I have been the same weight all year, which in some respects is good and a relief that I can enjoy the amount of food I eat without too much worry.

But compared to last year, I'm a lot bigger.

And I've realised a lot of the food I eat isn't as good as the food I ate last year.
At the moment I am mainly eating lots of fatty foods, and dried foods.

I need to get back into fresh fruit and veg, but I'm feeling uninspired. I tend to do things in the style of 'all or nothing' so I'm worried that I'll convince myself never to enjoy my dried fruits again.

Any words of encouragement on how I can have more of a balance between lots of fresh fruit and veg and dried foods?

thanks : ))

YOU need to decide what your major life commitment/process is going to be....and then swallow that....for a lifetime. That allows for very small changes on a day-to-day basis....but all leading to your dream/commitment.

-Feelings, thoughts, situations.......all these can lend themselves towards a decision.....point to it.....but only a conscious decision will yield success in the long run.......as even the failure in such a conscious process will yield responsbile personal insight....which WILL ensure success.

-What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

thanks David : ) I like the way you write, very clear!

I guess inside I don't feel as upset about being 'bigger' - but that just means I need to reshift my thinking so I'm focusing on my health. But then again I do feel quite healthy, so perhaps I don't feel I have enough reasons to eat more fresh.
I'll incoporate more fresh into my diet and see how I feel. I will make the commitment to eat more fresh and not to see it as a deprivation.

thankyou

Sometimes I convince myself that it's too much 'work' cutting up and eating the fresh fruit/veg as opposed to picking dried fruit/nuts from a bag ;-)

But then, when I do have the motivation to eat say, a giant fresh salad, bowl of fruit, smoothie or juice, I realise how good I feel, and how much better my tummy feels (no indigestion etc).

Lately, I've been trying to keep that feeling in my head as motivation for eating the fresh stuff.

Though the other day, dried organic figs stopped me from binging on some chocolate- so they're still my heroes ;-)

I'm glad you've decided to try eating more fresh foods. They can be convenient too - just peel a banana, bite into an apple, chomp on a simple salad of 3 veggies.

I think you will notice you feel better with more fresh foods and less dehydrated foods. They kind of zap my energy too on the rare occasion that I eat them.

After eating S.A.D. all summer all I can say is ' If we don't take time to be healthy we have to take time to be sick. Ummmmm bummer!!!

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not self-seeking, love ALWAYS protects,always endures. (1corinthians 13)

God IS love!! (1john4)
Jesus Christ...... The ONLY way to Heaven.
I am the Way, the Truth & the Life..(John 14:6)

Looking at the subject matter I thought your post was about the evils of white processed sugar but I see that it's more about getting motivated to eat more fresh fruits & vegetables. If you think you're the only one out there who maybe in a rut or is in need of a jump start you're sadly mistaken.

We've all been there so please don't feel badly or get down on yourself. At the start of eating raw since I'm a believer in planning and organization, I tried to map out a weekly eating program. Wrong! That put too much pressure and stress on me. Since then, I only look towards the _next_ meal, making it better than my last. Do just one little thing to tweak what you're eating to make it more healthy if you can. A small step, no?

Something else I'm doing is looking for new produce at my local supermarket. Heck, I'm now friends with the produce workers so I'm privy to all the best fruits & vegetables as they hit the dock! Bought my first "Quince" the other week. A most interesting fruit I'll say!

Be the best you can each waking day and take those baby steps. As it's been said above, this is a lifelong commitment or marathon. Not some fad that will be discarded in a scant few months.

Best of luck and hang in there!!!!!

David

So, what does a quince taste like, David? :-)

Karen,

It was really odd. I don't believe I selected a ripe one so I'll have to do better next time. It has a very interesting texture, like an apple but tougher and more sandpaper like. I know I'm not painting a very nice picture here!

As with folks on the SAD, where everything "tastes like chicken", I'll take the easy route and say it reminds me of an apple!

Still am loving my new favorites fruits & vegetables - mangoes and kale. Was at the grocery store this morning at 7am (ugghhhh!) and loaded up on fresh produce. For some reason they all know me at my neighborhood Kroger.

Take care!

David

And all the checkers are learning to identify their fruits & veggies because of you, right? You are educating them and also setting such a good example. Maybe planting a seed in some teenager that will become a famous raw foodist down the road...

Yeah, we are all so new at this and our parents didn't teach us how to pick out good fruits like a ripe quince. So I tend to have the same problem if I try a new fruit, I don't pick a good one and then it doesn't taste so great...

Mangoes are easy to pick out a good one though, right? Just slightly squishable but not too much so, right?

Correct on how to select the perfect mango! I learned from someone at Whole Foods and not Kroger!

You're right about our parents not teaching us how to pick fresh fruits and vegetables. My Sainted Mother who is a gourmet chef served me a myriad of foods (cooked however) so I know about them. Just didn't know how to select the best.

I'm loathing the holidays already as I don't know what I'll eat! She made some comment this morning about putting kale in a smoothie. Guess I'll have to bring her along slowly....

Regards,

David

Maybe bring a salad or two (one veggie, one fruit?) and share with everyone as you dig into them yourself?

Sorry, I think I hijacked another thread.

thank you all for your kind words - I'm glad my post was understood at least, sometimes I find it hard to communicate what I feel properly.

I suppose I am feeling very complacent. And I can see now that I need to adjust my thinking a little bit.
I suppose I feel quite healthy - I just need to movtivate myself to want to be REALLY healthy.
Need to get my mind of weight loss, need to stop thinking that I will never be able to eat dried fruits again.

My thinking is - anything you do often enough will become a habit. I just need to learn new, better habits : )

thanks again x