27, PCOS, morbidly obsese, and miserable

I have tried every diet known to mankind. I've lost weight and gained it all back plus more each time. I'm currently 4 lbs shy of my highest weight ever. I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and PCOS. Cancer runs in my family along with heart disease. I am desperate for a change. I did a lifestyle change a couple of months ago that seemed to agree with me. I cut out all processed foods for about two weeks. I felt wonderful for that period of time (after the detox) and lost about 12 lbs. I then went on a cruise, and blew the entire diet. I haven't had the motivation to start again.

I've been reading about doing a Raw diet for some time now. I'm just about to get up the courage to try it. I'm scared, honestly. I feel like this is my last chance to feel good again. I'm scared of my addictions to sugar and processed foods. I often eat out of boredom and/or emotions instead of actually eating because I'm hungry.

I live in Southwest Virginia, and I don't know if any of you are familiar with the area, but there are not any Whole Food stores around here. There is a Shouting Sprout about an hour from my home, but after going there I walked out empty handed because of the astronomical prices. I have a brown thumb it seems, so growing a garden doesn't seem to be in the cards for me either.

I guess I need some direction here. How did you start your raw lifestyle? How long did your detox take?

Comments

  • Oh wow, I started raw due to some severe allergies to gluten, peanuts, shellfish and diary....for me it was. Matter alsoof just not having many ffood options here inSouth Korea due to my allergies...I also wanted to lose weight, and I have done without really trying to on this raw lifestyle. I seem to never really be hungry anymore, I just eatsmall bits of fruit/ veg now and then (roughly four hours apart maybe? Sometimes it's more frequent to be honest) and I've lost that feeling where cooked food really makes me feel settled and comfortable ...now it just burns my stomach.

    I've lost weight as well, bu I honestly didn't track it very well, sorry! I would say try upping your fruit intake first off: I found that this made me so full that I didn't at ALL have room for any cooked stufff ( watermelon was what I ate, and still do eat te most of, but be sure not to mix it with anyother fruits-- that gave me horrid and painful gas )

    good luck and sick to the site; you'll also want to get yourself mentally prepared for some changes in your life...and some weight loss, if you stick to it:)

  • luxdivonluxdivon Raw Newbie

    Welcome!

    first things first girl. You have to start thinking of SAD food, cooked food, processed food as "NOT FOOD" if you can retrain your mind, so when you look at pizza and say that's not food, then it might help stick to what will make you happy, light and wise. The other thing is that you have to know that the only way this is REAL CHANGE is if you really DO CHANGE, and it's not a diet, but it's a way of life. Are you ready to change your life? and change the choices you make to make that change a reality? If the answer is yes, then you're well on your way to success! Being Morbidly Obsese I would say that you would need the oversight of a naturopath if possible.

    There are a couple of approaches you could take.

    One way

    Eat one meal, either breakfast or lunch raw everyday. At the same time you do that, cut back out those processed foods, and stick to whole foods for all other meals. If the package has more than probably 5 ingredients, it's probably loaded with addictive ingredients to keep you wanting more. i.e. even "natural flavors" could be any number of things, and if you ask me, its just their way to add their so called natural addictive ingredient. They want your money, and they want it bad. THey don't care about you, your health, or your weight.

    Ease out of eating meat, and dairy, replacing meat with nuts, and dairy with almond milk.

    Once you are comfortable eating one meal a day every day, then add the other. It's almost easiest if you start with lunch raw. Then you can add breakfast, and have a delicious fruit breakfast! this is what we normally have and it works great.

    Find the fruits and vegetables you love most.

    Tell us.

    We'll help you find recipes, and help you see how delicious raw really is.

    Soon you will be on your way to a high raw diet. At this point your grocery cart will be full with mostly fruits and vegetables, a few types of nuts, olive oil, apple cider vinegar. People will look at you strange, but trust me you won't care, because you'll feel better than you've ever felt in your life.

    A second way you could start out would be doing the master cleanse first. This is a GREAT way to clear your body of addictions, it in a way resets your addiction clock. I didn't even have caffeine withdrawal on it, i was amazed. You would however have stronger detox with this, and it might be pretty intense. This is where having contact with that naturopath might be handy. To make sure you don't freak out, and to get you through the whole 10 day period. IT's VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO STOP if you are detoxing. your body is releasing poisons and they don't get out of your system you will feel WORSE! . AFter doing the Master Cleanse, You could follow the plan above, or else jump into 2 meals raw, and 1 cooked whole food meal, With high emphasis on Vegetables, Whole Grains, Fruits, Nuts.

