How To Go Raw – The Easy Way | Make a Plan
Posted by GirlonRaw on Monday, July 18, 2011 ·
Welcome to the first instalment in what I hope will be an ongoing series every Monday, covering off a majority of the challenges that are faced when considering a raw food diet, to make transitioning much easier. With tried and tested techniques and short cuts, we can work out together, how to make the lifestyle work for you.
I was like you too, wondering how I could change the traditions and habits learnt over the last 30 or so years, and even saying it was all too hard. I even gave up on a few occasions, as you may do or have done.
What I do hope to share with you with through the series, is not only to present solutions but also encourage comments from you and work through different scenarios, whether you are already vegan, toying with vegetarianism or simply wanting to increase the amount of fresh wholesome food you consume and feel a hell of a lot better for it!
So if you do have any experiences you wish to share or comments, don’t forget to join in down below and hopefully we will all get something out of this series 
Make a Plan
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail” Winston Churchill
1. Define your goal
Whether you were like me, and looking to shed a few pesky pounds, or wanting to improve your diet for major health reasons, or even ethical reasons, your needs and goals won’t look like mine. So have a think about what it is you want to achieve and work backwards from there. But let me warn you, if you are only just now considering a raw diet (I hate that word by the way, as it denotes deprivation which is something this is NOT) it won’t only be the food you will be cleaning up, it will eventually extend to all aspects of your life! For the better!
You goal could be:
- fit into your jeans a little better
- eat a more sustainable diet
- cut the junk food out of your diet
- reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, depression, autoimmune diseases, digestive complaints and more
- improve your skin
- wake up feeling refreshed and energised, not sluggish and flat
- alleviate allergies
- improve your sleep
- increase your fertility (worked for me!)
- the list goes on…..
2. Decide on your attack plan
We all know there are different personality types out there; eg Type A’s might want to rush out and become 100% Raw Vegan overnight (not recommended – I’ve seen too many people fail as quickly as they began) and others might find a softly softly approach is best. And there might be other factors to account for, ie you might be the only one in the family wanting to make the change and a full blast attack might not bode well with other family members you share meals with.
You might have an end goal to be 50-70% raw (usually what I aspire to) and have no problems with starting as you wish to finish which could be raw food til dinner. Quite easily done in my opinion but statistics do show that if you want this to become your lifestyle and not a fad diet, you’d be best taking it step by step.
Despite your style, one which I know works well for most people is by replacing only one meal a day initially with a raw food meal, usually breakfast, but you could select it to be your lunch if you already eat a raw breakfast.
RAW BREAKFASTS examples:
Rawnola (Raw Granola – as simple throwing some nuts, sprouted buckwheat, fruit, seeds together) with
almond milk Fresh Fruit
If you are looking to lose weight, according to Ayurveda philosophy, your body is still fasting until around lunchtime so try to only eat fruits and greens (green smoothie) until lunchtime when you can select a more dense meal.
RAW OR PART RAW LUNCH examples:
- if you were going to have a cooked meal, half the portion size and load the remainder of the plate with a decent meal sized salad with a lemon dressing
- Have a meal sized raw salad with or without a cooked grain (quinoa, millet, cous cous, brown rice) tossed through
- Veggie wrap using a collard leaf or romaine/cos lettuce leaf, sushi nori roll or vietnamese spring roll wrap as the wrap, with a tasty raw dipping sauce
- Dips like hummus or pesto with veggie crudites – fancy aircraft word for carrot and celery sticks
- Sprialised vegetables with marinara sauce
Arm yourself with some raw food cookbooks like
my favourites or trawl around on blogs and websites for some free recipes – here are just a few of my favourites but not limited to:
3. Equip Yourself
Whether than means buying yourself the latest kitchen gadget or just sticking to the basics of Chefs Knife, Blender and Food Processor, have a real talk with yourself about what the cost of your health means to you. Can you afford those organic berries now that you are not going out as much dropping all that money on booze? When people ask me do they need to spend a small fortune on a Vitamix blender, here’s what I say
here but to me it’s way more than my morning smoothie. It’s my nut flours and butters, my desserts and my salad dressings plus
so much more.But don’t go cheap on the Chef’s Knife. Seriously. You are going to be using it way more than you have ever before and trust me, you will be thanking me the day you heed my advice. Go Japanese or German, but just make sure it’s good quality and that you have it sharpened regular. Also rinse well after cutting citrus so avoid damage and DO NOT dishwasher it!!!
Then comes the groceries. Some people like to meal plan, others like to stock their fridge with as much as possible so you can decide how you feel on the day. I’d suggest in the beginning, in the very least do a rough plan on what your raw food meals are going to look like for the week and base your shopping list on it. Clear out any potential threats to your plan – like potato chips, biscuits/cookies, chocolate (we’ll cover off cravings in another post!)
4. Write it Down
Stick your plan on the fridge where you can see it and monitor it daily.
Kristen suggests keeping a food journal not only with what you eat, but also with how it makes you feel, which I’ve only just started myself this week. Makes you more accountable and if you can see what your goals and plans are every time you go to grab something to eat, it will keep you on track!
5. Have Fun!
If it’s not fun, you won’t stick to it, so don’t be a bore, and play around with it.
Have I missed anything?
Share on Facebook
Filed under EASY · Tagged with
These are such great tips. I eat semi-raw these days, leaning towards high raw (lots of green juice, green smoothies, salads and various dehydrator goodies, but I still eat plenty of cooked foods too, especially when I crave them) and your tips are super helpful
Thanks Valerie
I love that you’re encouraging everyone to eat more raw not just all raw. We can all benefit from more fresh fruit and vegetables. I strongly believe that a healthful diet (even an all raw one) should be built around a heavy helping of fresh produce. Delicious dehydrated treats are great but should be your mainstay.
My mum would be very happy to see the “write it down” part of your advice,a s she’s always telling me to make lists/plans of things! I like how you showcase that a raw lifestyle is about the individual and personal decisions about what is right… and you’ve absolutely reminded me that must make your peaches and cream dessert when summer fruit is in season here!
Been reading your blog for some time now but haven’t taken the initiative to make any real changes in my diet. I would love to see you write about any advice that you have on managing raw food when your partner is a red meat and fried potatoes kind of guy. I’m hoping that soon I will have more time on my hands to give some of your recipes a try but while I may be able to coax him to eat a little more salad, he’ll never give up his peanut butter cups!
Sure Stacy. My hubs is not veggie either and it can be a struggle! I’ll be posting on this in coming weeks! As for peanut butter cups you can make raw ones ya know
or in the very least vegan 
Thanks for sharing this. I am currently on Day 12 of being raw. It was difficult at first becasue I was not prepared. I am getting the hang of it now. I have much to learn but loving it so far.
Hello.
Are olive oil and molasses considered raw foods?
Hi Victoria, I’ve actually never used molasses in any of my recipes but funnily enough I purchased some the other day. I believe it is not raw. As for olive oil, if it is cold pressed then yes.