Progress

[ManyLittles]

Well, it's my fourth day on raw. I think I'm doing around 80%. I've done Fitday for the first two days, seems I'm averaging 1400 calories or so. Probably more, because I'm pretty sure I forgot a few things I ate.

I've gone from 288.8 to 283.2. Pretty fast drop, though I'm sure it's mostly water...I can actually get my wedding ring off again, which I couldn't do last week. My urine is clear, most of the terrible stiffness and pain I get after sitting/laying a long time has gone, and I can walk around a store in relative comfort. I feel a lot better. I'm sleeping better and much calmer (although that could be due to taking a couple of Valerian capsules a day--before that I was sleeping terribly and very irritable an exhausted).

I do seem to have more energy. I'm not skipping around the house or anything...but then, I'm still very heavy and pregnant, lol. But the last two days I woke up and didn't feel like I needed to go right back to sleep.

My moods are much better. I did feel a little tempted yesterday. I had a hard afternoon, and I just wanted to sit down, relax, and eat something that would fill me, instead of feeling hungry shortly after eating, over and over again. The hunger isn't bad at all, but it is annoying to have to go into the kitchen to peel and cut MORE fruit, over and over!

I'm just eating as much as I feel I need to. For cooked food, I'm having a small amount of brown rice and one boneless chicken tenderloin (a very small piece), or chicken salad or hummus sandwich in a ww pita. I've completely given up my Diet Rite soda, and am drinking only water, or some juice.

I've been taking my prenatal vitamins regularly, and some fish oil capsules, and the Valerian (one capsule before a nap and before bed). I'm taking less than a third of the recommended dosage for Valerian.

I feel so much better now. So far the temptations haven't been bad at all. I really like eating fruit anyway, and I like how I feel when I eat healthy. I'm enjoying the weight loss so far, but I hope it doesn't keep up or the docs won't be happy. I expect it to taper off soon. I'll just be glad if I don't gain too much more for this pregnancy. I've already gained too much weight. Fortunately the docs will be doing weekly ultrasounds and bi-weekly blood draws anyway, so I'll be reassured that my raw eating isn't negatively affecting the baby.

Anyway, that's my experience so far! :)

[Veganforlife]

Awwww it sounds like you are really doing well. It only gets better and better - YAY YOU!!!

[RawVegan4Health]

Way to go!:D Keep it up and your cravings will start to subside. You sound like you are handling it well.

[Elle_Murphy]

Been where you are. Nothing worked for me except 100%. If you can maintain a raw food lifestyle without that one cooked meal becoming the majority of your day (like what would happen to me) more power to you. Your body is transitioning & is very vulnerable right now so be careful.

For me, it was playing with dynomite.

[boxerfamily]

I would not let them ultrasound your baby every week. The doctor with my second child did a late ultrasound and overestimated my baby by 2 lbs and decided to do a cesarean. He was wrong, and I wish I had not gone with him. The next baby was mid-wife with doctor consulting because of the diabetes, and I told them I wanted a vaginal birth. I had one and a happy healthy baby. Just don't let the doctors plan everything based on the technology. Listen to your inner voice. My last doctor actually told me that studies had been done that showed that a woman's idea of how large her baby was before birth was more accurate than a late ultrasound. Best wishes to you!

[barose]

I would not let them ultrasound your baby every week. The doctor with my second child did a late ultrasound and overestimated my baby by 2 lbs and decided to do a cesarean. He was wrong, and I wish I had not gone with him. The next baby was mid-wife with doctor consulting because of the diabetes, and I told them I wanted a vaginal birth. I had one and a happy healthy baby. Just don't let the doctors plan everything based on the technology. Listen to your inner voice. My last doctor actually told me that studies had been done that showed that a woman's idea of how large her baby was before birth was more accurate than a late ultrasound. Best wishes to you!

ITA with everything.

[StarFire]

blessings! sounds like youre doing really well. :D

[ManyLittles]

Thanks everyone! :D

Boxer, I agree, ultrasounds can be a bad thing in the hands of a doctor who is itching to hold a scalpel...as most seem to be nowadays. Easier for them...who cares whether or not it's easier for the moms and babies? (not them!)

Unfortunately for me it is too late. I've had four c-sections and have high-risk complications. There is no doctor or midwife on earth who would take me...or at least not in my state. I tried contacting them all with my last pregnancy. No one would risk their "stats" by taking me on.

My first cesarean I was blackmailed into it by a rotten doctor. Long boring, painful story. I kick myself now, of course, but I was in no frame of mind to make a rational decision at the time. My second was supposed to be VBAC, but that one actually needed to be a cesarean. After that, no one would even consider me as a candidate. Even the midwives wouldn't take me, because of my weight and gestational diabetes.

Normally I wouldn't go for so many ultrasounds, but not only do I have gestational diabetes, but I also now have E antibodies. It's similar to Rh-, but with no shot available to help the situation. Chances are the baby will be fine, and they'll check the titer level in my blood regularly, but my blood could suddenly start attacking the baby's, and an ultrasound could catch and problems with that, or placental problems due to the diabetes. They also think I may have a slight placental separation, and they're keeping an eye on it.

So in this case, I feel more comfortable getting all the ultrasounds than not. I'd never forgive myself if my baby died because we missed the placenta separating, or very possible problems.

But if it weren't for all my health issues, I would definitely avoid unnecessary ultrasounds. I wish I could do it all over again. They told me having multiple ceseareans would be no big deal. Now, no doctor really wants me as a patient, because I'm too high risk.

