I just ate a very SAD PBJ sandwich. I have been about 95% Raw since Oct. but lately I have been really obsessing about SAD food. It is everywhere !!!! I am the only raw food person in my house and am constantly surrounded by pizza, veggie burgers, pasta, peanut butter, ice cream- you name it- all the SAD foods I love. How does everyone else deal with this. I need some advice. My family is stubbornly refusing to even consider becoming raw so if I want to do this I have to find a way to live with all this food and not eat it.
Any advise would be appreciated.

Advice? Calm down. It's okay. If you stress out about it, the harder it will be on your body. Stress is not good. Take a deep breath and re-figure what you want. If you want to be raw, then only eat raw. Don't consider cooked items to be "food" or fuel.

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

I hear you. My opinion is that a desire to eat healthy is not enough. You cannot back your way into heaven. You CAN identify YOUR life dreams....and pursue them in process.....not attached to results. If eating well is a bedrock necessity to YOUR dreams....you'll find a way to make the small changes necessary....until you are 100% comfortable. Changing some physical aspect of your life....like diet....and being stressed/obsessing is NOT a joyful process!

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Okay, okay. Breathe in, breathe out. Remember why you went raw and how great you feel doing it. Imagine a craving-free life -- which you will eventually have when you have been all-raw for a while. Think about your connection with the earth, mother nature, all the animals, and plants, and most of all, relax! Don't kill yourself over one PBJ!

Well, don't go bananas over it for crissakes!!! (-:

Between the pizza, pasta, ice cream, etc. surrounding you, I'd say you made a pretty decent choice. Nothing wrong with a little peanut butter and jelly now and then, if that's what you're body's really truly craving. For me if I'm non-stop super obsessing about something but keep depriving myself, eventually I'll just end up binging on whatever it is...and THEN some!! And SO WHAT if they weren't raw. A roasted nut or a bit of cooked fruit isn't going to kill you. At least it wasn't a greasy donut or, worse yet, a t-bone steak...yikes!!! Besides, no-ones perfect. Certainly not me, that's for sure.

Unfortunately we live in a world of SAD eaters, most of whom have no interest in changing their lifestyle...or even considering other options for that matter. That's a fact. After 20 years of plant-based eating I've learned that the best approach is no approach really. I just do my thing and let them do theirs. If they express an interest, great. I'm ready and willing to pass on info and help them if they want. If not, then so be it. Trying to convince a closed mind never works. It just irritates the person you're talking to and frustrates the heck out of you.

Progress not perfection. Feel good about how far you've already come. You're doing a beautiful thing for yourself and our planet. And when all else fails...breathe. Tomorow's another day.

~lanie

Wow! Thanks for all your wonderful advice.
I guess I just lost perspective for a minute. It was only one sandwich and it's over. Maybe I just needed to have one. It's not the end of the world. I feel I can move forward stronger now and more secure in my knowledge that PBJ is not a way to get what I really want.

I especially like the idea of not considering cooked items to be food. I think this could really work for me. I have been a vegetarian for a long time now and I never consider meat to be food for me at all and I feel the same about fast food because I never eat that either it isn't on my food radar.

Thanks for the perspective and advice.
I feel loved!

Yeah, its funny - I walked by a Dairy Queen today on South St. in Philly and I was thinking, "Wow, they still have those?" Seemed like a thing of the past, but the only thing that has changed is me and what I consider to be food anymore. I just don't notice the meat, dairy, and egg - laden places....

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

It's going to be ok.

Fall down a hundred times, get up a hundred and one.

I found that when I lived with SAD people, they would eat all my fresh, unprocessed food and then I would be tempted by the plethora of junk available to me. It was a constant challenge to keep the house stocked with enough healthy choices for me.

Try to keep enough around that is healthy for you. If you "slip up," remember that you are probably your harshest critic.

