Really wondering....???????

[rawnpawgirl]

I have now been about 99.9999% raw for the past 7 days and 75-85% raw since January. I am currently on the 30 day challenge, but have had a few minor slip ups (2 coffees, almond butter that says raw but isn't really, nutritional yeast, maple syrup as sweetener and herbal tea/yerba mate).

For the most part, raw feels great and I love feeding my body and soul with live, healthgiving food, but honestly, every single day there is some challenge. some craving/desire, for cooked.


I read all these things about how raw is the natural way for humans to eat, etc etc. Then, I was browsing in the book section in Wild Oats market and I see a book on diet by Denise Austin (chipper cheerleading fitness guru) and her diet includes mostly all cooked- meat at pretty much every dinner, whole grains/rice/pasta and she looks and feels great.

My grandmother is 89 and eats mostly healthy but still lots of dairy, meat, nonorganic, sweets, and she still tends her garden and is doing awesome.

Now, why do some people seem to be thriving or doing just fine eating that way? And... if raw is such the natural way to eat and meant for humans, why is it so incredibly difficult to live it? I am always reading journals about slips ups, cravings, stopping raw, starting raw...

Why????? wouldn't it be easier if it were meant to be?

Now, don't take this the wrong way. Let me state firmly. I 100% believe raw is wonderful and I support raw veganism wholeheartedly. That is why I am doing it!!!

But, just wondering and would like your input/comments/thoughts.... :)

[Lay-Lay]

I have done all those diets and I felt great on them.......for a time period.....High protein diet almost killed me.....

Some people with certain blood types can live easier on cooked foods and meats and things....

I CAN NOT. I firmly believe if I don't eat raw I will die. Without the raw diet I am what is known by friends and family as a sickly person. When you have faced near death in the face raw doesn't seem to hard.

I have no problem eating raw. It was not easy at the beggining. It was an adjustment giving up my cooked addictions, but once I saw my health being altered there was no turning back. I knew I was healing and that this is how I was intended to eat.

I guess it would be easier to eat SAD like everyone else around me, but why take the so called easy way out?

I guess so my mother and father and husband can put me in a early grave or

so I can have people wait on my sick butt

and so I don't have to work anymore and I can stay in bed sick all the time

so I don't have to exercise because I can't get up.

I know some of you may be thinking well this is a little dramatic, but these are actual things I was faced with before going raw. So raw to be is not hard, no not at all.

I want to have children and live to be young when I am old, to spend my a long life with my husband and not allow my mother and father to bury me.

That is great about your grandmother. But she was borne in a different time and age. She I am sure cooked veggies from her garden, didn't go to McDonalds once or twice a day, worked hard outdoors, wasn't exposed to smog air pollution, and so on. In her early days her meat was probally not pumped with as much antibiotics and covered with cancer tumors as the meat today is.

If we eat SAD today, we will be sad tommorow.

This is just how I feel, for me.

[stiletto]

Hi,
I understand where you're coming from. I keep going on and off raw but I really think it is our society that makes it so hard. I mean, people can't even fathom a meal without some meat in it! They think we're all crazy. But look at the state our world is in right now. I don't think any of this is meant to be. I was watching Alissa cohen's interview on NBC just a few minutes ago and I can't believe how rude and appalled the interviewers were at her raw foods! I mean they looked at a cucumber like they'd never seen it before.

I am fasting this week and I've been reading a book on spiritual fasting from a christian perspective. It also shows how all religions included fasting as a necessity at one time. Now, people wouldn't even consider it. From what I've been reading, it seemed that God required it in the Bible. Do you imagine 10 peopel you know fasting or even eating a veg meal ( cooked ).

Our society is built on "give me what I want Now!". There is a pill for everything and yes, it does work on the outside. But I don't know how the insides of these people are.

I often ponder this as well, so I'm just taking the other side of the issue.
Take Care,
Peace,
Doreen

[heabrook]

Also, some people on the SAD cope better with it if they are highly active.

You must also note that we are preconditioned to eat cook food since that is what we were taught to eat. This makes it harder for some people to go raw.

[rawnpawgirl]

Thanks so much for your frank opinions on the matter. I appreciate that i can bring my true thoughts up and not be judged/bashed for them. Lord knows, people thrive on judging in this world of ours.

I just want to explore, have and open mind and do what feels right for my soul, my mind, my body.

