I havent been around much. Been frequenting a birth/pregnancy forum regularly....not in the club ust yet, but am planning to be

Ok so I was one of those newbies who jumped in with great gusto, and then went in a downward direction in the last couple of weeks. I have eaten some potatoes, a vegie pie, some felafel, some spinach pie...and it all made me feel like crap. The comfort factor played a huge part, and the fact that I feel annoyed that some people can eat crap all day long and it doesnt 'seem' (key word here) to affect them much. But I cannot eat crap. It doesnt like me. I have eaten cooked foods once a day every couple of days, and I have really felt it. It is interesting to watch. See how they affect me.

I need to back off a bit of high raw, and eat what I feel to, and take this journey slowly. I really want to keep this lifestyle, so I am not going to overdo it at first. If I want to eat a cooked something or other every now and then I will, for the learning experience it gives me. I have eaten a whole pawpaw this morning, with a bit of lemon squeezed on....and wow does it feel good.

I have started doing bellydancing, yoga, clay work, cross stitch, painting, scrapbooking....all these things I love, and they are happening...I am doing them.

A friend has asked me to help him with his diet. He is a big man and is on the brink if not already having diabetes. That was huge. He has always mocked me. LOL...funny how the world works.

Something has happened with my weight. I've hit something. I lost 3 kilos and then it stopped. But my body has changed, I dont really know how to describe it. It feels good. But it feels like I've come to a crossroads or something? Don't know?

I took a pic of my face the other day and was really surprised at how its changed. I look different! Clearer, lighter, brighter!

Ok...enough from me...just wanted to let it all out, and see how it is over here atm.
Love to you all
Beau

Hang in there!!  I have struggled with going raw for well over a year now.  I know it's the right path for me, but it has always seemed too hard to sacrifice all the lovely, comforting foods I love (that don't love me  ) and that I used to use as an emotional crutch.  However, about two weeks ago I read something that just "clicked" for me.  It was a site I had looked at many months ago and there was heaps and heaps of information - so much, in fact, that I ended up just scrolling through it going "blah, blah, blah"!  Maybe I wasn't ready for it then, but this time it was like a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) and I have been 100% raw since.

There are still a few times where I think about cooked/junk food, but the thoughts are easily dismissed now.  Before it was always a huge struggle - which I generally lost - but now I am able to put it aside and enjoy a meal of fruit and greens without the angst and feelings of lack that I would have had in the past.  I start my day with fruit, have a salad of mostly greens with cucumber, tomato and maybe some avocado for lunch, and then have fruit and greens for dinner.  This has been keeping me completely satisfied, even though I'm not eating the amount of calories I'm supposed to have.  It just feels really good.

I've been able to get over my fear of being "hungry" to the point where I'm in the second day of a planned 5 day water fast.  Previously I was afraid of starving to death between breakfast and lunch! I'd take huge amounts of fruit to work to "keep me going" - now I just take my salad and don't even think about food in between meals. I can't believe how much of a difference it has made.

You never know when you will read or hear the information that will be the key for you, so just keep learning and persevering - you'll get there when it's right for you.

xoxo

An excellent post, thanks for bringing it up.

It is funny, I use to feel disappointed with myself for falling off the raw wagon but I don’t anymore.

Something another forum member said in a post really touched me and made me realise I may be in danger of heading down the same path.

Due to privacy issues, I won’t mention their name but they said something along the lines of having had past eating issues / issues with food / recovering from an eating disorder / being paranoid about what they ate / etc...

At one stage, I found myself becoming really paranoid about everything I was putting in my mouth. Stressing if I was eating enough greens. Disappointed about falling off the raw wagon. The whole thing was driving me nuts and I was feeling miserable because of it.

In the last few weeks, I have come to the realisation that I had to make changes in my mind or I was going to go slowly insane stuck in the same repeating patterns over and over again.

Nowadays I can eat very few cooked foods because like you, things tend to taste greasy, stodgy etc...

However, I have found a couple of relatively healthy cooked comfort foods that taste great and I really enjoy them ~ I view them as an occasional “treat”.

And because I view them as an occasional “treat”, I find that I really enjoy the experience of eating them and I don’t feel disappointed or guilty afterwards.

