Please help me!

[charlinchen]

Hi everybody! I am a german newbie who needs help: due to a surgery :eek: scheduled in october, I have to slim down as soon as possible (fasting is not allowed). Raw is my last hope, but: do I have to quit avocados and coconut completely cause it´s fat or is it true that they are helpful for the weight loss? I´d be so glad if anybody could help...thanks so much!

[ShelShel]

If I didn't eat these, I wouldn't be able to stay raw. Raw Fats are very good for you. Eat away! Yes, I actually lose more eating these in moderation. Like a couple tbsp of coconut oil or olive oil and one avocado a day. ;) You won't find another way to lose weight quicker! Good luck!

[Zaphirah]

Raw seriously is the fastest way besides fasting. It took me 4 years to lose 45 lbs thru strict (SAD) dieting (Weight Watcher, OA, South Beach, etc.) and copious amts of exercise and 3-4 months to lose 30 on raw with light exercise. best of health to you!

Yes-it is true that raw fats HELP you lose weight. But too much of a good thing can work against you too. So I'd say 1/2-1 avo and seveal TBSP of good oils/fats (cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, coconut butter, coconut oil)

[charlinchen]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Your advice really helped me and it is also a very warm welcome for a newbie..! You both raise hope. Wow with your rapid weight loss, Zaphira! Congrat! What kind of exercise did you do? Running? I do a little bit with light weights to fight osteoporosis, but I´m not sure if it is sufficient.
I was very delighted of your quick reply! Wonderful! Now I have even the amount of fat I have to enjoy! Great work, I´ll hopefully have a successful story to tell you.

All the best for you, you´re rawsome!

[Veganforlife]

Willkommen!!!!

You will do fantastic eating raw. May I suggest purchasing Alissa's book? It is THE tool to have.

Also, this forum is a huge help. I learned so much here.

[charlinchen]

..just read your tyroid story! I´m diagnosed with hypothyroidism too and just can´t believe what you wrote about raw. Your success is unbelievable! Can´t imagine this would ever happen to me... any tips? To be off my pills would be a dream, really!
And thank you for the "willkommen"! I think I´ll have this book! By the way: do I have to be 100% raw to be successful (can´t imagine to quit my raw fish...)?
Have a juicy day and please excuse my bad english (I just started to learn...:rolleyes:)...

[Ilse W.]

Fantastisches Englisch fuer einen Anfaenger!
I have no idea what your surgery is for, but a lot of issues resolve themselves naturally when on a 100% raw diet, as it detoxes your system, which will then allow your body to heal itself. The body is the ONLY thing that cures disease!
Good luck with your weight loss and health issues!:)

[JennaBoBenna]

Hallo! Freut mich!

Avocados and coconuts do wonders to help one lose weight! Remember, to release fat, you must supply your body with fat. Otherwise it's very hard to lose a single pound because your body is clinging to it for storage

Mach's gut :)

[Bela]

I have been enjoying the heck out of raw food but have been eating a lot of dates (10 a day) and, up until a week ago, a fair amount of nuts and avocados (1-2 a day). I am the only person I know who has gained (10 lbs) of weight while eating raw AND training for a marathon by running 5 days a week!

I am starting to get a little frustrated because while I am certainly eating more than I need to survive I am not overeating to the point where this should be happening (cannot fit into my clothes anymore), so I know that I must be doing something wrong. Are young coconuts a problem? I have been eating 1 of those a day but they don't seem to have a lot of fat in them, maybe they don't digesting well?

Sorry to drag on about weight as I know this is not a weight loss forum and I am in love with the health benefits of raw but I am a little concerned for obvious reasons (how much more am I going to gain?) Has anyone else had this experience? I have been 100% raw all month and for 2 months before that I was about 75% raw. I am not in this for weight loss but I am soooo NOT into it for weight gain either so if anyone has any helpful feedback, support, or experiences to share with me I would be forever grateful.

[carolg]

I'm not a super fast loser myself. I do eat avo but haven't been as faithful with the coconut butter/oil however.

