Hi!
It took me a veeery long time to decide to write here. First, because I haven't spoken any good English in years and feared to make too many mistakes...
But I need help, and I saw there are very nice and supportive persons around here so I wanted to try.
To summarize my story, about 5 years ago I moved to another country (Japan), got married and started living in a very big city (Tokyo). Then I started having stomach troubles (gas, mainly) so painful that it was stopping me from having a normal life. Also I started losing weight which, having into account that all my life I have been under 40 kg, worried me to death.
As I didn't want to take medicines, I tried natural medicine first and they told me I had intolerance to wheat. With all my effort, I stopped eating wheat and as a result, I started losing weight even quicker, and I panicked.
That was one year ago. Since then I went to several doctor and tried western and eastern natural medicine but so far, nothing worked. (In fact, most of them advised to eat all food cooked and avoid raw at all) I realized that the key was on food but so far didn't had the courage to try a raw diet.
Well, now Im in 30 kg and that's my limit, so I have to try.
I don't know where to start, even though I've been doing a lot of reading, so I would appreciate if you could ckeck a little bit on my diet, if you think I'm taking enough food, if I should add or remove something, etc.
One of the last things I was told by doctors is that I might have candida, so I reached a web page giving some advices for that and keeping as raw as possible.
They adviced to eat a lot of green juices and my first question is: what can I combine to make a good green juice? I will try to make 4 green juices a day and so far I discovered I like celery, but Im afraid Im eating to much of it, maybe.
Also, so far every time I drank carrot juice I started having pain in my knees and the skin of my face got sooo dry and sensitive, so I stopped, but since I changed to an almost raw diet (I eat some cooked food for dinner) I can tolerate it much better. Also, no problem with fruit but I'd like to eat more veggies than fruit.
Sorry for this long message. (and could have been longer! But I'll ask the rest of the questions little by little so you don't get so tired of me...) and thank you very much.

There a lots of green combos, you can try spinach, celery, and carrots for a base. You can try spinach, green apple, and carrots. Or green apples and carrots.

I'm wondering if you can purchase organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar? It's supposed to help people with digestion among tons of other things it does for a body.

You might want to visit the website bragg.com for more info. on what it does for people who have a difficult time with digestion, absorbtion of nutrients and gaining weight.

I've been taking it for my pain from uric acid crystals in my joints and tissues and it's helping tremendously. I take 1 T with 1 C of water 3x a day. I just drink it down like it's lemonade. You could try it in apple juice if you don't like the water and vinegar.

Love,
Prism

-first of all i would like to say your English is better than mine :-P
- if you want to check and make sure you are getting enough calories in your diet you can join
[fitday.com] another member of the forum (earth angle) turned me onto it, and its great
good luck and i hope you stay healthy

peace
liebe
paix
-alex





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2007 02:31AM by NEW2raw!.

hey there...welcome to the diary section and raw forum....congrats on your raw journey....i hope this helps your digestion problems as i am sure it willl!!!! i would love to help you out and offer support for you....you gotta list your foods for us though
fitday or nutrifit are good kcal and fat counters
good luck
take care
love earthangel
xoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Thank you so much for your help and support!
Prism, I'll look for the organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar you recommend and will check braggs right now! I hope I can find it...
Alex, you know, it's so good you mentioned about calories, because I counted them today and it was very low: 890, or something. No wonder I cannot gain weight!
Ill list what I ate today so maybe you can tell me what Im doing wrong, as Earthangel advised.
Breakfast:
- Water with lemon juice
- Green juice (carrot, celery and spinach)
- 2 peaches

Lunch:
- Green juice (carrot, celery, cucumber)
- Big salad. (Too big, actually...) lettuce, spinach, broccoli, tomato, onion,
avocado.
- Apple

Afternoon:
- 2 bananas
- I got desperatly hungry and ate a rice ball with nori (but better than cheese cake, for sure)

Dinner:
- Green juice: carrot, celery and cabbagge
- Salada: Lettuce, olives, flax oil
- Squash and...rice again.

