Why I Became Vegan and Why it Took So Long! Part 3 - Alkaline Vegan to Raw Vegan + Fruitarian & Mono Eating

Becoming raw meant that I would have to give pasta, grains and nuts😢😭

I would later learn that nuts and seeds were contributing to my menstrual cramps and so was able to give them up. Dr Sebi recommends only brazil nuts, walnuts and hemp seeds so they were the only nuts and seeds I was eating anyway. The hardest to let go of was the hemp seeds, I would sprinkle them on just about everything!

My first reaction to going raw vegan was to wonder how that would work in winter? Then to mourn all the super hot comforting foods I would have to give up such as spelt pasta, quinoa stir fry and amaranth porridge. They all definitely required cooking above 118 degrees!

I decided to try raw for week and see if i could do it. The next week was full of big salads often with avocados ( love avocados! ) 

Midweek I noticed that my skin was really glowing and decided to try it for a month but at 50% raw and 50% cooked as I missed cooked food. Even at 50% raw and my skin still had a lovely glow to it which wasn't there when I was vegetarian!

I learned that there are raw vegan versions for the grains and pasta that I loved so much.

Spaghetti is substituted with Zoodles which are spiralised zucchini/courgettes. In fact

Many vegetables can be spiralised and used as spaghetti and noodle alternatives. The plethora of vegetables include sweet potatoes, swede/rutabagas, cucumbers, squashes, carrots and beetroot.

Rice alternatives include finely rated cauliflower, beetroot and broccoli referred to as 'cauliflower rice', 'beetroot rice' or 'broccoli rice'.

EXAMPLE OF SOME MY 50% RAW 50% COOKED MEALS
Raw Spiralised courgette/zucchini base.

Zoodles with tomato, basil and mushroom sauce

Zoodles with sauteed okra, onion , mushrooms and kale.

Similar to above but without the mushrooms.

◇Spring green leaf(collard) wraps with home made hummus and sautéed sweet peppers and nori strips - no picture.

◇Baked cabbage with raw spinach and pine nut pesto - no picture.

◇Baked mushrooms with sauteed red onions and red cabbage topped with raw tomato sauce and cubed avocados.

Raw tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, coriander, grapeseed oil and sundried tomatoes.

Spicy broth soup with sauteed mushrooms, red onions and cabbage topped with raw kale.

Fully Raw lasagne with courgette/zucchini slices, sundried tomatoes and raw tomato sauce and hummus coriander sauce layers garnished with black olives. Not the prettiest raw lasagne but super tasty!

I noticed eating 50%raw gave me increased energy levels...when I had fully cooked alkaline vegan foods I would ready to go to bed by 9pm or 10pm (UK time) at the latest. When I ate raw I would be EXTRA wide awake and be up to till 12/1pm and I was still able to sleep well and wake up at 6am fresh and ready to go. Overall I needed less sleep!

I then had my first painfree period in July 2017 and it was like a miracle! I waited for the pain all week but not a twinge. I also had a shorter cycle of 4 days and not 7-9 days that I use to have.

I couldn't believe that going just 50% raw solved this so easily. I decided to go high raw at 85%-90% as I still enjoyed cooked food. This kept the menstrual cramps away and my cycle was reduced to 3 days and was 50% lighter! I no longer dreaded that time of the month!

I decided to go 'high raw' rather than raw alkaline vegan as I personally found raw alkaline vegan too restrictive.

After going raw I learnt about the Fruitarian and Mono Fruitarian way of eating.

There are some weeks where I'm fruitarian and some of that is mono so I may have bananas for breakfast all week, I'll either eat them or blend them with some water and a bit of ginger. I enjoy eating mono and friutarian but could not do it 100% of the time! I like doing it for a week or two to have a clean break from cooked food.

As much as I loved Dr Sebi's alkaline lifestyle my motivation was always to reduce or rid myself of period pains and if go back to that lifestyle the pains would come back. My body has confirmed to me that it thrives best on a high raw vegan lifestyle.

Being raw means my menstrual cycles are pain free, super light and shorter. I have better moods and energy levels to where some days it doesn't even feel like I'm having my period!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my journey.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or if simply want to share similar experiences.

Why I Became Vegan and Why it Took So Long - Part 1 - Vegetarian - Letting Go of Dairy!

I've been vegan since January 2017 and the raw vegan since July 2017 Prior to that I was vegetarian for 24 years!

Why did it take so long to go Vegan?

The honest answer is DAIRY! My dairy addictions includes cheese especially Red Leicester and Haloumi. I was also madly in love with Muller Corner yoghurts specifically the banana flavour with chocolate cornflakes and fruit topped cheesecake.

