Still Going Strong!

Despite not being 100% raw yet, I'm continuing to lose weight and so far I am feeling quite healthy. I have become more accustomed to grains and beans and now I combine quinoa with lentils and vegetables for one meal daily. Breakfast is usually fruit. I often have an ounce of almonds as a snack or even with my breakfast, but I'm reconsidering continuing that since they add a lot of calories but only a few grams of protein. I can honestly say I don't miss dairy as much as I thought I would.

Speaking of protein, I've been getting between only 40 and 60 grams daily with this new McDougall-influenced way of eating. Since I have been aiming for 60 - 80, I'm not entirely happy. However, I'll keep plugging away and trying new foods over the next few weeks. The bulk of my protein comes from lentils. Combined with a grain and vegetables I can get a complete protein- this is where nutritiondata.com comes in handy; I use the recipe analyzer to see if my food combinations give me the nutrition I'm looking for.

Today my nutritionist weighed and measured me. I have lost about 29 lbs, and 54 inches total since early June. Although it's nice to see my clothes get looser, I don't get excited about the weight loss too much. When I lose 50 lbs I might get excited again. However, I was happy with my blood pressure of 110/80.

My goal is still to lose 50 lbs before the end of the year. To that end I started some light weight training about a month ago using a 10-lb free weight. I need to start the cardio again but haven't been motivated enough. Now that the weather is nice I want to start walking outdoors. I've also still got that VitaMix in my sights, and I'm even more motivated to use it since hearing Victoria Boutenko talk about green smoothies. I've tried green smoothies and can't say I like them, but I know they are good for me and will help me on my road to an all-raw or high-raw diet.

Transitioning to All Raw

Boy, was I sick today! I couldn't even make it through a whole day at the office. I'm hoping the problem is just the added fiber in my diet; I started adding fiber over the past few days. I was not well yesterday either, but today I had stabbing cramps in my side, which felt so much like my ovarian cyst attack from a couple of years ago that I was worried. If fiber is the problem, I will feel better soon enough. Adding fiber to my diet is part of my transition to an all-raw life as I look at all the areas in which my diet is lacking and take care of those before going all-raw.

I've been looking at the McDougall Plan to see how I can use that in my transition. I like much of what is listed on his food list, except the pasta. Now, I know that raw foodists and vegetarians don't worry about a lack of protein, but my nutritional history has made me very leery of assuming that simply eating raw will provide me with ample protein. I did a little comparison of dairy products with foods on the McDougall list to see how much of those foods I'd have to eat to get the same amount of protein I get from whey, Egg Beaters, nonfat yogurt and cottage cheese. So far, it looks like I'd have to eat a whole lot more carbs and fat to get the same protein. Seeds would be lower carb/higher fat choices, and beans would be higher carb/lower fat choices. For one cup of nonfat Greek yogurt(100 cal, no fat, 5 carbs, no fiber, 3 sugar, 20 protein) I could substitute:

• 1 cup sunflower seeds: 262 cal, 23 gm fat, 9 carbs, 10 protein
  
• ½ c walnuts, black: 381 cal, 37 gm fat, 6 carbs, 15 protein
• 1 cup fava beans: 110.0 cal, .9 gm fat, 22.2 carbs, 10 protein

I have more homework to do, of course, but I can see why one meal at the local raw cafe fills me up all day- all the seeds and nuts they use are so filling (as well as very nutritious).

WEIGHT/HEALTH UPDATE
I have now lost 23.5 lbs since June 10th. My BP remains around 120/80.

FOOD UPDATE
I have cut fish out as a regular part of my diet (no more weekly sushi- just occasionally) and have added more nuts and seeds. I doubt I will buy any more tofu. The next move in my transition to all-raw will likely be to remove yogurt and cottage cheese, but hang on to the Egg Beaters and whey for a little while. At that point I may move to the McDougall plan. I noticed he suggests an egg substitute on his list- that means I can hang on to the Egg Beaters a bit longer.

I Made it through the Workshop...

