Hey everyone, thanks so much for hookin’ up with our Raw4Healing blog. I wouldn’t be here today sharing my personal testimony if it weren’t for my wife, Lauren. She is not only the best personal trainer, coach, and health advocate a guy could have, but also inspires me because of her passion for a raw vegan food lifestyle. I personally have been fighting the battle of the bulge in excess weight of around 30 plus pounds for several years now. It has been very hard and nearly impossible to accomplish this weight loss.

But today, is my day! At the age of 54 I am proud to share with you that I have not only lost the weight, but feel healthier than I ever have ever felt before! I have a secret I want to share with you: raw vegan food is sustainable energy and good energy equals good health! It’s really that simple.

I want to start by saying that I grew up in a large family, with 7 brothers and sisters, and usually at dinner time there were extended family members and friends gathered around the dinner table. If you weren’t there in time to eat, you missed getting much of anything at all! Consequently, I developed a food addiction. Anything that had four legs, or two legs, I grabbed and consumed! Lauren calls it a “clean plate” handicap. I would clean up that plate no matter how full I was, and never leave anything behind, including Lauren’s plate too!

When Lauren cleaned out the cupboards and started changing our diet to high raw vegan food I rebelled. She was gracious enough to let me eat what I wanted to, but occasionally I would sample some of her raw creations. Not too bad, I thought, and then back to my hamburger with gusto!

It was after Christmas 2007, and my weight was almost 200 pounds, I felt like a whale. I was tired all the time, and had a hard time breathing. My asthma was complicated by the extra weight, and I decided to do something about it. I have to confess, when I tasted some of her raw creations, they were actually very good. I was surprised, at how simple they were, full of flavor and very satisfying. Plus, I didn’t feel so heavy after a raw food meal. I felt great, and it seemed to give me more energy.

I started by drinking her ‘green smoothies’ made with fresh and frozen fruit, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce with Nature Greens added for the extra ’super food’ boost. My co-workers enjoyed making fun of my smoothies due to it’s green color, but as I started to gain more energy and lose weight, they wanted to know what was in it, and actually gave me a little more respect! After all, don’t knock it if it’s working, right?

The smoothies became our way to start the day. She makes 2 quarts every morning, so we’d have some in the morning, a glass at noon, and there was enough to have another glass just before dinner. They filled me up so that I didn’t eat as much dinner, which helped a lot.

With her help and guidance, I started to follow her diet of raw vegan foods. She was able to make dishes that were similar in taste to some of my favorites, like she makes an awesome nut cheese using cashews and macadamia nuts that makes a great dip or salad dressing or even spread onto her dehydrated crackers. I immediately fell in love with this nut cheese.

She also makes awesome desserts with raw organic cacao (unprocessed cocoa powder), fresh or frozen raspberries, creamy vanilla pudding made from nuts, crushed almonds, raw honey, and raisins. It is so good. She made it for a party we went to, and everybody was so impressed, and were thrilled that they could eat it without feeling guilty! She also makes a yummy vanilla pudding topping to pour over fresh honey glazed strawberries. I love the desserts, and am always begging her to make some more.

In February, she dragged me to her raw food potluck meetings in Kansas City where other raw foodists meet and share ideas and information. At first I thought it would be boring, but it was actually very inspiring to hear other people’s stories about how they were healed with a raw vegan food diet, lost weight and gained so much more energy. I told myself, I want that!

So began a series of dietary changes, with regular daily exercises that Lauren and I would do together. We crank on the music, something hip hop and with lots of bass and together we would go through some basic stretches and bends to loosen up my stiff body, and get the kinks out. At first it was hard, but now it’s a lot easier, and I really enjoy it. We love watching Dancing with the Stars, so we would make up our own dance moves to music, and it became part of our workout routine. This makes it so much more fun!

Once in a while, I would need a ‘meat and potato’ fix, and either fix something myself, or drag her to a crappy restaurant to gorge myself. She didn’t complain, just order a salad and let me get my meat fix. As time went on, the meat fix has become less and less important and the cravings began to go away. She said it was because I was going through detox, and as the toxins leave my body, so do the cravings. Well, the detox period had it’s moments - headaches, diarrhea, stomach cramps, muscle aches, etc. I went through it all. And now, I feel that my body is cleansed so that when I do eat anything manufactured, or animal products, my body reacts negatively. I can taste the chemicals in the food, and it actually makes me sick sometimes. Consequently, I find satisfaction in the fresh fruits and veggies, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. We still cook a little, but mostly brown rice, fresh veggies, beans, soups, and stuff like that. The veggies are usually cooked ‘al dente’ I call it, just lightly cooked, still chewy. We always have a big green salad with lots of goodies, like nuts, raisins, sprouts, etc. She still makes her raw food preparations and together we work up a menu for the week for our shopping list. At first I thought this would cost us more, but in reality, we end up saving money, because we’re not buying all the other junk we used to buy (I should say I used buy!!).

Drinking her delicious green smoothies, and eliminating processed and animal foods from my diet has helped me to lose almost 40 pounds in 5 months. I could not have done it without her guidance and support!

If you care about your spouse, your children, and your grandchildren, you’ll make the changes necessary in your diet. Read the articles here in this blog, go to the resources page and follow through on the links there for more information. Knowledge is power, educate, don’t medicate! It’s been proven over and over that cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and many other chronic health issues can be reversed with a plant based diet. Weight loss is crucial to gaining optimum health and you cannot put a price on your health. Don’t expect the doctors, hospitals and pharma industries to patch you up after a lifetime of abuse with poor eating habits. Take the steps now to lose that weight and improve your health. Get her Smoothies for Health recipe book, and subscribe to her raw vegan food recipes. There are some really awesome preparations there. Trust me, do this and not only will your body love you for it, but your family too!

Thanks and stay healthy!

Larry Weiss

Here I am in March 2007 - about 190 lbs	This is May 2007 - close to 200 lbs!
This is May 2008 at 175 lbs - getting there	And here I am in June 2008 - 168 lbs! Not bad!