Hello Everyone :)

[jinna86]

Hi,

   I've been lurking around the forum, reading posts for a short while, and I've decided to create an account to get a sense of what I should be doing next.  I'm actually a very shy person (online and in real life) so to even make this post kind of has my heart beating in nervousness.  I suspect I won't be making very many posts, but I do want some guidance.

   Anyhow, about me:  I'm 26, and I'm not really experiencing any major health problems, other than sluggish bowels.  I feel like things are okay now, but there's this persisting feeling that things could be better.  I've struggled with weight for a long time, so I'd be interested in losing weight, but mostly my primary goal is to maintain a good state of health and be as free of diseases as possible.  My family has a history of colon cancer and heart attacks.

   Currently, my diet is about 90% raw and looks like this:

Breakfast: Fruit & Veggies smoothie with papaya, blueberries, greens and vegan protein powder (because my bf is a wannabe vegan - I know, it's a disaster waiting to happen)

Lunch: Salad with greens and a home made dressing of soaked almonds, coconut oil, ginger, garlic and lime juice

Snack: Veggie smoothie with a mix of juiced and blended veggies sweetened with an apple

Dinner: Salmon sashimi, and a young coconut with raw eggs blended in

   I usually do an hour of exercise a day ranging from light to moderate effort and I weight lift every other day.  I'm just wondering what you guys suggest my next step should be?  I'm thinking my best bet is maybe to phase out the nuts, and try some raw steak tomorrow?

   Also, the piece of steak I have has been sitting in the freezer for months.  It is from a local farm and grass fed, but.... is it too old?  Or should I just go by the smell?

   From my reading, I've noticed that there are some people that use raw dog/cat food, which I presently feed my pets with.  Should I use some for myself and take the plunge, or just ease into it more slowly?  I notice that their raw food smells really good to me, but the texture of it kind of freaks me out....

    Any advice would really be appreciated, thanks 

[cherimoya_kid]

I'd avoid the steak in the freezer, it probably has freezer burn. 

Salmon is usually farm-raised, I'd try to find another type of fish.  It will do in a pinch, and it's better than no fish at all, but wild-caught is better.

Where are you getting the raw cat/dog food?  Is it Slanker's?

I would try to phase out the nuts.

[CitrusHigh]

Wow you're kicking ass J!

Pretty much everything is looking good!

You could phase out nuts, but you might not need to if you feel fine with them. If you've experimented and determined they don't cause you any dis-ease, then they might be a perfectly acceptable part of your diet.

You seem to have it all down, majority raw, exercise, desire for health! The next step I would say is to just explore organ meats and more unique parts of the animal, slow and easy if you're not used to organs.

You can do the pet food if you can get over the texture, or you can get ahold of your own organs and prepare them in a manner you like. Kidney, heart, liver, tongue, all delicious and nourishing in their own particular ways.

And definitely make sure your salmon is wild caught, but I'm guessing you already know that?

[jinna86]

   Hmm... okay, I'll avoid that steak that has been sitting in the freezer for who knows how long

    I'm in Canada so I'm not using Slankers.  I found a brand called Natural Instincts that is a Canadian brand that claims to use grass-fed, free range human grade meat, and I figured, why not try it?  The only thing is it contains a supplement in it called Greenmin that contains vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll.  I'm not sure if that's something I should avoid or not?

    The few local butchers that I have seen in the city don't seem to provide organ meats very often, so I'm not sure where I would find quality organ meats.  I do have marrow bones though (that I have never tried yet).

    I've been reading Lex's Journal (I'm only on page 63) so I'm thinking of decreasing my carb intake to see how I feel.  About a week ago, I experimented with increasing my fruit intake for about two days, and my teeth have been lightly sensitive since then.

    I really appreciate the input, thanks!

[White shark]

Are you using toothpaste with fluoride? My teeth was so sensitive 1½ year ago, that i couldnt barely eat any fruit at all. I have had it for several years, but when i stopped using fluoride, it completely disappeared within two weeks, and i can eat any fruit now.

[joej627]

Yea sounds like your doing a really good job with everything.  A few ideas maybe.  Ease into the raw stuff.  Remember a lot of very healthy cultures don't eat 100% raw food.  I would feel terrible for instance if i ate a lot of raw salad vegetables without blending or juicing them.  My digestion is not great.  Also if your body tells you to go slow, then go slow.  Here are some things i find really easy to add in that don't take much getting used to.

-raw eggs/yolks
-avocado
-salmon sashimi
-raw butter
-olives/olive oil
-coconuts
-sardines (lightly smoked)
-rare red meats if raw doesnt sound appealing.  I would add that sometimes i blend up raw liver in smoothies with maybe tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic,etc.  After awhile you seem to just lose a taste for heavy cooked food.



Also, remember that stress/emotions are a big factor in health.  I'm not trying to suggest anything, but most people have a lot of mental/emotional/spiritual stuff to work on.  IE: relaxing and trusting ourselves.

-Joe

[Dorothy]

You're a star!

