Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I've only just joined the forum although I have been reading as a guest for a few years.

I have spent the last few months preparing myself to switch to raw and now I
finally feel ready and yet each day I attempt it thinking "today is the day" and
then I end up screwing up and eating something cooked, dang it....I just don't
get why my mind is making this so hard initially.

There simply isn't any point in me eating cooked foods....there is no cooked
food that I can eat and actually feel good, they always make me feel tired,
headachey, depressed, brain-fogged, and not to mention being addictive. I seem
to be really addicted to cooked foods, and right now that addiction is getting
in my way, or I should say, I am letting it get in my way.

Are there any successful raw foodies out there who are reading this and can
relate to how it felt when you first started? I would like to live a healthy
life free of cravings, to actually detoxify on a daily basis and to be at peace
with my food...the only time I experience this is when I am eating raw vegan.
Any support would be appreciated. I will try again tomorrow...maybe tomorrow
will be my Day 1. I will get there. Thank you everyone.

Nicole

Oh Nicole... that sounds so much like my story!

Hang in there...you can do it!

I'm just getting started myself, again, and don't have many words of wisdom as I am still finding my way. However, I can tell you what has helped me, though. This is what I have learned:

-Be gentle with yourself.

-Don't give up. Keep trying, tomorrow is another day.

-Read about the benefits of raw food, watch youtube videos, read raw recipes... read anything and everything that will give you inspiration.

-Google Mimi Kirk (I think that's her name)- she's looks amazing and she's well into her years (70's ?.... can't remember)

-Find support! Come here or to another forum that you like often.

-Eat things that you like, try new recipes, invest in a new piece of equipment to expand what you can make.

Well, those are some ideas, some things that heave really helped me. Today is day 2 for me...100% raw and I am so glad I'm at this point. I feel solid, and yet I know I am just one cooked meal away from feeling awful again. So, slow and steady, one day at a time.... you can do it! Good for you for joining and posting tonight, there are lots of great people here, and I hope you get lots of great advice and suggestions from them.

Hi marsh
thanks so much for your support, and for all your helpful suggestions, they will definitely help me out a great deal. I actually watched a video of Mimi Kirk the other day, absolutely amazing!

Day 2 for you, way to go! Awesome! we can do this. One day at a time, I guess. Tomorrow should be a successful day for me.

Nicole

I just thought of something else that is helping me...

I've been mostly raw, about 90-95% for a few weeks now, and really have considered that such a huge accomplishment. Even though I just quoted my "percentages," I try not to use them all so much because they can be so judgemental and represent a failure to be perfect.

I just plodded along, doing my best, sometimes eating the things I was craving, even though they weren't raw. I think the self-acceptance and willingness to "throw a bone to my shadow" sped up my progress.

Of course everyone will have their own opinion of the best way to accomplish their goals, and the best approach to eating a 100% raw vegan diet... You're off to a great start. Here's to a fantastic new day for you!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2011 02:47PM by marsh.

Nic, maybe start slowly--transition rather than diving into the deep end. If you aren't doing so already, start increasing your volumes of fresh ripe fruits and veggies until they displace the usual cooked foods in your day's meals. Keep doing this until you are where you want to be, and, as marsh says, keep trying

Dear Nicole,
Welcome here!

I only began this raw journey one month ago so I'm brand-new too though I did take 3 gourmet raw food classes within the past month~

I can definitely relate to all that you've shared~

Just the other day I was have a VERY stressful day and I heard myself tell myself, "you need to binge on hard boiled eggs--you know how calming eggs are for you!"~

I didn't eat eggs but realized how much I've used food to alter my feelings, i.e. eggs to calm me, sugar to reward me, meat to give me protein...this raw food journey has forced me to look at my thinking since I don't and haven't eaten eggs, sugar or meat since this journey began~

I used to also think that "raw vegan" meant tons and tons of iceberg lettuce dinner salads. What inspired me to become a raw vegan was that I went to a raw vegan meetup potluck and people made food that was SO delicious! This one fellow made raw tacos--the taco "meat" was made of walnuts and taco spices and he had chopped tomatoes, bell peppers and olives and the taco "shells" were romaine lettuce leaves--it was AMAZING! This other woman brought a pasta dish--"mmmm, carbs, I could really use some carbs" I thought to myself. It was delicious but the pasta noodles didn't have the texture of pasta...then she said they were zucchini and there is a spiral slicer that can cut veggies like noodles!!

