Hello!! New + a little bit about me :)

[casnat]

My name is Cassi, I am 22 years old.

For my entire life, I have been overweight/obese. I came out a whopping 9 lbs 11oz and never looked back, haha.

At 16 I weighed 350 lbs!!!! But because the weight crept up on me, I didn't really notice the effects it had on my body. I thought it was perfectly normal to come home from school and take a nap.

When I was 18, I got my first boyfriend. I went out a bit more, and went down to 300 lbs. I was still overeating and night-eating (something I have struggled with since I was young.)

In 2009 I met my husband. We moved in together after 2 months of dating, I was working full time, and I went down to 200 lbs! I felt amazing, and I looked good too. (I am 5'9'', and love my big butt, haha.)

I was well on my way to a healthy weight, when BOOM, we got pregnant April 2010. So I spent 9 months gorging on the things I had denied myself to lose weight in the first place. Then when our daughter was born, in the middle of winter, weighing only 4lbs due to circumstances beyond my control, I went nuts.

We brought her home, and she was on timed feeds, every 2 hours. Some days I wouldn't sleep at all, and the only thing that would keep me awake at night was food.

Now she is almost 8 months old, completely healthy and amazing, and I am living everyday to do right by her. I am going to college now, and I feel it's the right time for me to do something about my health. I have ballooned back up to 300 and I hate it. I feel it every time I move. My lungs, my back, my knees, my shoulders, everything is achy.

This is really long, but the point is...I am by no means stupid. I know raw food works, as I've seen quite a few transformations with people in my life. I know I can do this, and I know I will.

Sorry for the long post, lol.

[tthayer]

YOU CAN DO IT!! I lost 100 lb about 5 years ago, only to gain 40+ back....but down another 8 in the last few weeks eating mostly raw (all raw for 3 days now!!!)
Don't think of this as denying yourself the foods you want...think of it as replacing the foods that cause excess weight and disease with the foods that your body needs to heal and thrive. That little change in though process helped me go from craving fat and sugar to craving really good foods (GREEN SMOOTHIES...I can't get enough!!)
You also have an opportunity to raise your baby to make good decisions about food and life, leading by example. I've had to work hard to change my teenagers' attitudes about food, and after 15 years of junk and bad examples, it hasn't been easy.
Good luck and congrats on the progress so far!

[MysticTree]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum. Why not join the 30 day challenge thread and get so online support :)

[trenchchic]

YOU CAN DO IT!!
Don't think of this as denying yourself the foods you want...think of it as replacing the foods that cause excess weight and disease with the foods that your body needs to heal and thrive.

tthayer is right. You can't see this as denying yourself the food you love. In fact, if you are willing to spend a bit of time in the kitchen, some raw food cookbooks attempt to recreate cooked foods but only using raw ingredients. For instance I had "spaghetti" (spiralized zucchini) and "marinara sauce" (tomatoes, a date, oregano, rosemary, olive oil, salt) for dinner last night. It was BETTER than the real thing. Welcome and enjoy all the wonderful food raw has to offer.