I know that we are all striving for 100% raw or as close as we can get to it.

[Bethanie]

Doing your journey have any of you ever slipped and if so what effects did it have on your body?
Were you able to go back to being 100%? Was it difficult?
I finally gave up steamed sweet potatoes and califlower, i was only eating it on occasion but now not at all.
Do you fine it difficult to eat all raw in cold weather?
B.

[Care4raw]

The last things cooked I gave up were my daily baked potatoes and popcorn. Total comfort foods, I loved 'em!I had craving but now 4 months raw, I can't remember much about them. I know at one point even giving up coffee was so hard, now I can't remember that either!?

I think with raw after awhile its as if those things gave me up..it was that easy, after a bit. Now occassionally cravings come but they are fleeting. Thats where I am at 4 mos 100% raw.

As far as the cold goes I am in Fl so I can't talk too much about cold. However there are days I will go for 'warming foots', like root veggies . Onions and 'hot' foods help the cold for me too.

Lastly i got cold very easily my first few month raw and now I have really changed in that way.

Good luck!

[irinam]

I drink a lot of hot herbal tea.

It might not be agreable with "raw food policy", but that's one thing I am not giving up. (Will I be booted from the board now? :D )

[Bethanie]

Sometime nothing beats a hot drink, i try not to boil it though:)
I'm doing better and try to keep it between warm and hot not too much either way.
B.

[CrazyDelicious]

Winter is cold! (especially here - it was -20C with the windchill last weekend) I find that I eat different foods in winter - and have an arsenal of warming drinks I make in colder months to make me warm and cozy! I also use spices like cayenne (ok - I pretty much use this one year-round - but even more in winter), cinnamon, cloves, and chinese 5-spice more often when it is colder...
Funny though - I find now that I am LESS cold in winter after being raw. At first I couldn't imagine eating raw all winter (lentil soup was one of my BIG comfort foods) but now it is easier - I can even ski all day withough stopping for hot chocolate!! (another of my favourite things to do, but made my blood sugar suffer horribly)
Also - whenever I have "slipped" on raw, I never worried TOO much about it Same goes with questions about whether certain raw items are really REALLY raw??? (spices, honey, miso) I figure that I can do my best with what I have, and try to listen to my body as much as possible. I went raw over a period of several years, slowly gravitating to foods that made me feel my best - then one day I was online and found that I was pretty much a raw foodie! In the end, I think you have to find what makes you and your body shine!!! And it is a great journey!!:)

[EZ rider]

Do you fine it difficult to eat all raw in cold weather?There are two things that make eating raw easier for me:

1) Warm weather

2) Harvest season

[RawSweetie]

Hi Bethanie,
YES!! I find winter a challenge to raw eating. I fantasize about what it would be like to be raw in a warm climate...aahhh...give me the beach...

I'm new to raw foods, but was a vegan before. I don't know that I've "slipped," b/c I've been transitioning, but I am constantly finding that my body needs this or can't handle that--things that make me feel blecch. For example, I ate too many dehydrated flax crackers last week and felt bad. When I eat wheat or soy I feel bad. I have a severe patch of eczema on my ankle that seems to be reacting to all KINDS of things, so right now I've eliminated the usual suspects, in an effort to heal it. I could go on and on about all of my discoveries! This really is an induvidual process. I'm learning as I go.

Good luck with your raw adventure~~:)

[eachpeachpearplum]

Great thread,

I consider myself a successful 100% raw foodist by MY definition. I have been on this -for me- rocky road for a few years now and am NOW in a very happy place.

It took three yo yo years to find what works for me.

I CANNOT eat ANY form of SAD wheat products. Period. For me it's like alcohol to an alcoholic. You would be amazed at how many things have wheat in them - I even found an herbal tea with it!!:eek: One tiny bite of wheat and I am out of control.

Having figured out my TRIGGER foods has been a LIFESAVER.

I now know if I inadvertantly pop a cooked food in my mouth whilst cooking dinner for the family I am ok; not addiction triggers.

I still drink herbal tea, miso and use wheat free tamari as Nama Shoyu has wheat. I even use store bought sprouted mana bread on occation. I even have a jar of dehydrated veggies that I add warm water to and blitz in the VM for a nice wam broth. But on the whole I eat very simply, green drinks & soups and lots of veggie/salad meals.

