I just thought I'd say good morning and report that I've been eating about 90% raw for 2.5 weeks now. I feel great! I have so much energy I'm bouncing off the walls. Last nite I went to the gym and did cardio for 80 minutes and stopped because it was midnight and I really needed to go to bed!

How is your raw food diet treating you lately?

Good morning!!!! I'm doing well, too, considering.

Molli,

Since my camping trip, I've been mostly raw again. I had 4 McDonald's fries around dinner time. Oops.

I went for a jog last night and ran over 2 miles. I haven't run that far in over a year (only was doing 1 mile VERY infrequently). I've been too tired to exercise at the level I wanted, which is one of the reasons I was looking for a way to regain my energy.

I haven't checked my weight lately. I had lost 9 lbs in about 12 days, without being hungry. I'm not really overweight, but could lose a few more. (currently 5' 10", 171 lbs). With my energy back, I'm hoping to gain some muscle from more exercising. Before my wife decided that marriage wasn't her thing about 1.5 years ago, I was about 195lbs... but that was mostly muscle. During the breakup, I stopped exercising, eating and sleeping, then shrunk, then gained some fat when I started eating again.

Anyway, I made some flax seed crackers last night, which were almost done this morning. They're pretty good, but not quite a cracker.

Going to the local health food grocery store in a few minutes to get more raw seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame, pine nuts) as well as some raw nuts. Oh, also some raisins, dates and agave. Sorry, didn't mean to share my shopping list!

Bill

If you center your diet around fresh fruits and vegetables as opposed to fatty nuts, seeds, and refined sugars like agave and dehydrated foods, you will more likely lose weight than eating all of those things, Bill. Just FYI.

Hi Molli!

Good morning to you as well! Or, actually, "Good Afternoon" at this point! Congrats of your 2 1/2 week journey. Doesn't it feel just great? That energy feeling is so wonderful, I love it as well - that feeling you have when not consuming dead foods, bouncy & light.

Utopian Life Wrote:
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> If you center your diet around fresh fruits and
> vegetables as opposed to fatty nuts, seeds, and
> refined sugars like agave and dehydrated foods,
> you will more likely lose weight than eating all
> of those things, Bill. Just FYI.

Yup... probably right. The nuts/seeds satisfy me when I'm not getting it from fruits and veggies. I can stuff myself on both and not be satiated until I eat a small handful of nuts.

I'm not really concerned with my weight, it's just an added benefit of eating this way.

Thanks for the FYI though!!!

Bill

Good Mornin!
Ugh I really like nuts and seeds.... while I have been trying to have my fruits and vegis at like hmmm 80% of my raw foods diet i believe my nut intake is more like 30% or more... it tastes soo good tho! I have been raw for 2 months now and I have not weighed myself.... I will eventually but I just want to enjoy feeling good about my yoga and eating raw... I havent cheated at all though I was thinking out using some rice paper for lunch on the go come the new semester.....People have told me that I look like I have lost weight and I def. have a new confidence about me.... but I still would like to loose more... I am not obese by any means! I just want to hmm look like I eat the best foods possible for my body. I would say how much I weigh but I dont know! Ha!

I'm not even talking just about weight, but about the proportion of fat versus muscle on your body. If you eat more fat than your body needs (about 5-15% calories from fat, whereas some raw fooders do like 60-80%), it's stored as, well, fat. And fat contributes to dis-ease.

Utopian Life Wrote:
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> I'm not even talking just about weight, but about
> the proportion of fat versus muscle on your body.
> If you eat more fat than your body needs (about
> 5-15% calories from fat, whereas some raw fooders
> do like 60-80%), it's stored as, well, fat. And
> fat contributes to dis-ease.


Holy cow? Some raw fooderes eat 60-80% fat? Why do that do that? What's the point of trying to eat as healthy as we can and consume that much fat?

Don't ask me! Ask them. I see people eating gobs of oils and nuts and olives......no wonder they have no energy.

Utopian Life Wrote:
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> Don't ask me! Ask them. I see people eating gobs
> of oils and nuts and olives......no wonder they
> have no energy.


ughhhhhhhhhh. That weighs me down just thinking about it! I admit that I have consumed some oil since I went raw 2.5 weeks ago. Its because I am eating up my salad dressings in the fridge instead of wasting them. Once I finish with them I'll make raw dressings. That's why I'm saying I'm only about 90% raw now -- because I don't know if the bottled dressings I'm eating are raw! Most days I have a salad somewhere in the middle of the day.

No worries, better to use up what you have than to waste it. But part of the problem is that salad greens are not calorie-dense, whereas dressings are. So if your salad is 500 calories, about 100 is from greens and 400 is from dressing, then that's 80% calories from fat for that meal. (Just as an example).

Molli,

Utopian Life means that those people consume 60-80% of calories from fat over the course of a day or week. Fat is so much more calorie dense than fruit or greens, it's easy to mislead yourself. You may think that because you've eaten nothing but salads and a few apples all day, you can splurge on a gourmet raw dinner of nut paté and a huge piece of raw cheesecake. But calorie-wise, the bulk is coming from just that last meal, and mostly from fat! It's really easy to do this. That's why I try to eat as little gourmet raw as possible : )

It's great that you feel so good--keep it up!

Tamukha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Molli,
>
> Utopian Life means that those people consume
> 60-80% of calories from fat over the course of a
> day or week. Fat is so much more calorie dense
> than fruit or greens, it's easy to mislead
> yourself. You may think that because you've eaten
> nothing but salads and a few apples all day, you
> can splurge on a gourmet raw dinner of nut paté
> and a huge piece of raw cheesecake. But
> calorie-wise, the bulk is coming from just that
> last meal, and mostly from fat! It's really easy
> to do this. That's why I try to eat as little
> gourmet raw as possible : )
>
> It's great that you feel so good--keep it up!


Tamukha -- that is why I am avoiding making any raw desserts, etc.! I know my sweet tooth and so far I have it under control with eating sweet fruits when I have a sweet craving! If I made a raw dessert -- with only me in the house -- I'd probably eating eating it for breakfast lunch and dinner LOL

"that is why I am avoiding making any raw desserts, etc.! I know my sweet tooth and so far I have it under control with eating sweet fruits when I have a sweet craving! If I made a raw dessert -- with only me in the house -- I'd probably eating eating it for breakfast lunch and dinner LOL"

If you have a sweet tooth, you may be setting yourself up for a fall here; When folks who love sweets as much as you say you do steadfastly deny themselves a guilty pleasure now & then, it seems to all come to a head at once and they end up binging big-time.

Just something to be aware of, to be watching out for. If you have really strong sweet cravings, you may do yourself some good to give a wee bit of satisfaction to that.


Don't go crazy of course, like eating a couple of snickers bars (lol)!

What I will do is throw several strawberries into the blender w/ some other sweet fruits & maybe a green leaf or two. That usually does the trick for me anymore, although in my earlier days I did struggle quite a bit, being a "chocoholic" & all!

Nothing wrong with eating the "sweets" our frugivorous bodies are meant for - fruit.

Glad to read that you're doing so well Molli and having fun!

I feel great too. It's great to feel great!



I love to read about raw fooders who enjoy exercising.

Soon as I'm off of here, I'll be doing 50 minutes of cardio with handweights. Love it! And I'll probably put in a 5 mile run this evening, plus I usually do an hour of yoga in the morning. I'm 58. I'm aiming to run my first marathon at age 60 (I did walk one once). My long runs are 7 miles right now (once a week), but I intend to bring that up by one mile each month. Later this week, I'll try my first 8-miler.

Since you're a runner, does that sound like an OK plan? Any suggestions?

Definitely, 60-80% fat is way too much, no matter where a person gets it from. I get 10-20% most days. Some days none, some days (rarely now) more. My sources are nuts, seeds, and avocados. When I eat avocados, I usually eat just a half at a time either by itself or with greens (and lemon juice) as a salad "dressing".

I agree with Tamukha and Utopian Life that you don't need those bottled dressings, and some people feel fine when they eat greens without avocado or any other kind of oil.

My first 4 years raw, I never ate nuts or seeds, and it was hard for me to stay raw for a whole month at a time. I'd usually go about 3 weeks and then hit the starchy vegan foods for a day. When I added nuts and seeds to my raw food diet, staying raw became easy, and the vertigo that was troubling me, eventually left entirely. That was 19 years ago.

I've lost about 10 pounds during those 19 years. My BMI is lower than the range for my height, but I feel good being slim.

I don't eat nuts and seeds every day, but I eat one or the other (usually seeds) almost every day, and they're a regular part of my diet. I totally agree with Utopian Life and Tamukha that it's best not to overeat them.

Utopian Life Wrote:
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> Good morning!!!! I'm doing well, too,
> considering.

"Considering"? Hope everything's OK, and if not, that it will be soon!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2009 08:49PM by suncloud.

Oh, I got the "super-cold" from my boyfriend. He's had it for 9 days. I'm recovering and trying to keep the fever down. Thanks.

Darn those super-colds! Hope you're better soon!

At least it arrived before my vacation! Thanks.