...with minimal dietary damage. Yesterday I blogged about the problems I experience with trying to maintain my raw diet when faced with marathon workshops, seminars, and catered events. This morning I ate a handful of almonds and half a banana before the event, drank water before lunch, and when the catered food arrived, chose the bean salad (edamame, kidney, and garbanzos), and half a turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato on whole wheat (no cheese or condiments). The "worst" thing I did, though, was eat a delicious looking brownie! Ha ha! There was a woman who said she was a vegetarian. What did she eat? The fattening macaroni & mayo salad, the fattening potato salad AND the brownie! I guess I chose to err on the side of low fat (except for the brownie). Looking back, I could have taken the turkey out of the sandwich, but... naaaahh!!! I'm all right with what I ended up eating. However, I do appreciate the suggestions I've gotten for future events. Thank you Lauren for telling me about the LaraBars in particular- I might buy some for "emergencies." If anyone else has ideas, please send them in!

At today's weigh-in I found I am down two more pounds. Now I'm 20 lbs down since June 10th. That's another reason I didn't freak over the brownie. A treat once in a while is all right when I'm doing well (as long I don't get triggered into binging, that is). My BP was 120/82, down from 120/90 on Monday. I know that I am less stressed since Monday (a major stressor was resolved on Tuesday), and I have deliberately drunk more water since then, so these probably helped. I am increasingly leaning towards not eating fish anymore and getting my protein from raw fruits and vegetables, cooked legumes and grains, whey powder, and some dairy products: fat free or low fat yogurt, cottage cheese, and eggbeaters. (If I keep saying that enough, it'll happen!)

Well, that's it for today!

What a Day....

I've come to That Point in my raw diet. There appear to be several benchmarks (for want of a better word) that I reach in the early stages of my raw odyssey. One is a point where I've eaten the same thing over and over and start to get bored. There's also a point where I have little time or energy to put ingredients together and find myself eating some nasty combination of veggies in a makeshift salad. Today I was running late and threw together the most tasteless group of veggies you can think of (I won't recount them for you or you may feel as sick as I did). As I sat during a lunchtime seminar at my job, eating my nasty salad, I actually realized I was contemplating a trip to the bathroom to purge the contents of my stomach. It was that bad. Sigh...

So now I have a new quest: to go through my blog history and refresh my memory of the stuff I used to eat, then find a way to prepare salads and other meals using the tastier and easiest-to-prepare ingredients. I know that when I am bored and unsatisfied, I am more likely to stray from my raw diet in the early stages of transforming my eating. I think being in this alone adds to the difficulty. When I had a partner we both shared in the food ideas and meal preparations, shared the shopping duties, and reminded each other of why we are doing this. We also told each other how great we were looking, how loose our clothes were getting, how good we were being to our bodies, etc. I'm not good at telling myself this stuff, so going it alone is more difficult in ways I hadn't previously considered. Having a nutritionist is a big help. Now, if she would just move in and cut up my veggies for me!

Speaking of the nutritionist, I have lost more weight. I'm now down about 18 lbs since June 10th. At 20 lbs lost she'll take my measurements again. I have noticed my pants are a tad looser, but that thrill of knowing I am truly on my way hasn't hit me yet. I used to get overjoyed at losing weight. I'd have the next lower sized pants hanging in the closet and I would make bets on how long it would be before I'd fit into them. I don't have that joy anymore, perhaps because I've been there, done that. Or maybe I'm more focused on health then size - I do get joyful over improvements in my cholesterol and BP levels, after all! I would like to have that joy in other areas again, though. I remember how much I loved my achievements in the gym a few years ago, and how much fun it was to give away a new pile of "fat" clothes.

The stress of being a grad student probably interferes with that joy a little, too. Between the dissertation research, comprehensive exam studies, and growing work responsibilities, I am stressed out quite often- in fact, I am pretty good at being stressed! So good that my blood pressure was 120/90. The nutritionist said that stress (and not drinking enough water) are two things that can raise the lower number. Both of those are issues for me, so I am going to try meditation, and will try to do better with the water.

NOTE:
Don't know if it's my aging eyes, but the old white-on-black text was starting to get to me. Was it bugging you? As you can see, I am making changes to this blog's layout. These may continue over the next few days (or weeks, depending on how much doodoo I get into after the initial switch). I want to be up-to-date with Blogger's technologies, and this blog has been a little behind. What I'd most like to do is make comments visible at the bottom of each post, and make the colors a little easier on the eyes. What will actually happen may surprise us all!

