I have been running 4 times a week and not much else at the moment. I am going to join the local gym here (because I get one month free membership) and pump my muscles back up again. I haven’t pumped iron properly in about 2.5 years since leaving the gym!! Woah, enough is enough!

Today I thought I would share about my fabulous wound-healing on a low fat raw vegan lifestyle. Back at the start of 2008 I got my very first road bike, boy was I EXCITED! I hadn’t been on a bike for about 10years so I was keen to get my legs back. The first day was great, I was gliding along with the traffic, feeling pretty confident and the day went off without a hitch.

The next day I wasn’t so lucky! We were scooting along beside the traffic when all of a sudden there was a parked car in the lane we were in . I had to think quickly, there was no room to move to the lane beside us so I chose to take the path. How did I get up onto the path?? I attempted to jump my thin-tyred road bike up on the gutter like you would with a mountain bike – not such an easy move to pull off as a novice! I hit the gutter on the side and my ultra light bike just collapsed on top of me, mostly on my right leg. As I was falling, the chain ring starting cutting into my lower leg and left the following….

Chain ring wound 08

Not feeling the best

Amazingly I didn’t experience any pain during the crash. The pain and discomfort came later, during healing. I didn’t take one painkiller or drug of any sort. Against just about everyone’s advice, I decided to let nature do it’s thang and not get stitches. As you can see from the pic, I had grease from the chain ring on the outside of the wound. I couldn’t really get the oil off without causing too much disruption to the wound but it ended up just sort of dissolving after a while anyway.

It took a few months for my body to bridge the large gap with new skin, during this time I wasn’t sure whether to cover the wound or not. Everyone has their different view so I asked myself the question “what would I have done in nature?”. I went with my instinct and left it uncovered, bathed it in salt water and exposed it to the sun. Good intentions to leave it uncovered however not really ideal as I kept hitting my wound on things and reopened it several times. The scab that was forming was also getting interrupted by the water when I was showering and salt-water bathing, it was near impossible to keep it dry hence the scab would continually dissolve – it became pretty frustrating!

I ended up covering it up which kept it moist (but not wet) with fluids from the wound which enabled it to heal more quickly. Before I decided to bandage it, I was also getting random stuff in it and that really wasn’t fun either. Even though I covered it most of the time, I would regularly remove the bandage and expose it to the sun, that felt really good (and intuitive), I was careful not to let it get too dry. It was amazing watching the wound gradually heal over time, observing the deep layers of new flesh weave and begin to rise to the surface to fill the void. At the end of the day I found covering this wound and keeping it moist (with its own fluids) to be the most effective for healing.

To add to my woes during my healing phase… a few weeks later I injured just below the wound (the 3 spot scars in the pic below) by running into a pole on my bike! lol it was the only pole for about 1km too!

Here is the wound today, 2 years on…

After

So for the people who are skeptical of ones healing ability on a low fat raw vegan lifestyle… there is no need to fear! I have totally put it to the test. My healing has been amazing and no wonder, I’m providing my body with the ideal alkaline environment to heal in. Can you imagine how impeded your bodies healing ability must be with acid-forming meat and dairy clogging the channels of elimination? Digestion is the most energy demanding task the body has to perform so it makes sense to ease the burden on digestion and elimination as much as possible by eating simply, i.e – fruits and greens. This way the healing energy can go towards our wound instead of our digestion. Meat takes days and days to move through the colon in comparison to fruits and greens that take under 24hrs.

So to summarise..
* Clean wound well in saltwater, rinse with fresh water
* Expose to sun regularly
* Cover wound lightly (not sticking to the wound) with an appropriate bandage
* Change bandage daily – to every few days
* Eat an alkaline fruits and vegie diet to optimize healing

I am off for now,
Stay fruity cutie

Lovefreelee

P.S – Now I have a lovely butterfly (in flight) scar

There were 7,845 competitors at the half start line, so it was absolutely packed! It was pitch black and quite chilly. I was planning on starting with the 1hr 50mins group but the group was so far from the start that I decided to slip in with the 1:20/1:30 group. The gun went off and it took me only about 40 secs to cross the start line.

The first 5-10kms people were passing me like crazy. I was tempted to try to keep up but I firmly reminded myself that most of them were from the 1:20 group destined to run at least 20mins faster than me! I stuck to my plan of 5:05-5:10min/km pace, I wanted to do negative splits and save my juice for the end.

I started out at around 5:07 pace then slowed myself to around 5:10 which I knew was easily achievable but still challenging to maintain for the whole 21.1kms. In hindsight I could’ve managed 5:05 pace but I was being cautious because it was my first marathon and realistically I just wanted to finish!

This couple ran around a 4hr 15min marathon after just getting hitched

I was starting to catch up with some people who had flown past me earlier, now they were breaking down from starting out too hard. I silently praised myself for choosing the smart conservative approach. At the 18km mark I was running almost 5min kms, HR 184, still feeling good but now starting to “feel it” more.

