Before raw - where were you?

[iamacranberry]

To those of you who have been raw for long enough to see some benefits, I am wondering from what diet and lifestyle you came from before. I know there are some of us here who have made drastic lifestyle changes and those who have simply gone from being vegan to raw vegan...such as myself. Sometimes I wish I would have had a more extreme lifestyle change to make, but perhaps hearing where others came from lifestylewise will do the trick. Thanks :)

[IamLoved]

Hello,

Before raw I did a lot of different "diets". I did Atkins, Suzanne Somers, Weight Watchers, cabbage soup, ect. I went from meat and cheese and potatoes one night to all raw vegan the next. I used to never eat vegetable and thought that french fries and ketchuo were veggies! It was a pretty radical change but I am an all or nothing person and slowly easing into it does not work for me. I have been on and off raw for almost three years now and just now finally feel like I am at a place where I am at peace with raw. This probably has lots and lots to do with the fact that my children want to eat raw with me for the most part.
So anyways, thats me.

[avolove]

Hi!
I've wondered the same thing! I came from a unhealthy vegetarian background, 23 years of eating a lot of cheese and bread. :) I would go through spells of eating healthier and was vegan for a few years as well. I always struggled with my weight and never thought that my diet was the real reason... "I'm a vegetarian, vegetarians aren't fat!" So to combat this I would try any diet (always making it meat free) or pill that came down the pike. I ended up "creating" my own diet of only eating every 2 days and drinking way too much coffee. When I started eating raw almost a year ago I could see that my diet was going to have a serious toll on my health, so I was ready to either give up and be fat or find something that worked over the long haul. I have been so surprised how this has affected me! As so many of us find, eating raw is more that a diet. While it's awesome that I eat, every day :) and stay thin, the other benefits are incredible. Really, they have become more important than my pants size, something I never thought could happen. It took time, but I saw and felt enough changes to keep going and to get back on the wagon when I fell and fall :o off.
Have a great day!

[northernstars]

becoming raw was fairly easy for me. I love to read and had read Victoria's Green for Life book and immediately started eating vegan. After I got out of the hospital in June after a massive stroke primarily due to stress in March, I read several books about vegan/vegetarians, meat industry and farming. Reading all those facts after getting out of the hospital was all it took for me to keep on keeping on! I still have no desire to eat meat or poultry, but sometimes I would like some of the fresh salmon my husband catches.

There are so many wonderful recipes that have been posted and I have several uncook books, plus all the wonderful encouragement from people on this site and a couple more. I really do not have any major urge to eat more conventional cooked foods.

[ShelShel]

I started dieting when I was twelve. :o You name it, I've tried it. But it wasn't until my health became questionable that I heard about raw and tried it to relieve the incurable exhaustion I was always feeling, the weight loss was the bonus! :D

God Bless you all and where ever you were before...you are here now! And so am I! Raw Rawks!:p

[lynnc72]

I was on a regular carnivore diet, but tend to steer towards Asian dishes with less meat as that's what I was raised on. I love summer time as there are lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

I discovered raw after learning about colon and liver/gallbladder cleanse. Was raw for 2 weeks and I had a detox experience that made me truly believe in the healing powers of raw. I basically had a severe cold that lasted a mere 10 minutes. After having an emergency Appendectomy and hospitalized for 5 days, I went back to my cooked carnivore ways because my colon was still inflamed from Appendicitis. I thought cooked food was easier to digest for some reason.

Started dating someone new. We ate out a lot and I would exercise less. Long story short, I felt icky enough to want to do liver cleanses more frequently. One day, I just had enough of feeling sluggish and tired. That was about 1.5 years after I had quit raw, I went back again for good. This time it stuck. I've been raw for 4 months now and it's been so easy. I don't feel tempted by cooked foods at all (except for my Mom's cooking, but I didn't give in :))

I like myself better and am a happier person on raw. Not to mention that constipation, severe PMS, and bad acne are a thing of the past.

[lori ann]

Hello Everyone,

I ate mainly sad most of my life having no clue. Then I took this health type bible study at church called first place that deals with balance of physical, spirtual, emotional and mental. Our table leader was into eating healthy and doing research and she inspired me and I started researching and that is when I became vegetarian. Then I took another health class called the hallelujah diet and the leader and the class inspired me even further than I thought I would ever. Then about that time is when I stumbled upon this website and have been hooked ever since. I am still struggling to go 100% and I started to try this week and I am into day two.

[shashibala]

I was a beans,rice and greens vegetarian addicted to cheese! I had wanted to be a vegan for ethical reasons for years. I tried many times only to fall back to dairy products. Finally, despite a whole foods diet, I was sick, miserable, and about 80 pounds overweight! I found information about raw living on line and just went 100% overnight. Adopting a raw, vegan diet was easy for me and the changes I've experienced have been profound.

[Bodhi]

Did someone mention the "Zone Diet" yet? I'm like everyone else, I feel like I've tried them all. I'm not looking for a eating program to lose weight, for me its about feeling good and have optimum preformance physically, mentally, emotionally, and etc.....

I keep reading raw vegan is the way to achieve my goal, so I'm giving it a try.