And the Beat Goes On...

I saw the nutritionist today and found I am down another couple of pounds. That is 16 lbs since July 10th. I asked her if she thought I might be losing too quickly- visions of hair loss still dance in my head, you know. She said that as long as what I lose is adipose tissue (fat) and not lean tissue (muscle), I can safely lose up to 3 lbs a week. I asked her specifically about my hair and she said that I should make sure to get no fewer than 60 grams of protein daily, and should consider a range of 60 to 80 grams per day. Naturally I will be going for the 80!

Next, she took my blood pressure: 110/72- even better than last week. So now I'm no longer worried about the blood pressure. What a relief! I'll have her measure it for a couple more weeks just to be sure, but I do feel that it is back to what is normal for me. Now I just need to get myself back to the gym. I think I deserve a celebratory pair of new sneakers!

Since I have been eating fewer processed foods, I've noticed other changes besides the weight loss and lower blood pressure. Every week I notice I am less and less sleepy during the day. I used to nod off at work, even during meetings. I would drink coffee in a fruitless attempt to stay awake. Now I don't even think about drinking coffee unless I feel cold (and at those times I now tell myself, maybe I should start bringing tea). I believe my alertness is partly because I am sleeping much better at night, even when I don't get into bed until midnight. I do try to get to bed by 10 pm (as suggested by my nutritionist) but I tend to read or watch TV until I'm really sleepy and don't fall asleep until closer to midnight, so the earlier bedtime doesn't fully explain the extreme change in my alertness. (Another factor could be that my allergy medicine is helping me sleep better so I'm not congested at night.)

I also have more energy. If it's over 100 degrees I usually don't like walking across a parking lot, but these days it doesn't bother me so much - I guess I don't feel anymore like I'm going to wilt. My mood has also lifted. Although I still have my worries, I recover from them more quickly, and I generally enjoy life more. In fact, eating at the raw restaurant by myself last weekend was a whim that simply came to me- I usually consider eating alone in a restaurant to be depressing, so it's been years since I've done it unless I was there to use the wifi to study. That's another sign that the "old me" is coming back.

If you know of Victoria Boutenko, who writes about her family's experiences with changing to a raw diet, you'll recall that she says the health benefits they experienced were immediate. That always sounded fantastical to me, but I'm experiencing the same immediate changes. It is truly remarkable what eating raw can do!

Touched by an Angel?

You ever wish that someone or something would suddenly appear and save you from yourself? Well, I've always thought, in my worst moments, that the only way I'd stop my downward spiral of eating the wrong foods and getting more and more unhealthy was for either a "guardian angel" to step in, or some horrible health crisis to hit me and shock me back to common sense.

Well, I had a taste of the health crisis this week. I've been slowly morphing to a vegetarian/raw diet, but not quickly enough. I'd been feeling tired, sleepy and generally icky for a while and finally went to the doctor, mainly because my nutritionist wanted bloodwork. While there I saw how high my BP had gotten, and the doctor said my breathing problems could be caused by both allergies and sleep apnea. I had the prescription for Allegra filled, but eschewed the sleep test.

I felt decent the next day- not sleepy or as bad as usual. What a nice break! But the following day was strange. I woke up feeling extra tired and knew it would be a bad day. I had to fast for the 10 a.m. blood test so I went to work with no breakfast. It may have been partly because of that and partly because of whatever has been going on with me, but I felt worse and worse with every hour. I felt a tightness in my chest that seemed related to my wheezing, had a headache, was exceptionally worn out, and even had a strange anxiety/panicky feeling and shakiness. I made sure to drink water, and then went to get my blood drawn. I told the folks at work I wouldn't be back that day.

