Anyone here raw themselves + feeding a large family?

[Zoocrew10]

I don't know if this is the right forum, so please excuse me if it's not. I'm just curious if there's anyone on here, a mom or a dad, who is raw themselves but their family is not - and who might have a larger than normal family? I find it hard to #1) find the desire to cook food for them anymore. I ask them what they want, and they don't give me any concrete answers, so I just whip up whatever and call it good; and #2) it's such a struggle cooking such large amounts, having to taste test to make sure there's not too much salt, etc, and then go to my salads. Granted, I'm not usually very hungry as it is, so I feel really guilty (to myself, that is) if I have to taste test, because I feel like I'm cheating myself. Sometimes I just give in and eat with them - even if it's just a small amount, but the next day I pay for it. I've really noticed a difference in how my body processes cooked versus raw, ESPECIALLY if I eat a meat product. It sits in my stomach like a rock, and I actually feel a bit nauseous. I kick myself, "why did I do that?!" and promise not to do it again. I wish I could get to the 100% raw stage but dang, it's a lot of work especially having to feed all of these monkeys on top of it.

Carson
mom to a blend of 8 crazy kiddos

[Zoocrew10]

I wish but my husband would never go for it and my step kids would never go for it. My ODD and some of my smaller kids might, but again, not the DH and the steppies. I think they would cause a mutiny, lol.

[spicyfull]

What are the ages of your Children? Why not invite them into the Kitchen with a Cook Book and teach them how to Cook. Or let them make Breakfast, which is always easy, as you watch and teach them.

You have to make things work for you. Share the WEATLH. That's a lot of Children.........

[Rawsome Ginger]

I've heard to try making raw desserts and that usually hooks them! :)

[ReneeH]

Stop cooking food and only make raw, force your kids/husband to either eat raw or starve.

Sorry, but I don't agree with that... I want my family to WANT to eat this way. I wouldn't want anyone to FORCE me to eat SAD food, even if they felt that it was the best food for me to eat. I've had Alissa's book for 2 years now, and if you don't have it, please consider getting it because she discusses that on page 177 under the question: "I HAVE CHILDREN TO FEED, AND A FAMILY TO COOK FOR. WON'T THIS MAKE IT HARD FOR ME TO EAT THIS WAY?" Also, on the next page Alissa answers the question: "NOW, ABOUT THAT SPOUSE..." To me, Alissa's approach to it is more reasonable than trying to force the people you love.

The kids will probally be the most resistent at first but after awhile they will learn to love raw.

Would you LOVE RAW if someone was tring to FORCE you to eat this way--if you weren't ready to? This is easy for someone to say who doesn't have to deal with them!

[Zoocrew10]

ReneeH - you nailed it on the head. I'll have think about getting her book.

[Myca]

I have 6 kids and Honey. I don't taste test anything. I don't cook my very favorite things. Other than that, I cook whatever. Tomorrow, we will be having a large Ham dinner with all the fixings...except mashed potatoes, because they are my weakness.
I will be making fruit salsa and Italian Flax seed crackers for myself. Plus all my usual fruit. I may eat my watermelon tomorrow.

Anyway, don't taste their food. You've been cooking long enough and don't ever cook your very favorites. Things will go much better. Feel free to ask me more. We cook everyday here.
Myca

[spicyfull]

Renee.......Now tell us what you really think...:), and she can "quote" Alissa ,Page and Text. Does Renee RAWk or what.

[sweetcharade]

There are 10 of us in our home, My parents, my husband and myself and 5 children. I am high raw, the others eat sad, my younger children eat lots of raw fruit and veggies, and green smoothies. My mom and I take turns in the kitchen. My mom takes over the cooking if I am doing a fast, or master cleanse. It works out pretty well for the most part. My hubby and I do most of the grocery shopping, we made up our minds last year that we will not buy "junk food". We buy in bulk at Sams Club, when the kids do eat snacks they are usually air popped pop corn, or pretzels. I have noticed the past few months, that the kids will eat all of the veggies on their plates at meal times and leave behind the meat portion and ask for seconds on the veggies. My kids new favorite treat are apple slices and a cashew "cream" dip that I make that tastes like a yogurt dip that they used to eat. It seems to be working out well.

