Some interesting insights - what gets you off track?

[finallyfree]

I have been struggling to be raw for some time now and have figured out the two main things that knock me off track:

HUNGER
Lack of tasty food

There are other things of course, but these are the biggest ones. I noticed that on the days I am able to stay raw it is because I have LOTS of raw food available to me (that I have pre-made), so that I am not hungry, and that this food covers the main "craving categories" for me - sweet, salty, crunchy...

I find that I easily get bored if I have the same thing two or three days in a row, and that more than just craving the "taste" of cooked food, I also tend to crave different textures in a day.

As I have hypoglycemia and am afraid of hunger due to all the "symptoms" it is associated with for me, I find that if I do not have raw food with me and I get hungry, no matter how good my intentions are - I will eat cooked food and lots of it.

Besides hunger, for me "thinking leads to craving", in other words, if I think about a certain cooked food (of course something unhealthy even by the standards of the cooked food world), I feel like I just have to have it...but when I have a variety of foods, flavors and textures available for myself, I don't go to cooked food, even if the "pictures" of that food pops up in my head. Now when I am thinking about cooked food, I am going to ask myself: am I hungry and/or, what quality is it about that particular food that am I craving?

Its nice to be able to figure ourselves out and find out what works for us.

Here is a sample of the food I have had available to myself in the past couple of days - I may not eat it all in one day of course, but just knowing that it is there if I should have a craving really works for me.

Black olive and tomato tapenade (salty & garlicky)
Dehydrated flat bread - two different kinds (crunchy)
Chocolate pudding (sweet)
Garlic stuffed green olives (salty)
Salad Dressing (fatty, garlicky)
Lots of bananas (filling and sweet)
Butterscotch sauce (made with dates) - very yummy over sliced bananas
Guacamole (savory and fatty)
Veggie dip
My recent favorite - dragon fruit

What knocks you off track and how do you deal with it?

finallyfree

[shine72]

What is dragon fruit? And do you have the recipe for the tapenades?

When I am REALLY hungry is the hardest. So I try really hard not to be. I got Lara Bars (1 case of Apple Pie and one case of Gingerbread flavors) on my trip to Maryland. I need those to last me until I leave. But if I go out and I know I'll be gone the majority of the day (like yesterday), I have a couple of those in my purse, a couple of pieces of fruit in a bag (usually either apples already washed or bananas) and when I have them made, either Alissa's fudge balls or the Rawvolution choc. torte balls (they get soft fast though, so I prefer to take the fudge balls). Yesterday we were gone from 6 am until after 4 pm and I had 1 and 1/2 Lara bars (hubby ate other half) 2 juicy apples, and about 5 fudgeballs throughout that time. I was hungry towards the end, but I just waited until we got home and then made wraps and had a salad to go with them and was fine!

HTH someone!

Sunshine :D

ps. I haven't turned back to cook since I started Dec. 27th, but doing what I described above has been the reason! And I even took a trip for a few days from Georgia to Maryland and had all kinds of stressors and temptations!

[finallyfree]

Good for you Shine that you haven't gone back to cooked...I applaud you for this.

Good idea too about the Lara Bars....

The Black Olive tapenade is just:

Black olives - diced small
One or two tomatoes - diced small
Onion - as much diced small as you like (I am not overly fond of onion, so just used a little)
olive oil
garlic - 3 small or 2 large cloves (or more as you desire)
salt
Little oregano

I like to dice everything small, in part because I am not fond of tomatoes, and by dicing them small, I can't really taste the tomato, and also because I find the flavors mix better.

Let sit for a bit (1/2 - 1 hour) on the counter and enjoy (of course, its even better the next day).

[finallyfree]

Oh, I forgot about your other question...dragon fruit is actually the fruit of a cactus, very yummy...I suggest you look it up on the Internet...

A question for you - what does HTH mean?

[shine72]

HTH = Hope This Helps

Sorry about that. Thanks for the recipe!

Sunshine :D

[cassidy]

What gets me off track? LOL....

PMS!

[finallyfree]

I hear you on that one Cassidy...

Now, the next part of the question...is how do you deal with it so you can stay raw? :)

[Ariannah]

Not enough sweet fruit. Getting the right amount of sweet fruit really staves off cravings. Capping the day with a huge green salad and/or green smoothie, helps me to totally ignore cooked smells around me (my family is cooked).

The simpler my diet, the less I crave.

[goodbeets]

If I am tired, frustrated, and or otherwise stressed and I do not have a quick yummy raw food available I will nibble on cooked, which becomes a full or more serving. My family is also not raw, mostly but somewhat (DH eats whatever raw I make and kids love smoothies and sweets) but having cooked food around makes it dreadfully easy and if I am stressed, I purposely don't care. How does this help me feel better? IT DOES NOT. BUT, I have been mostly raw for one year and I forsee only a bettering of my situation and resilience!

[Vegan Princess]

My docter switched my birth control pills and it completely derailed me. I had intense cravings for things I don't even eat normally. Twice in one week I made special trips to the store for cupcakes. Non vegan at that. And I've been vegan for over a year and a half. Within a few days of throwing out the pills the cravings went away. It was like I was powerless! Otherwise, I agree it's really important to always have food you can eat or to eat before you go out!

[cassidy]

Make lots of goodies and eat lots of goodies! LOL... RP's brownies for example.

HOWEVER... all silliness aside, I suppose I need to work on this. Things that really get me off track, besides pms, are emotions in general. I need to work on dealing with my emotions outside of food. Deep breathing. Being away from food, excercising, playing with my daughter, reading...etc.