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when i first transitioned to raw, i did it cold turkey, and lasted at 100% raw for four to five months. i did experience cravings, and cleansing symptoms, but celebrated them joyfully. after the four or five month period i suddenly went back to cooked, full force and on a binge! eating out with friends for almost every meal, disregarding everything ive learned about nutrition, proper digestion, and healthy habits, and filling my body with more toxic foods that make me ill.
so then i went back to raw, lasted about another month, back on a high, losing the weight i'd gained back during the crazy addicted food binge, and looking and feeling the best of my life. but i just cant stick with it! ill be on for a week and then off for two, always saying the next day i'll go raw, blowing a couple hundred dollars to stock up for "raw recipes" and then continuing to eat crap cooked foods! the cravings are just too intense! i dont really see why now its so hard when in the beginning i was able to go cold turkey and last for months. any input on why that could be?
is it possibly that im deficient in some nutrient or lacking some important staple of my diet? any input on this is very welcomed. how to conquer these cravings? does anyone have any amaaaazing raw recipes that are so good that i'll never crave cooked again?? (hehehe, *fingers crossed*)
i am constantly reading raw books or testimonies for inspiration, looking at before and after photos for motivation. if anyone has any other great stories to share, please do. motivate me, inspire me with your own healing stories. or id appreciate some really good recipes. or book reccommendations perhaps? or maybe some scary fact about cooked food that will make me stay away from it forever? anyway.... thanks for listening and especially for any feedback....the raw journey has been so healing for me and i pray that i can motivate myself to continue this path forever.
oh - PS - recommendations for protein foods? or a really high protein smoothie recipe? i find myself craving high protein foods, and i feel this is one thing lacking from my raw diet. thanks for any advice!
so then i went back to raw, lasted about another month, back on a high, losing the weight i'd gained back during the crazy addicted food binge, and looking and feeling the best of my life. but i just cant stick with it! ill be on for a week and then off for two, always saying the next day i'll go raw, blowing a couple hundred dollars to stock up for "raw recipes" and then continuing to eat crap cooked foods! the cravings are just too intense! i dont really see why now its so hard when in the beginning i was able to go cold turkey and last for months. any input on why that could be?
is it possibly that im deficient in some nutrient or lacking some important staple of my diet? any input on this is very welcomed. how to conquer these cravings? does anyone have any amaaaazing raw recipes that are so good that i'll never crave cooked again?? (hehehe, *fingers crossed*)
i am constantly reading raw books or testimonies for inspiration, looking at before and after photos for motivation. if anyone has any other great stories to share, please do. motivate me, inspire me with your own healing stories. or id appreciate some really good recipes. or book reccommendations perhaps? or maybe some scary fact about cooked food that will make me stay away from it forever? anyway.... thanks for listening and especially for any feedback....the raw journey has been so healing for me and i pray that i can motivate myself to continue this path forever.
oh - PS - recommendations for protein foods? or a really high protein smoothie recipe? i find myself craving high protein foods, and i feel this is one thing lacking from my raw diet. thanks for any advice!
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Sacramento
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Re: need some raw advice
Mon, September 15, 2008 - 9:06 PMgreat high-protein smoothie:
1tbsp chia seeds, soaked for a couple hours
some nut butter or coconut butter
agave or other sweetener
raw protein powder: sun warrior, raw power or hemp protein
a couple kale leaves
some goji berries, why not?
vanilla!
cayenne pepper
whatever else you wanna put in it, either for medicinal value or taste. some green powders are very nice!
You can also put in sprouted quinoa or millet.
Depending on how much water you put in, it will be a smoothie or a pudding. Plenty of protein. Read about chia seeds online.
Another raw food that I find very satisfying is raw sweet potatoes. Delicious, esp. with some black tahini spread on slices! Sweet potato is high in complex carbs, which makes them satisfying.
Now, here's my feeling on the yo-yo, raw and then cooked binge cycle.
You want this way of eating and living to be about feeling good and taking care of yourself - NOT about feeling you have to fit in a preconceived box, or if you screw up you're doomed for the next 2 weeks until you muster up the courage to go back 100% RAW FOREVER. Know what I mean?
Since you've expressed you've received so much benefit from eating all raw, the more raw you eat the better. Now, there's a vast range of cooked food. . . when you start eating the real DRUG FOODS - sugar, bread, caffeine. . . that's what really knocks a person astray, in my experience, initiating weeks of drug eating. However, if you feel you are FIGHTING with yourself about raw food, that's no good, and will not work in the long run. My advice is have a number of cooked foods on hand that you're "allowed" to eat if you start really craving. For example. . . brown rice. Quinoa. Millet. Soup. Steamed vegetables. These lack the drug-like qualities of real junk food, and won't be as likely to tempt you to overeating and making yourself feel sick. And you will be more inclined to stay on your path.
Some members of this group may disagree with my sharing this, because it is a RAW tribe, but my feeling is, whatever we can do to minimize binging - this is far preferable to the pattern you've described, which can go on for years and years.
