Getting back into the swing of things

[nicolegreen]

I need some help and I'll start off buy explaining the back story.

I haven't been on this forum in a little over a year. I was displaced from my home (my husband and I) from a house fire in February of 2010. When that happened we ended up moving a state away to stay with my parents. My parents' after about the 3rd day staying with them, started sabotaging my eating habits due to them thinking it was a "disgusting" way of eating (I was strict raw paleo at the time). After about 3 months of staying with them while getting back on our feet I was eating pretty bad. At first I just stopped eating raw and stuck to a basic paleo diet... then... disaster happened and I completely strayed away from the lifestyle all together. I stopped attending crossfit classes and the gym. I just, well, screwed up royally.

So, now a year later, I feel like CRAP. I mean REALLY BAD. I have been getting migraines non stop and for the first time ever I suffered from seasonal depression this year (very bad, to the point that my doctor prescribed me  the antidepressant Elavil). Also, I have gained....... yes gained.... 60 lbs. 

I need help. I have been trying for about 2 months now for the will power to go back to my old ways (raw, paleo, not feeling like crap) but I am hitting some major issues.

My husband is a junk food king. He always has been. It never bothered me, the choice was his and he never pressed his food habits on me. I think the past year he really enjoyed me eating the way I was. We were able to go out more to a lot of places and even hit fast food joints (that never happened before!).

I am finding it so hard to get back on track. Its a constant struggle to eat paleo alone. Eating raw feels almost impossible at this point. When I first transitioned to this lifestyle, it wasn't hard at all, but this time I feel like I have no will power. AND THE CARB CRAVINGS ARE KILLING ME, nothing is stopping them, no matter what I do, and its been 3 weeks now.

Please help me out, tell me your tips and tricks to staying on track. Give me some encouragement. HELP!

[wodgina]

Girls struggle with being raw much more than us guys because male/female evo psych comes into play.

Go cooked paleo.

[TylerDurden]

Various ways:-


1) Every time you come across the smell of cooked foods, such as when passing a restaurant etc., visualise yourself in pain or hugely fat etc. as a result of eating such cooked foods. Worked for me, anyway.

2) Insist on eating rawpalaeo whenever going out with your husband. So go out to a sashimi restaurant, or check that a particular restaurant offers steak tartare or raw oysters or beef carpaccio or raw meat kitfo and the like.

3) Try "high-meat" for relieving the depression. If you eat sizeable amounts thereof, it will give you a massive boost in mood.

4) For travelling, prepare some raw beef (dried) jerky so that you can eat it in public without being stared at etc..Lex has some instructions for making your own dehydrator on rawpaleodiet.com.

5) As for carbs mention, are you intending to do raw, zero-carb? If that is the only dietary combination that works for you, that's fine. Otherwise, a raw omnivore diet would, admittedly, be easier - eating raw fruit in public is no big deal etc.

[wodgina]

I laughed at TD's first suggestion, so eloquent. If offended maybe you could try Dirty Carnivore, they're not so honest over there.

[nicolegreen]

I am not going to try a zero carb. I love green leafy veggies too much. I normally do not consume a lot of fruit but I have been reaching for it every chance I get. I feel like all my body wants right now is sweet carbs but I am trying to eat a higher amount of fat instead. I feel starved for food and want to eat everything. Its like the complete opposite of what I remember feeling like before. I guess I am just frustrated with myself right now.

[miles]

My parents' after about the 3rd day staying with them, started sabotaging my eating habits due to them thinking it was a "disgusting" way of eating (I was strict raw paleo at the time).

It's crazy how someone would rather have their offspring be unhealthy, than be healthy and eating something they find disgusting.

My husband is a junk food king. He always has been. It never bothered me, the choice was his and he never pressed his food habits on me. I think the past year he really enjoyed me eating the way I was. We were able to go out more to a lot of places and even hit fast food joints (that never happened before!).

And it's crazy how someone would rather have an unhealthy wife just so they can eat crap together, maybe he does not see you as his wife, just a friend. Maybe he's homosexual. Maybe he needs to get some friends to go eat crap with. Are you just friends who are married? Or are you wanting to have children?

