Non-raw

[berrymarymac]

So I couldn't think of a title. But I just went to the store and bought vegan soups and stuff, along with some of Amy's frozen meals. I feel soooo bad!! Oh and I got organic apple sauce! I just feel like I'm failing right now. As some might know, I am in college and it's hard to find good produce in this town that my college is in. And also my schedule is so hectic I rarely eat. Well, see today I had 4 bananas and two Lara bars...that's it. I'm soooo hungry!! If I was at home, I could make all my dehydrated foods and other things. I have a FP here and blender, but have yet to use them, plus it's 9:30pm and people are studying! So now my enchiladas from the from Amy's vegetarian foods is done. And I just feel bad! My fridge has a lot of raw fruits and veggies, plus Manna bread. But right now, I can't live off of that alone. I have to have a meal. I wouldn't call is SAD because majority of SAD eaters don't eat Amy's vegetarian meals lol. But I bought a lot of soups with simple ingredients, etc. Nothing like Campells or what not! I'm eating healthy, having a mostly raw diet. But yeah, oh and some days I will eat a bowl of oatmeal with almond milk. I wanted to be 100% raw, but finding it very hard. And I know that when I don't eat I get to the point of passing out, like I almost missed some steps today in the music department because I lost my balance! But sorry to take a space on the board. But just wanted to know...is this bad? I'm thinking so negative right now, but I know I will get sick if I don't eat since I went through a year of high school with little to eat and the outcome was not a fun one.

[star1919]

Wow... I'm impressed! I remember my college days... You are so far ahead of the game! As for being 100%... great goal... but, perfection isn't the key... it sounds like you are doing so many good things with what you eat. I'd encourage you to feel positive about that and how knowledgable you are with all your eating choices and with eating raw... Great job! :D

[berrymarymac]

Wow... I'm impressed! I remember my college days... You are so far ahead of the game! As for being 100%... great goal... but, perfection isn't the key... it sounds like you are doing so many good things with what you eat. I'd encourage you to feel positive about that and how knowledgable you are with all your eating choices and with eating raw... Great job! :D

Thanks!! I know some people asked me how hard it was to be a vegetarian in college and I was just used to it since I had been one since I was 12. Now it's just a bit harder. I know what to eat and what will make me feel bad, etc. I know my allergies now and feel so much better! And thank you so much! That makes me feel so much better!! ^__^

[Larue]

I think you are doing great for where you are and for what is possible. If you think too negatively that you can't do raw 100%right now, you might get completely discouraged with raw altogether, you know what I mean? School just started, let yourself get acclimated to the pace and the routine, eat raw as you can and I bet, in time, you'll increase that.

You need to concentrate on school, so don't let this stress screw that up. Like star1919 said, you know the goal....but no more almost fainting, ok?!!!

[berrymarymac]

I think you are doing great for where you are and for what is possible. If you think too negatively that you can't do raw 100%right now, you might get completely discouraged with raw altogether, you know what I mean? School just started, let yourself get acclimated to the pace and the routine, eat raw as you can and I bet, in time, you'll increase that.

You need to concentrate on school, so don't let this stress screw that up. Like star1919 said, you know the goal....but no more almost fainting, ok?!!!

Thanks! And yes...no more almost fainting! I did this last year when I was counting calories and on a very very SAD diet of brownies, etc. lol. But I know school is the most important thing. I'm a music AND psychology major...plus I work part-time for a photographer and I mentor at a local elementary school. So my schedule is hectic! Thanks for your kind words!

[mcasburn]

If I had HALF the knowledge you have now, when I was in college... you are so lucky to have found a path for health this early in your life. Do the best you can in the circumstances you're in, and don't lose sight of what you know is ahead of you. Don't beat yourself up for things beyond your control--just keep making the effort you are capable of making.

Your reading assignment for September: The Tao of Pooh :)

[Coriander74]

Wow... I'm impressed! I remember my college days... You are so far ahead of the game! As for being 100%... great goal... but, perfection isn't the key... it sounds like you are doing so many good things with what you eat. I'd encourage you to feel positive about that and how knowledgable you are with all your eating choices and with eating raw... Great job! :D

I was just thinking this... thinking of MY college days and how I ate. I'm also impressed.

