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has anyone lost weight on this diet

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  • SamiliciousSamilicious Raw Newbie

    wow angie. Thank YOU for sharing! I can relate so much to you because I have also experience how much emotions causes me to gain weight. Last year when I was still vegan but learned about raw foods so I was incorperating green smoothies into my diet, evn though I had sooooo much energy that I began to run every morning, I still kept gaining weight. And soon, I realized I couldn’t zip up one of my jeans!!!!!! (The others were really tight). But at the same time, I was extremely stressed out and in a really bad situation (I have divorced parents, living with dad, evil step-mother, NEEDED my mom, etc—by the way I’m back and happier with my dad). It was so weird though, at the time. I was so frustrated thinking, what am I doing wrong? Oh, and I think another factor was that I wasn’t sleeping enough.
    Like you angie, I still have some work to do because I am dealing with trauma and disappointment left from my biological mom. But I lost enough weight to fit into my jeans again, but since I still have some stress to deal with, my body is ‘showing’ me that my hanging on to that thin layer above my abdominals. lol. Raw foods has helped alot. It helps with feeling much happier and energetic, especially when I make a recipe that turns out to taste good! (rarely).
    Sorry for blabbing on, but another thing I noticed is that when I’m very angry and shouting all over the place turning into the incredible hulk (I live with 3 little kids. 3= a jungle), I notice that I get sooooo cold afterwards, particularly my hands and feet. Really cold. And I know its because of the stress. Or yelling. I think its the yelling. Meaning that it slows my metabolism and maybe this is what contributes to weight gain. I’ll post another forum about this but in general, I’m saying that from my experience, psychological issues is the #1 factor to gain weight, weakened immune system, and other health problems. Man, I really gotta control myself! Please don’t think I’m a mean and messed up person. I’m MUCH MUCH better now, and I find that more sunshine has helped too.

  • This is so great to hear all open up about their weight pain. I feel the same way. I’m sometimes angry too. Maybe when I can’t fit into any thing and know I just have to stick to my Raw diet. Being a chef kills me through the holiday’s and winter. It’s over now!!! 100% Raw yesturday and already feeling better. Spring has moved me into new growth and it’s not my weight. Spring cleaning the prefect way to look at ways the change your body and mind. Let the living foods bring you life.KJ

  • raven…i also have a hard time losing weight. one thing that worked for me a few years ago was a drink called rejuvalac. it’s made with sprouted winter wheat berries. i got the recipe from ann wigmores book. it takes about 2 days to make and tastes like lemonade. it goes bad quick so keep in in the refridg. it is loaded with enzymes and when i drank it 2 times a day the weight just melted off! i need to start making it again. you can do a search for it to find the recipe. i lost it so i’ll have to search for it again mysrelf.

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    I have lost about 10 pounds only. I would like to lose 20 more! I will just keep plugging away at it. I think it just takes time.

    Hmmm, rejuvelac eh? Maybe I will try it!

  • i’ve lost about 10 pounds in the first month. i find that when i exercise it comes off much more than when i don’t. and if i am at home all day, i snack all day, which i don’t need. when i go to work, i pack a lunch and go to the gym during my lunch hour, which works great!

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    I’ve lost well over 30 pounds and have soooo much more to go. But my acid reflux disease is gone!

  • Yes, I have lost weight while raw, but not due to a diet—due to a change in lifestyle and attitude about food. In the last 10-1/2 months, I am down 61 pounds. I am basically 100% raw, and I am guilt-free when I choose to eat healthy cooked vegan foods perhaps once a week. I do a lot of biking now as my fun exercise. I also use my infra-red sauna several times a week. I am much more in tune with my body and eat when I need to. I drink several green smoothies a day and usually have a huge bowl of greens from my garden sometime in the middle of the day. The shift in attitude is about not needing to think about food and plan menus as I did when I was baking bread, cooking brown rice and beans, and making simmered soup on the woodstove. With raw, everything is much more immediate and simple. And it feels just wonderful.

  • Oh Yes!!!! And then some! I;ve lost almost 100 lbs! You can check out my before and after pics on my “My Story” page on my website www.rawhealing.com

    Blessings!

