1
Welcome!
Hello and welcome to the FullyRaw Vegan Reset! We’re so happy you decided to
join this program and we’re excited to be embarking on this journey with you.
Whether you are already raw vegan, vegan, veg-curious or simply want to try
something new, we hope that you’ll enjoy this FullyRaw Vegan Reset and that it’ll
teach you valuable lessons, tips and tricks to succeed on a vegan and raw vegan
lifestyle. Please read this guide carefully and in its entirety as it contains important
information that’ll help you succeed during the 10 days. Without further ado, let’s get
started…
Getting ready
The only thing you’ll have to do to get ready for Day 1, is your food shopping
one or two days before (make sure you don’t get the produce too much in
advance so that it still stays fresh) and to keep an open mind. It may take a
little getting used to and you may not immediately like some or even all of the
new tastes, but keep in mind that our taste buds change over time. It can take
as little as 10-15 days for you to not only get used to an unfamiliar taste, but
to actually like it. If you know that you’ll be eating out during the 10-Day
FullyRaw Vegan Reset, planning ahead is key. Anticipate the situations you
may be facing and prepare accordingly in order to set yourself up for success.
If you know that you’ll be going to a restaurant that has little or no raw vegan
options, call or email them beforehand. Most restaurants will be happy to
2
accommodate you and will be grateful that you gave them enough time to
prepare.
One of the most important things during this experience is to not be too hard
on yourself. Do the best you can and celebrate every step. We often see
comments or messages from people who say that they failed during a
challenge and how bad they feel about it. If this happens to you, remind
yourself what you’re doing this for and see it as an opportunity to give yourself
another chance. Getting excited about the good things will always be more
productive than beating yourself up about the rest.
What to expect?
When you go vegan (especially raw vegan), a lot of things change! You
might feel unusually tired during the first few days. When you change your
diet, your body needs time to adapt, which is a good thing as cutting out all
animal products means cutting out many toxins. If at all possible, try to get a
little more rest as that will help the process. Since animal products don't
contain any fiber, a lot of people are used to having very slow digestion.
Vegan foods will change that - so be ready.
During the FullyRaw Vegan Reset, try to observe any changes that may
occur and be attentive to your needs. Resting and drinking a lot of water
always helps. How much "detox" you will go through (if any at all), depends
3
on how your current diet is (do you eat a lot of processed foods?) and it also
varies from person to person. Some people may not experience any
symptoms at all. If you're not vegan yet, chances are you don't even
realize how many animal products you rely on on a daily basis. Cutting all of
them out for a period of time will make you become more aware of that.
Physical Symptoms you may experience:
•
Fatigue - as your body detoxifies itself, it will need a lot of energy
and it will want to recuperate by sleeping more. Again, everyone is different
and you may not feel tired at all, so just be attentive to how your bodies
needs.
•
Head aches - Many animal products, especially the ones that are
heavily processed, are highly addictive. Just like when you quit coffee "cold
turkey", you may get head aches when you quit consuming them. If that's the
case, drink lots of water and make sure you get enough rest. (All of these
symptoms won't last long at all and may not occur at all)
•
Quicker digestion - This may sound like a bad thing, but trust us,
it's a good thing! Think about it... How long do you really want food to be in
your body? Any food, in order to be digested, needs one thing: Fiber. Animal
products contain no fiber, so in order to (literally) go through you, it takes up
to a few days or in some cases even longer. That's not healthy! It may be
4
normal for many, but it's certainly not healthy. So, in case you find yourself
having to go to the bathroom a little more often, be happy!
•
Lots of amazing things - some changes may take a little longer
than a week, but your body can undergo amazing changes as a consequence
of going vegan, especially if you focus on whole unprocessed foods. We
personally suffered from a number of health issues before we went vegan.
Kristina was pre-diabetic and Kim-Julie suffered from migraines, chronic
headaches and allergies for years, but after switching to a healthier plantbased diet, all of it went away gradually. You may also just feel super
awesome (very likely!).
Equipment
The only kitchen tool you’ll need is a blender. While a high speed blender is
ideal, any blender will do, even a simple immersion stick blender (although the
results may not be quite as smooth.) We also recommend a spiralizer, but you
can use a vegetable peeler instead.
5
The meal plan & Shopping list
Please read the notes we’ve included in the Meal Plan & Shopping list PDFs
carefully as they’ll help you prepare and might answer some of your
questions. If anything is still unclear, however, don’t hesitate to email us.
