Hi!

I haven't posted here before but I've been following these boards for a few months now, and I have to really just thank everyone on here for providing so much inspiration and information.

I'm 17 years old, living in NYC, and up till a few months ago, was on a typical unhealthy american teenage diet. I've always been not quite chubby but a good 10-20 pounds heavier than I'd want to be, and recently I've been feeling really lethargic and uninspired, unmotivated, etc.

I started reading about juice fasting and the master cleanse, tried both with limited success because it's hard to keep to either living in a house full of bad foods I grew up on and surrounded by friends who meet for pizza every day. The longest I lasted was 5 days, I was really dissapointed in myself. Although one great thing that came out of it was that I used to be a MAJOR coffee addict ( 9 or more cups a day - working unbelievably hard teaching myself college work to get ahead, up all hours of the night) - and now I am 100% caffeine-free! This from the girl who used to wear a shirt that said "Instant Human, Just Add Coffee."

I eventually do want to go back to juice fasting, because when I did get through 5 days I felt great. I really want to make it to 14.

I started on raw foods a little under two weeks ago, and once I started, there was almost no going back. The only things I've broken for are soy milk, a little bit of grilled tofu, and organic salad dressings that definitely aren't raw.

I figure I've been about 70% raw, and I've NEVER felt better in my life - even though I'm still going through small waves of detox!

My friends thought I was nuts at first ("starvation diet" and "fad diet" and all those terms came up) but now they see how my skin has cleared up and now glows and how happy and energetic I am and they're starting to want to join me for fresh juices and salads instead of starbucks and pizza!

I savor every bite of my food, and love the diversity in tastes between different fruits and veggies, that I never noticed before! Last night I had some dates and they were better than any candy or sweet I've ever had before in my life!

So, almost two weeks and still going, thanks SO much to all of you for making me realize how dead food leads to a dead body!!!

Looking forward to being 100% raw!

Brittany