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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHi all,
I've been reading these forums and recipes for months now and have finally decided to join!
I have been working on being raw for the past couple months. The first month I was very high raw and feeling amazing. There were lots of social events, birthday parties, and STRESS in the last month. I ended up eating cooked food quite a few times but never got down on myself and always went right back to raw the next day. There has been a lot of personal stuff going on in the last couple weeks causing a LOT of stress and i've ended up falling off of raw completely. Eating really gross SAD food like i used to that doesn't even satisfy me!
A little background:
I've struggled with over-eating for as long as i can remember. I am 25 and in a healthy weight range but i could certainly lose a few pounds. I get really down on myself on my body and have worked years and years to build my confidence and self-esteem. I have overcome SO MUCH and try to remember that but i still occasionally find myself diving into old habits and thought patters. I feel extremely bloated/fat/ugly/ ETC and have gained back all of the weight i'd recently lost through raw. I know that getting back to raw will make me feel a TON better. I guess I am just looking for some support and encouragement. I treat my body in amazing ways physically (my passion is yoga) BUT i've not been taking care of the internal (for the past 5 years i've let myself eat all the junk and processed SAD food i want because i finally did a lot of healing from an 8 year long eating disorder. I am trying to find ways to eat raw without feeling like i "have" to but that it's actually what i WANT to do. I honor my body as a temple physically and need to start honoring it in what i put into my body.
Has anyone else been through a similar process?
Any advice?
Also, I live in a little mountain town with NO raw community. I always feel like i'm doing it alone. Any suggestions?
Comments
First of all: Wonderful you are on the raw food journey. I started mine about a month and a half ago. It has been lots of ups and downs, but I have decided it is going to work. Luckily my fiance is doing it with me. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to do it by my self. CUDOS to you for wanting to. I think it is great that you know how good you feel while eating raw. Since you already do honor your body (which I think is fantastic) taking that step to put good stuff in it shouldn't be too far off.
Some years back I used to not eat, and after being really healthy for four years I was a little worried that the raw food would set off the spiral again. But so far it has been pretty good. Just feeling healthy, without wanting to get skinny, is great. My advice to you is to stick with it. Decide how many meals a week you want to eat raw and stick to it. I have decided on 30 raw meals (breakfast and lunch) and five cooked. However, I find myself eating maybe three cooked meals a week-- usually during the weekend if I go out to eat.
Do you have any friends, co-workers or colleagues you could persuade to join you on the raw food journey? I think that would help a lot. Both in sticking to your plans, and to have someone to discuss it with. I find myself talking and learning about raw food all the time, and it inspires me to keep on going.
Thank you both for responding....things have calmed down over here and i'm focused on not beating myself up. Had a beautiful yoga practice last night that put me right back on track. Eating an apple and banana as i type =)
Durian, i'd like to know more about this 8/1/1....since transitioning to raw i eat mostly fruit, i do find tho that i often want something not sweet. does this go away? is there a certain cause?
micklon-thank you for your beautiful words of encouragement. "Some years back I used to not eat, and after being really healthy for four years I was a little worried that the raw food would set off the spiral again" ---this is exactly what i have been afraid of too, i think i love myself enough now though not to let that happen. unfortunately i have no one that is willing to go raw with me, i'm actually surrounded by people that think its weird and would never give up their SAD diets.
I think 80/10/10 recommends somewhere between 4-8% of your calories from vegetables, and as they have such a low calorie count, that's a lot of vegetables. If it's not taking calories away from fruit(getting at least 2000 fruit calories a day I'd think), I think you can have all the non-sweet vegetables you want.
Being alone on the raw vegan diet is pretty par for the course. In big cities(especially on the coasts) you're more likely to find someone around, same with the healthier countries. But in the middle of heartland America being vegetarian is a rarity, vegans are a joke, and raw veganism is an non-understandable foreign concept.
It is not physiologically impossible to get fat on fruit. Fruit doesnt have some special inbuilt system that makes it void of calories. Yes fruit is probably one of the lower calorie foods but eat 7k + calories a day whilst sedentary you will put on weight and eventually become fat just like any other food. Infact even not sedentary, if you are an individual who's target caloric intake even whilst exercising is 2500 calories you take in 7k calories everyday for a year i could bet any sum they will put on weight.
I know you countered this question the last time by saying who wants to be sedentary, that isnt the issue, calories are calories and you take in much more than you expend you will gain weight.
thanks for all the responses! you guys rock...
thanks for being so informative hikuro and powerlifer. and don't worry, just because people around me are extremely SAD and think that what i'm doing is not natural, doesn't mean i'd ever give it a second thought. I love being healthy and do what i do for myself. My wellbeing comes first.
cheers!
In order to change a behavior you need to motivate yourself.
In order to motivate yourself you need to increase the importance of the behavior and/or your confidence (which could increase with the use of items, like tools, blenders, forums, etc).
So I would make a list of reasons why you NEED to eat the raw diet.
I would also look at it the other way as well, that you NEED TO NOT eat the sad diet, and make reasons not to eat it.
Review them regularly ,like 3 times a day at first until you get yourself on track.
To me it looks like an importance issue. If somebody told you that SAD food would kill you tomorrow if you ate some today, that would be immediate motivation.
Then you need to make a commitment with yourself that is NON-NEGOTIABLE, which means that you do not eat SAD food period.
This approach can also be used for exercise. It is exercise first, and everything else later. Treat it like air or food, you need it , and you do it.
Also don't let others dictate your life, I have quit drinking this year, and have seriously considered wearing a t-shirt "IT IS OK NOT TO DRINK!"
It is a very very addictive social habit that is very very hard to quit.
It is advertised everywhere, and everywhere you go people are drinking, and encourage it.
That it why it is the worst drug on the market, next to cigarettes.
Oh, and don't let people tell you it is good for your heart.
People who drink may have good hearts (alcohol is a blood thinner, and contains NO meat, and is made from plant based foods, and is low in fat).
But it will kill your kidneys, bladder, liver, stomach, etc, as well as penises.
not good!!!!
You shouldn't have to choose between you heart and your liver!!!
Please choose both ;-)
Agreed rawcanadian, i was an alcoholic for many years and i used to dabble in many drugs when i was depressed due to health and ill say alcohol and cigarettes are the worst and most addictive drugs on the market. Sadly there legal and marketed everywhere like you say.
Professor Nutts, recent study showed that alcohol was worse than heroin, crack cocaine and many other drugs. That says it all really and his research is very well designed and formulated.
Glad you managed to give it up:).
Yogafiend- You are here. You are not alone at all. You are on the best and most important path to self I know. Yoga and Raw go perfectly together. Be gentle with yourself.
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