Craving fat and overeating

[MelanieBear]

Hello lovelies,

So, I've been raw (this time) for a little over three months. I don't call myself 100% because that turns on the perfectionistic streak in me which I don't think is helpful, but I've been very consistent and successful in eating an extremely high percentage of raw. Everything is vegan. I have had on a few occasions some steamed quinoa, organic rice milk and vegan (cooked) dark chocolate---but we're talking maybe 4-5 times in the past 3 months.

In the summer, I was eating very simply and often made meals out of *just* greens. I'd buy those lovely organic greens mixes from Whole Foods that had all different greens in them and literally eat them by hand as if they were chips or something....I'd kind of roll them up into a ball with my fingers and just chow down. I felt like I was being so heathful, and the greens were really what I craved. I ate lots of fruit, did some green smoothies (though these seem to bloat me no matter what suggestions I follow---and yes, I keep them simple and "chew" them) and had some sprouted seeds here and there. I lost weight. I felt good. It was marvelous.

Then I moved across the country to a wonderful new town where I know few people, am looking for a new job, and generally feel uprooted.

My hope was that I'd be able to optimize my diet so that I could minimize the effects of the stress of this big change in my life. Unfortunately, I feel like the opposite has happened. I've stayed raw, but now all I seem to want to eat is fat, fat, fat! This morning's breakfast is a perfect example of what I find myself doing these days. Today I ate:

~Spoonfuls of Artisana cashew butter
~A handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds
~two bites of raw chocolate
~chai with cashew butter "milk" and raw honey
~2 oz Rawnola from two moms in the raw (this stuff is addictive.)

I have apples, greens, kiwis and raspberries around but I never want to reach for them. I don't think fat is bad----but what I'm eating really feels unbalanced, and it's causing me to gain back weight that I lost...weight that I needed to lose.

I know that stress hormones are constructed from cholesterol and that the body often craves fat under stress for this reason. I'm also working with the ideas of Intuitive Eating and trying to leave behind my eating disordered past, to tune in to what my body really wants and needs. I guess I just have a hard time believing that all this fat is really ok to eat---but I don't want to forbid myself to have it because that will cause me to rebound-binge.

Have any of you found successful ways to cope with excessive fat cravings? How can I gently guide my body back to those greens that I so enjoyed during the summer? It feels like part of why I'm not into the produce is because it feels "cold" in the mornings especially...even at room temperature the produce seems too "cold". I don't have a dehydrator...but maybe there are some ways that you warm foods up to make them more appealing in the cold weather?

Thanks so much for listening and offering your suggestions.

[Aleesha Sattva]

from my experience... the longer you are on this journey the more your food choices will change. i simply go with the flow rather than trying to get my body to accept things it doesn't seem to want.

if i'm craving something, i figure there's a reason for it and as long as it's raw... i don't care what it is.

[AllergyGirl]

When I crave fat, I toss an avocado into my salad, or sprinkle my salad with raw pumpkin seeds. I might also whip up some guacamole and eat it on raw veggies, flax crackers, or onion bread. As long as I have at least one avocado and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds every day, my fat cravings seem to be kept at bay. Occasionally I need more than that, so I'll either eat another avocado or I'll whip up a raw dessert - RP brownies for example, and that deals with the craving completely.

Now as for warming things, my favorite method is to put whatever I want warmed into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid (I use wide-mouth canning jars), screw the lid on tightly, and place the jar in a bowl of hot tap water. I shake the jar periodically and change the water if necessary, but really it just takes a few minutes to take the chill off and make it feel a bit warmer.

Other ideas are to use the "warm" spices and veggies - ginger, chili powder, jalapenos, cinnamon, cayenne, cumin, etc. Obviously you wouldn't want chili powder in your fruit smoothie, but you might like a bit of cinnamon and ginger in it. Some of the others would work well in veggie based smoothies or in raw soups and I'm sure in countless other things.

I actually have a batch of raw chili and cornbread in my dehydrator right now - I'll let you know how they turn out. I don't know how you could make them without the dehydrator, but I've seen a lot of raw chili recipes online, so I'm sure you could just use a different one, and then warm it in a jar in a bowl of water.