Thing is, you're doing what you can right? And you're about a ZILLION times healthier than most college kids. You rawk :D

[Pierre]

Don't feel bad. When I was in college, though the seeds of my healthy diet had been planted, I was eating sausages (probably made from pig) and decided not to eat French toast because they put too much sugar on it.

The food you just got is a lot like what I ate before I went raw. Lots of organic food and whole grains and beans. I used to make bean burritos (and probably will again come winter, with raw filling made in the Vita-Mix). Just eat as much raw as you can and don't worry.

[spicyfull]

Hang in there...............

[Judy]

Maybe try to make a food plan of some sort. Take good care of yourself and eat proper (raw) meals during the day, even if they are as simple as fruits and salads, some nuts you take with you, or even an occasional proper cooked meal here and there. Make sure you always have something with you. When you're hungry and feeble all the time, how can you keep your energy levels and do your job right? You also will be less prone to binging and feeling bad if you eat more regularly. Okay, so you may lead a hectic life, but it is your life, and if you really want to make time to eat, you can make the time. You can do this! Complement yourself on the things you did well so far!

[Im2Fruity]

I'm exactly in the same place you are..take a deep breath...
I was almost 100% raw all during summer break, and now that I'm back it's nearly impossible to stay that way...So I'm improvising..I have a small blender in my room and I'll make banana/mango/strawberry smoothies for breakfast as much as I can..and adding flax seeds or coconut oil to keep my blood sugar stable all morning....lunch in the dining hall is a little difficult, we have a salad bar but most of it isn't that appetizing...we also have a vegan line at my school so, while not raw, I'm allowing myself to eat some things from there, as well as scrounging for steamed veggies...

Pat yourself on the back for at least caring enough to eat healthy!!!! You can always eat raw when you have the chance...Take care of yourself :)

[berrymarymac]

Maybe try to make a food plan of some sort. Take good care of yourself and eat proper (raw) meals during the day, even if they are as simple as fruits and salads, some nuts you take with you, or even an occasional proper cooked meal here and there. Make sure you always have something with you. When you're hungry and feeble all the time, how can you keep your energy levels and do your job right? You also will be less prone to binging and feeling bad if you eat more regularly. Okay, so you may lead a hectic life, but it is your life, and if you really want to make time to eat, you can make the time. You can do this! Complement yourself on the things you did well so far!

Well, binging for me these days is like eating say one of my vegan meals! I live in a dorm and can't really make smoothies in the morning because well...I wake up at maybe 7am and no one wants to hear a blender going at that hour...I know I wouldn't if I was able to sleep longer than I do! I eat on the go, but mostly I grab a banana and Lara bar. That will hold me off, but not enough! And yeah, I understand what you mean about dining hall. We don't have vegan anything! All the veggies are cooked in butter or are loaded with salt. So sometimes I have to eat that, along with a very nasty salad and a banana or apple. Sometimes they have vegetarian lasagna, but it's very very fattening and nasty! Our food is disgusting and I avoid the place like the plague.

[juliebove]

I know what you mean. When I was in college, I was lucky because they sold salads in the cafeteria. I didn't often eat in the cafeteria, but when I did that's what I got. Mainly I lived off of trail mix that I made myself, supplementing that with whatever I had for breakfast or got at a restaurant. I was living at home at the time but not home very much because I often worked. There was a little restaurant across the street from where I worked that had a salad bar so I usually got something there for dinner. I didn't consider myself a raw foodist back then. Don't think I'd even heard the term yet, but most of what I ate was raw.

More recently I've been having trouble for a variety of reasons. One is that school just started yesterday for my daughter. I've been busy getting ready for that and also trying to get all my canning done. We have two apple and two pear trees. Yes, I know canning is not raw but the rest of the family eats what I can and I don't want all the apples and pears to go to waste. Because it takes me about 8 hours a day to can one batch, and because the canning takes up so much room, I haven't been able to dehydrate anything or make any sprouts.

