These days I'm not feeling good, I get bloated and with cramps everytime I eat my smoothie. It never happened to me before. I finish my smoothie at around 4 pm and I have absolutely no feeling of hunger until the next day. I do have a bit of fruit or a small salad in the evening though, but without feeling hungry. I only feel bloated and heavy. I think it's my long PMS that lasts about 2 weeks prior to having my period, I usually feel like this on PMS, but I'm not sure. It also might be because of those raw green peas I had the other day. I also read that bloating and gas can be a detox symptom.
Today I finished my smoothie at around 3 pm and now it's almost 10 pm and no feeling of hunger, only bloated and with cramps. I'm having a small salad now: 3 good tasting tomatoes, 11 garden cucumbers, some tender butter lettuce leaves and 3 stalks of green onion (I said I would not eat onion again, but it adds a nice touch to my salad and I will keep an open mind about using onion/garlic in the future, as from time to time they are a tasty addition to salads).

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Ela2013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> These days I'm not feeling good, I get bloated and
> with cramps everytime I eat my smoothie. It never
> happened to me before. I finish my smoothie at
> around 4 pm and I have absolutely no feeling of
> hunger until the next day. I do have a bit of
> fruit or a small salad in the evening though, but
> without feeling hungry. I only feel bloated and
> heavy. I think it's my long PMS that lasts about 2
> weeks prior to having my period, I usually feel
> like this on PMS, but I'm not sure. It also might
> be because of those raw green peas I had the other
> day. I also read that bloating and gas can be a
> detox symptom.
> Today I finished my smoothie at around 3 pm and
> now it's almost 10 pm and no feeling of hunger,
> only bloated and with cramps. I'm having a small
> salad now: 3 good tasting tomatoes, 11 garden
> cucumbers, some tender butter lettuce leaves and 3
> stalks of green onion (I said I would not eat
> onion again, but it adds a nice touch to my salad
> and I will keep an open mind about using
> onion/garlic in the future, as from time to time
> they are a tasty addition to salads).
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~


Ela, I'm glad you are feeling better now. I was worried because you hadn't posted in so long and this was your last post.

I hope your hip is healing nicely.

Thank you so much, SueZ. I tried to post my update last week, but it gave me an error and it didn't let me post. And I tried to post for several times...

So here it is - my little update.

A friend from a Facebook group told me that the bloating was from mixing bananas and strawberries in my smoothies. So as soon as I stopped doing that and started to have fruits only in mono meals, and banana milk, everything came back to normal, no more stomach pain and no more bloating. Ever since, my digestion has been faster than Speedy Gonzales lol...

In the past weeks I have been to 2 major hikes in the mountains, in wild woods, it was awsome, so intense yet so rewarding!
After the second big hike, I've been resting and going to church. Everything was fine after the hike, I was feeling a bit tired but ok. Then I started to really feel my knees hurt really bad, like the bones especially, and I also had pain in my ankles and heels. I know I did that huge hike with lots of intense climbing and going downhill, and I was also standing a lot in church and also on my knees during prayers.

I did some search on the internet and I found out that it's due to long hiking and all the above. I read on hiking websites that the most common danger is to go downhill very fast and even running, letting gravity take over. Like I did. Instead of this, you should go downhill very slow and use 2 poles for balance and weight management (which I didn't do, I had 1 pole which sometimes I didn't use on my way down when the ride was easy...). In the evening I even noticed my knees were kinda swollen (or so it seemed to me) and they hurt a lot, and in fact the legs on the whole were hurting (but like a pain in the bones). I also read that it can be bursitis or tendinitis (this is how these afections are called due to long hiking and such) and that it can also be related to weak hips (like I have).

During the night I was in a lot of pain while sleeping, the pain is permanent, no matter what I do, I feel it even when I'm resting in bed, and it gets worse when I stand up or on my knees. So I rested more, took a break from going to church and staying on my knees. I read that I should rest for to 3 weeks at least.

Food-wise, I have been eating lots of banana ice cream as I had lots of frozen bananas in the freezer and I have no money for food now, my social insurance money will come in the end of June. So my husband is buying me the ingredients for dinner and some fruits for the day too.

So my food has been pretty much the same lately too, lots of banana ice cream during the day and a very satisfying dinner: tomato cucumber salad with cauliflower puree. One evening I had a huge meal: tomato cucumber green onion salad, summer squash spaghetti with a sauce made of cauliflower, tomatoes, orange pepper, red pepper, dill, garlic. And some more cauliflower puree (cauliflower, tomatoes, orange pepper, red pepper, garlic, dill). Or I had just a large salad with tomatoes, butter lettuce, cucumbers, peppers and green onions.

I've been craving onions like crazy in the past week, so I had to have some, even if I said I wouldn't eat onion/garlic anymore (but I thought there might be something good in the onion that my body needs, and it might be related to the pain I feel in my bones). I discovered that I absolutely hate garlic now, but that I really like onion best. So I guess I will continue to have onion in my salads, but not garlic though, it's too strong for me now.

This is what I found:

- "The silicon content in onions might be helping in building new bone. Silicon is necessary for turning your calcium into bone. Onions appear to be helpful for those wanting in increase their bone density."
- "Onions could prevent hip fractures and breaks caused by osteoporosis. Eating onions helps in the battle against brittle bone disease."
- "Onion consumption seems to have a beneficial effect on bone density. Poeple who consume onions most frequently may decrease their risk of hip fracture by more than 20% versus those who never consume onions."
- "An onion a day could help keep osteoporosis away."

