11 years old and raw

[Aleesha Sattva]

My daughter is turning 11 this month and she's been raw for 6 days now. I'm not going to post her weight, cause she's very conscious of it... but I do want to share that she's released 4 pounds!!!

This is wonderfully amazing news. She hasn't started any exercise but she loves rebounding and is going to start doing that for a minimum of 5 minutes a day (most times though, once she gets on she stays on for 30+ minutes). She also loves going for walks so on nice days, we'll be doing that as well.

So let's discuss her diet:

She's eating lots of nectarines and romaine lettuce salad. She's not really resonating with anything else at this time - which is fine with me. Even just having these two foods is way healthier than how she's been eating in the past. (SAD) She's an extremely fussy eater so I don't expect her to eat a huge variety of foods. I am hoping that in time, I can get her drinking green smoothies but she's not interested right now.

Every third day she gets to choose something not-raw. She found this really helps her to eat raw because she has a goal/focus/treat.

I'm going to keep updating this thread with her progress. We'll be weighting her once a week. We did her weigh in today cause I felt she needed a little pick-me-up and it certainly gave her that!

[michigan roman]

great job momma

[Aleesha Sattva]

thanks MR (((hugs)))

she just tried a sip of my coconut water and meat blended together and was not impressed LOL oh well... i bet she'll like it later on in her journey!

[michigan roman]

heres my diet 40 years ago when i was 11

doritos
twinkies
faygo
pepsi
chips ahoy
canned corn
milkyway bars
three musketeers
cheese curls
funions
mountain dew
jelly beans
meat , potatoes , bread

and ive got about 5000 cavaties and ibs to proove it

and my parents spent about half their pay checks buying all that junk
they were told by the tv was great

baby lee you dont have the slightest clue
of how happy ide be today if i went raw at 11 :)
if you stick to it i GUARANTEE when your 51 you'll
say ' wooo hooooooo my ma's great and im a hard bodied 51 year old '

[Aleesha Sattva]

ahhhhhh thanks for this MR... that's exactly what i'm hoping for. that in another year she'll be saying "wow mom, i'm so glad i did this!"

i didn't even think about how she'll feel in another 40 years

[Aleesha Sattva]

baby lee you dont have the slightest clue
of how happy ide be today if i went raw at 11 :)
if you stick to it i GUARANTEE when your 51 you'll
say ' wooo hooooooo my ma's great and im a hard bodied 51 year old '

i'm reading this thread to her later today... she's going to love this!

[jennabean]

My diet when I was 11 considered of:

• 2 nights of week eating McDonald's Happy Meals before practice (I did gymnastics, hockey, softball)
• Dinners focused around pork chops, hamburger helper meals, or some sort of steak
• Pop-tarts, sugary cereal, and whole milk
• Kool-aid, potato chips, ice cream bars, cookies...

Where were the fruits and vegetables? Missing! My parents did not understand what their decisions were doing their children's bodies! We were active kids, so we never had weight problems. But now that my brother is graduated college and no longer playing football, baseball, and wrestling, his weight is no longer being maintained.

I have a great past three weeks on the raw diet! My skin (after some nasty detoxing!) looks great! I've been logging in more hours sleeping - which in the past was an issue, I would only sleep a few hours every night.

Best of luck to you and your daughter! I hope she comes to find the love for the raw lifestyle that so many of us have found!

[RawSar]

She's lucky to have you for a mom Aleesha!

When I think back to when I was around 11 years old I was not eating healthy either. Lots of spaghetti, cookies, chips, pop, breads, candy, started drinking coffee at age 13!... I hardly remember drinking water, why would I when there was always pop and coffee in the house. School was always so frustrating to me, the work, the projects and reading. I know that I would have done so much better in school had I been eating a raw vegan diet. With all that junk I was eating and drinking made concentrating so much harder, I couldn't focus and pay attention long enough to understand what was going on.
If I had started a raw vegan diet when I was 11 my dancing career would have probably never ended because I would have never had gotten sick.

