First post to the group

January 9, 2005

Greetings,

My name is Christine, and I have been lurking for a while. This is my first post

to this group. I have been enjoying all the great posts over the last couple of

months. This group is fortunate to enjoy quite a bit of traffic, which makes for

some interesting conversations.

A little about me: I have been vegetarian for about about 16 years, vegan for

about 3 years, and raw vegan for about 2 years. I am about 80% raw most days,

and this has been working very well for me. When I started out lacto-ovo

vegetarian so many years ago, I never dreamed that my diet would change so much!

But change it has, and my health has changed much for the better because of it.

For years, as long as I can remember, I suffered from terrible intestinal

problems. Lots of cramping, bloating, pain, diarrhea, and gas. These symptoms

interfered so much with my day to day living, and my quality of life was really

compromised. Eliminating dairy when I went vegan helped a great deal, but there

was still something that was causing me to suffer. I discovered something called

gluten intolerance, and thought that this might be what was causing all my

trouble. I eradicated glutinous grains (wheat, rye, barley and oats) from my

diet, and lo and behold, my symptoms began to go away! It

was such a blessed relief for me. I still had some bad days, as it took a good

6 months for all the gluten to leave my body. But I was definitely having more

good days than bad.

Then I happened to stumble upon the raw food diet, and I was intrigued. It

instantly made sense to me. I had always been a lover of fresh fruits and

veggies, so it wasn't much of a jump for me to start incorporating more and more

raw foods into my daily diet. I am now at about 80% raw foods most days, and I

can truly say that I've never, ever felt better than I do today. I went through

a period in the first 1 1/2 years of losing quite a bit of weight, and believe

me, I didn't have any spare weight to lose! I became quite thin, and several

people close to me were concerned about my health. I was concerned also, but

had faith that as I kept eating natural foods, my body would detoxify and my

weight would stabilize. I have since gained about 9 pounds back, and while I am

still very thin, I don't look emaciated anymore. Something interesting is that

although I have gained weight, I haven't changed my diet in any way from the way

I was eating. I haven't added supplements, or taken

protein powders, etc, in an effort to gain weight. I simply have kept on eating

raw foods, and trusted that my body knew what it was doing.

While I can't say that my way will work for everyone, it has certainly worked

for me. I can't imagine eating any other way. I have so much energy, my

depression has not completely disappeared but is greatly lessened, and I can

truly say that I am really happy.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share with you where I've been, and where

I'm at now. Hopefully this will encourage some " newbies " out there to not give

up before the miracle happens. The " miracle " being abundant health.

Blessings and good health to you,

Christine

January 9, 2005

Thank You for sharing Christine!

Vegigran

<<<< Hopefully this will encourage some " newbies " out there to not give up

before the miracle happens. The " miracle " being abundant health.>>>>

January 10, 2005

I'm glad this group gets some traffic. None of the other raw food or

raw vegan groups that I checked on and on MSN get much if any

traffic. I don't do dairy or grains. The raw food diet instantly

made sense to me too. I thought what a simple way to eat. No

preparation fuss, no killing or penning up of animals, no clean up

hassles, all I need is a plate and a knife, and it's healthy to eat

this way.

I had never been much of a lover of fruit and veggies, addicted

bread, sugar and animal product eater. Even when I'm not raw now,

I'm not into sugar much, nor do I have a taste for milk. But bread

and animal products would be my binge foods. Eating fruits and

veggies for me now is like taking medicine in a way. I don't

particular like it, but I feel so much better mentally and physically

that I figure I should and eventually, hopefully, I'll enjoy eating

this way.

I remember years ago when I maintained the raw diet better, people

would make " you're too thin " comments and it is a bother. Too bad I

never stuck out the diet long enough to find out if my body would

stabilize at any particular weight. At 41, my metabolism seems to be

that I can't get real thin anyway, but we'll see what a few more

months of the raw diet brings me to weight wise. I believe what

happened to you is what would happen to most, that they would go

below ideal weight for a while because of the mental/physical detox

but then after adjusting to the diet would stabilize a little higher

and maintain an ideal, healthy weight for life.