Daily Lessons
The 10-Day Vegan Reset includes 10 daily lessons, available as separate PDF
files. We’ll cover practical tips, as well as ethical and nutritional information,
resources and much more! You’ll receive your lesson via email every morning,
starting on February 13th.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the meals in the meal plan for one person? It seems like a lot of food. Yes,
all recipes are for one person. Each day has about 2,000 calories, which is
the recommended amount for women. Your needs may vary depending on
your height and gender. We know that the amounts may seem unusually high,
especially since fruit is usually eaten as a treat or dessert and in smaller
quantities. Keep in mind that fruits and vegetables are much higher in volume
and water content than other foods (especially animal products), so while it
may seem like a lot of food, it’s really not.
6
What’s a raw vegan diet? A raw foods diet is made up of fresh, whole,
unrefined, living, plant-- based foods: fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, and
seeds, which are consumed in their natural state, without cooking or steaming.
People who adopt this diet are often referred to as “raw fooders” or “raw
vegans.”
What does it mean to be FullyRaw? FullyRaw means feeling good about your
perfect health, enough to WANT to share the gift of healthy life with others.
The best way that I know how to describe what someone feels like when they
go FullyRaw or adapt to a 100% raw foods lifestyle is that they simply want to
jump on top of the world and yell, “I am free! I found happiness!”
What are the benefits of eating FullyRaw?
o Increased energy
o Better overall health
o Weight Loss
o Glowing Skin or the clearing of acne
o Decrease of depression resulting in a Happier mood
o Improved digestion
o Constipation Elimination
o Optimal weight easy to reach and maintain
7
o Type 2 diabetes reversal
o Prevention for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and more!
How do you make the change from cooked to raw?
The best way to begin is by increasing the amount of raw food you eat, while
decreasing the amount of cooked food. Here are some ideas.
Breakfast:
Replace milk and cereals with fruits like melon in summer or grapefruit or
oranges in winter.
lunch:
Replace a sandwich and chips with another type of fruit or a banana/berry
smoothie
Dinner:
Start with fruit and follow with as much raw salad as you desire before
committing to the cooked portion of dinner. Eventually, you can replace the
evening cooked meal with a large salad made up of lots of
leafy greens and some non--sweet
fruits like tomatoes.
How realistic is this…really?
Living FullyRaw is just as realistic as eating cooked, processed foods. It’s all
about planning and convenience. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a
8
part of your lifestyle and you will achieve it naturally. Stop feeding yourself
excuses and start making changes. YOU CAN DO THIS IF YOU REALLY
WANT TO.
Where do I get protein, and is 10% enough?
There is more than enough protein in the raw diet to satisfy your body’s needs
in sweet fruit, which averages 4 to 8% of calories from protein, and vegetables
and leafy greens, which average 15 to 20% of calories from protein. This is a
surprise to most people, who have been taught incorrectly, that they need
large amounts of protein to be healthy. Actually, the reverse is true: most
people suffer from an overdose of protein each day, and this accounts for a
great deal of ill health, such as constipation, leading to toxemia and eventually,
cancer. While excess protein consumption is linked to many acidic conditions
in the body and resultant diminishing health, a lack of protein is extremely rare
and usually only occurs then you don’t eat enough food (starvation mode).
The acidity caused by excess protein consumption must be counterbalanced
by the body. It is done by taking the precious alkaline mineral, calcium, from
the bloodstream and bones, setting the stage for osteoporosis and tooth
decay. It is no coincidence that fruits and vegetables contain just the right
amounts of protein to build and maintain the human body.
9
Is fruit too hybridized?
What about candida, diabetes, blood sugar and fruit sugar? Is fruit too
hybridized? The process of hybridization is a natural one. There is nothing
wrong with hybridization, per se. All plants and animals are hybrids. What
humans have done is much the same as nature has done for thousands of
years, with one significant difference: Nature created hybrids as a method of
survival, while we created hybrids in order to enhance specific tastes or other
features. We selected seeds from the best-tasting fruits and planted these
instead of the seeds of inferior fruits. The same process of hybridization and
seed selection that Nature has always used, man has applied to all vegetables
and fruits so that today, all the food that we buy has been hybridized for
hundreds of years. Problems arise when fruits are hybridized for purely
commercial reasons. For example, many fruits are hybridized simply to make
them sweeter, to create a variety with a longer shelf life, or to develop some
other marketable quality. The result of this hybridization has often been the
creation of fruit of inferior nutritional quality, especially with respect to the
sugar-to-mineral ratio. If a fruit is sweeter, this does not make it bad, it just
means that we have to eat less of it in order to get the same amount of
carbohydrates. If the mineral-to-sugar ratio has been altered in favor of sugar,
we can reinstate balance among these nutrients simply by including more
young and tender greens in our diet. In the future, we can hope that humanity
will come back to its senses and nurture the development of foods for their
10
exceptional taste and nutritional value, rather than for the cosmetic and
commercial features currently promoted by market forces.
