What I Eat In A Typical Day (On A Raw Vegan Diet)

What I eat in a typical day is one of the questions many of my readers ask me.

I was going to wait until I launch my YouTube channel before I answered this question, but since that is going to take a while, I will do my best to answer the question in this post.

If you put the same question to many of the raw foodists out there, they would give you the same predictable, and in my opinion, boring answer that goes something like this: I had a banana smoothie in the morning, papaya salad at lunch (not sure how that would taste) and Zucchini Spaghetti for dinner (sounds pretty dull).

Well, that’s not the Ariel approach; and that is not the answer I am going to give you, because I believe another type of raw food diet can digest better, give you more energy and be richer in taste.

What I eat in a day also depends on where I am in the world, and which circumstances apply.

Let me clarify:

You are not going to eat the same food if you live in beautifully convenient Covent Garden in the middle of London as you would in the middle of a desert in Afghanistan. Do you know what I mean? I am being a bit extreme with this example, but just to make my point clear.

Even if you are home all the time, each day can be different according to your activities.

There are many variations of what you can eat in a day, and no two days are the same for me.

This is what I eat on an average day, living at home, and eating between 2000 and 2500 calories:

• Breakfast:

I almost never have breakfast. Why? Because on this diet (if you eat it correctly, like I try to do) you have such high levels of energy that you can practically not eat anything for 48 hours and still have plenty of energy.

So, for this reason, I wake up every morning with tons of energy, and I use this time for work.

I drink “mate” at times, which is a traditional South American beverage made of Yerba Mate dried leaves. It’s a bit like tea. I don’t drink too much of it, only a cup size maybe

• Lunch:

I always eat whole, fresh fruits for lunch. Mono meals ideally, which means eating one type of fruit per meal. Which fruits? It will depend on the season.

It could be melons, mangoes, oranges, grapes, pears, apples, grapefruits, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon and so on.

I would say my main fruit staples, and most of the fruit I eat for lunch are melons, grapes, or mangoes. But that has to do with taste, location, etc., your choices can be different and that’s OK.

I have a tradition of never eating bananas or other sweet fruit, such as dates, as the first meal of the day. I found that I get a better flow of energy and digestion if I eat “acid” and “sub acid” fruit first thing (such as apples, pears, oranges and so on.) I tend to leave eating bananas for later in the day.

How much fruit do I eat for lunch? Quite a lot. To give you an idea: if a medium apple constitutes a “unit” of fruit, I will eat between 12 and 20 units of fruit for lunch each day – and I feel perfectly fine afterwards.

Some days I may eat less fruit, but never less than 6 units in total.

• Late afternoon / early evening:

I eat more fruit. How much fruit depends on how much calories I’ve eaten earlier in the day.

Normally, if I had eaten 15 units of fruit for lunch, then I would eat 3 to 5 units of fruit later on.

• Dinner:

Most days I would eat a nice and tasty dinner.

And yes, this is the main difference between my approach to eating a healthy raw food diet and the approach of most people as I see it.

First of all, let me clarify. When I say most people, I refer to the people who eat a “healthy” raw food diet; I don’t mean some of those crazy “high fat” raw food chefs out there offering you “dripping in oil” recipes that reads like “super cheese butter peanut raw cream bacon lasagne” If you know what I mean? HA-HA

In the wide “healthy” raw food movement, most people tend to eat a simple salad with some mango dressing for dinner… I respect their methods, but their approach never worked for me

Why? Because it’s impossible for me to eat mangoes or other fruit during the day and expect to enjoy a sweet mango salad dressing for dinner. More fruit, after a whole day of fruit, isn’t what I am looking for by dinner time.

What works for me is eating a nice, “savoury” dinner that is rich in flavour, together with a large gorgeous green salad.

My dinner doesn’t have to be complicated, but it needs to be super tasty.

This is one of the reasons that sets the diet I promote apart when compared to other healthy raw food diets out there, and one of the reasons why I set my raw food business.

That’s why when I produced my salad dressing recipe eBook I concentrated in creating “savoury” and real tasty salad dressing recipes.

Why not have everything in a day? Eat ripe and delicious tasting fruit during the day, and luscious savoury dinners in the evenings…
That is my philosophy.

Last night, I ate a Gazpacho soup for dinner and a mixed lettuce salad afterwards made with homemade walnut/orange salad dressing.

You can find most of my dinner recipes in the various eBooks I released. These recipes are all low in fat, but still very tasty.

• After dinner snack:

I don’t go to bed until late, so I tend to eat a sweet snack 2 hours or so after dinner.

The snack could be a couple of bananas, Israeli Medjool dates (which is my favourite snack ever!), or other dried fruits. Not much though, maybe 4 to 5 units to give you an idea.

My diet approach works well, not just for me but also for the hundreds of people I’ve coached over the years.

If you’d like to give it a try, check out the Raw Vitality Starter Kit. It has everything you need to succeed eating raw and get the health you deserve.