    You have to accept the fact that it will cost more per item, but you will not be eating as much over time, so it evens out over time. Me and my fiancee spend about $120 a week, and we do very well. There is something else you must take into consideration. You will not have to go to the doctor(most likely) because you will be well. This will save all the money on doctors, and medications.

    GOOD LUCK! This is the one thing I would say, that it sounds too good to be true -- but it actually is true!

    p.s. my favorite sweet tooth treat - FIGS!

    my favorite salty treat - pistachios!

    my favorite good fat filled treat - avocados!

    you will get to eat things you may love, but never eat because they were always too expensive i.e. kiwi, strawberries, blueberries.. which are all divine.

    hope this helps :)

  • schmoopeeschmoopee Raw Newbie

    Welcome treehousestories!

    There's a book called "the Raw Detox Diet" by Natalia Rose that you might be interested in.

    http://amzn.com/0060834374

    There is a quiz in it that helps you to determine what level you are at now in your diet and then it gives you menu plans to help you transition into raw foods. So there are still some cooked whole foods that you will be able to eat as you transition.

    The most important thing is what you DON'T eat, just cutting out processed foods and sugars will help you feel great. I found that those foods were trigger foods for me and once I cut them out and didn't have them in the house i rarely wanted to binge. The freeing thing about raw foods is that you can eat anything that's raw (within reason) without feeling any guilt. You will actually feel there is an abundance of food to chose from.

    the most difficult part of a raw food diet for emotional eaters like us, is not having the foods to quiet our emotions and stress. after a couple of weeks those voices become really strong and it can be really emotional. you just need to be prepared to ride it out and know that it will end and you will feel great after you come through it.

    There's another book called "Raw Emotions" by Angela Stokes that addresses those feelings. http://store.rawreform.com/product_info.php?products_id=1001468

    For me I transitioned by doing a 7 day water fast, followed by a 7 day juice fast, then I began eating high raw. I think for me it helped to kind of clean the slate, and start fresh with raw foods.

    Good Luck! Let us know how its going.

  • treehousestories, I just want to encourage you. I have pcos as well and have dealt w/ all the sugar "addictions", cravings, headaches, detox nausea. Also, it's not so bad not to have a Whole Foods near by...;p I've actually had to ban myself from shopping there simply because they're this big beautiful store where everything is so appealing & so ginormously expensive!!! My encouragement is persevere. Do not give up. I LOVE food, cooking, parties. I love pot lucks, dinner guests and simply cooking for my daughters. I love to eat! ...for comfort, boredome, because because because;) However lately I've come to a cross roads now that my daughters are 13 and I'm seeing possible signs of pcos in them as well. I had to come to the hard honest truth w/ myself while alot of what's going on my body is genetic, a huge portion of it is my decisions both large and small. At this point, I want to be healthy so badly. All those things I listed above, I have to deal w/ them eventually, but for now, I'm simply choosing one decision at a time. Go by your favorite fruits & veggies at the bargain market. You may have to splurge on some almond butter, maybe peanut butter for now. (BUT be careful w/ peanut butter as too much can cause a killer yeast infection due a mold that can develop in the way the peanuts are stored in silos.) Like one of the other bloggers said, load up on some treats like avacados, figs, & dates. They will help w/ the sweet tooth and creamy comfort food desire. Encorporate protein w/ every meal, at least for now. My doc told me that having pcos, it's super important to include that as it binds itself to the sugars in our bodies that our liver is failing to process, helping it to be removed. When the sugar is not processed, our livers dump it out right around our lower belly...;(, the protien will help. It doesn't have t be tons. The occassional fish or very clean meat, as Natala Rose recommends, is a good idea at least during the transition stage. Nut butters are fabulous for dipping carrots, celery, apples, etc. Lastly, you are going to find that as you begin to place all these fruits and veggies in your body that contain nothing but superior nutrition your appetite will really really decrease! I think this is because we are so used to eating empty calories then we put pure nutrition into our bodies and they are for the first time, satisfied. You'll be shocked when and apple & maybe a spoonfull of almond butter is all you can eat for lunch. Because of all the pure nutrition, the energy ups & downs will be gone and you will feel......good;) Bless you.

  • Treehousestories, I can understand where you are. Three years ago when I was your age I was in a very similar situation. I was about 255 pounds and getting too big for my clothes once again. I thankfully didn't have the health problems, but I knew that they were just around the corner. Now I'm 30 and over 100 pounds lighter. I have never felt better.

    Everyone here has given you excellent advice. My main thing was to add good things to my life, food and activities. The bad things will naturally fall away. Also our mind respond to positive better than negative thoughts. I started by swimming. I'd forgotten how much I loved the water. Once I realized how good that made me feel, other things started falling into place. My diet got better and I added more positive activities. I've not been into raw food all this time. It has been part of my transformation.