After the clinic, I seriously considered going to the ER, but remembered that I hadn't eaten, so I went to 7-11 and bought a Naked Juice protein smoothie - I was actually going for the natural sugar and carbs for quick energy but saw the protein version (38 gms per bottle) and figured it couldn't hurt. I guzzled that thing down- all 500 calories of it (whew!). Within 15 minutes I felt about 60% better. The chest tightness and anxiety went away. I was still feeling I should go to the ER but I went home to relax instead. I napped for a few hours and when I woke up I wondered again if I should go to the ER because I still wasn't totally well. I decided to go to the grocery store and check my blood pressure. If it was in the danger zone I'd go to the ER. The machine read 154 over 89. Much higher than I've seen it, but, according to the pharmacist, not worthy of an ER visit.

I vowed right then to stop putzing around with the gradually-going-raw thing and jumped back into a high-raw diet. High raw for me is this: every day I will eat raw fruits and vegetables and drink lots of water with lemon or lime juice. In addition, I will include any of the following protein or fiber-rich foods (raw or cooked as appropriate to the item): fish, tofu, oatmeal, Eggbeaters, hemp seeds and whey protein. I have already begun to drink more water, and I brewed tea to give me a non-caffeinated, non-sugary alternative to water. I love diet Snapple, but I'll stay away from its faux-sugar tastiness for the time being. I'm drinking my remaining Pepsi Jazz this weekend, and will not buy any more colas. (I will try sparkling water, though!)

Today I bought some fruits and vegetables, a manual citrus juicer, and a couple of Whole Foods salad bar items. No cheese- that's a miracle, folks! I do love me some cheese, you know. I got parsley for my salads (more nutritious than lettuce) and some raw pecans.

I feel good today. I don't really know why I felt so horrible the other day - I actually imagined at one point that I might be a step away from dying. How could I feel so terrible one day and feel normal the next? All I know is I'm treating it as a wake-up call. A knock on the side of the head from my guardian angel, perhaps. She knows I have to learn everything the hard way.

Hey raw community- I'M BAAAAAACK!!

Date with a Doctor

I wasn't happy with my visit to the doctor; he thinks I may have sleep apnea. This is not surprising to me, as I've been feeling tired, very sleepy, and stressed lately. I didn't bother setting up the sleep test because I was diagnosed with sleep apnea pre-raw (2005), and since I've regained the weight after going off raw, it makes sense that I would have this problem again. It's just that my symptoms are worse this time. My blood pressure was not good either: 145 over 81. I will have the blood tests done shortly and that will reveal the rest of what my nutritionist wants to know about my current state of health. All of this information makes my work with the nutritionist that much more important this year so I can make the dramatic changes I need to improve my health. I'm thinking of going directly to a raw diet rather than doing the phase-in I was thinking of. With the nutritionist's help, I'll be avoiding the nutritional problems I had when I did raw without "professional" guidance before.

That's all for tonight!

Almost Seven Months Raw- Then and Now

(Photo: My blood pressure and pulse reading this week- not bad!)

(Note- I know there's a typo or two in here but I can't find them!)

When I first started this blog, I was a pretty sad person. I was tired of being overweight, depressed that I hadn't figured out how to keep the weight off, and was suffering from physical ailments that decreased the quality of my life. They say that when you start to feel that you are not making progress in your new healthy habits, it's good to look back at where you started. Since I'm thinking about having some decidedly not-raw treats over the next few - and because I've been frustrated over bouncing within the same weight range for many, many weeks- I thought this might be a good time to compare where I stand today to where I was on January 1st, 2006 when I first embarked on my Raw Odyssey. Below are entries (with some paraphrasing for succinctness) from my first blog entry, followed by comments about how things have changed since I went raw.

OVERVIEW
First of all, I started at 341 lbs. I am 5′6". In 2001 I started to regain the 190 lbs I'd just lost and eventually reached that weight, size 30. I couldn't walk from the car to the grocery store door without running out of breath, nor could I read a passage from a book out loud without stopping frequently to breathe. I had obstructive sleep apnea and qualified for gastric bypass surgery. My doctor said it also appeared I had developed asthma. I couldn't wash the dishes for more than a few minutes due to the pain in my back. If I went to the mall I had to sit down frequently because I was tired and in pain. My arms and hip felt like they were pulling out of their sockets. My knee and leg felt so week that climbing stairs was scary because I feared collapsing.

