sabaka
04-26-2010, 01:01 AM
I've been in the natural foods industry since 1996 and have heard about raw in the course of my career - but hadn't been pulled towards it until this past year. I'm an educator in my current role and we did a store-wide training on eating styles - flexitarian, vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, pescatarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, omnivore and raw. So for my job, I studied up on raw and some of the principles / beliefs associated with the benefits of raw eating style.
In my personal life, I nearly jumped out of my skin because I felt that this eating style is how it's meant to be. I've eaten natural / organic since the mid-90's but, remember an organic cake is still a cake! (I'm not really a cake-eater; but you get my point)
- so I start it off with a bang - empty the pantry, the freezer, the fridge - so about 8 months in, it's been up and down and successful and fail. I get excited about it and then don't stick with it --- but during this time, every when I figured eating raw really wasn't for me --- I'd be drawn back to it. I bought Detox Diet, didn't like it for me; I bought Angela Stokes Live Lightly program - liked it for awhile but felt very tied to a "program" (great for many, lousy for me). I bought Alissa's book, loved the recipes but didn't read the first part of the book with much attention.
Then I took a vacation, originally to fly home for a two week visit with family, and I was just dreading it because I was so overweight and not feeling my optimal self. and frustrated. So I cancelled. Spent 2 weeks eating 100% raw, exercising 2x a day - hiking, walking and lifting weights. I felt phenomenal, best vacation EVER. Lost 10 lbs in 2 wks.
Then I went back to work and didn't stick to it, and have had a month of beating myself up, eating cooked food, not feeling well - tired. Still! I feel that my brain has been working on solving this dilemma for me and sorting out how to get to 100% raw.
I finally read Alissa's book, really read it. I could hear the lightbulb click on above my head. I get it, the approach - the mind set, I love feeling healthy and nourished more than I love the food itself. I want food and eating to be part of the foundation of the rest of my life, not the main event. I sit, eat something healthy, nourishing, I love the taste the flavors and I move on and forget food until the body says its time to nourish again. that's it.
truthfully, it all goes well beyond food. since mid-year last year and my forays into raw - it started unearthing all the things that weren't working for me - the new eating style would not succeed, without these things changing. Serious life changes - and there's this feeling like, "damn it, I have to change this too?"
So far, I put my TV into storage, dropped all the "data/internet" services for my blackberry, dropped my internet service to 'economy', eat at the table without distraction, cut off a toxic friendship, changed positions in my company, and committed to a weekly budget. It's just a domino effect, one area of life, feeds to the other, feeds to the other. So the plan is my ideal life, healthy choices in food/money/love/work/life.
In the end, my brain figured out that - for me - change was due well beyond my plate, and in order to succeed as raw, had to take an honest look at my choices and how I spent my time. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I don't miss any of those distractions. That's how it is for me, and me only - could all be very different for someone else.
all that being said, I'm here to use this site as a resource. I consider myself a student of raw food and want to succeed. Alissa's book has proven out to be pivotal to getting me started 100% - so here we go!
In my personal life, I nearly jumped out of my skin because I felt that this eating style is how it's meant to be. I've eaten natural / organic since the mid-90's but, remember an organic cake is still a cake! (I'm not really a cake-eater; but you get my point)
- so I start it off with a bang - empty the pantry, the freezer, the fridge - so about 8 months in, it's been up and down and successful and fail. I get excited about it and then don't stick with it --- but during this time, every when I figured eating raw really wasn't for me --- I'd be drawn back to it. I bought Detox Diet, didn't like it for me; I bought Angela Stokes Live Lightly program - liked it for awhile but felt very tied to a "program" (great for many, lousy for me). I bought Alissa's book, loved the recipes but didn't read the first part of the book with much attention.
Then I took a vacation, originally to fly home for a two week visit with family, and I was just dreading it because I was so overweight and not feeling my optimal self. and frustrated. So I cancelled. Spent 2 weeks eating 100% raw, exercising 2x a day - hiking, walking and lifting weights. I felt phenomenal, best vacation EVER. Lost 10 lbs in 2 wks.
Then I went back to work and didn't stick to it, and have had a month of beating myself up, eating cooked food, not feeling well - tired. Still! I feel that my brain has been working on solving this dilemma for me and sorting out how to get to 100% raw.
I finally read Alissa's book, really read it. I could hear the lightbulb click on above my head. I get it, the approach - the mind set, I love feeling healthy and nourished more than I love the food itself. I want food and eating to be part of the foundation of the rest of my life, not the main event. I sit, eat something healthy, nourishing, I love the taste the flavors and I move on and forget food until the body says its time to nourish again. that's it.
truthfully, it all goes well beyond food. since mid-year last year and my forays into raw - it started unearthing all the things that weren't working for me - the new eating style would not succeed, without these things changing. Serious life changes - and there's this feeling like, "damn it, I have to change this too?"
So far, I put my TV into storage, dropped all the "data/internet" services for my blackberry, dropped my internet service to 'economy', eat at the table without distraction, cut off a toxic friendship, changed positions in my company, and committed to a weekly budget. It's just a domino effect, one area of life, feeds to the other, feeds to the other. So the plan is my ideal life, healthy choices in food/money/love/work/life.
In the end, my brain figured out that - for me - change was due well beyond my plate, and in order to succeed as raw, had to take an honest look at my choices and how I spent my time. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I don't miss any of those distractions. That's how it is for me, and me only - could all be very different for someone else.
all that being said, I'm here to use this site as a resource. I consider myself a student of raw food and want to succeed. Alissa's book has proven out to be pivotal to getting me started 100% - so here we go!