I spent 20 years of my life fruit-free and am now blown away that I somehow still have my health.

When I was 5 I vomited after eating a pear, which led me to believe I did not want to eat fruit. This was further compounded by several incidents shortly thereafter involving well-intentioned people:

*being forced-fed an apple at school by a teacher (puked all over myself)
*could not leave the table until I finished a banana when staying at a neighbors (gave it a shot and puked all over their dining room table)
*being forced to play the bob-for-the-apple game at Halloween parties (yup, more vomit).

And then my dad, whose parents always said "you better clean your plate or we'll rub it on ya," actually rubbed a strawberry on my face and essentially sealed the deal on any natural inclination toward fruit I may have had in my formative years.

I remember my mother justifying it to her friends "oh well, it's just some water and vitamin C she's missing out on," while pointing to how much I liked my (cooked) veggies. This only solidified it further in my mind: I did not eat fruit, period. Eventually I developed better excuses such as "I'm allergic," to get me out of a situation. Looking back, I feel like I had some kind of mental illness. I did not want to be near, touch, or smell fruit and actually went out of my way to avoid situations where a close encounter was possible.

Fast forward 20 years. 25 years old: job sucks, boyfriend sucks, gunshots in my neighborhood, drink every night, smoke at least a pack a day, tired all the time, and still...avoiding fruit. On a whim I tried a bikram yoga class and ended up going every day for the next two months. Something in my mind changed for the better. It was bound to, this was the first time I've ever exercised. I quit the job, ditched the boyfriend, and moved to California.

In the midst of all this change, and making new friends, I decided to actually be open about fruit and my fear (whereas only one friend at home ever knew my secret). I wasn't ridiculed. And suddenly it was not so hard. My first fruit, at age 25, was a pineapple.

I'm 28 now and I'm comfortable eating these as is: pineapple, cherries, kiwi, watermelon, nectarines, avocados, pomegranate, coconuts (and some fruit I had in India called a chiku that I cannot find in NorCal). I'm also good with oranges, lemons, and limes once I juice them, and if I throw berries in a blender I've got no problem getting them down.

I managed to quit smoking last year. I've been raw on and off throughout the last 2 years, but have been committed the last few months after noticing the first permanent fine lines in my face.

I was feeling pretty low all summer, eating mostly flax crackers, salads, avocados, & TONS of raw cookies & cakes, plus somehow justifying glass after glass of wine. After finishing the 80/10/10 book yesterday I'm relatively sure that my body is suffering from all the fat I've been eating.

The thing I hated about the 80/10/10 is that the author uses the "this is what we were meant to eat" argument all too frequently. The Atkins guy used that rationale, too. And I believed it in 2002 when I really wanted to subscribe to the "fruit is the enemy" school of thought. (Atkins is so awful). In one of Victoria Boutenko's books she talks about how early man surely ate a lot of bugs. That being said: until we craft a time machine we won't have a definitive answer to what composed the primal diet.

What did make sense in the 80/10/10 was the bit about an alkaline body preventing ailments and allowing the body to repair itself. That and I was floored to find out how much fat I was eating on my "raw and healthy" diet. I don't know if 10% is the answer, but I know it's closer than the full-fat regimen I've got going on.

I have given myself one week to get prepared for giving 80/10/10 a full week (or more!) trial to detox my system. The key to this? I have to get back to conquering my aversion to most fruit. I haven't tried a "new one" in over 6 months.

I sincerely doubt I will ever be able to eat a banana. The smell actually nauseates me to this day. I used to lie and tell people I would get an allergic rash so I could leave the room if a banana was in sniffing distance. I used to think I could never eat an apple either, though these days juicing one does not seem that frightening (especially if I make it in drink with other strong tastes to drown it out).

I have no childhood association (read: zero irrational fear) with most tropical fruits (grew up in New England) so those will likely be next on the plate. I think trying a whole orange slice instead of just juice is in the near future too, except I just keep thinking the texture will be stringy and that puts me off. Honeydew melon looks like it would have the texture of pineapple (which I really like) so I can envision actually eating a bite. I'm trying to get someone to describe to me what the texture of a red grape or a blueberry is like.

