Comments on: Raw Food Primer

By: Vlad Dolezal

Vlad Dolezal — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:27:04 +0000

Alright, Dragos, here’s my input

I like the idea of going raw. But in the past, I noticed that big blazing “all or nothing” habit changes aren’t really my style.

Like when I turned vegetarian. I just realized it would be nice one day, so I slowly started phasing out meat from my diet. Then, suddenly, one day I realize I haven’t eaten meat for over a week. “Hey, I’m vegetarian now!”

I’m planning to do the same with raw food . I’ll start replacing foods I don’t care about much either way (breakfast cereal, pasta). I’ll keep the super-yummy exciting ones for now.

I’ll also do a lot of searching to find convenient foods.

I know there’s a HUGE difference in how much I’ll eat something if there’s extra preparation required. (Example: I hadn’t touched fruit I bought for 4 days because I left it unwashed in a shopping bag near me. So I washed it and put it on a plate near my computer. All gone in 2 days.). Sometimes I don’t mind extra preparation, but I’ll carefully search for some “lazy” foods when I don’t feel like preparing stuff. (Fruits are great.)

Anyway, that’s all I can think of saying now. I just needed to write this down somewhere public to really get my ideas sorted

I’ll let you know how it’s going in a week or two.

Cheers,
Vlad
Vlad Dolezal´s last blog ..Results of My “No Soap, No Shampoo” Experiment

By: Jolie

Jolie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:22:52 +0000

Dragos

I hope this site is still active as the last post was end March. I am at the end of week 1 on raw food. I am experiencing similar detox symptoms to what you describe! I am sneezing my butt off, have funny smelling loo work, breath and body odor sometimes (it kinda smells dead) haha. Headache now and again. I am just upset because I have lost 3kg and gained 2kg back. I wanted to give up today but after reading your story decided to hang on…. At least my eyes are a bit brighter!

Jolie

By: dragos

dragos — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:32:19 +0000

@Vadim, thanks for the comments and I’m glad we share similar approaches. The social pressure is something real but I did my best to ignore it. So far it works. As for the books you’re talking about, I’ve heard about Victoria Boutenko but never read any of her book.s I guess it’s time for me to start doing this And no, I don’t yet know anything about any meetings involving raw vegans in Bucharest.

Enjoy your spring too

By: Vadim

Vadim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:43:12 +0000

Hi there.
I have been on raw food for a while. And the benefits are amazing. I would not even think once to go back to “traditional eating”. The only problem is the society, or the friends or the parents, that sometimes give you hard times, long discussions and so on. I recently read a book of Victoria Boutenko “12 steps to raw food”, where one of the step is how she changed the social life around her, very interesting remarks.
But i think the best book i read so far about raw food is “Raw Secrets”. A lot of conclusions and mistakes and assumptions of raw foodist to be aware of, rather than diet advice.
As one of the rule in the Victoria Boutenko’s book is to provide support and seek support from other practitioners … do you know anything about seminars or meetings organized here locally?
By the way i’m expecting to read the Grahams’ 8/1/1 book, which i’m keen to read since i’m practicing swimming and this is supposed to be a good introduction into sport life raw food. Anybody read it?
ok, thanks,
and enjoy life, spring is coming

By: dragos

dragos — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:06:59 +0000

@LaurenJ well, congrats for your decision, wish you all the luck with that and hope it will prove to you at least as beneficial as it proved to me. As for meals in the first few week, I highly recommend blending vegetables and eat the cream / soup resulted. It’s very important to get that raw food into your body as fast as possible in the first weeks, regardless of its taste.

During my first month I ate a lot of blended celery root, carrots, parsley, green salad. I was quite generous with garlic and onion also. Each moning I had around 1 liter of a vegetables blending. Right now I am fine eating only some fruits in the morning, bananas, apples and pears but in the beginning I was quite a fan of blending.

One more thing: it would be quite difficult to eat something really different than salads if you’re going raw vegan, because you’re actually eating only salads, one form or another

Best of luck and keep us posted if you like

By: LaurenJ

LaurenJ — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:52:08 +0000

dragos,
I’m inspired by your story and i’m starting the 30day diet tomorrow, i have done this before but not with any long term success. Any advice for easy meals the first few weeks other than salads???

By: dragos

dragos — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:46:31 +0000

@Liara Covert thanks for your insights. Of course you don’t have to be 100% raw, it’s completely up to you. I feel great on a 100% raw food diet but doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody should feel the same. And yes, you have endless possibilities if you want to enlarge your horizons, all it takes is a little courage

By: Liara Covert

Liara Covert — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:37:22 +0000

You remind readers that loads of nutrients are available in fresh foods that people will often forget or overlook. People do not have to choose to be on 100% raw food diet to make positive changes in their eating habits. Vitamins and minerals are more accessible than people realize. I found an incredibly nourishing green drink for instance, containing combinations of foods I had never mixed before like; broccoli, spirulina, artichoke, kiwi fruit, spinich, bok choy and others. The opportunity to expand horizons encourages people to step outside comfort zones.

By: dragos

dragos — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:09:39 +0000

@Andrea: well, wishing you a lot if luck and strength with your challenge. I’ll follow your challenge on the blog, I’m really curious how’s gong to be. Also, nice fruits assortment you got there
@Io_da I suspect your raw food diet was low on calcium or you have some difficulties processing calcium in lower quantities. Celery roots and onion are well known foe higher calcium concentration. Rabbit, huh? That was funny

By: io_da

io_da — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:54:43 +0000

One of the effects that happened to me after longer periods on raw food was an increased sensitivity on my teeth. Maybe is that our ancestors adapted somehow towards omnivorous/cooked eating habits and it felt like my teeth were wearing out and I was turning into a rabbit. The solution was to use some more expensive tooth paste design to help with that sensitivity.
L