After eating cooked, do you ever feel like your body is begging you to eat raw?

[sherahtaylor]

I've been really struggling to stay raw as much as possible in the countdown weeks until I have the baby - I have 7 1/2 more to go. Each day it's a struggle as I try to go one, two, three or more days 100% raw, then eat something cooked - usually junk.

Anyway, today I'm just bored with the food I have available - I seriously got spoiled this summer with all the selection & ate so many watermelons! I miss my watermelons. :(

I ate some crackers & cheese, garlic bread, and candy...and now I can almost literally hear my body just begging me to eat only raw for the rest of the night, if I eat anything at all. You know how it's so easy to just say "oh well, this day is shot anyway" and proceed to eat everything you've been craving and stuff you haven't been, mostly because it's "the last time" or whatever.

I'm back on the bandwagon as of right now - I'm really craving orange juice alot so I think tomorrow I'm going to call my farmer's market and see if they'll give me a discount for a case of oranges. It's important to feed those raw cravings when you're pregnant! :p

[Lilly the Naiad]

I know this is the "100% raw for 30 days" site, but in my own personal experience, when I totally deny myself of something it grows to fantastical proportions, and the best solution for this has been to eat a little bit of whatever it is I crave. What has always happened is that I realize it's not that great and just want to eat more raw afterwards.

This has also saved me from the "the day is screwed, might as well feast" issue, because no day is screwed, I just continue on my journey of doing raw the best I can.

The important thing I have found is to make sure that I'm not hungry, and that if I can try to substitute my cooked craving with raw I will try it. If there is absolutely no satisfaction then I will first eat raw then have the cooked whatever in a small amount.

As I said, I know it's not so encouraged here to switch gradually, but if you're going to be 100% raw for good, a gradual progression is the easiest on your mind. The problem with this I think is that people just don't try to stay raw, and you must really want it.

[Aleesha Sattva]

yes, my body begs for juice or raw... funny how that happens even at the beginning of this journey (as i am). today i was soooo craving something sweet which i haven't had a single craving for a couple months now. so i had two bites of a cookie... decided it was enough and handed the rest to my son.

it felt good to get rid of the craving... and not to overindulge at the same time!

[Little Mango]

I have gone for bread each time I have craved cooked food (I am not even gonna think of those God awful potato wedges I ate:eek: ). I just couldn't wait to get back onto green smoothies and juices. It wasn't the case of, okay not I have had a treat time to get back to the grinding task of being on a diet. That is the beauty of Raw. As Alissa said, you always want to get back on!!! :)

[PomegranatePip]

I've noticed that for a long time, even though I didn't know exactly what it was. When I was a kid and ate stuff like candy or chocolate, I'd get these weird cravings for lettuce! My body was trying to tell me something, I guess.

After upping my raw intake, I find that eating cooked makes me feel very lethargic, gassy, and achy. It's not pleasant.

[RawHeaven]

Absolutely.

The more raw foods I eat, the more distress I experience when I digress from eating raw. This past sunday I thought it wouldn't hurt to use up the last of my lentils and make a cooked lentil/veggie soup. It was just okay and blankety blank if I didn't suffer the consequences! I was bloated, ill and constipated for 2 days and eventually had to drink some senna tea for relief! So my body is speaking to me loud and clear to knock it off and just eat raw already.

It's also pretty amazing to me considering I thought I was all that consuming a healthy vegan diet for many years. When I really wasn't. Now the same (cooked) foods make me ill!

[Revvell]

Absolutely.

Revvell

[lily]

Me too. The positive thing is, it always reminds me of exactly WHY I normally eat raw. And I think to myself 'why did I eat that cooked food?'. Usually it's for social reasons, so as not to hurt someone's feelings, or to be odd and awkward in a social situation, etc.

The last time this happened, the next day I said to myself:

I LOVE MYSELF, THEREFORE I EAT RAW...

