CatherineR

Huh. I've picked up the pack of Trader Joe's green beans and never had a problem. 

I get locally made tahini and it's pretty dang bitter. It magically goes away in a lot of dessert dishes though I have yet to make a raw hummus with it that I enjoy. 

Hello GillyBean :) One of my favorite quotes to live by is, "what other people think about me is none of my business." Always helps.

If you're new to raw the only thing I can say is that it's thankfully so much more than just cut fruit and salads. Personally, getting a few good recipes under my belt has helped me stick with raw immensely. I use the tool, Paprika, to store all recipes and revert to them as needed. I also recommend getting the Rawtarian's recipe book because they're delicious and stupidly easy. 

Good luck with the changes and keep us posted with how it's going!

I'm still raw two months in--yay! I call this the month of the dehydrator. I've been using that thing like crazy but it's introduced so many fun and wonderful dishes that I wouldn't ordinarily try. They also tend to be much more filling, too!

One noticeable effect of going raw is an increase in my vocal range. I'm not a professional singer by any means but I'm trained decently enough. I was singing some old songs and noticed some high notes that used to give me trouble were super easy to hit. I then did a few other songs and noticed the same thing. Tried again the next few days and no problem. Who knew? I do notice I have little to no phlegm eating this way, so maybe that's it. But yeah, any vocalist should seriously do a raw vegan diet. 

I picked up Matt Amsden's book and have been playing around with the recipes. They're more sophisticated (read: complicated) than what I'm used to, and some are more time-intensive as well: I remember seeing one where I had to soak an ingredient for a day and then dehydrate for another two days. I remember thinking how ain't nobody got time for that. Some are also insanely high fat (a noodle dish has 2 1/2 cups of oil... for one serving. No joke), but the majority of recipes attempted have been fun and delicious. They have a love affair with coconut meat which I'm happy to have on hand, so that's been cool. The recipes are from their restaurant and it's been such a delight making stuff that seemed like magic to me when it'd be served beautifully on a plate for $20 per dish. 

Oh, non-raw stuff: I got puffed amaranth and used it to make little (otherwise raw) dessert balls. No guilt. :)

One of the fun things about making my own food is getting to use high end stuff that isn't practical (or is so pricey) when made in restaurants. For example, today I made a berry smoothie with cacao, which might not sound exotic but berries are insanely hard to procure where I live. Another example is using the hazelnut oil I have, or the beautiful fresh vanilla pods. Though people may think a raw diet is deprivation, sometimes I eat stuff where I feel so blessed and grateful because it feels like such a luxurious treat.

That's it in my neck of the woods. 

Fats are your friend when it comes to dry skin/hands. Eating more fats may help, and using coconut oil on the hands may also. Since you posted this a few months earlier I'll hope everything is better for you!