Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - The Childhood Years
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: I grew up eating a lot of starch: bread, pasta, potatoes, and though we did eat meat (during the times when we were 'in the money' quite a lot of meat!), we were quite often penniless so we didn't eat as much of it as we may have wanted to. However, we did get through a lot of milk, there was always milk around and we drank it daily.
Bread was pretty much my staple in my childhood and teenage years. I would have toast for breakfast and lunch and then potatoes or rice with gravy for dinner.
I was very skinny throughout my childhood and was also very active. I loved gymnastics and spent most afternoons outdoors either practicing gymnastics or riding a bicycle.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - The Teenage Years
However, once in High School I became more sedentary. Instead of being IN the sea swimming or on a board, now I was lying on the beach trying to look sexy for the boys!
I was also hanging out at friend's houses much more and eating much more meat and eggs and together with my new sedentary trying to look sexy lifestyle became a little on the chubby side for the first time in my life at the age of 13. When an uncle mentioned this to me I was taken completely by surprise, having not noticed this myself at all.
I immediately started dieting, and dieting was something that I would continue for many years.
In those days I thought a person just had to eat a lot less of the same foods in order to be thin, so I would eat one slice of toast for breakfast and lunch and a small dinner. I soon lost any excess weight along with any desire to get back into sports or any other physical activity.
At fourteen I started smoking and this took the focus away from food and made starving a lot easier. I would smoke and drink endless cups of coffee, the odd slice of toast and the milk and sugar in the coffee providing the days calorie intake.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Modeling
It was also at the age of 14 that I started doing some modeling. Nobody ever told me that I needed to lose weight, however, I became convinced that I would look better 'just a few kilos lighter', and this was something that would stick with me throughout my teens and twenties. I always wanted to be a little lighter than I was, no matter how small I was.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Modeling Pic 14 years old.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - First Proper Job
When I started my first proper job at 16 I delighted in the fact that the job required me to do a lot of walking. I was an office junior in a law firm and I had to run errands to the banks, to the Inland Revenue offices, to the courts, to other attorney's offices etc.
I would walk briskly in my little kitten heels for a couple of hours a day, and subsist on a tiny bran muffin at 10am each day, and a small dinner at 5:30pm with my mother and siblings, usually consisting of some rice or potatoes, a couple of veggies and some gravy. There would usually be some mincemeat in the gravy, but you'd kind of need a magnifying glass to find it.
My daily calorie intake at this time was well under 1000 calories per day during the week. On weekends I would have the urge to binge drink and would do so, drinking can after can of cider until I passed out, never imagining that my desire for alcohol might just have been my bodies desperate call for more carbohydrates/calories. I would also dream about food constantly and whenever I had some money spare (not often) would binge out on chocolates that I would buy WHOLESALE - I'm talking large amounts of chocolate in one go!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Smoking Away My Life
I smoked my way through lunches and tea time breaks and was quick to light up after dinner so that I didn't have too much time to notice that I was hungry.
Even though I was skinny, I still had excess fat on me (skinny fat) and was never actually lean, my stomach was never completely flat, there was always a small roll when I sat down, and I thought this meant I needed to eat less so I could lose some more weight, not realizing that what I needed to do was to eat more (a lot more!) and exercise!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: This photo was taken when I was 16.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Spastic Colons and other Health Complaints
In terms of my overall health, on the whole I seemed pretty healthy. However, I did get regular colds and flu along with everyone else.
I also had a spastic colon. This would flare up from time to time and would be so bad that I would have to be taken to hospital and would then be given an injection and then I would be fine again. Funnily enough, the times that it flared up the worst were always after I had been out to dinner with a boyfriend. If I found myself at a restaurant my favorite thing to order was a steak! And every time I ate a big piece of meat my spastic colon freaked out in a big way.
The doctors told me that I needed fiber and gave me some fiber in a bottle that I mixed with water each day. This didn't help at all.