I was not supposed to eat rice again (or at all today!) but I felt so hungry and dont want to rely on fruits so much to keep on a raw diet. Im sure I need some grains, and even though rice always makes me feel very heavy, I didn't have time to soak anything else.
Im worried about the calories thing and more than that, Im worried because I feel very weak and losing weight again, so Im considering about adding a cooked veggie for lunch (lotus, or some other root). What do you think?
Thanks again for all your help.

Hi Iris. I live in Tokyo too. I work here but am technically based in Miami Beach & Paris and I'm originally from Puerto Rico. Where are you from?

I wanted to say that I read an e-book by Storm of www.thegardendiet.com about raw bodybuilding & weight gain. You may want to check that out. He had some good, substantial recipes in there. They also have some other very good e-books about raw vegan and starting out on this diet.

Just a suggestion...

PS
My biggest temptation here are umeboshi oni-giri


www.inaia.com

Hey there hun...well you are doing really well...but i am sure you are getting hungry cuz you aren't eating enough kcals for your body to build itself up...you might lose a few pounds at first no matter what cuz your body is detoxing...but you will gain it back.....now as far as kcal sources...do you not like fruit very much?? they are a very healthy source of kcals.....they help fill you up..get some good carbs for you..very cleansing...and very good for kcals.....some of the more prominent ones are avo's, coconuts, and bananas are good sources as well!!!
nuts and seeds are good to...soak for at least 2 hours.....sprouted wild rice grain is a great source to get some kcals and feel full and stop the hunger for cooked ...you can make lots of good yummy dishes with sprouted wild grain rice it actually isn't a rice when sprouted...so don't worry it is safe!! keep up the good work and try to add an extra fruit or handful of nuts or seeds or something!! you can do it!! we are here for you
love earthangel
xoxoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Hi Inaia! Yesterday I checked your blog a little bit and I saw you can speak Spanish, which makes me very happy because I'm from Spain! I'd be very glad to talk in Spanish, for a change, as at home we only speak a kind of "Japanglish", and it's exhausting...
If you don't mind, I'll send you a private message later, OK?
Also I checked the web site you recommend and looks good. Maybe I'll order some ebooks, too. Thank you!
Earthangel, thank you so much for checking on my diet. I'm reading you in other threads and you always have a nice word for everybody. You really are an "Earthangel" ^_^
Today I have bad news.
This is not working for me. My face is getting thinner and thinner and I feel so weak I had a hard time to wake up this morning. I don't know if the problem is that I cannot digest (and therefore absorb) food so well yet, especially carbohydrates, but the truth is that I must change something if I want to continue a normal life.
Today I ate so far:

Water with lemon
Green juice: carrot, celery, spinach and lettuce.
2 cups of cherries
Another green juice, smaller this time: celery and cucumber.

For lunch I had 1/2 zucchini with tomato, avocado and basil sauce. Ah, and a little bit of olive oil.

Then went to work already feeling quite bad and as soon as I had chance, I ate a banana, 2 dates, almonds... and chocolate someone brought to work, plus some more sweets and finally, the cheese cake I was trying to avoid yesterday (contains milk, wheat, sugar... well, you know)
And even though, I still feel weak and preparing some rice with green beans for dinner.
I love fruit, but the problem is that I dont feel like sweet carbohydrates so much and also, as I said, I don't want to stay raw just by eating a lot of fruits if that's not what my body is asking for.
Ummm... I'm thinking how to reorganize my diet to add some grains for lunch, maybe. In Japan they have a kind of rice called "Hatsuga genmai", brown rice picked up very early. If you soak it over night, the next day it's so soft and tender that you can actually eat it as if it was cooked. I ate it a couple of times, but the second time I had a lot of stomach troubles (it could be bad combination, though) and then I read somewhere that raw brown rice is toxic. Do you know something about it?
I have been reading what you guys eat in one day and I'm impressed you can be OK and also put in many more calories than me! Maybe this is not the right time for me to try a high raw diet, or maybe I need to do it slower, but anyway, for the moment, I'll do what I can...
Thank you again for your patience.