The point of all this is that there are gourmet vegan meals--meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos and such that can satiate that 'hunger' for whatever cooked foods/comfort foods represent to you~

Lastly, know that you're not alone with how you feel...I still sometimes feel manic panic (as I call it) when I'm hungry, open my fridge and see only veggies and wonder if they will really fulfill me. They do but it has forced me to learn how to prepare delicious meals and use ingredients in ways I've never used them before (putting nuts in a food processor with veggies and herbs to make a delicious pate)~

Thank you for writing what I still sometimes feel~

Hugs,
Evie

its hard to undo a lifetime of habits overnight especially when you have cultural influences at play and traditions

take it easy , learn how to make substitutes of your favorite things

and welcome to the site !

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Hey Nic,
Hope you like the videos from Victoria Boutemko.
She has also a book called 12 steps to raw food. It was my first raw book and it helped me a lot.I still struggling with my sweet cravings,but each day is different.
Good luck.

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2011 01:19AM by cy.

Thank you so much everyone. Your support and suggestions are very helpful. I know that right now this is only hard mentally and that once I detoxify somewhat it will get easier.

I was unsuccessful yesterday, I ended up eating some of my boyfriend's cooked supper
But I did have a big green smoothie and a big green salad. I just feel overwhelmed because in the last year I went through a series of stressful events and because I am a stress/emotional eater, I slipped back into some pretty atrocious eating habits and now it seems like the bad habits are more prevalent than the good I was way healthier last year and I feel really dis appointed in myself for letting myself get unhealthy. Right now I feel like I am basically starting all over and have to build up my healthy routine/habits again. Its as though by letting myself derail I lost my focus.

Anyways, I am going to have to make my peace with starting over instead of beating myself up for getting off track in the first place.

Today is a new day anyways and I am determined to get there. thanks so much for reading everyone

Nic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, I am going to have to make my peace with
starting over instead of beating myself up for
getting off track in the first place.
-------------------------------------------------------



That's the attitude
Focus on what you are doing right, then that will build for you.

So many discournt the impact of Psychology when changing a diet. Especially when it may be opposite to what all the so called experts have said, and continue to say regarding what type, and quantity of foods humans should eat for optimum health.

You can always see this when nobody seems to worry about nutrients or calories when eating the 'Standard American Diet', but when changing to a vegan diet, all of a sudden everyone is worrying about those things (nutrients/calories). It's so blearingly obvious that they are ingesting way more nutrients than when on S.A.D., so why the worry???

I believe it's due to doing the opposite to what the experts, and most people are eating. Deep in a person's mind are those nagging thoughts that humans are supposed to eat cooked, meat and dairy etc.

And that's where to psychology of it comes in. You must continually keep in the forfront of your mind the facts regarding what you're eating, such as how better you feel, how much more energy you have, and if you can, do some research where 'other' experts have given the thumbs up for a raw vegan diet.

I also agree with what others have said here, transition is the best way to go. Somethimes, I will have a small 'treat', maybe once a month or more, like a choc bar. Makes me a little sick, but satisfies and gags that little nagging voice that was my craving for choc, haha.

Cheers, geo

I know the hard part for me is being surrounded by cooked food. Being showered in cooked food. The convenience, but especially from a psychological standpoint, I know i've been programmed by a sort of fifties mentality from my parents. white flour and white rice is better because it's softer and "more refined", cooked food is better because it's been "prepared" to make it fit to eat." it's literally sickening how popular culture has been so negatively programmed and industrialized. i personally feel raw foods are the ultimate in luxurious eating and the pinnacle of gourmet "cookery," but then there's always people around snubbing their noses at it, shoving their nasty diabetes inducing, nonorganic poisonous crap food at you ("because they love you." It's so frustrating. i guess the major problem is that eating is also like a social convention. if we could all just join a raw foods commune or perhaps obliterate the world of cooked foodies then maybe it wouldn't be so hard.

Some of my earliest memories of food were food = comfort.
It was all cooked.
Grilled cheese sandwiches,soups,cereals,etc...
It seems like it is going so against the core of your being to go raw.
So much long history of programming to be let go........