[Aleesha Sattva]

i was vegetarian and then vegan... then 10 years ago i got married to a man who said he wanted to be vegan with me... i got pregnant and my mid-wife was not supportive at all of me remaining vegetarian while pregnant. so i agreed to start eating meat. that's all it took... my kids who loved being vegan decided they liked the taste of meat better... so my dreams of going back to being vegan after the birth were squashed. (also my hubby decided he didn't want to be vegan after all)

i began living the life of a SAD eater. i kept saying to everyone that the day my hubby passed over (as he's 14 years older than me) is the day i will become a vegan again. then last year when i was so sick and had to make changes for my Self... i realized waiting for others to grow up, pass over etc was totally friggin' stupid! why wait for my own health???

so i made the decision to do this and i just did it. over night. it was not simple to do, but i'm glad i did. once in a blue moon i find myself eating something cooked... but i always pay for it (feeling horrid) so those times are becoming fewer and much farther-in-between.

that said, i'm thrilled to be raw!!! i've had many wonderful benefits. great health, lots of weight release and an improved self-image and finally... i can move again! i can work out, i can get off the couch without pain, i have energy, i have the desire to be seen in public! i'm not embarrassed about my size. it's wonderful!!!

[missvitreous]

Well, I went vegetarian for two weeks, and then vegan for ethical reasons. As I learned more about food and how it affected me, I switched from mostly organic to organic. Then I slowly took out the processed foods from my diet. Now that I'm raw, I have added processed, organic raw foods in for when cravings hit me, or I feel I need a change. I guess one thing led to another. In the beginning, I never saw myself as being a raw foodie, but surprise! :D lol

[Conscious Midwife]

FLEXATARAIN:p , though i always avoided organ meat and pork.

Had a two year stint of living on salads protein bars and grilled chicken salads. Broke a tooth on the protein bars and got impacted after a while.

Vegan with 3rd of 5 pregnancies, and vegetarian while I nursed. Very anemic during pregnancy 4 and 5 literally craved rare T-Bone. YUCK!!!

RAW Enthusiast since 3/12/2006...found RFT after running across Ginjee and Storms website.

RAW today:)
RAWMASUTRA TONIGHT;) :p

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I was raised a healthy vegetarian with minimal amounts of dairy. Unfortunately, this changed when I started going to an afterschool care program and had my first taste of cow's milk =[ I was still vegetarian, but consumed unholy amounts of cheese. I ate very healthily until I was ten or eleven, at which time I started eating popcorn and soda and sugary candy bars and potato chips and all that disgusting stuff.

Its funny I should find this thread today, because a few days from now is my ONE YEAR VEGAN-niversary! I was in the produce section of WF with my mother, and out of nowhere, without even thinking about it first, I said "mum, I want to go vegan and cut out wheat and gluten." I dunno, it just...came to me. She agreed, and although my dad wasn't very happy about it (they're divorced; he's a meat-eater) but allowed me.

At this point, I was still a junk-food vegan and continued to eat all the unhealthy stuff I had eaten before minus the dairy, eggs, etc.

I had been playing with the idea of going raw for awhile before I actually did so, but I decided much in the same fashion I did going vegan. Out of nowhere, I just said I wanted to go raw and here I am! Almost six months :D

So...yep! ^^

[c'estlaviebelle]

I was the perennial junk food vegetarian. In SoCal there are a ton of vegetarian and vegan mexican food places, which were my vice. I didn't eat a LOT of dairy, but I did eat it sometimes. I ate a lot of processed vegetarian foods and really didn't understand how I continued to gain weight.

Before this, when I was a teenager, I had issues with ED's, purging in particular. It took me awhile to gain a "normal" relationship with food, which unfortunately led to me eating like everyone else. I went through yo yo diets, and due to the ED my metabolism was all messed up.

I have tried raw in the past, but I was emotionally too unstable to stick with it. This time, I'm at the place emotionally and physically that I can handle it. I finally had enough of being sick all the time and feeling dumpy. Going raw has been one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life! I'm getting to the point now where even eating a little cooked food makes me feel ill, so its getting easier day by day to stick with it. Plus, today is my official 2 month raw-versary! Woohoo :)

[kaylene]

I grew up in Germany as a military dependent--and although greens were common, more common were heavy potato dishes, stews, and a lot of meat, pastries and breads--a common breakfast was bread rolls with an assortment of meats and cheeses. I was very athletic, so I felt and looked healthy. When I moved to the States as a teenager, I continued with this way of eating but added fast foods to the mix--I was still very active and didn't understand what I was eating or what it was doing to my body. I started getting rashes on my upper arms, and after graduating high school and attending college, I gained weight, got rashes on my thighs, started getting cellulite, my hair became unhealthy and my gums stated bleeding. I was never ill growing up, but after getting to college I started getting VERY sick whenever a bug was going around. I tried the South Beach diet, and saw some results, but gained everything back. I was also living off of jello, cheese sticks and salmon. I learned about raw foods three years ago, while still in school, and went through bursts of being totally raw and then crashing and eating horrible things all over again. I finally made a full commitment this January and have stuck pretty well--I have had salmon and chicken a few times, but am finding I don't like them as much. I am not beating myself up about anything, and am finding I love this way of eating/living! I have influenced my best friends, husband and have got my mother interested--they are all either adding more greens into their diets or learning about raw foods in general. I am losing the weight I gained--I was so in denial about just how much--I am 5'3" and curvy--but I got up to 170 pounds, which I could not come to terms with. I am currently at 138, and I have 20 pounds (give or take) left to lose. My rashes and sicknesses have subsided, my gums are getting much better. It has taken three years, but going from eating everything WRONG to what I am doing now has totally changed my world! I am so happy to be here!

