Endless Energy...?

From Successfully Raw Issue 59:

Eating raw food but still haven’t got that “boundless energy” that many raw foodists rave about? Or perhaps you’re new to raw foods and want to be fast tracked to energy central (like yesterday)...

Wherever you’re starting this article, currently featured in the latest issue of Get Fresh! magazine, will shed some light on how to get and keep the energy you seek...

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When Marion telephoned me I already knew from a previous email that her main issue was energy – specifically, lack of it, in spite of the fact that she had been “healthy eating” for 4 or 5 years, dabbling with mostly raw food for a few months to varying degrees of success and had a clean bill of health from both her doctor and naturopath, so had no underlying health issues to speak of.

What Marion went on to describe to me at the start of our call was not dissimilar to anything I had heard before, with phrases such as “lacking oomph”, “tired in the morning, tired by 9pm”, “no bounce”, “no energy to spare” – i.e. about 80% of the UK population’s major health issue - pure and simple lack of energy.

“But I’ve been eating mostly raw foods for over four months now,” said Marion. “Surely I should be feeling better by now?”

A good question, of course. And an obvious one too. With the promise of “vibrant health” and “boundless energy” at the heart of the raw food promise, it’s only natural to wonder why it’s not happening so fast and furiously as we would expect.

I began by asking Marion one of the most important questions of all: “What exactly do you eat?” Important because, at a time where raw food menus can be as diverse as cooked ones, to say you “eat raw” is simply by no means enough information!

Marion went on to describe a typical day’s eating:

Fresh fruit or fruit smoothie for breakfast (porridge or muesli in the winter)
Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, avocado and olive salad for lunch with lemon and olive oil dressing
Flax crackers and raw hummous or Avocado-based soup for dinner

Snacks included goji berries, cacao nibs, dehydrated cookies, nuts and raisins, raw chocolate bars, other raw bars or more fresh fruit.

Drinks included various smoothies, the odd cup of tea or coffee, the occasional glass of wine and spring water.

On face value, looking at Marion’s diet it seemed generally very good overall, but a few things sprung immediately to mind:

1) Where are the greens?
2) Where are the sprouts and living foods?
3) Where are the fresh green and/or vegetable juices?
4) How much water are you drinking?
5) How often are you snacking? (And what on, mostly?)
6) Are you only eating when hungry?
7) How much are you eating for emotion, and to what extent?
8) How often does the wine, coffee, tea etc. slip in? Is it really only “occasionally”?

All of these questions come up for most people who consider themselves to be generally in good shape but somehow not losing weight or gaining energy. When you dig a little deeper, there is always something – or somethings - there that just needs a little tweaking…

In Marion’s case, further discussion revealed that:

1) Greens were something Marion found “difficult” to incorporate. After I gave her a few anyone-can-do-this ideas, she realised that yes she could actually bring masses more greens into her daily diet in a way that she would genuinely look forward to and enjoy on a daily basis. (See my Spinach and Mango Smoothie recipe, below, for one of the most potent and genuinely delicious ways of doing this)

2) As far as sprouts went, Marion confessed that she had tried a couple of times to sprout seeds and beans herself with limited success and had promptly given up. I explained that not only were they the cheapest and among the most nutritious of all raw foods to eat, but as far as energy enhancement were concerned they are second to none. With further discussion Marion agreed that she would try again using my sprouting guidelines sheet (we worked out where she had gone wrong!) and if she still felt it wasn’t working for her then she would make a point of ordering or buying in ample sprouts for herself on a weekly basis.

3) When we came to discuss juices, Marion confessed that she had never had a mixed vegetable juice and the green one she had tried had put her off trying or making any future ones altogether! The reason being, I soon found out, was because someone had once made her one consisting primarily of kale, broccoli and spinach (all dark leafy greens which are the most potent – both in taste and nutrition) with a little celery thrown in to “tame” it, and it had promptly made her feel sick! Well, quite frankly it’s enough to make most people gag – myself included! – so we discussed how to adjust green juices and vegetable juices to suit all palates and stages and Marion committed to trying my light green juice with a view to making one every morning an hour or two prior to her morning fruit meal.

4) As far as water was concerned, Marion was drinking at least a pint every day but that was generally in smoothies. We agreed that there was some room for improvement, both for hydration and detoxification purposes (drinking helps us regulate body systems and this is extra necessary when we are cleaning out our systems as we are when we purify our diet). This was pretty straightforward and easy to do.

