ShelShel

I fixed my post above, so I am editing this comment to respond to Renee.

I read the post Renee. :) (((HUGS)))

I think for me if I'm eating high raw...I'm just eating healthy. This is what I have done my whole life. I'm a good food eater. You can ask my hubby...I do not care for unhealthy foods. Snack garbage and such. But.
It never helps me lose the extra weight. I can exercise and exercise and count calories...eat whole foods and nothing. I'm healthy and fat.

Eating 100% raw...is eating raw to me. I'm at my best. Clear skin, clear mind, happy spirit and THIN! I have been there. I did it. It worked....then...we began to socialize with our friends from church, got on the worship team...lots of potlucks...where I happily brought my raw treats and was explaining at every turn.

Commenting below because this is getting long. ;)

My dear ShelShel... Why does it HAVE to be all or nothing? Why do you prefer to struggle alone? We all have our moments. This should be a place for support, not a 100% raw or else club. You don't have to be 100% raw to be here.

I hope you'll come back after you've thought about it for a while. Through supporting others you receive support!

If not, I wish you well in your journey. :-)

Hey, please read GoodCat's blog entry today...2 down from yours. Pleeeeese!!!!!!

Finishing comment from above...

After a while, I would have a splurge here and there...toast with coffee when eating breakfast out with friends. A soup and salad when I had a salad with lunch. And pretty soon I was back to being high raw, healthy and fat.

So, I have tried and tried to eat 100% raw again. Since 2008 I started to gain my weight back until now...I'm heavier than I ever was to start with.

Eating high raw...isn't going to accomplish the goal for me. But I'm unhappy with the thought that if I can't maintain 100% it is simply going to come back with a vengeance and I will be right here again. Fat, struggling and sad.

I'm a go-getter...I accomplish and complete the task. I can't seem to accomplish my goal of 100% raw. Instead of keeping on in this vein of feeling defeated, I am in pursuit of something I can live with always. Raw doesn't seem to be that for me. I can eat 100% raw for three days, lose 5 pounds and gain half back after one day with a cooked meal. It isn't sustainable for me.

That is what I have come to. I can't sustain 100% long term and so no matter what my progress, I will simply fail the minute I consume a cooked item and the weight comes back. It is too discouraging.

Thank you for letting me explain and ramble.

God bless you Renee! (((HUGS)))

Oh no....you are SO NOT leaving! . Im gonna hold on to your ankle, and I'm not letting you go! So THERE! :)

Where are you...are you in Texas? I need to do a class with you! If you're not here, we can do one through Learn It Live!!! It'll be a BLAST!!! You just need someone to hold your hand for a while, that's all! You totally CAN'T leave here! You'll keep coming back cuz you're hooked on raw...(rather you realize it or not!!!!). So, I'm NOT gonna let you reduce yourself to being a lurker! Nope, not gonna do it!!!! You're MINE baby!!!

Renee you make me laugh. I had to read your post out loud to my husband. No. I do not live in Texas. But I have been there! :). Lol

You have me doubting my resolve to just give up. hope you are happy. Ankle grabber!!!

Thank you. :)

HaHaHAHA!!!!! Love it!!!!! Yea!!!! You're still here!!!! You're gonna be ok! Hang in there!!!! I'm gonna set up another Learn it Live class...just for YOU!!!! Pick what you'd like to make: Pizza, Lasagne, Zucchini Pasta, a dessert... We can make it together...LIVE!!!! Are you familiar with Learn it Live? Here's my last class: http://www.learnitlive.com/class/342...e-Raw-Brownies. That will give you an idea what class is like. I'm excited!!!!!! Can't WAIT to see what you're gonna choose!!!!!

Very cute Renee...awesomely supportive!!

I thiiink...what do I think?

What I am reading here is that some of you are eating very successfully all raw except for some special occassions. I think treating ourselves can always get a little carried away at times, I think that's normal. My Dad for example, has a Very strict eating regimen...not raw or vegan, but in ways More strict...no salt, no soys sauce, no ketchup, sugar, mayonnaise, butter, etc. Low fat and low sodium. Calorie restricted, etc. He went from the doctor telling him his heart disease was so bad he might have a heart attack 'any day now', to lean and healthy as one could ever hope to be. At first he was super strict. ..but after a few years he realized that having a treat now and then was ok. At first it was very rarely, then once a month, then once a week....and then multiple times per week. He started feeling like crap, slowly but surely. He Missed his healthy foods and eating at home and firmly put a stop to it. Now...some 3 decades in, he has mastered the whole thing. He is strictly healthy, his 'usual routine', but has no more than one cheat meal a week. That's IT. The guy is as healthy and trim as you could possibly be.