All that there seems left for you to do is experiment with little bits of other foods and see how they make you feel. When I arrived to the forum I read all of Lex's journal too. The dog food didn't work for me - the taste and the texture weren't my cup of tea - but eating just a little bit doesn't seem like it would hurt except that I'm not familiar with those additives. Dog foods often have vitamins meant for dogs. If they are dog vitamins I'm not sure I would choose that as my first new meat source before knowing how something without the vitamins affected you first.

My suggestion would be to change things one at a time and a little at a time to see how you feel. I do very well on soaked seeds but other don't. It's all about experimentation. One suggestion I have is that with your eggs to stir them into the smoothie afterward so that they aren't blended fully to keep those great fats from oxidizing more than they have to - at least that's what I do.

Cheri turned me onto a bigger variety of seafood which has added a lot to my diet. Tyler convinced me that dairy wasn't such a good idea - but sounds like that's not something you are eating so makes it easier. Adora and others have been convincing me to add some clay recently. I saw a video of GS eating bone marrow and wanted to try it because of seeing it, but now I just use marrow in my raw soups (sort of veggie smoothies). PaleoPhil talked me into coming here in the first place but then won me over to suet which I now really like in frozen pieces. Ionna has been trying to teach me how to eat organs and I started a thread on eating raw heart where people gave me some great suggestions. I tried Lex's ways but that didn't work so well for me. I still want to try what Eveheart does in my second refrigerator how she hangs her meat and cuts pieces off. Etc. Etc. On and on in this way I've tried new things and added new foods to my diet over the last year. It's been a slowly opening circle.

The good news is your diet is fabulous already and now you get to explore and expand your choices. I'll look forward to hearing how you choose to do that as we get to know you more.

Welcome to the community.

[jinna86]

   Thanks for the kind words everyone

   The toothpaste I'm using is free of fluoride so I don't think that's the cause of the sensitivity.  Luckily, my teeth have been a lot better lately.

    I'm already used to making my steaks really rare, so switching to completely raw muscle meats has been pretty easy.  I just eat it right out of the fridge.  I tried raw marrow (bison I think) and that will take some time getting used to.  The first time I had it, I had it cold (which I didn't care for).  Room temperature was a bit better.  I also tried that raw cat food (vension, with heart and liver) and that was alright, though I mixed it with the raw beef.  I've always loved trying new foods, so trying things raw is like a natural next step.  I think getting into raw organs will be harder though.  I've considered trying insects too (crickets specifically), but I'm not ready quite yet.

    For the past two days my meals have been:

   Breakfast: papaya and coconut water smoothie with coconut oil, and then a few bites of goji berries

   Lunch: bone marrow, 1 tbsp of venison cat food, raw beef (I have no food scale, so I don't know the weight)

   Snack: green juice with apple, celery, beets, carrots, ginger

   Dinner: coconut meat, raw egg yolks, raw beef

   I've been having about 60-80g of carbs a day, and I'm thinking that is not enough for me.  From reading various posts, I heard that not enough carbs can make it difficult to sleep, and I've definitely been having problems sleeping the past few nights.  I have energy for exercise, but my mind is foggy from tiredness.  I'm going to add more fruit in the coming days.  Would it help to eat some fruit before bed?

   Also, I've been feeling pretty cold today (the temperature was 18C which is pretty warm).  Specifically, my hands and feet were kind of icy through the morning and early afternoon.  Is that normal?
 
   One more question: I'm interested in losing weight, and I was wondering, should I eat until I feel 100% full, or just until 80-90% satiety?  I've struggled with weight for most of my life, so I sometimes find it hard to read my body's signals.

   Thanks everyone for your input!  I'm very excited about this journey 

[joej627]

I wouldn't usually eat to 100% full.  And i know its tasty but i would avoid eating multiple proteins at one sitting.  Like eggs with meat, etc.  You might read up on Matt stone or basal temperature readings.  There is such a thing as yin/yang healing and foods.  For instance i may eat a large raw salad and my metabolism slows way down because it is taking me so much energy to break down the fiber, but if i eat a plate of cooked carrots/veggies with some raw fat its smooth and will warm me up.  I guess i don't buy into the 100% raw thing at the moment.  Very wise traditions cook some of the food.  But for me, it's only the veggies that i don't do raw or rare.  Another tip is to warm things up before you eat them.  Remember, animals aren't eating things out of the fridge.  So like with my raw eggs, I will put them in a glass and run hot water in a sink for a few minutes to warm them up.  Your body is "supposed" to be 98.6 degrees.  Eating food out of the fridge is pretty contrasting with that.  Carry around a thermometer with you.  The goal is 98.6.  Take your temp throughout the day and see what helps your metabolism rev up.

