Before and After One Month Raw Vegan Weight Loss - Plant Based Narrative (2024)

Day by day we continue to see a rise in obesity and health problems. One of the best ways we can regain our health is by cleaning up our lifestyle. We can do this by changing our eating habits, reducing stress, adding in exercise, and surrounding ourselves with healthy relationships and hobbies. I have dealt with several health issues and was tired of not feeling like myself. I had chronic fatigue, hormone imbalances, inflammation, and digestive issues. I wanted to take a holistic approach to better health and the first thing I did was take a look at my diet and figure out how to thrive on the healthiest foods this earth has to offer. Not only was I feeling awful, but I couldn’t reach my weight loss goal no matter how hard I tried. For years I followed influencers who followed a long-term raw vegan diet and was always intrigued. But it wasn’t until my lowest point that I decided to take the plunge.

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What is raw veganism?

Raw foodism is when one consumes uncooked foods in their natural form. A raw food diet plan excludes all processed foods and animal products. This way of eating is naturally a gluten-free diet and supports human health. This diet includes raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. The raw food diet has been known to have several health benefits. By eliminating processed foods and consuming whole fruits and vegetables you’re body gets a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Typically those eating raw ingredients report seeing several improvements that include; a higher energy level, healed irritable bowel syndrome, improved digestion, mental clarity, weight loss, support of the immune system, and overall better health. It also has been known to aid weight loss and reduce the risk the chronic illnesses, like heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. These foods are naturally lower in calories, so weight loss is almost inevitable. There are alsoamazing storiesof people reversing their type two diabetes by changing their diet to a whole food plant-based vegan diet or raw vegan diet! The healthiest way to consume only raw foods is to ensure you’re eating a wide range of foods to absorb each plant’s essential nutrients. It’s important to remember when eating this way, to eat large portions and ensure you’re filling up and gaining more fiber, vitamins, and nutrients. If you want to make sure you’re getting enough protein, vitamins, and minerals, take multivitamins and use protein powder in a smoothie.

Remember, this diet isn’t about depriving yourself, it’s about abundance! Abundance in nutrients. Abundance in energy. Abundance in life.

Always eat until you’re full!

My plant-based journey:

I’ve been on my plant-based diet journey for ten years. It has been full of ups and downs. However, I always circle back to eating whole foods because I believe they are the healthiest for us. And as I progress with this lifestyle, each day becomes a little easier. The raw diet has intrigued me for years, but I was never emotionally ready to try it. It is a new lifestyle to wrap your head around even when living the whole food plant-based lifestyle. However, I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance in February. After being gluten-free for a month, I felt much better and was ready to try the raw vegan diet.

In short:After 30 days of eating fully raw, I lost 9.5 pounds. I felt the best I’ve ever felt in my life! My digestion was the best it’s ever been. I had the energy to keep up with my toddlers all day. After the challenge, I kept the weight off by eating a whole food plant-based diet for the following month. However, after being off the raw vegan diet for a month, I felt sluggish, and my digestive system issues started to come back. Two months after being off the raw food diet plan, I gained back 4 pounds and continued to feel sluggish. I plan to get back into the Raw Vegan lifestyle again. I don’t think this will be a long term diet, but it is helping my weight loss journey, digestive issues, and hormone balance. I’d love to continue to eat raw vegan throughout the summer and then plan to eat 70/30 raw vegan andwhole food plant-basedduring the colder months.

Does Eating Raw Food Help You Lose Weight?

Yes! A raw food diet is a great way to lose weight easily. The foods you consume are naturally lower in calories and filled with fiber and nutrients. When on this healthy lifestyle your body is filled with fewer calories, vitamins, fiber, and nutrients that communicate to your brain when it’s full. Opposed to consuming highly processed fast food without fiber and nutrients. When doing this, your stomach never gets full due to the lack of vitamins and you keep consuming junk food even after you’ve had more calories than necessary. This is why when we consume processed foods we gain extra weight.

All of the foods within the raw food diet are unprocessed foods and lower in calories. How much weight you lose depends on where you’re at on your journey. It’s normal to lose 5-20 pounds within the month of eating raw. I lost 9.5 pounds during my 30-day challenge. Remember, going raw is to encourage you to consume more fruit, vegetables, and nutrient-dense foods to help your body function at its best. If you eat this for 30 days, then go back to a lifestyle of junk food with a high calorie intake, the weight can easily come back. To maintain healthy weight loss and good health, continue to eat whole foods (fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and whole grains), sleep well, exercise, and lower stress levels.

Raw Food List:

This list may seem short but think about how the variety of food within these categories and the endless amount of food pairings that can be made with them. The options are quite literally endless! Remember to eat until you’re full. Think of this as a food feast full of fresh fruits and veggies.

– Raw Fresh Fruits:apples, bananas, berries, melons, etc.

