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All I feel is deprivation...

Due to chronic skin problems, I’m trying to fix up my diet. However, this whole process has just left me disillusioned and upset. I mean, I’m not complaining about banning fast food (haven’t had it in years), but its the fact that I can’t have pasta with alfredo sauce with grilled shiitake mushrooms, and clam chowder, and anything else with gluten, or soy, or any processed foods, dairy…anything. It’s so hard I think because food is one of my greatest pleasures in life…it’s one of the few things that makes me feel safe and secure and happy…Does anyone else feel this way?

Comments

  • Definitely. But I view this dependence on food as a crutch to be overcome. At least, I know it is for me. I don’t want to find safety in foods, I want to find safety in myself, in loved ones, in things I enjoy doing, etc.

    When feeling depraved, it helps to think of what exactly you are doing for yourself. You are freeing yourself from your dependence on unhealthy food. You are doing something good for your body, and are taking responsibility for your health. Your body is the only thing you really have control over… it only makes sense to bring it to the best level of wellness.

    Try and find new favorites in raw food. Don’t think of the cooked or allergenic foods you crave, but look through recipes until something really “clicks” and you say “I want THAT!” Or, you could always go headlong into a detox and do a cleanse for a few days… that will really put things in perspective, because you suddenly can’t depend on food (because you won’t be eating any!). It really forces one to deal with emotions, philosophies, etc toward food, health, and habits. Its also really eye opening to feel full and satisfied when one has not had solid food in 10 days (as one does on the Master Cleanse).

    May I suggest that you make a list of all the things you LOVE to do. Bike riding, swimming, taking a warm bath, calling a friend, etc… When you find yourself craving a food to feel better, instead go for this list and find something to do that will make you feel good. You can do the same with healthy food, as I’ve started recently. In a word document I place all the recipes I think look good or that I already know are good. If I crave something, I just have to do a search for a type of food, flavor, etc. It may not taste exactly like the old thing but eventually you will either have an altered taste and prefer the new foods, or your cravings will go away entirely.

    Also, I find that when one eats a healthy diet for a while (at least a month with no “caving in” to bad foods), then when they do go back to bad foods they realize that these things don’t taste as good as they used to. I’ve noticed that cheesy foods all were very bland and just tasted heavy, without real texture or exciting flavor. Definitely not worth the torture to my body.

    Don’t cave in to cravings if you can help it. Find a healthier avenue for feeling safe and happy. Break the cycle of going to food for comfort… it will be to your benefit in the end.

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    congradulate youself for making this choice. its a great fisrt step. i found the raw food lifestyle when i was at rock bottom with my health, i was at a “i’ll try anything” point. within a week, i had so many symptoms clear up, including chronic arthritic pain due to undiagnosed celiac disease. this made me even more determined and excited about the possibility of feeling good again, something i had given up on. what i’m trying to say is, you’ve made it to a crossroads when you are ready to do this, take your committment seriously. set goals for yourself, maybe allow yourself a few of your favorite foods after you’ve been raw for a while. i waited 3 months before eating a cooked meal, and it was a good experience because i found that it wasn’t all that, in fact it had very little flavor at all compared to living foods. your taste buds will change, you will see. you’ll be eating a piece of fruit and realise its the most succulent flavorful thing you could possibly eat. the longer you eat this way, the less your life becomes centered around food. it is very freeing. many of us are addicted to food and we don’t even realize it.

    get some uncookbooks, or use some of the great recipes on this site. get in the kitchen and experiment.

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    Wow, give yourself a chance! It takes time to learn Raw Food preparation. Learning to make Raw Food is no different than learning how to cook. It helps to be shown by someone, but since there are not many of us, who will show you. Even the Raw people you know (if any) may have not been making Raw Food long.

    Believe me you can learn to make great versions of all your favorites, I have. Just having a recipe for “Raw Alfredo” won’t do it. I took me many months on my own to get the techniques down. I learned by trial and error. In the begining it was more error than trial. After every few “Raw” failures, I would have the cooked version to satisfy me. So what, I kept trying to learn!!!