    Remember, find some happiness.

    Good luck with everything.

  • happy2swim, are you lap swimmin @ a pool or open water? Up until a couple years ago I had tried to maintain a running regimine, but kept experiencing severe pain in my hip and back. ...I was even running/ walking daily when I was diagnosed w/ pcos. I went in because I was gaining like gangbusters. Recently the docs found that I have an arthritic vertabrae in my back from a fall down some stairs. Swimming has been on my mind very much lately, I'm just not sure were to start.

  • Unfortunately I need to use a pool. There isn't anywhere near where I live to swim in open water. Just start by getting in the water; either swimming or walking. Doesn't raw food help with arthritis? I hope everything goes well for you.

  • Yes! I believe it does. I have felt so much better over the last couple of weeks. At the moment I'm super flared up & am wondering if it because I cheated and had -cooked oatmeal and real milk!- the other day;( I'll look into some local pools.

  • Treehousestories, how are you doing? Have you started adding raw food into your daily routine?

  • Hi

    I can relate to you and tabbycat. I am overweight and having a hard time with things. I have 2 people I have to cook for and that makes it really hard. They won't go on the raw life style.

    Tabbycat, I'm allergic to corn, soy, gluten (I have celiac disease) and anything with mold (cheese, peanuts, vinger, dried fruits, meat passed 24 hours cut, mushroom ;( , yeast of any kind, anything fermented and more). I am trying to go raw, like I said hard time with my mum and husband. I served 1 week of just cooked veggie meals and both were ready to kill me. They wanted their meat back. They have given up regular bread, since it makes me sick to have it in the house. I do make them once in away bean bread that is gluten free.

    I drink 3 8oz glasses of smoothies a day, with lots of green veggies and fruit. I also have fruit bowl before dinner so I don't eat to much.

    At times I wish I was alone so that it would be easier but can't leave my mum for she has dementia in the second stage. She can't take the medication because it makes her sick.

    I just have a lot of stress but I'm not an emotional eater. I don't down lots of sweets (don't like sugar), I don't eat fast food (haven't for years), I don't eat bread and I walk 30 mins at 2.6 a day but still can't lose weight. I've tried Gabriel's Method and now I'm trying this. I am 70 lbs more than what my doctor says I should be and have tried for 1 year to get it off but nothing seems to work. I think I'm just trying to hard or not trying hard enough.

    I don't make process food for husband or mum either. They eat 1 veggie, meat and either rice or pototoes or noodle every night. Breakfast and lunch, hubby gets his own, mum will eat apple with peanut butter with cheese or rice cake with peanut butter or rigota. It's just supper and I've tried having them eat it for at lunch time but they don't like that. My husband thinks salad is cole slaw. ;( He was brought up on deer meat, bread, goodies, potatoes and 4 veggies (peas, green beans, corn (not veggie) and cabbage). I was brought up on everything.

    Sorry I said so much but I have NO one to talk to any more.

    Take care

    God bless

  • Maybe getting a group together in ur town of people going through the same things as u. Power in numbers.:)

    This website proves it!

    Sending u love..

    Boyana

  • charliegirl: don't feel sorry at ALL for posting! it's SUCH an important thing to have some place to let it go, hey? I'm happy to listen...or read, really:)

    as for your allergies, my god, I've heard SO many more people these days talking about soy and corn and mold allergies! A bunch of my friends back in Toronto were saying that they've been to the doctor and it's now something they've got to deal with seriously...

    And about losing that stubborn weight: something is keeping it there...I'm no expert, but in my experience I had to work to find an eating-method (can I say that? it makes me sound like a monkey in a zoo...) that my body could/would work with to let the weight go...I also found that mixing fruits with veggies didn't let me lose weight - sounds BIZARRE, I know...but maybe try a monomeal week? Where you eat a specific kind of fruit and only that fruit for a meal. After that digests (typically less than half an hour but every one/fruit is different) you can try another kind of fruit, but don't mix them together...and melons can be mixed (like green honeydew with canteloupe or watermelon). Does that make sense? I dunno if it'll work, but it's worth a shot:) Treehousestories, you could try that too?

  • I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff or anything, but it seems to me that you're taking the "treat the symptoms" approach here. What I mean is, you have issues that are only manifesting in your relationship to food, but that have much deeper roots elsewhere. This is what you need to go after, not your diet. I hope you can figure something out for yourself, I hate to think of anyone suffering unnecessarily. Think holistically, nothing exists or happens on its own. Cause and effect is complex and endless, and what you've talked about seems to be only one small facet of a much more intricate situation.

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