Getting married

My fiance and I are getting married in a year. Since we started dating, he has gained one hundred pounds and I've gained fifty. His twin brother has had much success staying thin with his raw vegan lifestyle, he introduced us to some books that explain why going raw is a good idea. The problem is, we aren't so sure how.

I remember feeling tired my entire life, I have adult acne, I often feel sick. I've been eating better the past few months, cutting out sugary snacks and fast food, but I don't think it's good enough. I hadn't realized until reading vegan books that dairy and meat were actually so bad for you!

Since I'm such a newbie, I'm looking for any tips! I was just given a pile of books I can't wait to read.

Comments

  • leahcelesteleahceleste Raw Newbie

    You are on the right track!! I'm so glad to hear that you are open to raw foods for health. There are a few different ways to go raw,

    1- Cold Turkey, throw away everything in your pantry that does not support this lifestyle. Start juicing or making green smoothies everyday. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, eat as much as you need till you are full. Find some dressings that you like alot plus other filling raw food recipes. At this stage don't worry about food combining or how much of certain foods you should be eating. If you want to eat larger portions of nuts and seeds or eat like 3-4 avocados a day, just go right ahead. Just eat as much raw food as makes you satisfied. Simply following this approach will create huge changes in a few months and as you go along you can then start to tweak the diet.

    2- Slow Transition, here you keep increasing your raw food intake and decreasing your cooked food intake. If you can eliminate processed foods and junk foods and stick to whole cooked foods like the macrobiotic concept you will see great results.

    3- Food Combing, Elimination Diet. Here you don't have to give up everything. But you must learn to eat correctly. Fred Bisci wrote a great book about this approach. For this to work, what you leave out is most important, meaning processed foods, wheat, diary and sugar! But you can eat meat as long as you only eat it with salad and large amounts of vegetables. Here you are constantly upgrading your diet as you move along towards eating more and more raw. So you move from beef to chicken, chicken to fish, fish to rice and beans, rice and beans to raw nuts and seeds.

    I personally went the cold turkey approach with my boyfriend and I had only read one book, David Wolfe's The Sunfood Diet. But after we started I read and read and read and it has not stopped. We have been eating %100 raw for 1 1/2 years and high raw for 1 year. I love this way of eating, it will help you fix any health problems that you have and it will make you feel great and increase your beauty, big plus for women!

    I hope this information is useful to you and feel free to ask any other questions that you have!

  • I am concerned about getting enough B12. I hear that primates get B12 from insects, so where do raw vegans find it?

    We're going cold turkey. When I learn more, I'm definitely going to tweak. It's inspiring to know this is the approach you took and now you've been raw for so long!

  • waterbaby12347waterbaby12347 Raw Newbie

    You will get some B12, If you don't wash your organic vegies spick & span...

    If you aren't completely vegan and want, Bee Pollen is another source...

    There is also a B12 forum that you may want to read... Just type it in the search button...

    I went cold turkey from vegetarian in Oct of 07, and never looked back... Good luck to you both!!!

  • leahcelesteleahceleste Raw Newbie

    At first I really would not worry about B12. Gabriel Cousens writes that though important we should not get hung up on it because the body actually makes B12 itself if we are getting the right nutrition. Personally I would dive into raw and then if you are curious go to a naturopathic doctor and get blood work done to see if you have any deficiencies.

    After experimenting with the raw diet alot I would really encourage you to get a good juicer and make yourself vegetable juice everyday, twice a day if possible. I know that some people on here will say that you can make juice in the blender and then strain it but it is really not the same thing. If you need to see real health improvements then juice! It will also help with cravings and you will really see the difference in your body, clearer skin, stronger nails, better hair, weight loss. Other then that you can pretty much eat whatever raw food you want to right now.

    Green smoothies are great too, don't get me wrong. I juice and do green smoothies but I really see the difference when I add fresh juices to my diet.

    I have the Omega Juicer and I love it. I have had a couple friends buy it and they love it too. I would not worry about a dehydrator right now either, you can always purchase one in a few months if you want.

    One of me and my boyfriends favorite filling recipes is nori rolls made with a recipe from this site called Cheeze with Spring Onions I think. If you spread the cheeze on the nori sheet and then put avocado, bell pepper, carrots, raddish, cucumber, cilantro, spianch any of these it will taste great! My boyfriend loves to dip the nori pieces in Tamari or Nama Shoyu.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    Congrats on finding the raw food diet!! It can REALLY work for you. Don't get discouraged if a few recipes turn out wrong, or if you find that on some days you're eating less raw than you wanted. This of this as a super exciting journey of discovery. Just stick to it, keep reading, STAY WITH US at goneraw, or join us at raw100.ning.com, and you CAN improve your health. You'll find that it gets easier every day, at some point you'll be like me and discover that it's been a year since i had a cooked meal in my house!

  • Thanks for all the welcomes. :D My fiance and I are doing fine so far, no slip-ups. I've had crappy-feeling spells but that's usually when I let myself get hungry. I guess it's mostly detox symptoms. We invested in a juicer, blender, coffee grinder, dehydrator, and food processor. We like things so far and we're really serious about making it work. I have about six raw vegan books to finish.

    As a former fast food junkie I really feel like I was craving this good stuff all along. I think I will be able to maintain a mostly-raw diet my entire life. I'm less bloated already.

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    Congratulations! That's great to hear :)

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