HELP! I'm tempted to give up, but I really don't want to. It's ridiculous though... I'm running out of food to eat after two or three days! I just can't afford this. I live in North Carolina, & there was a terrible drought this year, so farmer's markets don't have much (not that they really sport much of anything organic anyway). I can't grow my own food at this time. And I'm buying organic as much as possible because it seems pointless to me to be eating for one's health, yet eating pesticide-laden &/or gmo foods.

Anyway, I'm constantly hungry. I'm trying to eat as much fresh, raw food as possible, & I'm including dark green leafy veggies, home-made sprouts, seaweed, fresh fruits, etc. If I do wind up eating cooked foods, I'll make sure they're whole & vegan, but I would rather just stick to the raw. It's made me feel fantastic so far (going on a month now). Any ideas, please share! Thanks.

P.S. The reason I believe that cooked food is cheaper is merely that it fills me up faster with a smaller amount of food. My experience, anyway. Thanks again!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2007 06:00PM by wrenbrrd.

You might try eating raw until dinner. You can have cooked brown rice and cooked veggies for dinner. Maybe try this temporarily until your local harvest is more bountiful. Maybe raw nuts and seeds would help?

My thoughts:

Whose ideal are you trying to hold yourself up to? Cut back to an eating level that IS VERY COMFORTABLE for YOU. Slowly increase your intake of fresh raw fruits and vegetables from there. Perhaps 1% per week. Over the course of two years.....you won't even know the difference.

-Remember there are no raw food police. One foot in front of where you are comfortable NOW is the path for YOU. Eating the best things that YOU know.

-What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I hear ya on the price of food. It's a struggle for me financially. I don't buy any "superfoods." But, I try and buy organic when I can afford it.

Sometimes I just go to the regular grocery store and buy commercial produce.

At first, I got hungry a lot too. I felt like I needed to eat really often to feel satisfied. I think I need less volume now that my body has adjusted.

I'm sorry you're feeling down about things. Hang in there and just do the best you can.

Lee

I agree with David on this one, life is way too short to be trying to do something that your not wanting to do,but then again if it's something you wanna do then roll ya sleeves up and make do with what you got....

Chances are if your eating a bunch of food you may be dealing with some emotional issues or your comfort eating, next time you feel hungry go out and workout in the park or go for an intense walk/hike, pick something you love doing and get active, I bet that hunger goes away!!!!

Anyway be good!

F1

Bananas are pretty cheap and good to fill up on. We buy them buy the box. and stores often mark down the perfectly ripe ones because to most people they are overripe. My friends and I refer to them as the raw foodist's rice. (staple item, filling, soothing, cheap)

Love,
Uma

WOW! Y'all are GREAT! I love you! These are awesome responses. I just took a huge breath of relief! I admit, I AM quite the perfectionist (not just about eating habits either), & tend to get hard on myself for not being pure right away. Two years of adjusting sounds good to me. And yes, I'm sure I do eat out of comfort & such... I've dealt with an eating disorder for much of my life. Probably why I'm feeling extra desperate to do well in a short amount of time with the raw food. The short time I've been raw, I've lost weight & feel amazing to boot! So I want to make sure I'm still having mostly raw foods. Tonight, I went to a vegan potluck & wound up eating some cooked foods. I don't feel terrible, but I don't feel light & healthy like I have on raw. Once I get a food processor & juicer & can make my own smoothies & juices, I think things'll get easier. This one woman made a smoothie out of apples, bananas, blueberries, agave, & nutmilk. It was divine!

Think I'm also feeling extra hungry because I nurse my son. I've read that uses from an extra 300 to 500 calories a day. He's 18 months old, & I'm going to let him nurse til he wants to wean, which could wind up being anywhere from 6 months to a year & a half longer. And exercise actually makes me hungrier, I've found. I mean, I'll still go on hikes & walks, & there's the daily workout of keeping up with the kid, but I have to balance it with enough food, ironically.

Thanks again for your incredible replies! They are a tremendous help!

Namaste!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2007 02:52AM by wrenbrrd.

Aloha Wren, You are so right! The people on this board are wonderfully helpful and supportive. Be kind to yourself. Draw on the strength that you have developed through dealing with the eating disorder... try to focus on and celebrate how amazing you feel when you eat more raw. It sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now... raising your baby and consciously transforming your life. I would say you are doing great. David Z and the fruitarianone are so right... take small steps, but always move forward towards your goals. Your son is blessed to have a mother who is so motivated to make a positive change. Your heart is in the right place and it will take you far. You can do it!!

Aloha Nui Loa, Greg

I can't afford organic, and since produce prices have increased significantly, I find myself buing more of what's on sale than what I would choose if price were not an object.

Yesterday I bought 8 lbs of honey crisp apples because they were cheap. And no romaine, because it was $1.89/lb.

Asian stores are usually cheap.

That's the way it's going to be, until I have more money.

Arugula, do you feel much different eating non vs. organic produce?

Do you take any extra care with it, like washing it with hydrogen peroxide or...?

Keep going you are doing great! Just been reading your journal

do what is comfortable for you right now

Keep an eye out for offers (not sure if the US have a big thing on fruit and veg like we have in UK?- good selection of Half price fruit and veg in all major supermarkets changed weekly orangic and conventional)

or buy whats cheapest per pound

whats in season and local is usually cheapest and fresh!

