[Snowbunny]

Here is my dilemma; I need to lose weight. I want to be healthy for the next half of my life. I did plan on doing Atkins and then I was introduced to a movie called “Food Inc” by my sister. And it horrified me a lot. Every time I think of meat I think of that poor cow crawling on her knees and men poking her with a fork life to herd her in a direction. I was introduced to the vegan raw food diet by a close friend and now I just feel in a position where I don’t know what to do. The whole vegan raw food does make since because I have issues with wheat, dairy and meat that usually has hormones. (I cant afford organics) I love meat but the cost in my eyes is just not worth it.
What can I do? I also have been giving weight watchers another look but just don’t know!
Any help or tips will be greatly appreciated.

[mandalinn82]

You can get a lot of variety with a vegan diet, and lose weight too. Raw vegan can be a little harder. We have a great "Vegetarian Chicks" forum that you might want to check out.

There are also alternatives to meat from commercial factory-farmed cows. I do choose to eat meat, but only meat and eggs from farmer's markets where I know the animals are treated and slaughtered humanely (any chicken I eat was able to eat bugs and grass and see the sun, for example). It is more expensive, but I just eat less of it and stretch it in soups, stirfries, etc. So if you aren't ready to give up meat, you might try cutting the amount and going to providers that treat their animals well. Eggs at least are fairly inexpensive at farmer's markets, and could give you a little more dietary variety for a fairly low cost if you wanted to include them. But I don't want to discourage you if you want to move to a vegan lifestyle - that's awesome and you'll find lots of vegetarians and vegans on the board. Just wanted to list some alternatives since you stated that you don't know what to do.

[seagirl]

I do weight watchers. I get my meats from a grass fed farm in Maine, I go up a few times a year or split a cow with my family. I can see how they are being raised. Same with pork, another farm.

My eggs are from a family down the street. Again, I see the chickens happily playing in the yard.

I wasn't eating chicken for a while because I couldn't find a good source for meat, and then my sister in Maine found one so when I go to visit her I buy 6-8 whole chickens and keep them in my freezer.

I can feel very good about how my foods were raised. As they say "know the farmer who knows your food."

There's a huge span between eating factory farmed meat and being a raw vegan.

http://www.eatwild.com/ is a starting place to find pasture based foods in your area.

[hope for recovery]

Don't push yourself into eating foods that you don't like, those diets simply won't work for you. Also very often for me it is about making positive changes to my current eating/food attitude and sticking with them. I am quite good at losing weight and no good at maintaining it, it just goes back up because i am not persistent enough and not planting long term seeds. So do look for something that you like, you can stick with and it will work! Best of luck!

[dissonance]

I was once a vegan, and there are ways to do so for lower cost...but at the same time during that time period I wasn't big on beans and nuts (I definitely am a fan of almonds now!) so I wasn't getting the best nutrients. It definitely can be done, I just wasn't in that place then. Raw vegan is rough...not to be at all discouraging. I'd just suggest perhaps trying to slowly incorporate aspects, and other veggie things. I think that works best for sticking to the plan you know? I know in the past when I start overly restrictive it backfires in the end.


I started eating meat again, when my eating got totally out of control, so I'm working to cut that out. I will still be eating fish and dairy, I want to keep my protein pretty high atm. However doing little things like trying to buy cage free eggs, or as someone mentioned farmers markets (we have very few of those and they are closed atm here, which is a bummer) make me feel that I'm at least working to help in little ways.

Best of luck!

[melissa26]

i'm doing raw food too! i did it for a month before and i lost 20lbs, and i was really surprised at how good the food was. you just need a lot of kitchen equipment, and you have to plan things out so far ahead. for example, one of my favorite recipes is raw eggplant ravioli, which is stuffed with walnuts.
but in total, it takes about 2 days to make it sometimes, because the walnuts have to soak first, the eggplant needs to be marinated, and then it needs to dehydrate overnight.

i quit raw food for a couple of months, but i'm ready to go back to it.