I'm going to take you back to when I became vegetarian. In an ideal world I would have become vegetarian for moral and ethical reasons but my reason was simply that I went off meat!

I know what your thinking...how is that possible? How do you just go off meat? The honest answer is I don't know but I know that I'm not the only person this has happened to!

This happened to me when I was 15 years old. A few years before that my schoolfriend who was vegetarian would always lecture me on how cruel the meat industry was but none if shocked me into going vegetarian.

It happened that I gradually went off meat but not because of what she said, like everybody else I had become desensitised to the suffering of animals.

My mum used to task me with cleaning chicken legs before she would fry them and I suddenly found myself being seriously grossed out by it! The pale flesh, the slimy skin and dont get me started on plucking the hair! I had become squeamish to dealing with raw meat.

Visiting the butchers had now become traumatic; the smell of animal carcases was jarring and made me want to vomit. Every time I walked into butchers the smell was like being punched in the face.

If I walked past a butchers van which was open with animal torsos on display I Had to look away as the sight and smell was disturbing to my senses. Walking down the meat isle in a supermarket was just as horrific.

I found myself trying to get out of preparing and eating meat, it was then then I eventually made up mind and told my mum I was going vegetarian!

She was of course not impressed...it's very unusual for a Ghanaian not to eat meat even though Ghanaian cuisine still tastes amazing without the meat. She told me I would have to cook my own food and that was fine by me!

Having said that she eventually couldn't help herself and would cook in way where I could have some of the food such as vegetable fried rice because she would prepare the meat seperately.

In her own way she accepted my choice because when she would go shopping she would buy up vegetarian foods on offer such as Quorn products or frozen vegetarian pizzas.

Can you believe my favourite takeaway before going vegetarian was a McDonald's Big Mac? It was one of regular self treats and I was more than happy to give it up!

Becoming vegetarian meant some unexpected weightloss and I was constantly reminded that I was skinny! Not eating meat was more important than my appearance and so I ignored the negative comments.

In my mid to late teens I relied heavily on vegetarian processed foods and only learned to cooked tasty vegetarian meals in my mid twenties.

Fast forward to late 2012...it took all that time to make the connection between what I ate and my chronic conditions!

During this period I learned about Big Pharma and how profitable the medical industry is, especially cancer!

I suffered from sinusitis and would get horrific sinus infections in the winter. On a day to day basis air conditioning units would set off my sinuses and people would always ask me if I had a cold or would say that it seems that I always had a cold! The fustrating thing was that they acted as if they would catch it and this was annoying as it had nothing to do with a cold or flu!

I started my periods at 9 years old and then from age 10 they became extremely painful and got more painful over the years.

They became a lot heavier and often with dark red thick clots - (sorry for the graphic description). I got accustomed to taking the full recommended daily dosage ibuprofen for the duration of my period just to function! I would also be extremely tired and spent my time outside of work curled up into a ball with a hot water bottle.

There were occasions when I threw up and also a time where I was in so much pain I had to call in sick to work because I was doubled over in pain and couldn't stand up. I once also sneaked out of school because I was in so much pain I couldn't concentrate on the lesson.

During 2012 I became more spiritual and self aware and I think that's how I start to connect which foods caused me the most pain du ring my cycle.

I switched to brown/wholefood foods because I realised that my body was not compatible with white foods/white flour products. Below are foods that I used to consume that caused menstrual cramps and what I replaced them with.

White sugar ➡ Brown/demerara sugar.

White flour ➡ Whole Wheat Flour.

White rice ➡ Brown Rice.

White bread ➡ Whole Meal Bread.

White pasta ➡Whole Wheat Pasta.

White potatoes ➡Sweet potatoes.

Tofu ➡ Quorn Chicken Style Pieces/Quorn & Linda McCartney vegetarian 'meats'.

Milk➡Soy Milk (I now appreciate that soy milk is also detrimental to health but at the time it was the better option!)

I noticed if ate the white flour products/white foods dring my cycle within 2-24 hours I was in agony and would pass thick clots. When I avoided them during my period the pain was a lot less and with minimal clotting.

I've added milk to the list but it didn't cause menstrual cramps but it did cause mucus build up in my throat and nasal passages which caused my sinusitis. The reason it's on the list is because I switched from milk to soya around the same time. I had run out of milk and bought soya milk in its place and noticed a week later how clear my voice sounded and that there was no mucus in my throat! Clearing my throat every few seconds was second nature so when it was no longer necessary it was very noticeable!

I did later find out that cheese also contibuted to my sinusitis and so reduced cheese to a one off treat once a month/every 2 months.

Switching to brown foods did give me some relief from menstrual cramps and did lessen the pain but the pain was still there and I still had to take tablets to manage the pain.

Click here for part 2