Ok, here it goes....I bought the "Raw Food Detox Diet" book...like it.

I have followed it pretty close and eat only raw during the day. I have cut WAY back on nuts and seeds and fatty fruit/veggies. I eat 1 cooked meal daily, although I want to transition to that final meal as RAW. I have not started exercising yet, so that is that.

Heres the thing... I have not lost 1 pound!! I know I need to get into the gym, and I feel better doing raw, but late in the afternoon or evening (I work nights) I get really hungry, and since I work in a restaurant, I usually eat there. Its a good restaurant and everything is made to order, so I can eat really good salads or other low-fat/healthier stuff.

The question is should I try all fruit, and/or the 80-10-10 approach, along with the exercise? The last time I went all raw I was trying to work out and just had no energy. I think I'm afraid this will happen again, and I'll start eating alot of heavy crap to give me energy "for the gym"...The other thing is, if I do go all fruit, then what should I keep on hand for those evening hunger pangs that strike while I'm at work? I love our salads at work, but I get tired of them as well. I don't always have time to stop and peel or cut fruit, and I've thought about bringing juices with me, but I've read that they lose their enzymes if you don't drink them right away after juicing. I feel like I'm in a bit of a quandry, and am getting frustrated. I feel like "whats the point" of trying if this is not going to show the results? Sorry for whining, but if anyone has any suggestions based on shared experiences, I'd really like to hear what you have to say. Thanks-
Dafodil

Opinion:

-Eat more meals....and set goals to eat more during the most active parts of the morning/afternoon. No need to do anything drastic. Identify what YOU think are the highest foods......prepare them in advance.....and set very SMALL goals to incorporate them into your diet. Like in exercise: stretch but do not tear! Start out where you are very comfortable right NOW and stretch from there. Perhaps 1-2% per week.

-You don't do what you think is right/healthiest to get results. You do them because you are inspired to do so. You can always CHANGE what you do think is right (based on whether you get results) but you never STOP doing what you think is right.

-My experience is that it probably did not take you 30 days (or even 6 months) to arrive at where you are now. I would give yourself a generous time frame of 1-2 years to make all the necessary/permanent changes in your thought/emotions/lifestyle. Don't you think? I mean, if your are making changes for a lifetime....what's the hurry?

-Stay full - and no worries, eh?

-In Friendship,

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

dafodil,

i'm the person that tells you what you may not want to hear.

what you are doing is no different than the young boy who wants to go to college to meet girls.

that is not why the young boy should go to college.

he should go to learn. meeting girls is another thing that may happen there, but is not the primary reason.

like many people nowadays , you are concerned with weight loss.

this is the worst reason to make a dietary change, the worst reason to go raw, and does not have very much to do with health, as there are many skinny people who are not healthy.

if you say, i feel better but....you are minimizing all the benefits of a raw diet and focusing on weight loss.

if your primary goal is to lose weight, i suggest that you pick another diet.

the right reason to move to a proper health plan is to become healthy.

weight loss will occur when your body wants it to occur.
if it does not occur, then you are doing something wrong, or you are doing it right but your body is not ready.

your body has the right agenda, not you.

you don't just "do" 811 based on what you think it is, you need to buy the book and learn and study and make it a part of you.

you can make it easy, or you can make it hard.
you can find ways to succeed, or find reasons to fail.

you can do it in joy, or do it in resentment for all the "foods" you are "missing"

you can learn about new foods, find the best quality foods, be unique, a pioneer, strong, powerful and free, or you can find ways that you can't do this or that.

your choice.

i would add that the detox diet book that you mentioned is not a very good one to base your life upon, as she does not have the proper education and experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2007 01:12PM by fresh.

I agree with Fresh 100%, and would add that you won't know what works for your body healthwise until you've tried it for awhile. Think 6 months to a year, at least. And don't base your decisions on what people on forums tell you. It may be helpful but the only way to know for sure is to thoroughly study your choices and then try it out for quite awhile.

