Raw Day 6 - Extreme drowsiness

[akat]

Hello,
I started raw 31st Aug.
Since last couple of days I have been feeling extremely drowsy during the day (not through out the day but in patches of 2-3.5 hours at a stretch multiple times during the day)

Is this common or am I doing something terribly wrong?

I am not doing raw to lose weight.

Here is some before and after starting raw info
Before (/day):
-Vegetarian
-1-2 cups coffee
-"Healthy" breakfast - cereals/milk/one boiled egg
-Most meals home cooked, not much fried stuff.

After:
Breakfast: Usually 3 bananas + 50gms spinach smoothie, few fresh dates, a fruit or some baby carrots
Lunch: Avacado in some form (gaucamole or fresh), 15-20 cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, either big salad (all veggies that you can see at subway) or lots of home made salsa.
Dinner - similar to lunch
Snack: peanuts, walnuts, 1-3 bananas, clementines, etc through out the day.

[fruitandveggies]

Well, since you said you're not tired all day, it makes me think that maybe your metabolism is running low between meals. Its terribly SAD for people to eat three meals a day no matter what. You might do better eating 6 smaller meals or something or just eating whenever you're hungry. Also, naners make me really sleepy since they're so sugary.

[Ilse W.]

I absolutely agree with fruitsandveggies. Think outside the box and start grazing. Spread your food throughout the day and see how you feel. If you have a juicer, take some juice to work with you. A couple of sips of carrot/apple juice will wake you up. All the goodness goes straight to your trillion+ cells.:D

[rayofsunshine]

Giving up the coffee could be part of the sleepiness too. Keep at it though, you'll filled with nutrients and won't need the coffee for alertness.

I am in my first week of all raw too, and I fell sleep on the couch at 8pm. I have had some tired days. I think the body needs more rest in the beginning as you are starting the clean up process.

[qnjnean]

I was tired during the day my first week, too. It went down. I still get tired but can rest for 10 minutes and feel refreshed instead of hours. I figured it was detoxing or acclimating to the diet change or something.

[Justin G.]

Just thought I'd add my .02 -

If you're switching to the raw diet cold turkey it's obviously going to be an enormous change for your body. Your system is probably accustomed to certain levels of glucose etc. and now it's getting something completely different. It will take time to adjust. Personally, I prefer to move into it slowly but if you can manage it - all the more power to you.

[petaltothemetal]

bananas and avocados both contain tryptothan, which definitely makes people sleepy!

[Eva]

So, did you cut the coffee? Good for you if so! I went through a very difficult first couple days when I went raw because I went cold turkey. I thought I was going to need to go to the hospital.

As for the tiredness, it could be that you are accustomed to the coffee. It is probably also related to healing/detox. It's totally normal. It's NOT normal if it lasts for a super long time.

Perhaps it would be helpful to up the greens. I saw that you have some spinach in your smoothie in the AM. Could you handle upping it? 50 grams is about a 1/3-1/5 the amount of greens I would personally put in an average green smoothie! Elimination is a big factor. The better you can eliminate, the swifter the detox.

Just my thoughts -- but I see you wrote this almost two weeks ago. I hope you are pulling through. We're here for support. :)

[Marin Mom]

Nuts can make me very drowsy, especially unsoaked.