Coming around the bend in the last km I tramped it a bit more and reached 4:55 pace, 187bpm. Breathing was definitely becoming heavier and laboured. (Note: My Max heart rate is about 205bpm.) As I was approaching the finish line I gave it my all and passed what felt like about 50 people, at a continued 4:55 pace my heart rate raised to 190bpm as I crossed the line. Woohoo!! Made it!

2:13:54 marathon winner! JAMES KARIUKI

Looking back my preparation for the day was great, fully hydrated, rested and carbed-up on mountains of good fruit sugar. One day I had an 18 banana smoothie for lunch, was proud of that effort. My hydration was so good infact that I didn’t stop for one drink although one was pushed into my hand at a “water” station. I took a gulp (thinking it was water) and immediately spat it out nearly covering the face of a fellow runner as I gagged on the sports drink. That stuff is VILE! I was actually somewhat suprised at how thirsty and dehydrated people were, they were launching themselves desperately at the drink station.

Gorgeous little japanese lady KAORI YOSHIDA came in at 2:31:33

Completing my first half marathon was so exhilarating!! I now have more confidence in my competitive running ability. The last time I really raced competitively was when I was in little school. Now I’m keen to do more and I’m so glad I have Pat Carroll as an online coach. Seriously people if you are looking to increase your running fitness safely then please contact him, say I referred you and he may even give you a good rate! His best marathon time is get this…2hrs and 9mins! That’s for 42kms. Very inspiring.

My stats for the race for those of you who like that stuff

My time was 1:48:19

2343 out of 7,845 TOTAL finishers.

591 out of 3,915 FEMALES

138 out of 714 Females aged 25-29.

I have now entered the Brisbane half marathon Aug 1st (in less than a month) and another popular 10km race. I think I can comfortably run a 10km under 50mins now which feels good. Its 2 days after the race as I write this and my legs are completely fine except for the slightest calf soreness.

Not everyone faired so well on the day

Cute!

Oh dear god!

Get your running shoes on!
Lovefreelee

A ray of hope and sunshine

People began to share their stories of disordered-eating pasts, suddenly I didn’t feel alone anymore. I became very inspired and began to see a familiar theme. A lot of these people seemed to be struggling to stay raw or were really inactive and failing to thrive. The womyn who were thriving were regularly eating over 2500 calories a day from fruit and the men over 3000. After observing this and finally “hearing” Harley’s message of “eat more fruit” I decided I was sick of being a victim to my eating disorder and began to get tough “NO MORE!” I said and from then, I too began to eat sufficient calories from fruit, specifically over 2500. This turning point took a while to come but boy was it worth the wait!

I started to feel amazing!! I finally felt alive and energetic. I began to experience the biggest shift in consciousness. My anorexic mentality had finally dissolved I felt free!

The power of shifting ones focus

I started to focus on health & fitness rather than weight-loss and my weight stabilised around 54-56kg’s (119lbs-123lbs), coming down from 70kgs (154lbs). It has been easy to attain and maintain my lean healthy physique on this lifestyle and psychologically I feel very comfortable in my skin now.

Found this pic at my mums, this was me after anorexia eating a high fat animal product diet.

After! Fit and happy

Thanks to the “eat more fruit” message

I can safely say that it’s the high calorie fruit bats of 30BaD that have helped me stay thriving on this lifestyle since Jan 09. Yes I have been officially on the LFRV lifestyle since Oct 2007 but I wasn’t thriving on my low calorie version. I am now setting Personal Bests in all my athletic endeavours and feel consistently happy and healthy however if I don’t regularly eat at least 2500 calories a day from fruit I don’t feel as good as i could and start to resort back to my low self-esteem low energy levels of the past. I now listen to these feelings and change course instead of pandering to them. Increasing my physical activity has been crucial in escaping the ED umbrella.

I am living proof that a person coming from a background of disordered eating can successfully become friends with their food again.

I feel that the 30 bananas a day community played a vital role in this process and I believe it can be of assistance to people from all backgrounds no matter how varied, but to be effective the message has to come with a high calorie recommendation. From anorexics to the morbidly obese, yes our advice is tough and not “sugar-coated” but to really change people need to hear it straight. This approach helped me to “get real” and overcome my anorexia permanently and it has also worked for others within the community.

Where should “they” go?

I was advised by a member that we should encourage people with anorexia to “get qualified help” – that the 30BaD forum can’t help them. My response to this was “Where would we send them?” …because that is the truth, should we send them to a typical hospital for anorexics where they force feed these people highly processed bowel-clogging foods like “ensure” and medicate them into submission?

I think not.

I know 30BaD can assist people with eating disorders, through my own experience and by learning of people like “AppleMan” (member of 30BaD) who overcame anorexia on a LFRV lifestyle. He did this by learning to eat sufficient calories from fruit. This helped give him the strength to drop his anorexic identity. All the while with the vital support of the 30BaD community.

Counting calories can be a life-saver

It was also suggested to me that people with anorexic’s should not be advised to count their calories (due to their previous obsession with calories). With the experience I have now, to me this is extremely counterproductive. When I was anorexic, if someone were to say to me “just eat as much fruit as you feel and don’t count calories”. For me that would have equated to eating half a banana. That is obviously not enough sustenance for anyone to thrive on ANY lifestyle let alone a low caloric density one like the low fat raw vegan lifestyle. We would quickly see those people disappearing off the forum forever and continuing with their dangerous disordered thinking. More objective advice is vital.

