Eating Raw - Debbie's Raw Food Success Story

Debbie used to be 'normal'. Before she began eating raw she wasn't overweight, nor did she suffer from any particular illness.

So she was amazed at the big gap between what we consider 'normal' and what it feels like to thrive. This is Debbie's story in her own words.

Then it occurred to me that that was my story – that I had been NORMAL before eating raw. In fact, I could talk in some detail about just how NORMAL I had been!

BEFORE (when I was NORMAL)

People used to say to me, ‘You’re lucky – you’re one of those people who can eat what they like and stay slim’. But that wasn’t true.

Like most people, whenever I ‘relaxed’ and stopped monitoring my weight and food intake daily, the flab would accumulate.

My waist would grow wider, clothes would tighten and there would be clothes I just didn’t want to try on as I knew they’d depress me.

Then I’d have to count calories and increase gym attendance to bring things down again.

After a few months I’d ‘relax’ again and the fat would start creeping back on....and I’d have to start over.

- I drank – a bit more than I should. I’d have 1-2 glasses of wine a day and often a g & t on top of that, and felt that I couldn’t sparkle at a party without alcohol. Fairly NORMAL.

- I needed 7-8 hours of sleep a night. NORMAL.

- I’d often wake at night, feeling thirsty. My bladder found it more and more difficult to make it through the night and I’d have to get up to go to the loo regularly. I was told this was NORMAL for women ‘my age’.

- I’d wake in the morning a mass of aches. Since talking to others, I realize this is NORMAL for many people.

- I’d need tea and coffee to ‘get me going’ in the morning. NORMAL.

- I had toast every morning, and if I didn’t have it, I’d feel an uncomfortable gnawing in my stomach later. NORMAL.

- My mouth tasted yuk on waking. NORMAL.

- My gums used to bleed most times I brushed. Gum disease is increasingly NORMAL nowadays.

- I needed deodorant daily. NORMAL.

- The bathroom would not be a nice place to be after I’d ‘been’. NORMAL. (And occasionally I’d see strange little white balls in amongst my…eliminations – maybe candida overgrowth? Increasingly NORMAL nowadays).

- I had an intermittent acute pain (every few weeks) halfway down my left side. I’d had it for 30 years. IBS symptom? Increasingly NORMAL nowadays.

- I’d generally have a couple of colds a year. NORMAL.

- I had hayfever. NORMAL.

- I had pain on the first day of my periods. NORMAL.

And what had I to look forward to? The menopause – way-hay! When, I was told, I’d basically shrivel up, put on weight, suffer mood swings, and hot flushes (unless I took HRT or a cocktail of ‘alternative’ remedies).

And then I found raw!

A few things came together for me – at just the right point in my life!

After having not eaten meat for over 20 years, I’d taken a strange diversion and eaten it for a year.

I then had a BIG reaction against that and went vegan, toured vegan sites and found raw sites...I’d read The Essene Gospel of Peace, that tells us to ‘cook not’, made a couple of ‘raw recipes’, told my family ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn into a raw foodist!’, then, two weeks later...raw for life!

Eating raw gave me another chance. Eating raw has, and continues, bit by bit, to wipe my body’s slate clean, and a lot of things changed for me in the first eighteen months of eating raw!

AFTER

- Weight – Within a few months of eating raw I was down to 105 lbs and have stayed there ever since.

This of course is below what is considered NORMAL for my height on weight charts (based on a NORMAL, that is, UNhealthy population).

However, when I consider that the fluctuations are long behind me, that is, my weight hasn’t moved up or down since going raw, I still have a female shape, and that I eat all I like (and I do eat for pleasure – I love my food!), I must conclude that that is the ideal weight for me.

My weight is something I never have to think about any more. I don’t need to do aerobics, and I buy clothes knowing they’ll always fit me.

- I sleep 5-6 hours a night, and don’t have to get up to go to the loo any more.

I don’t wake a mass of aches, my mouth tastes fine, and I don’t need tea or coffee to get me going. I’m bright in the morning and am fine on fruit, juice, or even nothing.

- The ‘gnawing’ sensation that I used to mistake for hunger? I still had it at 75% raw; I’d sometimes have a salad and feel ‘ravenous’ shortly afterwards.

But after moving to a 100% raw diet, the gnawing stopped. It all made sense when I read William Hay MD describe the gnawing as due to the acidic contents of the stomach following cooked food.

- My gums stopped bleeding.

- I no longer needed to use deodorant daily.

- My poos are either odorless or mild – people can use the bathroom after me!

- No signs of candida overgrowth.

- The IBS-type pain went, never to recur again.

- I’ve not had a cold since going raw (at time of writing coming up to my fourth winter on raw).

- My hayfever went.

- No period pains.

I still have periods, but light, and not every month. Where are all the awful symptoms a woman of my age is meant to experience? I feel great.

My ‘vital statistics’ – blood pressure 100/60, resting pulse 48.

Space doesn’t permit me to list all the non-physical ways in which my life changed when going raw, but let’s just say.... eating raw opens your eyes – it’s all...very interesting!

Perhaps I might write an article on that one day (you can see some of my articles on my Blog)

I hope very much my personal account of eating raw can inspire others to go, or stay raw. My website: Raw For Life has lots of raw basics (and recipes).

In the meantime, let me sum up by saying:

THANK GOD I’M NOT ‘NORMAL’ ANY MORE!

I will be so thrilled to look that good when I'm 51!

I'm realizing more and more, that most of what we attribute to 'aging' is really just the result of our lifestyles, and, these days, I am becoming aware of the signs of 'aging' in really young people that I see around me.

As Debbie's story shows, it doesn't have to be that way, not at all.