Posts Tagged ‘planning’

Surviving Halloween in the Raw

So, you’ve got your costume ready, and you’ve been invited to the most fabulous Halloween party! How often does this holiday fall on a Saturday night, with an extra hour built in for daylights savings time (for all our US readers)? But, you are on your raw food journey and you really don’t want to lose it all and trip up on one night of fun! What do you do?

Oh many of us raw food enthusiasts have been there before! We want to go out and have a good time, but the options for nourishment that meet our high quality standards can be quite lacking! How do you still have a good time with friends all while staying raw and not getting weird faces from others? We have some tips that we think will be of some help.

• As always, preparation and proper planning are key. You know when and where the party is and what time you are planning to arrive (of coarse the party doesn’t start without you!!). So, make sure you have a hearty raw meal before you go. We suggest raw tacos with a side salad, or Vincent’s Kale Salad 3.0. You should never go to a party where you are unsure of the food situation on an empty stomach. This puts you in a desperate situation to be tempted when it can easily be avoidable. If you are going to be out and about prior to going to the party, perhaps dinner out at a raw or vegan spot would also be ideal.
• Make a trip to the grocery store some time this week to pick up a couple LARABARS. They are raw and small enough to fit in a purse, bag, or pocket (not the back pocket or you will smush them!). You can also make a raw trail mix consisting of raw nuts, seeds, dried fruits and cacao. Have small portions of these items on you and if you feel uncomfortable reaching for them while hanging out, excuse yourself to go outside for some fresh air, take in the breeze and chow down.
• Bring water with you if you can. It can be a small bottle that you carry in your bag, or one that you leave in your car for when you go outside for fresh air. You never want to be at one of these parties without water, as it is very important for you to stay hydrated and depending on the affair, sometimes the availability of water is overlooked.
• If this is a house party where you know the hosts, offer to bring a spectacular dish of your own (or two). Then check out our Raw Halloween Recipe Round Up for some great tips and links to give you ideas of what to bring. What’s so great about these recipes is that they look so amazing and festive that no one will even think they are raw, let alone good for them! You will really impress your friends.
• Planning on having a drink? How about bringing your own bottle or two of organic wine so you can pass on the jungle juice? Make a toast with the friends you came with, or if you know the hosts of the party, ask them to hold the wine aside for you (like maybe store it somewhere safe or in the refrigerator).
• As you are mixing and mingling and checking out the goodies at the party, if you should happen upon a fruit or veggie tray, hover! This party tray is your new best friend and don’t feel guilty for loading up your plate or going back for seconds. If you don’t think there will be a fruit and veggie tray there and its a house party, bring one yourself. Afterall, in many situations it is customary for a house guest to show up with something to contribute to the party, and this guarantees that you’ll have something to eat.
• Again if it is a house party, if you are comfortable doing this and know the hosts you might want to let them know of your dietary needs and ask if it is possible for fruit/veggies to be available. A good host/hostess is usually more than willing to accommodate.
• Do your best to avoid temptation! This may mean not hanging around the alcohol table/bartender but enjoying the dancefloor or lounge area instead.
• Above all, have fun and enjoy yourself! Don’t be too hard on yourself if you happen to slip. Do your best to be prepared: this includes costume, good company, and that your nutritional needs are taken care of.

You can totally survive this Halloween while staying on course with your raw food journey. If you have any questions or additional tips that you would like to share, they are much appreciated so feel free to post them below.

How To Stay Raw At Work

So let’s say you have taken care of being raw at home; your fridge and your pantry  are rid of anything that might tempt you or throw you off track. That’s super! But what about when you leave home? So many of us have to venture out our doors for various reasons, most commonly to go to work. Well, your office might have a vending machine stocked with manufactured snacks, or that person who always decides to bring bagels and sweet goodies to leave in the break-room. Talk about temptation!

We need to arm ourselves with ways to maintain the raw food diet and lifestyle while in the work environment. This means sticking to your raw food intake percentage and doing it in a healthy and balanced way. There are a couple challenges when working in the office on the plant-based diet:

1. You may be tempted by refined sugar and refined carbohydrate “office-treats.”
2. You have to plan ahead (meaning you have to create more time) to think about and make food.
3. You have to have food and snacks in the office five days a week (i.e. you can’t run out of food and you can’t forget your food at home).
4. You have to deal with various social aspects.