5) When we came to discuss snacking Marion realised as we spoke that she was snacking almost constantly throughout the day. Normally this was on cashew nuts, sometimes mixed with raisins or dried apricots and more recently she had been experimenting with raw chocolate bars to pick herself up (with mixed results). I explained that due to her regular snacking her body was not getting a rest from digestion throughout the course of the day, and by not letting her stomach empty she was never going to experience that wonderful “clean burn” that we get when we allow ourselves to get truly hungry (or the weight loss that comes with it). She was very keen to experience this, so promised to “go for the burn!” from tomorrow morning onwards.

6) This all led us nicely on to the classic question “do you only eat when hungry?” By this point we were beginning to establish that this wasn’t generally the case. Marion’s desire to eat came from a number of sources – mind, body and emotions – they all had different ideas about what she should be eating, when and why and any of them could win on any given day – or at any given moment. Ranging from “voices” such as “Eat this it’s good for you” to “If you eat this you’ll get more energy” to “It’s one o’clock – it’s time to eat” to “Treat yourself”… we uncovered more than twenty different beliefs Marion had acquired about food and eating, as well as raw food eating specifically, that simply weren’t true – or constructive! As we uncovered these one by one Marion had light bulb moment after light bulb moment until she had begun to see that it wasn’t so much a lack of energy that was essentially the issue, but that she was BLOCKING it through her constant eating as well as the compound effect of the other things that were either present or not present in her diet.

7) When we came to discuss emotional eating Marion confessed that she ate mostly out of boredom. She worked in an office where she had spent the past 15 years and she knew her job inside out. Nearing retirement age she felt there was nowhere else to go in her job and she was craving challenge and stimulation but it didn’t seem likely that any would be forthcoming. For this reason each time she finished a job she would reward herself with a snack, each time she went to the bathroom she would grab a handful of grapes, nuts or raisins on the way back to her desk, each time she felt bored she would reach for the raw chocolate bar... and on it went. We established very early on that most of Marion’s eating was superfluous and that any energy that may have been trying to emerge would be being constantly quashed with the volume and regularity of food she was consuming. With all this now clear (Marion had not really admitted to herself just how bored she was until our call) together we came up with a game plan for how she could bring more excitement into her work and daily life taking into account her passions, skills and strengths and an option two if her boss was not quite as keen as she was! At this point I could almost audibly hear Marion’s heart lift as she realised that yes indeed the food/energy issue was much more a symptom of her life circumstances than the cause she had originally thought.

8) The final question was to now get to absolute honesty about what Marion was eating and drinking. It is so easy to kid ourselves into thinking we only have the occasional bite or sip of something when in actual fact it is more of a daily habit! This proved to be the case with Marion who realised that “the odd glass of wine” was in fact currently creeping up to two or three times per week (in line with her boredom) and she was typically drinking this late at night accompanied by a couple of handfuls of nuts to stop the alcohol affecting her too much. On the odd occasion this had led to a late night toast-and-butter-binge (very common!) and I shared with her much of what I know about how and why raw foods and alcohol are not very compatible and that the most important work she could now do would be to address the cause of her emotional eating and “odd tipple” so that she didn’t feel the need to have them as often – if at all.

As we progressed through our session one more thing came up that was highly relevant - this being that Marion was often eating two times per night – once when she came in from work (she saw it as her reward time for making it through the day and also viewed it as “tea time” whether she was hungry or not), and the second time around 9pm when she was getting close to bed time and “just fancied something sweet”. This would invariably take the form of a few more nuts and raisins or a raw snack bar – both of which are very high in calories, slow to digest and quite simply would just lay heavy in her stomach all night resulting in poor sleep quality and her body still trying to digest when it woke up in the morning.

By adding all of the above together it was no wonder that the experience of “boundless energy” had escaped Marion (it was buried under all those snacks!), but the good news was that only a few key tweaks were required and in only a few days she could be experiencing a huge shift in her energy levels if she followed the course of action we agreed.

When Marion called me back two weeks later she was thrilled to report that she had tackled everything on our list and had not only started to experience the amazing energy that she so wanted, but had started to have some rather interesting insights into how and why she had been blocking her energy in many other ways too.

With Marion now on the road to consistent boundless energy it soon became clear that our next call was going to be pretty much devoted to what kind of mischief she was now going to get up to now that she had it!

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Mango and Spinach Smoothie

This is a great recipe for getting masses of greens in quickly, easily and deliciously.