I'm off to visit my mom in the Midwest this week. I think she'll get a kick out coaching me on some fruit taste-testing. So far I've committed myself to trying: Honeydew melon and oranges. There is next to nothing to do out where she lives, so I'm trying to come up with a different fruit for each day of the week that I'm there, depending on what is available.

I think how far I've come, and how monumental it seems. I would not recognize myself 3 years ago. And with any luck, I won't recognize where I am a year from now.

I've got two new fruits under my belt:

Blueberries: definite keeper. They remind me of cherries with the sweet/tart sensation. I'm excited to pick up a tub at the farmer's market tomorrow.

Honeydew Melon: chewier than I expected. Tasted quite "perfumy." I was eating this in a bowl with watermelon. blueberries, kiwi and pineapple, and found Honeydew to be the worst of the bunch. I think eating this it itself would be easier. I'm definitely gravitating toward "mono-eating." Eating combined fruit always results in consuming way less.

I set my goals entirely too high. I made 80/10/10 work for about 3 days before I had a bad day at work and came home sobbing feeling the absolute most acute anxiety over job sucks / too old to go back to school / school costs money / what if I make the wrong decision / I'm unhappy / I have no friends / aaaaaaah.

My boyfriend sat me down and told me that my goals were entirely too high, which I did not want to hear, and only gave me more to deal with.

Precipitating my meltdown I was huuuuungry but had no desire to eat what I had. The 5 lb. bag of salad I got at the farmer's market went bad, tomatoes went bad b/c I didn't put them in the fridge, Long story short: I doubt I was eating enough. I had run out of vegetables, and apparently all-fruit for 1.5 days of watermelon and raspberry smoothies made all the buried stuff come scrambling to the surface. I was also incredibly dizzy for all of day 3 on 80/10/10 and most of day 4 after I fell off the wagon.

I fell off the wagon rather hard on day 4 and in the two days since have had pizza, coke, a burrito, tofu stir-fry, and a beer. So not only did I slip off raw, but I slipped off vegan and ate cheese.

I watched a great Rozalind Gruben video today someone posted in the "raw + hormones" thread in the main forum. Feeling a bit more in perspective now. Am realizing that I've never gotten 100% raw to work for more than 5 consecutive days. My new goal is to get breakfast + lunch raw, with a salad + vegan wheat-free dinner for the next 7 days. I'm feeling that this is more than obtainable, so here's hoping this will build a solid enough platform for my next raw dive.

ALKALINE TRANSFORMATION DIET

The body consists of - at least, 75% pure H2O. Our human ‘bio-organic’ system cannot operate at optimum efficiency without sufficient water. Coffee, tea, or fruit juice will not supply our basic need for sufficient water, as they all are diuretic. Water facilitates nearly every function including thinking. So, gulp down lots of pure and
unadulterated water, all morning -__-

Be sure to drink only water ... Later, when hunger arrives, drink more water ... Then quench the next craving for food with lots more water ... Pure water hydrates the cells, cleanses the stomach and prepares the gastro-intestinal tract for food -__-

Let me repeat ^_^ Hey, don’t do it !_! Do-Not ingest any caffeine, herb tea, or fruit juice, including lemon, before noon, because all of them are diuretic, which will signal cells to flush and dehydrate themselves. Notice your crinkled and dry skin shortly after ingesting them ‘__’

Water prepares the body for physical activity and exercise burns calories. Depending upon muscle mass, it takes 60 to 90 minutes of ‘hard’ physical exercise before glycogen reserves stored in the liver and muscles are used up. Eating anything, especially sweets, extends the time before the body will begin burning, unwanted fat -__-

Sometime after High Noon, break the morning fast with fresh, organic, whole fruit, any kind from anywhere. Fruit contains vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, complete protein and a lot of easily accessible fuel in the form of complex carbohydrates. Natural fruit sugars fire up the metabolism and raw enzymes activate the intestinal cleansing process. Eat enough fruit to satisfy hunger, as you want to finish eating at least an hour or three before the next meal !_!

