cravings and smells

[Patch]

I'm now into my 6th month of eating raw and intend to stay eating raw never returning to cooked again. But I'm still struggling with the smells from my family eating cooked food. It smells sooooooo good even though I know it's not and continue to tell myself this. I'm not willing to eat outside or kick my family outside and they are not willing to go raw. They do encourage me and are extremely supporting but they choose to eat cooked. We have just been away on holiday and I stuck to my raw eating 100% but going out to a restaurant and seeing and smelling the foods was so hard. Does this ever go away will there be a time I will not care about the smell of cooked food or is this something I will need to learn to live with.

[circle]

it gets easier.

[Myca]

Ahh Patch,
I'm sorry. I hope it gets easier.

[Veronica01]

I find that most strong smells are making me feel ill now even at 2 months. I'm thinking i will have to get a vegan roommate cuz even the smell of meat and pizza turn my stomache. Sometimes bread smells good, but i don't like the taste of it so it's a littler easier. It can be hard, as most of our food doesn't smell strongly, and the aroma from theirs is because the nutrients are cooked out of it and filling the air.

[busy91]

I cook for my kids too, but I find that when I'm satiated, the smell doesn't bother me, one way or another.

[Veganforlife]

Grab a glass of water. Grab a green smoothie (these REALLY kill cravings). Eat a banana. Distract your senses...

[juliebove]

I get this all the time at the dance studio. The closest food place is Teriyaki so people are constantly bringing it in there. It always smells sooo good!

Now here's the weird thing. I have never eaten Teriyaki, although I have looked up recipes for it and it doesn't sound even remotely appealing to me. So not something in actuality I'd be tempted to eat. Knowing that helps a lot.

[sport]

We do not want you to go as far as him.

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/04/19/morrissey-walks-off-stage-after-meaty-smell-from-crowd/

Good for him. Standing up for what he believes. I am going to try to find a contact and send him an email saying that he did the right thing.

[greenfeline]

Go Morrissey!

One raw chef, I can't remember who it is right now, said that she would be drooling over these muffins she used to have to make at a restaurant where she worked. Then one day she realized that the smell was all the goodness and life being baked out of them. Repeat these slight changes in your thinking over and over and they really do start to change.

[debilana]

I just keep thinking that the smell is the best part, and take a moment to meditate in the lovely smells...and move on, remembering that the smell is the life force leaving the food, and if I eat it , I will feel awful!

[sport]

I was just watching a guy on a link that mathew posted in his blog about calorie restriction and he put forward the following analogy when asked about restricting himself.
He said that it is like being married. That other door is then closed to you. You may look at a pretty girl and think that she is pretty but because the door is closed you will not even consider it (or want to).
It is all about making up your mind and being committed. If you are committed then the smell will not tempt you. You will notice it but it will not tempt you.
I was lucky because I have such a disgust for meat that when I ever smelled meat cooking I just felt disgust. I have now been abel to take that further.

[Patch]

Thanks everyone for your replies but I'm starting to get really down, nothing raw tastes good, I'm so sick of fruit and vegetables it's crazy. I so don't want to eat cooked every again but I'm falling here. I thought after 6months things would be getting easy what's happening. I find I'm thinking about food all the time and not raw. I even start smelling old cooked foods that I don't have in my house. I have not once falling I've been 100% raw for a whole six months lost 45 lbs and feel good it's just this constant food thing that's getting to me.
HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

[RawHeaven]

Thanks everyone for your replies but I'm starting to get really down, nothing raw tastes good, I'm so sick of fruit and vegetables it's crazy. I so don't want to eat cooked every again but I'm falling here. I thought after 6months things would be getting easy what's happening. I find I'm thinking about food all the time and not raw. I even start smelling old cooked foods that I don't have in my house. I have not once falling I've been 100% raw for a whole six months lost 45 lbs and feel good it's just this constant food thing that's getting to me.
HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

If you can swing a plane ticket to NZ for me I'd be happy to be your personal chef until you get over this hump. You live in a beautiful country and I've always wanted to go there. :)

I'm going to offer an alternative viewpoint as to what's really going on. You are detoxing and the cravings you are experiencing are actually what is being released from your body. That is why it's SO Strong and is driving you nuts. It's very similar to the fasting process, especially water fasting. It's not uncommon for people to have all sorts of weird cravings as the energy of xyz food is coming to the surface and literally being released from the cells of the physical body and the moody fluctuations of the emotional body. For example, I've been a vegan for 20+ years, however when I fasted last year I had very strong cravings for cheeseburgers and steaks. How crazy is that? After researching this, I realized I was undergoing some very deep healing and in fact, the cravings passed within a week. They were intense though and I can relate to your frustration. What you're experiencing is very real and I'd say you're just about to transition into another dimension of your raw journey if you can just hang in there. Trust me when I say this will pass. I don't know when, but it will. Literally everything is raw and on the surface for you now. Your emotions are wide open which usually happens at some point in the raw food journey. Your old way of relating to food is about stuffing those emotions down with food and guess what?...we usually think about our old cooked food standbys when we hit this wall. I believe this is really what is happening with you. If you do happen to eat cooked food, please by all means don't beat yourself up. Just make the next meal a raw one. Consider blending your food and juicing to change things up. If you're not already doing so, blast your system with a ton of juice feasting nutrition on a daily basis and it will help you transition. Truly dear Patch, if you can hold tight, you are in for a huge shift in awareness.

And remember the plane ticket for RawHeaven is always another option. hahaa. Peace & blessings!

[selina_k]

every one i love and eat with is a sad eater. i smell their food deeply. i look at it deeply. i enjoy watching them eat. I don't think it's discusting if it's not raw vegan.