I have also found that if you fancy something cooked and you mix it with something raw, you will really enjoy it and because you have the best of both worlds to satisfy your needs, you don’t tend to feel disappointed afterwards.

My current favourite is baked jacket potato. I normally buy a medium – large organic potato, wash it, pat it dry, prick it with a fork, rub it very lightly with organic sunflower oil and salt (you don’t have to eat the skin but it cooks much better with the oil and salt and the skin will actually be a dry jacket once ready) and put it in a hot oven for two hours.

When it is cooked, I open it up and put raw mushrooms, raw brussel sprouts and mashed avocado with it. It is absolutely yummy. I get the best of both worlds, a yummy cooked comfort food with plenty of raw on top. Sometimes I lightly sauté the mushrooms and brussel sprouts in balsamic vinegar and white wine – I then serve it with a massive raw salad. I no longer feel guilty. I no longer feel disappointed in myself. I really savour each mouthful and really enjoy it.

I saw an interview with that trainer Shannon from the Biggest Loser. He said he had done an extra long session in the gym that morning, so he felt he could let his hair down and really enjoy himself at the Logies. That’s how I have started to look at things. If I eat cooked food, I will just allow for it by eating extra raw the next day.

Last Thursday night I went to a restaurant. I had very non-raw food, including a chicken dish. A few weeks ago I would have beaten myself up about it the next day. Agonised over my choices. Been disappointed that I fell off the raw wagon. Been disappointed that I ate meat.

However, under my new mind set, I felt none of those things. Granted it is not something I would repeat again in a hurry, as nowadays I prefer raw to cooked.............BUT I really savoured the night. Great food. Great atmosphere. Great Company. Very Relaxing.

If I had not changed my own personal feelings over this subject, I would have surely cracked up by now.

I am sure there are some on this forum who will tell me I am wrong but as I have learnt time and time again with raw, you have to do what suits YOU and YOUR body and YOUR life.............bugger what anyone else says 

So one day I will get to 100% but I am going to take my time getting there and I will enjoy myself along the way.

I agree with KittyK. If we get into these negative thought patterns of we're failures if not 100% raw 100% of the time then the only thing that happens is we hate ourselves and punish ourselves by going from decent cooked food to the real trash.

Beau, I didn't think any of the things you listed were particularly bad. Maybe you could've made a couple of 'better' choices, but let's put it this way: you didn't get 5 big macs through the drive in, nor did you belt back 10 bags of potato chips! :D

I too have learned that the journey to the health we want is one we need to be gentle with ourselves on, take it at the pace we are ready and go with that. I too have had cooked foods, felt awful and gone why did I ever do that??? Then do it again a few months down the track... we learn from these things as we need to.
Maybe the steamed vegies didn't taste like stodge really but you had so focused your mind around cooked being bad no matter what that this how your guilt/frustration manifested?

I reckon 50% raw a day is better than no raw at all. Even in Green for Life, those who did the green smoothie for a month but didn't change their diet any other way (including eating meat and alcohol) noticed that they had improvements to their health.

You want the weight to come off slowly, believe me, and you want to get yourself into eating habits that are sustainable and will maintain your new, lower weight.
I know this from experience as last year I went down to 58kgs - just three off my target - see-sawed back into UNHEALTHY cooked and put it all back on - WITH INTEREST. And it was a hard knock on my body.

If you've plateaued, as Jen said it might be your body recuping, or it might be you need to up your exercise OR lower your daily calories (or shift them around - look at where they're coming from and what could possibly change to help you).

Keep at it!

There is other thing that I forgot to mention:

I try to limit my cooked foods to days off work, holidays, weekends.

Raw food gives me energy and clarity, which is very handy for the working day. Cooked food can sometimes make me feel lethargic and depressed. 

Last Thursday night at the restaurant, I went the whole hog with rich Italian dishes. I happily chose the dishes because I had Friday off work and I was planning a day of DVD watching in my PJ’s anyway.

Today (Saturday) I had planned a quite day close to home, plenty of lounging around in my PJ’s, watching DVD’s, reading books and playing on the computer. Perfect day for egg and chips – a brilliant warm comfort food.

Obviously egg and chips would not be considered very healthy but we do things to it to give it a healthier slant – we make our own organic chips and bake them, so they are non-greasy. We don’t use oil to fry the eggs. We make our own home-made tomato sauce.

