Raw Food Diet Health - Jules's Raw Food Success Story

My gorgeous South African friend Jules has a wonderful raw food diet health success story to share.

I am actually SO excited to share this story with you, Julie is SUCH an amazing testament to how WONDERFULLY well this lifestyle works, when all the factors come together.

It's not JUST about food, it's about being FIT (you can't be healthy unless you are ALSO FIT!), finding joy in movement, connecting with your compassion and empathy, getting enough rest and sunshine.

Nothing works as well as a high fruit, low fat raw food lifestyle, if YOU work it. Jules is someone who wanted to succeed, embraced all the factors leading to health and therefore succeeded fabulously.

This is her raw food diet health success story in her own words as shared with Loving-It-Raw in June 2011.

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - Introduction

Hello and thank you for this great opportunity! I’m 28, proudly South-African and my hometown is Jozi Gauteng.

Currently I am working part time as a business process analyst in the mining sector, and recently graduated with a BCom Informatics degree. 

I am currently passionately working on also doing lifestyle coaching and giving vegan health talks in my free time, making low fat raw vegan and fruitarian recipes and I love writing / blogging; I paint sometimes and love the outdoors.

Getting out in nature, body boarding, indoor rock climbing, sunbathing, hiking, and swimming are some of my favourite things.  Currently I’m doing boot camp exercises to get fit and in shape fast!

I have now been married for almost 5 years. My husband Janus is also vegan. He is 90% on fruit and 10% on cooked healthy vegan meals.

Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - Below: Jules's husband Janus

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - The factors leading to a vegan/raw lifestyle

Throughout my life I was searching for a cure for my cold sores (fever blisters), severe acne, hormone problems and obesity and this search led me to discover the holistic fruitarian lifestyle to ultimately build up my immune system and cleanse my body from the inside out.

I was drawn to the fact that it’s not just a diet, but an ethical and holistic lifestyle in harmony with nature and our beautiful earth which includes optimal nutrition, sunshine, water, fresh air, exercise, sleep, love, kindness, faith, and true character.

Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - Below: Jules Before

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - The dietary progression

As a child I ate mostly fruit as my dad had a big yard with lots of fruit trees. Mulberries were my staple. I did however also eat lots of meat and dairy during the evenings, mostly chicken, lamb, beef and fish and veggies smothered in unhealthy sauces.

At the age of 10 we moved to a small holding and I ate more meat and dairy than ever before. I was so obese at the age of 12 that I wore a size 42 jeans. Today I am a size 32.

Since about January 2007 I had been following a vegetarian diet, I fell off the wagon for about a month in December 2008 and got back on track until May 2009 which is when I went vegan.

That was the turning point as research into healthy living then became me and my husband’s main focus. It was only a month that I was eating a healthy cooked food vegan diet before I found the fruitarian diet and plunged right into it in June 2009.

In 2010 I took up a very stressful job and fell off the wagon again eating some vegan cooked at night but still a high fruit diet – about 85% fruit. I then fell off the wagon a little bit more and ate sometimes even vegetarian, but hardly ever, only as I was on the go during working time and didn’t find time to prepare smoothies etc.

In January 2011 I made the lifelong commitment to be a vegan and up until now my diet has been 90% fruit and 10% cooked healthy vegan meals. Some days I eat 100% raw fruit. It gets easier and most days I average 95% raw fruit and 5% cooked. Currently I try to keep nuts, dried fruit, olives and avocadoes to a limit (1%). I never eat seeds and all my fruit meals are mono meals.

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - How I felt on a meat/dairy diet

I felt horrible on a meat/dairy diet! I had constant constipation, depression, tiredness and irritability. I was permanently sick with flu or bronchitis and experienced weekly / monthly huge fever blister breakouts (cold sores on my lips) together with horrible skin problems and hormone imbalances if I did not use the contraception pill. I was obese, unfit, undercarbed and totally imbalanced.  In return, I never felt like exercising or getting out in nature at all.

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - 'I make sure I eat at least 2500 calories of fruit or more per day!'

It’s difficult for me to really break it down into breakfast / lunch / dinner, but I make sure I eat at least 2500 calories of fruit or more per day.

Usually in the early mornings I would start off with either 1 litre orange juice or grapefruit juice freshly squeezed with the pulp. Sometimes even more up to 1,5 litres. After at least 45 minutes I will prepare 10-15 dates blended in water or 6 bananas blended in water.

By lunch time I would have more of these smoothies which are my staple really, about 10 bananas or 10 dates. In between I snack on berries or apples or whichever delicate fruit I can get hold of.

Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - Below: Banana Smoothies

Late afternoons when I get home from work, I exercise and either have 1 glass green cucumber/lemon juice or sacred pineapple juice instead.

Other times I would eat a half a watermelon or half a box lychees, especially in summer. In the evenings I hardly ever eat cooked meals and rather make a huge green salad with tomatoes, avocado, cucumber with cooked beans or sweet potatoes as a mini side order (as little as possible) and mostly I make cucumber spaghetti with tomato pâté over the top.

Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - Below: Jules's kitchen

Sometimes I will have another banana smoothie a while after “dinner” or in summer when mangoes are in season, I'll have mangoes blended into a smoothie, or replace the salad with a whole mono fruit meal of whichever fruit I feel like having in a large quantity.

Other vegan cooked food I eat is soup or thai stirfry with millet.  I preferably try and eat seasonal and locally grown organic fruit. If I could be in an orchard the whole day, I'd eat the whole day as much as I can and embrace each unique fruit.

