RE: Counting Calories..Vaberella

March 14, 2004

Vaberella wrote:

" Well I ate until I was full and drank about 4 cups of water, and

rising. Let me show you what I ate so you can get an idea:

2 pears; 2 tangerines; kiwi

Salad:

2 teaspoons Nama Shoyu

1 tablespoon vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil --soaked onions in it

1 tablespoon flaxseed oil

1-2 cups romaine lettuce

4 slices red onion

1 pear for breakfast; 2 tangerines for lunch; 1 pear for snack;

salad for dinner; and kiwi for desert.

Now when I counted my calories I only had about 977 calories, but I

am full. Can anyone tell me if I'm still on the right track, or

should I be eating more.

Does anyone here follow the calorie counters? Monitor how much

their eating, make sure their getting their nutrients or above the

1000 mark? I'm just a bit worried, can anyone let me know if it's

viable or not?! "

Hi Vaberella,

Just my 2 cents here but you are definitely not eating enough good foods and

eating too much of the bad foods. First of all if you go back to Fitday and

look at what you ate that day you will see that you had a whooping 62% of

your calories from FAT, 35% of calories from carbs and 3% of your calories

from protein. There is difference of opinion out there as to the percentages

of carbs, protein & fat but 62% fat is way too much no matter which diet

your are following (this, by the way, is one of the biggest mistakes new raw

fooders make...me included). 1 tablespoon of oil, no matter which kind, is

100% fat, 120 calories (all of those calories being FAT calories) and 14

grams of fat. You had 4 tablespoons of oil that day and that was the bulk of

your calories for the day. Not much nutrition in oil. And it is going to be

impossible to lose weight eating over 10-20% fat a day not to mention just

plain being unhealthy. The oils you buy in the store are not raw. They are

processed at high temperatures (yes, even " cold pressed " ). Heated oils are

carcinogenic (cancer causing). You can buy " raw " oils but they are still

100% fat. You get all the natural fat you need from fruits, veggies, nuts

and seeds.

Try having a smoothie for breakfast (or dinner) made with almond milk and

bananas (or what ever fruit you like). For snacks you can eat fruit (some

people will tell you not to eat too much fruit....once again it is up to you

and how your own body handles it). Have a big salad with lots of dark green

lettuce, much more that 1-2 cups more like 4-6 cups. Add 1/2 avo, 2 med.

tomatoes or whatever else you like. But, keep it simple, no more than 3 or 4

ingredients. Try and have 2 salads a day. You can even juice your salad or

put it in the blender to make a soup of it for variety. Miso & Nama Shoyu

are not food and are not good for the body (though many will argue this).

They are not raw they are processed. They are " live " but they are not raw.

They are way too salty and some even contain wheat which is mucus causing.

Vinegar is not a food but diluted acetic acid.

You can also munch on raw nuts during the day if you are hungry but be

careful, they are very high in fat so this is where Fitday will come in

handy for you to see how you are doing on your fat intake. I don't think

most raw foodists count calories, I don't know any who do. You will, in

time, find what amounts and types of food are right for your body & will

lose the extra body fat eating a predominately raw diet (better at 100%).

You must, of course, exercise for optimum health not just to aid in weight

loss but it is a big plus. Get lots of sunshine, fresh air and very

important.....enough sleep. Just keep reading as much as you can to educate

yourself about this raw journey and never forget that we are all different

and what works for some may not work for others. Do what you feel

comfortable with......speaking of which....be sure to educate yourself about

" detox " so you are not blaming the raw diet (saying it made you sick or you

got " a bug going around " ) for not feeling good. Hope this helps a little.

Good luck, take care. Breezi

March 14, 2004

Breezi this was great info. I just started trying green juices

myself and though they are weird it is awesome because I can eat

more greens this way. One thing you forgot to mention though was

when doing green juices you should mix with other juice until your

body gets used to it because it is quite potent. Something I saw on

another list is 5:1 ratio of other juice to green juice to start.

The first time I added green juice to one of my smoothies I did it

at about 3:1 and I had such a stomach ache after. It just completely

cleared out my system...I went to a bigger ratio after that though

and am working my way up.

-Abbey =)

March 14, 2004

By green juices do you mean just juicing dark lettuce and maybe spinach? I

don't have a juicer yet. This has been an odd thing for me to do, before

going raw i rarely ate a veggie or a fruit!! So, needless to say, i have a

hard time keeping my salad in me for any amount of time. Will this change

soon? Yesterday i didn't have any leafy greens... just wasn't up to the

pain.

peace

nikki

" You eat us. You wear us. You sneak into the fields and tip us over. Of

course we're mad! " Jerry Seinfeld on Mad Cow