I believe anorexia is a combination of a misguided focus “supported” by a malnutritioned mind. Take food away from anyone and before long they will start to gradually shut down…literally. Couple this with an obsession to be rail thin and we have a very serious problem.

I comfortably count calories these days. I have no residual negative attachment to the process. It’s taken time but it really can be done. The reason I count calories these days it to make sure I am getting enough calories to thrive on this lifestyle because if I start to under-eat on fruit (regularly eat less than 2500 cals a day) then undesirable foods like high fat gourmet raw and cooked foods become appealing.

This isn’t rocket science but it is science.

If the brain isn’t receiving sufficient carbohydrate calories from fruit on this lifestyle it will search out a denser source of calories.

Making lasting change can be challenging especially when habits become deeply ingrained sometimes letting go of an “old friend” eating disorder can take many months or even years, but it doesn’t have to if we find the LFRV lifestyle. What is vital during this “recovery stage” is proper nutrition to support positive change and a healthy dose of tough love. If one suffers from anorexia they MUST learn to eat sufficient amounts of fruit and incorporate regular exercise if they have any chance of recovery.

On the road to recovery

I really feel it’s important that a person suffering from anorexia doesn’t get too much unnecessary attention for their condition because it becomes their identity and no one wants to lose their identity right? They need to be reminded that their health is their responsibility. I know many who succumb to this disorder for attention and love. They become addicted to the constant worry over them and it becomes a way to get noticed.

Of course if I had my way, I would put people with anorexia on a fruit drip until their thoughts become more pure and orderly. I honestly wish someone did this to me! They can’t possibly change without the proper nutritional support which of course is a calorie-sufficient (not deficient) LFRV lifestyle backed up with an appropriately supportive community. In a world which worships the “Get your 2 fruits & 3 veg food pyramid” who else will provide this type of nutritional advice and support?

Individual responsibility

Ultimately the decision to get better is in the hands of the person with the eating disorder. Eating disorders are often difficult to overcome alone and the success rates a dismal through standard treatment, that’s where the community support of 30BaD may assist the individual.

On 30BaD people are more likely to come in contact with the truth. It may not be well received at first but it may just be enough to flick the “change switch” within – like it did for me, a drastic yet healthy intervention is needed. As far as 30BaD goes – our goal isn’t to make “30 Bananas a day” a forum all about helping people with anorexia and eating disorders nor will we be assisting people feel comfortable within their disorder. However we do invite these people to come and give this lifestyle a try.

We will support them to the best of our ability with tough love and with as objective information as possible – everything short of force-feeding with a fruit drip

I’m currently conducting a case study on LFRV and ED with an epidemiologist who compiles and analyzes data on a daily basis and has herself recovered from bulimia.

Look forward to sharing my findings with you all. In upcoming blogs i will address what I see as the fundamental areas that need to be addressed in order to overcome disordered eating.

I have photos from this anorexic period in my life, but not with me right now due to my transient lifestyle.
When I get them i will scan them in.

My before and after a LFRV lifestyle. When I get hold of earlier pics I will post them asap!

My personal experience with anorexia came not too long after this. I had always been very concerned about what I looked like and what others thought about me, so much so that I would avoid many social engagements because I thought I was too fat (I was about 65kgs, quite muscular 5’6”, although this number fluctuated a lot).

Not the best influence..:
I met my first real boyfriend when I was 17, I’ll call him John. John introduced me to the world of drugs. It was all very exciting! He was a drug-dealer so I never had to pay for anything. The first drug I had was an ecstasy tablet. Boy I loved it! I was on fire I could dance for hours and best of all I didn’t have to eat much to maintain this energy! The come down afterwards was really awful but as I became thinner and thinner it really didn’t matter, for me, happiness equalled a skinny body. Health came second.

These were the thighs I once aimed for and mine didn't look too different at one stage...

John also introduced me to other girls in the drug scene, some of whom had serious eating disorders already. They would use laxatives through the day and drugs at night and sometimes cocaine for breakfast to control their weight. These girls were like many girls I have met on my life path, infected with the desire to be rail-thin like certain models and celebrities, even at the cost their health.

Restricting my calories big time
I began to count my calories like crazy. I used to do it a little before, but now I began to do it religiously…2000cals, 1500, 1000… before long I was averaging about 800 a day. I would have a bite of my breakfast cereal (to keep mum happy), half a sushi roll and a few bites of junk food for dinner with John. It sometimes took me hours to decide what i would eat, i became so obsessed. By night I was a drugged-up party animal, dancing sometimes 8hrs in a night by day my only real focus was on controlling my binges and achieving as little food intake as possible.