I have much energy and my depression has lessened. Hopefully, I'll

have a miracle of abundant health.

Rich

rawfood , Christine Pelton <cattzeye77@p...>

wrote:

>

> Greetings,

>

> My name is Christine, and I have been lurking for a while. This is

my first post to this group. I have been enjoying all the great posts

over the last couple of months. This group is fortunate to enjoy

quite a bit of traffic, which makes for some interesting

conversations.

>

> A little about me: I have been vegetarian for about about 16 years,

vegan for about 3 years, and raw vegan for about 2 years. I am about

80% raw most days, and this has been working very well for me. When

I started out lacto-ovo vegetarian so many years ago, I never dreamed

that my diet would change so much! But change it has, and my health

has changed much for the better because of it. For years, as long as

I can remember, I suffered from terrible intestinal problems. Lots of

cramping, bloating, pain, diarrhea, and gas. These symptoms

interfered so much with my day to day living, and my quality of life

was really compromised. Eliminating dairy when I went vegan helped a

great deal, but there was still something that was causing me to

suffer. I discovered something called gluten intolerance, and thought

that this might be what was causing all my trouble. I eradicated

glutinous grains (wheat, rye, barley and oats) from my diet, and lo

and behold, my symptoms began to go away! It

> was such a blessed relief for me. I still had some bad days, as

it took a good 6 months for all the gluten to leave my body. But I

was definitely having more good days than bad.

>

> Then I happened to stumble upon the raw food diet, and I was

intrigued. It instantly made sense to me. I had always been a lover

of fresh fruits and veggies, so it wasn't much of a jump for me to

start incorporating more and more raw foods into my daily diet. I am

now at about 80% raw foods most days, and I can truly say that I've

never, ever felt better than I do today. I went through a period in

the first 1 1/2 years of losing quite a bit of weight, and believe

me, I didn't have any spare weight to lose! I became quite thin, and

several people close to me were concerned about my health. I was

concerned also, but had faith that as I kept eating natural foods, my

body would detoxify and my weight would stabilize. I have since

gained about 9 pounds back, and while I am still very thin, I don't

look emaciated anymore. Something interesting is that although I

have gained weight, I haven't changed my diet in any way from the way

I was eating. I haven't added supplements, or taken

> protein powders, etc, in an effort to gain weight. I simply have

kept on eating raw foods, and trusted that my body knew what it was

doing.

>

> While I can't say that my way will work for everyone, it has

certainly worked for me. I can't imagine eating any other way. I have

so much energy, my depression has not completely disappeared but is

greatly lessened, and I can truly say that I am really happy.

>

> Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share with you where I've

been, and where I'm at now. Hopefully this will encourage

some " newbies " out there to not give up before the miracle happens.

The " miracle " being abundant health.

>

> Blessings and good health to you,

>

> Christine

>

January 10, 2005

What a great testimony!

Welldone!

New and old...all need such hoorahs!

tev

--- Christine Pelton <cattzeye77 wrote:

>

> Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share with

> you where I've been, and where I'm at now.

> Hopefully this will encourage some " newbies " out

> there to not give up before the miracle happens. The

> " miracle " being abundant health.

>

> Blessings and good health to you,

>

> Christine

=====

[...there'll be love and laughter,

and peace ever after,

just you wait and see...

---Vera Lynn]

January 10, 2005

Welcome Christine. I like what you said about trusting your body. That's what

I'm doing for now. I have read various accounts of depression lifting completely

with 100 percent raw. It might be worth trying sometime for a coupla months.

Summer would be a way cool time to try as there are so many delicious fruits not

to mention tomatos to die for. Plus watermelon. I don't juice much but

watermelon is so delicious, I'll have ti all during the season.

Yours in health, Lane

-

Christine Pelton

rawfood

Sunday, January 09, 2005 4:19 PM

[Raw Food] First post to the group

Greetings,

My name is Christine, and I have been lurking for a while. This is my first

post to this group. I have been enjoying all the great posts over the last

couple of months. This group is fortunate to enjoy quite a bit of traffic, which

makes for some interesting conversations.