eveheart's Journal

[eveheart]

I read Aajonus' first book last weekend and made a decision to eat RPD for two weeks. The next day, last Monday, after about one day of eating raw, a co-worker noticed that I looked better. Yes, I've been visibly ill and noticeably declining for a few years. I have every reason to be well, a happy home life, a satisfying career; yet I had been waking up with morbid thoughts, wondering when I'd need a wheelchair and a personal attendant.

Aajonus' negative attitude toward medical science matches mine. I'm sure I could buy a scary diagnosis and a bleak prognosis. Then, I could consent to medical treatment and let the doctors document my decline. I have a good health insurance policy.

This is the end of week one. Thursday, another co-worker noticed that I had been losing weight. I replied that I had eliminated all processed food from my diet. I'd estimate that I am about 200 pounds overweight, and I can see that I don't look so bloated. I can also see that my mobility and range-of-motion has improved. My joints still ache, but there has been enough improvement so that I threw out the ibuprophen that I took several times a day.

I've been helped by reading posts on this forum. At first, I didn't know what to read besides Aajonus. Now, I've read Cordain, Wai, and Burger. In the past, I've been familiar with the raw-vegan writers, as well as the juicists, the non-juicists, the fruit-eaters, and too many others. I know all sides of the eating-disorder literature, too. All this reading and knowing has made me cynical, but not closed-minded. I know for sure that I do not tolerate grains and dairy, therefore, RPD makes sense.

One area of confusion that I share with many posters is what to eat, if anything, besides raw meats. The gurus add to this confusion by quibbling among themselves over what are the true nutritional needs of mankind.

I have decided to resolve my confusion with caveperson thinking. So, when confronted with a non-meat food choice, I ask myself, "What would a caveperson do?" For example, if I saw a squirrel nibbling the seeds in a field of ripe grasses, I'd try one and spit it out. Thereafter, I'd invent the game Spit the Seed. I wouldn't gather, winnow, and make a pilaf!

Another confusion-buster is availability, including seasonality. This is a better guide, IMO, that eating what a guru says to eat and fussing because I can't get it locally. I am not a cookbook cook. I prefer to buy what is available and then fix a meal from what I buy. I'll keep reading this forum and adapt my food preparation to the ideas that sound good.

Haunted by the question, "How do I know this (RPD) is IT?" I hear the answer, "Don't be a silly, this is not IT, and there is no IT!" Improvement does not require omniscient perfection. I will grow, learn, correct, refine and change my mind.

Then there's the relationship question, my intimate relationship with food. Breaking up with Fast Food was easy; I said good-bye and got a restraining order. But when I told my beloved Kimchi that I needed a few weeks to think this over, he went into shock. I can hear him in the refrigerator, sobbing, "You said you would love me forever." In my paleaeolithicity, had I stumbled on wild fermentation, or not? I'll decide later.

My rebellion this week has been over the loss of convenience by not freezing food. Providence has been symbolized by having a freezer full of meats and a pantry full of grains and legumes. I'll have to re-think this one, and probably put IF (intermittant fasting) into the picture. This is an eating-disorder thought: "What if I get hungry and I can't instantly satisfy my hunger?" Ironic - I was dying from eating, and now I'm worried that I'll "die" if I feel a little hungry.

I'm glad this forum has a section for my journal. Writing this morning has been very helpful.

[laterade]

Welcome eveheart!
Glad to hear you have made the decision to take matters into your own hands.

Re Kimchi... I love it and eat it as much as possible. It's good stuff, great stuff if you make it yourself.
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz is a great book.

[eveheart]

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz is a great book.

I'm a Sandor-kraut fan! I do all my own fermenting - fruits and veggies. It was in Wild Fermentation that I first heard about high meats. Indirectly, that's how I ended up here.

[Josh]

I'd invent the game Spit the Seed. I wouldn't gather, winnow, and make a pilaf!

LOL sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck.

[eveheart]

My second complete week of raw paleo... with three "restaurant" compromises (eggs that fell into the hot springs and got hard-boiled, potatoes that got too close to the fire and got baked, and boiled shrimp that accidently fell into a bowl of cocktail sauce). My diet consists of raw beef and lamb muscle meats, lamb kidneys, scallops, oysters, tuna, eggs, citrus fruit, avocado, berries, papaya, banana, walnuts, kimchi, and coconut. I drink moderate amounts of water. I can feel my body healing.

HOW LONG WILL I DO THIS? At the onset, I said I'd try RPD for two weeks. Looking forward, I will commit to the whole month of May. In the back of my mind, I hear a faint forever.

KITCHEN. If RPD prevails, my kitchen is too modern. It has too many appliances and gadgets, and mostly the wrong ones. My daughter has already taken most of the pots and pans to her kitchen. I've been tempted to buy a meat grinder, but I've held back because I think I can find a stone implement to do what I need - or maybe a better knife for meats. Also, I need to chew, and I believe chewing will be a part of healing.