Sometimes I would be “really good” and stay around 800 calories a day, while at other times I would binge-out and eat over 5000, regularly downing a whole loaf of bread with honey and butter in one sitting. My body and mind were desperate for carbohydrates. After these binges I would stick my fingers down my throat and vomit it back up. I used to cry every time with guilt and shame and run straight to mirror and stare at my “ugly” tear-drenched face… but I knew it would help me stay skinny so I kept doing it. Sometimes I was so depressed that the only thing that would make me happy was the thought that I was succeeding at losing weight.

I began swimming regularly in the ocean pool down the road. I would jog about 2 kms to get there and back and always do 10 laps. I felt amazing afterwards and this drug-like “high” I no longer needed breakfast and sometimes lunch. When winter came around I continued to do my laps even though sometimes the coldness of the water literally took my breath away and winded me! I was absolutely burning through the calories to keep my body temperature up. Not only did I not increase my calorie intake to meet the extra demands on my body, but I actually dropped my calories further to around 500 and it was a particularly “good day” if I got through the whole day without eating.

I often saw someone else in the mirror...(note: pic is not me)

Food lost all appeal and became the “enemy”
I began to lose weight rapidly, food starting to become the “enemy” and after a while I didn’t need to purge anymore, I was so enervated that food was losing all appeal. After a while, I couldn’t keep “my secret” any longer because I was losing weight so rapidly my friends and family started to get really worried about me. They never actually knew the extent of my pain. My mum’s boyfriend would say “you will fall through a crack soon if you keep going…”. I used to love it when he said that – I knew I was on the right track! My friends would say “I had lost all my curve and looked bony and sick”, but I secretly thought they were just jealous and took it as a compliment.

My weight hit low times and I blacked out…
My weight had hit 47kgs (from a relatively fit 64kg’s in less than a year, a loss of 17kg), although I didn’t always weigh myself because looking at the scales would often upset me when I hadn’t lost anymore weight. This makes me think my weight was probably lower. I used to cut my pockets out of all my jeans because I hated my fat “47kg” thighs. I had a love-hate relationship with my body, part of me hated my skinny shoulders and part of me wanted to see more “definition” or more accurately… bones. I would walk around during the day in a world of fog which I now see clearly as being “under-carbed”. There was no way I could apply my mind to anything worthwhile but it didn’t matter to me because being thin was the only “worthwhile” thing.

It all came to a head when one day I was at work in the local supermarket serving a customer at the register when all of a sudden I blacked out and fainted in front of her, when I came to, everyone was around me in a panic. It was around lunchtime and I hadn’t eaten all day even after a 3hr powerwalk in the morning. After the fainting event I was strongly advised to see a Doctor. I did to keep everyone happy and the Doctor calculated my BMI. It came to below 17 and subsequently he put me in the anorexic category. I refused any treatment and convinced the Dr I was back on track. After that I began to see that maybe I was heading down a path of destruction.

Let the feeding begin
After about 3 years of this misery, my boyfriend and I broke up and went our separate ways. I was heart-broken and began to stay home all the time like a hermit. Fortunately during this time I also started to read a lot and increase my health awareness. I decided I wouldn’t purge anymore and would only take drugs on “special occasions”. I began to develop a raging hunger and of course started to eat! Food was ALL I could think about I would start the day with half a box of cereal with full cream milk, followed by a large strong coffee. Lunch would sometimes be just lollies or a whole baked chicken. Afternoon snack would be a couple of tubs of full fat yoghurt followed by a high calorie dinner consisting of at least 10 plates of sushi or fatty tacos or several dishes of thai food plus a creamy dessert to finish. Needless to say I packed on about 10kgs really quickly even though I was exercising like crazy.

My introduction to the raw food lifestyle
I started my raw food journey in 2001 desperate to find health and well-being, but not properly until July 2006. By this stage I was suffering from a multitude of health problems ranging from chronic fatigue syndrome to acne, not to mention a mega low self-esteem. I threw myself into the lifestyle, but still managed to keep my anorexic mindset of “the less calories the better”. Soon after going raw I experienced a massive gain in my health and a decrease in weight, the main reason being that I was no longer eating the foods that hurt me like meat, dairy and grains. The only problem with my new lifestyle was that I had to eat more than I wanted to. I was used to restricting my calories and I thought that I had to continue to do so on raw food. I go into this further in my upcoming ebook – which contains diary entries of where I went wrong on the raw food lifestyle and advice from me on how to avoid these obvious mistakes.

My apprehension to eat more calories
I hadn’t learnt to count my calories so I didn’t know how much I was meant to be eating or how much I was actually eating. Now looking back on diary entries sometimes it was around 2000, sometimes around 1200, not nearly enough to keep me on the raw path. So it’s little wonder that in Sept 2007 I starved myself back to a month of cooked food. It was distressing to say the least and I purged after every meal. I was paranoid about getting fat. After a month of hell I got back on raw and this time vowed to do the high fruit approach by the book. My weight was creeping up to 70kgs now, after coming from 47kgs years earlier – that’s a 23kg weight gain! Struggling with my urge to purge and obsession with calorie restriction, at first I felt a little uncomfortable eating such large quantities of fruit. I thought I would get fat for sure, my belly felt full which I anchored with vomiting and negativity… after all I was starting to eat kgs and kgs of food!

