I do NOT know what I'm doing.

[IppsAngel]

Oh gosh. Now I'm overwhelmed with all this info. And this celery/carrots/apple juice is not tasting very well. And I feel a headache coming on. So, few questions. Everyone is talking about green smoothies? And strainers? I cant just blend all that? And when you say raw...can I still cook the veggies? I know that takes away some of the nutrients, but I'm not so sure I can eat some of that stuff raw. Is there a website that lists what exactly I can and cannot eat? All I seem to find is blogs, which is all interesting but I'm the type of person who needs to be able to print out detailed instructions or else I'm liable to give up. And as for the feeling crappy, obviously I've learned enough through some books and this forum that taking medicine is a no-no...but are there any secrets that get you through this? I have a two year old and I can't be sleeping all day. And on that note, I desperately want his lunch right now. And the master cleanse...is that any different health and result wise then a regular juice fast? Okay this might not have been the best place to post all that. I'm sorry if not. I'm just really confused with all this at this point. Too much information!! Thanks everyone. :o

[Care4raw]

Oh gosh. Now I'm overwhelmed with all this info. And this celery/carrots/apple juice is not tasting very well. And I feel a headache coming on. So, few questions. Everyone is talking about green smoothies? And strainers? I cant just blend all that? And when you say raw...can I still cook the veggies? I know that takes away some of the nutrients, but I'm not so sure I can eat some of that stuff raw. Is there a website that lists what exactly I can and cannot eat? All I seem to find is blogs, which is all interesting but I'm the type of person who needs to be able to print out detailed instructions or else I'm liable to give up. And as for the feeling crappy, obviously I've learned enough through some books and this forum that taking medicine is a no-no...but are there any secrets that get you through this? I have a two year old and I can't be sleeping all day. And on that note, I desperately want his lunch right now. And the master cleanse...is that any different health and result wise then a regular juice fast? Okay this might not have been the best place to post all that. I'm sorry if not. I'm just really confused with all this at this point. Too much information!! Thanks everyone. :o

I think Alissa book is really great to get a sane start to what can be a complicated way of eating or not.Her book is huge and can really answer so many questions not to mention a daily resource for recipes.

The master cleanse is a cleanse that is not so much a lifestyle change but literally a cleanse. Some people like it to kick start a raw foods diet.

No, cooked foods, even veggies are not raw.
Don't eat the veggies raw that are unappealing to you.
The headache you are getting from your juice may be part of a detox symptom.I am not sure how much you have read about detoxing.

If you don't like the juice, change it. The 'rules' are go with your instincts , good luck!

[Bananna]

Ok first off, your title is hilarious!

Second, this is a huge learning curve,...I am still on it, so untill that's complete go easy on yourself. Expect to hate stuff you thought you'd love, and love some things you thought you'd hate. Eventually you will find some great things that work for you.

Third, Green smoothies (inside joke running on this board). Oh wait, I forgot these: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Basically, take some baby spinach leaves or lettuce or cucumbers even, blend em in some water, add some bananas. Smoothies of any kind feed the soul too, lol.

As for meds, I am not opposed to taking Tylenol to get me through those headaches....other people might be. You get to decide. I have never read that meds and raw food diets don't mix....you can mix them as long as they are not cooked meds, or made from animals. The thinking is though that your trying to clean out your body, so adding meds goes against that broader philosophy...

You absolutely should get the book, if you don't have it. But basically, raw: off the tree, out of the garden, from the produce section and into you. Nothing cooked of any kind, no boiling, steaming, sauteeing, barbequing, baking etc. Nothing out of a can....no lightly syruped canned fruit and the like. Fresh food. Food that can rot and make good compost.

At all costs, no matter how many times you fail, do not give up...it's a very worthwhile journey!

Also, get into the habit of listening to how All food makes you feel. Recognize when food doesn't love you back.

Secrets to get through this...there are as many ways to make this change as there are people. Letting yourself get too hungry will make it much more difficult to resist your son's lunch. If your acting wild and crazy about others food, drink a smoothie, and then see how you feel after.

As for fasting, there is a wealth of info on the fasting section of this forum. There are people who swear by juice, swear by master cleanse, and swear by both. I have no clue what will get you better results. I am starting the master cleanse next week but that's only because I don't have a juicer, and even if I did, I think juicing might be more work than I am willing to give....just a preference thing.

Just whatever you do. DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP ABOUT ANYTHING! That stress will negate any benefits you might have gained anyways so it really is pointless....

[annavon]

Bananna said it all pretty well.

Just want to say that I sympathize with you. I pretty much felt overwhelmed at first. I got really over-zealous and bought and read a whole much of raw food books and loaded up my fridge with veggies. One day I opened up my fridge, saw all the veggies, panicked and slammed the door shut :rolleyes: . I ran to this formum and sent an SOS. I received a lot of kind support and was able to go home and make a GS and enjoy it!.

The support on this forum is very helpful. Sometimes just expressing your feelings can help. The headache will pass soon, mine was gone by the second day. You may get some more detox symptoms later on too.

