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Calories, stomach pains, and raw at work

Hi everyone.

I heard that if you eat 100% Raw and don't consume enough calories, your body will crave cooked food. How true is this for everyone? What are your individual experiences with this?

I just started going 100% raw again after a long break and I notice that my stomach hurts, possibly from all the raw food? So even though I'm hungry, sometimes I don't eat because my stomach hurts. What do you think this is from? I notice it's after I eat any kind of raw meal (green smoothie, fruit, spinach dip and veggies).

Also, when I go to work I take a big bag of raw food with me just to make sure that I have enough to eat, and also enough variety. But I feel very embarrassed for bringing so much food every day. Is there a way to go around this?

Thanks for your help!

Comments

  • I have the same trouble with my tummy when I get really back to being high raw, so I found I avoid certain items that make me feel nauseous starting up, like for instance, extra virgin olive oil makes me gag raw, I know, it's so sinful to say that here, but its true. SO I go with macadamia nut oil, cold pressed, and it's better. That and raw zucchini is ugh unless I marinate it or dehydrate until my body readjusts. Certain greens are no no's right off, I actually got sick off a green shake months ago to where I didn't eat the rest of the day and no green shakes for the rest of the month. :S When it comes to the food,if it really bothers you to have so much bring a larger tote with you instead of a "lunch" bag and hide it. But my opinion honestly sweetie who cares what everyone thinks about your eating habits, pull out that big bag of fruits and veggies with pride. I just sat through our kids concert with this woman who must have weighed 300 pounds in the front row shoving piece upon piece of pizza in her mouth, then cheetos, then nachos, then soda ughhh, it was truly disgusting, and yet, so mesmerizing. She sure didn't feel any embarrassment. I usually keep high raw more successfully when I eat all throughout the day when I am hungry, drink lots of fluids and go for the greens first and most, fruits with high sugars make me binge and crave terribly.

  • greens can be really harsh on the tummy, I definitely can say I've had first hand experience with that. Spinach, especially, sometimes makes me feel like I'm going to gag if I've been eating too much of it. Listen to your body. If you notice yourself feeling sick off of certain things, try something else.

    You really need to develop a great connection between mind and body...that's the most important thing.

    If I go for some spinach or broccoli and start to feel ill...first I stop eating it.... haha...then I usually go for something citrusy like an orange or some pineapple. The citrus tends to counter act that nauseous gaggy feeling I tend to get from dark green veggies.

    I'm all about dark green (and leafy) veggies, so I'm not at all suggesting that you stop eating them entirely... just listen to your body when it doesn't want them. If it doesn't want them, then it probably doesn't need them at that moment.

    and if you do eat nuts, seeds, etc. make sure you soak them long enough to make it easier on your tummy to digest. I sometimes cheat and don't always soak mine, and then I usually end up paying for it :P

    Take it easy when you go back to raw. Start with more fruit than veggies, slowly bring the dark leafy green veggies back into your diet... don't overdo the nuts and seeds... and also! things like buckwheat groats, etc, I notice can upset my stomach, so that might be something you want to keep an eye on.

    Oh! and drink plenty of water, of course.

    and about you bringing all your food to work... I love what harmonylia said here:

    "I just sat through our kids concert with this woman who must have weighed 300 pounds in the front row shoving piece upon piece of pizza in her mouth, then cheetos, then nachos, then soda ughhh, it was truly disgusting, and yet, so mesmerizing. She sure didn't feel any embarrassment."

    It's true. No one else would feel embarrassed chowing down on McDonald's in front of you, so why you should be ashamed of eating a lot of food that is actually GOOD for you?

    I certainly wouldn't let anyone else's stupid opinion affect my health and lifestyle. Because you're not the one shoving your body with hydrogenated oils and all that other crap.

  • grapefruit.fanaticgrapefruit.fanatic Raw Newbie

    I hear you chattanoog!

    Once I got my lunch from the fridge (a bigger but not huge tupperware, full of salad) and walked into the office with it, and one lady very loudly and in front of about 25 people said,

    "HOLY crap! Who are you feeding, the whole office? Looks like you're eating out of a horse trough!!"

    I was so embarrassed, even though I know I shouldn't have been. Anyone who can't see the difference between eating a huge bowl of fruits and veggies and a huge bowl of SAD food is too big of an imbecil to merit your attention.