Makes about 2 pints – ideal for 1 pint in the morning, and 1 pint after work (if you keep it in the fridge all day it will be fine)

Ingredients:

• 1 bag organic baby spinach (approx. 200g)
• 1 fresh mango

Directions:

1) Rinse and sort spinach, making sure that all leaves are healthy and good enough to eat or drink.
2) Peel and chop mango, placing in the bottom of your blender.
3) Add the spinach on top and blend on full power – add water of necessary or so desired.
4) Depending on your personal preference, add more water to create a runnier, smoother drink.

TOP TIP: If you don’t like mangos try bananas or any other fruit of your choice until you find a taste you love. The fruit is not as important as loving what you drink!

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© 2007 Karen Knowler

WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes "Successfully Raw" - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you're ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.

Comments

[Laura]

Texmex,
I find when I put greens and fruit it's much better tasting as
well in smoothies,however to sweeten it alittle more and get an extra energy boost I put a teaspoon of raw honey..yumm yumm delicious

[Britta Schuessler]

Hi karen
I have been on raw food for the last 5 months. Not 100% maybe 80%. I enjoyed reading the article on energy as this is a big problem for me. I have chronic back problems and it has reduced my live to minimal functioning in comparison to what I used to be able to do. I suppose in the past I overdid it quite a bit probably. Well, like Marion I have not found my energy improving that much. I am not a snacker though and I am aware how much alcohol knocks me out. The only thing that I see that is missing in my diet is maybe more greens but I am not too sure about that. I will try to incorporate even more and will see what happens... If I still feel exhausted most of the time I will contact you and maybe you can help me unearth what the problem might be. Hope you don't mind if I do.
Sincerely
Britta

[Karen Knowler]

Thanks for the comments and Carolyn, thanks very much for your input. Yes, of course there can always be other factors involved, and food definitely isn't the solution to everything, or even the body itself. Just for the record, this was why I was careful to put at the start that Marion had been checked out medically, just so the reader knew it was purely food related.
Cheers! Karen

[Carolyn]

I have been eating 80-100% raw for two years now with too many dips in energy that would put me in bed for a nap more afternoons than I would like to admit. I eat lots of greens etc. and pretty much follow Karen's advice. Found out that my husband and I contracted nasty microscopic parasites on our travels 3 years ago. Now that we have done a colon and parasite cleanse, I feel human again with wonderful energy returning every day. Food choices may not be the only answer to lack of energy.

[jessica]

excellent reporting.
the greens are absolutely essential. my smoothies always have some type of green...spinach, kale, parsley, romaine. I keep varying it.

[Maria]

Great story!

I´ve recently understood that I do the same thing. Block my energy. I have felt that wonderful energy, but I realised that my head didn´t have the same energy as my body. Then I started to "eat my body down" on a level that my head could handle. Any suggestion for exhaustion symtoms?

Thank´s for a great site!

Maria

[texmex]

Yes I report that it is very easy to forget the greens in your smoothies. Specially my little girls are put off by the color!!!

So far the only greens I can tolerate are spinach and celeri greens. Any other like parsley has too much taste, or cabbage (chou) has too much consistence)... Any other to suggest?

[Rain]

Thanks so much for this tip! I struggle from the exact same problem, low low energy, though I do try to add as many spinach drinks as I can, but also like you stated, most of the time they're way tooooo green for me, and make me not enjoy them. I'll have to try adding more fruits with the greens to even it out and make it a big sweeter!

Great post!

[June Symmons]

Hi, I loved this article (and the regular newsletters), this has really struck a cord with me. I was a "Raw food" advocate for many years, it gave me the energy to work (I'm a lecturer)60 hours a week, plus train in the gym for a further 20!
5 years ago I was involved in a motorway crash, and my healthy way of eating disappered at the very time I needed it the most. I'm desperate to get back to it but feel so tired all the time that the thought of preparing a platefull of lettuce leaves did nothing for me, I have no apetite anyway and tend to forget to eat!
Your words have brought back the memory of how fantastic I used to feel (and look). My size 12 clothes are sitting in my wordrobe alongside my 18's.
I'm now trying to get (my body) over the trauma of a shoulder operation plus all the medication that's being pumped into my sytem.
So, tonight, before I go to bed, I'm putting my mung beans to soak, and tomorrow I'm going to make the Mango & spinach smoothy!
Thank you so very much for and excellent e-zine and an article that has been my "Wake-up call". Regards, June. ;0)

[Kate Quinn]

What a fantastic story Karen! I will definitely be reviewing my own habits in light of the points you've raised.