Ilse W.
08-04-2008, 09:39 AM
Now that I have posted to the 30 day RAWgust thread a few times, I guess I should introduce myself. My RAWname is Emma, my real name is Ilse (Emma was my nickname my girlfriend gave me, and it's easier for Americans than Ilse). Anyway, I'm 58, retired from a city government in CA and now live in Sequim, WA, also known as paradise - I like to tell people it's like Switzerland with an ocean. I have a little house here on a little over half an acre of thistle covered prairie, 100 yards from the waterfront. I'm trying to grow perennials and some veggies in raised beds, but even those keep filling up with thistles, which multiply ever time you pull one up. I also have lots of dandelions, but at least they are a healthy food and the roots can be made into a great liver tonic.
I've been eating relatively healthy most of my life, but love red wine. I have ADD and am sort of an all or nothing person (I smoked for 30 years and then quit cold turkey, I either drink a whole bottle of wine in one sitting, or not at all). 6 years ago I had cancer, Hodgkin's Lymphoma to be exact. Unfortunately, I fell for the doctors' spiel and went through the whole chemo thing, but refused to have it followed by radiation, since I had started reading the synopses of a lot of studies that showed that both together increase the risk of future cancers by too much. A couple of years later, a CT scan showed spots on the liver. That's when I started to read A LOT about alternatives to conventional cancer treatment and also learned what cancer really is. I vowed that I will never again be sucked into the cancer industry.
As I said above, I have ADD which means I get distracted easily, try to go into 10 directions at the same time, forget what I was going to do, etc. So I might start something like a certain eating style or an exercise regime and do really great until something comes up, like a short trip or anything that keeps me from being able to do "my thing". That's enough to throw me off the track and send me in a different direction. So I have gone from living on juice to cooked omnivorous food, to vegetarian cooked, too raw carnivore. After doing the latter for a while the first part of this year, I ended up with uveitis in both eyes (don't know if related to raw meat). The stupid doctors (I try to avoid MDs like the plague, but eyes require specialists) insisted that of the 20-something possible causes, it HAS to be recurring lymphoma. I keep up with my blood tests, and other than the uveitis, I have never been as healthy as right now. My blood tests confirm this. Anyway, it once again made me realize that I have to stay in charge of my health. I've done a lot of reading again, especially concerning Natural Hygiene. It all makes sense. I always tell people that we are just a part of the animal kingdom, the only difference between us and our next of kin, the other primates, is an increase in brain size. Animals in the wild don't get sick, only we are stupid enough to destroy our food and mix it with poisons before we eat it. Anyway, I decided to eat the way nature intended me to eat, which is raw fruits and salad greens. I may do some sprouting, but then again I want to stay as close nutritionally as I can to what a person without fire and tools would be able to eat. I just don't think that 100,000 years ago people collected seeds and sprouted them in puddles to see, if the end result was edible.
Anyway, that's my story and for now I'm sticking to it. Rambling is another ADD trait...sorry.
Cheers,
Emma
P.S. I am 5'9" and weighed about 187 lbs. 4 weeks ago when I first started eating (mostly) raw. As of 3 days ago, I am totally raw and currently weigh 175 lbs. I walk Max, my Golden Boy, for at least 30 minutes every morning and try to remember to get on my rebounder for 15 minutes every day.
I've been eating relatively healthy most of my life, but love red wine. I have ADD and am sort of an all or nothing person (I smoked for 30 years and then quit cold turkey, I either drink a whole bottle of wine in one sitting, or not at all). 6 years ago I had cancer, Hodgkin's Lymphoma to be exact. Unfortunately, I fell for the doctors' spiel and went through the whole chemo thing, but refused to have it followed by radiation, since I had started reading the synopses of a lot of studies that showed that both together increase the risk of future cancers by too much. A couple of years later, a CT scan showed spots on the liver. That's when I started to read A LOT about alternatives to conventional cancer treatment and also learned what cancer really is. I vowed that I will never again be sucked into the cancer industry.
As I said above, I have ADD which means I get distracted easily, try to go into 10 directions at the same time, forget what I was going to do, etc. So I might start something like a certain eating style or an exercise regime and do really great until something comes up, like a short trip or anything that keeps me from being able to do "my thing". That's enough to throw me off the track and send me in a different direction. So I have gone from living on juice to cooked omnivorous food, to vegetarian cooked, too raw carnivore. After doing the latter for a while the first part of this year, I ended up with uveitis in both eyes (don't know if related to raw meat). The stupid doctors (I try to avoid MDs like the plague, but eyes require specialists) insisted that of the 20-something possible causes, it HAS to be recurring lymphoma. I keep up with my blood tests, and other than the uveitis, I have never been as healthy as right now. My blood tests confirm this. Anyway, it once again made me realize that I have to stay in charge of my health. I've done a lot of reading again, especially concerning Natural Hygiene. It all makes sense. I always tell people that we are just a part of the animal kingdom, the only difference between us and our next of kin, the other primates, is an increase in brain size. Animals in the wild don't get sick, only we are stupid enough to destroy our food and mix it with poisons before we eat it. Anyway, I decided to eat the way nature intended me to eat, which is raw fruits and salad greens. I may do some sprouting, but then again I want to stay as close nutritionally as I can to what a person without fire and tools would be able to eat. I just don't think that 100,000 years ago people collected seeds and sprouted them in puddles to see, if the end result was edible.
Anyway, that's my story and for now I'm sticking to it. Rambling is another ADD trait...sorry.
Cheers,
Emma
P.S. I am 5'9" and weighed about 187 lbs. 4 weeks ago when I first started eating (mostly) raw. As of 3 days ago, I am totally raw and currently weigh 175 lbs. I walk Max, my Golden Boy, for at least 30 minutes every morning and try to remember to get on my rebounder for 15 minutes every day.