Photo by Rachel I write a lot about green smoothies and the benefits of drinking green smoothies. I’m also a huge advocate of juicing your greens. But one of the important aspects of drinking your greens is the rotation of plants. Let me explain. When you consume the exact same variety of green leafy vegetables, [...]
The year 2006 was the worst year of my life. My best friend of 15 years and I had a falling out. My Grandmother died. I lost my job. I opened my own practice only to close 9 months later in near bankruptcy because of low reimbursement from insurance companies. My husband left. I found a new partner. He left. My dog was diagnosed with ehrlichia.
My life was starting to sound like a country music song. But perhaps the most devastating news came from my ob/gyn.
“You aren’t fertile. Your FSH is too high. You need an egg donor.”
Having wanted children all my life, now 37 and without a partner, my chances were quite grim.
Not only would I need a sperm donor, but also an egg donor. There must be a way to restore my fertility.
In addition, at the time, I was taking a pharmacy load of medications:
I was 155 pounds, heavy for my 5″7 frame. My cholesterol was elevated. And, I had acne. All of the time. I didn’t recognize who I had become. And I didn’t like her.
My friend Leslie, at the same time my husband left, decided to “go raw” for a few weeks to do a “cleanse.” I thought this was ridiculous and unnecessary.
Meat and dairy are essential to a balanced diet. Its good for you. Or so I thought and so I had learned.
While my world continued to spiral down, I noticed Leslie’s was improving. She became my emotional rock and she was no longer so fragile.
She continued to tell me about “raw” and I continued to dismiss her. But for Christmas, to support her, I bought her Gabriel Cousens’ book Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine
There was one thing that he said that I wanted to hear, you can “change hormone production with a living food diet.”
A month later, when I arrived in California for a job so that I could prevent bankruptcy, I “went raw.”
After three months, I was no longer anxious. I didn’t need Klonopin.
After six months, I didn’t feel depressed. I stopped the Lamictal. Several months later, I didn’t need the Wellbutrin, either. Strattera was causing my blood sugars to rise. I stopped it, and they normalized. The Citrucel sat on my shelf.
Eating fibrous foods was not constipating. I wasn’t buying Advil, either, as I no longer ached. I didn’t get headaches anymore. I replaced coffee with green smoothies. I slept well every night.
One day, early in my raw journey, I was overtired and decided to get a latte prior to work. Within hours, I was doubled over in pain.
All along, I had been lactose intolerant, and didn’t realize it. So that’s why I wasn’t farting anymore.
I lost weight. All of it. And I was back down to my prior college weight of 125 pounds. I looked and felt fantastic.
Although, I was diagnosed with Hashimotos (likely induced prior to going raw, by the large quantities of dairy I used to consume, as dairy promotes autoimmune disorders), my thyroid hormones stabilized quickly, and I haven’t yet needed a prescription for thyroid replacement.
Once I stopped gluten, I no longer had acne.
It’s four years later, and I’m still mostly “raw” and definitely only consume a whole food plant based diet. I feel better now at 41 than I did at 31.
Another fertility specialist just informed me that my AMH is zero and that I have only one follicle producing in my left ovary per month.
He says I need an egg donor and he says I have a non-significant very small external fibroid on my uterus.
My mother lost her uterus to fibroids at 37. I believe had I not turned my diet around, I, too would be getting a hysterectomy.
While all of my other health problems have cleared, the fertility issue is still a challenge. I’m not giving up.
I’ve been to Clear Passages for 30 hours of physical therapy to prepare my ovaries and uterus for pregnancy. (A pleasant side-effect of this treatment, now that my uterus isn’t nailed to my abdominal wall from adhesions, is that I can now orgasm on intercourse).
I’m taking DHEA, which has been shown to improve egg quality and follicular production. And next week, I fly to Seattle to attend Randine Lewiss course for women with reproductive challenges like my own.
Whether or not I become pregnant on my own or by a donor egg, my raw food journey has lead me to a better place, to better health. This physician, healed herself, with a whole food, plant based diet.
I just want to take a moment to thank Dawnmarie for sharing her story with all of us. It’s amazing what a whole food diet can do, and I am so blessed to be able to share this message with the world!
Today’s post is a treat for those of you who are struggling with cravings or emotional eating.
Peggy Carey, the author of this article, is also offering a special promotion to Raw Foods Witch readers so be sure to read till the end!
This is a guest post by Peggy Carey also known as The Zest Lady.
I have been a yo-yo dieter all my life… losing 50 pounds and then gaining it all back in a couple of years.
As a result of my desperate quest to reach my ideal weight I ruined my health.
I finally found the secret to losing excess weight and keeping it off in a way that also promotes vibrant health and fitness. I lost 45 pounds using a combination of raw food and essential oils.
Achieving your ideal weight can be challenging, but there are many tools that can help you reach your goal. Let’s look at aromatherapy and how essential oils can be used as a weight loss and maintenance aid.
As a result of his research Dr. Alan Hirsch says that we feel full because of a special mechanism in our brain.
One reason we stop eating comes from signals designating being full or a sense of being satisfied.