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

HI there..i agree that you need to give it a chance and keep up the good work because results aren't always immediate...but i totally disagree with fresh by saying if your main goal is weight loss look for some other diet.. WHEN did we become such robotic people on this forum that now we are not only telling people not to offer advise if you aren't 100% (not you fresh but others) that we are now saying what reasons are good and what reasons are bad to go raw?!?!?!?!?!?!!??! this is shocking to me....she wants to go raw and yeah her main concern is weight loss....but she wants other health benefits...and to feel better..and last time i checked WEIGHT is a big HEALTH issue....it causes all sorts of health challenges in people...now why would we discourage someone to not go raw for weight loss...what is she needs weight loss to reduce health challenges that have come with it?? we don't know her whole story and nor do we need to to offer support on her journey........i say keep up the raw journey...yes you may not be seeing results but it is true your body might be healing things first so it isn't releasing the weight but in time you will be happier with the weight loss...for now focus on the positive things that raw is giving you and how great it is helping you feel!!! but if you truly have a what's the point attitude with eating raw because you aren't seeing results then you should take a step back and review things..maybe your body is not responding very well because your cooked meal is not as good as you may think or it is a very bad choice.....i have noticed that most people who eat a cooked meal eat like 1 cup of whole grain rice or pasta with steamed veggies something very healthy and in comparison to raw....not going out to a restaurant and eating a big bowl of pasta primovera....so it is really what you are eating and make sure it is good and acceptable.....exercise is a big part of the raw life too becuase it gets your body moving and helps "shake up the lymphs" which helps get rid of toxins and helps with detox!!! so hang in there.....make sure your cooked is really only a small percent for your goals and you are getting some exercise int here!!!
good luck to you i wish you all the best
love earth angel
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

dafodil,

Have you entered your daily menu into a nutritional calculator like fitday/nutritdiary/nutritiondata to see if you are consuming excess calories for your desired weight goals? If not, try that make sure you are not way off base.

How much overt fats are you eating in a day (oils, nuts, seeds, avos, cocos, etc)? Also, cutting out all salt and products that contain salt will allow your body to let go of excess water weight.

How many calories are you burning in a day from your phyical exercise?

I started getting interested in raw food because of weight loss, and I agree with earth angel--weight loss is a health issue, both physically and mentally. I do not feel feel defficient for trying to eat more raw for weight related issues.

For me, I have tried to make eating raw feel like an addition to my diet rather than a subtraction (Like I CAN eat all the fruit I want rather than I can only eat fruit and CAN't eat anything else--I ronically, eating a lot of fruit is a liberating experience for me because I was always told to limit my fruit intake as a child due to the high sugar contact). I have found that this helps me a lot. I am not 100% raw, but have found that I am eating a higher percentage of raw, even craving raw foods, conducting my diet change like this. I do, however, spend a lot of time preparing myself special dishes (but I like to "cook"

For example, I tried to go vegetarian for a year and made myself miserable- I craved meat all of the time, and "cheated" a lot. But I've found since I started incoprating raw food, I am eating almost no meat, or craving it either--I choose the fruit.

I guess my advice would be is don't chain yourself and don't look at your choices like failures.

Good luck!~Kate

When I first started raw foods five years ago,my only goal was to lose weight.I know for me, if I did not see results I would probably have given up. After being on raw this long I am raw for so many more reasons and I love it.
I go back and forth from 100% to 75% raw. The thing that helped me in the begining was lots of fruit and greens and not a lot of nuts. I also did yoga and stopped eating late at night. I have notice some long term raw people, seem to think losing weight is not a good reason to become raw,. But I figure whatever reason you decide to try raw is a good reason. Eventually it will become more than about weight. Good luck with your journey. If you can try one day all raw and then work up to more raw days than non raw days.

