Hi,

I just started being raw last week- and Love It! I do treat myself with sahimi on weekends. My concern is why I am not losing any weight yet. Looks like not even an ounce droped in week. I have to lose about 30 pounds to be at my healthy weight ( I am 5'5, weight 165). I do eat avocado every day with my cabbage salad, I do not go crazy with nuts, and I eat lots of fruit in the morning..I use aminos for my salad dressing, sometimes organic olive oil..Any suggestions? Maybe I should relax and wait for few more weeks before complaining? I consider my self active- I have 9 months baby- she keeps me going..Thank you!

I am nothing close to an expert on raw foods, but in 2004 I did an experiment: I decided to go vegan for six months (I was already vedge, but still ate dairy/eggs). I even eshewed honey, which is a toughie because so many health things have it in their products. My other rules were no caffeine (not even chocolate), avoid eating out totally, and no packaged stuff (save for the occasional times out when I'd have something from Whole Foods that was frozen or whatever). Also, avoid sodas (spritzers were okay occasionally). After about six weeks, I tried on my Levi's that were the benchmark of the weight I aspired to (I don't have a scale at home, so no magic number for me). I knew I shouldn't do it because it's so easy to get discouraged. Sure enough, I still could not pull them up; they seemed as tight as ever! But I got it together and said to myself: you promised yourself six months, so just do it. And it wasn't long after that that the weight started to come off rapidly. I am about your height and I was probably about 144 lbs. In about 4-5 months I got down to 121 and my boyfriend said--"Okay, that's enough!" He was probably concerned that I would keep going, but I don't have distorted body image. It's important for you to realize that you are changing your diet radically and your body needs a chance to catch up! Depending on how clean you were eating before, it may take a while to actually start to lose weight (and not just water). The real thing I think is important is to not allow yourself to go too far. Sometimes I suspect that certain raw fooders have food issues in general. They are perfectionistic and that can be a factor in an eating disorder. I was at a lecture of a famous raw fooder and this person had an assistant on stage. The young woman did not look healthy; she looked emaciated. She looked like an anorexic. It's something to always keep in mind. We are trying to be healthy but not obsessive. Good luck to you!

get yourself a food calculator like fitday or nutridata or something like that and track your food (and i mean EVERYTHING including the little drizzles of this an that) for just a week and see what percentages of fat / protein / carbs you are taking in

you might be suprised how much fat you actually are getting

im sure chasing after a 9 month old all day keeps you active, in fact if you are like my good friend with her 9month old you are probably like martha stewart hummingbird on crack keeping her house together

but nothing beats a targeted specific workout. you may find you need to start lifting some weights (building muscle burns fat) and doing some cardio exercise that breaks a sweat



...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Ditto on keeping watch on fats (in nuts, seeds, olive oil, and avocado). When I started raw seven months ago, I was about your weight and height. Unlike you, I began losing weight right after starting raw, but eventually I got to a point where I stayed the same weight for a few weeks. Once I started keeping my fats to 10% or less, I began losing again and have since lost another 10 pounds. Yippee!!!

Sometimes I put lemon juice and orange juice on my salads or squeeze the juice of a tomato on it.

It's great that you're eating lots of fruit. You can even add it to your salad to make it juicy.

Don't get discouraged. Your body is probably doing some healing and you're on your way to better health.


My favorite raw vegan

Thanks everyone for input-I might eat too much avocado..Even I love it, but I guess I have to say short good bye to it! Hope it will work! And extra cardio work out would not harm too! Tahnks again!