Part 2 coming soon…

I have photos from this period in my life, but not with me right now due to my transient lifestyle.
When I get them i will scan them in.

Still to come : Interviews with people overcoming their disordered eating through a LFRV lifestyle.

Here is a very interesting video of a male model with anorexia who unfortunately died at the start of this month.

A quote from an anonymous womyn with anorexia, my old self can relate completely….

You want food? Look at those THIGHS!

Starving is not pain, it’s the cure.

To be continued…

So what do I do with my increasingly swollen ankle? Do I apply the RICE method? Do I ICE it?

Today I’m going to raise some interesting points against icing injuries. In the past I was always a big fan of icing, as a personal trainer I was taught that it was the right thing to do when a gym member injured themselves, it was the quickest way to bring about healing… Well no wrong.

Do we want to apply ice and stop the normal inflammatory process that helps heal the body? Of course not! That would be counter-intuitive right?

So why is icing an injury (particularly ligament damage) a bad idea?

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr Sherwin Ho, Surgery Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship Program published articles in 1990 on the negative effects of ice specifically to do with ligament damage.

As explained….Dr. Sherwin Ho and associates, put a commercially-available ice wrap on one knee for 20 minutes, and on the opposite knee a wrap was placed at room temperature. The knees were then injected with dye and scanned for blood flow. The study showed that all iced knees demonstrated a decrease in arterial and soft tissue blood flow, as well as decreased bone uptake of the dye, which is a reflection of changes in both the bone blood flow and metabolic rate.

In the landmark study done at the University of Hawaii Dr. Sherwin Ho and associates research concluded that blood flow to soft tissues and skeletal metabolism decreased dramatically after only five minutes of icing a knee injury. To make matters worse and to test our belief systems ever further, he found that continuing to ice the knee for an extra 25 minutes decreased blood flow and skeletal metabolism another 400 percent! Now that’s hard to ignore. This lack of blood flow was found to significantly reduce the rate of healing and not only increase the chance of incomplete healing but also the chance of re-injury.

A few of the affects of using ice to treat injuries are:
Decrease in much-needed blood flow to the injury
Decrease in inflammatory response & local edema protection (swelling) which is a natural healing response.
The loss of protective pain sensibility after local icing which can lead to more chronic injury

One extremely important factor to remember is that ice deadens or decreases the pain sustained from an injury, this can be very dangerous because our injury can start to feel better before it’s healed and unwittingly we return to our sport only to worsen the injury, so essentially ice lulls us into a false sense of security. When a nerve comes in contact with ice, it is no longer accurately able to perceive pain. This can lead to long term or permanent ligament damage.

So is the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) the way to go? Not only is RICE prescribed worldwide but generally anti-inflamatory drugs are recommended along with it, anti-inflammatory drugs are never an option as they are responsible for a great deal of disease development in the body. One thing I keep pondering is….Why is swelling around the joint perceived as a bad thing?

So lets look at RICE…

Rest – yes this is good but to be more specific…I would replace this with Cross-training and active low intensity rest with of course as much sleep as you care for.
Ice – No, replace with sun
Compression – Supporting the joint can be a good idea as long as blood flow isn’t impeded
Elevation – I don’t recommend doing this as elevation decreases blood flow to the area and lengthens healing time

I came up with a quick acronym, i tried to make it more specific but it would be hard to remember, my original one came to S.H.A.C.S or something.

So here it is….F.R.E.S.H.A…
F – Fruit! Eat a low acid diet to facilitate healing – LFRV
R – Rest & Sleep as much as you care for to allow for maximum healing, 10hrs a night when injured is a good goal and if you need more then get it! We can never OVERsleep. Just like we can never OVERpee.
E – Exercise differently – Cross-train to rest injury and to use different muscles/ligaments
S – Sunbake to increase blood flow & healing through the natural warmth of the sun
H – Hydrate more than usual to assist body in acid removal, at least 3 litres a day
A – Alkaline attitude, be positive and patient with your healing, see your injury healed up before it is, accept the fact that you may have to adjust your exercise routine temporarily

Ofcourse the best idea is to AVOID injuries all together by getting sufficient sleep every night (sometimes that’s 12hrs!), cross training, being hydrated so you are peeing clear at least 10 times a day, getting enough fruity carbohydrates – for me that is sometimes 45 bananas a day and keeping fat intake low, nude sunbaking and focusing on the positive side of life…if you need a break, listen to your body before it well…um…breaks

A few questions to ask yourself when you leave this blog article are…
Would we find ice anywhere in the tropics, where “mankind” originated?
What would we have done with a ligament/soft tissue injury in the tropics without ice?

Ok I’m off for now, watch your step my friends and stay off the ice!

Lovefreelee

I will title it…
An increased need for Carbohydrates just before and during menstruation…

I’m not going to be taking a scientific approach to this topic but after being a monthly menstruating female for the past 15 years I can definitely speak from a place of experience

I have noticed that over the years during my blessed monthlies my “cravings” for certain foods would increase, now you won’t see me using the word “cravings” beyond this post because I have now learnt that it is just a fancy name for hunger and I would rather not confuse the two.

