stress and falling of raw wagon

[lizbar]

i have been unsuccessfully working at my raw food lifestyle. There has been alot of stress in my life and i feel like that's when I just start eating and craving junk again. (candy, chips, even meat)
i guess these are my comfort foods and i tend to gravitate towards them when I am depressed and stressed out.
anyone else dealing with this and not sure how to fix it.
thanks

[rawstrength]

Fix the stress and your diet will fix itself.

[mousebandit]

I've been doing a green smoothie challenge for the last few days, and I'm becoming REALLY aware of lots of destructive eating patterns in my life. When I start to get stressed - BINGO - that's when I start wanting to have crap food. It's been super helpful for me to also see that when I start my day with the green smoothie, it's so much easier to stay detached from the food, and look at it with a clear head.

So, like last night, I got stressed over the baby crying and freaking out (she's teething), and I spotted this bag of junk food laying on the desk and immediately thought yeah - I want those. Then my brain was able to step back and I simply made a concious choice to go to the kitchen and get something raw that I already had prepared - in this case some raw, sweet granola.

I've also noticed that the bad food is TOTALLY an addiction - once I cave and have the first bit, next thing you know my bod is screaming for more and more and worse, and other types of junk, and it's not about being hungry, at that point it's not even about sugar craving - it's just an addict, shoveling in the drug of choice, with no saturation point. But, the raw foods, and for whatever reason, the green smoothies REALLY seem to help me keep a distance from the food, and think clearly about it. I finally am feeling like I have control over this.

Hope this helps!
Tracey R.

[T-Bird]

Fix the stress and your diet will fix itself

Or - fix your diet and the stress will fix itself???


:D

Just food for thought!

[Colorawdo girl]

Green smoothies seem to be the balancing factor. They keep one on an even keel as well as very full. This comes up a lot lately and I am going to look into it some more.

What I have seen so far in my studies and experience as well as that of others.
When the raw emotions come up, if we are not wanting to face them or deal with them, we tend to want to stuff them with food, heavier food. Push it all down and hold it in.

Raw is light and airy and keeps us on the top of our emotions. If we feel them so much, covering them or squelching them seems better. Thus enter the heavy cooked stuff.

However, if we bear with it for a bit, identify what IT is,be willing to look it in the face, and acknowledge these emotions. Very often they disappear and we have not added these foods to our bodies.

It goes like this "Oh what is this? I do not feel so good. What is this? I think I am so afraid and stressed out. What are you afraid of? Oh of change? Yes you are changing jobs and it can be terrifying!!!.
Ok well thank you all for looking out for me and sharing. I am courageous and I do not need you right now.You can go now because everything is ok".

Basically ignore what yourself says bout that. hahaa

Telling all the little choir to pack it in and leave.Reframing what we are feeling in a new framework. Meanwhile, the feelings pass and we are not stuffing to cover what we feel, rather we are looking straight into what is going on.

Given time, even five minutes, might make all the difference.

[russio]

I think most of us here struggle as well. There are also many people who don't post here that are in the same boat. I have been struggling for five years to get where I am today. That is just the way it is for most of us. One step forawd and a half step back. The main point is you are trying. If you keep trying you will one day make it.

[tzip]

I quite agree. I have been on/off for 2 years now. When I am "on" I can't imagine ever going "off" but that one little bite always leads to days of bad eating. When I have stress I stay OUT of the kitchen. i find deep breathing and reading often help.
Do what works for you but don't be too hard on yourself. It is the rare raw superhero who made a decision to go raw and lived happily ever after chewing celery sticks. Most of us struggle and that's okay.

[Colorawdo girl]

I love it that this is coming forth. The newbies and those who really struggle benefit by seeing that it is not always raw peaches and cashew cream.
Although a really great life and food to eat there are challenges.

