enough or in any quanity to be terrible but they get in from time to time.

I say if you feel good....then why not. even though others may disagree....its all about the individual.... so you decide.
what ever it takes to keep you going in the right direction.

[Revvell]

Matt,

The soybeans you are talking about ~ sprouting ~ are in fact raw, far as I know. When I was first transitioning, I use to sprout all KINDS of beans, grains, etc. Now that I've been doing it awhile, I rarely sprout.

Thing is with soy, they are the main ones for GMO ~ Genetic Modification ~ you may be eating soy ~ just don't know what it's been contaminated with. VV was talking edamame which is a boiled soybean.

Anyway, have you gotten Alissa's book yet? Yanno, there are a few of us who are or have been bodybuilders. I lifted when I was a meat eater and later as a veggie. My muscle as a veggie was so beautiful ~ rather than being covered with bulk ~ having to "diet" to lose the bulk to uncover the muscle.

My former training partner who didn't know me as a meat eating lifter would say: "Wow! Your back looks so good. I wonder how you'd look with animal protein". My response ~ "Bulked". I had guys wanting to partner with me in doubles competition. That's how good I looked as a veggie. NEVER got that as a meat eater.

Plus, you say that soy is the only way you can get complete aminos ~ untrue. IF you eat a varied amount of foods throughout the day you will receive all the aminos you need to build. EVERYTHING you eat ~ EVERYTHING you eat ~ raw, contains amino acids. As far as having to get them all in one meal? THAT old theory has been debunked numerous times.

As far as not feeling full (I'm not thinking you mean satisfied here, but FULL), IF you make the "gourmet" recipes ~ such as Alissa's lasagne along with a healthy salad, you will feel not only full yet, completely nourished. and satisfied. Thing is, you CAN make stuff you like ahead of time. When I was transitioning, I would take a couple days twice a week and make up some stuff ~ burgers, burger buns (VERY filling); lasagne; pates; crackers and whatever else I found that sounded good. They would be all fresh and ready to eat anytime. Saving MUCH time going through "fast"-food drive-throughs. (Do you really know how much time you spend in those lines btw?)

Best to you ~

Revvell

[fatdogs12]

Matt,

Thing is with soy, they are the main ones for GMO ~ Genetic Modification ~ you may be eating soy ~ just don't know what it's been contaminated with. VV was talking edamame which is a boiled soybean.

Revvell

While this is true and I do get organic soybeans I just don't feel there is much of an alternative in this situation as far as GM foods go. Unfortuantely it is the trend which I believe will only continue. Isn't that sick? Yuck



Anyway, have you gotten Alissa's book yet? Yanno, there are a few of us who are or have been bodybuilders. I lifted when I was a meat eater and later as a veggie. My muscle as a veggie was so beautiful ~ rather than being covered with bulk ~ having to "diet" to lose the bulk to uncover the muscle.
Revvell

Thje thing is most vegan and vegitarian bodybuilders look really really really small esp. compared to professional bodybuilders (of course virtually all pro bodybuilders are on steriods) but still I think the largest reason for that is theat they don't eat enough calories. I mean losing weight and gaining muscle are very straight forward concept, take in less calories than burned daily to lose weight, take in large amounts of protien and train your muscles very hard to gain muscle. It's a lot more difficult on a vegan much less raw diet to bulk like someone who eats meat. I say that in a logistics sense. Eating some chikcen is pretty much all protien. There is no vegtable which is all protien so you really have to eat a lot more.



My former training partner who didn't know me as a meat eating lifter would say: "Wow! Your back looks so good. I wonder how you'd look with animal protein". My response ~ "Bulked". I had guys wanting to partner with me in doubles competition. That's how good I looked as a veggie. NEVER got that as a meat eater.
Revvell

That is really cool



Plus, you say that soy is the only way you can get complete aminos ~ untrue. IF you eat a varied amount of foods throughout the day you will receive all the aminos you need to build. EVERYTHING you eat ~ EVERYTHING you eat ~ raw, contains amino acids. As far as having to get them all in one meal? THAT old theory has been debunked numerous times.
Revvell

Okay first of all I never said that soy is the only way you can get complete amino acids, I know that is a popular thing that other people say but what I said was:

I am bodybuilding so it is one of the few complete amino acid vegtables I can eat to build muscle.

Yes a person can eat lots of vegtables to get enough protien for a REGULAR diet however if you are bodybuilding you will really have to eat a comlete protien in order to build muscle. Now it doesn't matter if that comes from a combination of vegtables or if to comes from a complete vegtable protien like the soybean what does matter however if that your body has enough amino acids to rebuild your muscle fibers. If I don't get enough protien my body takes a lot longer to heal once I work out. I can stay sore for 2 weaks or I can eat enough protien and not be sore after 2 days.



As far as not feeling full (I'm not thinking you mean satisfied here, but FULL), IF you make the "gourmet" recipes ~ such as Alissa's lasagne along with a healthy salad, you will feel not only full yet, completely nourished. and satisfied. Thing is, you CAN make stuff you like ahead of time. When I was transitioning, I would take a couple days twice a week and make up some stuff ~ burgers, burger buns (VERY filling); lasagne; pates; crackers and whatever else I found that sounded good. They would be all fresh and ready to eat anytime. Saving MUCH time going through "fast"-food drive-throughs. (Do you really know how much time you spend in those lines btw?)
Revvell

No I do mean satisfied. I don't care about feeling full but I even after I have eaten many times feel starving. Which could be someething like parasites which can definitely control your appatite and eat your vitamins. However it could be that I am just hungry. Yes I do have Alissa's book, just haven't gone through it enough. I personally though will never go to the gourmet type foods. If it's good for others that is GREAT! :) But I personally love a simple, easy to make and straight forward meal.

Matt