I'm Wren, 31, single-momma, going for a second bachelors... this time in Wildlife & Fisheries. For at least twenty years, my two main vices have been compulsive overeating & dermatillomania (skinpicking). But in the last few years, it's been building to insanity... coinciding with that is the building intensity of lessons learned, changed desired. It's all coming to a head.

So here I am. I feel & look like @#$%&. I've hit my rockbottom. So I'm making some real changes here... with the main belief that instant gratification never feels as good as real & lasting change.

Here are some of the changes I'm implementing:

-Going to bed earlier & waking up earlier.
-Incorporating sitting or walking meditation into my daily routine.
-Being more mindful in all life.
-Yet not freaking out, being perfectionist, & self-berating about it.
-Being on the computer less.
-Having a regular yoga practice.
-Remembering to take supplements & drink enough water.
-Having a 75% or more raw food diet!

Once I've weaned my son (probably within the next six months; he's 18 months now), I'm also going to try fasting. A friend of mine has used this technique to heal himself time & time again from various ailments. For myself, I'm thinking of an almost six-year, chronic sciatica issue. And just feeling toxic in general.

Speaking of supplements, btw... what's the story? Do raw foodists need supplements? Are supplements not part of a raw food diet? I haven't done any research on this yet. Also, when it comes to making tea, how does one get all the nutrients from the leaves without boiling? Sun tea?

I'll try to update from time-to-time on how I'm doing. I'm probably going to finish off a few last things in the house that aren't raw. The next grocery trip (although, soon I'd like to have my own food garden) I make will be to stock up on the raw, living stuff. I'm guessing it'll be slightly more expensive in the short run.

Thanks for reading, folks! Nice to join your community!

-Wren

Welcome, Wren!

Some take supplements and some don't. I take some supplements and think they are good while transitioning to the raw food diet sometimes - especially probiotics and enzymes.

I am not a tea person, but some of the raw foodists here do make sun tea.

welcome aboard wren, I don't like taking pills so I havent taken any suppliments since I have been raw. I love eating raw foods and enjoy greens and fruits. I drink tea at times. I can identify with the berating of oneself because I am really hard on myself. For some reason I am becomming a more positive person I think it has to do with what I am eating.
Life is good raw.

Thanks for your welcomes, positive feedback & encouragement. I'm needing that right now, & I'm sitting here wondering just how the heck I'm gonna do this. I don't have a juicer or a food processor or a dehydrator or even a shredder! My toddler & I live with my brother right now as we just moved here two months ago & I'm going to school (& lots of other stuff I won't go into). He only moved into this house a year ago, & he doesn't have a lot in it yet. He's hardly home, so he's not motivated to do that, & I don't have money to do that. All of my food is purchased with food stamps. And he's not into the idea of having a garden... not even a little tiny one in a baby pool (modern subdivisioners... grrrr!) I'm trying to start a community garden, but that'll take a little while to get up & running.

In the meantime, I sit here, gagging on a piece of raw broccoli, wondering how I'm gonna do this for even 30 days! Any ideas or suggestions are wholeheartedly welcome. Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2007 01:26PM by wrenbrrd.

Try to read lots of threads - you can search topics to narrow it down.

Lots of people don't bother with complicated meals. Often a blender for green drinks, is enough. Dehydrating stuff isn't nearly as healthy as eating it fresh.

You don't really need to replace everything in a regular diet - though - you might need to for emotional reasons, for the first while.

All you really need to do, is to start putting raw food in your diet. Greens and vegies are great - low fat and low cal, not expensive. You can just munch on celery and carrots, etc while on the computer, bring a bagful with you when you're out or in the car. You can make a simple raw tahini-lemon with herbs dip for broccoli etc. And soon you'll start refining what you need and want to eat.

You could go start by eating only fruit in the mornings, and not eating late at night.


Don't jump in with both feet, unless you WANT to.

