Shreelalitha suffered from repeated respiratory issues of cold, cough,asthma and bronchitis. Later on she developed back pain too. Repeated visits to the doctor and taking antibiotics was the norm. Living alone, she was worried about her health issues. After attending a health talk, she decided to overhaul her diet and added fruits, vegetables, veg juices and subtracted dairy from her diet. Today she breathes free, lives pain free and has made peace with her life. Read her heartwarming story here.

Shreelalitha

51 years, School teacher

Bangalore

My background of health issues

• Asthma

I grew up in the Malnad region near Hassan in Karnataka. It used to be very cold and I believe I first developed asthma and bronchitis there. In 1995, we moved to Bangalore. Bangalore has a reputation of being an asthmatic city and my condition got aggravated. My father was also a heart patient. The tensions on the home front used to increase my episodes of wheezing. Going to the doctor was routine. I used to take a lot of antibiotics to help control my asthma.

• Frequent cold and throat infections

Having colds or other respiratory infections every 2 or 3 months used to be the norm. If I ate something cold I would immediately fall sick. If I had some fruits like oranges in the wrong season, it used to bring about cold, cough and fever. Going to the doctor was all too frequent.

• Back pain

I had an early menopause and after that I developed lower back pain. From 2014 to 2018 I suffered from this pain. Getting up from bed in the morning used to be so painful and It would take me an hour and a half to get up and come down. I could not bend forwards to do my work. I used to do yoga regularly but still the pain persisted. I thought all this was just age related and had resigned myself to this pain.

I was frustrated

I also used to get migraines occasionally. All this had really pulled me down. Though my asthmatic attacks had reduced after the year 2000 due to reduction of tensions at home, I would be sick with frequent episodes of cold 4 or 5 times a year. Especially in the colder months of December and January I used to be in fear of getting bronchitis. I avoided having fruits like guavas which I believed used to bring on episodes of cold. Taking antibiotics was frequent. Once started, it used to be a course of 4 or 5 days.

I had tried all treatments like allopathy, homeopathy and Ayurveda with no relief.

Attending a health talk brought in new perspectives

I work in a school for hearing impaired and intellectually challenged children. One of our alumni parents Asha Shivaram had experienced a great deal of benefit for herself and her own family after moving to a plant based diet. She arranged a talk in our school in February 2018 by her friend Smitha Hemadri.

The talk was about the power of a primarily raw whole food plant based plant based diet. I learnt about the healing effects of raw food – mainly a diet high in fruits and vegetables and veg juices. After trying all kinds of treatments with no success I was inspired to give this lifestyle a shot. I thought after all there are no side effects and what harm could there be in trying this too.

Making the diet changes ushered in lot of positive changes

Under Smitha’s guidance, I moved to only one cooked meal a day at lunch time. Morning breakfast , snacks and dinner was mainly raw food consisting of fruits, vegetables and juices. The rationale was to give digestive rest to the body. Body heals best when it is in a state of rest and raw foods are easy to digest. So from February 2018 onwards, I started changing my diet.

I saw amazing reductions in episodes of cold and wheezing. What used to be 4 or 5 episodes a year came down to just one in the month of October 2018. Even that I could manage without any medication and used home remedies to heal from it.

Smitha also advised me to drop dairy from my diet to address my back pain. The pain and cramps which troubled me for almost 4 years have completely gone with this change. I understood that dairy is acidic to the human body and causes aches and pains due to acid build up which disturbs the body’s natural alkaline chemistry.

By June 2018, I also saw reduction in my weight. Though I used to do yoga for almost 7 years, I could not do forward bending poses. With these changes, I observed that I could do all the yoga poses easily. My body had become fluid. My energy levels had increased too.

I used to get migraines earlier if there was a gap between meals but those are things of the past now.

I understood the power a raw diet has to heal so many conditions.

My routine today

I have my green juice and fruits in the morning at 8'0 clock. At 12.30, I have cooked food. I have observed that I can stay without eating till 6 or 7 p.m in the night without experiencing hunger. After finishing my yoga session in the evening, I come back home and have my raw vegetable juice.

Earlier I used to be worried of eating certain fruits fearing that I would have an episode of cold or wheezing but now I enjoy eating my quota of fruits.I have got rid of my fear of guavas.. I enjoy eating them now after a gap of 25 years!

Earlier I used to crave for food all the time even though I had eaten. With a predominantly raw diet I have observed that I am able to remain satiated. I realized that when the body gets its required nutrition which is present in raw foods, it does not ask for more.

Conclusion

All these changes have brought in a new lease of life for me. I lost my mother in 1998 to cancer. My father was a heart patient for long and I was his caregiver. He expired in 2016. My brother and his family live in Germany and so I live alone. Taking care of myself and my health were very important for me.

Earlier I used to have many negative thoughts of “I am living alone, how will I manage myself”. Yoga, my current state of good health and also following Smitha’s counselling on the spiritual side has helped me heal mentally and bring me emotional peace. I don’t think so much about my loneliness. I feel so much more at peace now.

(About Shreelalitha: Shreelalitha is a school teacher handling teaching and administrative duties in a school for special children in Bangalore. She is interested in social work, reading newspapers, catching uo with current affairs on various news channels. In her spare time she likes to read and attend spiritual lectures)

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