I was always constipated.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - New Boyfriends
When I was eighteen and moved to a new city and a new job with a huge amount more responsibility, I began to starve more and then binge more. No wonder, there will always be a rebound effect to starvation. Bingeing will always happen eventually.
I got a new boyfriend and this one loved to make me delicious food, breakfasts in bed, lavish dinners. And he loved to buy me boxes of chocolates! I couldn't stop myself and gobbled it all with enthusiasm. Within weeks I was too chubby to fit into any of my clothes.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Purging
I began to purge. I started to take diet pills to suppress my appetite and did not eat for 10 days at a time. Or I would just not eat during the week and save myself for the weekend when I would have blow out feasts with my boyfriend. My weight went up and down by 10 or 15 pounds on almost a weekly basis.
Gradually the binges were outweighing the purges and my weight was creeping up slowly. Yep, it's a little known fact that those with eating disorders are often fat. Starving and bingeing/purgin is NOT a good route to a lean and healthy body weight.
My relationship ended very badly and in the resulting trauma I began to eat pies every day at work. I worked for a distribution company and we supplied various bakeries with flour. I had great relationships with all the customers and I could get free pies whenever I wanted.
I started tucking in. After a few months and a good few pounds I dumped the pies and purged again with an extended period on diet pills, cigarettes and coffee.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - The Next Boyfriend
My next boyfriend came along and we moved in together within a month of knowing each other. We drank a lot and smoked a lot and ate big unhealthy meals together. In an effort to keep myself attractive, I would starve all day long and then only eat at night when we were together.
However, there was too much fattening stuff going in along with alcohol at these evening celebrations, and skipping breakfast and lunch just wasn't going to cut it. I also wouldn't have known a workout if it slapped me in the face.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - It's time to weigh everything!
When I was 20 I heard about a weight loss organization named Weigh Less. Their plan was a calorie restricted (roughly 1500 calories per day) plan, where you weighed all your food and were allowed a certain number of serves per day.
So for example, I was allowed 5 serves of complex carbohydrates per day, and one serve would be 70g of potato. So I didn't count calories, I counted serves, and Weigh Less did not include junk food items at all or refined sugar, so it did force you to improve your eating habits.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Giving It A Go!
Weigh Less was a slightly better idea than what I had been doing, so at the time it was good for me, at least it insisted that I had to eat all my serves each day. So from feeling out of control and getting all my calories from alcohol and junk food, I instead started eating 5 serves of vegetables per day, 3 serves of fruits, no refined sugar, lean meats, no oils etc.
The first week I did it, I thought 'oh well I'll just do it as a laugh, there's no way this will ever work, I'm eating way too much.' At my first weigh in I discovered I had lost 1.5 pounds.
I was overjoyed! To think I could actually eat that much food and still lose weight was marvelous. I was hooked. This was my first introduction to the idea that you could eat a lot more food when it was low calorie, high volume food. I was thrilled to eat big portions of salads and cooked vegetables and still lose weight. I remained addicted to regular cups of coffee and plenty of cigarettes though to push away any hunger pangs. I'm afraid that anyone who thinks 1500 calories a day is enough food for an adult person is dreaming.
I stayed on Weigh Less for many years and always came back to it when things seemed out of control. I weighed every morsel, I knew it worked for weight loss, and it was something that I could always return to as a means to 'control' my need for food.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Staying Skinny!
I was able to stay skinny (or skinny fat at least) for many years following this plan, and when I became a vegetarian at the age of 22, I just substituted vegetarian options for the meat options and it was all fine and dandy. I always felt like I 'should' exercise and constantly made plans to start an exercise routine 'tomorrow' or 'on Monday' but could never find the energy. Is it any wonder when I was consuming only the amount of calories needed just to keep my body functioning even if I was lying down all day? Where was the extra energy for exercise supposed to come from?
So without exercise, skinny fat was the best I could do. I looked skinny, but still had the little roll on my tummy, and was not lean. I thought I just needed to lose a few more pounds.
