(no subject)
Clearing out some emails, I came across a reply I sent someone who had some questions about my raw food experience. Thought I would post my reply here...
I have two cookbooks (one by Juliano, and one by Nomi Shannon) that were left behind years ago by a former roommate. Juliano's has lots of beautiful photos and bits of story, while Nomi's is very practical as far as how to stock your kitchen etc. I also recently bought "12 Steps to Raw Food" by Victoria Boutenko (who got me totally hooked on green smoothies) http://www.rawfamily.com/ which is more general about the problems people have getting off cooked food (similar to an addiction), why greens are so important, etc.
There is a blog post I was just reading, she links a number of popular sites http://debbiedoesraw.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-rawversary-thank-you-my-dear-friends.html#disqus_thread.
I found reading various websites to be extremely helpful.
BY FAR one of the most helpful and interesting reads was Steve Pavlina's thoroughly documented 30 Day Trial of raw food.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/02/raw-food-diet/
Several things made it pretty easy for me to go raw. The groundwork for me was laid over several years in a number of ways: 1) I am already used to be "weird" in many ways, from extended breastfeeding and natural childbirth to polyamorous relationships, and more. So identifying as part of this "fringe" was no longer problematic for me. 2) I was already used to cooking from scratch daily. This is big, as I had already made the change in my head that when I am grocery shopping, quite a few things simply do not register as "food" to me, therefore I don't get tempted to buy them. For example, you will not find boxed mix for ANYTHING in my house. Everything is a "from scratch" ingredient, with the exception of the wholewheat pasta. 3) Further cementing that worldview was when I became intolerant of dairy. That cut out a HUGE swath of baked goods, and nearly every prepared candy you can think of (almost all of the have some form of dairy derivative). It also made clear to me the connection between what I eat and how I feel in a way nothing else had before (i.e., I feel VERY bad and am in the bathroom a lot if I cheat on the dairy!). And last but by no means least, 4) I LOOOOVE salad and veggies of all types!
Wait I lied, there's also 5) I have the full support of my husband, and even my coworkers are pretty interested and supportive, and 6) I lucked upon a raw foods restaurant (Bonobo's) and just LOVED all their food.
Personally, I have had a very easy time of it so far, likely because of those things. I originally decided to do my own 30-day trial (and thus had an out at the end) but am definitely going to keep it going for at least another 2 months, and if I do add any cooked food back in after that, it will be a small proportion (i.e. 85% raw or so). However, many people do very well started gradually and increasing the percentage of raw food over time. And of course the goal does not need to be 100%! While there are some fanatics out there with a religious zeal towards that 100%, there are also lots of people who do "high raw", meaning a high percentage of their food is raw. One of the best suggestions I saw was to slowly make certain meals raw over time, for instance make breakfast raw (I suggest a green smoothie!), and then when that is comfortable, make lunch raw as well, then maybe 1 full raw day a week, etc.
OH and before I forget: Pop Tarts of a sort. http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2008/02/cant-hardly-wai.html (check out http://rawdorable.blogspot.com/ for lots more!)
(This is an example of "gourmet raw", some of which is easy to do and other recipes way more complicated or requiring a dehydrator, etc. This by no means is to say that raw food can't be simple!)
OK I have rambled on a great deal now LOL!
I have two cookbooks (one by Juliano, and one by Nomi Shannon) that were left behind years ago by a former roommate. Juliano's has lots of beautiful photos and bits of story, while Nomi's is very practical as far as how to stock your kitchen etc. I also recently bought "12 Steps to Raw Food" by Victoria Boutenko (who got me totally hooked on green smoothies) http://www.rawfamily.com/ which is more general about the problems people have getting off cooked food (similar to an addiction), why greens are so important, etc.
There is a blog post I was just reading, she links a number of popular sites http://debbiedoesraw.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-rawversary-thank-you-my-dear-friends.html#disqus_thread.
I found reading various websites to be extremely helpful.
BY FAR one of the most helpful and interesting reads was Steve Pavlina's thoroughly documented 30 Day Trial of raw food.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/02/raw-food-diet/
Several things made it pretty easy for me to go raw. The groundwork for me was laid over several years in a number of ways: 1) I am already used to be "weird" in many ways, from extended breastfeeding and natural childbirth to polyamorous relationships, and more. So identifying as part of this "fringe" was no longer problematic for me. 2) I was already used to cooking from scratch daily. This is big, as I had already made the change in my head that when I am grocery shopping, quite a few things simply do not register as "food" to me, therefore I don't get tempted to buy them. For example, you will not find boxed mix for ANYTHING in my house. Everything is a "from scratch" ingredient, with the exception of the wholewheat pasta. 3) Further cementing that worldview was when I became intolerant of dairy. That cut out a HUGE swath of baked goods, and nearly every prepared candy you can think of (almost all of the have some form of dairy derivative). It also made clear to me the connection between what I eat and how I feel in a way nothing else had before (i.e., I feel VERY bad and am in the bathroom a lot if I cheat on the dairy!). And last but by no means least, 4) I LOOOOVE salad and veggies of all types!
Wait I lied, there's also 5) I have the full support of my husband, and even my coworkers are pretty interested and supportive, and 6) I lucked upon a raw foods restaurant (Bonobo's) and just LOVED all their food.
Personally, I have had a very easy time of it so far, likely because of those things. I originally decided to do my own 30-day trial (and thus had an out at the end) but am definitely going to keep it going for at least another 2 months, and if I do add any cooked food back in after that, it will be a small proportion (i.e. 85% raw or so). However, many people do very well started gradually and increasing the percentage of raw food over time. And of course the goal does not need to be 100%! While there are some fanatics out there with a religious zeal towards that 100%, there are also lots of people who do "high raw", meaning a high percentage of their food is raw. One of the best suggestions I saw was to slowly make certain meals raw over time, for instance make breakfast raw (I suggest a green smoothie!), and then when that is comfortable, make lunch raw as well, then maybe 1 full raw day a week, etc.
OH and before I forget: Pop Tarts of a sort. http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/2008/02/cant-hardly-wai.html (check out http://rawdorable.blogspot.com/ for lots more!)
(This is an example of "gourmet raw", some of which is easy to do and other recipes way more complicated or requiring a dehydrator, etc. This by no means is to say that raw food can't be simple!)
OK I have rambled on a great deal now LOL!