New job as cook; can I stay raw?

[GoddessInTheRough]

Hi everyone,
I went to California last weekend for a major interview to be a cook and nanny for a large family. As a houseguest, I did not talk about my raw food program. This in not a group that eats fruit and salads, although, for overall healthy food, they ate a lot of steamed veggies. My problem? I am expected to cook for the family and sit down for dinners with them. I asked if I could serve one salad or raw dish at each meal, and they said that was fine, but I will have to have Japanese and Italian cuisine at each dinner. Essentially, I will have to make a salad, a steamed veggie, a meat and veggie stir fry, rice, and a pasta dish. I can tell you honestly that it will be hard to stay 100% raw. I can do it for breakfast smoothies and salad lunches, but at night, I will probably eat a salad and steamed veggies. I don't want to lose my dream to be healthy, but I also don't want to jeapardize the best-paying job I have had to date. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

[rawpriestess]

you can not buy health, it is worth so much more than ANY job.


there is no reason you can't eat raw veggies instead of cooked, and you can have your larger meal at lunch, and have just a plate of veggies or salad or fruit at dinner.

it's as easy as you choose to make it.

[peteroconnell]

try to eat as well as you can. don't beat yourself up over the cooked stuff, just keep at it. the way i do it is i try to eat 100% all the time, but if i slip up now and then i still know that i'm still eating extremly well.

[lissomllama]

You'll do just fine, it may not be easy but being a raw foodist often isn't easy these days. Just promise yourself to stay raw. Just tell the family what you eat and bring just enough to satiate yourself for that meal and you'll be fine. It's great that they said you have one raw dish each night! Having others eating cooked around you while you stay raw will toughen you up a great deal and then you'll eventually become immune to temptation, especially because of how healthy you'll be. Whatever happens though, your raw food lifestyle and health are more important than any job. If your job gets in the way of your diet, you should find another job. Not Vice versa.

[cheflissy]

Yes, it is possible to still stay raw and work in that kind of environment. I work in a bakery all day and am still raw. I am asked to taste things all the time and I have to turn them down, but all of my coworkers also know that I don't eat anything cooked and they understand. Maybe just talking with the family and letting them know your eating preferences will help. You can make it though, if you want to! Yeah, it's not easy, but it's possible.

Melissa

[madmel]

Hi goddess,

I so hear you!

I have two jobs: one is a supervising job in a Western restaurant. It sometimes involves tasting dishes and I have found my piece of mind with this - not only about being raw, but also about vegan. Sometimes I have to taste - I do. I do the same when I cook for dh.

I know some think that is not consequent, but I have come to terms with this. I am raw and vegan 99% and I can live with this 1% and I do believe my body too ;)

I have just started raw though, but I have made compromises with being vegan for that job. I don't really eat, I taste tiny bits and not every week, quite rarely actually. And I don't eat because I chose to, because I wanted to do that but because it's part of one of my jobs, though a very small part. I have a friend (VERY vegan) who tells me I cannot be vegan like that - if she sees it that way, okay, I consider myself vegan or, as I said, 99% vegan.

Melanie

[GoddessInTheRough]

I consider it your gifts to me when you share your insight. I thank you for the advice. As to trying to buy my health, I don't know of any disease at present, so I am not trying to purchase back what I have lost. I am a middle-aged woman with no husband or support system other than what I make. Because of my desire to make as much money as I can to support my long-term goals to write and get an advanced degree, the criteria I have for a job may be different than others. It is my own weakness that would make me eat sugar or meat. I have had many dreams, wonderful dreams that have taught me what I am to put into my body for life. Yet, there is a mission I have to serve the family I work for with respect. As long as they do not feel threatened or made to feel shame for their choices, then I will probably have no problem eating raw. I have not prostituted my spiritual goals by taking work for a wealthy family. I have to live with them and enter their system. They also supply my food. (That means I will have to buy a lot of produce above and beyond the menus with my own money.)

I am new to eating raw. It is not a religion. I will not approach food as though it is dirty or sinful if cooked. It is less vibrant, less nutritious. For many of us, it is a way to clean our body to heighten our soul lights and thoughts. For those of you who have jobs in the food industry, you have to have mercy on yourselves. If we claim to have it for the animals we have stopped eating, we have to also have it for ourselves as we walk this new path to vitality.

My studies in the human energy system and brief look into "hado" have shown that it is our intent, our gratitude, that also increases the power of food and its nutrition. When I cook for this family, I am going to bless the pork slices I mix with bok choy, the pasta and the broths. I was told in a moment of meditation (very informal style, that) to just prepare my mind and heart each day and I would be given strength.

One thing that appealed to me about the raw food movement, was its ghostly parallel to fundamentalism. I am attracted to dogma and "the one and only truth" type of systems. But what I liked about Allisa's approach was her nurturing, her mothering of the people she was teaching this health style to. I want to still be a part of this board and journaling process, but not if the only way is to be 100% raw---or I am some kind of sub-human for slipping up.

For every sausage you turn down, for every apple you eat, it is one more pebble you stack to build a stronger body.

Again, thank you all for your advice. I think I can make this work!

[Conscious Midwife]

Gradually CONVERT them :p

[rawpriestess]

You are absolutely NOT sub-human for slipping up, we ALL have slipped up, and many of us will again.


It is a process, just like all of life is a process.

We each do the best we can, with the knowledge we have at any given moment.

YOU CAN DO THIS

[ShelShel]

It is extremely difficult to stay raw in the midst of cooked food, but it can be done. I can't tell you how many chinese, pizza, mexican nightmares I have sat through and stayed raw. :p My family are all SAD eaters. I also try to not make them feel bad about the way they chose to eat. That's is their choice just like raw is mine. After seeing me at this for a few months...my husband approached me about starting raw. I was thrilled. I have been easing the kids into it also. My hope is that we will all be raw by the end of this year. That this will be our family's lifestyle...not just mine. But it didn't start out that way...it just gradually happened.
I think this is what others mean by converting them. Just be yourself...live your lifestyle while meeting all their needs and your new job's. If they are curious...share. If they want to try it...help. If they never look twice at what you eat...do what is best for you and stick with that.
I know RP never meant that you were sub-human...she was just trying to encourage you! That you are the most important thing and not the job. If this is a really important job for you...then take it and do your best! Just be encouraged and know that we are all hear to say...Keep up the good work! and You are worth it! Your body will thank you! And so on. ;) But we will never encourage a SAD menu...simply because we are a raw foods forum! :) It's not meant to make you feel bad about your choices. And many of the raw foodists here are only partly raw. low, medium, and high. Chose what works best for you...and stick with it!

[meinleben]

GITR
enjoy this opportunity....it sounds like a fantastic job with wonderful accomodations....how exciting.....

at some point you may want to share you passion and committment to raw with the family...they may be completely supportive....

and if you eat some cooked with them now and then...in terms of veggies or things like that....you are not "selling out".....you are doing the best you can under the circumstances...and it is just perfect....

you will not be threatening your health by doing that....its called life....everybody does the best they can within the situation and circumstances they are in...you don't have do be 100%%%%%% all of the time....

some people around act supportive with this undertone of...like if you don't stay raw....its just not good enough....it is so irritating....this is a place to support and be supported...

[Lay-Lay]

It would be very easy some nights when you are hungry to fix an almost all raw meal for everyone and them not even to really know it.

You could also after you have been there awhile ask them if you can fix them an all gourmet meal that you really enjoy and if they like it ask them if you can fix a meal like this more often maybe once a month or soo.