Thursday, June 21, 2007

New Blog!

I know I haven't posted lately. I'll try to post soon. But as far as weight control goes, I may be posting more on my new blog, which is all about my experiences with raw food. I'm doing great, I love it, so come on over and check it out!

The Raw Revealing of the New Me

Sunday, June 03, 2007

How I'm Making the Transition to Raw Foods


Being someone who doesn't really like to cook much (quite frankly, because I'm too lazy) I knew the transition to raw foods would be a challenge. I already liked salads and fruit, but there weren't a lot of veggies I liked raw. At least that's what I thought. I certainly wasn't looking forward to all the chopping and peeling. I'm just not a gourmet--all these complicated-sounding recipes intimidated me.

I knew I needed a plan. The easiest thing to start out with, in my thinking, was what I was used to. Later, I would have to get more creative to avoid boredom with my food, but I kept things simple to start. For breakfast, I usually have fruit. I may grab a banana to tide me over until the kids are eating their breakfast. Then I will sit down with something else, maybe an apple and a pear. I buy organic when I can afford it, so then I will just wash it and eat it with the peel on...good fiber. I may have some more fruit later for a snack--perhaps strawberries and cut fresh pineapple.

For lunch I would have a salad with lots of veggies--onions, red pepper, cucumbers, jicama. I still don't make my own raw dressing--for now I'm just using ranch. I usually put some shredded cheddar on top, but I'm trying to phase that out now. At dinner, I usually ate hummus and whole wheat crackers or egg salad in a pita (these are not raw, but I was eating only 70% raw at first) with some veggies, and a salad and salad veggies on the side. Later, when my husband came home from his second shift job, I would have a big salad, and maybe a little fruit later on before bed. Ironically, I've found my blood sugar in the morning tends to be lower if I eat a little fruit before bed.

All these meals are very good, and easy to make. The peeling and chopping can take a lot of time, especially if you don't have a food processor for the chopping, but I found a short cut. I do watch tv (I'm always giving it up then going back to it) so one night I sat down with a tray table i front of me, and a pile of veggies and containers. I spent a few hours slowly peeling and chopping while I watched tv. When I was done, I had a bunch of little containers full of pre-chopped fruit and vegetables. I then put the containers into rectangular plastic baskets to go into the fridge, one for veggies and one for fruits. This is much neater than a pile of produce that rolls off the shelf and bruises on the floor everytime you open the fridge. Plus produce won't get "lost" in the back, and be wasted. Now, whenever I make a salad, I pull out the lettuce and dressing, and the basket of veggies, and it is sooo quick and easy to make a salad now.

A lot of fruit will turn brown if peeled ahead of time. You could toss is with a little lemon juice if you wanted to avoid the browning, or only chop one day's worth, and eat it soon. I like to peel an apple and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Then I just unwrap it and eat it the next day. There is very little color change. One day I cut up a bunch of fruit, tossed it in a bowl with some soaked walnuts, and mixed it with a little bit of vanilla yogurt (yogurt is not part of an all-raw diet). Then I had fruit salad for two days. It was so nice to see the delicious fruit salad waiting for me the next morning. It wasn't as fresh the second day, but still good.

When I was eating egg salad, I boiled and peeled a bunch of eggs, and kept them in a plastic container to keep them from getting dry. When I needed egg salad, I took out one or two and made it quickly, stuffing it into whole wheat, whole grain pitas with some salad veggies. I usually used one egg per pita half, but you may need more for a larger pita. I found myself wanting to eat two or three pita halves, so I stopped making this. That is the problem with not going 100% raw...it's like giving up chocolate MOST of the time...sooner or later you're going to slide down that "slippery slope" into no-no land, and eat too much. I've heard a lot of people ended up going 100% raw just because they couldn't stop the eventual binging on cooked foods when they were only partly raw. They constantly fell off the wagon.

Right now, I almost never feel tempted by foods. I haven't had fast food, diet soda, or chocolate in two weeks. For me, that is a miracle. Sometimes I see a food in the store and think "that would be nice to have", but it isn't a craving. The only craving I had was the day I was having a bit of detox, and that was very mild...and probably because I was hungry.

