Hi.
My name is Brian,and I attended a lecture by Paul Nison 2 weeks ago.
I bought his Raw Life book,and am commited to becoming raw.
The main reason is wanting to break an addiction to junk foods ....addiction to beer and pizza that has ruled my life for many years now.There is alot of depression and awful feelings that are the result of it.
I have been succsesfull at having a totally raw lunch every day,including many leafy greens,sprouts,etc..
Just wanted to introduce myself and will be reading the posts here.

Brian

Hi Brian, welcome. I am a newbie as well. Once side of my family is Eastern European (read sausage) and the other Oakie (read biscuits and gravy, mashed potatoes and friend chicken). I don't find the raw diet too difficult yet (month 1) although I still eat eggs occasionally. I find the most difficult time is when I am with my family. I wish you the bests and look forward to reading your posts!

Thanks for the welcome!
I can understand how a hard part of this diet is how family and friends react.
Luckily I have a supportive family in however I want to eat.
Just let them see me drop 40 lbs and they will get curious about what is going on!!
Brian

go brian! for me it was cheese and coffee and bread = depression, anxiety, fatigue, etc. you won't believe the changes you will experience when you give over to this lifestyle. the fog lifts.

i support your journey, and look forward to seeing you around the boards! keep up the good work.

Thanks maui and perpending!
Thats very encouraging to hear.
Something about that bread/cheese combination that is like an addiction to me.
I have been known to buy a whole loaf of rye bread and a pack of swiss slices and finish it all in one weekend.
I am glad the fog lifted for you.

Brian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2008 01:21PM by Raw1228.

Rye bread was one of my faves. In the past month I have had it once for breakfast with a poached egg. Not 100% raw yet ;o) I am not sure if I will give up eggs always. The fog does lift though. I didn't have coffee for a month and then I did, boy did I regret it. My green drink in the morning does way more for me than the coffee ever did. I don't get the mid-morning/early afternoon crash like I did before. One thing that has helped me in my transition is eating a variety of lettuce for salad: Lambs lettuce, Arugula(peppery!), leaf lettuce, spring mix, butter lettuce...Keeps life interesting.

Craved pizza today.
Went and got it.
Oh well,not going to be raw today.
Screw it.
Not a good day.
Maybe tomorrow

So you had pizza! Who says the rest of the day isn't raw? Tomorrow's a new day. Don't beat yourself up. I hope your day goes better.(From one who just one week ago had cheese pizza while emotionally eating from a bad day at work AND ate two poached eggs this week AND ate a bean burrito last night;o)

I hope you stick with trying the raw foods diet, just take it at the speed you can adjust to, detox can be very difficult on a person. Pizza is not the worst offending food out there to eat when you go off raw, in fact you can make it better by putting lots of raw veggies on it, like tomatoes, and green peppers..those are very yummy on pizza.

Some people only do a high raw which is 75% or more of their daily calories coming from raw with the rest cooked. You would need to use fitday.com to calculate calories though as they add up quickly.

Here's my little bit of advice to start out with. Find a pure drinking water, one without heavy metals or other contaminates, if that's distilled then ok use that. Take a multi-mineral daily if you use distilled. Make sure you are not Iodine deficient (check out info. on curezone.org at the Iodine supplementation forum, but only take what you want and leave the rest, and do your research before taking it, you can buy some at jcrows.com at a 5% solution called Lugols).

Drink or eat something green and leafy daily, like spinach and other greens mixed with some fruits that fit in there like berries, mango, banana) in a smoothie, or some greens and other veggies in a juice. Of course salads are great if you can digest them well and are motivated to make them.

Eat as much fruit during the day as you want. Have some nut butter with what you want or even add some to a smoothie.

When you crave something, give that craving some time before feeding it. Drink some juice, eat a fruit or more, drink some pure water go take a nap if possible, then if you want it still..go ahead and have it, but try to have it prepared in as a whole foods way as possible.

And use your diary a lot, either keep one on computer for yourself, and or post on this one. I've learned to keep very personal matters such as names, etc..to myself and off my diary as much as I can.

Love,
Prism

You can do it, just give it another try. one small step at a time. What is your strategy? Are you going week by week. or Just saying I m going raw and thats the end of the pizza. We have habits that are addictions as well. Its your job to identify the addiction and habbit. Replace it with something else and as soon as the thought to eat the pizza enters your head answer it with something. for example I am going to eat a piece of pizza next month after being raw for a month. or I want to see what its like to be raw for a while so I am going to do this test. Or this is for my health. I think it is important to answer your thoughts rather than try to push them away. I think that would help you.

