Giving up the addiction

[Firicia]

Hello everyone, I have been trying to be 100% raw for about 2 months now. I have been good on and off, and usually decently high raw except for some emotionaly upsetting times I've had. For the physical addictions of food I have been considering fasting. I actually did 3 days but then end the fast so I could have enough energy to go to a concert. I found as soon as I got off the fast all I could think about was SAD foods.

I want to get back to fasting within the next couple of days. I have this concern tho because after I am done fasting I want to dive into being as raw as I possibly can, but while I'm fasting no matter how I try all I can think of is SAD foods, and after my mini fast I just went right back to eating them. I want to get over my eomtional needs for SAD foods so that after my fast I don't ruin everything I did by eating a bunch of SAD. So does anyone have any auggestions?

How have you gotten over the emotional side of SAD foods? I just want to get to where I feel I need to be in my eating healthy lifestyle. Thanks:)

[Stina]

Yeah, a lot of us are in the same boat, but keep at it and you'll make progress. From what I gather, most of us have to practice better eating habits. Some, probably a minority, just switch over to wholly Raw with no problem, no transitional phase. I read the book Overcoming Overeating and applied it to Raw foods. It helped. I'd highly recommend it. I also just ordered Victoria Boutenko's book "12 Steps to Raw Foods;" I've loved her two other books. That's another thing. Keep doing lots of reading on the subject. I sat down with the reference librarian and talked about what a burgeoning community this Raw movement is and asked him to buy a couple of books by Boutenko. If anyone else goes to the library, I want there to be material on Raw-ness waiting there for them. One thing I've found when I relapse into my junk food addiction is to not be neurotic about it. Okay, I slipped, but it's behind me, and I choose to practice healthy eating habits. So, I don't get down on myself. It's hard to change eating habits! If you're anywhere near a city of any size you could find other Raw enthusiasts. Making yummy Raw food and sharing it with your loved ones will strengthen your resolve. I'd like to try fasting again but found it would wind me up tight like a spring and I'd explode back into abusive eating patterns. I'm taking Alissa's advice and having too much good Raw food around me for now, eating whatever on earth I want as long as it's Raw, and I'll worry about refining my diet later. I really believe I can eat whatever I want Raw and my intuition will start to shine through regardless. So, hang in there, use this board a lot, there's a lot of love and support from people here to nurture you onto this true Raw path.

[michigan roman]

- quitting salt helped me because when i would taste cooked it no longer tasted nutricious compared to raw . without the salt it tasted nutritionally dead . i was a salt addict .

- also though it isnt considered raw green tea has been a great tool for me in getting / staying raw . it supresses appetite to the max . and though i plan to probably one day quit tea , here at 16 months raw i still use it . tea for me is what i call a good cheat .

[sweet pepper]

I have trouble giving up the addiction as well. I just keep trying, everyday and some days are good and some are really good. I have noticed that the connection of pain with cooked foods vs no pain with raw is becoming much stronger. I have been asking myself if I want pain or health and it seems to help me make the better decision.

Michigan Roman - I am going to try the green tea and see if that will help, sounds like a good idea. Thanks

Swt Pepper

[chilove]

Hi Firicia,

There is a great discussion about emotional eating in this thread:
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23590&highlight=emotional+eating

I strongly advise AGAINST fasting (which I define as eating nothing and drinking only water) for anyone with emotional eating issues. Fasting often causes people to become even more obsessed with thoughts about food, leads to feelings of deprivation and bingeing.

If you really, really want to do some sort of "jump start" into raw, I recommend doing some sort of modified approach and call it a "cleanse"--maybe eat only juicy fruits for a few days, or eat only green smoothies for a few days or something like that. That way you can stay full and satisfied which I think will increase your chances of success.

I've also been doing a lot of work with EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) both personally and with clients and am experiencing a lot of success with it. I am always looking for effective approaches to deal with emotional eating and EFT is definitely impressing me so far. Check out www.emofree.com for a free manual to learn about EFT.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com