Grocery Escapades and Musings

Last night we went to the grocery store. My basket was filled with lots of greens -- kale, rainbow chard, Romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, dandelion greens, etc. I also had a couple bottles of G. T.'s Kombucha Tea because my mom is coming and I want her to taste it. Of course I also had lots of fresh fruit and some things like red peppers, cucumbers, jicima, cilantro, and dill. When we went to check out Phillip wanted to see the fish in the tank at the front of the grocery store (Yes, they have a huge saltwater fish tank inside the grocery store, this is Texas after all). I took Phillip over to see the fish and Wayne went through the checkout line.

I can see Wayne from where the fish tank is and the women who are running his lane are laughing and giving him a hard time about his grocery basket. One holds up the jicama and asks him what it is. He tells her and the other girl asks him how to "fix" that. Wayne is standing in the grocery aisle telling them how I cut it up like french fries and make my own ketchup (Thank you Boutenko's -- wonderful recipe), or how I make a corn salad with jicama, tomatoes, and cilantro and use it on raw tacos. The ladies are looking at him like, "Are you serious?" One of them finally asks, "How does your wife know how to use all of this stuff?" Then he explained that I was on a raw diet. They thought that was really cool, and they thought it was cool that Wayne really liked the food, too (all but the Kombucha, but I am still working on him).

The whole thing got me thinking, though, that before I decided to eat raw foods I had no idea what to do with this food either. I knew how to scramble eggs, make a pie or cake, grill a steak on the grill, and make a basic salad, but I had no clue how to really pick or prepare the things that are really good for me. I would pass by the greens section of the grocery store like most all of the other people I see at the grocery every time I go. Now, it is my favorite section to load up.

If you want to succeed on a raw diet it takes time to figure out what to eat, where to find it in the grocery store, and how to prepare it. It takes a little bit effort, because most of us are not taught the proper ways to eat (and there is a lot of temptation and pressure to eat things that are not so good for us). Once I started taking responsibility for what I was putting into my mouth, though, I found that I viewed food differently. I discovered tastes that had previously been foreign and learned to really enjoy my food because it tastes good and I know it is doing something good for my body. Now, it is not hard to shop at all. I know where everything I want is located and I don't even have to go into the interior aisles of the store. I do all of my shopping in the fruit and veggies and then skip over to the nuts and dried fruits, and finally to the almond milk and I am out the door -- much faster than the SAD shopping (Standard American Diet) I did before I changed my diet.

Let me assure you, there are LOTS of resources out there to help you along the way. When I started I googled raw food diet, raw food recipes, easy raw recipes and came up with tons of stuff! One of the websites that was extremely helpful to me as a complete beginner raw person was www.purejeevan.com. Check it out. It is very user friendly! This week, I will try and put one website up per night that I have personally found helpful. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Transitioning from a SAD diet to a RAW diet

A few of you have asked me how to transition from a SAD (Standard American Diet) to a RAW one. I went from a SAD diet to a vegetarian diet overnight. It took me about 2 weeks to become a vegan and about one more week to start eating raw. It was not hard for me at all, but I also had some serious medical risks that really didn't leave me much room for transitioning on the sliding scale.

Wayne, on the other hand, took the transition much more slowly. He started by eating meat about 2 times a week. Then he went down to once a week. His next phase was eating only fish (as a meat source) and transitioning the dairy products out of his diet. Once he actually tried the almond milk, he really liked it! The hard part was getting over the idea of drinking almond milk.

The easiest meal to change for both of us was breakfast. Smoothies are an easy and delicious way to transition. We started with mostly fruit smoothies at first (banana, orange, mango and blueberry, almond milk, with ice were some of our favorites).

One thing I have found is that you can eat raw as simply or as complicated as you would like. I transitioned simply, eating mostly salads. I loaded them up with all kinds of veggies -- purple onion, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, and there are many wonderful raw food salad dressing recipes. I looked online for "raw food recipes" and came up with dozens! I also at a lot of trail mix. I found some raw food cereal at Whole Foods and ate that as well. I have a major sweet tooth so I knew I would need some sweets to get me through the transition. Thank God there are so many raw food cookie recipes online! Raw almond and Not Peanut Butter cookies convinced me that I wasn't having to "give up" anything! These cookies have become a staple in our house. I always have some in the refrigerator or freezer. If you know that you definitely want to change to a raw food diet or are pretty sure, I highly recommend 12 Steps to Raw Food by Victoria Boutenko.

Wayne transitioned with more complicated foods. Granted, eating raw was not his idea or something he ever thought he would do. When he saw how good I was doing and mentioned that he might try eating raw I wanted to make him things I knew he would love. That is when I started trying things like Raw Tacos, Raw Thai food, Spring Rolls, and vegetable Sushi. None of the things are very hard to make, they just take more ingredients (ones we weren't used to buying). Wayne is eating about 80% raw these days and he feels so good. I am very proud of him for opening his mind to trying new things! Now Wayne enjoys simple raw foods like salads and a piece of fruit, but he needed the fancy things to help him cross over.

Most people think eating raw is expensive, but once we stopped buying all of the other things we normally ate and stopped eating out the price was about the same. You can start with any blender you have on hand and then later, if you decide this diet is for you, you can invest in a Vitamix. I LOVE mine! It is the most used appliance in our entire house.

If you are interested in transitioning to a RAW diet, the most important thing to remember is to listen to your own body. You can make the move as quickly or as slowly as you would like. You will know when you are ready better than anyone else. My view is that any amount of raw you can add to your diet is probably better than what you were eating on the SAD diet. Some people never reach a 100% raw diet and don't really feel the need to pursue that as a goal. That is fine. Honor yourself. In my experience, the more intention and love you put into your body, the more you will get out. GOOD LUCK! Please keep me posted on your transitions.