    Also, I totally disagree with Durian's advice about the oil. I eat extra virgin olive oil everyday and honestly, I feel way better when I do. Olive oil has so many health benefits- it is excellent for cardio health and lowering cholesterol (which, in spite of being raw and at a healthy weight- I still have a higher level of, so olive oil is ideal for people like me) , lowers blood pressure, and actually IS very well tolerated by the stomach, even by people who have ulcers. It also makes my hair and skin look better. I would do more research before counting out such a nutritious food- we all know that not all fats can be grouped together in one category. Somes fats really are good for you in moderation.

    I would, like others said, watch with too many dark greens at once. Eating more than a handful of raw broccoli, for example, bloats me for hours and makes me regret ever touching it :(

  • yes, I DO feel a bit of embarrassment when people comment on my food, and this has been said over and over: Healthy food seems to elicit MORE of a response from unhealthy people than unhealthy food would from healthy people.

    It's absolutely shocking...the other day I brought an enormous tub of watermelon to work and everyone stared...as though I'd brought out a tub full of cockroaches.

    I said, It's watermelon. Grow up. This is what adults eat you know, children eat candy for dinner like you're doing. (they'd been eating chocolate bars and twinkies.)

    I think it's just something that I have to get over, like, people only comment when they feel their way of life challenged, and you bringing out a bag of healthy foods, raw to boot, really makes them SEE how poor their food choices are.

    They only comment because they're either A. Jealous. B. ignorant

  • AVLAVL Raw Newbie

    tabbycars tofu - I also bring a huge tub of melon or grapes to work and people always say "you are going to eat ALL that?". Seriously, I just want to say, "and you are going to eat THAT?" I now eat alone, so no one can make annoying comments on my food.

  • sv3sv3 Raw Newbie

    I bring a big bag of food into my office everyday and actually feel very proud. My co-workers often say they wished they could be as organised and healthy as I am in bringing all my own food. I did used to get the odd annoying comment but they soon died down when they got bored with my lack of response. (People will do anything to try and get a rise out of you!)

    I know my eating has influenced the whole office and my boss has now organised a weekly fruit basket! They were all jealous and wanted to get in on the action too!

    Eat your food with PRIDE!

  • camiheartsrawcamiheartsraw Raw Newbie

    I'll have a couple of bananas in a mixed green smoothie in the morning and then eat 5-8 clementines for breakfast. Lunch is a ginormous salad, snacks after. I get comments on "WOW that is a huge bowl" or "how do you eat that much food?" I think it's funny and joke about watching the girlish figure or training for a body building competition and then flexing my scrawny arms and asking if anyone has tape because I'm so ripped (ha ha).

    My weight is healthy and I'm not self conscious about it. I went through a period when I was very ill and couldn't keep weight on and people at work would follow me to the bathroom to make sure I wasn't bulemic. They saw I ate a lot and couldn't figure out why I looked so emaciated. I had an autoimmune condition that made it so I couldn't absorb my food properly. Now I'm a normal size and could even stand to be toned - my body agrees with veganism and seems to assimilate the calories better. Before I was sick, I would go on yo-yo diets, eat too few calories between binging, and hovered at a higher than normal weight no matter what. After my weight fell out from under me and I was seriously ill, I'm very happy to have the weight I do and look like a normal person again. It's all about perspective :-) If your weight doesn't bother you, it's easier to poke fun at yourself and have fun with it. I love self acceptance. I wish I could have gotten it without being sick, but to be honest with myself, it made me a better person beyond that...

    I'll stop rambling now, but the short of it is, you are doing what's best for you and they don't need to watch you eat if they don't want to.

     

  • you're right, sv3, I SHOULD be proud:) I guess my self-conscious side gets the better of me sometimes...I LOVE my tub:) AVL, it's the best thing I've bought in a long time, I feel like it's so much easier than bagging everything:)

  • I'm so glad that there are people here that can relate to the--(dare I say it?) embarrassment of bringing raw food into a work place! I was just thinking about it today while at work. I realized how anxious I was simply because I was hungry again and I didn't want to get out of my desk AGAIN to get something to eat--again. So I asked myself, "Why do I do this?" and I answered, "Because I have to eat a lot to make sure I get a sufficient amount of calories and nutrients in my raw diet." and that wasn't shameful to me at all. When I'm home alone without the influence of eating cooked food, I'm very happy and focused on my goals as a raw foodist. I'm confident that my health benefits will increase dramatically if I simply stay focused. And what a sight I will be! My co-workers will get to see my transformation. I have NO reason to be embarrassed!

