I have tried to start raw on more a 811rv basis and my body does not react well to the fruit intake and I'm pretty sure I gained weight. I tried again today and ate 9 bananas and drank probably up to 3 liters of water but I was still just ripping nasty farts and feeling like crap. The people I see eating those quantities are extremely athletic and have some what of a sped up metabolism where as I am no athlete and my metabolism is very slow. Should I take it slower with lighter meals and focus more on veggies rather than fruit? Should I maybe fast some to help clear my body of some debris so to speak? Any advice for this novice would be fantastic.

Hi Thromgard,
Start drinking green smoothies in the morning. (with chia seeds-omega 3)
[www.youtube.com]

also take some chlorella tablets,or kelp to help with your iodine.
Salad and raw salad dressings on youtube for lunch,or soup,crackers,sunflower cheese,or any nut cheese (also everything on youtube or www.goneraw.com)
drink a lot of water with lemon juice -I drink a lot of ginger tea for digestion too.( Very important to have himalayan salt because it has a lot of minerals.)
If you could do some colonics would be great,if not,enemas are excellent too.

I am not eating too much fruit because it makes me very hipper.In my case it is better to have much more veggies/veggie smoothies/veggie juices and I do that with lemon.

Hope I could help you a little.The best way to start is on the morning with a great smoothie and don't eat after 7 pm.

Cy, I think you meant to say fruit makes you hyper but I LOVED your typo that said it made you hip, lol. That's awesome. Fruity hipster.

Thromgard, Gabriel Cousins has a book out called Rainbow Green that has a 3 stage diet that begins with low sugar/fruit. Maybe see if the library has a copy you can check out? Best of luck.

Agree that you should start out with a more greens-centric diet. Apart from that, Doug Graham, author of 80/10/10, discourages binging on fruit right from the start if one is not used to that much fiber and fructose. Cut back on the fruit and avoid drinking huge amounts of water all at once(this is never good), and you'll ease into things. Good luck!

- Thromgard
Can you provide us with more information? What does a 'standard' day look like to you in terms of mealtime hydration and consumption of food items. Do you eat two meals a day, three, four? How much time is between your meals? What is your body mass index? How much activity do you participate in during the day?

- Cy
I wish I was hip like you.

Well currently I am not very active due to the cold weather. I was power lifting for a time and was eating everything under the sun and although I got extremely strong I also gained quite a bit other than muscle and ended up hurting my knee. At that point I hit 296. I am now hovering around 262 after some diet changing. I went on the slow carb program which helped drop those 34 pounds. I have a loose forty inch waste now as well. When I was lifting I was a tight 42 inch waste. Currently I keep trying to go raw and failing every time. I get bad muscle cramping and bad digestion. I try to space out meals when raw but my stomach goes crazy in about half a day and I usually stop eating due to discomfort. When not trying to go raw I don't really have a meal plan. I just eat when hungry. My hydration is off and on. One day it could be three liters and the next a couple cups of water.

- Thromgard
My opinion would be to take a slow, but steady approach. Doing too much at once is rather difficult not only on your emotional being, but physical health aswell.

Here are the steps I would take, if I were in your shoes:

1) Start to think about fluid consumption. Give your body adequate amounts of water on a consistent basis. Allow your body to detoxify through its already established pathways. Be self-aware of what you are putting in (soda, coffee, tea) and try to eliminate the 'not so good stuff'


2) Stretch your body every morning or rebound.

After you nail the fluids, I'd try diet modifications in a slow progression.

3) Make one meal (or even 1/2 a meal) a dedicated raw meal. For example, make yourself a morning green smoothie with some sweetness added - maybe an apple. See how your body responds. For the other 2-3 meals a day, try to clean up with more healthy items, cooked whole foods if need be. Trying to make too many changes in your diet creates yo-yo dieting. For example, you may be able to eat 2 raw meals a day but satiation is not achieved so at 9:00 at night your body craves food so you binge on junk food high in fat. Doing so, causes you to eat the worst foods possible for you when the digestion process is at its worst cause bloating and gas.

Get a good feel of what you need to satiate your appetite before increasing the % of raw food items in your daily mealtime routine. The weekend is a wonderful time to experiment with water dense fruits. I like blended canteloupe and watermelon shakes. As your body adjusts, use the same process or script and implement more 'raw' items to your daily routine.

3) Water Kefir would be a nice addition to anyones diet. It increases the beneficial bacteria to your gut and hydration to your body. This will help with the gas-iness if something doesn't agree with your body. The best time to take any type of probiotic is as soon as your wake up and before you go to bed.

Thanks for sharing more information with us.

Just my opinion! Good luck, friend!

Okay update. I did a juice fast on Sunday with a real tasty green juice and I drank a bunch of it. Did't hold back much. I wasn't super disciplined yesterday. Had some food in the evening that even someone not eating raw would recognize as bad although the rest of the day I did great. Today I have only eaten fruit and drank water. I'm eating to when I am content not over doing it like I did the first time. My current results include weight loss (I'm below 260 again!), new energy, clean smelling body (my stink is gone. I used to wake up stinky every morning. I could never reuse a shirt), my breath smells good, I feel very calm and relaxed but at the same time awake, and where I was having issues with my gums swelling is almost complete gone. All this in only two days?! Seriously?! And not even a really good two days either except for the juice feast (more appropriate term for what I was actually doing). I'll post new data by the end of the week.

Hi Thromgard,

Its worthwhile to learn about food combining, as it helps with preventing gas on a raw diet. There are tons of websites on the internet that explain which combinations of foods don't cause digestive problems.

