7 Ways to Lose Weight on a Raw Foods Diet

I get this question about losing weight a lot from women who eat mostly raw or who are vegan and vegetarian. I have actually heard of women gaining weight on a raw foods diet and the reasons could be anywhere from consuming too many calories as when most people start eating raw, they tend to overeat or we tend to gravitate more towards the nuts, oils, and raw desserts.

Overall losing weight is so much more than about eating the right diet but here are some helpful tips and suggestions for losing weight on a raw foods diet.

• Eat in tiny portions, but more meals throughout the day.

Its a wonderful feeling to eat as many times a day without having to worry about weight gain, however sometimes even though we are eating raw and extremely healthy, we still tend to overeat as overeating is an addiction to food whether it is healthy or not. Practicing the art of moderation and balance is key to eating healthy and especially when eating raw. Eating more throughout the day also does not feed into the eating less fad diets as they body does not miss food when you are eating all day, but just eating in tiny portions. For example, my dessert last night was eating a handful of wine grapes and I was extremely satisfied.

• Cut back on nuts and oils.
  

Even though all foods that are left in their natural state meaning unprocessed, unfired, and uncooked are always healthy and sustainable for the body, anything in excess can add weight and not be helpful to one's weight goals. Therefore if you find yourself not losing weight, try eliminating some of the oils and nuts from your diet as most raw food recipes calls for nuts and oils in spreads and salad dressings. You can make oil free salad dressings by blending tomatoes and peppers with herbs to make salad dressings and you can use seeds instead of nuts.

• Increase your water intake.

Increasing your water intake will assist the body in helping your foods to assimiliate and it can also increase your bowel movements. Remember excess unnecessary weight is nothing but built-up waste in the body and removing it is the key to losing weight and shedding pounds. One client of mine who recently lost 20 pounds now says that she is losing weight without even thinking about it as her body is doing the work now as opposed to her doing the work.

• Do a juice fast.

Fasting on natural vegetable juices will not only help you to shed the pounds as you detox your body, increase your bowel movements and thus shed more and more waste and pounds by the day, but it will also help you to get mentally and emotionally clear about your health and weight goals. It can also help with any cravings that you may be having that may be adding weight to your body. Fasting is an ancient practice designed to heal old wounds that may be associated with your weight. It also declutters the mind and returns the body and the palette back to the simple, easy, and light foods that our bodies naturally enjoy and can digest easily.

• Increase your daily intake of greens particularly dark leafy greens.

Greens, greens, and more greens will fully nourish your body and assist in the elimination process.

• Cut down on the raw desserts.

We all know that raw food desserts are the best and even though they are made with the loving natural sweeteners from Mother Earth herself, they still can add weight to our bodies if eaten more than often. Just because your eating mostly raw doesn't mean you have to have a raw dessert everyday. Substitute a mango or slices of kiwi instead of having a slice of a macadamia nut cheesecake.

• Drink wheatgrass.

I recently spoke with a non-raw foods chef who lost over 170 pounds while taking classes at the Ann Wigmore Institute in Puerto Rico. He's not even vegetarian but he swore that drinking two shots of wheatgrass everyday helped his body to detox naturally and thus drop the pounds easily.


Nature will assist you greatly when you align your body back into vibrant and optimal health, so therefore if you stick to your diet and you still notice that you haven't lost a pound or you may even be gaining weight, you might want to take other measures such as increasing your physical activity, monitoring your portions, or really getting to the root of the weight problem. Weight is nothing but waste and waste collects mostly in the colon area. Getting regular colonics could help in losing the weight, but also investigating your issues around food, health, and your self-esteem will help as well.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children's book, The MoreLove's coming May 2010. You can the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai's Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA's pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

The Story Behind E3Live, The Creators, the Healing Powers, & the Product - PLUS a special one-time E3Live Product Offer

I don't normally endorse products and I especially do not endorse products that I don't think would benefit my readers, but I absolutely love E3live and I believe in the healing benefits of this product. That's why I chose to interview the owners and creators of the company E3Live. I carried this product in my restaurant and I always refer it to my clients especially if they are having serious health issues.

I spoke with both Tamera and Michael who are the E3Live founders and owners.

