This is my greatest discovery on my raw path...

[Sooboopa]

I have been feeling so good on raw. I am not one hundred per cent, but I am noticing that when I do eat cooked, food that I've previously enjoyed now disgusts me to eat. (I don't eat meat [including fish and chicken] [and haven't for years] so that doesn't feature in this equation at all.) I don't feel brilliant after cooked, but I can recover pretty quickly. I am able to eat cooked here-and-there, for social reasons, and then go straight back to raw...I don't lose it and go on a two month cooked binge or anything.

Anyway, that's not my discovery.

I have tried different methods of deciding what is the optimal raw food to eat at any given time. (I do like to eat just fruit in the morning though, fruit, vegetables / greens in the afternoon, and any acceptable raw food in the evenings.)

I've tried following my intuition, listening to my body, eating what I crave and a myriad of other techniques to try and tune in to the optimal raw meal to eat at any given time.

I've started to use this method and it's fantastic. I use my intuition as to when to eat. Then I mentally repeat this sentence...'What is the healthiest raw food I can eat right now?' The type of raw food comes to me, as well as how much I should eat.

For instance, when I was following the other techniques, I'd often end up eating too many nuts. I'd get ravenous, and think about cooked food and not know what to eat. Now my diet is a lot more balanced. When I get home from work, I am not automatically reaching for the nuts. I find that I could eat some carrots and lettuce for instance, and then feel totally balanced and without any hunger. If I'd eaten the nuts, I'd feel a bit blah. Of course, nuts have their place and I still eat them, but find I'm not overeating them.

Raw is easy. Raw is fun. I am going to Europe for a few months in a couple of weeks. (I'm from Australia.) I'm so glad I've made this discovery before I leave.

It seems so simple...but for the first time, raw is really working for me...

...and this is my greatest raw discovery ever!! :D

[Brianna]

Wow! That's fabulous! I'm getting more and more into following my intuition about when and what to eat. My body is getting better and better at telling me exactly what it needs, even if it doesn't pertain to food. It really is amazing.

[rawfigure]

Yes me too ! I have been doing this same method, pause and ponder what my body seems to be asking for.

[Vegan Diva]

I do this also. I listen to my body.

[kmik]

Absolutely! :D

Too often we try to make it regimented assuming every day our bodies will need the exact same types/quantities/proportions of foods... so we try to devise the perfect menu. When in fact our needs can vary greatly day to day, season to season. And when you are raw, you can TRUST what your body says. It won't be asking for a Hostess Ho-Ho or a pizza. For instance I just got off a mango kick, and now I'm craving coconuts... so I eat them! The raw food diet works very well this way, when you're working with your body, not fighting it.

I'm so glad you shared this!!!

[dreamrawalwz]

Wow. That's great. I wish I come to that feeling soon for myself. I am still an emotional eater on raw and I want to be able to listen to my body, but I don't know how. After 7 years of an ED, I don't know what it's like ya know?

[Brianna]

Sometimes my body craves certain things. I go in cycles. For a while, I will eat lots of olives and dulse, then I'll eat a lot of a certain kind of sprout, or cucumbers, or I'll crave fruits, even fruits I've only had once in my life and didn't think tasted that great, I'll start to crave them all of a sudden. It's so great and it happens more and more. But when I first went raw all I wanted to eat was nuts and dried fruit and fancy dishes. Then as I was on raw longer, my body really started to speak to me about what it needed.

[Pailani]

Wow. That's great. I wish I come to that feeling soon for myself. I am still an emotional eater on raw and I want to be able to listen to my body, but I don't know how. After 7 years of an ED, I don't know what it's like ya know?

I know what you mean. My body doesn't know what it needs, it only knows what it wants. It craves things like Lara bars. Maybe after a year or so of doing this, my body will balance out and communicate better.