I have finally reached the coveted place where your body no longer craves the complicated dishes in a search for something "familliar".

The very small amount of non-raw items l eat allow me to eat raw comfortably. I am totally ok with these and do not feel I am "cheating". They work for me!:p

[jaurequi]

For me, 100% raw is easiest. It's just less complicated :D. Why go through all the drama? As hard as it seems, it's actually the easiest (and fastest).
I've not had any problems falling off the wagon because I just simply decided that I was going to eat RAW. That's it. There is no other choice. That's how I made it easy for me. And I've stayed 100%.
If you fall, just get back up and let it go. It's over, it's in the past. Start anew.

Best,

[Carlsbad]

I slip about one meal, once a month. I see it as part of my journey, and I work on keeping it to just one meal instead of letting it stretch into two or three. I find that if I can manage to eat raw the day after, then I'm fine (the day after is always tough, so I try to eat heavier raw foods). I'm also working on going longer and longer between slips. My goal is always to live 100% raw, and I try to learn from each backslide and move forward instead of beating myself up. My slips are not usually due to physical cravings, but to emotional issues, and I'm slowly working on those. Food was my drug, and it's not an easy or quick thing to break free from that addiction.

As far as the cold weather, I was never a big fan of the typical SAD winter foods (soups and stews, etc), so that part hasn't been hard. The tough part for me is the fact that I don't like the winter produce options as much as I do the summer stuff. I need to experiment more with some of the squash recipes. I also eat more things at room temperature than I do in the summer.

Hope that helps!

[Eva]

When I have something cooked, it has sent me into a spiral of lots of cooked, no matter what it is... And it makes me tired, I usually get a belly ache, and then my mind fogs up. Even if it's just a little brown rice or something simple.

[Ingenue]

I'm with the 100% girls, it's the way for me. I've been in and out of Raw for two years now, mostly Raw. Those High Raw stages were not so nice for me. Quite horrible actually. And since I am so intimately acquainted with Alcoholism I can say that the "High Raw" periods for me were very similar in nature, emotionally and spiritually, to the times I tried to moderate my drinking. I looked every possible way that I could control the uncontrollable, but in the end I had to admit defeat. One drink always made me want more, and then at some point I would lose the ability to say, "No! This is dangerous, and I don't want anymore!"

Now High Raw (75%-95%) has benefits too and if you're thriving like that, congratulate yourself! It's amazing to change your eating habits around like that. But for me, the teensy amounts of cooked food I would try to consume would spiral into large amounts of cooked food. Digesting said cooked food then became so uncomfortable that any of the benefits I may have been experiencing were overshadowed by the constant cycle of constipation, bloating, and then some sort of half hearted release. By body seems to hold onto cooked food forever!

Pretty quickly, accepting 100% Raw freed me from that relentless cycle of craving and constipation. Good lord! I just read that again, craving and constipation? How did I live like that? LOL, is there anything worse????

Big Kisses,
Em

[Vivafree2]

I didn't have much of those mishaps during last two months, but in the past - after eating something not raw ( pasta, pizza, fries, cake)
:(immediate - excess of mucus - yak! Once i took antyhistmine thinking it is allergy
:(following morning - headache
:(next day flu like/ cold/allergy like symptoms - chills, body aches
:(...and this is what actually stops me from indulging in not raw: something between mild anxiety, mood swing! And it is not guilt reaction! I absolutely dislike this feeling.

[Dancer]

Thank you for this post. This is exactly what's going on in my life at the moment.

My husband and I decided to do a 100% raw 30 day challenge starting Jan 1st! And we did really good the first two weeks. We were both buzzing from the high.

The point where we got weak wasn't because of anything bad it was because of something wonderful. He got a new job at a brand new company opening in town and I passed my Associate Broker's exam. We are celebratory people and it always revolves around food. So our first thought is "Let's go out to eat to celebrate". Well, we resisted Friday when we got his news and we resisted Saturday when we got my news but then by Sunday we were so depressed that we hadn't "celebrated" that we ended up going out to eat.

That one trip to the restaurant has started an avalanche. I'm finding very hard to get back to 100% these past 11 days. We've even started juicing just to jump-start ourselves. But it's hard.

