I am a mom of a 22 month old boy. Years ago, i ate about 85% raw and loved it. I fell off the wagon, wanted to do the Master Cleanse and found out i was pregnant. I ate vegetarian through the pregnancy.

So ive basically been putting off transitioning raw until i stop breastfeeding (which i wont be doing any time soon, since i plan to breastfeed for a long time!). Right before New Years, I read this on Shazzie's site:

"If you want to go raw while breastfeeding, then please do it slowly and use detox helpers as much as possible to get the toxins out of your body in ways other than your milk. Colonics, saunas, MSM, clay, green juices, and other helpers will benefit you and your baba."

Thrilled to have found this little tidbit of advice, still needing more guidance.

****so MY QUESTIONS ARE: *********

-how much MSM, how to take clay, how long do i stay in a "transition" diet and what does that look like??

In general, I eat pretty well for a cooked person. I have been drinking fruit/hemp milk smoothies every morning with Vitamineral Green and Udo's oil, sometimes raw cacao. I hardly eat animal products - sometimes the occasional egg. I am a Massage Therapist so i receive a fair amount of massage, and do sauna once every so often and go in our hot tub every day. I have yet to try colonics but im sure it will be easier than enema!

I just would love to hear opinions from anyone, both breastfeeding moms and anyone else that has ideas. MY CONCERNS are that i want to make sure im cleansing enough in certain ways that i dont detox into my milk supply. and also, i could go cold turkey but i want to do this in a way that is safe for my son.

Today was a big day for me. I dreamt of superfoods all night, and when i woke up to the shining sun i realized i needed to sell off my old vegetarian cookbooks. i had my smoothie for breakfast, quinoa salad for lunch (except for quinoa it was all raw veggies/herbs). I KNEW i was detoxing already as i felt tired and a little sad. luckily my son was tired too and we nursed/napped together for 3 hrs, and i NEVER nap!! Wanting to SLOW down the detox, i had steamed greens for dinner, along with some sprouted corn tortillas and some avos. i treated myself to a raw hemp milk and cacao beverage for dessert to get me through the evening (energy wise).

i basically feel like im just doing this in the dark so please any advice welcome.

thanks and many blessings!

P.S. ONE MORE QUESTION: what are some great Superfoods you can recommend? i have these but am looking for more/different ones, esp with my son in mind...:

Vitamineral green
maca (is this ok for my son to take?)
raw cacao (is this ok for my son to take?)
spirulina
goji berries
frozen acai (no guarana)
MSM tablets (but when do i take these???)

Some extra info/ramblings....

Good stuff:
- my son LOVES green things! ive heard some babies avoid green things but not my little guy. i always put leafy greens into his juices, vitamineral green into his smoothies and spirulina into his store-bought juice. i am able to sneak spinach into his scrambled egg but we will need to find another vehicle. he wont eat greens straight but i know its because the texture/size makes him gag.
-i got him to eat thinly sliced red pepper today, and my best kitchen item is the slicer - i make apple and pear "noodles" on it.
-he does like certain things: egg, mamas homemade vegan muffins...but i think i have a good chance of weaning him WAY after im secure into raw. luckily its winter now so when we are in the throes of summer it will be easy. his favorite foods by far, are frozen fruits. even when its snowing outside. berries mostly; also sliced frozen bananas.
-we recently did allergy testing and found out his allergies were the things i forgot to omit from his diet: soy, corn, walnuts. he used to love tofu and still asks for it, but i have been able to avert that interest. so maybe i can learn to make raw muffins that he will love!!



not so good stuff:
-will i never be able to enjoy a glass of wine, cheese and crackers with my family? will my foodie friends feel even more alienated from me or i from them? (i am the only one of 6 (3 couples) that doesnt eat meat at the BBQs, but luckily my partner, although he does eat meat, loves raw foods and i could probably get him hooked if i can get it started for myself. still,

-i am a great vegan baker. and non vegan too. but i love kitchen alchemy, baking in the oven, warm aromas, serving a dessert that has love in it. i KNOW i can do this with raw foods, but its different. and i know this is a raw foods forum but these are the kind of things we need to be open about, right?


i would LOVE if there were a raw food book that explained EXACTLY the ingredients to buy and what to make on a sunday (one day a week) to get you through the week. this would make it so easy. like since the dehydrator will be on for flax crackers, why dont we make manna bread too (but remember to sprout the wheatberries 2 days prior)....also marinate some raw salads and prepare some nutmilks...just the right amount for a family of 2 1/2. i guess i have to figure all this out by myself. reading raw cookbooks is laborious for me. like for instance "Raw Food Real World" is virtually impossible to recreate as a mom on a regular day. i'd need tons of time and money to do that. on the other hand, my old 1972 copy of the Viktoras Kulvinskas book "LOVE Your Body" doesnt provide very promising recipes to entice the family or friends: BROWN BROTHERHOOD SOUP: 9 Dried Figs, 1 C warm water. eek.

