Sandra

U Hi I'm Sandra Hall.

Thanks, raw, for being here.

I commented about Arise and Shine earlier, mainly because embarking on The Cleanse was my most recent intro into a raw food program for healing. That was 2.5 months ago, and of course, being digitally literate, I cruised the web for connections. Voila! Raw@mcmuse.

I'm still cleansing with psyllium and herbs, while transitioning to a 100% raw diet. Currently I'm about 90% raw and learning more and more along the way. Juicers, dehydrators, sprouters, etc. What an abundance of options!

I've been lucky that my husband has been very supportive, joining me from time to time in my cleanse, drinking psyllium concoctions and eating raw but giving up chicken and seafood and the whole SAD scene aren't *really* in his long-term plan. We'll just have to see how it all plays out.

I have/had a couple of recent health challenges: Graves' Disease and infertility. My lack of health and 'ease' has been my main motivator for raw each time. There's more boring details about that below, if anybody cares to read it.

Since I've been raw and cleansing these last nine weeks, my health outlook and energy status has changed. Pretty dramatically, now that I'm thinking about it. I was negative and dragging, staying in the house (not happily) some days from lack of energy and motivation. Now, after of nine weeks of 90% raw, with about five days of cooked food, I've experienced an increase in positive energy, a hopeful outlook and an improvement in my general well-being.

All in all, I'm glad I allowed myself time to recover and heal. I've been working part time since April and I can only say that this was a needed break. I'd been keeping a pretty hectic demanding pace for years, and just enjoying incredible good health before. Now that I've had this slowdown period, I've had a chance to regroup and change direction in my life. I'm 42 and starting to gain something that passes as wisdom and insight to other, younger folks. Here's part of what I've experienced, FWIW.

I know that once I surrendered to and accepted the experience of dis-ease and quit fighting with it, I began my road to recovery; that is, I began my ability to reach out and help myself by learning more new things and pursuing new practices in health. Once I quit fearing aging and dying and being limited in anyway, I began to make progress. Health, like life, is a marathon, not a sprint.

Speaking of which, I can't wait to be able to ride 50 miles on my bike again, and camp and hike the way we did just in 1993.

I gave up the blood tests a while ago and I don't actually know the status of my thyroid. I know I'm feeling good, able to be productive and function at something approaching my former level. I give the credit to the healing tendency of our organism, of nature itself and to the raw regime for supporting the body in doing what it does best, run perfectly.

Health Awareness, Nutrition and Food

My health and nutrition awareness and activity dates back to my first year in college when I fasted for 30 days on juices (the wrong way and I got terribly ill). Who did that back in 1972? Remember Dick Gregory? He was my example. But I felt pretty alone. I began pursuing knowledge and a mucusless diet and began enemas and fasting periodically soon after that. I haunted HFS, such as they were then, reading all I could afford and was eating veggie, mostly. That was when salad was generally defined as iceberg lettuce and tasteless tomatoes. And sprouts? What was that? I wish I could say that the road was straight and narrow since then.

I fell into anorexia and bulimia in college, before they had names for those disorders. I was lacto veg for five years in there, but still experiencing binge/purge occasionally. I finally got off that roller coaster in 1981, when I met my husband but food still has some influence on me. Probably always will. I know that I don't want to venture into the arena of being obsessed about food again.

Raw is a blessing and so simple. Yet I didn't freak when I have eaten a potato or indulge in those lovely dates. I know how much worse it could be. I'm considering making raw a life choice.

Dis-ease recapped

My first experience with the healing powers of raw was during a cleanse and 6-week herbal/raw program in 1991. We wanted a family after 12 years of trying and being diagnosed with blocked tubes. Well I got pregnant (after one month raw!!) but I experienced a tubal pregnancy and again in 1994. The second one was a jolting experience, emotionally and physically. My son graduated high school in 1993, and started the process of leaving home, which was rough for him and for us.

I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, hyperthyroidism, back in 1995. I lost my hair, had bad thyroid storms, had a mild goiter and my eyes got a little buggy. I refused the radiation treatment which would totally disable my thyroid and allow me to live "normally" on thyroid pills for the rest of my life. My thyroid later flipped in 1996 and I found myself in hypothyroidism, at which time I sought an ND's help because I was going downhill fast.

In 1996 and 1997 I gained lots of weight, had no energy and didn't want to live, work and play like normal, but I felt a natural approach was best, so I worked with the ND for a year. I had blood tests to measure my thyroid levels, took "natural" thyroid to supplement and took some homeopathic treatments, some Reiki treatments and learned Level 1, as well as working with a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Boy was I looking for relief! but I actually got sicker with some of these practices.

I kept thinking "Cleanse, Fast" but my mental, physical and emotional states were at all-time lows and I didn't push myself past whatever block I was experiencing.

In August, I was fed up with it and decided anything had to be better than what I was experiencing. It was pretty bad and I may have been sick with other things too.

I feel lucky that I was led to Arise and Shine and through that, to raw, and perhaps on to more fasting and other health-promoting activities.

Thanks for letting me share, and experience the wonder that is raw. I began reading last month and I've learned plenty and been very encouraged and supported in making this transition. I retired two bread machines and removed many cooking implements from my kitchen almost immediately after starting to read it. I look forward to reading and sharing in the future.

I'm a computer programmer by trade, now working in a government lab doing data processing for ocean scientists. It can be fun especially working with scientists who are not open minded.

Continuing to move forward,

Sandra

If you would like to write to Sandra, you may send e-mail hall@nosc.mil

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