FOOD CRAVINGS. None! For my whole life, I've been plagued by food obsessions and cravings. I have labeled myself an emotional eater. That's not happening now. I estimate that I'm eating one-third to one-half the food I ate before.

SIMPLICITY. RPD seems comforting, simple, and uncomplicated. I like it.

[eveheart]

This, my third week, was full of good news and had a little bad news.

GOOD NEWS: INSTINCTO! For years, I've felt like I had no sense of my own satiety. My commitment to RPD comes from a sense that I've been eating myself into an early grave. This week, I have noticed that I seem to be hungry for particular foods, tastes, and smells - and none of my hunger drives me to fast food (hooray!). I eat with less relish, but enjoys my food more, and this seems to be proper.

MORE GOOD NEWS: My daughter says I look like I've lost about 30 pounds. Paleolithic man did not get weighed, and neither shall I. My hips do not hurt when I walk or stand. I feel like I'm standing straighter. My shoulders feel freer, and I have no doubt that they will heal and function fully without restriction, by and by.

GOAT SHARES: I bought goat shares for 2 quarts per week of raw goat-milk kefir from a farm that is 11 miles from my house. California law lets me buy this raw animal milk if I swear I will only give it to my pets, so I have decided to be a cat. I hope I don't confuse the archeologists.

BAD NEWS: DETOX   I am having detox symptoms that feel like a hangover. I ate cooked Japanese yams to slow down the detox. Of course, detox is not truly bad news - it leads to a good healing.

I like reading this forum. The post about the healing from Crohn's disease was encouraging, because it took a long time. I think it will take me some years to be well. I don't know what I have, disease-wise, because I won't buy a diagnosis from an American doctor, but I am not well. Whatever disease-name can be found, cleaning and nourishing the body should achieve the repair. When I read AV's book, I strongly identified with the title (We Want to Live). All of you have been good role models, and your posts offer me lots of good advice and encouragement.

[TylerDurden]

Just make sure re the raw dairy. If the "detox" occurs only during times when you drink raw dairy, then it isn't detox but allergy. A simple elimination diet for a few weeks, on and then off, should determine this.

[Ioanna]

eveheart, glad you're here!  that's going to help so much that your daughter is so supportive!

[eveheart]

Ioanna: Thanks for your encouragement. I live in a converted garage behind my daughter's house. It was her look of concern that helped me decide that I'd better do some serious improvement. She never nagged me, but I could see the worry in her eyes.

TD: You answered my unasked question: am I detoxing or reacting badly to dairy? My other big questions are: Am I carnivore or omnivore? And if omnivore, how much carbs? Plenty of time and good guidance, thanks.

[eveheart]

Week Four!!! My daughter and I were hanging out the other afternoon, and she started staring at my face. After a moment, she said, "Mom, you look completely different here," and she pointed under my eyes. I was looking for a picture to post showing how baggy my eyes were, but I've been so camera shy that I don't have any pictures of me for the past 2 years.

Then she asked me to get weighed on her scale because she wanted verification of what she was seeing. I was melting away. A month ago, I was too heavy for a standard bathroom scale, but I got on the scale. I figured, if I broke it, I'd buy her a new one. This was last Thursday - 3 1/2 weeks raw paleo - and I had lost 40 pounds, according to her bathroom scale.

Friends, do you realize what this means to me? At the very best, I figured I could lost a pound a week at my age on a typical diet. I could never stick to a diet anyway. It just wasn't worth it. I originally tried RPD to try to stop the pain in my joints that I thought was from grains/dairy.

I went to a chiropractor this morning. On his professional scale, I've lost 48 pounds since my last weight in January, when I went to get my handicapped parking placard renewed. A co-worker recently mentioned how convenient it was that I could get handicapped parking. Honestly, I'd prefer to be able to walk from the far end of the parking lot. Now, I think that's going to happen.

[eveheart]

This afternoon, my daughter said, "You know, Mom?... I don't think of you as an invalid any more!"

I'm really getting around well. I even went to a farmer's market this morning. It was quite a bit more walking than I'm used to, and I handled it just fine. No pain, no limping, and I went to another store afterwards instead of going straight home to recover.

The other good news is that my daughter and her family has decided to "go paleo!" Not raw, but I'm still counting my blessings. My son-in-law's doctor recommended this way of eating (imagine that!) because of his multiple health issues.

[eveheart]

Another week gone by, and I am so thoroughly pleased by how I feel and look that I've decided to stop counting weeks. I started out with a two-week commitment, then I decided to stick it out for the month of May. Now, I cannot imagine going back to what I used to eat.