Jules's Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - The benefits!

I lost 16 kg (35 pounds), I have no more acne problems at all and I don’t use any pills, supplements or contraceptives and not only is my skin crystal clear, it shines!

I have much more energy and a zest for life, I have lost most of my cellulite which was on my legs,  98% of my varicose veins disappeared from my legs, my skin is also much softer and flexible, my hormone problems disappeared completely, I don’t have any constipation, I sleep deeper and I have extremely vivid dreams and a most remarkable increase in my sex drive.

Believe it or not my eyesight has also improved. I wear 2 different strengths of contact lenses in each eye and the strength has now improved so that they are closer together.

Also the more fruit I eat, the more I am able to handle wearing contact lenses in the dry winter climate.

My hair is thicker, I experienced a major hair loss in the beginning (very common when people are making a major health change), but now every day I see new hair and it  is a lot thicker than before.

My nails do not break as easily as they used to and I don’t have any bad body odor any more.

My tastes have changed dramatically and I can now eat stuff I never used to like at all. My sense of smell has improved too, when I walk into a supermarket or a fruit and veg shop, the first thing that attracts me is the sacred pineapples.

Unlucky people who eat meat or dairy smell HORRIFIC to me with rotten corpse smell hanging in the air!

In the past, I never sweat even with hard training, now I do, and only smell sweet.

Spiritually, I cannot discuss here what it means to me as it is very deep and personal, but it has brought me in close contact with what and who I really am and look forward to becoming.  To me kindness, compassion, character and truth has brought on a whole new meaning / dimension.

Jules Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - The Challenges

The challenges for me are:

• Not having optimal fruit supply around all the time.
• In winter it can be hard to stay raw.
• Stress levels at work may also not be good if you are trying to go raw.
• Making a point of eating a lot of fruit.
• Fruit prices.
• City life.

Jules Raw Food Diet Health Success Story - All about Weight Loss!

For the first 5 months I saw dramatic weight loss results, thereafter for the following year I continued to lose slowly and I am still losing the last bit of fat…

'I only count calories because I want to ensure that I eat enough so that my body will have enough fuel for living a high vibe lifestyle with loads of exercise and energy.'

If I have reached the target point (2500 calories minimum), I don’t record religiously after that, just to track it for interest sake but I don’t want to become a mad fruit scientist at all.

YES I always eat enough. My goal is to eat a wide variety of fruit and also enough calories.

Jules Raw Food Diet Success Story - The Future!

I am striving towards 100% ethical raw fruitarianism, where I can live out in nature on the beach with a banana plantation in my back yard, body boarding all day long getting enough sunshine, fresh air, exercise, fruit and sleep and coaching people into bettering their lifestyles overall.

Jules Raw Food Diet Success Story - Thoughts on Aging

Fruit can only make you younger ;)

Jules Raw Food Diet Success Story - Advice for those new to this lifestyle

It’s not a diet! This is a way of living and will require a whole lot of positive changes that you will need to embrace.

The faster you embrace them, the more drastic your results will be.

Making that mind shift and dealing with the social part is something you will have to think about. You'll have to decide how you’ll go about it.

Never argue with people, it drains all your positive energy so realise that some people will have to be loved from a distance. Stand up for the truth, show others how amazing it is by walking the talk in absolute kindness and compassion and always keep it real.

Eat more than you EVER imagined, eat your heart out, live this lifestyle in abundance!

Make sure to get enough fruit calories, work it out on cron-o-meter if you must. Make sure you also incorporate enough water to keep hydrated, enough sleep to repair muscles and cells, enough sunshine to absorb Vitamin D and start glowing!

Make an effort to exercise and train as hard as you possibly can, get enough fresh air and incorporate a lot of deep breathing exercises, laugh as much as you can, let go of emotional baggage, forgive everyone and make things right even if you were right, have faith in yourself and in God, be as kind as you possibly can to every creature, every person, every plant and everything given to you or that your heart touches.

Just go out there and be a remarkable compassionate kind and loving fruitarian! Never look back and always remember you are the change everyone needs in this world.

My links:
Jules's Blog
Before and after shots
My Blood Test Results
Interesting Ideas with Fruit

This was a fruit presentation I did at church at our VEGAN outreach day – to promote a healthy lifestyle.

So that concludes Jules's wonderfully inspirational raw food diet health success story. I seriously had tears in my eyes reading the section on compassion and being the change the world needs. Jules and her hubby Janus are creating a wonderfully positive impact on this planet, that is for sure!

What I also love about Jules's raw food diet health story is that it shows that you don't have to be 100% perfect ALL the time. Sure she eats some cooked vegan foods now and again. This does not interfere with her results, as you can see she looks AMAZING! What an awesome figure! This body does not come about by only embracing ONE aspect of health, such as the food part, a beautiful body, mind and spirit such as Jules has comes about from embracing ALL the aspects of health.

I hear from people sometimes who treat this like a 'diet', focusing ONLY on food, neglecting exercise, adequate sleep, positive thoughts etc, don't turn themselves into supermodels in two weeks and then decide that the diet 'doesn't work'. Well that is just about as logical as picking up a guitar and trying to play it for 2 weeks and then deciding that guitar 'doesn't work' because you didn't become Jimmi Hendrix in 2 weeks.

This lifestyle works FOR EVERYONE, when you work it and Jules is proof of that!

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