Tamera's areas of expertise are as varied as her numerous interests. Her dedication to the betterment of life for all inspired her 15 years as a dance instructor working with students ranging from the highly gifted to those with mental challenges, often volunteering her time and talents for the benefit of the community.

Tamera is a 46-year-old mother of bright and beautiful E3Live® babies as well as a frequent lecturer on detoxification and the body's elimination systems. In addition, she is the formulator of some of the top-selling green formulas on the market today, and her formulations are used by many world-famous doctors and healing clinics.

She brings over 20 years of experience in business management and operations to her current role of CEO and owner of E3Live®. These companies harvest and produce the revolutionary E3Live®, the world's first and only fresh-frozen Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA). E3Live® is the world-wide leader of nutritional algae and an icon for 'greens' in the living foods community. Tamera has had the great fortune of working closely with Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute, Dr. Fred Bisci, and many other highly respected and well-known healers who are living examples of the long term benefits of the living foods lifestyle.

The discoverer and founder of E3Live®, Michael was introduced to the raw living foods lifestyle more than 30 years ago after staying with Dr. Ann Wigmore.

He is a true Renaissance man, having been a competitive swimmer, gymnast and body builder, an art and athletics teacher, and a highly successful businessman. His amazing background also includes helping and employing those he calls "special people" — people who live with challenges from congenital birth defects and disfigurements. His most important work has been as a lecturer on health and the impact of living foods in our diets — being credited with saving many lives due to his caring nature and expertise on the benefits of eating raw foods.

Michael is the proud father of 4 children and a true example of a leader "walking his talk". At 67 years of age, he attributes his youthful appearance and boundless energy to this commitment to eating healthy foods.

And the company is so committed to helping others with their health issues, that I just had to interview them on my blog and educate you about the wonders of E3Live and how much it can benefit your health. I urge all of you to really educate yourself about the wonders of E3Live. Its a highly nutritious product and food that can do wonders for your health. Please take a look at the website, www.e3live.com. I also talk about the product in my book, The Goddess of Raw Foods available for purchase at www.amazon.com.

Enjoy the interview!

NK: I think E3Live is one of the best foods on the planet. I used it when I first started eating raw and was having issues with constipation, vertigo, migraines, stress, and acne. I also sold it in my cafe Taste of the Goddess Cafe and I promote it to all my clients and in my book, The Goddess of Raw Foods. Can you tell our readers the benefits of E3Live? And what makes E3Live a superfood?
,
E3Live is a whole, organic freshwater plant found in the wild that has both discovered and undiscovered nutrients. These nutrients are 97% usable by the body. Only a fraction of the vitamin content of more expensive vitamins are actually absorbed by the body. Man-made supplements only contain what the formulators choose to include. E3Live has been described by Dr. Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute as being able to "fill in the cracks" in your nutritional foundation. So it can work different ways for different people, since we all have a different makeup or foundation. The benefits our clients experience are more energy, increased focus and clarity, elevated mood, cravings for vegetables and other healthy foods (as opposed to salt or sugar cravings), faster recovery time after exercise or injury and much more. Dr. Fred Bisci, who is a clinical nutritionist for over 40 years, calls it a "true adaptogen" nourishing the body and mind on multiple levels. These are all reasons why it is a true superfood.


NK:Where did the name E3Live come from?

Originally it came from the phrase "Earth's Essential Elements" since we feel it is such a foundational food.

NK: I know that your company has done a lot in terms of donating products to those who are sick and in great need for your products? Can you tell our readers how we can continue to support your efforts in doing this.

We do donate products each year - the more we sell on the retail side of the business, the more we are able to donate to those in need. We appreciate the patronage of your readers, it allows us to help others who are in desperate need.


NK:I work with a number of clients who are new to raw foods and who are really struggling with their health and I suggest E3Live to them all the time. They immediately frown up when I tell them its a blue-green algae because they don't immediately make the connection to how good it is for the body. Can you speak to the number of testimonials from your customers who have used the product to help with any illness that they may have?

The term "blue-green algae" is misleading because there are 1000's species of blue-green algae in the world. It's like saying snakes or mushrooms - o.k. which specie are we referring to? In algae, some are toxic, some are non-toxic, some are edible, some are not edible, and some are highly nutritional and edible. We only harvest a nutritional and edible specie - a very particular aquabotanical plant called Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, or AFA for short, we brand it as E3Live. Our E3Live is 100% pure AFA, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae translates to "invisible living flower of the water".