Banana's are a good staple

I am eating a lot of the following at the moment because they are cheap and seasonal

Pumpkin
Pomegranates
Sharon Fruits
Local apples

It will soon be Orange season- lots of upportunity for mono eating and feasting there

Wishing you all the best with your journey hun

aquadecoco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Arugula, do you feel much different eating non vs.
> organic produce?
>
> Do you take any extra care with it, like washing
> it with hydrogen peroxide or...?

No, I never felt any difference. If I could wave a magic wand and make all herbicide and pesticide use for produce go away, I would. But it's generally too expensive for me.

I don't take extra care with conventional, I just give it a quick rinse under the sink with tap water. I figure it's way better to eat fresh unprocessed f+v which will provide some protection against the trace amounts of foreign substances that are present.

Also I've been working in a micro lab with potentially pathogenic organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, I'd say my exposure is pretty high compared to the general population and I don't stress over most things at all, especially compared to my coworkers. I feel strongly that my diet protects me much more than most people's diets do. I don't feel invincible, just that I have better immune defenses. Also there's that hormesis thing: a little bit of exposure to a bad thing can sometimes be good for you. It depends on the specific thing.

Maybe this is mind over matter. Most people, the more they learn, the more they worry. I am going in the opposite direction. I worry less!

I never used to bother with washing produce, unless it was convenient and sometimes people commented on my lack of hygiene there. But I felt as you do, that the power and goodness in it well-compensated me for the chems in it.

I was wondering on Wren's behalf, since I still think it makes more sense to eat it, organic or not.

Hi wrenbrrd,

Perfectionism...why must some of us do that to ourselves? So you are not eating perfectly pure, oh well.
But dont give up. You can only do what you can do. And you can still progress. How many things in the world have not gone perfectly but have still made headway?

I understand frustration when things are not as you think they should be. Just be a crazy wrenbrrd and proceed anyway!

I wish you all the luck in the world.
Kit

hey, i'm nursing too. i don't try to conquer my need for food right now, the demands on me are too great. my babe is only wee still though and only nursing, it lightens up a bit when babe starts to go for real food at least once every day.

a good aid is to use a nutrition tracking site like fitday.com to see if you're meeting your needs and where you may be missing something. your body will send you hunger signals until it gets what it needs, even if you aren't really all that hungry. i think this is one of the reasons obesity is so wide-spread, people eating and eating nutritionally deficient foods and their bodies telling them too keep eating until they get the vitamins and minerals they need. lots of calories with very little value.
not that you aren't eating well, just an example of where hunger messages may be coming from.

one thing that i remind myself of often is to focus on the good that i AM doing rather than the things that i'm not doing. what i don't do doesn't matter, it isn't happening, it doesn't exist and worrying about it won't make it so. but focusing on the positives, paying attention to the good, to the things that ARE happening can really keep me in that mindset and keep me on track. every little thing that you do for yourself is a step forward. it's impossible to travel backwards so just keep going.

DZM said something like this one time and it stuck with me. make your goal to improve every day and every year. if you aim to improve even 1% a year, an easily reachable goal, you've make a step forward and you continue to do so every year. it only gets better.

there's a good little guide here on which fruits and veg have the most and least pesticides. (scroll down a bit)

[www.foodnews.org]

I detect a soul mate in Wren as I'm a perfectionist too. Or at least attempt to be one. Let me share some of my favorite lyrics from Sting's first solo album:

"I've spent too many years at war with myself. The doctor has told me its no good for my health. To search for perfection is all very well, but to look for Heaven is to live here in Hell."

What I keep telling my aging Sainted Mother is true in your case as well. You can only do what you can only do. If you create goals that are too high with regard to eating 100% raw, you're setting yourself up for failure.

Gotta say once again how much I appreciate David Zane Mason's comments. Do only what you can. One positive step a day is a marvelous change for the better and after you've adopted this simple mindset life will become easier.

Let me echo what everyone else has been saying. Hang in there, be positive, and take small measures to improve. You CAN do it!

David

The people expressing their experiences, support and well wishes are the reason this is my number 1 favorite website for health..they are the best! They aren't selling anything, they aren't pushing anything, they simply do their best with regard to their health issues, and help give to others so that they also may experience the good life. It starts from the very top here, from the owner to webmaster to the members, with high ethics, common sense, and lots of love!

Wrenbrrd, you are now on what could be your most productive journey! You will find your way, step by step.

Try finding a co-op where you can get bulk raw foods for very inexpensive, many times organic. Eating things that are bulky with lots of water also help a lot in the beginning, apples, oranges, pears, watermelon, celery and nut butter, etc. as they will fill you up and stay with your longer. Try to not eat until you've digested what you ate. Drink plenty of water, have some warm herbal teas, it's great time to experiment with different healing teas.

There is a lot of waste also that occurs at first too, since you are just learning perhaps how to store and eat the stuff you buy. A blender is the best first option since the foods you put in it are somewhat still intact just broken down. Fruit smoothies, green smoothies are great for added calories and quick fixes for hunger and helps with having less waste since you can blend many of the veggies along with some fruits.

I hope you like sea veggies, since you are nursing, you could try eating more of t those like adding powdered kelp into your smoothie, even it's only 1/4 teaspoon, & there are other sea veggies you can make like using nori wraps for large raw food vegetarian burritos.

Love,
Prism

Once again, fabulous responses, advice, & lots of love from all! Thank you so much! I'm going to keep all of this in mind! And Diamond Dave... love the quote! So true! That's one that has to be written down in my personal journal. Thanks.