Why not simplify things for your digestive system?_? Avoid the digestive discomfort of mixed fruit salads and pick one fruit only—for today. And eat all you want of it. Or select from a food category such as, berry, citrus, grape, melon, seed, stone, vegetable fruits, i.e., veggies with seeds, or tropical -__-

Caution: Fruit smoothies are not recommended for anyone with low blood sugar, Candida, or over weight problems. Avoid fruit or vegetable juice, and fruit smoothies as they can overload the system with sucrose. Unlike chewing, where larger chunks and pieces take longer to break down, the fruit in smoothies has been ground into a pulp, which exposes all of its parts to the digestive process—immediately converting carbohydrates to sucrose. Then, to protect the brain from sugar shock and diabetic coma, excess sucrose in the blood stream must be converted into fat - Sugar Fat °__° The soft, wiggly -.- jiggly kind (~ .. ~)

Remember: no food in and of itself will make us fat. Eating more calories than we burn makes us fat. Processed, fake foods, which are calorie dense, (lots of calories, very little nutrition) are easy to overeat. Nutrient-rich raw, whole fruits and vegetables are the lowest in calorie density and invariably result in gradual weight loss. They are virtually impossible to overeat. Try it for yourself. We can have as much whole fruit as we like, at least until one or two hours before the evening meal. Also, please remember; ALL fruit and ALL vegetables—metabolize alkaline ^__^

The evening meal consists of a large, green leaf, sprouts and raw vegetable salad. One cooked item may be included with this meal, such as millet, quinoa, teff, legumes, tempeh, tofu, or a lightly steamed vegetable. Simplify things even more by keeping today a concentrated protein or starch day. For example: nuts, seeds or tofu on protein days, beets, carrots or potatoes, on starch days. Aim for less grain and more 100% raw food days -__-

Maintain balance between fruit and vegetables. Craving for fruit - repulsed by greens/veggies - Need more minerals, (high in fruit). Craving for greens/veggies - repulsed by fruit - Need more vitamins. Don't forget :-) Only exercise can build muscles -__-

This diet works exceptionally well for beginners learning to alkalize and especially for those who are having difficulty removing that last seven to ten pounds of body fat. When body weight returns to normal and healthy balance gets restored, adjust dietary parameters to match genuine needs -__- Keep us informed,

pAL

www.AlkalineAl.com

Well CJJ
What an interesting no fruit path you're been on! I don't think I've heard of anyone in the same boat as you but I'm sure there's many out there. I can really relate to where you are now though, what with having high standards to eating raw and feeling too old to go back to school. Anyway, hope all is well and you've found a new fruit ya like.

Last week at the farmer's market, waiting in line with my arms full of romaine and tomatoes, I was was actually attracted to the big mountains of grapes on the table in front of me. They looked beautiful and my heart was racing because I had thought as much. I think because they were small like blueberries, and not like the large squishy ones in see in the supermarket, I was not intimidated. I was happy to find out that they taste like raisins (hahahaha!). I had grapes every day for breakfast last week and did not get sick of them, which is often the case with cherries or watermelon. I was surprised by the crunchiness of them. They're definitely a keeper.

Today, as a surprise afternoon date, my boyfriend (Jason) and I traveled out of our way to the Berkeley farmer's market. This one has over 20 organic stands! The one by my apartment has 3, maybe 4 tops. Jason pointed out the Asian pear stand had samples and led me over to the table. This was a tough one, but the surge of people clamoring behind me to get samples convinced me to grab one and get out of the way. I liked the sweetness but the crunchiness turned me off.

Fruits I can eat now: pineapple, cherries, kiwi, watermelon, nectarines, avocados, pomegranate, coconuts, chiku, blueberries, honeydew, grapes, pears (though I'm not convinced I care for pears)

Even more fruits (that I can get down if they're in smoothies/juices): oranges, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries

I've been only 50% raw for the past few weeks. I plan on amping up to 75% starting tomorrow to reach my eventual goal of 90% + low fat.

Keitt Mango + Kale smoothies. Drool.... I've found a food that makes me feel as good as chocolate cake used to! I've been making emergency stops at Whole Foods every two days because I keep running out of mango. I also made a grape + strawberry + chard one last week that wasn't half bad.

*sigh* no more fresh fruit. At least not around here. The mangoes are gone, the oranges are from Australia, the watermelons (from Mexico) have no taste. I have no idea what to do with all the pumpkins they pile up in big displays. Trying to stay raw and local...