Iloverawfoods- Thanks so much for your comments. I truly appreciate what you had to say. I too, have such a sensitiive body. I deal with so much autoimmune type stuff and look forward to detox and flourishing health once I am raw longer, so I understand what you say about it being easy when it is literally your health and life at stake! That is how I feel.

But, it can be difficult because when my hubby is grilling a steak, the smell gets to me! So many fond feelings attached to steak on the grill and other cooked stuff. I can't even go near a buffalo wing or I am doomed to failure. I was a vegetarian for 4 years before raw, but still love the smell of a cheeseburger. I just don't advocate eating meat for health and because I am a total animal lover.

I really hope it gets easier with time and that the benefits will far outweigh the desire for cooked.

Stiletto- it is so true about how societal attitudes push meat, dairy (milk-does a body good! ugh!), junk food, hydrogenated this and that. It is so perplexing. And as for fasting. Don't even mention it to most people because they worry and think you are a freak of nature. I fasted for 22 days and the family grapevine was going crazy talking an worrying about me. They just cannot fathom it.

I guess sometimes ignorance and ill health is just easier for some people than change.

[rawpriestess]

This is my belief


as ALL diets work, it is because of what you are NOT eating, not what you are eating, so getting rid of refined sugars and processed starches really works.

also, please note that your grandmother, just like my grandfather, was raised eating good solid organic foods, they didn't eat hardly any canned or processed foods back then, she probably still eats things she herself prepares, and not fast foods or frozen dinners.

and different people manifest dis ease differently in their bodies.

I got fat, but had no other ailments, no diseases, although I did have alot of pain and aches and all, I didn't have cancer or anything like that.

But many people look great but have migraines, or they look thin, but have digestive upsets, they look great but have terrible breath, the look great but have PMS terribly, the look great but have all kinds of ailments.

you see Eating raw food isn't about looking great, it's about feeling great.

I can tell you that one thing that works for many people, is to try the 30 day challenge on themselves, and then see how YOU feel.

You see, I can be happy for others, and see how great they look and feel, but I must experience it in my own body to truly "get" the raw food lifestyle.

[Lay-Lay]

My hubby is a meat eater too, a matter fact he fixed a juicy steak for lunch today and it smelled so good. I just had to make my juice and get out of the house before I released my cooked food desires. I love the taste of meat, but it doesn't love me and thats what I have to remember.

[rawnpawgirl]

Thanks for all the great replies-!

RP- I agree with all you said. I am currently on Day 10 of the 30 Day Challenge, so we'll see how it goes. I think I just need more time to see how raw feels in my body. It is hard to tell after only 9 days, especially with much detox still going on. I went out to dinner last night and everyone was eating all this "good" stuff and I was feeling sorry for myself. Then, I stopped at Wild Oats and saw bubbly, smiley flat-tummied Denise Austin and her eating plan and thought, "Hmmmm...." My mind (ego, wants, false desires) was thinking "oh look, you can have a latte for a treat, oh and look...loads of brown rice, etc, maybe that is what I need to get rid of my pouch of fat under my belly button".

So, see where I let my mind go? Today is a new day. Thanks for your support!

Love, peace, and gratitude sent your way!

[rawnora]

Denise Austin wouldn't be famous if she wasn't rare, and the reason why she's rare is precisely because of the difficulty that people experience trying to look and feel good while eating inappropriate foods. Even Denise has to work extra hard to overcome its effects, and she is probably discovering as she enters 'midlife' that she has to work out even more to keep the pounds away. Additionally, undoubtedly she suffers symptoms that she thinks are a natural part of life but would disappear if she started living correctly: 'Menopause', menstrual pain/bleeding, failing vision, greying hair, mood swings, regular 'colds', plus many others that are specific to an individual's inherited predisposition. Over-exercising can counteract some of the effects of cooked food eating for some people, but the best way to avoid them is to not cause them in the first place. Denise isn't getting away with anything. She's cheating herself. To me it doesn't make any sense to spend all that time and energy working out when we can be as trim and attractive as Denise Austin just by eating correctly. Plus we get to enjoy all the other benefits of doing so, like feeling good ALL the time, thinking clearly, sleeping deeply, seeing the world positively and not having to fear old age or disease or go for regular pap smears and mammograms, as Denise does.

