Thursday, December 28, 2006

Transitioning to RAW

"Your food shall be your remedies, and your remedies shall be your food." -- Hippocrates

So, what do we need to go raw, or transtition to raw?
First, a new mindset.
RAW-just means natural. Not cooked, baked, steamed or fried. Not grilled, boiled or sauted.
Wow-that means LESS WORK for me. I like that since I've been phasing out of cooking for awhile.

We can chop, soak, stir, marinade, ferment. We can dip, we can dunk. We can wrap, we can crunch, we can chew.
Sounds simple.

It really is mostly finger food-so fewer dishes to wash! Yeah! And you can chop and clean a lot and store it in the fridge ahead. Or, like me, I bought it cut and ready the first week so I wasn't overwhelmed. I was surprised how easy it was.

A blender-most of us have that.
A knife and cutting board. Again, most of us have that too.
A juicer-well if you have it, great. If not, to be real honest, for 30 days you can fly with the blender. So it's thicker! Call it soup, call it a slurpee, and drink it! :)

That's all gaspacho is-cold vege soup. You can add some hot water if you want it warm.
Or if you have a double boiler, do that to warm it a bit.

We are going to have to look at our habits though. And that's exactly why we are doing this together.
What do I reach for without thinking about? And catch yourself. And notice that you can catch yourself.

If it's sweets, substitute the dried fruits and dates. They worked great for me.

Variety and novelty help me. I don't want to get bored, and thinking that all I am ever going to be able to have
is a carrot and a salad will do me in before I start! I have to know that I can be delighted with food and that it is plentiful and that I don't have to suffer. If I were you, I would reframe the idea of that salad. And you know what? I haven't eaten a "salad" for a week. I 've had rollups with my lettuce, I've done all sorts of other things, but a bowl of lettuce? Nah. Too boring. Ew.

Think outside of that box girls! Let's come up with some knockout recipes!

Remember:
1. find the story that has stopped you
2. find the fear that fuels the story that has stopped you
3. ask how old you are (when that fear is up) and
4. then grow her up! (you know how-we went over it in class)

It's funny because I nibbled my broccoli today, and it was all cooked and in some sort of sauce, and even though it was light, it has left me lethargic and with a headache now. Bummer. Was it worth it? I'm sad I caved that much! It was definitely NOT worth it!

2 comments:

Rebecca said...

Thank you so much for this post. Right now the transition is about mindset. You're right, going raw is less work. Yeah, there is food prep, but there certainly is food prep in cooking as well. I think the thing that would help me right now is to make a warm veg soup. Nothing cold is appealing to me right now. Cold and crunchy is a real turn off. What is going on with that? Why does warm equal good? What am I afraid of? God! It's so frustrating. Is this age related? Because yesterday I resisted the 5 year old suggestion, hey, hey, hey, Del Taco, right there... easy peasy! But I'm not quite over the wanting something warm thing. Tonight I'll go home and make a nice veggie soup, or maybe I'll cook a sweet potato. See if that helps. Maybe this is what happens when you wean yourself off cooked heavy food.

Joy! said...

Well, what DOES warm mean to you? To any of us?
For me, warm food equals COMFORT! Warm food meant my mother. And when I wanted emotional nurturing, I reached for warm food, and sugar. I didn't realize that until last week, and why, which I shared with you all in class.

And thanks Jac, it WAS an amazing healing between me and my mother and me and my child and my mother.

I used to believe I couldn't do this (meaning even eat salads) in the WINTER-
I used to believe I coudln't do this when it was COLD-
I used to believe I couldn't even THINK about changing my eating behaviors until the spring at least.
Or at the very least, after New Years.

For me, I told you in class wha tWAS associated to the Holiday season and cold weather for me...maybe your child has something like that too.

Begin to notice, and ask, and listen to yourself.