I even find that it helps me when I respond to a thread because it reinforces what I already know. I also hope that I bring some helpful points to the discussion.

[Aleesha Sattva]

ah you've been such great advice all i have to add is:

breathe!

right now... really... breathe in... hold it 3 seconds and exhale.
now do it again.

and again.

(((hugs)))

[Zella Juice]

i agree that title is funny.

That's how I feel about growing my own produce. I went online to a gardening forum and was overwelmed. DO this don't do that..watch for this. I just want to plant stuff and watch it grow and eat it.

But I thought..I will just approach it as I did eating raw. Start out with what I know (Juicing and green smoothies) and go from there. Once you start..you will learn alot along the way. But you cannot learn it all at once. Drink fresh juice and green smoothies and your body will start craving the right things after awhile and you will be able to start eliminating the things that are not raw.

We were meat eating people who never had veggies and we started juicing..not knowing where it would lead us. We just wanted to get fruits and veggies in somehow. We slowly over the course of 2 years started eliminating the bad foods and it took another year to get raw after that. It's all a process. Step one is...drink Fresh juice and Green SMoothies.

[IppsAngel]

Ahhh thank you guys so much. *Breaths sigh of relief*. I was able to bypass DS's lovely looking pizza and have a salad. Thats good right? LOL. So I'm going to go order her book, and go get some more veggies and fruit. One more question...is there any kind of fruit or veggie that does NOT juice well? I have a cheapo juicer...if that gives you any idea of what I'm going through. And thanks once again. :D

Annavon: I did that too! DH looked at me like I was nuts (because he was home on leave and saw me buying all these veggies...I am NOT a veggie person.) Then he opened the door to the fridge and made me a bet that i wouldn't eat half of those. Sadly...he's right. OOOH I stuck the banans in the fridge and the peels turned brown. Are they still good?

Banana-thanks so much for clearing up a lot of it. I'm glad you like my title. Everyone tells me when I panic I get funny. Yall might see a lot of that. LOL

[Bananna]

They are still good and freeze well of which you can use in your smoothies.

....and congrats on the salad! You'll be a salad connisuer (sp?) in no time!

I can't answer the juicing q...I have never juiced before.

[IppsAngel]

Oh I didn't know you could freeze them. Sweet! I'm going to do that right now...can you do that with strawberries too? THOSE are going bad. :(

[MPD]

Yes, you can freeze strawberries. You can practically freeze all fruit. I also find that frozen fruit blends much better, and makes delicious smoothies! I just peeled some oranges and put them in the freezer. They taste great frozen, and they hit that spot when you're craving something sweet and cold like ice cream or sorbet.

[IppsAngel]

LOVELY! I suppose I should freeze my peaches too as well then, since I'm really not doing well eating them...haha

[Moretta]

Good luck and I'm also very new to raw eating.

We will get through this one way or the other.

[MPD]

Go for it!

I've only been 100% raw now for 5 days.... even in such a short time I'm starting to figure out what I really like to eat and what I don't. You don't need to force yourself to eat anything that you don't like. Get creative and stay positive!

[petaltothemetal]

freezing fruit:

Bananna and Zella always give good advice! I have only two comments:

I have freezer containers specifically for bananas (freezer bags are ok, too). Peel the banana, break it into 3-4 pieces so it will blend up better, especially if you have a cheaper blender.

Bananas and other soft fruits (watermelons, cantaloupes) blend beautifully but don't necessarily juice well. More fibrous foods like carrots, apples, celery juice better than they blend. If your juicer is really cheap, you may want to scoop some of the pulp up and send it back through to extract more juice.

And don't forget to water down the juices and smoothies slightly to save on calories, expense and to keep you from getting a sugar headache if you use high sugar ingredients.

I guess that was three comments!

[Ilse W.]

I think the reason a lot of people get overwhelmed and drop out before they really get started, is that they want to do it all right now. There is nothing wrong with easing into a program. Set yourself a goal to be totally raw in 6 months (or 3 or 12, whatever you like) and start your day with fruit instead of toast or bacon and eggs. You will be amazed at how long you feel satisfied on just one smoothie that contains 3 bananas and a couple of handfulls of spinach. Then start lunch and dinner with a large salad. Allow yourself to eat those other things that you have a hard time letting go of all at once. If you have already had a bowl of salad, it's ok to eat a small slice of pizza. You will find that really quickly you lose your desire for the pizza, because the salads are so satisfying. Each week go a little more towards raw and away from cooked. I would just suggests that even with the cooked foods you should go mostly vegetarian. Cooked animal protein is poisonous to your body and has no value whatsoever other than causing inflammation all over your body.
Keep coming back to this forum. I've only been part of this for 8 days, but I've learned a bunch from these great people here and am sooooo inspired.

[IppsAngel]

If your juicer is really cheap, you may want to scoop some of the pulp up and send it back through to extract more juice.