Things sure are different today- despite having over 100 lbs left to lose, I'm much healthier and happier. Check it out with me:

THEN
-Eyes water for a couple of hours each morning
-Stuffy nose/post-nasal drip
-Sneezing in the morning
-Sides of tongue hurt for days at a time
-Bad gums (probably gum disease)
-Stiff neck and back

NOW
My eyes still water from time to time and I sneeze once in a while, but I'm not "suffering" the way I used to, and no stuffy nose these days. My tongue stopped hurting after my first week eating raw. I've yet to see a dentist (no insurance) so I can't say much about the dental issues yet, but the stiff neck and back are largely gone. I only seem to get them these days from carrying my heavy bookbag or working out.

THEN
-Blotchy complexion, some acne
-Low grade headache in morning, sometimes throughout day
-Severe lower back pain all the time
-Pain in knees

NOW
My complexion cleared up amazingly after being raw for a few months. It happened gradually, but the teeny bumps and darker pigmentation on my cheeks went away. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know that I recently added smoked salmon and increased the amount of cheese I eat so that I could get more protein in my battle aganst hair loss (which started after eating raw helped me to lose a huge amount of weight in a short amount of time). Since adding those foods, the roughness in my complexion has slightly reappeared. Proof positive of the beneficial effect that a raw diet has on my skin- and I do love evidence! It is making me reconsider the salmon. I have no more daily headeaches, but I did develop headaches when I was eating smoked salmon from Trader Joe's and grocery stores. When I started getting my salmon from Costco the headaches stopped.

THEN
-Depression
-Low energy, low stamina
-Uneven sleeping patterns
-Often feel hot
-Very noisy digestive system
-chronically dry skin

NOW
I noticed relatively early on that my depression just kind of melted away. I still tend towards depressive thinking when I'm stressed out, but I don't LIVE depressed the way I did before.
I'm not sure that my energy level has increased, but I definitely sleep better. It used to take me hours sometimes to fall asleep. Since starting raw I've fallen asleep within 15 minutes sometimes, and I sleep through the night soundly.
I still often feel hot. When I was a size 10 I was always cold. I'd love to feel cold again because it's hot here in the southwest. Guess I've still got too much insulation!
My digestive system was embarrasingly noisy in the old days and guess what? Since adding the fish and increasing the cheese, the noise has started up again. More proof that my body seems to like my more-purely raw diet better than the one I've morphed to. I'm definitely reconsidering the fish.
My skin is still dry, but no more alligator legs! I drink water all day and really miss it when I don't have any on me. Water comprises 95% of what I drink; the only other beverage I drink is kombucha tea from Wild Oats and Whole Foods, usually once a week or so.

THEN
-Resting heartrate = 80s and 90s
-341 pounds (about 200 lbs to lose)
My blood pressure is high
-My cholesterol is over 200.
-I am anemic.

NOW
Check out the photo up top- that was my blood pressure and resting heart rate this weekend at a pharmacy. My recent blood tests show my cholesterol to be in the 170s with the good and bad cholesterols both at healthy levels. I'm at 272 lbs these days and I'm not anemic any longer. I'm a size 22W.

EATING HABITS

THEN
-Salt, caffiene and sugar make up a large part of what I eat.
-Pepsi, some days, is the only thing I drink. Other days I drink very little of anything.
-High saturated fat and trans-fat

NOW
I consume no caffeine at all. My sodium levels were fine until- you guessed it: I added the fish and increased the cheese. (I am really reconsidering that fish....) I've had no Pepsi since December 31st 2005. I'm conscientious about drinking enough water and although I'm not perfect, I do have an average of 7 eight-oz. servings of water a day, I'd say. My diet consists of no trans-fats. The only saturated fats I get are the healthy, plant-based kind.

FITNESS LEVEL
THEN
-Fitness? What fitness? I can’t climb one short set of stairs without huffing and puffing. If I have to hurry down the street even a little, I’m breathing heavily for a ridiculous amount of time.

NOW
Today, even at over 100 lbs overweight, I can run up a flight of stairs (I know this because I've been doing it at work since last week!) My knee and leg are FINE- so fine I forgot I ever had a problem with them (or with my shoulders, for that matter, until re-reading my first blog entry). When I visited the gym last week, I actually ran a little on the treadmill, too- so there!

