Surprisingly, this time, our going back to raw was triggered by my husband, who has always been supportive, but not really into the whole raw thing himself. When I first met him, he was trying to gain weight, the body builders way. Eating, eating eating, protein, protein, protein. He didn't think a meal without meat was complete. I must applaud him, because I NEVER thought he would want to become raw ever!!! And he's made it over a month now!

He agreed, with having had to listen to my raw food lectures, that it was best to raise our two children (Cora, 2yo/ Dillan 4yo) raw. He also ate the raw meals I prepared on my short periods of attemting to be raw.

Because of my husband's knee injury, which he has been dealing with for years now, he decided suddenly (because he is now at the point of knee surgery), he wanted to try 100% raw, and since he knows nothing about preparing raw foods, I slowly got dragged into it, by starting to prepare raw foods for him.

I didn't want to commit to going raw just yet, since I had had a very hard time 2 years ago, right around the birth of my daughter, when I was raw for 6 weeks. But I followed my husband along and did it.

We now have been over 30 days raw ....... well until recently. My father in law and my stepson have come to visit for the past 2 weeks, and SAD food was slowly introduced back into our household. We did well until our little 3 day trip to the coast last weekend. We ate predominantly raw, but the last day, we had a SAD dinner etc.

My husband's has had actually more willpower than myself, and still does, even though the raw diet has not improved the condition of his knee yet. I think he has a lot of detoxing to do, since he has had digestive problems ever since he was a child, as well as severe ear problems.

I, on the other hand, am going down hill fast at the moment.

I think the lack of excercise in my life is contributing my tiredness, moodiness and general not feeling well. I have not regularily excercised since my son was born 4 years ago! O.O

Plus my raw diet, in the last 30 days, did include Starbucks almost every day, and raw cheese, and I still overeat, and comfort eat.

So now I am at a point in my raw journey, that I feel I NEED to start excercising again, and to try and find my inner voice, that I can listen to in regards to my nutritional needs.

Here's a picture of my raw babies!
[img177.imageshack.us]

-points up-
well, I guess I meant to say, that here is a link to my babies picture, I'm too tired to figure out how to post pictures in this forum atm. -.-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2007 08:48AM by bellamausi.

welcome to the life of raw...... Lucky you to have a husband who wants to also. My family enjoys some of the raw foods but not willing to give up the soda pop and sad foods. I have been at this for 19 days now and I was a coffee drinker. I felt the coffee really made me tired and grumpy. I just quit smoking also. I am starting to feel a bit beter from thost two addictions. You keep up the good work and your rewards are around the corner.

Hi, and thanks for your encouragment. I also believe the caffeine has been the culprit of my tiredness during the past 30 days. And moodyness. So I have decided to give up coffee completely and the raw cheese as well.

good for you. When I stoped drinking the coffee I had a headache for three days. I do feel more sustainable energy. I remember when I first tried coffee I had to pour the sugar in it to be able to drink it. I think coffee is an aquired taste, like some of these raw foods I have created lately, lol. I drank coffee to curb my appetite and to wake me up and keep me awake. When I was working a night shift I lived on coffee. Besides all that I live in washington and here there are latee stands on every corner.
Thanks for the nice comment in my diary.
pam

Yeah, you might be right about coffee being an aquired taste! I had my coffee headache yesterday.I felt like I had something heavy laaying om top of my head/eyes. Glad we went to the beach, so I had a little distraction from it.

My headache is gone this morning, but I'm tired and keep wandering around the house looking for food, but not really hungry.

I've been snacking alongside my father in laws, who is still visiting, and the snacks are junk. So I'm glad he's leaving again tomorrow, not because I don't get along with him (I do), but because of all the SAD food he brought into the house and I feel weak right now, and can't withstand temptation.

But I am sticking with not having coffee, so at least that I am mastering for now.

that sound funney, "Bella, the gal who mastered no coffee" Oh well, I sometimes have a wierd sense of humor. Pat yourself on the back. I did not think I would survive but now I don't even miss it. My room mate brews some in the morning and now it does not effect me at all. a couple of nights ago I drank a sleepy time tea and it knocked my out I wonder what would happen if I drank one of those pick me up herbal teas. Lucky you to live so close to the ocean. I have'nt been to the ocean in years. I hope to make it out to ocean shores this summer though. Well catch ya later and eat the green stuff its good for you.
Pam

Well, we don't live that close to the beach either, takes about 1 1/2 hours to get there. But the kids love it there and it's such a mood picker upper!

Hmm yeah, I haven't written much about my eating, because I'm not too happy with it. Still not back to 100% raw, even though I have kicked the coffee.