I remember telling my older sister one day that I was permanently hungry and had got used to that feeling, and I felt surprised when she regarded that as a really sad thing to hear.
During a low time in my life while living in London I began to purge again and for a period of about a year ate well under 1000 calories a day from food (eating only once a day, usually a 700 calorie cheese sandwich). I didn't connect the dots with my increased desire for alcohol during this time, binge drinking a few times a week. This definitely did not help my frame of mind.
This period of starvation culminated in a period where I lost all control with food and binged non stop for about 6 months on everything I could find, eating entire pizzas followed by whole cheesecakes and downing it all with liters of coca cola. I was totally insatiable. My body was playing catch up. Having starved for so long and lowered my metabolism the fat gain was truly tremendous. Then I returned to what I knew - calorie restriction - and took it off again.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Adult Acne?
In the meantime my constipation had continued. I had bad period pains. At the age of 23 I had to go to the doctor to get a topical lotion to treat my 'adult acne' (I had never had a spot in my life before then, luckily the lotion worked and it never recurred).
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: I was 23 in the picture below.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Modeling, Hormonal Problems and all sorts of other irritations!
I got into modeling again at age 27 after a break of many years, and that really caused some major weight stress again, as the agency always wanted me to 'lose a few pounds' so that my face would get that sculpted look. This in spite of the fact that I only weighed 114 pounds! I just did not know how to lose weight other than to restrict my food intake, and the most I could manage was a couple of workouts per week with my energy levels and this wasn't going to result in the bikini body I needed for castings.
When I was 28 I began to have some hormonal problems, hair falling out of my head, growing back on my face type of thing. One doctor said my symptoms seemed to be in line with PCOS.
My period pains were worse than ever and the doctor diagnosed my symptoms as endometriosis.
I also had severe allergies that had just seemed to come out of nowhere. I was now permanently on allergy medication to control the symptoms.
I also had chronic PMS, recurring shoulder pain, recurring terrible pain in my leg muscles, frequent indigestion (and I always had to have some indigestion medication nearby), fatigue, headaches and frequent colds and flu, I also suffered from frequent anxiety, restlessness and insomnia.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Modeling Pictures - Age 27
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - It Starts Getting Better!
I quit smoking in 2004 just before I met Jaye. I still drank alcohol and used regular caffeine as a way to suppress appetite and help me to remain thin. Jaye and I had a very positive effect on each other and together switched to a vegan and high raw diet in 2005. I instantly said goodbye to the constipation, the allergies, headaches, indigestion, leg pain and fatigue. Within 3 days of cutting out the dairy I threw away all my medications.
However, changing my diet, quitting smoking, cutting the caffeine and cutting way back on the drinking caused me to feel completely out of control with food again. I had this seemingly insatiable hunger and nothing to control it with now!
I could no longer do Weigh Less, as I was now convinced that a high fruit, vegan diet was the way forward. But without following an eating plan and being told what to eat and when and how much (and weighing it out), and using any means necessary to ignore my hunger drive, I had no idea how to control my hunger and thus (so I thought) to control my weight.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - 'Like An Alcoholic With the Keys to the Brewery!'
So I was like an alcoholic with the keys to the brewery, I just ate and ate. I felt like no matter how much I ate I was still hungry. The information I was getting at the time also led me to believe that high fat foods were excellent for me provided they were raw and plant based. So I tucked into the nuts and avocados and cold pressed oils like there was no tomorrow, and unfortunately since these foods provide plenty of calories but very little satiation, I was in for a rocky ride.
Since I no longer smoked or took drugs, there was nothing to distract me from eating.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Getting Puffy With It
So I puffed up at a HECK of a rate again. Within a few weeks I had packed on twenty pounds. The only way I knew to deal with being overweight, was to starve. So the yo-yo began again, this time with an emphasis on more 'healthy' means of getting rid of weight.
