Quite frankly, I don't like winter. And yeah, it can be pretty tough sticking to a raw diet when all I want to do is curl up on the couch with a book and some hot soup.Raw foods can be tricky at the best of times, most of all in winter. Produce can be crappy in terms of price, quality, and variety. The days are short, nights are cold, and eating a slice of juicy watermelon or a perfectly ripe mango on a hot evening seems very far away.
Raw food in winter is possible - as long as one is smart about it. Here are a few things I've learned in the last two and something years....
1. Raw food doesn't equal COLD food. Eat food at room temperature, not straight out of the fridge. This may require taking food out of the fridge a few hours in advance. If you're like me and forget to do this, simply immersing whole fruits and vegetables in warm water for ten minutes usually does the trick.
2. Eat enough. Seriously. Our energy needs go up in cold weather. It's quite surprising how much more food we need. And since whole plant foods generally have a low calorie density, this can mean a large volume of food. An extra 500 calories, for example, would be about seven oranges or ten mandarins. On the plus side, it means eating more food.
3. Move! It's such a drag sometimes to exercise in winter, but it really works wonders in heating us up - from the inside out. Even a minute of lunges or pushups will at least get the chill out of your bones. Rain or snow is no excuse... home workouts can be fantastic and you don't even need any special equipment. Check www.bodyrock.tv for some amazing routines that can be done in 20-30 minutes. Or if you have a special someone, why not create your own workout? *wink wink*
4. Crank up the heat, get a hot water bottle, have a hot shower, pile on the socks/scarves/coats/blankets.... why rely on food to heat us up, when we're able to create our own heat?
It's just about being smart. People still eat ice-cream in winter and hot food in summer, right?
