Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

new --- cravings, nutrition, etc

Hello everyone!

For many years I was vegetarian but for the 4-5 years I have been eating a lot of cooked food including dairy and meats.

Understandably my energy levels have been less than stellar and I realized I needed to make a change

Comments

  • hey! welcome aboard.

    I personally just struggled through the headaches...they go away eventually. But... you could try juicing.

    http://www.juicing-for-health.com/headache-natural-remedy.html

    Did you usually drink coffee or tea in the morning?

    I personally still drink coffee and find it actually quite beneficial to my health.

    I understand why you feel overwhelmed. I did at first too. It wasn't until recently that I started spending more time preparing my meals, getting more creative, etc. and I've been Raw two months now.

    When I was starting off I ate lots of smoothies, big salads, raisins, Larabars...

    Larabars are definitely something you should look into if you haven't already. But be careful if you want to be 100% raw, not all of them are 100% raw. Or you could always go with "Go Raw" brand of food bars, because they are always 100%. Banana bread is my favorite! Probably the easiest to stomach for a newbie, filling, and low in calories compared to Larabars.

    But food bars like that will help you feel fuller, combat cravings, and make the transition overall a lot easier!

    And as I said, raisins are great. They're great for a sweet tooth, especially-- and especially since you're probably not going to be going through the hassle of making any raw desserts anytime soon.

    Don't over do it on the greens, because they can leave you nauseous. Good "salad dressings" are key. I found a couple at my local foods store that are raw (this woman sells TONS of raw products) but they can easily be made.

    One of my favorites is:

    1 tbsp. + 2 tsp. Olive Oil

    The juice of 1/2 lemon

    The juice of 1 lime

    2 dates, pitted

    1 clove garlic

    1 dried Ancho pepper

    1 tsp. ginger root

    I cut up the dates, the pepper, the garlic, and the ginger very finely...and whisked it all together with the olive oil and the lemon and lime juices. Then! I used it as a marinade. I marinated shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, onions, and mushrooms.

    Used a bit of sea salt to taste--

    I wrap up all the marinated veggies in a collard along with some spinach. It's kind of like an Asiany wrap. So yum!

    You can also peel up some zucchini for pasta-- and experiment with all sorts of sauces and dressings.

    To start off slow, you could just try putting some fresh salsa on top. If you're lazy like I sometimes I am, a lot of food markets will sell fresh, raw salsa in the deli. I buy that sometimes. Otherwise just chop up some tomatoes, onion, garlic, green onion, jalapeno, and cilantro--- I add some sea salt, sometimes a bit 'o vinegar and maybe even some chili powder if I'm feeling extra saucy haha

    I have lots of different ideas if you'd like to email me at bekkers269@hotmail.com :)

    As for weight lifting... I don't know much about what kind of diet you'd need. But I'm guessing lentils would be your best bet for getting that kind of protein.

  • vabeachcgvabeachcg Raw Newbie

    substitutions help me stay high-raw:

    dulse or kelp instead of: salt

    rejuvelac instead of: meat-based broths (in un-cooking dishes--- not as a direct soup base, but a couple of drops in a 'broth' works wonders)

    ground sesame seeds instead of: parmesan cheese

    dates, date soak- water, fresh fruit juices instead of: sugar, agave nectar

    zucchini julienned instead of: pasta

    sun-dried tomatoes + fresh herbs+ fresh tomatoes instead of: pasta sauce

    dehydrated fruit instead of: sugary register-aisle candy (ie swedish fish, gushers, starburst, etc)

    raw chia + cacao + date + coconut + sunflower seeds (quick simple raw cookie dough) instead of: cookies, cookie dough

    raw crackers instead of: bread, yeast products

    wheatgrass/ speltgrass shots instead of: alcohol, coffee/ caffeine/ energy drinks

    soaked then dried or dehydrated buckwheat groats instead of: rice krispies

  • CONGRATULATIONS for choosing raw food!

    Definitely keep it simple if you don't have time to be fancy.

    One of my favorite treats is blending a whole canteloupe with ice--it turns very frothy and soo delicious! It's an easy way to get extra calories if you need them.

    I also do a simple trio of zucchini in the shape of pasta, fresh diced tomato, and diced avacado! No salt or pepper necessary, it's so earthy and tastes great together! It's a staple for me.

    I love freezing bananas and eating them for dessert. And of course you can process them in a food processor and they become easy ice cream!

    Do you like to sprout? I bet you could add them by the handfull to your salads and it'll definitely bulk up the protein in your diet! Pumpkin seeds and Sunflower seeds may also help.

  • First off thanks for the great replies!

    @Tweedle -- Ha, I decided to stop drinking coffee regularly about 2 mos ago. it was not suiting me, making me jittery, anxious, angry. I was not a fun person to be around when I drank coffee. I occasionally have some green tea or mate. Have noticed that since I have been eating raw that I really feel the caffeine a lot more as well. Not to say that I will never ever again have coffee, but I am not interested in NEEDING to drink it as I was

  • If you drink a lot of water that should help ease the detox symptoms a bit.

  • Hey whats up hexsprite.

    Im really new to raw veganism myself. Currently I am experiencing slight symptoms as you were experiencing.

    But it will go away soon.

    As for protein, I believe in quality versus quanitity. Consuming alot of low quality protein I believe isnt good for health. Low quality protein comes from things that are processed, cooked, fermented, etc.

    Even though you may only consume about 30-50g of protein on an all raw diet, that protein has an extreme quality. The protein from raw foods is alot more easily digestible because of the liveness and living enzymes.

    When I consume any more than 50g of protein, like from vegan protein powders (which I beleive are unnatural), I get stomach discomforts, especially around the liver (meaning Im putting stress on my liver). But when I consume around 20-30g of protein mostly from fresh organic fruits, vegetables, sprouts, and soaked nuts and seeds, I get no pain in my stomach. And another thing is I don't feel as dehydrated throughout the day when I stick to only raw natural foods. I think its because all that extra protein is dehydrating.

    So yeah, I WAS consuming like 100g+ protein fabout 2 weeks ago while going to the gym regularely, but I was still feeling symptoms of too much protein. I found that on days when I go intense workouts, all I have to do is eat MORE raw foods rather than MORE protein. Raw foods like fruits, veggies, sprouts HAVE HIGH QUALITY amino acids and protein that repairs muscle. I just feel alot healthier and better when I focus more on the raw natural foods rather than a larger quanitity of protein, (eg from vegan protein powders, cooked beans, soy products etc). BTW there is nothing wrong with raw organic sprouted beans, but when you cook them the protein is ALOT less bioavailable than the protein from freshly sprouted beans.

    So bro, just keep going to the gym and eat more raw fresh foods and focus on living high quality enzyme rich amino acids and protein rather than dead protein from fermented, processed, denaturalized protein.

    Hope I helped!

Sign In or Register to comment.