Okay, I've been raw for one year now and I love it, I couldn't imagine eating any other way. It's funny how my friends are like "are you off your diet yet?" I tell them this is not a diet this will be the way I'll eat for the rest of my life.

But I know I'm doing something wrong and I can't help it. I eat too much fat. I love eating avocados, nuts, dates, coconuts, olives, seeds, oil and homemade dried fruit. It's sad to say that I actually can't go a day without eating 3 to 5 of these a DAY. A handful of nuts, 4 to 6 dates, 1 avocado, 10 olives, coconut juice for dressing, oil and seeds for homemade crackers. I can eat this everyday and nothing else. I love every bite of it and look forward to them all the time.

Any advice on how to stop and control the need for fatty foods, like these. Or just that I eat one a day instead of 3 to 5 a day. I love all fruits and vegetables. I love to exercise and keep active, but at work, I find that I want to eat fats all the time. I am trying to cut down on gourmet foods which I know has a lot to do with it, but I love using all kinds of foods together for salads and a splash of lemon instead of adding oil or coconut juice to it.

Any good words will help. Thank you.

It's the raw junk food diet. Lots of people are doing it. But it seems to me to violate the true goal, which is mostly fresh f+v.

You can still put some of those things in your salads. I put walnuts (3), avocado (1/4 California), and a tiny bit of olive oil (tsp) in my 12 cup veg salads. I put coconut (tbsp) and flax (tbsp) in my 6 cup fruit salads. This makes them so satisfying, and I still get my boatloads of f+v and a relatively low fat diet (about 20-25% fat).

The food combiners would say this is a big no-no, but that's how I get them down.

I just stopped buying those sorts of things in : ie avocado, oil, olives,dried fruit,flax seeds to make crackers,nuts

FRESH raw diet

Stock up on lots of produce.. you can do it..if its a real GOAL for you, commit and go for it!

Green smoothies can help with cravings, or getting some natural salts.. celery...etc Juicing lots.

Make sure you always have tonnes of fresh stuff to hand!!

Work used to be tough for me also. It was clearly mental. Everytime I went to surf the net, I felt hungry and had to eat. Everyone else ate, I felt the need to eat. The list goes on.

Tough habits to break for sure but I got over it. As soon as I realized it was mental, I worked on it from that aspect.

Maybe bring less food, eat more simply or don't eat till such and such a time. Tell yourself all the gourmet stuff is for home. Put more concentration or focus on your job. Try grazing till the mental need catches up. Hundreda of ideas :O)

I cut down on the fats the same way as rawdanceruk. I made the changes at my shopping cart. I slowly changed my fat intake until all of my fats are coming from fresh whole raw foods and I am comfortable with my diet. Take your time and steer you shopping cart in the direction you want to go.

Just my 2 cents:

The fats you are eating are not BAD fats. Do they make you feel bad? If not, why do you think they are bad for you?

Without "good" fats, or fats in general, you get all screwed up: dry skin, hungry all the time, joint pain (well, for me anyway), etc. So what's wrong with what you are doing?

I started out raw eating a lot of the same stuff, and I felt great. After a while, I cut back (for whatever reason) and didn't eat as much of it. Maybe you will too, naturally, when you feel like you don't want it.

Workplaces are stressful places. Perhaps that's why you are eating the way you are?

I used to eat giant snickers bars (two of them a day) at work - I hated everything about my job - the people there, travelling into the city to get there by 8:00 AM, and the work was no great shakes, either. I needed the money, that's why I stayed. Thank goodness they eventually let me go, so I could be guilt-free about not working there anymore.That was in addition to going out for lunch every day to the nearby Mexican joint - un-authentic food, lots of diet cola, loaded with not-so-good stuff for me (think LARD).

I would have been super proud of myself if all I ate at work was dates, seeds, olives, avocados, and other healthy foods.

Guess its all how you look at it.

Good luck to you - I'm sure you will find the right path for yourself. Say, could you pass me a plate of coconut and dates? ;-)

I don't think dates or dried fruit are fatty so you can take them off your list of things to avoid. In fact, while I was looking up dates, for my own info, I looked up other things you mentioned and they didn't seem to be bursting with fat, except for the avocado.

1 date has 0.04g of fat
1 large canned (they didn't have raw) olive 0.47g fat (10 a day is 4.7g fat)
What is coconut juice? the liquid inside the coconut, it has only 0.48g per cup
1 avocado has 29.47g of fat

I'm still over the 20-25% mark, but it seems, over time, my body is slowly, naturally scaling back on how much fats I want.

Of course, there are days when they just feel SO GOOD. Omega 3's especially. I sleep like a BABY if I have some flax or walnuts.

But I quit eating a whole durian every day. I think I did that every day for January-February.

Anyway, I've had better luck with just slowly decreasing my portions (nuts especially), and buying LESS avocados, coconuts, etc. I'll buy one or two, instead of six. Then, if I do eat them all in one day... I have to wait until it's grocery time to buy more. Cutting them out altogether or doing something like portioning an avocado would make me INSANE. (at least right now.)

