Raw Foods & Consistent Exercise -- Unbeatable!

[maui_butterfly]

aloha gang,

i've been on a fitness kick in the last month and really excited about the progress i've made so far. wanted to share a little raw inspiration with my friends!

this was my older photo post at 8 months raw...
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthrea...ghlight=photos

i also started an online support group for raw vegans interested in actively pursuing their fitness goals. my goal is to get SUPERFIT in 2008 and support a bunch of likeminded folks to do the same. so whether you have a goal to run a marathon or lose 50 lbs and you want some accountability or information around your own personal goals, come and check us out at www.rawveganfitness.com

as always, my thanks goes out to the online community of raw vegans. your knowledge, experience, and support has been invaluable to me! mahalo nui loa!!!

[mtraezme]

I just joined up!

You look awesome in your pictures, by the way.

I gotta say also that I loved having to do a math problem for the confirmation code instead of having to try and figure out what the swirly letters were, like on most sites. I just hope I got it right ;)

[Revvell]

Ohhhhh, so THAT's what you've been doing. You look GREAT!!! Congratulations!

Revvellicious

[les]

Wow, that is amazing. I'm a newbie so I have questions. Did you count calories or limit any of the highly caloric raw foods?

[tanishamarshall]

You are looking Good!!!

[Eva]

You look absolutely fantastic! You go girl!!!

[rawstrength]

You look great! Congratulations!

[Bodhi]

Wowwie Maui! Excellent progress!!!

[earth_sista]

dang lady! you look fabulous!

[RawSinger]

It would be a crime for you not to show off that rockin' bod at the beach!! Congratulations!!

[Raw Angel Mom]

Awsome,

Now you gave me the fever to start doing weight training. Just what i needed.

Thank you for sharing!

[GreenJB5]

YOU LOOK GREAT!!!!! WOOOOWW Were you 100% raw for 10 months? if so what keep you motivated to eat 100% ie what did you eat that did not cause you to slip? Please do share

[cordeliasmama2]

you look so amazing & young!
you have inspired me to start working out!!!
thanks & congrats! :)

[cordeliasmama2]

i joined the site, too =0)
i'm super excited!

[maui_butterfly]

thanks everyone for all of your kind words, i sincerely mean that. i like to say that i take no credit, the credit goes to raw foods--all i had to do was eat. LOL. but in truth i will say that it comes down to a big shift in attitude i had about PRIORITIZING MYSELF. a people-pleaser by nature, i always put myself way down on the list. luckily i am pretty high energy, so for a good portion of my life i got away with this behavior, but when i became a mom, it avalanched on me. your kids take 100% of what you have to give, and if you haven't learned self-care and boundary setting or mastered the "put your oxygen mask on first" rule, you can get in over your head pretty quick! that's what happened to me.

now i keep MY wellbeing at the top of the priority list, at least somewhere in the top five. :) i eat raw and i refuse to go to bed unless i have spent at least spent 8 minutes exercising. (i sit at a desk 8-10 hrs per day five days a week... that MUST be counteracted somehow.) and i find that by taking that necessary time for myself, i show up as my best self more often, in my parenting, my relationships, my work... everything. so it pays off big dividends. our kids especially deserve strong, healthy, fit, and energetic moms, not tired, cranky, energetically-depleted moms. and if it means seeing a tiny bit less of a cranky depleted mom in order to get a happy, healthy mom, well, that's a pretty good trade off.

mtraezme i'm happy to see that you passed the confirmation code/IQ test on the rawveganfitness.com! LOL. welcome!

revvell, that means a lot coming from you. i love your primal play stuff, and have really incorporated the spirit of that into my own life. now when i take my daughter to the beach on the weekends, i challenge her and her little friends to races in the sand (i run backwards), swim them around on my back, join in games of tag, do cartwheel contests, or i set them all up in a line and jump over them... they love to have an adult playing with them, and i get a great workout.

les i did not count calories, especially at first, and i lost 40 pounds very quickly, then another 10 over the course of several months. then i plateaued out at 155lbs. my diet has naturally been getting more refined as i've gone along, but for the first 6 months or so in particular i ate all the so called "bad" raw foods, and lots of them (avocados, larabars, nuts, "raw gourmet" recipes, etc). i think the optimal diet is as many fresh unadulterated raw fruits and vegetables as possible, so i have been mindful about moving in that direction, but allowing myself to eat whatever raw foods i wanted along the way. in the past month i have dropped all "transitional raw" ingredients: miso, agave, nama shoyu, sea salt, acv, oils, "probably-not-really-raw" nuts, etc., and i think that plus the exercise allowed me to bust my plateau and go from 155 to 145.

hey rawangelmom, happy to inspire you to pick up the weights. strength training is so fun. i love working out with kettlebells especially...

greenJB5, i've been 90-100% raw, and i strive for 100% every day. i cook for my daughter, and that has been the most challenging thing, but hey, its my choice! my strategy has been to be totally gentle with myself when i slip up, and focus on all the wonderful things i am doing for my body by eating all the raw foods that i DO eat. i can't say there is one thing that i eat that prevents me from getting cravings, more like a toolkit full of strategies... i carry apples/asian pears in my purse and if i want to have a bite of cooked food, i have to eat the apple first; i never prepare my daughters food on an empty stomach, i always make sure i am full if not a bit overfull; i always tell myself about anything i am wanting "if you wake up in the morning tomorrow and you still want it, you can have it" --the morning me is a much tougher cookie than the 4pm me.

thanks, cordeliasmama! yeah sometimes i look in the mirror and i seriously feel like i have stepped into a time machine! glad to see you on rawveganfitness.com, and i hope to see you diving into the challenge soon! let me know if i can help...

blessings all!