    And actually, several months ago when I was going raw the first time, a co-worker told me that I inspired many people to eat healthier. And that's something to be proud of!

    My stomach adjustment is going smoothly. I'm a little limited in my variety and I drink two green smoothies a day with plently of kale. My energy isn't what it should be, but I'm sure that will also increase in time.

  • I've felt the chlorophyll overdose as well, usually happens when I put too many greens in a smoothie with green powder. There is a balance and it's different for everyone. I found I needed to rotate my greens and not always go with a certain one with shakes, which may be something you should try.

    The lack of energy may be lack of calories, that was what it was with me. I was eating all the time and still didn't have much energy. I took up weight training again and eat a lot of bananas and it seems to help.

    edit: should try and obey food combining rules and see if that helps since your just starting raw again and your stomach isn't use to it

  • Dust says: "I've felt the chlorophyll overdose as well, usually happens when I put too many greens in a smoothie with green powder. There is a balance and it's different for everyone."

    You're exactly right about it being different for everyone. I know a lot of rawists who are able to fill up on tons of spinach, kale, broccoli, etc... and I can barely eat much at all before I get nauseous. It's a little aggravating for me only because I LOVE green veggies... but my weak stomach can't handle more than a small handful of broccoli and maybe a cup or two of spinach in an entire day.

    I wish I had the means to eat more of it than I'm able to... but my body knows what it needs so it's best to just listen to it anyway.

  • I relate the the self-consciousness about having different food habits at work. I lost 30 pounds while working at my last job. I had not gone raw but I did cut out junk food and ate more fruits/vegetables. I was very surprised that several people including the people at the top of the management line became very agressive with me regarding my eating habits. In the end I was screamed at in a meeting by the manager for not eating the processed food that had been ordered. Is this kind of extreme reaction more common than I think? Now I have wondered if they would have taken my health and diet changes better if I could have labeled them as part of a "vegan/raw food diet." Perhaps that would have been a context that is more well defined and less threatening. I wonder because I hope to avoid this scenario in future jobs.

  • Nowadays, I don't bring a bunch of food to work. I prepare a lot of smoothies/juice in the morning and bring it with me.

    So basically all I do all day is "drinking". People don't get that drinking all that is the same as eating 10 apples. 5 bananas and so on, haha. Sometimes I even use some kind of thermos jug, so people don't even see what it is that I'm drinking. Depends on where I'm going. I'm not super-secretive, but I'm not discussing my eating choices everyday with everybody. =)

  • ohhhh, how I love LOVE LOVE my big jug for green smoothies....it's not opaque though, so it's a shocking green color. I find that I get some sideways looks, but generally people don't want to know what's in my smoothie that makes it so scary looking. But, dancing barefood, you're absolutely right. When it's all blended up, no one has any idea of how many pieces of fruit/leaves of greens you've got in there. No judging...excepting the color of course:)

  • oh, leafygreen, I wonder if vegan/raw/whatever label you put on it might make it better or even worse...I dunno, in my experience it can go either way. Usually I just say that it's not something I want to talk about unless that person VERY much wishes to understand...I believe I snagged that line from someone else here on goneraw...thanks to whoever it was:)

    It seems to work, along the same lines as, "I really don't want to talk about it." And besides, it's really none of their concern if you chug leaves or if you chug cheezies, right?:)

  • tabbycats_tofu, I agree. I actually didn't talk about my eating habits. I would say "no thank you" when offered "junk food" and that seemed to become an issue in the group over time. I've been told since then that if I was more of an open book about it, this wouldn't have happened. I see things from your perspective though because who wants to go around explaining. Well it was a learning experience at least that people could be affected by the eating habits of coworkers.

  • tabbycats_tofu, I should clarify that happened more than a year ago and I have since left that job. So I didn't mean to come across as so understanding :P

  • oh....haha, no worries:)

  • Ohhhh leafygreen, you sound so much more understanding that I would be in your situation! you've inspired me to be more forbearing:)

    It's amazing to me, every time, how sensitive people are with what they don't eat. I mean, I'm the one eating the salad, so why does it bother THEM so very much? hmm...With one friend of mine, I did sit down and say, "now listen. I eat this. You eat that. That's find, and that's the end of it." if you know what I mean....It did help, but I can't see that working out for all your acquaintances...

    WOW, we all must be SO annoying to cause SUCH disturbances in SAD people's lives:) hA!

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