Old Post #6: Introduction

This post is the sixth in a series of posts I did three years ago, from two old blogs of mine.  The previous posts in this series came from a weight loss blog, and this post was the first, introductory post on an exclusively raw blog.  For reference, this was written one year before I found out about my aneurysm (I knew about the valve already, but the valve wasn't an urgent issue).  At the time I was six weeks away from giving birth to my fifth child.

Introduction - Originally posted on June 21, 2007

For those of you who don't know me from my other blogs, I am a stay at home mom of four children, ages five and under, and expecting baby number five in August. I am morbidly obese, and have suffered from numerous "co-morbidities" such as sleep apnea, gestational diabetes, and other minor problems.


Really, I'm lucky my health isn't worse. I don't have type II diabetes (yet), no heel spurs, no bad knees, and my blood pressure is fabulous. In fact it's gotten even better on raw, though it was great to begin with. However, I do have increasing back problems, mostly while pregnant, and have been experiencing insomnia, anxiety, depression, pubic bone pain (pregnancy-related), pain in my back when I walk, some kind of muscle pain in my groin/leg area when I walk, difficulty breathing at night (serious nasal mucus, it gets worse every pregnancy) and probably a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.


Most of these symptoms are gone or seriously diminished since I started raw on May 20, 2007. Within a day, the insomnia was gone, the anxiety and depression are almost gone, the pain when I walk is virtually gone, I had more energy, the mucus is diminished, and I felt much more patient with my children. For the first two and a half weeks I did great, around 80-90% raw. Cut way back on the meat and dairy. No fast food, chocolate, or diet soda. (A miracle!)


After a few weeks, I found it hard to plan ahead and prepare my meals. I'm making separate meals for me, my children, and my husband (he works a late shift). I tried getting them on raw, it was working well, but after less than a week we realized we couldn't afford it right now. After that, I too often let myself go hungry, and then made some bad choices (pizza a few times, along with diet soda, and fast food a couple of times). I still haven't had cravings for chocolate, and one day I was feeling really down and planned to go buy some chocolate junk food at the store, but when I got there, I didn't want it, so I bought raw food...and THAT was a miracle! I'm normally a total chocoholic!


The first week I lost 9 pounds, then 2 pounds the second. This past week I lost another pound or two. I'm not worried about it, because my ultrasounds are showing normal growth in the baby. A lot of it was water weight, because my face and fingers got thinner.


I feel so much better now that I eat raw. If you had told me two months ago I'd be eating this way, I'd have thought you were crazy. But it's not hard. I actually enjoy eating this way. My tastes are changing. As long as I don't let myself go hungry, I truly WANT to eat raw fruits and vegetables. I feel so much better when I do. As soon as I eat cooked food, I feel bad the next day. A few days of just one cooked meal per day, and I feel significantly worse...and MUCH worse if it's takeout or fast food.


I know I need to eat this way for my health, even if I don't lose weight...although I know I'll lose a whole bunch of weight, fast, once I'm not pregnant anymore. This blog is to document my experiences eating "living foods", and to help me stay on the straight and narrow, and stay motivated. I've tried every diet in the book, and none has been as easy and enjoyable and effective as the raw way of life.


Finding raw was the best thing that has ever happened to me, health-wise!


Update:  I hope all these old posts aren't confusing to anyone--bouncing around from old posts to new ones, etc.  I just thought it would be boring to have nothing but old posts for the next week or two, so I figured I'd intersperse them with new ones.   And raw is still the best thing that ever happened to me, health-wise.  I just need to remember that.  ;-)