90% raw and the "buzz"?

[lemonmer]

My whole goal in going raw is to gain mental clarity and that "buzz" that people talk about. But I know me. I can NOT (at this point in time) totally give up allll cooked food. If I try, I know it will backfire on me (I just know my personality). That might sound like I'm courting negativity, but instead I think it is being realistic....forwarned is forearmed. I've failed so (sooo) many times at various things (ex: working out) because I try to go all-or-nothing right off the bat. Knowing that I cannot have a slice of cherry pie or my mom's Sunday pasta or a bag of popcorn will be my undoing.

So instead, I was thinking of (at least at first) being raw during the week and eating some cooked meals on the weekend. I know that will be so much healthier than what I do right now, but I hear so much talk about the need to be 100%.

Bottom line....will I still get that "buzz", that clarity if I'm not 100%? Will a bag of popcorn and a few M&Ms at the movies on Saturday keep me from achieving that "plugged-in" feeling?

[Veganforlife]

That's hard to say. EveryBODY/mind is different...

[Myca]

Is Saturday the only day your eating is off? Are you raw the rest of the week.
My fruit buzz starts by day 3 of completely raw.
My problem is my husband says, 'let's go out.'
I say 'ok'
He says 'are you going to eat, I want you to eat real food.'
I say 'I am eating real food.'
He says 'No, the other real food.'
There it goes.
I really suffer when I eat bad cooked food. Seem to be ok if it is something like cabbage.
I love the buzz of raw.

[lemonmer]

I was going to do 100% raw Mon - Fri with Sat & Sun cooked dinners. :o But if those two days will prevent me from getting the whole raw buzz, I probably will just forget about it and do what I'm doing now (raw until dinner) because I know at this particular point in my life, I can't commit to 100%.

[livin]

When I first tried raw, it was Mon - Fri, while allowing some cooked foods on weekends along with raw. As someone already said, everybody is different, but I think the more raw you have, the better you'll feel. If you can do 100% during the week, I believe you'll enjoy the way you feel. Best Wishes on the journey!

[GlimR]

We all find our own way....my only thought is that if you do raw all week, by the third day or so you will be feeling awesome...eat cooked on the weekend as you indicated and see how you feel...do you lose your buzz, your "positivity" if you do ask yourself what you want more...do you want the glow or do you want the food?? Go from there.
Wishing you the best.

[snoops]

I got that feeling a couple weeks ago on my "raw till the equinox" quest. I was "mostly" raw for about 12 days straight. When I say mostly I still had my green tea in the morning, used store bought almond milk in smoothies, olives from the olive bar in the grocery store, spices, the occasional non raw salad dressing when I had to go to restaurants. Other than that it was all raw. So if I had to give a % raw I would guess I was 95-99% depending on the day. I got the buzz.

I think it will depend partially on what you eat that is not raw and how SAD it is. Still vegan and non processed better than meat and pre packaged food. Why don't you commit to a week or so just so you can feel the buzz because it has given me something to strive for - having had that feeling. It was a great experience.

And I sometimes wonder is it the eating raw or is it the not eating grains, dairy, meat. But in the end it really doesn't matter. However you get there!

[Raw Joy]

Raw during the week and not on weekends sounds like a doable plan to me. When Alissa first went raw, she did it that way for a while and then finally decided the cooked weekends weren't worth it.

Five days raw is better than three. Good luck!

[margoss]

great you're doing the week days..try doing mostly on the weekend so you can have the pasta, pie or what ever. That's what I do. THis way I doing what I want yet not giving it up completely.

[Tirza]

How about trying this:
Choose ONE day on the weekend for Cooked. And even then just eat some Cooked dishes on that day, like a couple of selected items at specified meals. Make it worth your while. Just choose the things you really want to enjoy.

If your lifestyle includes family or special meals on both days all weekend, of course that wouldn't work. In that case, your plan must expand to include both days.