    Eventually I got really good at Raw Food preparation. Now I crave my Raw versions and can’t even stomach the idea of the old cooked crap. I know it may seem hard to believe now, but you’ll be fine.

    One thing Zoe and I believe in is Eating as raw as possible most of the time. This way if we eat some cooked food, our body is in such good shape, we recover quick. We also can forgive ourselves for the occasional cooked meal. Someone on here said that they are 100% raw 99% of the time. I think that is great thinking!

    I made a deal with my psyche when I first went raw. I agreed that any craving that lasted more than 6 hours I would induldge. Anyone can do without something for 6 hours and many times this short wait would leave me thinking of something else.

  • You’ve already gotten alot of good advice, but I just wanted to add that you should really work on your attitude towards raw foods. It’s the most important thing when going raw!

    If you think of all the things you used to eat and love, you’re closing the door and not seeing all the AMAZING foods you could be eating. Sounds really simple but its also important. For example, instad of thinking “Oh I cant have pizza anymore! Or doritos! Or icecream!” Think “Hmmm… a banana icecream sounds really good right now..” “maybe I can start making a raw pizza crust so I can enjoy it tomorrow..” “I’d like some pasta, lets find a raw recipe for alfredo!”

    Going through the recipe section on this website (and others) will make you see that you’re not deprived at all, you just need to change your focus.

    Personally, I’ve had my fair share of “ugh, I can’t eat anything, poor me” days. What helped me was going out and treating myself to some yummy fruits/veggies, going home and trying a mouthwatering recipe.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    you can make mushroom which taste much better than that cooked version you loved by simply marinating them in garlic, Olive oil, lemon juice and salt. There are quite a lot of mushroom recipes on here, and over 1,000 other delicious raw recipes. Just indulge yourself in making the most gorgeous raw food, things that you really like and have them in your kitchen all the time.

  • There is such great inspiration and advice posted already. I just wanted to say that I commend you for coming here and posting your HONEST experience and pain about where you are with this. I think you MUST want to keep going, or you wouldn’t have bothered to reach out and confess that you weren’t exactly at the “blissed out” stage with raw foods :)

    I have two really super-fun and mouth-watering uncookbooks at home right now—Rawvolution by Matt Amsden and Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. These are well-known books and man, they are full of some yummy stuff!! And the recipes on this site are amazing. in the past week, I’ve made a raw choc pudding, a nut cheese, and a delicious veg/nut pate that I have either on bell pepper halves or in lettuce wraps. Easy stuff! Take a deep breath and go find a recipe!

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    just wanted to add that your taste buds will change, and this surprised me. I was a potatoacholic, coffee addict and I loved bread and curry. After I had been 100% raw for a few weeks I would eat an apple and virtually become orgasmic over it! And now after being raw for nearly 3 years I have love affairs with seaweed, satsumas, kale and avocados, I crave raw food now.

    And I have to say that even as a long term cooked vegan I NEVER ate anything raw, I “hated” salad. I thought being a raw fooder was something other people did, not something I could ever do, but I was wrong. I never expected to feel like this about raw food,I guarantee that it will be the same for you too if you just throw yourself into it and give it a go.

  • Last night, I made sushi rolls, but used grated jicama, instead of rice. Not long ago, I didn’t know what jicama was, but it’s really good. Over time, your taste buds will change, & you’ll discover many amazing new foods. And with a dehydrator, there are even more possibilities.

    If you feel deprived, then add some cooked food back in. Most of us didn’t go 100% raw overnight. There’s a really great book that can also help with making the transition. It’s called “12 Steps to Raw Food.” I’m also reading “Sugar Blues” now. And for recipes, I like to create my own, but get inspiration from this site and the “Rawsome” book. One more tip, for greens, the baby stuff tastes better, i.e. organic spring mix.

