new at this

[Guest guest]

hi everyone!! i'm so happy to have found this

club. a bit about me: i'm 21, female, 5'8 " and 155

pounds. i've been a vegetarian all my life. recently, my

weight has been a problem for me...too much processed

food i think. so i'm embarking on the raw fruit/veggie

idea, starting tomorrow. i hope it will make me feel

less bloated, more energetic and that i will return to

my ideal weight of 120 pounds. any thoughts or

advice would be great!! i'm excited to do this, i think

it could make all the difference.<br><br>t.

[Guest guest]

Welcome to this list. There haven't been very many posts lately, but am hoping

it will get busier when winter is here. If you have any questions, feel free to

post them.<br>Marlene

[Guest guest]

thanks:) i was wondering if you can give me an

idea of what i should expect in the first couple of

weeks of going raw? esp. weight loss, headaches,

fatigue, clearer skin....i want a rough idea of how long

i'll have to deal with the bad before i get to the

good stuff!<br><br><br><br>thanks again.<br>t.

[Guest guest]

Anybody who answers your question without first

asking about the details of your previous diet and

medical conditions is doing you a great disservice. Even

with that knowledge it is still extremely difficult to

predict exctly how any change in diet will affect anyone.

<br><br>I, myself, have never experienced any of the things

you mentioned when going from a heavier to a lighter

diet, but lots of other people have. <br><br>You also

have to take into account the amount of excercise

before and after the change and if you had been doing

breathing exercises and been doing any sort of healing

therapy and your mental attitude; the mind can have

enormous effect on the body, either good or

bad.<br><br>Whenever you change from a heavier diet to a lighter one

and your body does not have to process so much heavy

food, it makes it more possible for toxins that have

been stored in your muscles and bones to be released

into your bloodstream and then eliminated through

breathing, sweating or going to the bathroom. <br><br>It is

during the in-between state, while the toxins are still

in your bloodstream and have not been fully

eliminated from your body, that you could possibly

experience symptons such as hedaches, fatigue etc. Raw

foodists, and even vegetarians, will often refer to this as

'going through a heavy elimination " . Once the toxins

leave your bloodstream and leave your body you will

actually feel much better than you have felt beforehand.

<br><br>This process occurs to an even greater extent to

people who are doing a long fast. They may start off the

fast feelng tired but, as the fast progressess, they

end up feeling better than they have ever felt during

their entire life. <br><br>So, if you find that you are

experiencing too severe symptons while eating raw foods, you

can lesson the severity of the symptons greatly by

temporarily going a little backwards in your diet and eating

some cooked food (but not too far backwards!).

<br><br>You can also accomplish the same effect by eating

some of the heavier raw foods such as sprouted grains

and beans, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, dried seaweed,

bananas and avocadoes. <br><br>Too many new raw foodists

want so badly to be able to proudly say " I have been

100% raw since... " that they lack the sensitivty to

observe exactly what is happening in their bodies and end

up making themslves worse in the long run. Always

remember that your goal is better health and not

impressing yourself and others with your 100% rawness.

[Guest guest]

i couldn't agree more. i want to do this to

cleanse my body and feel healthier-whether i'm 50% raw or

100% doesn't really matter to me. i have juice

" fasted " before and have felt the detoxification

happen-headaches, weakness etc. i just thought that since i'll be

eating actual food, not just liquids, perhaps these side

effects wouldn't be as bad. as i said, i have been a

vegetarian my whole life but a vegetarian life-style still

leaves room for some overly processed junk in my diet.

i'm not sure if i should go at this 100% and quit all

other foods cold turkey or wean myself into it... i

feel like if i don't do it cold, i'll never do it.

[Guest guest]

I'm, as " foreverthin2001 " , trying to find my way

of eating and knowing real needs of my body, not

only " artificial " hunger of toxicated organs.

Vegetarianism had worked for me as long as I had lived in

Europe. However, moving to Canada and eating more filled

with different chemicals food, haven't done much good

for me. So I need to find a new way to retrieve the

balance. All your advice and comments are really helpful.

