Paul,

>My question for you - do you find it hard to stay on your program,
>or feel tempted to veer off of it, to try to 'fit in' socially (at least
>somewhat) with what family and friends are doing? I have found that a
>problem myself.

Honestly, no I don't. I enjoy what I'm doing, and have fun with it. I admit
that if I were not enjoying it, it would be difficult to maintain. But I do
enjoy it, and I reap many rewards from doing it. I don't feel that I'm
missing out on anything. Quite the contrary. I was "missing out" on
something wonderful before I got into doing what I'm doing now. As for
social activity, I find that social time and eating time are two different
things. I have plenty of time for social activity outside of eating.

>That is interesting that your diet is that high in fruit.

At the risk of sounding "dogmatic", it appears to be true to me that the
human body is largely frugivorous. A fruit-based diet seems like the most
natural and appealing one to me (for a number of reasons), as well as being
the purest. Having said that, I ultimately do it because it works best for
me. I've tried so many other approaches, but this one "clicks".

>I still have problems with a lot of sweet fruit, no matter what I eat or
>don't eat it with - physical and mental fatigue, swelling and stiffening in
>the body.

I'm not sure what the cause of all of that is. The human body's main,
preferred, cleanest-metabolizing "fuel" is simple sugars (in the natural
form, as found in fruit). I suspect that you might experience uncomfortable
symptoms related to detoxification, when eating more fruit. I know that
sounds like a typical response, but it makes sense. Thriving on a
fruit-based diet does require a purified body (digestive tract included).
There are other factors at play here as well, metabolic-related. Getting
plenty of exercise (outdoors) is one of those factors. That's just part of a
natural lifestyle, anyway -- it's not something to be looked at as being an
"extra" necessity.

I personally used to be biased against eating a lot of fruit in the diet.
And I was afraid to eat a lot of fruit in my diet. But my intuition and
experience lead the way, and I found out that I was wrong about what I had
intellectually believed.

>If I eat 70 - 80% raw vegetables and sprouts (I digest leafy greens very
>well), and 20 - 30% raw or lightly cooked animal foods (not grain-fed),
>only small amounts of sweet fruit, and exercise and get 8 hours of sleep
>each night, I feel pretty well.

We ideally each do the best we can, with what we have and what we know. So,
if that's what works the best for you at this time, then continue with that.
Perhaps you will make further adjustments with your diet, over time.

>I usually do feel tired at the end of my work days partly
>because I work in an enclosed steel building with terrible air quality,
>staring at a PC monitor most of the day. At least in my case job stress is
>low as far as programmer jobs go!

That may be a big part of the reason for your not doing as well when eating
more fruit. Just a possibility. I know that sitting in front of a computer
all day is not very healthy, for many reasons. But if you need to do that
for the money, then that's the way it goes, unless you were to change jobs.

>On a somewhat-related note, I am doing one of those 7 day colenema cleanse
>programs in 2 weeks. I found diet and exercise alone, while stopping almost
>all my 'symptoms' and making me healthier than most of the people my age
>that I know (which is not saying much!!), never brought me vibrant health.
>Part of it is my occupation and lifestyle of course.

Yes, health is governed by a lot more than just diet and exercise - as big
of factors as those are. It comes down to how one lives in all regards, day
in and day out. So basically, everything's a factor.

Have you tried fasting and/or juice diets?

>I am 37, and have eaten
>mostly raw since mid 1998 (with a fair share of cheating from time to time,
>especially 2 weeks I spent in Argentina last spring). I am still not as
>strong and energetic as I was when I was 20. I feel I have never really
>detoxed the heavy drugs the doctors gave me during my 20's, including some
>really evil psych drugs like Thorazine and Navane.

I also underwent heavy pharmaceutical drug use for a few years, until about
5 years ago. That included several kinds of psychiatric drugs. Needless to
say, I was miserable (and I was eating a horrible diet on top of that). My
main problem was severe "clinical" depression, but the psychiatrist
basically used me as a "guinea pig" to test out various kinds and
combinations of medications. He even went so far as to say I was
schizophrenic, which I started to believe for a while (and was horrified and
felt even more hopeless due to that idea), but ultimately broke free from
that psychiatrist, got a "second opinion" from a different psychiatrist,
stayed on some drugs (as per the new psychiatrist's recommendations) for a
while, then later, I ditched all the drugs and psychiatrists "cold turkey",
on my own (without their "permission" ;^) ), with a firm resolve, and
started to really study natural health. I worked on healing and empowering
my mind and my body. I healed and dramatically improved my entire state of
being, over the course of the next few years. I experimented with a lot of
different approaches to improving my health. I eventually figured out what
worked best, and what did not. A raw food diet was one of the things that
worked best.

>Many people (especially
>the paleo-dieters) don't believe the years-old filth they are carrying
>around in their colons,

And/or small intestines?

>and even myself, although I have seen some of this
>horrifying stinky crap leaving my body during a cleanse back in 1998, I
>haven't been willing to deal with it again (removing more of it from my
>body) until now.

I've never done one of those cleanses, and indications are that I don't need
to. I find it fascinating about the possibility that "mucoid plaque" exists
in people's digestive tracts. Some insist it does exist, some insist it does
not. I don't really know for sure, but it does make sense how the digestive
tract could get "dirtied up" due to years of eating an unnatural diet. If
the rest of the body can get toxified, then why not the digestive tract,
which the food passes through, get clogged up as well?

One thing I did experience though, in this regard, was following the first
time I did a fast, a few years ago. After breaking the fast with some raw
food and stimulating a bowel movement, I released a bunch of blackish,
smelly, gross "stuff" into the toilet. I don't know if that would qualify as
mucoid plaque, impacted fecal matter, or whatever, but whatever it was, I
was glad to get rid of it.

Wes