I would starve and binge. I would water fast and binge. I did the master cleanse, I spent a fortune on supplements, I did all sorts of short term quick fix things that just left me feeling more fragile emotionally and more confused than ever about what to eat on a daily basis to be healthy and satisfy my continuous hunger, while NOT BEING FAT.
However, the calorie restriction that I had subjected myself to for so many years had to have a rebound effect, and unfortunately I would take a few more years to truly understand that and so continued to ride the yo-yo and abuse my body. You cannot starve your body long term and not expect to pay the price for it at some point.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Pictured below - Gaining Weight
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Confused and Upset!
I so wanted to be able to put dieting behind me, to find a way to eat where I didn't have to restrict and could get in touch with my own hunger without it being my mortal enemy. At the same time I had attached so much fear and shame to being chubby that 'needing' to lose weight consumed me to the point that this was not a goal that was likely to be realized.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Taking Off The Chub!
In 2008, at the age of 31, while living in Taiwan and after another 10 day water fast had resulted in serious weight gain after bingeing on fatty cooked foods in spite of a resolve to eat raw foods 100% for 6 weeks, I decided to go back to a little organized semi-starvation.
I began counting calories again and ate 1200 calories of plant foods per day. Most of the food (other than a little oatmeal with my banana at breakfast time and a few other items here and there) was raw. I also joined the gym and started working out hard with weights and doing low intensity cardio (I couldn't do any more than that with so few calories coming in!). The fatty foods were thrown out as of course when you are keeping your calories low you soon realize that any fatty foods are not worth their cost in calories and don't provide much satiation.
I lost the weight. Of course. But I STILL wasn't lean. And I was STARVING.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials - Pictured here in late 2008.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Calorie Counting for ever? No way!
However, I couldn't continue to live by rushing off to my computer every time I ate something to record the calories so that I didn't go over my daily allowance. I was also VERY hungry on only 1200 calories per day and struggled increasingly to keep it so low. I remember many nights crying to Jaye that I was so, SO hungry. I just didn't know what else to do though. Nothing else seemed to result in thinness. I was terrified the weight would come back, and I knew that it had to at some stage, there was no way I could keep this starvation thing going long-term, I was just worn out with it!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Back Into Bad Habits
I lived in panic and fear that I would put the weight back on again. I felt food obsessed and was always getting out the calculator and trying frantically to count every calorie. I also slipped back into some bad habits, made tempting by the power of starvation. Diet sodas with bubbles that made my stomach feel fuller and caffeine to give me a little buzz became irresistable from time and time and I would sneak them as my naughty little secret. Coffee and tea became very tempting too and wine and beer? Irresistable. This way of living was no fun at all, really.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Let the Chips fall where they may!
Jaye loved me whether fat or thin and just wished I would forget about my weight, just eat as much healthy food as I desired and exercise and be happy and allow the chips to fall wherever they may.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - What You Think About You Bring About
After a few months of maintaining the weight loss, the weight started to creep back on as of course it had to. I just couldn't conceive of a lifetime of starvation. I didn't want to continue with health damaging behaviors in order to be thin. I wanted to be a different person. I was older now, I had no desire to abuse myself the way I had done in my teens and twenties.
So when I heard about these folks doing 100% raw diets, who never had to worry about their weight, and ate whatever they wanted, I wanted some of what they had!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - The Raw Food Diet comes to the Rescue! Or does it?
THIS must be what I had been searching for all these years.
What I had been doing wrong was CLEARLY that I was only doing high raw, and not 100% raw.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - And Nothing Really Changes: The definition of insanity? Doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result.
Unfortunately, I took my old ideas and fears along with me to the raw food lifestyle and carried on the same behaviours as before. Restricting intake, losing energy for exercise as a result, bingeing, losing weight and lean muscle mass and then gaining a disproportionate amount of fat onto the body as a result and then starting at the beginning again with restricting intake.
But I thought it was ALL different this time. THIS time I was trying to be 100% raw, and 100% raw was going to solve ALL my problems. If I could only do it RIGHT, then I would be thin and happy forever.
