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Anybody else find "raw" time-consuming and "difficult"?

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  • achin70achin70 Raw Newbie

    I’m starting a new job tomorrow at Whole Foods, so it’s going to take a lot of planning to keep raw. They’ve got me working different hours every day, so I’ve really got to keep on top of menu planning. Oh well, it’ll just take a little more discipline, that’s all.

    dogsuponhotcats: I hope you’re eating enough. That’s really not a whole heck of a lot of food! Could that be why you’re feeling dizzy and tired? :)

  • aimeeaimee Raw Newbie

    It looks like I'm going to have to take a week off work and pre-prepare anything I can like raw crackers and bars and burgers, so i have them on hand. I have such a busy work schedule and a long commute. My husband and kids are open to raw food, but they don't want to think about making it, just eating it. I really want to go all the 100%, but can't seem to figure out haow to do it logistically. I underdtand that after a few months eating gets more simple, I've observrd that in my sister who has been raw for almost a year, but she had my mom home all the time making her food and stuff.(my mom is a housewife, the best job in the world)

    When I get up in the morning ( I'm the first one up) I have to be real quiet so as not to wake anybody else, so juicing and blending aren't a very good idea. A few mornings I took the blender into the garage to make my smoothie, but then I dropped all my greens onto the floor and yuck.

    I had the impression that I was the only one with this sort of problem, so I was happy to come across this thread.

    What do you give your kids to school to eat. Salad or soup isn't practical, because it's hard to eat that standing around a school playground. No, my kids are not allowed to sit in the cafeteria, if their not eating cafeteria food. So I guess it's crackers with seed cheese and veggis, that have become soggy in the tupperware.

  • My green smoothies only take about 10 minutes to make. The only thing I wash is the blender and my knife. Sometimes I lay out the fruits by the blender the night before. I DO always know exactly what I am making because I don

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    It does get easier!

    For my first 2 years raw I did spend a long time learning how to make food I loved to eat...then for the last couple of years my food prep is really nothing at all, just salads and the occasional recipe now and then. Your tastes will become more and more simple, and you'll be able to eat less and be more satisfied with it.

    Today I ate a green smoothie, and 3 or 4 'raw not fried beans' wrapped in letttuce leaves

    This time 2 years ago I would have had 2 green smoothies, lots of dehydrated crackers and cheeze, a raw pie or cake and a green salad.

    A good time saving methid is to make a huge batch of cream sauce, then divide it into 3 or 4 jars, flavouring each one differently, like one could be creamy curry sauce, one would be Italian, another Aoli/garlic whatever! Then you can put it on your salad and have a different flavoured hearty, creamy salad every day. I like to put garlic creamy sauce over chopped spring onions and avocado, it is just like potato salad to me. I make cream sauce using sprouted sunflower seeds, ACV, lemon juice, salt, water.

  • Hi,troublesjustabu..., but I wonder: how long have you been raw? For I long time, I guess, as you do not eat very much, so your body must be very clean to survive only from such little calories and nutritional sustenznce. What about whoever does a job which requires body hard work and toil? Because that's like my job, and turning raw is difficult for me also for that reason.

  • drgonflydrgonfly Raw Newbie

    As others have said, it was complicated & time consuming for me in the beginning also because of all the recipies I was trying. Now one day a week I chop up my veggies for my salad (cauliflower, broccli, onion, etc) and have them in a big bowl Then the night before work I make my salad & add raisins, seeds, & sprouts & chopped veggies. I also cook for my husband who is not raw only because he works a super physical job for 12 hours & gets home around 7:30 pm. I eat before him & make stuff that will last 2 days for him & he also has some salad without all the veggies I like.

    I eat about every 3 hours, I just get hungry that often & have learned it's best to eat when I'm hungry (I have low blood sugar).I have oat groats with apples & raisins & other fruit for breakfast (I make a big batch to last for about a week & my husband eats it too & it lowered his chloresterol), carrots for a snack, salad for lunch (unless I splurge & make something special), kombucha for a snack & an apple on the ride home from work. Then maybe some fruit or a smoothie if I'm still hungry later.

    It does take planning ahead, but it did when I ate cooked too because I work 40+ hours a week. Once I started to simplify it was easier.