why do i feel the need to be raw? well, my body since having a baby is out of whack. i am constantly sore from co-sleeping on my hard mattress, but cmon we all know its not only the mattress. i want more energy. i want mental clarity. i want clear beautiful skin (i may be thin, but i have pocked facial skin from teen acne and i pretty much am embarassed about it all the time). and i think most of all, the #1 reason is to regain the magic in my relationship with my partner. i met him when i was eating mostly raw. he had just moved back from Hawaii to the mainland and so although he wasnt strictly raw, his first lunch offering to me was raw pasta with pesto. (how lucky was i to meet someone randomly who knew raw foods?) just last May he made me a raw pie for mothers day. but now he eats meat out of the house, and we both have been eating more dairy, and overall i know something is lost. sometimes i feel like the real "us" are just buried beneath layers. and we hardly see each other for who we really are. so i hope to find stregnth and offer inspiration to him. and grow in the Light together.

Hi and welcome back to raw foodism! I think it's really great that you are introducing your son to living foods, he is very lucky to have that advantage so early in life!

I wish I could help you out w/ what's safe during breastfeeding, but I'm not knowledgeable about that stuff at all! But I just wanted to offer some suggestions about how to make eating raw easier as far as food prep, etc. Fancy raw meals are great once in a while to squelch cooked food cravings or for a treat, but it is so unbelievably simple and fulfilling to just eat lots of stuff as it's found in nature on a daily basis. I hate preparing food and if eating raw took a long time or a lot of thought, I would never do it! But this way of eating is so much easier and less time consuming than anything else. I like to just eat a bunch of fruit, veggies w/ raw dip, salads, smoothies...raw bars are also a decent option if you're pressed for time. It might seem weird to replace "meals" with a bunch of bananas but you get used to it pretty quickly and you can get creative with varieties of fruits/veggies, making different salads, etc. What was your diet like when you ate raw earlier in life? I think the key is to eat simply and follow what your body is telling you. Best of luck and let us know how it's going!

I went raw (after 7 years of veganism) while nursing my 6 month old daughter. She's the healthiest kid ever, and almost never eats cooked food, now at 28 months. She's all about nursing or eating fruit, raw nuts/seeds/butters, green smoothies, etc...

I'm of the belief that as long as I'm putting only raw foods in my body and drinking tons of pure water to keep me flushed out, any "toxins" that might be present in my breastmilk in TEENY TINY amounts is offset by the MANY beneficial things that I'm putting into it.

Regardless, the detox period is VERY short, depending on how well you've taken care of yourself over the last few years, and your son deserves to benefit from the SUPERFOOD that is RAW Mother's Milk.

I'm glad I made the decision when I did. I've been pregnant or breastfeeding (or both) for 9 years now...if I were going to wait until I was "finished" I'd be waiting a LONG time!

thank you both meow and happyvegan for sharing. i feel like i have more clarity each day as to what this will look like.

the very first time i ate raw, i was living with a man who was actually really a negative, messed up person. the only positive thing that came out of that relationship was that he introduced me to raw foods. we both went 100% raw for only about a month - we ate a huge salad every evening, and juiced citrus in the mornings (we didnt own a juicer, blender or anything else). it was great - salads started to get monotonous but we felt great. i couldnt believe how my energy levels were up but most of all how my skin got so smooth. i remember my skinny jeans feeling loose. but it was all an experiment, not meant to be permanent. we actually got organic produce delivered to the door, but got a lot of things we couldnt use. we once got a few lbs of white potatoes, and i decided to make mashed potatoes to see what would happen. we had headaches and felt lethargic.

soon after, our relationship crumbled (thank goodness) and when i moved into my new place i was lucky to live with some strict vegans. i stayed on a strict 80-90% raw diet and felt great. didnt feel the need to go 100% as i was in school and pretty stressed as it was. i used to make things like "oatmeal" = mashed banana, almond butter and flax seed? and i once made "mashed potatoes" out of parsnips. i liked experimenting but mostly just lots of salads and mono eating while at work. oddly, due to my lack of energy from detoxing i did continue to drink coffee (oh my!) but that was my one vice.

i met my current partner while in this pretty clear state, and although he was keen on raw foods and knew a lot about it (and had been deeper into it than i was), it was with him that i ate my first egg and cheese sandwich in 3-4 years. it was made by a friend, a famous chef in san francisco that his dad was dating. it broke me! that fast. we began to drink a LOT on date nights, especially vodka martinis. i loved making him the foods that he liked - like buttery risotto. raw has always lingered in my mind since then but first i wanted to please him, and later on i was just lazy. we;ve both had like 50% raw phases that we go through, but nothing permanent. he did this amazing cleanse (from healthforce nutritionals) and did 3 colonics over the course of a few months. might have stuck, but i was pregnant at the time and couldnt join him.

i share this story as i process...realizing that raw for me the first time around was an open book - an experiment to see how long it would last. it also made abundantly clear how awesome it was - i loved how i would CRY at the beauty of the trees in the park, and had so many wonderful things to say to people. i loved how i looked. when i abandoned it, i knew i'd go back to raw if i had a chronic disease or illness. i knew it was the Answer for so many people and for myself, but what prevents us from attainment? fear or laziness?

