New to the forum :-)

[darend]

Good day to you all. My name is Diane and I am new to the forum. I have been on a diet since July of last year, initially starting out with a program that has worked well for me in the past, which is Medifast (5 protein supplements and a lean and green meal) While this diet has worked well for me in the past, it was not working well for me due to my PCOS. My doctor put me on a perscription called Victoza. Victoza is normally prescribed as diabetic medication, however it is shown to be helpful in helping woman with PCOS deal with the inability to loose weight - fight insulin resistance, which is pre-diabetes.

Well, I started out on Medifast and Victoza once again. Weight started to come off. However, one thing happened one night that changed my life for good. I had not any or much meat for a week or so, not intentional - but it just happened that way. Then, my husband and I went out to a restaurant for dinner and I had a salad with some steak strips on top. Within a 1/2 hour, I felt extremely queasy, and I knew the meat I ate wasn't a problem. It tasted normal and it is a restaurant that we frequent, so I know it was something else.

What I learned is that if you have not had meat for a period of time, some people get sick after eating meat again. That night, I thought to myself, just what is all the vegen and vegetarianism about. I hit the internet. I first watched an interview with Ellen Degeneres. Ellen explained why she is a vegetarian. Ellen mentioned that one of the things that changed her for life, was a documentary called "Earthlings". Earthlings is out on youtube, in several parts. I watched Earthlings over the course of two nights, because watching it all in one night was just too much to deal with. My heart broke for the animals.

Well, I also began to watch videos about health benefits of being a vegan, and more importantly eating a raw or mostly raw vegan diet.

It was at that point, that I turned to my husband and said, I am going to go vegan for a while, at least. As usual, my awesome husband of over 30 years, supported me and said ok and he wished me luck. I did not wean into it, I just went cold turkey. Cold turkey method usually goes best with me anyhow lol

Well, I have been vegan ever since July (I think it was) of 2011, and will not look back. And I am mostly raw, 99% raw. I am also happy to say that my husband, Rick - joined me on my diet venture just a couple months or so after I started and he has also gone vegan and mostly raw.

Every week, Rick and I get on the scale and either cheer each other on with the weight loss that week, or cheer each other on when the scale stayed the same (and rare cases we gained a little and adjusted our diet as necessary to get back on track).

Since my start of July 2011, I have lost 65 pounds, and my husband has lost close to 40 pounds since August 2011.

We both used to have our dinner out just about every night. And now, we never have dinner out (unless it is a salad bar at Whole Foods store lol). We bought ourselves a blendtec and a Breville Ikon juicer, awesome machines. We use them every day. We also bought a dehydrator, but haven't set it up yet.

We also just started taking E3live.

There are many awesome folks out there on Youtube that are raw foodists. Some I enjoy are Mike from live life 365, Natasha from Raw radiant health. My ultimate favorite raw foodist is Dan The Man, with the master plan - liferegenerator.

As most of you know, when you are a raw foodist vegan, it is impossible to have a deep conversation with someone who does not eat our way. Therefore, I searched the internet to meet some friends or a forum, that DOES eat a raw food diet - vegan. And this is how I found this website.

So, here is to 2012 being a healthy year for you and for all of us on this forum. I look forward to sharing with you all.

Diane

[ZombieDawn]

Welcome! You sound like you are doing just wonderful!