Well bella, I started here and prisim wote something that encouraged me to take the plunge and just go for it. I was toodleing around just sitting on the fence saying I got to quit smoking first and have these sprouts made and all this stuff done. But I just jumped off that fence and dove in head first. You know I was hungry a lot because I just did'nt know what to eat but I feel so much control now than three weeks ago. I mean control of my life I also feel free from fear. I don't know how to explain that one but it has to do with my health and age and all. I just hope it stays with me and grows and expands. I am feeling reborn in a way. You know my family had pizza a couple of days ago and I was smelling it and I did'nt take a bite I just told my daughter that maybe later after I have been raw for a while I can eat a piece if I wanted to but you see I am loseing so much weight and feel so great and stronger. I have over 150 pounds of weight on me to lose yet I feel lighter and more energetic.
You take care and have a great weekend
Pam

Thanks for the encouragment, Pam! I really appreciate it. I know I will be 100% raw again, hopefully really soon. I don't know what is keeping me from saying: "OK, tomorrow is a new day,and I will be 100%!". It almost seems fear of not being able to do it.

It seems silly, because I just did it for 30 days, well I would say 99% raw. But I wasn't really happy with the way I was feeling, so now I'm not sure, if I want to be raw like that again, but not sure I can cut out the foods I think are not becoming me.

Like the tons of dried fruit I would eat, or the raw cheese. I think those two I would have to ease up on, to feel the effects of being raw. Or maybe it was the coffee, that just had me so tired all month. Yeah, I wasn't feeling too amazing for 30 days raw, go figure. Before I was eating very little raw, not extreme junk, but not much raw either. And then I go raw, and just didn't feel much different, I actually felt worse, I think, because I had to struggle with not being able to eat what I wanted.

I did ok today, all fruit, except for a mini Abbey's greek pizza on the way home from the beach.

Plus I also started working out, my second day today. I joined the fruitarianfitness.com forum. Richard is an amazing individual! Working out has already changed my mood a bit, it is amazing what excersise can do for your overall well being!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2007 06:19AM by bellamausi.

I bet cutting way back on the dried fruit, raw cheese, and definitely the coffee would help you to feel lots better on a raw food diet. Some raw foodists don't believe in including any of those. The dried fruit is pretty concentrated sugar and I know with my Type 1 Diabetes I have to avoid it. Raw cheese sure is yummy, but I got to where I could just feel the hit to my system when I ate it. It's much better though than regular cheese for you. I have never liked coffee, so I can't relate to that one. I do miss the red wine that I've given up though. It's not really raw and also I could never tell if it would make my blood sugars go up or down.

It's a real struggle to figure out how to eat a raw diet sometimes that works for us. Kind of sad really, because we have grown up with so much junk we don't know how to eat real food anymore. :-)

Good for you on the working out, bella. Keep it up and let us know how you are doing.

karennd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> It's a real struggle to figure out how to eat a
> raw diet sometimes that works for us. Kind of sad
> really, because we have grown up with so much junk
> we don't know how to eat real food anymore. :-)
>


I think about that a lot, when I struggle, lol! I keep thinking, why oh why, did we ever get exposed to cooked food? If I didn't know junk, I wouldn't crave it! My kids don't crave sugar, candies etc. They want fruit, that is their joy! I wish I could be like them, but I guess we never will be quite like them. :/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2007 09:20PM by bellamausi.

I think it is harder for us adults to listen to our intuition on what to eat because we have ignored our body's signals for so long. I remember reading The Raw Family and her son, in particular, seemed to have an intuition about what to eat when they switched to the raw diet. One time he craved cucumbers and just kept eating them until finally the craving was over. Would I listen to a craving like that? Probably not. ;-)

We not only got exposed to cooked food, but also highly processed foods with high fructose corn syrup, GMO ingredients, chemicals galore, transfats -- basically we ingested a lot of non-foods as food substitutes. The S.A.D. is very sad. And the raw food diet can make us happy, it just takes time to figure out what works. That my 2 cents anyway. :-)

I think when it comes it intuition we will eventually obtain that as our body's heal from all the poisons we have taken in our body's I think if we approach the raw food diet with the understanding that we can eat the cooked foods if we choose to. Don't feel as you are denying yourself these foods feel as if you are going on a investigative trip experimenting with new and unusual foods of a different world. I read that it takes 90 days to totally rejuvinate your blood. Our body is a wonderful creation that is able to heal itself, if we fill it with the resources it needs to do so. We are so fortunate.
On the other hand I am craving garlic. I am not sure I am brave enough to eat a clove of garlic. I have been eating onions a lot lately now I want garlic. I pity anybody who walks near me. I'll reek of garlic!

hey there wowie you are doing great on this amazing journey in life!! how wonderful your hubby has started your family on such a healthy lifestyle!! that is amazing to start the children out at such a young age!! i am a nanny and always always want to workw ith a family that is raw..but it is hard to find, so i try to incorporate more and more things in their diet parents wiling of course anyways just wanted to tell you how wonderful it was your whole family is in it together!!
take care
lots of love
earthangel
xoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo