Day 0; The Breaking Point

Hey there, I'm Rachel. This Blog was designed not only to help me through my journey eating 100% raw foods, but to maybe help someone else who is starting a similar path. December 19th, 2011 was the breaking point of being at my wits end with the funk I was feeling all the time. 

My Background:

I'm only 25 years old, but I've experienced some health issues throughout my life that are both annoying and worrisome. I developed really horrible cystic acne on my cheeks and upper back that can be really painful. I've tried everything from creams and cleansers to emu oil and naturopathic remedies to help to no avail. It has to be directly related to my diet as acne on the mid cheek (where you would apply bronzer/blush) and the sides of jaw is digestive. Not to get into too much detail but I've also suffered from chronic UTI's my entire life (I'm talking every other week to a couple per month), anxiety with panic attacks a few times per week and most recently an issue with completely emptying my bladder. It just never felt empty and sometimes (although rarely) I would try to go and nothing would happen. I went to a few different urologists and they both did a cystoscopy which is where they insert a small spaghetti-like camera up your urethra to see inside your bladder. Ouch, right? Yeah. They said my bladder was "bearing down" on itself and in the shape of a triangle. They also mentioned that there was a lot of debris, but no cysts or scarring which is great since I've had a lot of infections. They prescribed Rapaflow along with a 7 MONTH SUPPLY of antibiotics. I've been on antibiotics my whole life for my recurrent UTIs and I was convinced that was why I kept getting them. My immune system was weak! I took the Rapaflow for about a week but stopped because it made me feel weird and it wasn't working. Plus, I'm extremely against prescription medication as it was probably the reason I was in this mess in the first place. I eventually ended up going to a naturopathic practitioner and she gave me the tools, along with some herbs and advice, to beat the infections on my own without medication. It worked. I still got them but not nearly as much and could usually clear them up quicker then antibiotics did.

I was raised pretty "normal" eating relatively healthy. I never got fast food as a child or even junk food from the grocery store. It was mainly meals with a few small snacks here and there. Never had a health problem and rarely got sick. I'm 5' 7" and I've always been a healthy weight (120 lbs in high school to my heaviest which I'm at now of 147 lbs). I'm not trying to get stick skinny or lose a bunch of weight, I just want to be healthy. Now, I'm not going to lie, I would LIKE to lose some weight, perhaps get down to 130lbs, but that's not the driving force behind why I chose to go 100% raw.

On with how I chose the raw food diet:

So Dave (my husband) and I were laying in bed on Monday, December 19th when I burst out into tears for apparently no reason. This has happened maybe once before but mainly because I was hormonal before that "time of the month". I was SO sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I'm still not sure why I was so emotional but I was. Dave is so supportive and reassured me that I wasn't a crazy person, but I felt like it. We recently moved to a new house and I recently obtained a great new job. I don't really have a lot of reason to be super stressed but maybe it was all the emotion and release coming out at that moment. I rambled on about how I wanted to change my life, namely eating better and working out. I've always been a firm believer in what you eat ultimately determines your health and overall well-being. I'm not sure why but I said, "That's it, I'm starting a 100% raw food diet". I've read about it in the past, I have a few books about it and I've even attempted it once before only to quit after one whole day. I'll never know why it popped into my head at that moment so clearly but I was determined to make it work. So, December 19th, 2011 was the 'Ah-ha' moment that set the chain of events in motion.