raw food

How a Vegan Diet Cured My Cramps

I am back from my trip to Hawaii.

In one word…

I am so happy!!

It was amazing.

I could go on and on about it, but instead I wanted to let you guys know something else.

I have had no CRAMPS for the past 2 months.

OK, cramps people…you know what I am talking about!

This is an amazing occurrence for me…as I have always had…well for at least 10 ish years…terrible cramps that seemed to be getting worse.

For the last year or so I would have to take 3 advils continuously for the first 3 days of my cramps. If I timed it slightly wrong, the pain would get so bad that I would just be lying in bed unable to move. The only thing that helped was to sit under a shower or in a hot bath literallly ALL day and as soon as I got out –which I had to do because you overheat in a hot bath–the pain would start again.

Ridiculous!

I knew this was a sign of less than perfect health, but I had tried googling about cramps to no avail.

At one time I bought bucketloads of vitamins after I read an amazon review talking about how this certain vitamin had cured this girls cramps.

Nothing changed. My cramps were still getting worse.

When I went vegan…my cramps did not get better.

When I started drinking green smoothies daily after reading the fabulous works of Victoria Boutenko my cramps did NOT get better.

However

After I read the book 80/10/10 by Doug Graham, which is about fruitarianism, or High Carb Raw Veganism…

I increased my fruit intake by a LOT. I also stopped using oils…

A week before my period I went full on…

well almost

I ate only fruit for breakfast and lunch…and I had a cooked vegan meal for dinner…

The whole month I had been increasing my fruit intake, eating pretty ridiculous quantities of fruit.

I’m talking like ten bananas and two oranges for breakfast. 5 bananas and 6 plums for lunch.

That month I experienced…the lightest cramps I had ever felt.

And only for day 1…on days 2 and 3 nothing.

I just recently had the same experience.

Right before I went to Hawaii I was thinking OH NO, of all the time to have cramps…

I experienced almost NO CRAMPS for the second time in a row. It is a miracle.

I definitely think this is because of eating more fruits, more raw food, and less fat.

If you experience something every month without fail for 120 months in a row and then all of a sudden BAM something changes…and the only thing you have changed is your diet… well…it’s a pretty good guess your diet did it.

What I have learned from this is that

Veganism can definitely improve your health….but veganism alone is not sufficient.

It is a matter of eating crazy amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables…(necessarily vegan) and probably very little fat. If you eat a lot of cooked vegan food you might not see health results.

Supposedly no cramping and light periods are a very common side effect of a fruitarian or high carb raw vegan diet…I just never believe those kinds of claims myself.

It is so cool that I was able to fix a health problem myself. It is really exciting.

I highly recommend the book 80/10/10.

I am so curious to think what would happen if I could go all the way…do it completely. I feel like I would experience amazing results…If I got this from just a month to a week of transitional 80/10/10.

Has anyone else experienced any health benefits from eating a vegan diet or increasing their intake of fruits and vegetables? I am very interested in your experiences.

 

What Raw Foods Taught Me

business cardGood Evening,

I was thinking about veganism today. I have been doing a great job with being vegan. In fact, not being a vegan no longer even enters my mind.

It all has to do with raw foods I think.

I wanted to be a vegan for animal rights reasons, and I still cannot believe what goes on every day in the world of factory farming and farming in general not to mention labs, but for some reason it became so much easier to be a vegan once I started reading about how fruits and vegetables are the healthiest things for you.

Somehow this never sank in before when my mom told me that vegetables were good for me or whatever. I now WANT to be as healthy as possible–there are so many immediate benefits. Anyway, it’s just really cool to me how my priorities have shifted…I now feel like there are so many vegetables, so little time. I no longer feel like I have nothing to eat as a vegan.

It is a great perspective to have as a vegan I think. Luckily for us, not participating in a cruel system is also coincidentally extremely good for your bodily health.

ripe papaya on a tree. it wants to be eaten!

I have been getting into the raw foods world, reading people’s transformational stories on their raw food blogs and what not. It is really a pretty cool world. I’ve gotten into sprouting sprouts because of it, and now I’m interested again in one of my first passions in life that has lain dormant for many years, gardening and growing plants from seeds.

If you want to start sprouting, get This sprouter! It is the best. And check out sproutpeople.org and Ann Wigmore, the sprouting guru.

I thought this article “Natural Health for the Not-So-Healthy” had a lot of good raw food resources in it. But start with Victoria Boutenko. If you’re interested, she will get you fired up. I feel like so many raw food transformations I’ve read about begin with reading her book Raw Family.

Victoria Boutenko (my fave).