If too much sugar is bad, why eat so much fruit?
Before the body’s cells can utilize food for fuel, the food must first be
converted into sugar, whether the originating food is carbohydrate, protein, or
fat. Carbohydrates are the easiest to convert to useful sugars. Fruits are mostly
simple carbohydrates. It is much easier on the digestive system to process
fruits for fuel because they are composed primarily of sugars, requiring much
less digestive energy, and they come in a complete nutritional package of
vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats. When there are insufficient carbohydrates
present to convert to sugar, the body will transform fat and protein into
sugar, but at a higher cost: more time and energy spent on digestion with the
creation of toxic residues.
How can I eat so much fruit?
If you’re a person has candida or a yeast infection, how can they eat so much
fruit? Excess fat is the culprit in candida, not sugar, per se. When fat levels in
the blood rise, so does blood sugar, because excess fat inhibits insulin from
performing its function of escorting sugar out of the bloodstream. The excess
fat lines the blood vessel walls, the cells, insulin receptor sites, the sugar
11
molecules themselves, and the insulin with a thin coating of fat, thus blocking
and inhibiting normal metabolic activity.
Too much sugar in the blood is as life threatening as too little and can result
in serious illness or death. Yeast, or candida, is a constant presence in the
blood; it serves as a life preservation mechanism, blooming when there is an
excess of sugar in the blood stream to bring blood sugar down to a nonthreatening level. When the sugar is distributed and used by the cells of the
body, the yeast quickly dies off as it is supposed to.
If fat levels stay chronically high due to a poor diet, sugar will remain in the
bloodstream and feed the large candida colonies instead of feeding the 18
trillion cells of your body. Starved for fuel, these cells can no longer metabolize
energy, and you become tired, and feel rundown. Because all carbohydrate,
fat, and protein that we eat is converted to simple sugar (glucose) if it is to be
used by the cells for fuel, the way out of this cycle is not to eat less sugar, but
to consume less fat. When fat levels drop, the sugar starts to get processed
and distributed again, and the yeast levels drop because there is no longer
excess sugar available.
Should my fruits and vegetables always be organic?
Organic produce is always to be preferred, but life is full of compromises and
choices. It may be better to eat non-organic raw vegetables than to eat
cooked or steamed organic vegetables, but it is a difficult choice. The goal of
12
this site is to define the ideal, the target, while encouraging and assisting the
reader in vectoring towards those goals. It is better to eat plenty of nonorganic fruits and meet your daily caloric requirement than to under eat on
insufficient quantities organic fruit and grow weak from lack of adequate
nutrition.There are usually more vitamins and minerals in organic produce. It is
also true that organic produce has little or no pesticide residue, while nonorganic often does; nevertheless, the amounts involved are not usually critical
to health, and it is far more consequential to avoid the pathogenic effects from
cooked food. To worry about pesticides while eating cooked food is like
stepping in front of a moving train to avoid the sting of a bee.
Can I keep drinking coffee on the raw diet?
The beans in coffee are cooked, making them non-raw. The fatal dose of
caffeine is 10 grams, the amount in approximately 70 cups of coffee. Many
people take one tenth of the lethal dose every day. Moreover, caffeine
decreases the amount of pepsin in your body, pepsin that is needed for
protein digestion. Caffeine is also known to deplete the body of water, calcium,
potassium, manganese, and the vitamin B complex. It is ironic that many
coffee drinkers on the Standard American Diet (SAD) criticize the raw diet
because they believe they would not receive enough protein every day, while
their daily intake of coffee blocks the absorption of the very protein they claim
they need.
13
Weight Loss & Weight Gain
Veganism is an ethical stand, not a diet. Going vegan is therefore neither a
guaranty for weight loss nor weight gain, but a plant-based and raw food diet
can be used as a tool to achieve either. Here are some tips and tricks for
weight gain and weight loss:
WEIGHT GAIN
Can you gain weight and even build muscle on a plant-based diet? Yes,
absolutely. There are plenty of vegan athletes and bodybuilders who prove that
eating plants does not have to mean losing muscle mass. You will, however,
have to be mindful as you adapt your diet. Depending on what you’re used to
eating right now, you’ll have to understand that eating the exact same amounts
as on a meat and dairy based diet will not necessarily give you the same
amount of calories and energy. Fresh produce is very high in volume and
water content contrary to meat, dairy, eggs and a lot of processed foods. Let’s
take the example of bananas: each banana contains about 100 calories but is
larger than a chocolate bar. The chocolate bar, however, contains over 500
calories, so you may feel as full after one banana as you would after a
chocolate bar, but you won’t have consumed nearly as many calories (not to
mention all the processed ingredients you’ll be avoiding). You’ll need to get
14
accustomed to consuming larger quantities of food in order to gain weight.