The first day was the hardest, and it wasn't that hard at all. I just felt a mild hunger all day, just a kind of "hey, I have some room in my stomach that I need to fill" feeling. I was adjusting to not having that over-full feeling you get from overeating cooked food. After a day or two of stuffing myself full of as much raw food as I wanted to eat, I adjusted. You really can't overeat raw food. You might have too many calories if you eat a lot of nuts or avocados on a regular basis--it varies from person to person. But generally, you're not going to get fat. Most people find their natural weight on this diet...some lose, and some even gain, because they were too thin to begin with. I look forward to finding my natural weight...I just hope I don't have too much sagging skin when I get there!

I'm really enjoying this way of eating. I love fruit, and salads are great. Now that I'm used to eating raw, it's time to start experimenting with more complicated recipes. My husband and children are starting to eat raw. And despite the fact that over the last year or so my children have become a bit picky, they are really adjusting to the new foods. I started them out with a lot of fruit in the mornings and some with other meals. Now I'm moving them into salads and veggies, and they (except my picky one year old) are doing great. My husband, after seeing my transformation, is becoming interested, especially since I haven't pressured him, and told him he doesn't have to become vegan or go 100% if he doesn't want to.

This has been surprisingly easy for me so far, and I'm looking forward to evolving into a healthy person! I'm on my way already!

A Raw Family


Wow, that last post was long! Sorry about that. So much to say, so little space.

I'm planning this week to phase my family into raw food. My husband is starting to read about it and show interest. So far the kids are enjoying their slow transition. I don't know if I'll go 100% with the kids, or not. I've read good things about kids on raw who have never gotten sick. If you know what you are doing, it is easy to make sure they get enough fat, calories and protein. I've found the myth that you have to have meat to get enough protein. Pound for pound, nuts have way more protein than meat. Many veggies do too. I'm going to see how the kids do on high raw, and what my husband thinks about going 100% raw, before I consider having them go all-raw.

Right now I'm just doing research for recipes and ideas as I become more and more raw. I wanted to post a few links and other info I have found helpful.

I Beat Obesity - as mentioned before, great inspiration. She has a raw bootcamp, but she charges for it, and it's too expensive for me.

Raw Food Talk - also previously mentioned, it is Alissa Cohen's raw forum, and there are links to her other sites. I haven't read her book yet, but it comes highly recommended by many people

Raw Family - a whole family that went raw, and experienced weight loss and healing from several illnesses. Their book "12 Steps to Raw Foods" is a good one--you'll just have to ignore some of the more...not sure how to say this..."liberal/hippy-ish" jargon if you're not into that. But it's a really good intro to raw and how to defeat your cooked food addictions. Their books "Raw Family" and "Green for Life" are also good, from what I've heard.

Raw Times - click on the Recipes link at the top

The Sunny Kitchen - a blog with really good recipes...this link goes straight to the All Things Chocolate post, which is great, but the whole blog is good

The Raw Table - some interesting-sounding recipes

The Raw Food Gourmet - some of these sounded good, especially the carrot "cake"

Some of the recipes you read or see pictures of may sound unusual at first, but remember you are used to eating food cooked down to a sodden mess and then spiced like crazy to make it taste better (I now find cooked food very bland, after only two weeks). Many foods used in raw cooking sound new and weird, but as your palate adjusts, you will find it easier to try and like new foods. In my next post, I'll tell you how I am making the transition to raw foods in an easy and tasty way.

Detox, and also...Why I Will Never Go Off Raw


The above pictures are from Carlene's website, I Beat Obesity . She lost 136 pounds in 9 months! She was my inspiration for starting raw. I was so impressed with how fast she lost the weight, and the health benefits she, and others, described, that I couldn't help but try it! Even though losing weight is a big motivator for me, the reason I will stay with this lifestyle is how I FEEL.

If you read my last post , you saw my results after two weeks on this diet. They are AMAZING! The best results are that I have had a significant reduction in pain and fatigue, and best of all, my depression is GONE!!! For that reason alone, it would be worth staying on this diet, even if it was hard. Which, thanks be to God, it has not been, so far. It's been remarkably easy.

The reason I know I will stay on this diet is because I had a "relapse" of sorts. No, I didn't fall off the raw bandwagon, but I experienced what I think was a day of detoxing. Detox is something you may experience whenever you begin a more healthy eating regimen than you previously had. Even on Atkins, you'll experience this to some degree, getting the "induction flu". If you've ever fasted, you probably experienced detox, as the toxins were leaving your body. Detox varies from person to person. Some people experience mild symptoms, some more severe. It depends on the toxicity levels in your body, and how long you have been polluting it. Often, you can experience old illnesses and pains from your past. This is all the crud stored in your body (probably from you suppressing it with medicines) making its way out. But detox is temporary, and it is good...it means your body is working properly, and all the disease and toxins in your body are leaving it. If you go 100% raw, you WILL detox, usually fairly soon, and it will probably be over quicker than if you were just high raw.

