New vegetarian - Hello

[tames]

Hi all. I am new to the vegetarian world (2.5 weeks now) and have been reading things all over the internet. There are so many paths one could travel down and all of them seem to have their good and bad points. I have ordered a couple raw food books that are to help one transition. I will have to say that it is not quite as easy as I thought it would be. I was a diet pepsi a-holic, and gave that up 5 days ago. Surprisingly, that has been the hardest thing to do, much harder than giving up meat. I still think about it at every meal.

I am not completely raw. I adore chinese food, but have only been getting vegetable dishes. I also have tried pizza without cheese, and found it OK - doable. I also like a veggie-burger now and then. With social situations and work, it will be difficult to be completely raw at all times. What do you do when the department has a pizza party for example? We also have a huge feast at Christmas - mostly cooked food of course. I guess it's all about choices.

Here are some questions:

I have seen a video by Dr Lorainne Day. She states that you shouldn't drink water with your meals since it dilutes digestive juices. I am finding it difficult to not at least drink a little to wash food down with.

Don't mix fruit based meals and vegetable based meals together - gas.

Many sites are advocating the use of no oils - that means no salad dressing. I have NOT been able to do this yet. I tried the sweet balsamic vinegar, and just cannot handle it.

Do most of you follow these suggestions?

--Tim

[rawpriestess]

Here are some questions:

I have seen a video by Dr Lorainne Day. She states that you shouldn't drink water with your meals since it dilutes digestive juices. I am finding it difficult to not at least drink a little to wash food down with.

Don't mix fruit based meals and vegetable based meals together - gas.

Many sites are advocating the use of no oils - that means no salad dressing. I have NOT been able to do this yet. I tried the sweet balsamic vinegar, and just cannot handle it.

Do most of you follow these suggestions?
*********************
Hi Tim, and welcome

First let me say this is a RAW food support board, so my answers will come from that perspective. Just to let you know, I've been a vegetarian for over 10 years.

Dr. Day is right to a point, IF you are eating food that is cooked and is combined with other food groups you need all of your digestive juices to be working at the optimum level, IF you are eating raw foods, they have their own enzymes and will digest themselves perfectly. Some food combining is a good idea, but not super essential, especially when first transitioning to the raw vegan lifestyle.

So, I wouldn't worry about that at this point in time.

Okay the fruits and veggies together = gas.

This is true, melons should be eaten alone, with no other foods or even other melons, Plain and simple. wait about 30 minutes before eating any other type of food.

Fruits are best eaten alone, sweet fruits with sweet fruits, acid fruits with acid fruits, etc, again, it is best, but I wouldnt' worry about all that at this early stage of the game.

Oils, Raw vegan foodists restrict our oils to Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive oil by Bariani or Tree of Life, Flax seed oil, coconut oil or sometimes called coconut butter, and that's it. All must be raw, unheated oils.

We use them sparingly in salad dressings, or as a "butter" substitute.

Balsamic vinegar is not raw, the ONLY raw vinegar is RAW, and unheated Apple Cider Vinegar.

If you go to the top of this page, and click on the banana and type in pretty much anything you want, you can do a search for recipes such as "salad dressing", or "oils", or "raw cake" etc.

There are countless things to eat on 100% raw, but wherever you are is perfect, and we support your choices. We are all here striving to be or stay 100% raw vegan. And Alissa' who owns this sight has a marvelous book and DVD out that will take you step by step through it all.

You can go to www.alissacohen.com and see what she has available.

But, for now, WELCOME, we are glad you are here, We are here to help you with all your questions, and we'll have plenty of questions too.

You can enjoy some pretty cool true stories by going to people's journals, and reading them.

If you go to the Raw food recipe section on this board, you will see lots of cool ideas and suggestions.

Or simply ask about anything that you are interested in learning, someone will be happy to help, you may get a ton of suggestions, or only a few, but they are always helpful and enlightening.

Hope this helps out a little, and WELCOME

Rawpriestess

[tames]

Thanks for the encouragement and answers Rawpriestess!

With some of the things I have read on this forum, it would appear that you go through a bad period during this transition from a "normal" American diet to vegetarian. After nearly 3 weeks, I am experiencing some of these things.

I have gotten some canker sores in my mouth. I usually only get these if I am coming down with a cold, or if I eat too much chocolate ( haven't had any). I am hoping they clear up, and I never see them again. Also, I am in pretty good physical shape already and do aerobics 4 to 5 times a week. I am concerned about too much weight loss. I am dropping weight pretty fast. I feel pretty good, but not to the extend that some people claim. You know "better than ever", "more energy than I ever had" kind of statements. Time will tell....