checking things out...

[JennaLynne]

Hi everyone-- I'm new. Or at least, I think I am. I haven't totally made up my mind on rather or not to try this diet. But I looked through the boards quite bit before even registering, and you all seem like a really great group, so thought I'd go ahead and post anyway. I haven't bought anything for this diet yet, and haven't tried it so... I guess I'm not very official yet, lol.

I have some questions though to those who would like to answer.
First off, I have IBS-D. Pretty severe. If anyone has struggles with this awful and embarrasing disorder and has found that this diet has helped, I would so much love to hear it.
Secondly, I guess I'm just wondering how you all go without eating meat? I think that will be my hardest thing. I haven't bought the book yet, I am a single mom with two very young girls, so buying anything will be hard for me... which brings me to my third question...
Have you found this way of life to be more expensive? Less expensive? Hard to do on a tight budget?

I have some other serious health issues besides the one I mentioned. I have tried everything, from fad diets, to general cutting out calories, to nutrition courses, to fasting, and cleansing, supplements... arghh.. it's enough to make someone want to pull their hair out! This is sort of a last resort for me, and I am still a little skeptical-forgive me, but when you've been where I have it's hard not to be. I could care less about longevity of life, but I really would like to have a better quality while I am here!

Anyway, thanks for listening. =)

[michigan roman]

hi jennalynne , welcome to the site :)

heres a link to a big thread on saving money on a raw food diet , its a
bunch of great ideas = http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=22555&highlight=raw+on+a+budget

[luna99]

I have some questions though to those who would like to answer. First off, I have IBS-D. Pretty severe. If anyone has struggles with this awful and embarrasing disorder and has found that this diet has helped, I would so much love to hear it.


I don't know if I had/have IBS because I never got diagnosed, but I will say that before I started eating raw at least twice a week I'd feel really gassy and bloated -- sometimes so badly that it would be painful. I guess I just thought this was a natural way for me to feel or something and I'd continue eating the foods I normally ate. I thought I was eating healthy too.. cereal, chicken, tuna, fish, breads, pasta, ice cream, lots of cheese, soy milk, pizza, rice ...

but once I started eating raw.. and not even 100%... maybe only like 80%... I could tell a HUGE difference and felt soooo much better! My fiance used to be surprised at how often I would tell him "My stomach hurts!" (when I felt really bloated/gassy) and now he's noticed that I never mention my stomach to him anymore.

hope that helps you... your condition may be worse than mine was.... but I have no doubt that eating this way would help you with that!

good luck!

[DavidZaneMason]

Welcome! Thank you for your questions.

-Don't 'believe' anything. Slowly incorporate more of the fresh fruits and vegetables that you love into your diet....try to be conscious of your fat/nut/sweets/oils intake......and drink plenty of fresh water. Go at a pace that 's right for YOU. Don't compare yourself to anyone else in your mind....or some crazy goal. Eat a very WIDE variety and just do what you are motivated and prepared to do EVERY DAY.

-Who cares what the results are? All you CAN do is eat what YOU have determined to be the best foods. You'll reap the benefits.....and crave crap less and less.

-Power and success to you.

-David Z. Mason

[Veganforlife]

Welcome! I also agree with what the others have posted.
Let me add that raw is a very healing diet. Think about it. You are eating foods full of their own enzymes that your body will assimilate quickly and benefit from. You are NOT eating dead foods absent of any health benefit to your body so no wonder our machines (bodies) become sick and unhealthy.
I agree too that you can keep this diet as simple and inexpensive or as gourmet as you want.
My first advice? Purchase Alissa's book. It answers loads of questions you may have. Second? Visit here often. Third? Your children would definitely benefit from eating at a young age healthy. Green smoothies, which I call Shrek Shakes are very tasty for little ones.
I see nothing but benefits from folks who enter the raw food world. What is there on this "diet" (if you will) to hurt you? You are eating living, healthy, whole foods.
As far as the meat thing, well, me being Vegan for two years and prior to that Vegetarian for 26, that didn't even come into play. I can't get beyond the cruel slaughter the dear animals have to go through to put a piece of their body on your table for consumption. But that's another story for another time. Read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser - excellent book!
Welcome again and I say try it for 30 days and see how you feel. I mean try it 100%, no cheating, none, and see how you feel.

