Buying Enough Bananas!

Hello! Do you struggle on a raw diet? I have one big tip to share today if you are someone who falls into the large camp of people who want to, but do not know how to accurately execute a raw vegan diet.

A big turning point in my success on a low fat raw vegan diet was when I really learned how to buy fruit like a fruitarian. (Why fruit-based raw veganism is the only way to go!)

These days, we normally try to keep 40+ lbs of fresh bananas in the house, plus maybe 30 (give or take) lbs of frozen bananas in the freezer at all times (we have 2 large chest freezers so this is no problem).

Bananas are very cheap and dense in calories, so they make a pretty obvious staple unless you live in a mango forest or something. (; They are easy to peel and prepare and make the best smoothies - I'm not even a huge fan of plain bananas, but I wouldn't make a smoothie without them! (Here are a few if my favorite smoothie recipes - bad food combining though some may be.)

I normally buy discounted "overripe" nanas Kwiktrip (a gas station in central US). Depending on how many discounted bananas they have - or how few I have at home - we'll buy anywhere from 5 - 40lb at a time. The person at the cash register sometimes doesn't blink an eye. Other times, s/he'll ask if I'm making banana bread....I tell her I make lots of smoothies and she's like, "oh, I see." No big deal. (:

I think a big part of being successful on a low fat raw vegan diet is getting over caring too deeply about what people think. At first, you may feel crazy buying 40lb of bananas at a time. people around you may confirm your feelings either verbally or with shocked looks. But wait!

Ask yourself what's REALLY so crazy about buying loads of bananas? You eat lots of bananas, they make you feel good, etc. You have very good reasons for buying those bananas! What is far more crazy when you think about it, is spending hard earned money on all the junk crap (potato chips, instant meals, little debbies...) you see in every other shopping cart! Who wants to put their resources into stuff that's not doing good things for anyone, and actually makes them feel worse?!

Once you've found a place you like to buy bananas, you can give them your name to a produce manager and suggest they call you if they ever have a large amount of "overripe" bananas. This is good for you and the store! That's a symbiotic relationship! (I think. I had bio last year. We dont talk about symbiosis too much in physics :p).

In conclusion, bananas are awesome and they will make your raw vegan life so much easier! Buy loads of bananas, specifically discounted ones if available. Get to know the people in charge of the fruit. And remember... Going through 4 - 7+lb of bananas per day is not crazy! It's just abnormal. (;

Peace!

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Struggling On A Raw Food Diet?

Are you not getting everything you had hoped for out of your raw food diet? If so, you're not alone! Many, many people find themselve exactly where you are. I myself was struggling with my raw food diet for quite a while, until I discovered the information that I am going to share with you in this article.

Most raw foodists say they eat "a lot" of food. But the thing about raw food is that it is MUCH less calorically dense than the cooked food they were raised on. My first thought, if you are not feeling awesome, is that you are not getting enough calories. Are you tracking your caloric intake on a website like Cronometer.com? Doing this really helped me to better understand the foods I was eating, how much I should be eating, ect. I suggest aiming for at least 2500cals per day for women, 3000 for men, and significantly more than that if you excersize or are otherwise active.

Next, it's best to examine where your calories are coming from. Namely, are you eating enough fruit? On a raw diet, there are 2 places to get our calories from: fats (nuts, seeds, avocado) or sweet fruits. Obviously, greens/veggies could never supply enough calories to keep us going throughout the day. Fats are good in small amounts (maybe 1 avocado or 1 - 2oz nuts per day), but I don't think there can be much argument that we shouldn't be getting the bulk of out calories from them!

So that leaves us with fruit as the bulk source of our calories. What could be better? Everybody knows how nutritionally awesome fruit is. However, sadly, many people are scared to eat too much fruit because it's "too much sugar". I hope you haven't fallen into that trap. Remember that the sugar in fruit is accompanied by fiber, nutrients, water, ect. It is not refined and it is nothing to be afraid of. It is worth noting that generally any study that points to fruit as the source of health complications (such as obesity or diabetes) used isolated (refined) fructose or glucose, NOT whole fruit.

