Recovering from fatigue, IBS and depression on a raw food diet
When I was in the middle of my fatigue, I was so low at times that I didn’t want to be alive. How different things are now! I feel fantastic!!! I feel so joyful and thankful that my health has moved forward so much.
On my website there is a links page with loads of other websites, book links and videos (I must update the links with some more exellent videos). I have read much more than these. I don’t agree with any author 100% but these are the authors that really helped me; T.Colin Campbell, Raymond Frances, John Robbins, Doug Graham, Victoria Boutenko, Paul Nisan, plus a few others.
One of the biggest things to help me was a pen and paper (a one page per day diary). Anything that could possibly effect my health went into this. I included; water consumed, food eaten, exercise, sleep, amount of time spent in the sun, any stressful times, and so on. I learn from others, through books, websites and videos. I even learn from unhealthy non-raw friends, family and neighbours. I pick up information and try to learn from others in any way I can even if I don’t completely agree with them. I also learn from myself through trial and error and monitoring myself. I still do experiment and make changes depending on the results.
I have still had a few ups and downs even in the past 18 months. The key thing now though is that I can identify things that cause the down times and I’ve learned to avoid them, or minimise them – this is where the written diary comes into it’s own. However, even in my worst down time in the past 18 months, I’ve felt better than my best up time when I had the fatigue, IBS and depression.
Here’s a few bullet points to help you move forward.
* Adopt the 80-10-10 diet in a cooked form if you are not yet high raw.
* Cuts out all condiments.
* Drink only water, green juice, green smoothies and nothing else – not even fruit juice until you are better.
* Drink more water, add a pinch bit of sea salt if you are not consuming a high amount of greens.
– drink 1 litre or more of water per day for every 5 stone of body weight.
– the salt is not for nutrients but rather provides some electrolytes in a deficient diet.
– I now rarely have salt, but I eat LOADS of greens in juice, smoothies and salads, that gives me all the electrolytes I need.
* Drink loads of green juice eg 1 litre per day of something like celery, pak choi, lettuce.
* Don’t eat wheat or gluten grains!
* Minimise other grains (ideally have none).
* Don’t eat meat, or if you do then only have it in the tiniest amount, eg as a bit of flavouring.
* Don’t eat modern pasteurised, homogenised, drugged up dairy (I went hyper for 3 days after coming of that).
* Keep fat levels REALLY low, have a few months with no added fat foods at all.
* When eating fruit, eat it RIPE !!!.
* Eat more calories earlier on in the day and less calories later.
* Eat sweet fruit earlier in the day and eat mostly non-sweet fruit and salad later in the day.
* Drink your water between meals, so that you are hydrated well before your meal.
* Eat melons on their own.
* Rest and sleep as much as you want, go to bed early enough so that you don’t need an alarm clock.
* Fast one day a week – only drink water (eg Thursdays night to Saturday morning).
* Forget raw gourmet and dehydrators, eat food as it occurs in nature and in the whole form (with the exception of green juice and smoothies).
* Have lots of large green smoothies,
- 50% greens by volume when crammed into the blender.
- I often consume 2 to 3 litres of smoothie for a meal, this is a large blender filled twice.
* Eat mono meals as far as possible.
- I sometimes have mono days.
- yesterday all I had was green juice and grapes – lots of them!
* Eat big salads with an emphasis on lots of tender greens.
* Exercise – You have to move! Walking is excellent. Get a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day, or go running, or cycling, or play some form of sport. Take it easy initially though and gradually build it up, even if you feel like you have loads of energy. You need to avoid getting injured or burned out.
* get in the sunshine regularly and boost your levels of vitamin D, or take at least 2000 IU per day of vitamin d3.
* take a multivitamin, and a b vitamin (containing b12) supplement.
- I rarely take supplements, but initially they may help you through any short term deficiencies.
* Do an alpha course http://www.alpha.org/ and become a Christian. For me, all these health improvements came about through my faith in God, accepting Jesus as my saviour and friend, and praying and fasting one day per week for 3 months about a way forward.
* and finally…. Gradually Eat More Raw!
If you do the above, then I would be very surprised if you do not feel any better. There’s good chance that you’ll feel fantastic! Until you get to that point though, just remember that you are precious and special. You are cherished by God who loves you and he holds his hands out to you.
with love Stuart