Here are some simple but effective tips:
Eat more: Sounds simple - and it is, kind of. The tricky part will be figuring out
how much more you need exactly. For that, you can use a tool like
cronometer.com to track your calorie intake and see if you’re eating enough.
Consider reducing the amount of cardio you do. That seems to be a recurring
issue amongst people unsuccessfully trying to gain weight and becoming
bulkier. On his vegan blog “No Meat Athlete”, Matt Frazier talks about how he
desperately tried to gain weight and build more muscle unsuccessfully, until he
finally figured out why he was having such a hard time. After doing a lot of
research he finally discovered what was wrong. Here’s what he wrote about it
on his blog:
“Trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is completely
counterproductive.
Prior to learning this, I thought the road to muscle gain was more lean protein
along with more lifting, and of course some cardio to keep the fat off. Wrong.
I made three big changes as a result, and experienced drastic, immediate
muscle gain.
I stopped running and all other forms of cardio.
15
I started lifting fewer times each week, training each muscle group only once
per week.
I started eating more fat. Way more fat. Like, getting up in the middle of the
night to make a peanut butter sandwich.
And I gained weight. I went from 140 to 160 pretty quickly. I don’t remember
exactly how long it took, but I figure it was about six weeks.”
source: http://www.nomeatathlete.com
Look to plant-based athletes for inspiration. You can find a lot of them on
Instagram, for example. Instagram is a great way to get inspiration because
many vegans use it as a visual diary and post a lot about what they eat, the
kinds of workouts they do etc. Here are some great examples:
@the300poundvegan
@mindycollette
@humantimothy
@badassvegan
16
WEIGHT LOSS
And here are some notes, tips and tricks on weight loss on a plant-based
diet:
THE LOGISTICS OF WEIGHT LOSS
Losing weight is actually pretty simple (simple doesn't mean easy). It's usually
the emotional barriers that keep us from taking those simple steps and that
make it so frustrating and hard to achieve our goals. But behind that, there are
a few principles to keep in mind:
You're not trying to just lose "weight", you're targeting the loss of "fat". Many
diets promise you super quick results like "Lose 7 pounds in 7 days!" or
"Shed the pounds now!". The problem is that any weight you lose so quickly
is usually just water weight or worse, muscle tissue. Salt, for instance, holds a
lot of water, so by not eating any salt for a few days, you can release plenty of
water weight, but that doesn't mean you've lost fat.
1lbs of fat ≠ 1 lbs of muscle -> 1 pound of fat may weigh the same as 1
pound of muscle, but they don't have the same volume. So, two people can
be at the exact same height and weight and yet look very different. You'll want
to lose fat while gaining muscle. Muscles burn fat cells faster too, so by
increasing your strength you'll automatically burn more fat. What does this
17
mean for you in practice? Don't obsess over a number on a scale. How often
do we heard people say "Oh no! I've gained 4 pounds since yesterday!" Yes, you may have gained 4lbs, but if it happened overnight, chances are it's
not fat, but just water weight. A better indication of progress is measuring your
body fat % or seeing how well your clothes fit and how good you feel.
CALORIE COUNTING
First and foremost, calorie counting is not the same thing as calorie restricting.
We absolutely do not condone restricting your calories and we think that too
many diets out there that ask you to eat as little as 1000 or 1200 calories are
dangerous to say the least. The FullyRaw Vegan Reset isn’t about restricting or
chasing yet another diet fad. We want to show you that you don’t have to
drive yourself crazy in order to feel your best. Many people believe that the
only way to achieve weight loss is to restrict, and as a consequence, feel
hungry. You should NEVER feel like you're starving yourself. Counting calories
should be viewed as nothing more than an optional tool, not a strict law to
abide by. Calories aren’t just something that makes you gain weight, they
serve a purpose: to give you energy and nutrients. If you restrict your calories,
sooner or later your body will catch up and at that point ANY calories will
seem better than none. That is why so many are trapped in yoyo dieting and
18
that is also why we tend to overeat on unhealthy treats when we “fall off the
wagon”. But falling off the wagon is actually a good thing. It’s your body telling
you that it needs nutrients and doesn’t want to be starved.