I finally got the dehydrator going today and am making some onion bread and Swiss cheese. Tried to make a batch of nacho cheese but it came out weird. All but one of my red peppers went bad on me. I added a green pepper and some hot peppers but apparently too many hot peppers. It's too hot for me! And I failed to put in the garlic. I don't really like garlic but I think this recipe needs at least a bit of it for the right taste. Last time I put in one clove instead of the 4 that the recipe called for.

I have to go to the school this afternoon and straighten out an issue with the bus. They put her on the wrong bus yesterday. Lucikly the driver brought her to our house but if I want her to come home on time today I have to go straighten this out. Turns out that our address appears to put us on another route. But that stop is in fact a couple of blocks away. There's another stop 4 doors down. She has been using that for the past two years. Actually there was a problem when we first moved here. A simliar thing happened. Not quite the same thing but just as annoying. Well, I thought I'd fixed the problem but apparently it cropped up again!

Got all kinds of other stress going on in my life and bottom line is I haven't been eating well. I haven't been eating junk, but my meals certainly haven't been balanced and I haven't always been taking the time to find raw stuff. Last night instead of making dinner, I sat out in the cold wondering where my kid was. By the time they got her here it was an hour past the time we normally eat dinner. So I wound up eating canned beans and raw celery. Fixed some frozen food for my daughter that I'd picked up at the health food store. I was just too tired to even cut anything else up or even open the box of produce I'd brought home! Ate a few bites of canned pears along with my pumpkin seeds this morning because my blood sugar was low and I needed to bring it back up so I could walk my daughter to the bus stop.

Right now I've got a pot of vegetable soup going. This is mainly because I had so much stuff in my fridge about to go bad. And because I won't be home yet again to make dinner because I have to go up to the school to take care of this bus thing. And then to the store yet again to see if I can find any good fresh stuff to eat.

By last night it was really getting to me. All I could think about was an onion bread sandwich and some lentil sprouts. Hopefully I'll be able to start some sprouts after dinner and by tonight I should hopefully be able to enjoy an onion bread sandwich. I know I feel like crap at the moment. Exhausted, run down and stressed out. I know I'll feel better once I start eating right again. Not that I was necessarily eating "wrong" these past few days. Just not the optimal diet for *my* body!

At any rate, that's all behind me now. I had some of the nacho cheese with some celery for lunch. I will have the soup for dinner but probably some fresh salad too. And by tonight I should be back on track. Right now I just have to focus on the future and not beat myself up for not eating right these past few days.

[Lay-Lay]

Hey, feel good about what you are doing! Are you eating healthier then last year? I know you are and that is something to be proud of. The lifestyle shouldn't be a burden to you. If you can adjust and do 100%, great, but if it too much right now then that's ok too. If I may suggest maybe reserving one or two days a week where you practice 100% raw. Days when it would be easier, when you don't have classes and then for the other days maybe say I am going to have 100% raw for 1 meal a day, then 2 healthy meals with a salad and all my snacks are going to be raw yummies.

[dreamrawalwz]

You are doing really well for what you have easy access to. I know when I transfer down to James Madison University it'll be tough. The meal plans you can get 5,10, or 14 meals or something on campus per week. They have SOOO many places to eat, including 2 huge salad bars. Let's say i'll be living off my greens next fall! I'll probably have an apartment off campus so I can have my fruits there and some veggies or something.

Instead of grabbing JUST a banana and lara bar, grab 2-3 bananas to tide you over and then it may be enough? If it's ok budget wise try a lot of mono eating fruit meals and or make your own trail mixes and stuff to grab and go with.

[berrymarymac]

You are doing really well for what you have easy access to. I know when I transfer down to James Madison University it'll be tough. The meal plans you can get 5,10, or 14 meals or something on campus per week. They have SOOO many places to eat, including 2 huge salad bars. Let's say i'll be living off my greens next fall! I'll probably have an apartment off campus so I can have my fruits there and some veggies or something.

Instead of grabbing JUST a banana and lara bar, grab 2-3 bananas to tide you over and then it may be enough? If it's ok budget wise try a lot of mono eating fruit meals and or make your own trail mixes and stuff to grab and go with.

Well, I eat about 3-4 bananas when I grab some. And I wish d-hall would have good stuff. Lucky! And thanks Lay-Lay. I was thinking about devoting a few days to raw.