To no suprise when I was eating a cooked food diet, all the foods that I was hungry for at this time were consistently high calorie carbohydrate based foods (carbs being the bodies preferred fuel) like cakes, pasta, rice, bread (oh yeh lots of bread like a loaf at a time regularly!), lollies and other sugary snacks. I would indulge in large quantities of these foods, stuffing them down like some sort of out drug addict getting my last hit, I would sit there afterwards holding my bloated belly thinking “wow I just have no discipline whatsoever, why am I so hungry all of a sudden!”.

I now know that disciplining ourselves not to eat when our bodies are obviously communicating a need for more fuel is totally misguided, unproductive and potentially dangerous. Of course eating the correct foods to fill this void is essential, fruit fits the bill perfectly.

I have pinpointed that during the week and a half before my monthlies and during my period, for about 14days (I’ll call it the “window”) my appetite increases considerably and I usually satisfy my hunger with lots of extra fruit but this time I got distracted (by the net of all things!) and under ate quite badly. As a result I ended up downing some salt-free fatty flax crackers with avocado…being a poor source of carbs this does not come close to meeting my bodies request for more carbohydrates so the “cravings”(hunger) continued until I consistently focused on getting enough fruit over the course of a few days (DateOrade to the rescue!)

So this is the risk we ladies face if we undereat particularly during this “window” . An upset digestive system commonly experienced by womyn during their period can also easily be linked to poor food choices around that time rather than hormonal disturbances. The chance of reaching for high calorie cooked foods or high fat raw foods will increase dramatically therefore a conscious fruit-eating effort is needed, mark it in your diaries ladies and be prepared!

Assuming you are already following a high fruit, low fat raw vegan lifestyle I suggest you aim to increase your fruit intake at least another 500-1000 calories each day with particular focus on mono meals of high calorie foods like bananas and dates during this time rather then try to recreate cooked food with complicated low calorie gourmet raw recipes like pasta’s etc, these dishes will not provide the carbohydrate-hit your body particularly needs during this time.

We must remember a lot of complex hormonal processes are taking place within our bodies during this “window” before we finally receive from the menstruation goddesses… so it makes perfect sense – when the body is working harder it is also churning through more fuel, particularly carbohydrates but instead of increasing our fruit intake we generally just keep eating the same amount, then what happens? Blood sugar levels drop because we are undercarbed, we start to take things personally, feel irritable, emotional, angry, unappreciated, depressed, lethargic, intense, hungry….all symptoms of an undercarbed bodymind.

The more carbed up I am during this time and the less overtly fatty foods I eat the more light and painless my periods are! If you aren’t following a cooked low fat vegan or a raw low fat vegan lifestyle and you have painful or uncomfortable periods I strongly suggest you give one of these lifestyle’s a trial, even just for a month or two, you will be suprised by the difference.

This is another “Eat more fruit” message proudly brought to you by Freelee X

P.S- Please remember that when you are losing blood, you are losing water as well, so your water needs will increase, ensure your hydrated by always checking your pee to see if its clear, aim for at least 8 clear pees a day

Sometimes its good to be cheeky!

The past 2 months or so I have been pretty much “out of action” and not participating in my usual fitness routine due to running my immune system down, sustaining a toe injury followed by a bout of tropical ulcers (which I will talk more about in the future) but in the meantime I will focus on exercise and the lymphatic system.

Anyway being virtually inactive for 2months is a new experience for me and not one I’m keen to repeat anytime soon. My appetite dropped considerably and my enthusiasm to exercise dropped along with it (just more confirmation of the importance of eating enough calories), if we don’t have the fuel then we won’t feel like burning it, makes sense.

Yesterday I did a group run, 8.5km’s in 45.05, my goal over the next few months is to do a 10km under 50mins. I have my training program sorted out for the Gold Coast half marathon in July and I’m psyched!

So today I will talk about the Lymph system…

So why is a healthy, clean lymphatic system important? .

* The lymphatic system collects the body’s garbage. The body naturally produces toxins due to the functions of the body (cell metabolism etc), the lymph picks up this waste and eliminates it from the body.

* The lymph system is usually in a state of toxin removal, which come mainly from the high fat cooked foods most people eat. When we eliminate the toxins that come from cooked foods, the body can then concentrate on effectively cleaning out the lymph system, because the energy is now directed there, this means clearer skin for one!

* Apparently there is three times more lymph fluid than blood in the body! Which is incredible, that’s like 18 litres of lymph fluid. So, the health of our entire system is dependant on how clean our lymph is.

The lymphatic system assists the immune system in destroying pathogens and filtering waste so that the lymph can be safely returned to the circulatory system, I can now see that my recent bout of “illness” was exasperated by my lack of activity during the healing period. If I had exercised gently throughout this time then I would have pumped my lymph system more, therefore assisting waste removal.