Guess I just feel like I'm supposed to jump in with both feet in order to detox from how lousy I've been feeling. To add to the list of ailments above, I'm having some sort of nether-region issues... I'm not sure if it's my bladder or my reproductive system, but I want to cleanse my insides properly in order to heal from whatever it may be. Thanks for your suggestions. I'll put some of them to work!

hey wren, I don't have to much money to go on with this but years ago I aquired a champion juicer that just appeared in a want add for 50 dollers and recently I got a good blender for 5 dollers at a yard sale and the dehydrator well I got one for 3 dollers and another for five at a yard sale. I say this because whatever you need you will be able to find for the price you can afford. I use the blender the most and a good knife and cutting board. I am finding that it is best to be simple and if broccoli gags you don't eat it eat the foods you enjoy. I have found organic bananas in some stores that they bag up and sell much cheaper than the green ones that are so much cheaper and if they get to ripe I bag them up and freeze them or dry them. I have found a box of fresh organic apples for 10 dollers. and this week I went to the healthfood store and they have a bin they put the produce that is a little old not real bad and it is much cheaper. You can find deals all over if you look. When I first started eating raw I thought I had to fast and all that stuff but I soon realized I needed to learn to eat the raw foods. Oh and another thing is the vineger you may want it to make salad dressings use the braggs vineger not the clear stuff you find in the local store. Going raw is the best thing for you it will open the door for a totally new approach to live. good luck
life is good raw

I do not have a dehydrator and haven't used my juicer in ages (although I should). I started out just relying on a cutting board and a knife to make my salads and I was eating fresh fruit as well, along with some nuts. I did eventually buy a nice blender and I love it and use it often, but it is doable without it.

I agree with everyone else, don't stress yourself over doing it perfect at first. Add raw foods to your diet that you like. Eat fruit for breakfast (or skip it if you aren't hungry), have a salad for lunch, and then maybe have a little cooked food (some of the healthier, unprocessed cooked foods like a baked sweet potato or quinoa or something) for supper. Just a thought. The Hallelujah Diet kind of has this approach and has helped a lot of people.

Two other options I thought of for cleansing, besides improving your diet - enemas and oil pulling - [www.oilpulling.com]. They are both pretty inexpensive to do. I do occasional enemas and I want to try oil pulling soon as others have raved about it.

I just ate 3/4ths of a can of Amy's Chili after eating all raw since 24 hours ago, & ew... I regret it. I feel so heavy now! It's just amazing.

PamPam--

I think if I'm meant to have the equipment to make juices, one will drop in my lap. I have $0, & it's probably going to be that way for the next few months. My folks have already helped me out so much with school & gas to get there, I don't want to ask them for even a few dollars for this or that.

Karennd--

Wow! I just read about the oil pulling. That's incredible! I'm going to definitely give it a try. I've got twenty left this month on food stamps... guess what some of it's gonna go for?

I did a few simple enemas several years ago. They made me feel better for the moment. What I'd really love to try if I could afford it is a colonic or five (I've heard that one alone is not really all that effective).

Thanks again for the responses!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2007 07:00PM by wrenbrrd.

hi wren welcome to the forum .. dont stress out over not having this or that peice of equipemtn

eating raw foods is as simple as getting the produce and eating it

sure at some point you are gonna wanna play around with some fancy receipies but take where you are now and go with it

and remember to sit back adn breathe once in awhile .. this is not a diet its a lifestyle .. any positive changes you make in your life are changes for the better

i love this quote:

If you get on a train in New York heading towards California .. and you fall off in Kansas ...

are you back in New York? NO !! YOU ARE IN KANSAS .. so get back on the train and keep on going to California !

in other words .. dont think youve lost all your progress if you fark things up once in awhile .. just pick up where you left off and keep on going. hey ! guess what ..weve ALL fallen out of the fruit tree or off the veggie cart once in awhile ! haha

we got enough people around us beating us down everday we really dont need to do it to ourselves do we>?

well ?? do we?? =D

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2007 07:18PM by Jgunn.

Jodi, I love that quote!!! :-)

I am going to remember and use that one.

heee heee yer welcome Karen !

loved that quote jodi, wren, we don't beat ouselves about what we eat its all a learning experiance or a journey. We be travilin on the same path pickin the fruit on the way livin and learning and sharin our lifes leasons so wipe that chili from yr lips and keep on eating the fruit and vegis. life is good raw

(*see next post*)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2007 03:12AM by wrenbrrd.

Wow, thank you to the last few posters! I'm really thankful for this forum & all the support! There're lots of kind folks here.

That's some great stuff... I enjoyed the quote about NY to Cali & falling off in Kansas as well.