Peer pressure can be brutal in school, whats cool, whats not cool.
Everything I did when I was younger I thought was cool, I paid for it thats for sure... Having to quit dance at 15 because I got sick was not cool. Failing a year in highschool was not cool. Graduating with just a 'pass' instead of an A, B or C is not cool.

Everything just starts to come together when you eat healthy, because you can think clearly.

She's very lucky to be getting a head start on a truly healthy lifestyle!

[Aleesha Sattva]

and we homeschool so no peer pressure for her to deal with at all.

i love that everyone is looking back at their lives when they were 11. i can't remember what i ate back then but honestly not a lot of raw anything.

i am so excited for her journey... sooo excited. :)

[margoss]

Great for your DD & you!! It's hard when we want them to 'see the light' but there's so much around them.
I'm going to watch this...my dd will be 8yo next month & a lacto-ovo vegetarian since birth. she eats 2-3 eggs per week & occ cheese otherwise no dairy. I'm going to try the 3rd day thing. a smoothie is a no-go for her unless it's bought outside, which I do not want to do. She's slim & I do believe it's bc we do not do the fast food places. It's hard on her to see her friends parents come in with bags from the local places & we ger a piece of fruit after dance w/water & occ steamed veggies from the Chinese place with a light sause on the side. I'm going to read these to her later so she can see why I'm like I am. My childhood food was similar to the above yet I was always told I was fat & needed to lose wt. I explain to her that this is why I'm like I am w/her. She gets her occ sweet things just once a week unless we're at a party. Then the great thing...she doesn't like the frosting..too sweet!

[OnMyJourney]

Great job mommy and great adventures to your daughter!! w00t w00t! I wish we lived near each other, my 11 year old is transitioning to raw as well. So far, so grand! As soon as my dehydrator gets here on Tuesday we'll really be rawking and rolling! You two keep up the fab living! I look forward to hearing about her journey. I'll come back from time to time and post my daughter's "at the moment" favorite and see if your daughter likes it too. I'm so excited for you both! ((((((((hugs))))))

[Bestday]

Hi
Here is a very inspiring link to an audio interview with Victoria Boutenko. It is pretty short about 15 minutes. But she has some comments on when her children started being raw. http://www.rawbc.org/raw_radio.html
It is inspiring for anyone else who wants to stay on raw.
mary

[Aleesha Sattva]

that is so cool that we are both doing the same thing right now. all the best to you two on your journey!!!

mar, i know my son, who's 16 is so appreciative of my parenting now. he sees his friends parents and how/who they are and tells me that he's so happy to have a mom like me. (we had our time together today so a nice long deep chat)... blisses me out to see this cause it wasn't like this years ago.

so i guess what i'm trying to say is... your daughter will see the light... it just may take a few more years and a little growth first. (((hugs)))

[Aleesha Sattva]

thanks bestday... we have their books here (two copies of each actually LOL) - we love them in our home! the power of the greens... ahhhhhhhh

[monkapotapus]

Very cool Aleesha~
If ever there was a great teacher......it's you!!

I too wish Raw was presented to me at a young age. I do however remember my grandma always giving me a piece of fruit for "desert" - something to cool our tummies she'd say....bad food combining, but hey it was fruit at least ;)

My younger sister just went through the same thing a couple years ago with a weight issue. It broke my heart when kids were cruel to her at school, because she is such a sweetheart. When she was 12 - something just "clicked" in her & she started exercising on a $10 elliptical machine from a garage sale. She would watch TV & do it for 20 - 30min each night. She still ate the same things, just smaller portions. Some days she would also shoot hoops in the driveway by herself or with my other sister. She went from 164# @ 5' tall down to the 120 area within 6 months . I was so proud of her & I told her that. I also told her that it didn't matter to me what she weighed, because I will always love her just the way she is. She just turned 14 in Jan. & she plays basketball for her school team & loves it!

I try to impress upon my sisters (14 & 17yrs) how important it is to drink water & try new fruits/veggies. They joke about it sometimes, but at least it's sinking in.....;)