Planning Your Raw Food Stash

Planning is key when nutrition becomes such a high priority in your life. There are several different ways you can plan and prepare your at-work meals. The first, and most important, thing to do is to create a stash of dried foods and snacks in your desk, locker, car, or wherever you work. Some good ideas for this stash are goji berries or some other dried fruit, dried nuts and seeds, sea veggies, bee pollen, sea salt, and/or a jar of green powder (and a glass shaker jar). This food can be used as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, or for supplementing a plain salad that you didn’t have time to dress up. This stash will also come in handy on those days where you are hungrier than usual and have already eaten all the fresh food you brought for the day. Last, you will save valuable time spent planning and packing into baggies daily quantities of nuts, seeds , dried fruits , and/or sea veggies. Now you will have a 3-4 week supply of snacks there for you at work!

As long as you have some delicious raw options with you, you will be more immune to wanting to eat those office treats loaded with refined sugars and carbohydrates. Sure they smell great, but you know that what you have in your desk drawer, locker, or car will taste so much better! Even if it means having some raw chocolate or raw cookies nearby, it’s very important to have something with you that will satisfy you in the way cooked foods used to satisfy you when that craving hits.

Fresh Raw Food Options:

Now, for the fresh food preparation. Although this can take some mental time, physical time, and muscle to carry to work, you CAN do it and it’s completely worth it. When you want to make the food will be up to you and your work/sleep schedule. Some raw foodists like to make the food in the morning because it will be at its freshest. Others may not have time in the morning and may prefer to make an extra large salad, or soup for dinner for the next day’s lunch. Here are some ideas of what you can make or bring for breakfast and lunch:

Breakfast options:

• Fresh green juice
• Green smoothie (60% fruit blended with 40% green leafy vegetables)
• Superfood smoothie (with some fat and protein added to it like flax seed oil and hemp seed protein)
• Fresh organic fruit

Lunch options:

• Big green veggie salad
• Superfood smoothie
• Green soup with flax crackers
• Raw entrée (perhaps leftovers from last night’s dinner)

Now you can create your own combination depending on the below considerations:

1. Am I running on time this morning or running late?
2. What does my body feel like today? Examples would be: it feels like more liquids (smoothies and soups), it feels like more protein (hemp seeds, raw protein powder), or it feels like some extra superfoods.
3. What do I have to eat in my refrigerator?

What If You Are Running Late?

All of this considered, if you are running late in the morning and didn’t have time to make anything the night before for lunch–no problem! Pack some clean fruit in a bag, grab a container of leftover salad or green soup from last night, and be out the door. If you have more time, you can still grab the fruit for breakfast and then make a superfood smoothie in the blender in 5-7 minutes throwing in fruit, greens, and a bunch of superfoods (some fat and protein of some kind should probably be in there as well to sustain you for the rest of the afternoon). If you are not running late and have some time to spare in the morning, you can make a green smoothie for breakfast and a superfood smoothie for lunch. You get the idea here. You can use clean, old glass jars full to carry your smoothies, soups, and juices around without fear of them leaking out.

More tips to save you time making your work meals are to: 1) Make everything in batches. It’s best to make more than enough food so you can eat the rest another day without having to go through all the prep and cleanup time again. This can apply to superfood smoothies, salads, green soups, and green juices (if you have a high-quality juicer that makes juice that lasts up to 48 hours). And 2) Bring a bag of organic fruit to the office on Monday’s and store it on your desk or in the office fridge (if there’s space). This way, if you’re running super late, or if you completely forget to bring your food with you, you’ll have some fruit to snack on when you get there.

Embrace The Challenge

Yes, it is a challenge to be raw when you’re away from your kitchen for 9-16 hours a day, but if you can master this, nothing will stand in the way of your health and nutrition goals. And if eating more raw foods means that you are more focused, energized, and creative at work, isn’t it completely worth it? Just remember that planning, making food in batches, and adjusting according to your schedule and body-intuition will be key in your raw success–at work and beyond.

This article was written by Lenette Nakauchi, a raw foodist in Chicago who is passionate about teaching, coaching and demonstrating to others how to go and stay “raw” in a fun, healthy, sustainable way. Visit her website Go Raw Have Fun.