Keeping Matthew Well

Coughing. Sneezing. Crying babies and whiny kids. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I don’t know about you, but I hate doctors’ office waiting rooms, these vaults of worn magazines, mazes of chairs, and ill patients eyeing each other with suspicion. They are ill-planned quarantines, the places where the infirm pass more illness on to each other, then carry it to their friends, family, and co-workers.

I hate doctors’ offices, but when my cranky child has a runny nose, a fever, a cough, and none of us has slept well for days, I go, hoping for a miracle in the form of some drug. Hours later, I walk out of a pharmacy with some nasty syrup that my son hates with side effects that I don’t want him to experience.

Matthew helping me pit cherries

About a year ago when my son was two years old, I started reading about the health benefits of raw foods. My son has never eaten meat before (the idea of our son eating a dead animal has always freaked out my husband and me), so the change from his vegetarian diet to a vegan diet wasn’t too much of a stretch. Out went the “cows’” milk, replaced by soy milk. Matthew still occasionally has cheese and Daddy likes to make him green eggs once every few weeks.

The results have been absolutely amazing!

Matthew has only had two colds in the past year. When I say “colds,” I mean trouble sleeping, runny nose, and a cough. Each cold only lasted three days! I can remember before I went vegan with Matthew, he had these same symptoms from allergies several months a year and had a week-long cold at least once a month.

Remember the frenzy over the H1N1 vaccine? We skipped it and the annual flu shot. None of us has been sick until my cold/allergies, etc. the past few weeks.

I don’t feed Matthew raw foods exclusively. He has a cup of soy milk before bed. He also eats homemade wheat bread and butter spread (never margarine!), cooked veggies, and applesauce. Sometimes he eats crackers and mashed potatoes. He loves raisins and bananas. Once in a great while Matthew gets french fries from a fast food chain.

Earlier this week my husband, Mike, and Matthew had ice cream from Dairy Queen. Sure enough, the next day it appeared Matthew was fighting allergies or a cold. After the milk was out of his system a day later, he was back to his vibrant self.
Matthew is a happy, healthy, smart little boy. When we tell people he hasn’t eaten meat before, people drop their jaws here in Nebraska where beef is considered a food group of its own.

Since we switched Matthew to a vegan diet, we haven’t had to take Matthew to the doctor. I plan on taking him to get a physical before he starts school in a few years, but hopefully I can get an appointment early and avoid all those sick people!

I highly suggest reading The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss

Detox Week Starts Tomorrow

I'm starting the 7-Day Raw Food Detox since I'm addicted to starches, sugars, and junk food again.

I strongly suggest that you head on over to their site and make use of the resources they generously offer.

Tomorrow's detox eating plan:

Fasting until supper. Supper will be as much of one fruit as I want and green lemonade, though I make mine with my Vitamix blender instead of a juicer.

Wasted Week

Over the past year, I have lost 38 lbs. This week I have put back on 7.5 lbs. I started at 193.5 lbs. last June and was down to 155 lbs. I'm at 163 this morning. I have to say this is a wasted week.

Initially, I went on the South Beach Diet and lost about 10 lbs. I got bored with it, tired of feeling sick after eating, and I started to go back to eating junk.

One day after a troubling night of overeating and morning of weight gain, I thought my body needed a detox. This is when I found The Raw Divas FREE 7-Day Detox. I got started and was hooked on raw food.

The most exciting part for me was all of the fruit! On South Beach, I was never able to have fruit. I was always going back on phase 1 or whatever, trying to take off weight that I had put back on during an eating binge.

I've been 80-90% raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts for almost a year now. Since last August, I haven't been ill. I didn't get a cold or the flu this winter. In fact, my husband didn't either! Our three year-old son has only had two colds in the last year, both of which only lasted about three days each!

My health and well-being is the greatest evidence to me that this raw food diet is ideal. I'm also a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, so I am used to the idea of diet directly affecting health, especially flesh foods though I do love some steak and fried chicken strips sometimes!

This week was wasted. My husband and I had our class reunion on July 3. I felt so great, wearing a hot dress and losing almost 30 lbs. from what I weighed in high school. I had been working hard changing my diet and exercising to look good for that reunion.

Sadly, as soon as the reunion was over, my motivation was also!

Over the past week, in addition to gaining weight from eating chips, nachos, cookies, ice cream, and fast food, I have experienced the following:

--Acne breakout on my face, sides and back of my neck, and upper back
--Yeast infection
--Difficulty sleeping at night
--Tiredness and fatigue
--Stuffy nose
--Constipation and bloating

I started making sure that I at least had a green lemonade smoothie (except I use spinach, frozen apple slices, and celery instead of the romaine). My acne is starting to clear up and the yeast infection is gone thanks to the natural remedy of using plain yogurt with live cultures.

I'm hoping to go back to 90% (at least!) raw and get rid of all these conditions again.