I tell them, "your chicken looks GREAT". (etc)


and then i eat *my* own food. i love my food.

i'm not eloquent. but i guess what i'm getting at here is that i'm not fighting the cravings. i smell and look and enjoy vicariously and sensually/enthusiastically. i just don't actually *eat* cooked/sad.

[Patch]

Thank you so much for your replies, if I win lotto this week RawHeaven your on the first flight out here to New Zealand wow my own personal chef now that would be awesome.
It really does help to know that this sounds like detox, juicing does sound more appealing to me than eating vegetables and fruit at the moment so I'm certainly going to do that. I'm the kind of person that can't eat anything less than 100% otherwise I'll just completely blow it and wont get back to 100% for months. So I wont let that happen. I'm feeling excited that I'm going to go through another transition and look forward to the new results.
Thank you again.
Keep your fingers crossed for the lotto draw!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sport]

You have to think of it as a force that is trying to get you back to the way you were. It is like all addictions.
You have a mind of your own and you have decided that you are giving up the cooked food addiction and the addiction is fighting you but you are not going to let it beat you because you are stronger than any addiction and you can succeed.

[Colorawdo girl]

Patch...as I read your first post n then the next. It all came together. It did not appear you wanted the cooked stuff. It was your body purging the old cooked stuff.

Good for you for being willing to stick with it and see what is was. On raw, I only see symptoms, pain, sickness(rare) or anything out of ordinary, as shifts in my raw life.

I do not get alarmed or panic and run to the doctor or try to "fix" it. It is not broken. It is merely a shift to a new level. Ever drive a stick shift???? Sometimes when you shift, its a bit jerky n choppy....haha. Sooo bear with it. On raw, there are shifts that call for new foods or some gourmet to keep us inspired. Go with it and see what you can switch up for yourself.

Trust me, in time, I reckon cooked will smell disgusting to you. In the meanwhile, they hit your emotional side, not what your body really is craving for its good. Remember that.

I say....Bette What do you want???? Before I consider cooked and sadly after I have cooked. The morning after is a bum deal. So I advise, dont go there!!!

[RAWmen-Noodles]

Go Morrissey!

One raw chef, I can't remember who it is right now, said that she would be drooling over these muffins she used to have to make at a restaurant where she worked. Then one day she realized that the smell was all the goodness and life being baked out of them. Repeat these slight changes in your thinking over and over and they really do start to change.

Ooooh that is a good one. I love it. That should help me too. I will have to remember that!

[Colorawdo girl]

I remember hearing that for the first time ad it made so much sense. All the vapors of the food are the goodness going out into the air.....rendering dead food in the pot.

This you can attest to if you ever ate raw pizza compared to cooked. Ah for the smell of a pizzaria....bit ooo la la for the taste of a raw pizza.OH MY!!!

[RawHeaven]

Thank you so much for your replies, if I win lotto this week RawHeaven your on the first flight out here to New Zealand wow my own personal chef now that would be awesome.
It really does help to know that this sounds like detox, juicing does sound more appealing to me than eating vegetables and fruit at the moment so I'm certainly going to do that. I'm the kind of person that can't eat anything less than 100% otherwise I'll just completely blow it and wont get back to 100% for months. So I wont let that happen. I'm feeling excited that I'm going to go through another transition and look forward to the new results.
Thank you again.
Keep your fingers crossed for the lotto draw!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a sneaking suspicion that your body wants to begin juice feasting. Enjoy! I do completely understand your wanting to stick with 100%.

And yayyyy! ~ you're a lotto winner ~ I can feel it. That would be so awesome to travel to meet you and see NZ. We would have fun in the raw food kitchen too. I need to go down to the passport office and renew my passport so I'm ready! hahaaaa. :p

[RawHeaven]

every one i love and eat with is a sad eater. i smell their food deeply. i look at it deeply. i enjoy watching them eat. I don't think it's discusting if it's not raw vegan.

I tell them, "your chicken looks GREAT". (etc)


and then i eat *my* own food. i love my food.

i'm not eloquent. but i guess what i'm getting at here is that i'm not fighting the cravings. i smell and look and enjoy vicariously and sensually/enthusiastically. i just don't actually *eat* cooked/sad.

I think you're onto something Selina! What a great way to refocus negative viewpoints and judgements. If we truly love and respect our loved ones' choices, we need to support them where ever they happen to be. And karmically speaking, then they in turn will feel a greater propensity to support our choices and love what we're eating too. How cool is that? :)

[T-Bird]

Thanks everyone for your replies but I'm starting to get really down, nothing raw tastes good, I'm so sick of fruit and vegetables it's crazy. I so don't want to eat cooked every again but I'm falling here.

Patch - this is likely just a wave of detox - maybe your body recently processed some "left overs" and it kicked into the cravings again.

It is temporary - hold on to that!

After about 2 months into raw I thought I was "so over" cooked food - couldn't even remember why I like it so much. I thought - cool this was so easy.

Then I got bitch slapped with cravings for things I didn't even really eat that much or enjoy.....I wanted french fries and pizza, greasy, bready things. That clued me in that it wasn't "for real".....if I was seriously jonesing for my former food - I'd be wanting rice and some thai food - tofu red curry, spicy basil, etc.

This is just temporary - maybe even a test in the biblical sense.

Hold on!

[SweetTangerine]

“I can smell burning flesh and I hope to God it’s human.” Haha. I love Morrissey. Good for him on only performing in meat-free venues. I also love reminding myself that the wonderful smells that occasionally arise from cooked is the life force of the food wafting away. This will certainly make things a bit easier.