[CitrusHigh]

Saying you don't buy in to the raw thing is like saying you don't buy in to oxygen for breathing. It's not about whether or not it's optimally healthy to eat only raw foods, it's what level of health you personally desire and whether or not you feel like eating cooked foods. It is 100% unnatural to cook your foods and it denatures them in a huge way, sucks all life out of them, badly warps the nutrients and creates toxins, that is no joke. But since we have free will, we get to choose whether we'll put life and light in to our bodies or settle for some dark and lifeless foods. You could use higher laws to subvert lower ones and 'believe' unhealthy food in to being healthy, but at that point you probably wouldn't need food at all because you could sustain yourself with your mind/beliefs alone.

Not attacking you at all Joe, just pointing out the implications of that kind of thought process.

[Dorothy]

In nature food is rarely going to be at 98.6 degrees. In the sun of the tropics fruits can be sitting 150 degrees and in the north in winter meats can be frozen. I like having cool foods sometimes and warmed foods other times. I feel like it makes me stronger like going outside in the heat and and the cold. The body has to work to adapt yes, but I'm not sure working is always bad. In some ways it is more comfortable to stay at 70 degrees all the time or to eat only foods at 98.6 degrees - but sometimes being stimulated feels good - like exercise.  My eggs I keep on the counter though because eggs taste wrong to me when they have been refrigerated. Maybe because one would never find eggs when the bird could not grow - which is almost always in mild weather.

As for what Thoth said before I'd like to add that we are social beings living in groups, families, cultures. As humans, fitting in with our group well is a more deeply ingrained physiological need than what form our food is in. In nature as hunter gatherers we would not do well at all on our own. We would probably become someone else's lunch trying to make it on our own. We are a highly communal species. So there is a lot of social programming regarding food and in what forms to eat it in. Even when we understand logically and experientially that raw is better than cooked it can still take a long time to break free of the ties of social conditioning. Also, there are physical and emotionally addictions and habits that need to be changed. When one isn't sick and don't have that kind of motivation, it takes reprogramming oneself with different inner talk and positive cues and reinforcement as well as getting the physical body into new solid habits. I'm still working on this every day even though I've been at it for 30 years. The subconscious/unconscious is vast and deep and connected to others so there are many levels in which we will feel pulled. Eating raw is going against the flow in our modern cultures. That's part of the reason why I find this forum is so very useful. 

[CitrusHigh]

Of course dorothy, and I myself am not near 100% raw, more like 80%. But I eat cooked foods knowing I'm polluting my body, not kidding myself in to thinking that there is some great benefit from them. I do this for aesthetic (taste, aroma) and social reasons like you said, but I don't let my ego desires cloud my judgement of reality (that's not true, actually, I'm sure that happens often) BUT I don't pretend that cooking food 'has its benefits', at the core of it, it's almost disrespectful to the animal or plant you are cooking and absolutely wasteful.

[Dorothy]

Of course dorothy, and I myself am not near 100% raw, more like 80%. But I eat cooked foods knowing I'm polluting my body, not kidding myself in to thinking that there is some great benefit from them. I do this for aesthetic (taste, aroma) and social reasons like you said, but I don't let my ego desires cloud my judgement of reality (that's not true, actually, I'm sure that happens often) BUT I don't pretend that cooking food 'has its benefits', at the core of it, it's almost disrespectful to the animal or plant you are cooking and absolutely wasteful.

Totally Thoth! That's keeping logic and the will focused on the truth. It's the only way I am able to keep myself going at all is thinking exactly what you said! If I go by my training, taste, addiction or social pressure I wouldn't eat raw at all. It's only that raw is obviously more healthy logically and when I eat all raw my experience confirms it that keeps me going fighting the good fight. Understanding this truth has given a foundation for me to fight against other conditioning and social pressures as well. If my culture is so terribly off-base about something as fundamental as food I have figured that it probably doesn't have a clue about other truths either. It takes a good deal of energy and will to ferret out the conditioning from the truth - but it is so very worth the effort.

[cherimoya_kid]

If my culture is so terribly off-base about something as fundamental as food I have figured that it probably doesn't have a clue about other truths either.

Yeah, when I figured out how much better raw works than  cooked, it took me years to start to convince myself that other humans in this culture are worth my time.  It threw me for a loop, as they say.

The truth is often hidden, and often as dangerous as it is freeing.

[jinna86]

Yeah, when I figured out how much better raw works than  cooked, it took me years to start to convince myself that other humans in this culture are worth my time.  It threw me for a loop, as they say.

The truth is often hidden, and often as dangerous as it is freeing.

It was a first year anthropology class that really opened my eyes to how all the beliefs we think are "universal" are really just cultural differences.  Sometimes it seems like the things we do, we do because they worked for us a long time ago, and no one really took the time to really examine if those things we continue doing are still valid in these modern times, or even ever.  But the internet definitely helps to open people's eyes about alternative ways of existing.  If not for the internet, I don't think I ever would have even considered the notion of raw paleo.

[Dorothy]

Yeah, when I figured out how much better raw works than  cooked, it took me years to start to convince myself that other humans in this culture are worth my time.  It threw me for a loop, as they say.

The truth is often hidden, and often as dangerous as it is freeing.

I hear ya. It's still an issue for me - but applying to every culture I've been exposed to so far too.