Involved? or Committed?

[rawpriestess]

I posted this in another thread but was asked to start a new one, so here you are.

Are you slightly involved in the Raw and Living food Lifestyle?

Or are YOU TOTALLY COMMITTED?

This is one of my favorite analogies.

In ham and eggs, the chicken is involved
the pig is committed.

So a commitment means, NO OTHER OPTION.

Where involvement, means you can take it or leave it anytime.
************************************************
Some people can make a commitment, and that is it, this is when we totally change our beliefs. We just aren't tempted any further.

Other people become involved in different things, and they swing back and forth and back and forth, aren't they committed? don't they care?, maybe they just are dealing with the cooked food addiction.

And the need for addictions don't go away immediately.

I know coffee takes about 4 days to get out of my system, and yet, 7 years after I quit drinking coffee, I started up again, what was that about?

Well, somewhere in there, there was a "need" for the comfort that drinking coffee brought me, who knew why or what, but it was there, now understand the "need" wasn't for the coffee, so the addiction was gone, it was for the "feeling" that drinking coffee USED to bring me.

Many people who are committed, say, "just be prepared."

Now how could I have been prepared 7 years later? I hadn't touched coffee or wanted it for 7 years. But Victoria Boutenko talks about this in her lectures.

Just because you have decided to be 100% raw, and you've eaten raw for years, doesn't mean that you won't be tempted some weird time in the future, something we see, or something we hear may trigger an emotional response in us, and all of a sudden we want that familiar feeling of the past, maybe even 20 years past, but we want it.

So, was I simply involved? or was I committed?

Well, I would say I must have only been involved, although you would think 7 years was a pretty good judge of commitment LOL.

You see, when I quit smoking, I have NEVER in 28 years been intersted in a cigarette. So, I'd say I'm totally committed to that.

I quit eating meat, and no matter where I am, no matter how hungry I am, I would NEVER eat meat, ever, for any reason. It would simply make me sick. Again, totally committed here.

However, with the cooked food, I've been slipping myself lately, so I must be only involved.

So, I don't think I need any more ideas, or suggestions, or books to read. I don't need any more recipes, or help in my kitchen, I know how to prepare the foods, I have no packaged or boxed food in my home.

So, how do I become totally committed, instead of merely involved?

By changing my beliefs about food.

I can change my environment, and go to a retreat and eat only raw food, but when I come home and start my regular life, I'm back where I started, so an environmental change won't work, (this is why prisons don't work)

I can change for a period of time, just to "see" what will happen, like If I had a disease, I could "try" 100% raw and be totally committed, for a few weeks or months, until my disease was cured, or gone, or I was thin enough for my class reunion, or upcoming event. But again, this motivation would only last as long as my commitment to that "other" event was going strong. When I get back home to my regular life, it might end. (this is why diets don't work)

Or I could change my beliefs at the soul level, I could get in touch with my inner knowingness, and really connect with spirit, God/dess, the Universal Consciousness or whatever I choose to call it, and meditate and totally embrace my food issues. I could really marry my choices, I could, if I really wanted to, BE a raw foodist.

By "being" a raw foodist, I would have no other option, because I wouldn't associate myself with anything else.

How do I do this? The same way I've been a vegetarian for years. There is no "doing", or "trying", there on "IS".

Now how to be prepared, just in case I have some food issues, or triggers, or feel nervous, or frustrated, or tired or hungry:

I will ALWAYS, have some truly tasty foods with me, or in my car, or know where to get them.

I still have a choices, to eat my food, or the cooked food that is available, sometimes knowing that I have choices, helps alot.

So, the kinds of things I will pack with me each day, and take in my car, are a baggie of flax crackers, I can add almost any type of veggie and have a mini sandwich.

I can keep almond butter in a small tupper ware container, just 2 T or so.

I can keep some raw greek olives in a small baggie. (this is nice for a super salty treat, and again tastes great on crackers, but can be a good addition to a rather dull and boring salad at a restaurant if I can't find any fresh lemon to squeeze on.

Walnuts, one of my favorite snacks.

I can keep some hot peppers too, this is nice to add heat to a salad, or just to munch on, anything to me that has a really high amount of flavor, can help with my cravings, it's not so much I want volume, I can always eat an apple, or banana for volume, but I usually want some really tasty intense flavor, when I'm struggling with food cravings.

