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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI was raw for nearly 3 years when the body went nuts as soon as the weather got cold. i started wanting steel cut oats-hot--so i ate them, then i wanted brown rice and LOTS of cooked broccoli-lightly steamed and on it went ... I decided to switch to a macrobiotic diet for the winter to see how it goes. This is only day 2 and i have such a huge headache, low energy. I want to feel how I felt when i first went raw--I really miss that. I feel like poo all the time( felt like poo even when raw so that got me thinking it was time for a change), eyes so puffy, I've gained 7 pounds and i'd sooner have a root canal than grab more cold fruit! How do we get past the fact that raw food is WAY too much Yin! Anyone combine the best qualities of macrobiotics and raw? Wouldn't that just beat the yang (nuts, nuts and nuts) cravings later in the day? Where is the balance? AAARGH! My head!
Comments
WHOAH take a breath and accept yourself you are perfect.
I would advise slightly warming food in the dehydrator or oven instead of full on cooking it and if you eat cooked in winter (which I am on occasion) try to keep it in morning or early afternoon so you will not loose too much energy. I live in the pacific nw where it is cold and rainy and the last thing I want is cold food so I find having hot tea after my salad or smoothie really helps warm me back up. Also if you need cooked warm food do lots of soups then its not too overcooked and you have a warm miso broth to warm you up.
I hope that helps
SMile and enjoy your food cooked or raw sometimes its our own self judgement that drives us nuts.
Thank goodness for mag-phos 30X and my headache is gone. It's hard not to judge yourself when i never had to get on the scale 3 months ago and now i can't even button my pants! I'm comfortable with the fact I'm not perfect and well-flawed, but I just can't seem to get on board with much even though my head wants to. I know it will come, I just need my raw eyes and skin back yesterday...patience not my strongest virtue. I'll take the new day, though.
I don't have any experience with a macrobiotic diet, but I can relate to hardships with raw in winter. I live in Seattle and I have been so cold lately that sometimes I feel like my bones are made of ice. I have been doing pretty well staying all raw, but last night I had some cooked lentil soup and I have to admit, that might have been the best 10 minutes of my life. I felt overjoyed and it was worth a million enzymes! I felt so cozy, relaxed and happy afterwards that I couldn't stop laughing when I was laying in bed...I think my boyfriend was getting annoyed and accused me of being high on lentils haha. Obviously I will strive to be all raw everyday, but if I sometimes have one bowl of cooked soup I think I will savor the moment and love it!
I agree that if you crave cooked food you should eat soup! You can also make a lentil soup by cooking all the flavor of the beans into the soup, fill it with spices, a little salt, and just a small amount of lentils and mostly broth that way it's more digestible.
RawKidChef- That is such a good idea to only add a few lentils. Last night my soup had LOTS of lentils and I was kind of expecting to have a tummy ache but I was just fine! My soup was also full of spinach and escarole. yum! I'm with you on plain broth though, that has saved me a few times!!
When I make soups, I often heat up the broth and then put raw vegetables in at the last minute. They are in the broth just long enough to get warm throughout but they are still raw for the most part.
I also sometimes add a small amount of veggies to cook into a broth, like onions, carrots, lentils, etc, and run everything through the blender before I eat it. This way, I am not overcome by that feeling of eating cooked food and it satisfies my need for warmth without being too heavy.
Thank you all so much! I had left GR for a little while because i felt I just wasn't on the same positive swing as most and I didn't want any negative posts coming out of my keyboard. I'm so glad to be back and through all of your support, i was able to squeek out a day fully raw yesterday. The difference is amazing! Really amazing. One of the major reasons I ventured briefly into that macrobiotic world was that lingering question of "How does eating this food make you feel?" It seems to me I felt like I was poisoning myself with all those grains--that may seem bizarre since they were only cooked in water w/ a little sea salt, but i am celiac (I ate gluten-free grains) and I don't know what happened there, but the food made me feel terrible and it brought me right back to fruit again, which I am thankful for. One day hardly makes me a raw foodist, but I wanted to thank you all for your posts and your support. :)
I never agreed with the heavy use of grains either. I eat oatmeal occasionally and that is it,
I feel much better eating high raw with some macro foods, especially in the winter. I have more energy eating high raw. With high raw, I also go through periods where I don't want to eat that much. I think this is really important because 1) it indicates my my body may well be getting all the nutrition it needs, and 2) I am not obsessed with food. That never happened when I ate only macro or any other program (and certainly not SAD).
I have spent some time with this question. It seems you could do BOTH and RAW MACRO diet though you would have to skip out on some of the typical favorites of the 2
ie ....no bancha or miso.......and way low fruit
Maybe......
Raw soaked oats for breakfast with some flax oil and a little seaweed
Raw greens/veggies/sea weed salads
soaked nuts/seeds
the occasional berries or apple
I don't eat grains but i would imagine there is some great play that could happen with crackers, soups etc
I was on the 7 day Diva Detox from www.therawdivas.com and I was really, really cold. The detox was no fats or seasonings but I broke down and had some hot peppermint tea with honey. It was a lifesaver. I agree with having hot beverages, or maybe some clear soups but when you start getting into the cooked grains, for me anyway, tends to get the bloating going because then I start wanting more fats and seasonings for taste. Also cooked beans & lentils will cause bloating. Try playing around with your foods, seeing the reaction from each. There are also certain fruits that you may enjoy cold more than others. I don't refrigerate my fruits, and can't stand eating them chilled, but I do like my smoothies ice cold.
