I heard that it takes 30 days to break any addiction....

[RawSinger]

is this true?? Could I possibly break my addiction to cooked food in 30 days of eating only raw? Well, of course I'll still think about cooked food and have occasionally cravings, but will I be able to get over my addiction to it in 30 days?

[sport]

I think that is why Alissa has set the 30 day challange.

[Pilgrim]

I think 30 days sets up a habit of eating that you can follow. It breaks the addiction in that sense. But for some of us, even one bit of cooked food after the 30 days are over and we go back into bingeing.

You should definitely try the 30 days and see for yourself! You won't be disappointed!

[Zella Juice]

Once and addict always and addict. Don't fool yourself to think that it's gone and let your guard down. I will always be a food addict.. I am trying to switch my addiction to raw foods but after a year...the temptation is still there. I have better tools now to manage it and I know it will get better and better. I don't think there are many people who do 30 days and never eat anything else cooked. We usually do and then realize why we are eating raw. For me it took many times going back and forth. It's all a process and you will get there if you keep juicing and drinking green smoothies.

[Raw Yogini]

I think 30 days gets people into a habit of eating raw and lets them get a feel of the raw food lifestyle. It gives you 30 days of practice at eating raw and the more we practice, the easier it becomes.

[Morn]

Once and addict always and addict. Don't fool yourself to think that it's gone and let your guard down. I will always be a food addict.. I have better tools now to manage it and I know it will get better and better. I don't think there are many people who do 30 days and never eat anything else cooked. We usually do and then realize why we are eating raw. For me it took many times going back and forth.

From another SAD food addict I concur with this. When You eat all raw however, what will happen is the pull or major desire for some of the addictive foods will lessen. Your head still may want it but your body will not need it. Also you will learn a self control that you have never experienced before because generally with raw foods you won't over binge.

Before raw I was hugely addicted to carbs (the breads, sweets/desserts, pasta, etc.) and could easily lose self control. The more I ate these foods the more I desired them and the pull was strong. After I went raw I started to acquire a fresh palate again and even started liking and craving better foods like fruits and salads. I think doing the 30 day challenge is a great way to make you get acclimated to the diet since you make a committment to learn the lifestyle and you commit that you won't still dabble with bad eating habbits but that you are focusing on new eating habbits. Try it for 30 days and see how you feel and what you think. I have been raw for over a year and a half and if I choose to eat sad food the addictive tendancies can come back if I don't really watch it. It can be like an alcoholic who has abstained for a period of time and then when they have their first drink they go back to their old habbits.

Eating raw is learning a new healthy lifestyle that can free you from the bondage of an eating addiction if you so choose to continue to eat raw.

[RawSinger]

Wow. Thank all of your for being such a strong reminder of why I come to this forum (not that I forgot). I appreciate all of your responses so much!!

What I meant when I said "It takes 30 days to break any addiction," was that at the end of 30 days, you won't feel like you need to get your fix all the time (as long as you don't eat any cooked food during that time or after). If one does succumb to cooked food during or after 30 days, I believe that it would negate most of the hard work that one put in to not feeling like they need SAD food anymore. At least it did for me.

When I first started raw, I was 100% raw for 26 days (not quite 30 but close enough). I didn't feel like I needed cooked food but I was having some cravings and I thought, "What's the harm?" Then I decided that I wanted to eat cooked food occasionally, so I went out for pizza. Unfortunately, the seed was planted and I wanted cooked food every night, not just twice a week like I had originally planned. That was sometime around the beginning of April of this year, and I've been back and forth ever since. I know that because of the relationship I have with cooked food, 100% raw is the only way.

[Zella Juice]

yep. At the 3 month mark. We were tired one day and didn't feel like preparing anything raw. We went to mexican food. And we were back to cooked after that day. I got to a point where I couldn't even imagine how I could be 100% raw anymore. I didn't know how to get back there. Then I remembered it was the fresh juice and green smoothies that got me there. So I just kept eating cooked but had my juice and green smoothies. The cooked food was making me feel so bad after awhile. I finally felt like I should go back to raw but I wasn't craving raw foods. So I had mostly green smoothie during the day and had something simple like baked potato or steamed veggies. And one day I realized I was strong enough to go all raw. I replaced the cooked food with salads and I'm back to RAW! I think it's a process we all have to go through. And I started from a Vegan diet. I think it's prolly harder for the meat eaters to transition. But it can be done with fresh juice and green smoothies. I would not be raw without them.