Thanks so much, you guys
you bring up very valid points. A lot of it is pschological, for sure. We are really brainwashed in our society to accept and revere cooked things that it is ingrained right into us from the start.
I am finding that the key is trial and error and learning from my mistakes and using what I learn and put it into practice. Staying committed when surrounded by people eating my favourite cooked foods in the house. It would definitely be easier if the cooked food world was obliterated, as you said, rawalice, lol sigh....oh well...in a perfect world...lol
Nicole

I guess I would say that rather than beating yourself up about eating some cooked food, I would congratulate your self about all the healthy raw food you are eating since positive thinking is better for your health. I also think the guilt feelings from slips now and then are probably worse for health than the actual food.
If it is very hard for you psychologically to be 100% raw (it is for me) I personally think its still possible to be very healthy at say 80%.

Yeah, don't sweat it.... I reckon you're way ahead Nic cause you're aware of how we are 'socialised' into thinking cooked food is best for humans.

Oftentimes, when we start to live healthier, we suddenly find ourselves resisting the changes we say we desire. In such cases, healthier living seems "hard" because there's resistance to it coming from some aspect of your internal world.

But this is not the end of the world. It is merely feedback that you have inner work to do (i.e., increasing self-awareness and the real [non-surface] emotions underlying your thought processes that stunt your growth and hold you back). If you dig deep enough, I'm guessing you'll run smack dab into the fear and shame [and possibly other self-defeating emotions] working in tandem to keep you feeling "safe," and that's essentially what makes this all seem hard. And it will always seem hard as long as those emotions that hinder your progress remain undiscovered.

The truth is that healthy living, like any other skill, is "hard" when we're not sufficiently aware of what's really going on inside of ourselves, and subsequently we're not sufficiently practiced at healthy living alternatives. (It's sort of like going out onto the golf course, day after day, year after year, and having a habit of slicing the ball, and until you understand why you're slicing the ball, it's hard - and it always will be hard - to shoot straight. But beyond understanding why you're slicing the ball, you must also practice what does work before you can truly get good at something.)

In the case of healthier living, unless a person is able to confront the emotions that are blocking one's progress and growth, it will always be "hard." Whereas, unearthing those emotions at the core of one's issues (whatever they may be), and moving past them (with sufficient awareness, acceptance of what is, taking responsibility, and assertive practice), will - in time - make healthy living (in all areas of life) seem like a breeze.

The Treasure

I went searching for my soul, not knowing what I'd find
Within the deepest recesses of the human mind
If the truth is within and the answers are there
Then a self-excavation is what I would dare

I wanted to cut through the crap and dig down to the core
Seeking to discover if there really is "something more"
So I took my inner shovel and began to unearth
All the rubble within that's been trapped there since birth

Dredging through my childhood fossils still in control
And the ruins of my feelings that have taken their toll
I plowed through the rage, shame, grief, and fear buried deep
Armed with the courage to take on a pile of pain that steep

I felt no price was too high to pay for this Treasure
For if there was gold in my veins, I'd take any measure
So I sifted through all that had me on Life's treadmill
In hopes of learning what made me sick or well

And find it I did, when the shovel hit my core
Unearthing a treasure chest with an unlocked door
A chest shaped like a heart, and suddenly I knew
There's nothing but pure Love at the core of me and you

But the door to one's heart must be open to see
The Love inside of you and inside of me
For when people are cruel, arrogant, and meek
We're cut off from the Love within, which makes us act weak

Yes, I went hunting for Treasure, and here's what I found:
That Love is the answer to everything profound
To be a person of sound body, soul, and mind
The Treasure within is what each of us must find

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

Steve-

WONDERFUL!!!

Such a perfect post! I love what you said, and the poem is amazing. Did you write that??

Yes Steve, it's all very true, and that poem...lovely man. I was wondering if you'd allow me to edit it a bit, to make it applicable for mental/emotional health??? Some of my part time and volunteer work is with an non-government agency that helps people with problems that are recovering from mental/emotional/addictions, and want to become autonomous again. I believe your poem could be only changed a little for that, and it would be a really good encouragement for them. What do you think Steve?

Cheers, geo

Thank you.