And this:

- "Onions have many healing and health-promoting properties: They're anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and a natural blood thinner. Rich in chromium, vitamin C, and dietary fiber, onions are also a good source of manganese, vitamin B6, tryptophan, folate, and potassium. This bulbous vegetable is used to combat cancer, arthritis, and osteoporosis, and it helps fight infections, colds, fevers, and asthma. Onions also help prevent constipation, increase blood circulation, improve gastrointestinal health, promote heart health, and are thought to help lower blood pressure and triglycerides. Onions are a healthy whole food, there's no doubt. But they're particularly good for women, who are four times as likely as men to develop osteoporosis and who are at even higher risk for osteoporosis during and after menopause. Onions help prevent bone loss by destroying osteoclasts, a type of bone cell that's responsible for the breakdown of bones. In effect, onions work like bisphosphonates, a type of medication that's commonly prescribed to treat or prevent bone disease. But unlike those potent drugs, onions bust up osteoclasts without dangerous side effects. And, like broccoli, onions are a potent cancer-fighting food; high onion consumption has been linked to a whopping 25 percent reduced risk of breast cancer and a 73 percent reduced risk of ovarian cancer."

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Then last week I finally had my last banana ice cream as I finished all my frozen bananas. I think this means I'll take a break from ice cream, especially because I kept feeling really cold when eating it and still coughing/sneezing. I'll focus on summer fruits now. But I'll miss my banana ice cream a lot...

Then one day last week after having my usual dinner salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, raw fresh green peas), plus some butter lettuce (which I soaked in the lemon juice I marinated the peas in), I was ok. But then after 2 hrs, as I was sleeping, I started feeling an intense pain that went up to my chest and also in my back. It was only in the right side of my body. And I also felt like my throat was blocked and I couldn't breathe. That was weird and I could barely fall asleep again, the pain was sharp and scary. I thought it was from the onions, as I have been eating them for a week every day and I guess I have a sensitivity to them now. I heard that raw spices shouldn't be used as they are very strong, and also that "if you can't make a meal out of it, don't eat it" (I should follow that one).

I was also bloated in the past days. It might have been from the peas too as they were already out of their pods when my husband bought them (I asked him to buy those to see how they were), and they were starchy and not sweet (that's why I marinated them), they were not tender.

Anyway, I will not buy raw green peas again - this time I wanted to eat some to help me with my bones.

I still have pain in my knees and especially in my left leg, I have a hard time climbing and going down the stairs, or staying on my knees in church, but I hope I will feel better soon.

Then these past 3 days I've been twisting my diet a bit, trying to figure out what I like and what does me good. I noticed I kinda don't like plain simple salads without onions anymore, so I had another salad with tomatoes, green onions, lots of cucumbers and some green/orange long peppers that had no taste hence the onions. I had some more cauliflower puree, which kinda bloates me now. This time the onions didn't me bother that much, except for extremely watery and stingy eyes, couldn't keep them open for few seconds, and some restless night sleep. Yesterday I was craving some really sweet fruits.

Unfortunately, my summer here is not as I expected, because most of the sweet summer fruits are actually not that sweet. I had some peaches which were perfumed but not very sweet, though they looked ripe. Also the apricots and cherries are less sweet, except those dark red ripe cherries. And I would ate bananas but they were selling unripe bananas only.

So I asked my husband to get me a box of my favourite fresh Rotab dates. I soaked most of them and I ate some as they were, and I used the rest of them in today's datorade. I first made just dates and water datorade, but I didn't like it, so I rushed to the market and prayed to find some almost ripe bananas (which I did) and put some in there. It did make a difference and it was ok, but not that sweet so I added more soaked dates. In the end it turned out pretty filling. I used 1.5 liters of water, 6 fresh unfrozen bananas and 40 small soaked dates. Still, I don't like at all the smoothies made with unfrozen bananas.

I also got my period today so I wonder if most or some of the bloating and cramps of the last week were due to PMS as well...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

These are some sites where I found incredible information on onion allergy. I wonder if this was my case few days ago.

On this site in the comments it mentiones bloating, awful gas, constriction of throat, stomach pain, cramps, pain in the back area, mucus, smelly pee, strong after taste, blisters in the mouth, headaches, heart feels like it is pumping through the chest (heart racing), tight chest, painful breathing, itching skin, joint ache, flu symptoms, diarrhoea, wheezing, dizziness, tongue burning, eye reaction (watery eyes, itchy eyes, swollen eyelids, burning eyes).

One comment also says this: "Since my reactions don’t occur immediately after ingesting onions, it is unlikely that this is an allergy and more likely it is some sort of toxic reaction". My reactions occured 2 hrs after ingesting onions, so this may be the case too:

[www.onionallergy.net]

[allergysymptomsx.com]

[www.wisegeek.com]

[www.livestrong.com]

[www.livestrong.com]

[www.medhelp.org]

[www.livestrong.com]

This is funny: "with shallots and garlic in the kitchen, you can eat newspaper."

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

This quick update is just to focus on my body sensitivity to onions. After eating salads with onions in these past days, I can now safely say that I do have onion allergy/serious sensitivity, so I can no longer have onions in my diet.

Yesterday evening I had some not so great tomatoes, so I added 1 old regular size white onion to them to improve the taste. This one onion was really strong, the smell was intense and so was the taste. I got the most annoying watery/stingy/burning eyes. The burning sensation in my eyes persisted as I was eating the salad and all through the night. I got cramps and runny nose and in the morning I woke up with swollen eyes. And my face was terribly swollen, especially on the sides. Not just puffy, but really swollen big time. This image was pretty scary, so I will definitely remove onions from my diet.

