I’ve been making a real effort to keep off foods that appear to knock my health or energy levels back. As well as eating mainly low fat raw vegan foods, I’m trying to avoid or dramatically cut down on foods such as; fat, spices, onions, nuts, seeds, condiments and anything strongly flavoured. I’ve stopped having rocket. I’ll only have cabbage, kale or broccoli if they are blended thoroughly or cooked, otherwise they are hard to digest. The odd simple bit of cooked food seems OK (typically not more than once every week). I sometimes (maybe every other week) have non vegan food, but I do keep off dairy and meat. I try to avoid grain. I do still experiment, my latest is to occassionally take a B12 and a zinc supplement. I live in hope that my grey hair might return to it’s orininal colour – healthy skin and hair need zinc. I estimate that 95% of my diet is fruit and salads made with mainly salad leaves. My energy levels have been consistently high as a result of doing all this. I’ve had a constant desire to exercise.
I’ve been making a real effort to get fit with running and occasional upper body conditioning. When running, I normally just jog slowly, but I’ve been trying out some quite long slow runs and also some real intense lung bursting, leg jellyifying runs. A combination of doing these together with my diet has made a real difference to how I feel. I noticed it before, when I had times of intense upper body conditioning, but this time it feels like I’ve got a new pair of legs as well!
Imagine a crumpled bed sheet. Someone comes along, washes and irons it, then makes the bed again and pulls it all fresh and neat. It’s a bit like that with health and fitness. If you can find the right balance of super healthy food without adding lots of unnecessary ‘food’, and do some steady exercise and eventually some intense exercise, then it feels like your whole body is pulled into shape. By intense, I mean as hard as you can, or as fast as you can go over a given distance. Shorten the distance or the number of exercise rep’s if necessary. I’ve found that when you push yourself really hard it makes a real difference. You must build up to this gradually though, you don’t want to give yourself a hernia like I did 18 months ago!
I’m not any super human guy. I’m not even very good at running (although I am getting much better). I’m just a guy that went through a phase of being a couch potato. I had some horrible fatigue that totally de-motivated me and left me with no energy. It was often an effort just to get out of a chair or to stand up. Plus I had quite bad digestive issues – search my blog for more details.
I’m glad that I pressed on. I pulled the bones out of my diet and lifestyle and made what some have said are ‘extreme’ or ‘obsessive’ changes. The only changes that I have made are to try and mirror what I might find in nature. I am so glad that I have made those changes, I feel so much better.
I feel like my head has been cut off, my old body has been thrown away and I’ve been given a new one! Wow, now that’s something – a whole body transplant!!!
I have had excessive thirst and urination, it was quite inconvenient at times. Over a year ago I was also experimenting with wheatgrass juice and I significantly overdosed on it. My body went into detox overload and I used to have sudden desparate urges to have a pee. The doctor said it was probably a bladder irritation. If it was, then I think it was all the toxins (due to the wheatgrass overdose) overloading my kidneys and bladder. Also spices, onions, garlic and other strongly flavoured food could have contributed to this, the residue to these acts as irritants.
The following is what I think might be the explanation for my excessive thirst and urination, it may well help you out:
Excessive thirst can be caused by high blood sugar. The body is attempting to bring a balance in blood sugar levels and will try get rid of the sugar through the kidneys resulting in excessive urination. To give the body the absolute best chance of using the blood sugar for energy (rather than peeing it out) it is really important to have enough insuline that works. Any excess fat levels in the bloodstream will reduce the effectiveness of insuline. For me that level of tolerable fat is really low.
I’m currently aiming to consume no overt fat food for quite extended periods. i.e. for as long as possible keeping off: oil, coconut, avacado, durian, olives, nuts, seeds, etc. My energy and endurance are noticably good when I do this. My mind is much clearer. I don’t get tingling finger tips after eating fruit. Tingling at the extremities is a sign of poor circulation caused by excess sugar in the blood. I also feel much much warmer. Feeling cold is a sign of poor circulation.
