The Story so far:
In early July, I realised I was again at risk of a stroke. I never usually suffer from headaches, but my chest pains and headache combinations were getting worse again due to the stress of having to fight off the NHS as I saved my mother’s life. They and social services objected to her new raw diet despite her having previously stopped eating or being awake for very much of the day. I was exhausted, very stressed and was starting to struggle even doing shopping for my mother.
She had been sent home to me painfully thin, with teabag skin. She a low chance of survival after a spell in hospital because I had sent her in to have a clot scanned. I thought this would take one night. Due to changes in consultants, infections and other problems caused by her normal diet and some well-meaning but rather daft staff, she ended up stuck there for two months. Hopefully we won’t be doing that again for a while.
After having had to explain her diet in low-to-moderate detail to a variety of so-called professionals (there wasn’t one that fully understood how her diet worked or how it would replace four medications) I eventually won out, and have now been left in peace again.
Because I was prevented from doing much of her additional therapy and my artwork by a series of bitchy nurses, progress on the artwork side of the project has stopped for the moment.
This has caused me to do a lot more writing again, since nobody can complain about that, and I stopped eating garbage around about early July. I went low carb until my gut recovered from the inevitable imbalance of normal food, then went back onto Supermix only about three weeks ago.
Progress has been slower than in the past, however it has been about 8 weeks now and I have lost 42lb. My face is in recovery (I have some delightfully hideous pictures to prove it.) I am now doing 2x5k walks per day, and I have taken up cycling, although it will be some time before I am even able to do half an hour as I have never regularly cycled in the past. The last time I had to shift this amount of weight, it took about 5 months to get to this point with exercise, so I am still getting the benefit of my previous raw diet.
Taking into account that last time I had decades of toxic refuse instead of about three years, this does not seem like bad progress so far to me. Much of the struggling when you are taking up exercise after hiding for a long time is actually just phagocyte activity, as in shaking things up in order for your body to get used to the idea that you are going to be doing it all the time. It is disappointing not to have the same spectacular occurrences of 21lb weight loss in one week this time, but is probably a good sign in terms of my body having worked better despite the abuse of a normal diet.
I have never been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but I suspect that if the parameters were not so strict I would be, as I have low blood sugar to start with. Therefore when they do a fasting blood sugar test, it comes up normal when for me it is actually sky high. I do have a marker for fatty liver, but no GP so far has been remotely concerned about it. I am also blessed with low blood pressure, so I do not get hassled about that often.
The last time I was raw, my blood work was outstanding, so I am waiting until my weight goes down some more before I go and re-verify that. I can tell you that from a prognosis of ‘nearly dead’ my mother is now the subject of monthly tests because they cannot believe her recovery. From constant UTI infections and a state of decline, she no longer requires antibiotics because of her raw diet. Even I was impressed, and I had taken this radical action because I knew what the NHS had done with my father at a similar stage in his illness.
It was not until I saw this, that I realised that the raw foodies are completely correct. No other form of nutrition would have pulled her back from quite so close to the brink. I am not saying that anybody could have pulled it off, her diet is really quite technical, but certainly low carbing, paleo etc would not have done it. Therefore I am somewhat more committed to raw than I was previously. 7 years ago it was a fabulous cultural curiosity, now it is a matter of life and death, to put it bluntly.
From a personal perspective, what was a casual attempt to stop my health declining in July, became more motivated when I discovered Wolfe was coming over in early August, which seems to have reengaged some hormones (nuff said) and certainly improved my motivation. I basically conned myself by thinking about going even though I knew it was an extremely bad idea in reality. I have now switched over to focusing on re-modelling Ina Disguise to become an actual person, so it is more of a professional interest. I ain’t no fangirl, and I am not the type of chick that thinks it is cool to chase married people. It would have been nice to sort out the work issue, but that is really up to him, and he is way too lazy/vain to bother finding out. Therefore Ina will be taking over the original project in the fullness of time.
So, in terms of fitness recovery, compared with my last foray into the world of raw food, this time is a massive improvement. Supermix is, of course extremely comprehensive now, and I am a lot more savvy about the whole raw food concept than I was 7 years ago. When you are new to it, you get caught up in a lot of bullshit and self-doubt. This time I doubt nothing, which is immensely helpful and less stressful.
The fact that you need so much sleep to start with is a bit annoying, but apart from that the inch loss so far is even more impressive than the weight loss. I will keep hammering at it until the job is done, now that I have no further concerns about:
- whether it is the best diet possible – it is
- whether I am bothering anyone – I’m not
- whether I will ever have any options in terms of family and career – I don’t see it
Therefore, I figure, I may as well devote myself to creating a beautiful Ina. Whilst I do that, I will be creating a persuasive, technical, political and economic argument for Ina to present. I have no idea whether I can do it in terms of dealing with the public, but I will give it a damn good try. Wolfe, in the meantime, is welcome to enjoy his semi-retirement. (waves)
1 Comment
Outstanding feature