I think we should rather embrace our body sensivities and celebrate them and see them as an opportunity to only eat what does our body good...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Ela, here are a few things I use that may help you, too. If you look at the wear on the bottom of your shoes and the wear is uneven there are devises you can put in your shoes that work amazingly well to alleviate joint pains.
I use these when I'm not wearing my Teva shoes...

[www.footsmart.com]

Even the Dr. Scholl shoe inserts for knee pain sold in pharmacies help a lot but I prefer the inserts that cradle the heel and hold you in better alignment.

For when you have to kneel in church you can take the burden off of your knee joints by using a few knee sized squares cut from a yoga mat to cushion them. These would be very light weight and easy to carry along in your purse.

If the shoe inserts are not in your budget range you could cut your own inserts for your shoes from yoga mat, too.

Thank you so much, SueZ, this is very useful advice

Some update: my face is still swollen on the sides, but not that much. I guess it's slowly coming back to normal. I haven't had onions ever since.

The other day I finally had the sweetest fresh raw corn on the cob ever. OMG it was so incredibly sweet, like someone poured sugar on it. The kernels were so plump and large and juicy and tender. And they detached so easy from the cob. The yellow colour was more intense than my first ones a while ago, though not that yellow-orangey colour like in the pics on the internet, but I guess this is the variety we have here. With this sweetness in them, they don't even need to be boiled and salted.

This is a page with very useful info about fruit categories, I never had them clear what's what:

[www.imraw.me]

As I mentioned before, everytime when I have tomatoes, simple or in salads, I get dizzy and lightheaded and I often have headaches. I searched some more and looks like I have a form of intolerance/allergy/sensitivity to them now. Seems that more and more I find foods that I can't tolerate. I guess my body is getting cleaner and cleaner so he rejects some foods. I think the theory around the nightshades family is true after all...

This is a very good article on nightshades:

[www.livingfoodvillage.com]

And these:

[www.city-data.com]

[www.livestrong.com]

I guess it's just my body. Not sure how I can explain this, but giving the fact that I have to deal with the hip joint issue, I guess it would be wise to take this tomato thing as a sign and just remove tomatoes and nightshades (bell peppers actually, as I don't eat potatoes and eggplant) and see how it goes. Who knows, it might even help me get rid of this permanent hip pain.

I'm having this dizzyness/headache/feeling lightheaded no matter how carbed up I am. Like yesterday: I started my day with a mono-meal of summer tomatoes, then bam! feeling so dizzy and lightheaded (I admit, here I wasn't carbed up). Then later on I had bananas. Then dates. Then later on lots of sweet ripe dark cherries. In the evening I had another mono-meal of summer tomatoes. And the same reaction happened, even if I was carbed up. So I definitely need to take at least a break from them.

Like the thread on the nightshades started by la_veronique, I think there is a lot of truth in the theory about them, so I want to find out how they really affect me.

Someone said that I won't have much left to eat after these intolerances I discovered lately, but I still have my sweet fruits. Actually I am quite pleased even with a reduced variety of raw vegan foods that my body tolerates. I learned to accept the fact that I don't like all the fruits/veggies/greens, that I don't tolerate all of them, and I created my favourite range of raw vegan foods. And I'm ok with maybe eating just bananas, dates, oranges and whatever summer fruits are in season that I like - cherries, watermelon, raspberries, apricots, grapes, plums. I learned that my main staple should be really sweet fruits like bananas and dates and oranges, that are available year-round here and that help me thrive and sustain my diet. Like Harley said in a video, you can't thrive on this lifestyle without bananas and dates. I feel so bad because last winter I said that I got bored eating just bananas and dates and oranges, I feel I was ungrateful for them. That won't happen again.

I know I was saying that the frozen bananas made me cold and coughing and that I didn't like blended fresh unfrozen bananas (like a smoothie), but I like and I crave and I need the sweetness of fresh bananas eaten as they are, in their whole form. Actually I just bought a pretty stash of spotty ones and they just need to be a bit more ripe.

I don't eat many dates in one sitting now, I like to have like 10 at a time and I soak them, they are better when soaked. I don't want to rely on dates for sweetness and they are not cheap either ($6 for 750 g), but I need the sweet taste (especially because the summer fruits here are not as sweet as I expected). Looks like I got so used to the sweetness of the sweetest fruits, that other fruits seem less sweet to me (or they are just supposed to be less sweet). I like having dates from time to time, depending on what I'm having that day.

I like having the same foods which I love and I crave, even if this means less variety. It's kinda more simple this way, no need to wonder what I'll be eating the next day. Eventually I'll feel the need to make some change at some point and rotate those foods. Besides, I noticed that I don't feel the need for complex recipes or something anymore, just simple, plain mono-meals, very easy on digestion.

I think I should try make the best I can when in cold weather. I will always be grateful for even only one type of sweet fruit that I can get here in winter. As long as it helps me stay raw (as I mentioned before, I can't eat cooked because no cooked food agrees with me now).

Actually, my mom thinks that I ruined my health and my body because I can't tolerate cooked food anymore, but I think this is great as I reached a new level of health. I guess this is the natural result of following a raw vegan lifestyle, it's such a rewarding diet and life living this way. I even like those challenging times of searching for the right cheaper food and trying to survive in harsh times. If I were to eat cooked food, I would have no worries and such, but I would be missing all the challenges which spice up this lifestyle.

