Detox symptoms--YIKES!

[RawShannon]

I have been 100% raw for a week and have been experiencing MAJOR detox symptoms. Sore throat, swollen glands, fatigue, lethargy, major body aches. I have flashes of feeling good (like this morning), but generally, I feel like dookie! :p

I got rid of coffee, diet soda, eggs/milk/fish/chicken, bread, and sugar (not to mention all the chemicals that go along with those things). So, I know this is to be expected. I just wasn't expecting detox to be so debilitating! I have always eaten lots of fruits and veg, and was vegetarian for years before recently (did a bodybuilder's diet of fish/chicken/veg). Can people share their experiences with me and tell me when I will come out on the other side? :(

[swingbolder]

Hi Rawshannon,

I think that the experience can be different for everybody. I have gone through rashes, extreme fatigue and flu symptoms. But you feel so much better when you get to the other side, so just keep on!

[1-icurn]

Hi. I have been 80% raw for 4 days. I'm not ready to give up my am coffeee yet. I have just been having trouble sleeping at night and when I do really weird dreams.

[blessed]

Hi RawShannon,
It may not seem like it now but you will recover.
I've had dizzy spells so much so that I've had to lay down, my head was swimming and I felt like I was going to pass out.
So tired that I woke up in the morning and went right back to sleep and this can go on for several days. When I feel like this it usually means that I need a good bathroom break and I usually take an enema.
I try hard to listen to my body when it tells me to drink more water and that helps a lot.
Remember you have friends who are going through the same thing and you have support whenever you need it.

Love Ann :) :p

[FloridaBahai]

RawShannon,

I'm also experiencing major detox symptom once again. I live in Florida and am in the service industry. I'm a bellman and have to carry luggage (you would not believe what people bring... remember the Grizwalds?) up stairs. I have three weeks of vacation coming but cannot take them now because we are getting into high season. My muscles feel really weak and sometimes shake afterward. My mind, it just doesn't seem to be there. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because I have to work but just can't do it like this. I want to get these toxins out but I want to make the detox stop at the same time. I feel stupid and weak right now. I'm not giving up though.

The last time that happened, I drank a diet coke. BAD!!! It did work after a couple of hours so that confirmed for me that it wasn't that I was lacking anything like protien or anything.... just that I was detoxing or "withdrawing" from unnatural food and needed a fix.

I wouldn't have thought my detox would be that bad because my mother always had fruit laying around when I was a kid and I too, even before raw, had intermetently eaten fruit as a snack -- but not a meal.

This is my story. I don't know when you'll come out of it. I have had a little bit of mucous coming out but not like a cold or flu. I have had a few very foul-smelling bowel movements though. Gross!

Craig

[Bonnie S.]

I went 100% raw a few years ago for about a month and it took about 2 weeks or so to get thru the "i don't feel well" stage. I just started again yesterday and have a constant headache and feel a bit queasy sometimes (yeah, it comes and goes), but you will feel so much better in a little bit. I remember feeling that I had more energy than when I was drinking coffee and I could get up in the morning with out an alarm clock. You'll have so much energy, but it's true that everyone is different so just hang in there. Try to rest as much as you can and take some mineral baths and drink plenty of water. Take it easy if you can. Keep up the great work!
~bonnie (on Day 2...) :)

[jax]

RawShannon,

It's great that you are having so many symptoms!(not that I'm glad you feel bad) because the detox will pass soon and you will feel great!! It's soooo worth it to suffer for the short time it lasts. If you have been raw for a week now you should start seeing better days real soon! :) I have been raw for 25 days and my energy goes up a little more each day. The past two nights I've been up till about 1AM, which tells me that I have made definite progress because for the first two weeks raw I was in bed between 8-9pm, totally exhausted and weak. Hang in there! ;)

Jax

[RawShannon]

Thanks, everyone! I felt GREAT yesterday but back to feeling blah today. Oh well, at least I got a taste of what's to come. :)

[CJB]

My experience with my first month of going raw was being quite energized the first week, very tired the second, and then I went through a period of time where my energy alternated. I never knew if I was going to wake up tired or like the energizer bunny.

I went off raw for the holidays, though, so now I'm starting back. It will be interesting to see how much detoxing I have to do just from six weeks of cooked food.

Good luck! It is definitely worth it.

[karenisraw]

I just started being a raw vegan about a week and a half ago. The first week I felt great despite detox symptoms and I believe the raw coconut oil gave me my sense of well-being and great energy.