We have so many awesome testimonials on our website - from professional athletes telling how E3Live has helped them excel in their sport, to health care professionals who see the differences E3Live makes in their patients' lives, along with many from everyday people who have felt an incredible difference in their lives. There are just so many - your readers can view these unsolicited testimonials on our website www.e3live.com<http://www.e3live.com> anytime.

NK:Can you explain how E3Live physically helps the body?

E3Live is pure and simple, very good nutrition. So whether you are eating an extremely clean diet or even a typical American diet, it will still provide you with excellent nutritional benefits. The better nutrition you have for your body, the better you feel, the more you can fight off disease, the faster you can recover from illness, injury or strenuous exercise, and so much more.


NK:Can you speak to how the product was discovered, developed, and put out on the market?

This food (which is what we consider AFA/E3Live to be) was discovered thousands of years ago and consumed by indigenous people, in modern times it was discovered by a scientist working for the NASA space program to find a nutritionally dense food for the astronauts to take into space. After finding out how amazing this AFA was, he quit the government and began harvesting it himself - this was some 25 years ago. About 10 years ago, I met my partner Michael who was extrememly excited and anxious to try the AFA in its fresh liquid form, and that's how E3Live was born. The fresh frozen liquid E3 is more powerful than any previously used capsules, powder or tablets on the market.


NK: I'm not a fan of wheat grass and even though I know that wheat grass and E3Live are totally two different types of food, I find E3Live to be a bit better tasting. How pure is the product? Do you do anything with the product to enhance the taste at all? What recommendations do you have for people who are aversive to the taste or even the color?

E3Live is 100% pure AFA, we not only meet, but we exceed the purity standards set forth for us by the USDA. From the moment we harvest the AFA, to its final packaging, we work with only the most highly trained and qualified staff. We handle our AFA with such care from start to finish. Factors contributing to this quality include: where and how we harvest, keeping the AFA cold at all times, superior filtration and storage, and ongoing quality-control testing of all of our products. All E3 products are tested thoroughly by independent USDA certified labs for food safety, shelf-life and various other purity tests.

Along with original E3Live (which has no flavoring added) we now offer E3Live Nectar (lightly sweetened with organic agave) and also E3Live Mint (which has organic agave and organic mint). We do offer a Variety Pack so people can try the different flavors. If you are new to the taste of E3Live - you can always incorporate it in with your favorite non-acidic juice or smoothie, this is a great way to add E3Live to your daily routine.


NK: Is it possible after a number of years to become immune to the product?

No

What's on your plate today?

I had fruit for breakfast and 2 shots of E3Live this morning. For lunch/dinner combination I had a micro-green salad with hemp seeds, sun dried tomatoe and some nutritional yeast on top. I also had some avacado and some dried walla walla sweet onions on the side. For snack I am having a glass of apple, beet and kale juice.

Any last comments for our readers?

I feel blessed to have the opportunity to bring E3Live, this nature-given food, to the world which helps so many people's health, their lives and their families. Never for a day do I take life for granted. It is precious, and it is short in the big scheme of things. Health is not only affected by what we put into our bodies, it's more important how we feel and the thoughts we think. Love yourself, love others, and appreciate that we have choices. I wish everyone love and light on their journey through life and please let people know about E3Live. Pass the word and help us to change people's lives and their health. If everyone cares, we can do it, one person at a time. It's my goal to see that everyone in the world has access to this amazing life-changing food and that people suffering from declining health to know there is hope outside of the allopathic world. I lost my mother at a very early age due to overuse of doctor drugs and it has impacted my life greatly. I encourage every person to think about proteting your precious health so you never get to the dis-eased state to begin with. But if you are already there, first, change your diet and your lifestyle before you do anything else. The body has infinate wisdom to heal itself when given the right tools. Abundant blessings and love to each of you reading this. And my personal thank you to Nwenna for this opportunity to share our story with you. May it enrich your lives!

Tamera

Interview with Michael:

NK: You knew Ann Wigmore and studied with her in the 60's. Can you tell our readers a little bit about that experience?