Well, I think I'm detoxing after only two days (& even though I haven't been 100% raw; maybe 75%... I've also eaten that Amy's chili & an Amy's burrito, plus two slices of Ezekial sprouted bread.) But I, ahem, (warning: TMI coming up in the next part)... have the sh|ts. It could be related to the raw sheep's or cow's cheese, but my brother ate a big chunk off them, & he's fine. Plus, I haven't eaten that much of the cheeses. So I think it must be detox. Am I right?

I've had several health issues besides chronic sciatica, joint pain (from hiking long ways with lots of weight on my back), compulsive & mindless eating habits, & this new discomfort in my reproductive system/bladder. One such issue is really awful gas on a pretty regular basis. So this leads me to the question... will a raw veggie/fruit/grains diet really lead me to less gas? Guess I've been led to believe that consuming such foods lead to more of that.

Thanks again for all your support & encouraging words! Namaste!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2007 03:12AM by wrenbrrd.

I just wanted to point out that Angela Stokes ate a 70% raw diet for quite awhile and lost a lot of weight and regained health. Her story is here [www.rawreform.com]. I think she eats all raw now though.

Maybe you can't digest the cheese as well as your brother. Even Dr. Mercola, who recommends raw cheese to his clients, cannot eat it himself as he cannot digest it. It could be detox, but with the cheese I am thinking that might be what is causing the diarrhea.

If you have gas issues you might want to consider some enzymes and probiotics as supplements to help you as you transition to raw. I would perhaps avoid cruciferous veggies for awhile as they can cause a lot of gas. You will just have to pay attention to any symptoms after you eat and see if you can determine which foods cause more gas. I would guess that you might want to limit or avoid nuts entirely, as they can be hard to digest.

You can do it!

I soaked almonds the other day, as I read that makes them easier to digest.

Thanks for passing along the Angela Stokes story. There's a news story posted on her on youtube, but it isn't nearly as detailed.

Since this is my diary, chronicling my raw food & consequent health travels, I'm going to state my current weight, which I forgot to do in my initial post.

I'm about 150 pounds & 5 feet tall (& maybe a quarter inch). I had a baby 18 months ago, but since adolescence, I've usually been about twenty to thirty pounds over. Once I was on a running kick, & I lost weight. Once I was on a bike kick, & I lost weight. But that's it.

Now I'm 31 & trying to find the energy to even take care of my toddler. So here I am!

I'm making an allowance for myself in the beginning to have one non-raw thing a day. Today, it was a slice of sprouted grain bread.

I'm guessing that pickles you buy in the store have cucumbers that are cooked before they're pickled unless otherwise stated... even organic ones, correct?

I'm sprouting lentils! It's so adorable... the little tendrils emerging from their bodies!

Namaste!

I forgot to ask something in the last post (that's another thing I'm hoping will improve... my memory!):

Has anyone ever gained weight (who was already overweight) on a raw food diet? The reason I ask is that there are so many nuts, seeds, & avocadoes! I love all those foods, but if I'm going to be vegan on this, then I need to have avocadoes to make sure that I stay that way... at least, that's what I believe at this point. Thanks!

I know it doesn't sound filling and satisfying, but if you LIMIT the fat and protein in your diet to only the amount you actually CRAVE, you'll probably find the raw diet works much better for you.

I say that from experience. I thought I needed plenty of protein and good fats..just not true - eating them made me crave them and did not make me feel better, except while I ate them.

I finally listened to Bryan's advice about limiting fat and protein and voila!, I immediately felt more energetic and less anxious.

So you will have to eat more fruit and veg to get cals. We're so used to needing the heaviness of normal food, and we always think of salad as a LIGHT meal, so when we start a raw diet, we still believe we need to fill up on hefty, dense foods.


The thing that's hard to wrap our heads around, is just how simple a good raw diet is. It seems complicated because we start with unhealthy bodies and beliefs.


Best, jill

What you wrote sounds great, but I'm concerned about my issues with low blood sugar attacks. I've always been led to believe that I need extra protein to avoid these. Is that just a myth?

Not a myth, but the best coping mechanism that standard medicine and diet could come up with.

I had low blood sugar for decades. The hardest thing for me to give up for raw diet was red meat. I craved the protein and iron. Best solution for me: one or two daily parsley and kale smoothies with a tiny amount of raw sesame seed and some dates to sweeten.
I'm in my forties and my skin tone is awesome to me! Not bragging, just rejoicing. And LOTS of other people have made the same observation after going raw - it shows a lot in your skin. I finally got my iron levels up - it only took a 2-3 months on a raw vegan diet, whereas I couldn't get them up from high- quality iron supplements and all the red meat I could eat over 3 years!