Update.
Just spent a week in the mountains,ate at restaurants all over the place,and got noting but salads.
Ended up feeling so good I just wanted to stay there.
But I decided to take my good feelings home with me
Brian

Great to hear from you raw1228 - I have been thinking about you and wondering how you have been making out. Sounds like your trip was a wonderful success, keep us posted on your journey.

geez

u should of just stayed in the mountains

energy so good

much better than city
i love the mountains
wanna stay there forever

That trip in the mountains,right after deep sorrow at hurting someone I love, seemed to be the spiritual spark that began my recovery from alcohol.
I stood 200 ft BELOW the surface of the Earth in Laray Caverns in Virginia,and stared at rocks that have been there since almost the beginning of time,and on top of mountains looking over vistas that totally dwarf my life in time scale.All the while fighting back tears while other tourists went to and fro so happy.
So I thought....I better get with the program.
Brian



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2008 12:49AM by Raw1228.

Tomorrow marks one month raw and sober...
This is the "old me"
Its a piece of cake actually.
Why didnt I do it before?
Brian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2008 09:47PM by Raw1228.

Lots of regrets why I didnt do it before.
But at 35 days now.

Brian

45 days now and starting to not count anymore

great brian how do you feel? What are you eating? Do you have any insights that would help someone be raw?
Pam,

Pam,
I am referring to 45 days away from alcohol.
I have been 80% raw for somewhat longer than that though.
In general I feel really good,but still struggle with late night munchies.
Having a convenience store a 3 min walk away isnt helping either.
But my fridge is always stocked with fruits and veggies too.
I eat very simple...just chopped up raw veggies on a plate.
And sliced fruit in the mornings.
My insight ,especially for alcohol abuse,would be that I believe the alkalinity of the raw diet DOES eventually win out over alcohol.It puts you in a different place,and alcohol becomes gross to put it simply.
Because it is.
Brian

brian, that is wonderful. I lived with an alcholic for several years and that isnt so fun. I agree with you about the alkalinity helping. I think I am addicted to bread and am hoping the raw will help with that. Hey, I hear you about the evening munchies though, what is it about the evening? I am going to try the dry fasting from a certain time in the evening till morning. I look forward to reading your diary
Pam

Pam,
I think the evening is a time of winding down,relaxing...and unfortunately often times a relaxing of our resolve and our goals.Maybe even a "reward time" for a day well lived? All these can be factors.
Also think its a time when things like bread ( carbs) can bring on a feeling of sleepiness to bring on,well,sleep.

I do feel much more "will power" to stay away from the vices when I stay very alkaline.

Dry fasting?
Not sure what that is.

I will post things here on my journey.
Thanks for reading.

Brian

ps..I have been consuming alot of melons...water,cantaloupe,honeydew,etc...lately.
I never before did this,and I think its one of the things that is helping.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2008 01:49AM by Raw1228.

haha, I am buying the watermellon in twos. I may have to start buying more. I ate a half of a watermellon today and don't even feel guilty, in fact I really feel great. Perhaps the alkinity is the key. I will keep that in mind. I still am drinking coffee but am getting anxious to stop that, me thinks that is a good sighn. this is day three and I am already noticing my posture getting better and that bloated feeling going away.
Dry fasting is a normal occurance during our sleap time however some raw foodists are taking it a bit more and haveing a cut off time from eating of about 16 or more hours inwhich they allow the body to heal rather than deal with food. It helps clean up our house it seems less drastic than water fasting I am going to experiment with it.
We all need a little experiment to keep the interest going, right?

oh

Resorted to the beer again a few nights ago.Depressions,anxieties.
And a shifting toward the acid side of the food list over the past week.
That means bread and pizza again.
I can see this is not a cut a dry thing to get rid of.
All I can do is get back on track.
Trust me people.....stay alkaline and you can stay from the addictions.
Brian

Mono eating now particularly with watermelons,is helping alot now.!!!!!!!!!
Brian

Yay!!! :}

Back on the sobriety wagon.Its definitely a softer ride.
Staying with the mono meals too.
Brian

Now going to explore the wonderful world of food dehydrating.
Hopefully to make things that will curb my late night munchies for junk.
Brian

Finally some long term success with staying on the right track.
Its as much spiritual as any food that I would eat.

Brian

nine months since you started all this back in march way to go Brian

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist