Raw Food Diet Diary

Adapting to a raw food diet can be challenging . . . especially if you’re going it alone.  Today, I’m sharing three of seven tips I have to make your transition easier.

Learn to love bananas!

One of the challenges of following a raw food diet, especially one that follows Dr. Douglas Graham’s 80-10-10 caloronutrient formula, is getting sufficient calories to carry out your normal daily activities.

Bananas are an inexpensive, nutritious means to obtaining sufficient calories.

A dozen bananas a day gets most of us to between a third and half of our calorie needs (assuming you aren’t engaged in regular, vigorous athletic activity).  Plus, they’re the ultimate fast food; just peel and eat whenever the mood strikes you.

What?  You don’t like bananas?

I understand; I’ve always liked them OK, but I didn’t love them when I started my transition to a raw food diet.  Here’s a tip for the non-banana lovers out there . . .

Invest in a high-powered blender.

Eating a dozen or more bananas may seem like a daunting task.  I can tell you that it’s doable, but it’s time- consuming.  If you have an hour for lunch, you’re in great shape.  If, like me, you have 30 minutes or less, you need another solution.

Enter the smoothie!

Ideally, we eat our fruit-based meals in their whole form at leisurely pace.  Most of us, though, don’t live in that ideal world.  A good blender helps us by “pre-chewing” our food so that we can consume it faster and without discomfort.

I’ve tried an all-banana smoothie.  I can consume them if I have no other choice, but I’d rather put something else in to change the taste.  Right now, I enjoy mixing blueberries and nectarines with my bananas. I like the taste of mixing in strawberries, but I’ve noticed that the combination irritates my stomach, so I no longer drink banana/strawberry smoothies.

My absolute favorite smoothie is an all-cantaloupe smoothie.  I consider it to be a great breakfast drink!  Summertime is a great time to begin finding fresh cantaloupe to blend.  Typically, I blend the flesh of one melon for a refreshing drink.  Please note, though, that this is a very low-calorie drink.  You’re going to need to balance drinking those with other higher calorie fruits (e.g. bananas, grapes, papaya) at other meals.

Eat Your Greens!

Leafy green vegetables are plentiful year-round.  Dr. Graham advises us to get from 2-6% of our daily calories from tender greens on an optimal raw food diet.  If I eat a bunch of spinach, that brings me in at about 3% of my current daily calorie intake.

I’ll bet that eating a bunch of spinach or a head of lettuce every day seems even more formidable than eating a dozen or more bananas, doesn’t it?

If the greens are really fresh and organic, I can do it pretty easily.  I just put them in a bowl and eat them like popcorn.  I suspect, though, that I’m kind of odd in that way . . . most people have to cover the somewhat bitter taste of most greens.  I like really fresh leafy greens, but if they aren’t almost fresh from the field I have to mix something with them to make them palatable.

Enter the green smoothie!

If you look at my menus, you’ll note that the green smoothie is a regular fixture in my raw food diet.  They’re pretty simple to make, and they taste much better than they sound (or look)!  I’ve had to play around with my formula quite a bit, but here’s what I use:

• 8 oz. of water
• 1/2 a bunch of spinach
• 5 - 8 oz. of a sweet, juicy fruit (lately, that’s been blueberries)
• 6 medium (about 8″ long) bananas

All I do is wash and cut the spinach and fruit, place the ingredients in the blender in the order listed, then blend on high for a few seconds.  I spend a total of ten minutes on preparation and clean-up; the smoothie takes me between 20-30 minutes to consume.  I find that two of these smoothies daily provide me with a solid foundation for being well-nourished.

Ron’s Raw Food Diet

• Banana/Blueberry Smoothie (6 medium bananas, 5 oz. blueberries)
• Green Smoothie (6 medium bananas, 5 oz. blueberries, half a bunch of spinach)

Cooked Items (at the movies)

• Gardenburger
• Potato Wedges

I needed to write this post today.  I feel like Peter attempting to walk on water . . . I believe, help me with my unbelief!

The last few days, I’ve been mostly (but not completely) raw.  My weight has stabilized at 260 - 262 pounds.  I had planned on being down below 255 before my trip next week, but I’m not going to push that now.  This next week, I plan on eating as much raw food during the day as I want, and minimizing the nighttime “damage.”

Lately, I’ve been craving Mexican food.  So, the last couple of days, I’ve indulged myself in some black bean burritos from Taco Cabana.  I haven’t figured it out yet, but I suspect that the tortillas push my fat intake up some.  I know that the salt has got to be up there.

I suspect that my cravings come for a couple of reasons:

1. I haven’t been eating my greens faithfully every day.  When I eat a bunch of spinach (and occasionally a few stalks of celery) during the day, I don’t have the desire for cooked food.  Both Dr. Graham and Roger have said that . . . that’s going to be a top priority this coming month.
2. I haven’t been checking in daily here or at HowToGoRaw.com.  I find that when I make myself accountable by writing publicly about my experiences, I do better.

I always keep in mind that following a raw food diet is my choice . . . not an externally imposed requirement.  I remain committed to moving toward my goal of being all raw at a pace and in a manner that works for me.  Every step I move in this direction improves me . . . and self-improvement is my ultimate goal.