During the end of June, I was in Virginia Beach, VA and while I was waiting for my ride at the Heritage Book Store. I decided to just thumb through some books. I picked up a couple titles that looked interesting: The Raw Life by Paul Nison and Raw Family by Victoria Botenko... I read through all the interviews in the last part of Paul’s book and recognized names and information that I had researched 30 years ago. I made the decision right there and then to live 100% Raw Vegan and I am. I have lost a tremendous amount of weight am much happier and healthier and I am living outwardly as the person I always new that I could be.

During the first few weeks, I was traveling and staying with relatives. Learning to eat raw and being with others was challenging. Most relatives homes had little to no raw food and one person was concerned about my bring fruit flies into their home so I had some things to work out. For about 2 weeks I decided to allow myself to have the healthiest versions of both popcorn and corn chips to go along with the many bowls of home made ‘salsa’ and the once in a while avocado or guacamole when out in a restaurant. When I got home there was no longer a need for either the popcorn or corn chips and that was the end of any cooked food.

I met my first fellow raw-foodie during that first month, when I was having a craving (the only one I had) and was hunting through a health food store for a solution that I was willing to ingest. The produce manager was a raw-foodie! Unfortunately his suggestion was to buy and eat some sunflower seeds and to not worry how many I ate, I probably needed more calories. This began my habit of eating nuts and seeds along with my fruit-vegys. Weight had always been an issue and I had come to the conclusion in May that I would be fat the rest of my life and I was sick of worrying about it, trying to change my size, trying to be someone that I wasn’t - I physically threw my hands in the air and proclaimed to the Universe that “I give up!” “That’s enough, I’m tired of being fat and dealing with it. I’ll be who I am. All I’m willing to do now is live a healthier life, that’s it - you deal with my weight, my asthma, my sleep apnea, my allergies, my aches & pains, my moods (depression was re-occurring every 1-3 years) - you take it all. I give up.”

Now, 30 years ago I was a member of a church that didn’t believe in going to the medical profession as a regular practice. During that time I was dealing with multiple miscarriages as well as bowel/colon problems and I was in an unstable and unsafe marriage that was filled with domestic violence, I also was dealing with the unfortunate results of religious abuse that many wives in domestic violence situations experience within religions that practice patriarchal societal structures. As a conciencous member of this religion, I practiced daily bible study, monthly water fasting and eating as healthfully as was possible. Our religion practiced the food laws that are listed in Deuteronomy and often are labeled as Jewish. We did not eat pork or shell fish or other ‘unclean’ meats. In my attempts to combat my own health and emotional issues and to raise my 2 children as healthy as possible I would spend a lot of my time reading and researching. My studies with the Bible lead me to the Torah and to Greek lexicons as well as Hebrew translations in an attempt to understand the original language that these documents were written so that I could get to the true information intended to be shared. I also was studying texts written in regard to living a healthy lifestyle that included Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss, Helen & Scott Nearing’s books on organic gardening, and other books on self sufficiency. I also was studying about Natural Hygienics and finding the information fascinating. I tried to incorporate as much of these principals into my life as possible. Though given my and my children’s safety issues it was a very big challenge. Though we did eat as close to the land as possible and we did eat more raw fruits and vegetables, I did not give up cooked food during that time. I was however, considering not adding a stove to the kitchen of the new home we were building.

Many events and years later, I am living alone in New York City. I had a relatively mild ambulatory nervous breakdown a few years ago which led me to make some major life changes. I moved to a quiet rural area, interviewed a therapist and doctor, created a personal project plan and began to build the person and life of my dreams. As I got progressively healthier, I decided to move to New York as the opportunities for working creatively, living without a vehicle and enjoying the free cultural activities are more concentrated here than anywhere in the world. I am now exploring my life’s work, which I believe includes sharing my experiences, my strengths and my talents with others. I give freely what was given me and the universe see’s to it that I am continually blessed. I coach others with all sorts of things from computer lessons, to artistic and crafts projects, to raw food lifestyles and I also coach others in creating their own personal project plans to help them reach their goals. This year I am hoping to study Natural Hygiene more thoroughly, take pottery classes and use my passport more often beginning with visiting Honduras to snorkel with my brother.