It's good to know that somebody is there, or was

there, or.... will be Take care everybody!

[Guest guest]

I have found that if I eat more fruits than

vegetables, I will begin to gain weight. I am not 100% raw,

mostly because I enjoy eating out with friends and I

don't know of very many raw restaurants (actually, I

don't know of any). I do feel much better when I can

stick with as much raw as possible and it is so much

easier than cooking all the

time.<br>Blessings,<br>Marlene

[Guest guest]

really?! i have done some reading on the subject

of raw food diets and everything i read basically

said that you can eat all the raw fruit you feel like

and the pounds will melt off...because when you think

about it, 5 apples seems like a ton of food, but

calorie-wise it's what most people consider a meal. i'm

planning on doing fruit for breakfast, fruit OR veggies

for lunch, veggies for dinner and frozen juice " pops "

for snacks. ive read of people consuming only raw

fruits and veggies and not being able to keep the weight

on--losing 5 pounds in two days....well i hope that's what

happens to me!!! i'm planning on going 100% raw till i

reach my goal weight then slowly adding some cooked

back in and maintain at the raw% that feels

best.<br><br>best of luck in all you do.<br>t.

[Guest guest]

You might want to try the two steps forward one

step backwards approach. If you are currently 10% raw

and temporarily go 100% raw and then go backwards,

you will probably end up at around 30% raw. If you

then go temporarily 100% raw and then go backwards you

will probably end up at around 50% raw.

<br>Eventually, using this method, you will end up 100%

raw.<br><br>The psychological aspect of eating raw can be even

more of an obstacle than the physical aspect. Not only

do you have to deal with breaking your own long-term

habits, but you have to deal with the reactions of all

the cooked fooders you know. This can be especially

difficult if you are living with cooked fooders, especially

if they are your parents.<br><br>Many people try to

go cold turkey and go from virtually no raw food to

100% raw overnight. A small percentage are able to do

this but many have such dfficulty in making this

extreme change that they go totally backwards and end up

thinking raw foods don't have a good effect on them. It's

probably best to start out 30-50% raw and gradually work

your way up, what's most important is a level that you

can maintain over a long time period. <br><br>Those

frozen juice pops you were referring to are probably not

raw. Those sort of foods are usually made out of fruit

juice from conentrate. Concentrated fruit juice has

always been heated. Also, fruit or vegetable juice in

cans has always been heated. Juices in glass bottles

have also been heated. Even many of the juices in

plastc bottles have been heated, look on the label to

see if it says if it is fresh juice or pasteurized or

made from concentrates.

[Guest guest]

i think the 2forward/1back approach might be the

best for me...if i just try to become 30%raw for

example, i'll be allowed the foods i'm trying to stay away

from and i'll eat them. if i just go cold turkey 100%

i know in my mind i'm not allowed anything but

fruits and veggies and hopefully i'll stay focused on

that. i'll take this a little at a time. truthfully, i

want to feel healthy and clean but most of all i want

to lose about 30 pounds. i figure going raw is a way

to achieve both. and if i go raw with the notion

that i will do this until i've lost 30 pounds, i

figure by the time i achieve that i'll be so into the

lifestyle that i won't have a problem continuing.<br><br>t.

[Guest guest]

Hi Marlene,<br><br>Greetings from a fellow

Minnesotan (at least for the past 4 years)! I'm sure you

already heard this, but there is a raw restaurant in

Minneapolis now, called Ecopolitan. I ate there once and

LOVED it! It's dangerous, because it is one block from

my apartment, and I'm trying to spend less money on

eating out. <br><br>later,<br>Carol

[Guest guest]

& gt;there is a raw restaurant in Minneapolis now,

called Ecopolitan. & lt;<br><br>Groovy!<br><br>I hope

this is a trend that will catch on more and more. Raw

food can be so much tastier.<br><br>I live in Orange

County, California. Not one raw resaurant.