Tips

Tips for a newbie:
(by Gosia)

If you require a professional nutritional advice, please contact a registered health professional. This lifestyle is my own experiment. Listen to your own body, not me. Be your own guru. Also, please read

WARNING about the raw vegan diet

Welcome to the raw foods. If your experience is similar to mine or many of my raw friends, you will be amazed at the transformation that your body will go through. You may expect to lose excess weight, improve your complexion, increase your vitality, look and feel younger, and to improve your overall health. I certainly do not regret my decision to try this lifestyle and I decided to stay for longer, encouraged by the fantastic results. I wish you a great raw journey!
Not sure what to eat? Start with things that are familiar and then expand. Eat a variety and abundance of foods. When you are hungry, eat. And, eat when you are hungry! Please, do not feel offended if I am sounding too obvious. I have met raw foodists who do not eat enough or eat too much, and it is an important issue. If you feel hungry after a meal, then most likely, you have not eaten enough. Foods that are most filling are fatty foods, such as avocados, nuts and seeds, and sweet ripe fruit, such as bananas, grapes, pears, for example. Many raw foodists initially eat lots of foods of the first mentioned type, as they are used to eating condensed, fatty foods, and later progress to a simpler, and higher in fruit diet. I spontaneously progressed in the same manner as well. I recommend that you do not try to speed up your transition process, if your body is not ready for that. Perfectionism is something that I highly recommend avoiding. I suggest that you exclude the word "guilt" from your vocabulary, and accept the processes as it is, with all its up and downs. It is OK not to be perfect, it really is!
You do not have to use electrical appliances or make complicated recipes. It is easy enough to eat fruit and there are a lot of varieties available. Also, making a salad is easy (for example: chop some greens, broccoli, cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper and marinate in your favorite dressing). Munching on nuts is easy too. Just do not overdo them! To me, fruit and greens are the two most important ingredients of the raw food pyramid. You may want to make up your mind yourself about this, so I am not pushing. But in my experience, I ate more nuts at the beginning. Even the salad dressing that I used then was way too fatty by my current standards. Also, these days, I am eating more fruit that then. See, my taste has changed!
You may want to experiment with various recipes. There are many great recipes on-line and you can also communicate with other raw foodists, who can help you a lot (check out the links!). If you have a food processor, try making a soup (try my red soup!) or a smoothie (for example: sweet ripe bananas, raspberries and water). You could try juicing. Do not be afraid to try making your own creations. You can simplify complicated recipes, change dehydrated to un-dehydrated (example: cookies), substitute fancy expensive ingredients for cheaper ones (example: pine nuts to walnuts), or just use the idea from the recipe but your own ingredients. But hey, do not get overwhelmed if you do not have any electrical appliances. Many raw foodists live without them. In fact, many move away from using any gadgets and just eat the fruit and veggies the way they are! Personally, I prefer un-dehydrated foods and raw flat bread was the last dehydrated food that I ate regularly, before abandoning dehydrated foods altogether.
As you progress, your body will change, your taste will change, and you will want to learn about things that will help you refine your diet, such as food combining, mono-eating, foods that are optimal and foods that are less-than optimal. Your diet may become simpler. You may progress from being high-raw to all-raw. In my opinion, it is better that you allow as much as possible of these changes to occur spontaneously, and from within. This will ensure your success and enjoyment from the journey, which really is a one thing.

We can trust our bodies. We can especially trust the bodies of children. Your kids still have their innate ability to reject foods that are inappropriate, and accept foods that are healthful. You can trust your kids to select their own foods, as long as you're only offering foods within the range of healthy foods (very important!). Included in that range are ALL fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Some foods within this range are better than others but you can trust the bodies of your children to choose the ones that are best! If your child rejects a salad but wants fruit for dinner, trust him. His body is a far more reliable indicator of what it needs than any so-called nutrition expert who tells you to force-feed greens to your child.
(Nora)

Diet alone is not enough to heal a sick person. All the conditions of good health need to be present: a hygienic diet, sufficient rest, clean water, air, sun, exercise, mental and emotional balance.
(Bryan)

Becoming raw is a process not an event.
(Bryan)

I have said, there is no way I would stick to a diet by eating only one thing, I like variety.
(Peace)

Eat a variety and abundance of raw foods!
(TigerDak)

Every person on the planet is a raw vegan but they are just breaking the rules!
(Road Runner)

Copyright © Dr Gosia O'Reilly. All Rights Reserved.

Acknowledgements: Maura (logo).
Quotes on raw foods by fellow raw foodists.
Other quotes from The Quote Garden.
Photos: Free Stock Photos
English: Ten commandments for C programmers