Hello all!

Came to seek out some support for the new raw food lifestyle, well new and improved me that I'm embarking on. I'm a 21 year old student, so quite poor it feels like but I want to do something that'll matter.

Aside from all that, I discovered the raw food movement in 2007 when I was out west (I'm in Ontario, Canada and I travelled west to Alberta, Canada), and attempted to go 100% raw. Certainly, that didn't work for me, although I'd loved it if it had. So now, after re-discovering raw food, I want to give it another shot. I have been a vegetarian (lacto-ovo-vegetarian) since April 2007 and partially vegetarian (sans red meat) since 2001. It was pretty gradual but the turn off of chicken occurred after a particularly bad tasting chicken wing.

The turn to the vegetarian lifestyle was in part due to my paranoia about what was actually in my food and what it might be doing to my body once I learned about some of the farming techniques and such. But the other part is due to my growing concern over my weight and emotional state.

I've battled depression and anxiety since I was in high school and I feel like my weight has a big connection to that battle. From what I've seen with raw foods through reading and learning and listening, those ailments don't have to stay around for the rest of one's life and a person can actually help deal with those things through proper diet.

So far, the depression has dissipated slightly but comes back every so often and the anxiety was worse than ever this past summer (2008). I feel like going raw will enable me to become better attuned with who I am going to be and that person is going to be positive, enjoy being around people she cares about and ultimately able to make a positive difference in the world.

So anyway, sorry to get all deep on everyone, but it was sort of an intro post I suppose. My biggest challenges have been: being around cooked and processed foods whilst visiting my family and being faced with hunger not long after consuming a green smoothie. Now I've just started basically this past evening; dinner-time was pretty much my first 'raw' meal. But I did have raw tomato slices on toast, which isn't something I'm really used to.

My green smoothie had: a handful of spinach, a medium sized apple, an orange, a cup of water, a tsp. of hempseed protein and a small handful of raisins.

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips regarding hunger and coping with emotional eating (particularly boredom). It's frustrating and the longer I ignore the 'hunger pangs' (if that's even what they are), the worse I binge later. So any tips would be awesome to hear.

EDIT: I will try and post here as often as possible but I've also got another blog I plan on posting to regularly: [krisgrlonraw.blogspot.com]
I would be documenting via youtube, however, I don't own a webcam or a laptop, just a regular ancient desktop. So this shall have to do.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2009 08:35AM by keisan.

Hi keisan,
Welcome! You'll find a lot of loving support here, especially on this 'diary' segment of the forum. Congrats on deciding to go raw; it's a great choice that is sure to help you get to the place you want to be-- healthier, happier, and making a difference in the world. That was what attracted me to the raw food diet about 30 years ago in the 1970s! I battled weight problems and depression, and my raw food, detoxification and fasting journey went a long way to heal me. Also, if at any point you're battling really difficult depression and/or anxiety, you might want to look into Redirecting Self-Therapy (RST); it's very effective, simple, free, completely non-medically oriented, and you do it on your own for a few minutes every day for a period of time (usually 1-6 mo.) till the symptoms are alleviated.

Re. hunger pangs: try having your fruit, juice and smoothies earlier in the day, and a filling salad with some nuts or seeds (on the side or in the dressing) for dinner; a lot of people transitioning to raw like to have steamed vegetables for dinner, also.

Sharrhan:


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