[Belmontgal]

I've had IBS for years now and have constantly complained to my doctor about how poorly I feel and how I should deal with it. She always told me to increase my fibre. Made sense. The only problem was I was increasing my breads, cereals and tried the high fibre medamucils etc but nothing really ever solved my problems. Then I saw Alissa on Tyra and thought I might as well try raw.
After the first few days to my surprise I was having regular bm's at least once if not 2x per day and I felt so much better.
I'm still in the learning curve and have to admit that I need to better prepare myself for monthly issues and cravings and since last night I ate some typical SAD foods and this morning I feel awful. So gassy and bloated and woke up and made a green smoothy with a ripe juicy mango, greens, water and a little agave to curb my sweet tooth. You can do this diet fairly inexpensive if you eat simply. I havne't bought a dehydrator yet but I have a chopper and a blender. I guess the only thing I would really recommend is the blender and you can get one cheap at Walmart or someplace. The next thing would be a food processor. I made applesauce with my FP and it was yummy so much better than the store bought stuff. My daugher also is liking this lifestyle she is 6 and its teaching her how to be healthy and not just grab the cookie but actually love the taste and texture of fruits and veggies.
Give it a few days of close to 100% and you'll see what I mean about how your belly feels. So much better...then make the decision. Its worth a try.
I love it!!

[JennaLynne]

Wow I'm really touched by all your replies and advice...and so quickly! Thanks! I think I am going to try it... I'll have to add slowly at first, but when I get enough money to go decent grocery shopping, I can start a 30 day trial or something. I actually already have a blender and a chopper. I have a Jack LaLaine juicer too, it's just in storage in anothor state. Maybe I can get that back, do any of you use that one?

To luna and Belmontgal~ See, that is part of my hesitation though is because all the raw veggies and stuff are known to cause gas/bloating/diarrhea ...and God forbid I do something to make it worse!! I know the fiber supplements seemed to worsen it. It's already caused all sorts of anxiety and limited me from doing many things. I'm glad to hear that it actually got better for you both. Maybe it's just getting used to it?

Again, thanks for all the welcomes and advice =)

[michigan roman]

ok now part 2 for me in this thread . ive had IBS-D for 5 years now to the max . it runs my life , i know exactly what your saying about it being awful .
and ive been a vegan eating simple plant matter cooked or raw for 15 years with no human concoctions like pop candy cakes etc . i was eating only like dry beans rice boiled potatos roasted peanuts and water . still it started . then 15 months ago i went raw without any releif , it actually got worse because i was eating too much oil on my salad dressings . BUT IVE BEEN STUDYING BOOKS / INTERNET FOR OVER A DECADE ON DIET AND HEALTH AND I BELIEVE %100 THAT A RAW DIET IS BEST .

ive had all the medical test such as colonoscopy-upper and lower g.i. - the blood and stool test - everything . ive spent thousands on suppliments , herbs , tried many diet adjustments , many doctor medications and over the counter meds and no cure .

and ive just now found something thats helping me with the D word = im taking whole raw oat seeds (theyre called oat groats) and soaking them in slightly warm water for about 8 hours , i continuously start a new batch before the previous batch runs out . then i eat these SOAKED OATS with raisins and cinnamon added , and sometimes a banana , at room tempature and its really helping to solidify the my solid waste . im very excited about this occurence , its truly helping so ide really suggest you try it . one site did claim it would do this , and it reallys helping . i'll come back to this thread and post a link to where raw oat seed can be bought online cheap .

another thing i just found is taking soft wheat seeds (their called berries) and soaking them in water for like 18 hours , they start to ferment . meaning bacteria starts to form . its just like grains are fermented for making alchohol like beer , or vegis like sour kraut are fermented . at 18 hours i drink the water , im putting a half cup of seeds in a mason jar then filling it with water . then i refil the jar and wait like 8 hours to drink the batch , then again like 2 more time til it starts to get too sour/tart , in other words over grown with bacteria . and this seems to be helping my gut feel tighter / healthier instead of loose . they call this grain drink like this rejuveac . i'll post a link later .

well goodluck , AND TRY THE OATS .

goodday :)

[Katie B]

JennaLynne, welcome! I am relatively new to the raw food diet as well. All the advice that has been posted for you here is incredibly valuable. One mistake I made when trying to go raw was doing it on my own. I didn't know about Raw Food Talk (RFT). Participating in RFT reallys helps with the process and the journey. It is so much better with support! My advice from one newbie to another is to add one green smoothie a day to your diet to start (you can even replace it for your milk/cereal at breakfast or a sandwich at lunch). At first, green smoothies sounded disgusting and gagful to a me, but I PROMISE you they are delicious. :D Just keep trying different recipes until you find some that you like. Buy raw food books and continue to post on the forum. I suggest Revvell's Smoothie, Smoozie book (she is on RFT as Revvell) and Victoria Boutenko's Green for Life book. Start buying lots of bananas, let them get really ripe with plenty of brown spots, peel them, put them in a ziploc baggie and store them in the freezer. These make great bases for smoothies and other raw food dishes. You can always make something satisfying if you have some frozen fruit on hand and greens. It is so simple too.

