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Okay kids, so I spent about 11 days deep down in the rabbit hole of cooked food. I was in a very dark place emotionally, and I'll be honest, that cooked food was the only thing that kept me from bursting into tears all day every day. BUT--the situation I was so upset about hasn't changed, but after just two days back on raw, my mood is sunny again.

Here's what I learned from the experience: 1. Not getting enough sleep sends me right into cooked food. It's ridiculous. So I need to watch out for that. 2. There is no raw hangover food for a reason--don't drink so much dummy! And as a follow up to that, it's almost impossible for me to be drunk and stay raw. So learn to limit the alcohol. 3. When you've been raw for a while, you forget how incredibly healing it is. I was eating cooked food for about a week, and my bursitis in my hip flared up worse than it's ever been, to the point that I could barely walk. After two days of raw, a bunch of MSM, and some ice, it's doing much better already. 4. If you've eaten cooked food, you've messed up your tastebuds (particularly the super salty junk I was eating). So it takes a day or three before raw food starts to taste really yummy again. Don't get discouraged! 5. Green smoothies are a miracle. Seriously. Even if you're having trouble getting back to 100% raw, just add the green smoothies, and you'll get there easier.

On the upside, I was really wonderfully gentle with myself through this whole thing. I didn't beat myself up at all, and I didn't go super crazy with binging. So that was good. My life as a raw foodie may include periodic days or weeks of cooked food. My goal is to wean myself out of that over the years, but as long as I stay raw most of the time, and aim for 100% all the time, I'm okay with that. Cooked food does help with severe depression in the very short term (long term, of course, it absolutely feeds it), and it seems like it's going to take a while before I find something that isn't food to pick me up/distract me during those times.

Anyway, now I'm back to raw, and I have several awesome new uncookbooks and a brand new Excalibur dehydrator. Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be an uncooking bonanza! I'm excited!