Raw junk food?

[c'estlaviebelle]

Every time I eat a Larabar, banana ice cream, or any pate with nuts, I feel like I'm eating junk food... how can I train myself not to do this? I start feeling guilty after I've eaten (like I just ate a cooked meal or something), and its weird how that kind of thinking tricks your brain and body. I think that is why I haven't released any weight in the last few days...

Did anyone else have this problem? I'm starting to feel insane when I feel guilty for eating such healthy foods...

[jenjen]

in my opinion, larabars, bananas and too many nuts, are junk food.

larabars are...ok, not cooked, but not a living, fresh, vibrant, life force giving, water giving food. they are in fact a premixed, packaged in plastic and far from nutrient dense fresh picked food.
bananas are hybrid fruits, even the organic ones are so hybridized from their origonal state that they are mostly sugar now. i get weird highs and lows from bananas. i won't eat them.
and nuts? well that's the one raw food that, if i eat i gain weight. they're basically just little fat pellets. i can eat tons of avocados and seeds and oils and not gain, but nuts, get me every time. it's almost immediate.

frankely i think it's your intuition that is telling you something. like, do you feel like your eating junk food after you have a delicious orange smoothie? or even chocolate avocado pudding? i feel vibrant and healthy from eating those things but the stuff you mentioned would make me feel (and become) fat and sleepy.
j

ps i just replace all the recipes that call for nuts with some kind of seed. i use nuts very rarely.

[Rawkinlocs]

Alissa absolutely DETESTS referring to raw treats as "junk food"...sure fresh is best, but the foods you are feeling guilty about are waaaay better than "real" junk food! Do you own her book? If not, I highly recommend getting it!

Please don't feel guilty...allow yourself to eat them if it helps you stay raw and satiated and allow your body to gradually get to a point where you find you are eating less of those items. It's a process just like with anything else...but guilt for eating certain raw food items/treats is not a signal that your body is needing/wanting to move away from them...that is something that more than likely stems from your past eating habits and concerns and it's spilling over into your raw "diet". Have fun with this and try not to allow feelings of guilt overtake you...it's one thing if you begin to not feel your best, but from what I read in your post, that isn't the case.

Read this post from Alissa and maybe/hopefully it'll help:


I do not promote a high fat raw food diet which some claim. I promote freedom of choice. For those of you who think I promote a high fat diet, my first response to you would be… READ the book! My second response to people who think I promote a high fat raw food diet is, “no, what I promote is a no starvation diet. That means that if I eat my typical daily diet of juice, smoothies, salad and fruit but once in a while I want something else, like mock salmon pate on top of my salad or if I want a dessert after eating simply for a week or so, im going to have it. My point in doing raw food is not to analyze everything I put in my mouth and not to beat myself up if I want to eat something other then a fruit or vegetable.

My diet is probably much simpler then most peoples here so it’s funny when people say I promote high fat. I think they say that because they get so neurotic about having a handful of nuts once a week or they eat so lightly and then god forbid they have a raw dessert. It’s also bizarre to me that the people who are the strictest and have the most rules are the ones who are not 100% raw or who fall off the raw wagon constantly. My philosophy and book do not promote a high fat raw food diet. I talk about all of this in my book. I talk about transitioning and using lots of recipes at first and then moving away from that to a lighter diet. Im not sitting around making calzones all day. I eat mostly whole fruits, veggies, juice and salads.

But I know that the reason most people fall off of this diet is because they get too rigid. Yes, you may after a time of eating raw foods move gradually to a simpler diet. But if you put rules on yourself around what you can and can’t have within a raw food diet, there will be a day when you want a flax cracker, dessert, pate or a prepared raw recipe and if you don’t allow yourself to have it, you’ll be driving to the local pizza hut. Or, you’ll be white knuckling it. What kind of way is that to live? Certainly doesn’t sound like a fun, easy way to live to me. This diet is supposed to be about, in my opinion, freedom. Don’t make this more complicated then it is. Stress causes just as much if not more sickness in the body then what you eat. Relax, eat raw, and live.

Let's please remember to keep in mind that this forum is based on Alissa's book and teachings and she doesn't teach against nuts or bananas!