But if you know you are only going out on Saturday, plan to eat the cooked things you enjoy most then. If Sunday, plan for it then. Why not just do it when you feel it is necessary, not for the whole 2 days? Then you would feel that you are "Largely Raw - but with allowances" for special occasions or certain foods that are offered like your Mom's pasta, that slice of cherry pie, or a bowl of popcorn while watching a movie. If you make your plan to freely allow yourself to include items like that when you choose to do it on the weekend, you won't feel deprived or confined.

So each week it could be one day or the other, depending on your social schedule or plans for a special home treat.

Or you could "swap" a day if there is a special event during the week, but nothing much doing on the weekend.

My reason for saying all this is that if you go into this planning to already do 2 whole days of mostly Cooked, there will always be those other events that are not on weekends that will come up. So you will ADD that day and then it will be 3 days. Or 4. Pretty soon your Raw consumption will be reduced back to a salad once a day. That is why I like the swapping system. If you end up detecting that your body doesn't like that, you will know to change.

It sounds like you are new to this. If that is so, maybe you want to just start out by calling yourself "High Raw". You seem to be worried about having to be "all or nothing". Hey, if we all told you about our Raw journey, very few of us would be able to tell you that we jumped in to Raw with no looking back. Most of us transitioned to one degree or another. I don't feel that this is a religion or even "AA" that requires total commitment "or else". You don't have to do penance if you fall off the wagon or feel like you have sinned. You are doing much better than you were before...You are making the effort to learn and to like new recipes and steadily replace your normal cooked foods with them. You are allowing yourself to eat more and more Raw, not depriving yourself of Cooked. It takes time to become accustomed to preparing any recipe and making it a natural part of your menu, whether Cooked or Raw. Until it becomes familiar, it won't come spontaneously.

As long as you don't have any pressing health issues, take it easier on yourself. If you want it, you will do it.

Maybe this is like romance. Some people are naturally flirty. They start with infatuation and jump right in, which may or may not last. Some are very serious, taking longer getting to know a person, getting used to them, until they have excluded all other possibilities. That deep, carefully developed relationship lasts forever. What is best for you?

[NaiveJeanette]

100% raw makes the difference. I think it was Boutenko(plz correct if I'm wrong..) that said that there is a MASSIVE difference between 99% and 100% raw. So, the difference b/w 90%-100%.....who knows!
Like VFL said, everyBODY is different. I've known people to feel a buzz just adding greens to a soymilk filled protein smoothie *shrug*

[NaiveJeanette]

He says 'are you going to eat, I want you to eat real food.'
I say 'I am eating real food.'
He says 'No, the other real food.'


UGH! I HATE it when people say "real food"!!! My parents say that ALL THE FREAKIN TIME! it drives me nuts!

[bonobo]

Actually you don't have to eat 100% raw to be healthy if the cooked foods you eat are vegetables. I guess this post will help you:

eatlikeaprimate.blogspot.com

[Tsurugi_Oni]

We all find our own way....my only thought is that if you do raw all week, by the third day or so you will be feeling awesome...eat cooked on the weekend as you indicated and see how you feel...do you lose your buzz, your "positivity" if you do ask yourself what you want more...do you want the glow or do you want the food?? Go from there.
Wishing you the best.

Absolutely!!

I say look at your mentality as a blessing. You can use the weekends as experimentation time.

What I've noticed is that its not simply cooked food that I crave, but either salt or sweetness with the texture of cooked food.

Plain noodles tastes like garbage. Bread tastes nasty without sugar or honey. Meat doesn't taste that amazing without salt. Maybe you could try using the weekends to identify what exactly is your craving. It's helped me.

[TP]

My experience has been that all raw is definitely the buzz. Staying high raw with some cooked might be enough to keep it going, but I could never manage to be high raw.. It's pretty much all or nothing for me.. I hit a wall after 7 months all raw back in 2006 and tried to just do raw (smoothies) for breakfast and lunch and then cooked anything at night (with salads). I did that for a good number of months, but never felt the buzz during that time that I am finally feeling again after getting back to all raw...

I don't know much, but my personal feeling is that the buzz is due to the fact that when we are all raw (and maybe high raw with some cooked) we don't have to spend all of our energy coping with the hard to deal with cooked items.. So like others have said it probably depends on what type of cooked items and how much is eaten which determines how hard the body has to work to cope...