My best friend wants to take the plunge!!

[srsarri]

My best friend wants to take the plunge into raw foods! She is getting her internet back soon and is planning on joining the board! She is an all or nothing person, she wants to go 100%, but she has 1 question/concern.

She is not (honestly I am not sure either) how she will do because her diet revolves entirely around the bad carbs (Bread, pasta, rice etc.) I mean, she will eat toast for breakfast, rice for lunch and pasta for dinner, LITERALLY. all the time. ONLY god knows how she keeps a healthy weight!

Does anyone have any advice on kicking those addictions? what helps. She knows shes going to have to go through a rough patch, but is there anything that could make it easier?

hah! besides just green smoothies! hehe, love em but she wont be able to have those all the time, she works A LOT.

I am not sure what kind of advice to give her!!

She has tried to go 100% before, and after 1 day or no bread pasta etc she gets MASSIVE headaches....

help!!!

[rawstrength]

Sometimes you just have to tough it out. She should go raw when she has a vacation or time to rest. After a week the headaches should go away.

[MelissaO]

Master Cleanse help get rid of cravings for me - I used to love pasta's, coffee and sweets. I did a 10 day cleanse and bye bye cravings. I only had little headaches the first 3 days of the cleanse- after that it was this great inner peace and lots of energy. For me increasing water intake helps with the headaches when ever I do any kind of detox.


I wish your friend lots of luck!

[rawstrength]

Yes, yes, YESSS! Water is key :) .

[annavon]

She may do well to include a lot of higher carb root veggies like carrots and beets as well as plenty of fruit since her body is used to a lot of carbs.

I used to eat a lot of rice, so I gravitated toward the root veggies (I think I was craving carbs). I would shred the carrots and beets in the food processor. Throw in some evoo and acv and I was off and running. This was pretty quick to make and very satisfying. I would change it and add in other veggies and spices and gradually, I didn't need my carrot slaw any more.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

12 Steps to Raw Food by Victoria Boutenko addresses the concern of addictions to various foods, including bread and carbs. Wheat actually has an addictive substance in it!! No wonder it's the hardest (for some) to kick! I recommend that book 100%

[gs4life]

great responses so far. i just want to echo something that annavon mentioned--fruit! i used to eat TONS of rice and the one thing that really, really helped me was to eat lots of sweet fruit--bananas, pears, peaches, etc. the sweet fruit really helped my cravings! good luck to your friend!!

[michigan roman]

before going raw 3 years ago ide been a whole food vegan like 12 years , totally living on brown rice / boiled potatos / pasta / whole wheat bread / dry beans / vegi soups as like %75 of my diet with salads and fruit thrown in .

and 3 years later still massively crave it and every several months cave and have like broiled vegis on brown rice when i get fed up on salads , and its still a war to not start eating it everyday .

whats helped to keep me from getting pulled back into the cooked food whirlpool is water / juice fasting to shrink / gain grip on appetite . green tea to supress appetite i heavily drank first 2 years . norman walkers book ' raw fruit and vegi juices ' , a classic imo that helps me stick to my guns . and running , because it took me a couple years of working at it before i went all out 3 years ago . and the two years of going back and forth between cooked and raw made me discover when running on a raw diet how much more energy / endurance i had without a bunch of heavy not very nutriciously packed rice / potatos laying in my guts . it felt like concrete in my guts and i wanted it out after having the feeling when raw of a weightless gut which allowed me a much more explosive running stride .

[srsarri]

Thank You for the suggestions!!! all good ones so far (writing them down for her)

[curlygirl82]

As someone who just recently made the switch, I really enjoy making the raw pasta dishes from Alissa's book - mostly zucchini in the saladacco, then I toss it with either the raw marinara sauce or the cheese sauce from the rawvioli recipe. Throw in some extra fresh basil, tomatoes, and spinach, and it's delicious. When I sit down to a small bowl of it, I never think it'll fill me up, but I'm always surprised how filling and satisfying it is - I guess because it's so much more nutrient-packed than the traditional cooked pasta! I've also heard about grinding root veg to make it look like rice. Best of luck to your friend!

[Raw Angel Mom]

12 steps to raw food and GREEN SMOOTHIES.

[cara4art]

If she's really eating THAT many starchy carbs daily, she WILL have a bit of a detox period when she is no longer eating them, no doubt about it, especially getting off wheat products. Wheat actually has addictive opoids in in, which is why many people get into the trap of eating a slice of bread, and then eat another, and another, all day long, without feeling satisfied as there is very little nutrition in wheat flour products in general plus they are very caloric for what you get. And as far as going 100% right away, this is a matter where one's mileage may vary, so to speak! Some people just jump right in and swear that that's the only way they can get past cravings, while others take more time and go to a high-raw diet instead. Green smoothies really will help, and yes, she can blend one up the night before she goes to work. Putting a couple of bottles of green smoothie in the freezer ahead of time helps too - then she can just grab one for later at work and it will thaw out nicely. They tend to taste better cold too, I find. She should be eating plenty of fruit too, any time of the day. It seems that what she will need to pick up the slack for all the starchy carbs she is now eating are dehydrator recipes for "breads" and "crackers". From personal experience I can say that a couple of staples like these make it a lot easier to stay raw and are very filling to boot. Once a week, she could make some of these and she'll have enough for a number of days before she would have to do it again too. The suggestion about the root veggies is a good one too as these are more dense and filling. Some people really do do well on lots of starchy carbs - but they tend to be younger women, or men. If she is mature(meaning at or post-menopause)then starchy carbs can be problematic as far as eating these much at this time of life inhibits weight loss and adds fat to the body.

[juliesvoyage2]

[QUOTE=MelissaO;463695]Master Cleanse help get rid of cravings for me"

What's Master Cleanse? I sound like the best friend, as I, too, am addicted to these these things. However, I am going raw cold turkey. This is Day 1. :) The best part is that I won't have to pretend to like my roommate's strange cooking. Woo hoo!