If your blood sugar is high, then I heard an explanation from Doug Graham, it went along the lines of: ‘Eating more is like putting more fuel in your car when the fuel tank is already overflowing’. In other words, if your blood sugar high too high and you are peeing it out, then stop eating.
Keep off all fat foods for a few weeks until your body is has rid itself of all excess fat in your blood stream and a degree of healing has taken place. If you do ever have fat foods, then make it a rarity. For me it’s better to eat cooked food rather than any food with fat in it. In fact, I’d say the best way for anyone to start on a low fat raw diet is to cut out all fat food (and processed food) for a couple of weeks and still eat simple cooked food. Large amounts of fruit for you may be just too much to start with. Cleaning yourself out from fat is a bit like cleaning out the fuel delivery system in your car. Once you’ve done this, you will be able to burn up the fuel and then fill up again with a full tank of fuel.
Eating fruit when your fat levels are really low acts a bit like rocket propulsion. Your blood sugar doesn’t really spike much because your body is very easily able to use it for energy. This is the time to do exercise! Take your overhauled car out for a good run!
When I was in my early twenties I had a prolapsed disk in my lower back. An X-ray showed a thinning of the lower disk and I was diagnosed with spondylitis. The pain was often unbearable. I had very bad sciatica in my right leg and for about 6 months and had a slight limp, my right calf mucsle became somewhat skinnier.
I eventually learned that the major trigger for my recurring back pain was poor seating. Most chairs and couches are very poor at providing adequate lumber support. Once I stopped sitting in couches and chairs with no lumber support then my back improved significantly. I bought a really good chair that gave perfect lumber support, only using that helped me recover massively. However, every day for approximately 20 years I would still wake up with lower back pain. Before I learned to support and protect my back from poor furniture, my back often used to often feel like something was out of place. Occasionally visiting an excellent osteopath really helped me. On one visit to my osteopath, after I got out of my car I couldn’t walk or stand. After a little bit of manipulation I was able to walk. I no longer had an awkward twist and I started to recover. Every day for many years, I had to be very protective of my back. No twisting and heavy lifting. No prolonged sitting. No sitting at all in a couch for more than 10 minutes. If I broke this rule, then I would almost certainly have a few days of back trouble (if not more). I had to revisit my osteopath a few times over the years.
My recovery with water and low fat raw:
I read 2 books that really helped; ‘water cures – drugs kill’, and ‘Your body’s many cries for water’. I started to drink more water with a little salt (I have very little salt nowadays, since I’m eating so many greens). Drinking more water really helped prevent back pain, and seriously helped my energy levels. I was in and out of chronic fatigue at the time. Although much better, the pain would often come back though.
After a few months on low fat raw food, then my whole body seemed to start working properly. I became more flexible. IBS and fatigue vanished. After a couple of months, I noticed that I no longer had 10 minutes of back pain as I woke up each a morning. I can also now sit for extended periods, even in poorly designed chairs and couches.
If I eat fat foods, or cheat on my diet for more than the very occasional meal, then my body seems to grind to a halt, my brain slows down, I lack energy and if I’m dehydrated then my back might hurt. Eating fat food has a worse effect on me than eating plain cooked food.
In the bible it says, “You can’t put new wine into old wine skins”. It’s a bit like that with my back. Drinking more water, had a temporary effect at rehydrating my lower back. It was as though I was pumping up a bicycle tyre that had a slow leak. The bicycle tyre was fitted with a crusty old innertube that was inflexible, weak and couldn’t hold air. That is where the low fat raw food helped. Since eating manly low fat raw food, my back has actually felt like it has been renewed. It’s like I’ve been given a new bicylce inner tube that can actually hold the air.
I am now more flexible and stronger. I can work for extended periods at a low level, like when gardening. I can lift heavy items without putting out my back for a few days. I can be a couch potatoe and watch a movie instead of having to lie on the floor or sit in a ‘perfect chair’.
I now KNOW that the problem with my back was caused by, inadequate hydration, poor seating AND poor eating!
Pump up your bicycle tyre and don’t forget to get a new inner tube as well!
