Ok People Im Getting Worried Now...!!! - Raw Food Chat

roadrunner · 12-01-2007

I dont know whats going on other than Im so TIRED every day and I cannot have that at work!! Every thing I do is a burden!!! walking up stairs, getting in my truck, climbing in and out of my truck ,all of which I do daily, its my job!! I mean I have energy but its in spurts and not consistant enough. I couldnt wait to get off work tonight my god I just want to go to BED!!! at freikin 530 pm!! This is just during the day, in the morning I have no problem running but I get to work and its like I shut down. I ve been 23 days RAW now since my 14 day fast late october. and im beginning to doubt this raw thing because before i had mass energy, you couldnt stop me!! now im just BLEH all the time!! I have had stomach issues for 2 days now and cant eat and the MERE THOUGHT of food makes me nautious all though I havent gotten sick but many close calls here lately. I think its the sprouts because I have been eating a lot of them, not tossing them on salads but eating the sprouts themselves as a salad, plus tonight i threw a bunch out because they smelled funny. I let them sprout up till they look like grass sometimes, like 3 to 5 days because I cant eat them fast enough!! and as I was throwing them out tonight I noticed they smelled funny along with dry heaves while discarding them!! good lord today i just wanted to go grab a freakin hamburger and give up i NEED MY ENERGY BACK!!! I dont want to throw away months of fasting and changing my life but i swear i felt better 80 lbs heavier and eating fast food ,meat, etc and i dont want to go back!!! My family and friends are worried and i have lost much muscle mass i feel weak and weighed i tonight at 164 so i thought i finally stabilized because i maintained 168 now for almost a month and damn if i didnt drop another 3 lbs my friends say Im bony and when they give me hugs etc im told im really bony and what happened to my muscles good grief. I went from a 40 inch waist a year ago to a 31 now
damn i dont recall wearing 31 inch pants other than maybe 6th grade!!
im scared a little and nervous!! So what now?? go to a dumb ol doctor so they can tell me im stupid and take their drugs?? i think not!!Crap maybe im detoxing because raw is supposed to be a detox in itself i dont know!! i dont know but i need to regain vitality because its affecting my job and friends and family as well as my own piece of mind. there is too much more to put in this message but i just know im freaking out here and i make sure i get 8 hours of sleep each night, i go to bed at 10 and get up at 6 sometimes i go to bed at 9 and get up at 4 or 5 but for the most part its 8 hours nightly, during the day I eat fruit and vegetables and not so much grazing anymore but now eating more at once more times a day but lately its been just sprouts because im a little broke till after christmas so i cant buy more fruit and veggieas. Now you all know my sleep patterns and eating patterns whats going on ???????
roadrunner

gypsiemama · 12-01-2007

Roadrunner, I am searching for a link to some info that might be helpful. So sorry I don't have it at my fingertips..I'm still so new to this. But it had something to do with fruit affecting sleep and energy levels. And this guy found that he had more energy if he didn't eat until the day was over. At the end of the day he would eat a good amount of raw food--the same as what he would have eaten throughout the day. As soon as I find it I will post it.

Double Helix · 12-01-2007

Only 23 days - give it some more time. Your body is detoxing many years of cooked, toxic junk and it's not always going to be pleasant. But you *will* have more positive and energetic moments over the long run, there's just more detox going on in the beginning.

Try to catch up on your z's during your time off. Your body will reward you!

roadrunner · 12-01-2007

I heard it takes 1 month of raw to get rid of 1 year of SAD. So I pretty much spent the last 38 years eating the SAD diet so Im in for 3 years of detox?? I was also just recommended by a raw foodist to drink more greens like in smoothies, like a lot of spinich and kelp any good recepies for this kind of smoothie? and to also limit fruit and eat more greens especially dark leafy greens.
If the SAD diet is so toxic which I believe it is, then why was I so vibrant on it, I mean I was a powerhouse, rarely tired till the evening but now... I am drained on a daily basis. Maybe it was because I lived on candy bars and mt. dew and beef jerky so the sugar was giving me an "energy high" so I was basically running on sugar?? I dont know I just know I want to stick with this and Im sick of being tired totally sick of it.
roadrunner

greenbunny · 12-01-2007

Hi Roadrunner,

I'm sorry that you are suffering so. What I am about to say is not going to be propular, but I feel that I should.

