Hey everyone,

I'm a 23 year old college girl and I want to switch to a healthier diet! I was raised omnivore but I never actually liked the taste of meat and eggs, and I don't do well on dairy anyway so it was very easy for me to go vegan for environmental reasons. Now, for the last 4 weeks or so I've been trying to add more raw foods into my diet. During my vegetarian and vegan years I gained a lot of excess weight, basically because I relied too much on processed soy products, pasta, too much dressing in my salads and stuff like that. I've always been pretty thin, so I was under the impression that I'm the kind of person who doesn't gain weight that easily. Was I ever wrong, hahah.

At the moment, the only cooked food I eat is oatmeal for breakfast (non-instant, organic), and I plan to gradually replace it with smoothies. I still drink a lot of tea, but I don't feel like messing with it for now, there's just so much to work on as it is. I also realized that my diet is a bit boring and I need to include a greater variety of veggies. I can't even remember the last time I ate spinach!

The thing is, I don't know what to do first. I read that some people lose weight when they go raw but it "goes back to normal" in a few months or so. I actually want that weight to stay off! What I'd really like to know is, would you advise me to just focus on going raw for the time being and not worry about weight loss before I get used to my new diet, or try to lose that weight on the way? And before you ask, I do work out and drink a lot of water every day!

I sure do ramble a lot, sorry for that! I haven't been on a forum for a long time. : D

Have a wonderful day everyone!