[Myca]

Stop cooking food and only make raw, force your kids/husband to either eat raw or starve. Why would you feed your kids poison while you eat healthy? My mom did this to me and i wish she woulda forced me to ate raw when i look back, woulda made life alot better. The kids will probally be the most resistent at first but after awhile they will learn to love raw and then you never have to worry about tasting that cooked death

This could backfire. What I do with my children is to put all the fruits out on the table. You should see my table. It is covered in apples, banans, apricots, a large watermelon at the moment, kiwi...more than that. My kids love arranging the display. Then they want to eat the fruit. Everyone that visits me ends up helping themselves.
I share my smoothies with them, we make salads that they enjoy. I don't allow my kids to refuse to at least try something, but I do not force them to eat large amounts of things they don't like. I also cook for them everday that I am not working. When I work, the eldest one cooks.
I also want Honey to come home and enjoy his meals. He is actually more difficult then the children in regards to eating correctly but I keep trying. He is willing to try most things.

[Raisingplenty]

Hi!
I have 6 kids. I try to be sensitive to them so I have gradually introduced more raw foods. We went from an all white bread family to some wheat bread(store bought), to homemade wheat bread, to essene bread. At first they hated wheat bread. Then they started begging me to make homemade because they liked that the best(they use to hate that the most). Now we are doing essene bread. I do it VERY simple. They love it with a nut butter and honey. I feel confident that I can trust their bodies to gain more desire for these things. They love zucchini pasta. I use to give it to them with store bought sauce, now they like it with raw. They love shakes of course but I am not into just desserts. They love nori, they will eat it plain. My husband eats whatever I fix and anything that everybody hates. He doesn't mind. I know that meal planning is EXTREMELY difficult. My husband is working on a program for me that will allow me to input my recipes into the computer and then it will tell me what I need to do day by day in order to be able to fix a meal on a specific day(day 1-sprout, etc...) Let me know if you are interested and I can let you try it out too. For me, progress is the goal, not perfection. My kids are 9,8,5,4,2,1

[Moretta]

Let me know if you are interested and I can let you try it out too.

I would love to try something like that, if you don't mind sharing.

[Raisingplenty]

Sure, I will let you know as soon as he gets it up and running. He is programming a user friendly way for me to enter in the recipes. It is ready as far as function goes. He wants to get a website up and running with it on there so others can use it. He sees how frustrated I get with planning. I am always forgetting stuff. Looking ahead a couple of days to see what I have to do today is getting old. So, this is his way of helping me. I will let him know to get the ball rolling ;)

[ReneeH]

...

Well, I'm a Christian, so I won't even repeat your bad language in your quote...

But, I will say that maybe you need to try out what you're thinking on your own family and see how far you get... Alissa's the expert here and, since this is HER site, it's good to look at what SHE teaches in her book. It sounds to me like you need to do a lot more research and experiment with what works for YOU.

Also, I see that you have only 12 posts, so maybe you're new to this... Why not get Alissa's book and try it her way... You'll find more success if you did...

Oh!!! RawHemp, I just looked back at your post and saw that you said that you don't have kids... WELL, THIS EXPLAINS IT!!!! I have 2 kids and a DH who have been transitioning to RAW... Try "forcing" anyone and you'll see what I mean...

SPICYFULL and Zoocrew10: Thanks so much!

[Zoocrew10]

When your a kid your a f*cking retard who wants to eat nothing but mac and cheese and pizza hut, i know i was. The earlier you force them to transition onto a raw food diet the better, you realize how hard it is to break a 20+ year cooked food addiction vs a 5 year one? Raw food is how were supposed to eat, when i have kids they will eat raw food or nothing lol(they won't even know what cooked food is if i have any control!)

do you have kids? really? if you did, you might have a different opinion on this matter. On top of the fact that if you force kids to do something, generally they will want to do the OPPOSITE, one of my stepchildren has issues with food. When my husband and I married, they rarely ate anything that wasn't highly processed and filled with starch - i.e. mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn, french fries, tv dinners, etc. I had a huge struggle to get them to eat more healthy foods. The stepchild would literally puke in her plate if she didn't like whatever I was cooking that particular night. I actually did a week's worth of "testing", I told my husband ahead of time that I was going to rotate dinners each evening: one dinner she liked, one she did not, etc. On each night she didn't like something, she began crying/fussing, and by 1/4 the way in to the meal, she puked into her plate (she was 5 at the time). I persisted throughout the years and eventually they don't have issues eating healthy foods. That particular child still has issues with junk food though, and will inhale it if it's around with no regard to being full, and that's the main reason I don't keep it in my house. You want something to snack on, have a peanut butter sandwich, a banana or an apple, as an example. No chips or any of that kind of stuff is in my house, to their disgust. If I FORCE them to eat something, it WILL backfire. Try being a parent to 8 children with 8 different tastes and see how difficult it is before you start with your foul mouth and apparent inexperience.