I know it's my journey but I'm a perfectionist and it's killing me! I keep beating myself up. I have to learn to be ok with my "human-ness".

I think I need to go meditate. :)

[Carlsbad]

I have a couple of suggestions for getting "back on the raw wagon" after a slip up. My body always feels like just juicing to get clean again after the cooked food, but I've found that that usually backfires. I feel hungry on just juice, and swerve into cooked food again. Instead, what works is if I kind of pig out on dense raw foods. Nuts, avocados, desserts, anything heavy and decadent. That helps me emotionally realize that raw food is not deprivation or boredom, and it helps me feel full. I also stay very aware that eating that cooked food woke the addiction beast, so I have to focus doubly hard for a day or so to stay raw. I make recipes (I usually eat very simply) and try to make something I haven't had before. I also chug a lot of green smoothies, which helps too.

I understand your impulse to celebrate. I think the issue is going to be figuring out a way to celebrate that doesn't involve cooked food. That could mean celebrating with something non-food (getting tickets to a concert or sporting event that you wouldn't usually see, taking a trip somewhere, getting a haircut or spa treatment, etc etc). Or it could mean celebrating with raw food; you could make up a whole bunch of raw "treats" and have a cozy celebratory feast. The longer you stay raw, the more you'll have to celebrate, so you'll want to brainstorm some good raw ways to do so!

Hope that helps,
Carlsbad

[Bethanie]

Don't beat yourself up too bad, if we wake up tomorrow is another day and if we don't they you're not going to worry about it:)
My husband bought home a veggie sub from SubWay and it was warm and good, we dipped it in olive oil and ate it, yes i enjoyed it, it was so yummy.
Will i beat myself up over it, NO i won't have am i still eating them, NO but who knows in the future i may have another one.
It's a work in progress, did it cause any changes in my body, i don't think so.
Am i working on trying to make one from raw ingredients, YES!:D :D
B.

[Eva]

The longer you stay raw, the more you'll have to celebrate, so you'll want to brainstorm some good raw ways to do so!


This has been sooo true for me... it's a good thing to remember. I would be unable to have the job I do now if it were not for raw food. I was able to finally stop taking Ritalin after many years and to no longer have all the symptoms of "ADD"... I really have had many more things to celebrate as a result of my clarity.

Something really fun to celebrate with for me (with raw food) would be fudge balls and fun appetizer-like dishes, like mini pizzas, raw tacos, chips and dip. :)

[Bethanie]

Isn't it great when we can say that RAW FOOD has changed our lives for the better.
So many times we are put down for our lifestyle way of eating but i've learned to look at the person doing the talking and i quietly laugh to myself, thinking i'm doing better than you:D
I've been there and i know how bad i felt before going RAW.
Now i can bend down and my knees don't hurt anymore and i was put on a medication for "Restless Legs" but now i don't have that problem anymore and my circulation in my legs has gotten much better.
Should we ever think about going back to eating the SAD way again, i say NO
WAY.
I like what i'm seeing, don't you.
B.

[brydee]

hi bethanie,
I also have/had the thing with my legs, when i was younger it was worse, when i was in running races id just fall over because of the poor circulation in my legs, and id get shooting pains in my knees whenever i bent down.my feet were also always cold but id been tested for diabetes. There getting much better now though!rebounding has helped loads.
Iv only been raw for 15 days now, i was before christmas for about 3 weeks, but after christmas i felt so ill eating cooked food and wanted to do this for the rest of my life after reading more, before it was more of a test, but i wanted to start in january as a 'new me' :)

Raw chocolate is helping me ALOT when the rest of my family is eating puddings etc.
Dehydrated sproats with spices on
Chilli in food
And hot but not boiled herbal tea's.if someone else makes it for me i arnt to bothered if its boiled or not, maybe later on il be more bothered.

In a raw recipe book i have they suggest putting your raw soup over another bowl of hot water and covering it, this warms your soup up and it isnt hot hot soup, but it keeps your hands warm and it makes it so much like normal soup.

Just after 15days though dehydrated food and raw puddings are making me feel sick or to full, or im really thirsty afterwards.

So yeah TEAS hehe