[RawHeaven]

Before Raw I was a vegetarian and a vegan.

[VeroP]

How interesting to read other's history.

I didn't ever do much dieting per se, just occassionally. I was raised on a meat and potatos diet. Then was vegetarian from time to time in college. In 1995 I went vegetarian, following my husbands example and after seeing my mom have very bad open heart surgery experience. Then in 1999 I gave up eggs and finally went vegan in 2002 after researching dairy products.

Through all of this my weight was very much an issue - most of this time after my daughter was born in 1990 I've been in the morbidly obese category.

On April 8, 2008, my daughter and I will be raw for 1 year after finding information about it one afternoon - we went raw between lunch and supper. Now just over 11 months later, I've release 102 pounds and in 5 pounds or so will be out of the obese category and down to just the overweight category.

We continue to do research to look at this not as a diet but as a part of a healthy lifestyle. Our next step is looking into fitness - time is our enemy for the moment, but soon . . .

VeroP

[Horselady73]

Wow! VepoP, how inspiring. I came from a background of meat, potatoes & sugar, not necessarily in that order. Both of my parents are overweight and have a whole host of health problems from diabetes to high blood pressure, constant aches, pains, etc. etc. etc. A few years ago I decided I did not want their fate so I went organic. Basically, I consumed just as much junk, it just seemed better because it said "organic" on the label.

My wake-up call was a doctor visit that showed I had alomost every pre-diabetic symptom there was. He suggested I eat raw food. I did, but I mostly ate salads and such. I had no idea there was such a thing as a raw food diet or lifestyle! When I found out I was blown away and started researching it. I tried it for a while. then quit, but now I'm back for good & loving it!

[Frugal Raw]

I went from being raised omni with 3 squares to flexetarian, macrobiotic, back to flexetarian, lacto ovo veg, lacto veg, ayurvedic, to vegan and now raw vegan...evolutionary, eh?

[Carlsbad]

This thread is fascinating! I was raised carnivore, but my mom was pretty strict about food. We never had junk food, and rarely ate desserts. My mom is an amazing southern cook though, so we ate a lot of butter, sour cream, and cheese. Once I went away to school, I ate a lot more junk, but was a varsity athlete in high school and college and stayed fairly trim. Like most girls though, I was always trying to lose 5-10 pounds. After college, my life became a lot more sedentary. Also, I was lonely and miserable in my job and entered a junk food spiral for a couple of years. There were lots of days when I would eat fast food three times a day and still be hungry! The only fruit or vegetable I would eat would be french fries or the two spears of broccoli in my fried rice. I put on about 60 pounds in just over a year, though now that I look back at my eating habits, I'm amazed it wasn't more!

I tried lots of diets in an effort to lose the weight, but I always ended up gaining more. Then one day I overheard a lady at my church talking about the Master Cleanse. I did it for two weeks and lost about 17 pounds. As I was coming off of it, I thought I'd try not eating meat. Somehow I had completely lost interest in meat, even though before the cleanse I would often eat it three times a day. I ate vegetarian for about a month, but didn't lose any more weight (I was still eating a lot of fried foods and cheese cheese cheese). I kept reading about this raw food thing (it was all over the Master Cleanse message boards). At first it seemed too extreme, but it just sort of stuck in my head that I was supposed to eat raw. So one day last July, about a month after I'd finished the Master Cleanse, I switched from 100% junk to 100% raw. It's been amazing. For the first six months or so, I would slip about one meal a month and gorge myself on junk food. I would feel sick and miserable, and would then go back to 100% raw for another month and then slip again. That got frustrating, so in February I dedicated myself to sticking with it for the long haul, and next Monday I'll have been 100% for 60 days.

Raw is who I am now, and I believe I'll stick with it for life. The energy, happiness, healing, etc have been amazing. Plus, I've gone from a size 22 to a size 10, and I'm still melting away! Raw is the best!!!

[Eveleaf]

My parents were vegetarian, though we occasionally had a taste of meat, which I viewed as exotic and mysterious. My mother would yo-yo back and forth between a "standard" vegetarian diet with lots of cheese and pasta and a more experiemental "healthy" one with the emphasis on whole grains, veggies, and beans. Still, we were poor and rarely had chips or cookies in the house, or ate out.

I started working two jobs in high school and as I got money and freedom, I began making poor choices. I'd buy food and sneak it into my room for late-night snacks, and hit the local Taco Bell as often as I could get away with it.

College was worse. I had an eating disorder by this time, and was so ashamed of eating that I couldn't bring myself to go to the cafeteria and eat at mealtime with my friends.

Did you ever see the movie Girl, Interrupted? In it there's a woman who hides cooked chickens under her bed and eats that, but only in secret. She explains this by saying something like, "Well, you don't want people around watching when the food comes out, I don't want people around watching when it goes in." I related so much to this that it was kind of scary.