I wish I could go "cold turkey 8-1-1" or something, but I ate SO much fried food pre-raw. I really need smaller steps. Take into account all of the adjustments you're making.

Sprouts are a great middle ground...

if u blend your veggies, u need less fats to mix in together and make it taste great

anyways,

like jackie says
give yourself some credit for being raw for an entire year

i remember u used to always post fantastic pics of the salads that you were eating

Eat more fruit but cut down on dried fruits .The summer is the best time for fresh fruits indulge and enjoy the fruits in season.

As for fats the only ones I eat are fatty fruits like avocados and durians a few times a week not everyday or every meal.

I enjoy avos but limit my intake but when it comes to durian when I am in Thailand for durian season at first i will eat like there is no more durians but then I say to myself skip a day or maybe two and eat maybe two to three times a week and feast on them on those special days and enjoy.

All kinds of melons and stone fruts are in season now enjoy and make as many fruit meals as you like instead of nut pates.

Cherimoya,

Love Peace and Happiness,

deegarry@yahoo.com Wrote:
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I love eating avocados, nuts, dates, coconuts, olives, seeds, oil and homemade dried fruit. Any good words will help. Thank you.

Avocados are a perfect food IMO
Nuts? Blanche some whole almonds and sprout them. yummy!
Try figs over dates. Less sweet but more alkalizing to your system.
Coconut has tropical oils. Not optimal. Get over coconuts!
Olives are fine in moderation.
Seeds? Sprout some sunflower seeds in a glass jar. Totally yummy!
Oil? Flax and hemp oil are great and yummy too.
Dried fruit is a concentrated sugar. Try watermelon instead. Yummy as well

When I ate mostly fat and oil free foods my weight dropped. To me this was not acceptable because I have a fast metabolism and have been thin my whole life. With the addition of avocado, sprouted seeds, certain nuts and cold pressed flax and hemp oil I feel 100% better and my weight is stable. Unless your weight is an issue I'd just cut out the coconut and dried fruit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2008 05:42AM by warm-glow.

I don't see a huge problem. Is there a problem? Are you overweight? I'd only make small changes and let your body tell yu what it wants.

Thank you for all the great replies! I have been eating when I'm not hungry and it has made me gain weight, but the fatty foods are so yummy. I have decided to take on my first water fast because my stomach has not been feeling good lately. I've read tons of books before deciding on a water fast for one day, I want to see if it helps, like the books say.

warm-glow, I haven't thought about figs over dates, I will definitely do that.

Lillianswan, thanks for showing me that chart, I feel a lot better knowing that I was not accurate about what I believed in some raw books.

rawdanceruk, "Green smoothies can help with cravings" this is true, I need to start again, I went off track.

When I first went raw and couldn't kick the high-fat habit, I started exercising more. I found I didn't need as much o the fatty stuff after that because the exercise gave me all of the happy chemicals I need Fruits also helped (I have the most fat with vegies ie: dressings and pates).


Good Luck!

I was eating a lot of raw almonds also. But here is the one thing that helped me. I eat a lot of sweet fruit and that makes me feel satisfied and I don't crave fats any more. I don't know if there is any scientific reason/ explanation for that. BUt that works in my case. Plus I love delicious pineapples and strawberries and cherries. so it works either way

Take care
A Iyer

I just did a 36 hour fast a few days ago, and it really helped me be more mindful of what I put into my body, and why. It also helped me differentiate between true hunger signals and cravings. I found it much easier than I thought it would be, and I'm finding that I want less food in general (which is good because I'm a little overweight and newly 98-100% raw, up from 75%). I'm considering doing it on a regular basis.

Sorry if I'm repeating anyone else's words - but

a) dates are ultra low fat, so enjoy, just try to make sure they're as fresh and wet as possible

and

b) Eat more fruit to take the place of the fat calories you were consuming before!

Hope this helps

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

It's funny how I've read in raw food books, saying that dates are something you don't eat a lot of. I love dates and sometimes go on a binge and eat it every day or then I don't for awhile.

I think I need to go on a fast to help out, or start exercising a lot more!

Dates can be iffy because many dates in the store will have been heat treated. There are date farms in California like the Date People and others who don't heat treat their dates. If you are in doubt, find out who produces your dates and call them and ask.

The dates that have been heat treated are usually steamed to make them moister. They will typically have very shiny skins.

According to Doug Graham Bananas are the answer--lots and lots of them...

if the carbohydrate doesn't come from sweet fruit, it's gonna be got elsewhere!

and dates and other dried fruit are obviously much more processed than fresh fruit.

and as many say lots of greens, green smoothies, or blended salads are also essential, for minerals and vitamins, etc.

A short fast to "re-set" your system sounds great.
Followed by some mono meals or simple fruit meals like:
apples and bananas and grapes. no cutting, no mixing, no preparation.
you could easily make "no cutting, no mixing, no preparation" your moto for a few days following the fast.
then add greens after a few days of fruit only.
followed by of a review of Food-Combining to maintain all the wonderful benefits of your fast.

Bryan, you're right, they do have shiny skins, thanks for your info!

happyway, what an awesome idea! Before a fast, I will try no cutting, no mixing, no preparation. It'll be hard, but I think it will help!