[michigan roman]

oh and misslinda , a member here up on stomach issues , always says the herb slippery elm helps her . it doesnt help me but maybe for you it would .
and also pineapple is a real good food for my gut , whole or juiced like with your jack lalaine .

and one guy thats cured ibs , i think its david klein - he has site/book , ate/eats mostly sweet fruit , as opposed to salty/savory stuff .
thats another thing i did was quit salt because i determined humans didnt evolve with a salt shaker in their hand . and were using WAY too much . and since i quit 8 months ago ive less mucous build up and colds , and can breathe deeper when i run . im getting deeper fuller breaths now , and dont crave salt anymore so i dont know if its helping stomach but its for sure a positive . and without salt i found if i tasted anything cooked it tasted nutritionally dead . the salt was masking that .

[Biff]

While you are learning about eating raw and helping out your issues, I suggest you buy a copy of "Healing Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The Cause and Cure of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis" by Paul Nison

This is the story of how Paul Nison cured himself from IBS by eating a raw vegan diet. Paul is a great guy, excellent speaker, and has a great sense of humor. www.paulnison.com

Your health is in your hands, do the research you need to do to convince yourself that your illness is caused by the diet that you eat - and this will give you the strength to give up meat & dairy. Also read "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko and this will give you all the info you need to convince yourself to eat green leaves everyday.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I have some questions though to those who would like to answer.
First off, I have IBS-D. Pretty severe.

...

I could care less about longevity of life, but I really would like to have a better quality while I am here!



You are in luck, as the raw diet will absolutely insure your quality of life, but there's no guarantees about quantity. So if you got hit by a truck next year, you'll have lived the healthiest year you could on this lifestyle.

I have similar symptoms as you in situational degrees, meaning it happens under pressure and stress and raw definately helps.

However, be advised that perhaps the first couple of weeks on the program you may experience more severe (or less) of your symptoms whilst your bowels are regulating themselves. I find that when I start off on raw the movements are somewhat softer and more frequent, although they are not diarrhea-like (unless there is stress present).

I suggest when you decide to take the diet to all raw, arrange a short vacation so you can be comfortable (like near the bathroom) for the first few days.

It will all be worth it in the long run, as you will experience phenominal health and well being. This will be so exciting and empowering to you.

[michigan roman]

www.sunorganicfarm.com is a oat groat site for raw hulless organic oats

check under grains to get to page ther

[michigan roman]

and the www.sproutpeople.com have the concept on rejuveac posted , its all about adding good bacteria (probiotics) to the gut .

[JennaLynne]

You can always make something satisfying if you have some frozen fruit on hand and greens. It is so simple too.
~I'm really going to have to get the book I guess.. because I have no idea how to do that. I like salads, but get tired of them pretty quickly.

MichiganRoman~ I will try the oats. I love oatmeal and stuff so maybe I will like these too. Thank you for the links.

Sharon~Thanks for the encouragment at the end of your post =) and I live near the bathroom...lol, so I think I can do that. I am thinking I will introduce it slowly anyways, as I can't afford to just go out and buy a new pantry/fridge/freezer full of stuff. Also, I noticed you are in Colorado... your several hours away from me, but if you ever hear of seminars of events here, it'd be worth making the drive! Let me know okay?

Katie~ Wow I never even thought about freezing bananas. I didn't know you could do that. I guess because I can by frozen strawberries, and other berries, but I've never seen bananas frozen?

To everyone else, thank you again... I've been reading it all and taking notes =)

On a side note, my daughter is super excited about this. She's 6 and I talked to her today about eating healthy and how we are going to try and change what we eat and she is thrilled. She loves fruit and veggies and salad and would choose and apple over a candy bar any day.

Jenna

[chilove]

Hi there,

You can definitely heal IBS with a raw diet. I did!! :-) Avoid the harder, tougher veggies like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, collards, etc. Stick to fruits and tender greens (lettuces, baby spinach) and you will do great.

I highly recommend buying Dave Klein's "Self Healing Colitis and Crohns" You can get it on amazon.com or at Dave's website www.livingnutrition.com. Dave healed himself and has helped thousands of people heal from all kinds of digestive problems. I recommend it so much that if you really can't afford it, email me and give me your contact information and I will mail you a copy to borrow.