Someone else mentioned to me the battle between people eating cooked vegan and people on a raw vegan diet. I don't like the battle between people who eat meat and those who don’t, between people eating raw vegan and those eating cooked vegan. I think everyone should do what works best for them. I would never force my diet on anyone. It's true, I don't feel comfortable at all when I'm near people eating animal products, but I try to stay calm and at peace. And ignore that aspect and focus on something else. I sometimes tell them they should stop eating those animal products and this happens when they attack me and my "extreme" diet, but most of the time I stay quiet. Oh, and yeah, I do tell my husband quite a lot that he and his family should quit eating dead animals, but that's a private business between me and him. I do that with his smoking too, btw...But I know we must treat others the way we want others to treat us, that is with respect and love. In the Bible it says that "those who eat should not blame those who don't eat, and those who don't eat should not blame those who eat". I think this applies here as well and it says it all...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My menu these days:

June 24, 2014:

- 5 summer tomatoes
- datorade and banana datorade (6 fresh bananas, 50 small dates plus other 10 soaked small dates on the side)
- 1 small green bell pepper with 1/4 of a green onion
- salad: 1 kg summer tomatoes and 1 medium old white onion

Energy: 2063 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.7% carbs / 4.5% proteins / 2.8% lipids

June 25, 2014:

- 2 Pink Lady apples
- 2 bananas
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 3 ears of fresh raw corn on the cob
- 2 small garden cucumbers

Energy: 2530 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.4% carbs / 5.7% proteins / 3.8% lipids

June 26, 2014:

- 2 nectarines
- a handfull of tiny wild strawberries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 10 dates (3 unsoaked, 7 soaked)

Energy: 2220 cals
Calorie breakdown: 91.7% carbs / 5.5% proteins / 2.7% lipids

June 27, 2014:

- 1.5 kg summer tomatoes
- 1.5 kg summer tomatoes
- 1 nectarine
- 1 raw tender carrot
- 3 bananas
- 25 dates (most of them soaked)
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg summer tomatoes
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 2893 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.3% carbs / 6% proteins / 3.7% lipids

June 28, 2014:

- 1 kg apricots
- 2 bananas
- 10 soaked dates
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 1 kg sweet cherries
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 2350 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.8% carbs / 5.9% proteins / 3.3% lipids

Unfortunately, every time I had cherries, I got really bloated and I had huge cramps.

This is what I found: "Cherries contain a carbohydrate called cellulose. The human body cannot digest this carbohydrate, but it uses it as a fiber to add bulk to the feces and regulate the bowels. Bacteria in the gut feed on this cellulose and release gas as a waste product. In some individuals, the gas produced from eating cherries can cause intestinal bloating and discomfort. If you experience intestinal bloating caused by cherries, you must take steps to break up the gas bubbles and relieve your discomfort."

This happened with the apricots, too.

Watermelon season just started here. I hope I can eat those without getting bloated afterwards...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2014 07:17PM by Ela2013.

Yesterday something weird happened. After eating those cherries (amazing ones, btw), I instantly got extremely bloated and with extremely painful cramps (I even haven't finished the cherries by the time the bloating and the pain started). So I had to lay down in bed and there I stayed until this morning. I didn't sleep well for the most part of the night and towards morning I started to feel a strange pain in the back of my right shoulder and in my right arm, then I couldn't breathe properly and my right arm started to go numb. That was pretty scary again and I didn't know what to make of that. My husband told me that it was because I slept on my right side, but I told him that I was sleeping only on my left side because of that pain. I gathered myself and went to Sunday service in church, but I was feeling slightly dizzy the whole time, like I couldn't stand on my feet. My right arm was still kind of numb and it is only now past midday that I feel slightly better.

I think that a reason why this happened could be because they were not organic and I noticed some cherries having white spots on them, like they were sprayed with something. I also read on the internet that cherries are heavily sprayed and also that eating lots of them in one sitting leads to bloating and gas.

Yesterday evening I had those soaked dates before going to bed and I haven't eaten anything else until now for fear that I would feel sick again.

Today my husband bought me a watermelon, they said it was local but I think it is not, judging by the different taste and texture, but it is good, I ate only one slice because I was afraid of stomach pain.

I decided that from now on I will be grazing throughout the day, like I did when I first went raw, because that is what works best for me. I don't like the feeling of fullness given by a large meal.

This is how I eat the watermelon - I take it slice by slice, I've never eaten it with the spoon, carving each half.

Today's watermelon has 7 kgs and it was $5 for the whole watermelon (around 60 cents/kg).

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2014 11:40AM by Ela2013.

Have you ever gotten any blood tests (bare minimum) done checking for nutrients? Your diet is bound to be deficient in many vital nutrients... iron, zinc, omega-3's, B12, iodine, and probably others. I only mention this so you're aware and can work towards fixing the situation. Have you tried any of the things I recommended regarding bone health? I thought you were going to stop eating so many dates lol. Do you exercise a lot?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2014 11:30PM by jtprindl.

Thank you, jtprindl, you are very thoughtful. And thank you for reminding me to take care of my health, I sometimes forget that

I must say I haven't tried anything yet as I've been feeling not so good lately and I stayed mostly at home. I haven't exercised like I planned, just the other day I did some squats and some cycling on my stationary bike. I must confess, I am such a lazy person, and when I have some bad days, I'd rather stay at home and relax, not in the mood for much...

I plan to have my blood test done this autumn to check how things are.

Actually I'm not eating that many dates again, the day I had those 60 dates was an exception and I had them in banana datorade, as the bananas were not that sweet. Now I have like 10 dates in one sitting and like 30 dates maximum a day (always soaked), but not every day. The reason I chose to have dates again was that summer fruits are not that sweet as I expected and I do need my sweetness. I may not buy dates again though as they are rather expensive...

