Okay, my new years resolution was to go raw pretty much 100%, primarily fruit. Yesterday, I ate: apples, oranges, chikoos, a big juicy pomolo, a pink grapefruit, banana, nuts and seeds, dried papaya, cashew butter and some other bits and pieces.

Last night I came home- about half nine- feeling on top of the world, not hungry in the slightest- yet within about 15 minutes of being at home, I was like a rabid animal, opening the fridge/cupboards looking for something snacky. I didn't want fruit or anything else. I ended up eating a little bread with cashew butter! Doh!

How can I avoid this in the future? To be fair, I don't think I ate enough during the day, but the need to snack was more of an old habit.

What's a good food to snack on in times of crisis- something simple, i.e. romaine leaf wrapped around tomato and cucumber etc?

Opinion:

-Trying to change too quickly is common. If you are SURE you are getting enough food/calories/nutrition....and you STILL feel COMPELLED to eat something else......well this is common...and is not related to the food.

A) People don't often understand that from years of poor eating they might (probably) have compromised digestive systems that are not adequately absorbing nutrients. Until healthy food has cleared most of that stuff out....they may need to eat much more...or more often....with healthier items.

Transitioning slower....using more root vegetables, avocado, nuts, dark-leafy greens...etc....will slow and ground detox....without totally short-circuiting it....like medications, alcohol, stimulants, and other chemicals and processed non-enzymatic foods and products do. This can be beneficial...and might not leave you craving or stuffing.

-You can also try eating more often....and eating more during the day...so that by the end of the evening.....when you get home....you are just STUFFED...and all you need is a bit of a late night snack...or glass of fresh orange juice! LOL.

-Find a quick snack like apple slices, grapes, or some transition food (like hot-air popcorn or home-made raisins) that can help stablize your blood sugar and make your evenings pleasant.

-Just some tips.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

just keep an open mind on how you will feel- and always tell yourself that you have a choice.

If you really want bread with cashew butter then tell yourself you can have it, as long as you accept that you have made that choice.

Sometimes we do things in order to rebel against a strict mindset. Make sure you aren't strict just open and you will decide to go with whatever you want.

It seems like what you want is raw food , so relax - you should be fine !

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[www.azurastorch.blogspot.com]

You could substitute sprouted bread - like Manna bread or Ezekial 4:9 bread for that late night snack for now. That would be a healthier snack and some raw foodists eat sprouted grains. I know Tonya Zavasta, a raw foodist for 10 years, says she ate sprouted grains for the first 2 years but now doesn't eat them. So they are a great transition food for some.

Karen DeVeaux
[www.healingtype1diabetes.typepad.com]

I have the WORST nighttime snack attacks as well. On days I work, it isn't so bad, because I can plan my meals around my schedule--but on my days off, if the kitchen is just a few steps a day, it's easier to think about food, eat more often, and later.

For me, if I'm in the throes of violent craving, I have a few fail-safe plans. >8)

Even if you don't want to snack late, try to make it all raw. I used to gorge on nuts, seeds, and avocados, with moderate success (though I find too much nut-feasting makes me sleepier the next morning, and sometimes slightly anxious). I've read it's best to chow down on juicy fruit, but still being in transition, I've found this isn't completely satisfying when THE CRAVINGS attack.

Then I discovered durian. Nothing on the raw diet fills me and keeps me full like a durian--pleasantly full, but fully sated. The past few days I've been eating entire durians, and that's allowed me to cut my nut binges from 1-2 cups/day to 1-2 ounces/day.

Sprouted seeds are also very nice. Sunflower seeds are incredibly simple to sprout, too. I buy the raw hulled ones from the bulk barn, soak them for two hours, rinse them, and bang. They're done--and nicely different from just plain seeds.

The Ezekiel sprouted tortillas are great. While they ARE cooked, it's still all sprouted grains, no preservatives--and I make tasty wraps with raw baba ganoush, stuffed with sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers. I used to love Mediterranean fare. Something like this is still high raw, and the cooked food isn't anything like a bag of Doritos.

A simple, baked potato I find extremely satisfying now. Or, you could try some steamed veggies.

So far, this is what has been working for me, anyway. It's been enough to get me through THE HOLIDAYS plus some very trying social events without cheating.

So Popcorn would not be a raw food is it because the air popper is to hot?

That's correct Tam. But I'm not a big fan of all-or-nothing thinking and behavior. So I think a person should and can, quite honestly, utilize healthier 'transition' foods to get them to where THEIR goals are. It's all about the 'consciousness' and purposeful intent that one is bringing to their food. Surprisingly, one can do that with transitional foods as well. Some people can even do it with crap! Ha! ha! Food is can be the fuel.....but it is not the destination. Food will not give you THAT!

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Thanks for all the great replies, guys Love this board

Yesterday, I made a ridiculously huge salad and ate every last bite, and had a dragon fruit afterwards...

I ate it a little bit later than normal dinner time, and didn't get ANY pangs for anything else. Yay!

I think I may have just been undereating!

Your experience sounds similar to mine during raw transition. I had the experience of craving lots of variety of raw foods when I was transitioning over a 2 year period, a few of this and one of that and on and on, never feeling satisfied. I think that comes from our society in general teaching us to stimulate ourselves with variety. Unfortunately that's tough on the digestion.

As a consequence of this, I sometimes under-ate during the day and wound up wanting something dense and fatty at night to "makeup" the calories. Almond butter was usually involved in my night time raids. Once I learned to eat more fruit during the day and to eat more mono meals or meals with fewer ingredients, the feeding frenzies subsided and now only show up on occasion. I now see them as gentle reminders to pay more attention to my day time meals.

Right now on my work days I have been working until the light fades before heading home. My drive home takes up to an hour some days, so I prepare myself by having food that I can eat while driving. Dates, celery, romaine hearts, and pre-peeled satsumas - enough to fill me up. These things are easy enough to eat while driving safely. The net result is that I don't hit the door ravenous and can take my time transitioning from my work day with a shower, some yoga or sitting quietly. What I'm noticing is that now my last food of the day can be more fruit or some dates and cucumber or greens instead of a bowl of nuts.

I met a 25 plus year raw fooder and author of health books last fall who told me that a few years ago he developed an adversion to sweet fruit at the end of the day. He went back to a eating some lightly steamed vegetables several times a week to handle the issue. The point of this is to remind us to not imprison ourselves with absolutes like being 100% raw and, most importantly, to learn the difference between what the body is asking for and what the mind thinks we need. The mind resides in the past and tries to predict the future in its effort to "take care of us" and it's lousy at both. The body will tell what it truly needs right now.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2008 07:28PM by uti.

To add to all the good advice and information...

What helps me is to plan ahead and have treats readily available that approximate the cooked snack.

In your example, instead of eating bread with cashew butter, have raw bread and raw cashew butter or pate on hand and your problem will be solved.