I've done it! I joked it was like raw vegan Atkins. =) Not that I ate entirely raw, but I did draw heavily from raw foodists since the diet is very similar, minus the fruit.
It's not easy, but it's also not that hard. You just have to resign to the fact that food will not be about 'pleasure' for this period of time. It will be much more practical. But, it's just a temporary time frame, ya know?
You shouldn't plan to attend any eating social engagements, or plan to be able to eat out.
You need to be okay with your macronutrient ratio being all screwed up. Veg*ns are not used to eating so low carb! And, there were days when I got upwards of 50% of my calories from fat. (you need the fat for the protein, from nuts and seeds)
So, I ate:
Breakfast
- hemp protein powder in homemade almond milk (yum! <-- sarcasm), maybe some coconut oil
- if you do eggs that would be an easy brekkie
Lunch
- bigass salad. I mean bigass, like 6 cups shredded romaine, with veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, onion, bell peppers, etc. Topped with nuts or seeds for protein (almond, pecan, walnut, cashew, sunflower seed, sesame seed, pumpkin seed, chia seed, hemp seed, or any combination of these)
- you pretty much have two options for salad dressing, 1) lemon juice + olive oil, or 2) lemon juice alone if there is a nice fatty avocado in the salad! (which for me there almost always was) I also added at least a clove of fresh crushed garlic to every salad, for flavor and 'cause the yeasties hate it
- seed pate, made with soaked sunflower seeds and tahini, etc. check RAW food resources for recipes. This is great as a veggie dip, or rolled up in nori to make veggie sushi, or rolled up in a collard leaf for a raw wrap
- you can make a great all-purpose dip with tahini, apple cider vinegar, garlic, cumin/spices, s+p. This is great as a veggie dip, and I also used it as a dressing on a sort of raw cabbage carrot slaw I made
- wakame! I ate a ton of seaweed salad with cucumber, onion, sesame seeds, sesame oil, lemon juice/acv, and topped with avocado
Dinner
- any of the things I ate for lunch
- grilled asparagus
- grilled eggplant
- oven roasted veggies (I ate this a LOT) like onion, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, summer squash/zucchini, tossed in garlic and olive oil
- sauteed bitter greens, like kale, mustard, beet greens etc, sauteed in coconut oil with onion and garlic and ginger and drizzled with sesame oil. Add almonds/cashews/sesame seeds for protein
- stir fried veggies in coconut oil, with ginger and garlic
Snacks
- nuts!
- seeds!
- raw veggies!
- kale chips, mmmm so good
- celery with almond butter, also major major yum
I was super hardcore for 2 weeks. After that I added back ONE grain - quinoa, which is actually technically a seed - and infrequent legumes (black beans, white beans made into dip, lentils) no more than a few times a week. Also added rare starchier veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes, but rare.
After three weeks I introduced low-glycemic fruits (berries) because I missed my green smoothies sooo bad. Blueberry-spinach-almond milk smoothies. =) It's crazy how sweet stuff tastes at this point!
It may sound crazy, but the thing is, it worked! It really worked. And also, I felt GREAT. I was eating so healthfully, high-raw, zero processed, zero packaged, ll whole foods with tons of micronutrients and lots of good fats. My skin looked great and I lost weight.
Bottom line, yes it's possible!
