Help!

[cathyinontario]

I am on day 3 of my transition to raw. My first 2 days were about 75% raw and I felt pretty good. Today is the first that I have been determined to go 100%...but...I am so hungry that I am caving in.

I don't want to give in and cook pasta or order a pizza but I feel like I am starving! I keep eating more fruit but it isn't taking this feeling of severe hunger away.

Please give me some suggestions. Am I not taking in enough calories? Did anyone else have this feeling at the start?
Today I have had:
Green smoothie for breakfast (2 cups total) with carrot juice, goji berries, 1/2 banana, 1/2 avocado, acai powder, ground flax seeds, handful of spinach greens

Snack a couple hours later of banana and a handful of blueberries.

Lunch- big green salad with dressing of avocado, olive oil, lime juice, garlic

Snack- wholefood bar I bought at health food store

Dinner was another 2 cup smootie- pineapple, 1/2 orange, 1/2 banana, spirulina powder, mushroom powder, blueberries, goji berries, nut milk

Snack- tons of watermelon. small piece of date,ginger, goji berry,flax, wheatgerm bar I made.

Should that be enough or am I missing something? Should I just ignore what my body is telling me?

Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!

[iwuvmydoggy]

try eating some raw nuts and seeds if you have some available.

also. watermelon is not something i'd consider very filling... you might want to eat more avocados, nuts, seeds, and more fibrous, cruciferous vegetables... like.. kale and cabbage. if it's got fiber it's more filling. fruit is designed to pretty much just run right through your digestive tract... it's sugar and water and if i were you, i'd eat more fibrous vegetables and fatty foods, just to get satiated.. then ween yourself to a more "normal" raw diet... which contains less fats and stuff. you know what i am saying? hope that makes some sense. :D that's just what i, myself would do.

[RawSar]

my opinion... ignore it :D

cravings are gonna come and eventually they will go away. Looks to me that your eating and eating every few hours so keep busy to take your mind off it. You'll be glad you did tomorrow ;)

[iluvmangos]

Those green smoothies don't sound very filling to me. I make mine by blending a whole head of greens (spinach, green leaf, red leaf, or romaine) with 3/4 cup water. Then I add a couple medium sized frozen bananas and maybe a handful of other frozen fruit. They're filling for me this way. I'm not sure how many cups it is, but I know it's more than two. Two cups of green smoothie would not be enough for me. They're plenty sweet for me, but if you need it sweeter, you could add a date or two or raw honey to taste. Adding chia seeds to your smoothies may make them more filling as well.

If you're hungry, just eat and don't feel guilty about it. Have some avocados or nuts or seeds. Make a nice nut or seed pate and dip some veggies in it.

[LiveLife]

I found adding nuts and seeds to everything I ate or as a snack helped me to transition better as they made me feel more full :)

[iwuvmydoggy]

horray! i am not taking crazy pills! fat and cruciferous vegetation FTW! :D

[cathyinontario]

Thank you everyone. Your advice has been very helpful.
I am off work tomorrow so I think I should spend some time on food prep so I have things ready for such times. I will have to learn how to make nut pate LOL
I know I have been eating mostly fruit with handfuls of greens added to my smoothie. This was mainly out of laziness because grabbing fruit is easier and the fact that I am using a magic bullet to make my smoothies and they only hold about 2 cups. I will go out and get a proper blender tomorrow too so it will handle bulkier contents. Then I can do larger and heartier smoothies. I need to get a dehydrator too but that will have to wait till next week.
I know I have introduced a lot of new superfoods into my diet in 3 days so that may have something to do with my stomach pain as well.

Again, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I will keep pressing forward and do the best I can.

[LiveLife]

horray! i am not taking crazy pills! fat and cruciferous vegetation FTW! :D

YEPPERS! Worked for me! Then you crave all of the SAD foods and other comfort foods nearly so much and can then slowly move into lighter eating:) Kale, as mentioned, is a nice heavy veggie :)

[cathyinontario]

Kale is so tough and dense though LOL how do you prepare it so it doesn't feel like you are eating cow fodder? I know I could likely handle it in a smoothie, but raw kale on it's own doesn't hold much appeal. I used to love it cooked though LOL

[LiveLife]

Smoothies is good. You can also massage it with little sea salt and oil and it gets really soft the smaller the pieces are. For salads I cut mine into ribbon-like pieces, some people cut into little squares, and then massage them in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper (I really love spicy things lately). Then I throw in lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, or whatever veggies I want to make a salad. You will be surprised how well it softens up and shrinks in size :)

[iwuvmydoggy]

those are good ideas!

I love kale in or even AS salad! Raw apple cider vinegar and cold-pressed oil dressing.. Lots of fresh garlic.. Cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, some avocados, onions, tomatoes and whatever else you like in a salad. :) I marinate pepper seeds (or even dried peppers), salt, pepper, and garlic powder/granules in vinegar for a few days in the fridge.. Let the flavors mingle... Then I add some oil and stir/shake it up and pour over salad.. I like mine to be extremely spicy (so it burns my lips) and very pungent, so my dressing is probably 3 to 3 1/2 parts vinegar to 1 or 1/2 part oil... So yummy! It'll sorta wilt the kale... Lettuce gets mushy in that dressing, so I specifically like to use it for kale. :) I have weird taste buds, though... :o But it tastes good IMO!!!! lol

[jane b]

cathy, if you haven't tried veggie pasta yet, run, do not walk to the nearest zucchini!!!

I'm also very new to raw, and have been looking at the spiralizer. Wasn't sure how much I would use it, so I bought a likely looking young zuke and dragged out the mandoline. It has an attachment that allows me to make very fine matchstick julienne, so that's what I set it on.

OMG! It was wonderful. If I didn't know it was zucchini, I would have sworn it was regular al dente spaghetti. I just tossed it with a little bit of olive oil and some Badia Sazon Completa.

But I could see a whole lot of other possibilities, too. I *love* japchae, a kind of Korean noodle dish, so add a little soy, and there you go. Warm it up and you have "ramen" noodles. Or some cashew cheese and instant fetaccine alfredo.

Believe me, that will fill you up fast.

jane b

[iwuvmydoggy]

cathy, if you haven't tried veggie pasta yet, run, do not walk to the nearest zucchini!!!

I'm also very new to raw, and have been looking at the spiralizer. Wasn't sure how much I would use it, so I bought a likely looking young zuke and dragged out the mandoline. It has an attachment that allows me to make very fine matchstick julienne, so that's what I set it on.

OMG! It was wonderful. If I didn't know it was zucchini, I would have sworn it was regular al dente spaghetti. I just tossed it with a little bit of olive oil and some Badia Sazon Completa.

But I could see a whole lot of other possibilities, too. I *love* japchae, a kind of Korean noodle dish, so add a little soy, and there you go. Warm it up and you have "ramen" noodles. Or some cashew cheese and instant fetaccine alfredo.

Believe me, that will fill you up fast.

jane b

I love Korean food as well! :) Thanks for the tip!

[cathyinontario]

Thanks so much for the tips.
When I make the zucchini pasta can it be shredded ahead and stored in the fridge or is it best to make it fresh each time?
Today I am going to spend most of the day doing food prep. I bought a book, The Raw Truth (I couldn't find Alissa's book anywhere here because apparently it wasn't published in Canada?). I will buy hers too but needed something on hand till I can get a hold of hers.

I think part of my problem last night was also dehydration. We are in the midst of a major heat wave here and since most homes do not have A/C in Canada...it is miserably hot and I sweat buckets. I need to drink more water.
So..today will be a better day.