I've been doing raw off and on for the last bunch of years, and now the sum of my experiences has me believing in swearing off cooked food like an alcoholic off alcohol. I read awhile ago Victoria Boutenko's 12 Steps To Raw Food, and reread recently an excerpt online (available in the "peek inside" at Amazon) that shows why it works better, etc.. And I really do feel that way, that cooked food is an addiction and one could argue it's different than being a crack addict because it isn't that harmful, but I disagree. It's how you use something, not what you use, that determines the amount of harm, from one perspective. I'm tired of living in addiction. And with a nursing baby, things loom larger and more grounded than my fly-away ideals, not to diss my ideals...

Just want to express that I guess and to hear from any of you your own perspectives, especially if you agree, of course, hee hee :~)

I did also read in a library book on raw by Carol Alt about "naming your exceptions" if you need them so you don't freak out and feel limited, but I'm hard-pressed to find specific ones...but maybe chocolate, but I'd rather just go "wholehog" (oo, where did that expression come from) and not turn to shtuff but rather to Spirit, woahho. I felt recently that that's what a lot of addiction comes down to, a turning away...but that's new for me...

Blessings (though now thinking more about where they come from)

Adrienne

Hi, Adrienne!

I TOTALLY agree with you! It took me a while to fully understand how much any cooked or processed "food" is addictive. I used to think that word was too extreme or dramatic but now I know how addictive and poisonous it all really is. I didn't know how hooked I was physically/mentally/emotionally on all that stuff until I really, seriously tried to quit it all.

Wow. Was it hard! It was the hardest thing I've ever done to let go of all of that stuff. I, too, felt like a hard-core drug addict. Sometimes it is still a challenge but it is so worth it. The rewards are truly the greatest in the world.

Now, when people try to tempt to to eat some of their poison I tell them that I am just like a heroin addict who finally got off heroin and feel clean and healthy and great and now they want me to get back on the smack! Ha, ha. They get the message then.

And I know from experience that even just one bite of something seemingly "innocent" can lead to a very destructive pattern. I'm with you. 100% is the way.

Thanks for this post. This is a very important subject. And I can tell you that it is awesome to feel free from all addictions. How many people in our modern world can say that? How many people are truly free???

Good for you, Adrienne! You go, girl!

Love,
Julie

wow, thank you for your message! I'm gonna go for it, just let's watch!!!! maybe I'll start a journal of my progress in that section...

Love and light!!!!!

Adrienne...yummier and yummier mummy

Adrienne,

Yes, I totally agree! I have not been 100% for a while and really only was 100% about 7-8 months of my life but those were the BEST and the EASIEST...!!!!!

The problem is that when people find out they treat you like you are a Food Fascist if you are not very careful to make sure they know you are NOT judging them for what they eat, etc. Best to be very, very quiet about it. Which is a very big problem for a loudmouth like me, LOL.

What Julie said is true: I tell people I am an addict like an alcoholic that cannot have a drink and they leave me alone pretty good but then ask, "But why?" and so then I just tell 'em a few of my longer list of symptoms I had when I ate cooked food and how they all go away and stay away but come back when I eat cooked again.

Of course then always someone will say, but what about steamed vegetables? Surely those are all right. And I explain yes, in fact they are surely all right, BUT not for me, because once that door is opened up it would be like having just a cup of beer and next thing you know I've got to drink a whole bottle of Wild Turkey.

I need to go 100% again. SOON...!

Yay!~~~and briefly, with baby in my arms, yeah the thing is it's soo hard, like abrick wall, to eat ALLL raw,on purpose...good to hear it's actually easier once you get there!!

best to both of u and everybody else also

ade

Yeah, it's so weird how there is this HUGE and I mean HUGE mental block about eating 100% raw, but once you break past the barrier and are actually doing it life gets so much easier!

Thanks for the well wishes.

The thing I am struggling with right now, as a veggan (eat eggs), is that sometimes I would rather cook the egg -- especially if I don't have any almond milk and stuff to put it in.

I'm worried that if I make this exception for eggs it will be like the beer to the alcoholic... I'm uncertain about this...

Thanks for starting this thread, I find the subject to be of great interest... I'm confident I'll post something more relevant in the coming days.

Glad to hear from you all...

In the past, when I've eaten all raw (for a few weeks at a time usually), I didn't realize things that I was eating which weren't actually raw, like olives and certain so-called raw nut butters, etc.. So this time I'm into really only eating raw things, perhaps...now that I know better...

More often than not, when I've "fallen off the wagon", it was after having some red wine, which I thought to be raw, only to later find out that not all wine is raw, either.

I guess with the eggs, experiment and see how you feel, and then tell us!! ;~D

Probably every body is different...definitely...like doshas and sensitivities and emotional triggers and so on...

love to you all ("to"??)

:~) Adrienne