Great.  I had the first bit of meat in several days (some turkey) amid all this raw stuff, and now I have   very   stinky gas.

I have been doing more raw veggies lately, and I to am feeling better for adding the rawness.  I seem to have more energy when I do.  During the winter months is so hard for me...low sun, low raw veggies and lots of carbs...not a good combo.  Now that spring is on the way I am making myself eat more raw foods, and am slowly feeling the goodness from them.  The cooked veggies just seem like they are to limp nutritiously.

Hi Ribbit..
What a healthy attitude you have...!  And yes,  doing the best that you can  is  GREAT!  I think   you sound very mindful of what you are doing ..  none of us are perfect, and  there are things that come up, obstacles, etc. to be taken into account.  
I have found that  I am feeling MUCH more energized  eating raw... I am trying to follow the BTD and/or the GTD doing the raw foods from this list... but I'm not die hard about it.. just trying to make   better choices when possible...
I am loving the results!  I have lost the 2 lbs. that I toy back and  forth with
The  puffiness under my eyes has totally subsided
No skin breakouts.. my skin is perfect!  Even  eating fruits!
I have "the glow"  of a raw foodie...
So, when you  have a chance to check out the sites, let me know what you think!

This sounds really good.  But I don't suppose it's wise to eat beef or lamb raw.  I'd want to continue eating that.

I've been wondering why raw foods seem to provide more energy.  I've been thinking a lot about energy lately (as an engineer).  One idea is that the heat energy applied to foods in order to cook them causes some of the caloric content to be used up.

My understanding of how the calorie content of food is determined is that the food is burned in a special chamber in order to release the energy that's stored in the food.  So I think of cooking as a controlled burn.

I'd be interested in Dr. D's feedback on this.

Quoted from Lola

baker s, brewer s, nutritional....all the same thing....
down here, I can t get the nutritional one, but the only yeast available is called 'levadura' which means yeast and it comes in a powdered form.....the yeast used for baking I have seen in a cake like form......and then there s also the powdered quick baking rise yeast which is not the powdered yeast I buy down here.

Lola, I bow to your superior food knowledge, but have to say that (even if it is an urban legend) the belief that baker's yeast should not be eaten raw is absolutely widespread.

Ribbit's update:  I've lost 5 lbs. and my skin is clearing up.  Yes, I said it----my skin is clearing up!  After all this time of wondering what was causing all my skin breakouts, maybe this is the answer.  What's the answer?  I don't know, but maybe this.  If that makes any sense.  

The little acne-like breakouts are going away, but then, they sort of cycle through anyway.  It's the great big oozy ones that hang around for months that are going away.  I still have the knots down under my skin (maybe those will go away too eventually), but at least the surface is healing up.

But even better than that, I have energy.  I should not be vertical right now.  I've gotten to bed past 11 pm every night this week, and I've been up by 7, and woken up every single hour during the night (although last night the baby woke up every 15 minutes on the dot, the whole night).  Now this is sort of typical anyway because the baby doesn't sleep, but the amazing thing is that I'm not tired during the day!  I may or may  not take a catnap during the day, but I don't feel like I'm going to die if I don't get one.  I did have some pretty terrible dreams last night, but I attribute that to sleep deprivation, not my new diet.

Here's the other thing.  I had thought that our food bill would go up because you have to eat a lot more veggies to fill yourself up when you're not eating meat....or so I thought.  When I eat cooked veggies, that's the case.  But when I eat raw veggies, I don't get hungry.

Here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast
~~~~~~~~~

"Soup" in my Vita-Mix
1 apple
1 carrot
2 handfulls almonds
3 leaves kale
handful fresh cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1/2 in. fresh ginger

Now I can't say it was delicious.  But it was okay.  The absolutely amazing thing is....you would think something like that would hold you a couple of hours tops.  I ate that at 8 a.m. and didn't even think about eating again till noon.  No snack.  No hunger.

Lunch
~~~~~

Heaping, huge plate of lettuce (green leaf)
cucumber slices
green olives (no vinegar)
4 Tbsp. hemp hearts
pumpkin seeds
handful cashews (yeah, I know, but they sure were good)
a whole lot of nutritional yeast
hemp oil
lime juice
sea salt

I ate this at 1:00 and had a handful of pecans at 3:00.  Didn't eat dinner till 8:00 (our company was late coming in), at which time I had the Salmon Salad from Longhorn Steaks, which was a slab of salmon on top of a salad.  I did eat a slice of really great bread with that.  Unfortunately for the first few hours of the night I had my typical MSG reaction (sweating a whole lot and feeling a little light-headed).

I just can't get over the fact that raw food lasts my body so long.  I read a book several years ago about a family of 4 who went completely raw.  They told about how they went on a days-long hiking trip and all they carried with them was some oats and olive oil.  The rest of their food they foraged for in the forest.  I was thinking, "There is no way I could survive on some berries and nuts and oats and oil."  But now, I'm wondering if I could do very well (if I wasn't nursing a 25 lb. baby), because my body doesn't need nearly as much fuel to keep it going as it does when I eat it cooked.  When I eat cooked vegetarian, which I do most of the time, I have to eat huge amounts of food and still snack a lot between meals.  I don't have to do that now.  I'm satisfied and I don't even think about food, or if I do, a handful of pecans or walnuts makes me happy again.  No sugar cravings either.

Why is my skin clearing up, even though I'm eating fruit?  I don't know.  If my skin issues are caused by Candida, I shouldn't be able to eat the fruit.  In the past, on cooked diet, if I ate too much fruit it would get a little worse.  But on a (mostly) raw diet, I seem to be able to eat all the fruit I want with no Candida consequences or blood sugar crashes.  It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  My husband just sits there wide-eyed as I rave about my new modified-BTD diet, and says, "Well, your legs look good."

Ribbit, you've already changed my way of looking at raw food, but this is totally amazing!! One thing for sure, it is a simple way of living if there ever was one. My daughter-in-law is addicted to sushi because she feels so wonderful after eating it. I have already gotten to where I dislike the taste of most roasted nuts.    I especially love raw walnuts and pecans. Now, I have to try to get used to eating raw string beans and peas. I see these produce guys at the small local farmers' market doing this all the time. Without even washing them!

I have a pretty neat recipe for a few different raw veggies and fruits mixed together to make a salad.  I will have to get it out and try some subs for some of the ingredients. Maybe some of the beans could be replaced with peas. I don't think this would work as well as using your Vitamix because most people don't chew their food that well. Probably more like nobody! But it would be a start anyway.

When I went on the WW points diet (of course, this was in conjunction with the BTD) I ate a tremendous amount of raw food. After I got off the diet, though, I quit eating as much raw stuff. Bad mistake. I didn't gain a lot of weight because of it, but looking back I can see that I gradually didn't feel as well.

It is truly amazing what you have done with the load that is on you right now! Maybe your baby will get better after a year passes. My youngest child nearly killed us that first year. I think Candida was his problem, though, because I had it so bad when he was born. (I had no clue at the time how bad it really was!) His little immune system finally overcame it, though, and after that first birthday he was the happiest child alive.

Ribbit I also eat approx 50 % of my caloric intake raw.. But I do take sublingual B12 I find it necc. for me being vegan. Funny you talked about skin...mine is amazing too...so clear , line free...hard not to think of a connection