Learning about raw, and sure having some difficulties!

[EliciaHadley]

Hi everyone!

I am a mom of an almost-4 year old and step mom to a 5 1/2 year old. My Fiance is very S.A.D, just quit smoking a few months ago but still has a horrible diet. He barely eats during the day and we usually end up binging on junk food in the evening (he's been gaining weight, luckily I haven't- you'd never guess I do modelling based on my diet LOL)

I've done a lot of research into vegan/raw diets over the past while (almost 2 years actually) and I would LOVE to eventually be raw.. but it certainly isn't easy!

As it is, I've always been a terrible food prep. I grew up very poorly and we had to eat whatever we had- which was always cheap processed stuff because it's all my mom could afford. Fruit was always a 'luxury'. My mother never really taught me how to do much for food prep, I've had to learn it all on my own and there's been a lot of trial and error! It seems that whenever I experiment with a vegan or raw recipe, it always turns out terribly and it gets wasted

I've made some improvements, at least. I do my best to at least have a salad before dinner most days of the week (which is usually just romaine, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, and ranch dressing) and then I try to have lots of vegetables for dinner, usually cooked (usually accompanied by either chicken or steak or some other kind of protein... still so very S.A.D!). Snack after school/daycare is always either fruits or veggie sticks.

I've started making my own almond mylk (I've always drank soy but now I'm opting for homemade mylk). I occasionally drink green smoothies, and only ever have fruit for breakfast. So, some improvements have been made.

However, I am horribly addicted to sugar. It's been an issue of mine for years and I've noticed that my daughter is too. I get really intense cravings for either sugar or starch, or deep fried foods. Usually what happens is that when the fiance and I are out and about, we just end up getting McDonalds. We were eating it almost a couple times a week just a few months ago, YUCK!

I feel that I know enough about raw to understand why I SHOULD be raw, but I just don't have the time management or the know-how to actually BE raw, not to mention the intense addictions I have! I attempted a cleanse with the fiance back in March, starting with a 3 day juice fast and then it was going to progess to smoothies and salads, but at the end of day 2, we didn't plan it well enough and we were STARVING and ended up breaking our fast at a restaurant (BAD idea, we both went home and puked it up, lol!) Not to mention the juice fast, following the program given in "Juicing and Detoxing for Life", was RIDICULOUSLY expensive! It was almost $100 in produce for just the 2 days!!

I know I've already made progress by incorporating a lot of fresh produce into our daily diet- now how do I start phasing out the rest of the crap!? I know I need to go on a cleanse, but I don't know how! And without any support, it's incredibly difficult! I've always had very bland tastes when it comes to food- I don't like things overly spicy, I hate peppers and a lot of other veggies, and I've only ever liked ranch dressing with my salads (never liked any type of vinagrette dressings). I've tried making raw ranch, and it just doesn't cut it! Never ate it and it went bad... I dont really like mixing things together, like salty and sweet.. dont like elaborate salads with a ton of ingredients with fancy dressings... I'm just so bland! And my fiance loves fancy dishes, and grew up with his grandmas cooking, which is always so wonderful- we always joke about me being a terrible cook, because it's true, but joking aside, it's really frusterating. I attempted to make BBQd asparagus the other night and it failed horribly... tried making a homemade spaghetti sauce and that failed horribly too... Its been so much trial and error, I cant really afford to have things so wrong!

I just finished my last final exam yesterday, so I finally get the summer to get it all figured out before school starts again in September (I am in school to become a Registered Massage Therapist- I live in BC, highest massage standards in North America!).

Any advice as to how I can get started, and start incorporating more raw into my diet will be greatly appreciated! I don't have the willpower to go on a cleanse on my own, unless the fiance does it with me... But last time was so expensive and so hard, and he just started a new job and I start a new one tomorrow, it's just not a good time to cleanse! Ahhhh!

*sense the frustration lol* I'm hoping to go to a Naturopath soon to figure out any allergies and get some advice. My step daughter seems like she is antibiotics quite frequently, usually for ear infections and recently a throat infection, so i'm pretty certain shes got a food allergy that we are giving her quite regularly... probably wheat or dairy... She is going to be spending a lot of time at her moms this summer though, so I'll be impossible to make her raw, there is no way her mother would switch. At least I know she eats decent when she's here.

Enough of the rant, holy smokes!! So again, any advice you have for this young mom, greatly appreciated!!

[MysticTree]

Just keeping it simple is a good way to start I think.

I only very rarely make any of the so-called gourmet foods. I use fresh produce - some of which I am able to grow myself which helps on the food bills- sprouted seeds, a few nuts here and there (soaked) and a raw dressing which I make up and use throughout the week.

For me going 100% raw is easier than transitioning. Others will tell you it was different for them ... you need to work out what is best for you.

If you really want to do this then you can.

[CrystalL]

Hey! I just started too and am currently transitioning from SAD to RAW. I read your post. Have you tried making some sort of avacado based dressing for your salads. That would give you the same kind of fatty/creamy texture and might be a good substitute for the ranch since it's bland in taste as well. I don't like eating salads with out some thing on it and I really liked ranch too so I used blended up avacado instead for dressing and it worked for me.

As for your culinary skills lol. You could always sign up for some sort of class. Have you researched any raw food resteraunts or cafe's in your area? Maybe even a vegan place would have information on some food prep classes you and hubby could sign up for together?

Sugar and startch are hard...maybe something fruity to get through the sugar cravings like a bannana chocolate shake...they make raw chocolate powder that can be added to many things to get through that. Stach I'm not sure maybe some raw zuchini pasta. I'm still struggling with that one myself. I've read that some people buy mana bread or Ezekiel bread while transitioning to get through the cravings...but those are not considered to be totally raw...usually just a better alternative to your standard bread.

Hope that helps a little! Good luck.