CONCLUSIONS
All I can say is WOW- I'm so glad I re-read my first post! I've come a long way. I've learned a lot, too. The biggest lessons I've learned are that 1) junk foods have strong psychological and physical effects on me, and 2) My raw odyssey must be tailored to my lifestyle and body and no one else's 3) It's a good thing to experiment and to try new things. If something doesn't work for me, it doesn't work. There's nothing bad or good about that; I just have to adjust and find what does work. The fish and cheese thing, for example. I'll probably end up cutting out the fish and keeping low-fat cheese on my menu (cottage cheese comes to mind).


Now, does all of this mean I'm not going to have a few junky treats over the next few days? Truthfully, I don't know if I will or won't, but I'll be keeping in mind where I used to be. To those who wrote to me warning me not to overdo it, thank you very much. I'll be careful! I'm kinda hoping any treat I have makes me queasy so that it'll be easy to cross it off my list. I'm not doing anything until Friday, at the earliest.

I'm Finally Getting Blood Tests

Well, I saw the doctor today. I weighed in at 277 - I knew it would be higher than 270 (my lowest). My blood pressure was 110/80. The doctor was puzzled that my hair loss is symmetrical, as if I did it myself -for example, a certain hairstyle or tightly fitting hats could cause this pattern. But after reviewing my situation and finding no evidence of infection or support for my doing this to myself (!) he recommended $160 worth of blood tests- YIKES! He want to check a few things, but most importantly my thyroid, iron, cholesterol, electrolytes and glucose.

I really had to think about going through with the tests because I surely don't have $160. My university-based insurance will reimburse me at some point, but that doesn't help me today. I took the choice of having them bill me. I will not be able to register for classes until I pay the bill, but I figure I'll have the money by fall, and my health is important. So, tomorrow I have my round of tests. The results come in about a week. Even if they don't find anything that explains the hair loss, it'll be helpful to have the results just so I can see how effective my raw lifestyle has been. Last year my cholesterol was over 200; I can't imagine there not being an improvement.

So, now that the medical stuff has begun, I'm looking at my diet again. According to Sparkpeople I had around 1700 calories yesterday. Almost 400 of that was because of the nuts I ate, but those nuts also gave me a high proportion of the 46 grams of protein I consumed. Fish was another large contributor to my protein total even though I had less than 3 ounces. If my calorie or fat count are causing me to not lose weight (remember, I'm not working out at the moment!) I may decide to alternate my protein sources because they are both higher in calories. Maybe I'll eat the fish and nuts on separate days. Some raw foodists claim that overweight people can eat high amounts of raw plant fat and not worry about caloric intake because they will still lose weight. I haven't seen that for myself as of yet.

I'm happy to be getting the medical stuff underway, at last. Next on the agenda: the nutritionist!

Put your hands up, ma'am, and back away from the cheese!

Green Grapes
Originally uploaded by rawallison.

Felicia and I visited a mall today and happened upon a bloodpressure machine , so we decided to check it out. I was VERY disappointed to see that my blood pressure was 134 over 83. This is the third time I've checked it since going raw and although it was GREAT the first time, it's been high the second and now the third time. What the heck? I'm not in school right now so it can't be stress. I'm thinking it's high sodium from the cheese and nuts. I told myself I was going to finish off the remainder of both packages and just not buy any more, but maybe I should just stop right now. I also don't drink enough water and that could be part of the problem. It also could be that a lifetime of poor eating habits have finally caught up to me. We do have a family history of high blood pressure, so... Well, it is a wakeup call.

The reason we went to the mall was so that Felicia could try on clothes since losing weight on raw. She is down from her pre-raw size of 14/16 to a 12 (and sometimes 10!) now. Whoopeee! I didn't look for clothes myself- I don't get any jollies from trying on clothes. We did stop by a couple of plus-size stores, however, which made me decidedly un-jolly.