[firefaery]

as far as I know it takes 6 weeks to break the physiological addictions (the point at which the receptor sites are dying off) which stops your *body's* cravings. You will still have, at that point, emotional addictions. It takes far more work energetically to create new pathways in the brain, but it can be done. It is worth the effort.

[bsqmurphy]

Thank you for starting this thread & for everyone's responses.

I was RAW for 6 weeks and doing awesome and then had just one cooked item and then another & now I'm two weeks into so much cooked food that I'm feeling terrible again & beating myself up for it.

Your sharing of your raw journeys with the back & forth, challenges, and successes is helping me be a bit more compassionate with myself.

Also, the mention of just adding green smoothies & juice is really helpful. I've been focusing on all the cooked food I'm craving & eating and I believe strongly, what I focus on I get more of. Now I'm changing my focus on adding more RAW green goodness and I am confident that the transition back to RAW will be just as natural as before.

Thank you all!
Bri.

[Ilse W.]

I know I will have a hard time in winter. I love vegetable soups. I also like to eat miso soup with just a few mostly uncooked vegetables in it. I don't know how bad that actually is, because the vegetables don't get above 120 degrees. Other than that, I have always loved eating fruits of all kinds and the same goes for vegetables, so I see this whole raw eating as quite a treat. I also think that after even just 30 days of eating raw, your digestive system changes and a heavy cooked meal would probably sit in your stomach forever and cause horrible indigestion. I have a chiropractor here in town who just wrote a book "Getting into your pants". She advocates what she calls 10+10 and some wiggle room: 10 fruits and 10 vegetables a day and if after eating all that you absolutely feel the need, eat some steamed veggies, then cooked protein. In that order. I know after 10 fruits and 10 veggies a day there is no room left in me. BTW, the woman has lived like that for the last 20 years and is thin as a rail.

[RawHeaven]

What I meant when I said "It takes 30 days to break any addiction," was that at the end of 30 days, you won't feel like you need to get your fix all the time (as long as you don't eat any cooked food during that time or after). If one does succumb to cooked food during or after 30 days, I believe that it would negate most of the hard work that one put in to not feeling like they need SAD food anymore. At least it did for me.

I can respect this and your experience, but I don't think it's true that it would negate any hard work. I think you've got to start with the core of how you're feeling. Do you really feel like it's "hard work" going raw or is there something else driving your desire to be super healthy? I'm totally speculating, but think it's the latter for you. If you slip after 30 days no biggee, every day is a new day. Just begin again.

As far as 30 days to break an addiction...I absolutely believe it's possible if one believes it. If you set the intention, yes it will be so. I even think it takes only 21 days or 3 weeks. This has been the case for me with any kind of fast to improve my life and release addictions -- I find that once 21 days has passed the new behavior becomes a habit.

I agree with Morn and what everyone else has said on the subject. I'll add I believe it helps to not approach being a raw foodist as an all or nothing prospect which really only aggravates the addictive personality in my opinion. Focusing on my personal goals and taking it one day at a time worked for me. I didn't do the 30 day challenge. I know it works for others, but I found regaining my health and my faith in myself & spiritual beliefs to be huge motivators. It wasn't so much that I was focusing on when I would slip up eating cooked food, I focused my intention on preparing delicious raw foods and enjoying them. Soon my emotions were in line with what my body wanted - fresh, whole, raw, organic foods. Cooked food is no longer an option for me and it no longer looks like food.