    Audrey

  • SamiliciousSamilicious Raw Newbie

    Wow, good for you guys! And chilove, you look great! I bet you all look great after going raw!!!
    Cheers! Keep it up!

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    I lost 10 lbs. in the first two weeks to my great surprise, but weight was never my problem, I was small but way out of shape, no desire to exercise whatsoever – always tired, no stamina, no muscle. As my diet improved I suddenly had the desire and energy to workout, which is now a nightly thing. This has been the greatest life change for me.

  • I’ve lost maybe 10 pounds. It just fell off and I’m not even 100% raw. I do walk to work everyday (about 3 miles) and lug produce up five flights of stairs:) but it’s just the eating of the greens and fruits that really just made it go away. Right now I’m not eating any nuts or seeds, but I know I will eat more as I transition to being more raw. (I’m eating raw until dinner). Basically I have a green lemonade, fruit, green smoothie, avocado until dinner and then I eat a cooked vegan meal and have some raw cheese—although less and less (and obviously something I plan to cut out completely at some point). Anyway I too had lots of food issues (never any formal ones) but you know the kind all women (and many men) do to some extent. It is so refreshing to not count calories or grams of this or that. And to just feel good. I feel so peaceful and so alive. It’s just the greatest way to eat. And live!

  • Oh yeah, I’d like to add too that I don’t plan to include that many nuts and seeds as I get closer to 100%. It seems that too many of those and too many dehydrated foods aren’t good for you. I really like my approach of greens and fruits being the vast majority of my diet. It just makes me feel the best.

  • To lose weight I would seriously think about taking nuts out of your diet. I believe that nuts and seeds aren’t good for our bodies. My reasoning is because our bodies can’t properly digest them and because they’re never really raw anymore. When I went from vegan to raw, I gained weight, It took me eliminating nuts and seeds from my diet to lose that weight. Energy has never been an issue for me when cutting them out of my life. As a matter of fact, nuts slow me down and make me feel horrible. I have never felt better, and my endurance at the gym is incredible! But as mentioned before everybody’s body reacts different to different foods, so best of luck finding what truly works for you. :)

    Social- I’m with you on the grains too, as a matter of fact I just ordered that book about a week ago.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Why do people say we can’t digest nuts & seeds? Doesn’t make sense to me, other than that a lot of nuts aren’t raw anymore. Is it in a book somewhere?

  • Maybe it’s only certain people, but I can not digest nuts and they sure do tack on extra pounds for me. I see a colon hydrotherapist once a month and she’s the one who told me that humans can not digest nuts. When I eat them they screw with my bowel movements and of corse being curious I’m going to look at them. Nuts come out undigested in my stools. So that’s why I say we can’t digest them.

  • I lost about 20 pounds in the first 3 months of going back to High Raw. I’d guess I need to drop about 10 lbs more to be at my ideal body size, though I’m pretty happy right where I am. I’m just sticking to High Raw…eating mostly on the lighter side, instead of lots of heavy meals. I’ll see where my body takes me.

  • ambergirlambergirl Raw Newbie

    i don’t think i have lost weight on this diet, and quite honestly, it is discouraging me. I try not to think about it. I work out a TON, and i am seeing some improvements on my backside… i guess i’m just impatient, and I need to understand that this is not hollywood, and i don’t come with special lighting and photoshoped imagry in real life.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    ambergirl, in your pic you look like you don’t need to lose weight. My personal belief is that the focus on losing weight is wrong. I believe if we focus on what is best to bring our bodies to optimum health ( & that isn’t necessarily the same thing for everyone), our bodies will settle into a natural, healthy balance. Maybe not everyone is optimally healthy at the same weight, either, even if they are the same height.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    chakra essence – thanks for the info. :)

  • snoopy99snoopy99 Raw Newbie

    It was great reading all of your posts. I just started the raw lifestyle and felt great the first week. The second week wasn’t so good. I have issues on emotional eating. I guess here i go on my rant. I don’t like my corporate cubicle job, I want a career that is more enhancing, I live in a city away from my boyfriend, and I just dont’ enjoy the little things anymore. I feel lost. I have gained weight through my emotional process and am hoping that without therapy i can tackle these issues.