[rawstrength]

and nuts? well that's the one raw food that, if i eat i gain weight. they're basically just little fat pellets.

Love and respect your food. Think of it as nourishing and life-giving, not fattening and unhealthy. After you have given yourself the freedom to eat whatever you want for a while, and not feel guilty about it, you will be able to truly see how your body responds to different foods, and then make the call as to whether to include them in your diet or not.
What's the difference between a raw dessert or a raw salad? They're both equally raw and equally healthy, especially if you boost the energy level of your dessert by including some superfoods mixed in. The difference is all in your mind. This is raw food we're talking about, not cooked food. You don't have to be afraid to eat anymore!

[eachpeachpearplum]

I totally agree with the last two posts!

The foods that you mention I think of as just heavier foods. Still great foods though! The longer you are 100% raw the less and less you will crave these.

I ate pretty good amounts of these foods when I first started on the path and never felt guilty, never! I alwys had a date nut torte, chocolate ganach and ice cream in the fridge. But I always balanced these foods with HUGE green salads. They totally helped me get to where I am today and I am so greatfull to know that WHENEVER I want I can have a pie or cake or cookies WITH NO GUILT.

Try and get rid of your old mind set of good and bad or fattening or junk foods. Raw is just a totally different way to percieve eating. I strongly recommend Alissa's book if you dont already have it.:)

Cheers,

EPPP

[c'estlaviebelle]

Thanks so much for all of the responses! I know that my thinking is reflective of my past relationship with food (which was not particularly healthy). And i know that I am better off eating a larabar, mock pate, or banana ice cream over the other junk I used to eat. Its like, intellectually I know what I am eating is good for me, but I can't shake the feeling like in some way I am still eating poorly unless I eat only fruits and veggies which have not been changed in any way. Its almost like it is too easy...

I appreciate the copy of Alissa's post too. I am getting the book from my raw teacher (I went to a raw Level 1 class). I know that eating is supposed to be fun and healthy, and eating the larabars/walnut mock meat/ ice cream has helped me not eat baked brie/crackers/milk chocolate liked I used to.

I'm working on my relationship with myself and loving my food and my body. Its just so hard to break years of habits, particularly when those habits meant hating my body and seeing eating as something harmful.

Anyway, this forum is really helping me. I thought I had gotten over a lot of my food issues in the last year, but I guess I still have a lot to work on.

[jenjen]

sorry, it is totaly true that those foods are waaayyyy better than SAD food. i have certainly had my share of them. my post came off a bit harsh. what i said is true for me now (almost 1 year raw) but i know for sure that every single person will have a different reaction to foods. so many may not find my experience to be the same as theirs.
eat all you want, stay raw, and you will find the path that gives you the most energy and health.

[jaurequi]

I wouldn't eat any food that made me feel bad. Use your mind and body. You can be unwise in any eating style you choose by the way you employ it.

Some treats have their place, but if they made me feel bad, I wouldn't eat them, as they'd, at that point, cease to be a "treat," right?

Best,

[Rawkinlocs]

I wouldn't eat any food that made me feel bad. Use your mind and body. You can be unwise in any eating style you choose by the way you employ it.

Some treats have their place, but if they made me feel bad, I wouldn't eat them, as they'd, at that point, cease to be a "treat," right?

Best,

There is a difference in a food making you feel badly as in poorly and making you feel guilty...guilty as in, "Oh this tastes so good it MUST be bad for me". Many people have made such statements when having raw desserts...that it tastes so "sinful" that they feel like they're "cheating".

[Revvell]

Its almost like it is too easy...



That's what's interesting about "natural healing". It seems so easy that it can't make a difference. Well, conscious movement in the form of qigong/taiji seems so easy, how can it make a difference? It does. There are "medicineless" hospitals in China where nothing changes except they do qigong all day long. It's their "job".

Try looking at it another way ~ How easy is it to gain weight? How easy is it to create bad health?

It's just as easy to do the opposite. Stop doing what you're doing to create bad health or to gain weight.

It's all "easy" yet, people want to complicate it. We're certainly strange critters, aren't we?

Revvell