I should add that I'm a breastfeeding mom, so I don't want to skimp on any essential food groups.

I've been reading Carol Alt's book Eating in the Raw. A lot of chatter about her own life, but still interesting.

However, I wish there was a little more guidance about putting a daily menu together. She recommends including these staples as you plan your menu:
proteins (germinated nuts, sprouted seeds, raw cheeses, and raw or lightly seared meat and fish), long-chain carbohydrates (sprouted grains and sprouted grain breads and vegetables),
and healthy fats (avocados, coconuts, and cold-pressed oils).
But she doesn't give any suggested servings per day of each. It's odd that fruit is not mentioned in that list, as she talks about eating fruit all through the book.

Do any of you have specific guidelines as you plan your daily menu? A general number of fruit servings, or grain servings, or a limit on nuts, etc?

Thanks! I'll be staying with friends and relatives, who don't always have room in their fridge for me to fill it with greens, so I may have to choose the best of what they have to offer. Maybe I could find a greens powder to add to my morning juice.

what about making it at home?

I know that there are many benefits to going 100% raw. I know that many of you have chosen that as your lifestyle, and I admire and applaud you for that.

I'm wondering, however, if there are some of you who aren't. I'm planning to go Raw 'til Dinner in January. I'll eat nothing cooked before 5:30 p.m. I've been doing this this week and I really think it's something I can stick with, but still enjoy my dh's gourmet cooking, and occasional meals out with him. We've been on the South Beach diet, and so we choose whole grains, lower fat meats (usually), and unprocessed foods. So although our dinners are cooked, they're not really the typical American highly processed diet.

Does anyone else live this way? Has anyone lost weight this way?

I'm reading Carol Alt's book, Eating in the Raw. She mentions taking some digestive enzymes when  she chooses to eat cooked food. Does anyone else do this?

I started eating raw this week, although not 100%. I'm planning to go Raw til Dinner Time, beginning in January. But meanwhile, we'll be visiting family and friends during the holidays, and eating a lot of cooked foods, probably richer foods than I am accustomed to. Would these enzymes be helpful during this time?

Brands to recommend?
(I'm in the US, by the way)

A man who works in the produce department of our local health food market told me to ripen avocados in a sealed plastic bag. He said they ripen really fast that way.

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