Greetings everyone!
Forgive me if I am asking a question that's been discussed before, but honestly I'm not even sure what keywords I'd type in to come across it if it has. So, alas...
I'm curious as to what sort of diets everyone ate before they got into raw foods. I mean directly preceding raw, as in, were you vegan or vegetarian first and then transitioned to raw (or started incorporating it more), or were you eating totally SAD with meat and lots of junk food, or were you a health conscious omnivore, or etc etc. And do you think that the change from whatever diet had an effect on your experiences with raw food... for example, I'd imagine it to be an easier transition if you were already used to whole foods than if you lived off'a fast food or whatnot, because your palette would be more closely aligned with the often subtle vegetable flavours and such. I'm curious to know if my speculation has any ground in truth.
Synchronicity,
Aurora
Comments
Oh brother- I was the absolute WORST!
***I went directly from SAD TO RAW
My SAD days went something like this:
breakfast- milk and cereal (raisin bran or wheat chex)
lunch- pizza and gatorade or hamburger and fries or salad with ranch dressing
snack- nature valley granola bar or wheat thins
dinner- chicken and rice or enchilada or pasta with heavy cream based alfredo or worse! Chinese take out!
dessert- slice of cake or a cookie
I mostly followed my recipes from food network's website or this one cookbook called "healthy living." Unfortunately nothing I made was healthy. Most of the recipes required ingredients like canned veggies and packaged food seasoning. I used vegetable spray, canola oil, refined sugar, barbeque sauce, vegetable mix, mayonnaise, sour cream.
I used to bake tons of stuff using corn syrup, cake flour, food coloring, chocolate chips, and condensed milk. EHCK! Now, I can't help but look at something like corn syrup or cola and think 'death in a bottle.' I look back at those days and think how uncomfortable I always felt after a meal. I never had weight issues but I did have MAJOR acne problems. I spent tons of money on products for my face and body because I was literally covered in pimples and grease!
I stumbled upon raw while surfing the web and I instantly fell in love with it! We also just moved to a different location and have easy access to the farmer's market. Food tastes amazing and I feel great too! The acne is slowly clearing, but all the cysts are gone like magic!
I am still transitioning, but have been vegan for about 3 or 4 years and vegetarian for about 17. I've been a healthy eater for about the last 5 (whole foods, minimal processing and additives) but before that anything meatless was fair game!
I think taking steps toward healthier eating has made the idea of raw seem a lot more doable. I guess it depends on your situation - I'm doing raw because I have a chronic illness I'd like to improve, but for someone who already feels relatively healthy I can see it being more of a challenge to go raw if they enjoy eating cooked/unhealthy foods.
my mom's pescitarian, so as a kid i was pretty healthy (whole grains, fruits, veggies, fish, sometimes chicken), besides your occasional meal at a friend's house. i went vegetarian at 12. 13-14 i was still vegetarian but really unhealthy. throughout 8th grade year, i was eating crap like poptarts and panda express every day since i was constantly hanging out with friends. i ended up being borderline overweight by the time my 8th grade year ended. over the summer, i had a bit of an eating disorder relapse and heavily restricted my eating. by the time school started, i was underweight and miserable. i had developed a lot spiritually over the summer and finally decided to heal myself, by myself, due to my lack of inner peace. over the course of a month or two i gradually increased my intake and used healthy foods as a way to prevent having a lot of guilt about eating. later on i changed perspectives and enjoyed healthy food because it was good for me. i then found out about raw food through a restaurant called cafe gratitude in san francisco. after a little research and a little under a month of incorporating things, i went 100% raw for three months.
after that, the socially isolating aspects of raw (im 15), the fact that i was starting to turn raw into a someone restrictive habit, and that i was getting sick of nuts and too much fruit doesnt sit well with me, made me decide to start incorporating things like artichokes, yams, whole grains, legumes, etc. im now at around 80% raw and i feel fantastic :) my colon hydrotherapist says that according to my colon, my diet is extremely healthy and that my body's diggin it. works for me!
Thanks for all the replies everyone!
I've been enjoying reading everyone's stories.
Myself, I've been vegan for years, and health-conscious at least in theory but not always in practice. I avoided white flour, refined sugar and such, but I always had sweet tooth and I looove/d? baking. So I'd make, say, brownies with whole wheat flour and 'raw' sugar and replace margarine with tofu and such, trying to have my treats but make them a smidgen healthier. I ate a lot of whole grains and a reasonable amount of vegetables and lots of tofu and such. Sometimes fruit would fall to the wayside, though. I have done a few cleanses, especially over the last couple years, and each one saw me progressing towards healthier eating in general, although I'd often find myself slipping into old habits a few months later. 3 steps forward, 2 steps back kind of thing. Each cleanse took me deeper into raw foods, since they were an integral part of the cleanse I was doing.
However, when my boyfriend and I went to Cancun, our eating habits really slipped, and we were feeling it by the end. So we've been eating high raw since we've returned and it's been working out very well for us.
I guess you could say I'm a "recovering omnivore". I still have lapses, but before going largely raw, I was mostly a vegetarian at home and omnivore when out with friends, (and social eating is still my downfall). But, yeah, I used to eat pretty "healthy" omnivorous, not much fast food or prepackaged stuff. I stick to this site like glue, because it helps my motivation so much to keep raw at home and explore things I can take when traveling and visiting people who eat a SAD diet.