Oh I didn't realize I could do that! I was just thinking what a waste that is to throw it out into the compost pile. Thanks for the tip! Um...I just went to the store and bought spinach, watermelon, cantelope, more carrots and apples, and kale....soo basically I just throw a mixture of this (not the carrots and apples) into the blender and there I go? Right?

And I have eased into this...verrry slowly and with a TON of fall backs. I started out as a pescatarian, because I absolutely LOVE shrimp, right about the time DH left about nine months ago. Then read Skinny Bitch and completely freaked out and went totally vegan. (Okay thats a lie. Not total. I'm still working on it. I'm a work in progress). But I always flunk up in about two days, no matter what I'm doing. And it's always at NIGHT. I can be good ALLLL day, and then after son goes to sleep and I'm by myself...BAM. Out comes the pop tarts and the cookies and anything that is the least likely to resemble some sort of nutritious balance. SO yeah...still working on this. But at least I'm better prepared. Carrots and apples were getting OOOLLLLDDDD. :cool:

[1liljedahl]

Try not to over think the gift you are giving your body. Freshly made juice, may need part of an apple to add some sweetness. The third day may be the hardest. Try not to feel deprived, that will lead to you breaking the chain of events your body is going through to make you feel like a teenager again!
Hang in there. Don't cook the vegetables, you might as well eat them right out of the can..... :-)

[joyfulmama]

I add a lot of stuff to my smoothies. tonight was salad greens, spinach, zucchini, flax seed, blueberries, nectarines, and bananas. it is good and all 6 kids have drank a great deal of it.

[Bananna]

Geez we are running neck and neck, lol...
You could yotube search tonya kay...she has a video on how to go raw with No willpower...it's pretty good!
I'd find you the link, but I'm feeling lazy...if you want it you'll have to dig ;)

[Pony500]

This is such good advice. I am really new to raw and am kind of feeling like some of you described--like I have to do it all right now and make everything. I have numerous books and am feeling like I *need* to have a dehydrator as well. I'm sure it will be very useful to have, but I can be raw without one for the time being. My fiance is also putting a little pressure on me to create some raw meals that he will like and yes, I too would like to try some of those gourmet creations, but I just said yesterday as I was going to the store, that I am going to start slower and really just work on making great smoothies (now that I got my VM!!) and especially green smoothies that he will like and really just try and eat more and larger salads instead of trying to make all these things.

I wish I could just dive into this and be 100% raw, but with me, it's just not going to happen and I do think it's important to go at your own pace and I like that everyone keeps saying to just not give up, even when you slip up horribly (like I did this week). For me, replacing breakfast with a huge green smoothie and my normal lunch fare with a huge salad is how I'm starting. If I end up having another huge salad for dinner, well then hey, I just basically had a totally raw day. I will just keep trying to do that and I will also eventually try many new things and will get more and more creative with raw foods.

I never really liked to cook, so it is still somewhat challenging for me because I was never really comfortable in the kitchen at all, so using all this equipment and new tools is still a bit difficult and intimidating for me and especially because I know my fiance is just waiting for me to make some spectacular raw creation. Actually, I just want to make some great smoothies for now and I know I can make good green ones, but my next thing will be mastering great chocolate smoothies.

[Bananna]

ok for Pony500 and anyone else....our paths are virtually identical at this point ;)

the link I mentioned....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ryGHor_fo

I am coasting along doing this as of late.

[cbowden]

my next thing will be mastering great chocolate smoothies.

Frozen bananas, coconut oil, raw cocoa powder, spring water.


Yummmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

[petaltothemetal]

ipps, you still have stuff like pop tarts at home? no wonder you're slipping. don't buy any more. When you have only good food at home, you'll find it is remarkably easy to be good!:p

It may be easier if you take your kid with you when you shop to just SKIP the aisles that have the bad stuff. don't even go DOWN the snack and cereal aisles! Go from produce straight to freezer (in case you buy frozen fruits or veggies for everyone or juice for the kids) and stay away from the ice cream, too, unless you think you can find some all fruit pops. (Better to make your own, but if you're struggling to make the change, sometimes buying back ups is better than staring at a refrigerator and not knowing what to do!)

[petaltothemetal]

ipps, another thing to do with juicer pulp

Dogs and cats can eat veggie pulp mixed with eggs. Much cheaper than buying them raw dog food. They also like oats and rice mixed with egg, so if your household still eats grains, you don't have to finish off what they leave on their plates or in the pan. After all, you wouldn't want to take food from the poor kitty, would you?:p

[Bananna]

Interesting pttm! ....my cats Love eggs....and grass too...so that makes sense.

[jacsam]

You've really gotten some good advise....Alissa's book and DVD are incredible and like someone said, it gets you off to a sane start.

[cherries]

ok for Pony500 and anyone else....our paths are virtually identical at this point ;)

the link I mentioned....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ryGHor_fo

I am coasting along doing this as of late.

I love her! That's basically what I do too. Thanks for the link!

[Bananna]

Me too... :)