Question and Answer on maintaining a Raw food diet

[june roca]

There was a question posted by one of the members of my group at one of the networks. I posted the question and my answer to the question to assist you as Self:

Question:
Hi everyone, I need help! I, like many others, struggle to stay entirely raw all the time....particularly when I am stressed out. I began a cleanse this morning and was experiencing a sudden surge of emotion and completely binged out on bread and nasty foods for no particular reason. Now I feel completely awful and I hate it. I can't understand why I do this again and again? Its like I can't bear to feel the way I'm feeling so I binge eat to soften my insides. I wonder if its the stressors on the outside I need to work on. Afterall, I am in a situation that I am contemplating leaving because it does not feel entirely right. I am so prone to over eating and binging from my youth, I just can't seem to kick it.
Please help!!!

Answer
First, forgive yourself (not you the life essence, but the mind that you associate with) for feeling bad.
This is what i do. I say, i forgive myself for eating cooked food again and me feeling bad about it rather than being aware of me as the breath in every moment ( This is my truth, that the life essence that i am is manifested without polarity and since the breath, without thoughts have no polarity, i put my attention back to my breathing).
I also smell the food before I eat it. I love the smell of fruits, because it reminds me of nature. I try comparing that smell, holding a fruit in one hand with the cooked food in my other hand before eating . This normally makes my brain wake up from emotional craving.

Emotional craving is a pattern we learned and logic coming in when you do this exercise, plus emptying your mind and focusing on your breath plu deciding to eat raw again for good and preparing nice raw smoothies in the freezer made out of almond milk with bit of dates and flavor of maybe dill or cilantro that i can always get whenever i get hungry helps. I also have raisins handy and strawberries etc. I always have a raw health bar in my bag just in case there's no raw food around.

June "as me as you as all life"

[Debbie Maddox]

Do you make your own Raw Bar? Did you freeze the milk in like ice trays for a later use? How long is it good for ..doing this? I ask because I, too, do this bing eating at times. I can be totally clean all day then I go crazy. I find it is usually when I am tired from the day and do not feel like fixing something. Then I eat like it was my very last meal of life. I have been trying to kick this by drinking those Naked drinks. It has got to be better then binging but I feel they are still processed.

[june roca]

Hi Debbie,

I apologize for the late response. i had been "through the grave and back". I will elaborate n later posts. I am also finishing my book which i am targetting to be finished by July (originally , i planned to finish it April 2009), entitled "the 2012 Shift Is Here, Are you ready to be Shipped Out?" and my raw recipe book that talks about nutrition being the major key factor in food (energetics, combining being secondary, although important).

To answer your question, I try to make them but i think the store bought ones are cheaper, like larabar. I like the pistachio bar and i like the organic raw bar, they cost about 1.29 each. Not bad.

The raw almond milk i like to put in the fridge for 1-2 days. i combine it with some fruits or greens then strain them. The purist will frown on the combination of nut milk and greens or fruits but i look at the nutrient content of each and basically that's where i work from in determining whether or not i will put something in my juice or not. i tried the doing it only from the detox point of view but i gravitated from both polarities of having purely juice or having solids in between. Polarities is of the mind, and all of us have different emotional issues so i say find out where your reality is, and do just that, without fear, because fear causes energetic friction that makes that same thing that you fear manifest in reality.

For me, bottomline is, food, assists our body by giving it the nutrition (EFA, amino acids, vit and Minerals etc.) it needs and helps energize the mind. If the polarities of the mind , or fears, judgments, spite, anger and emotions are dealt with in all self-honesty by putting them on paper and taking self-responsibliity for them through self-forgiveness, the mind does not exist on emotional upheavals, it gets silenced, thoughts become minimal. My thoughts become the ones i want to direct myself leading to Self-expression. Breathing (inhale cont 4x, hold count 4x, exhale, count 4x and hold, count 4x) becomes an awareness of Being rather than
just a physical process of taking gasses from the environment. As i focus on my every breath (you can be aware of it even while talking or doing something, with practice). If i become unaware of the breath i get myself to start all over again. I launched a 3 minute no-thought campaign in 2008. This year i will launch a 1 minute no-thought challenge. I will let you know by the middle of June. As we become aware of the breath, our mind slowly but surely releases our mind from polarities and thoughts. This is only possible of course with self-forgiveness because as we focus on good stuff, we are still sitting on our dirt, unless we take self-responsibility for them.

Look at this Sample Oneness Sheet, this helped me a lot :
http://onegoalinc.ning.com/forum/topics/sample-oneness-worksheet1

This is all for now.

June "as me as you as all life"

[Jalaska]

i've read posts from so many people who have your same experience. the steps are identical:
-desire to go 100 percent raw
-lots of enthusiasm
-intiial success
-lapse back to cooked food
-remorse, guilt
-a sort of bittersweet emotional period as they build up unction to go all-raw again

there's something troubling about this pattern. i don't see a lot of detail about a person's daily intake before going 100 percent raw. very few people can go raw via sheer willpower. i wonder if that's the rub. the body and your soul (mind, will, emotions) should help you stay raw. it takes overall preparation and practice to get to that point. the stages of diet mentioned on this site make sense. i've seen many people try to go from the standard american or the whole foods diet to raw live vegan. the effort comes from a good place but they doom themselves for a backlash because their bodies and souls aren't ready to sustain that leap. in essence, the work must be done at every stage. that's not a bad thing. it can be tougher that folks expect because it takes time, constant affirming and patience. if you find yourself lapsing time and again, it's a good sign that you should spend more time at a previous level on the spectrum. once mroe, not a bad thing. just part of the journey.

that gradual buildup is far preferable to the stress put on the body from the jolt of a flood of cooked foods into your 100 percent raw system.

ok, here's something you won't want to hear... perhaps 100 percent raw is not for you. you might do best live and love at the vegetarian or the vegan stage. we all have to make that personal choice. ultimately, whereever you land should be sustainable and bring you high satisfaction and optimal, powerful well-being.

[Kierra]

Hi, you may consider joining or starting a raw food group/potluck. This can provide a solid face-face social network of like minded supporters who enjoy the same foods, can share ideas, concerns, solutions etc.
I've noticed that the people who successfully make life changes typically alter all of their environment(s); For example Check-out David Rain's video/blog & Angela Stokes regarding their big life altering decisions/changes. Great talks about emotional eating etc.
No matter your choice on the food spectrum surround yourself with a variety of supportive tools i.e. learn to prepare/store/purchase your "new" food etc.

Most of all have fun! & Be healthy