Allright, well I am my mother's daughter, she tends to tell her life story to everyone she meets, alas i find myself here doing so aswell.

I find myself in a delema. (Please excuse the poor spelling and grammar)

I'm 21, female, at a whopping 275 lbs. at 5'6" I've Been a vegetarian for 3 years now. I was hoping that becoming a vegetarian would help me lose weight (when i started i was about 240 lbs) and my ultimate goal here is to be healthy, and happy and be able to feel good about what im eating for once.

And as you can see, ive gradually gained weight. I eat 2 meals a day. And I'm on the road A LOT. Thats how i make my living. and I get no support when I am home. Every meal that is made its always "look at this thick juicy steak that your missing out on, go eat your little fake processed garbage"

I've been flirting with the idea of a Raw Foodist Diet for about a year now. And I'm not sure how id go about doing all these things. I Live in a little po-dunk town in Arkansas and basically I'm just wanting to find my path to healthy raw living.

All this talk and i have no idea where to start.

Since I'm on the road all the time I can usually only grab a vege burger from a fast food place (EW!) or some cheesy bean burritos from others. And I feel so gross after filling my tummy with that stuff. I know id be better off packing my lunches to take with me. But knowing that some times I'm gone from home for 5 days at a time. What do I do about that? Dont most raw foods need to be consumed reletively quickly?

I Take a once a day vitamin with weight control properties (with like green tea and such in it), and some anti anxiety and anti depressants too. But most of my emotional issues stem from my insecurity about my weight.


Anyone have any ideas on how to stay raw, stay living and healthy while on the road? Like stop at a store and buy some veges instead of that processed vege burger with processed goopy slop on it?

I've heard the transition from junkfood junkie vegetarian to a total raw/living food diet is difficult. But I've overcome chalenges once i have my mind set to it. after 6 years of smoking I quit cold turkey last november and never looked back. And I Became a vegetarian overnight as well.

I guess i just need people's thoughts and ideas. Since im a total newbie... anything would be 100% helpful and greatly apriciated.

Sorry for the novel!

i love novels!
greetings and welcome friend! your taking your first baby steps!
there is no race to be fashionably raw...its good that you ask questions.. people here are happy to help.

i dont work, (yet) so i wonder what that would be like...packing lunches..is it temptation that leads you to fast food? i find, when i want break a habit, im always happy i accomplished something and that feeling stays with me forever...consistent action proves consistent results..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2009 12:45AM by lawofattraction.

well usually im on a tight running scedual. and its just easyer to pop in a drive through then search out a grocery store and find something i want to eat out of the produce section. Im wondering how my detox will be, because i am so dependant on fats and carbs. oh my golly carbs. I live off of pasta and breads. well see i guess.

Ive been overweight most of my life. And my mother was always the heavyest out of the immediate family, then she got lap band surgery and is now 180 lbs at 5'7" at the age of 55. so now im the youngest and heavyest one in the family. But im sure once i put my mind to it; all it takes is a run through a grocery store to grab something i can eat all day instead of something nasty from a fast food place that bloats me out and bogs me down only to leave me hungry 4 hours later.

bleh, consuming almost a full day worth of calories for breakfast (2 burritos of the 7-layer veriety wich you wouldnt expect to pack 600 cal each)

I am NOT gonna miss that.

Hiya Seskio and welcome to the site i have a bit of experience doing alot of travel for work.

In your situation there are many golden opportunities available to you, one being the access to a HUGE variety of markets on the road (i can expand on this later when im done work ), which initially make take some research and recording on your part. Im not sure what you do or if you go to the same places or different places you would have to clue me in on that

but some helpfull tips for you , invest in many cooler thermos type bags you know the ones that hold say a sixpack of pop .. that size keep lots of whole fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds in those .. all the stuff you love keep em seperate in eachlittle bag because different stuff reacts with each other ie: apples can make bananas ripen from the etheylne gas .. get little tupperware containers and make some dips and spreads for one the road. Invest in a great thermal cup you can fit into your drink holder for your smoothies on the go. there is also some great plug in coolers now a days that keep your stuff cold and plug into your ciggy lighter plug as well as adapters for your ciggy plug that make your plug a regular plug ! so you could even use yer mini blender in the car !