If you have low blood sugar it could be related to too much dietary fat and a host of malfunctioning organs.

Go to the Salvation Army and find a cheap blender and make green smoothies. Use as much protein as you want, just make sure to 'feel' your way along - like you said, trust your intuition!

You,ll experience lots of weird symptoms while transitioning, so don't be discouraged by this - it's just what the trail looks like on the way back, if you know what I mean. (ever done that? felt weirded out by the return hike, like you must be going the wrong way?)

Yeah... you know, I "screwed up" a few times today... i.e., gave into the fact that there's more cooked & processed food in this house than raw... & now I feel heavy again. So I'm about ready to take the $22 I just made for watching my parents' house for them while they were gone to spend on some piece of equipment for making juices. I'm tired of relying on salad dressing, avocadoes, & nuts & seeds to get me to eat raw. I just want to drink some good, fresh veggie & fruit juice down & know that I am on my way to being healthy finally!

aquadecco: Your comment about hiking, lol! I did forest defense activism for a few years, which involved lots of burly hikes & finding my way to the springs or back to camp or what-have-you. I learned a tactic to avoid feeling weirded out by the return hike, as you put it. As you're hiking along, turn around to make sure you know what it's going to look like when you come back. But yeah... I've said to myself "I'll remember that tree because it's got the funny-lookin' branch" & then notice on the way back they ALL have funny-looking branches!

I saw a clip on youtube about raw last night, plus just saw before & after pics of other ppl on this site, & I'm now VERY serious about this raw thing. Something seems to have clicked.

I really like the quote of a poster that says "Nothing tastes as good as health feels." (which sounds like a POSITIVE spin on "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels"... a quote that reminds me of anorexics). Anyway, I think the glow in ppl's faces, presences, auras, etc. speak volumes! They do to me.

And so this morning, I'm eating a breakfast of fruit only. The last few days, I had been eating rolled oats with raw honey & seeds in water. But now it just doesn't feel right.

My brother is going to ask a co-worker who used to be into raw foods if he has anything (dehydrator, processor, juicer) to hand down.

This is feeling much better today.

I like that positive thinking! That alone will help and you will be able to listen to what your body really wants you to do. :-)

I've eaten mostly raw today, but I feel like cr@p. Is this like when you fast & feel terrible during the first three or four days, but then feel great? (From what I've heard anyway... I've only been able to make to three & a half days before.) Am I going to feel more energy after a few more days of being raw?... because this really sucks! I feel like a big block of lead, & I'm super irritable. I'm also really really hungry!

I read the blog of a woman who lost 130 pounds in six months bc she only drank green smoothies. But she complained of irritability the whole time. Is this common?

Wow, there's a turtle crawling up the ravine from neighbors backyard! (Maybe because it's finally raining?) I'm going to check it out!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2007 05:23PM by wrenbrrd.

You mentioned not having enough energy so I'd like to post an article by Karen Knowler that I really like [karenknowler.typepad.com].

I also thought these 15 tips for eating raw might help - [karenknowler.typepad.com].

I feel irritable when I eat too many sweet fruits. I have Type 1 Diabetes but I have other people complain about that too. Maybe you can incorporate more of the non-sweet fruits like tomatoes, cucumbers, even apples.

I think a colonic or enema would help. It helps me. Good luck on figuring it out!

I went to both pages, thank you for posting them! As far as the energy, I've been pretty much following all of what she suggests. But as far as the 15 tips, some of those I could use. Again, the missing pieces to success seem to come down to the fact that I have no way of juicing. Hopefully, that will change soon.

I agree that a colonic would help hugely. Now if only I could find someone willing to do it for me on Medicaid! lol

Thanks again!

I must admit, I don't follow all of her 15 tips either. I am not juicing right now, for instance, just smoothies. Just thought it was a good article.

Enemas are cheap to do at home. Anyway, keep on trucking girl. You can do it!

karen, do you think enemas DO much...... I've tried them a couple of times and didn't feel any kind of difference.

I wonder if they actually "get" stuff!

What do you think?

They can help quite a bit. Technique can play a part.

Here is a good video on how to do an enema. [www.youtube.com]

Take care!