Good luck. :)

[MelanieBear]

Thanks ladies!

I do use 'warm' spices liberally, but something I've learned as an herbalist is that sometimes the spices that seem hot are actually diaphoretics (meaning that they induce perspiration) and can ultimately cool the body. Cayenne is a prime example of this, as are ginger and peppermint. That's why there is so much hot and spicy food in places with very hot climates---the spices are actually inducing a cooling response in the body after digestion because they enhance the body's self-cooling mechanism. Sorry to go off on this tangent, but I think it's really interesting.

Aleesha, I wish that it felt quite that simple for me....I think that as a person with so much eating disordered history my primary challenge is to really differentiate what my body truly wants and what my mind wants. I feel drawn to all of this fat, but it's not really making me feel my best. I felt and looked better this summer. There could be many other factors playing into this, but I have the sense that somehow my mind is getting involved and leading me to eat all of this fat.... I don't feel great. And I think that's the feedback from my body saying that what I'm doing isn't quite working.

Maybe it just helps to write this all out and process through it.

[Cottonball McFluffy]

I can't say have years and years of experience with raw, but I've been a healthy eater all my life, and the one thing I've noticed from my own eating patterns is that I'll be drawn to eat high fat/very sweet whenever I've been hormonal, depressed or stressed out. Also, the seasons turning to winter and nights getting very long tends to make me look more towards itens I find comforting for one reason or another. Before raw it used to be fresh baked bread, creamy sauces or casseroles, things with heady textures. On raw getting stressed or hormonal usually means eating lots of cashews and raw chocolate desserts.
Any chance you're repeating emotional eating patterns if this way of eating isn't really making you feel good?

[Shels]

I often deal with this as well, it's a vicious cycle to get stuck in. *hugs* The only solution I've found is to get the nut butters, milks, nuts and seeds, and oils OUT of the house (and to remember that eating them all at once is NOT an acceptable way to achieve this). I can get plenty of fat from avocado and coconut, and chocolate as well, because if I ban that it brings the whole thing crashing down. While I do usually follow my cravings, I also know that if you eat too much fat, you will continue to crave that same amount, and the only way to fix it is to cut down on it again.

[MelanieBear]

Thanks Shels and Cottonball for your responses.

Oddly, I found that the rest of the day today I found it easier to eat more simply. I had an ear of perfectly fresh raw corn (who knew how delicious this is?!), an apple sprinkled with cinnamon, and more pumpkin seeds....but this is an improvement.

Cottonball, you're totally right. There is certainly a hormonal and emotional component to this pattern. I started my cycle today, so that may have something to do with the chocolate-noshing over this past week (usually I can take it or leave it these days, but this last week I've been taking much more often than leaving...) and I seem to have this particular emotional-eating pattern that involves licking creamy things off of spoons. It's a mindless eating pattern that is a way of substituting food for real comfort. And it's something that I'm working to pay attention to, forgive myself for, and move into a healing dialogue with.

I've just put together another piece of the puzzle, I think. I used to eat out of boredom and emotional hunger in the evenings. Sometimes this meant eating nuts or popcorn, and sometimes it meant eating peanut butter or hummus by the spoonful out of the fridge. This is a pattern that goes back at least 10 or 12 years to my adolescence. Lately, I've become really mindful about my nighttime eating, and have been eating just for physical hunger---not for emotional hunger. I wonder if this is causing me to wake up feeling two things---1) more physical hunger than I used to feel, and 2) a sense of having been deprived of my "treats" the night before and looking to have them in the morning instead.

Hmm... Thanks so much for listening, everybody. It's helpful to hear your feedback and to have somebody to type to.

[Stella Green]

MBear--I was just going to say it sounds like you're going through some hormonal stuff, and then I read your last post that confirmed it to be true. I have a couple suggestions: the first is, I noticed you included chocolate on your list of cravings and I want you to know that raw cacao is a GOOD craving for a girl during that time of the month. Raw cacao has magnesium AND it also naturally helps trigger the bliss factor in your brain. I'm on my period too (too much information maybe? but true just the same) and I just had usual treat: a chocolate cherry shake. It's the best thing ever. Cherries are really good for stress and period issues because they have seratonin in them. I found the recipe on Kristen's Raw Blog. It's called Da Bomb Shake, and I doctored mine to fit my budget (few ingredients as possible). Try it, you'll love it.