And yes, I wrote the poem, and you have my permission to edit it and use it to serve your purposes.

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

so how did you do your treasure hunting?
thank you - I am interested in that....

Hey thanks man, I think it will really help, you've certainly got some talent there.

Cheers, geo

Like the poem, Steve

Steve, thanks so much for your insights and your amazing poem. It really hit home for me. It pretty much describes exactly what I am going through right now.

I second what merry said, how did you go about digging for your treasure? i am also interested in this

Nicole

Going Raw is so hard because the world is basically in a conspiracy against you.

This is not a bad thing, you just have to see it for what it is. Raw Foods is not "mainstream," and the mainstream currently dominates everything. That's where the money, power, etc. is currently.

So, society does not have a vested interest in you going Raw, because that would basically make you feel like a real human being again, so they stop you in any way they can.

Ex: Items at the grocery store look disgusting, Raw is generally confusing, knowledge is hidden on the internet, your friends cant go Raw, you can't eat out and go Raw (Except in New York), the list goes on.

I personally take it slow, but then again I have an AWARD winning chef with over 55 years experience who helps me.

Sincerely,
Chef Sal and Rich
[www.evolvewithflavor.com]

I know I've written about my own difficult RAW
journey innumerable times in the past, but those
postings have lost been lost; as, unfortunately,
this board has crashed a number of times and all
the messages have been lost, unless we saved them
on our own computers.

I did save a few over the years, and (to answer
the question posed from above) I went back
and tried to find some posting from this board
that I have saved that relates to this issue.

And I did find a few from 2002 that deals with
my own "treasure" hunting, including this rather
long one:

Author: Steve (---.tnt9.indianapolis.in.da.uu.net)
Date: 04-25-02 13:40

Hi Beth!

Yes, we are all in this together. And if I can share some insights with others, I'll be happy to do so; and vice versa (is welcomed and greatly appreciated!).
Beth, after reading your post, you seem to have a good idea about what it takes (intellectually) to have what you want in life. But it sounds as if something is not working as you would like.

My story:
I know all about the supposed insidious nature of cooked food. Oh how I know. Oh how I wanted to be entirely raw, and nothing I tried worked. I even knew that the food was not to blame. It was me. It was me. It was me. Me! Me! Me! Me! God-damn it, it was me! So what?

I wanted cooked food. That was the problem, not the food. I wanted to eat that stuff. (It was a problem for me, because I told myself I did not want cooked food, but (emotionally) I consistently proved otherwise; as is the case with those conflicting actions in our lives. Rarely do we say we want unhealthy/undesirable behaviors, but then we proceed to do them anyway. Helping to perpetuate a never-ending state of war [to varying degrees] within ourselves. Making us miserable, to the extent we live that inner war, in the process.) Why do we do it?

The real issue here isn't so much one of cooked food. That's often a scapegoat. (I'm not suggesting that it's entirely healthy, but we raw-fooders make eating it such a big, big, big deal, that I'm sure regular cooked food eaters would be wondering, if they saw this site, what the Hell is going on!) My point is that I think we're way too focused on the food itself, instead of being focused on how and why WE REACT TO THE FOOD the way we do! The blame here does not lay at the kitchen door, with the food. It lays entirely within ourselves, and our reaction to food.

What's really at the heart of the matter here is, that for some of us, eating cooked food causes us pain; and yet we do it anyway. This makes us feel out of control. And, I know that having this pain is no way to go through life. It's no fun. And fun is something we all tell ourselves that we want. Fun is, well, FUN!

When we want to live the straight and narrow, and we don't allow it to happen, what goes wrong? Why do we do it to ourselves? It happens because we allow our (typically) repressed, negative emotions to run amok internally. We let these emotions run roughshod over (and even ruin) our lives. And it doesn't have to be that way. These negative emotions, in effect, act in a programmed way to sabotage our well-being; in the exact opposite way that positive, healthy emotions help make life so wonderful and fascinating.

Unless we override these negative emotions with our own conscious efforts, they will continue to wreak havoc on our lives. These negative emotions continuously "prove" that you really are, e.g., shameful, worthless, fearful, angry, etc.. They have the effect of reinforcing (an often) subconscious belief that you do not deserve to be happy. (Which, of course, is not true at all.)

Happiness is not only our BIRTHRIGHT, it is our DESTINY!

If we choose it to be. In my case, I didn't entirely believe that I deserved be happy. My actions (or lack of ) clearly demonstrated such a subconscious belief. (I'd say this is true of just about everyone [to varying degrees] on the planet as well. We don't act as if happiness if our birthright and our destiny. We push away healthy thoughts, actions, and people in our lives.)

This is really what shame is all about: a sense that you're not good enough. You don't deserve what you want. You'll never have true love; nor real, meaningful success; nor authentic self-fulfillment. You don't deserve any of it!

That's the big internal lie we (often) unconsciously, and repeatedly, act out. Day after day after day after day. It's all a lie. Yet, like good little soldiers, we march in obedient lockstep to that SELF-INFLICTED inner message.
UNTIL we decide to STOP, and start living as though happiness is indeed our true calling in life!

Yeah, I played the games. Pretending that I wanted to stop. Hell, I even tried the Anthony Robbins' aversion therapy method: linking pain to some habit you don't like; such as eating cooked food. And if you don't change, it's because you "haven't linked enough pain" to eating these "evil" foods. After that didn't work, I decided that the most painful thing to me was death. So I linked killing myself to eating cooked foods. (This is how crazy it became.) If I ate cooked food ever again, I said I would kill myself! (Hey, it doesn't get any more painful than that, does it?)

As you're probably aware, I did not kill myself. Though, of course, this did not get me to stop eating cooked foods. Negative-based motivation is certainly not the solution to anything. It's only a band-aid solution.

The real solution, as I stated in my most recent "Weird" posting, is inside of you. It's you taking effective control of your emotional, intellectual, and behavioral life. And that really is easy, once you understand the dynamics of it. But having that knowledge, apprehending it, and integrating it, well that's the hard part; because no one is teaching us these skills or giving us this knowledge.

For once you have the knowledge, and you assimilate it into your life, you will get the incredible, invincible, and imperial (how's that for alliteration) results that you want!

You see, we seek control of our own existence. We have a need to feel in control. Why? Because feeling in control brings us pleasure! Yummy.

Yes, feeling in control makes us feel ohhhhhh soooooo good.:-) That's why, e.g., when you're truly good at something, you feel in control; and this has a tendency to bring you pleasure.:-)

When we do something well, such as score the winning goal, close that lucrative deal, or get a "yes" to that marriage proposal, we feel absolutely fantastic! We have this need. It is essential to our well-being. This is why a healthy person seeks to achieve, regardless of how much he already has in life. He wants more, because more makes him feel good. The need for pleasure is built into our nature. And the more (healthy) pleasure we experience in life, the more life seems worth living!

Conversely, the polar opposite is pain. It comes from feeling out of control. That's the nature of all addictions: we're really out of control, yet the addictive behavior is used as a feeble attempt to feel in control. Addictions are merely an unhealthy, destructive way to feel good.

One problem with addictions is that they don't facilitate happiness. They just create more pain. Instead of improving and increasingly one's capacity for joy and happiness, the addiction can get worse; sometimes destroying our lives and/or our relationships in the process. As with all dysfunctional behaviors, the consequences are the opposite of the supposed intentions. We do them because we think (at the time we do them) that they make sense, and that they will make us happy. They don't on both counts.

When we're out of control with our eating, we try to get a sense of control by gorging on junk food. But this only brings temporary pleasure while we're getting our quick fix. Yes, we feel in control during the time we are gorging on that junk. It's only afterwards that we have to deal with the pain of feeling out of control. Take the bulimic person, for example. He/she eats to gain control, then suddenly feels out of control AFTER the bingeing, and then (to regain a sense of control) he/she tries to get rid of the noxious substances! It's a vicious cycle. Binge-purge-binge-purge-binge-purge, etc., etc., etc. What a nightmare.

Similarly, but taken to the extreme of dysfunctional actions, is serial killing. The killer gains a temporary sense of control/pleasure by killing. He may say he does not want to kill. He may know it's wrong. But he is driven to kill nonetheless. He needs to kill. This is how he tries to feel good and get control of his life.

Or how about pedophilia? People feel driven to dominate and have sex with those less powerful. And on and on and on. Again, underlying all of the perversity is the need to feel in control, which is directly correlative to our need for pleasure.

This need can either work for us or against us. It is our choice. Fortunately we can teach ourselves take our need for pleasure and us it to our advantage.

Beth, you mentioned the importance of values, and that is so, so crucial to this issue. The more your values are consistent (as opposed to contradictory), healthy (as opposed to unhealthy), and integrated (meaning you're living them and not just pretending to live them), the greater the likelihood that your thoughts, feelings, and actions will work for you, rather than against you. And these values are not etched in stone. Anyone can, at any time, adopt these healthy values, and start living in accordance with them. They are all consistent with one another, as well as virtuous. Living them brings increasingly greater levels of joy to your life.

And, as I mentioned previously, your emotional life really is the rudder of your ship. (Though this is not to diminish the importance of rational thinking and healthy behaviors.) Nevertheless, the bottom line is that you need to feel deeply to think clearly. You need to know what you're feeling in order to make decisions appropriate to a particular context. This is most often where we err. As is the case with blocked/ repressed emotions: we don't know what we're feeling, and henceforth, we can't possibly know what to (effectively) think.

Yet, if we choose to deal with our negative, repressed emotions, and allow ourselves to simply FEEL them, we can then go into manual override and enable our thoughts and actions to work for us, regardless of our feelings. Our feelings are (ideally) our guide in the decision-making process. Not being aware of them makes us a slave to them. Whereas understanding them helps create the greatest likelihood that we will act in a positive, healthy manner in any given context.

It's important to understand that WE MUST HAVE THE WILL TO KNOW OUR FEELINGS to think rationally. (Do you know why machines can't think? Because they can't feel. They have no feelings. And, to the extent we're cut off from our feelings, we can't think either. And we needlessly suffer accordingly.)

In my case, I let repressed fear and shame essentially rule over important aspects of my life. Both are powerful, destructive motivators. Left to their own devices they will sabotage your attempts to get what you want; as well as
cause to drive healthy people out of your life. That's why we need to know that it is our feelings working against us when our actions conflict with healthy, emotionally-mature values.

Most often, the cause of our pain is that we don't take responsibility for awareness of our emotions. That is, we don't even know that we block out awareness of our emotions. Thus, we don't even know that we're, e.g. afraid; or ashamed; or full of rage and hate; thereby making it all but impossible to consistently act in a healthy manner in those situations involving these emotions. (We need to feel as well as think about our feelings. This is not a difficult process, and it becomes automatic once we develop the simple skills.)

Our lack of awareness, after we do something hurtful, leads us scratch our heads. We're often bewildered as to why we could do such a thing; especially when we say we want something entirely different in our lives. I often hear people say, "What was I thinking?" But the fact is that they were not really "thinking" at all. By not being aware of our emotions, we become a helpless pawn by default.

Just by becoming aware of, and fully feeling our emotion(s), we begin to control (to the extent we develop these skills) of our emotional world.

So how did I get control of my emotional life? Taking greater responsibility for awareness of my inner life. (This actually had nothing to do with the food issue. Though I parlayed what I learned into an across-the-board bonanza!) Once I realized that most of my unhealthy/undesirable actions were primarily the direct result of either repressed fear and/or shame, AND I WAS WILLING TO FEEL EACH AS THEY OCCURRED, I could then begin to recognize my behavioral response patterns - and go into manual override (with my thoughts); permitting me to decide what to do about the emotion, despite my fear and/or the shame. Now I still get these feelings, but I have less and less of them as I mature and grow. And this empowers me to take greater control of my inner life, and thus feel more pleasure.

The point, and I can't emphasize this enough, is that I became acutely aware THAT I WAS (in fact) AFRAID AND/OR ASHAMED at certain, often predictable times and situations. I simply made the conscious effort to know what was truly going on inside of me, and this allowed me to make appropriate actions, despite the unwanted feelings. And what a world of difference it makes

Please understand, these were my issues. Others may have significantly greater/different problems, including fear and shame, but also, e.g., guilt, rage (which is very common), etc. What I'm saying is that you can get control simply by recognizing that it is one, or a combination of, neg. emotions at the heart of your counterproductive, undesirable actions (in any context). Then, BY HAVING THE COURAGE TO KNOW (AND FEEL) YOUR PARTICULAR EMOTIONS, YOU CAN START TAKING MORE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE!

