I'm happy to say that I'm 100% for 2 months now. I feel fine and energetic, although not much more than before I start the raw life style. My big problem is my skin.

Let's put it plainly : I look quite unhealthy. I lost weight (10 pounds) and it's showing in my face. I have more fine and deep wrinkles, dark circles under my eyes, dry and rough skin - the skin on the back of my hands looks old too

My diet is : fruits during the day, seeds ( about half cup, ground) and salad at night. I gave up dressings (with oil, ACV,...) about a week ago as I try to cut the fat as much as possible

I'm questionning my diet. What do I do wrong?
Is that normal at all? Are we supposed to worsen before looking good again?
Has someone here experience the same ? I'd appreciate any advices as I enjoy very much being raw.
Thanks,

Blessings and love to you all,
Cynthia

Opinion:

-If some one ate poorly...or had a poor lifestyle...prior to eating healthy....then it is likely that they have all kinds of internal blockages...and debris....both physically and spiritually. When some one decides to be healthy....and make it 'safe' then that debris starts to break loose...and dump back into the system for proper healing and elimination. Thus, one of the smartest skills a raw food person can have is to regulate their own detox by eating 'heavier' raw foods like avocados, nuts, coconuts, root vegetables, etc.....to slow detox reactions. While eating light fruits, fruit juices, mono-eating and fasting will speed up the detox. So: If symptomology is tough, crisis-oriented and acute...then one would want to slow down detox & rest. If symptomology is light and easy...then speeding up might be in order.

-It sounds like you might be trying to make changes faster than YOU are comfortable with. Be HONEST about that and make smaller changes...that you ARE comfortable with....is certainly my opinion.

-Remember that they say...in the end...is is really what you are NOT eating....(and how well/intelligently you are eliminating) that determines your level of health.

-Just some thoughts.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Could you give us an idea of what products you are currently using on your skin?

I've found that using loofahs to help exfoliate all that dead debris - I use a big one for my body and a baby one for my face - helps give a smooth and youthful glow to the skin again ( I had some seriously dry and rough skin after going raw myself, and, yes, it even transforms how your hands look!). Before taking my shower I also use a dry skin brush as well...sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't, and its well worth it!

cythia,

Here is a compilation of the responses I gave to roadrunner about my detoxification process. Your condition will improve if you stick with what you are doing. The basic thing you need now is rest and time to heal and detoxify.

--------------------
I had this experience. It is a detoxification experience. This is happening because you are doing something right, not something wrong. Your body is asking for you to slow down, to get more rest, like mine did. You can choose to stop this detox process, by backing off your current diet, but in that case you will slow down or possibly stop the healing process your body is going through. Eating more fat will slow down the detox process if that is what you desire. For myself, I choose to detox. I made my diet as cleansing as possible at this time, and at one point I was eating only fresh sweet fruit and no vegetables for 3 weeks. After the detox, I raised my fat intake because I felt I was doing too much control, and my body was asking for more.

If you choose the detox, and making a space in your lifestyle for your body to get all the sleep it is asking for, you will achieve a level of excellent health in your body to which you have never seen before. I was excited when my fatigue hit me, because I could tell my body was trying to heal me. I think you should also be excited. In my process, this happened about 5 months after being 100% raw, and 10 months after I first started my raw journey.

Before I went to a low fat raw diet, I was sleeping 6 hours or less on my high fat raw diet. When I changed my raw diet to only fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, my body finally was able to get the rest it needed. My body went into chronic fatigue when I gave up the more complex transitional raw foods for the simpler whole foods because the stimulants were gone.

The chronic fatigue I experienced was the beginning of a detox that lasted 4 months. I slept 16 hours a day for the first month, and each successive months my sleep decreased by 2 hours. During this 4 months I did not work, because I wanted to be able to sleep as much as my body needed. If you are unable to make space for the sleep to occur, this will prevent the healing that is necessary.

When my detox hit, my skin was ash grey and I had dark circles under my eyes. Also, at the time I weighed 130 pounds (I'm 5'10". Now I weigh 140. But after the detox, my health soared. My energy returned, and the level of health I experienced was higher than any I had experienced before. I experienced myself and the entire world quite differently after my body went through that healing. My senses improved, my weight normalized, my energy returned, my relationship with nature was renewed, and I finally got that raw food glow.

Soraya, I use only coconut oil (homemade) on my skin. I definitively will try the loofah - thanks!!!

Brian, thank you for sharing your experience. I want to continue eating raw and getting more and more in tune with myself and nature. I have no desire to slow the detox. My goal is to lower my fat intake around 10%, as long as it doesn't encourage cravings. Right now,I find seeds, nuts, avo, really satisfying!

I understand what you mean, David, about previous eating,etc. I was a sugar addict. Even as a longtime vegetarian, I had never enough of it. Now, it's under control, thanks to raw food!
How does one detox sweets? Mucus, heavyness in the head? I might be in it then ha,ha, ha!!!

Cynthia

With all due respect to Suraya, I have to disagree with the advice about the loofah; in my experience (I work in the skincare industry), any scrubbing implement (loofah, face cloth etc) applied to the skin may have short term benefits, but they're offset by the long-term detriments, most notably due to the fact that stretching the skin is inevitable when you use a loofah, face cloth etc.