  • My daughter is allergic to wheat, soy, nuts, dairy, seafood and shellfish. I loved seafood, but we had to banish it from our home because it was not good for our daughter. It can feel like you are being deprived, but I really think that depends on how you look at it and whether or not you can find alternatives to satisfy your cravings for those things that your body is telling you, you should not be eating. I also think that as time passes and you feel better, you will not crave those things you did before and, if you were to eat them, you would probably feel lousy.

    Going raw is a choice. If you don’t want to go raw, there are other dairy/wheat/nut/gluten free alternatives out there. I am transitioning to raw and transitioning my daughter to raw because the alternatives still did not get rid of her severe eczema or her asthma, so I am testing raw out. If that does not work for her, I may transition her back to eating some cooked foods. At this point, I am just trying it all out.

    Life should be enjoyed. Even the quest for optimal health should be a journey that is enjoyable even if moments are hard. You can still enjoy food even if you are raw or even if you have allergies. In a way, that just gives you an opportunity to be even more creative with your palate and to eat things that you might never have tried before.

  • You might want to check out Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) at www.emofree.com. EFT can help you with food cravings, skin problems and just about everything else you can possibly think of.

    EFT and other energy psychology techniques, such as Quantum Techniques, profess that allergies, skin disorders, pain, etc. are our bodies’ was of expressing what our conscious selves cannot express. You have to address the both the physical and emotional causes of your issues.

    I found great success with the combination of clean food and cleaning out old baggage. Turns out that my acne was Candida-related, and my debilitating nasal allergies weren’t genetic. My psoriasis is also nearly gone. Best of all, EFT is free and easy to learn!!! My family is hooked on EFT and we also use QT for our really hard problems.

    Also, some people jump right into cold water and some wade in slowly. If you’re a wader and you jump right in to raw, you might want to back off a little and wade until you get used to the water. Your overall happiness with swimming in the raw pool may end up being much higher. You can add some cooked foods w/o doing anything gluten, or soy, or any processed foods, dairy . . .

    Good luck and hang in there!

  • I find it really helps to have a big bowl of whatever raw and a small portion of the cooked stuff I love (or used to :P) By the time I have finished the raw and picking on the cooked, I find I can’t eat anymore and somehow it doesn’t taste as good anymore, so I finish off with a few more spoonsfulls of raw! The only thing I think I am rebelling against right now is that the chocolate I used to love tastes too sweet! Ughh :P so I keep eating bits, not liking them and hopefully will soon get the point it isnt working for me anymore! The main thing for me is not to be too hard on myself, as I used to do that a lot. :)

  • Wow, thank you…I hadn’t expected so many responses! All of you were so inspirational and encouraging. I’m very grateful to have this site and all of your voices! I will definitely try the recipes that were recommended and spend more time finding some delicious raw recipes. Also, several of those cookbooks sound like they would be very helpful. I’ll look for them at my library. Jenoz, EFT sounds interesting, I will look that up right now :) Anyway, thanks again for your kind words :) :)

  • You have gotten very good advice from the postings here. Just one questions I think you should ask, why would you put something in your body you now know is detrimental to your health and could and will kill you in the long run? Until you click on that, you won’t be able to detach from cooked food. You have to do it for your health. I do not know if you drink or smoke but if you do, it will be almost imposible then to get this. I did not smoke or drink when I swithched to raw, but I was already vegan for a while. So it was not so difficult for me. I did have cravings, BUT what made the difference for me was the clicking. Each time a craving came I asked myself, would that make me sick, yes! so, why eat it. before, I did not know better, so there was a reason, when you know better and you still do not do better, you, your old habits, are sabotaging yourself. Hang in there. Have you done any course in Natural Hygiene or read some books in this topic? I did not just chance to raw food. I first read 2 books and then did a course that it took me 6 months to complete. I was well informed and I knew what to expect. So this made it easy for me to understand I was going to go to some kind of rehab because I have been using food as emotional confort. I was an emotional eater without knowing it. I do can relate to your story. Hang in there. If you need more support, post again. I personally will try to help you out however I can.

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    there’s a good saying, “eat to live, don’t live to eat”

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