Also, I think it's wonderful that you are into listening to your body, but I encourage you try all kinds of foods first. That way, you'll know exactly what your body is craving. For example, maybe you are just not into summer foods anymore because the season is changing. Summer foods are so much lighter than fatty foods, but remember that autumn/winter foods are denser than summer foods as well. You might want to explore foods that are more autumnal, like squash recipes and recipes with cinnamon in them. I am on the look out for something called a "winter melon" but I haven't found it yet. Also, did you know that sweet potato is extremely high in Vitamin E? I love putting it through the juicer, it has this creamy sweet taste...and folks might say, beware of raw sweet potato but I've been having it for quite awhile and I am alive and kicking.

P.S. *Big hug* in regards to your Big Move. I am also in a different part of the country, in Massachusetts now when I had been living in Arizona for the summer! One thing you might want try if you are looking to meet new people is meetups.com. You can find all kinds of stuff happening in your area, like Raw Food Potlucks and Girls Movie Night in your area...just thought I'd give you the heads up in case you haven't found your "people" yet in your new place.

[Stella Green]

One more thing! I know this has nothing to do with your original question, but I wanted to pass the information on anyway...

When you go about tasting winter squash in the raw for the first time, I have learned through trial and error that it tastes best when you marinade it in oil + salt for an hour to soften it up. (Learned this from SevenKindsofCookies, holla!) But then if you want to avoid oil, I also like cubing the peeled squash, freezing it overnight, thawing it, then making a soup out of it. Especially yummy soup when you mix it with spices, pineapple, and oj.

[MelanieBear]

Oh my goodness, Stella! Thanks for warming my heart with your sweet replies!

Yeah, I'm all about letting myself have the raw cacao if my body wants it. You're so right-on with the magnesium (though I do think I tend to crave this stuff less when I'm getting enough mag from my greens, but there's plenty of other happy stuff in cacao that makes it cool with me) and I think that like all things, it's good when it's what the *body* really is asking for---not when it's something the mind or the emotional self wants. I used to be a really hard-core restricter and so it's important to my healing now that I allow myself to have as many different health-giving foods as possible. I just won't join the "cacao-free" camp. Not gonna happen!

Love those ideas about winter squash and sweet potato. What's the controversy about sweet potato juice? I have Ulcerative Colitis and seem to remember that raw potato juice is supposed to be helpful for UC patients but I haven't heard anything about the sweets... Truthfully, I am high-raw and not 100%, so I might even lightly steam a sweet potato sometime this week. You're right that it may simply be a little more density that I'm craving, and there are ways to get that without bingeing on fats and keeping my diet nice and varied.

Can you make these soups you speak of in a food processor? I'm still saving for a vita....

Thanks SO much for your empathy and good ideas.

[montyloree]

This seems to be the question of the day for me... I suffered from bad cravings in the last few days... my stress level has increased due to taking on a new job. I have been craving fatty type things... today I made a green smoothy and afterwards still had cravings... then I ate some horrible things that made me completely sick. This is the bad cycle that I used to have constantly before I got into raw foods.

Maybe I should just be a few dozen avacados for these specific days. I DO NOT need to get back into this vicious cycle again...

One thing to note is that I messed up my adrenal glands from a high amount of prolongued stress a few years back... even a small amount of stress causes these cravings.

I guess I'll have to get back to my experimenting again with this stuff....
That's one of the issues I have with raw foods.. it's the constant that one must pay to what one eats... it would be nice if raw foods just became the thing to eat without all of the nasty cravings....

(just venting, thanks)

I'm hoping to hear from people who have suffered from bad cravings and eventually beat them for good.

