OK...so, just how the heck do you beat compulsive eating?

I can’t figure it out for the life of me.

There are no overeaters anonymous-type groups here, and weight-watchers is not for raw. I can’t drive to another town that has a proper group, and have no money for a book.

I get plenty of variety and calories, I eat 5 times a day rather than three. Physical hunger is something that seldom happens when I’m raw. Yet I am attacked on all sides by overwhelming cravings, and eventually, I always give in, ending up worse off than I was before I started.

I am so desperate to beat this and remain at least high raw, I feel like beating my head against the wall. Can anyone shine the light of knowledge into my brain?

Thanks.

Comments

  • waterbaby12347waterbaby12347 Raw Newbie

    Lots of green smoothies…. Tons of kale and or spinch salads… I think I over eat too as I’m stuffing it in and enjoying everything in sight every night… Usually any time after 6pm, I begin with a fresh salad, then pate and crackers which is usually my rendention of hot cheddar cheeze and one of my raw cracker recipes… Then maybe some marinated mushrooms followed by one of my “ice creams”... I have never felt bad about my grazing because it is all raw… Is this what you are doing or are you indulging in old SAD habits??? If so, greens, green and more greens… GRIN

  • heyenglishheyenglish Raw Newbie

    I’ve ALWAYS been an emotional eater, and getting that under control has definitely been the hardest thing. I’ve found, for the most part, if I eat 100% raw for 3 weeks, the cravings pretty much disappear. It’s only when I have a cooked vegan meal (because I do still miss Indian and Thai curries) that I start craving things again.

    Sweets are my biggest problem. Whenever that craving hits, instead of taking the route of preparing some extravagant decadent dessert, I go for the simple option. I’ll eat one date. Then I’ll put the container of dates back in the fridge and wait 30 minutes. If my sweet craving hasn’t subsided by then (which has never happened), then I’d eat another one and again, wait 30 minutes.

    I find planning out my meals is really helpful too. That way, I only have food in the house that I’m going to be using in the next 3 or 4 days, bar a nice selection of fruit to snack on, should the mood take me. If you’re not having to prepare SAD food for other people in your house, just throw it all out. Again, if it’s not in the house, you can’t eat it!

    And finally, I like to ask myself some mental questions whenever a craving hits: Why am I having this craving? If I do eat it, what benefit am I gaining from it? What are the “cons” of eating it? Am I really hungry? And, if I wait 30 minutes, will I still want it? Now, if you do decide to wait 30 minutes to see if the craving goes, don’t just sit there and salivate over your craving for 30 minutes, because yeah, that’s not really helpful. Go do something completely un-food-related like watching TV, walking up and down your street, listening to music, reading, etc.

    Hope this helps!

  • Bananna1333Bananna1333 Raw Newbie

    Why can’t you do weight watchers on raw? I am…although I am not All raw yet. You could totally do WW in sync with raw. WW can be done in tandem with really any other diet. I’m doing it online.

    I have binging problems too, it’s been working for me great. A few failed attempts, but it’s going great now.

    Also, vegetables are key. If you feel a binge coming on it is probably because you are too empty, fill up on zero points, nutrient dense, filling vegetables and then you can sample your faves with control.

  • Paxton SquiggledyPaxton Squiggledy Raw Newbie

    Hi guys. Thanks for your responses.

    Waterbaby, yes I keep falling back into SAD. I will up the greens and see what happens. Thanks.

    Heyenglish, thanks for the ideas.

    Banana, I’m not an authority on weight-watchers. But I have compulsive eating. This for me is an addiction worse than smoking or drinking. (I am a recovering alcoholic, 2 years sober, and I quit smoking a couple of years ago as well, after more than 20 years of smoking).

    This is Overeaters Anonymous home page: http://www.oa.org/index.htm

    This is Weight Watchers home page: http://www.weightwatchers.com/index.aspx

    Obviously, there are significant differences. Weight Watcher has helped and continues to help alot of people. More power to them, I say. However, it’s not going to help me personally to get involved with a group that also sells it’s own SAD meals. That means that the other people in the group will at least occasionally be talking about how ‘healthy and good-tasting’ some of the particular Weight Watchers meals are, which is only going to serve as another source of temptation for me.

