4th day 100% raw and feeling blah

[rah-woman]

Okay so i was so excited to start the 30 day challenge, that i started early. I'm on day 4 and just feeling blah. Energy is good even though i'm fighting a cold but my mood isn't there. I feel empty. So every night after supper i allow myself raw-chocolate pudding. That was my thing before i went raw, after supper i would end up bingeing on crap foods. I can eat healthy all day and then after supper i need something yummy. I'm telling myself that the empty feelings will pass. Everything is fantastic in my life, my husband and i are close and connected, financially secure, wonderful friends, kids stress me abit. So i'm blaming these feelings on the transition. It will probably pass right??

[maui_butterfly]

sorry you're not feeling it at this point, but i suggest making an agreement with yourself to do this thing for 30 days and see how it goes OVERALL. i think in transitioning we have a tendency to take our emotional/physical "temperatures" too often, daily or many times a day, and blaming everything on the famous detox, or raw foods in general.

could be detox. or not, you said yourself you are fighting a cold, could be you would be feeling BLAH no matter what your diet was.

but you say you feel empty, and you say you "allow" yourself raw chocolate pudding. sounds like maybe you are at some level viewing this as a deprivation. deprivation doesn't work. the mind bend here is to switch your thinking from scarcity to abundance -- this can either be seen as a limiting/depriving/optionless path or one of fantastic adventure, luscious abandon, and radical hedonism.

when i first decided to go raw, i "treated" myself to anything i wanted, as long as it was raw. organic raspberries out of season hand picked by virgins in the mountains of tibet flown in on the backs of endangered carrier pigeons? ridiculously overpriced? bottoms up! dessert for breakfast? sure, why not!?! my sixth avocado of the day? yippee skippee for me! if i wanted it even slightly, by god i ate it, and the cool thing was i still lost weight, at a rapid pace i might add. and the even cooler thing was, after doing this for several months, i no longer have the need to eat this way. it was purely a mindset change that i needed to make -- that this lifestyle was not a deprivation, that it was a TREAT. and it is a treat to treat your body so wonderfully. the REWARD is not the cooked foods that you might decide to "allow" yourself at the end of 30 days, the REWARD is all the fabulous, nurturing, luscious, beautiful, unadulterated, strengthening, cleansing, magical, powerful, wonderful RAW foods that you "allow" yourself to have RIGHT NOW.

fall in love with your food. if that love is raw chocolate pudding, then by god have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner until you get it into your head that it is SAFE, and not a reward, not an allowance, not time off for good behavior. chances are from there you will find yourself falling in love with many things (papayas, kiwis, spinach, figs, pomagranates, coconuts, cashews, collards, red cabbage are some of my new loves) and raw chocolate pudding will take its rightful place in your world - as just one of the zillions of things you like to eat.

i'll see you on the december challenge thread. go team!

[StarFire]

ABSOLUTLEY RIGHT!!! http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s43/FireStar_830/2006SmileyHappyYes.gif ...

YOU'RE DOIN GREAT!!! so relax .. enjoy the ride and know you will have ups and downs... just push thru it.... and you'll be so happy you worked thru it!! :D

[aliciamatheson]

As always Maui Butterfly says very eloquently what I think! It's abundance over deprivation - everything takes on new shine. Go ahead and have that chocolate pudding for breakfast if it makes you happy!

Alicia

[Raspberry4]

Maui butterfly - wow! You are so darn right I couldn't have said that any better if I tried. Thanks for the enlightenment and truthfulness of this raw food life.

[EZ rider]

I agree with maui_butterfly that works. When I go into my kitchen to get something to eat and there are some of my favorite foods to choose from then raw food eating is a pleasure. I am always glad I got the raw foods I wanted when I was at the store when I eat them. :)

[rah-woman]

Maui butterfly, i agree with everything you said, i cameoff sounding like i thought i was deprived, but i don't. I love eating this food, so much that i'm scared that i will gain weight!!. I'm still at the stage where i live to eat not eat to live, so i always eat more than what my body is hungry for bc the food tastes soooooo good. All my life i'm been very aware of my body image, i'm slender and want to stay that way. So i guess i'm disappointed with myself for not having more self control when it comes to that decadent chocolate pudding!!! I hope one day i can reach the stage where i eat to live and not be thinking about my next meal. Heh, do actually live in Maui, bc we are vacationing there again this winter for 2 weeks!!

[dalimeindacoconut]

Please tell me what your raw chocolate pudding recipe is! I still have not made a raw dessert for some reason. Miss Maui your post gave me a hearty laugh...thank you so much! Rah-woman your sitting through your feelings and they will pass. It is not an easy thing to do, but doing it raw means they will be healed permanently. How cool is that?

[halikatak]

I went through the exact same thing.
The Blah's!

Yes it will pass :)

[rah-woman]

One serving is one ripe avocado, one banana (optional)(i'm crazy about bananas), teaspoon coconut butter or cocoa butter, add as much raw cocoa powder as you like. Process untill creamy and smooth!!!

[rah-woman]

forgot the honey, put as much as you need..

[rawrawdee]

is there a raw food group that meets in saskatoon, saskatchewan?

[Vivafree]

I have my own struggles over the years with downs and ups and food helped to cope. Result - i am heavier than intended.
In my moments i make raw pudding ( it tastes for me better than the sad one) but for a long time nothing could substitute the sad food - now i don't even think about it. So after all perseverance and time helped.
It is not easy sometimes. Slowly habit will go away. It is a long process. I failed so many times because i wated quick results. It is a mixture of fears and sadness and emptiness and somehow it was located in the stomach -now everything shifted to the heart region and it is radiating instead of asking for being fed. Something to do with chakras!
For a pudding
soaked overnight dates 1 cup
1 cup dark chocolate powder
few drops of rum essence or vanilla
a little zest from orange, few drops of lemon or orange juice - blend all
Use as little liquid as you can for super smooth blending
Pour to the dessert into bowls and place in the fridge for an hour!
It is a great dessert!

[Queen Bean]

Vivafree...where do you get raw dark chocolate powder?