Some update: yesterday, an hour after eating the last 2 slices of watermelon, I have been getting severe dizzyness and some headache that was getting worse and the room was spinning with me so I had to lay in bed. It was the same reaction as after eating tomatoes, only so much worse. I just couldn't ignore this reaction. From what I read, it could be low blood pressure caused by fruit. Looks it's the lycopene that is both in tomatoes and in watermelon. Or could be a sign of diabetes. Or dehydration. Or B12 deficiency. Getting dizzy after eating watermelon is a first for me, never ever happened before.

This is what I found:

[rajanjolly.hubpages.com]

[fawesome.ifood.tv]

[answers.yahoo.com]

[www.naturalnews.com]

[www.mayoclinic.org]

Yesterday the dizzyness continued the whole evening and night, I was sweating a lot during the night and I was in a detox-like state. This morning I woke up feeling weak and not in the mood for doing much, but I did have a great night sleep (10 hrs). I started to question my body's ability to do a raw vegan diet, and I don't wanna get a lot of "I told you so" from my family. But I'm thinking that maybe it's just a phase and a part of my body cleansing. So I will take things slow and give it time. I don't want to be forced to eat cooked vegan as a result of me not tolerating most fruits/veggies, as I actually don't want the cooked version, it would just make me feel worse. I will keep you updated on my evolution...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2014 09:27AM by Ela2013.

Ela2013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------


Ela, the dizziness and the sweating is exactly what happened to me on the hclf diet when I became prediabetic and didn't know it yet. Please don't do as I did and write it off to "detox symptoms" and end up only able to eat a few berries and lemons a day for fruit and have to get the majority of nutrition from a high fat diet in order to stay raw.

Please, please, please, buy a glucose monitoring system from a pharmacy and test your blood sugar several times a day in accord with the booklet that comes with the kit. The kit with the test strips shouldn't cost over about $50 and I'm sure your rightfully very concerned family would pitch in to help pay for it. You are in a serious situation and they know that.

If you do decide to get a fasting blood sugar test at a hospital lab now it is important not to have any water to drink between the time you wake up and the time you have the test taken. Nobody told me this when I went in for my own initial FBS test so it turned out normal even though I was prediabetic.

I wish you well and good luck. The sooner you find out what is going on the better.

SueZ, I actually have a glucose monitoring system in the house, as both my husband's parents have diabetes so they use it. I used it in the past just for fun but I will definitely start using it on a regular basis.

Yes, for all blood testings I do, I have no food or water after midnight until after I get my test done, I'm already used to this.

To be honest, I got pretty concerned now after what you told me, but I will definitely take all these steps. Thank you a lot for underlining these very important issues.

I was thinking...as far as I remember I've almost always been sweating during the night only (not quite every single night though), could that be just something normal or really a sign of prediabetes and such? I never thought of it as a bad thing, just I needed to change my pyjamas during the night sometimes, that's all...

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2014 02:09PM by Ela2013.

Today I started my day with a trip to a large supermarket wanting to buy my fav dates (they had only one box yesterday so I hoped I would find it today, but it was gone). So I got some oranges for juice, I've been craving fresh sweet orange juice for some time now. Then a wonderful trip to the market. I got today's local watermelon, some beautiful large cherries, some cucumbers for dinner and more ripe spotty bananas for future ice cream. Coming home, I had 800 ml of water to really start my day before digging into my watermelon (though I always drink water during the night too, I find that I need water more during the night than during the day). We now have here really local watermelons, they are so good, sweet and juicy and hydrating.

I'm feeling much better, the weather is so beautiful now after few rainy cloudy days. The other day I did some squats and some cycling on my stationary bike and I had some muscular pain, but now it's almost gone. I had less dizzyness after watermelon (today I had no dizzyness at all) and no bloating after cherries (I eat like a single slice of watermelon at a time and no more than 1 kg of cherries in one sitting, and it's working perfectly). I didn't and I couldn't quit eating watermelon and cherries anyway. I don't miss tomatoes/sweet peppers so far, so I will go on without nightshades. I've been craving butter lettuce a lot these days so I'm having it for dinner almost every day.

Except my evening salad with 3 ingredients (lettuce, cucumbers, lemon juice), I have mono-meals only, and my digestion is so great. I did have banana date ice cream yesterday, but I find that I like better eating the banana ice cream without dates and eating the dates by themselves as they have a different degree of sweetness. I discovered that I am no longer afraid of calories, especially since I don't eat more than my body needs anyway. I don't even eat too many dates now, just for the taste and for their special sweetness (I usually have them in the evening now, a while after my salad, because I like to go to bed with a sweet taste).

My menu:

June 30, 2014:

- 2 bananas
- 10 soaked dates
- 10 soaked dates
- 1 kg cherries
- salad: 3 small heads of butter lettuce, the juice from 1 lemon, 15 small garden cucumbers
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 1591 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.3% carbs / 6.4% proteins / 3.3% lipids

July 1, 2014:

- a 6 kg local watermelon (5 kg without rind)
- 1 kg cherries
- banana caramel ice cream (750 gr frozen bananas, 10 soaked dates)
- 10 soaked dates
- salad: half a head of 1 large butter lettuce, the juice of 1 lemon, 5 garden cucumbers
- 5 soaked dates

Energy: 3261 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.8% carbs / 5.8% proteins / 3.4% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Ela2013
Just curious......are you losing weight eating like you are? I'm asking because it's hard for me to wrap my head around me losing weight eating pretty much all fruit & dried fruit especially. I <3 dates

Hey, VeganR, I did lose 5 kg when I switched from Raw Till 4 to Raw, and I've been maintaining my weight easily ever since. I haven't checked my weight recently, but I'm feeling great. I'm no longer worried about calories, if I have 3000 cals in a day, I naturally most certainly won't have 3000 cals again next day, so overall everything is balanced. I'm not eating more than my body needs, so I trust my body.