So I was trying to be 100% raw while restricting intake, and then would find myself bingeing on cooked food. Then I would beat myself up and say if I could ONLY be 100% raw then my life would be perfect. When in fact the only thing that needed to REALLY change was my entire mindset and belief structure around my body and weight. Whether the food was cooked or raw was largely irrelevant.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - A Raw Food Mentor!
In July 2009 I did some mentoring with the fabulous Freelee, and she told me to eat more, LOTS more and exercise more. She encouraged me to eat 3000 calories a day. I thought she was totally CRAZY! I wanted to believe her, but I just didn't. HOW could I possibly get results eating like this? Sure, maybe it worked for her, but me? No way, I would get SO FAT if I ate that much.
However, I sort of gave it a go, I ate as much as she said, and did P90X, along with some running and cycling at the same time and lost a bit of weight. However, I ate some cooked vegan food while mentoring with her, didn't want to tell her about it (felt ashamed, bizarre isn't it!), so cut our mentoring session short, and went off and continued with my negative thought and behavior patterns. I just wasn't ready to let the struggle go.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Restricting Again
So I restricted, then ate cooked food, then went back and restricted with raw food. Then I went to New York and all the raw food restaurants and vegan restaurants and ate about 5000 calories a day from high fat foods in restaurants (no joke) and did no exercise. Gained a bunch of weight, came back to Dubai, went back to 100% raw and tried to keep the calories 'in check', lost some,binged out and gained some, lost some, binged again and gained some, forgot about exercise. And all the while all my thoughts and feelings were totally focused on what I didn't want to happen.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Panicking!
I became panicked and miserable and my thoughts started to spiral out of control. I started to expect the scale to go all the way back up to my highest weight ever, and I actually started to make it happen!
Far from using positive visualizations I went the other way and imagined myself blowing up into a whale.
This is so often how we sabotage ourselves, we are so scared of something happening, that we make it happen, feeling unconsciously that if the worst happens than there will be nothing more to fear.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Exercise goes out the window!
The P90X, running and cycling that I was doing before I went to New york, went out the window. I was restricting my intake of 'high calorie' fruits such as bananas and dates so not eating enough carbohydrates and therefore had much less energy available TO exercise. Also, exercise is a totally positive thing, and when you're stuck in a totally negative mindframe, you just can't be bothered. I completely sabotaged myself and my own success!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Giving It The Odd Go
Now and again, I would give it a real go, I would eat 2500 + calories of fruit per day and feel AMAZING! My sister would often do the same, and after a few days of this we would be feeling SO amazing we would be phoning each other and saying 'what the hell!!!! Why don't we ALWAYS do this?'. I would get back into exercise, feel just GREAT. But then I would get busy and 'forget' to eat, get really hungry, not have ripe fruit on hand, eat cooked food, feel bad, bloated and fat, allow the negative thoughts to creep in and sabotage me again, and then the old patterns would just recur.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Self Sabotage
I knew it while I was doing it, I knew it was pure self sabotage, but I lacked the faith in myself and my own body, I lacked the faith that I could just let it GO, let it be,without trying to control the outcome. I didn't truly believe that I could eat for health and pleasure, not weight loss, exercise for joy, not calorie burn, and allow my body to do the work, to repair itself after all those years of starvation and abuse and just LET IT GO.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Acceptance
After some more hitting my head against a brick wall (quite a lot more unfortunately, humans are SLOW learners!), I FINALLY realized that in order for me to get back to a positive attitude towards food and towards my natural survival instincts and hunger drive, I had to FOREVER forget about calorie restriction. The body is so much wiser than we can ever be, how dare we decide that our hunger drive needs to be controlled? We don't try to control our need for oxygen! Why try to control our need for food?
I finally realized that I had to eat as much as I needed of healthy plant foods and forget about weight completely, and focus exclusively on health and fitness. I had to allow my body (and particularly my MIND) to balance itself at its OWN pace.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Taking My Own Advice
I realized that my body is a reflection of my thoughts and behaviors and I had to start creating the kind of person that I truly wanted to be.