For me, this basic dish is a real treat. We only have it once in a blue moon but we REALLY enjoy it and savour it when we do.

And this evening I am very much enjoying a glass of red wine, sitting in front of the heater and listening to the wind and rain outside and really appreciating how fortunate I am compared to some poor souls in this world. I am often amazed at how simple pleasures can make you appreciate the positives in your life ~ I would still like to win millions on Lotto though!

This morning I walked 6km. Tomorrow I will have a double dose of raw vegetable juice and walk an extra few kms to make up for my indulgence today.

I now feel like I am living a balanced healthy life, enjoying a mostly raw vegan diet which makes me feel fantastic (my glowing skin and weight loss has attracted a LOT of positive comments) but at the same time, enjoying the occasional cooked meal and more importantly, not beating myself up for these occasional indulgences.

In the past, I was never obsessive about what I ate and never felt disappointed or angry at my food choices. I always thought that route was for neurotic dieters obsessed with counting lettuce leaf calories, professional sports people in training and teenagers suffering from eating disorders.

However, I was utterly shocked and dismayed to find myself also heading in that direction once I changed to a raw vegan lifestyle.

Utterly ridiculous really, given my past.

In my younger days, I would often stay up all night partying, get home at 5am, go to work at 8am only sustained by an extremely unhealthy diet of a can of coke, half a pack of cigarettes and a couple of no-doze pills – no problem, no worries. no concerns. no cares.

In later life I change to an extremely healthy raw vegan diet and start to be obsessive about........Did I eat enough bananas today? Did I consume enough greens today? Ohh I had a cooked dish, I feel angry, disappointed, depressed and I hate myself for being so weak.....ETC... ETC...ETC

I realise now it was crazy and very unhealthy thinking on my part........thank God and praise be, I have seen the light.

Oh by the way...........I am NOT saying that you are crazy, I was talking about my own personal experiences....nothing else.

Magnificient words and insight from KK and PB...

This is the kind of attitude and approach that has more potential of bringing the benefits of a raw or high raw diet to a far greater number of people than other more....er...fanatical approaches...

Not knocking the fanatical approach....just saying the views/opinions and experiences related here are more likely to appeal to and "resonate" with a larger number of people...

It's  great to see a balance...

John

LOL, it certainly is.

I know what I want and what I need to do too, but actually doing it.......is a different matter entirely. 

I love cooked pumpkin squares in a raw salad. In the last few weeks I have been taking a massive raw salad to work every day for lunch. My office is next to the kitchen and I can’t tell you how hard it is to eat a raw salad on a cold day when my colleague’s lunch time smells are wafting around the office. Smells of curries, lasagnes, chicken & chips, beef stroganoff, Chinese stir-fried vegetables with garlic prawns, etc....

Now I have no desire to eat a prawn. Last one I ate felt like I was chewing on a large rubber band. But the smell of stir-fried garlic prawns, whilst I am eating a raw salad is exceedingly difficult to bear....or at least it was.

I have now started to bake a sweet potato and some pumpkin squares every night. I eat them cold in the salad the next day, with maybe a touch of balsamic vinegar. It is great to have something heavy when it is cold outside and because it tastes so nice and is still classified as healthy, I find I don’t mind the cooking smells.

Having said that, ask me again in the middle of winter and it may be a different story.

thanks Jungle

Was my b'day yesterday...had a beautiful day with my people...went to the beach...ate all yummy food...salads, raw desserts. It was really good....went for a swim, went for a jog and a walk. Felt really reviving. Then we went home and everyone ate crap at a fast food shop....I had a vegie burger and felt my belly bloat from the bun. Full-on! I was amazed at how intensely I felt the reaction from my body.


I have felt quite low lately. Depressed even. Or on the edge of it at least. I am not sure what is causing it. Its probably a world thing. I think the earthquakes and devastation some people are experiencing is getting to me. I have been feeling kind of anxious and nervous. Hiding in my den. It all feels so overwhelming to me at the moment. The world is weird. I just don't like to see people suffering, or doing things to themselves consciously and being so unaware. It is so frustrating. I have issues huh?

I am focussing on negativity a lot. Swimming in it. I need to get a grip and rise above this. Thats what I will work on.