Nora
www.RawSchool.com

[Sharon in Colorado]

I agree with Nora. We don't know much about Denise Austin outside of her fitness guru status. She could have a medical history and health problems inside her sculpted body for all we know.

Many people who grow old and stay active on the SAD may also be heavily medicated for a myriad of dieases. They stay acitve and alive, but it doesn't necessarily mean they are disease-free.

George Burns likely was an addict as he had his daily shot of alcohol and cigars until he died at a very old age. It may have been painful for all we know - many of us get used to having daily aches and pains.

[cornvalley]

Maybe EXERCISE and HARD WORK is more effective than DIET in shaping who you are, and DIET but a supportive component. That's how I observe it.

Then you have just plan old dependable gentic endowment, which can obscure the most obscene violations of good health practices. Don't you just hate those people? :D

[heabrook]

My brothers are meat eaters... they eat the worst kind of SAD mostly.. fast food etc... They also have a business in Phoenix AZ where they work out in the heat everyday and sweat profusely. (Utility business, they put up street lights). They are very active, but as they get older they are noticing that they aren't able to cope with some things like they used to. :p One of these days, I think, they might come around. I'm not sure though.

The older one is coming around a bit more (He just turned 32). We let him try some of our dehydrated fruits/veggies when we visited last. He actually bought a dehydrator and his wife is starting to dehydrate fruits and veggies. My mom just recently visited him and she made crepes for them from Alissa's book. They loved it. The thing is, most people will eat that way IF someone else does it for them :rolleyes:

[Pailani]

The thing is, most people will eat that way IF someone else does it for them :rolleyes:

That's funny because nothing is easier than throwing some stuff in the blender and making a smoothie. I do more meal preparation now than I ever did before I was raw because I always hated cooking, but this is so much easier and less to clean up.

But then, I'm not dehydrating anything, either.

[Larue]

My grandmother is 89 and eats mostly healthy but still lots of dairy, meat, nonorganic, sweets, and she still tends her garden and is doing awesome.

I know....my grandmothers lived into their 90's eating ham and cheese sandwiches-lol

But I think RawPriestess is right. Not only did they eat better quality food, they moved a lot physically and didn't overeat, two things that aren't common in our affluent society. It's interesting to watch people without eating issues, put half the sandwich away for later, because they are full now! And they walked to the market or did more physical kinds of chores than many of us are used to on a daily basis.

I also think RP is right about what someone looks like on the inside. Just because they look great doesn't mean, in fact, they are.

Rawnpawgirl, I struggle on raw too. I feel so deprived and I have been trying to understand why, so I appreciate you voicing this. What I wonder sometimes is if those of us who live in the US have a tough time on raw, because we have grown up believing that the success of our nation and thereby ourselves is reflected on how much stuff we have? You know what I mean? And that includes the kind of food we eat: a successful country has lots of food and meat especially is considered a hallmark of having 'made it.' Veggies, in that mindset, is what a less affluent person/society can afford. So it's no wonder that some of us feel deprived when we're not eating the 'national diet.'

I know my musings above probably sound 'heavy' and academic, but I am trying to understand myself and this is what I've come up with. I live in Southern California and if *I* feel deprived on raw, when there is a total abundance and variety of it everywhere I go, there must be something more to my feelings than just a lack of will power!

Anyway, this is a good discussion, I think. Being honest is a good thing!

Larue

[dreamrawalwz]

I havn't read the comments yet, but one thing stuck out. You mentioned older people (89). Back then they didn't ahve nearly the amount of pesticides we have today on our produce or the antibiotics injected into the meats/milk.

[twinyoga]

And, to add to this thread, I know people who are in their 80's, 90's who are aging but are also taking about 10-20 prescription pills a day. I want to grow old feeling energetic and healthy, not depending on pills to keep me going.

Here's another story, my darling sister has always been thin and a fast metabollism. So, food and exercise was never a concern for her. Till she started getting gall bladder attacks a few months ago, then an emergency surgery to remove the gall bladder. So, here's a thin woman who seems to be just fine...but her body, after having one to many pop tarts and doughnuts, finally said "I can't take it anymore". Now she has to watch her fat intake and she had to go through surgery. So, maybe people seem healthy eating SAD, but who knows when their body is going to say "enough is enough".

(Sorry to my sister to bring her into this, just thought it was a good example.xxoo)

[dreamrawalwz]

And, to add to this thread, I know people who are in their 80's, 90's who are aging but are also taking about 10-20 prescription pills a day. I want to grow old feeling energetic and healthy, not depending on pills to keep me going.