The lymphatic system is responsible for many things! – Removing excess fluid, waste, debris, dead blood cells, pathogens, cancer cells, and toxins from the cells and tissues, not only this the lymphatic system also works with the circulatory system to deliver nutrients, oxygen, and hormones from the blood to the cells that make up the tissues of the body, how important!

So now you can probably see how important the lymph system is to our health and well being, keeping it clean and flowing freely is priority. The consequences of a backed up lymphatic system can be serious, even life-threatening.. The are many side effects of a backed up lymphatic system – not only are the building, repair and waste disposal systems affected by a disruption, the body’s defenses against foreign substances are also compromised.

Symptoms of a “dirty” lymph system..

Allergies and food sensitivities, joint pain, headaches and migraines,menstrual cramps, arthritis, fibrocystic breasts, breast tenderness, sinusitis, loss of appetite and GI issues, muscle cramping, tissue swelling, fatigue, mental fuzziness, mood irregularities, depression, parasites, skin breakouts, acne, and inability to lose fat. So in general, you may feel tired and toxic, with a heaviness in your abdomen.

The lymph nodes filter out toxic waste and apparently also produce substances which fight off invading viruses and bacteria and destroy abnormal cells that developed within the body, such as cancer cells. The lymphatics are an essential part of our immune system.

The lymphatic system

What happens when we aren’t looking after ourselves properly?

Sometimes more waste is produced than the lymph can handle, this results in an overflow of toxins in the bloodstream leading to pain and discomfort in our bodies. If the amount of waste that enters the lymphatic system is greater than the amount of waste that leaves it, then our lymph nodes swell up, like under our arms, around our groin and under our chins. This was the case recently for me with this bout of “tropical ulcers”, I had swelled lymph nodes in all those places.

What is the best way to increase the efficiency of our lymphatic system?

Exercise of course! Exercise can increase lymphatic flow threefold (or more with intense exercise). With exercise comes deeper breathing & increased respiration. Deep breathing is extremely important when it comes to the circulation of lymph fluid.

Deep, conscious breathing speeds up the flow of lymphatic fluid around the heart and through your chest on its way to the liver so get into conscious breathing! I find the best way is to go out for a run/cycle/hill walk, even ashtanga yoga is fantastic but I do not recommend Bikram yoga because it encourages dehydration.

So if you have any sort of congestion, you need to take action as soon as you can to increase lymph flow and clear any blockages. As you have read already, when the lymphatic system is impaired, toxic build up occurs causing negative effects upon your overall health.

A few ways to keep your lymph system clean…

* Exercise daily – if you can’t get out for a sweat session then do 50 deep breaths instead
* Incorporate high intensity workouts twice a week, sprints are great
* Skin brushing with a soft-bristled brush twice daily
* Here is a comment from RichG regarding Body Brushing… Daily brushing of your body with a body brush designed for lymph system enhancement. You start at the feet and brush 2 strokes from the toes up to the knees. Then move to the back of the legs and do the same thing. Always brush towards the heart. I had to learn this when my wife had breast cancer and had lymph problems from the removal of lymph ducts causing inflammation of her arms and lots of pain! Try this daily as we both do now! Here is a link to a brush like we have. I am sure u can find it for much less on ebay. http://www.timetospa.com/elemis/exfoliators-and-masks/elemis-body-brush/?PSPID=87&ELEMIS=1&s_kwcid=TC
* Rebounding is awesome on those rainy days
* Drink at least 2.5litres of water a day so you are peeing clear 10 or more times a day
* Eat low fat vegan foods and preferably in their raw states, focus on high water content fruits that quickly pass through the digestive system
* Avoid running your immune system into the ground! Don’t overtrain and get dehydrated like I did because this leaves you open for all sorts of pathogens
* Do all the above things CONSISTENTLY!

The lymphatic system is totally dependant on the contraction of our muscles and deep breathing. So choose an exercise which gets your heart thumping and lymph pumping!

Grapefull!

Me & guinea pigs at a house sit

We have been house sitting various places and pets lately, its a great way to live, I have also created a Global house sitting website – Yes I do Mind!, it’s coming along nicely, feel free to join up and share the site with your friends.

I have also used this house sitting service and have found it to be one of the best…Home carers

Today I went for a 6km hilly run, real sweat session, loved it. I’m going to write about the importance of pumping our lymphatic system over the next couple of days, so stay tuned it’s sure to be one of the most interesting blogs I’ve ever written!

Yesterday…

3 litres of water
* 20 dates blended with water (dateOrade)
* 1/4 jakfruit
* 1kg grapes
* Another 15 dates with water

I’m currently watching interviews with vegan Dr’s in the “processed people” series, really interesting stuff.

I’ve also decided to train for a half marathon scheduled for July 4th, I’m really keen to get serious about running again, so I will log my training here.

Thanks for all the support and inspiring emails X

Stay tuned!
Lovefreelee

Mum & I foraged free mangoes from the side of the road today

Most of us jump on the scales, look down and frown ... generally closely followed by a few personal put-downs…but are we jumping the gun and unwittingly letting a lil’ ol number dictate our mood for the day? Without actually inquiring as to whether the weight-gain is from fat, fluid or food?

