I have been between 85-100% raw for a few months now, but I feel tired a lot!
I'm sure there are many reasons, but could it be that I am super toxic and that I am still in the process of detoxing?
Also, I don't seem to "go" regularly either....

Any suggestions?
Explanations?

Thanks!
Nicole

Nicole,
The more information you can provide, the easier it will be to unravel your difficulties. It would help to know exactly what you're eating, how much and when during your day. For example, if you're eating a lot of fatty foods, even though they're raw, your body is using a lot of energy to digest the food, energy that you may need for other activities. If you are improperly combining foods the digestive process is not functioning optimally. If your bowels are not moving regularly the first thing I would look at is the amount of fruit and greens you're eating. Are you getting enough sleep? Don't overlook that either.

Detoxing could be a factor, but first look at what you're putting into your body on a daily basis.

It's likely that all you need is some fine tuning. Be gentle with yourself, this is a learning process and often times the failures are the best place to get the lessons.

Uti,
Here's an example of what I ate today...

Morning:
1 kiwi and 1 apple
1 tablespoon nut butter

Mid-Morning:
1 banana

Lunch:
2 large carrot sticks
Handful of grape tomatoes
A raw bar

Afternoon:
apple

Late Afternoon:
2 apples
some nut butter
1 banana

Dinner:
red pepper, cucumber, broccoli

Orange

I feel like I am getting more than enough sleep!
Am I eating too much?

redstar_38 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Uti,
> Here's an example of what I ate today...
>
> Morning:
> 1 kiwi and 1 apple
> 1 tablespoon nut butter
>
> Mid-Morning:
> 1 banana
>
> Lunch:
> 2 large carrot sticks
> Handful of grape tomatoes
> A raw bar
>
> Afternoon:
> apple
>
> Late Afternoon:
> 2 apples
> some nut butter
> 1 banana
>
> Dinner:
> red pepper, cucumber, broccoli
>
> Orange
>
> Am I eating too much?

Nicole,

If what you ate today is typical of your current diet I'd say you're not eating enough carbohydrate calories. The nut butter is where you're getting most of your fuel, but unfortunately those are fat calories which the body is having to work harder to digest and assimilate. Combining fat and fruit in your meals is further bogging your system down. The nut butter fat is preventing your body from utilizing the calories in the simple sugars found in the fruit, plus slowing down the blood's ability to deliver oxygen to the cells.

I see you ate no greens today. Gotta have your greens to keep everything moving along on a daily basis, otherwise the waste material sits too long in the colon creating a toxic dump that robs still more energy.

If you'd like more information I'd highly recommend Dr.Doug Graham's book on the 80/10/10 diet. Try your local library or his website [tinyurl.com] 80/10/10 refers to the general consensus of nutritional studies which show that the optimal diet for most people should have a caloric ratio of 80% carbohydrates, 10% fat and 10% protein. The book includes information on food combining and references to using online resource tools to help you count the calories in your daily diet. There are also some great sample menus arranged by season which are a great starting off place in your exploration of a raw food diet.

Take heart, you can change things tomorrow. Eat more bananas. Buy some romaine lettuce and eat a few leaves with every meal even if you don't feel like having a salad. If you eat nut butter make it raw almond, pecan or cashew, not peanut which is harder to digest. Have your nut butter at the end of the day after the fruit has digested and do not follow it with more fruit. However, citrus is acceptable after the fat.

Above all be patient and gentle with yourself. You're on the steep part of the learning curve.