Name's Jason, I live in Las Vegas, the driest damn place on the planet. Just found this forum; glad to have found some people who are of similar mind/determination to have true understanding of the body, and to bounce ideas around. I've been doing raw food for almost a year now, it's been an enlightening journey. I owe alot to Aajonus and the ideas in his book, We Want to Live. If you are new to Raw Paleo, I highly recommend you go read it, today. I waited a month or so and it cost me fumbling around on alot of stuff I could have avoided.
I've experimented with alot of different types and combo's of raw food, from mostly vegetarian to almost zero carbs. Here's where I'm at now: breakfast - berries, honey, 4-7 eggs : lunch - 3/4 to 1 pound beef with tomato/peppers/bell peppers (maybe only 50-100 calories carbs) : dinner - same as lunch, usually a full pound : snacks in between include eggs, berries, papaya, particularly before workout in early evening (tho I haven't mixed papaya and eggs yet). I also drink raw goats milk as a midnight snack for recovery and better sleep. Sometimes I'll eat some chicken or rarely fish when I have a taste for them - I generally try to be mindful of the instinctive self. I also noticed a need for alot of juicy fruit at first, and then slowly seemed to move towards a taste for more meat, less sweet ripe fruit.
I pretty much went cold turkey into this and noticed some immediate benefits (1-8 weeks):
Sleep better at night / have more energy during the day
Face cleared up immediately; have very few if any pimples
Not nearly as thirsty - if only I didn't live in the desert, would probably drink hardly any water at all
Lips hardly ever chapped anymore - I used to need chap stick constantly
Much more resilient to cold (and subsequently heat, as I started this diet 1 Jan 2008)
Of course my 25 yr old self in a city like Las Vegas did lend itself to boozing it up (and of course the drunken munchies afterwards - pizza, burritos, burgers/fries) on a week-endly basis, which held me back for quite awhile. It was a process of detox from the weekend, feel good again wed/thur/fri, and then start all over. I know stupid right? Nonetheless, I still accomplished some detox and health benefits, learned alot from experimentation of food combinations, what works/doesn't work, and finally brought the drinking to almost none (only a couple times in the last few months). And it's been the last few months that some very profound changes have taken place:
LONGER TERM BENEFITS (6-11 months)
Tons of energy in the gym - can regularly keep going for 2 hours
Eyes have lightened in color and brightened in clarity
Breath is much better - never brush teeth anymore
Singing voice suddenly got better
I can go for much longer periods w/o eating but still keep energized
Body seems very resilient to injury/sickness/change in environment
Senses feel sharper, more alert
Emotions more balanced; calmer but energized
Mind is calmer and more focused; more perceptive and sharp/quick; more creative
Some of these seemed to happen almost overnight, some of them came on more subtly, but no doubt apparent. It's been kind of a journey of peaks and valleys. I've definitely had my share of detox symptoms, though nothing that has been too extreme or too long lived. I'd say to most new guys, you will probably go through periods of feeling great mixed with periods of not so great, usually marked by diarrhea sometimes lasting up to 2-3 weeks. Stick it out, maybe experiment some, but believe me, it's worth it.
So I have been meaning to try something that I know will probably bring great increases in health - I'd like to start growing worms, crickets and other bugs for food. I know we had to have eaten alot of these as hunter-gatherers in times of shortage, or even as just snacks throughout the day or on the hunt. Anyone out there have any experience with this? I'd like to hear what you have to say.
Last thing I'll say is about alignment health. If you have chronic bone or muscular pain (back pain, tendinitis, a 'hitch' in your knee or whatever), the best thing you could possibly to do is go buy a book called "The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion," by Pete Egoscue. Read it, follow it it to the letter. My dad used his methods to kick gigantic knee braces he wore for decades; I used it to come back from a 25 foot fall off a balcony (which broke my foot in too many places to count and jacked my back for awhile), and showed it to my girlfriend to CURE her headache problems and back tension (I know right, cure your woman's headaches, who would have thought it possible?). If you do it, and stick with it, it works, results are equally as dramatic as this diet.
Well I guess that's it. I could go on, but I'll save it for other posts. Anyways, glad to have found a place to learn/share ideas, hope I can offer some good information to contribute.
-Jason