I was originally amazed that you could go from eating all that junk to suddenly going all raw while doing the heavy duty work that you do. I was very happy for you. It's wonderful when someone can do something like that - it's miraculous really ?? but it isn ??t the norm. Please know that what you are going through is what most people would go through in your circumstances and it is not necessary to go through what you are going through in order to get to the other side and achieve vibrant health.

You used to eat a tremendous amount of heavy duty protein and sugar and doing lots and lots of exercise. Many people feel strong and energetic eating like this and being overweight until one day they get diabetes and/or drop from a heart attack. The families of many of these men that drop at an early age say that they loved one was never sick a day in their lives. Changing that junk food habit was and is the right thing to do in the long run. It's just a question of how you get there. Like you said, you spent a very long time eating badly. It takes time to unravel that web.

The first issue I want to address (which I believe is at the crux of your problem) is protein. You can't just give up eating at least one big meat meal a day quickly, keep on moving and exercising at the same levels, and expect your body to keep up. The body can and will create protein and absorb much more protein from lighter sources as it heals. Taking it all away without making that adaptation while keeping up the same strenuous lifestyle however, imho is asking for trouble. I find it interesting that you have been drawn to eat so much sprouts. That is the most intense form of protein that you can get on a raw vegan diet. I think you need to wean yourself off of concentrated protein slower. There, I said it. Trying to get the protein you needed by eating nothing but sprouts can work for some, but is not working for you, especially with your physically demanding job.

About those sprouts: If you keep sprouts in the refrigerator for days you have to rinse them at least twice a day or they will grow some nasty molds that can and will make you sick. This might have happened to you. If I were you I would get some Echinacea and Goldenseal (there ??s a tincture that I love called Insure) to support your immune system and take some at least 4 times a day ?? you have to take it that many times for it to build up. Your immune system needs to be able to fight off that mold. Another thing is that the immune system absolutely has to have enough of is protein to fight off such attacks. The immune system needs to get that protein at night so that the rest of the body functions won ??t just use it all up. Eating moldy raw food definitely can be worse for you than eating fresh cooked food. There, I said that too!

The next thing that I want to address is your financial situation. Eating raw properly at the beginning does take money for it to be done right. Later on you can eat just some sprouts or a piece of fruit, but at the beginning it is important to have enough money to buy what your body is asking for if you are not just lying around and not working so that your body can detox. There are a lot of days left until after Christmas and this is probably your busiest time of year.

If you had money I would give you one set of advice including all live foods, but since you are strapped right now this is what I would do if I were in your situation.

This is what I would do in your situation as unrawfoodist and non-ahisma as it is: I would go to those friends and family member of yours that are worried about you and ask each one of them to take turns making you a simple piece of cooked meat ??. NOT FAST FOOD!!!! each night. I would also go out and buy some eggs and poach them for the nights when there was no one to cook. The fish, chicken and beef should be cooked simply ?? no fancy sauces. No cooked veggies or fruits with this meat. If they want to make you something else with it, that would be SALAD! You need to get protein to get your strength back. After you get that strength back and kill off that mold in your system and feel your normal vigor ?? THEN I would go off of meat again in a more realistic fashion for you. I would then substitute raw forms of heavier protein and vegetable based proteins.

If you can ??t afford fruit and veggies and soaked nuts and seeds for the rest of your meals I would also ask those kind people in your life to give you some fruit or veggies for the next day. You could also get a loan of some sort or use credit so that you can afford to get those things. With your health and job at stake it is imperitive that you get nutrtion so that you can heal yourself up and regain your strength. I realize that asking for help like this might seem extreme to you, but my guess is that all those people that are so worried about you would love to feed you.