[cnoellea]

Do you still get the same benefits from raw without your body knowing what it needs yet? I haven't really lost much weight (1 lb up and down) for the past 3 weeks of being 99% raw (1 T cooked salad dressing and 1 dark/vegan chocolate piece per day) and I haven't experienced detox symptoms. I am hoping to get to the mind/body connection soon, but did you still have positive symptoms before your body learned how to communicate? Thanks!

[Brianna]

Do you still get the same benefits from raw without your body knowing what it needs yet? I haven't really lost much weight (1 lb up and down) for the past 3 weeks of being 99% raw (1 T cooked salad dressing and 1 dark/vegan chocolate piece per day) and I haven't experienced detox symptoms. I am hoping to get to the mind/body connection soon, but did you still have positive symptoms before your body learned how to communicate? Thanks!
Definitely. My problem was that I would binge on dates and dried fruit and and nuts all the time and I didn't eat enough greens. I felt changes for the better, but I also made myself sick quite a few times from sugar and fat overload. Then when I started working at Hippocrates Health Institute where I'd consume green juices, wheatgrass juice, and huge plates of sprouts and greens and I started to feel better than I ever though possible! I lost weight and had my energy soar. Sometimes I still crave food from emotions, but that is starting to decrease and I'm starting to follow my intuition more and more.

[dreamrawalwz]

Sometimes my body craves certain things. I go in cycles. For a while, I will eat lots of olives and dulse, then I'll eat a lot of a certain kind of sprout, or cucumbers, or I'll crave fruits, even fruits I've only had once in my life and didn't think tasted that great, I'll start to crave them all of a sudden. It's so great and it happens more and more. But when I first went raw all I wanted to eat was nuts and dried fruit and fancy dishes. Then as I was on raw longer, my body really started to speak to me about what it needed.

I have done that my whole life! Brace yourself, these are bad foods, but here's how the pattern's been my life. I used to go weeks or months of almost only the same food daily. Only grits, then oatmeal, waffles, yellow rice (was my favorite food ever!), fettacini w/ baby shrimp, ect. You get the picture. Within the past few years I've had eating kicks of: spinach, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and currently I'm on an orange, carrot, and tomato kick. Haha. Is this considered intuitive in a way?

[dreamrawalwz]

I think I did a good thing today. I made a large batch of guac (4 small organic avocados) and usually I would have eaten the whole thing. I got to about half and my body just said "no, that's enough...go eat your greens!" Bad food combining, but I can only do so much at once.

[Sooboopa]

Hi Everyone! I enjoyed reading your responses...

My discovery is not using my intuition when deciding what raw food to eat (as I've been playing around with that for years)...but specifically asking the question (mentally) 'What is the healthiest raw food I can eat right now?' It seems to work so well for me, when the concepts 'listen to my body', 'follow my intuition', 'eat what I crave' etc etc don't.

I'm so glad I've found a tool that works for me.

[Brianna]

I think I did a good thing today. I made a large batch of guac (4 small organic avocados) and usually I would have eaten the whole thing. I got to about half and my body just said "no, that's enough...go eat your greens!" Bad food combining, but I can only do so much at once.
Great!!! How is guacamole a bad combination with greens though?

I'm still working on listening to my body when it tells me to stop eating.

[dreamrawalwz]

Great!!! How is guacamole a bad combination with greens though?

I'm still working on listening to my body when it tells me to stop eating.

Oh, it's not a bad combo, my body just didn't tell me to mix them. It wanted guag, and then the greens when it was through. Oh yea, stop eating is the HARDEST thing to do. I don't know what hungry or full feels like anymore.

[aromaticwings]

I seem to go through phases as well..is this normal? I catch myself in eating too many nuts.. then go without them at all and eat only fruits.. then fruits and greens... seems goes along with my finances...but then I do find alot of nuts are expensive.... but they do make great snacks for work.. mixed with apples and raisins or dates... dehydrated... great to keep me away from the chips. I don't even crave them when everyone else has them around me like I used to.. or sodas.... I keep my water handy and I am fine.

[lodestar]

sooboopa, i don't get it?????? but i am thinking about it.