Instead, I would rush into the cafeteria at 6am when it opened and no one was there, scarf down a huge load of food (tater tots, donuts, granola and yogurt were staples), then not eat the rest of the day. Every few weeks I'd get so hungry I'd skip class, walk a few miles to the grocery store, load up bags with junk food (chips, candy, cookies, cheese) and spend the afternoon in my dorm room with the door locked, stuffing myself. Believe it or not, I lost 50 pounds following this "lifestyle" but I was extremely unhealthy, both physically and emotionally.

Getting married helped the eating disorder a lot. My husband was so accepting I gradually lost some (not all) of my shame about food and eating. We were poor and ate a lot of ramen, plus whatever else we could afford, though hardly ever meat because I didn't know how to cook it anyway.

Traces of the ED lingered. Over time we got more money and my eating habits got worse again. I'd still hide bags of candy in my desk and nibble at them all day, sometimes going through an entire *large* bag of M&Ms in one 8-hour workday. Or I'd buy McDonalds to eat on my commute home, then come in the door and announce to my husband that I was "starving" and eat dinner with the family like nothing had happened.

I put on weight, as you can guess. A co-worker of mine started juicing and would rave to me about how much energy she had, and how great she felt, so I bought one, too. I started researching juicing recipes on the internet and stumbled into some raw foods sites/forums. At that time I was about 325 pounds, plus suffered from a million health problems related to all the extra weight I was carrying around (depression, low energy, mysterious pains, acid reflux, etc).

Scary enough for you? ;)

[RawSinger]

I ate anything and everything. Obscene amounts of it as well. I was completely out of control. I would go on a diet for maybe two weeks and stop. But most of the time I wasn't dieting. I was just binging. Binging was my biggest problem. I gained about 70lbs in a year and kept going up. I'm only 20 and I didn't really have any health problems (thank God) but food was my best friend and my arch enemy. I can be free of that now.

[cayenne]

I had been conscious about my diet for about 10 years before we went raw. That is, no junk, only whole foods, lots of fruits, but we were into a lot of milk and cheese (didn't know then there was anything wrong with this!).

Then I started to experiment with our diet, being aware of the healing value of raw foods, adding orange juice, and adding raw vegetables to the potatoes and things like that. The first benefit was that I got pregnant finally!!!!

We kept plodding on, trying to incorporate raw into the diet, still drinking loads of milk, and it never dawned that one could do 100% raw, till we got Alissa's Living on Live Food book. We just bought it to get more ideas about incorporating raw foods into our diets, not realizing it was all raw! Anway, it made us go raw overnight. There wasn't even enough to eat in the house, I had to go shopping the next day to find some food, but we made it :D

It was not difficult to convince my husband, because he soon experienced an increase in energy levels.

The rest of the journey will be good for another topic.....;)

[SandraDee]

I was a regular old SAD eater. Not vegetarian. I grew up on breakfast of cereal during the week and eggs and bacon on the weekends. KD for dinner, or potatoe/maccaroni salad, etc for lunch. And meat, potatoes, and some canned veggie like corn for supper... followed by cake or something for dessert. I was a skinny kid... stayed pretty skinny thru highschool, and gain the freshman 20 during university. Then I was eating everything from a box... lots of hamburgs and fast foods... and cookies, icecream, sweets... couldn't get enough. At my worst I weighed 160 lbs... which I had just recently climbed back up to. I was sick, tired, and tired of being sick and tired. But I still couldn't get enough of the sweets. I'd buy multiple choco bars, chips, cookies, etc. and hide them in my desk at work and at home. I'd eat them when no one was looking and feeling guilty and sick of the same ol' revolving door all at the same time. I'm soo glad I'm back to the way it should be... back to raw!!!

[Eva]

I've had many phases based on my situation.

When I was growing up, we had a good amount of fresh stuff mixed with nonfat milk, cereal, some light meats (not much red meat).


Ah, and I was a veg for a few years after I read a book about the suffering of animals.

When I was in college, sometimes I ate cheap crap because I worked my way through. Sometimes I made wonderful food. It really depended on how much time I had to work.

I spent 3 summers in Hungary eating their crazy food. The third was when I was in college, and I left Hungary with an ulcer!!! The entire summer I was there, we had tons of coffee, dairy, wine and pork products. Everything was cooked in lard. Ick.

Oh yes... I dated a man in college for two years who loved to wine me and dine me. We went out to restaurants for lovely cooked dinners about 3-4 times EVERY week. Plus we usually had breakfasts at Starbucks or the local bagel shop all the time. I gained about 10 pounds during this time, had a really hard time with my stomach.

I ate stuff like couscous and chopped raw veggies after college. Still had occasional stomach issues more related to stress.

Got married and my ulcer started acting up again. My husband and I would go to tons of BBQs and he would make lots of meat, rice and beans for dinner. My stomach pretty much ALWAYS hurt.