    I love eating beans, nuts, fruits and veggies, thats when i thought this would be a great way for me to focus less on baked goods and a juicy steak and on things that make me feel good. My first week was good, I was super excited in getting new books and researching on the internet. THe second week came along, and bam..my mom made ribs for dinner..i couldn’t pass up, wrong food combinations happened, i went crazy over all of the nuts i had in my cabinets…man…i definitely didn’t lose weight, and know that i have gained weight.

    I know this is more of an emotional issue, but how do you go raw without eating nuts? sometimes I just miss meat…not really though, i miss having dinners with my family. They think that I am crazy doing this raw lifestyle. I have had fun making new recipes and trying out new ones. I don’t like salad dressings…i guess i haven’t found the right one…i guess i am lost and in need of support.

    I have been looking into some raw food coaches or some consultant, but that costs money, and i don’t have a lot to spend. But i have been really interested in going to culinary school…specifically raw culinary..but unsure whether to tackle Living Light or the Tree of Life Programs…

    Also thinkign about moving to Maui, but unsure of any resources that are out there…i guess i am just shooting out to anyone to help.

    sorry for the ranting!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    snoopy99 – No need to be sorry! I understand about emotional issues related to food. When I first started eating high raw, I cooked a pizza for my son about 2 weeks into it. I was sort of okay without the pizza, until my son was excitedly saying, “Come on, Mom, come & eat with me!” I had to leave the room & started to cry. It took a lot of motivation & willpower, especially to do it with my son wanting to share food, & because I had always thought of pizza as a “party” thing, or happy times shared with other people eating pizza! I am reading Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens, and he talks about how people have different constitutions and not everyone does equally well on the exact same diet, even though he says that raw vegan is best for everyone. He recommends/allows nuts & seeds – more for some people than others, but the book is ringing true for me, and I feel that a lot of the questions I have had or reasons I haven’t had total healing yet are answered in his book. If it were me, I would do the Tree of Life culinary program because Dr. Cousens’s approach feels the most right of anything I have seen, including Living Light (Cherie Soria, right?). It is not me, though, so I just encourage you to do what feels the most right to you. Dr. Cousens also talks about different foods for different constitutions as a starting place for individualizing your diet. It helped me a lot with understanding why I have had a hard time eating a lot of salads and gave me ideas of foods/combinations that sound more satisfying to me. Good luck!

  • I don’t eat any nuts but maybe because I’ve never been a huge nut fan and raw nuts just don’t really taste like much to me. I would think about what you are craving and try to replace it. Like nuts means fat. Maybe switch in avocados? You could make guacamole. I also would focus on not doing everything all at once. Maybe try doing raw for one meal a day for several weeks and see how you feel. I think people feel like they have “failed” if they can’t do 100% all at once, but that’s a huge challenge for pretty much anyone who isn’t coming to eating this way at least being a vegan/almost vegan—and it’s still a challenge! But I think you hit the nail on the head with regards to emotional eating. I mean I think a lot of the reason people create these amazing raw creations is at least in part of emotional eating—we still want the same things, we just want them raw. And really anyone who wasn’t brought up raw has emotions linked to food. Cravings though really can be helped by green smoothies—I recommend one a day. Just start slow and take one day at a time. The goal is just to feel better and enjoy this lifestyle! It shouldn’t be stressful and it shouldn’t feel deprivational—if so, you are going too fast.

  • RawKarenRawKaren Raw Newbie

    I agree with Kellygoneraw about taking it slowly and having green smoothies. However I do eat nuts, but I make sure I don’t OD on them. For the food I take to work, I take 6 or 7 almonds. It doesnt sound alot, but if you need to take the edge off things, it gives you enough. The other things that helped me transition were miso soup (where you can just add the veggies into the bowl and pour boiling water over with a spoon full of the miso paste, and onion bread, which is great if you have a dehydrator.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    I always start with a huge salad or piece of fruit when i’m super hungry… that way, by the time i get done with all that chewing, I can think straight and begin preparing my raw goodness meal – and I know i won’t wolf it all down, since I already gulped down a big salad!

