Raw food :: Week 1 results

"Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit." B.K.S. Iyengar

This week I completely stopped eating meat and started 'raw vegan'.... the results are already really good but it hasn't been altogether easy. My reasons for trying the raw food diet was because I was tired of feeling run down, really low on energy, wanted to be healthier and was interested in treading lighter on the earth. 

I'd never ever tried 100% raw food before, let alone go completely vegan so its been a little bit of a struggle towards the end of the 7 days. I'd been doing well sticking to it except for a couple of slices of vegetarian pizza and an ice-cream on the last day. (Eggs and dairy are a 'no-no')   There are many reasons why people go vegan, and its a topic that can get pretty heated in the 'vegan Vs vego' world. That's why I feel that pursuing a raw vegan diet is a very personal choice and so my focus is on writing about the health benefits rather than the other more 'ethical' reasons as to why people are switching to a raw vegan lifestyle. For anyone interested in finding out what I mean there is plenty of information out there, including the film 'Forks before Knives', and the much heavier documentary, 'Earthlings'.

After a week I thought I'd include some of the dishes I've been preparing as I'm yet to buy a blender and food processor (necessary equipment for easy raw food meals) but that they're not completely essential as you can see below. It's best to use fresh and organic vegetables and fruit as they have the most nutrients and won't be coated in any nasty pesticides or chemicals.

Coconut Curry with sunflower sprouts
This is an easy and tasty dish and takes about 10 mins to make:

• Carrot
• Red pepper
• Snow peas
• Zucchini
• Broccoli sprouts
• Sunflower sprouts
• Lime
• 1 x can Organic coconut milk
• Thai curry paste

1. Add coconut milk to a pan on very low heat and combine a teaspoon of curry paste.

2. Chop up the carrot, zucchini and red pepper and add to the coconut curry sauce. Allow to heat slightly no hotter than 40 degrees celsius (1 minute)

3. Add snow peas and take off heat. Toss vegetables in the sauce. Top with sprouts and wedges of fresh lime, squeeze over lime juice to taste!

Another alternative to pasta is thinly slicing zucchini and cabbage into strips and adding to a tomato sauce mixed with vegetables. I really like adding a bunch of fresh sprouts to the top of these dishes. You want the veges to be as 'living' and crunchy as possible so make sure you avoid over cooking them.  

Portobello mushrooms are great as raw food pizza bases! Add toppings of diced celery, capsicum, zucchini and any other veges you like, squeeze some fresh lime on top and a dash of soy sauce, really delicious. 

The secret to getting enough protein is to eat plenty of dark leafy greens. Surprisingly they have just as much protein as meat, spinach has 5g of protein in every 1 cup serving.

Finally, I tried a tasty vegetarian lasagne tonight. 


Raw vege lasagne

• 2 x Zucchini
• 4 x tomato
• 2 x Avocado
• Mushrooms
• Fresh Basil
• Tomato pizza sauce

Combine avocado and chopped basil leaves in a bowl and mix to make a nice paste. 


Start the lasagne by layering slices of zucchini in a dish and cover with the avocado basil. 


Next layer slices of organic tomato, then some tomato paste, and keep layering with mushrooms, avocado and so on.

Put in a really low heated oven to set for about 15 minutes then it's ready to eat! 

 So to recap, before this first 'raw vegan food' week I'd been transitioning over to a raw food diet over the previous three weeks, eating probably 2 to 3 meat dishes within those weeks including dairy. I've definitely noticed a massive increase in my energy levels already since switching to raw food. I've lost 2kg in the last 1 and a half weeks without even working out too hard and my skin is much more rehydrated than before I started so the results are proving other raw foodie's theories are right!


The next step is to buy a blender and food processor this week and start getting really creative with raw food recipes.
Please leave a comment below or email me if you have any questions on whether you're thinking of starting a raw food journey too or if you have any topics you'd like me to cover. 


x ~ Arielle