Hi all, ive been lurking this forum for a little bit, learning all i can about changing to a raw food lifestyle. It seems as good a place as any for an intro in the journals section so howdy.

First up i just want to say thanks everyone for creating such a wonderful place for me to learn and be inspired.

My story of what brought me to raw foodism seems long when i think through it in my head, so ill try and keep it as brief as possible.

A couple of years ago i was what i believed at the time to be a healthy happy person, worked lots, loved my job, went on holidays where part of my trips would involve hiking 20 or more kms in a day. I however was not healthy, lurking in the background my body was preparing to fall to pieces. I was a heavy drinker, thought nothing of eating large unhealthy meals and at the time really didnt consider a meal of cheesy pasta bad.

Ill step back a little further, in high school i was sick, not bad, i still functioned well enough most of the time, but i was one of those i believe it is 1 in 10 women to suffer with endometriosis. I was diagnosed young, my symptoms were bad so the doc was happy to give me a presumed diagnoses, put me on hormones, and several months later i had my life back. For 7 years i buried my head in the sand about this, i was better as far as i was concerned and no part of my mind ever considered that it would come raging back.

Sadly, it did, with a vengence. In Aug 2005 id been married a little over 6mths, was in a nice home, and my adorable niece had just been born, life was good. Within days of my niece being born, coincidence or not my body started 'misbehaving'. Starting as a few unusual pains that i brushed off, a little nausea, to constant deblilitating pain and constant nausea within two weeks of onset. I had to give up work suddenly, leaving my beloved casual night work as a nurse, a few weeks later i was offered the chance for part time office work. I wasnt well at all, i was making no improvements, the doctors had no idea what was wrong. My presumed diagnosis of endometriosis was no longer good enough and i was treated essentially, as a nutcase. My condition got worse and worse, i gave up on medicine and went down the natural path. Through this i got well enough for a little while anyway to manage a long overseas holiday, i was pushing myself really really hard. While id done some diet changes, supplements, herbs, i hadnt really taken things far enough, and i was still burying my head in the sand.

For a while after i got back from my trip i was still reasonably good, id changed to community work, better suiting my health as i was able to break up my days. As you can see, i never slowed down, despite how sick i was i drugged myself with hefty pain relief and carried on. As time went on, i gradually decreased my hours as i handled less and less. I kept trying new natural treatments but nothing was helping anymore, i kept getting worse.

Then the worst happened, my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness, it required intense treatment for him to have any chance at all. After his diagnosis my health issues spiraled out of control, my fatigue that was slowing me down was grinding me to a stop, i wasnt sleeping, i was barely eating. Eventually i had to give up work, the pain and the fatigue had become unbearable.

I decided at this point i had to take charge, i had to get better. At my worst my fatigue and pain was so bad i required a walking stick to get around the house, and apart from visiting my dying father i didnt leave the house, often i didnt leave my heating pad at my computer chair. I had reached rock bottom. I went back to the docs, they were taking me more seriously this time, but test after test showed nothing. In the meanwhile i was making drastic diet changes, had cut out gluten, meat (except fish), dairy (except yoghurt) and refined sugar. This was a success, i was getting improvements in my pain, my fatigue improved to the point i no longer needed my walking stick. I pushed myself to do short walks every day (this started as walking across the road with my walking stick on one side, my husband on the other and coming back).

I then found a good endometriosis specialist, he seemed like a godsent, he believed me, he wanted to help. His first attempt at treatment however made me really sick again, made the pain worse than it had ever been, all my progress was lost. At that point to make matters worse, my father died.

Once he was gone i had renewed determination, seeing his strength on the deathbed made me want to be better more than ever. I went back to the doc, this time i decided to go ahead with surgery, it was a success, all endometriosis removed and i finally had an official diagnosis. Within a month i had little or no pain at all, however the fatigue remained and hadnt improved in the slightest. I was also unwilling to have hormone treatment again, so i knew i had to be really good about my health to keep it under control.

I made more diet changes, got really strict with my therapeutic diet, this solved the pain issue and my fatigue was slowly, very very slowly improving. This brings me to now, i tried a few things to get more energy, olive leaf extract, coq10, they both helped me do more in a day, i was able to handle more, but i was still getting really bad days where i could barely get out of bed and was badly effected by any activity.

Thats when i read about green smoothies, they seemed a great idea, and my initial hope was just to reduce the amount of supplements i was taking, i felt i was getting no where with them and hated relying on pills. The smoothies were wonderful, for about an hour after i had more energy, but it wasnt lasting. This was around 6wks ago. Then my period came and it was incredibly heavy (ill compare it to postnatal bleeding, because thats what my sister compared it to when i described it to her) i looked for what id changed, i had increased my olive leaf extract of late, i had also forgotten to take my extra iron tablet on day 1, and of course id started the smoothies. Out of fear it was the cause i stopped having them. I remained really sick again after my period went, felt like id been set back 2months. After a while i realised i wasnt picking back up, id been reading more and more on raw diets and realised the heavy bleeding could have just been detoxing.

So i started them again, the energy i had after was addictive, it made me want more and more raw food. I wasnt able to have more than 1 smoothie a day often because of bowel issues so i started just eating raw all day. Wonderful things were happening, my appetite improved, my energy and stamina improved. I stopped getting energy crashes post activity or randomly through the day. My energy levels were stabilising. I was doing more and more every day and not getting tired.

Then of course i over did it, football finals meant pushing myself when i wouldnt normally. Surprisingly i handled being out at football reasonably well, was able to focus well on the game till about the 70th min. I of course ended up really sick that night and slept for a ridiculous amount of time, as i usually do when im really sick. But the next day i decided id be proactive. I had 2 blenders full of green smoothies that day, and was strict about raw food only. By the evening i was starting to feel ok, by the next day i felt good again. I could only attribute such a bounce back to raw food, normally it would take me all week to recover from something like that, this was incredible.

Im now eating about 90 - 95% raw food and feeling much much better for it. Im also just on my next period since starting my raw journey, theres minimal pain if at all, and ive found a wonderful thing, leafy greens completely eliminate any pain i do get. I had terrible nausea on day 1 and barely ate at all, but im recovery quickly, its day 2 now its already lightened right up, and im starting to get energy back again.

Im really excited, this is the first time ive been able to genuinely feel that i can not only get through this, i can come out the other side a stronger healthier person than ive ever been. My journeys been tough, but i feel that im really just coming into who i truly am, hence my title.

So my aims in my raw food journey are:
- eliminate any leftover pain im still getting
- lighten my period so its just a part of my life and not the disaster it is to my system now
- Regain energy and beat my chronic fatigue
- Eliminate acid reflux (have already achieved this one)
- Combining the bates method with my raw food journey, fix my poor eyesight
- Get back a normal appetite (this has improved, but i have a long way to go)
- Become so fit that i can do 20km hikes again and jump around at the football

I look forward to sharing my journey with you all