Regarding losing weight on the raw vegan diet, I'd say this is the best way to lose weight. Both from what I read and from my own experience, there's no better way to lose weight than this. People going from Raw to Raw Till 4 almost always gained weight, so I would never go back to cooked vegan food.

You must be patient and consistent with the raw vegan diet, try not to focus so much on losing weight but on feeling happy and on being healthy. And the weight will eventually go away and you will reach your natural weight. It just takes time. You can't undo so many years of not eating right in just few days or weeks or maybe years.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2014 12:19PM by Ela2013.

My menu:

July 2, 2014:

- a 6 kg watermelon (5 kg without rind)
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 1700 cals
Calorie breakdown: 89.9% carbs / 6.3% proteins / 3.8% lipids

July 3, 2014:

- 4 small raw and crunchy carrots
- 1 kg cherries
- 1 kg cherries
- 1 nectarine
- 17 soaked dates

Energy: 1832 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.8% carbs / 6.1% proteins / 3.1% lipids

Yesterday was an unexpected and unplanned hiking day. I ate 1 kg cherries at home then I felt like going out so I wanted to explore the high hill that's just near our home. So I took my back-pack with 1 l water and 1 kg cherries, plus some toilet paper and 2 large bags to sit on them on the grass while eating my cherries on this hill. No umbrella, no long-sleeve shirt. I was in a short-sleeve T-shirt and 3/4 sport pants, wearing socks and my trusty outdoor sandals.

The climb on the hill was rather intense and on the paved road only, as there were houses on both sides almost all the way up to the top. The weather was hot and sunny and no clouds in the sky. I reached the top as far as I could go as at one point it was closed. I got my ear-phones with me listening to music on my phone as it helps me not get bored and it motivates me to have a great climb. Then I started to go down on the other side of this hill, reaching a far away district of our town, which is close to the wild woods. I was going on this paved high road, in the right I had our Mountain Tampa (but on the other side than my previous hike) and on the left there were some houses. I soon reached the wild side with beautiful landscape and an area for barbeque and sun-bathing, green everywhere and wonderful mountains.

Then I entered the wild woods to go to our mountain resort at 1030 m high. I was looking forward to this hiking trail, I wanted to take it for some time now, I never took this trail before. It was through a valley with water, a small little river with few small waterfalls on the way, kind of muddy and messy at times, but my sandals were very good at this. I found another trusty wooden very thick stick from a branch that helped me so much along the way (the hike is pretty intense so you can't do it without such a help - most people have ski poles though, but I'd rather have these kind of very thick sticks). Somewhere along the way it started to rain, but the woods were thick so I was fine. Later on I saw lightning and I heard huge thunder, and I was a bit nervous, as I never been in such a deep wild forest during thunder, lightning and rain. But it was amazing at the same time, the thunder is so loud out in the woods.

By the time I reached the mountain resort, the rain got pretty heavy so I took the way back on another road, the old road, a 1 hour trail, the same I took on my previous hike. I made a stop on the way under a big tree to take cover from rain and eat my cherries, then I made a water coat from one of my large bags, and I put the other large bag on my had over my cap like a hood. I am sure I looked pretty funny too lol...

When I reached the bus station downhill, the bus was already there so I was happy because the bus only comes every 30 min. I got home in time to wash, change clothes and go to the afternoon service in church where we read prayers with our priest.

It was an amazing spontaneous hike, I loved it (no matter the mud, rain, thunder, lightning and obviously my constant fear of running into a bear - actually whenever I go hiking I always pray in my head to God all the way, asking Him to keep me away of bears).

The whole hike was 6 hrs (from 12 pm to 6 pm). When I got home, I was kind of cold, as the temperature dropped to 16 degrees C (from over 20 degrees plus tons of sun in the beginning).

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Thanks!

What is Raw Till 4?

VeganR, Raw Till 4 is a diet consisting of raw vegan food until afternoon/evening, then a cooked vegan meal as dinner - potatoes/pasta/rice/corn (cooked starches)/cooked veggies, low or no fat, low or no salt. This is the diet promoted and used by Freelee the Banana Girl and Harley aka Durianrider (check their Youtube videos).

So ever since I switched from raw and cooked vegan to only raw vegan, I lost those 5 kgs and I felt better than ever.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Yesterday was again hiking day. I first took the bus to that barbeque place between the huge high rocks where I was in one of my other hikes. Then I climbed to our mountain resort on a different trail, a longer one, like 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. On the way I ate some garden cucumbers, a very hydrating and refreshing snack while hiking (I peeled them at home). This trail was mild to intense but long and tiring at some point, but the landscape was so beautiful, and the weather was amazing, very warm and sunny, no rain.

When I reached the resort, I took a 1 hr trail to a place called The Sand Meadow, which was like a valley with grass, flowers, kind of watery and muddy at times, but also lots of bushes and trees with low branches, an ideal place for bears (and yes, there I was, afraid of bears again).

I went back to the resort and took 1 hr rest on a beautiful meadow, with thick high grass. I sat there, eating some oranges, then I was laying on the grass in the sun getting some free vitamin D and some lovely tan. I went back home using the easier trail downhill (1 hr) and then I took the bus home. The whole hike was 8 hrs, from 12 pm to 8 pm. Back home, I made myself some banana ice cream, then ate some soaked dates and went to bed.

