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Raw and Happy!

Hi, I didn’t plan on posting to this forum, but I just want to share how happy I am!!! I’m 26 years old, mom of two, full time 5th grade teacher.

From the age of 5 I have struggled with my weight. My skinny mom put me on my first diet at 8, only allowing me half of a sandwich and half the dinner (which always consisted of white bread, Kraft macaroni and cheese, frozen fish sticks) and no dessert (a twinkie, or my favorite, fudge rounds by little debbie). When the diet failed, my mother referred to me as a “fat little chunk.” By college, at 19, I had 165 pounds on my 5’3” frame, shopping in the woman’s section for size 14 and ups.

My weight plagued me. I did the Weight Watchers thing and lost weight, only to regain it after getting SO SICK of counting all those points. I did the starvation thing, I did smaller portions, more exercise – NOTHING worked. I vividly remember standing in front of the mirror, looking at my excess belly flesh, and yelling at myself, calling me names I won’t even write here, and smacking and punching my stomach, bawling out of frustration of an already 13 year weight battle at such a young age.

At 21 I converted to an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet – and lost 20 pounds! At 23 I began cycling – and lost another 10 pounds. Still, those last few pounds – and my love-hate relationship with food – hung on me.

At 25 I discovered the raw foodist diet. It just … made sense. Only raw foodies understand that! It felt like the next step in my evolution, to go completely cruelty free. In two weeks on the diet, I reached my “ideal” weight and felt so wonderful. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. I found the diet too overwhelming, too preparation intense, especially trying to feed a 6’4” husband and two kids to satiation. I stopped, but went to veganism instead of vegetarianism.

Within months, I’d re-gained 7 pounds, began having terrible PMS and periods (something that began plaguing me to the point of considering prescription meds). My PMS lasted 2 weeks and my period another week. I began only having one “good” week a month. Depression hit me again (something I’ve always struggled with). I couldn’t pull myself out of bed in the morning and felt lethargic throughout the day.

Just five weeks ago, I re-committed myself to raw foods, and I will never go back. What I’ve discovered is, raw foods don’t just make you lose weight and LOOK great – they allowed me to “break up” with my food addiction. IT controlled me, as nothing else ever has. I finally feel free to look at my body as a tool for life, one I need to hone nad care for, rather than an instrument of attraction. I want to be HEALTHY, I want to love live to 100+, I want to love my body for what it is and what it can do, not just how it looks in a bikini.

I found freedom through raw foods.

Comments

  • humanimalhumanimal Raw Newbie

    That was really beautiful ! and I love your attitude toward life. Thank you sharing that with us all :)

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    GREAT!!!! I am happy for you! I am glad you were able to find what truly works for you. Is your husband and kids back on the raw food diet too?

  • Joesc – I swear, you leave it up to kids and follow their example and you WILL be a raw foodist! All my 2 year old ever wants to eat, whatever our diet has been, is avocado and banana and almond milk!

    We TRAIN ourselves to like cooked food. Kids are natural fruitarians.

    My husband, thankfully, embraces all our dietary changes. He suffered from cystic acne throughout high school, took meds and did all the Proactiv, and raw foods are the only thing htat healed it completely.

    If I can find a scanner, I’ll post my husbands and my 14 year old picture together from a dance. We look so much worse the than we do now at 26!

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Thanks for sharing that, you’re an inspiration! We free one another, every time we tell our amazing stories.

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    You may be right about kids being natural fruitarians. I overheard some women speaking about how there kids won’t eat the meat they give them and what they do to coerce them into eating it. I would think they would be happy that the kids enjoys the fruits more than the beef.

  • All the baby books tell you, “you’re infant will not readily take to meats. Continue offering meats in small amounts until they readily eat them.” Thankfully, both of my children were raised as vegetarians, so neither have ever had meat.

    But doesn’t that make you think, hmmmmm….why would I force them to eat something that they do not readily take? You should check out the faces some babies make when being introduced to meat products. A vegetarian website has some posted. You can find some at YouTube too. They DO NOT make hardly any fuss at fruit!!

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    That is so true. Why force you kids to eat food they wouldn’t readily take? That makes no sense to me.

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