I've been vegan for a few years and really like how much more in tune I am with my body. For the past couple months I have been drinking green smoothies almost every morning, and trying to cut out wheat and processed foods. I haven't eaten a lot of processed foods in general lately anyway, but I'm really buckling down now. I would like to eat more raw foods as well, probably not 100%, but still a lot more than I do now. However, I have a lot of things that seem to be getting in the way:
1) I live in Minnesota. It's REALLY cold here in the winter. I try to buy organic/local as much as possible, and I find that the winter months are not appealing for raw foods to me. Does anyone else live in a cold climate and eat high raw? How do you do it?
2) My partner is not keen on the idea of raw foods. Of course, I should do what I want to do and leave her to make her own decisions, but it's hard for me because I do most of the food prep/cooking and she already has given me a lot of grief for going vegan (she's a vegetarian). I know that a lot of her food choices are poor for her body (coffee, bread and beer are among her favorite items, and she has IBS), though she doesn't eat horribly all the time. But sometimes I give in to the pressure of eating greasy food when we're out, or drinking a couple beers even though it makes me feel awful. Obviously I'm aware of the benefits of eating raw foods and I'm not interested in lecturing my partner about any of it, because that's not the kind of person I am and I don't think it's very effective. This is probably more of a relationship issue than a raw food issue, but I feel like I can't do a lot of things for myself because I need to find some equilibrium between our views of eating. How do you deal with non-raw/non-vegan partners?
3) Time. I find that the raw foods I like best tend to be more elaborate affairs. I ate 100% raw (or as close to that as I could) for a week last summer and loved making and trying different recipes, but by the end of the week it felt like I was completely preoccupied with food preparation and planning. I've always loved food and work as a cook, but I felt like my relationship with food while eating high raw became very unhealthy. I felt very antisocial as well, because I couldn't go out with people to eat. I have a few raw food uncookbooks and of course this lovely site for inspiration food-wise, but does anyone have any tips for planning out food prep over the course of a week? I have a dehydrator, juicer, food processor, and am about to receive a Vita-Mix (which I think is going to make some things a lot more fun!) -- I like more "challenging" recipes beyond mono meals and salads, but I don't want to get burned out. Also, I am a big snack fiend.
Whew, that was a lot of writing! Any ideas would be so, so appreciated. Thanks!
Comments
I'm afraid I painted this picture more negatively than it really is (about my partner). She has expressed interest in learning more about nutrition but is really busy with grad school and can't take a lot of time to read much. I'm hoping I can just add more salads and raw foods to our dinners, which is generally the only meal we consistently eat together. In the past she took a raw shiitake miso soup to work unknowingly and even though she heated it, she thought it was amazing! So I suppose making soups and things like raw crackers and crisps to replace wheat- and greasy potato-based snacks is a good way to go.
Thanks for that link about the meal plans! And your prep schedule suggestion, too -- I really appreciate it!