[Rawsome Ginger]

How far along are you?

[ManyLittles]

Twenty-eight weeks now. I'm due August 14, they'll probably schedule the surgery the week before, unless I go early.

There's about a 1% chance that the anti-E thing with cause enough problems that the baby would have to be taken a lot earlier than that. Hopefully I'm in the other 99%!

[chilove]

Awesome!!! You are doing great!!! :-) You are doing yourself and your baby such a huge favor!!! Good for you!

Blessings,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

[ManyLittles]

Thanks! :-D

I'm down to 281.6 today. Wow, even on low carb I didn't lose this fast. I'm still sure a lot of it is water--I can now get my ring of as easily as before pregnancy. I'm finding it a little hard to get something to eat first thing in the morning. All I want to do is grab a banana (you have to love a fruit you can eat without washing or peeling it, lol) but I want to limit myself to only one banana a day, if any, because of the high sugar content.

I think what I need to do is clean out my kitchen and organize it. We just moved in here two months ago, and it's only temporary, so I didn't want to unpack much. But I can't find anything, and the kitchen is so crowded with boxes, I'm sick of it. I need to get organized so I can sit in a peaceful, clean kitchen and chop and peel everything at once.

I'm still feeling good on raw. I enjoy eating this way. Eating so much organic produce, especially the fruit, kind of feels "luxurious", you know? I'm just worried about the food lasting--payday is over a week away, and I'm going through it really fast. I guess we'll see how it goes...it would really stink to go over a week on raw, and have to stop temporarily because I run out of food to eat!

[boxerfamily]

I think that trying to go as raw as possible is the best thing you can do. You have made a great choice for you and your baby. Even if you cannot go 100% raw until after your baby is born, you have done a great thing. Keep up the good work! I wish I could be of more help to you since we have a lot of similarities to our pregnancies. (ie. diabetes, prior cesarean, weight) but it seems that your pregnancy has some more serious complication that I know nothing about. If there is anything else you would like to ask, I will help in any way I can. My most positive thoughts are with you :)

[ManyLittles]

Thank you everyone, for the support. :) I feel really good about myself and this pregnancy, now that I know I'm "feeding" my baby right!

One week raw, and still going strong!

I'm continuing to feel more energetic. Morning sugars still aren't where I want them to be, lowest has been 106. Last two days I've had mini bouts of irritability. I think I was tired. I also forgot a dose of the valerian one day. But I'm still WAY more patient than I was. I've only had one real crying jag all week...that was yesterday, and over with quickly. Before, I was getting more and more weepy and stressed every day.

Friday I ran a bunch of errands, including Sam's Club and Walmart, and wasn't all that sore afterwards. The week before, I was having to take the scooters at the stores, because of pelvic pain when I walked...and I was still incredibly sore and in pain afterwards. Such an improvement!

My weight is 280, for a total of 8.8 pounds lost in a week. :D The loss has slowed down to an average of .5 pounds per day. I expect the loss to stop in the next week, since the baby will start really gaining soon. The doctor didn't weigh me this week, but I mentioned I lost some weight. I told him I was only doing 50-70% raw (a little fib...some days I am, but my goal each day is to be 80-90%). He was totally fine with it. He was actually glad to hear it, and not surprised to hear how much better I was feeling.

I'm excited that I'm doing so well. I don't feel deprived at all. I'm really enjoying eating this way. I feel well enough that I think I'm ready to start exercising again. But the real test will come in a week. I've had success on other diets before, and felt disillusioned after week two. :mad: If I still feel good and find it easy to eat this way in a week, I will be really impressed!:cool:

[ManyLittles]

Oh, and have I mentioned....I haven't had diet soda, chocolate (even sugar free) or any kind of fast food (including McSalads) for a week! That has NEVER happened on any diet. I didn't even feel tempted watching my husband eat a candy bar. And I only felt momentarily tempted when he ate pizza, because of the smell. Then I ran and made a great salad, and didn't even notice the pizza smell after that. :-D

[Stina]

Hey, I'm especially glad to hear that you're off of the poisonous diet stuff. May your healing journey be gentle and joyous!

[ManyLittles]

Today marks 2 weeks on raw. Everything is going well. My weight has gone up and down a bit, was up to 280.6 yesterday. Then today, down to 277.6!! A big drop. I think I must have done some detoxing yesterday.

The night before, I had insomnia for a while, for the first time since going raw. Then I felt so tired running my errands, and felt very weepy when I came home. I started having back and leg pain again, then it got so bad I just laid in bed and cried. It was awful! And it was different than usual, so of course I got paranoid and started to wonder if I might be going into labor early. (I'm always getting paranoid about that, and it is never the case).

I wanted so bad to take some acetaminophen, but decided not to. If it was detox, then I just needed to let my body get it all out. Finally I fell asleep, and afterwards, felt almost completely better. Weird. I had some insomnia last night, but just took two valerian capsules instead of one, and was fine. Today I felt back to normal.

I was pretty worried yesterday. I realized that I can NOT go back to living the way I was before. I was concerned I was losing the effects of being raw. But today I'm fine, and I had a feeling I would drop more than a pound today (despite that I haven't had that big of a drop in a week)...and when I woke up, I'd lost three! So my body must have been getting rid of a bunch of junk!

By the way...(TMI warning!) ...I noticed that yesterday a few times, when I was feeling bad, when I went to use the bathroom, there was a lot of...well...stuff...floating in the water, and my urine was dark. Then when I felt better, it was gone and my urine was clear. Anyone ever experience that?