-Raw Fresh Vegetables:leafy greens, celery, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, sprouts, etc.

– Raw Seeds and Nuts:almonds, cashews, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, etc.

Forms of raw food:

The cooking process can reduce the nutritional value of plant-based foods. However, raw food isn’t only fresh food. There are several ways to process fruits and vegetables while maintaining their nutrient integrity. You can “cook” foods, but the cooking temperature has to stay below 118 degrees F. Here are a few more examples of foods that are still considered raw.

• Cold pressed juice
• Dehydrated foods
• Fermented foods
• – Dried foods
• – Freeze-dried foods
• –Raw homemade nut milk
• –Sprouts
• – Raw nut or seed butter

Foods to avoid:

The daily recipes within the raw food experience are high in nutritional value because the foods still contain their nutrient integrity. Here are foods and cooking methods that raw foodists avoid.

• Cooked Foods
• Animal products
• Packaged foods
• Baked foods
• Refined oils
• Refined sugars
• Roasted nut butter, like peanut butter

Kitchen Tools for the Raw Vegan Diet:

–Sharp Knife:you’ll be cutting lots of fruits and vegetables. A sharp knife you love will become your best friend.

–Solid cutting board:I love my solid wood cutting board, having one that is sturdy makes meal prep easier.

–Food Storage containers:Glass containers help refresh food last longer, use them when you can.

–Blender:There are so many ways to use a blender for a raw vegan diet. Smoothies, salad dressing, soups, nut milk, and salsas.

–Juicer:Always opt fora cold press juicerwhen you can.

–Food processor:Similar to a blender, food processors can be used for salsas, dips, thick soups, and more.

–Dehydrator:It’s not necessary, but once getting into the raw food life trying things out in the dehydrator is fun!

How long does it take to see results from a raw food diet?

It depends on your lifestyle beforehand, everyone is different! It can take up to 2-4 weeks to see results once switching to raw food. However, many see changes before that. Some report seeing a change within three days of better mental clarity and more energy. Once the body has detoxed from sugar, gluten, and heavily processed foods it’s normal to notice improved energy, clearer thoughts, and better digestion within a few days to a week.

My raw food challenge:

I wanted to do little tweaks in several areas of life, not only with food but overall health. These challenges I came up with seemed attainable and are baby steps to overall better health.

• To eat 100% raw vegan
• Move each day (my biggest challenge)
• 16/8 intermittent fasting. 16 hours of fasting with an 8-hour eating window
• Drink 80oz of water

I made sure each goal would be attainable, so it took a little planning. For food, I made sure to meal prep and plan meals. My movement goal was only 20 minutes a day. Sometimes I did longer if I was feeling good. The intermittent fasting was easy to keep up with because my meals were planned. For the water, I had a large water bottle and made sure to fill it up before bed and leave it on the counter so it was the first thing that greeted me in the kitchen in the mornings.

How I kept track:

I’m old school when it comes to planners and lists. I had to write it down, and this challenge was no different. I made a list of my goals on a piece of grid paper with 30 spaces across each day, similar to a bullet journal. I kept the sheet on the fridge and marked it off each day.

I love having something visual to keep track of the challenges. Other options are; habit tracker apps, creating a list in the notes app you can check off each day, an accountability partner, or reminders on your phone.

Meal Plan:

Eating raw vegan food is easy! The first couple of weeks may be an adjustment, but it does it easier as you go. The more you do it, the better you feel. Here are some options for you daily meal plan.

Breakfast:

• 32 oz smoothie
• 32 oz juice
• large fruit bowl.

Lunch:

• 32 oz smoothie
• Large smoothie bowl
• Large Salad

Dinner:

• Large smoothie bowl
• Large salad

Snacks:

• Fresh fruits or vegetables, seeds or nuts.

Note:When I say large salad I mean, a extra large salad. I usually fill a 77 oz salad bowl with all of my favorite greens, veggies and a homemade salad dressing. Then, take me time eating it. As far a smoothie bowls go, I always top them when seeds and nuts for extra calories and protein. Most of the time I add protein powder to them too.

What I ate in a day:

I’m a busy mom and wanted to keep meals as streamlined as possible. I didn’t want to do a lot of guessing, so I followed what other raw vegans tend to eat. I noticed raw food dieters consuming a large 32oz glass of fresh juice in the morning. For lunch, they had a smoothie or smoothie bowl. Then for dinner, a massive salad. I’ll admit, there were some days I couldn’t finish the salad, haha! I did change my meals here and there, depending on what happened that day. On busy days I ate mono meals to keep things quick. I would take a large bowl of fruit that I had cut in the fridge. Or, If I was out and about, I’d grab one bunch of bananas for lunch.