A couple months ago, I was having a lot of gas and bloating and was just uncomfortable. I wasn’t eating very many sweet fruits as I’d been told all my life that fat people didn’t need fruit as it has too many calories and also because my parents and siblings have diabetes and I frankly didn’t want to develop it. I had a hunch that my gas problems were fat related based on my experiences with olive oil and nuts, I had switched my thinking and was only eating a few seeds and rarely any nuts at this point. Then I got sick - and I mean sick - hugging the toilet sick! I wanted (not craved) soup! I wanted hugs! I wanted to feel better quick! It lasted 3 days during which time I contacted a few new raw food buddies for advice. I tried one suggestion that kind of sounded ok but made me sicker. And that very night while at my sickest, Doug Graham was scheduled to speak at our local raw food group. I dragged myself there , literally, I had all I could do to sit in the chair. As I listened, Doug confirmed all the things that I already knew. The fat content was the problem but I didn’t expect to change my thinking to include more sweet fruits. As I have tried adding mangos (geez is this the food for gods?) And bananas I feel satisfied and full and I am still continuing to lose weight. I also recently made the decision to only buy organic, which has opened up the flavor quotient on all those already good fruits and vegys. Organic can be more expensive but I am finding that it is also becoming more main stream and that means more available. Now when I am out in a restaurant, which truly isn’t very often, I will over look the organic part if with friends. If it is stickily my choice, I’ll aim for a Whole Foods organic salad bar or one of our many Raw restaurants in the city. It’s a bit more difficult to put together low-fat raw vegan or (80/10/10) meals although it is possible

My asthma, allergies, sleep apnea, aches & pains are basically gone. My weight which was at it’s highest around 290#s is now around 174#s. I haven’t had any major depression issues, although learning about the sadness emotion is interesting as it feels similar to depression but only lasts minutes or a day sometimes. I’m thinking now, that it’s very likely what a doctor diagnosed as depression could have been my deep - deep sadness over my life’s events. And most likely I needed the rest, sleep, fresh air, sunshine and walking that I have been able to give it in the last 3 years in order to heal. The last doctor I visited with gave me a clean bill of health and said good bye with many kind words of encouragement.

Lesa
Times Square, NYC
"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like no one is watching!" Anonymus
November 2005 270#
June 2006 237#
November 2007 178#
Today even lighter!

excellent!

That is such a great story!

Thanks for sharing!

Sorry for writing in your journal but I had to comment =)

I just want to say WOW! You have lost to much weight! I was always curious how much skin saggs after weight loss while on a raw diet. I was 210 and am in my 130's now but I was not raw before and i had alot of loose skin. I always see raw thin people who used to be big and they look toned. I duno. Just curious little me lol.

We're proud of u!

Happy New Years!

I'm finally taking some time alone to catch up on paperwork, filing and emails/posts! The holiday's were definately busy. I had a niece and nephew visiting from Maine. They were rather shocked to see a smaller auntie and a bit curious about how I eat differently now. Since I got a phone call as soon as they got home, from their diabetic mom (one of my older sisters) -- I guess they were talking up how healthy she could be if she ate like me.

I took them to a RF restaraunt and introduced them to yummy transitional foods like raw pizza, ice cream and chili -- they were very surprised that they were eating healthy stuff - they thought they would hate it b/c they just can't eat anything but Burger Kin....(do I have to say it) or McDon....you get the idea.

I'm happy they asked questions and tried something different. I hope their mom isn't being too pressured by them to make the changes auntie Lesa did - they deal with it whatever.

Me and my diet/healthy living progress ---- well food wise I'm doing fine. I've been learning to eat more bananas (sweet fruits - bananas are inexpensive and available) and fruit throughout the day, I haven't gotten used to having my salad at night yet - I seem to want it around 3:30-4 pm and then am hungry again around 8 - 8:30 when I sometimes eat a banana or make another banana smoothie. I'm not eating a lot of variety right now and I've researched quite a bit and found out that's pretty okay so I'm choosing not to worry about it. I just made my first batch of Carob not'choc' sauce and had 1/2 poured over a banana. Oh, guess I should mention that I've been using Nutridiary for about a month now and love the graphs and visualization. That has been helping me to notice my eating patterns and gain a bit of focus - along with the fact that I didn't realize I wasn't eating enough calories (can you imagine?)

Trin - I do have some loose skin - not horrible - not pretty tho and some of my skin is wrinkled or does wrinkle to the touch. I am not sure what to believe about RF & skin elasticity, I have decided to give my body a year to a year and a half before I make any decisions about the skin issues. In the mean time I'm eating healthy, I walk alot, I'm preparing my goals for 2007 and doing my best to become a healthier person.... I think that that is pretty good for right now.

Simply,
Lesa

Today's food intake:
'Cereal'w/Banana Milk, Banana w/not'Choc'Carob sauce, Romaine/Apple/Sundried Tom/Raisin/Celery Salad (A few too many ingred - but it worked) --- I have plans for a cold (I'll use 2 ice cubes) banana smoothie later on. 11/82/7 (f/c/p)