My menu:

For July 3 I forgot to add the evening salad: 1 head of butter lettuce, 9 garden cucumbers, the juice of 1 lemon.

July 4, 2014:

- banana ice cream (750 g frozen bananas)
- banana ice cream (750 g frozen bananas)
- 10 soaked dates
- salad: 1 head of butter lettuce, 10 garden cucumbers, the juice of 1 lemon
- 20 soaked dates

Energy: 2041 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.3% carbs / 4.6% proteins / 3% lipids

July 5, 2014:

- 21 garden cucumbers
- 10 oranges
- banana ice cream (750 g frozen bananas)
- 11 soaked dates

Energy: 1459 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90.7% carbs / 6% proteins / 3.2% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Your hiking days sound fantastic! Thanks for sharing them.

I love those hiking days, SueZ, it's such a wonderful experience

My meniu:

July 6, 2014:

- 500 gr garden cucumbers
- banana ice cream (750 g frozen bananas)
- banana ice cream (9 frozen bananas)
- banana ice cream (11 frozen bananas)
- 10 soaked dates
- 500 gr garden cucumbers

Energy: 2554 cals
Calorie breakdown: 92.2% carbs / 4.5% proteins / 3.2% lipids

July 7, 2014:

- 1 local watermelon (total weight 10 kg, without rind 7 kg)

Energy: 2100 cals
Calorie breakdown: 89.2% carbs / 6.7% proteins / 4.1% lipids

July 8, 2014:

- 10 soaked dates
- banana ice cream (8 frozen bananas)
- banana ice cream (7 frozen bananas)
- 1 kg cherries
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 2485 cals
Calorie breakdown: 93% carbs / 4.3% proteins / 2.7% lipids

July 9, 2014:

- 1/2 a 10 kg local watermelon (this half was 5 kg total weight, 3.5 kg without rind)
- 3 raw carrots
- salad: 200 g white cabbage, 4 cucumbers, the juice of half a lemon
- 15 soaked dates

Energy: 1489 cals
Calorie breakdown: 90% carbs / 6.4% proteins / 3.7% lipids

July 10, 2014:

- salad: 200 g white cabbage, 4 cucumbers, the juice of half a lemon, 1 green-yellowish bell pepper
- 5 soaked dates
- 1/2 a 10 kg local watermelon (this half was 5 kg total weight, 3.5 kg without rind)
(I ate it 7 hours after the dates)
- 10 soaked dates
- salad: 2 kg summer tomatoes, 700 g garden cucumbers, dill, 1 green-yellowish bell pepper
- 10 soaked dates

Energy: 2114 cals
Calorie breakdown: 87.4% carbs / 7.7% proteins / 4.9% lipids

July 11, 2014:

- 14 soaked dates
- 1/2 a 10 kg local watermelon (this half was 5 kg total weight, 3.5 kg without rind)
(I ate it after 7 hours after the dates)
- salad: 1 kg summer tomatoes, 550 g garden cucumbers, dill
- salad: 1 kg summer tomatoes, 550 g garden cucumbers, dill

Energy: 1859 cals
Calorie breakdown: 86.1% carbs / 8.4% proteins / 5.5% lipids

July 12, 2014:

- 1/2 a 10 kg local watermelon (this half was 5 kg total weight, 3.5 kg without rind)
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 400 g garden cucumbers, dill, 1 head of butter lettuce
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 400 g garden cucumbers, dill

Energy: 2295 cals
Calorie breakdown: 86.1% carbs / 8.4% proteins / 5.5% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

My experiment without nightshades wasn't very relevant, I didn't feel quite a difference. I did feel slightly more pain in my hip, but that might just be a coincidence, I don't know. I didn't crave tomatoes either for the most part, but at some point I wanted to have them again in my diet, it's easier to make salads with tomatoes, they are good in everything. Unfortunately, here our summer tomatoes aren't that good anymore, I'm hoping that the tomato season isn't reaching its end already.

I didn't experience dizziness after eating watermelon anymore, and I tolerate it really well now.

Anyway, yesterday morning I gave blood samples for my blood test and the results should come soon. However, I only got tested for the regular standard blood tests that were free of charge, because the other ones like Vitamin B12 and vitamin D and Iodine are pretty expensive. I do plan to get tested for those as well, but maybe next year, so that the results are more relevant.

My menu:

July 13, 2014:

- 1/2 a 15 kg local watermelon (this half was 7.5 kg total weight, 6 kg without rind)
- a salad of 400 g white cabbage and the juice of a lemon, next to another salad of 8 garden tomatoes, 3 garden cucumbers and dill

Energy: 2115 cals
Calorie breakdown: 87.7% carbs / 7.6% proteins / 4.7% lipids

July 14, 2014:

- 1/2 a 15 kg local watermelon (this half was 7.5 kg total weight, 6 kg without rind)
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 500 g garden cucumbers
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 500 g garden cucumbers

Energy: 2280 cals
Calorie breakdown: 86.3% carbs / 8.3% proteins / 5.4% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

After eating watermelon throughout the day for the past weeks (so like 5 kg watermelon/day), I'm feeling better than ever, so light and full of energy. My digestion is a amazing and dare I say my bowel movements are such watermelony red lol
Starting today I want to have watermelon only, like a watermelon island <3

On Sunday I had a great afternoon. From like 2 pm to 8 pm, the sun is flooding my room's balcony, so I sat down on some pillows in the balcony for like 3 hrs listening to music and getting wonderful tan and free Vitamin D. I plan to do this more often as I read that this type of Vitamin D from the sun is the best, and that we should be in the sun for 15-20 min/day in order to get enough Vitamin D.

