Two weeks on Raw foods!!

[sally]

I have read up on raw foods for a couple of years now, and I am taking the plunge. I have a powerful blender and make green smoothies.
I feel great. This is the lifestyle to health! If you eat raw you will never get cancer, diabetes, heart problems or stroke.

Diabetes and heart problems have been cured by eating raw.

Good books on the subject: Raw Foods Bible by Sommers, Raw Family and Green for Life by the Boutenko's. You have to read these books, especially if you have health problems. The Miracle of Fasting is another great book. I was able to cure my diseased back by following this book.

[ChelC]

I could never go totally raw. I like bread way too much. I do need to make changes though since last year I put on ten pounds of I don't know what and I need to get it off! I'm hoping that summer weather and bike rides will take care of it.

I don't think I can ever do a green smoothie, but my favorite one for breakfast is this:

Handful of strawberries
Peeled orange
Scoop of orange sherbet
A peach
Ice

Yummy. I want to try a little ground flax seed in it next time.

[ShawnC]

I have read up on raw foods for a couple of years now, and I am taking the plunge. I have a powerful blender and make green smoothies.
I feel great. This is the lifestyle to health! If you eat raw you will never get cancer, diabetes, heart problems or stroke.

Diabetes and heart problems have been cured by eating raw.

Good books on the subject: Raw Foods Bible by Sommers, Raw Family and Green for Life by the Boutenko's. You have to read these books, especially if you have health problems. The Miracle of Fasting is another great book. I was able to cure my diseased back by following this book.

Sally,

You seem to have some good info in the health arena. Keep posting, I like this stuff.
I have been using the green smoothies (I call them green drinks) for about 4 years now. I grow a lot of greens, spinach, chard, peppers, etc. in my garden and also add some wheat grass occasionally and put a little water and little apple juice for flavor and blend it up and drink. Good stuff. My mother taught me how to do this.

Shawn

[sally]

I have been using the green smoothies (I call them green drinks) for about 4 years now. I grow a lot of greens, spinach, chard, peppers, etc. in my garden and also add some wheat grass occasionally and put a little water and little apple juice for flavor and blend it up and drink. Good stuff. My mother taught me how to do this.

Shawn

Thank you Shawn. I am glad you like my post. That is great that you drink green drinks! I am glad to hear that. I actually have a confession. My green smoothies are green but they are mostly fruit. Like for breakfast I blend up 3 apples and add 2 chard leaves and some flax seed and water. Sometimes I soak some oat groats and brown rice overnight to add to the drink.
I have joined a raw food meet-up in order to have the support I need. We meet weekly for a class. I have learned a great deal from the teacher. One class was on preparing food with coconut. After that class I know it is better to buy the Thai coconuts (white)and not the brown hairy ones. The Thai coconuts have better tasting and more tender meat. A good coconut's meat has the consistancy of egg whites. It makes good raw fudge and brownies.

[sally]

http://www.rawfor30days.com/Site/Home.html

This link is a video of 6 diabetics who ate raw food for 30 days.

I am on day 18. I feel pretty good most the time. I do have moments of "cleansing crisises". (Just this week I felt bad cramps in my bowels), but I just wait them out (only a matter of a few hours) and feel better. I have also felt cleansing crisises of my emotions, but just like the physical ones, it goes away and I feel great. I had one today. I was feeling bad and then a few minutes later I had an understanding of why I feel a that way in that situation. It was cool.

[sally]

Tomorrow is my 5th week of just raw foods. My skin is looking younger and I have lost 10 lbs. I feel very positive emotionally. I love the way I feel, most of the time. I was sick with a headache and throwing up the day after a raw food potluck last week where I had a heaping plate of things I had never eaten before, such as seaweed salad and some small weeds someone had picked out of a field. They were good, but overloaded my system I guess.

If anyone wants to go raw, I suggest you read up on it and then start with one meal a day and gradually work into it.

[Stephen]

It's funny how often stuff on this forum is so current to my situation. My wife and I just bought a bunch of greens to make a drink. I guess I really don't need a recipe....we just need to experiment. Perhaps I'll try some of ya'alls ingredients. I hadn't planned on eating just raw....just supplementing my diet.

[ChelC]

I'm trying to even think of what I have in my recipe collection that is raw, and there is almost nothing!

I do have a good salsa recipe that qualifies. For now I'll just have to try making sure I at least eat something raw at a meal. Are you planning on staying completely raw, or will you introduce a few things back in, like organic eggs and things like that?

[ChelC]

Wow! That trailer is very interesting. I feel like I should repent after watching it.

