Hi, I'm new here. I've been a raw foodist (eating mostly veggies and fruits, very little nuts) for three years and I was very happy and successful. I looked good and had lots of energy. I even lost weight!
Lately, however, I have been cheating on my diet. I've been eating (binging) on processed foods. My cheating got worst and worst and it turned into a binge. I even had a punishment for it. I gained twenty pounds! I'm really ashamed of it. ONe thing I noticed is that I feel so tired after eating. (guess it's from the toxins of the carbs from the bread, muffins, etc.)
I really want to get back on track but I don't know why my mind keeps calling me to eat carbs (cake, bread, cookies, etc.) It's driving me nuts. It's like I have a psychological disorder in which the bread, processed foods keep calling out to me. I sometimes binge up to 5000 calories a day!! Again, I feel so ashamed. I was doing so well. Things were looking so good until it backslided. I was very upset at this and I was wondering if anyone have any ideas about this. I'm extremely interested in how to get back on track. Thank you for reading this long and tedious post.

This "psychological disorder" as you describe it is the return of cooked food addiction, which is a very strong addiction. When you eat grains (which are very strongly addictive) you just want to keep eating more and more until you are ready to burst.
The best thing to do is break the addiction again, but slowly.

You have identified that the food you are eating now is bad and is having adverse effects on your body, thats a good first step.

The next thing you need to do is start changing your meals back to Raw (as many as you feel comfortable with) Start with breakfast. Eat 1 raw meal a day, later move to 2 raw meals and day and so on.

The good thing is you've done this before so you know how to live on Raw what to expect and how good you feel when you eat Raw.

Get the processed junk out of the house if you can.

Keep an abundence of fresh fruit around to snack on if you need to.

Slowly stop eating grains, start by cutting out any pasta, then cut bread way down.

Return to your Raw food diet.

Take small steps forward though, the cooked food addiction has a hold on you now, you just need to ween yourself off it. Set goals, put them in a calendar.

You can do it! Everyone on here will support you, feel free to post your progress or just talk things out on this board. It helps to be linked in with a community like this.

Best Wishes and good luck!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2006 02:21PM by jadedshade.

Thanks, phil, for your support. I was crying everyday because of this. I lost my flat stomach due to the binging. I lost my energy. I don't want to sound preachy but this diet is like a religion to me. It's my heart and soul and when I go against it, I feel terrible. It is like I've lost a part of me. I've been struggling since October and I hope I can get back on track though it is a constant struggle 24/7 since the carbs keep calling me.

Replace the bad carbs with good carbs. Excercise, meditation do whatever it takes just start seeing those cooked grains as poison again.
Dump the stress over this and gain focus and clarity and you will be flying along again in no time.
It certainly isn't easy, but you know first hand that it is well worth it.

I can't count how many times I have failed when trying to eat 100% raw you just have to stick with it. This experience should strengthen your resolve when you get back to eating raw.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2006 02:39PM by jadedshade.

I will remember your words, phil. I didn't have the support from my family or friends. They were like "You're too thin. It's good you gained weight." but the thing is they don't understand what raw food means to me. I'm glad I can get some support.

People are so acustomed to seeing overweight people that they think anyone healthy is too thin. People have told me that I ave lost too much weight before I just say "I am sorry my weight loss and healthy lifestyle disturbs you".

It's all about how you feel. Ask them "If it's good that I've gained 20 pounds why do I feel like crap? I bet they don't have an answer for that one.

Phil.

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

"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it" (Chinese Proverb)

Slim,

Here are some ideas.

When something is forbidden, you naturally have a tendency to want to try it. When you try it, you tend to feel bad, because it was forbidden. (In the case of diet, the feeling is exhaserbated because food itself can influence mood / feeling of well-being.) When you feel bad, you are less likely to adhere to the prohibition. The downward spiral begins.

One important feature of the spiral is the prohibition. If cooked food was not forbidden and you tried it, you would not feel so bad about trying it. So, one solution is to make cooked food not forbidden.

I know this sounds counterintuitive. But it can work. To go raw, you have to allow yourself anything, including cooked junk food.

Whenever you eat, remember to be mindful of what you are doing. Again, do not forbid yourself anything and do not punish yourself for anything. Simply observe what you are doing. Be mindful when you are preparing the food, when you are putting it on a plate, when you are eating it. Also, be mindful afterwards. How does it make you feel, both mentally and physically? Do you have more energy or less? Do you feel better or worse? Is your weight moving toward or away from healthy weight? And so on.

