My story of success and medical wonders
By Julie Wilkinson (Howick, South Africa)
Julie's before picture
This time last year I felt terrible. I’d been coughing continuously for six months and I’d had the flu for the umpteenth time. With no one else to blame, I blamed swine flu, which was, at the time a big worry on the African continent.
My first exposure to the world of Raw foods –
It was during this time that I received an invite from my friend Shereen to attend a raw food “bring and share.”
Armed with a few copies of Joan’s Green Blood, I felt very smug as I arrived at the venue where I knew no one other than Shereen.
When Shereen eventually arrived she cheerily asked me how I was and I mumbled something under my breath about feeling ill. She replied, “You drink a lot of milk don’t you?” And that was the beginning of the end of eating toxic food.
We were all given a tasty and oh-so-satisfying smoothie to start off the proceedings.
This was followed by talks featuring David Wolfe, Dr Gabriel Cousens and Tony Robbins. A raw food athlete also spoke about the advantages they have over animal eaters when competing. I was sold.
Some of the folks at the “bring and share” spoke about going raw on a 40% or 70% basis. It was all a new language to me… % of what? I soon caught on.
I wanted to go flat out…
…but I love bread, so I found rye bread and that makes me about 95% raw.
I also decided that I was not going on diet as I always get the flu when I diet, and I was already having a bad bought of flu. So needless to say I ate like the pig I blamed for making me sick in the first place.
At home, potatoes were replaced by sweet potatoes and I cut out all (almost) the bad stuff – meat, milk, cheese, fizzy drinks, bolony, eggs and fish.
Although I was gobbling down everything I could see, to my horror I lost 4kg (8 pounds) in the first week. I was startled and thought, “That’s far too much.”
Julie's after picture, August, 2010
But it was too late. I was already hooked. I was eating like a pig, enjoying it, and feeling great. My flu was gone and I was feeling better than I had in years. I’ve never looked back.
I learn all I can about the Raw Diet –
I typed raw food into Google and started learning. I had vaguely heard about Goji Berries, maca and kelp, and I thought that hemp was Dagga (Marijuana) that you smoked. I copied off reams and reams of recipes and started trying them out.
I have no idea what I ate. We had smoothies, three slices of rye bread with funny butter (½ coconut oil and ½ olive oil) and whatever Roger (my husband) and I thought was a good idea to eat.
Since I started raw I’ve been very strict but with that 5% leeway, I eat anything.
French fries, and any rubbish on offer – but just enough to pick up the taste. By allowing myself to do so, I’ve been able to keep on the straight and narrow of a raw diet. And as a result of this 5% leeway, I have never been on a major binge… it’s honestly just not worth it.
A year later –
I still eat like a pig – once a day, all day. I’ve learned that chocolate – raw cocoa of course – is good for my chest and I eat it nearly every day.
I don’t have trouble with cravings, as if I feel like it, I eat it. But everything in moderation. Why stress about something you want to eat; just eat a tiny bit for the taste and the craving is gone.
My medical milestones since going raw on September 5, 2009
• 1st week: 4kg weight loss and my flu was gone. I was eating as much as I liked and enjoying it… and feeling great.
• 2 Months: Friends were commenting on how good my skin was looking.
• 3 Months: My thyroid levels had improved – reducing my dosage of Eltroxin.
• 4 Months: Christmas day, I did a long swim at the local pool.
• 5 Months: Diabetes under control – with normalised sugar levels.
• 6 Months: By January – I had lost 17kg (38 pounds) and 5 holes on my belt. I had reached goal weight and I’ve stayed there ever since.
• 7 Months: Tried Gluten Free – reached 19kgs of weight loss. I didn’t enjoy it down there. I upped my nuts, avocados and peanut butter a lot for a few days – I felt a lot better and now I’m maintaining my weight at 62kg. Sometimes I eat too little (skip the nuts, usually) and drop to 58-9kg and then include my ½ cup a day of nuts and restabilise again.
• 8 Months: My husband, Roger had his biannual eye test and as my glasses were getting blurry I asked the optician to “put me on the machine” and he said that my eyesight had improved by a whopping 10-15%. That was from all the spinach smoothies (which I love). I’m not into the cabbage, broccoli and kale scene. I don’t like the stuff and it reduces my thyroid absorption but it fixed my eyes.
• 9 Months: My joint pain was really bothering me. I had a Celiac test and it was not that. I had a feeling that it may be too much antioxidant; so I reckoned I needed to increase my carbohydrates. I’m lazy to soak the rice and sweetcorn.
• 10 Months: I noticed that the flab in between my legs wasn’t touching. I shared my big achievement with the folks at the raw food “bring and share”, and there were happy hoots of laughter.
• 11 Months: The latest thing that I noticed is a nice Pink tongue. Now I am going along merrily, enjoying looking and feeling good, and wowing friends who haven’t seen me in a year. I casually mention that I’ve gone vegan and raw – only 95% though – I eat everything I like, except dairy as it makes me cough and I swim 20-40 minutes, three times a week. I do about ½ hour aerobics and 10 to 30 pool lengths.
After arriving in Howick five years ago, I did a monthly home herb course. I’ve been studying herbs since 2001 and started writing a herbarium on pressed plants.
I’m now into trees and indigenous South Africa plants. I’ve just researched the top 75 most utilized Muthi – Zulu Medicines sold in Durban. We have a 1/2 acre plot with a self sustaining organic garden which includes herbs and vegetables for our smoothies, salads etc. We want to try and get Goji berries to grow here; if they grow in the hedgerows in England, surely they will grow here.
Our advisors and Raw Divas –
• Tracey and Shereen – our local ladies. They have been so sweet and taught us so much.
• Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Dr Cousens explained a lot about raw food at our very first “bring and share”. There are nine systems in the body and eight of mine had been out of order. I had arthritis, asthma, bipolar, diabetes, eye problems (wearing glasses), irritable bowel syndrome, kidney (nephritis) and liver (hepatitis) problems and skin problems (growths, including rodent ulcer removed).
• On the Internet I met Dr. Somers. He was very informative about food nutrients and real salt. He also wrote about acid and alkaline balancing.
• Dr. Clement told of the danger of dairy, milk, sugar and animal fat.
• We even learned about tapping from Nick Ortner!!
• And of course, The Raw Divas. A few months into my raw diet I stumbled upon a website that was offering a 3 Day Green Smoothie challenge. So I applied for it. Then I thought that it hadn’t gone “through” and saw a 7 Day Detox and pressed send and eureka I was doing them both at the same time!
We got our smoothie recipes on the website and got a Green Smoothie Certificate, on which I wrote my name with my best calligraphy pen. Thanks the Green Smoothie Queen Tera and her Princess Keely. The Montreal Girls as Roger calls you. Roger likes that you’re basic, homegrown, not expensive, eat what is closer than 90 miles from home and what is in season.
• Dr. Ritamarie and Jane Hardin (thanks for the phone call) in Austin, Texas and Starfire in Hawaii and many other friends that I made on the three day, then seven day and lastly the 21 day detox under Stacey’s guidance; which took four weeks.
Now I’ve just finished visiting the Raw Mom Cooked Dad blog.
I have so enjoyed the websites, the blogs, the chat rooms and Doll’s Cozy Calls on Sunday evenings.
Thanks so much to everyone. Even though I’m feeling on top of the world at last and settling into this new way of life, I still continue to learn new things every day. It just seems to be snowballing for the better.