In fact not only is fruit not bad for us, but it is what our bodies run on most optimally. It is delicious, it digests so easily, and it kicks cravings like none other! The energy in fruit is very easy for us to utilize, as our bodies run on glucose. It takes very little relative effort by your body to convert simple carbohydrate sugars to glucose, which means more energy for you!

Now that we know fruit is the best source of calories, how much of it should you be eating? Fruit is far less calorically dense than cooked food or even raw fatty sources of calories like avocado, nuts or seeds. In a typical day I eat:

-breakfast: 9-10banana smoothie, w/ water (or other calorically equivalent smoothie) for around 1000calories
-lunch (I eat at school): green smoothie (ex: 5nanas, 1c pineapple, 1/2cilantro, 1c greens, 1c water) or monomeal (of oranges, this time of year), about 600cals
-2nd lunch (I eat again several class periods later in study hall): green smoothie or smoothie, about 600cals
-dinner: GIANT SALAD (1+ head lettuce, half a cuke, half an avo, 1 tomato, strawberries/apples/oranges, and 1/2c+ dried fruit or dates, + fruit-based, homemade, fat-free salad dressing (leave me a comment if you'd like some ideas, I'd definitely do a post on that), or a blended salad, 400 - 500cals
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All this = around 2,700cals.

Eating this way, I feel AMAZING, better than I can remember ever feeling! I have so much energy. I am 5'2 weighing 100lb, and I've been eating this way for over a year now....so all the sugar in this fruit certainly hasn't made me fat! (;
(Oh, here you go, if you don't believe me:)

I was never fat, but I haven't always had a nice, flat stomach, either! Here's a before & after.

What does a typical day of food look like for you, in detail/numeric amounts? If you still have questions, feel free to post a comment below!

Peace. (:

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Keepin' It Frugal On LFRV!

This article is for those of you who are young and can't afford to spend $100 on food per week. This article is for people who think spending such a huge amount of money just to eat raw foods is ridiculous. This article is for those SAD eater who say that they won't switch because organic vegan foods are so expensive. This article is for anybody who is already eating a low fat, high carb, raw plant-based diet and wants to explore ways to eat more cheaply on this diet.

I am a 16-year-old in High School, and I only have $40-$50 to spend on fruit each week.

I eat loads of bananas, because truthfully, they're pretty much the only thing I an afford to eat significant quantities of (especially in the winter). I don't really like bananas much at all, and contemplated, at one point, going back to cooked vegan in lieu of living on bananas...but I just absolutely didn't want all the bloating and gas and constipation and apathy and lack of energy that comes with cooked every time I try. HCRV is like golden handcuffs.. Now that you've tried it, you can never leave. Because its just too good.

So, I finally gave in and started making smoothies... I'm so glad, it really helps, and they're actually super delicious! Right now (I know it's bad food combining, but,) I've been making banana-OJ-frozen strawberry smoothies. Super cheap and utterly delicious. Sometimes I put chopped dates on top. Its an easy way to add calories and...yum! Extra sweetness.
Another nummy way to eat bananas (and making sure you always have ripe, raw calories in the house!) is letting them ripen, and then freezing them! Throw 'em in the blender with some dates and carob, makes a perfect chocolate icecream....guilt free! (;

Also, make sure you're eating plenty of greens, especially if you are eating mostly just dates and bananas. I find that it helps my appetite for these sweet foods. Especially on a limited budget, you'll probably want to grow your own (since there's no way you'll be able to afford organic greens, and there's generally a lot of pesticides in the conventional stuff). This is not hard to do, even if you live in a cold climate! Just put some big pots of dirt by a window, and sprinkle salad mix seeds - and a few days later, they'll start sprouting! They'll keep producing as you cut them, so it's super easy! Just make sure to keep them watered, and maybe put some compost on occasionally, to make sure they don't use up the nutrients in the soil (:

 So yeah, buying conventional produce and bananas from Kwik Trip, I'm living on $6 per day - that's less than most people on SAD!

An additional tip for young people: Ask your parents how much they spend on food for a week for your family. Then divide that by the number of people in your family - ask them if they can just give you your share of your families food budget to spend on your own food - if you're determined, you will learn to budget it correctly to get enough calories and make raw veganism work for you.

Peace, and good luck to all!