Now, im so excited and a little scared as i approach this with maturity and think this could be IT for me! i know right now i need to sign on every day and watch a Matt Monarch video or peek over at shazzies site or something just to keep me realizing that it is right for me.

today i bought "I am grateful" and im lovin it. cant wait to try some new recipes.

today i also ate a cooked vegan food item for lunch, and it made me so ill! it was a burrito. i am incredibly bloated and flatulent. i am trying to figure out what "transition" looks like. maybe no legumes. it is a great lesson for me.

i want to be cleaning the house as much as i'm cleaning my body, but i dont have much energy. i dont feel washed out, just mellow like i want to sit or maybe nap.

2 nights ago i had weird dreams and i knew in my sleep that i was detoxing. it was uncomfortable.

my partner has been really cool about the whole thing. he's been into eating whatever i am, and supplementing with whatever he normally eats, but in a healthier format.

for breakfast today i made a delicious soaked cashew creme, with sliced bananas, dates, and a little buckwheaties for crunch ( i dont like eating a lot of these since they seem kind of bitter to me - is this ok?) i could barely finish it. i havent been very hungry or thirsty, i have to remind myself to drink more water than i usually do.

lunch was just steamed brown rice and swiss chard. dinner will be raw again.

i am LOVING the Cafe Gratitude book. its exactly what ive wanted!!! i made a wakame salad from it yesterday and it rocked! i would love to go there someday.

>my partner has been really cool about the whole thing. he's been into eating whatever i am, and supplementing with whatever he normally eats, but in a healthier format.<

That's great. My partner is very supportive too, and it really helps a lot, doesn't it. It's something I really appreciate in my life, because I know if I wasn't in a supportive environment it would be a lot harder to be raw.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

i do appreciate my partner. yesterday when he came to trays of freshly dehydrated flax crackers, he said "this is what i've always wanted. someone who makes me raw food." some setbacks (for him) have been that *I* have brought home buttery cookies and muffins which i was given, and of course didnt eat them so he ate them. i hope he's feeling ok.

today is day 4 and im just ok. this is the first day that i felt a little like "can i really do this?" last night i went to a friends house who cooked a vegetarian soup, the aroma filled the house but i was not enticed. i felt great.

but today - maybe it was the way i started the day...i had to run out to a meeting and didnt get to make a superfoods smoothie or raw granola - they luckily had pineapple, apple and orange slices at the meeting, but that is clearly not enough calories for a detoxing, breastfeeding mom. while i wasnt starved, i felt funky and when i got home i had to eat some rice and rice crackers.

i just got "Evie's Kitchen" the the mail and i love it!!! its so exciting!

i've been feeling cloudy lately. also my eyes feel cloudy. this makes raw eating very challenging. my kitchen is always a mess because i feel mentally dull, not inspired to clean it. its been about a week or more since going 90% raw with one serving of rice or quinoa a day.

can i be that toxic?

my son also developed a few little acne pimples on his face. could this be from my detox??

i wish i had guidance!

i went for a colonic (1st time) on saturday. it was great. felt really high afterwards - almost too much, but then i immediately went to a sauna for 2 hrs and that felt great. today i had my first BM since the colonic, and, well...i may have had some residents in my colon for who knows how long??? this completely grosses me out, and makes me wonder if i should go back for another soon??

cant wait to receive my next package from the raw food world - it ships tomorrow so i have to wait wait wait! its B12 supplements for me and my son, Raw Success - Matt Monarch, and something fun (MSM lotion).

in a lot of moments i think why not go back to eating macrobiotic? its not that bad. constant battles in my head.

last night was nice. after a day of football on TV (which i could barely watch - SOOO BORING!!) they all had chicken nachos, but my partner bought me a jicama and sliced it up with lime and chili powder...and fresh guac for dipping. it was amazing!!! i was full really quickly.

i just want to make sure im getting the right supplements. i do green juices and/or a smoothie with vitamineral green/maca/cacao/hemp/flax oil every day. am i getting enough iron? what to do, what to do.

any advice greatly welcomed.

I have been eating a green smoothie mostly every day this month and the days I have missed I end up feeling really out of it. I am finding the green smoothies really help me to feel satisfied. Perhaps the colonic loosened up some toxins and you need to regain your balance? Keep up what you are doing you must be right at the edge to recieve some positive results.

Pam