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!

Want Long, Healthy, Happy Hair?!

Strong, fast-growing, healthy, natural hair? Who doesn't want that?! My friend and I were talking this morning, and she said something about wishing she had pretty, long, curly hair like me. Well, the curly part's natural. But I have a few theories on how my hair came to be described by the other two adjectives.

My hair naturally grows really slowly. I had it cut super short in 5th grade, and have been trying to grow it out since then. Up until very recently, there was virtually no change. To illustrate this to you, I have included some photos from the past 5 years.

First of all, this photo up here ^ is of me, summer of 5th grade, very shortly after getting my hair cut short.

In this picture, taken 3 years later, summer after 7th grade, you can see my hair has grown a little. It's also gotten curly...so I guess that might have something to do with the lack of difference.

However... Over a year later, in the beggining of 9th grade, you can see my hair has barely lengthened at all. This is just under a year after I became vegan, by the way.

In this photo, taken at the beginning of this year (10th grade), you can see again that my hair has grown *a little*. In this photo, I have been gourmet (high fat) raw vegan for just under a year. I was still using conventional shampoo at this time, as well.

And finally! (This is wierd.) Only about half a year after that last photo was taken, my hair finally looks so much longer! Doesn't it?! And I think it just looks so much healthier and shinier, too. I haven't washed my hair with conventional shampoo since 2011. Zero products in my hair, no styling. Totally natural. Oh... also, barely any makeup. Just a teeny bit of mascara..

So what do I think caused this rapid change? Well, first, maybe my diet. A month after the 4th photo was taken, I became fruitarian. However, I think a better explanation would be the shampoo I have been using, honestly. Shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils, causing it to be thinner, duller, harder to manage, and break more often. Baking soda effectively (and cheaply...it's so much less expensive than commertial concoctions!) cleans your hair without doing any of this!

For more information about this awesome, simple method of washing your hair, visit my previous post on baking soda 'shampoo'. The first few paragraphs describe why and how I arrived at the decision to use baking soda shampoo. If you want to skip right to the recipe, it's in the 3rd/2nd to last paragraphs.

I seriously recommend you try this. I really can't think of any reason not to!