What cheating feels like....

[gabriele]

Well, here i am, after 7 weeks of being "good", i could feel the pressure building up......the temptation that was completely absent for 7 weeks suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks and all i could think of was chocolate. Not being savy enough yet to make my own raw concoctions, i was dreaming of Lindt chocolate and everything else bad. I knew we had an office birthday party coming up, with lots of goodies, and i could just feel it in my body that i could not resist the temptations. It troubled me for 2 days straight. I just caved in and ate the gooey chocolatey brownies, the chocolate, the other foods, all SAD and all bad. My reason for writing this, other than to purge myself of my guilt, is to report that IT WASN'T WORTH IT!!!! I feel bloated, stuffed, i have heartburn, i feel slow and sleepy, i skipped my wonderful salad at lunch and i missed that, and i generally feel sad and upset that i let this happen. Tomorrow it's right back to my program/lifestyle. It just totally wasn't worth it, but i wish i knew how to prevent such strong cravings in the future. (nothing else will do except "real" commercially prepared chocolate, i'm a chocoholic.)

[Veganforlife]

Cheating feels like my confession below...

[green jeanie]

life is long

treat yourself to feeling great!

that means feeling great about feeling bloated and tired and sick

if that makes any sense...you will succeed!!!!!!

[Moretta]

Don't stress yourself to much about it, tomorrow is a new day.

Good luck.

[RawKnitster]

(nothing else will do except "real" commercially prepared chocolate, i'm a chocoholic.)

I promise, once you have had the real thing you will wonder why that commercially prepared stuff ever appealed to you. And you don't have to be savy....all you need is a bag of raw cacao powder.

One of the easiest ways to get a chocolate fix is stir together some cacao powder and agave syrup. Eat it with a spoon or as a dip for fruit, especially bananas.

Another super easy recipe is RP Brownies. If you have a food processor, cacao powder, walnuts or pecans, and dates or raisins, then you've got instant brownies.

If none of that works for you there is another alternative. I read about it today in "The Raw Food Diet Myth" by Ruthann Russo. She writes in the chapter titled "The Great Chocolate Debate" that organic dark chocolate (Dagoba and Green & Black's bars) saved her during the transition process.

From one chocoholic to another....when the choco monster strikes it has got to be fed. ;)

[lovinlocks]

These responses are so kind and thoughtful. I didn't start the thread but I'm thanking yaw'll nonetheless.

Tks.

LL

[gabriele]

i started the thread and i am thankful too. All the kind responses are making me feel better, sitting here with my heartburn. I must have made some progress the past 7 weeks if i'm sitting here dreaming about my salad tomorrow. It is a lesson learned, that this was not worth it, and i won't be doing this again soon.

[freshlight]

This can happen at the beginning of your journey: be grateful for the slip because it shows you the best way to go :)
Take care,
Eva

[rawstrength]

Celery juice has saved my butt after some unfortunate cooked food encounters. Celery juice really soothes digestion and gets rid of heartburn. Or try a celery green smoothie if you have no juicer.

[RawHeaven]

Something that tided me over well during my chocolate cravings were the following easy desserts:

Raw Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
2 to 4 frozen bananas blended with raw cacao powder to taste

I ate this every evening for like 6 months. lol.


Raw chocolate coconut drops

Mix 1/2 cup raw cacao power with about 2-4 tbs of melted coconut oil add a little sea salt if you must. Agave to taste if you enjoy sweeter chocolate. You may need to adjust the coconut oil/cacao to your own liking in terms of texture etc.

drop 1 inch balls onto a ceramic plate or plastic wrap. Or you can shape it into a bar and make your own candy bar.

Put in the fridge for an hour


----------------------

I used to just experiment with different ingredients along with the cacao powder. It was fun to get creative. It doesn't have to be perfect and you're usually the only one who's eating it. ;) Sometimes they came out not so great. It was simply helpful for me to get that "chocolate" flavor in my mouth so I wouldn't go out and buy a Hershey bar. LOL.

[Aleesha Sattva]

for me it was these!!!

[EZ rider]

I have made my best progress on my raw journey after my "slips". Forget about the guilt and negative feelings and focus on the positive. Stop and examine the slip and learn from it. The kinds of things you mention in your OP like how it makes you feel physically and mentally after eating the cooked food compared to the way eating fresh raw foods from the garden makes you feel. Think about your actions just before you slipped. Learning from experiences is a great tool to help keep free of a repeat experience. Think about if you want to be raw or cooked and if you want to be raw then recommit to staying on your journey. After I have done the above things I have found that the slip is not a stumbling block anymore but is now a stepping stone to the better health & wellness that the raw food lifestyle leads to. Its not the food in your life that counts its the life in your food that nourishes you with health, radiance and joy.

[Marin Mom]

It happens. I blew it and had HALVAH today, sad family keeps this stuff around all the time and sometimes it is just too much to resist. Should have kept a backup dessert around, but I won't beat myself up over it.

[betty boop]

I slip also but as time goes by I find it happening less and less. What seems to work for me is to feed my cravings unless it's later in the evening.

When I do cave and have something that's not raw it never tastes as good as I thought it would and I always pay for it, always! So that helps alot mentally, because it proves to me raw is the way to go.

A couple weeks ago it was chocolate. I don't really even like chocolate so why I wanted it I dunno but after having some and going through that phase I don't want it anymore.

When I first started on raw it was McDonalds, lol! I never ever eat at McDonalds yet here I was craving McDonalds. I gave in and went 2-3 times each time I would take one bite sometimes two and it tasted horrible so I threw it out and left, then had a green smoothie when I got home. And now even the thought of McD makes me sick.

For me every single day is a learning process.

[islesgirl]

That is so amazing betty boop! I'm glad I read this today. I noticed a couple of times since eating so much raw food that there was something different about a lot of the sad food I went back to each time. On the weekend, we had Chinese Food as it was our anniversary and it is usually one of my favorite meals, not counting seafood and steak. It was the absolute worst tasting chinese food I have ever had in my life. It has to be the raw food changing my taste buds. If I cave again and one day choose lobster or steak, I wonder if I will experience the same thing? We'll see. I'm sure going to keep this in mind. Thanks for sharing.:)