[AllergyGirl]

I limit myself to no more than 2 avocados a day, because I love them so much that I would just eat them constantly if I could. But today I was craving fats like you would not believe, and for the first time since going raw I had 3 of them in one day, plus quite a bit of onion bread, and I also had pumpkin seeds on my salad at lunch. I finally feel like the craving is gone, but I feel a lot heavier/fuller than I normally do. Luckily by eating these things I was able to avoid what I was really craving, which was naughty SAD foods. I'm hoping that I can eat much more lightly tomorrow, but as far as I'm concerned, I guess today was worth it, even though I ate a lot more fat than I would like, because I was able to stay raw.

Hang in there, and good luck.

[montyloree]

Thanks AllergyGirl...
After I caved in yesterday and ate a bunch of horrible SAD food, I sat down and thought about things... I hadn't eaten much and wasn't giving myself the calories that I needed for the day... I was busy doing chores and wasn't paying attention...

I'm glad that I could identify that, as it's an easy fix.. just eat more calories!!

The other thing that made me feel better was that I hammered down some enzyme supplements, and a whole bowl of my raw sauerkraut which is full of enzymes and probiotics to help digest the nasty food.... this was more of a bandaid for eating the crappy food.

I guess you need to have a bad fall in order to recollect your priorities and get back on the path. Fortunately I have seen over and over again that I can eat strictly raw foods in all situations and be successful.

[RawHeaven]

Have any of you found successful ways to cope with excessive fat cravings? How can I gently guide my body back to those greens that I so enjoyed during the summer? It feels like part of why I'm not into the produce is because it feels "cold" in the mornings especially...even at room temperature the produce seems too "cold". I don't have a dehydrator...but maybe there are some ways that you warm foods up to make them more appealing in the cold weather?

Thanks so much for listening and offering your suggestions.

Hello MelanieBear,
In my own experience on this journey, I've found the easiest thing to do is not resist where ever you happen to be. Worrying or beating yourself up regarding the increased fat intake will only make you reach for more comforting foods. When I read your words, the first thing that came to mind is you just relocated across the country & significantly changed your diet not too long ago. These are both significant lifestyle changes. Relocating being a huge one. I sense something was triggered in your emotional body to bring you comfort, familiarity or its simply a program you're working out. Maybe you were given fats when you a kid to make you feel better as an example. Rather than focusing too much on the fat intake, go deeper and pull out why you may "feel" the way you do. Does the cashew butter and other things make you feel good? Where is the guilt coming from when you consume them? Enjoy them!

If you're unable to eat the fruits right now, don't buy them so they can sit on the counter mocking you. :) Purchase more greens...they have a way of curbing the desire to eat more fats. Perhaps make a green smoothie with some of the goodies you mentioned above first thing in the morning before reaching for the raw fats. I believe it will help you shift more gracefully. Be where you are and eventually you will be exactly where you desire to be. Don't fight it. Your body may need more of the fat right now if you're not experiencing any significant change in the way you feel. You seem like a very social person intuitively its what I'm picking up. You enjoy connecting with others & perhaps the fat is a substitute for now. I have a feeling when you get more settled in your employment situation and locale & make new friends, you will be just fine.

[MelanieBear]

Monty,

I'm glad you were able to get back on track. Have you read Annemarie Colbin's book on Food and Healing? She has a really interesting theory in that book about acid/alkaline balance and how sometimes the raw food diet is actually *too* alkaline forming (as most people practice it) which sends us to binge on SAD foods to re-balance ourselves. I think this is probably only part of the story, as there is a powerful psychological component as well, but maybe something worth looking into? Good luck to you!

RawHaven,
Thanks for your sweet and compassionate reply. I think you're exactly right about the emotional component; I've actually found that once I expressed what was going on here on the board, the bulk of the cravings have passed me by. I think I'm the only person who doesn't do well with green smoothies (no matter what strategies I try, they bloat me up like a balloon....) but I LOVE green juice, and have been having those more regularly. I also made some coconut meat yogurt which is surprisingly lovely, and manages to feel comforting and creamy without being quite so high in fat.

And I had figs for breakfast....so the fruit's not mocking me anymore. :-) Yay!

Thanks so much for writing and I'll see you around the boards. :-)

[RawHeaven]

Yay Melanie! Glad you're working through it....you're a tremendous self healer.