    Overeaters Anonymous, or something similar (not-for-profit, and 12 step) is more my speed. Unfortunately, they don’t have any meetings in my town, and I don’t have enough integrity for the online meetings to do me a whet of good. I need the in person thing, I can’t make myself feel ‘accountable’ to invisible internet people. :-(

    Anyhoo, thanks for your responses guys.

    Namaste.

  • greeniegreenie Raw Newbie

    Paxton,

    I’ve done WW before and OMG the WW food is revolting. I tasted one of their little snack cakes once and instantly felt ill—my throat got sore and I felt like I was going to heave. Yuck!

    First off, most people totally underestimate how much food they need when they go raw. You need a LOT. Stock up your house with the most sumptuous raw goodies you can find – have plenty of your favorite fruits, veggies, pates, crackers, pies, cheesecakes, you name it. Make chocolate shakes with nut milks and bananas. This is not the time to restrict or control what you eat with your mind, but to give your sweet body free range to have whatever it wants from within the raw vegan universe.

    Secondly, here’s a tip I use with my coaching clients. I hope you don’t mind a non-food answer, but you described your problem as being food-related but not necessarily having to do with the food you are eating.

    Focus more on what you are feeling than what is going on in your thoughts or mind. If you feel your stomach is full and you’re not hungry but you have a craving, take a moment to settle down. And then shift your awareness from the mental images of your craving, or the mental searching for what might satisfy it, to the simple body sensation of the craving. Just the sensation. It will usually be in the stomach or the chest. If you just let your awareness be on it lightly, without any push or pull or trying to make it go away, it will dissolve. More of the feeling may come up to be released, you may need to repeat that several times. Usually the craving will diminish or go away once you let the feeling dissolve.

    This process works well with emotions as well as with cravings. Try it if you’re upset about something. You can use it to give up smoking or other addictions, too. It’s a different kind of ‘feeding’. You are nourishing your feeling self with your attention. That’s all a feeling is – a call for your attention, your consciousness, the way your body/mind says ‘look at me!’. Your simple awareness is powerful medicine and can nourish and neutralize a great deal more than most people realize.

  • when i crave something like macaroni and cheese, i let myself eat a little. what usually happens is that the SAD food tastes like dirt. cardboard is probably a better word. then i eat something really good (homemade hummus, berries and nuts with raw cacao nibs and cinnamon, whatever makes me smile) and that reminds me why i eat mostly raw food now. i also let myself eat ak mak crackers if i am really wanting something baked.

    Meeting my emotions has made a big difference for me, too, lately. i have been struggling with migraine symptoms recently, after many months of stressful life circumstances, and i find that when i take the time to really pay attention to my feelings, i feel lots better and have more energy. i realized that when i pay attention to my feelings instead of trying to manage them, i am loving myself. then i feel good and all the discomfort goes away. until i need to pay attention some more… :) p.s. just meditating doesn’t work…i really have to connect with the emotions, the same way i would connect with my kids or animals when i walk in the door after being gone. it’s not just saying “hi”; it’s really connecting and exchanging energy, if that make sense.

  • Bananna1333Bananna1333 Raw Newbie

    ok, well just for the record, I don’t eat weight watcher meals ever, and I rarely go on their forums, and when I do, I don’t hear about how great their meals are, they mostly talk about completely irrelevant things that have Nothing to do with food. This is my ‘forum’. I don’t go to online meetings, and I am accountable to me. I too, am a major binge recovery eater! I’ve had my share of addictions and I agree that food is the worst because you can’t just quit eating. ...even moreso when it’s the last thing you have to kick, because it was your friend when you kicked everything else. Trust me I get it!

    Regardless of where you land, I think, that as long as you keep trying to solve your problem, it will happen. That’s one of the 7 differences in successful people….they just simply don’t stop trying!

  • Keep in mind too that the real issue isn’t the eating, it’s what’s underlying the eating. This series of videos on YouTube with was posted on this forum a week or two ago, and I found them very helpful: http://youtube.com/watch?v=icsFTnltYuY&feature=...

  • beanybeeganbeanybeegan Raw Newbie

    When you hit the senior years, and end up with health challenges, because of all the SAD eating you have done over the years, then you you will be desperate to kick all the bad habits, with no looking back. Am I talking about me? yep

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