Char,
You are fortunate you were given a warning and maybe this is your ray of hope that you were dreaming for or maybe dying without. Now Vegan and all of us here are help. Vegan has a story that you can relate too. I don't have a story other than eating 30+ years as vegan and several doing mainly raw kept me out of the hospital, away from the butchers--meat butchers and doctor butchers, and now only dependent on Dr. Dentist when the need. Other than that my husband is healed over 30 years from epilepsy going vegan, but we both always ate tons of fresh produce. Now my 2 large refrigerators are not enough. I make many of my own fresh foods, not into fancy gourmet dehydrating but if you have them at our raw gatherings or your home, I am starving for them and eat like no tomorrow!

Welcome here.

Keep a journal cause you are going to freak your doctor out and help many others. There is hope! Keep the faith and take ACTION! I believe you are in the action mode already. Post away, but please put a specific subject besides help for me to grab your messages quickly. You'll see how others post. You got me here and glad, like "hypothyroidism need help ASAP!"

Here we encourage 100% raw, but it's your journey to get well. The Hallelujah Diet, www.hacres.com, advocates 85% raw, but both places advocate NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS and a fish is an animal, so is cheese, unless raw, so I would say GO RADICAL AND AVOID ANIMAL PRODUCTS IMMEDIATELY AND NEVER RETURN TO IT! Health is wealth and so far, probably based on your message, you have compromised that, so why not reverse the curse as I call it and go RADICAL--give away or throw out all animal products--clean out pantry...cans and boxes say good bye too!! Simple is best!

Get into a raw group, found at meetup.com. Where are you? I'm here in CO and have an active group local with great friendships built to the new and oldies...age is not a factor...our common goals are. Enough pep talk.

OT: Off topic:
I suppose I'm practicing here as I am going to speak to Westwood College Online students --non-traditional college students--next week teleseminar, 10/9, 45-60 minutes, criminal justice students so I am just starting here early--not food related however, but great contacts I am believing for to travel the world with my message of: communcation/relationships/humor/power of words=good/bad to self and others spoken... with intent to enhance survival skills in this century! I don't have website yet, but may ask the lady how many planning on being on this virtual chat at they call it officially. May have to put ASAP needed website creator. No pay for this one, but believing for the contacts to replace what money can't buy!

This woman after being honest in email about making my debut to her organization without website, have been non traditional student, running own business with customer service 20+ years writes back and says I would be WONDERFUL. Wow, did that build me up without even knowing me. Hoping maybe to have relationship so that I can be regular and others can tell their family, corporations about me and I can launch at this age for the time I waited so patiently for and past due feeling but NOW!! Grateful in all things.

carolg

[Revvell]

....but both places advocate NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS and a fish is an animal, so is cheese, unless raw...

So, if it's raw, does it turn into a vegetable? LMSSSAO!!!! :D

[goobygirl]

Bela,

It is possible for your body type and metabolism that you will have to cut back on the dates, nuts and avocados. I have been reading about the issues with raw fooders actually eating more fat (whether good or not) than SAD eaters. Fat is fat. Too much of it is going to have some effect.

For those reasons, I have not had nuts every day, avocado only once or twice a week. I agree that your body needs fat (your brain, nerves, etc). However, you might want to journal what you are eating on fitday.com or nutridiary.com. You may be surprised by the results.

Making some little changes and tweaking it could help. Then again, maybe your body is so happy to have good food it just wants to hang on before letting go...

I personally think that a 60/20/20 plan is probably good for many people (60 percent carbs,20 protein, 20 fat) but others advocate differently based on body type and metabolism. There's even an 80/10/10 that is advocated by Doug Graham.

While raw foods are better for you, sugar is sugar, whether from a beet, carrot, or maple syrup, and fat is fat, whether from avocado, nut or marbelized piece of meat.

[charlinchen]

Sitting here with my dictionary, I brim over with enthusiasm for your help!
You are all so friendly, and I thank you for the good wishes!

@ EmmaT: thanks for your german compliment! Where the heck did you all learn to speak German? ( Germany still thinks that the US just know their own language...rubbish!)
@ JennaBoBenna: thank you for your advice with the oil; oil cleanses oil - I just didn´t know that (despite I cleanse my face with coconut oil and it deos miracles...)- I still have so much to learn!
@ carolG: forget about the raw fish? OMG, you bring me to my knees! So if I stick to it, there is no chance that the raw way is a healing one? I really have to think twice about this...:(- but if this is the one and only...

