so....i ran out of gas yesterday!

[mopoke]

i have been meaning to eat raw, maybe not 100% but maybe 50% to start with, and i've been slack and it just hasn't been happening for me, but yesterday, while i was making tomato paste i ran out of gas! [not suprising since it needs to be slow cooked in the oven for 6 hours...]
so any way, now i have no gas and only a wood stove which i sometimes can't be bothered lighting or now the weather is getting warmer here i just don't want to light it.... it's prompting me more and more to eat raw food...
i have a fire twirling night here on the 4th of november, so one months time so this is my goal:

I WILL NOT BUY GAS, AND THERE FOR WILL NOT MAKE COOKED FOOD AT MY HOME, FOR ONE MONTH!!!!

i started this thread as a support for myself and where i can just jot down how i'm going, and also ask for help re recipes and what to do....cos i'm going to be stumped for a while i think!

so, here i go! good luck to myself, and i am looking forward to reaping the benifits for me and my daughter!

[Bessie the Cow]

I'm been reading one of Alissa Cohen's books at the moment and she suggests preparing several raw meals in advance, something I've definitely found helpful. The worst times for me with cravings for cooked foods are definitely when I am hungry and there is nothing pre-prepared around. So tempting to just go buy something at one of the local cafes...

Good luck.

[jevans]

First let me apologize for the lengthy post. But I hope it will help you stay motivated. Good luck.


I have known for years, that eating better was the right thing to do. But to me, eating better was cutting out some bad foods and eating more fruits/vegs. But when changing my diet, I always seemed to fall back into eating SAD.
I then would try again. I’d jog for 3 miles 3-4 times per week, eat better and would lose weight. After 6 months, I would get burned out and fall back to my old ways. I did this for 20 years.
I even did the Atkins diet and had great success. Lost 50 lbs. My bad chol. went way down and all was right with the world…until one day I was tired of eating that kind of food. I also never really felt comfortable doing Atkins. Even though it worked and my health was better, it just never felt that this is the healthy way to eat.
I gradually stopped Atkins and gradually put the weight back on, and an additional 10 more pounds on top of that. I am now 60 lbs. over weight AGAIN.

As with a lot of over-weight people, I started to have some health issues. High blood pressure, high choles., etc. I even developed gout. I play a lot of golf and gout was something that really interfered with the game. I researched about gout and found that many people said that concentrated cherry juice helped relieve the symptoms. I tried it and after 2 days, my symptoms were relieved considerably. After a few weeks, the gout returned and again I drank the cherry juice plus ate cherry fruit. Gout went away again.

Now I have known (and believed) that if your diet can hurt you , then it can definitely help you. Other cultures have been “curing” illnesses for generations with food. But I was too lazy to investigate this further for myself… until now. The gout cure was the deciding factor for me. I read/researched everything I could and discovered more and more evidence how foods can help elevate or entirely eliminate health issues.

I then watched many movies (Netflix) regarding food and the conventional farming methods used today. That is what REALLY convinced me to get off of SAD. As I mentioned, I kind of already knew this but it never really sank in.

A year ago, I bought a juicer and started eating better. Today, I am about 75% RAW. I just completed my first (4 day) juice fast and still have fresh veg/fruit juice everyday and I also dehydrate my own food. BUT more importantly, I have changed my way of eating not for weight loss but for health. And I believe that is the key to “sticking with it”. The weight loss will be a bonus for me but it is now my strong belief in this style of eating that I believe will help me stay with this.

As you know, diets do NOT work, EVER. Diets are temporary. You have to change your way of eating FOREVER. But unlike Atkins, which you have to eat that way forever also if you want it to work, this feels right. You are getting all the vitamins/minerals you need (RAW) plus you get the added benefit of the healing properties that this WOE gives. Atkins, or any other “diet” can NEVER claim that.

When you believe that this is the right thing for you, the rest is pretty easy. I LOVE the SAD diet. It tasted great! BUT, I LOVE being healthy and that has helped me not miss the SAD diet.

One last thing, since doing this WOE, my blood pressure is normal and even though I haven’t had any cherry juice in 6 months, I have not had any gout symptoms at all.
I’m convinced.

[mopoke]

that is fantastic jevans! thanks for writing all of that!
well last night we kind of cheated...i made a deal, we bought minimum chips but i also made raw tomato soup with avo and capsicum in it, we had to eat all of that before eating chips...kind of a motivator i suppose. but i don't plan on doing that again!!!

a question that's probably a siilly one but anyway....
if you eat raw food with cooked food, say like you make normal pasta and then have a raw topping on it, does the cooked food make the raw stuff not as good for your body some how? or do you still get the benefits of raw and just not so much out of thecooked stuf?
if that makes sense at all!

[jevans]

My opinion is that you would still get the benefit from the raw topping, because at least it is something beneficial. I don't believe that since the other product is "bad" that it cancels out the RAW.

[mopoke]

that was my thoughts too jevans.


so, so far we've been making lots of tomato soup in the blender...i have a whole box of them left over from the tomato paste which caused the gasless problem lol. we also made sun dried tomatoes, which are alllllllmost done! just need a bit more sun! but it's going to be a wet few days....i might take them to my daughters dads oven to finish them off so they do'nt go off. can't wait to eat them!!
also, green smoothies! WOW!
we've been having this one for breakfast the last couple days:

mango, banana, apple juice, mint and kale....oh man it is SO good!!!
does any one else have any other really tasty green smoothie recipes? loving it so far!

really getting into this and enjoying it! still eating cooked etc food if i go out with friends, but enjoyiong only eating raw when at home! my blender is getting a beating, about 3 times a day lol!!