Raw doesn't have to be expensive. Follow the instructions in the threads about saving money. Stick to base of bananas, they are very cheap. Make friends with produce managers at stores near you and tell them that you are raw foodist (they always get a kick out of that) and that you will purchase their "un-sellable" (usually just perfectly ripe or bruised) produce from them at a discount. You can also get great deals by buying by the case. Also, look for produce stores or stands. They are much cheaper than shopping in grocery stores!!

Wishing you all the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

[JennaLynne]

hypnocmt~ Wow it's too bad you don't live closer, I'd have you hypnotize me! I have wanted to look into hypno therapy before and almost bought some tapes off ebay but they were like 100 bucks and I didn't even know if they would work or not. (I live way out in the middle of no where, so there'd be no one that does that around me). Can you hypnotize over the phone? lol

Thanks for all the advice. The thing about anxeity- is that I never had it before, not even remotly, until IBS. Now, it runs my life. Mostly because I worry about not getting to a bathroom, or worry about being in public places and having to run for it. I worry about driving...even for a few minutes, because there's not a bathroom in the car. I don't think anxiety caused my IBS... I think my IBS caused the anxeity.

I wrote down what you said about combining foods. I will pay attention to that from now on. As for the breathing... I was doing yoga for awhile, and I noticed it helping, but then I got sick and never got back into it. I'm going to have to do that again...thanks for the reminder. =)

Do you have yahoo messenger? or is there a way to pm here?

Chilove~ Thank you...I really appreciate that! I just put in a bid for alissa's book on ebay because it was a lot cheaper there (if i win it). I will look for that one too. You are the third person to reccommend it to me. I read the book called "The Makers Diet" by Jordan Rubin, who healed himself of Chrons. But all the stuff he reccommends you buy is way expensive, so it was kind of a waste.

Jenna

[JennaLynne]

I'm going to do it!! I went shopping today and bought a ton of produce... I just hope it doesn't go bad before I get to it, I got a huge bag of oranges! Thanks to everyone for your encouragment and support. I don't think I'd be able to make this decision with out it. I'm going to try it for 30 days.. 100% raw, and see how it goes. =)

[JennaLynne]

hypnocmt~ Thank you. I tried to email you, but it said it was disabled, so I guess I will just reply here. I was hospitalized with anorexia when I was a teenager. Though I'm not now, I still have those thoughts and desires to be at times... I was told it never leaves you. There's a lot I could say on it... but I'll leave it at that for now.

The point is, that I think the group would be good... I've been there, and I understand the thought process of it. Maybe I can help? And in turn get help on some of those stressers you were talking about. ;) Are there a lot on here that deal with eating disorders?

Jenna

[vwinters]

I have some questions though to those who would like to answer.
First off, I have IBS-D. Pretty severe. If anyone has struggles with this awful and embarrasing disorder and has found that this diet has helped, I would so much love to hear it.

I have had severe IBS flare-ups for over 10 years. A flare up for me includes frequent, urgent, debilitating bouts of painful diarrhea. When the problem first arose, a flare up for me only lasted a day or two. As the years past they became more severe lasting days, weeks, or even months. Now, when I eat the standard American diet my symptoms are pretty much continuous.

I’m going to share several things I found helpful as you are just starting out. I found I could cut my symptoms in half, even eating a standard American diet, by just adding 2 Tablespoons a day of ground flax seeds. I used to put it in oatmeal, now I put it in smoothies.

I also was able to cut my symptoms nearly in half by following a low fat vegan food plan as advocated by Dr. John McDougall (http://www.drmcdougall.com/).

By combining the McDougal plan and flax seeds I reduced my symptoms by about 80%.

I got similar results by adding 1 quart of greens smoothies and 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds to a standard American diet.

I’ve been eating mostly green smoothies with flax seeds for the past week and my symptoms have all but disappeared. It’s a little too soon to say I’ve cured myself of this disease, but it looks very hopeful.

I hope this helps.
VW
http://www.3fatchicks.net/img/bar097/penguin/lb/528.2/140/515.6/.png (http://www.3fatchicks.com/weight-tracker/)

[JennaLynne]

hypnocmt~ thank you I'll be watching for it!

vwinters~ i'm so glad for you!! I'm going to have to try flax seeds... now that you mentioned it, I think I remember hearing before that they were really good for the digestive system. I haven't gotten into the green smoothies yet... I made an all fruit one this morning though, it was yummy. =)

Jenna