I guess in talking this out, I'm realizing that there is Some room for treating yourself and there is a need for doing self-checks, and tweaking what's going to work for you and eventually finding what is going to work long term for you through some trial and error.

Sheshel, you mentioned that you can eat all raw for 3 days and lose 5 pounds and eat 1 cooked meal and gain half a pound. So let's say you do what my Dad does and have one meal a week where you just enjoy whatever cooked food you're craving/wanting most...let's say you would really celebrate that meal and that experience and appreciate it for what it was...and the rest of the week you stick to your guns? You would still...by your math, have lost plenty of weight! ...even if you had two cheat meals.

To me the question is more and more becoming, yes, like you said, what can we maintain forever. ...to me this has to include a high raw regimen because it will make your forever much longer than if you don't, lol. But also, like you, I do need to be able to enjoy treat meals.

Because I like to push the envelope, I am going to have two cheat meals instead of my Dad's one. One supper and one lunch...because I do like to go out for lunch too!

Anyways...think it over and no matter what PLEASE don't leave!!! I have your other ankle. :)

Maybe we could make a pact to try some version of this for 30 days as an experiment??
As I said somewhere else I am starting a 30 day raw thing on Monday...so I guess I am kind of already committed.

Maybe 3 cheat meals...one breakfast, one lunch and one supper? ...ok I will shut up now and let you think, lol.

I think raw cheese cake is a very good option. I simply don't think you can tell that it is raw rather than baked. Kale chips if you have a dehydrator but be prepared to discover an enormous addiction ;) Otherwise I think it is very difficult to really understand my eating. Today I have eaten off-plan. It was ok but I believe I would have enjoyed a raw meal just as much so why did I not choose raw? I don't actually know. It may be partly hormonal. At these times I keenly feel the lack of a traditional kitchen with electrical appliances.

ShelShel.....I'm still waiting to see if you'd like to do a class!!!!! Come on...you KNOW you want to!!!!! Don't make me HUNT you down!!!!

I don't necessarily agree with a cheat meal/day. Why plan to sabotage your success? When my Suchi run happens (which is not every week or even every month...), I accept the moment and keep moving forward. Striving to be completely raw means not planning to eat cook food.

If you get to the middle of the stairs and step down a step, you don't go back to the bottom step, you just take another step up and keep on going. If you find yourself taking another step down again, just make sure the next step is up. The point is, you keep going. Eventually there will be less and less steps back and more steps up. Success is determined by you not giving up. You will see the results you want, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Be kind to yourself as you keep stepping up. ShelShel, accept the class! It'll help you to take a giant leap up!!! :)

I like the stair analogy. It really makes people rethink their concept of failure and success. Self-esteem is key in this whole business.

Shelshel is an amazing raw uncooker! ...not sure if you all know that or not, lol.

I prefer to call the cheat meal, a treat meal...because if it's incorporated into your plan, then you aren't cheating and you totally remove the guilt, the concept of 'moving backward', the sense of less than or disappointment, that you can somehow be doing better.

I think they are important because they remove resistance...instead you are rolling with the resistance...like that martial art, lol. Then it has less power. In my Dad's case...the 100% strict thing, lasted a good long time, because he was afraid for his life, but it did not have Lifetime written on it. He had to find something he could live with but still get the results he wanted. He's tweaked and modified his program over the years, but he's always been dedicated and observant as to what is working and what isn't. His treat meal, he may not have every week, or even every month, but there are points in his life where he really appreciates them on a regular basis...and other points where he just has enough produce and not enough time or interest to bother. But if he wants a cheat meal on the weekend, he has no guilt about doing so because he eats so spectacular the rest of the time.

He keeps his health his area of focus...because he is afraid of dying, he keeps himself on track just fine. I dunno...it works. He is proof to me that it can work perfectly fine. ...and when you think about it, I can definately think of raw meals that are worse concoctions than the green curry thai food I would eat for a treat, for ones health. just saying!

I just love you all. I worked today, then went grocery shopping. I've been too busy to write, but later I will! I promise. (((( hugs))))). Lots and lots and lots of (((hugs)))

Actually the class is more for motivation. Making raw food isn't difficult for most people. The Blender and food processor do all of the work. Just like, for me, taking Alissa's class wasn't about learning how to make the food...I've been uncooking since 2007. It was a tremendous motivating factor that propelled me forward. That's what I'd like to give to ShelShel. The class is free, so why not.