My feeling Roadrunner is that you did too much too fast for you and your lifestyle and work. Taking a step back is not defeat. You just underestimated how much your body was under seige from that cooked garbage food and that it needed a slower retreat. The only defeat is if you give up on raw completely. The way not to give up completely is to take an honest appraisal of your first approach, take a step back, and try a new one.

The step back is keeping your raw food focus while giving yourself more time to come off of meat and dense proteins more slowly and figuring out how to get yourself enough calories while being all raw. There are so many ways of doing that that I have discovered over the years that I can ??t go into that now. This message is so long to begin with. Let ??s get you back to the strength that you were taking into consideration your financial, physical and social situation that you are in right now first and then we will go back and discuss ways to get you fully raw and feeling fabulous all along the way. There is no reason to feel the way your do now eating raw foods.

I have one warning for you: when you go back to eating meat, make sure that you don ??t just fall back into eating junk. It ??s about getting some very high quality protein and calories without any sugar or super fatty sauces or bread. Being raw so long that could make you even sicker. Just get some cooked protein into your raw regime. It not only will give you what your body is missing but will also slow down the detox some.

I want to be clear that I believe that in the long run there is no reason to eat cooked meat ?? this is a stop gap for you in your particular situation ?? with your particular body ?? with your particular job ?? with your particular financial situation.

Btw, I would by-pass any cooked dairy but if by a long shot you could find some raw dairy I think that could help to rebuild you.

Sorry to all those folks that I might have offended here. I ??m only thinking of helping Roadrunner to survive the journey to being all raw. Sometimes you have to take into consideration where someone is coming from ?? not just where they want to get to.

Truly Best Wishes,
Greenbunny

gypsiemama · 12-01-2007

Roadrunner, I don't think that the raw food is making you tired. I think that because you are raw your body is feeling how tired it really is--maybe for the first time. For me I consumed a LOT of caffeine and red bulls and they didn't even affect me. I could eat a handfull of M & M's with a red bull chaser and then go to sleep-no problem. I lived on sugar and fatty fried foods. I noticed that my "healthy" friends seemed to be so fragile. I decided that because I ate anything and everything I was indestructable. And I worked two jobs with 4 kids and would never get sick UNTIL I took some down time to give myself some TLC. It never failed, as soon as I stopped running around like the energizer bunny my body would start to shut down. Maybe (just a thought) Your body is taking cues from your new eating habits and saying...yes! Now it's time to put the "closed for repairs" sign up. Also, I don't know if you are male or female (don't know if you have mentioned it before) but I am 5'9" tall (female) and when I weighed 164 pounds I was not too thin at all. In fact I remember being mortified when my weight went up to 164 (ah those were the days). Since you mentioned that you weighed 164 and are thin and losing muscle then maybe you are male and then I could see how you would feel too thin and have the concerns that you do. My male friends that are around 160 seem a lot thinner than my female ones of the same weight. But height, weight and gender all factor in. Greenbunny has good advice. You can go off of raw without going back to junk. Follow your gut instinct-you know your body better than we do. Also, congratulations for everything you have accomplished so far. This is a physical journey and a mental one too. I have yet to experience what you have as I keep falling off the raw wagon myself.

Gypsie.

Double Helix · 12-02-2007

Quote:

If the SAD diet is so toxic which I believe it is, then why was I so vibrant on it, I mean I was a powerhouse, rarely tired till the evening but now... I am drained on a daily basis. Maybe it was because I lived on candy bars and mt. dew and beef jerky so the sugar was giving me an "energy high" so I was basically running on sugar?? I dont know I just know I want to stick with this and Im sick of being tired totally sick of it.
roadrunner

I believe it would eventually have caught up with you. Or, maybe because you weren't eating cooked grains much? That tends to really do me in.

Please keep at it, add the greens, add some z's (even if you think you sleep enough - you'd be surprised at how some people think they sleep enough but don't).

If all else fails after a couple of weeks, or gets worse, consider getting a consultation with a raw professional, like Dr. Douglas Graham. Someone who's worked with thousands of folks successfully.