hey guys its streambeam again. Hope everyones been good this new year. I've been struggling with my weight and really need some advice. As I posted once before I'm a really big guy and have been raw for almost 2 months now. I've lost some weight but as of recent my weight has not budged. Any advice as to how I can kick start my body into releasing more weight. I eat very little as it is and dont think I can reduce my intake any further. Breakfast is 3 to 4 pieces of fruit, Lunch is a big leafy green salad, dinner is a salad or some fruit. I used to eat alot of nuts and avocado, but stopped that awhile back because i know its way to much fat and lost 5 pounds but no more will come off. I just cant figure it out. I also have bad knees and a bad back so exercise is a killer, maybe you guys can help me figure something out. Thanxs again.

Have you ever done a Master Cleanse? If not, you may want to try that for 10 days. Then go back to raw...without nuts of course.


Grace and Peace be multiplied.


todd

Hi StreamBeam--
You might want to try a juicefast. I have trouble losing on raw too, but when I juice fast, even with plenty of calories and good nutrition, I always seem to lose quite a bit of weight.

Sharrhan:


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Consider taking the emphasis off of weight loss and instead focus on applying the raw food lifestyle to your daily life and let the weight take care of itself. IMO some ways of doing raw yield better results then others. For example eating fresh raw foods gets better results then eating stale, oxidized raw foods and eating simple raw foods gets better results then eating gourmet raw foods.

i would like to reduce my weight.my height is 160cm. and my weight is 68kg.

Don't forget that you might also be building at the same time which counter balances your fat burning.

I've put on 3lbs since going raw 5months ago I wasn't overweight, I had a bit of excess fat so at first I lost like four or five lbs and now I've gained that back. I have overall less bodyfat.

With no exercise you are not going to achieve desired weight loss. Cleanses, fasts, etc., are great, but you have to start MOVING YOUR BODY, start SWEATING. Please, stop blaming the bad knees and back (but of course they are bad; they are carrying extra weight!). At the beginning you have to stick with exercises that are easy on parts of your body that are weak. If you do not know where to start, join a gym, or order a workout DVD. You do not have hire a personal trainer (great way, but expensive) to start working-out. How about just going for a walk every day? Also, start examining what made you gain all that weight in a first place; what are you trying to replace with food? Start dong gentle Yoga, get in touch with yourself, and BE PATIENT.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Best wishes,

Ruby

..hand grip exercises are also good (some use a tennis ball).. and for when the joints are sore, isometrics maybe?.. "Isometric exercises are thousands of years old, with examples from the static holds in certain branches of yoga or Chinese martial arts." .. just a couple more ideas, I'm not a trainer

Swimming is easy on the joints

I like rebounding to move the lymph fluids and a "jog" on the rebounder is easy on the joints.

Hi Streambeam,
I think it would be a bad idea for you to "cut out" meals. What I would do, is make sure that you are eating/juicing/consuming your raw meals/snacks atleast every 3 hours...starting within the first hour of waking up, and nothing for 2 hours prior to bedtime. In addition, consume 64 oz of water daily. You stated your knees hurt...you'd probably would be ok on a stationary bike, or elliptical, as a little bit as 20-30 mins 3-4 days a week of cardiovascular workout can help stimulate your metabolism, and get it quite "revved".

Keep me posted.

Thanks,
Vegeegirl

Streambeam, I have about 150 pounds to lose as well. going raw is the best step in loseing weight but you don't have to starve yourself. I would suggest you have a large green smoothie in replacement to one of your salads or the morning fruit. I have read of people drinking about 32 ounces of green smoothie a day and loseing about one pound a day. I have started the firse of Jan and have lost a pound a day and I think it is because of drinking the smoothie. I am not feeling hungry at all. I would also suggest you have a quit time from eating in the evening or before bedtime to give your body time to rest from digesting. This could be called a mini fast and that would jump start the weight loss as well and give your body a rest from eating and a chance to heal. I have noticed that weight loss seems to go better with appropriate rest. As for the exersize it is good to perspire and to exersize but if you are to heavy right now than perhaps getting in a sauna would help you sweat out some toxins. I am certain that when you start to feel better you will want to exersize. I am just starting to feel like getting out and exersizing but most of the time I really want to sleap. I want to encourage you to keep it up though because it is worth it and your body will thank you for taking care of it.

Another thing is read 12 steps to raw it is very helpful

Love
pam

streambeam the key to your post is you say you eat very little .. if you putting yourself into a holding pattern (ie your body thinking its starving) then its gonna hold on fast to that extra weight because it needs to store it for future fuel

eat smaller meals more times a day ... even if its every 2 hours (sounds daunting but it gets easy after a few days) and kick your metabolism back into gear

you are at whats called a plateau

look into more unconvential exercise if you have problem knees and back

swimming is great if you can get to a local pool as it takes alot of pressure off your joints

do floor exerices like pilates type stuff

go on freecycle and find a free mini trampoline and start bouncing

recumbant cycling is reasonably easy on the knees and back

weight lifting will go a long ways to help you start reducing fat (i got a whole set of free weights off of freecycle .. hand ones and a bar)

don't push yourself too hard but don't baby yourself either .. sometimes you need to go the extra little bit to keep making gains or losses

my knee and back problems started to go away after a couple of months of working them out and losing weight . I still have a good 50 to go but there is already vast improvements in both areas

you can do it !

oops and water ..water lots of water keep hydrated

I also found that when i stopped trying to work every muscle group from head to toe and instead .. concentrated on one thing every day and mixing up my routines .. (swimming one day .. walking the next... cycling the next .. instead of one thing for weeks at a time) that i got better faster results .. your body gets like a memory and gets lazy .. oh yea so what yer on the bike AGAIN .. unless you change things up

example i will work just specific muscle groups on different days:

monday back and chest
tuesday quads (thighs)
wednesday hamstrings and calves
thursday biceps and shoulders
friday triceps and forearms
saturday glutes (bum)
sunday abs

this way you can concentrate very little time on specific muscle groups .. thighs should never be done with hamstrings on the same days because you exhaust your legs too much to effectively work out both big muscle groups

well .. this is how i find i get good results anywyas .. others may disagree

richard blackman does alot of things with very little or no equipment as far as muscle building goes you might wanna check out some of his vids

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2009 12:51AM by Jgunn.

thank you so much to everyone for your excellent advice and support, I totally know its because of my weight that my knees and back hurt so much, but I am totally in this for the long haul and am so very pumped to start some sort of exercise routine. As far as a plateau, I know that is what my body is doing because of my small meals. I will definitely try green smoothies and change my eating habits, plus i got myself some resistance bands which i hear are great for beginners. So I will certainly keep you guys updated and thanxs again for your support and kind words.