Lol...

Okay, but this is really not funny: I think about food ALL THE TIME!!! Anyone else have experience with this? It seems the higher % raw I go, the more I think about food, eating, recipes, etc. I don't think about cooked foods per se, just food in general. I can't live my life like this!! Also, it seems that after I eat cooked food, I don't obsess about food as much for the rest of the day. Is this a sign that I need to add some cooked food to my diet?

Here's my other major problem: my head gets in the way of everything so much that I have major difficulty figuring out what my body wants and what my brain tells me I "should" want. I know that nobody can tell me what my body's saying for me, but...I'm not sure if being on this forum is helping or harming me, because everyone has their own idea of what the ideal diet is, and my little eating-disordered brain gobbles all that info up and turns into a strict set of rules. If fruitarianism is all the rage, then anything I eat that's not fruit is punishable by ED law! Eg. I'm an idiot because I ate a carrot! WHAT?!!! It's a freaking carrot! Not a bad food in the least! It's come to the point that I don't know what I truly feel like eating anymore. Okay, obviously I need to get my issues sorted out, but I suppose I'm just looking for empathy here, someone else who's been through this. Anyone???

Thanks!

Ive been this way (thinking about food all the time) since I was old enough to read. I would only be able to eat while reading my mother's time life 'foods of the world' series, or mother earth news or something like that. I love everything about it and always have. I remember reading about water fasts from old 1960s paperbacks my dad had lying around and doing these things when I was about 10 because it made sense at the time.

I can get a bit orthodox when I am dieting too, but I know it is because I need to exercise a bit of control over my innate inclination to EAT like a hog. I enjoy it and I also enjoy being good to myself. I have over the last month tried to practice intuitive eating...though I tend to cave into my fat desires lately (which I think is my ovaries talking, quite frankly. Period is due soon).

I felt really bad about all the tahina I've eaten...then, once I read the nutrient contents in the stuff I've been craving, realized a theme: My body, which tends to anemia during menses, was craving these things for a reason.

It gave me a ton of comfort knowing this...coz I know know that THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

All the best

Mia

hi enchantress

you have my empathy
nobody is perfect
remember that whatever you feel is valid

if you feel that what other people posted is 'truth"
then it must mean because you resonate with parts of what they are saying

if you feel divided by all the input that you hear
then, that is what you feel

if it confuses you
then it confuses you

however, maybe you can see that despite all the varying amounts of posts
with different perspectives

the thing that unifies all of them
is everyone's sincere desire to gain a level of health
whether it be mental emotional or physical

and in that respect
perhaps the divisions will dissolve

and u can realize that everyone is pretty much on the same page
with just slightly different types of "handwriting"

i hope that helps to ease the confusion
just a little bit

whatever u feel is best for you
at the time
probably is

u have a TON of information here, and with books etc

but ultimately you are your own boss

it is also important not to judge yourself so harshly
u learn from everything

no matter how painful

la_veronique what a BEAUTIFUL POST!

hi my dear friend....i know what you mean and can for sure relate to you!!! i find myself asking these questions often and wonder where to go or turn...i think raw is your journey...you make it your ownand you find what works for you...if you can't decide what works from you cuz you are reading what works for everyone else...then maybe you should stick with a different part of the forum..like the diary section focuses a lot on support no matter what the focus isn't on fruit or greens or fats...it is on going raw and making it work for you and supporting one another...and if that still doesn't work then maybe take a break from it......you have to find what works for you and what you feel is right....so just dig deep and really think on it...i am surey ou will find what is right for you and make it work!!! i am trying.....but it is hard i will tell ya that
love earthangel
xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo

also you don't have to know all the answers overnight
or even in a year

or even for the rest of your life

life is just a series of learning and improvement and more learning and more improvement

it never ends

perfection is not the goal
and neither is learning necessarily

if i knew what the goal was

i would tell you

i think some of the goals come as by products

like someone say, hey.. i wanna do a triathlon

and that may ostensibly seem to be the goal

but then later on, they find out that the "byproducts" were

friendship, courage, resilience, teamwork, etc

and the had no idea that those things would come into the fore

so, like.. sometimes u may not know where you are headed

the important thing is that if you have chosen to be alive

put one foot in front of the other

because that is what live people do

and u will figure it out as u go along

It's not unususal to obsess about food when making the transition to a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet or a raw vegan diet. It takes a lot of energy, focus, time, effort, thinking, reading, unlearning, experimenting to change around the eating/thinking habits of a life time - especially when it involves going against the current of society norms and the ideas we were raised with. This is just my opinion - but my guess is that those who are successful at the raw lifestyle are the ones who allowed themselves to be "swallowed up" for a while. That's how it's been for me - first with vegan and then with raw vegan. You think, obsess, read, etc. - and then you don't.

Good Luck to you!

Life Is Good!

alive!

Thanks everyone!

It's so hard to allow myself to just LET GO, and be with it all. I think I may start posting in the diary section...

hey yay you...looking forward to seeing you in there!!!!
love earth angel
xoxoxoxox