And this person is NOT a starved, disordered, miserable mess thinking about what she might or might not eat all day long!!!
I had to start taking my own advice. The advice I would give others would always be to love and accept themselves and embrace every aspect of their journey and to NOURISH their bodies with PLENTY of great healthy food and enjoyable exercise. Yet I had not been taking my own advice.
Raw Food Diet Tesimonials: Alison's Story - It all starts with a thought!
Your mind is your most powerful weapon, you can use it to get you where you want to be, or you can turn it against yourself and sabotage yourself forever.
The current shape of your body is a result of your thoughts and beliefs. Negative thoughts become negative actions and your body is exactly as your focused thoughts and beliefs created it to be.
Embarking on a wonderful raw diet can be the most positive and enjoyable experience of your life, but it is NOT a cure all. You still have to face all your underlying issues that have led you to where you currently are. Food is just ONE part of health, there are so many more facets.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Putting Disorders To Rest
I decided to embrace the fact that I am on a journey, and the destination is certain, the destination is the best version of myself that I can possibly be, but every step of the journey towards that goal is going to be filled with enjoyment, love and light.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - I just had to get out of my head about it, just do it and love every step of the process!
With these realizations comes the real joy of a raw vegan diet. I have experienced such amazing benefits, but at times I allowed that to be overshadowed by the enormous fear of a number on a scale. However, we can all change in an instant and that way of thinking is happily in the past.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Alison's Story - Raw Food Benefits
I am 35 years old now and people seldom think I am any older than 27.
My skin is wrinkle free and in perfect condition.
My hair is long and shiny.
My eyes are clear and sparkly.
My teeth are strong and white!
I have no need to wear make up (though I do if I want to, I never need to).
I can spend as much time in the sun as I please and I never burn.
I have loads of energy!
I no longer have any cravings for sweets (or alcohol or sodas) as my sweet tooth is very well catered for on a daily basis with all the fruit I eat.
I feel very satisfied with my food.
I am very enthusiastic and energetic.
I can focus extremely well for long hours.
My singing voice is better than ever and I don't even need to warm it up!
I am fit and strong.
I look forward to getting older as I don't fear wrinkles and in fact expect to get better looking as I go and as I become more adept at following this lifestyle.
I can pinpoint the source of a bad mood and eliminate it immediately just by giving my body what it needs, i.e. hydration, carbohydrates (from fruit), rest.
I no longer suffer from hormonal problems, no more PMS, the endometriosis I suffered with so horribly is now well managed - I never had to have surgery or take drugs, and my periods are only 2-3 days.
I feel enormous happiness and joy.
I feel in a constant state of personal growth and positive change. I have such enormous dreams for the future and daily experience the thrill of making them happen and knowing I am bringing about everything I have ever wanted.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials - Jaye's Raw Food Success Story!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye grew up on a relatively 'healthy' diet of mostly home cooked meals, always including lots of cooked vegetables, salads and fresh fruit, though the cooked veggies were liberally doused in salt and butter, and there was plenty of meat, dairy, eggs and starch in the diet too.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Typical menu growing up
A typical breakfast would be cereal or porridge and eggs and bacon on toast. Lunch would be sandwiches with left over meats from the night before, or egg mayonnaise, and often included raw vegetables and dips or fresh fruit.
Dinners were roast chicken or beef, roast potatoes, vegetables, rice, gravy, but always served with a salad. Desserts such as cheesecakes, chocolate brownies, milk tarts or doughnuts were served about three times a week.
Being highly athletic, surfing and playing basketball daily, Jaye burned through calories at an enormous rate and so ate a huge amount of food. Two thousand calories for breakfast alone would be pretty standard!
Between meal snacks consisted of chocolates, chips or cookies.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Favorite four course restaurant meal growing up
If he went out to a restaurant in his teens his favorite meal was a large garlic bread starter drenched in mozzarella and cheddar cheese.
