This week, more than a few people have shared with me that it hasn’t been their “best” week ever food-wise. I can sympathise. Hormones? Changing weather? Recent life changes? Something larger and far more cosmic than meets the eye?
I really don’t know but I can tell you this: we usually learn far more from what doesn’t work for us than we do from what does!
Traditionally, as a people, we have got very used to “beating ourselves up” whenever we’ve made food choices that aren’t in line with what we’ve aspired to do. We’ve berated ourselves, used negative language towards ourselves, and have usually ended up feeling even more overweight and unhappy than when we first started.
Sometimes it can take us years to figure out that this isn’t actually the best approach to take! In fact, in all fields of life, whether they be personal or professional, I doubt that there is one person alive who can say that they’ve never messed up, or gone against their intuition, or “let their hair down” or “fallen off the wagon” in some way around food – and not just one time but multiple times throughout their life.
That’s just not likely and it’s just not human.
In a previous coaching program, I focused on four different but very key aspects of upping raw food intake. The first, and by far the most important building block is “awareness”. For instance, spend an entire week simply eating whatever you want – cooked or raw - and pay extra-special attention to your thoughts, feelings and sensory feedback as you make various different food choices over the course of the week.
It may be a joy to you and no doubt you’ll learn masses about yourself, masses about your relationship with food, but the words “good” or “bad” will no longer be allowed in your food-related dictionary. And, rather ironically, you may find that if you’ve struggled to go raw in the past, you may find yourself naturally eating more raw food without even trying purely because the pressure is off!
Yes, we can be funny creatures. And often we can make life very difficult for ourselves, and in the process become less and less forgiving and tolerant of our own humanness and vulnerabilities. And so when we eat as well as we want to, we tend to just shrug it off as if nothing has happened, and when we don’t, we go off in search of the nearest birch tree in order to find a very large stick to thwack ourselves with!
What I see as being the best possible opportunity for self-growth as well as growth in overall food awareness, is in going to the heart of the issue, rather than staying stuck in the old model of staring at the empty packets in the kitchen and shaking ourselves (and that stick) as we ask “what on earth went wrong?”
Nothing went wrong. That much I can tell you for sure.
What’s happened, dear friend, is that some aspect of you has simply piped up via your food choices and has said “Oy! All is not well buddy. Time to retreat, go within and figure out what’s really going on.”
You see the fact is, when we are calm, aligned and at peace internally, going raw or staying raw is really not an issue. In fact it’s the alpha and omega: Eating raw is what we feel like doing naturally when we’re in a good place, and by doing so, we feel better still and the circle of contentment continues to turn and "self- sprinkle".
So conversely, when life gets a little challenging or out of balance in some way, the inner turbulence will naturally try to manifest externally too, hence reaching out for the “less than great” foods that we swore we’d never EVER eat again. And the exact opposite thing happens – the food we eat creates greater turbulence still, even though we initially thought that somehow it might actually make things better!
Getting back on track is usually not an overnight process, although we usually hope it will be. I have found that for most people three days of concerted effort is usually all it takes to get fully back on the wagon again, and to set off into the sunset once more. However, as above, in line with that external action absolutely has to come that “what’s up sweetie?” conversation that ideally should be a deep and meaningful with yourself, until all your woes are out on the table (or, in my case, journal). When you have exorcised yourself emotionally, put new boundaries in place to prevent the same things happening again AND keep putting the pure food in - then you can set off once again on that oh-so-rewarding journey towards even great levels of self-awareness, healthiness and happiness.
© 2012 Karen Knowler WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes "Successfully Raw" - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you're ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.
Hi Karen
I'm so glad you wrote this because I was beginning to wonder what was going on with me this week. I've been craving for meat, crisps, cakes and everything else that I haven't eaten for ages. So I gave into some of my cravings and had some really cheap brand corn chips that were just salt, & corn and thinking I would be fine. I was at the time but the next day I woke up feeling like I'd had a hangover! I totally missed the feeling and clarity that 'raw' food gives you. And am still feeling the effect 2 days later with a runny nose and acidic like tongue. Although I'm still not sure why this week I have been craving so many cooked foods, one thing is for sure is that at least I'm clear on 'why I used to feel the way I did' and that I wasn't sick I've just never been in alignment with processed foods.
Here's to a big green smoothie this weekend
Thanks for all that you do
Lisa x
Posted by: lisa | February 10, 2012 at 03:53 PM