Are you thinking too much about your food? Print
Written by Jennie Murphy   
Recently I have had a phenomenal amount of phone calls and emails asking me these questions over and over.
  • What should I eat?
  • Should I have salt?
  • Do I have to give up meat/cheese/dairy to be raw?
  • Do I have to have enemas?
  • Do I have to have colonics?
  • Can I be a size 8/12?
  • Will I get too thin?
  • How much should I eat?
  • But what about getting enough B12?
  • What about alcohol?
  • Do I have to eat fruit?
  • But I have thrush, I can't eat fruit?
  • But I have thrush, I can't eat fat?
  • How much is too much?
  • Please tell me what to do.
And this is a small list of questions. I really felt for the girls that asked these. I really really did. I could sense their need to do 'the right thing' and to be only the best at what they can be. But I also detected hints of food paranioa which is sad but understandable in these times when our food is laden with chemicals and we are bombarded with misinformation by major corporations every single day.

What can I say? I don't know these girls. I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist so if I had offered advice I could be taken to court by the powers that be.

The best advice I can offer anyone who is feeling this way, who is just about having panic attacks over eating healthy food is just DO IT.

To what degree? Well, if you are a bull at a gate type of person then go 100% overnight. If you have followed through on every decision you have ever made then that's a great option. You will soon learn what your body is crying for and against. Check out Phil McKluskey's site http://www.lovingraw.com and listen to one of his interviews. He describes going 100% overnight in the best way I've ever heard.

If you would prefer to ease in then here's the steps I recommend for someone eating a standardised diet who wants to give up all animal products.

1. Firstly, go through your pantry and fridge/freezer. Get rid of anything that has an ingredient that is a number. Numbers are chemicals not foods and they are often addictive making you crave food even though you've just eaten.

2. Pick something to give up. Say bread. Stop eating it. Bread is also highly addictive and you can read more about addictive substances in food in Victoria Boutenko's book 12 Steps To Raw Foods but more specifically in Doug Graham's Grain Damage.

3. Once you are all bread cravings, cut out meat or cheese. Once you are past the meat cravings give up cheese. See where I'm heading?

4.Pretty soon you'll be down to nuts, vegetables, fruits and seeds. Plant based foods. Get used to this way of eating. Once you are comfortable, increase your raw and reduce your cooked. You might want to have some raw gourmet food at this point until you naturally want to eat more lightly and simply.

With what I have described above, don't put time limits on yourself. If it takes a year to finish wanting breads and pastas and other grain foods, then it takes a year. Same with meat, dairy, eggs etc. If you don't want to give up those things then try to find the most sustainable, cruelty free (or reduced cruelty), naturally farmed options.

David Rainoshek makes similar suggestions on his juice feasting site and I believe that Karen Knowler took 10 years to go raw. Not all of the gurus went raw overnight.

Most of all, get out of your head. Enjoy it. Do not let yourself think about food and if you are doing the right or wrong thing. That is a road paved straight to hell.

Happiness is just as if not more important than food. If you are stressing about food, no matter what you eat, you are creating ill health. In fact stressing about food, especially if you are eating said food at the same time can cause allergies. Why? Because the body will associate your worry and anxiety with the food and in order to protect itself from the worry/anxiety will throw symptoms at you to stop you eating it.

Stop thinking so much, stop intellectualising your diet. Feel more. Have quietude and relax. Enjoy life, enjoy food, and just be.
 
 
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