Living Foods and Weight Loss

I read a fascinating statement from Raw Food Right Now
http://rawfoodrightnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/victoria-boutenko-new-books-new.html

I'm glad this subject is being addressed and I look forward to the interview with Victoria Botenka in a few weeks.

For those who don't know who Victoria is, she has been a proponent of green smoothies for many years. As an immigrant to this country, she and her family suffered from many health challenges, which as a concerned mother, she sought to overcome. So she asked people who "looked" healthy to tell her what they did to get that way. After many unsatisfactory encounters, one woman told her about eating raw foods. Thus started Victoria on the road to healing her family of their various maladies.

Later she did extensive research on the eating habits of primates and developed what she called green smoothies. This is a beverage made from dark leafy green vegetables such as chard, spinach, kale plus fruit, often banana, apple, pear. The bitterness of the greens are offset by the sweetness of the fruit, thus making this drink both yummy and beneficial.

Victoria lost weight by eliminating cooked foods in her diet. Yet today she is a woman of substance. What has happened? People in the raw foods community are curious and concerned.

I've been a person who has been overweight since age 5. As you can imagine, I've tried a lot of food plans and even took hormone shots as a teenager to help me lose weight. Invariably, whatever plan I followed failed to change my lifestyle for the good. In fact I often went on a diet so that I could return to eating "normally". Normal, of course, was what caused me to gain weight!

As a child I didn't allow the extra weight to keep me sedentary. I was a tom boy growing up and have been an active adult. I've often used exercise to lose weight and keep it down with only so-so results.

I'll also mention that I've been a member of 12-step recovery (Overeaters Anonymous) for over 23 years. So I've tried the gamut of approaches to be rid of excess pounds.

A year ago I began exercising with specific workout programs offered through BeachBody. Slowly I lost weight and also changed dimensions. Still the scale would barely budge in the downward direction.

This past July I decided to go 100% uncooked, unprocessed, whole foods. I had been eating a vegan food plan for 3-4 years, drinking Green Smoothies (after hearing Victoria speak), and thought the leap was manageable, especially during the summer.

The first month I hardly lost any weight. Mind you, I'm exercising 6 times a week quite vigorously with P90. The second month my weight loss began in earnest. I now weigh less than I did in high school and am thrilled. I've dropped about 15 pounds since July, which is a huge accomplishment for me.

I share this story because body size is quite peculiar and individual. I doubt that I will ever be "thin" and am exceedingly pleased with how I look and feel on this living foods diet (I prefer this term to raw, which sounds unsanitary and unsafe!).

One of the things that attracted me to this food plan was the fact that I didn't have to measure, count or weigh food items. However, this may be a myth and delusion. Nuts and oils are dense and high in calories. People eating 100% raw can choose unhealthy living foods and eat in excess, which could account for their (surplus) weight.

I'm still a work in progress. I'm curious to know whether I'll continue to lose weight with this living food diet, and whether I gain weight if I add back cooked food. A day at a time I'm choosing to follow this plan and continue exercising. For me this combination seems to work. If you've struggled with weight, what have you found that works for you?