Meredith Westfall

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 08:17:43 -0500 (EST)

Hello everyone,

My bio...

I've lived in Boston for most of my life minus a few jaunts to the ends of the world. I was born in upstate NY and remember thinking at age 5 how happy I was to leave the small town and move to Boston. I am 33 years old although people don;t believe it. It takes a lot of work for peple to take me seriously because I don;t look my age. Some have claimed that I don't act it either which may be true since I am around children all day long. Research claims that people who spend a lot of time around children age more slowly!

I went to Tulane for my first year of university and kinda hated it. Ended up transferring to an all women's college where my mother was working. I got to go tuition-free, so it was good. There I got interested in nutrition. I was on the crew team and got interested in other sports. I also developed an unhealthy relationship with food and am still struggling with that. I majored in art and Chinese.

In 1988 I went off to Inner Mongolia to teach English. No one in China eats raw food, nor was I "enlightened" at that time. I got fatter than I had been (always a little heavy throughout life). I also picked up smoking so I didn't have to eat while I was with friends. I'd never been a big fan of cooked meat, so living in pork/mutton/braised noodle country wasn't the greatest place for me to be.

I came back to Boston with a Mongolian husband (that didn't last thank God) feeling shitty, and majorly depressed.

In 1991 I was without the Mongolian (yahoo) and decided to go teach English in Japan. It was there that soemone lent me Fit for Life. I remeber reading it one night and then starting on all fruit the next day. I found persimmons for the first time and felt as though I was in heaven. I basically ate fruit the whole day and then had veggie soup at night. I found that when I had so much sweet stuff, my body craved salty to balance it out. After a few months, I added bread, and this and that and wasn't doing the high raw volume anymore.

In 1993 I came back to Boston and started a graduate program for teaching ESL (english as a second language). At the university, I got on-line and found rawtimes which led me here and there. Now my diet fluctuates from good to bad. I know that I am addicted to bread and there are days that I feel I NEED it, or else. May not be rational, but then again, I never claimed to be! I did fast for a week between Christmas and the new year which seems remarkable for me. Part of the success is due to the support I got from Bob A., Doug, and jr. I know I am going to do that again when things quiet down (after April)

I've been working like a dog since January. student teaching, classes, my own teaching. All of this sends me out the door at 8 am and keeps me busy until 10 pm. That is why I think I am sick. The balance is gone. I am eating more cookef and less raw due to what seems to be convenience. My coordinating teacher at the school thinks 5 minutes is sufficient for lunch. I beg to differ. Life isn't great these days, but it's only until the end of April...and then I'll be finished with school for a while! I can't wait to have my own classroom!

Take care,
Meredith

So here i go...ready to type up something for the rawtimes people section.

Can you post it there? I hope so. Also, I am looking forward to the recipes. Hope their simple and easy. After I finish my fast, I want to get to more one food at a time, not so much grating and mixing and changing whatever it was I initially chose to eat. Yeah, my tongue is a little white. Not so much today as it was yesterday, so I think it might have to do with the fact that I had the juice of a whole lemon today. Am i right?

Hello rawtime readers,

My name is Meredith and I live in Boston. I have been interested in raw food for over a year. I forget when, but I read Blatant Raw Foodist Propaganda at the urging of someone who posed on the vegetarian news group. He wrote about all the benefits of eating a raw food diet, and much to my surprise, many people dogged him and his ideas. I, on the other hand, wrote to him and asked for a bibliography on raw food. Going straight from cooked to raw didn't happen for me, and I still consider myself in a transition period. From what I read, it can last up to seven years. The main thing I have learned is that every body is different, so there is no magic one-size-fits-all diet. I used to think that, and as a result, just created more pain for myself.

Meredith's milestones

• 1986-graduated from college, got interested in macrobiotics

• 1987-89-spent 2 years in China-a dietary disaster. Never felt worse in my life

• 90-91- ovo-lacto vegetarian, for the most part. Had other bad habits drank alcohol, smoked, used Equal (and many others)

• 91-93- Went to Japan for two years and read Fit for Life. Ate a lot of fruit during the day and had veggie soup at night. Still smoked, consumed coffee and drank off and on.

• 93- Quit drinking alcohol.

• 94- Quit smoking.

• 95- Read the raw-food books (check out the bibliography here on rawtimes) and the seed was sowed, yet I didn't practice it that much. I was much more following McDougall and feeling heavy and lethargic.

• Summer 96- Got much more into the raw thing. About 60-80% raw and the other percentage was just that, other. Sometimes healthy, sometimes not. Had a hard time keeping away from coffee, bagels, and sugar, and at times, I still do.

• December 26-today December 28-started my first fast. I am hoping to continue until the first day of the new year. I've decided to be gentle and listen to me body and see what it says for a change

• Goals for 1997: To have more balance in my life-eat more regularly and also fast one day a week.

I am so happen that I stumble upon rawtimes/raw food/raw people as I feel so much better today than I did a few years ago. As I said before, it's all one big long process, and I am enjoying it immensely.

Cheers,

Meredith

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