  • I will read through all the posts when I have a chance (I need some advice as well), but although I do not find this lifestyle difficult (it's actually fun and I have become very creative with it), I do find it soooooo time consuming. I start preparing foods the night before and have to wake up two hours earlier than normal to finish preparing breakfast and lunch. But I cannot find many foods that I can eat on the go because I have food allergies on top of everything, and add being 90% raw to that. So I understand how you feel on this one Goinghealthy. I spend many hours of my day on food preparation, but the Food Saver vacuum seal option is great for me. I freeze certain things like raw homemade pasta sauce, raw bread, guacamole, salsa and fresh fruit for smoothies..but it's sooo worth it! Healed from Multiple Sclerosis! ;-)

  • hi Achin70...Whole Foods played me out when they took over Wild Oats. They told me I could be a seasonal employee since I frequented Mexico for studies so much, then when I came back, they told me they had no hours for me unless I was available to work full-time at anytime they needed me which would be subject to change week by week. I'm a student! How could I do that? Then I said okay, I've still got my discount card. Six months later they took that away from me too! lol! Life was better before Whole Foods took over Wild Oats :-I

  • I absolutely agree with the difficulty level. I may want to deyhdrate burgers but by the time they have dehydrated for an entire day I am not sure I want to eat them all week. I am not a fan of nut mush for burgers either. I have not yet been able to acquire the desire for mush anything, so anything wrapped in a leaf is bothering me. Since I have to soak nuts and what not over night, my need for immediacy makes my interest in the final product wain. I don't have a family to feed either.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    I'm with everyone on here that's replied. Zoe has a good point, raw food prep is more just a hobby. The most complex recipes I ever make are just pureeing some things in a blender and dehydrating into a bread made from fruits and vegetables, but a standard day for me is wake up, drink some juice in my fridge and grab a piece of fruit and splurge on algae. For dinner is a big spinach salad with a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar, a tad of Himalayan salt, red onions and sudried tomatoes. Occasionally a bite of a simple cookie.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    dogsuponhotcats - I'm on a budget, too, but you have to eat! Try some sunflower seeds for extra calories, & substitute bananas for some of your other fruits - lots more calories for the money! It's NOT worth it to starve yourself.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    It has taken a while, but I've found several recipes that aren't too time-consuming, and I make those regularly. I also have found that it doesn't really take much longer to double or triple a recipe if it's not stuff you have to chop or slice - like today, I made bitt's "Coconut Flax Cakes" from this site, and it didn't take much longer to measure out 4 cups of flax instead of one, 1 cup of agave instead of 1/4 cup, etc. - I made four batches of these cakes, in just a few more minutes than one batch would take. Same amount of time spent getting out & putting away ingredients. Same time spent dehydrating. I still only washed one bowl (just a bigger one), one spoon & a few measuring things, but I made four batches! I ate what I wanted & the rest are in the freezer. Super easy. :)

    Zoe - I like your idea of making a big batch of something & then dividing & flavoring it differently for different flavors/meals!

  • Well that would be nice, but hubby does not get home until 630-700 pm. So dinner needs to be prepared before then so we can enjoy our evening together.

  • it's so easy! just buy cases of fruit and green veggies at the beginning of the week and eat them when you're hungry! no food prep involved! i carry around a backpack of raw fruit and eat when i'm hungry. the fancy raw, vegan, high-fat, gourmet meals take so much time, tools and effort. we are not designed to eat like this. we didn't have food processors, dehydrators or blenders in the wild.

  • Raw Kid Chef: I'm going to be a tad presumpuous (that definitely not spelled right, but oh well) and answer for durianrider(I've heard him answer this question time after time). That's not too much fruit: look at the cals. 10 mangos or 20 bananas =2000 cals, a minimum for a day. Plus DR's an athlete so that could be a meal for him. It's really hard to over eat on fruit even if you're stuffing yourself because it's not dense and it's not stimulating--so it's not addictive. Plus they're a perfect package of carbs, vitamins, minerals, water, fiber and minute amounts of protien and fat--they're amazing for you. I'm not a hard-core athlete(I barley work out, just a little biking to the store and daily yoga, but i'm really trying to up my calorie burn, I know I need to and want to exercise more--it's a goal), so I don't eat as much(not nearly) but here's my food for today so far(almost all fruit of course): 4 bananas, 4 kiwi, 1/2 pineapple, 3 fuji apples, 2 tomatoes and a head of romaine.. That's around 1600 cals so far which most peeps would consider lowt (but I've still got dindin! and my energy's been good), but the important thing is that only about 2-3% o f my cals have been from fat.

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