6 weeks of detox- 6" lost

So I'm in my 12th week of the raw food diet. I lost 6" on my waist in 6 weeks. I wasn't very big before.

But when you only gain on your waist like me, it's a sign of Sugar problems. My doctor would never diagnose me with hypoglycemia, but I had all the symptoms.

Exactly 2.5 hours between meals, I would feel light headed, dizzy, headachey, grumpy, and tired. As soon as I ate, it would go away.

So I ate protein 5 times a day to control it. This is what I think is so amazing, and crazy, about going Raw.

I now eat 1/3 of a small bowl of nuts&seeds for breakfast, lunch, and snack at 2, and then make my green veggie juice at 3.

I don't eat or drink anything until 7am the next day. It's SO much less protein than before, and I have NO hypoglycemia symptoms! My blood Sugar NEVER feels low.

I have the same energy ALL day. (Except after 8pm, my body starts winding down for 9:30-10 sleepy time.)

It just shows how complicated our bodies are, and how little we really understand about how raw plants affect us.

I always ate a good amount of veggies and fruit, but my veggie juice now adds 10 more veggie servings/day.

So what has changed was the kind of proteins- from animal products to raw soaked nuts&seeds. Also the amount went down dramatically.

As well, the carbs, (porridge, whole wheat pita) disappeared! I always thought these carbs were necessary for energy.

But I can truly tell you, I have much more energy now. I think the secret is, a raw food meal exits your body in 8 hours! You get energy very quickly from such easy to digest foods!

(I want to talk about transit time for a wee bit. You colon is at least a foot long per 3 sections.

If you only go once a day, you empty 1/3 of yesterday's food. That means breakfast on Monday, might not pass until Thursday. Yikes!

But if you eat raw until lunch, and it passes in 8 hours, plus supper is veggie juice which has no fiber, that means you may go to bed with an empty colon. Imagine what that could do for our health!)

Another difference is my water intake is half of what it used to be. We all know water is important for you.

But the point is, the more sugar, acidic foods (meat, eggs, dairy, grains), and salt you eat, the MORE water you need.

The more alkaline your diet, you need much less water. When I go several days Raw in a row, I drink much less water, and I think some of it is just out of habit (I love drinking herb tea but I'm not really even thirsty).

Then when I have a non-raw meal, (pizza, chocolate, ice cream ect.) my water intake goes way up!

Sometimes, I will drink 6 cups of water in the evening after pizza. I can't believe how salty pizza tastes now. I am confident that in the future I will have less of these kinds of foods now that I know how tired and thirsty I feel after.

I am 95% raw, and the longest I went Raw all day was 7 days. I have to admit, I slept really well, had very good energy, and my saliva PH has peaked at 6.8.

Last night, I had restaurant food and icecream, and my PH this morning was 6.4. How much you need to neutralize acidic foods greatly affects your overall well-being!

My exercise changed greatly. In the BEFORE picture, I was only doing gentle exercise. It would help me maintain my weight (not gain more), but only vigorous exercise would make me lose weight.

When I exercised a lot, it meant I was always hungry! But if I ate more I would gain. That was the problem with my BEFORE diet. It was considered very healthy, but I was always exercising and always hungry!

On the raw food diet, I have done only gentle exercise on and off over the last 12 weeks. It has kept me healthy but not forced my body to lose weight. I have also not been hungry at all.

The only time I feel really hungry is before breakfast. But for the rest of the day, I eat because it is time, not because of hunger.

It's been liberating to get SO much more nutrition out of less, but better food.

On the flip-side, my detox symptoms have been:

small rash and red zit-like bumps on my torso, canker sores, and dry skin on hands but not face.

My first few weeks, I ate 4 non-raw meals a week. I think if my diet was really lacking in nutrition before, and if I went 100% raw, my detox would have been MUCH worse!

My calories have also gone down in the last 3 weeks. In the first month I ate 1500-2000 calories of raw. Now, I feel satisfied with less nuts&seeds, and less figs&dates.

So the difference in calories is probably 300-500. It is less but I am SO much healthier with energy that I haven't had in a couple years.

It's also interesting that I have not lost weight in 6 weeks now. It was actually a concern to me that I might get too skinny because the calories are lower than my BEFORE diet.

But that hasn't happened. I still have my girl curves, and I expect when my body is ready, I will lose a few more inches on my waist.

But that is not my first concern. I want to look younger and younger. My skin looks so good! And I want my energy level through the roof!

My future goals are to wake up at 6am feeling great and go for a walk. Then have breakfast at 7am when the stomach is it's most active.

(Right now, I usually eat at 8-8:30) Currently, I still need at least 8-9 hours sleep. When I am fully detoxed, and I predict when my PH is up to 7.2-7.5, I will easily need less sleep.

The few detox symptoms I have are peanuts compared to how great I feel now!