Lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks.
 

Just wanted to share the news that I weight 20 pounds less now then I did 6.5 weeks ago. I had some very mega-huge emotional stuff happen, and all of a sudden, the only thing I could stand eating was fruits, vegetables and greens. Nothing else. So that's all I've been eating for the past 6.5 weeks now. I wasn't aiming to lose weight (though I've been intending to lose weight for a good while), I just couldn't eat anything else. I was however, watching the scale and it was amazing to see new record lows every few days. I guess by default I've become a vegetarian too. I'm close to being a vegan too, wouldn't take much to become a vegan now.

I'm sure some of what I've lost was muscles, because I've done almost zero exercise in the last 6.5 weeks (yeah, I know that's not good and I intend to start exercising again). However, I have noticed my stomach significantly be reduced in size - When I look myself in the mirror, I no longer see a fat person, and I love that.

My energy level has shot straight up, it's amazing. I need less sleep, and I have more physical energy to do stuff. I go to work 8 hours, then come home and see myself as having a bunch of hours to do a bunch of stuff - more hours with energy then I previously used to have. I love it! I absolutely love feeling this clean, this energetic, this light, this healthy. It feels amazing.

Furthermore, it's funny to me because I'm basically eating almost the same thing, day after day. For the past 6.5 weeks, my breakfast, lunch, and dinner has almost been the same every day, and I haven't gotten tired of it! I didn't think that was possible. I thought I'd have to have variety, well so far I haven't needed it a bit. Maybe I will later, who knows, but right now I don't need it.

This is the first time I've being able to reduce what I've eaten and eat healthier without feeling physically weak! Every other time in my life I tried to be a vegetarian, or ate less, or tried to eat healthier, I ended starting to feel physically weak after 2-3 weeks. I'd resort to eating junk food to get some energy back. I think the major difference here is I ate very little processed food (just a subway wrap or two daily), and I ate a lot of greens, fruits, greens, and vegetables that was all either fresh or frozen. Nothing canned. I also ate a spinach salad each morning and a good bit of lettuce for lunch.

I now weight a total of 40 pounds less then I did on November 26, 2007, the day I finally stopped drinking coke and eating candybars.

Congrats! You are awesome!

Can you share in more detail what you ate in a typical day? I'm sure a lot of people would love to know that.

Congratulations!!

I lost 14 pounds in six weeks just by going raw, without restricting myself or doing anything special in order to lose weight. But you're even better! :)

I'm happy for you.

Rose, I am so impressed with your raw diet. I tried going raw once a little over a year ago and lasted, like, a day. And I had a good recipe book and everything.

It wasn't that I liked it or disliked the diet, I didn't even try it long enough to know. It was just such a radical change that I couldn't even begin to incorporate it properly.

Lately I've been juicing every day and now I eat all organic, but most of my staples are still pretty far from being raw.

It's great reading your blog on it too.

And Seeker, good job man! Glad to here your diet changes are going so well!

Thanks guys :)

Here goes:

Breakfast: Fresh Spinach with Olives and some of the oil that the olives are in.

Morning Snack: Fruits - either frozen fruits (strawberries, pineapple or mixed fruits), or fresh bananas.

Lunch: 1 or 2 Veggie Subway Wraps with lettuce (I always get a lot of lettuce by asking for it), tomatoes, olives, green peppers, carrots, onions with oregano, olive oil, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Afternoon Snack: Fruits - either frozen fruits (strawberries, pineapple or mixed fruits), or fresh bananas.

Dinner: Vegetables - first two weeks it was cooked vegetables, since then it's been microwaved frozen vegetables that comes in a "steamed" bag that steams the vegetables in the microwave. The bags had no sauce of any kind like you see on some of those frozen vegetable bags - it is just pure frozen vegetables in a special bag. I throw some condiment on it like herbs, lemon pepper, and Teriyaki sauce. I'd usually eat one bag, but sometimes would add a second bag.

Drink: Only water, no fruit juices (hmmm, just realized now I had gone so long without fruit juices - I used to drink fruit juices often).

That's great! I too didn't feel like I was restricting myself - whenever I felt like eating more I ate more.

I lost 20 pounds in a month as well by hitting a boxing bag for 45 minutes three days a week-it really makes you sweat and tons the body.

Congratulations! That is so awesome. What's even more awesome is that you are able to stick with it. Keep up the good work.

Congrats and this sounds just awesome!:) I think I'll give that a try as well, usually I have problems with sticking to any diet cause I suddenly get this mad craving for carbo-hydrates.

It's hard to believe you are the same guy who was posting about candy and cokes! Great job.