Curiosity got the best of me, as far as weighing myself goes, so I stepped on the scale this morning to find another 6 pounds gone this past week. Any other diet would have me worrying that I'm losing weight too fast, but not this one. The biochemistry makes sense, in that I'm not overloading with foods that create a high insulin output, therefore I'm not in fat-storage mode all the time. I also enjoy feeling clear-headed and alert.

I'm also enjoying regularity for the first time in decades. I can't believe how much misery I had, all because of not being able to digest cooked foods. Believe me, I tried everything! With a RPD, everything was normal (regular) by the end of the first week, and it has stayed that way. <<happy dancin'!!!!>>

[eveheart]

I'm definitely past RPD infancy and well into my adolescence. Eating raw chicken was my rite of passage. I have a "relationship" with a butcher who wants to please me and hopes we can have a LTR. 

I'm walking better, partly due to weight loss. But I also notice that I'm not dead tired all the time. Whereas I used to rush home after work and fall into bed for a 1 - 3 hour nap, then watch a movie, then go back to sleep, now I shop on the way home, visit with my granddaughter, clean the house, do little projects, and generally live my life.

My last social eating occasion was a few weeks ago. I had cooked fish and vegetables. I felt sluggish and was constipated for several days. I have another eating occasion coming up next week - a graduation celebration dinner at a steakhouse. Someone else is paying for the meal. Well, not JUST someone... my ex-husband is paying. I've already starting thinking ahead so I can order what I really want to eat, and not order what I want him to pay for. Funny how the subconscious mind seems to have its own agenda.

[eveheart]

RPD is making a different woman out of me. Last week, I was reveling in the idea that I had found me a butcher, and this week I have TWO butchers. One butcher couldn't satisfy my needs. Both of them have lamb and goat, but from one I get grass-fed beef marrow bones, from the other I get lamb's liver. I daydream of turning my refrigerator into a meat locker, with hooks hanging from the wire shelves.

I'm comfortable with letting people know that I'm eating everything raw, but I feel very awkward when it comes to eating raw meat in front of people. My daughter has seen me eating sliced fish, chicken, and liver with a knife and fork. But when I chow down on something that requires a lot of chewing to get at it, I've been self-conscious. That means that I'm eating lunch alone instead of with my co-workers. I'll get over it and take my lunch to work this week.

I've continued to lose weight effortlessly. Joint pains are diminishing noticeably day by day, giving me a better range-of-motion. I'm really glad I have the support of this forum.

[Amris]

I know how you feel. I'm quite worried about my husband finding out I'm eating raw meat, lol. He's already seen me try other diets and fail repeatedly with them. This is just going to be one more in a long succession to him.

Although, he can't complain too much because I have helped him get his blood sugar numbers down significantly and kept him off of injected insulin.

It's awesome that you're ready to let coworkers know. I think that's a HUGE step!!

[laterade]

...I think that's a HUGE step!!

Most definitely.. Choose wisely, this will scare a few people.

[eveheart]

Choose wisely, this will scare a few people.

I agree.

I'm not the type to talk about "my diet" and other personal stuff. In contrast, about two-thirds of our staff is on some sort of weight-loss diet (without visible results), so they want to know what I'm doing. Most people who ask get the "I'm eating all natural/unprocessed food" explanation. The religious people get the "I'm obeying my higher power" explanation (which is true for me).

The ones I eat with? I call everything sashimi (even chicken and liver slices), and that I'm not buying the cafeteria food because it is cooked.

[eveheart]

My Butcher Saga continues, and the plot thickens. The grass-fed Marrow Man told me that he's got too many knuckles, and his boss won't let him order more bones until they're gone. Geesh, ya'd think he'd just leave 'em out for the coyotes! I think my new Marrow Man will be Marin Sun Farms CSA, because they have a drop-off once a month a few mile from my house.

My lamb Liver Dude can't give me a straight story about the grass-fed issue because he's at a Pakistani Halal market, and grass-fed isn't his concern. Also, there might be a slight language barrier, since my Urdu is not up to par. Marin Sun Farms can get me lamb liver, but I'm not sure I'd like it frozen. I guess the answer to that is: good health is more important than the pleasures of the table.

I'm looking at some health improvements, such as relief of hip pain, but I'm wondering about how to accelerate some other improvements. My worst problem is pain in both shoulders, which a sports rehab doctor says is from unstable joints and muscles in my shoulder not being strong enough. I try to do the simple exercises he gives me, but I'm struggling with pain and "clicking" inside the shoulder sockets. I'm eating all RVAF. Any dietary advice?

[eveheart]

Raw egg. I've always enjoyed raw egg yolk, but the white has been another thing altogether. Since I've been reading this forum and eating RPD, I've been on the lookout for negative attitudes about particular raw foods, and then deliberately eaten them. First I did raw red meat, then raw organ meats, raw marrow, then raw chicken. Today I did raw egg Rocky-style... and survived. The white was the least-palatable texture I have ever sipped, but I found the taste interesting - salty with a sweet aftertaste.

