RawGorilla asked:

Posted by: RawGorilla (IP Logged)
Date: March 09, 2007 12:06AM

So, I'm curious how those who have gone to the 8/1/1 diet went through the transition to it.

I'm back on raw after a year off, and find I can not tolerate so much fat as I did last round (was raw for 3 years). But, I'm also finding it hard to do the fruit all day/greens for dinner approach that Dr. Doug recommends. I'm really interested in and curious about the 8/1/1 but not sure I can do it yet.

It's fine some days but then the next I'm totally spacey and then ravinous for something more 'grounding'. It would be really useful for me to hear about how others transitioned to this approach.

Thanks!
Dor

Hey Dor, it sounds like we have kinda similar experiences: I was raw for a few years and then went off it for a couple years. I've been doing it again for about a year and have been doing MUCH lower fat than I did the first time around, steering towards Doug's 80/10/10 approach.

I too used to experience a lot of spacy and ravenous times and feel like I needed something heavier. I still do sometimes but it is so different than it used to be and keeps heading towards a more balanced feeling.

It's kind of funny to me, but what I see as the turning point for me in really starting to thrive on the low-fat, high fruit approach, was when I learned to love bananas. I really wasn't that into them until this past year. Then I first got into the banana/date/lettuce burrito thing. Then I started freezing them and doing the banana ice cream thing. Then I started making half-frozen/half-fresh with strawberries added smoothies, and had those every day. Most recently I have been getting into mono meals of plain, unadulterated bananas. This was also a big shifting point in my raw experience.

There is something about bananas that is really soothing and grounding for me.

Also, mono-eating in general has been really helpful for this high fruit approach. Because if I do variety, my appetite stays stimulated and I can never get enough. But when I do more mono-eating, I get satiated sooner and there's a grounded feeling that comes with that. And I feel less ravenous.

I still do eat fats a couple times a week, in the evening, usually with greens or a salad.

These are just a few thoughts I wanted to share. Maybe others can share their experience as well. Happy exploring!

Love,
Uma

Thanks Uma!

I appreciate your comments about more mono eating. That seems an important key to the transition that I have been missing. I love bananas myself these days, but when I get too much variety going or switching between greens/fat meals and then fruit meals, I do notice more cravings (not to mention bad digestion in some cases!!).

I'll play around with this. I really appreciate hearing how your transition has gone - thank you!

Curious what others have experienced. I noticed Bryan's post recently about how hid process led him to the 8/1/1 diet.

Any others?

Dor

Great post.

Over the past couple of months Ive experienced lots of problems with high energy, not being able to sleep despite having a full time job and a family to look after.
I have been so exhausted/ spaced out/restless /irritable,
I also developed a huge craving for chocolate which i now appear to have overcome(fingers crossed!)

I started to include a few steamed veggies into my evening meal as i felt i needed grounding and was looking for a heavier food. i also started making more dehydrated goodies. This helped, but it was only a short term solution.

As I have eaten a totally raw diet, very successfully in the past and kept a diary, i started to look back at what had worked for me in the past.
Basically, naturally food combining, mono eating, low fat and not being afraid to eat fruits!

After 15 years of IBS and candida related problems it did take a little getting my head around the fact that fruits were NOT my enemy!

I have returned to low fat food combining / mono eating eating. The energy swings have balanced out. cravings have gone, I am still experiencing a little bloating.
In the past a juice fast has helped sort out the bloating.
I'm planning some time off work to juice fast and rest.

After experimenting with various raw vegan approaches I do believe that 80/10/10 will be the key to me actually remaining raw this time around as i feel comfortable with this way of eating.

I have cut out the dehydrated goodies with the exception of flax crackers, as sometimes i just crave that crunchy texture.
I appear to do well on a very simple diet,
Its taken a few years to reach this point. I now intend to maintain it!
I love bananas too!!!
I look forward to reading others experiences.

Thanks for sharing, Loretta. I relate to where you are playing. I avoided fruit for years thinking it was the enemy, like it was the same as refined sugars.