This was followed by garlic snails with bread to dip. Then a 500g T Bone steak with french fries and pepper sauce. He washed this down with a double thick chocolate milkshake and finished off the meal with chocolate mousse. He would leave the restaurant with space to spare! If he was at a buffet he would start on one side and gradually make his way to the other side: eight or ten huge plates of rich food would not be unusual.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - The effects of a rich diet start to become undeniable
In his twenties, he found his energy levels weren't keeping up to the standard of his teens, and to maintain his active lifestyle of daily surfing, martial arts and gym training, he started to do the 'healthy' smoothie thing: eggs, protein powders, peanut butter, bananas, milk, all blended up into a smoothie.
Pictured below: Jaye in his early twenties.
His lifestyle and work schedule left little time for cooking and convenience foods also started to predominate, take out pizzas and pastas became common.
Throughout his life he suffered severe blinding headaches about once a week. He also suffered regular colds and flu along with everyone else. He had random asthma attacks and allergy attacks. He often had either constipation, or diarrhea. He suffered from frequent nose bleeds.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Initial rapid weight loss caused many to think his new diet may be harmful
When Jaye initially began to clean up his diet along with me in 2005, he rapidly lost a lot of weight. This was because he went from eating a three course lunch (and that's three MAIN courses) at a restaurant each day, consisting of a steak roll, a burger, and a chicken salad washed down with a half liter of beer shandy, along with a HUGE breakfast and dinner, to suddenly cutting out all the meat, dairy, eggs and processed foods and then just eating a few pieces of fruit for breafkast and wandering around at lunchtimes not knowing WHAT to eat, so just not eating anything and then having a baked potato and some salad for dinner!
OF COURSE, he had slashed his daily calories to a fraction of the previous levels, so he lost a bunch of weight. Then he figured out how to eat enough calories from vegan foods, and what he could and couldn't eat, and then he easily regained his previous weight.
His symptoms rapidly began to clear up, he still got the odd cold or flu but it was never severe, his allergies cleared up, the nosebleeds ceased and so did the headaches. His stomach problems lessened considerably.
Pictured below: Jaye in 2008 on a high raw vegan diet.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Everything begins to work beautifully on a raw diet
When he adopted a mostly raw diet with most of his calories coming from fruit in late 2008 Jaye saw further massive improvement in the way he felt and now seldom suffers from any of these symptoms.
He never gets sick now. The 'normal' colds and flu are a thing of the past. His stomach works perfectly (provided he combines correctly of course) and he never gets headaches.
He has tons of energy now, and easily copes with a demanding job, loads of exercise and has energy to spare for side projects that interest him.
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Raw Food Benefits
Jaye is lean and strong with low body fat levels at an age when most other men are starting to get paunchy.
When he grew his hair long his hair was so amazingly healthy that people regularly came up to him to ask him his secret.
His eyes are clear and sparkly.
He has enormous energy and never has the post lunch slump that seems to affect some of his colleagues.
He is almost always in a fabulous mood.
He is 34, yet most people think he is in his mid twenties (can be annoying too when they talk down to you!).
He has never needed to take a day off work due to illness since changing his diet.
He sleeps well.
He exercises intensely and recovers optimally.
He is incredibly fit and strong.
He raced his first 10 kilometer and did it in 47 minutes (for a first time race, this is amazing!!)
His first 5 kilometer was in 22 minutes!
His resting heart rate is super low and V02 max is super high!
Raw Food Diet Testimonials: Jaye's Story - Moving Forward
Jaye's goals for the future include competing in various sports, since there is no sign of any aging or degeneration and he is fitter and stronger than ever, he looks forward to enjoying sport for many years to come. He also looks forward to improving his diet and lifestyle all the more and reaping the rewards into the future.
So that concludes the raw food diet testimonials for Alison and Jaye.
And this is a video we filmed about living the raw food lifestyle as a couple!