invest in a magic bullet .. try and find the deal online whereyou get 2 for 1 , why not 2 is better then 1 ! it comes up everynow and then this is a great little travel blender you can use in your hotels or coffee room of somewhere you visit etc

being on the road all the time you probably get drivers ass (i know this from experience lol) so its really important that you get out and stretch, move around , get moving, shake it off.

the raw food lifestyle wont be the answer to all your weight problems (im down to 150 now from 225) but it certainly helps ! exercise is also the key for you. you need to get moving. there is a bazillion body weight exercises you can do in your car/hotel room. maybe some of the placesyou stay have pools/workout rooms, i suggest using them .. every little bit everyday helps. if no pool or workout room then get out and go for a walk. I used to carry a portable needak rebounder that folds in half and legs fold down flat in my trunk for hotel room use. great exercise tool in the privacy of your room for around 200$

remember you are only limitied by your own perceived limitations, i hope some of this helps you

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

also whoever it is thats saying things to you like "look at this thick juicy steak that your missing out on, go eat your little fake processed garbage"
you need to have a little chat with them and tell them by no means are you going to accept this kind of abuse any more. that is purely mean, set your boundaries and stick with them or eject these kind of people from your life, they are truely toxic !

i will expand on some moreideas when im home from work

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2009 07:04PM by Jgunn.

Jgunn I really appriciate the replys!

I'm a part time driver but full time companion traviler. I moved down from washington state to arkansas after a bad devorce to live with my new significant other and start life anew. He's the delivery boy for his father's buisness and we're temp. living with them. We just resently bought 3 acres and were clearing that out so we can plop down a manufactured house on it to live in until we start building our house. so thats my living condition. I drive when my bf can't drive. such as hes tired or what not, we take shifts. so i have to go with him for almost every trip.

I do most of my driving to and from, georgia, florida, new jersey, conneticut, ohio, indianna, illinois, kansas and missouri. sometimes i go to oklahoma. but thats basically the areas our customers are in mostly.

Yesterday morning we stopped at a grocery store in Ohio and loaded up on bananas, tomatos, nectarienes, apples, carrots, bell peppers, corn... A bunch of stuff. I had a bag salad too but because i dont have any coolers in the car this trip it ended up getting wilted and grodey over night from sitting in the 90 degree car (our box van has a small sleeper compartment thats where i sleep in all the trips, unfortunatly my trip budget dosnt include hotel stay, so its the foam matress in the box van or a reclined seat in our little ford econoline that we take for smaller loaded trips)

Since we dont work for any large company with driving, his family's buisness is in buying and selling used copiers and printers (the big ones that you find in office buildings). So moneys usually tight when it comes to trips. And the longer i lolly gag around the more likely it will be that i wont be getting home most time until saterday evening. then my free weekends are spent up driving aswell.

it sucks. but i know, where theres a will, theres a way.

My boyfriend is being supportive too. hes the typical down south meat and potatos boy but he actually told me that hed eat 2 meals a day raw and then have a regular meal once a day. so yay! i have support! In some form anywho.

i like to exercise but i feel like i never have the time. after being on the road all week the days i have off durring the weekend usually end in me sleeping most of the day and being a couch potato (like sitting on my rear all week wasnt enough). Ive attempted to get my boyfriend to work out with me but hes kinda like "mehhhh do i have to?" I used to love playing DDR (Dance Dance revolution) but unfortunatly, nobody here seems to find it fun. So I dont find playing alone much appealing.

We live 30 miles away from any larger town. (were actually 30 min south of Branson, Missouri) So "popping into the gym" is a little more difficult then i'd like it to be.

But alas I am making excuses, not improvements!

i think the trip to the grocery store is a baby step in the right direction. and im excited to start my journy. I'm trying to remember to drink a lot of water (i havent touched soda at all this trip, i'm proud of myself, though i only drank diet sodas before)

so Huzzah for me!!!

thanks again for the replys!!

Hey Seskio no prob ! seems we do have a bit in common, my ex was a long hauler (thus I know about the drivers ass lol)

How exciting about the 3 acres you will be able to do so much with that space !!