An emotional state can also trigger a desire for food and we can control these feelings by inhaling certain scents.
The sense of smell can help us suppress appetite and all those irrational emotional responses we have to food.
Using our sense of smell consciously can give us control where our will power fails. For most people, using scents can curb cravings.
The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Institute of Chicago found that by inhaling an aroma throughout the day, you can inhibit the desire to eat.
Dr. Hirsch, in his study, found that the more people used scent to control their appetite, the more weight they lost.
The key was to vary the oils used to prevent becoming desensitized which would reduce the effectiveness of the inhaled oils.
Experiment by choosing three essential oils to use throughout the day.
Put a couple drops of each one of the selected oils on the cotton wick of your Be Lean Whiffer™ aromatherapy pendant.
Hold the Whiffer™ close to your nose when you feel you need a stronger scent.
The more you use these scents, the more effective they will be. Each day change the oils you used previously with three different ones.
This can be done easily by unscrewing the cap and inserting a new wick. Save the used wick for another day in a glass vial. (Oils can dissolve most plastics.)
It is suggested you start with peppermint oil, because it provides unique weight loss benefits.
Dr. Alan Hirsch’s study found that inhaling peppermint can directly affect your brain’s satiety center, the ventro-medial nucleus of the hypothalamus.
This powerful essential oil makes you feel full after a meal. The result is that you can eat less and still feel satisfied.
You can choose to either inhale peppermint oil before a meal or drink a few drops in a glass of water or tea right before each meal.
Make sure the oil is pure enough to ingest. Do not ingest oils that are not marked GRAS (generally regarded as safe) or are not labeled for supplement use.
Essential oils are a terrific and natural way to suppress appetite and calm emotions as they relate to food and stress.
For safety and effectiveness, read the directions that come on the bottles of each essential oil before inhaling or ingesting.
Reaching and maintaining your ideal weight is a very important step towards achieving vibrant health.
Get more health related tips at Peggy Carey’s site The Zest Lady.
To help you get started with essential oils, Peggy has generously offered to give anyone who buys a Whiffer pendant putting the code “RFW” in the comment-box a free pack of cotton wick storage vials.
Simply enter the code “RFW” in the comment box at check-out to receive you free gift! Click here to pick up a Whiffer and get your essence on!
P.S. I am experimenting with one of Peggy’s handmade Whiffers and will be sharing my experiences in future posts! Join me and get your own Whiffer and oils here.
One of the reasons people turn to raw food is because they are looking to eat more healthy food. That’s definitely one of my main reasons for giving raw food a try. (Remember that when I say raw food, I don’t necessarily mean 100% raw.)
Lately, I found myself giving out this little piece of advice: eating raw food doesn’t mean it’s necessarily healthier than other ways of eating.
There are a lot of other things that go into your health, other than just the “label” you apply to your food. So for instance, you might be eating raw food, but eating too much of it. Or you might be eating raw food, but eating too much of one category and not enough of another.
Neither of these scenarios is very healthy.
Or, you might be eating raw food but not drinking enough water, sleeping enough, or exercising enough. And then there’s your emotional and mental well being, all of which play into your overall health.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what healthy foods are.
Here is a basic list of healthy foods that most people can agree on:
Now we can split hairs and argue that we should include other foods, depending on what lifestyle you follow. For instance some may want to add superfoods, others may want to add in raw dairy or meat, you get the idea.
But I think we can all agree that these are basically healthy foods. Especially fresh fruits and vegetables.
Alright, so the unhealthy foods list is incomplete. That’s partly because it would take too long to include everything that might potentially be unhealthy. But it’s also because we don’t all agree on what’s unhealthy.
Some people go around telling themselves that they’ll be healthy if they eat “Everything in Moderation“. And while the adage that eating everything in moderation probably held true 100 years ago, it certainly doesn’t hold today.
There are more chemicals and ingredients that I can’t pronounce on a label for dried raisins than ever before. Dried raisins!
Imagine what’s in super processed junk foods for a minute. It’s not pretty.
I honestly believe that in order to eat more healthy foods we need to leave some of the unhealthy foods behind. If you’re too full from eating an entire bag of chips and a 1L bottle of Coke, then you’re not going to be inspired to eat an apple. Let alone a salad.
Letting go of foods that aren’t good for you is a lot more complex than it might seem at first. Why? Cravings. That’s why.
I’ve been eating healthy foods for over 3 years now, and I’ve learned a thing or two about cravings. Get on The Cue list, and you’ll be the first know about my cravings busting techniques.
Alright, so you’ve read my 13 Witchy Ways Green Smoothies will rock your socks post. You’ve learned about the difference between smoothies and juicing. You’ve probably heard me talk about green smoothies on Twitter (follow me, I’m @hyperlinked) and Facebook.
But are you ready for International Green Smoothie Day – August 15th?
It’s time for the second annual green smoothie celebration. I’m one of the sponsors of International Green Smoothie day, so if you’ve been itching to work with me one on one, you could win a session as part of the celebration! Sign up and you’ll also get a chance to win a brand new blender. To make more delicious green magickal “goop” of course. :)
Enjoy it!
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