introduction

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

 

Wow! I joined a few weeks ago and have been trying to catch up on all

the postings that have been made before I formally introduced myself.

I have finally reached that point. This group can be very active!

 

My own journey to the raw food lifestyle (still not sure that I like

this label though, somehow it just doesn't seem to give this lifestyle

justice) came about when my health, which had been rapidly declining

over the last couple of years came to it's low about one year ago. I

was eventually " diagnosed " with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, of

which my informal definition is that all the toxins and poisons in

this world of ours finally brought me down. I would get horrible dizzy

spells(which the doctors tried to tell me was meniere's disease, chest

pains, sudden drops in blood pressure, muscular weakness, horrible

migraines, and a number of other things, some of which I don't want to

share at this point as they were very scary and still to fresh in my

mind and I am not quite ready to relive them.

 

One other thing that happened to me frequently was jogged to memory by

a resent posting here about a member having anxiety/ panic attacks. I

would get panic attacks after apply makeup. When I made that

connection, I immediately stopped wearing cosmetics, which was a real

struggle for me, as I have been wearing makeup since in my teens. Just

a couple of weeks ago, after having run out of this wonderful, natural

goat soap we found and not being able to get any for a while as it is

not available in the city we live in, out of desperation because my

face felt so oily one day, I decided I would use just a little Dove

soap on my face, just around the nose area. I immediately felt the

effects of it and paid for it for a few hours with anxiety attacks.

Just thought I would pass that on as food for thought.

 

I starting having adverse reactions to every type of food, which was

very strange as I had never had allergies in the past. Looking back

now though, it was like my body was putting itself on a forced fast. I

lost about 35 pounds in a short amount of time(not sure exactly how

long, because parts of this are a bit of a blur and I need to ask my

dear, loving and patient family to fill in the blanks). I was very ill

at this point as I think all the toxins that were stored in the fat in

my body were being released.

 

I am thankful for this though, as it has put me on a path of health

that I had never envisioned before. I transitioned to whole foods, not

really knowing about raw foods yet, then slowly adding in more raw

foods. On March 21 of this year I decided to go all raw, but did allow

myself two cheats of popcorn and Manna bread, for the rough times. For

my 40th birthday in May, my oldest ds had given me a box of orgainc

oreo type cookies. I think I had maybe three of them, I was quite ill

from them, so that was when I decided that I would go 100% for good. I

am noticing a huge improvement in my health. Even though I still feel

like I have a ways to go, I feel so different, more alive, if you will.

 

I tried to implement some of the 80/10/10 but staring detoxing very

quickly, so for my sanity I stopped, but I still think there is a lot

to be said for this approach. I just have had too much detoxing and

kind of needed a break, but will probably give it a try again in the

near future, but I will try to get my hands on a copy of the book and

read it in it's entirety first this time.

 

This journey has showed why so many things in our world that just

didn't seem right, weren't. I am really gleaning a lot from this

group. I especially appreciated the washing clothes in salt advice. I

was a little disheartened when I discovered that one would need to use

sea salt, as it is quite expensive here, but them someone suggested

using water softening salt. I checked with dh and he said as far a he

knew, that it is pure salt, not sodium chloride, and as we had a ton

of it in the basement left over from a water softener that had broke

down, I gave it a shot. I have been so impressed with the results!

 

Sorry this has rambled on for so long. I am not usually very active on

these groups, but my 2 dd's are sleeping in this morning, so I am

taking advantage of the moment.

 

Sincerely,

Jenny