So, there you have it,
cruncy & dry - crackers,
smooth & wet - almond butter

and the 5 tastes:
salty - olives
sweet - almond butter
spicy - hot peppers
sour - lemons
bitter - walnuts/pecans

You can almost always find lemons anywhere that tea is served, so there is my sour, or I can always take some with me.

So, there I have my prepared "care package" to take with me, although when I'm going anywhere, I could probably get any of these items in a store, except maybe the raw almond butter, that can be a little more difficult to find, but for the sweet, I could eat any type of fruit, and alot of veggies.

So, I can be prepared with my food. I just need to make the commitment, and there will be no stopping me.

So, are YOU slightly involved?

or Totally commited?

[magick man]

Good thred Raw Priestess as so many of yours are.
as for me i am at a 50/50 point now and holding fast I can go a few days totaly raw but I think I am too much a beast at heart to change my lifestyle totaly ( hate the word DIET). But eash day I eat healthyer I feel it is one day longer till I my self am Furtalizer for a garden.

I have many felling the main one is that we are all diffrent and follow our path our own way with a bit of giudance now and then ( that why this website such a good place).
I drink( not a lot) I smoke (1/2) pack a day of less and i eat cooked and even meat at time but I feel that for now I am where I need to be as I have seen many here striving to do.( and I so HATE some PPL jumping down PPL throats when they are new and asking simple questions) think back to your first days.
sorry Raw Priestess i kinda got off track but had been thinking about other posts I read and they all seemed to tie together here.
Blessed Be Magick man

[deedub]

Well to me commitment starts on the mental level. One of my favorite quotes is "Change your thinking change your life." Ernest Holmes. Once the mind is made up and there are no alternatives, no options; providence takes over and the doing is then made easy. In other words when one is committed in their mind (the being) Then the activity or the doing is effortless.
Coming to this internal mental commitment is the process - not what one eats or does not eat. Anyway that is my point of view. I have been raw since I made the decision to do so and each day I work on my internal mental commitment not in struggle, in peaceful meditation and pray. So I'll say commited because I do not want to affrim anything less.
Peace and Blessings
Namaste

[VeganVixen]

Im commited because it feels and tastes SO good :) ,but Im not fanatic and morals or self-worth ARENT connected with it......

[pfc]

There is a famous quote by yoda (yes, Star Wars) that goes something like this: "There is no try, only do or not do." This is true for us all, like it or not. It's where the commitment comes in, either we will do, or we will not. 'Try' doesn't actually exist.
I choose to do. In the past, at times, I have chosen not to do. I always knew when I heard myself say the words "I'll try tomorrow" that I wasn't committed. I knew many times that I 'wanted' to be raw again, but couldn't feel it. I knew I wasn't committed.
I am a person who eats raw food. A person who chooses to eat raw food. I have learned the things that trigger the unraveling of my commitment and I commit to not doing those things.
Thanks for the thread raw priestess. This really is the source of success.

[VeganVixen]

great quote! Im sure it will REALLY help me in ALL aspects of life ,thanks for sharing

[pfc]

A pleasure Ms. Vixen!
It's one of my favorites too, and I can rmemeber it, mostly!

[AubreyG]

PFC:
My favorite motto (its on my signature). Its how I live my life. My other favorite quote: "Be the change you want to see in the world."-Ghandi.

I want people to start treating each other with respect. I would like everyone to care more about the environment, and societal wellbeing as a whole. What we do affects not only ourselves, but everyone around us either directly or indirectly. I want to have an impact, a positive one, in this world I live in. I say no to meat and cruelty to animals. I say no to chemicals and things that aren't natural and could destroy the environment. But most of all, I say "no!" to popular culture...a culture that feeds us fast food, tells us to drive SUVs, and focuses on makeup that is tested on animals. I know what is best for me, and I try to make choices that are considerate of others trying to live their lives. So for me, this lifestyle just clicked. This is how I was meant to eat, regardless of whether people think its radical or extreme. I don't use my consumer voice to perpetuate killing of animals, producing of chemicals, or any other technological wonder that comes along...because it didn't work for me, and I would have been living a lie if I had said that it was working. This works, this is nothing short of a miracle...which gives me pause. What kind of world do we live in that eating organic fruits and vegetables is considered a miracle? We must really be making ourselves so sick and must be so far away from all that is sincere to be "rediscovering" the simple truth in eating the way were meant to eat: raw and living. We shouldn't have to rediscover it...we should have never "forgotten" it. I'm glad Alissa's book, and others, reminded me.

Aubrey