What is wrong with me?

[pearl]

I have been raw since mid January of this year. I am exhausted all the time and depressed. I am hypothyroid and take 2 grains of Armour thyroid for 14 years. I have really lethal hay fever ( I live in Tokyo), ostedo arthritis in both knee and I weigh 6 kilos too much. ( I started out at 9 kilos but have lost 3 since I started the raw diet) I would like to know if anybody else has had this sort of reaction and what might be the cause. I am waiting for my raw food energy and good spirits but if I weren't losing weight I'd be tempted to give up Any advice??

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Peral,

There's nothing wrong with you. I don't know your history but chances are that it took many years to get into the shape you are and it will take a while to undo everything. You mentioned you are losing weight. There are others who don't lose any weight (at first) but they feel better. Your body is slowly starting to repair itself and it's just going to take time. People see improvements in different areas at different times.

Also if you are eating a lot of nuts, you may want to cut back on that as that sometimes causes people to feel sleepy, tired. I think it was Victoria Boutenko who was getting tired by the afternoon and this was after years of being raw. It turned out that once she cut back on the nuts the tireness left.

Maybe if you share what you eat that will help others to give you some ideas. Again, it's just going to take time for your body the repair . . . you probably have no idea what repair work is going on, on the inside of your body. Those live enzymes from your raw food are hard at work :D

[pearl]

Thanks for looking in. I usually start with a glass of water in the morning sometimes with a lemon squeezed in. Then fruit or a smoothie ( fruit, green powder, nuts, water) Then for lunch I have a salad of whatever vegetables are in my fridge with a dressing that usually includes some or all of the following: extra virgin olive oil, lemon, apple cider vinegar, salt pepper, spices, nama shoyu, nama miso paste, ginger, spices etc.) I may be eating too many nuts? I put pine nuts in my salad, almonds in my smoothie and I really like raw pesto but only have it once a week. I make a hommous with sprouted garbanzo beans and tahini ( which I am sure is not raw but I can't get the raw tahini here-I tried it with raw cashews last week-it was not hommous) every other week and have it with veggie sticks. I try to juice often but not daily- carrot celery, lemon or grapefruit. I also eat a lot of salads for dinner- I haven't found anywhere in japan that sells dehydrators and so I try to make as many different dishes that don't require dehydrating. I like the food and find my taste for other things is disappearing ....Still I feel like I am ill and can hardly wake up in the morning, could lie down and sleep anytime. My hay fever kicked in with a vengeance last week and I can't bear the itching eyes, running nose, sore throat that comes with it. I have no energy at all and I feel miserable. Before I started raw, I had hay fever, asthma, aching knees and 25 pounds too much weight. I was not particularly unhealthy in the food department. I did eat meat, fish, tofu but lots of veggies- cooked and raw, not alot of processed carbs, no fast food, occasionally bread but I wouldn't say I was on a typical SAD diet. More like modified South Beach or Atkins. If this is detox can anyone suggest a way to speed it up? Should I fast? I am dragging through life for these past few months and it is starting to get me into trouble with falling behind in all the things I need to do ( home, work, children)

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Pearl,

I hope others chime in here too, but just be what I remember reading about Victoria Boutenko, the nuts did make her tired. Maybe you could try cutting back on the nuts and having something else in place of it; maybe a piece or two of whole fresh fruits. See how you feel in a few days.

[karenisraw]

Lack of magnesium can cause fatigue and depression.

Bananas help depression
:) :)

[Boysenberry]

Pearl,

Is citrus available in Japan? I found that to help my allergies.

Also, are you getting enough calories? I found that I was very fatigued when I started raw as well. When I logged into www.fitday.com I found I was not eating enough calories for as active as I was. When I increased the calories, it helped a lot with energy.

Another thing I found, is in the begining, I wasn't 100% raw. When I finally went 100% raw, it took 11 days to get to energy.

Last, my favorite thing that I thought made a difference is green smoothies. I make mine with a banana, 3 cups (2 big handfuls) of spinach or kale, and 1 cup (another big handful) of berries, or other sweet fruit. Also, try celery. Two stalks when I am lagging seems to really help. Or, young Thai coconut water... something about electrolytes that just really kicks things into high gear.

The fat issue seems to be somewhat a personal thing. Some days I can eat 10% and be fine, some days I want 50%... I think you have to monitor that. I would definately log in to fitday.com and log in your food each day for awhile. If you don't have a journal on this site, start one. You may be surprised and it may become apparent what you need to do. Check back in and let us know.

Sami

[misslinda]

K-o-n-i-c-h-i-w-a-!



