Fast Easy -No BS- Raw Food For Beginner

[rideforever]

Hi

I usually make dinner in less than 5 minutes.  I am not interested in cooking ... but I am interested in raw food.

I don't have time to blend up a terrine of exotic organic ingredients, nor to go hunt around specialist shops to find them.

I am also looking just to eat.  I want it to be simple.  Not some kind of new-age fetish I spend my whole life thinking about.  I just come home from work, I want to eat something healthy that's all.

I don't have time to 'try out different recipes'.

There is a local wholefoods shop that is not very big, but pretty good.

So how do I do it ?

If I eat : 1 avocado and 3 tomatoes and a bit of tofu - is that enough ?  Is that raw ?  Does tofu count as raw ?

Things that I like that require no preparation : cucumber, tomatoes, onions, houmous, tahini, tofu, avocado, peas, green beans.   

If I just mix a few of these up every day is that raw food ?

thanks for any advice

[peach]

Welcome Rideforever,

I wouldn't eat tofu and soy is really not very good for you and most of it is GMO these days.

But 1 avo and some tomatoes is definitely raw but would be better if you added some lettuce with it, maybe some cucumber.  You could use the houmous and tahini as a dip for your cucumbers etc or as a dressing on lettuce.  What about having some fruit before all that.  Fruit is the quickest, easiest fast food ever, pick it up and bite into it unless it is a banana then you have to go to the trouble of peeling it first.

You can definitely survive on raw by just eating your food plain as long as you get a big variety and eat enough to get your calories.  You need a lot more raw for calories than cooked unless you eat a lot of avos or nuts and then you have too much fat.

What do you eat for breakfast and lunch?

[rideforever]

Currently this is what I eat :

Breakfast : I have about a litre of water mixed 50/50 with fruit juice

Lunch : I go to Pret-a-Manger and get a salad or a sandwich (when I am working)

Dinner : houmous tomatoes and some bread, maybe some olives and cheese, occasionally a pizza or some take-away Indian food

========================================

I would like to start by replacing dinner with some raw food ?

thanks !!

[rideforever]

I would also like to hear any suggestions about replacing my lunchtime work meal.  Normally I go and sit in Pret a Manger but I can probably do better. 

I probably have just enough space in my bag for a medium size food container.

So, if I chop up some : tomatoes, dates, oranges, cucumber ... is that enough ?  Will something be missing.

I need to be able to make it fast with easy to find ingredients, and for it to be soft - I don't like crunchy things.

Any ideas

[Tommie]

Hi, rideforever! and welcome to the forum!

You need calories and the raw foods you mention (other than oranges) don't have many. Bananas and mangoes are good sources of calories. If you don't get enough to eat, you can do more harm than good.

When I was working, during the summer months I would often take a huge container of watermelon or peaches mixed with blueberries or cut up mango for lunch. Summer is an easy time to eat raw with so much fresh food around. I'd save my big meal for the last one of the day. That's when I'd have a huge salad with avocado or a nut based dressing. If you don't like crunch, you might be interested in Savory Veggie Stews. Roger will chop up some of the veggies to give texture but you could just throw it all in the blender.

[peach]

Rideforever,

You don't say if you are male or female, what age bracket, active or not, health problems, overweight etc.  Some of this info would help us more to answer your questions.

You don't seem to eat fruit or greens.

I know you said you don't have time to blend but that is the easiest quickest way to prepare and eat your food and the best way to get the calories that you need.  Many people blend up a couple of bananas or other fruit with a bunch of greens, add enough water for the texture you like it, thin for drinking or thick to eat with a spoon like a pudding......called a green smoothie that tastes just like fruit.  Fill a blender and drink it for breakfast, make another and put it in sealed bottles to take to work for lunch.

You need to eat a lot of fruit to get enough calories.  1500 calories just to keep your body functions working and then more calories for activity.  You can go to fitday.com and enter all your food for the day to see how many calories you are getting and how much fat.

You also need to mix up the food a bit, not every day but over a week or a month you need a variety of different food to get all the nutrients you need.

[rideforever]

I am a healthy 40 year old man.

The adjustment I am trying is to have a lot of juice in the evening rather than dinner, along with some super-greens powder.  And maybe some fruit.

Lunch will be the same courtesy of Pret.

Breakfast is fruit juice.

I'm trying to lose a bit of weight, so the calories are a bit low.  Given the stress I am under it is unrealistic to try to do too much wrt the raw stuff, I just don't have the time or will.  But this is healthier.

[Tommie]

I agree with Peach. As for the "super greens powder", it's better to get those nutrients fresh.

[rideforever]

It's better to get everything fresh !

But it's not realistic

[Tommie]

Surely you can buy lettuces and greens like collards and kale!

[peach]

I can understand you using the green pdr as it is quick and easy.  You can get a good dose of minerals from it and if it works for you well that is fine if you have not the time for fresh.

Do you own a blender.  You say you need quick and easy and throwing everything in a blender is a lot quicker than juicing and a lot easier to clean up.  You also get all the fibre from the food that your body needs and will also keep you full for longer.

You will lose weight on raw anyway so don't keep your calories too low or your body will stop losing weight.  With raw fruit and veg fibre it takes more calories to dijest than is in the food.

[Dwain]

With raw fruit and veg fibre it takes more calories to dijest than is in the food.

   So where do the calories come from to maintain a healthy body?

[peach]

Dwain you have such an analytical mind

You hear my comment all the time but I never really thought of it like that.  Maybe what I should have said was that veggies with the fibre take more calories to digest than are in them.  I guess you have to get the calories from your fruit and oily foods

[Tommie]

I know celery takes more calories for the body to process than the celery contains.

[peach]

Yes Tommie, that is what I was trying to say.