Hi everyone,
I have been reading this forum for the past week, so I figured it was time to post for the first time!

A little about me, I'll be 23 next week and have been overweight my ENTIRE life. I've been on this or that diet, but eating raw vegan food is the only healthy eating plan that I have been able to easily stick to and I am very happy with it!

My first plan was to do it as a detox for three days, but after the three days were up I didn't want to stop. I think my only detox symptoms were that I was pretty tired for the first 3-4 days, but that's slowly going away, and it also could have been due to giving up coffee. I'm not feeling the energy that everyone has been talking about, I feel pretty normal which is okay. I did get some vitamin b-12 supplements today, which may help.

I read 12 Steps to Raw Food by Victoria Boutenko, which has helped me a lot. I make myself a green smoothie each morning which I'm having a lot of fun with. I try to mix it up with different ingredients each day, but they always consist of one or two kinds of dark leafy green and fruit. I also add some lemon juice which makes the smoothies nice and sour which I like. Later on in the morning I'll have some fruit, then a nice big salad for dinner. More fruit for dessert and I'm good to go for the day. I try to add flax to my salads and have almonds or brazil nuts for snacks.

I eat when I'm hungry, and I don't eat when I'm not and that's really been working well for me haha. I'm definitely eating a lot less than most of you, but I feel good. I'm not 100% raw, but pretty (except for today as I was at a family party and had some cooked veggies but I'm okay with it) I had coffee in the morning (I was not happy without it) but with agave and no milk instead of the skim milk and two splenda I was having before. I also have some non-raw salad dressings a few times and tea in the evenings. Those are things I'm not too concerned about and they make this journey a little easier.

I've lost about 7lbs so far which I'm very happy about! I'm not going to commit to being raw for life, but I'm taking it one day at a time and see no need to stop!

Thanks for reading this whole thing I'll try to update it in a few days maybe- if anyone has any tips for increasing energy, please share!

Actually, if you're going raw, you'll notice your energy to be way up! I recently stopped being raw for the weekend (with grandparents who urge me to eat their cooking) and I can't remember feeling this tired in a long time. I feel oily, tired, depressed, letheargic, but when I'm raw, I have so much energy i can hardly force myself to go to bed at night! Good luck!

[www.healthyfoodrawdiet.com]

Thanks, I'm going to keep it up and see if anything changes.

Anyway, last night was terrible! I was over my grandparent's house and my mom made a nice big salad for me to bring over. I didn't eat anything cooked, but there must have been something in the food because I got SO sick. I was throwing up all night long and I feel absolutely terrible. This morning I feel a little better but but I'm still not 100%. I want to stay raw but I'm not sure what to eat today that will settle my stomach- usually I would have some toast or something but I don't want to eat bread! I've only had some tea this morning so far.

Hopefully I'll feel better later!

When your body is sick, like throwing the best thing to do is not eat until you are hungry. That works. To find out how this is here's the link: [drbass.com]. You'll have to look thru it but there is a portion about when to fast when the body is sick.

Best wishes on your resolution to go raw. It's God's way of eating for us. Mys Benson

Thanks for the link- I feel much better and I feel great eating a mostly raw, 100% vegan diet.
My birthday is tomorrow and my mom said she would go out and get me a juice from the health food store as a treat! She has been so supportive and I think it is part of the reason I have been successful so far.

Here is an update if anyone is interested The juice my mom got for my birthday was gross! She didn't like it either. I'm going to stick to making my own green smoothies in the morning thank you very much.

I'm not 100% raw anymore, but still trying to stick to a mostly raw diet. I'm not the kind of person who can make strict demands on my own diet, because if I don't stick to it I'll feel really down on myself. So, I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and eat mostly raw each day.

Today I ate well and mostly raw. I had a yummy green smoothie in the morning with kale, dandelion, peach, blueberries, two bananas, and protein powder. For lunch I had a tomato and cucumber salad (with some non-vegan protein I'll omit) Then I had some pickles for a snack and a big salad for dinner. It was a great day and I feel wonderful. I also had a glass of wine with my salad at dinner.

I'm very happy to be back on the bandwagon as I slipped a bit over the weekend but the cooked food was not as good as I thought it would be and it gave me more strength to continue down this path. I've been getting compliments on my skin too which is a great motivator.
I also fit into a favorite dress this week which had been to tight on me before.

Hope everyone else is well!

Marissa

Good for you, Marissa. Keep it up!

Thanks mysbenson and suncloud!

I had the best day food-wise today so I just have to share!

This morning I had a black coffee (not raw, I know but I don't want to go without)

Then I had two big cups of green smoothie made with swiss chard, blueberries, a peach, and an apple.

Then I had 1/4lb of fruit salad (Thankfully there is a good deli next to my job so I don't have to eat processed foods or go hungry)

Then for dinner I had a big salad and some very lightly boiled asparagus.

I know it wasn't all raw and I'm ok with that. but it was all vegan and all good!! I also know that it was not a lot of calories but I AM trying to lose weight and I feel full so I'm not going to force myself to eat anything else.


I might have some strawberries later though, we'll see how I feel.

Marissa