But the results you posted sound great, and there is more healing to come.

Also learn about detoxification. Here's an excellent article by David Klein called Detoxification.

Thorm,

If you say it is cold where you are, chances are the fruit right now is also sub-par. The tastiest food comes with the seasons... In the cold months, I love a salad with shredded cabbage, kale, carrots, a bit of seeds.

I have always wanted to be fruitarian, it was what resonated with my heart the most. Slowly increasing your rate of fruit consumption at a pace that is comfortable with your body is best. I understand fully how you start reading about the awesome power of a high-fruit diet and want to do it NOW, but step by step, bits at a time, if you look back in six months, moving slowly but surely lands the most permanent sense of progress. (It took me three years to get to something 8-1-1, I went for about 6 months, and once the cold returned, I felt better on more greens, nuts, and seeds, until it got warm again, but this was me listening to my body and what I need for where I am.)

Ultimately, listen to your body and what feels goods. It's very common to crave specific foods, likely due to nutrient content. Develop a trust for your instincts... as long as it is vibrant, living food, it will love you right back.

Fruit is also very cleansing, but not necessarily as remineralizing. Everyone "new" to raw is coming from a place of something lacking, so your body will have to build up to the fruit.

Greens are a great suggestion. Seaweeds, too ( <3 nori WRAPS!).

That's some very sound advice. The more I research, the more I think greens especially right now, are best for me, mainly since I'm stuck inside a lot I don't need as much sugar. I may do another juice day as well since my one I did worked out so well. I've also been trying to focus heavily on stuff in season. Thank you for the tips and advice.

When I was raw, (I tried to go 100% raw for like 2 weeks, but never actually managed to be 100%, probably more like 80%-90% so it lasted for a number of years.) I don't know if I ever truly did manage 100% for any two weeks of it or not. Well, at least not consecutively regarding the days. But I noticed a natural 30/30/30 which I think is like veggies/fruits/nuts-oils, and the 10% being some raw wheat bread or non raw food grains depending on the day. I did feel a little lack of protein, but then who needs all that muscle anyway, right? My hair would only get thinner after my occasional cooked brocolli indulgences. (I personally had a thyroid issue. Maybe if I weren't using canola oil, it wouldn't have been a problem.) I noticed David Wolfe has a similar model in his book. Not exactly or anything, but I felt great back then and was at a perfect weight.

veggies like mushrooms, salad, herbs - fruits fresh and dried - nuts nuts nuts
+ lots of agave syrup (occasional chinese food/pizza) raw pizza too

Okay one week of the raw vegan lifestyle down and my current results are astounding. I dropped eight pounds (I have a jaw bone now), I feel amazing, I have lots and lots of energy, I eat well and my grocery bill is much much lower since even organic produce is still pretty cheap, especially if bought in season (lots of apples right now). A couple of downsides I have found is it is hard to live this lifestyle around people who don't for example friends and family. I hope with my current results though to change their thoughts on it. Also since I lost some blubber and I'm pretty sure my blood pressure is down so the winter just got stupid levels of colder. But I guess that one is minor.

My routine now consists of eating mostly fruits and veggies with a higher fruit intake, lots of water and some nuts and seeds but not too much (if I eat too many I can now feel my body churning). Unlike before when I tried and I sat down and ate 9 bananas, I now eat until I am satisfied. I realized shortly after that incident that the people that eat 30 something bananas a day on youtube are endurance racers so they can burn it better. I am no endurance racer. My body doesn't need that much.

I don't count calories. Don't see the point. I just try to eat three meals in the day and I am done eating by sundown. I got the sundown thing from watching Paul Nison videos. It actually is a really good practice I have enjoyed thoroughly. I sleep like a baby now because of it.

Also I am trying to put in at least one fast day a week where I only drink clean water and just relax.

I am going to every so often, maybe once a month if at all, enjoy a cooked vegan meal. More than anything I think I want to do this so my wife, friends and family can get a taste of what I do and still share a meal with me, although my wife loves raw spaghetti. Besides no one earth can turn down vegan chili. It's awesome.

ALSO I have realized through this (sorry for the long post) that I do not want to harm animals. Now of course if like a dog was after my wife or something it would be dog smashing time, but to kill and consume them doesn't work for me anymore. I realized you can be a clueless carnivore these days. Porkchops at the store don't have a face, they don't breath, they don't move. All the harsh parts like raising the animal, slitting it's throat to bleed it, pulling it's guts out, boiling it's skin off and then chopping it up has already been done. I think if people were made to raise and kill their own animals in this country or any other modernized country it would change things. I realized I can't kill them so I shouldn't eat them and I can never live under the veil of ignorance and convenience again.

Okay all done. I am now raw vegan for life.

Thromgard,

So glad this is working for you! What a wonderful post; wish you success in the future with this lifestyle.

hey no apologies needed for lengthy posts its nice to read about others success keep up the good work !

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Actually Thromgard, you're probably just feeling the effects of detox. When you detox, you release all the stored toxins into your bloodstream for elimination. So, make sure your all clear there and just suffer it out. Wheatgrass does seem to help speed it up if you're all clear. Have you tried wheatgrass juice? I currently eat probably one or two meals a day. One meal and maybe some light snacks. What amazes me about raw foods/organic foods, is that the nutrient levels are so high, you're body doesn't feel hungry all the time. When I first started, I used to hit up some p & J's when I felt that hungry.

lovely posts keep up the good work thromgard