Stepping most of the way to raw veganism, because it’s completely obvious that’s what needs to change to repair my health. After years of being inspired but intimidated by the raw food lifestyle, I finally have enough practice listening to my body to give it what it’s been asking for! Turns out it’s common sense, and all those experts can keep their sprouted avocado dehydrated flax carob cake gourmet raw recipes. I love produce I can recognize! Found a great book called 80/10/10 that validates what I’ve experienced around my various sensitivities and is helping me learn more about how to support myself in eating the way I need to! Finally! :D
Added after reading the book today:
Besides being overweight, the other main food-oriented discomfort is that my skin has always been incredibly sensitive to oils, no matter what their form. Almost immediately after eating something with oils (even if it is not ‘oily’, like fried food) my face begins to itch, I become flushed and oil starts to be excreted from my pores. It is so uncomfortable I usually have to wash my face a few times during the next hour or so until it is not distracting. I like to think I my skin is particularly efficient at filtering, but more likely the toxins from years of eating crap has screwed up my homeostasis so that this is a symptom of a more system-wide issue. Over the years I have eliminated overt oils and fats to various degrees (meat, dairy, frying) but although I felt best as a full vegan in 2007 (and lost 30 pounds) eating cooked foods makes oil very difficult to avoid. Also, I have heard so many times that fats/oil is necessary that I have been worried about reducing it too far, similar to my battle with protein. For years I have secretly wished that I could ‘get away’ with a diet of mainly fresh produce- I never understood the need to replicate the standard american diet-style foods with different ingredients- because only after eating a meal of only produce did I ever feel “clean” afterwards. I reliably have indigestion of various sorts after eating grains… even brown rice leaves me uncomfortable, as does soy and anything ‘creamy’ textured, regardless of ingredients. So I thought that if I could just stop eating things made with any kind of grains, meats, overt fats and anything creamy then my system would finally relax enough to let my body’s healing do its job. This would be a really low-fat raw vegan style design, and I had never seen something like that. But that really only leaves me with produce, and many people already reacted strongly when I went vegan because I would become malnourished. So I overwrote my body’s messages and kept some semblance of the standard diet, while my skin and weight and digestive issues remained the same.
I am totally over that now. I’m not sure why, but something about reverting back to a less healthy way of eating while my sister was in Japan this month finally sent a foundation-shaking message of “I’M DONE WITH EATING THIS CRAP AND FEELING HORRID” though my system, followed by, “I DON’T CARE IF PEOPLE FREAK OUT, I AM ONLY GOING TO EAT THE THINGS THAT WORK FOR MY BODY.” With this new conviction, I went online to look for resources to give me some guidance on how to pull this off smartly, as it would suck to aim for greater health only to make my system more toxified. And, thanks to a random reviewer on Amazon, I found the 80/10/10 book, with I ordered with free overnight delivery and read today. I almost couldn’t believe how much the author had asked the same questions about food that I had, and that his answers were a more detailed version of what I had decided to do! I am so grateful. AND this is the first time I have read a book on nutrition where I felt I was in the seat of power, that I was looking for tools for me to use on my quest, instead of being told what to do for fear of some dreaded result. I mean, malnutrition really only happens if you are starving, not just if you haven’t eaten enough bites of meat– duh. All this excitement over something so common sense is ridiculous. I am taking the fear-mongering out of feeding myself. I am pumped! I can’t imagine what I would rather do than eat produce all day! I don’t even like salads because I would rather make a ‘cold-plate’ of all the veggies and fruits as finger food! So eating fruits and veggies as nature intended them just makes perfect sense to me. I am so relieved to know that my body’s messages really were right and that by just eating a few nuts a day I can meet my need for fat and oils, and that plant protein is sufficient. And finally, in a good enough way, I have a plan to meet my needs that I only need to allow myself to do naturally! This has been a long, long time in coming. I know, that by listening to my body and trusting myself that my body will stabilize at my proper weight and my skin will be glowing and I will feel light and energized– more than I even remember from my teens! Oh, and even before switching to raw, I have lost 16 pounds since October! Regular exercise is an absolute must for my body… and since I won’t be eating lethargic-making foods, my activity will increase, too! I almost can’t believe that I’ve given myself permission to… live fully!