That's it. Went raw last February. Felt better almost immediately. I'm not looking back. :)

[shoover53]

Wow.. wonderful to hear so many stories. so have to add my own. I am healed diabetic. Many people will say that there is no such thing... but I feel I am proof that this disease can not only be "managed", but reversed. I was diagnoised in 12/2007 with advanced type 2 diabetes/kidney damage. I had all the signs.. extreme thirst, fatique, aches and pains, failing eyesight, etc. Due to the kidney damage, I was immediately put on high dosage insulin shots immediately. After having my dad pass away from complications due to diabetes.. I was determined to either beat this or .. well lets say I did not want to do the alternative. I researched my disease, and found reports of dramatic changes due to diet, with information that actually explained what was happening. One month after I was diagnoised, I made the commitment to a total vegan lifestye.. not diet.. but lifestyle. I was amazed at how natural it felt.. I had no craving for meats or diary products, and love the new world of fresh wholesome foods. And then something amazing happened, within a few weeks.. my eyesight began to return to normal, my aches and pains with fatigue went away, and my blood sugars levels began to drop. Now after two months eating vegan.. my kidney function has returned to the level that allowed me to get off the insulin shots.. which were becoming less and less.. and even the oral medication is now only very seldom needed. To me.. this is a miracle that I want to tell everyone about. I want everyone here that is struggling with diabetes to understand that diabetes is not a sign that you will live the rest of your life tied to needles, failing eyesight, nerve damage, and health complications. It is a wakeup call that your body cannot cope with the unhealthy lifestyle you have adopted and is crying out for help. It needs help with getting all the accumulated fat and animal proteins out of your system so it can begin to heal itself and function the way it was designed. Please read my posts and follow my journey. It was saved my life, and I hope I can help others in their journey.

God Bless,
Sam

[shoover53]

Totally understand... until a couple months ago.. I visualized that vegetarian was eating rabbit food and that was about all I knew about it... now I embarked on a vegan diet for health reasons at any cost.. and love it. Now I am starting to get a feeling for what may be the next step.. going raw... but have not reached that point yet... life is a journey with stops along the way...lol. As I get closer to the raw lifestyle.. I will have lots of questions to ask my friends here...

[StarFire]

This is the most interesting thread!!

Where was I before I went raw?....
head first into a Vodka Bottle.... :eek: :(

but -- here's the history on that...

okay... until the age of seven I was literally starving -- given up for adoption... after the age of seven I ate everything I could get my hands on -- EVERYTHING...!!

I've never been on too big on sweets - but I loved fried things, cheesy things, pastas, rice, seafood, Mexican Food, Thai Food, Japanese Food, Hawaiian Food (lots of pork!).

I ballooned up to 178 lbs (at 5'2")!! At the age of 48 I began drinking very heavily due to depression -- I consumed 1 large bottle and one small bottle of Vodka (straight) a DAY... plus smoking almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day, binge eating (for example 2 large pepperoni pizza's - or if I went thru a drive thru I would order like I was taking home enough food for 4 people.... and eat it all... :eek: )

and in the mean time in between my binge eating and my alcohol consumption I tried every DIEit imaginable - cabbage soup, South Beach, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Nutri System, TrimSpa, Hydroxycut, even some stupid DIEit pill that cost $152!!! dear GAWD.... and I wondered WHY I couldn't lose any weight!!!

desperation, illness, depression lead me to Alissa Cohen.com and Raw Food Talk.... I bought Alissa's book and the DVD ... and my life hasn't been the same since! April will be my one year Anniversary raw...

I love being raw... and I love what this LIFEstyle has done for me... I have my life back... my marriage is healed ... and I feel so blessed ...

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s43/FireStar_830/sun.gif ... yep... RAW RAWKS!!!

[RawSinger]

Wow, StarFire. Your story is incredibly inspiring! Sometimes the people with the worst history are the ones who have the most today :)

[RawLoveBaby]

Oh this is a neat thread! Glad to have found it and hear people's stories.

I agree that some of us with less than stellar backgrounds become very health conscious.

I grew up as a vegetarian. When I was young it was very healthy and well balanced with lots of fruit and veg. But when my parents split, there was less time for food prep so it turned to unhealthy vegetarian. Lots of cheese, baked goods, pasta etc.

I went through a phase as a teenager that was very abusive to the body. Let's just say I partied a lot, and it wasn't just alcohol. I used to smoke too.

When I was 20, my boyfriend was an italian fine dining chef making incredibly fancy and tasty food. I thought, "I'm an adult now and don't need my parents telling me to be vegetarian anymore", so I ate meat until just last year.

I thought Raw was crazy several years ago and very extreme... then an interest grew and I started reading about Raw and making some recipes for a couple years. Then in January I went to a Raw retreat and it changed the way I think about food and what I want to put in my body. I was quite strict with Raw for the first few months after the retreat, then cooked food slipped back in. Now, I am trying to get back on track. It's a slippery slope as they say. However, I do feel I eat, and I'm sure the rest of you eat, FAR better than most people. This comforts me when I'm not eating as perfect as I'd like to. I guess nothing is perfect though in life!

I've had digestive problems and skin problems, so I'm just trying to live a wonderful balanced life and trying to undo any damage I may have done in the past.

[brownies]

Before doing the raw thing (which is still really new to me) I was a vegetarian to varying degrees for the past 9 years. Growing up my mother always made an attempt to have a "balanced" meal on the table of one meat, one vegi, one starch(bread, rice, potato, etc.). So even though we weren't really eating healthy it was somewhat in our mind set that we should try to.

It's still too soon to say what differences a raw diet has made but every day I notice my clothes fitting a little differently & I feel a different vibration pulsing through my veins. So far I'M LOVING IT!