This is how I roll, don't be hatin'.

[wodgina]

Friends, family, spouses want whats best for them. Not for you.

Bitter bitter pills. I agree with Miley except for the homo part.

[miles]

Friends, family, spouses want whats best for them. Not for you.

Bitter bitter pills. I agree with Miley except for the homo part.

If I was her Husband or Parents I would be just as selfish as them, but I'd consider what's best for her health to be what's best for me. That's where something's wrong with her parents and husband.

[wodgina]

Say she's loses a whole load of weight, looks smoking hot etc. that's hard work fighting off other suitors?

[nicolegreen]

My husband (who is my husband, not just a friend) doesn't try to force any type of eating habit on me, he actually encourages me to go back to RPD because he knows what a difference it made for me. He just doesn't want the lifestyle of himself and I'm fine with that because he tried paleo and it just didnt work out for him in the end. The problem I am having is when he cooks something or pops open a bag of chips I start craving food. Its not necessarily craving what he has in hand but something similar... and its getting annoying when he eats things like sweets. I am just finding it quite difficult to turn away processed food and I didn't have these cravings before.

[Neone]

So tell him he isn't allowed to eat that kind of food around you because its giving you a hard time.

[miles]

So tell him he isn't allowed to eat that kind of food around you because its giving you a hard time.

If you did go that route you'd probably only need to do it for a few weeks or so until you got used to your new way of eating.

[achillezzz]

tell your husband on RPD his sex performance will increase and so your sex life !
tell him as a result he will get abs round shoulders and possibly a biger penis(yes its possible lol)  it will encourage him!

[Paleo Donk]

Your story has some similarities with mine. After quitting raw-paleo (around a year ago myself) my cravings for sweets were super-duper intense. Insanely bad - eating an 8oz jar of honey with one hand on the wheel and one hand in the jar on the way home from the store. Entire cakes and quarts of ice cream at a time. Stuffing donuts down until I felt sick,etc.............. I gained 20 pounds or so very fast and felt like I was in a giant whirlpool with nowhere to hold on to. Nothing seemed to make me feel full. I realized that much of the cravings were protective mechanisms to cover up depression and anxiety.

But, I have worked relatively hard on my depression and anxiety with the help of cognitive behavioral strategies and the like and over time the cravings have subsided quite a bit. They were pretty bad for about 9 months and then somehow I regained some ability to feel full again, which seemed like a lost skill.

I don't follow any diet whatsoever as of now and have done well disconnecting myself from the constant "oh noes" that would infiltrate my perfectionist mind if I were to slip diet wise during my raw adventure. Even when I was strictly raw I was still worrying all the time about whether or not I was doing it right. What really works for me is sitting down and going through the coping strategies and then acting on them. I have actually noticed my intense cravings go down just by working on them for a few minutes. Acknowledging the cravings and accepting them are my first priority and something as simple as lying down and doing some deep breathing for a few minutes will do wonders.

I have not lost nor gained weight the past few months but I don't have one eye on jack in the box milkshakes while driving anymore.

[KD]

In terms of the support, transition info, and carb cravings stuff I 'd venture that you really would get that more on the dirtycarnivore site. They're ninjas over there with that stuff. not everyone is raw there of course, so all the loose ends and questions with raw specifics just read through the posts and journals and such here and continue to post specific questions.

[Ioanna]

i really feel for you in this situation because i know so much of my success.. actually all of it.. started when i was living alone.  i don't have any non-paleo food in my kitchen.  i have absolutely no cravings, not even a second thought.  it's been a year and a half for me.  still, when i visit family or mom visits then the kitchen smells so good (like basil and tomato sauce ), and i know if i were not paleo for health reasons that i would totally cheat!  so, my mom has to make her food while i am out of the house.  this does the trick for me.  i don't crave anything.  especially when i watch her take a nap after every meal.  plus, i'll never actually cheat cuz i'd get too sick, but i still don't want to smell all my fave childhood foods  , i'd go crazy!

so, i agree with tyler's recommendation #1       i think you've got to have pride (not arrogance) in what your body can be for you, what you're feeding it, and that you are smart enough to 'hear' your body talking to you.. listen to that, not the cravings.