These days I am back on full raw vegan diet and I really feel the difference. I have Energy throughout the day, my brain works fine - the feeling is great. What I find one of the greatest benefits, the greatest one for me, is that when I am only eating what is natural for humans, I feel the Ether and I am so much more in touch with myself and the Universe and the Creator.

On the other hand, I realized fully, undoubtedly, that I am a processed food addict and that, even though I am blessed with the will power to resist the body temptations, I will forever be a former addict. Fortunatelly, with time, I learned (often paying the price) that the satisfaction of eating the processed food (including some 'benign' stuff, like proccessed veggies) comes with a price that I am no longer willing to pay. Mind plays tricks trying to justify the use of processed foods JUST LIKE THE MIND OF A JUNKY DOES. There is no difference whatsoever. I have been able to stop smoking (long time ago) and the struggle is the same. Thankfully I have never had drugs problem, but I know how alcoholics behave and that is very, very similar. Also, I can clearly see that most of the people on SAD actually behave like addicts.

The SAD "tradition" is nothing but a cult of using chemicals that come from the processed food as stimulants. The processing of the food may have been a survival factor in the past but has long time ago become something totally different, it is obsolete and a big burden for the survival of the human race.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 03:43PM by rab.

Great goal, not one I am seeking. GrandMa's soup is ok sometimes. Food has a social and cultural dimension.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 04:31PM by RawPracticalist.

I'm glad you have found these truths about yourself, rab. I wish you continued success

rab, excellent.

Can you tell us a little bit more about before and after? Both what you were eating... what you are eating now and what difference it made in how you feel?

Paul

yes like the previous post from paul, it would be nice to hear about your tranition to raw vegan. What you used to eat, what you eat now,

It's lovely to hear how you feel now it's a good aim to work for. I am enjoying my transition journey, learning alot about myslef along the way

Thanks for sharing your experience x

I am pretty much right where you are rab.
And thats neat you know what "ether " is.

Be willing to let go of thinking of yourself as a former "addict".

eaglefly, I think that a 'former addict' is a good way to talk about it. It has all the elements of addiction. Also, for some people it may be easier to fight this addiction so they don't think it is a big deal, but it is.

pborst and gems, I wrote here a little bit about my transition:

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

Due to different reasons I have not been on 100% raw vegan for over a year now. These are the things I notice when you switch back to 100% raw vegan:

- Silent energy. Yesterday I drove two long drives in not such a good traffic, completed some frustrating things, came home and was ready to go, do stuff around as if nothing happened. My head was still clear, I was calm. I would say that calmness is one of the rewards from this diet. It is not an artificial calmness, a trained one, it simply comes from within and takes your whole body and thoughts.
- I just LOVE the meditative aspect of the diet. I like researching scientific things (Tesla and similar stuff) and raw vegan diet makes you have this freshness of thoughts and ability to imagine, picture things which is the best way of understanding and planning.
- Perspective of life is changed, some very serious changes with my life plans occurred. I only need a piece of land where I can grow stuff, small alternative energy source and I can now live 'of the grid' much easier. Because of this I have made some major changes in my life like deciding to grow my own food and live of it.
- (you may be grossed out, quit here):
Bathroom is the main indicator - extra stuff comes out more often and you almost don't need bathroom tissue. But going to bathroom is such a simple task now, no effort required

There are many more things to say, like most of you know. I view the whole society through different eyes now. I have also learned about the history, how today's farming world replaced the old, natural, permaculture oriented human groups. This is a hidden history of the world - I come from a farming background, dating many generations back. The further back in history we go, the healthier they lived.

So, changing the diet is a very, very important thing and I never, never expected it would change me so much.

Hell yeah for this thread!

There is nothing quite like a raw food high.

And you're so right about the mind playing tricks on you to fool you into eating cooked foods, I have to fend off my inner cooked demon more often than I'd like. Though thats not to say there can't be a raw demon also Sometimes I have pushed myself to ridiculous limits just to say Ive been 100% raw, when really the mental stress that's caused has likely been more destructive than had I just had that particular (and pretty damn healthy by SAD eaters standards) meal in the first place.

to rab... thanks for the posts... what was your old typical diet like? and what is your typical diet now? Just interested

Also, how long ago did you start your raw food journey?

YES YES !!!! it is ALL about 100% my friends ! ! ! It is just like the delusion of a drug addict. You know, they always say they can handle doing a little bit, oh just one hit of crack at night and I'll be fine. When in reality they just can't let it go. Same with food. People have some sense of comfort they choose not to let go of. When you let go of addictions/comforts, you make room for new healthier fixations. Like instead of me eating 2 bags of fast food and feeling FULL! now i eat a HUGE salad bowl full of tasty salad. Raw is deep....but one can't truly feel and understand without trying 100% for an extended period of time. When i say 100% It means eating properly....not handfuls of raw nuts.

The Raw Lion 440 pounds to 225 pounds!

Congratulations. You look great!! What an inspiration!

Paul

gems, my old diet was meat and bread based. I ate homemade bread, a lot of it, drank a lot of coffee, ate processed food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I did have some healthy habits, I always liked fruit for instance, I could eat huge quantities of it. But, I got to 255lb and had high blood pressure and heart rate.

I now try to eat organic, but it is not always possible. My family is on SAD and that puts some pressure on my diet also. I try to eat 80-10-10 approximately, but I do not keep close track on that, don't have that luxury. I eat grapefruit every day as I find it is one of the foods that makes me feel full. I also like all the tropical fruit and I always try to get it at reasonable price. I like seeded grapes, even unseeded if they are sweet, but organic ones are expensive and I was told that grapes are the most polluted fruit so I don't eat them as much as I used to. I put lemon in my salads, eat a couple of avocados a day, sesame seed with honey, I love walnuts but I also eat pecans...etc. Nothing very special, add some tomato salad, cabbage (I prefer cabbage to lettuce), adding cold pressed olive oil, lemon and sea salt to the salad makes it taste great. Since I make my salads myself, I don't do such a great variety but I am working on it.

A remaining challenge is to have a good sleeping schedule and to be more active, which I am also working on.

thank you rab for that sounds amazing... it gives me inspiration to hear your story

keep up the good work xx

"There is nothing quite like a raw food high."

That is exactly what I wanted to say, WanderRA. You summed it up with few words. I want to live the rest of my life being high on raw foods.

Abut 'fending off inner cooked demon' (hehe, no wonder 'normal' people think we are nuts), I think it's very hard to succeed if we live a SAD type of life. All the media, TV, family, friends, our own habbits since we were babies, lead us towards the same old same old. We are obviously a mentally strong kind, but most of us (me for example) are not THAT strong.

Speaking of 'raw food high' (you should copyright this), there are so many moments, but one of my favourite is before sleep. Just lying in bed and enjoying the state of mind for which I still cannot find adequate word ('lucid' is too rational) - I would like to have this feeling as long as I live.

---------------------------------------------------------

RAWLION, I totally agree with the comparison to 'crack' - I don't think SAD is 'like' a drug addiction, I think it IS a real addiction to chemical components, same as drug addiction. God forgive me, but I look at the whole world as a bunch of addicts, with customs and rituals built around processed food consumption. I could write many books on this topic only.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 07:46AM by rab.

following on rab from your last point about 'addicts'... i agree, and the diffence i think between food addictions and drugs/etc... is that we HAVE TO EAT... therefore we have to think about food every day, and del with food every day, where as with other addictive substnaces you have to cut them out completly.. so i think in some ways food addictions are very hard to deal with but we can get to where we want to be just keep checking in to how we feel, and what works for us individually i look forward to some 'raw food highs'

I feel great on a raw diet too. But one thing I noticed is that raw people tend to make of their diet one of the most important things in their life. Some look obsessed and think they world is against them. It is great to want to be healthy but there are other great things in life too. How would one of this persons feel if they got terminally ill? Isn't obsessing about health an irony since we all will die one day? The body is perishable

100 % raw is very difficult to sustain, most cannot sustain it for a long time especially when you did not grow up that way, it is unnecessary suffering.

Panchito Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...one thing I
> noticed is that raw people tend to make of their
> diet one of the most important things in their
> life. Some look obsessed and think they world is
> against them. It is great to want to be healthy
> but there are other great things in life too...

This is true, I think, when starting out with any new endeavor. It is something that you think about a lot, try hard at and spend a lot of time getting comfortable with, fine tuning, figuring out. That eases off when you find a routine that's comfortable and becomes second nature. If it doesn't, it might be time to re-evaluate where your head space is at and make an effort to move on to the next thing in your life you're working to accomplish. If it doesn't fit seamlessly into your life, if it doesn't just become part of your lifestyle, if it stays a chore that must be worked at and takes up a lot of mental effort... that's possibly a clue that it isn't working quite right for you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 04:19PM by coco.

madinah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 100 % raw is very difficult to sustain, most
> cannot sustain it for a long time especially when
> you did not grow up that way, it is unnecessary
> suffering.

I'm not sure. I agree some nutrients like lycopene are better absorbed when cooked. But then there are higher sources of these nutrients like watermelon than tomato. Not sure how much suffering goes with being 100 percent raw (I'm not, but am thinking about it). Most of these folks are glowing, even in winter.

Paul

Pbort the reason you are not 100 percent raw is because ... ? unnecessary suffering !!!
There is not a single case of somebody being 100 percent for 20 or 30 years, none.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 04:39PM by madinah.

madinah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pbort the reason you are not 100 percent raw is
> because ... ? unnecessary suffering !!!
> There is not a single case of somebody being 100
> percent for 20 or 30 years, none.

I assume you mean 100 percent raw for 20 or 30 years. Madinah, how do you know that? Even if it were true, you are contending past is prologue? Suppose it is 15 years for argument sake, if we make 20... what does that mean? How are people who are doing 100 percent for 5 or 10 years which there many of doing? Let's ask.

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 04:52PM by pborst.

There are so many other steps to take to keep us healthy, 100 percent raw is not reachable let's be realistic and focus on the goals that are reachable like organic foods, exercise, fasting, controlled eating, chewing properly, attentive eating, and more.

Madinah,

Why do you believe that 100 percent raw is not reachable?

Paul

i think its up to the individual, and whats right for them. every one is at a different stage of their raw food journey, i don't think we should focus on 100% raw, but focus on what feels right each day and enjoy the process

and i agree with not letting it take over your life its just awareness of what we are putting into our bodies to become healthier, happier, more peaceful human beings

I'm not striving for 100 percent raw myself. But I've thought about 90 percent. And I'm sure I could reach that in a split second if I wanted to because I've been doing 80. And by percent, I mean weight. Calorie percentage might be lower because cooking concentrates calories. So, I'm 80 percent raw by weight and maybe 60 to 70 percent raw by calories. I'd like to up it.

Just the same, I have no reason to think 100 percent raw is not reachable/attainable. My question is whether not it is optimal. But many people on this board, I think have been doing it for 5 years or longer (100 percent raw weight and calories) and do not seems to be suffering. Certainly within this raw vegan community this is true. How about Clement, Wolfe, Cousins... 100 percent raw? who is and who isn't and for how long? anyone know?

Storm Talifero has been a raw-vegan for over 30 years.
11 Year 100% Raw Food Eater Matt Monarch.

There are those out there doing it. It's not for me though, there's a balance to be struck when living in a Northern climate. Do I want to eat a sustainable, local diet or do I want to stock my fridge and cupboards with stuff that has to burn fuel to fly half way around the globe to get to me in winter time? Moderation, that's my aim.

To be 100 percent raw you must live on raw fruits and veggies, nuts are not always raw. You will be consumed by making sure the food is raw that you may not have real peace of mind.
I need a cup a hot tea it is too cold here, I will say more later.

Gabriel Cousens has been 100% raw vegan since the early 80's. Its easy if you give up. its hard if you hold on. much like life!
If you care about other people, then it is most helpful to not make up fake facts like nobody has been 100% for 20 or 30 years. Your falseness is your lack of understanding.

Coco, MM has been raw even longer, I think. Maybe 13 years. His wife has been 100% for a long time, too. Very impressive. However...I don't know what inspired MM so much to stick with it so long. As far as I know, he never had the sort of chronic health issues that Victoria B. and others had. Angela, I can see, because she had weight issues.

There was a time I believed it was 100% or bust. And guess what? I never even tried because of it! It seemed like such a daunting goal that I didn't even bother to try. According to some people, anything less is worthless.

What cured me of that silliness was watching a DVD by Alicia Cohen. She demonstrated dishes that were pretty gourmet. I looked at this and thought to myself: this is madness. Who is going to actually spend so much time each day making such elaborate dishes? And the kicker was that she says in her book that she usually just eats a bunch of fruit and doesn't even use the dehydrator! I used to want a dehydrator and now am seriously reconsidering. I think it might be more logical to eat simple high-raw things (fruits, veggies and dips) and bake the few cooked items that I eat.

One of the things that helped me is that I cannot trick myself - I realized that I felt better not eating anything rather than eating processed food, most of the times. Processed food simply does very little for me, except if there is really nothing raw in the house - but even then, if it is one day or so, it is better to stay hungry.
This is not a fanatic speaking, this is just plain experience. Often I wished this weren't so.