Do not think you did anything wrong, do not punish yourself. You are simply conducting an experiment. You will eat something and then see the effects. It is almost like a scientific experiment.

Then, the next time you are about to eat, remember how this or similar food made you feel in the past. Is this the same way you want to feel now? That's all.

Again, much of your distress seems to be caused by the way you look at things. Do not forbid yourself things in your mind. When you are ready, simply decide to eat a raw meal this one time. You are still open to eating cooked in the future, so there is no prohibition. But this one time, you are eating raw.

As for the weight issue, simply monitor your BMI. Is it in the healthy range?

You also mentioned you had carb cravings. Did you try eating more sweet fruit? If the texture is wrong, what about making a raw recipe that has the right texture?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2006 03:35PM by James Smith.

I agree with the post above. I don't consider cooked foods like whole grains and legumes and sweet potatoes and steamed veggies to be poison and I don't say "never" but rather "rarely" or "not so often". If I want a bean burrito I will have one. But things like that are only a very small part of my diet.

Thank you all for your support. My concern is not so much of the "cooked" foods but the junk I'm craving. It's the cookies, cakes, muffins, bread, pizza, etc. that's driving me crazy physically and mentally. I was a healthy athlete until I started eating them. I keep trying to go back to complete raw food but keep failing. I think I'll follow Phil's idea of slowly adding the raw food back in my diet. I just want to get the stubborn weight off. It's so frustrating!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2006 04:01PM by SlimLadyRunner.

Hey Slim, I can totally relate to you. I have only been raw for the last 6 months but I was on a downward spiral for the last month until two days ago!!

I always knew I had a sugar addiction...even on raw foods I constantly binged on raw granola, figs, dates...anything sweet. And forget about when I started cheating! I was up to 3 KING size packs of M&Ms!

However two days ago I found this book, "Potatoes not Prozac" It made me realize that I don't have a sugar addiction...its just my body is sugar sensitive...causeing me to go on binges, feeling depressed at times and most off all...being Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!!

This book has made me realize that my body chemistry is off and how to fix it. I think it can help you.

Remeber: Fall 7 times...get up 8!

So what you gained 20 pounds...it prob mostly water weight that you can loose in 2 months. By the way...do u run ( from your screename)? I run also...I am training for the nyc marathon...talk about gaining muscle weight!

Love you,
Jamie

Here's my two cents.

Cravings are often indicative of something else going on in the body, in your life. Particularly sugar and salt cravings. Are you getting enough essential minerals from seaweeds, algae, chlorella and other such sea plants, which are very high in minerals ( which should offset your salt craving)? If you are eating raw, living foods sugars, from fruits and vegetables, then you surely should not have sugar cravings - unless you haven't been eating enough raw foods. Are you dealing with excessive stress in your life now, which can easily deplete both essential minerals and sugars?

Additionally, one of the early signs of dis-ease in the body is precisely the craving for salts and sugars. For example, at HHI's prgram, NO sugar is truly allowed, even from fruits, and NO SALT is used except for bathing in mineral salts. HHI's program has been successful for many years. I would urge you to investigate Brian Clements and Gabriel Cousins books and work extensively.

Personally, for immediate remedy I would recommend a very strict non-salt (except bathing in Himilayan bath salts and eating seaweeds), non-essential sugar cleanse for several weeks. I would also consider having my blood, hormone and liver levels tested. Something is going on - the body never lies to you. It speaks very clearly, very clearly.

Sugar and salt cravings are not a sign, in my opinion, of addiction to cooked foods. They are a sign of the body falling out of homeostatic balance.

Blissed be,

Annie

Anne Kaspar
BodyByBliss.com
bodybybliss@gmail.com
505.690.0169

Maybe you were becoming deficient in something after three years of being on your diet. Are you eating enough greens (for minerals)?

Enter your typical (raw) diet on fitday or nutritiondata.com and see where you are lacking and modify your diet accordingly.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Who says you failed? ANY move to a healthier diet is a tremendous success. Take the advice in the blogs above and move on. Don't let your "perfectionism" cause you to stop.

Remember doing the raw food "thing" imperfectly will still bless your body.

Give yourself more time. Allow yourself to be imperfect for now and celebrate the raw food you do eat. Praise yourself when you do well and forget the rest. Perfectionism is a nasty devil in our lives that we must address. Otherwise we may never finish anything we start.

Are you a perfectionist as it sounds to me?

Agree with comments above, all good ideas in there. Look at this in the way that feels best for you. As I said previously dump the stress and focus on what you want.
In other words and as mentioned above, stop punishing yourself over this.

I guess looking at certain foods as poison is a little extreme (as mentioned above), but I can only speak from my own personal experience and that has helped me. In a lot of cases I guess it's not so much looking at it like it's poison as it is considering how fresh the food is, what is in it, how it will make me feel, etc. Then considering a good alternative that is heathier and better for my body.
Do what you think will work best for you.

Phil.

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

"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it" (Chinese Proverb)

I've binged a lot, it's discouraging. Just start again at the next meal, is there anything else you can do but start again? You don't want to go back to cooked all the time, you logically know how bad that is. Good luck!

SlimLadyRunner,

There is nothing tedious about your posts, in fact, it is an excellent post, because you are having difficulty with the diet, and there are a lot of folk who have been where you are now.

Could you give us some examples of what your daily raw menu looked like, so we can see if there were any problem areas?

Thanks.

There is no failure, just the things we learn when trying to succeed.

Thanks for making this post... it has helped me allot, hearing such great suggestions of what to do when I "fall off" the path :-)

Could someone explain what "HHI's program" is? Please remember some of us are fairly new to some of the abbreviations used.

;o)

Judy

HHI = Hippocrate Health Institute ? [www.hippocratesinst.org]

"HHI = Hippocrate Health Institute ? [www.hippocratesinst.org]"

Thanks!

Judy

Dear Slim Lady Runner,

I sent you a private message on this topic.
Go look!

Jackie

SlimLadyRunner,


Don't get your self down, leave it to me. That is what I do best. I am a lot like you however I didn't last 3 years.. I lasted 9 days lol. I've been raw for 3 weeks. Not 100% And each day after these 3 weeks gets harder and harder and I turn to convenient snacks like pudding and dorito's and take out subs. Tisk tisk. I want to make new years a fresh start, so I've been all panicked because I want a food dehydrator to help me so I can make meals that look like meals. Not just salads and veggie platters all the time. I used to make smoothies to substitute meals but I quickly ran out of ingredients (fresh produce doesn't last long) and I panic.
I remember having 6 pears in the fridge and 3 days later they were mushy in the bag. What a waste. I cut off all the mushy parts but there wasn't much left of the pears lol. Anyways.. I struggle to. All I can say is don't give up. I haven't!

I planned out my food today. For breakfast, I'll have around 1100 calories by the end of the day mostly of fruits and vegetables (but mostly fruits.) I'll continue to slowly move away from processed foods. Forgive me for doing it slowly cos' I realized that if I do it all at once, I'll just backslide again. I tried over 10 times.
I was wondering if I have 1000 calories a day with exercise, how many pounds can I lose in a month? Any thoughts?

SlimLadyRunner
I think i would think of whatyou have done , 3 yrs.
You know you can do it, that is who you are.
You have done what few can do.
For a time now that has 2 be reaffirmed.
Perhaps someone or something has tested strenght
in you lately.

What i put in my mind.
myself i had my body try and get sick. I know who my friends
are. I have my revenge on my body with carrots, celery, etc.

> Any thoughts?

I don't think you should try to lose more than 1/2 lb per week. Slow and steady wins the race. Emphasis on steady.

I also think it would be prudent to make sure you meet all your vitamin, mineral, essential amino and fatty acid needs. You'll be less likely to run into problems this way.

Popcorn is a great food to help with cravings. I read a post by DZM where he said that he ate loads of popcorn while transitioning, ever since then I've been eating popcorn loaded with whatever spices and sauces I feel cravings for, it's much better than giving into to the cravings totally.

I DON'T feel toxic, bloated and heavy the next day, it's almost like I didn't cheat. Popcorn is mostly air so you can eat it forever without getting full!

I want to be completely fruitarian again.

i agree about the popcorn...... i like to make kettle corn wtih ginger, red cheyenne, cloves or all spice sometimes.... it REALLY meets a cooked food need.....

i used maple sugar in it too with some salt if i am REALLY craving unhealthy chocolate sometimes... or ot get me past a craving for toast with jam....

tiff n twins