I'm going to conclude that raw egg white is my least favorite food.

[Ioanna]

I'm going to conclude that raw egg white is my least favorite food.

lol!

i'm really impressed!! it took me over a year to try organ meats, and just yesterday i finally tried chicken. 

i don't know about shoulders, but maybe there is an exercise (an isometric?) that you can start with that will not cause pain and clicking, but still begin to strengthen?

i dislocated my knee cap several years ago, and i have to keep up with exercises or i will start having discomfort in a couple weeks.  as soon as i start working out again the ache goes completely away. i'll always be using weights in some capacity, keeps me free from (re)injury.

[eveheart]

Thanks for your admiration, Ioanna, but before you decide that you have been slow, I have to confess that I have always been adventurous about eating new foods. I never flinch when I watch Andrew Zimmern. My children are like this, too. When I spoke to my son, the mountain man, last week, we discussed what sort of grubs would make a tasty meal.

As for my shoulders, I injured one about 5 years ago, but the other one seemed to start hurting without any obvious injury. I want to improve my overall health to address the predisposition to having discomfort in this area, and in my joints in general (hips, knees). Eliminating grains and dairy gave me almost instant relief in my hips and knees. There are other things I want to experiment with by including or eliminating them, like nuts, citrus.

There are spiritual factors which I pay attention to, too. For example, feeling discomfort when I raise my arms (= give praise) or reach out to shake someone's hand (= greet and welcome) are symbolic of thought patterns that require healing. To me, that's where the real healing will take place.

[eveheart]

Haven't written much in my journal lately because everything seems so routine and normal lately. Oh, I did dump my two butchers for another butcher. This new butcher has everything I need in one place, and he doesn't get weird over special orders. He gets one grass-fed carcass/week, and the femurs are mine. His prices are better than WF, too. I have an order coming in from Marin Sun Farms in a few weeks, and that will be my back-up source for marrow and fats.

I continue to lose weight effortlessly. I went to visit some old friends this weekend, and one of them said I look 20 years younger. I feel younger, too.

I have been contemplating starting a workout to rehabilitate my shoulders. They have been called "unstable" by a few chiropractors and physical therapists, but these healers have not been very helpful when it comes to treatment. I have a lot of resistance to starting out, even though I think it would be a wise thing to do. I realize that there are a lot of fit people in this forum. Any suggestions or encouragement will be appreciated.

[Max]

Great Job Eveheart!

I seems you have really taken to this lifestyle change with gusto!  For me it is more of a daily struggle, that is why I go on this forum so much.  It keeps me honest.

I am curious what a daily menu might look like for you?

Lastly, in regards to rehab, chiro's, and shoulders, I have heard good things about this book: The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion.  I am planning on buying a copy and seeing if it can help with my chronic pain.

http://www.amazon.com/Egoscue-Method-Health-Through-Motion/dp/0060924306

Keep up the good work

[eveheart]

Thanks for the book suggestion. I put it in my Amazon.com cart.

My gusto comes from pure desperation. I was scared that I'd end up in a wheelchair. Lots of my friends are retiring on disability. I don't see myself this way. Compared to some other desperate measures, such as juicing, fasting, raw vegan, etc., RVAF is very simple. RZC might have some benefit for me, but the risk that I couldn't stick to it makes me stay away from it right now.

I don't eat anything fancy - right now I have marrow bones, lamb, ground beef, and high beef in the fridge. My veggies are all my own fermented vegetables (cabbage, kimchi, cauliflower). I have some avocados, bananas and watermelon. Also some fertile eggs, walnuts and honey. In case of "emergency," I have some frozen tuna, squid, and scallops.

I have fruit for breakfast, eaten while I drive to work. Lunch and dinner are raw meat with avocado and fermented veggies. I am out of liver until the next time I shop, but I have it several times per week.

This forum has been a rich source of ideas. I don't think I could have figured out what to do just by reading the books. I need real people, not gurus.

[eveheart]

While I was waiting for my Egoscue book from Amazon, I got the book Pain Free by Pete Egoscue from the public library. This book makes so much sense to me. Egoscue takes a postural approach to healing. In my case, taking this approach is a no-brainer. I limp, and everything feels out of whack, even though I have no history of trauma. Other people my age dismiss these symptoms and say that they are "getting old."

As I was looking at more Egoscue information, I found out that they have a clinic 2 miles from my house. I had a consultation last night. The consultant had me do a set of postural exercises. By the end of the second exercise, I stopped limping. I got a set of exercises to do this week, and I'm going back next week. I don't think I have the knowledge of the body's bio-mechanics to figure this out by myself.