At my heaviest I weighted in around 185. Today I am around 160 lbs at 5'4'' tall

[annavon]

I grew up eating SAD. However and luckily for me my parents always emphasized eating a great deal of fresh raw fruit and vegetables. My dad would call me his little rabbit because when ever he would make a raw veggie plate I would sit by it and munch the whole thing! I have been pretty consious about watching my diet since I was in jr. high because I didn't want to end up fat (like the rest of my family). When I was in college I learned about being a vegetarian while I wasn't fully vegetarian I incorporated many vegetarian dishes in to my diet. Later, for religious reaons I became a pescatarian, but ate a mostly vegan diet with just an occaisional fish or egg. I tried raw foods several years ago and got few un-cook books and started eating many raw meals. I went raw for a couple of months last year, but I didn't know about the website and with no support, I quit. I did try eating meat for a while to see if it would help my health situation, but it didn't help. I started raw this month on July 4.

[Morn]

I ate A SAD before RAW. Meat, cheese, bread, diet coke, coffee, everything bad for me. I rarely ate any fruit at all. Never had it in the house and if I did it was canned fruit. Before raw I ate maybe a piece of fruit every couple of months or something like that. I did like salads though (but it had to have chicken, ranch, cheese, croutons, on it with the veggies. I didn't like a lot of vegtables either before raw so changing to this lifestyle was HUGH for me.

So now you can probably guess why I was a 100 pounds heavier than I am now. I lived on bread, pizza, desserts, italian food (pastas), icecream, etc. I also had a very slow digestive system before and maybe went to the bathroom once a week before (now with raw I go daily).

This was a huge lifestyle change for me and I had to start retrying fruits and veggies I didn't like before. I went raw to lose weight but gained so many other health benefits that now it is a way of life for me.

[brownies]

Whoa, you only had one bm a week???

[Veganforlife]

BR (before Raw), I was a Vegan for 3 years. Before that I was a Vegetarian for 28 plus years. But I was extremely unhealthy. I got sucked into the Vegetarian/Vegan "fast" food unhealthy lifestyle. Even though my diet was stellar compared to my peers, it still was unhealthy.

I was also very close to calling it quits on this circle of life called Earth. I was so sick every day of my life (read my testimony to see how raw healed and cured two devastating illnesses). But thank my lucky stars Alissa came to me and helped me.

Raw is THE way to go babies!!! :D :D :D

[Helen121]

Before raw I was a vegetarian with an unhealthy habit for cheese, butter, chocolate and crisps. Those were my trigger foods and whenever I ate them they inevitably opened the floodgates to just eat. Not healthy.

Luckily as a fitness fanatic (and Personal Fitness Trainer) I kept the pounds off but have no doubt that I wasn't doing my health any favours.

I'm still working my way through transitioning to raw, having learned over the last 20 months since finding out about raw that we all do this in our own way and at our own pace.

Today finds me 100% raw and in a good place, happy, healthy and at peace with my life. A good place to be and one that I'm convinved I wouldn't be at if I was still eating my standard vegetarian diet.

Here's to raw food........ cheers

[JennaBoBenna]

Before I found raw I was the curly fry onion ring queen! :rolleyes:

I had gained almost 10 pounds the summer of 2005 from eating fries from the fast food place around the corner. I also ate a LOT of soy products. That was the summer after I had gone veggie so I thought I needed the soy protein. sigh!

My first trial with RAW was really cute. I was going to Disneyland with a friend and I wanted to stay raw. I loaded up on veggies, juice boxes :rolleyes: and while at Disneyland I ate Jamba Juice(no sherbet) and fresh fruit. but after two days I caved and ate some Disneyland food hehe

[roseyonnex]

Wow, this is a great thread. I love reading the stories.

I will chime in here quickly because I don't have much of a story yet :0)

But I have been two weeks, mostly 100% raw, and I'm completely hooked. I know this is something I can do for life.

I bought Alissa's book and DVD. The DVD was definitely the thing that propelled me forward into believing I could actually do this. I no longer thought of it as an overwhelming task after watching that video.

The biggest benefit for me has been no more yo-yo cravings and binging and that type of behavoir. I'm not looking for the bag of chips, and then bag of cookies, and then the bag of chips. I feel really satisfied. I can enjoy eating and cooking and even trying new deserts. I've lost about four pounds so far. I can eat until I am full/satisfied.

And it's like a complete release from all the crazy dieting, counting calories, counting points, beating yourself up for going over the calories and points, feeling hugely guilty, etc. I'm so, so sick of that cycle, I could scream! It just plays such mental games with you.

I also love to cook. It's one of my favorite hobbies that relaxes me. I thought I would have to give it up, but now I am cooking raw. I am going to try to convert some of my favorite recipes into raw. I've gone from adoring Emril to worshipping Alissa :0)

Can't wait to hear more stories.....keep them coming!

Rosie

[Morn]

Whoa, you only had one bm a week???

Yeah my digestive system can be quite sluggish. Even with eating all raw there are days when I will skip a day but most of the time now I will go every day. When I wasn't raw I must not have been getting enough fiber.

[elian]

I grew up on a semi-healthy SAD food. However I loved (and still do) sweets. In college I ate normal junk food.

