New and in need of support on my raw quest

I am a 43 year old mother of 7. My body is in a MESS! Big time! I have been praying and I feel this is what I need to do. My long term goal is 6 months my short term is one day at a time. My list of ailment are too numerous to mention. Long story short is I feel I am dying and if I don't do something radical I will loose my life and leave my children momless! I have a juicer..it is like a champion, I am using a friend's vita mix, I have a very cheap dehydrator, so I think as far as equipment I can do this. I would like a mandolin sometime but I can wait. I am not sure where to start..I have been reading things like crazy and watching youtube videos also. I am excited to start. The hard part will be cooking for the family while I eat other things. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to overcome this..or has done this?

Thank you in advance!

Blessings,

Cathy

Comments

  • joannabananajoannabanana Raw Newbie

    Welcome, Cathy!!! I think starting your day with an all fruit breakfast would be a great start. I do smoothies in the morning because my body just loves them. Then you can have your cooked lunch and dinner. Eventually, you can do an all fruit breakfast and maybe try an all fruit lunch as well. Even a huge salad for lunch is good. Look at the What You Ate Today forum for good food ideas.

  • Hi Cathy! My name is Skylor Powell and as a holistic health counselor, I help individuals who are interested in lifestyle change, but need a little guidance as to which path they should follow. I offer, conveniently, a 6 month program that involves us meeting twice a month where we will set new goals for you to achieve through your raw eating journey. I work with lots of couples and families who are struggling with Check out my website for more information, www.myyoganutrition.com. I would love to be able to support you! Best of luck :)

  • Hi Cathy!

    I am new to raw as well! Was previously vegan (with some fish, I know it's cheating, but they are tasty little critters!) . My family is pure blooded Minnesotan with a love for all things cowish... So I too run into the cooking dillema. Luckily, my family loves and respects me and my eating habits so we all cook together. They make their food, I make mine. They even taste it sometimes! The important things is to keep the family together. We make it a point to eat together every night regardless of what's on the plate. It honestly becomes a nonissue after awhile.

    The hardest part for me is learning not to taste when I cook their food... SAD food still smells good to me. I hear this too will pass.

    Good Luck!

  • Hi and welcome! I too am the only raw foodist in my family, but it is soooo worth it! like kiki said, I make my food, sometimes i make theirs, sometimes they do...and yes, eventually SAD food will make you a little sick to think about eating. One Life changing tip for me has been to stop using cosmetic products. For one thing, I can tell my family that even though I'm buying more expensive food my lifestyle saves money net (not to mention saving on doctors). Im not putting chemical in my body, I look and smell better, and its massivley better for the enviroment.

    One tip i use to make life more practical: Concoct three relativley simple, completley nutrtious salad recipes that you like and always keeep the ingredients for those salads around the house. There will probaly be some overlap, so its not as many ingredients as it sounds, and you always have a viable food choice!

    Good luck and various blessings on your journey!

  • Cathy,

    Welcome. I think all the suggestions so far sound great. You mentioned that all your medical conditions are too numerous to list. Just wanted to add that you should make sure that if you are on certain medicines there can be food interactions sometimes. My mother-in-law, because of medicines, can not eat a lot of dark green vegetables or leafy greens. Off hand, I can not tell you what vitamin (I'm thinking vitamin K?) is in them that can cause her serious problems because of meds she requires.

    Just, if you take meds- find out if there are certain fruits or veggies you can not eat much of. Maybe someday you can come off of those meds (if you are on any), but some meds you just shouldn't decide to quite suddenly.

    Also, if you have been diagnosed as having diabetes going raw (whatever amount) will definately help. But, you may want to slowly get your body more use to fruit if you haven't been eating it already. From my experience (of course this is just personal experience, not a science studyl) with an elderly relative with diabetes, eating the fruit earlier in the day, and having more protein later in the day (say beans, etc) keeps the sugar level more stable.

    I don't know the scientific explaination for that, just personal experience. If you are diabetic and the fruit spikes your sugar, you may want to try that approach.

    I don't know your history, but if binging and overeating is an issue (for many of us it has been) you may want to also look into some good books on the "why" of overeating, etc. I believe there are some great raw ones out there. I found the "Gabriel Method" book and download VERY helpful (it isn't a raw book though).

    It seemed to click for me, but not everyone finds help in the same place. " The Gabriel Method" theory is that we tend to over eat, and eat high calorie stuff that makes us overweight and tired because our bodies are actually doing what biology has programed the to do. Respond to stress in a way that thousands of years ago made sense- eat. As much, and as high calorie as possible. The theory goes, that thousands of years ago (and maybe even a few hundred of years ago) your primary stresses where fear of starving or freezing. So, when you are stressed today, your body tries to adapt by doing what it's programed to do (save you from starving or freezing)- gain weight.

    Some people luck out (in my opinion) and their bodies go into the "fight or fllight" mode (another ancient response). In order to run away from predators, you had to be lean and mean. Thus, those people don't tend to become overweight.

    Okay, it probably sounds pretty corny to many people. But, for some reason it worked for me. After reading the book and doing the hynosis meditation I haven't binged, and that's been probably three or four months. I use to eat healthy for a week or two and then binge badly on really nasty stuff.

    It doesn't matter how corny something sounds, if it works for me I go with it. Anyways- you may want to check out emotional eating, hynosis tapes, ect.

    Good luck. You're looking to better yourself and that is always a good start. Once you get good momentum going it tends to get easier.

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