Hey Pearl,

What do you mean by 2 grains of armour and "lethal hay fever?"

give the fact that you have been raw a short time and been on med for 14 long years, it sound like you are responding positively to raw. Tiredness,depresseion etc is common with raw eating. You can enhance your healing by avoiding fats---as fats slow down the healing process b/c it requires more work digestively to breakdown. Is that the only medication you've ever been on? Any other symptoms? Tell us aobut this hay fever--all year?

Are you resting enough?

Sleeping when tired?

Bowel movements?

Exercise for blood flow?

Water?

btw, alot of studies show soy as interfering with thyroid gland. i'll find some aritcles here at the site.

:)

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi again, Pearl,

I meant to mention to you that I was on 2 grains of Armour Thyroid but am now down to 3/4 of a grain since eating high raw. This has been over a few years. I know if I were 100% raw, I would be totally off my thyroid meds by now!

Linda - 2 grains of Armour Thyroid is equal to 120 mg of Armour Thyroid.
[The general rule of thumb is that 100 mcg (.100 mg) of Levothyroxine (Synthroid) is equivalent to 1 grain (60 mg) of Armour.]

[misslinda]

Helen (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

SO glad to see you........I missed seeing your face martial arts diva :)

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Linda,

Thanks :D

I went back to work and haven't had the time to post too much, but have been post off and on. The board is so big that sometimes I don't cross paths with some of the other posters (like you).

I'm still going strong in my martial arts :D This Saturday I will be judging at a tournament and then the next weekend I'll be down in Texas for a 3 day weapons seminar. It's so much fun!!!!!

[pearl]

Okay well, tried the lower nut content, am checking out my diet on fitday ( how cool is that?), eating more bananas and green smoothies everyday. I have hay fever Feb-May every year and even after its over, it takes me some time to get back to being reasonably healthy. Since these alterations, I haven't gained any noticable energy. Also got a wickedly bad sinus infection that refuses to go away ( I tried juicing for a couple days- and loads of fresh citrus) and am just miserable. I am sleeping about 8-10 hours a day. Good thing is my appetite is not that big and I am still losing weight. Down 2 more kilos. I did jst get my thyroid checked and so far no change- rock steady on my current dosage. I am trying a little sauna and massage and the steam sauna. Still I am enjoying the food and the lack of cooking- I really believe in the efficacy of raw food . Maybe it just takes awhile til I get the energy and health thing? Anybody else who may have had a similiar experience in the first few months of going raw? Any quick detox recomendations?

[Zena]

I'm sorry, this is totally off topic, but is it hard to stay raw in Japan? If you go out to eat can you find anything, how are people about it socially...? I intend to live there when i'm older, so... :p

[dreamrawalwz]

I noticed you said you have smoothies with fruit and nuts. You may want to look into food combining. Fuit should be eaten alone, but in a green smoothie is second best.

[Faithfullyfit]

;)
Okay well, tried the lower nut content, am checking out my diet on fitday ( how cool is that?), eating more bananas and green smoothies everyday. I have hay fever Feb-May every year and even after its over, it takes me some time to get back to being reasonably healthy. Since these alterations, I haven't gained any noticable energy. Also got a wickedly bad sinus infection that refuses to go away ( I tried juicing for a couple days- and loads of fresh citrus) and am just miserable. I am sleeping about 8-10 hours a day. Good thing is my appetite is not that big and I am still losing weight. Down 2 more kilos. I did jst get my thyroid checked and so far no change- rock steady on my current dosage. I am trying a little sauna and massage and the steam sauna. Still I am enjoying the food and the lack of cooking- I really believe in the efficacy of raw food . Maybe it just takes awhile til I get the energy and health thing? Anybody else who may have had a similiar experience in the first few months of going raw? Any quick detox recomendations?

Pearl-

I have been there.........!
Research the rawfoodtalk forum fo many threads on Yeast/Candida.....It sounds like you have the brain fog of someone with yeast overgrowth!

Take Care!

Others out there care to link a few sites about RAW and getting rid of Candida

[veganman]

Hi Pearl -

I have been battling extreme fatigue for about 1 year now. I have been raw for about 1 month and it seems to be getting worse. For me, my nutritionist recommended eating more calories. I check my calorie intake daily at http://www.fitwatch.com (a very cool site that allows you to enter custom foods and recipes as well) and it tends to be between 1400 and 1800 calories. I need at least 2200 and that is probably part of my problem. I have also not ate much fat for the past 20 years and that may also be catching up with me. Your body needs some fat in order to carry out all the necessary processes. I am shooting for @30% right now to see if that helps.

Overall....as someone else said, make sure you are getting enough calories...

[rawpriestess]

I'm sorry that you are feeling tired, I feel tired sometimes too, I find this is when I am mono eating, and not getting in enough greens, when I just eat fruit and nothing else, I find that I get very tired, so if I add in some greens and have some tomato olives, mushrooms, salad, nuts, etc, I feel so much better.