I still need to lose weight but for me if I would just stay on raw I would have lost all my weight and not went up and down. It really does work.

i agree with those that say no matter the reason you want to go raw, as long as you do it. there are so many great things about it and if losing weight is the main reason, so be it. just keep trying and results will follow.

What is your weight and height now? Do you need to lose fat? How old are you? Do you have any illness? There's lots to consider.

I lost 70 lbs. when I went on raw foods, and I still ate some cooked things, like steamed veggies and chicken breast, or tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole.

When I cut out all that raw fresh produce and started filling up on regular foods I gained back 30 lbs. I'm doing green smoothies now, and I've lost a few pounds so far. I have fat to lose, about 50 lbs. probably.

Reving up your metablolism with exercise will help, and it will make you hungrier too. Fill up on all the raw foods you like, don't go hungry, and keep cooked foods to a minimum. Cut out junk foods altoghter, don't drink alcohol which has a lot of calories.

Love,
Prism

Hi all-
Thanks for your input...I appreciate the feedback. To answer a few questions....
1. Yes, I went raw to help with my weightloss..I gained about 45 pounds while recovering from a back injury. I was a runner, and got depressed b/c I could not run...so didn't do anything(big mistake). I can run on a treadmill now, but no longer on pavement, and no more training for a 1/2 marathonn...

2. Diabetes, stroke and heart disease run in my family on both sides...I have battled my weight my whole life...am really sick of fighting it. Running changed all that, and helped my self esteem as well. Thought raw would help alot...and it has to a great degree...excepting the "weight loss" issue...lol...

3. I am 36 y/o female. 5'7 inches tall, large bone structure...I come from a long line of stocky, southern women with "child bearing" hips and thighs that have been known to knock a person down if run into them to hard...I have no real health crisis at the moment, but having seen the effects of weight-related health concerns in my family, I really want to slim down.

4. Mtn bike season is about to start...my husband and I tour alot in the summer and go on long rides togeter...I want to be able to keep up and occasionally kick his butt...so I need to lose....weight, that is...

5. The Natalia Rose book is good for its initial uses, but I think a few of you were right when you said perhaps another book/guidance would be better...I need to look into and study about the 811 approach.

6. I need to evaluate my eating schedule...I DO eat later at night b/c of work....I am a night owl, so maybe I need to figure some things out there.

7. I am going to keep trying...what is there to lose, really? Except the excess weight. Thanks for the HONEST feedback and support everyone, I really appreciate that.

Dafodil

Dearest dafodil-as u probably know i have lost 83 pounds since last oct.18th-06.i can say that i took baby steps. i walked 30 minutes every nite -7 days a week.the eating right and i don't necessarily mean all raw but good for u foods.the exercise will be the element that will boost the weight loss.as u start to exercise -u will loose and at one point u can step it up to more.today i did a 5 mile challenge by leslie sansone and it is 5 miles of power walking and then i went outside and jogged and walked a couple of miles .it feels so good to use my body.so i would say the exercise is very important.good luck and hugs taylor

[img10.mytextgraphics.com]

I can totally relate with what you're going through... I've recently transitioned to raw foods, and I can tell you, the first few days is the hardest because you have to stay with it without seeing IMMEDIATE results. I'm impatient with myself, so this was really hard for me. You have to ignore the numbers on the scale and the reflection in the mirror. Keep your game face on, stay 100% positive and keep telling yourself, "I'm doing great!!," because the truth is, even if you can't SEE changes at first, your body KNOWS what you're putting into it. Be consistant, be patient with yourself and you WILL see changes.

The changes seemed so slow at first, but after the first week, I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror at my stomach, and I literally did a double take. I thought to myself "Where did the fat go?!?" I turned sideways, and there was some fat missing... i just gasped in amazement. It seemed like no progress for a while, and then BAM! Trust me, keep at it and it will happen!

I do recommend that you eat as closely to 100% raw as possible, because that's how I was eating when I saw the big changes. Plus I felt awesome! EAT YOUR VEGGIES!