Have I mentioned that I played racquetball a couple of days ago? I did! For about 40 minutes. BOY am I out of shape. I was wheezing until midnight, too. A doctor told me that I might have asthma and offered me an inhaler, which I refused. But I can really see that exercise induced my wheezing and coughing. Very annoying, but not enough to stop me from playing racquetball again. Oh, I can't wait to get this extra weight off! I just can't stand being this large anymore.

Some people have joined the Raw Odysssey Cafe at http://rawodyssey.forumer.com. Welcome to all of you! I hope many more come by and drop a line or two. Tell us about yourself, your experience with - or simply curiosity about- eating raw!

Ok, gotta go. I'm sure being up at 2 a.m. is bad for my blood pressure! :-) Hmmm... Let me try this out... Honey, you know I can't take out the trash. I've got high blood pressure! Vacuum? With this blood pressure? What do you mean, do the laundry? My blood pressure is acting up, you know that! Heh- I shouldn't make light of high blood pressure, as for some people it's a very serious illness. I really have been lucky all my life not to have suffered more serious problems from my eating habits. I hope that eating raw really can turn things around for me. I just have to be patient and not expect it all to happen in a few short months, I guess.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

(Photo: Buckwheat groats)

I am so sleepy I'm going to keep things brief. I went to the doctor today- my insurance provides a walk-in type of visit. My intention was to address the hair loss problem, possibly get my blood drawn, a referral to the nutritionist, etc. Unfortunately, after being called into the doctor's office I ended up waiting for over 30 minutes for the doctor to show up. No doctor ever arrived. I left in absolute annoyance. They probably still don't know I'm gone. It's hard for me to find time to see the doctor, so I don't know when I'll go back. Anyway, I did manage to have my blood pressure tested and was unhappy to see it at 114 over 90. The 114 is all right, but the 90 is higher than I expected, and higher than the last time I checked my blood pressure. I will have to keep monitoring it to make sure the diastolic measurement (the lower number, 90) improves. I haven't been able to find information specifically on diastolic hypertension- just a blurb on about.com, but I'd be interested in knowing more about it. Nurse Pam- are you out there?

February 22nd - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Raw

FIRST: The Bad and the Ugly
Today I felt really bad. I had a stitch in my side for hours. The kind that makes you press in on your side so you can breathe without pain. I am getting tired of these problems. I feel that all this fiber is wreaking havoc with my insides. I don't remember how long it took me to get used to a high fiber diet the last time I lost weight, but I remember that eventually I was absolutely fine and ate high-fiber every day. Of course I ate a lot of cheese, too. The raw cheese I'm eating this time around isn't helping. I don't want to take medicine- I've been 99% medicine free since I started raw (I say 99% because I'm pretty sure I took pain medication one night in January when I had a lot of back pain). I don't want to start taking Pepto Bismol or Immodium at this point, but I sure was tempted to. In fact, I was tempted to drink hot water, too, thinking it might soothe me. Does anyone have any advice for me? How can you not eat high fiber when you eat raw? I'm stymied. And I'm starting to feel like I have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). It's no fun at all.

OK- NOW FOR THE PHOTO
Before things got really bad last year, my blood pressure was never higher than 120 over 80, even at my highest weight of 358 lbs in 1998. But last year it started creeping up. The last time I checked it at the grocery store, the systolic was in the 130's and the diastolic was in the 90's. That really scared me and was one of the the experiences that moved me towards eating raw.

Well, as you can see by the picture above, eating raw has made a definite improvement in my blood pressure. 118 over 74! I know my pulse rate is too high, but that will improve; more and more I'm thinking of moving - walking, stretching, anything. When I was in a bad mood a few days ago, I wanted to go for a walk to clear my head. Today when I had a second store to go to in the same plaza, I considered walking there rather than driving (it was too far, really). But still... I think these are signs that my body is telling me it's time to start getting some exercise. I'm thinking of starting slowly by walking on a track. Maybe I'll start this week!
By the way, feel free to click on the photo for some BP information.

TODAY'S MEALS (I still can't quite make it to 32 points!)

BREAKFAST
Spinach salad AGAIN (I'm on a kick)
10 points

LUNCH
5 medjool dates
6 points

DINNER
Spinach salad with bulgar
12 points

SNACKS
(none)

TOTAL POINTS: 28