appreciation and 2 cents

[Guest guest]

i'm a quiet regular, i've been around several months and feel akin to

those who post often. i sincerely appreciate the e-community, as

there aren't so many raw fooders where i live. to throw in my

statistics (tommie, i love your lack of hesitation to talk about your

body and where it's at! there's a better wording, but it escapes me.)

i'm 5'6 " and weigh in the 135 area(have no scale). i can't say i've

really lost any weight in the past two years, but i'll say what my

food choices have done for me. i was diagnosed with asthma when i was

9, not the severe attack kind, but the kind that creeps in during

running, pollen seasons, etc. i was given a couple of different

inhalers, prednisone, and antibiotics about two or three times a year

from when i was 9 until i was around 23. even as a kid, i resisted,

physically and mentally the drugs. i hated the prednisone, it made me

hyper and jittery. my body resisted antibiotic after antibiotic.

they'd give me a stronger one after the first would fail. i want to

add that my parents are dear wonderful people and this does not

reflect on them. they were doing what they believed was the best

thing to do in their power. when i was 20, i was exposed to some

vegetarian " propiganda " and went almost cold turkey vegetarian

(literally, my last meal as a omnivore was thanksgiving turkey and

fixings). it took time to learn how to eat variety in a meatless

diet, and it seldom included a salad. about a year later, i was

started cutting out dairy- not intentionally but because my new

housemate was a vegan! we had joint cooking day every thursday as we

had a good hour and a half off classes. braised tofu and coconut

rice, with stir fried veggies were the standard. i went back and

forth with the veganism, though it was truly my ideal all the while.

in 2003, i moved to a vegetarian community in Oregon and met a few raw

fooders. my first reaction, as a community kitchen intern, was, what?

what do we have to do to accomodate " these people " ? well it took

about 6 months from there to become one of those people. i started

dating a raw fooder, and eating more salads with him. in march 2004,

we took a trip where we ate all our meals together. i wanted to share

food comfortably, so i ate all raw for two weeks. when i returned

home, i found myself desiring to continue, to see how long i could. i

believe because i didn't have any expectations for what would happen,

or how much time it would happen it, i gave myself a wonderful

opportunity to try being raw. it's been nearly two years now, in a

little over a month. at one point in that process, i began to make a

conscious choice to eat this way because i liked how my body felt. it

happened after i went running with a friend, the first time in a long

time, and i had no breathing problems AT ALL! this had never happened

in 15 years and was the final straw that convinced me what i was doing

for my body was the right choices. i am know my body has been

changing- i went from a 9 to a 6, but noticed didn't really notice

myself losing weight...also had a period of time when i think i was

visited by parasites in mexico and it led to a bit more drastic

weightloss. i also want to add it has rarely been a solo journey and

i am fortunate in that respect. my partner is raw, and passionate

about foraging and growing our food.