How many calories do you need? We’ve included a link to a calorie counting
tool at the beginning of the meal plan, so be sure to check it out. Depending
on how tall and active you are, you may need slightly less or significantly
more than the amounts indicated in the meal plan. Please feel free to make
adjustments accordingly.
A LIFESTYLE, NOT A DIET
Being aware of calories can be a useful tool, but it should by no means
become an obsession or be the main focus. Another important thing to note is
that quick and temporary "diets" aren't sustainable. The word "diet" actually
means "manner of life" and is closer to the definition of "lifestyle". It has,
however, been misused in the past decades and now often stands for a short
period of time during which you restrict your calories in order to lose weight.
The problem with that is that any temporary change is only going to produce
temporary results. It's much more effective to make a few long-lasting and
effective lifestyle changes and adjustments. It's comparable to running a
marathon every day for a week vs. walking for 30 min every day for the rest of
19
your life. In this program, we want to give you information and tools that you
can use well beyond the actual program.
THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF IT
So, if losing weight is simple, why is it hard for so many people? Because
eating is linked to many emotions and often overeating and unhealthy
behaviors hide much deeper issues. Gaining weight can be a way to protect
yourself or to numb your feelings. In one of Tony Robbins' audio programs,
he mentions the example of a man who used his weight as a shield. That way
he could blame any rejection on his weight and not on himself, developing
thought patterns like "if they don't like me, it's because I'm fat, not because of
me". I (Kim-Julie) have used food, cigarettes and alcohol to numb my
emotions so many times in the past. It's a great way to not have to deal with
pain, but it's also a great way to become passive and to live in the realm of
"what if" and "maybe one day".
How to deal with it? Acknowledging it is a
great first step. After that, it takes a lot of self-reflection and digging deep. We
wish we could tell you that there's a quick fix, but certain things take time (not
meaning that it can't happen quickly).
20
That being said, not everyone who is unhappy with their weight or shape
necessarily has emotional issues. Sometimes it really is just the result of your
circumstances and uninformed choices or a mix of it all. The good news is
that neither of these cases are hopeless. You always have the power within
yourself to change things right here, right now. Just because things haven't
worked out in the past doesn't mean they can't work out now.
Here are a few practical tips that can help you become healthier and fitter on
a vegan diet:
PRACTICAL TIPS
Stay Hydrated! This one’s super important as most people don’t drink nearly
enough water or mistake thirst for hunger. Ideally, drink about 2 cups of water
with some lemon in the morning before doing anything else and then just
keep drinking water throughout the day (try to drink at least a large glass of
water about an hour before every meal).
Eat unprocessed, whole, plant-based foods. That means plenty of fresh fruits,
vegetables, herbs and some nuts and seeds.
Visualize - Visualization has proven to be an amazing tool when trying to
reach your goals. Write down what you want to achieve, be detailed and look
at it every day. Try to imagine what you want to look like and how you want to
21
feel. Feel good and excited about it as if you were already there and practice
gratitude for what you will achieve.
Write down what you eat. Even if you don't count calories, simply being aware
and keeping track of what you eat can help you become a more conscious
and mindful eater.
Take it slow. Take the time to really enjoy your meal. According to
nutrition.org.uk, it can take 15-20 minutes after food is first eaten, for the full
range of satiety signals to reach the brain.
Stay away from soda, especially diet soda - Water or herbal tea is the best
thing to drink. Soda is full of chemicals that make you addicted and your body
sick. Diet soda is even worse because it contains aspartame which is very
harmful for the body. Switching to sparkling water is great to transition away
from soda.
Avoid refined sugar and opt for alternative natural sweeteners like coconut
nectar instead. Refined sugar can be highly addictive.
Keep moving - Exercise is crucial when it comes to weight loss. Try to move
at least 30-60 minutes a day, but do things you enjoy. Half an hour of
dancing in your living room is going to be a lot more effective than spending
an hour on a treadmill if you don’t enjoy it. Try all kinds of sports, basketball,
badminton, pilates, Yoga, anything that brings you joy! Building muscle is also
important because it will help your metabolism as muscle burns fat more
22
quickly. There are great free online workouts for every level like The Fitness
Blender, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/user/FitnessBlender.
Get plenty of rest - Sleeping, napping, meditating, relaxing. Rest is essential
when it comes to weight loss. It gives your body the time to detoxify and heal
itself.
23