How to Lose Weight With Raw Vegetables

Raw vegetables are a dieter's best friend. Meals based entirely on raw veggies pack dieters' plates with fresh produce and other highly nutritious, high-fiber foods that eliminate cholesterol and excess sodium. A pristine raw-food diet also shuns refined sugar, coffee, soy products, non-virgin vegetable oils and alcohol. This strict approach eliminates most of the calorie-loaded edibles that pull dieters off the wagon. The biggest hurdle to losing weight with a raw-vegetable diet is to make it interesting enough to change your old dietary habits.

Instructions

• 1

  Eat your water. The weight-loss power of raw foods lies in their high water content, which greatly reduces the food's caloric density. When you reduce the caloric density of your meals, you're able to eat much more volume while consuming far fewer calories. Because more volume delivers a sense of fullness and satisfaction, this is a sustainable long-term weight-loss strategy that won't leave you casting longing looks at the pantry door.

• 2

  Opt for soup. Soups boost the satisfying power of raw meals by introducing even more water into the equation. Raw soups are an incredibly creative enterprise, lending myriad dazzling colors and unique flavors to a raw-food diet. Because there's no cooking time --- often, just a rough chop and a buzz in the blender --- raw soups come together in a jiffy, quelling even the most monstrous hunger pangs on the double.

• 3

  Limit high-energy raw foods. Avocados, raw nuts and seeds are welcome, healthy additions to a dieter's raw-food regimen. It's important to limit these higher-calorie elements at the beginning of a weight-loss regimen, but don't eliminate these foods entirely. A sprinkle of sesame seeds and a few slivers of avocado will go a long way to boosting the raw-food meal's gustatory appeal as well as the diet's sustainability.

• 4

  Enlist kitchen tools. A dehydrator isn't a necessary element in the kitchen of a raw-food dieter, but a food processor and a blender are. Without these tools, you'll be living on salad, and you won't be able to make the soups, dressings and dips that keep the raw-food diet interesting and sustainable over the course of a long-term weight-loss journey.

• 5

  Spice it up. Eating a raw diet during colder months can be a challenge, so collect an arsenal of warming herbs and spices to integrate into your flavor combinations. As well as making your low-cal meals more interesting, ginger, garlic and hot pepper are useful weapons against cold-weather abandonment of a raw diet.

• 6

  Get out of your comfort zone and have fun. Enjoying the preparation of your meals will greatly increase your likelihood of long-lasting weight-loss success, as will sharing your new recipes with friends and loved ones. Explore raw cookbooks, venture off the beaten track in the produce aisle and dabble in ethnic cuisine to keep yourself engaged with the process.