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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI’m just so frustrated. i’m finishing up my first week raw today and beginning a cleanse by “Zand” mainly a fiber, thistle, and laxative cleanse, but i have seemed to gain weight rather than lose weight. My diet was horrible before this change, not to mention i have about 70lbs of extra baggage so i was hoping to see a loss. i hope this is due to the fact that i have begun my period and i am hopefully just retaining water. My sister in law visited this past week which helped a bunch as she is mostly raw and has lost over 60lbs on raw. when i told her i was gaining she seemed perplexed because she lost quite a bit even eating a lot when she first went raw. i’m cutting back on my nuts and trying to cut back on sunflower seeds which is difficult for me. i’ll be really distraught if i find out i have to start keeping track of my calories again…it always makes me feel trapped, i guess. i was looking at this for a way out- for freedom, not even more restrictions to my diet.
i hope that i see a change with this cleanse and with the end of my period. otherwise…i’m not even sure what to do….
also- i have been working out, although i’ll be doing even more when the weather gets less dreary. i take a fencing class twice a week which is major sweating and working my legs muscles with the squatting and lunging and constant movement, also very anarobic(sp???) due to the quick bursts of energy you need to give it. soon i’ll be rising my bike to campus and back 5 days a week- about 7 miles total.
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i’m not sure why it crossed out that sentence, but it’s still relevant- not an edit just to let everyone know. sorry about that….
If you’ve only been raw for a week I’d say give it a little time. I [and I think many people] gained weight at first. I didn’t go out and add on thirty pounds, but I did gain enough to be in a similar situation. If you’re starting a cleanse today/soon, just start it with positivity and remember that with all that exercise you are and will be getting, you’re body will have to shed excess junk. The fencing sounds especially fun. I really wish I could do it! Biking is awesome.
You drink lots of water, right? :)
Green things. Eat tons of greens.. any time I’ve increased my intake of greens I’ve immediately dropped pounds.
Try stretching or doing yoga in the morning. I do it almost every morning by myself in my room. It’s really nice and when I don’t stretch my muscles, I feel it.
Have you considered doing a little weight lifting? nothing intense of course, just enough to build a little muscle and boost your metabolism. I just got back into it after taking the winter off [I turn into such a hermit in the winter, it’s horrible.]
Hopefully I have given you some ideas! :]
hey there,
in my experience exercise does not help with weight loss. it helps build and tone muscle, so you might be gaining muscle, not fat.
i’m not sure what your daily intake looks like but i would focus on FRESH produce. think fruit salads, green smoothie, big beautiful veggie salads. don’t go crazy on fats. even raw ones are only helpful in moderation. avocados very easy to digest and combine well with starchy veggies.
don’t think of moderating fat intake as counting calories. it has NOTHING to do with calories, everything to do with LIGHTNESS. you want your food to go THROUGH your body, not to stay there festering… you want energy and things that break down easily give you more energy in general. (heck, buy several bushels of bananas… and chow down on a few heads or romaine, a bag of carrots… there will be a point at which you will not be hungry… gradually you will need less and less.)
i’d read Natalia Rose’s “raw food detox diet” or “raw life force energy” because she is REALLY good and explaining this and making you not feel deprived (or worse yet, scared of your food!).
also, this is a SLOW process. it’s better to wean yourself off cooked foods slowly so you aren’t replacing a bowl of steamed broccoli for a bowl of sunflower seed pate on almond bread.
my advice is always to start with SIMPLE, CLEAN foods, rather than go 100% raw to start.
p.s. also, if your colon is clogged up from years of bad food choice and poor combining, you’ll be detoxing at a ridiculous rate and you’ll be unable to get rid of the toxins fast enough, leaving you feeling very poor indeed. i HIGHLY recommend colonics for this reason.
p.p.s. sorry if this was too much info. =)
i just read your profile. i wish you SO much success! =)
wow. thank you so much. i feel motivated now rather than forlorn. i have to remember to stay positive and find ways around these issues. i’m gonna go stock up on lighter foods tonight.
I know it must be frustrating for you, as I have been trying to lose weight too. I must note though for me it was a change in my mindset regarding ‘losing weight.’ I really had to retrain my brain b/c it’s not about losing weight really, it’s really about replacing an unhealthy life style in for a healthy one. Once I started thinking this way & eating properly I felt lighter, happier and the weight finally started coming off. I drink a quart of a green smoothie loaded with love:) every morning. A big salad for lunch, an orange or banana later on in the day and depending on my mood I may juice at night or have another smoothie. I backed off on the nuts and seeds. I still have them periodically, but in the beginning I thought I would starve to death in turn my stomach was a mess and so was my backyard:) to put it nicely. I drink at the very least ten glasses of water a day.
Be patient with yourself and give it time.
Cheers!
One more thing, listen to your body.. If you feel full then you are. Also, I increase mangoes, oranges and grapefruit….. I don’t know if someone posted that or not;)
Eat something every two hours. It will feed your metabolism and keep it ‘running’.
My biggest issue is my metabolism because I love nuts and avocados and fats, though I realize that they are most effective in large quantities as transition foods to help me into the raw world…
20-30 minutes of aerobic a day (not weightlifting) or if you already do that much, up the time if you can fit it in…like luna blu says, eating more small meals will keep your metabolism rocking…food combining principles might be good to read about to help make sure your food is going through
best of luck!
Try perhaps monitoring your food combining if the weight doesn’t go away after your period. I had a bit of water weight on for a bit from mixing sweet and acid fruits in smoothies, which is a pity because pineapples taste so good with mango :( I’ve also heard that working out before breakfast is a good idea- power smoothie it up if you do weights, green smoothie if you do cardio. Ive heard it a few places, but take it from a male model: Website Link