Love,
Uma

Uma, would you mind answering these questions? (me being curious, wanting to learn):

1) How did you manage, after being raw for some time, eating cooked food for 2 years? What prompted you to do so? Did you feel OK, no problems doing this? What was your percentage of raw during that time? Did you crave raw foods, fruit etc during that time?
2) How did you manage after that to go back to raw? And, why did you? Was it because you felt/looked not as good as you wished? Did you have to just grind your teeth and suffer for the initial adjusting period until the ride became easier? If so, how long was it before it did became easier?
3) How do you feel now? Would you say that the struggle has ended? Have you been all-raw? (You look fantastic! I love your glow.)

I would love to hear from you. Thank you kindly.

Gosia


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Gosia, thanks for your questions, they have inspired me to reflect on my journey over the past few years.

When I started raw I had lots of stuff going on at different levels, and had already spent years getting minimal benefit from a gazillion alternative approaches. Raw was pretty far down the line.

At first I noticed some improvement with the raw but then it leveled out and I started feeling worse again. So I'd try something else. Different diet, new cleanse, colonics, supplements, juice fasting... I was a patient of Cousens and did his full program for 2 years, then got fed up with that and went to Hippocrates Health Institute for 3 weeks and did their program at home for a few months. I experienced a lot more benefit than I had in the past, but I just couldn’t resign to being a slave to my juicer/sprouter the rest of my life. Also, I was not getting enough calories, which I eventually realized. After eating such high fat raw in the past and experiencing a lower fat food-combined approach at Hippocrates, I realized how much pain I was causing myself with the high fat, combo abombo diet. Especially once I stopped taking all the digestive enzymes Cousens had me on, I really noticed I felt way better eating much lower fat.

But, at this point fruit was still the enemy. I had entered raw already subscribing to the theory that sugar was the root of all health evil. So naturally I gravitated towards the raw camps like Cousens and Hippocrates who included fruit sugar in the causes of health problems.

So here I was, now eating low fat, but barely eating any fruit. I felt free from a lot of my chronic pain, but I started losing weight at Hippocrates. I was not overweight, about 110 lbs at 5'4". At first people told me this was good, that it was just a sign of my body cleansing out. But it never stopped. I kept telling everyone around me, nothing's wrong, I'm just cleansing! I was not in a supportive atmosphere to be undertaking that hardcore of a housecleaning, even if that's really all that was going on (there was also a lot of emotional and spiritual pain).

Finally, at 80 lbs and barely able to walk around, the universe guided me to some allies who assisted me in seeing my healing crisis as spiritual in nature more than physical. They convinced me to go back to a simple cooked whole foods diet because my body simply wasn't assimilating any nutrients from the raw. Simply put, I was such a stress case that I wasn't able to digest. I almost killed myself in this way. I found that when I went back to eating steamed veggies and cooked starch such as rice, sweet potatoes or winter squash, I was able to feel more grounded and less emotional and able to gradually put on weight. I did food combining and I didn't use any condiments/salt/spices/oil/flour.I started eating fruit again and gradually increased my fruit intake so I was eating fruit for brekky and lunch, with a cooked dinner. I ate beans occasionally. I dabbled in fish and eggs and yogurt a few times, but that didn't last.

I did notice some effects of eating cooked -- I felt it in my lymphatic system, my acne was worse, I was more constipated (which I remedied by learning to eat a ton of lettuce every day), i had more mucus, etc. But at this time, these were small prices to pay.

So, I never ate 100% cooked, I started off about 50% cooked and gradually over a couple years, upped my fruit intake to the point where I eventually could go a day of all-raw without spinning out. I had learned that I was doing raw from a place of control (Orthorexia) and not love, and each time I'd revisit all-raw, even for a day, the old issues would resurface and I'd find myself wanting to eat raw to 'get it right' or 'be perfect' or because 'cooked food is evil'. So then I could do raw for a couple days at a time before admitting I was controlling it again, then I could do it for a few days, then a week, then a few weeks, and this time it's been 15 months!

I still had health concerns that needed to be addressed. I always had a sense I would eventually head back to raw, but I had to give up knowing "what was right" and learn to feel. When I felt myself in my head about it again, I'd start eating cooked again. Raw still resonated with me and especially so the more I learned about Natural Hygiene and the low fat, high fruit approach. I felt so much better than all the raw stuff I had tried in the past.

I just had to get to a place emotionally that I was using raw foods as a way to love myself rather than a way to abuse myself (restricting my diet out of fear for example).