I think entirely switching over to a macro diet would be a bit extreme too, because our bodies will lose so much energy trying to process everything since practically everything is cooked. I've never been on a macro myself but to my understanding all veggies are cooked and it's all about trying to heat up the body? Using spices, etc? So, that might just excite or over-work the body whereas with raw you are giving your body a break so it can work on healing instead and very little on digesting and assimilating.
RAW CURLS - Peppermint tea with honey. That sounds great.
One of my macro books states that it is difficult to eat raw food because the body is generally not healthy enough to pull minerals from raw food. I never bought that although it is true SOME nutrients are more easily available when cooked.
coming from a chinese medicine background it is THE dominant concept that raw food is very difficult on digestive function but i think there is a lot to be concerned with in regard to very old texts that are being translated by people living in an entirely different culture and society
how many people had the luxury of cooking their food 4,000 years ago?? i'm not sure but those texts are also referencing people who have very weak digestive systems and who need to take in food that is already pre-digested by cooking
anyway lengthy topic for me but as a raw acupuncturist it is something i have thought about considerably!!
i didn't read all the comments past the first post, but i eat pretty macro, and i feel damn good.
i guess it's all personal.
I personally don't believe in the whole Yin nonsense, although I did for a while. I believe that I was detoxing (still am but my energy is pretty good now). Another thing is you maybe should incorporate more leafy greens. The first 2 times I eat in the day are energy soup and a salad so I crave less sugar throughout the day. Lots of sugar makes me binge more and I just feel less stable.
I lose weight when I don't eat a lot of fat, and also I believe it's important to focus on health rather than weight :)
Good luck!
Raw didn't work out for me. I ended up not being able to eat anything and feeling really sick. Now I eat mostly a macrobiotic diet. I still enjoy a lot of raw foods, especially in the summer, but long term, it just didn't work. I wanted it to, but it didn't. I have been eating more or less macro for the past 10 months, and I have not gained any weight. I feel very stable and consistent in my weight. I find that I have to pay close attention to sugars and salts and to balance those out. When I feel balanced, I don't crave the very sweet and dense raw desserts that I used to. When I eat too much salt, then I crave sugar and vice versa. Macro just works better for me right now. I believe fully in individualized diets. Listen to your body.
ISTORZ - One of the original ladies who studied in Japan with the founder of macrobiotics was from the town I live in. She retired here and advocated the diet so we have an unusually large macro community here and a local health food market that has a deli specializing in macro foods. (I hope we one day get someone who creates raw food dishes so I can get them quickly without having to create them myself.) Some of their older patrons, many of them now long-term cancer survivors, can't prepare their meals so the deli actually offers a subscription service where they deliver macro meals daily. It is a really tight and supportive community.
I tried macro and that was my first step to trying natural medicines and refining my eating and it was overall a positive experience for me. We had a monthly macro pot luck and of course everything is cooked in macro. I met many people there who did really well on macro and had huge improvements in their health. I brought up the topic of the raw food diet at one of the pot lucks. I received many lectures and comments on why one should not eat raw foods.
Unfortunately at the time I was not that secure in following my own path and listening to my body. As a result, I felt discouraged from eating raw foods, although my body always said eat raw and drink juice in the summer months. Today, I am high raw and don't care to be 100%, especially during the cold months. When I do eat cooked food it is always macrobiotic although I do eat meat infrequently.
You're right, everyone is different and I wish those who believe they have found the ONLY way would come to understand this too. You can tell people about your positive experience and what you have learned about any health program, but nothing good ever comes from insisting it is the only answer for everyone.
JOYOUS FIG - I did macro for some time before going raw. I still eat some macro but more during the winter mostly.
I don't know what your health profile is like but I have been reading a great deal about fasting and cleansing the last year. This might be a good option for you physically and psychologically. I am currently on day 8 of a water fast and feeling much better than usual. It works and it is nothing like what you would imagine it to be.
Another option would be a Master Cleanse. I did two last year and it really helped too. Several people on this website did it together. It does a real detox (not sure if most detox plans actually detox since most toxins are stored in fat cells and you have to use those cells to mobilize the toxins). You will lose that extra weight quickly too, which you mention bothers you. Either way, you will detox, lose weight, and develop a sense of self-control and personal accomplishment that is hard to come by. The transition back to eating will help you tune your body to whatever it needs, be it macro or raw.
I would eat macro foods if I did not feel well without them but the consensus (outside much of raw food community and macro) seems to be you need AT LEAST 50% OF YOUR DIET in raw food to have the minimal nutrition your body needs. It would be better to be closer to 75% though.
I know this is contrary to macro teachings, but I spent many, many hours reading different materials on both sides of the argument and personally came to this conclusion. You have to remember there is a legitimate downside to cooked (denatured) foods but it does have some benefits too.
These are my guidelines but most of the time I eat 85-95% raw with the exception of winter. In the winter, I have to have some soups, cooked beans, cooked grains, etc. Heated vegetable broth or miso works well for me. Lots of ginger is not going to give me the solid substance I need to get through the day and feel well. I can go full yin in the summer and live off watermelons and grapes, but give me a hot bean tostada or brown ride with miso gravy come winter. I want to leave my house in the morning on hot oatmeal, almonds, blueberries, dates, and cinnamon. Many people do just fine on raw in the winter, but I am not one of them.
Whole foods from nature that respect the earth and our ecology and a diet that resonates with our joy and potential...right?
I like hip hop not bluegrass but for some people that is their heart so let it ride