The following factors should be taken into consideration as you take that step onto the scales…

- Glycogen and water weight levels vary throughout the day so this will affect the number on the scales as much as 1/2-1.5kgs.

- If you weigh yourself at any other time than first thing in the morning before drinking water and after having a bowel movement then you are just adding your food weight in your colon to your total kgs. You may as well fill your pockets up with sand.

Free mangoes....mmmm

- Glycogen stores can also increase your overall body weight, Glycogen is the stored form of glucose, you will find it mainly in your muscles and liver, once stored with the accompanying water (water is needed to store carbs in the body) a full glycogen tank can add an extra 2 kg to your total weight! So that’s why you may see an increase in your weight overnight sometimes

- Remember the scales do not just weigh fat, it weighs fat, water, organs, bone, everything. So when you decrease or increase your weight the scales can’t deferiantiate and tell you if it’s fat or not you have lost or gained…even those Tanita body fat scales are apparently highly innacurate…I was told by a leading exercise physiologist that the scales send an electrical impulse up one leg which then hits the bladder and travels down the other leg, only ever measuring the fat in an individuals legs (& quite innacurately at that!)

I'm eating LOTS of melons lately., this will last me a few days

More accurate fat measuring techniques are skin-fold pinch test, water tank (hydrostatic weighing) where apparently you are lowered into a water tank after exhaling all air from your lungs. There is also an impedance test (which I’ve had myself & found to be fairly accurate) which works by measuring the amount your body fat impedes an electrical current.

BMI is another inaccurate way to measure bodyfat because it doesn’t descriminate between fat & muscle! My ex-boyfriend who was a top bodybuilder carrying a mere 5% BF and loaded with muscle came up as obese using the BMI scale

Half a kilo of fat is about the maximum you can lose each week, yeh there are heaps of low carb diets out there that will show an initial decrease in total body weight but is it sustainable? No way, I don’t know about you but Im sick of the yo-you diet BS… the weight that you lose from these low carb diets is only water because of the decreased intake of carbs plus the fact that the body lets go of water it has been holding to dilute the current pollution in most people’s bodies.

The scales can definitely come in handy if you are wanting to keep track of your hydration, for example – say you weigh 60kg before your run then you jump on the scales after the run and you’re 58kg, this means you have lost mostly water (& a bit of glycogen weight) so replacing those 2kgs with water first then fruit soon afterwards is extremely important to maintain our hydration levels & homeostasis, in this way the scales can be very useful…

Also glycogen stores are being lost, this is especially apparent in a person fasting, I have done many short water fasts, longest being 8 days or so. Within those 8 days I would lose about 5kg, at the time I thought it was all fat but in such a short period like that, the loss was from a depleted glycogen stores (from lack of any coming in) plus the water that accompanies the carbs and maybe a small percentage of fat after 8 days. I have always gained back every ounce I have lost after a fast…plus some.

If you are a womyn reading this I really hope you embrace muscle as your friend, it is so valuable to have metabolically active muscle tissue if we want to speed up our metabolism and lose the fat the sustainable way. Muscle takes up less space than fat so, the more you have, the slimmer you are…muscle-building strengthens bones and connective tissue, which can protect your body from injuries in daily life, enhancing balance and stability not to mention building confidence and self-esteem.

So should we be aiming for fatloss anyway? I say no. Losing something is a form of deprivation and the Low Fat Raw Vegan lifestyle is about abundance not deprivation! Who really cares if your weight fluctuates a few kgs here and there, this also happens to animals in nature, we are conditioned to think that skinny = good and while being lean and healthy is the goal, rediculous unhealthy weightloss should not be, well not if you want to keep your sanity any way….Cut your carbs, lose your mind as far as I’m concerned but that’s another blog…

If we focus on gaining health and fitness and not on losing something then our chances of success are multiplied…Keep your mind firmly focused on the healthy body & mind of your dreams and before you know it you WILL be in that body, I am a living example of this being true.

My obsession with my weight could’ve killed me in the end…downing weightloss drugs, ecstasy and other stimulants in an attempt to shed the kg’s…man glad I’m off that merry-go-round…You can read more about it here if you haven’t already….

So I guess the take home from this blog is -
Don’t be a slave to a number on the scales! Be a healthy shining example of health and fitness, build beauty from within so it shines outwards inspiring others who come in contact with you. Keep in mind that the scales are a very innaccurate way to measure fat loss and fat gain… It’s ultimately all about how you feel and when you feel vibrant & healthy you generally look vibrant & healthy! so quit jumping on the scales every 5mins and get a life! Who really cares if you have a few extra kilo’s on you anyways?? Fluctuations in weight is NORMAL and if you think getting to say 60kgs on the scales will make you happy, think again…You will get to 60kgs and you will still be unhappy and all of a sudden 55kgs will make you happy and so the painful cycle continues…I’m outa that loop! Happiness comes from within & especially easy to attain after a large fruit meal!

Keep it sweet & juicy
Lovefreelee

This is me eating all the fruit i care for, I gave up the scale obsession & started eating as much as i wanted, fruit doesn't make you fat!!...