In other words… Drink more water and Eat More Raw! Stuart
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.
As you can probably gather by looking at some of my other posts, I love coconut! However I need to be really careful not to over do it, because too much fat slows me down and can sometimes make me feel pretty rough. I find that if I have a quarter of a coconut then I’m fine and I still have high energy levels the next day, however if I eat half or more on consecutive days, then I find that my energy wanes a little. The reason for this is all to do with blood sugar. Higher fat levels in the blood slow down the rate at which the body can utilise blood sugar for energy. If you want to know more about why this happens, then type blood sugar into the search box in the top right of the blog page. You’ll then be able to see all my blog posts with the phase blood sugar in them, including this one.
If you like coconut and find them difficult to get into, then watch this!
I’ve had my juicer for about 2.5 years now and I’ve never made ‘ice-cream’, that was until last night. Wow – I’m amazed at how quick, easy and how nice it was! I just put dates and frozen bananas through my juicer which had a blank crush screen fitted. It really was like ice-cream. It’s really healthy, raw and low fat. It was very tasty.
I’ve since seen other people on Youtube just use blenders or food processors and get a similar result. People just use frozen bananas or combine frozen bananas with other frozen fruit.
Today I made a nice date sauce, but I had no banana ice-cream to put it on
Now I have another excuse to buy even more bananas!!!
If you’re off to a party and fancy taking along a plate of nibbles, then I guarantee that this very simple ‘Banana Boat’ recipe will go down very well!
I recently held an ‘Eat More Raw’ day in a local primary school, it was great! We had 5 ‘Eat More Raw’ food preparation and tasting activities. Incredibly some of the children had never even tried fruit and salads. It was so encouraging to see all of the children eating healthy things that they’ve not tried before. About 95% of the ingredients were fresh fruit and salads. During one of the activities, I made wraps with the top half of Chinese-leaf-lettuce leaves. After the event I was wondering what to do with the leftover bottom half, so I set to doing a bit of experimenting, that’s where the ‘Banana Boats’ idea came from.
Take the bottom half of a leaf and trim it so that it fits into your mouth! Take a banana and cut it lengthways. Place the banana with the cut gooey side facing up onto the leaf. Sprinkle a small amount of ground almonds on top and a tiny drizzle honey (or use date paste – blended date & water if you want to keep it vegan). That’s all there is to it! If you combine this with a salad or fruit, then it’s still low fat. This is because you only need a small sprinkling of freshly ground almonds or other nuts.
I placed a few dates and banana pieces around mine too. To make them look like boats, I made improvised sails with banana pieces and dates on cocktail sticks. You’d better make lots as they are rather moorish! Have fun!!!
Using a high powered blender with tamper, blend up the following.
* 2 medium sweet potatoes (peeled)
* 6 dates (destoned)
* 2 oranges (peeled)
To keep it thick, don’t use water!
Use a spoon with a long handle to get the concoction out of the blender and into a serving bowl. Then mix in something for a little surprise taste and texture, eg. chopped apple, sprouted quinoa, grated carrot, bananas, goji berries etc. In the picture above, I added a spiralised carrot and a slice of orange.
It was very very yummy for my tummy! If you try it out, or a variation of it, let me know what you think.
I’ve just had a look through my recipes on this blog, most of them so far have coconut in them. I actually follow a low fat raw diet and most of the time I just eat whole fruits and vegetables together with quite a few green smoothies and some green juices.
I don’t often add fat foods into my meals, although when I do, coconut is one of my favourites, followed by durian and avocado. Most of my meals just consist of rather large salads and bunches of fruit, which doesn’t give me much to write about. I’ll do some blog posts of my salads as well and ‘try’ to keep it interesting!
Please do not take any of the information on this website as advice for diagnosing or treating any health condition. If you make any changes to your diet, exercise regime or lifestyle, as a result of: information learned on this website, following any hyperlinks, or in any correspondence with the authors; then you do so at your own risk.
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Copyright 2008-2010 Stuart Porter, eatmoreraw.net. All rights reserved.
