I have gone raw and vegan at the same time. It is not easy and it was expensive to get the high powered blenders and food dehydrators. I got bored fast and never felt that bloom they said I woul feel.

Raw is not always healthier. Some foods are better for you cooked. Read http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA357082

I'm currently trying a raw food diet. For breakfast, I have a smoothie of bananas and raspberries. For lunch and dinner, I have huge salads with avocado dressing and lots of nuts. I snack on apples and oranges. I don't know if I've lost any weight, but I feel WONDERFUL. I've been entering the foods into www.fitday.com and I'm only lacking Vitamin D, which I'll get in a multivitamin.

I know that eating some veggies and some other foods RAW can slow down your thyroid. If a Person ate 1/2 a head of cabbage, a day, it would be equal to taking medicine for hyperthyroidism. Of course, that would depends on how hyper a person was. Cabbage is only one of the veggies. Cooked cabbage is ok. Cauliflower is another one of the veggies. It's ok cooked.

Good advice here. I'll keep that in mind about the cauliflower and cabbage. I just love Dr. Weil and will check out the link.

I think the feeling good part of it depends also on what goes in the smoothies. The cocoa at breakfast and wheatgrass/romain/kale/lemon, etc at lunch all help me feel wonderful. In fact, I love the wheatgrass so much, I'm sprouting some for myself.

I never did buy anything yet except for a blender - mine was getting worn out after years of use. I don't use my food processor for this stuff - kind of bulky to clean. The blender works fine for now. I'm watching sales here and there to see what looks good.

Cinnamin - what sort of blender did you go for? I've got a cuisinart. I'm thinking of upgrading to a juicer at some point but there seem to be several variables.

Inkiri - you know that bananas have a good number of sugar grams in them, right? I'd use half of one myself or less.

I found gluten and sugar to be worse culprits than ever imagined. Sugar is in just about everything at the store - I was floored when I looked at the labels I have in my own kitchen. Well, that has changed dramatically. It helps immensley. I feel energetic/vibrant/alert without the gluten and the cocoa in the breakfast smoothie does make me feel great in the morning. My green smoothie with lunch is energetic too.

I want to just mention sugars again - they really are in so many things - i.e., I cut back the grapes in my morning smoothies to 5. I limit my blueberries to 10 and strawberries to 2. My soy free almond milk is sugar free as well. This stuff adds up!

Dr. Mercola stresses no more than 15-17 grams of sugar per day, including the natural ones that come in fruits, etc. I took the grapefruit out of my smoothie and added lemon instead. Just some examples.

I was so confident about not abusing sugar until I started tracking it. I was getting 36 grams per day so I had to snap that into shape. The weight started falling again. There always seems to be something to tweak to keep that scale moving downward. Today I realized yet again that I need more water than I usually get. I fall off the habit real easy. And exercise! Get out of the habit of something and it is a real challenge to get it back. Been concentrating on the treadmill and forgetting about the aerobic exercise lately. Adding it back in, along with the water and expecting to adore the scale shortly, lol.

Anyone care to share some smoothie recipes?

I recently invested in an immersion blender. It's great for making smoothies in the morning. I guess I make a "drink" rather than a "smoothy," because the immersion blender doesn't blend ice. But I love the convenience of it - I drink right out of the container that came with the blender, and don't have to take a standing blender apart and clean it - you just pull off the blending attachment, wash that, and you're done. I usually use a half of a cup of plain yogurt, half of a cup of nonfat milk, and some fruit - usually some kind of berries and half of a banana. The banana helps make the drink sweeter, which is important because berries and plain yogurt can both be kind of bitter. The other day I used about seven blackberries and a half of a banana in addition to the yogurt and milk.

Lorrieonline, you are so right about sugar adding up and about how much freaking sugar is in processed foods. I switched to plain yogurt because it is among the lowest in sugar, but even it has too much in it. I don't think artificial sweetners are very healthy, and I do not like the way they taste, so switching over to Yoplait or one of the "diet" yogurts didn't seem like a very good option.

The sugar thing is a real issue because on the one hand, I want to eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible, but on the other hand, doing so ratchets up the sugar. So far I've been erring on the side of eating the fruits and vegetables, but I think I should track the sugar a lot more carefully.

This post was originally from 2009, so the original posters may not respond.

I'm the original poster and I'm still around, trying to lose weight. LOL

I tried the raw food diet for a while, and while I did lose weight, it just wasn't for me. I was starving all the time, so I was constantly eating and I got bored with it very quickly. I do eat a lot of raw veggies and fruits now, but I definitely can't be 100%.

I am however finding that I have a problem with gluten and I think I may have a problem with dairy. I know that if I eat too much soy, I get horrible stomachaches as well. It seems that I can have all of these in small quantities, but if I eat too much or I eat it for days in a row (especially gluten) I get constipation (tmi) and a terrible stomachache. It makes me wonder how I missed these things before, however, I have always had problems with constipation. I am wondering if going 100% gluten free would help my stomach. Without the bloating, I may even lose some weight and that's a big goal of mine!

Thanks for still answering my question, even though it has been a long time!

100% raw is pretty hard, but I would do it cold turkey. Start with trying to get a green smoothie in daily, or get a cheap wide-mouth juicer (so you don't have to cut so many veggies) and try that daily. Not raw for the full day, but raw in the morning or other time of day. I'm working on the juices right now which is difficult with leafy greens. Hard to find the right mix that will taste good. I think carrot, apple, ginger juice is my favorite.

I eat raw veggies everyday. A tossed salad with baby spinach, lettuce, carrots, celery, sweet pepper, radishes, brocoli, tomatoes, roasted soy beans and some pizza type spice, Tbl bacon bits, dash of salt to get some iodine and that's it. No dressing no croutons.

It's big.. about 4 cups.

OK, MOmmy 614 - I justd saw the updates here and would like to add that you can incorporate the RAW into the diet - doesn't have to be 100%. I go by how I feel too. If I don't feel good, something is wrong.

I have my "RAW" smoothie with lunch or in between lunch and dinner. I still eat a decent dinner. I've been learning as I go - and also, there are a lot of vitamins in kale, etc. I take m vitamins and supplements every day. I think we need a good mix of things.

Veggies aren't going to have a lot of protein. The one I made and split with my son has about 7 grams of protein so I'm getting 3.5
I suppose.

I came by going gluten free naturally on July when I needed to not put weight on after a foot injury took me off exercise a bit. I found ultrasimple diet and it had brown rice in there for a starch and really no gluten, no white starches. It helped me to feel sooo much better. If you want your grains, go for the brown rice, you can cook it up and put it in the refrigerator. Sauteed rice and veggies is fantastic.

At dinner I've gone back to switching off between a small baked potato and my brown rice. Yams have too much sugar, etc.

It gets easier to be gluten free and I'm also dairy, coffee, alcohol free. Feeling a lot more vibrant than ever.

You're right, if you're hungry, it's because you're diet isn't working. Lots of water is helpful too.

Beesley - sugar is my biggest issue lately. I'm getting Soy free, sugar free almond milk, and in order to sweeten my breakfast smoothie, I throw 5 grapes in it.

Watching the sugar took me off the last weight loss plateau. It's amazing the things we learn as we go along. It's a gradual process. I still don't have a juicer or anything - I use my cuisinart and so far, it's doing pretty well. I have lots of grapefruit right now and they too have too much sugar for me. I made some juice for my son and put some seeds in my green smoothie.