Detox is unpleasant, but necessary. Do not let this turn you back to cooked foods. It will be over, and you will feel great. From what I can gather, it can last a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with some occasional short bouts of detox over your first two years raw. The best way to get these bouts of detox over quicker is to go on a water or juice fast for a couple of days. Fasting is cleansing, and raw fruit juices are very cleansing. I've heard that after you detox, you will feel better than you ever have.

I was told I probably shouldn't go all raw until after the baby is born, at least. Some suggested I wait til I'm done nursing...ha ha ha! As you may know, if you read my other blog, I'm pretty much ALWAYS nursing or pregnant....or nursing AND pregnant, lol. The reason they say not to go 100% raw while pregnant is because detoxing while pregnant would probably be VERY uncomfortable. Because...well, you're pregnant, so you're probably already uncomfortable! You can be 100% raw and be pregnant or nursing, as many raw moms of healthy raw babies will tell you. But they were raw before getting pregnant, so they'd already been through detox. So they say stay around 90%, and I should be fine, which is what I am doing now.

But, I digress...back to my day of detox. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but Friday night I had problems getting to sleep, something I hadn't experienced since going raw. I got 4 hours of sleep, then had to do a round of errands Saturday morning. I didn't eat enough before I left, but I brought 2 raw energy bars with me (they're made of ground dehydrated fruits, nuts, and some other ingredients) but it didn't end up being enough. I was soooo tired, even before I started getting hungry. I was too tired and in too much of a hurry to try to find somewhere to get fruit or a salad. My brain was in such a fog, I couldn't even figure out where to go (I could have gotten a plain salad at McDonald's, duh). Then my back started to get sore. I didn't think I'd make it through Target, and at Sam's Club, I had to use one of the scooters.

I got really sleepy driving home, and by the time I got home, I felt irritable and weepy, and was feeling a little tempted to eat cooked food. I wondered if it was a combination of not getting enough sleep or enough food. I ended up going to bed, and having the WORST back pain ever. It was so bad, and felt so different, I worried I could be going into labor (I'm always getting paranoid about that possibility). More than anything, I wanted to take some Tylenol. But in the back of my mind, I thought "what if I'm detoxing?" If I was, and took Tylenol, my body would probably stop detoxing and start working to eliminate the Tylenol from my body. I'd feel better, but I wouldn't GET better, not really. So I suffered through it, and after an hour I fell asleep. Two hours later I woke up and felt much better, and an hour or so after that, I felt normal. My NEW normal...not tired, not in pain, and happy. It was so strange.

Today I felt great. I had a feeling that I might weigh a pound less today, even though my weight loss has stalled (which is good, since I'm pregnant). Low and behold, after a visit to the bathroom, I had lost a total of THREE POUNDS overnight! I really think it has to do with my body getting rid of some bad stuff. I've felt great all day.

In case anyone is concerned at my weight loss, don't be. Most of the ten or so pounds I've lost so far was probably water--before the diet I couldn't get my wedding ring off anymore. Now I can, and my face is noticeably thinner. My perinatologist isn't concerned. I expect I won't lose much more, and if I do, I'll gain it back. I'm thinking I'll probably bounce around weight-wise, and probably end up around 290 when I have the baby. Even if I only gain a few pounds, I won't be worried. They're already estimating the baby is 3.3 pounds according to ultrasound (they're usually right with my babies), so I don't think I need to gain more than five pounds more, ten at most.

But my lesson from my "mini-detox" is this: I don't want to go back to being that kind of person. That's all I could think while I lay in bed, crying from the pain. I CANNOT live like that again. I cannot go back to the depression, the anxiety, the crying, the pain, the fatigue...I can't do it anymore. Rather than drive me away from raw, my little detox episode made me more dedicated than ever. How on earth did I function with all that pain and emotional turmoil?

To me, eating this way is the most natural thing in the world. What did Adam and Eve eat in the Garden of Eden? Fruit from the trees! There was no mention of campfires and pots of oatmeal or pans of cooked chicken. I'm not saying eating meat is wrong, I'm just saying that the bulk of our food, in my opinion, was meant to come from God's natural creations, eaten straight from the tree or vine. I really feel that I am in tune with my body, and eating the way God intended, and I've never felt that way before.

With God's help, I truly hope that I will eat this way for the rest of my life. Even if I never lost a pound, I would eat this way, just to feel like my old self again--but better!

RAW RESULTS !

Two weeks have passed since I started my raw food lifestyle. I have refrained from posting about it, because I wanted to make sure I made it past the first week. On low carb diets, the first week was easy, and after that it got harder. But on raw, it's still just as easy. Let me start with the fun stuff: results!

In two weeks I have:
  • lost 10.2 pounds (most of it the first week)
  • eliminated my insomnia
  • gotten deeper sleep every night
  • almost eliminated the need for naps, even on only 6 hours of sleep
  • virtually eliminated my depression
  • eliminated my anxiety
  • become more patient with my children, and I'm yelling a LOT less
  • suddenly become happier, even giggly on occasion
  • gotten softer skin
  • significantly reduced pain from some kind of groin muscle that was very painful
  • stopped needing to use the scooters at Walmart (boy was that embarrassing!)
  • eliminated the stiffness I got whenever I sat or laid down for too long
  • significantly reduced my back pain
  • increased my energy ten-fold
  • stopped getting super-sleepy when driving
  • virtually eliminated my cravings for carbs, soda, fast food, and yes, even CHOCOLATE!
  • had some improvement in my breathing while in bed
  • had a big increase in libido (enough said)
I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can think of. Really, that's enough, isn't it?! Just the elimination of the depression and the increase in energy is enough to have me thrilled. I feel sooooo much better. I could see most of these changes in the first 48 hours. It was amazing. I feel like a different person!

Now, onto the less exciting information. Keep in mind I'm a newbie and this information is what I have gathered on my own...I may not get everything exactly right. Also, there are some variations in what each raw foodist believes is the right way to eat.

What is raw food? Raw food is any fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, or grains that have been prepared without heating of any kind over about 105-118 degrees farenheit. Basically, nothing is cooked, although sometimes it may be warmed, or dehydrated (at 105 degrees or less). Most raw foodists are also vegans (meaning they don't eat any meat, fish, or dairy products). Anyone who is 100% raw is almost always vegan. A lot of people only eat 80-90% raw: this is considered "high raw". Some eat 50%-80%. These people may eat some meat or dairy, but a lot don't.

Usually the people eating a lower percentage of raw are trying to eat whole foods when they do eat cooked food...meaning their cooked food may be cooked whole grains and legumes (possibly soaked or sprouted first, a la "Nourishing Traditions" style), and possibly some all natural meat and/or raw dairy products. If you eat at least 50% raw (and absolutely everyone should do at least that much) you will see improvement in your health, and probably your weight. On high raw, you will definitely feel much better, and on 100% raw, you will feel amazing.

What do you eat if you are all raw? Many people have fruit or fruit smoothies for breakfast, fruit or a salad for lunch, and usually a more elaborate raw vegan meal for dinner. To drink, they'll make fresh raw juices from fruits and/or veggies, nut milk, or water. They usually don't use soymilk, from what I've read, because of all the health concerns lately with soy.

I had planned to start out 50-60% raw, but quickly got to 70-80%. Lately, I have been more like 90%, as I have cut back on the whole wheat crackers and hummus, and the egg salad pitas I had been having once a day. Now, usually the only non-raw food I have is ranch dressing, cheddar cheese sprinkled on my salads (trying to phase this out), and every few days 2-3 ounces of cooked chicken breast or fish. I've chosen not to go 100% yet, because several people have suggested it wouldn't be a good idea to go through "detox" while pregnant--I'll explain more about that in my next post.

The great thing about raw is you can eat as much as you want, and you can still eat this way while you are pregnant or nursing, and still have a healthy baby. I've met several people online who are all raw, and pregnant or nursing (they were already raw before, and had already been through detox). Some people who are wanting to lose weight have to be careful how much avocado or nuts they eat (high in fat and calories), but not everyone does.

This way of eating may sound crazy to those who are addicted to cooked foods, particularly dairy and meat. You don't have to give up dairy and meat, you can still eat some if you want, just not as much, and try to buy organic/all natural, and prepare it properly. However, you will probably eventually start cutting back on it, once you read about the good effects of eliminating it from your diet. If nothing else, do some reading, and start out 50% raw. I know you'll feel the difference fairly quickly. Try it for a week or two...what have you got to lose?