Starting raw - some quick questions - eating disorder recovery

[snicklefritz]

First off i'm going to start off with WHY I'm going raw....I used to be very in shape, i would workout 6-7 days, and weigh between 110-115 pounds (I'm 5'5ft, and had a lot of muscle). But the past few months I've gone through a depression/eating disorder relapse (binge eating with bulimic tendencies). I feel as if i have completely destroyed my body. I USED to be vegan, but i have even binged on foods with dairy (chocolate, cheese cake, cream cheese ect). In just 2 months I have gained 30-35lbs and gotten acne from eating such horrible foods everyday. I know, it's ridiculous and it is embarrassing to even admit it. I've finally decided that enough is enough and i need to get a hold of my life again and heal my body and metabolism.

I've done TONS of research on raw foods and raw food diet. I know i can easily stick to this because after 2 months of binging my body is craving real food again. The thought of junk food makes me sick now and the only thing that sounds good to me right now is a nice cool mango lol. But i have a few questions...

1) For weight loss purposes, should my focus be mostly vegetables and greens? i LOVE fruit, and obviously won't be avoiding it, but should i limit it any way? Or should i eat as much fruit as i desire?

2) I know to limit fats, and the only fat i intend on having is a LITTLE bit of tahini mixed with lemon for salad dressing. And maybe occasionally 1/2 a small avocado or a handful of nuts

3) How long did it take you guys to lose the weight? And since i put on my weight quickly, will i be able to lose it faster? (as opposed to having been overweight all my life)

I know i shouldn't be focused on the weight, but you have to understand that i've NEVER been this overweight. I dont fit into any of my clothes, my face looks swollen, i've broken out (ive never had acne before) and just feel like a swollen up balloon. And to make it worse my older sister has noticed my weight gain and keeps verbally abusing me about it. Calling me fat & lazy and leaving mean notes around the house saying things like "you disgust me". I think she is 'helping' me because she thinks if shes mean about it ill get healthy again? I dont know. But i'm also concerned about healing my body because i know i've done so much damage to it in the past with dieting and eating disorders.

[Raw Angel Mom]

I read your story, and i want to say that i hear you. You may want to check your adrenal. If you have felt so overwhelmed, it would be a major caused of gaining weight. Good news, by doing raw, you will relieve your body from an important stress (digestion). Brendon Brazer explain it. He is a tri-athlon and vegan. Now that you are focusing on your health, everything will fall into place. Find a way to release the day to day stress for a better success of weight lost. Yoga or nature walk etc.... just go with what you like.

Now to answer to your questions:

1) For weight loss purposes, should my focus be mostly vegetables and greens? i LOVE fruit, and obviously won't be avoiding it, but should i limit it any way? Or should i eat as much fruit as i desire?


There is a women that ate tone of fruits per day and she is very slim. Eat your fruit, especially the semi-acid one. You need them to start to repair your internal organ, gland and get your immune going.

If i was you, i would do green smoothie or green juice to restore your ph level and mineralize your body. You can mix fruit with greens but don't mix them with anything else. I normally have my fruits in the morning. Semi acid fruits, could be grape, citrus, apple, grape, berries, etc.... (choose them ripe as much as possible).

In your smoothie, try to use fresh herbs such parsley, cilantro, dandelion etc.... they are so wonderful for tissus rejuvenation and cleansing your organ such kidney/liver.

2) I know to limit fats, and the only fat i intend on having is a LITTLE bit of tahini mixed with lemon for salad dressing. And maybe occasionally 1/2 a small avocado or a handful of nuts

If you focus on detoxing, you want to limit any source of fat. Keep in mind that you do need the good fat in order to lose the bad one. When i went back to raw vegan food, i ate as much nuts or fat that i wanted and i went underweight by 7 months. I was very skinny but i am back. There is a tendency from some expert of not recommending too much fat in the beginning only to give a chance to your body to heal. Fat, tend to over taxed your kidney. On the other hand, you want to be successful with raw vegan so you will need to give yourself permission to eat your nut/seeds/avocado/coconut etc.... The mind is the one that will make you fail, if you don't feel satisfy, you will get back to your old way. Watch Alissa's dvd, it is so well done.


3) How long did it take you guys to lose the weight? And since i put on my weight quickly, will i be able to lose it faster? (as opposed to having been overweight all my life)

Everyone are different, some it goes very fast, some it takes time. Our body will fix what is important first and losing weight is the side effect. I was about 150lb and i went down to 103lb. I think that my body wanted to get ride of the bad fat before building a healthy one. I never went raw to lose weight but to have energy.

[robh]

snicklefritz, welcome to raw.

When I think about weight loss, I think about reducing caloric intake and optionally increasing caloric needs. Be it fats or carbs, weight loss is achieved when your body receives fewer calories than it needs to maintain your current weight.

If I were in your position, I would start out by doing a deep detox via a juice fast. Not only would a juice fast detoxify your body quickly but it would enable you to shed the unwanted pounds. A typical juice fast goes for 30 days.

After the juice fast, I would transition a diet of whole, raw foods. If I still required further weight loss, I would count my calories, reduce them and finally increase my caloric needs by exercising.

Finally, this is all my opinion and what I would do in your position. Everyone, after all, is different and what I would do may not be best for you. Keep that in mind.

I hope this feedback helps.

[PansyLo]

I think everyone has given good food advice. :) A detox fast would be good for healing your body and will probably lose you some pounds!
If you're doing a juice fast you'll probably want an electric juicer and a manual juicer (you can get these fairly cheap, my juicer works just fine and it only cost me £20 odd quid. There are lots of recipes in the fasting thread, plus you can join a thread there to get advice and support through your detox month (or however long you choose to do it)!

As a recovered anorexic I strongly advice that you try and deal with what might have caused you to become depressed and develop an eating disorder. Relapse is so common, especially within the first year of recovery. Get a strong support system and get some books that relate to your problems or even just read some online blogs. There's lots of them out there on recovering from EDs and body positivity and finding a good mental balance.

You may want to have a mental detox of sorts, write about what's bothering you and mediate etc. Go to a yoga/tai chi class that includes relaxation.

I don't know how the health system works where you are but it's really worth looking into seeing a councilor just to support and advise you and stop you slipping up.

If you want any advice that I've not mentioned on ED recovery feel free to ask anything!!

People often say that recovery is impossible but I had quite severe anorexia and I've recovered well!