I found out about raw around 2004 but thought it was too extreme. Around Jan 2006 I had a check up with my doctor (so we could start the adoption process). I was at my highest weight of 172 (I'm 4' 11"). My health was basically fine (just your seasonal allergies) but all my life my hormones have been screwy (that's why we were going to adopt... we had been trying for years to get pregnant again). Anyway... the dr basically said that I should think about my child... being a good role model for what I ate and for exercise. After that appointment I re-researched raw. Between then and the end of '06 I lost about 35 pounds and..... got pregnant.

Unfortunately about 10 weeks into the pregnancy (when I didn't know I was pregnant) my body started CRAVING carbs... bagels, etc. I was coming off of a 40 day 100%raw followed by about a month of high raw. After about 4 days of zero energy and these huge cravings I did a test.

During the pregnancy it was hard for me to cook/uncook much of anything. Raw was VERY difficult. I delivered in August and this spring I've actually wanted/craved to get back into raw. I'm still not 100% but some days are better than others. I still haven't got back to my prepregnancy raw weight... but we are working on it.

Thank you everyone for your story!!!!

[tanishamarshall]

I was very very SAD, meat, cheese, pasta, Pizza(Favorite), Bread, tons of desserts and more. I ate everything except, fruit, vegetables, and salad... Can you believe it I left out everything that was good for me.

I was 330lbs of cheese and junk...

[Bananna]

I went from SAD as a child to....a healthy cooked SAD diet, under my Dad's rule as he changed all our diets after learning of his severe heart disease and his parents dying in their early 60's from it....but then on weekends I would spend my allowance on junkfood and when I visited my mom, I would eat normal SAD again...white bread was coveted! Normal peanutbutter! ...and a corner store 3 houses away, lol. Flipped back and forth from the two different homes/lifestyles.

At this same time I started noticing my weight increasing and started restricting my food intake, but not what I ate, as my Dad's was strict enough. (rice, spinach, fish....no salt, no soya sauce, no butter, no nothing).

I danced pretty darn close to the anorexic line as a teen and young adult for many years....but when I did eat, I ate SAD.

Then I went vegetarian a few times. Went raw by accident for awhile and felt amazing...no clue why. Eating a hotdog cured that! ...I remember wondering...'What the heck did I do? Is this some sort of spiritual awakening?? What is going on, 3 days and I feel like I am floating and am being tickled hysterically all the time, non stop'.

So that momentum tapered off with the stress of having a few More kids...was on bedrest for pregnancies, was so depressed I became a complete junkfood binge eater.

I felt like complete crap ofcourse and have gradually made my way back to vegetarianism and now vegan, with many raw stints in between. I Fully intend to become completely raw, and have now aligned all my stars and am psyching myself up for the August challenge. My hummus will be used up by then, my order for some raw cacao etc, will be here, and I will have tried some recipes that people are raving about for more incentive.

My last and major obstacle is the social aspect. Even today, all geared up, and then my friend was telling me about a dinner out to an Indian food place, and I immediately felt stress...just listening to a story about it. I have to mentally rehearse feeling comfortable socially while being raw....so I think I finally have all my ducks in a row....have researched raw for a full year now when I did the July '07 RFT challenge.

So that's where I am at. ;)

[verseaurainbows]

I was raised on SPAM, cheap meat and KFC. My mum was single and unemployed and times were hard, so we took what we could. The KFC was a weekly treat

At the age of 12 i announced i didnt want to eat meat anymore. I had a few relapses but by 13 i was pescatarian (with fish being quite rare)

At 17 i met my husband and explained to him my reasons for being (mostly) veggie. He agreed totally and went from SAD to veg. A week later we talked about our feelings and both decided to go vegan

Weve been vegan for 3 years now and havent looked back. Weve had a few attempts at raw but again money is tight and weve been inding it too difficult. So at the moment where were at is vegan-trying to get in as much raw goodness as possible but otherwise eating "healthy" cooked. When we first went vegan of course we ate junk, but son learned the hard way about that. Im still recovering from illness

[verseaurainbows]

Yes, Im 20, and yes, Im married
Why do you ask like that:confused: Its a bit awkward, i think two adults have the right to be married

[iamacranberry]

Because it's very young, and not often you hear of people that marry so young. My question was merely one of curiosity, but the nature of your reply implies that you're already taking offense to my comment just in case I was about to challenge your decision. Since still to this point I have not even stated my opinion on the subject, I wouldn't become offended if I were you.

[Bananna]

I also made the mistake of thinking you passed judgement on it....for some reason. Net conversations can be really hard to figure out sometimes!

Plus, if one encounters the same questions like that all the time, when they live some rare occurance, one can become overly sensitive. Like when people ask me if I'm crazy for having six kids, for example. I often feel like a side freak show or something...and went through a stage of being really sensitive about it.

[verseaurainbows]

Because it's very young, and not often you hear of people that marry so young. My question was merely one of curiosity, but the nature of your reply implies that you're already taking offense to my comment just in case I was about to challenge your decision. Since still to this point I have not even stated my opinion on the subject, I wouldn't become offended if I were you.

Please dont be like that, it was just the way you said it took me aback a little, i wasnt worried about you challenging my decision, believe me im not so sheltered! This whole things starting to sound a bit negative when all i did was post my story. Youre making it sund like im insecure or something, when all i meant was why did you ask? As it seemed a bit of a random/odd question, like you didnt believe it or something. Thats all

:confused:

*hides*

Im flattered you think im "very young" by the way:) I am young, of course, im 20! Ive never had anyone comment on the fact that im married before though

[verseaurainbows]

I also made the mistake of thinking you passed judgement on it....for some reason. Net conversations can be really hard to figure out sometimes!

