This is a post I am making in my final desperation of health- it will be long, sorrowful, perhaps even confusing, but after coming intact with two raw foodists yesterday - I am inspired to yet again attempt for my health.

Anyways, a little history...

I am currently 18 years old. I was introduced to the concept of raw foods at age 14. Fascinated, I began my journey - eating at first nothing but fruit, then adding vegetables, loving my seeds and nuts, eventually seaweeds and komchucha found its way in. But I was in no way healthy.
With a single parent who doesn't support you, costco and walmart produce the only affordable source of food around, with a once a week whole foods trip, but only affording a couple supplements, - within several months, I became ill. I lost so much wait and at least three pants sizes, my hair began to fall out, my eyes sunk and my skin became clammy, I had more digestion troubles then I dare to talk about, in other words, I became nutrient starved.

I stopped, about a year later, and returned to a cooked ' healthy' diet which I remain on today, not vegetarian, but by the food guide pyramid, 'very
healthy.'

I regained back my appearence, my hair, and all my weight. Today, I have stopped eating what I consider healthy. After three years of no Soda, I crave at least one a day, sugar is my ultimate downfall, and if there was a butterfinger around I would eat it. I dont eat white bread, drink cows milk, but my consumption of fruits and vegetables has dropped pretty darn low sad to say. I feel sluggish, overweight, (bout 15 founds) about I JUST WANT MY HEALTH BACK.

I believe in the power of raw foods. But at this point in my life, I have absolutly no way to go back an do it properly. Money, time, and other issues keep me from doing so.

But, I do want to come back in a sense. I want to keep practicing the includation of whole greens, fruits, superfoods, and supplements. I could live off of Goji berries alone, I'm not about to not take supplements and include my beloved superfoods!

But after three years of going backed to cooked, I have realized the ultimate reason why I failed, beside the nutrient lacked foods I ate. This will ultimately keep me from ever turning away from cooked foods unless I find a way to stop it. At 180 pounds, 5'7 a large and muscular build, I have always been a big eater. When I was younger I could eat more then my mother. And there is nothing more satisfying then eating a large amounts of 'heavy' (fat and protein) foods. When on the raw diet I was never satisfied and could never achieve that same feelings, to the point of where I would just eat 24/7.
Raw fods never did offer me that loved satisfaction of being 'full' for 4-5 hours. (not every day I mean) nor was it able to offer me even 3-4 hours of satisfaction no matter how much I ate the way my daily whole-grain turkey sandwhiches could. When it comes to legumes, let me be frank; I don't like the infamous effect they cause.

Anyways, I do not plan to be a 100% raw, but I definetly want to increase the amount to at least 50%. WHat I'm eating now its like 20% or less, and I admit to all the bad feelings associated with it.

I just want to be healthy. I just want to be able to feel healthy again. But I just don't know how I could do it this time around. Being the big eater I am, a raw salad is not something that can fill me up, unless it ate like 4 servings of it and I dont have the money to have all those ingredients. I hope I'm making sense here.

Excuse me for going on about this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2006 06:24PM by Shylight.

I totally can relate to loving the heavy fat & protein foods - that was me exactly - lots of meats & fats. It's going to be harder for you to transition, being in a place where quality raw food isn't readily available, but I think you can do it. Do you enjoy preparing your own food? If so, pick up a raw "cook" book - most of the recipes in those books are perfect for transitioning, as they tend to be heavy on the nuts and savory flavors. I was fortunate to live near a health store with a raw deli section so I didn't have to prepare anything myself -- and those foods were so heavy I never felt hungry or unsatisfied or missing anything in any way. So I would suggest starting out with a lot of sprouted nut & seed recipes and greens - wrap them in untoasted nori, make homemade guacamole - and then gradually move towards less dense fruits. Worked for me anyway.

Good luck!

My guess is that when you tried it before, you did not keep kcals constant. If you calculated your corpse-laden high corpse-fat diet kcals and aimed to reach the same amount from raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds and included a wide variety of foods, you would probably not lose weight, develop amino deficiencies, etc. but instead feel better.

It isn't difficult to do a little homework. I will not accept any flak for doing homework.

For me, raw is a process in which I learn something new every day: epidemiology, nutrient interactions and bioavailability, determination of requirements, food science, processing, safety, environmental impact, disease prevention, etc.

I love to read papers and I can't understand why so many people would rather do anything but.

Try adding hemp seeds to your diet, they are full of nutrients and fatty acids and can fill you up. I find the best way to eat them is to make 'hemp milk' - soak the seeds overnight, then blend with water and strain to get a creamy milk. You can add a date something else to sweeten.

I eat 'chocolate pudding' every day for breakfast from the hemp milk which fills me up for hours - recipe here [www.rawrob.com]

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

please watch some videos at PETA.. its simply not fair that all of these animals are living for us, JUST for us.

please don't even eat foie gras either. ducks and geese are chained inside cages they can't even spread a wing, huge long metal tubes are stuffed extremely roughly sometimes even poking thru their neck, FORCE FED POUNDS AND POUNDS of grains!!!! not even their real food. this is like SEVENTY FIVE POUNDS OF PASTA being forced down our throat. this actually enlarges their livers so bad its just pure evil, pure evil.

please, its not fair. just because you want to feel full you're going to sacrifice the many lives of animals that just want to see the light of day and the warm sun on their backs for just a second

Hi Shy,

I remember going through some of what you went through. Recalling extreme weakness, fatigue, major hair fall-out, yup. I was so weak that I only had enough energy to get up from the couch to eat a little, use the facilities, and move from the couch to the bed to sleep more. My heart was palpitating and I had no energy nor enthusiasm to even muster a smile. I saw that when I moved my head, hair would break off and my nails were in an extreme disfigured condition - so thin and brittle that even slightly hitting it against a drawer would split the nail open.

It was at that time, I understood that my diet was not well-balanced and I needed to supplement my diet with vitamins/minerals and that I needed to add back some cooked until I could stablize my health. I was 100% raw vegan for about 6 months when all heck occurred as described. Since incorporating some vegetarian cooked and some raw organic egg yolks, my health improved. I am finding that I am able to eliminate more cooked foods but am doing it as my body indicates. I realize looking back that my body was detoxing too fast and that I was not allowing my body to adjust to the new diet at a pace that worked with my body. Also, I got a [www.fitday.com] account and plugged in my daily intake and understood what nutrients I was lacking. I also incorporated more greens as the fruit was sweet but not filling.

It seems to me that you went 100% raw too quickly and didn't allow time for your body/mind to adjust. I suggest going back into it slowly and allowing your body to tell you when to eliminate certain cooked foods from your regimen.

Good luck.
Therese