[selina_k]

I am under stress too. Every day after work I want to go to the raw cafe and gorge on raw junk food like raw enchiladas and raw cheesecake. I just keep driving home and make a green smoothie.

the desire to drown in high fat food doesn't go away, but just because it doesn't go away doesn't mean I have to succumb to it.

[theresaann]

I just experienced this 30 min ago. Today I was going to be all raw after yesterday only eating cooked beans as something cooked, but with the stress of rent overdue and my son angry with me, I just said, "screw it, I'm making popcorn." Of course, that lead to something sweet, a mango smoothie, which was raw, but that lead to something salty again, which was corn chips and (cooked) hummus and then I said "STOP!" I realized at that point, fully numbed out, that what I was doing was TOTALLY trying to self medicate this emotional stress away. Crap.

So, here I am, vowing to do something DIFFERENT tomorrow, and later today, when the stress hits. I'm just going to BE with it, to go into the heart of it, let it speak to me and keep going deeper into it until it releases. Its a technique I just learned yesterday. Basically just allowing the feelings to BE there, rather than try to escape them. Just keep going right into the heart of them and then asking, "whats beneath that?" over and over until it releases.

Its easy to see why we want cooked food. Its easy to see why raw is so very challenging. But the rewards are so worth the effort. Talk about becoming conscious, though.

Currently I'm eating some cooked beans at one meal on the days that I weight train. I find that if I don't, it doesn't seem like I'm getting enough calories. Thats three days a week. I can handle it. I'm ok with it. I won't go to cooked food hell for that. But the other days of the week I'm striving for 100% raw.

[mstrish]

I struggle too. Tomorrow makes 60 days raw but I have slipped a few times with cooked corn chips but I get right back on my eating plan and remember how far I've come. A few slips doesn't undo all the days I ate 100% raw so I look at the big picture and this helps for me. Try not to beat up on yourself and love yourself where you are right now. Hope this helps.

[Funkalicious]

If there wasn't a company called Lay's that made crispy salty can't eat just one potato chips

than I would be 100% raw. :(

[EZ rider]

I've also noticed that the bad food is TOTALLY an addiction - once I cave and have the first bit, next thing you know my bod is screaming for more and more and worse, and other types of junk, and it's not about being hungry, at that point it's not even about sugar craving - it's just an addict, shoveling in the drug of choice, with no saturation point.

This is the same problem I have. I have to avoid that first bite of cooked food or I start a mindless eating binge.

[gabriele]

If there wasn't a company called Lay's that made crispy salty can't eat just one potato chips
than I would be 100% raw. :(

If there wasn't a company called Lindt chocolate i would be at my goal weight right now. :((

[RawSweetie]

Ohhhhh yes.

Since I started on my raw journey in Sept. 2007 I have:
1) left an abusive relationship
2) dealt with legal, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical fallout from this relationship
3) relocated
4) relocated again
5) accepted a fantastic job
6) been required to relinquish said great job to former employee who I replaced when he took legal action against the comapny who hired me and won
7) been unemployed
8) been unhappily employed
9) lived in shared living spaces with limited refrigeration space and cupboard space
10) dealt with the ends of more than one long-time friendship
11) dealt with my father's downwardly-spiralling health

these are just the biggie tough things that I have been dealing with on my on-off raw journey. Many wonderful things have also happened, but they don't interfere with my raw lifestyle like the above-mentioned things have.

The WONDERFUL thing about raw living is that you get to begin again, whenever you are ready. My journey has obviously not been perfect. but I keep at it--kind of like an EVERREADY battery. :)

Some of these challenges were easier to handle BECAUSE I was raw at the time. Some interfered with my raw eating and sent me running back to the SAD pizza. My current challenge, as I've mentioned in another thread I started, is that my house mate has started a several days/week SAD baking habit! All of these challenges! I can step back, though, and be the first to say that, because of finding the raw lifestyle, I feel that the overall arch of my life is a positive one--and if I don't give up, I will continue to move more into the light--where I want to be.

Sorry that was so long! :)