Here's another story, my darling sister has always been thin and a fast metabollism. So, food and exercise was never a concern for her. Till she started getting gall bladder attacks a few months ago, then an emergency surgery to remove the gall bladder. So, here's a thin woman who seems to be just fine...but her body, after having one to many pop tarts and doughnuts, finally said "I can't take it anymore". Now she has to watch her fat intake and she had to go through surgery. So, maybe people seem healthy eating SAD, but who knows when their body is going to say "enough is enough".

(Sorry to my sister to bring her into this, just thought it was a good example.xxoo)


Yea, that's a good point about the perscriptions. You may see many older people, but you don't know what they take when they're at home or how many doctor appointments they may have to go to for different ailments.

[twinyoga]

I've read materials from David Wolfe regarding whether you'd prefer to age with energy and health or to have medicine keep you going. That really made me think.

[Rawkinlocs]

And, to add to this thread, I know people who are in their 80's, 90's who are aging but are also taking about 10-20 prescription pills a day. I want to grow old feeling energetic and healthy, not depending on pills to keep me going.

Here's another story, my darling sister has always been thin and a fast metabollism. So, food and exercise was never a concern for her. Till she started getting gall bladder attacks a few months ago, then an emergency surgery to remove the gall bladder. So, here's a thin woman who seems to be just fine...but her body, after having one to many pop tarts and doughnuts, finally said "I can't take it anymore". Now she has to watch her fat intake and she had to go through surgery. So, maybe people seem healthy eating SAD, but who knows when their body is going to say "enough is enough".

(Sorry to my sister to bring her into this, just thought it was a good example.xxoo)


Amen to all of the above, esp. the parts in bold!

[cornvalley]

I think the quality during the last ten years of an individual's life is determined substantially by how well healthy habits in all spheres of living were conducted.

That would include diet of course, avoidance of drugs and other poison habits, strength and endurance training, flexibility and balance exercises, invigorating and meaningful work that continually challenges our creativity in new ways, keeping as many true friends as you can, having a myriad of healthy hobbies.

Lollygagging with yourself and intimates.

And the last one is probably the most important, laughter.

[faith4u]

I have read most if not all of Denise's books and she doesn't believe in over exercising. In fact she herself only works out for 30 minutes per day according to her books.

BUT she is very much into calorie restriction.If you look at most of her books she will recommend that you eat 1300 calories or so to lose weight. That is starvation in my book. I can't remember how much she says she eats. I want to say 1800 but can't remember if it was even that high.

She also came from a very athletic family and has been active her whole life. She was even very athletic in high school.

Other than that, I agree with what everyone has said. Just looking at someone is a bad representation of true health.

I think the most important thing is to figure out WHY you want to be raw. If it is only to look good or lose weight maybe you need to re-evaluate your reasons. Find something more important than that. I say that because that is to temporary. Know what I mean? Once you get to the size you want to be then what will hold you?

I think the most successful raw people are the ones that stay raw for health reasons rather than beauty.

By the way, you are doing a GREAT job on your raw journey.

Good luck!

[lissomllama]

Well first off, Denise Austin looks great in all her photos and on TV, yes but we have no idea how she looks in person. Photos for books and magazines are usually all airbrushed and touched up and on TV they work hard to get perfect lighting and camera positioning and makeup to make everyone look gorgeous. We have no idea what she's really like or how her digestive tract really looks on the inside.

In general, lots of people appear fine on a cooked diet full of meats and dairy and all that or even on a cooked vegan diet because often the problems are hiding, all tucked away and stored in body fat and organs. It isn't until these things are released by cancers and other various diseases that these things start to surface. Not to mention that some people's system are stronger than others. Some people pass all kinds of toxins in their urine and feces so it doesn't come out in their skin so of course they feel fine and glowing on a raw diet but some people have very sensitive systems (like me, lol) and it doesn't mean that I'm less efficient, it means that body simply will not/does not want to tolerate toxins because I'm not used to them.

Ultimately, the choice is yours (to be raw or not to be raw) and you'll find what feels right but just know that society is trying its best to get it's dirty, cooked fingers on all of us and even if you second guess raw, you'll probably end up coming back to it. Most raw foodists play with the idea and test the waters for a while before taking that leap.