The thought came to me when they said it's true that you are what you eat - If everything you eat is dead... well, guess what? Dead animals, sterilized and dead enzymes. If you eat living food, guess what results you get? It's my belief that all things living have a sort of electrical type energy inside. If that's true it makes sense that living foods would fuel us better than dead ones, and dramatically change us. Keep us posted on your results.

[sally]

Are you planning on staying completely raw, or will you introduce a few things back in, like organic eggs and things like that?

Thanks Chelc and Stephen for your positive comments. That is really supportive and I appreciate it.

To answer your question, ChelC, Yes, I am planning on staying completely raw. Let me tell you why. Cooked food is addictive. My support group had a class just on this topic. When I eat cooked food, I have no control over what I put in my mouth. I eat icecream every night knowing what it is doing to my body.
Having drawn the line, I can say "no" to lots of things that are bad for me. Actually, very few items that I ate that were cooked were good for me. Even the yeast in bread is bad for you. I eat my grains, sprouted now. It helps to have a copy of the cover of the book called "The Raw Family" that shows this healthy happy family on my refrigerator. If I go back to eating cooked foods, I will slip into my old habits. I feel too good to go back. In the Raw Bible, there is an article that says how long it takes to heal the body. It says it takes 7 years. In the Hippocrates Health Program, (which I need to look up, but I am asuming eating 100% raw would work relatively the same way) the following cleansing happens:
1day-1 1/2 years -Digestive cleansing, major fat deposits and calcifications removed.
1 1/2 -2 years Deep tissue cleansing and joint cleansing
2-5 years Bone structure, cartilage, and further joint cleansing\
5 1/2- 6 1/4 -Organ re-positioning and renewal
6 /14-7 years Brain tissue and neurological cleansing.

I am looking forward to the last one the most! I can feel the 1st and 2nd ones working already. My joints are loosening. I am not so stiff.

A friend of mine said just yesterday that she and her companion tried going raw on their mission and it made them sick and they quit. Let me tell you why they got sick. When you eat raw, your body starts cleansing. It loosens up toxins. It is these loose toxins that make you sick. You will feel bad until your body expells them out. (If you are sick a lot, you have a lot of toxic build up and your body needs to cleanse a lot. ) That is why you need to work at being raw gradually. You don't start spring cleaning the whole house at once, you start with a room and work from room to room.

[sally]

You may be worrying about my getting enough protein. Dark leafy greens have all the amino acids our body needs to make protein, even one essential one that protein from meat can't give you. I can't remember what this one amino acid is called, but if you don't get it the symptoms are depression and low energy. 40% of your diet should be dark leafy greens, cultivated or wild. The wild ones are actually better for you. They have something in them that make them survivors and get their strength when you eat them.

[sally]

When I first started going raw, everything that I put to my mouth, I would ask myself, "Can I eat this?" I would have to think about everything. My husband kissed me and the first thing that popped into my mind was "Can I eat this?" than I thought "Of Course!"

[shadow]

So, are you saying you ate your husband?

Now, how long does it take for my brain to be cleansed?

[ShawnC]

So, are you saying you ate your husband?

Now, how long does it take for my brain to be cleansed?

I was drinking something right when I read this, laughed, and spewed it on the computer. Thank you shadow for saying what I was thinking.

I think what Sally is doing is great. I would caution that there needs to be moderation in all things. I still eat meat occasionally. I supplement my diet with digestive enzymes. I still do the green drinks as well as sprouting and wheat grass juice on occasion. I try to follow the admonition of the Word of Wisdom as well as D&C 45. Meat should be had in abundance, but it is pleasing to the Lord to eat during times of winter. I avoid pork products and usually stick with chicken and fish and occasionally a steak. I try to eat sparingly during the winter of meat and hardly ever during the summer months. I focus more on the fruits and fresh vegetables I get from my garden. Sometimes I cook those veggies but other times I eat them raw. I will usually try to have fruits and vegetables for breakfast and lunch, and then something a little more so for dinner like occasionally some chicken. This has worked tremendously for my in energy, clear complexion, clear mind, weight loss, and etc. I also use a salt water cleanse every few weeks.

I have been experimenting with apple cider vinegar. There is a health drink I make with Bragg's organic apple cider vinegar, water, and honey. This has helped cure my acid reflux as well. The research that I did on it says that it can eventually change your body type from acidic to alkaline. People in Europe who survived the plague drank Apple Cider Vinegar frequently.

I take Astragalus as a supplement also. It is an immune building herb. I give to my children in liquid form as well as fish oils for brain function. I have a son who is on the autism scale who I have seen significant improvements in since I have been using the fish oils with him.