Its also very cool you are passing through so many different places and states, there is TONS of places you could hit to pick up raw supplies that unlike the rest of us we have to pay for shipping , for example you might find a raw producer of organic almonds somewhere and be able to negotiate a case really cheap ! or cases of fresh bananas ! wowza lucky you

the coolers can come to you very cheaply too , especially the little 6 pack size ones, if you look on freecycle or craigslist and/or post free ads looking for htem you will probably be showered with them lol i personally have about 4 dozen of them rotating all the time, i like to keep all my produce seperated as i mentioned before in my previous post

if noboby at home will DDR with you maybe post a notice at your local rec center that you are looking for a buddy to DDR with in the privacy of your home im willign to bet a box of bananas you will find a new friend to have fun with an exercise buddy to help motivate you can be better than ANY peice of equipment also i forgot to mention , you can carry a skip rope with you when you travel i found this to be the cheapest peice of exercise gear you can find and wow do you get a work out ! try skipping for 10 minutes strait and you will know what im talking about do that everyday more and more and say hello to your new self and very easy to do on the road

and huzzah for you indeed , a step forward is always a step in the right direction

heres some links that might help

[www.how-to-exercise.com] follow the page towards the bottom and it has links to different exercises you can do without all the fancy equipment and memberships

[marketplace.chef2chef.net] list of farm markets EVERYWHERE

[www.pickyourown.org] list of pick your own produce as well as more markets

[www.localharvest.org] more markets and farms !

[www.wwoof.org] this is an organization that puts together farms and people that need a place to stay in exhange for work on the farm and produce .. maybe you could stay a weekend here and there at some of these places (i think the list is charged for now ,it used to be free , but i think they had issues of weirdos )

[www.freecycle.org] place a free ad in your area or somewhere you might be passing through .. there always seems to be someone somewhere thats just more then happy to unload something they have that you are looking for, for FREE!

[www.craigslist.org] good place to find stuff, free or cheap or place ads looking for local diet/exercise buddy

ok well i hope some of this helps if i dont hear from you for a few days i will assume you are .. on the road again

look for the opportunities everywhere and all the time yep action not excuses !

let us know how yer doin

do you have a laptop computer you take on the road with you or limited to weekends?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2009 05:26PM by Jgunn.

i have a blackberry phone that i can check posts with and a laptop that i can link to my phone to surf the web on. yay!

thanks SO much for all the links!!! I never thought about looking up an exercise buddy. I think ill try that out.

I know! I'm excited about our 3 acres. I want to have a nice green house. Bolth me and my bf are huge into gardening and growing plants. we tried to grow an herb garden earlyer this year but we wern't home enough to give it the ample ammount of attention that seedlings need :C. And they dried out and died...

But that will all change, once we have the house set up i'll be staying home more to go do stuff around the place. I make and sell stuff as a side project so im hoping to get more involved in that instead of being on the road alllll the time.

yay! I'm so motivated now!!! *BUG HUGS!* I just got home from that trip through ohio and im about to find out soon if i have to leave again today or if i can wait till tomorrow, if i dont have to go anywhere for the rest of today im gonna go out for a walk. And then route out some nice markets to look into for my trip to Oklahoma.


It's a beautiful day! TY for such kindness!

hey yer welcome !

cool on the phone that will help lots

one thing ive found INVALUABLE in my gardens is over time investing in those soaker type drip hoses (or you can take the time to pinhole old garden hoses too) and setting htem up on a cheapie timer (10$?-20$) that goes off and on to preset daily times no worries then about things drying out

but if you will be home more then you might not have that issue

good luck on your journeys looking forward to chatting more with you !

heres somethings i posted a while ago that help me stay/be raw [www.rawfoodsupport.com]

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2009 06:40PM by Jgunn.

also some questions to ask yourself from time to time i keep this posted on the fridge to remind me

nutrition health - are you eating the best you can at the moment

financial health - are you doing what you love and lovign what you do

emotional health - are you a happy person able to give and receive happiness

physical health - is your body in good condition or healing towards being good

mental health - do you challenge your mind and think positively

spiritual health - do you have faith in something ..anything.. even yourself

environment health - is your home / work healthy places to be

relationship health - are ya feeeeeelin the loooooove =D

fun factor health - are you having fun, we all have to cut loose an go crazy sometimes !

hydration health - are you hydratted, water water water and more water!

sleep health - do you get enough sleep

breath health - do you get enough oxygen, learn to breathe

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

also fitday is a great FREE online diet and exercise tracker thats easy to use even if you just use it for a week from time to time it helps you see what you are really eating

[www.fitday.com]

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist