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In January after doing lots of research I went raw and stayed raw for about ten days after caving into cravings.
A week later I went raw again and stayed raw for over two weeks.
I was 100% raw both times.
I’d like to go raw again, but both times I did go raw I didn’t feel any of the benifits everyone else talks about.
I definitley felt the detox, and I felt a bit healthier, but besides that I noticed no difference in my skin [ance…] my weight, or my mood…and I still had trouble sleeping and getting up from bed.
I might not have been eating correctly…this is an outline of what I would generally eat each day:
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raw Pecans, Bannanas, Green snapeas, Red peppers, Broccoli, Mushrooms, Nectarenes, Carrots…lots of water and Lara Bars.
Could this possibly an issue of what I was eating?
And if so, how should I balance out my diet / should I eat different foods each day- different from the day before?
Is there any other possible reason for this?
And another random question: I have been Vegan for over a year and a half now, and I just got blood test results back saying I have high cholesterol.
Could that be from salt alone?
Sorry for all the questions!
Thank you for all your help :]
Comments
I think that 2 weeks is a short time to feel all the benefits of being raw! For certain people it may be enough.but for others maybe a bit more time is needed for that. As you mentioned you started to feel a bit of difference, so keep eating raw and you will experience the benefits!
The foods you have eaten don’t seem to be bad at all, but I think you should include more greens in your diet such as spinach, dandelion or kale. I also recommend you to eat a lot of apples, because the pectin in them helps to reduce cholesterol. I eat a lot of sprouts as well and maybe you should consider eating them too, they are full of nutrients.
I think variety is also important, so try to eat other foods you havent eaten for a while, to keep yourself more keen on raw foods, if you eat the same each day you may get bored with it and crave cooked food.
High cholesterol depends on what you ate before, if you ate margarine, cheese, nutella and other processed foods, these are full of hydrogenated fats (trans fatty acids), which increase cholosterol. A lot of salt may me a factor too, but I don’t think that salt alone can make a high cholosterol.
i definitely recommend incorporating greens—as much as you can! they will make a huge difference in your raw experience. i have a green juice and a green smoothie everyday and i consider them the most important things i consume each day. i also would be gentler with yourself—going 100% raw all at once is very challenging even for the most determined and committed. Also many people’s bodies can’t handle the detox. If the goal is to go raw and stay raw, my advice is to approach it more slowly. I do think consuming greens will really help you, especially with the cravings. Also lara bars are not the best combintation (dates and nuts is totally forbidden in food combining circles) and lara bars aren’t truly raw anyways even the ones that say 100% raw (check out the faq on their site). i would replace your lara bars with good quality raw fats—organic avocados, raw nuts/seeds, cold-pressed olive oil—when you need fat. Hope that helps!
I agree with kellygoneraw, go raw slowly. I also tried to go 100%, but after 2 weeks I went back to my diet, which was still about 85 percent. Than for the second time I tried to work it up, and it seems to work better. I also eat more greens now, which I think definitely helps.
Make sure that you are eating a wide variety of raw veg, including greens, fruits, nuts and seeds. Also incorporate healthy oild such as extra virgin coconut oil and olive oil. Avocados are a good source of healthy dietary fats as well. This is not a way of eating if you are a picky eater in the least. You need to be open to just about everything!
I strongly suggest getting a good book on the subject, and staying on raw for at least a month. Detox is not when you feel your absolute best. Give it time, be patient and you will see the results.
I have only heard that salt is the culprit in cases of high blood pressure.
Thank you everyone. :]
kellygoneraw: Just wondering, what do you mean by ‘dates and nuts is totally forbidden in food combining circles’? Why is that?
And is completely whole food that isn’t dehydrated is more raw than food that is?
Also, if something has been ‘flash pasterized’ does that mean it’s not raw?
Does it take out some of the nutrients?
Any pasteurization is not raw. It’s pretty dead, actually. Avoid it if you can!
Hi! So some people do food combining—I think people wonder about this more after they go raw because their stomachs become very sensitive. Mine definitely did. If you google a food combining chart, you will see that certain foods are not meant to go together in the sense that the combination may cause gastrointestinal distress and certainly don’t exit your body quickly. I don’t really know the chemical reasoning why some foods go well together and some don’t, although I think when you look at a chart and then start imagining certain combinations, it does make sense. Anyway I think one of the big no-no’s is not to combine dried fruits and nuts or really any fruits with fats—fruits are meant to be eaten alone b/c they ferment in your stomach if eaten with something else. The one fruit you should always always eat alone according to food combinists is melon and apparently you shouldn’t combine more than 3 fruits at a time. Anyway it gets kind of crazy but I think it’s worth looking at just to understand what is ideal for your body to process and what isn’t.
With regards to lara bars, they aren’t truly raw anyway so it would be more ideal just to eat something else.
With regards to dehydrated v. not dehydrated…I don’t dehydrate simply b/c we haven’t made the time to bring our dehydrator home from my wife’s work. (It’s been there for at least two months!) But when we do bring it home, I don’t plan to rely on it if that makes sense. I think a dehydrator is totally important for warming things up and for making crackers/chips that are raw, etc. But I have also read about people who make dehydrated items too much a part of their diet and then feel like they are missing something or just don’t feel healthy/feel too heavy. I think the same thing happens to people whose diet majority is nuts and seeds. So technically, a dehydrated food is no more or less raw than like an apple. But I think an apple is probably more ideal to eat than a dehydrated apple.
Blue Butterfly!!
If I could offer you one piece of advice for the rest of your life, I would tell you this:
Eat greens! I don’t mean just green food. Eat TONS of leafy greens! If you can, get your hands on Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko. I had the HONOR of meeting her in person, she gave me this book, and taking her advice my raw experience has changed dramatically!!!
This is a must!!!
i COMPLETELY agree with meganthevegan. GREENS ARE EVERYTHING!!