A Month to Freedom

It's been just over a month since I've made my raw transformation. To sum it all up in a sentence: I feel wonderful!

Five weeks ago I was half-bedridden, coming home from work and hobbling straight to my couch with a heating pad and a lot of Tylenol and pain medication and that's where I'd remain until slinking off to bed later on that night. The pain and discomfort had become unbearable, a complete halt to my life. I sat on that couch for seven months waiting to wake up one day with an ease of symptoms, a step onto the road to recovery. I changed my diet again and again, each time a new hope for relief. Any slight improvement filled me with excitement thinking I'd finally found the answer, but I never made it off the couch.

With summer around the corner and time still lingering on I became desperate. I spent my long morning commutes to work as well as my lunch hours crying in my car pleading through my tears for someone to end things. I barely made it through a shift but I stuck it out as best I could with a threat of being let go from my job which supplied me with health insurance I desperately needed. Days were near impossible and I began to hate living.

Finally after hours spent researching I came across information on raw food diets. I had attempted a diet similar in the past, but had never went 100% raw, I was still steaming my vegetables and adding sauces. The diet hadn't lasted long but I remember feeling wonderful after trying it out temporarily. I knew a raw diet was going to be my answer, and I had all the motivation I needed to get me started. It was an overnight transformation.

Now let me tell you what I have done in the past month.

I have went hiking. Multiple times.
I have taken long walks, I have climbed boulders and I have sat out on the edge of rocky bluffs and looked out at the beauty nature provides.
I have traveled to NYC where I still managed to start my days with green smoothies, and nourish myself with fresh fruit and large salads, and there I walked from morning to night, nonstop activity.
I finally after seven years found the reason to quit smoking, and have.
I have stopped taking OTC medication, stopped wearing heat wraps to work and bed, and only remain on my biweekly subcutaneous injection of Humira.
I have felt the symptoms melt away, have lifted a weight, sluggishness is out the door, and I have experienced what it feels like to be light and free.

I cannot describe the happiness I feel inside. Just sitting here I feel the raw high surging through my body, this inner excitement trying to burst through my skin. I now walk around with bounce in my step. What a difference this is! I am not a runner and never have been, but honestly, I just want to go out and run along the lake for miles and miles. I have found new love. New love for food, new love for myself. I want to be active, I want to go make up for the past seven months spent ill inside my home.

I have read so many success stories and have always, always wanted to write my own. No, I am not completely out of the woods yet, but since this began I have taken l e a p s forward and not a step back. I have went from completely lost and uneducated to have tasted things I originally had no idea existed. I have tried raw recipes and have whipped up some of my own. I have participated in weekend juice feasts to speed up the healing process even more. I feel proud walking into work with my large green smoothies. Everyone is giving me pity as I tell them I changed my diet to heal my crohns. Why? It's helping, can't you see?! I feel great!! It is me that pities everyone who doesn't understand this!

Just one month is all it took. The ball and chain that kept me inside my home for so long has been unlocked and I am now free to explore life. I have to wonder what month two will bring me- I am so excited to find out!