New to raw, 50 yrs and needing some advice

[Acacias]

Hi everybody,
I'm Constance, living in Brazil, and first of all want to excuse my bad English. I hope you can understand me and give me some help.

I have been a vegetarian (not vegan) for the last 30 years. Getting older (now 50), I gained weight, from max. 136 pounds to max. 178 pounds. Last Saturday I weighed 165, so there ist still quite a lot to go.
Now I have been about 95% raw since July, 16. The first 2-3 weeks I lost about 2 pounds a week (at my raw-start I was about 175), but since then loosing weight has been pretty hard. So I decided to go 100% raw and don't want to weigh so often, but I have the feeling that I'm still stuck.

What can I do? Should I eat less nuts and more fruit and vegetables? Drink more water? I have a green smooothie for breakfast every day, since July. I realized that I eat more dehydrated fruits than fresh ones, maybe I should change this. Also I've tried to make some crackers without having a dehydrator and they were just awful. Are those supposed to stay in an half opened oven for let's say 8 hrs, as they stay in the dehydrator? I miss something like bread or crackers.

I know that staying raw is the best way to stay healthy and good looking and I love to see all your accomplishments. These encourage and motivate me to stay raw, although it hasn't been easy!

Thank you for your advice
Hope I'll be able, very soon, to post some before&after photos!
Constance

[DawnD]

Hi Constance and welcome to Raw Fook Talk! So glad to hear of your success so far with raw. As far as weight loss, I would maybe eat higher water content foods and less dehydrated foods. Dehydrated fruits are naturally going to be higher in calories. You might surround your nut based entres with vege sides that have less fat. Just concentrate on getting the raw lifestyle down and then tweek it as you go. You may be going through a slow cleansing process and the weight loss may come later. Your body will need to repair and heal as you go and weight loss may not be its goal now. I don't know...just some thoughts

[Acacias]

tried to change some things today, eating more fresh fruits instead of nuts and dehydrated fruits.
Thank you so much for your reply, Dawn. :)
I'll try do drink more water, also, I think it could help.
Maybe I should exercise, too, but I'm not a fan I have no leisure time...

[michigan roman]

fasting helped / helps me to get tighter grip on appetite

what im doing now is just quick 24 hour fasts every monday , though some times theyll go longer

but doing a 24 hour water fast once a week to me really helps grip appetite tighter plus makes raw foods more satisfying when coming off fast

[Acacias]

Hm, I don't feel hungry, no problems with appetite...I really don't need much to feel satisfied.
But I'm trying to have more fresh vegetables and fruits instead of nuts and dehydrated fruits.
Thank you, Roman, for your reply! :)

[amoux]

Hi Constance - good to meet you :-)

Exercising definitely seems to help. If time is a problem, can you simply build in some extra walking? For example, getting off the bus one stop early, and walking the rest of the way? Just little things that can add up over the days and weeks. Best of luck to you!

[belleadonna]

You might want to try a cleansing diet first and get your colon in good working order. Cleansing can release much from years of bad eating. Maybe you have done that. Then, don't cut calories too far back or your body will percieve that it is starving and hang onto weight especially if you haven't cleansed. Then I think that we can survive on less food and our bodies will be properly nourished.

Our bodies crave proper nourishment and maybe that is why we hold onto so much weight. We eat the wrong foods and so we keep eating because our bodies crave good food. But do we give it good food? NOOOO. We feed it processed junk. I speak for myself. I am not saying that anyone here does that. We know who we are, eh?

So, out with the old and in with the new. That's what I am doing and I will update and lyk how it goes. I am my own science experiment.

[dblvsgrg]

The best thing I ever did (and I know it isn't possible for everyone) was to have the stove/oven and fridge removed from my place. I can't store a bunch of stuff in a fridge just to watch it go bad...I buy produce every coupla days, and that way everything is fresh.
With no stove I'm not tempted to cook, but I have tried in the past to dehydrate things by using the lowest oven setting and keeping the door opened. It still gets too hot though. I'm just trying to learn to go without the bread-type items...I use collard leaves for wraps instead.
Also, I make sure there is nothing packaged/processed in my place. Even as far as toiletries: I use baking soda and raw apple cider vinegar for everything (hair cleanser, toothpaste, a little acv on salads sometimes) and that's all the packaged stuff I have.
If it's not around you'll be so much less tempted.
Also, yes, fresh fruit as opposed to dried (although I use soaked dates sometimes to sweeten things). I've really been focusing on fresh fruit in my diet (I'll eat up to 15 bananas a day) and I feel better than ever. I also do alot of raw "soups" (blended greens). Go easy on the nuts, and always soak 'em first.
Good luck!