[Raw Angel Mom]

Keep eating your avocado and coconut as long this is raw.

The good news about raw food, is that you will loose the extra weight not feeling dreprive and eating all kind of good raw goodies. Go check the before/after thread and see for yourself. You need the good fat in order to loose the bad one, so don't worry about the fat for now, just find your way to feel comfortable with raw food, for this is really comfortable once you get there.

I recommend that you get Alissa dvd to learn the basic of making raw food. And also green can save your life from Victoria Butenko www.rawfamily.com

Don't give up, for you have finally found the right path concerning your health.

This is really easy, please don't let this new information overwelming you and just do it.

[Raine]

Hi everybody! I am a german newbie who needs help: due to a surgery :eek: scheduled in october, I have to slim down as soon as possible (fasting is not allowed). Raw is my last hope, but: do I have to quit avocados and coconut completely cause it´s fat or is it true that they are helpful for the weight loss? I´d be so glad if anybody could help...thanks so much!

Charlinchen - can you not juice fast? I know there are some medical conditions where water fasting is not advisable (like liver cancer) but a juice fast will help you detox and drop weight even faster than eating raw but not as fast as water.

I dropped 32 pounds in 1 month on a juice fast.

.

[Bela]

Bela,

It is possible for your body type and metabolism that you will have to cut back on the dates, nuts and avocados. I have been reading about the issues with raw fooders actually eating more fat (whether good or not) than SAD eaters. Fat is fat. Too much of it is going to have some effect.

For those reasons, I have not had nuts every day, avocado only once or twice a week. I agree that your body needs fat (your brain, nerves, etc). However, you might want to journal what you are eating on fitday.com or nutridiary.com. You may be surprised by the results.

Making some little changes and tweaking it could help. Then again, maybe your body is so happy to have good food it just wants to hang on before letting go...

I personally think that a 60/20/20 plan is probably good for many people (60 percent carbs,20 protein, 20 fat) but others advocate differently based on body type and metabolism. There's even an 80/10/10 that is advocated by Doug Graham.

While raw foods are better for you, sugar is sugar, whether from a beet, carrot, or maple syrup, and fat is fat, whether from avocado, nut or marbelized piece of meat.


Thank you for the feedback. I read about all of these people who are eating like 8 avocados a day and not gaining weight but I think that you are right that my body is not there at this point. Who knows, maybe it will just take time like Raw Angel says. It could be that my body is just having a freak out right now and is scared to let go. I am definitely off the excess fats now, but nothing will change my mind about raw being the best course for me. I just have to tweak it a little...:)

[cavany]

I read recently that the reason we eat more than we require is because our bodies misunderstand and confuse the signals sent from the stomach.

When we are hungry our stomach lets us know, and believe it or not when we are thirsty our stomach also let us knows. However both these signals are interpreted the same and we just think we are hungry so we eat. The signal is sated and we start to digest the food but we may still need hydration and soon after we get the signals again from our stomachs.

Tea, Colas, alcohol and coffee do not hydrate the body in fact the opposite. So any time I feel hungry and think I shouldn’t be I drink water or juice and the feeling passes.

[charlinchen]

A big thank you all for your friendly tips! I just checked the before and afters and can´t believe this ever will happen to me too..

But now I see two problems: you wrote about the importance of avocados and coconuts. But as I have a proven very slow metabolism, I´m just afraid of this amount of fat and wondering if I will rather gain weight? Otherwise, I see the necessity of some good fats to detoxify.
Thatns also why I´m afraid of juice fasting. I know that I´ll miss to chew on something and fasting will slow dowm my bad metabolism further, or not?

I´ll jump to the October Challenge, because Carolg convinced me to quit my beloved raw fish - that´s so hard for me, but I´ll do it for 30 days and then see...

All of you, have a wonderful start of October and please let me know what I should do with the fats (any suggestions/tips for amount?)- thanks a lot!