Newbie and in need of encouragement - Raw Food Chat

kevin1980sydney · 11-01-2007

Hi all,

For at least 5 years I have preached raw but have failed to stick to my own advice. I've known that raw is the way to go but have lacked the will to stick to it any longer than a week or so. The addiction to Coca-Cola and other processed crap is embedded in my genes it seems.

I hope that this forum can help me achieve 100% and stick to it.

All advice and encouragement is welcome

Kevin

nan4health · 11-01-2007

hey kevin ya know i think we all have had those problems with sticking to it but just know that when you keep the non food out
your body craves natural food. good luck on your quest and keep it raw!

omega pete · 11-01-2007

hey man i'm with ya.
i was a potato chip and coke junkie.
it's been amazing to see the changes that just a few weeks of raw did to me.
i don't crave it anymore.

when i really want soda, i make apple ginger "ale".
i put a few apples through my juicer, about 1/2 way through i put a chunk of ginger in. yummy!

best of luck to you, we'll be here to help you out

Double Helix · 11-01-2007

Hi Kevin,

If this makes you feel any better, most long-term raw foodists have struggled quite a bit with back & forth raw/cooked and cravings for the first 5-7 years going raw. Even Storm Talifero, a 30 year raw vegan writes that he still craves cooked.

I've been doing it 6+ years on & off myself. However, I've never been on any other kind of "diet" before (remained vegetarian/vegan the whole time), just raw and it is the awesome feeling I get with eating raw food that brings me back every time.

Eventually the things you crave will be a turn off to you. It has taken me a while, but I no longer crave and enjoy things like pizza whereas before that would drive me 'nuts'.

Some ideas:

~ strong cravings usually subside after 3 days from the substance
~ cravings are usually an indication of detox
~ eating something satisfying will usually deter the craving
~ drinking a big glass of water may help if the craving is related to dehydration
~ waiting 15 minutes can help you forget about a craving
~ if a sweet craving hits, try eating 2-3 bananas or sweet fruit
~ if a salty craving hits, try greens, celery and veggies
~ if a fatty craving hits, try some avocado, olives or coconut
~ getting busy or exercising can help deter a craving

kevin1980sydney · 11-02-2007

Thanks guys.

I'm sticking to in 100% this time.

Does anyone use a reminder to help them out? Like a Banana key ring or something that they look at if they get a craving?

nothinkingbehind · 11-02-2007

Hi Kevin,

Congrats on getting back to raw, it sounds like you are on the right track.

I use a lot of mental challenges and visualization. I don't know if that is of interest to you or not.

The only tangible reminders or things of encouragement I use are messages that I want to tell my brain. I have notes on my mirrors, in my car, on my desk at work, on my laptop, etc. They say things that make sense to where i am physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. For example, I have a note in my daytimer right now that says "two steps forward, one step back". It's my way of telling myself that 1) I am not perfect, I will stumble 2) when I do, i have two choices: keep stepping or let myself fall behind completely. Even with two steps forward and one step back, I'm still ahead of where I was.

Since i work outside of the home, I have to pack food to take with me during the day. So my best reminder all day long is a peek in my lunchbox, where all Iwill find is healthy raw food

This probably isn't what you were looking for, but I thought I'd share anyway.... and let us know what kinds of reminders help you along the way.

Melissa

greenbunny · 11-02-2007

Hi Kevin,

I've been "into" raw foods for over 20 years. I've tried everything to get raw and stay raw. I've been now just tiny small sliver away from 100% raw for a very long time with periods that get up to six months all raw and then something happens that makes me pull back that I wrote about in the thread: "What do I do with this intensity?" So, when I started out I tried fasting for long periods (once for over a month), going away on retreats (hippocrates - which almost got me off raw permanently), all sorts of extremes and powering throughs and "I'm going to do this no matter what"s. It took me probably 15 years of struggling to find out that the only way for me to get steady on raw foods was to do it in a way that became slowly so part of my every day life that I couldn't help it. I had to get my subconscious and body on board. I did this (after 15 years of trying to be all raw) by finally slowing down. I ate whatever I wanted (which I have to admit at this point was pretty clean food by most standards - no coke) and added just one raw food at a time absolutely consistently into my diet until it was a staple of my life that I now crave. I starte with chocolate. My raw "fudge" (medjools mixed with powerdered raw cacao) is a delicacy to me. It's even easier to make than it is yummy! If I go too long without it I start to crave it like most people crave chocolate bars or cake. Then I added smoothies. Not quite as easy - but easy by all standards of cooking. Easier than calling in for Chinese actually. I probably did just these two things for many months before even thinking of adding or subtracting anything else. This was'nt bad really. I had replaced two of my meals. That only left 3 more meals.

OK, so then I needed a snack or two. That was pretty easy because I could make a raw trail mix. Very easy. Then I got raw cheese. That made things very very easy. By the time I was done with all that I only had one meal left. But by the time I got there I felt like that one meal was weighing my spirit down and it wasn't really that hard because to my mind it wasn't really a big deal. Now, I only want raw food because it's a deeply ingrained habit. I actually did the work long before by switching to a healthy vegan diet. I gave up sodas first - gotta be over 25 years ago now. Then I gave up as much of the real nasty things, but I never could get off the cafefeine, sugar, refined foods and fried potatoes until I found substitutes. I found out about celtic sea salt and fine oils that I was able to replace the cravings with. If you do it slowly - the old stuff starts to look kinda disgusting. So by the time I was going raw it was just a question of doing the same kind of replacements. I couldn't believe that I never thought of it earlier! I could have saved myself at least a decade of trials.

I thought I'd just throw in my experience for you to ponder. Most of the people on this site are young and go getting it like I was so you might not get to hear this radical viewpoint from the youngens.

Best of luck to you.
Greenbunny

bekuchan · 11-09-2007

That's definitely all true (Greenbunny's wise words!) i know one step at a time is the only way that anything lasts with me.

i've been veggie for 20 years, vegan for 7 (but many previous 'trials'!) and have been on/off with sugar/caffeine/alcohol/gluten for the last 7 years also. This year i've finally conquered them all, which has never happened before and over the last three months have slowly switched to raw foods. Raw cacao recipes have been a revelation!

i believe if you keep coming back to it then it's meant to be! You WILL do it, even if it's eventually!! Good luck

bekuchan