I've written it in my diary and I hope I can remember so that I don't go through this again.

lily

[Shell]

Without a doubt! I'm going through that right now.....fell off, and fell hard.....immediately, I craved juicy oranges, grapefruit, anything that I could sink my teeth into! I love that that happens (granted, I wish I didn't deviate at all!)....it shows you how natural, and essential this way of eating is to the function of the body.

[meancat]

Yup ---I feel off pretty hard for two days and today I woke up bloated, puffy faced, headache and all around not a 100%. I didn't even realize how good I was feeling until this slip up.

Not to mention the stomach cramps I had last night trying to digest the stupid cheeseburger I ate. :mad:

But I'm back on the horse today and will not put any poison in my body today.

Sherah--good luck on your cravings, they have to be ten times stronger than ours being preggers and all!

[sbaker]

its really odd, im 24 weeks pregnant and i have the curse of the heartburn, and have since day one. its not the regular kind where it shoots up the throat like a volcano after you eat something that causes it.....no its this sick ill feeling in the back of my throat, like i just threw up, and there is acid just sitting there, all the time. well....when i eat raw for a few days it completely goes away, with the exception of coconut oil that causes it a tiny bit, (but i still eat it for its benefits). anyway....when i fall off the wagon, as i did sunday evening, i look forward to two days of this feeling no matter how raw i eat. and then on the third day of raw its gone again! here i am on wednesday finally feeling good from my mess up on sunday evening. i tend to be one of those people who do what you said before...."oh well this day is already shot!" and then i eat more of the things i dont get to have on raw, and it just gets worse. but i think the pregnancy is really keeping me in check because i get soooo sick if i dont eat raw. its just a stange proof to me that raw is better because i can eat anyting raw and still be fine, but the second i eat anything cooked its the same problem. its very hard to be pregnant when you husband is eating pizza in front of you though!!

[beppa66]

Yes, after one particulary south of the border binge, I was craving cucumber juice of all things. Now mind you I have never like cucumbers, let alone juiced them before. Low and behold my body was screaming CUCUMBER JUICE!!! So we obliged and POW...felt a million times better.

So that's my new thing. ( : Great post.

[Stina]

Yes, I do feel like my body begs me to get back to Raw when I slip. It's the choice between feeling good and feeling bad, but there have been too many times the power of compulsion won and left me eating junk food and feeling discouraged. But I quit getting neurotic about beating myself up and I keep feeding the solution and starving the problem, and over the course of the last year, I'm winning the battle and now consider myself Raw.
One of the best strategies I have is to keep playing in the kitchen. I keep experimenting with recipes and forget the ones that don't satisfy me and discover the ones that are so good that I'd truly rather eat them than cooked food. I really like spiritually nurturing myself in this manner; it's very rewarding.
I average one dehydrator meal a day. Maybe I'll become someone who is not only raw but fresh, but for now, not only is it the best I can do, I feel wonderful.
I've really had it with addictive cooked food like bread. I can't believe what a dramatic difference there is in my mental health when I'm eating gluten products to when I'm clean and raw. I'm like a different person. All of the raw gurus like Alissa Cohen, David Wolfe and Victoria Boutenko recognize that cooked food is a serious addiction. I'm extremely aware of this facet since I'm also an alcoholic/drug addict in recovery, so I know what I'm up against. But I also know how bright that light is at the end of the tunnel. :)

[dreamrawalwz]

Yes. I always crave raw fruits, lettuce, and celery after a binge or cooked food. Always.

[mrpickles]

definitely... I feel like crap today after having some indian last night... it wasn't even that good and I didn't even finish it... the smell of it afterwards was kina nauseating... it also takes me a day or 2 to feel normal and energetic again... but the more this happens, the more it reinforces raw is the only stuff I should be eating....

Thanksgiving is coming up...should be interesting.

[tinystrawberry]

YES i do! I feel drained when eating cooked sugary things