This past year I've experienced more ease in being raw than I ever have. I've gone for longer and longer just on fruit and greens and my weight has stabilized at 100 to 105 lbs. (During my cooked phase, every time i went back to raw, i would start dropping pounds again, until the last time.) Most recently I have gotten more into mono eating and a whole new world has opened up for me. When I experience satiation from a meal of just bananas, I feel like this diet could really support me for some time. Right now I feel done searching and more able to work on other parts of my healing.

My health challenges are not all resolved but I have come a long way and healed a great deal from where I started. And I feel like I'm finding a path to stick with and the rewards are unfolding.

Love,
Uma

Uma thank you for sharing your experience. It's very inspiring for me. I think you are very brave.

That's really interesting, Uma!

Thanks, Uma, very much for sharing your experience!!!

Warm regards,
Gosia.


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Thanks everybody for your love and support! That post was kinda long but I wasn't sure how else to answer Gosia's questions without the story!

Love,
Uma

This is so good that I want to preserve it. So, I will!

Thanks again, Uma.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
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Thanks for sharing your story Uma.

I too struggle some with the low weight issue but am lucky to have this forum to save me from myself and to have got the fruit message so early in my transition to raw.

I probably would not have been as brave as you, just would have reverted back to cooked confusion when the going got tough.

Re banana meals - I hate days when I don't have any ripe bananas around.

A really tasty things to do with them:

2 bananas
6 to 8 ice cubes
big wad of spinach
pinch of nutmeg or to taste - go easy though
vanilla to taste - I use about 3/4T
stevia to taste (optional) but I like it

Whirr

You've got a green love fat smoothie that tastes like egg nog and is cold for summer

I am on day 17 of 80/10/10. Before that I did a 2 week juice fast, so I've had no meat for 32 days. I too spend most of last year on a higher fat raw diet (80%). I am trying to heal some very chronic problems. I am posting a diary at www.healingwith811dietblog.net. (Sorry I don't know how to make it link- new computer with lots of bugs.)

I too thought that fruit was the culprit to my Candida, but I find fresh citrus fruit actually helps. I am still having trouble with bananas - I have to limit to one a day. Also, if I eat fruit and fat, I get Candida symptoms. I wonder how long I can stay on this diet without developing nutritional deficiencies. I has helped my constipation a little, which is a lot more than Cousens or Hippocrates. It is also much simpler - ie doable. I haven't lost much weight however, even though I've been very active. Also, I've been very tired lately, but the it is pollen season and although I don't get the symptoms that others do because of my clean diet, it tends to make me feel tired. I would appreciate any feed back.
Thanks,
Kim

It's great you are noticing the effects of combining fruit and fat. If you are sensitive to it like I am, it definitely helps to avoid that combo! I know several people who have done this approach long-term who don't seem to have nutritional deficiencies that I know of (at least, they seem a lot healthier and more vibrant than most people I know!)

One thing that helped me a lot with constipation was learning to eat more greens. Now I eat a lot of greens and it helps loads (no pun intended!)

Love,
Uma

awe- hehe uma. defintiely, greens help with almost everything! love them. i recently ordered the book and hope to be trying 80/10/10 in april. thanks for sharing your story,uma. great post!

yummy looking smoothie, piano gal. i'll try it for sure.

photos



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2007 05:43PM by ella.

Thanks. I'm trying to do 2 lbs of lettuce a day as Graham says. Sometimes
I do the heavier ones in a smoothie.

Today I notice something weird (which I posted on my website but I'll mention it here too). My eyes are really white. Even the area around my tear ducts. Also the area inside my eye lids and under my lower lids is really white. I hope I'm not anemic!. Before starting on 811 18 days ago I did a fruit juice and green juice fast for 2 weeks. Like I said I hope I'm not anemic. I plan to get a blood test. I am tired but it is heavy pollen time here and that always makes me tired.

Also weird - a few days ago, I noticed that a small mole on my tummy had turned into a sore and now it is going away. I've never had a mole just up and go away.

I am still have trouble with bananas giving me yeast. I had a banana at 5pm yesterday with papaya and the yeast came up and bothered me all night. It is still bothering me. I think I have to avoid bananas for now. darn.