One thing I've discovered through introspection - it might be true for you - is the addictive binging pattern isn't JUST about the addiction to the drug food. . . I'm addicted to the feeling of making myself sick, at which point I RESOLVE to NEVER EAT THAT WAY AGAIN. It's like I'm addicted to that feeling of resolution, which I can most easily access at the low point of a binge. But then of course, after eating medicinally for awhile, the edge of the resolution wears off and I have to binge again in order to access it. It's a game that I would play with myself, which didn't serve me and certainly didn't keep me eating medicinally in the long run.
Anyway, I hope this has helped you in some way. Good luck. -
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Re: need some raw advice
Tue, September 16, 2008 - 1:00 AMi think that having a clear spiritual focus of exactly why you're doing this helps immensely. It helps you to live for the BIG you rather than the >little< you that just wants instant gratification and temporary "feel good" emotional candy bars. The BIG you wants to be potent and highly functional, able to do complete the tasks written in your cosmic contract, able to lead an example for others and cause a ripple effect of positivity and love wherever you go. If you can get that in your sight and hold it there, you will be better equipped to withstand the lashings of all those wet Pad Thai noodles your >little< self is longing for. And on that note, i saw a raw Pad Thai recipe at www.goneraw.com, among thousands of other Rawsome recipes.
It took me several rounds of cheating and bingeing and returning to straight raw and then cheating and then fasting....before it finally clicked. I think what did it for me was witnessing how i felt when i ate cooked food, how it felt when i ate sugar, or pizza, or cake, or something processed that gave me an instant MSG headache...i got to see how miserable i was for two days, crabby, sluggish, depressed, and i remembered that i used to be like that all the time. All along i've been insisting that the only way to go raw was to crank it 100% and not look back. But now i see that the cheating is just as important as staying on the wagon. You need that perspective to remind you why you're doing it. So give yourself a break, and use the cheating or bingeing times to observe yourself and reflect upon what it is you're really trying to satisfy by eating those dead, useless foods. Then fast for a day or two on green smoothies, breathe deeply, sit in the sun, meditate, and you'll be back with your BIG self once again.
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Re: need some raw advice
Wed, September 17, 2008 - 1:55 PMWOw thank you All for sharing!
I can definitely relate to this experience, for me the resolutions to go 100% come and go as well, and wow, the "edge" of a resolution in the state of a relapse, I can see is addicting in itself....! Thank you for articulating that for me!!
Ana, My experience is this:
My body, mind, spirit, all together work as an incredible biological machine ..... that will all work together to do the best it can with what I choose to do. I can train my machine to deal with abuse, I can train my machine to perform efficiently, abundantly! Either way, the training is a process.
particularly in the mind...it all starts there. Going 'cold turkey' is awesome, but it is also just part of your ween off process....you are not only weening of cooked foods in Body, but in Mind and Spirit too......You had probably all kinds of wonderful experiences eating cooked food, with friends, family
you created synopsis in your brain that you trained yourself to keep making Dopamine association with eating those foods......
I think it's important not to completely forsake all that! Just now, with gusto, focus on creating new beautiful experiences/meantal physical, spiritual associations with Raw, because YOU know how you want to be trained!!;-) It will keep building up over time, making firmer the foundation of your new life!!
remember: Follow your Joy, not your Fear! I remind my self of that everyday as much as possible as a mantra:-) -
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Re: need some raw advice
Sun, January 25, 2009 - 3:02 PMAt this point...I do alot of the Soy-based fake chicken and veggied burgers to make up for that , " I need cooked foods" feeling. I never looked at sugar, bread, etc, as "drug foods," that was just brought to my awareness. My whole thing was to do no harm, and that's why I stopped eating animals and just thought that I'll figure out the rest along the way, because I innately knew that eating meat wasn't natural (...don't know why). I know "MY CHEATS" come into play when I crave cake...which is filled with milk and eggs. I justify if by rationalizing that milk is non-aggressively yanked from a cow's tit and the eggs used are just egg whites....it's dumb I know....but I'm trying. But now the from the perspective that these are drug foods, I know I gotta approach cake differently....DAMN YOU ALL! LOL! -
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Re: need some raw advice
Mon, January 26, 2009 - 3:29 PMDoing no harm to animals was my prime motivation as well. Raw foods was just an expansion on that for health reasons. I eat raw to the extent that it is good for my health, but I am not dogmatic about it the way I am with avoiding products which are cruel to animals. Raw foods have more nutrition, though not all raw foods are easily digested and some common food staples are toxic in their raw state. Getting the feel for the raw lifestyle takes some getting used to, just like being vegan does.
There is some absolutely delicious raw foods that satisfy all your nutritional requirements and leave you feeling more healthy and energetic. i do break from it sometimes though when I dont have healthy and satisfying raw options available to me at that moment, but I never compromise on my avoidance of meat.
While I think that a vegan diet is more ideal, if you must continue to have dairy products you can at least support the small farms that have cage free hens. There is still a degree of exploitation, but their quality of life is significantly better. I feel that raising animals in small cages is more cruel than killing them, which why I have more respect for hunters who can kill their own prey in the wild (including fishermen) than I have for people who passively give their money to McDonnalds to support the level of cruelty inflicted by factory farming.
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