    Being around cooked food is an IMPOSSIBLE temptation for me. I simply stay away from restaurants or cooked dinners. That’s harder for some people than others. And hopefully I can adjust over time to be able to be around cooked food.

  • rawgypsy7rawgypsy7 Raw Newbie

    I lost 20 lbs. in the first 5 weeks, and then my weight stabilized for several months. I think that may have had something to do with stepping up my yoga practice to a more “building” pace. But it also was probably just my metabolism settling into a new rate—it’s always been very hard for me to lose weight and i’ve suspected a sluggish thyroid. It could be a coincidence, but i started losing weight again when i was eating a lot of sea veggies, so perhaps the iodine did something to kick in my metabolism again. Since June of 2007 i’ve lost about 25 lbs. and i want to lose 10-15 more. It’s frustrating even though i am in the best shape i’ve ever been—the yoga and diet have toned me, my muscles are more developed than ever, and i feel super healthy. That damn scale! I should just throw it away. Like many others, i use that scale as a marker for how far i’ve come, and i am easily disappointed when it reads me a number i don’t like. It’s all in my head, i have to remember that. As someone else said here, i have lost inches, but not a whole lot of weight.

    Finding this website was perfect timing for me. I have just come off of a binge of not-raw food (PMS tends to seduce me into eating the wrong stuff) and the last two days have been spent making all sorts of amazing raw stuff that has me excited to keep going. I think my weight will drop again, as long as i stay off the coffee and sugar, and stop eating my kids’ leftovers. Part of the master plan is to transition the kids to at least 50% raw and that will solve the problem of leftover pasta in their bowls, which i just can’t seem to throw away.

    Anyway, it’s great to be here (this is my first post). I hope to get to know some of you better very soon. I’ll post some recipes soon as well. peace m7

  • snoopy99snoopy99 Raw Newbie

    thanks for the responses…yes, madame7, that PMS thing…i have the same problems. As for wanting nuts and understanding the my body needs fat…i don’t know if it is that, or if it just that i want to get away from my cubicle and eat something that is close to comfort food (a nice warm chocolate chip cookie or squash bread). Those are my usual go to baked goods along with the graham crackers.

    I am definitely thinking about going to Dr. Cousen’s retreat, but i heard it was more of a healing place and not so much of a culinary. But Kellygoneraw..you are exactly right when you said that some of the best raw creations are at least in part of emotional eating. I never thought about it that way…but you are right! You guys are all right…i should take it one day at a time, one meal at a time, knowing that 100% raw for me is something that can’t be acheived over night, even tough i would love an instant 10 lbs gone from my waist within 10 days. wouldn’t that be nice!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Dr. Cousens’s place IS a place of healing, but there are different programs. The thing I think is cool about his place is that you can learn about how to find the very best individualized eating plan that will give you the health results you need & want. The culinary program there will then teach you how to prepare exactly those foods. Cherie Soria has some good ideas, & I’m sure she has helped a lot of people become healthier, but she doesn’t always do all raw, and the recipe book I bought of hers didn’t fit me very well at all. That’s why I said Dr. Cousens’s program. Ooh, I wish I had the money to do something like you are getting to do! :) You can call the Tree of Life (the phone # is on their website – http://www.treeoflife.nu ) and ask them your questions; that way you may be able to make a more informed decision? Good luck in whatever you choose! Also, you’re right. Just do the very best you can & take it at your own pace. Give yourself a chance, and you will feel better & better.

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    I lost another 2 pounds!!! Yay! :)

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Update: I forgot to tell you all that I weighed myself again after posting about the 12 punds that hadn’t come off yet, and I found that I really had lost about 8 of the twelve pounds; I just hadn’t weighed myself for a couple of weeks, so I didn’t know, but I put on some pants that have been too tight & they fit again!

    Luna blu :)

  • carrie6292carrie6292 Raw Newbie

    Hey Angie – I’m not sure if you’ll read this or not but i wanted to talk to you about the Gabriel Cousens book… do you have a myspace or something like that where i could send you a message w/ some questions, etc… I’m also thinking about doing this… Also, did you know that Bryan Au’s book was written with Dr. Cousens help? I guess they worked closely on it…

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