YOU WILL ALSO BEGIN TO DISCHARGE THE PENT-UP FEELINGS INSIDE OF YOU! Thereby allowing yourself to (over time) rid yourself of those feelings; while simultaneously teaching yourself how to manage your emotional world! To the extent you do this, everything in your life changes for the better!

By simply taking greater responsibility for your consciousness, you create a snowball effect that positively affects every aspect of your life! Yes, the solution is, indeed, within you.

Now this is not to suggest that being armed with this knowledge will make you a perfect person. That's not the point. In fact, the nature of life is not to be perfect, but rather, it's to CHANGE AND GROW! This is an never-ending process. Increasing levels of happiness, not perfection, is the goal. Meaningful happiness is the achievement of our highest purpose.

Thus, it isn't really cooked food that is the problem in the life of a 100% raw-fooder-wanne-be. The real issue to be addressed is how we manage our lives. Eating cooked food, when we don't want to do it, is merely a symptom of an inner problem that needs to be dealt with if it is to go away. Thus, eating cooked food really isn't that big of an issue. (People do it every day, even at every meal, and they often live to see another day.) We make it a big issue by how we deal with it. We choose to bring this self-inflicted pain into our lives.

Fortunately, we can make that pain go away. Previously, I have said that I now give myself the permission to eat as much cooked food as I want. Of course, I no longer have the will to do eat any of those things. Time and time again, I have put myself into situations that I formerly would have used as an excuse to blow it - leading me back down a path of cooked-food debauchery and decadence for months on end. (Brown rice, whole-wheat, potatoes, popcorn, etc. were my enemies. Only, I loved my enemies. I couldn't stay away.) But now I'm not the least bit tempted to eat that stuff. I don't want these things anymore. That's the key. If we want them, it will be difficult to stop.

If you truly want to begin or to stop some action, you need to create a strong will within you to motivate yourself to start (or to cease engaging in) an activity. You can create an iron will to do something (or to not do it) that is impervious to temptation. This is something that can be learned. It's a skill, like any other skill. As you practice, you just get better and better. And that skill becomes, over time, second nature. Thus, I think we could say that happiness is a learned skill. It doesn't come without learning how to do it.

This is something that everyone is (theoretically) capable of doing with their own lives. It all starts with having the will to know yourself, having the will to grow as a person, and then taking responsibility for your emotions, your thoughts, and your actions. That happens as a consequence of having the requisite values as I've discussed above (and in other postings over the past few days) on this site. By having some semblance of those values, you attain (as you practice and integrate healthy, virtuous values into your life) the will to know and the will to grow. And you begin to fully understand just how wonderful life can be!

And that's a magnificent feeling!

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

My cravings for food in the evenings went way down when I juiced everyday. After several months, things I loved started to taste bad. Like I used to love deep fried veggie rolls (vietnamese), and now they stink to me. Meat really stinks, and surprisingly, I haven't had icecream for months now!

My video to keep me inspired on my health quest: [www.youtube.com]

i think the worst psychological aspect is definitely the social factor. i mean, it basically seems to boil down to (or perhaps cold steep down to or food process down to) being a minority against a majority. it can make you feel like "society just doesn't understand you" or worse, they just don't care. i get really down about it all sometimes, how sick "society" in general is/can be. Okay, is, as far as the majority. But then, you look back at the olden days in asia/india/egypt where, even back then, vegetarianism in general was usually reserved for the priests only or only followers of certain religions. so, maybe if we can all keep that kind of mindset, and perhaps try and squash any emotional kind of "conformist" tendencies and maybe try a bit harder to keep a strong spiritual/emotional connection within ourselves (and don't tell me any one of you is not veg/vegan/raw foodist for a nonspiritual reason) along with the physical reasonings for raw fooding, then maybe it will be easier. (Thanks, Nic, for posting this question, you totally cheered me up.)

as far as cooked food being addictive, are they carb foods that you're eating? carbs are known to really be truly addictive. the only thing i've found to work for that is like a carb fast for three days (like no bread, hi-starch veggies; not even a drop of sugar (south beach diet-adapted of course) it does seem to help.