Starting all over again...

You are witnessing history right here; right now...this is my first effort at blogging so here goes. My diet has run the gamut from Atkins to the Zone, wait... that's A-Z (I swear I didn't do that on purpose ;D ) You name it I've probably tried it. So basically I've gone from eating 90% animal products (Atkins, low carb) to zip, zero, nada, yep vegan to where I am now, vegetarian all the time, raw most of the time.

A little history; I am a 49 year old woman (50 on June 13th woo hoo!) and I've struggled with my weight since middle school, yo-yo dieting my way up the scale developing reflux, high blood pressure, hiatal hernia, depression, high cholesterol...let's see did I leave anything out? Actually I did, but you get the picture. I was one sick puppy, who one morning walked in on my dad having a heart attack. Following in his footsteps now had a whole new meaning. Already having 4 of the 5 symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome (which increases the likelihood of a heart attack), I thought the answer was to lose weight so that I would be healthier. Boy, did I have that, as my mom says, "bass ackward."

For one of my early 40's birthdays my sister blessed me with the gift of Suzanne Somers' book Eat Great, Lose Weight (a subtle hint?), which I promptly tossed aside and proceeded to consume an entire box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, shortly thereafter reaching my all time high of 225 pounds. Eventually, at the urging of someone who loved me, I picked up the book and followed Suzanne's program. I was able to lose 30 pounds. and the proper food combining alleviated my reflux (no more Prilosec, 1 med down? to go) but I still wasn't healthy. Cholesterol and blood pressure were still high, so what do I do? Atkins, meat, cheese, meat, cream, meat, eggs. Oh, I lost more weight but unbeknownst to me, all that protein was wreaking havoc on my liver and my cholesterol went up to 271 from 231. Then, I kinda gave up after eating low fat for 3 months, losing 10 pounds and watching my LDL (that's the bad stuff) rise 10 points.

Fast forward to 3 years ago when for the 3rd winter in a row I was hospitalized with asthma. Intravenous antibiotic cocktails, breathing treatments...not exactly the winter vacation I had in mind. I was released from the hospital [hmmm "released" is also used when they let you out of prison...coincidence?] A week later my dad died from his second heart attack. He suffered a lot during the 15 years between the heart attacks, developing diabetes and ending up in a wheelchair, spending 12 hours a week on dialysis. There I was barreling down the same path. I knew that if I didn't do something drastic to put on the brakes, I'd end up just like him. I'll be damned if I'm going to spend 12 hours a week on a dialysis machine.

I wasn't able to go back to work full time until 4 months after my hospitalization. During that time I began to research my illnesses on the Internet and in books. After reading Fit for Life-A New Millennium, what was supposed to be a 3 day fruit fast turned into a 10 day raw feast. I could feel the effects after just 3 days, no stiffness or pain in my joints upon arising, energy, clear sinuses and an 8 pound weight loss. Then I tried adding dairy, eggs, chicken and fish back into my diet and sluggishness returned with a vengeance. Within a month I was back on mostly raw vegan food. I was hooked for a year and ended up at an all time low of 119 pounds. That felt so good. I also saw several doctors and specialists, conventional as well as holistic during that year and tried several different supplements and treatments. Some worked, others didn't. The one constant during that time was my diet. After that first year I occasionally ate eggs & dairy, (no flesh) and every time I did I started to feel sluggish again.

After reading Fit for Life-A New Millennium, what was supposed to be a 3 day fruit fast turned into a 10 day raw feast. I could feel the effects after just 3 days, no stiffness or pain in my joints upon arising, energy, clear sinuses and an 8 pound weight loss. Then I tried adding dairy, eggs, chicken and fish back into my diet and sluggishness returned with a vengeance. Within a month I was back on mostly raw vegan food. I was hooked for a year and ended up at an all time low of 119 pounds. That felt so good. I also saw several doctors and specialists, conventional as well as holistic during that year and tried several different supplements and treatments. Some worked, others didn't. The one constant during that time was my diet. After that first year I occasionally ate eggs & dairy, (no flesh) and every time I did I started to feel sluggish again.


The key is to get healthy first so you can lose weight, not the other way around. It's been three years since I last had an asthma attack (no asthma maintenance meds), my blood pressure now is 105/70 (literally, right now I just took it) cholesterol is 151. I am still on thyroid meds (Armour). Eventually, I'll be healthy enough to come off that too. I came off all my other meds cold turkey last year and it was horrible! I ended up taking 2 weeks off work to detox. I'm glad now that I'm off them, but don't do it without a doctor's supervision. My holistic doctor and I tried to wean me off Armour and I gained 30 pounds. I'm just now back up to my previous dosage and still packing that 30 pounds. Think that has anything to do with my more frequent than I'd like to admit junk food binges? Yep, that's why I'm "starting all over again.

So, here out in this public forum, I make myself accountable. I'll be sharing what I learn along the way, the struggles I encounter and the challenges I address. Today I was on track until I got a rather stressful phone call. An emotional eater I attempted to thwart my carb attack by eating Eziekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread, toasted with coconut oil and cinnamon mmmm. Four pieces later I still wanted buttered popcorn, so I ate that too...the whole bag. Then I was done. Now you know my dirty little secret. I didn't wait until tomorrow to get back on track though. I've been there and done that "I blew it for today, I'll start again tomorrow, so for the rest of today I'm eating everything that's not nailed down!" Post binge I've had some tea, taken my supplements and I'm not hungry. For me it takes 2-3 days of strictly raw for the carb cravings to disappear, so I'll allow myself the luxury of eating as much raw food as I want for the next 3 days. It's normal to want to eat the heavier raw foods at first like nuts and seeds. Then I naturally crave less refined, cooked, nutritionally depleted food. Here's a recipe for the smoothie I had this morning, delicious. It’s a great way to get lots of spirulina. I use spirulina and chlorella in powder form. Not only is it cheaper, I'd rather eat it than take it as a supplement. I order spirulina & chlorella powder from nutritiongeeks.com.

2 cups chopped mango
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon spirulina powder
1 tablespoon chlorella powder
1 teaspoon Himalayan salt brine (or 1/8th teaspoon Himalayan salt)
16 ounces pure water
Put it all in a blender on high. Mmmm.

Peace, RawNessa