I'm up in the wee hours of the morning because I had some cashews yesterday and obviously they were not raw, even though the natural food co-op was adament that they were not pasteurized. My point is my body is telling me they are not raw because it's having trouble digesting them and I'm trusting it. I have no desire to eat these cashews again because of how I'm feeling -- tired, irritable, gassy, stomach acid in my throat, etc. I'm not used to this anymore and it sucks. I can't wait to get up in the morning and make a green smoothie! It's different for us all, but I think I've read throughout the months on this site, the common denominator seems to be how one feels eating raw foods. Release being limited by focusing on cooked food addictions and instead focus on how you're evolving and growing daily eating raw foods is my main point and personal opinion. Best wishes Raw Singer. Great topic to think about. :D

[RawHeaven]

I should clarify...I chose not to do the 30 day challenge, but I did read Alissa's book and it felt good to me to start at 100% raw. This definately helped me even though I digressed a couple of times with veggie burgers and fries. On the third slip up, they lost their appeal - tasted awful & I got sick. I think that's the moment I knew I had transcended my emotional cravings. I still get them, but they don't last as long. That's the other thing, just because you're raw for X amount of time, doesn't mean you will never experience a craving again. It takes on a different form for me - I smell the (cooked) food, for a fleeting moment I remember eating it, but then I remember how great I feel being raw and I move on.

[RawSinger]

firefaery- I completely agree that the emotions associated with addiction are far harder to overcome. That's where the real work comes in.

bsqmurphy- I'm glad this thread has been somewhat helpful for you. I'm glad that it helped someone else besides rambling ol' me.

RawHeaven- thank you for you input. It's always appreciated :) And I agree with what you're saying for the most part. As for negating all the hard work by slipping on cooked food, that's just the way I look at it. It's a little more complicated for me. I have a very black and white mentality. It's very psychological. I hate to even bring this up because I'm not sure of the relevance that it has on this site, but I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder a few years ago. I hate to even give myself that label but I fit the bill really well. One of the symptoms of BPD is shifting views about things from one extreme to another. I know that my symptoms will improve the longer I stay raw which is why I have to stay raw. I hate putting myself in this position but I feel like my life depends on it. I've also been diagnosed with depression/anxiety, and Bi-Polar Disorder. Psychiatry is not an exact science and I hate labels but I can't say that I don't suffer from the symptoms of these psychiatric disorders, even if I don't really have the disorders. I am suffering greatly.

So, to bring this back to what you were talking about, RawHeaven, going raw is a little more complicated for me. Not just in being able to stay raw, but my reasons for going raw are a little different than the average person. I'm not trying to say that I'm "special." I'm just....different. I don't suffer from any serious physical ailments (thank God), although I do feel tired all the time. No, I'm doing this for my psychological health. Over the past few years I have gained about 80 lbs because of my binge-eating (one of the many symptoms of BPD and a very common coping mechanism of many many people). I am now obese because of that. Obviously, obesity is a physical problem but the root of it for me is psychological.

I suffer with my psychiatric issues every single day. I will not go into too much detail but I'll give you an idea of what's going on: for at least the past month, I have been staying up late and sleeping most of the day (the fact that I'm awake right now is very unusual). I've been so depressed lately that I haven't had the strength to drive anywhere or take care of anything I need to take care of. I don't want to ramble on too much longer but suffice it to say, I don't feel like I have a choice about being raw, and having slips will not work for me. This mentality is not conducive to being successful on any diet but I don't know how to relax. Hopefully, necessity and desperation will help me succeed.

I guess when I said that having a slip would negate the hard work of going raw, I was speaking for myself. You've taught me a good lesson, RawHeaven: in the future I will only speak for myself.

[RawHeaven]

Hey Francesca, I appreciate your candor and sharing on this site very much. I also understand that you have to do this the way that feels okay for you. Just wanted to send you a big hug and sending many good wishes to you. I think you're right on in knowing that your BPD will heal while on raw. Absolutely it will.

Crystal

[RawSinger]

Hey Francesca, I appreciate your candor and sharing on this site very much. I also understand that you have to do this the way that feels okay for you. Just wanted to send you a big hug and sending many good wishes to you. I think you're right on in knowing that your BPD will heal while on raw. Absolutely it will.

Crystal


[[[HUGS]]] your way too! Thanks for being the kind person that you are :) Sometimes I just talk to someone and let it all out.