Congratulations and keep up the good work

I notice many people want to know how to lose weight, funnily I'm the opposite. I'm actually on a mission to gain a lot more ;)

Wow, I'm almost convinced to give up my meat and butter diet just for this!

congratualtions!!

so I'm really curious, are you comfortable sharing about the emotional experience that you had? I've been an emotional eater for quite some time and I've also learned that as Ive dealt with my stuff, its easier to eat normally, I just want to. but then things tend to come up and it means dealing with new stuff all over. sometimes its just frustrating!

Congratulations! :)

Congrats!
 

I just lost 5 lbs in a week by having throat surgery and only being able to eat jello and broth! :D

Another success story...sort of
 

I once lost 15 lbs in two weeks AND made significant gains in the weight room working out every day with energy to spare on ~1500 calories a day. I'm 6'1" and heavy-set, so theoretically I need about 2500 cal a day if I just sit on the couch. Having energy and building muscle on this diet astounded me. It was a simple diet of raw fruits and vegetables, tuna canned in water, and a protein supplement. I wasn't even that hungry! Too bad I let stress get the better of me :( but I'm going to try it again this summer.

That's great, I'm happy for you! Congrats. :)

Seeker, I'm fascinated with the timing of this... first, whatever your emotional upheaval was, then changing your diet, leaving your job... I'm picturing you just shooting like a rocket above the *stuff* of life. Which I know you're still dealing with... but you're also soaring.

When you get back from your trip, I'd love to hear more details.

That's great to hear Seeker! I found your experience to be very inspiring to read.

Congrats Seeker and Rose. Rose, you said you went raw. That must take discipline, how was it? (I have considered trying this for myself in the future)

Thank you very very much Dan :) :) :) I'm very happy that what I write on my blog is of some value for someone.

You don't have to go raw, you know. I think going raw is not of equal importance for everybody. For me personally it's extremely important. I was doing bad on the cooked diet and now I feel like I have found the ideal and ultimate diet for me. I'm experiencing such a tremendous increase of energy and clarity of mind! But some people are more resistent than I am. Maybe you can be perfectly healthy on a cooked diet too. Eating organic is an excellent idea, btw.

Why exactly do you want to go raw in the first place?

If you really want to give it a try but you're not comfortable with radical changes, transition very slowly. You could start with just eating all fruit and veggies raw, while still eating everything else too. Then increase the amount of raw greens that you eat. I absolutely recommend to eat lots of greens. I'm convinced that many people give up because they hadn't eaten enough greens. When you're comfortable with eating raw fruit, veggies and greens, you still can decide to take further steps or not.

Ryan, going raw doesn't take discipline. I totally lack self-discipline, I even hate the idea of being disciplined. If it took discipline, I'd never have made it :)

You made me wonder what it takes to go raw, that's a very interesting question. I'll think about it and write a post on that topic. If you consider trying it that might be useful for you. Thanks for inspiring me :)

Congrats to all who lost weight....
 

Now it is my turn....

Well, once in a while I still eat for emotional reasons and not because I'm hungry. When that has happened, I've cooked extra vegetables or eaten a bunch of bananas.

Have you ever heard of the China Study [link to Amazon.com]? I just skimmed through the book today, and you seem to follow the diet that's explained in the book quite closely, which is very positive :)
I recommend you read the book, it's very enlightening and pretty scary at the same time.

I would try to make the switch, but I'm still a young boy living at his parents place :D However, I have been thinking about changing my lunch to simple brown bread and a salad mix to start out :)

Wow! Keep up the good work! I must say that you inspired me a LOT with your post!
I only eat fruits before noon but your posts truly inspired me to try vegetarianism!

Sorry for reviving this old thread. I just wanted to say thank you to Ryan. I've been thinking about your interesting question and just wrote a blog post about what it takes to go raw. I'm sorry it took me so long!

Congrats to every one who have achieved this just by going raw.My problem is a little bit different, i want to increase my weight .I try to eat a lot but still I'M very thin. Any suggestion?

You'd probably get a lot more response if you started a thread called "How can I gain weight?" since your problem is different from what the title of this thread is.

Thats great! I'm also thinking of changing up my diet, and this has definitely been a great encouragement to me.

I think I have to disagree with this. Every change in diet, requires self discipline. The more difficult the diet is, the more self discipline it requires. A raw diet for example is quite extreme (in a good way) and thus requires lots of self discipline. Every think that you do thats even remotely hard requires self discipline. Even getting up in the morning. Everyone has at least some self discipline. Its just the amount that makes the difference.

Kyle

I'M going to post a new thread on this topic " How Can I Gain Wait"

Thanks For suggestion

Hi

Once I also had my weight reduced considerably by eating raw. But when I switched to my normal diet, I gained weight and weighed even more than I did before.:o