Green Smoothie Revolution Part 7

First photo: January 26, 2008, when I weighed 400.6 pounds. Second photo: January 20, 2009, at 170 pounds.

In the very beginning of my experiment I weighed over four hundred pounds, and I was hurting myself during exercise. Dr. Donato asked me to wait until I was under three hundred pounds to start exercising. I lost 102 pounds in fourteen weeks without exercising. Now I train with weights three times a week at the local gym under the supervision of Dr. Donato, along with light cardio-anaerobic exercise daily.

CLENT'S WEIGHT-LOSS PROGRESS LOG [image]

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Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,505 feet. I joined Dr. Donato and friends on September 2, 2008 to climb Mount Whitney, and made it to the summit!

APPENDIX 3.

HOW THE RAW FAMILY WENT RAW.

We joke in my family that we were fortunate to get sick all together, but back then, in 1993, our health problems were no joke. All four of us (my husband, our two children, and myself) were deathly sick. Our family of five had emigrated from Russia in 1989 when I was invited by Denver Community College to teach about perestroika. At that time in Russia there was a shortage of food, and our diet was limited to what was available, which was mostly grains, dairy products, and some fruit. When we came to America, we were amazed at the variety and availability of food, and we started trying everything. We loved the convenience of prepackaged food. I remember that we enjoyed using a microwave often. Within three years, four of us were diagnosed with deadly diseases that included arrhythmia and edema (Victoria), hyperthyroidism and rheumatoid arthritis (Igor), allergies and asthma (Valya), and diabetes (Sergei). Our oldest son Stephan was the only one in our family who escaped severe illness.

When the doctors told us that our conditions were incurable, we did not want to believe them, and started looking for an alternative way of healing. My search was intense; for several months I couldn't do anything but go around asking people about health. I read nonstop in libraries, attended lectures and seminars, and met with various health pract.i.tioners.

Eventually I ran into Elizabeth, a woman who was probably one of the only raw foodists at that time in Colorado. She was the first person I met who felt confident that our illnesses could be reversed. Elizabeth told me she had cured her stage-four colon cancer twenty years earlier through eating raw food. At first, I was disappointed. I was looking for a more serious solution. I was willing to work hard and pay any amount of money for some miraculous herb or treatment. Raw food sounded absurd to me-too simplistic. I'd heard of raw foods before, but I was not so naive to believe in that kind of diet. So I asked Elizabeth, "Do you really believe that humans can survive on just fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, raw?!"

Elizabeth responded with three indisputable arguments: (1) animals do not cook; (2) she had been eating only raw food for twenty years and healed her colon cancer; (3) we did not come into this world with a cooking stove attached to our belly. These points were far from scientific, but I couldn't think of anything to refute them. Besides, I was greatly impressed with Elizabeth's youthful look, and I desperately wanted everyone in my family to feel better. Elizabeth loaned me a book about raw food and gave me her phone number. I went home and started reading.

Bear in mind that in 1993 there were only a few books about raw food available and they were not sold in stores, only from the authors themselves. I quickly read the book that Elizabeth loaned me and suddenly the promise of the raw food diet seemed so obvious. Next, though, I became scared. I thought, "Now I have to give up the last pleasure I have left in life." At the same time, I was already eager to try raw food and see if it would work for my family. Igor and I agreed to try a raw food diet for two weeks, to see if there would be any improvement in our health at all.

In the morning of January 21st, 1994 I went into the kitchen. I fully realized that this could be the only chance in a lifetime to make such a drastic change. Therefore, I was decisive. I carefully examined the food that we had in the fridge and in the cupboards and discovered that we had almost zero raw food in our house. Everything had to go! I took a heavy-duty garbage bag and cleaned out all the beans, macaroni, cereal, rice, TV dinners, popsicles, whipped cream, breads, sauces, cheese, and cans of tuna. Next went the coffeemaker, toaster, and pasta maker. I turned off the pilot light and covered the stove with a large cutting board. Now our kitchen looked as if we were moving out. The only item left on the counter was our huge, expensive microwave oven. When we lived in Russia, we couldn't have one because Russian scientists performed research and found out that microwave ovens were very harmful. For this reason microwave ovens were prohibited in Russia. As a result, when we came to the United States, we bought a big one. Now I was staring at this microwave oven and realized that I didn't know what to do about it. I started thinking about delicious melted cheese sandwiches, Pop Tarts, and all the "miracles" I used to bake in it. Then I thought about Sergei and his diabetes. Most of all in the world, I did not want him to go on insulin. So I got a hammer and cracked the microwave's gla.s.s door, then put it in the garage. I put all our brand-new pots and pans that I'd just gotten for Christmas out on the sidewalk, and they disappeared minutes later. Then I rushed to the local supermarket.

