Hi, I'm a 18 year old girl who recently found raw food lifestyle. I've been a vegetarian for 4 years and vegan for 1 year. When I first became a vegetarian, I was undereating and lost alot of weight. Plus I exercised execessively. I did damage to my body over that time frame and I didn't even know it. Then my mom took me to the doctor because she was scared for me. The doctor said I was border lined underweight, low blood sugar, and my iron was low. She even said my protein was on a good level but I needed more. She told me to eat dairy and fish. I was horrified by this. My mom told me I should listen because my health was going down the drain. So i gave in and ate dairy and fish for a few months. I didn't feel right eating it so i stoped. I became a vegan and did all my research a second time. When I became vegan I started to eat alot of fat, rice, breads, less fruit, and less veggies. I gained 20 pounds in my final year of high school. I couldnt believe I gained this much weight. I usually weight aroung 112-122. Now I'm 145. Since I became vegan my exercise dropped and my energy went straight down. I even started to crave and attempt to eat dairy (ewwww). Finally I had a end to this and I want a healthy and happy life. I want to feel good, sleep good, exercise, and be vibrant. I researched again and found raw food. I watch videos on youtube like freelee and durianrider. I started to buy raw food books and bought 811. I was so happy that I found something that made sense. Everything clicked in my brain. I thought I had to do this. I started to do it but slipped because I didn't have enough fruit in my house. I started to eat fruit, veggies, and rice. I still don't feel like I'm reaping the benefits because of not enough fruit. I'm on a budget because my mom buys my food for me and I don't want her to spend so much money on me, when there is others she has to feed. I wish I could successsfully convince her to be a vegan or go 811, but she and other people in my family are sad eaters and want to stay that way. I feel bad that I'm the only who want to be healthy and is educated about the food industry and so on. She has to buy seperate food for me and the others are basically eating the crappy food. How does that make me feel? I wish we can all eat the same way but I know that's not going to happen. So, How do I get enough fruit between 25-40 dollars a week? What fruit do you recommend me getting? What should an 18 years old low fat high carbed vegan meal look like? How many calories should I be getting?
Permalink Reply by Sydney on My mom was on food stamps last summer, so I know how the whole budget thing goes. Do you have any Aldi's stores near your house? If you do, then that's one of the cheapest places I've seen to get produce. It's not organic, but if you're on a budget, I think that's the first thing to go. Also, even though it might not be preferable, you might have to live off of bananas and raisins for a while. I was having two large banana-frozen strawberry smoothies a day, with zucchini pasta (since it was summer) for lunch and a raisin snack later. Doing that, I was getting around or upwards of 3000 calories per day. I was also spending about $30-50 a week.
Bananas are your friends. Bananas are the cheapest source of fresh calories money can buy, hands down. After that, dried fruits are good, but they are dried, which is less than optimal. Make sure to drink TONS of water since you wouldn't be getting any from your food.
You should aim for at least 2500 calories a day, more if you're active. I recommend tracking your food until you can gauge how much you're getting on your own.
Long-term, I'd highly recommend getting a job and paying for at least part of your food. Variety is the spice of life. ;) It helps you stay on track to have lots of different choices. I've never had much of an issue with eating the same foods (for years, half my meals were vegetable stir-fry, prepared the exact same way...not kidding) so it worked for me, but I can't speak for others. Plus, each fruit has different ratios of nutrients, so if you eat mainly bananas, you might not be getting all the benefits in, say, oranges.
Permalink Reply by dominique on Thanks for the adivice! Actuallly I do have aldi close to where i live. I never been in there I should go check that out. I Guess I'm just going to stick with bananas mostly and veggies. The job part, Yeah I've been looking for a summer job before I go abroad to college. I wasn't successful with that. Its's a challenge now to get my produce so hopefully when I got to college it would be alot better. I heard in Italy there produce is alot cheaper. Plus I'm getting help from finacial aid and grants. My mom is also going to send me money. So, I think I would do alot better on 811 when I going away to school.
Permalink Reply by Andy B on I know each place is different but if you have a co-op or market you should also check those out for deals. They will often have reduced produce (because its ripe and they need to sell it). In my area those deals are better than Aldi (which I still love).
For example I've seen people get 200lbs of bananas for $50 at the market because they came at the end and got a deal. Plus larger markets sometimes allow food stamps to be traded in (if that's an issue).
Also if there is a pricerite around you, they have a better selection than Aldi and are the same price.
Permalink Reply by Freshtival on
Some of the stores in my area mark down the ripe & ready to eat bananas and there's an oriental store that has an entire area devoted to ripe and ready to eat produce of all types at really low prices. Good luck :)
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