The best thing to cleanse and gently exfoliate is clean fingers, working in an up/in motion very gently (the amount of pressure you'd use to apply cream to a burn). It gently exfoliates and stimulates the tiny blood vessels and muscles (as opposed to the deeper vessels responsible for things like rosacea) without stretching anything.

I wrote a skin cleansing regime (that can be used with any product including oil) for the company I work for. I'll PM it to anyone who wants (I don't want to seem like I'm schilling for my company).

Seabucktho Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...stretching the skin is inevitable when you use a loofah, face cloth etc.

The best thing to cleanse and gently exfoliate is clean fingers, working in an up/in motion very gently (the amount of pressure you'd use to apply cream to a burn).


It is erroneous to make an assumption and a blanket statement as to the results of using the aforementioned loofah, etc. The amount of pressure you gave as an example to be used via the finger method is the same that I apply to my face with my loofah, and my skin is not stretched in any way. The method, not the implement(s),is the most important thing to be mindful of. I have seen many people be more rough with their fingers on their faces than I am with my helpful tool!

Cynthia: How neat that you make your own coconut oil!

Congratulations on how well you are doing so far in your raw foods journey.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2008 03:37AM by Soraya.

Soraya, we'll agree to disagree. But it's great that you care enough to share your personal experience, kudos!

yikes, i agree No Loofah! even an apricot kernel scrub can create small tears in the skin. i use baking soda and water to exfoliate, it works great! oatmeal powdered in a spice/coffee mill and water is a nice soothing face wash, you can add a drop of vit e oil for healing properties if needed.

seabucktho, i would love a copy of your regime, please do send me a PM, thanks!

coconut oil : I do make my own. it's pretty easy and simple. And it smells so wonderful!!!!
Makes me wandering though how the commercial coconut oil could be raw at all. The coco butter has to be cooked to yield the oil...

Someone PM'd me and suggested I just post my links here. Just to let you know, this is the commercial site of the company I work for. I wrote the programme for my company, but it can be used with any products including oil or plain water.

[www.seabuckthorn.com] (Cleansing programme - HTML)
[www.seabuckthorn.com] (Cleansing programme - PDF)

i use a natural bristle body brush.

Thanks for this thread, Ive found it very encouraging, particularly your detox experience, Bryan, thanks.

Cynthia - you breathe through that skin of yours, believe it or not. A percentage of our respiration happens there. A little mediation/vizualization of cleansing and breathing through your sking might help.....and then eat, drink, smoke or do whatever the heck your body tells you to do and do not doubt it. It might be that you need to call an old high school friend and apologize. You might need to call your Mom, just to say hello. You might need to get some sparkling mineral water....whatever it is, only you know, and it is right for you.

[www.oneillpaul.com-a.googlepages.com]

dear enlightenmentnow, I was really touched by your post. thank you for writing your thoughts.
It made be dig into other causes and reality.

merci,

Cynthia

>>as I try to cut the fat as much as possible<<

Why would you do that, fat tastes good and is good for you. Humans are not adapted to a high-fruit diet, we parted from that diet over a million years ago.

>>I lost weight (10 pounds) and it's showing in my face.<<

I've found that eating more protein increases facial skin thickness, probably because it allows increased collagen production. I get about 25 - 30 % calories as protein. Exercising also helps with skin firming.

>>Are we supposed to worsen before looking good again?<<

Not in my experience.

Jono, thickened skin isn't a good thing. First, it increases the likelihood of blemishes because it lengthens the pores and increases skin cell shedding. Second, the thicker the skin the more skin cells there are to turn over, and the higher the skin cell turnover the higher likelihood of skin cancer. Third, thicker skin ages faster.

Now, I'm not sure that I agree with your assertion that more protein means thicker facial skin, but if it's true I wouldn't be jumping up and down about it. It might just be that you're slightly allergic to something you're eating, which is leaving you with several layers of dead skin on your face, or it's causing you to retain fluid, making your skin seem more taut.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2008 10:05PM by Seabucktho.

Seabucktho, I would love to go into detail about how a raw low-carb primal/paleo diet cured my acne, finally allowed me to gain muscle and not look emaciated, reversed my dental problems, increased my sexual energy and so on, but I'm sure my post would be swiftly deleted.

When talking about skin thickness, I'm not talking about the corneal layer, I'm talking about the lower collagen matrix being more firm and resilient. My face is nice and full now instead of drawn like it was on high-fruit. And no, its not an allergic reaction. And I've actually gotten rid of my hyperkeratinization with my diet.

But I don't think I can hang hear anymore, my views are so different now, high-fruit was an ugly detour on my path, but I suppose it was good because it forced me to keep learning and experimenting. I wish I could stop everybody from experiencing what I did, but I gotta move on...

Jono, I have no arguments or criticisms regarding your diet, I just question your assertions regarding the origins and benefits of thickened skin.

>>I just question your assertions regarding the origins and benefits of thickened skin.<<

That's fine, I guess I wasn't clear what I was describing... not the dead cell surface layer, but the collagen matrix underneath...

Either way, I still question it.

That is good, never stop questioning