High raw, but embarrassing problem - anyone relate?

[ewatrmln]

Greetings!

I've been reading posts on this site for quite a while now, and finally got brave enough to join. I've been interested in raw food for several years and am nudging my percent up bit by bit, so now I'm high raw. I notice that I'm a lot happier this way, but I want to put this out there...deep breath.

I think I could do a lot better on raw if I kicked this night-eating syndrome.

Anyone else have that? For me, it's a holdover from an awful awful 12 years of anorexia. Thank goddess I'm at a much healthier weight now, but I still battle with this crazy eating schedule that I'm addicted to. Because of NES, I've had insomnia for 5 years and a bunch of other, very yucky health problems.

Sorry for the depressing first post (y'all are great here!), but I wondered if anyone can relate. Alissa's book has given me a lot of inspiration, but I feel like I've got this hurdle to get over before my systems can really repair.

Blessings,
ewatrmln

[klomasius]

Welcome Ewat!

Glad you decided to post here. :D

I'm not sure if I can offer you any advice, I love to eat at night before bed, and it doesn't seem to affect me.

Is there anyway you could decrease the 'heaviness' of the things you eat later at night? Like substituting salads and a bit of fruit for heavier nuts, oils and other bulky foods.

Perhaps you could make banana ice cream, that's filling, sweet, and gets rid of food cravings (just have bananas frozen in the fridge, take them out and put the in the food processor or blender when you want ice cream).

I'm sure as you increase your raw percentage, you'll see a lot of these symptoms ease or go away completely, lots of people report much better sleep on raw.

Hope this helps!

[piccolittle]

Hmm... I think klomasius and I might have very similar advice... But this is what I do:

I used to eat during the night as well, which in addition to being unnecessary and unhealthy, would keep me up and mess with my sleeping schedule. What I ended up doing is telling myself that I could only eat salad (or something else not particularly pleasant- I tend to be a fruit and nuts lover myself) after 6 pm or dinnertime. I would make sure to have my most delicious meal in the morning, which would make me want to go to sleep and get up just to have it! Though sometimes fantasising about breakfast would keep me awake :p

In that way, I eventually stopped wanting to eat at night out of boredom or whatever, because it just wasn't fun any more. It turns out I would rather go to sleep!

Sorry if none of that's helpful, but it's just what I did to get over my night eating problem.

[somelikeitraw]

LOL! At first I thought this was gonna be about gas!
The advice above sounds good to me and makes sense. Either give yourself something light or wean yourself off with boring stuff.
Me, I drink a large glass of water whenever I want to eat but it's past eatin' time.

Glad you posted and please keep us in the loop!

[Springtime]

What i sense when i read your post is that food has been something that you have related to control in the past. Eating disorders, as i know them, are a lot about control and rules and specific ways of doing things.

Raw is something completley different. I feel that entering the raw world is to try and un-teach yourself everything you've been taught about food and eating. That some things are bad, some are good and so on.
I am too switching to a raw diet myself, i am on my second week of as raw as possible (spices...) and i am experiencing this un-teching myself.

What i am trying to say is, that perhaps it is not such a good idea for you to start implying more rules and more control (quitting this, doing that instead et.c), but to let yourself go and loose control.

I believe that if we just remove all the anxiety and corrective behaviour around foods and eating, and just do what we feel like, after a while we will merge into new patterns, formed by the way we are, not the way we intellectually think we should be.

Think about the kid who's been let loose in a candy shop: she'll eat and eat and eat becuse she likes it, it's sweet and fun, but sooner or later her body will start longing for something different. and maybe she will leave the candy shop to find an apple or a glass of water. Not because her dad told her that was the right thing to do, but because when she was set free and explored her desires, her body finally had the time and space to start forming natural signals and since she was not obsessed about making her dad give her sweets, she had the mental space to listen to her signals.

I hope i am making some sense. What i mean is basically: eat at night, eat at day, eat whenever, but set your eating free, and sooner or later new patterns will have formed without your inellect interfearing.

Peace

[juliew]

Springtime: that was an amazing post! I definitely agree with the control thing. I sometimes binge eat and always monitor everything that goes into my mouth, and it is so tiring! I hope to be able to adopt that "let loose and reteach" idea - it sounds great!

[ewatrmln]

Thanks, Springtime!

I think your comments are really insightful. Actually, letting loose is something I really do need to embrace, so I can "pull it together" when it really counts. Trying to control my eating SO much during the day (accidentally on purpose) makes me exhausted such that I'm unproductive and much less effective. If I can do what you suggest, I might be able to power through all that research without pooping out/constantly thinking about food.

Raw definitely does cut the cravings significantly; now if I can just start following your advice (like several dieticians have told me to do)!

Be well,
ewatrmln

[Colorawdo girl]

Alas...it has happened!!!! Someone hit then nail square on the head for the raw life!!!!! Thank you springtime!!!



Raw is something completley different. I feel that entering the raw world is to try and un-teach yourself everything you've been taught about food and eating. That some things are bad, some are good and so on.
I am too switching to a raw diet myself, i am on my second week of as raw as possible (spices...) and i am experiencing this un-teching myself.

What i am trying to say is, that perhaps it is not such a good idea for you to start implying more rules and more control (quitting this, doing that instead et.c), but to let yourself go and loose control.

I believe that if we just remove all the anxiety and corrective behaviour around foods and eating, and just do what we feel like, after a while we will merge into new patterns, formed by the way we are, not the way we intellectually think we should be.



If everyone wanting to eat raw food got this concept....this board would almost dissappear, or at least most of the threads as they are now.
[/B
Why?
Because:

We wanted to do it "right".
We want to do it like we are supposed to.
What to eat
When to eat
How to eat it
How to make it like others do
Fighting what not to eat
And the big one [B]the beatings for eating sad/cooked food

If folks got one thing. To get out of their heads and into their bodies and go with it. Have a desire to eat raw, look at it and think like a raw foodie, yet go with the whole way it goes.


If you were "in the flow" of raw versus attempting to control it all, it would be peaceful like a river.
There are quiet times when all goes smoothly and nicely, and there are rough waters too, where you might hit bumps and twists and turns. You are STILL and Always on your way, and it is living a life you want.
The greatest way to peace I have found is saying to myself...."There is nothing wrong here."
Being willing to give up that there is something wrong here is very profound. For raw as well as life. It is way beyond the half empty half full concept yet a similar thought.

In other words, it is what it is. I accept it exactly as it is and exactly as it is not. I am in the flow.