why is this so hard?

[purtyflowrr]

Changing the way we eat is on the hand, seemingly very simple (just eat raw food) but on the other hand very complicated. So much of our lives revolves around food, food and comfort, food and celebrating, food and socializing. It takes a while to develop new patterns and habits that will enable to deal effectively with food in all those different contexts. We need to be able to put food back into a proper perspective and to start living life on it's own terms, without using food as a crutch. It just takes a little bit of work at first. It becomes easier, new routines fall in to place. Give yourself a lot of credit for attempting such a large lifestyle change! :-) Work on one aspect at a time and go from there. Many, many people have permanently changed the way they eat and their relationship to food. Even people who were previously junk food addicts and compulsive eaters (like me). :-)
It can be done and you can do it too!!

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

Audrey,

What an inspiration you are!!!!! I went to your website, and you are such a motivation. If you don't mind, I am going to email the address that is on your site and ask you a couple of questions. :)

[Conscious Midwife]

I just returned from a 3 week vacation in NYC. It was purely heaven!!!! I was eating raw gourmet food everyday, shopping at all the fresh food markets and doing awesome. While I was there, I lost a little over 10 pounds and I looked soooooo radiant. Not one person I came into contact that I know didn't not make a comment. That was such a horrible sentence...anyway, everyone noticed. I have been home for a week and have just been eating horribly. In my head, it is a constant battle. I tell myself....raw isn't something I can do forever, I need to find a plan that I can do forever. But, then I think to when I did weight watchers and I never felt on weight watchers how I do on raw. But it is so emotionally hard for me. Sigh. I want to do this so badly, but I sabatoge myself. What can I do to do this for good?

GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD

and INTO THE HEART OF THE MATTER

LOVE YOURSELF TO HEALTH AND TOTAL WELL BEING ONE BITE AT A TIME!

your temple deserves it

[MangoMommy]

The best thing for me to stay raw is to be prepared. Do you have Alissa's book? I have a list of all the raw recipes that I want to try and I feel like I'll never get to all of them because there are so many!! Take a look at all the delicious recipes and pictures on this board. If you keep in your mind what you're gonna have for your next delicious raw meal complete with appetizer and dessert..yummmm...you can hardly get sidetracked with something that you may regret later.

[purtyflowrr]

So after a long day of thinking and contemplating my raw expedition, I decided to come up with a list of all the things that scare me about going raw. This was an interesting exercise. Here are a couple of the things I listed:

I am afraid this won't work for me like it seems to for everyone else. This fear is not even based on anything factual, as I have experienced the good feelings and calm aura provided by raw.

I am afraid that I do not have complete control over what I eat. This is based on the eating disorder tendencies that I have dealt with for years. If I am not on some sort of plan where I am told exactly what and how much to eat, I tend to think it is not going to work. While on weight watchers, I had a specific number of points given to me every week. It was so simple. Of course, I made crappy choices with little nutritional value, but I still lost weight. The points made me feel in control. With raw, I really can't do points cause it doesn't work like that. There is not so much restriction with calories and fat as on a SAD diet. So maybe it is more of a control thing.

On the other hand, I made a list of reasons I want to do raw....which, by the way faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar outdid the reasons I am frightened to do it. In conclusion, the good outweighs the bad, and I think I just have to take this "leap of faith" and put myself out there and do it.

[honeybee joy]

The only thing that is stopping me from being successful with this is myself

I think it just takes time to work thru all the emotional blockages. This is a big change from how most of us were raised! It takes time. Be patient with yourself and have fun!

I am afraid this won't work for me like it seems to for everyone else. This fear is not even based on anything factual, as I have experienced the good feelings and calm aura provided by raw.

I have had those fears myself before. You just have to overlap that fear and replace it with the fact that it will work for you.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I had a conversation with a very wise man, my DH the other day. I told him that I get a bit out of control with chocolate and it drives me crazy, so I have a very black & white view of "moderation". I just don't think I should even moderately have a piece of chocolate because then I'll be out of control.

Now, mind you, this is always just a plain milk chocolate bar, but it has to be an imported one because they have a nicer taste and texture and made with real vanilla instead of vanillin which is artificial. Or it has to be one of those fancy high quality milk chocolate bars from the health food store. I tell you I'm like some kind of Starbuck's coffee addict with the chocolate.

So you know what my husband says to me? He says that the reason I probably go overboard on the chocolate is because somewhere in my mind I tell myself I can't have it, or this will be my last time I can have it, and I end up overeating it to the point that I don't even like it, I'm just eating it, you see.

So he suggested that I just tell myself that I can eat it if I want to, and that does work for me. Either I don't want it at all or I want just a little bit of it, instead of gorging on it.

Soon will come the day though, that I get that junk out of my life for good. I actually think I get a reaction to it because the times I've been off it for long enough and then have some, I feel nervous and jittery so I know the stuff does not belong in my system.

[chilove]

Hi Purtyflowrr,

You are welcome to email me anytime.

It's great that you identified those fears! :-) Doing affirmations is a great way to change your mindset. My favorite was "I love raw food" and I said it over and over and over again. Write down some that are meaningful to you and start doing them. They really do help.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com