Raw Food Diet - 30 Day 'No Fat' Trial - Final Postmortem

1 April 2009

So, this is the final postmortem of my 30 day raw food diet 'no fat' trial.

Weight

As of this morning I weigh 120.8 which makes my total weight loss for this trial: 4.2 pounds. I think that is awesome.

BEFORE	AFTER

Calories

Over the month long raw food diet trial my calorie average was 1695 per day. This was quite a bit lower than I intended, due to a few days of low intake.On most days though I was eating about 2000 calories a day. I did not restrict myself deliberately, but poor planning, not taking enough food to work, and some illness during the trial prevented me from eating enough.

Exercise

I exercised a grand total of 11 times during this raw food diet trial. So the weight loss is not from the exercise.

I didn't expect to have such strong detoxification symptoms as I had already been raw for 2 months, nevertheless that is exactly what happened, and my energy levels were not always up to a lot of exercise.

However, now I'm quite glad that it worked out like that, as this way it is quite clear to me that I lost this weight not from exercising my butt off, nor from starving at 1200 calories a day, which is what I had to do to lose weight last year. This really marks a very low fat raw food diet as being ideal for me, and pretty much what I've been wanting all my life.

Measurements

My measurements have gone down!

I'm particularly happy about that 3 inch loss on my abdomen. That is the measurement taken at the widest part of my abdomen and across my belly button.

Since my middle is always the most problematic area for me, I am very happy about this.

BEFORE	AFTER

According to my flimsy ass plastic calipers I have lost 1.6 percent of body fat during this raw food diet trial. I don't trust the accuracy of these things at all, but as long as it is down from when I started, I am happy.

Wild and Wooly

As you'll see from the photos my hair has gone pretty wild and wooly today, but I did blow dry it so maybe that's why. I am planning to just leave it and keep on going without shampoo for as long as possible. If I have to have a color treatment then I'll have to have a shampoo too, but I'm going to leave it for as long as I can.

I hope it settles down a bit as it might be just a leetle bit crazy wild right now.

Detox Symptoms

I was surprised at how strong my detox symptoms were during this raw food diet trial. I regularly woke up with a snotty nose and I experienced a shallow hacking cough just like the one I used to experience when I still had allergies.

I had skin breakouts, periods of feeling very awake, almost as if I had just had a cup of coffee, an unpleasant wired feeling, and other periods of feeling very fatigued and needing much more rest than I had been accustomed to getting.

I had to forget about trying to get up at 5am every morning and instead stay in bed for the maximum amount of time each day. I think if I hadn't had to go to work I could have easily slept much later each day and it would have been beneficial for my body to cleanse itself.

Endometriosis, PMS and Other Niggling Health Complaints

I was disappointed that I still had a very painful period with strong endometriosis symptoms which necessitated a day off work.

On the plus side though, I did manage to get through this one without any pain killers, so maybe the pain was a little less. I've never been able to do that before, even though I have long had a strong aversion to adding toxins to my body to suppress pain. But I made it this time. So that is a step in the right direction.

I am confident that as I continue to eat well the symptoms will reduce further.

My PMS symptoms were so mild as to barely be noticeable. I had weight fluctuations but they weren't of the uncomfortable swollen up variety. I had short bursts of irritation and anxiety but they were short lived and easy to deal with. My breasts were absolutely fine and never became swollen or painful. Overall, I think that the raw food diet cured my PMS. Even while I was using the natural progesterone cream my symptoms were more noticeable than this. So on the PMS front, this was a great success.

My shoulder pain that flared up from Day 6 to Day 9 was also dealt with without pain killers, and worked itself through without the aid of any oral or topical medication. This is also a first, and I am extremely hopeful that it will soon be a thing of the past.

BEFORE	AFTER

Cravings

My cravings raged through the middle part of this living and raw food diet trial, however in the final week I had no cravings at all. This is where calorie consumption is important, as it is important to eat enough for your needs. As long as hunger was entirely satisfied I found myself free of cravings, but when hungry I craved all sorts of things.

In the past week I have found that even when hungry I haven't craved anything except the delicious fruits and vegetables I've been eating.

I am not craving salty food or fatty food. Those periods of intense cravings for carbohydrates like buckwheat noodles and baked butternut I now believe were simply cravings for more food!

Cravings for tofu and vegetarian sushi were simply cravings for salt as I detoxed from a salt addiction.

Even though I've been counting calories for this raw food diet trial, I felt an aversion to trying to eat a certain number of calories, as I just wanted to eat for hunger. This is great, but there were times when I didn't have enough to eat to satisfy my hunger due to poor planning.

Ripe Fruit

Jaye and I are just starting to get a feel for how much fruit to buy and how often. Even though we were thinking big, we weren't thinking big enough! And we were frequently running low on ripe fruit.

We've realized we need to buy way more than we thought, and every few days just buy more, even though the fruit isn't finished at home. Since the fruit in the shops isn't ripe yet, waiting until our stocks are depleted at home leads to our needs not being adequately met.

Sleep

I needed more sleep during this raw food diet trial, and I'm happy about that as it has made me reflect on the issue a bit more and decide that actually, I'm just going to sleep as much as I need to.

I have been reading Nutrition and Athletic Performance by Dr Douglas Graham and he states that it is amazing how we expect to perform at our peak yet we constantly deprive ourselves of enough rest. Just because you don't feel sleepy in the day doesn't mean that you have had enough rest.

If you have to be dragged out of sleep by an alarm clock then you haven't slept enough. If you wake up and jump out of bed feeling like you couldn't possibly sleep more, THEN you have had enough. If you feel like you could just roll over and sleep some more, then that's exactly what you need. Dr Graham states that we deprive ourselves of sleep yet wonder why we are unmotivated. Adequate rest is essential.

Jaye and I are going to start going to bed earlier and trying to sleep at least 10 hours a night.

Conclusions

This no fat raw food diet trial has been an amazingly positive experience, and I am very glad I did it. I have eaten exactly the same today as I did for the past 30 days, the only difference being that I didn't weigh my food or photograph it.

I see no need to eat any other way. While I will relax a little and allow some fats now and again (up to a 10% maximum), on the whole I will continue eating the same way I have been for this past 30 days.

There were some lows during this raw food diet trial where I felt I wouldn't be able to do it, but 30 days is long enough to get past those feelings. Now I know that eating a low fat raw food diet is the best for me, and also the only way where I get to achieve ideal weight and fitness without any suffering or deprivation, but rather with enjoyment and pleasure, and at the same time achieve the best health of my life.

Well I will end this post the way I've done it all along, with my totals. These are the averages for the entire 30 day no fat raw food diet trial.

Calories 1695, Fat 7.9g, Carbs 423.9g, Dietary Fiber 57.5g, Protein 31.1g.

Percentage Totals: Carbohydrates 90%, Protein 6% and Fat 4%

Thank you for following this no fat raw food diet trial! Without you I may not have done it! Thanks for all the emails and messages of support. It is sincerely appreciated!!!

Related Articles

30 day no fat trial day 30
30 day no fat trial day 20
30 day no fat trial - day 10
30 day no fat trial - day 1

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