At that time I was not aware of the existence of raw gourmet dishes. I didn't know what raw-fooders ate, having never met any besides Elizabeth, who ate simply. I had never heard of dehydrated flax crackers, nut milks, seed cheese, or raw cakes. I thought of raw food as mainly being salads. Furthermore, I came from Russia, where fresh fruits and vegetables were available only during the summer. We were used to eating potatoes, meat, macaroni, lots of dairy products, and occasionally fruit. We were not accustomed to eating salads, and my family didn't like vegetables. Therefore, I was confined to the fruit section of the produce department. Due to our tight budget, we usually bought only Was.h.i.+ngton apples, naval oranges, and bananas. I loaded my cart with these three items.

When my kids came home from school and Igor from work, they asked, "What's for dinner?" I told them to look in the fridge. My children couldn't believe their eyes. "Where are our TV dinners? Where did all the ice cream go?" They threw a fit. Sergei said, "I would rather take insulin shots for the rest of my life than stay on such a crazy diet." They refused to eat and went to their rooms to watch videos.

Igor ate a couple of bananas and complained that this food made him hungrier. We had lots of time that day. I remember everyone walking from one room to another looking at the clock. This was my initial realization of how much of my time had been spent thinking about, planning, preparing to eat, eating, and cleaning up afterwards. We felt hungry, uncomfortable, weird, and lost. We tried watching TV, but the grilled chicken commercials were unbearable. We hardly made it to nine o'clock. Unable to fall asleep due to my own empty stomach, I heard footsteps in our kitchen and the sound of cupboards opening and closing.

In the morning, we woke up unusually early and gathered in the kitchen. I noticed lots of peels from bananas and oranges on the counter. Valya shared with us that she hadn't coughed that night. I remember telling her, "That is just a coincidence; the diet couldn't work that fast." Sergei checked his blood sugar. It was still high, but it was lower it was lower than it had been for several weeks. Igor and I noticed a slight energy increase, and generally felt lighter and more positive. We were also very hungry. than it had been for several weeks. Igor and I noticed a slight energy increase, and generally felt lighter and more positive. We were also very hungry.

I have never told anyone that s.h.i.+fting to a raw food diet was easy. In fact, it was very hard for the four of us. Our bodies were demanding the foods we used to eat. From the very first day, and for a couple weeks, minute after minute, I was daydreaming of eating bagels with cream cheese, hot soups, chocolate, or, at the very least, various types of chips. At night in my sleep, I was searching for French fries under my pillow. I snuck two dollars from the family piggy bank and kept them in my pocket. I kept plotting that one day I would have half an hour alone to run down to the corner restaurant and buy a slice of hot, cheesy pizza, eat it fast without being seen, run back, and continue the raw food diet. Luckily, I never found that chance.

At the very same time, positive changes rapidly appeared. Valya stopped coughing at night and never had an asthmatic attack again. Sergei's blood sugar steadily began to stabilize. Igor's swelling in his throat subsided to normal. His pulse went down, and the symptoms of hyperthyroidism became less apparent with each day. I noticed that my clothes were loose on my body, even when they were fresh out of the dryer. That had never happened before. I was excited! Every morning, I ran to the mirror and examined my face, counting the disappearing wrinkles. My face definitely looked better and younger with each day of the raw life.