Plus, if one encounters the same questions like that all the time, when they live some rare occurance, one can become overly sensitive. Like when people ask me if I'm crazy for having six kids, for example. I often feel like a side freak show or something...and went through a stage of being really sensitive about it.

Thanx, it looks like i took it the wrong way too

Well ive never had the marriage thing before. But i am used to the "young" comments in other situations, as i "look younger" than i am, supposedly (although to me i look normal for a young woman) So perhaps i assumed it was that same old chestnut? It really DOES get a tad vexing, all the assumptions made. I personally think once youre an adult long as youre not harming anyone people shouldnt comment...im guessing cranberry wasnt "commenting" in a bad way so much as being curious about me in a good way, but like you say its hard to figure out on the net, and it surprised me a bit, like it came out of nowhere with little explanation

[pinkkpanthur]

WOW! Carlsbad, that's fantastic! I've been flirting with the idea of the Master Cleanse, transitioning to a Juice Feast and then 80-90% raw. I'm not terribly worried about weight loss, but 15-20 lbs down would be nice and put me at a very healthy place. Plus raw "cooking" just fascinates me. It's amazing what you can make, how it can be so simple or it can be gourmet but either way it's so flavorful!

Anyway, my question is, what do you eat on a typical day?

I have been eating omnivore my whole life (dairy at every meal, baked breads, cereal, rice, meat once a day, love peanut butter and fruit) and I'm really new to all of this, but it's very exciting. I'm easing into a pre-MC regimen. The last four days I've been probably 50% raw and the changes are awesome! I get frequent headaches, consistent fatigue, joint pain, and digestive issues manifest in abdominal pains and infrequent BM. Happy to report improvement in all of the above at just 50%!

YAY natural foods!

[VibinOnLife!]

Because it's very young, and not often you hear of people that marry so young. My question was merely one of curiosity, but the nature of your reply implies that you're already taking offense to my comment just in case I was about to challenge your decision. Since still to this point I have not even stated my opinion on the subject, I wouldn't become offended if I were you.

I think that many times we take liberties with people before thinking about the implications. I personally think that many people in this society ask questions that really should only be asked by people that you either know and are comfortable with or are in a forum with regarding that particular thing. It still surprises me that people will openly ask you about your marriage, children, etc. without even giving a thought to your privacy or the way that you might feel being asked certain things by strangers. Me, for example, I am 40 and have been married for 6 years. I have no children. This is not due to a medical condition or a desire not to have them. It just is what it is. However, people will often ask "are you married?" And I say yes. Then they inevitably ask "do you have kids?" I say no. And then they ask "well how long have you been married?" I answer, and they look at me either quizically or with pity. Some might even ask WHY I have no kids! LOL! And every time this happens to me I think to myself, what if I actually did have a medical condition and had been trying for 10 years! I'd be devastated by having to go through this over and over.

I think that we have to learn how to respect the boundaries of others. And more importantly, once someone says that they were offended or hurt by what we say, rather than trying to convince them that they were wrong to feel what they felt, we should apologize and move forward. We feel what we feel and it's neither right or wrong. It is in direct relation to what is done or said to us, and those things need to be addressed properly.

As far as marriage goes, I personally believe that this society is way behind as far as independence and adulthood are concerned. Our children have a tendancy to be sheltered for a much longer time. In many cultures women get married in their teens and have 1 or more children by the age of 20. As a believer in God, I think that we make the mistake of not considering the reason why "hormones" start to rage at a certain time. Why it is a known fact that the healthiest time to have children with the least impact to the body is up to 25 years of age. This is when the body is most resilient and able to "bounce back" from birth. This is the natural progression of maturity. There was a time when if you weren't married by the age of 20 you were considered an old maid. In today's age, we have made financial and worldly gain more important than establishing family, and it affects our views toward those who do things in the way that they were always done.

Okay, I'm off of my soap box, and not hoping to offend anyone. I just felt that it was kind of crazy to hear you apologizing for your feelings, and trying to prove yourself based on someone else's comments. Be proud of who you are and how you live your life. Be confident in it, and know that that confidence is the motivation that will help you to succeed. I think it is beautiful when two people choose to live their lives together and grow together as opposed to establishing two separate lives and then trying to merge them together at the age of 35!

Okay, I'm really off of my soap box now! LOL! :o

[Bananna]

True....but sometimes Not asking is also patronizing. People Know when you're making a point of not asking, and it can be equally as frustrating, especially because then you can't even give a voice behind the first impression.....my cousin whose in a wheelchair encourages people to ask those tough questions but finds the only people who do are children.

If you have something different about your situation, you might as well get used to answering questions on it....it's good, it's healthy, it gets people out of their little world and helps them to realize that we do things differently.

Same with raw, I am getting past being embarrassed to talk about it....because it's flat out something I'm going to get questioned on, we all will!

You have the choice to take it offensively (cue violin), or use it as an opportunity to expand someone else's horizon. The more diversity we expose ourselves to, the absolute better.

[VibinOnLife!]

Absolutely true. A great different perspective. Thanks!