Yesterday I read a lot about raw vegan pregnancy. I found some amazing stories and some wonderful advice in other women's experiences. I also read about natural birth and home birth (instead of that standard awful hospital birth), and about being assisted by a midwife not only on birth, but also during the pregnancy.

The reason for my search about this is that me and my husband recently started to have intimate relations again. This is because I've been having difficulty in this in the past years, dealing with medical problems and lot of pain, plus the hip condition. We haven't been using birth control in a very very long time and I certainly don't plan to. So far, just like in the past, I didn't get pregnant and the doctor said that I could only get pregnant by artificial insemination due to low hormone levels. But I believe that it can be done in a natural way too, no matter what the doctor said. So I wanted to research all that, just in case it happens.

I'm kind of terrified at the idea of my family jumping all over me because I want to have a raw vegan pregnancy and a raw vegan baby. My husband agrees with natural home birth and with a raw vegan pregnancy and baby, but my mom and my grandmom will go crazy and accuse me of being irresponsible. It's good that I live in a different town from them. I would have to be very tough when that moment comes and just be firm and go forward on my raw vegan path. I'm also concerned because in my country the midwifes are not that popular, though we have like 5000 midwifes in the whole country, but they are not always independent and recognized even if they have very good medical studies. We even have a Midwife University. The same with home birth, it is very badly spoken of here. But I do hope it's something that can be done.

My menu:

July 15, 2014:

- 1/2 a 11 kg local watermelon (this half was 5.5 kg total weight, 4 kg without rind)
- 4 raw carrots
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 500 g garden cucumbers
- salad: 1 kg garden tomatoes, 500 g garden cucumbers

Energy: 2230 cals
Calorie breakdown: 86.2% carbs / 8.3% proteins / 5.5% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

I just read my blood test results online (my husband is going to pick them up on paper from the lab in a short while). I must say they are very good. Comparing them to those from April last year, here are some relevant improvements:

- my urine PH went from 6 to 8 (which is high alkaline) (I must say that compared to the other urine recipients in the lab, mine was so clear and looked like water, while the others were so dark yellow); also, no sediments in urine, no bilirubine; the density went from 1020 to 1015
- my iron went from 27 (which is low, the minimum is 37) to over 100
- my blood sugar went from 96 to 89

Also the count and the % of my blood cells are all within range.

The only negative thing is that the cholesterol went from 100 (which was low, the minimum is 120) to 136 - this is the value for total cholesterol, I don't have the separate values for LDL and HDL (the maximum is 200). I must add that the triglyceride level is 89 (the minimum is 36 and the maximum is 200). Here I'm not sure what the cause is, as I haven't had any overt fats since earlier this year.

If you have any idea, just let me know, I need to read about it to see if that's a good or a bad thing.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

I just got the results on paper and there is more to them.
I saw they couldn't find any Reticulocytes (which are immature red cells, created in the spine bone marrow), which could be a deficit of Folate or Vitamin B12 (as I read on the net). I may need take Vitamin B12 already.
Also the Alkaline Phosphatase is high, 122 (the range is between 35 and 104). This may be a deficit of Vitamin D. So I may take Vitamin D as well. But it may also be connected with bone disease like I have with my hip.
Btw, looking at the last year results, I didn't get any readings on Reticulocytes either.
Any thoughts on this?

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2014 12:12PM by Ela2013.

Ela2013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just got the results on paper and there is more
> to them.
> I saw they couldn't find any Reticulocytes (which
> are immature red cells, created in the spine bone
> marrow), which could be a deficit of Folate or
> Vitamin B12 (as I read on the net). I may need
> take Vitamin B12 already.
> Also the Alkaline Phosphatase is high, 122 (the
> range is between 35 and 104). This may be a
> deficit of Vitamin D. So I may take Vitamin D as
> well. But it may also be connected with bone
> disease like I have with my hip.
> Btw, looking at the last year results, I didn't
> get any readings on Reticulocytes either.
> Any thoughts on this?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Were your CBC, RBC count, hemoglobin, and hematocrit results all ok? Were you tested for hyperparathyroidism?

Yes, SueZ, I did them all, except the test for hyperparathyroidism. Everything related to blood cell count is within normal values, except those immature red cells called Reticulocytes.

Some websites I found interesting today:

[www.vitamindcouncil.org]

[www.nhs.uk]

[www.drfuhrman.com]

[mushroominfo.com]

[health101.org]

[health101.org]

[medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com]

[www.medicinenet.com]

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Watermelon - the key to amazing digestion, feeling light and very hydrating (despite lots of trips to the bathroom).

My menu:

July 16, 2014:

- 1/2 a 11 kg local watermelon (this half was 5.5 kg total weight, 4 kg without rind)
- 1 slice (500 g without rind) of a different watermelon bought by the others in the house
- 1/4 a 10 kg local watermelon (1.5 kg without rind)
- 1 ear of raw corn on the cob
- 1 tomato
- 1 slice of red pepper

Energy: 1907 cals
Calorie breakdown: 88.5% carbs / 6.9% proteins / 4.6% lipids

July 17, 2014:

- 3/4 a 10 kg local watermelon (6 kg without rind)
- 1 slice (200 g without rind) of a different watermelon
- salad: 4 large sweet red peppers, 4 garden cucumbers, 1 tomato

Energy: 2048 cals
Calorie breakdown: 87.9% carbs / 7.5% proteins / 4.6% lipids

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.