Hola Iris. Que pena que no te va muy bien con la dieta. A mi tampoco me gusta comer demasiadas frutas dulces asi que yo anadi granos y aguacates y ensaladas y algo de nueces y me va mucho mejor. Ahora acostumbro comer fruts de noche mas que nada. No se sobre el arroz, pero me gusta mucho el maiz.

Anyway, I was in Barcelona this holiday season. Where in Spain are you from? Oh, and thanks for checking out my blog. Do you work out? Dance? Yoga?

BTW, I live in Azabu Juban. Don't know what area you're in. Just wondering.


www.inaia.com

Hello Iris,

welcome here, and I wish you well in your search for better health. It can be so confusing at first. Try to read a lot of different books on rawfoodism, there are so many angles and viewpoints (that conflict!). See what makes sense to you, try it, and if it is not satisfactory, keep reading and experimenting. Definitely, learn about food combining rules....very important, especially if you already have digestive problems. That alone (food combining properly) will help you a lot. There is a lot to learn.

Good luck,
hasta luego!
Elakti

Hi there...well no problem helping you out!! i try to be there for support when others need it!! i know how hard it is at the beginning and being able to get hte kcals in....i think with your health challenge you are facing 100% is a good way to go till it is cleared up and if you want to change it up a bit...that is what i have ready in most of the books..that 100% is recommended for health challenges to create a complete...alkaline healthy state of body to help cleanse and purify!!!
but you gotta go with what you feel too!!
good luck..oh and i have heard that brown rice is toxic along with all rices except wild grain rice..that is why i suggested it earlier..that is the only one that isn't toxic to humans!!
good luck
love earthangel
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

hey iris!
i havent read though everyones posts here so some of this might be repeated sorry!
-im still not 100% raw, but one thing that will keep me away from cooked food is always eating! lol i bet it sounds strange but when i eat something (even just a little something) every 2 hours or so i feel much more satisfied
-also in alissa cohen's store i saw raw oats, the look wicked good! i think you had said you had eaten rice, because you really wanted some grain

good luck

peace
liebe
paix

alex

hey iris hope your aday went well...take care
love earthangel
xoxoxoxxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Thank you for your advices, suggestions and encouragement!
I didn't write because I have been reading. A lot...
Yesterday was not a good day (I even ate non-vegan food) but the good thing is that this morning I felt terrible and my body was asking for a green juice (I think this is the first time in my whole life!).
So today I have been almost raw (except a rice ball and potato chips. I needed something salty) and feel much better. Still I cannot put in enough calories but I'll improve on that little by little. At least, I'm not losing weight anymore so I'm happy.
I'm thinking about buying a dehydrator but so far I couldn't find it in Japan. Anyway I'm very slow searching in Japanese, so this weekend I'll ask my husband to do it for me. If I have it, I think (I hope) my menu options will increase a lot.
Inaia asked if I do some kind of exercise, I do a kind of tai chi called "Renko juuhappo". Well, it's not really tai chi, but a series of exercises with a very beautiful Chinese music. I tried yoga and tai chi before, too, but I lose concentration very easily and having a music to pay attention to, helps me to focus in what I'm doing, that's why I have been sticking to this "Renko" for years.
Ah, I also dance flamenco and I need to have a lot of energy for that, so let's see if I can get it from my food.
Thank you again for writing here. You are helping me a lot.

Hi Iris. Sounds like you are doing very well. Those oni giri tempt me every time. our Renko sounds very nice!

Very good about all the reading too. That will help you find a good solution for you.


www.inaia.com

hey iris...how are you doing???? hope all is well..take care and keep it up!!
love earthangel
xoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo