Greetings - I've been 100% organic fresh vegan raw for three months and I'd like to hear anything about your experiences in changing your looks. I have a monstrously ugly face - assymetrical and genetically heavy, puffy, and moronic. It looks really ogrous. I am hoping that as much of this as possible of this is fixable by alkalization, that it's due to overacidity and the kind of misshapenness caused by cooked poisons, grains, potatoes, legumes. But what I'd really like and appreciate is hearing about real people's real experience - have you changed your features? the shape and contour of your face - cheeks - mouth - nose? Do you look appreciably different? Do changes in complexion, drastic weight loss, etc. make up for bad features, or something like that?

How long do you think it takes?

Thank you so much - I'm so desperate not to look like such a mutant - I weep every day.

Yes, most people who have acne their acne clears off when they go raw.

But, it doesn't happen overnight give it a few months and you will notice changes.

I don't have acne. I am talking about one's facial features.

Acne was an example, but yes overall your facial features will change overtime.

Thank you so much, greeners - lovely to hear!

Yes. My nose has shrunk (perhaps excess cartilage & tissue being removed). Of course, I look much different at 150 lbs than I did at 205! LOL.

-David Mason

Hi,
In addition to a raw foods' diet, what has made a big difference to my facial features is low sodium- no additional salt, not even celtic sea salt, although I do sometimes sprinkle a liitle dulse or kelp on salads. The combination of raw, no salt has gotten rid of puffiness, made my cheeks more contoured, smoothed out wrinkles and creases, makes my eyes look more prominent. I definately look younger and prettier. If I do eat a meal of salty food, I look like a puffy, hard-living chipmunk the next day, and it takes a few days of clean eating to get the sodium back out of my system.
Chickory

Yes, your appearance will change and improve on a raw vegan diet. You will see the biggest improvements with daily exercise combined with juice fasting using mostly green vegetable juices.

You may also want to start doing Facercise.

[www.facercise.com]

[www.facercise.com]

[www.facebuilder.com]

[www.facebuilder.com]

Thank you - that's what I've found, too. Even have to watch the dulse (relatively low-sodium seaweed). Great posts, everyone - very much appreciated.

Just read your post, Mike - I was wondering if juice fasting would do more than just eating. I've never gone longer than 20 days, and that wasn't geen-juice-based. I'll start today!!

Just from the pictures I've seen out there of before and after raw, I'd say that major changes are possible. The biggest thing is fat. When you loose excess fat in the face it can reveal an entirely different person beneath. Another major component is the expression. Even if the body you have underneath may not be the prettiest, when your expression changes, it overrides the surface beauty. Particularly the expression of the eyes become more beautiful. When you are consuming live / non-killed foods it gives a living peaceful vibrancy. It's what's inside that counts! Let it shine through!

-Ryan
radicalvitality.com

it makes me so sad to hear that you consider yourself a "mutant" and that you weep everyday about your looks...

i can relate because there was a time in my life where i was really ill...i had HUGE cysts and rashes all over my body (including my face). i didn't want to leave the house and i couldn't even look in the mirror without having an anxiety attack.

i don't have any reassurance for you...but i just wanted to say i can relate in a small way.

m.

"I didn't want to leave the house and I couldn't even look in the mirror without having an anxiety attack." I'm so happy for you that's in the past tense!

Yes, that's how it is. I wish we could just be good and nice and be ourselves and not hurt any others and therefore just be all right as we are and not have to hate ourselves and want to die because of how we look, if it's something not our fault like genetics or congenital. But it's just not true.

I sometimes think it could be a "fat" thing (or partly - anyway, improvable by fat loss). I'm of average weight - 5'3" and 105 - and I wonder how underweight I should have to be to lose fat in my face so that it doesn't look so hideous.

Thank you for your kindness - I asked the question for honest answers, even if they couldn't be reassuring. I'd rather hear honest answers than by-the-numbers Wolfeisms making big promises that aren't based on someone's _real_ experience but just on what the hyper books and sites hype about being raw. I've "gone 100%" and gone on various "beauty fasts" so often and it hurts when you really with all your heart trust something to be a miracle the way you've read that it is and then it isn't and it betrays you - but I can accept it if someone says, "This really takes a while - not just a few weeks' fasting or few months raw."

>>I sometimes think it could be a "fat" thing (or partly - anyway, improvable by fat loss). I'm of average weight - 5'3" and 105 - and I wonder how underweight I should have to be to lose fat in my face so that it doesn't look so hideous.

Bungay, that is a really nice weight for a female, in fact several studies have found it to combine the peak of healthiness with the peak of attractiveness.

I am guessing you are young if you have a lot of facial fat, in your low-mid 20s or so.

That is very close to my weight and height. But, I lost my face fat when I was in my late 20s. Now I wish I could get it back because I have skeletor face now at 43!

I suspect you are not nearly so unnatractive as you so describe and I wish you more self-acceptance and positive thoughts.

Thank you - I have a couple of questions. You can play semantic games about what's raw and what isn't, but for something like this you can't fool your body - do you think that if I add agave nectar that as not been heated, as they say, above 118 degrees, my body will accept this as "raw" and so continue with the improvement I long for? Or do you think that for something like this, that is cheating and my body knows it? I'd hate to go for a year thinking I've been "raw" when my body hasn't been thinking so because of the syrup, and I'd be really crestfallen not to see the cosmetic improvement I was anticipating and building/working for (I thought) all that time. A you know, there's agave that has only been heated by the desert sun rather than in manufacturing, but I just don't know if the fact that the heat is "natural" makes any difference to the body - maybe the body feels that cooking is cooking, whether done by the sun or by a person.

Another question I have is about keeping low-sodium. I really have to watch it because my looks (and general health) are sensitive to sodium. Do you think that, given my goal of somehow refining my features, organic "raw" spirulina should be omitted, or at least not used daily? I sometimes feel that it exacerbates the problems, but I sometimes feel it's a convenient formof nutrients, especially when grass-juice fasting. Any thoughts? Does anyone have adverse cosmetic reactions to spirulina, or "products" like "raw" agave nectar?

By the way, for those of you who "do" agave, you may or may not be interested to know that the labels that say it is 20 calories per tablespoon and 0 grams of carbohydrates are false - it is in fact 60 calories per tablespoon, like other liquid sweeteners, and thus 15 g carbohydrates. In the winter I did what I thought was a long "fast" on barley grass juice powder and raw agave nectar (unlimited) - it tasted yummy but I could not figure out why it wasn't working as a fast - possibly because, as I then figured out, I was consuming, thanks to the agave nectar, about 1200-1400 calories a day, instead of the 400 or so the label mislead me to think? Makes me wonder what else might not be the way they say?

I don't use honey internally, not even agave nectar, it is not a balanced sugar and I don't believe that it is healthy, it goes into your blood stream very quickly causing your pancreas to release too much insulin which results in low blood sugar levels in the end.
I use Grade B (or Grade 2 in europe) Maple Syrup instead, I prefer the flavor, the sugar is balanced so your body processes like it does with fruit sugars.
It also contains lots of minerals like zinc and manganese.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2006 03:03PM by jadedshade.

<I don't believe that it is healthy> Thank you, jadedshade - I suppose that this is what my body as well as my mind instructs me about it, and your (concurring!) input is very valuable - I also found a thread from August on this forum that went into the question, and so I feel quite decided that it's not something I'm going to use. I don't think I'll use maple syrup since I want to stay 100% raw, and it's one of those things that one has a vague memory of reading isn't vegan! Could be wrong about that. Well, I guess I won't be doing the "Master Cleanse"! I once tried it with Stevia...

If maple syrup isn't vegan it is news to me, well the organic stuff anyway. I use 100% Pure, organic maple syrup. Some manufacturers use fomaldahyde and some sort of animal fat to procure it, but obviously people with an organic license cannot do that.
I will certainly have to do some double checking though.

I did the master cleanse, it was hard but definitely worth it.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2006 03:27PM by jadedshade.

Mike,

Can't remember if we discussed facial exercises and facercise or not but, when it's time to upgrade then the best facial exercises available are from

[www.flexeffect.com]

I compared the exercises from facebuilder vs. flex effect to running a race vs. a marathon. Facebuilder, or Facercise will get you started down the path to toning your facial muscles but, just like we work out to keep our bodies in shape so will flex effect for it exercises every part of the face, including the frown lines on the forehead.

All are great books and products but flex effect literally puts everything in overdrive. I do feel, however, that one should start out with facebuilder for men, if you're a man, or facercise if you're a woman.

Peace,



Peace,

Marcos

Go Vegan for your life, your health, the planet and, most importantly, the animals that we share this wonderful world with!

Hiya - I tried to order Flex Effect but it keeps saying my credit card is invalid - I've checked it 100 times - have you heard of people having this problem there? Facial exercise is something I've tried, rather assiduouly it seemed to me, but I'm wiling to try again - like 100% fresh raw, it is not something I've ever done every day for, like, five months at a stretch, so perhaps it just takes more time to see any results - I can do anything at all but I like to see some smidgeon of result, however small - it's tough when something seems really effortul and you can't see _anything_ happening, even detox! Especially detox! (Not that that applies much to facial exercise - I suppose there the thing to hope for is muscle ache!) I'm enthusiastic about the Flex Effect - I just wish I knew how I could order it without the error messages - I'll try again later!

Yes! It changes me! My face is nicely sculpted and looks like it is in more proportion and supple. My acne is gone. I like raw a lot. Especially lemon juice right away in the morning has done a lot for me.

Very interesting and heartening! What raw foods do you avoid? Are you high-fruit or high-fat (heh heh) or just anything?

Do you think it's possible to be low-carbohydrate and low-fat - no overt sweet stuff, no overt fat, and sustain it as a lifestyle? I want to alkalize but am not into fatty foods - make me feel sluggish. And then I DO break out into acne.

Anyone think dried-but-"raw" nori would be okay - I believe it's the lowest sodium alga?

Without having read everything here, I'd just like to say that the better you take care of yourself, the better you'll feel about your appearance, and the better you will appear. In growing healthier and healthier, you will grow more and more radiant. Part and parcel of that is a greater understanding and acceptance and sense of yourself. Full speed ahead!!!!

best wishes,
adrienne

YES

Check out these web sites for lots of before & after pics, I found them inspiring:

[www.shazzie.com]

[www.rawfoodinfo.com]

i'm hoping eating raw will also help you just feel better and glow from the inside out. 5 3 and 105? that's a very nice ratio. i'm 5 5 and 125 or so, though i don't get on the scale very often.

my face shape has changed dramatically, from very puffy/round to nicely oval. part of it is age though, when i hit 25, there was a distinct shift, but it might have corresponded with my turn to raw foods. my body shape changed too. before i was a nice to plump hourglass, a little top-heavy, now i'm curvy but a lot leaner and not top or bottom heavy. my husband swears i look younger and much more attractive than when i married him five and a half years ago.

salt and grains and meat make a HUGE difference in how i look. even a few hours later, my body is traumatized and i cannot fit my wedding ring.

i do eat high fat, though some days i eat high fruit to cleanse. fruit juice days and sometimes weeks with green juice is all lovely, but i would stay away from most syrups and honey. i don't find that my body is very happy with them.

listen to your body, and also be at peace with it. sounds like you're heading there quickly!
peace