About Me

Raw Inspired is, quite simply, my journal. I don’t much care if anyone reads it but will be very happy to see a community grow up here.

Why?

For several reasons, I’ve come to the conclusion that a raw food diet it something that I should at least attempt and am hoping that a blog will help me be accountable and also provide some tangible measures of progress that I can use to look back on and maintain my motivation when I get frustrated or the smell of something yummy but cooked comes wafting in my direction.

If you’re not familiar with a raw food diet, it’s really quite simple … you don’t eat anything cooked. Technically, that means that you don’t eat anything heated over a certain temperature (opinions seem to vary on what exactly that temperature is) but in my case, I’m going to keep it under 100 degrees.

Because of this heat requirement, a raw food diet is almost always vegan and wheat free, which might be of huge benefit all alone, depending on what you read. Going vegan will be quite a challenge for me because I love beef and chicken and CHEESE, but I’m willing to give it a try. Another food casualty on a raw diet would be the “whites” - sugar, flour, rice, iodized salt, etc. Pretty much anything processed is not OK on a raw food diet, so out they go.

So why am I doing this? Do I have some horrible, terminal, incurable illness that I’m hoping will miraculously heal itself if I go raw?

No. Not yet, anyway - and I’d like to keep it that way.

Who?

But in the interest of posterity, I’m going to post a “starting” bio here so that hopefully I will look back at some point and feel intense gratitude at the changes in my life.

I am a 39 year old wife and mother of three boys. I live in the Denver area, am married to a man I love very much, have two ex-husbands (three boys, three dads - it’s very Springeresque),  a wonderful pair of parents and a little brother who is happily married and has one little girl a few months older than my youngest.

Although my family is emotionally close, we are not physically close. My parents are in Texas and my brother is in Pennsylvania. My paternal grandmother is in Ohio (my grandfather passed in March of 2007 at the age of 91 - she is now 91), my maternal grandmother is in Kansas (she is, I believe, 76 or 77).

Our family is blessed with generally good health, in my opinion.

My paternal grandfather did have a quadruple bypass when he was in his 60’s, struggled with eye problems later in life, and eventually died after a couple of battles with respiratory infections. My paternal grandmother has multiple myeloma, but it’s slow spreading and the treatment would kill her faster than the disease. I’ve never really known her to be ill, but she does wear glasses, has fractured bones in her hip at least once, and it appears that osteoporosis is taking its toll.

My maternal grandfather passed away before I was born - he either fell down some stairs and had a stroke or had a stroke which caused him to fall down some stairs. My maternal grandmother is very healthy, as far as I know.

My parents have not had any serious health issues. My dad has had asthma his entire life and allergies can make him miserable at times, but both are cancer and heart disease free. Knock wood.

As for me, here’s the head to toe on my current health status and what I would like to see improve as a result of a raw food diet …

1. My hair. It’s starting to fall out and I don’t know why.

2. My skin. I’ve always had dry skin that has been sensitive to chemicals and harsh soaps. At the same time, I’ve been blessed with very clear skin - no real acne, hardly any wrinkles. Over the last year or so, though, I’ve started to see some lines and that simply will not do.

3. My eyes. My eyes have always been a challenge. My eyesight started declining as a child. I lost more than a few pairs of glasses, then hard contacts (had to be hard to shape the lens), and then soft. Eight years ago I had Lasik surgery, which was incredible. Such a profound change in my life. Still, it didn’t correct my reading issues and I still wear reading glasses. I’d like very much to get rid of those. Also, in the last year or so I’ve noticed that my vision is kinda blurry in a different way - I feel like I have to rub my eyes to get something out of my field of vision. I have no idea what that is.

4. My mouth. Although I brush and floss and brush some more, I’ve had more dental problems than I think anyone in my family. Crowns, cavities, etc. It’s very frustrating. I’m also paranoid about having bad breath, although I’m not sure if I need to be.

5. Nails. My fingernails just will not grow past a certain point, they break off. I’ve spent money on hardeners, vitamins, etc and nothing seems to work. They’re very thin, too.

6. Belly. Actually, the entire gastrointestinal tract. I have been plagued for almost three decades now with something that has been generally labeled as IBS. I’ve tried acidophilus supplements, allergy work, enzymes, more fiber, less fiber, medications - nothing really works. I can go several days without having a bowel movement, which just does not seem right.

7. Weight. Although I was not overweight as a child, that was probably more a function of a high activity level than anything else. I was a competitive athlete for 10 years and could eat just about anything I wanted. When I stopped working out, I didn’t stop eating. Right now I’d say I’m about 50 pounds, possibly 60, over my ideal body weight. One of the things I am curious about with the raw food diet is where my body will settle.

8. Circulation. I get really hot or really cold. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. More often, cold.

9. Knee. I had ACL surgery in May 2008 after an injury. Although the injury probably wasn’t caused by excess weight, I think the recovery is being hampered by it. I have almost all of the flexibility back in the joint but it still hurts and it shouldn’t after nearly six months.

10. Foot. I have some strange pinched nerve on the bottom of my left foot. It makes walking after sitting for a while really painful. Somehow it works itself out after a while but those first few steps are a bitch.

11. Back. Almost constant back pain that makes it difficult to sleep or sit in one position for long.

12. Sleep. I sleep way too lightly. Many nights I can’t fall asleep, but I feel tired almost all of the time. One bad response to this has been to drink way too much. This is only a couple of times a week but that’s still not OK. The smallest noises or light changes wake me up almost immediately.

13. Mental clarity. I don’t have it. I get a lot done but don’t feel like I have a lot of focus. I forget where I put stuff, can’t seem to keep a single thought in my head for long, and feel generally skittish.

14. Stress. I don’t know that I have a lot more than anyone else, but it’s still there and there are always improvements that can be made in the area of stress management.

15. Hemorrhoids. This has never been a problem until recently when I got a doozy and seriously, it hurt so bad I was dizzy and my doctor gave me Vicodin. That ain’t right.

16. Edema. I see the lines from my socks for way too long after I’ve taken them off.

17. Anemia. I’ve given up giving blood, seems like half the time I go in, my iron levels are too low to donate.

I’m sure I’ll add to that list as I remember other things that bother me but that I’ve gotten used to over time.

So there we are! I’ll post a daily update of what I’ve eaten, how I feel, how much I slept, what activities I participated in, and whatever generally random stuff that I feel is relevant.