Sunday, June 28, 2009

We are going RAW, baby!(Sort of...)


I put it off, it has been in the back of my brain for over a year now and today, we took the first step. Tomorrow night is my NFP refresher course. Yesterday was a sucky day in that the whole, missing the twins, aging doom, everything came crashing down. This afternoon, we went to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and I am now the proud owner of the first items to start my journey into eating raw. Mr. Thorn is my sort of unwilling partner in crime on this. We started out with baby steps. I have some grains, raw nuts, raw almond butter, sprouted bread, a jar to make sun tea, lots of greens, frozen berries and some add-ins like flax oil and seeds. I'm ready to take this fertility thing by the horns. Okay, hopefully my health and body will come along for the ride. I prayed that God would lead me and direct me in something I could do to transform our lives. I need health and wellness and my normal body back. I will post on our journey and hope we stay strong and motivated. I was vegan many years ago so this isn't totally foreign to me. Mr. Thorn, he was a meat and potato guy so keep him in your prayers. He may lose it on me. I will prepare the foods and gradually add them into our weekly meal plans and hope for the best. I'm trusting God on the homeschool AND this new raw diet.
I was very inspired back when I read Lyn Vaccaro's writings online about how the raw diet helped her overcome her history of miscarriage and she went on to have two successful pregnancies at 42 and 45 thanks to the raw diet. I have her blog on my sidebar and she has so much good info on infertility, diet and aging. It's all worthwhile to read.
I made our first smoothies with kale, collards, spinach, berries, bananas, flax seeds, flax oil and apples tonight. Eventually, we may need a more high powered blender. It was much better after I added the bananas. Before it was too "kale-ish". So I put the leftovers in the fridge for morning. I am hoping to order at least one book to help with recipes and stocking our pantry. We are going by the Internet and winging it a bit. I hope we can do this on our budget and with our time available. I think this diet has come a long way in the past 5 years thanks to the Internet. There are many how-to videos and articles plus some easy recipes.
So there you have it. I am going to try and report back each week so you can see our progress and hopefully, it will help someone else.

6 comments:

Sew said...

I am not sure if you read my blog about the re.liv supplement that I am taking. It has KNOCKED my appetite to almost NOTHING! It's crazy! Also healthwise, I have a lot more energy, the brain fog is barely there, my skin is nice and supple, my nails are hard as rocks, my feet aren't cold anymore etc....

It is a multi vitamin in the form of a shake you take two x's a day. It's not expensive either. It won't break the bank! :) I have had great results. My mother and SIL are on them as well.

You can contact Beth @ Beautiful Day for more information. The results knocked me on my feet. I was laying around the house ALL day long with extreme fatigue! I am surprised that almonds and an apple will fill me up and satisfy me til dinner. It's crazy!??

Good luck with the raw diet! It looks delicious!!!! Yummy!

Mrs. Mike said...

Interesting! We already do raw milk and joined a CSA, but I'd love to know more about this. Is there a good go-to article that describes generally what the raw food diet consists of and how to do it?

Milehimama @ Mama Says said...

My husband is a meat and potatoes guy too, but he's managing to eat meat free a few nights a week now! There is hope!

I've never tried RAW... but since I don't want to turn on the oven in the 105 degree heat, maybe we should change, LOL!

Laura The Crazy Mama said...

I hope it works for you, but I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. I barely have enough time to put a pizza in the oven, much less create one from uncooked stuff that the kids will eat.
I love cheese. I love meat. I like cooked things with lots of spices and garlic. I don't think I'd do so well on a raw diet!

Anonymous said...

For ideas and help with introducing the raw diet to the family have you considered a subscription to Purely Delicious? (I've got a link on my blog). Rebecca, who now runs PD also has a great site called 123raw.
http://123raw.ning.com/

It's a great place to ask questions as is rawfoodtalk.com (RFT).

My husband is a meat and potatoes man as well as an avid hunter and fisher but after doing some reading he feels it's best to cut meat out of the diet for the most part (as well as most dairy, such as milk). He was also blown away by Storm and Jinjee from http://www.thegardendiet.com/. But we weren't vegan at the time so we included raw milk and raw cheeses and took tips from Carol Alt. She's got two books.
http://www.amazon.com/Raw-50-Amazing-Breakfasts-Lifestyle/dp/0307351742

She eats raw yogurt, raw mayo, raw milk and cheese and even raw meats (think sashimi and steak tartare). I've always liked her perspective on the raw dairy issues because we certainly aren't vegan for ethical reasons.

Since transitioning to veganism for my chronic pain dh and I decided that on feast days we'd make exceptions to our normal veg/vegan routine in order to really have a feast. I use Fish Eaters to get meal ideas for certain feast days.

Good luck with all this! I'd like to add that even if you don't go all raw if just add more raw veggies and foods to your diet you'll feel a difference! But I think it's worth going all raw for a period of time to see if it helps with your fertility issues. God bless you!

~ nic

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I don't know much about a raw diet and miscarriages, but I do know that eating more flax, a raw fruit smoothie for breakfast, and green smoothies in general has done wonders for my endometriosis. I honestly think that flax is a miracle seed. Sure, some people will tell you to avoid it because of estrogen issues, but it can do so much to heal if your body is already out of whack hormonally.

Best wishes for your new diet/way of life. You may go through a lot of bananas to make smoothies taste good, but it is worth it!