In my little Kim Voice..... Welcome to Raw Food
Peace.
Now that I've transitioned from juice to raw vegan I want to discuss the different ways of being “raw.”
In the raw community, like any other community, you have people who think they know everything and their way is the only way. I hate that in ANY Cipher. "You do you and I'll do me" is my anthem. I won't publicly judge you and I expect the same in return. When I do “raw” I mean the food was prepared under 105*. I chose that temperature because it was the lowest temperature that my dehydrator can un-cook food. Anything less and the food will grow fungus. You know what else kills me? Folks who disseminate the lifestyle as if they invented it. SMDH. I call that Columbusing. You will find raw vegans who have been expressing the lifestyle before the 1960's.
First there is high raw which means 90%-100% ingestion of raw foods. And anything lower than 90% wouldn't be called raw, though newer designations come out every day: 50/50 raw/cooked or "raw until dinner." I did that during my pre-detox transition. It was just aiight. Think of calling yourself a vegetarian, yet you eat a slice of bacon a day. See? It's not the same. The reason the 10% flexibility is allowed is because many foods that folks think are raw aren't. Cashews, agave, etc. But are accepted as raw foods. Also if you didn't make an aspect of food then you can't be sure if it's raw. I make my own sun dried tomatoes but if I didn't, how would I know if they were cooked down vs dehydrated? That unsureness is what allows for the 10%. If you eat a wrap that is wrapped in say a flour tortilla, but nothing else cooked that day or week.... who am I to say you aren't raw? Plus if you're drinking store bought juices, frozen produce or hot beverages.... completely another issue. Folks claim that you will have an adverse reaction if you slip up and eat cooked food. I've never had this happen, but then I've never been able to maintain long term raw-veganality
If you ask me, there are 3 ways to approach raw food. See my fabulous chart below...
DIY Cuisine
- Cheaper
- Best variety
- You will always be cooking, preparing to cook, and thinking about cooking. No time off
- Eventually will grow resentful from working this part time job.
Purchased Cuisine
- No cooking
- Expensive as hell
- Contingent on being able to find raw food cooks or restaurants
Produce
- Easiest
- Cheapest
- Boring
- Can't be good for you, but who knows
Just in case I haven't given enough information I'll touch the details. I have tried all of these different methods.
The DIY Cuisine means you are cooking all your meals yourself. And when I say meal, I mean MEALS. Not snacks, not the Produce route. Meals would be something like ravioli, lasagna, pizza, nachos, etc. Something like you would eat if you weren't raw. This is my preference, but I always eventually fall off because it is so time consuming. Lasagna takes 3 days to cook. Pizza 2 days. Nachos 10-12 hours. You MUST know in advance what you are gonna eat and schedule it. And if something comes up to interrupt your prep, you're screwed. You might not have food to eat on schedule. I like to cook and take a certain amount of pride in preparing my own beautiful and tasty foods. But I also get resentful that I am a slave to my kitchen. And you need refrigerator room and counter space to hold all the produce.
When I 1st tried raw vegan, there was a restaurant not far from where I lived that served the food. It was delicious and convenient. The problem was it was expensive. Damn expensive. Lasagna may take 3 days to make, but it can be made for less than $3 and I will have 3 servings. At that store, the same portion cost $8. So a whole tray costs $40 vs $3 homeade. And I could only eat what they were serving that day. For example, I don't like raw vegan noodles made of zucchini. But if the entree of the day was just that, what am I to do??? See how always eating out can be a problem?
The third option is the produce option. It's funny because this is how people think vegetarians eat anyhow. It's eating salads and produce. Now salads are self explanatory but the produce is just weird to me. It's eating 10 bananas at 1 sitting or eating large quantity of apples, grapes, any kind of produce at your disposal. I know some hippies (that's what I call them) who consider themselves raw foodists and they eat like this. I've only done this when I'm desperate.... raw food doesn't have chemicals in it to force long term satiation... or when I want to clean out the refrigerator. But eating 10 bananas in 30 minutes..... Really? I think that is a horrible idea. But just because it's horrible doesn't mean I haven't done it.
My approach, this time, is a mixture of all 3. I think the reason I have failed in the past is because I got too hard on myself when I didn't have enough to eat or if something prevented me from preparing. I need to have a life outside of raw food eating. This isn't the cave ages. We don't spend our days only hunting and gathering. Also if something didn't turn out right, or it turned out nasty, I wouldn't have something to eat. I really hate salads. I mean I get that there are tasty salads out there... and this is weird... I don't want to go out and get them. I have no pleasant anticipation in salads. It's what I eat when there is nothing else on the menu that I can eat. So I suppose I have a salad aversion This being said I'm going into this exercise with all the options open to me.
