Hey everyone my name is Corissa and I'm from Cleveland. I started on only eating raw foods eleven days ago and haven't turned back. I have eaten dried fruits from the store and braggs liquid aminos and raw vinegar ( all of which I'm hoping to eventually phase out.) My diet has included soaked grains and seeds with fruit for breakfast and various nuts fruits and veggies during the rest of the day. The first couple days I felt like crap, I was exhausted and I had a terrible headache and I kept breaking out into sweats. Then after four days I started feeling great. Lots of energy and I was in a great mood, but then I started to decline. I started getting really tired again and now I have an awful cold. I have been doing some reading about different ways the body gets rid of toxins and getting a cold is one of them. How long did it take for most of you to feel better after going raw? Thanks!

That's a great question. I, too, am very new to raw (about a week). The first few days I felt absolutely fantastic -- including a complete alieviation of my normal cranky nature -- but the last two days I've felt crappy and irritable, and also very very cold. This could very well be because of nearly impossible work stress on these past two days (I'm still at my desk now at 10:15 pm), and the fact that summer has ended abruptly and apparently winter has begun here in Chicago. But still, I wonder if part of it is caused by my diet. I thought I would feel incredible forever on the raw diet, but I guess not.

i took you many years to reach your current state of health and while it won't take you quite as long to reach Much Better Health, it certainly won't happen overnight! you wouldn't expect to become a body builder after a few days of working out now would you?

it's a mistake to chalk everything up to detox (like loose teeth or losing your hair or missing your period) but for sure, bad skin, bad breath, fatigue, being cold, etc are all reasonable symptoms of detoxification. if it's uncomfortable you can slow it down by transitioning slowly into more and more raw. and it's totally normal to reach a plateau now and then where things seem to be staying the same or even slightly declining. those are opportunities to fine tune what you're doing by adding more exercise, weeding out some of the less desirable foods, eliminating salt, spices, etc.

life is a journey, not a destination. enjoy the steps along the way and be gentle with yourself. it's not a marathon, take it easy.

Corizza,

Here is an excellent article on detoxification and the raw diet.

That was a great article! Its crazy how many of those symptoms I am experiencing. I always thought of myself as a pretty healthy eater before learning about raw foodism, but I guess I was holding on to way more toxins than I could have ever imagined. Even though I am feeling absolutly miserable right now, I know I'm doing the right thing for my body. Thanks a lot for the article, that is exactly what I needed to read!

-Even people that think they were very healthy eaters have often eaten refined carbohydrates and animal fats........along with other processed oils, salts, etc. All this material creates inner deposits that.......by the time a person reaches adulthood.......greatly clog and inflammate the body.....its joints......and impede the circulation. When one starts to eat healthy....these items are released....and broken down....little by little.

-The above posters are great. It probably did not take you 30 days to arrive at your present state of health.....and it probably will not take 30 days to achieve maximum health. Give yourself a generous time frame....and set small goals. Never stop....and you never lose.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

david, i love you.

Corizza,

You wrote that you are from Cleveland. Would that be Cleveland, Ohio? I live in Parma. I am not going to repeat what has already been articulated by others "above" me who have much more experience with this than myself. You received outstanding advice above. I have dealt with some of the same angst and issues too. Mine got so "disabling" that I have had to ease back from 80-100% raw to more like 50-75%. (I am not eating traditional SAD.) My issue is mostly multiple food allergies that "exploded" once I switched raw. I just started treatments at a homeopathic clinic here in northeast Ohio. Anyway, if you do live this close I would love to know someone in the area to exchange ideas, recipes, problems, etc with. Let me know.

Patty (Oh, I am not a stalker or psycho. As you may read in some posts, it is often difficult to find other raw comrades within already close circles of friends/family to talk the talk with.)

Oh thats so awesome that you live close by...i actually have a friend that is doing this with me and we keep meaning to find other people so we can have dinner parties and stuff. I probably talk to my friend on the phone five times a day because we are always finding out new information and and new recipes. my e-mail is corizza2@yahoo.com. Send me a message so we can keep in touch!

oh you crazy girl, you just posted your email on a public forum! that's what the PM function is for you silly. hope you only get "raw" spam!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2007 03:14PM by coco.

Hi everyone, I originally posted this somewhere else but I think it may be more appropriate to ask it here..I too am having 'weird' symptoms..

Brief intro: I've been a closet vegan for most of my life. I hate dairy products and I've never got into meat/chicken (unless it was junk when I was stressed at work or had no other choice - I'm a journalist). I've been looking into raw foods for over a year (I've always eaten lots of fruit and veggies, just not raw, and I've been health conscious since childhood, thanks mom!) but there are no books available in the country I live in, and no one at either of the 2 health food stores here has heard of raw food as a way of life (I use the term health food store loosly, one is a macrobiotic store and another sells organic veg and nothing else).

So I decided to go ahead with the info I have from the net and newsletters I subscribe to.

It's been hard, but I am kind of managing. Things I don't understand..

1. I get the weirdest 'shakes' and 'nervous' feeling after I eat/drink the fruit/veggie blends. I get really excitable and jumpy (verging on anxiety).

2. Sometimes I really space out and find it hard to think/process information.

I usually have a veggie juice (some blended and some juiced) mixed with fruit for breakfast, and as much of a veggie smoothie as I can for lunch (I sometimes get queasy when I chew large mouthfuls of spinach/parsley), and then a large salad (olives, sundried tomato, sunflower seeds, olive oil) and some veggies for dinner

Sometimes I have pasta/couscous for dinner (I don't think going 100% raw at once is a good idea). (I plan to diversify my eating as soon as time allows, I have a 16 hour work day at the moment so the blends/smoothies are easiest to carry).

I'm allergic to nuts (even with the hydrogen peroxide) so I have to get protein elsewhere, but the weird thing is that it's eating complex carbs like pasta/couscous that make me feel better, not necessarily protein.

I have a friend coming from london in a couple of months, she's bringing gabriel c's book and victoria butenko's with her, till then, I'm wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to why the shakes/hyperactivity/nervousness? Could it be fruit sugar? Stress because I'm not sure what I'm doing?

Thank you very much to anyone who has the time to tackle even a small part of what I posted about!

badawie,

The spaciness is a blood sugar related problem, usually an indication of too much fat in the diet. Its worthwhile to put your daily menu into a nutritional calculator like fitday.com to see the percentage of fat intake in your diet. If your fat intake is 30% or more, you might consider lower it.

Mixing veggies and fruits is often not a great idea, unless the veggie is some mild greens like lettuce or celery. Try eating fruit only meals, and veggie only meals. If the veggies you are using are starchy, this is not a great thing to do on a raw diet.

I like to eat my fruit on an empty stomach, and I find it digests the best if I eat only one kind of fruit.

Don't worry about getting enough protein. If you are getting enough calories and meeting your energy needs, you will be getting enough protein.

Thank you very much Bryan. I was actually on Dr Graham's site today (which I found from a reply you gave someone) and realised his 80/10/10 is definitely suited to me. I think juicing is not for me..and the 'energy soup' mixes and unintentionally high fat diet I've been on isn't working for me. I think just fruits and veg are my thing.

I have been using a nutri calculator which has been worrying me since my fat intake has been hovering at 30% (of 1200 cals). I've been eating nuts and olives almost every day..

So I decided to go for broke and pay the $50+ to get Dr G's book shipped to where I am.

Thanks again