I had chills, fever, a cold, and general flu-like symptoms. I just got my period which was only a few spots and absolutely no cramps yet, (very unusual). I was really stupid and ate some hamburger, (I just had a pound of burger that I did not want to waste and even though I had no cravings for meat, I ate it because I did not want to waste it.) I immediately within a half hour got a severe headache,(I never get headaches) and felt depressed.

I felt stupid for eating the meat because I sounded gross to me before I even ate it and felt so horrible after I ate it too.

I will continue to be a raw vegan because this is how I feel best.


I have heard that detox symptoms last from about 10 days up to a year if you continue to be raw. I guess if you slip up and eat bad stuff it just becomes a cycle of detox.

I feel so much happier raw that I wonder if peoples mental health has more to do with our diets than we think. Try coconut oil raw with every meal. It does wonders for me and eliminated any cravings for junk food or meat.

[RawTruth]

RawShannon,

No one really can tell you how long your detox symptoms will last. Each of us is unique, and our histories are different from each others. Alissa mentions this in her book. Cooked and processed foods are toxic to our bodies and have caused major problems that may take a while for our bodies to recover from. Also, the detoxing and cleansing that eating ALL raw food brings about usually doesn't happen all at once and then it's over. It often recurs every once in a while and can keep happening after several years raw.

Craig, despite having eaten fruit as snacks before, as long as you were eating any cooked/processed foods, your cells and organs were being subjected to unnatural and harmful substances. As you know now, coming off cooked foods can be a huge jolt to your body (a good one, of course!!). You seem determined to stick it out, though -- my compliments to you. That's great.

It WILL get better, both of you, and you'll feel better than you've ever felt in your life. Congratulations on choosing to live on living foods!

[FloridaBahai]

Thanks Raw Truth!

I forgot to mention the tiredness. For me, that is a good thing in a way. I've had insomnia since I can remember. Just wanting to lay down and go to sleep is a good thing. I still want to sleep durring the day but it's AWESOME at night! I fall asleep so easily now - just the opposite of 1-icurn. I have had weird dreams too though.

I'd eaten a lot of processed and frozen foods - drank and smoked too. So, even though I've eaten good things along with the bad, it makes sense that there are still a lot of bad chemicals or whatnot left in my system.

I drank the diet coke to help me get through work the day I mentioned in my last post. I've read that Storm from gardendiet.com told Jinjie, his wife, to eat some cooked rice to ease the withdrawal when she first went raw. I've read somewhere also, that bananas would do the same but I already eat a substantial amount of them and they don't really ease the detox for me.

I guess what I'm getting at is, is there any way to ease the detox without having to start over and go through it all over again? Is there any way to go through it little by little until you've completely detoxed? My guess is, "no" but I thought I'd ask.

Thanks again,

Craig

[RawTruth]

My guess is, "no" but I thought I'd ask.Ha ha - you knew the answer all along!! This really will pass, Craig. And, you're right, if you give in, you'll need to start over again and your body won't get really clean. Many people have gone before you on this path and they're gone through it, so you're in good company. I'm not downplaying the discomfort at all.

What a wonderful benefit you've reaped already -- restful sleep. You won't believe how many aspects of your life will be affected by living on live foods! Have you written down all the little things that aren't quite right? It's a great thing to do. Just list everything, starting with insomnia and whatever physical ailments you've had. Then, down the road, you'll be able to see how far you've come.

By the way, I totally understand why you had a diet soda -- that sagging feeling seems like you can't make it through the day sometimes - but aspartame is just the most horrible thing. People have actually died from it. In fact, there's a recent thread on this forum that discusses it though there's tons of research and even books about it. So, hopefully, if that happens next time you can eat a banana or pop a few soaked nuts in your mouth to help you. Or, better yet, take a few minutes alone to meditate and find your center again. Focusing on the outcome can be a huge help, too. Just know that you're doing great! You're right where you should be.

Remember, the only way out is through.

[DrPr]

I haven't felt well today myself. I have a headache and felt queasy this afternoon. I thought I was going to be sick, and had to lay down down for a bit a few hours ago. Despite my terrible eating habits of the past, I haven't felt nauseated in a long time, nor had a stomach ache as bad as I had today. I don't know that this is detox- I think it's more that I haven't had much fiber at all before this month, and hardly a fruit passed my lips in th past few years. I can't wait to feel better. Drinking water helps a lot.

:(