After one month on raw food, Sergei asked me why he had to check his blood sugar every three hours when it was now consistently within the normal range. I told him to check it only once, in the morning. Valya was able to run a quarter of a mile at school without coughing. Igor's pulse normalized, and I lost fifteen pounds. All of us noticed that we had a lot more energy. We decided to start running as a family. Eventually, Sergei's blood sugar stabilized due to his new diet and regular jogging. From the day that we began to eat raw food to the present, he has never again experienced any form of diabetic symptoms.

We appreciated that our health was quickly restored to normal and that we had become even healthier than ever before. To share the story of our amazing healing with as many people as possible, and to inspire others to try this dietary approach, we published a book about our experiences called Raw Family: A True Story of Awakening Raw Family: A True Story of Awakening.

WHAT WAS MISSING IN OUR RAW FOOD PLAN?.

After several years of being raw-foodists, each one of us began to feel like we had reached a plateau where our healing processes had stopped, and had even begun to go backwards. About seven years into our completely raw diet, more and more often we started feeling discontent with our existing food program. I began to have a heavy feeling in my stomach after eating almost any kind of raw food, especially a salad with dressing. Because of that, I started to eat fewer greens and more fruits and nuts. I began to gain weight. My husband started to develop a lot of gray hair.

My family members felt confused about our diet and started asking more often "What should we eat?" There were times when we felt hungry but did not desire any foods that were "legal" for us to eat on our diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, sprouts, and dried fruit. Salads with dressings were delicious but made us tired and sleepy. We felt trapped. I remember Igor looking inside the fridge, saying over and over again, "I wish I wanted some of this stuff." These periods did not last. We blamed it all on stress and overeating and were able to refresh our appet.i.tes by fasts, exercise, hikes, or by working more. In my family we strongly believe that raw food is the only way to go so we encouraged each other to maintain our raw diet no matter what, always trying new variations with our food. Many of my friends told me about similar experiences, at which point they gave up being 100 percent raw and began to add cooked food back into their meals. In my family, we continued to stay on raw food due to our constant support of each other.

But a burning question began to grow stronger in my heart with each day. The question was, "Is there anything missing in our diet?" The answer would come right away: "Nope. Nothing could be better than a raw food diet. This diet saved our lives." Still, the unwanted signs of less-than-perfect health kept surfacing in minor but noticeable symptoms, such as a wart on a hand or a gray hair, symptoms that brought doubts about the completeness of the raw food diet. Finally, when my children complained about the increased sensitivity of their teeth, I reached a state where I couldn't think about anything besides this health puzzle. I drove everybody around me crazy with my constant discussion of what could possibly be missing.

Due to lack of information in those early years, we made a lot of mistakes. For example, we consumed too many nuts, seeds, and oils. The bulk of our diet consisted of root vegetables and fruit. For the first couple years we were eating conventionally grown produce, as we did not appreciate organic food. Our biggest oversight, it turns out, was that we consumed very few greens.

I started conducting a lot of research and in 2004 I came to the conclusion that the missing ingredient in our diet was green leaves. After incorporating plenty of greens into our diets in the form of green smoothies, all of our minor health problems completely vanished. Finally, we felt vibrant.

Ever since I first described our story in my books, readers have asked me, "So, does the raw food diet work?" After more than fifteen years of practicing the raw food diet, I consider the optimal diet for humans to be as much raw food as possible, with a huge emphasis on greens. Still, many people ask, "What is more important: to be 100 percent raw, or to consume large amounts of greens regularly?" I gave this tough question a lot of thought and research, and my conclusion is that eating enough greens is definitely more important. Those who can combine greens with an all-raw diet will reap the most health benefits. However, I've had plenty of opportunity to observe how difficult this goal is for many people. Therefore, the best way to start is by enjoying green smoothies!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

I acknowledge all the people who shared their favorite green smoothie recipes with the world.

I am grateful to my family for their endless patience, love, and support while I was working on this book.

My heart goes out to all the friends who volunteered to spend many hours editing my ma.n.u.script: Aletha Nowitzky, Vanessa Nowitzky, Bridget Wolf, and Leslie DeLorean.

I thank Robert Petet.i.t for his lovely photographs.

I greatly appreciate Dr. Miven Donato, Clent Manich, and Gabrielle Chavez for their valuable contributions to this book.