I've slipped up on a lot worse than a SAD PB+J. It happens. Fall down a thousand time, get up a thousand and one.

great advice here. don't expect perfection of yourself. you'll be surprised if you just keep plugging away how the cravings lose hold of you. be totally gentle with yourself if you do slip up, and congratulate yourself for all the healthy food that you DO eat. what we focus on increases.

i really liked this perspective:
[www.youtube.com]

What is a PBJ? (i'm serious i don't know what it is and i'm curious)

42bananas a warrant has been issued for your arrest by the raw food police! Lt. Avocado has it out for you, so watch your back, he's trying to get promoted to Captain. ;-)

I have struggled with this in the past, it sometimes takes a good dose of mental/spiritual/emotional focus to stay on track or in line with your own goals. Just stay true to yourself and be gentle with yourself when the cooked food addiction surfaces.

Best wishes.

(((HUGS)))



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2008 04:15AM by rawangel.

Oh! i got it i think!...

peanut butter and jelly sandwich. it could of been worse 42bananas...lots of great advice. shoot...i won't even tell you what i ate when i slipped.

take care.

pbj=peanut butter& jelly : )

Maybe you could make a sort of raw version of a pbj for next time you crave one! Mush up some fruit, raw nut butter, put it on a raw cracker. Yum.

I'm really ignorant but I have never heard of a pbj. Is it the sort of jelly that children eat - you know the wobbly coloured stuff?

anyway apart from that, I agree with all the above posts - I really liked Lanies advice. I slip up sometimes when I am making bread for my family and it comes out of the oven with the smell wafting through the house. I still love the smell of freshly baked bread. not only are my family all sad eaters but I have to cook for them. the hardest part is cooking lovely vegan meals because I am still temted by them. thankfully dairy just looks repulsive to me so no temptation there.

I do not stress over cooked vegan food. It's still plants. Lightly steamed broccoli would be better but it was only one meal.

You're in BIG BIG TROUBLE. I'm going to report you to the RAW FOOD POLICE.

The sentence if you're caught will be 100 days of feeling guilt, but since it's you're first offense we will suspend the sentence.

Someone else here said, "It's not the bite you just took, but always about the bite you are about to take." (paraphrased badly)

Just pay attention to how you feel while you eat the sandwich. I've had a lot of "goodbyes" with SAD food since I've gone raw. It was important for me to do, or I would have binged madly later--and because I did it mindfully, it wasn't a lapse back into mindless eating (do everything consciously!). Time and time again, things never tasted as good as I remembered, I suffered various degrees of physical and emotional discomfort (anxiety especially), and seeing cooked, wilted, floppy veggies seems sadder and sadder to me each time, in light of a plate of fresh, crisp, vibrant live food.

Just listen to what your body has to say about the sandwich, and go from there.

Raw PBJ sounds AMAZING... Manna bread... raw jelly... some kind of nut butter! Sounds like a delicious uncooking challenge, maybe even for the day off today. PBJs have high comfort food factor for me--my dad used to make them for me for lunch, even when I was in HIGH school (what an awesome dad!).

Anyway...get back to basics! If you feel you NEED what is in a PBJ....then eat wheat sprouts, raw peanuts (I don't recommend it) and some grapes. Heh..heh.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Quote

Posted by: 42bananas (IP Logged)
Date: April 14, 2008 03:04PM

I have been about 95% Raw since Oct. but lately I have been really obsessing about SAD food.

I just finished two medium very ripe red Early Girl Tomatoes that just burst with delicious, juicy, fresh raw taste. The taste was so good that I asked myself "how could anyone not like that ?" Then I started thinking about the answer to that question and my thoughts about that and then I thought about your thread here. I think its because of not letting go of the old ways and fully embracing the new ways complete with their absolutely wonderful fresh raw food tastes. Maybe if when you get a craving for cooked you will find (go to the store if you need to) and eat something fresh raw and delicious, like a few tasty grapes or something, and focus all your attention on the raw food as you eat it maybe you will feel like I do and that is, I know what I like to eat and I'm never looking back. :=)

My raw "junk food" snack is dates with almond butter!

Not the best food combining, I know, but it tastes incredible! Way better than pb&j!

I think that you are doing really awesome to be 95% raw while surrounded by cooked foods! I know how hard THAT can be.