Peace
Now that I've transitioned from juice to raw vegan I want to discuss the different ways of being “raw.”
In the raw community, like any other community, you have people who think they know everything and their way is the only way. I hate that in ANY Cipher. "You do you and I'll do me" is my anthem. I won't publicly judge you and I expect the same in return. When I do “raw” I mean the food was prepared under 105*. I chose that temperature because it was the lowest temperature that my dehydrator can un-cook food. Anything less and the food will grow fungus. You know what else kills me? Folks who disseminate the lifestyle as if they invented it. SMDH. I call that Columbusing. You will find raw vegans who have been expressing the lifestyle before the 1960's.
First there is high raw which means 90%-100% ingestion of raw foods. And anything lower than 90% wouldn't be called raw, though newer designations come out every day: 50/50 raw/cooked or "raw until dinner." I did that during my pre-detox transition. It was just aiight. Think of calling yourself a vegetarian, yet you eat a slice of bacon a day. See? It's not the same. The reason the 10% flexibility is allowed is because many foods that folks think are raw aren't. Cashews, agave, etc. But are accepted as raw foods. Also if you didn't make an aspect of food then you can't be sure if it's raw. I make my own sun dried tomatoes but if I didn't, how would I know if they were cooked down vs dehydrated? That unsureness is what allows for the 10%. If you eat a wrap that is wrapped in say a flour tortilla, but nothing else cooked that day or week.... who am I to say you aren't raw? Plus if you're drinking store bought juices, frozen produce or hot beverages.... completely another issue. Folks claim that you will have an adverse reaction if you slip up and eat cooked food. I've never had this happen, but then I've never been able to maintain long term raw-veganality
If you ask me, there are 3 ways to approach raw food. See my fabulous chart below...
DIY Cuisine
- Cheaper
- Best variety
- You will always be cooking, preparing to cook, and thinking about cooking. No time off
- Eventually will grow resentful from working this part time job.
Purchased Cuisine
- No cooking
- Expensive as hell
- Contingent on being able to find raw food cooks or restaurants
Produce
- Easiest
- Cheapest
- Boring
- Can't be good for you, but who knows
Just in case I haven't given enough information I'll touch the details. I have tried all of these different methods.
The DIY Cuisine means you are cooking all your meals yourself. And when I say meal, I mean MEALS. Not snacks, not the Produce route. Meals would be something like ravioli, lasagna, pizza, nachos, etc. Something like you would eat if you weren't raw. This is my preference, but I always eventually fall off because it is so time consuming. Lasagna takes 3 days to cook. Pizza 2 days. Nachos 10-12 hours. You MUST know in advance what you are gonna eat and schedule it. And if something comes up to interrupt your prep, you're screwed. You might not have food to eat on schedule. I like to cook and take a certain amount of pride in preparing my own beautiful and tasty foods. But I also get resentful that I am a slave to my kitchen. And you need refrigerator room and counter space to hold all the produce.
When I 1st tried raw vegan, there was a restaurant not far from where I lived that served the food. It was delicious and convenient. The problem was it was expensive. Damn expensive. Lasagna may take 3 days to make, but it can be made for less than $3 and I will have 3 servings. At that store, the same portion cost $8. So a whole tray costs $40 vs $3 homeade. And I could only eat what they were serving that day. For example, I don't like raw vegan noodles made of zucchini. But if the entree of the day was just that, what am I to do??? See how always eating out can be a problem?
The third option is the produce option. It's funny because this is how people think vegetarians eat anyhow. It's eating salads and produce. Now salads are self explanatory but the produce is just weird to me. It's eating 10 bananas at 1 sitting or eating large quantity of apples, grapes, any kind of produce at your disposal. I know some hippies (that's what I call them) who consider themselves raw foodists and they eat like this. I've only done this when I'm desperate.... raw food doesn't have chemicals in it to force long term satiation... or when I want to clean out the refrigerator. But eating 10 bananas in 30 minutes..... Really? I think that is a horrible idea. But just because it's horrible doesn't mean I haven't done it.
My approach, this time, is a mixture of all 3. I think the reason I have failed in the past is because I got too hard on myself when I didn't have enough to eat or if something prevented me from preparing. I need to have a life outside of raw food eating. This isn't the cave ages. We don't spend our days only hunting and gathering. Also if something didn't turn out right, or it turned out nasty, I wouldn't have something to eat. I really hate salads. I mean I get that there are tasty salads out there... and this is weird... I don't want to go out and get them. I have no pleasant anticipation in salads. It's what I eat when there is nothing else on the menu that I can eat. So I suppose I have a salad aversion This being said I'm going into this exercise with all the options open to me.
Peace
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