Breakfast:I always started the day with 32 oz of fresh juice or green smoothie. Raw vegans suggest drinking green juice first thing in the morning. I love beet juice and would switch between green juice and beet juice. The beet juice consisted of beets, apples, carrots, ginger, and lemon. The green juice was celery, kale or spinach, cucumbers, apples, ginger, and lemon. I have a Nama J2 juicer and a cold press juicer. I made a large batch of juice and drank it for several days in a row. For more on juicing,this article is a great start.

Lunch:For lunch, I ate a fresh fruit bowl, a large protein smoothie, or a protein smoothie bowl. The fruit bowl consisted of berries, bananas, oranges, mangoes, and pineapples. Then I would top it with a drizzle of local raw honey, hemp seeds, and flax meal. Sometimes I added homemade almond milk to create a “fruit cereal.” If I had a smoothie bowl, I would use what frozen fruit I had on hand, homemade almond milk, and protein powder to create a smoothie bowl. Then I topped it with hemp seeds, flax meal, pumpkin seeds, chopped dates, honey, or chopped cashews.

Dinner:Dinner was all about the massive salad! I filled a 77oz salad bowl with arugula, kale, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, fresh herbs, sprouts, and cabbage. Sometimes, I would change the toppings depending on what we had on hand. Then I topped it with ahomemade salad dressing. Delicious!

Snacks:Snacks were easy! They consisted of raw nuts, seeds, dried fruits, or fresh fruit.

Vitamins:I also tookdaily multivitaminsvitamins to ensure I got all of the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals I needed.

Protein:The big question is always “Do you get enough protein”, and the answer is yes! I addedprotein powderto each smoothie. Then made sure that my salads were packed with protein-heavy veggies and seeds, like sprouted lentils and hemp hearts. Each salad consisted of 20-30 grams of protein.

Recipes and articles you’ll love:

30 3- Ingredient smoothie recipes

Fresh strawberry Kiwi Juice

Tahini Salad Dressing

Cold press juicer vs Vitamix

Should you add water to the juice?

My 30-day challenge:

I’ll go ahead and start with, this was the hardest challenge I’ve ever done, but the most rewarding! I was eating healthier before the challenge but still consumed a lot of sugar. Detoxing from sugar takes about two weeks and the cravings were unreal. However, after the first two weeks, things became easier. I didn’t have cravings as bad and they changed. After the sugar detox, I began to crave things like rice and broccoli instead of cake and cookies.

Week one:The first three days were the hardest when detoxing from sugar, but things got easier as the days passed. To help stay on track I made sure I ate enough food, had enough water, and got great sleep. I also watched raw foodistYouTube videosto stay in hopeful head space and keep the positive vibes flowing.

Week two:As the second week started I noticed my skin breaking out. My skin barely breaks out and I was surprised. However, I did a little research and from what I found your skin breaking out can be a result of the detoxing process. After a week it cleared up and my skin started looking the best it ever has. My husband even asked if I had been tanning, which I hadn’t, haha. Consuming large amounts of fruits and vegetables can change the pigment of your skin by adding color and making it brighter. The cravings were still present during the second week, but I did notice better sleep, more energy, and my digestion speeding up. By week two I also found myself gaining more energy and my digestion began to speed up.

Week three:Week three was the easiest for me. I was feeling much better, my body was releasing all of the waste it stored over the years and my energy levels were soaring. I began trying new recipes, outside of the ones I had been remaking each week.

Week four:By the time week four came around I was feeling great! I lost almost 10 pounds and was so happy to feel my clothes fitting better again. I was experimenting with different raw recipes with the dehydrator and making cheesecakes! My digestion was doing great, my inflammation went down and I was feeling less puffy. My skin was glowing and I had so much energy to keep up with my kids and the daily to-dos.

The only problem I had during the last week was my end date. Although I was feeling great, I wanted so badly to eat certain foods I used to eat. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, after the challenge was over I overrated, which led me to crash and feel physically bad. If I could redo it, I would focus on how great I was feeling and gently ease back into my normal foods over time.

Conclusion:

My overall experience was challenging at first, but great in the end! It changed my perspective on raw foodism, as I had been skeptical before. It also changed the way I view food. Although I was eating healthily before, after going raw I quickly noticed how often I was “treating myself” to candy at the checkout lane, high-sugar drinks, and how often I was eating out of boredom. Since my challenge, I went back to eating the way I ate before and quickly felt horrible. My digestion issues came back and hormones began to get out of wack. After that, I decided to go back to being raw. This time around it has been much easier! The meals are pretty automatic and I don’t think about it too much. I plan to finish the summer raw and see how I feel once the weather gets cooler. I have seen people like@rawveganromancesay they have been raw in colder climates, which is encouraging. I’m hoping to do at least 70/30 raw in the winter, But for now, I’m taking time to relax and enjoy my body getting better each day!