I also use something called Tiaga Tea. It is an old Native American trick apparently. It is a root from a plant that I boil down into a really nasty, bitter tea. Some internists give it to cancer patients after chemo. It increases the body's ability to produce white blood cells.

I do most of this immune stuff for me and my family because I figure the best defense (or the second best defense behind the Lord's protection) against plagues and diseases and etc. that will be unleashed, (be they man made or not) is a very strong immune system. Since I have been doing this, many people I am around a lot have been very sick with flu's, sore throats, infections, bronchitis, etc. I have not been affected at all. I think this stuff works.

Shawn

[ChelC]

This is going to sound hokey, but I found it interesting. My cousin was talking about a class she went to that taught about different foods that looked like the thing they were good for... like eggs and avacados are nourishing to pregnant mothers - cut open they look like a womb. Tomatoes are good for the heart, and cut open they look like the chambers of the heart. Walnuts are good for the brain and look like the brain... you get the idea. May be a bunch of bologna, but it's fun to think about anyway.

[shadow]

I wonder what Sally's husband looked like before she ate him?

Actually, I heard that too about food ChelC.

[ChelC]

Potatoes look like a big obese stomach... so maybe that's the problem...

Actually Sally, you have inspired me. I figure if you can go totally raw, surely I can exercise everyday and get all my servings of fruit. Don't ask about the veggies right now though. I hate almost every veggie because they taste sour to me and make me gag. May have to do with being force fed them as a kid, but since the doctor told me that almost every vitamin found in veggies can be had in fruits and nuts, I don't beat myself up. The only green veggies I can think of that I like are kale and bell peppers. I don't know why kale, but it doesn't taste like grass like the rest do to me. Any other green only finds it's way to my stomach in soup or something sneaky.

Juan Carlos is my workout buddy right now, because if we can stick to it we promised him we'd stay at a local hotel with an all night pool and stay up late swimming. We did our video this morning and made smoothies with peaches, oranges, strawberries, honey and ice. Now if we can just get through our lunches with grandma... she bribes us for rides since her car is in the shop.

[sally]

That is great ChelC! I am glad I was able to help.

When I started, I was stretching my belt on the last notch. I am using the 4th from the end now. I am losing weight in the right places

I have also started running. I ran 1/3 of a mile today. I am afraid some of you could have been faster walking than I was running, but I see improvement in my future!

[sally]

Tomorrow is my 7th week eating 100% raw foods. I have gone from 203 lbs to 187 1lbs. I am 5' 7 1/2". I feel great! The best part is that my kids whose only raw foods was half an apple for lunch, (ages 12 and 8 ) are starting to listen to me! Imagine that! They are having an apple eating contest. They each ate about 9 apples each yesterday. (The dog ate the cores so all that was left of each apple was the stem.) I am so excited to see them excited about eating good food. (my 8 year old is over weight and my 12 year old is underweight) They have a goal of eating 20 apples this week. (I better go get more apples) I buy organic apples because the wax on the regular ones is a petroleum product. I am sure as they get the hang of eating more fresh apples, that they will branch out and try other raw foods.

[Stephen]

Sally. That is so wonderful. I am tempted to do the same. Especially after the good reports I have heard. I don't feel like I have a game plan with it though. What do you eat? Obviously uncooked foods...but...I almost need to see a list of all of the possible things to eat to help me wrap my head around the idea...and how I can accomplish it. Is there a recipe book that you turned to?

[sally]

Stephen,
The books above have good recipes. A health food shop or herb shop would have un-cook books. A raw foods shop here has about 20 different ones. It really helps to maybe see if there is a raw food meetup group in your area. That is how I got the motivation to jump in. We meet weekly for a class that always includes food. The other day, I had raw spaghetti. A friend from my meet up group showed me how to make it. She had a hand powered machine that cut up a zuccini in spiral shaped "noodles". The sauce was tomatoes, red pepper, onions, garlic and italian seasoning with a little salt. She used a food processor to chop the ingredients.
I really liked it.

Out of a un-cook book, I made a meat loaf made up of Kamut sprouts, spelt sprouts, sunflower seed sprouts, pumpkin seeds soaked, onions, and spices. I run it through a meat grinder. The sauce I used to put on top of it was the same for the spaghetti. I really like it.

I use spices a lot more than I ever have before. I am planting my own basil this year.

Let me tell you more benefits from eating raw. I feel closer to God, and I am much kinder to my family. I don't get upset as easily. That right there is worth all the trouble.