I had heard about this woman, Dr. Ann, who had an institute in Boston where she was taking people who were extremely sick - even out of hospitals - putting them on a simple vegan raw food diet and they were getting better from serious diseases. Being skeptical of this - I wanted to go and see for myself if it was true, so I went to Boston and that was my foundation for really finding the link between what you put into your body and the effects it could have on preventing or curing disease.

NK: How did you first get into raw foods?

I first got into raw foods because they had a raw food restaurant in Miami where I was living at the time.

NK: My vision for the raw foods lifestyle and in general for a more organic and holistic lifestyle is to see the medical profession really take a look at the fact that using organic natural products to heal the body is the way to go. What is your vision for your company? Where do you see it going in the 21st century in relation to everything that is going on with healthcare and the health crisis in our country and around the globe? Do you have medical doctors or people in allopathic medicine promoting your products to their patients?

Our vision is that would inspire and guide people to take responsibility for their own health, and in doing so it could dramatically reduce the cost of sickness and disease and save incredible amounts of money that we are now spending in the sickness industry. We do have a few medical and allopathic doctors suggesting E3Live to their patients, Dr. Baxter Montgomery who is a cardiac doctor, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, and others.

NK: Can you tell our readers a bit about your background in the product's industry. Discovering the wonderful benefits of blue-green algae and then putting it in product form must be long process. Were you already familiar with the process or were you learning as you went?

As Tamera mentions above, the term "blue-green algae" is a bit misleading...

I was eating a very sad diet growing up - lots of junk food and not many vegetables. In my 20's and 30's I was lifting weights, swimming competitively and a strong athlete despite this poor diet, I just did not know any better at the time. As I began to learn more about how to eat healthier, I had someone suggest that I try some of the dried AFA that was produced at the time. Even though this was a somewhat inferior grade of AFA compared to today's AFA (the methods of production today minimize processing and preserve the benefits much better than back then) I still felt a benefit from it and this made me want to travel to the lake in Oregon where it was harvested, Klamath Lake. When I was in Oregon, I met Tamera Campbell, who is now my partner, and I tried the AFA fresh (right out of the filter) in liquid form and felt a significant incedible benefit compared the dried form. Most people who have consumed the capsules or tablets and since have tried the liquid, now only prefer the liquid (unless they travel). Many, like myself, use the frozen AFA bottles in our coolers when we travel - like ice packs to keep our organic fruits and veggies fresh. No one was offering a fresh, liquid form of the AFA anywhere when I first tried it fresh. This is when I knew I had to get this out and share this amazing food with the world.

Many of my clients ask whether or not E3Live can help with yeast and candida issues? What do you have to say about that?

The answer is YES. But the best way to eliminate yeast and candidia issues is to eliminate sugar from your diet for a year. That means no fruit, very little to no grains, and plenty of green juices and E3Live.

NK: You've seen the raw foods community grow over the years since your involvement in it from the 60's? What has the evolution been like for you in your personal and in your business life? Where do you see it going in the future?

In the 60s, there was no awareness whatsoever, but I have seen over the years since then people are becoming wiser and making the connection between eating toxic foods and disease. Since I was eating a raw food, organic diet, the only thing I could buy in the grocery store back then was paper products, now grocery stores offers many raw organic choices - there is more demand for these things in the stores. People are becoming much more knowledgeable and empowered and are asking for higher quality foods.

NK: What's on your plate today?

So far I have had some E3 BrainOn and some delicious fruit.

NK: Any last comments for our readers?

I wish for all of your readers to make healthy choices by consuming a whole food plant-based diet, so that they may remain healthy and disease-free. I know that if you feel good, then it affects all the people in your family and your friends in a positive way. Remember that your greatest wealth is always your health.


Thanks Michael and Tamera.

Also until the end of the month of October, as a courtesy to all of you for reading and educating yourself, E3Live is extending a ONE-TIME OFFER! For anyone that orders an E3Live product, they will give You a FREE $25.00 bottle of their Light Polish with a coupon that would be good until October 31st 2009 for any online order placed at www.e3live.com or you can call into the office at 888-800-7070 and give the coupon code GODDESS.

The E3 Light Polish is a natural skin care product formulated for both men and women creating radiant, soft, and supple skin.