Hello, I'm new to these forums so I figured I would introduce myself here. I've been eating instinctively (apparently) for the last few months (barring last month). I was just in a facility where we didn't have access to raw meats and so my diet was disrupted but this week I've been shifting it back to the patterns I'm familiar with. For the past six months I've been eating a raw food diet (without much research on instincto) and I identified with a couple of things that I've just now read about:
1. I naturally went mono or eating only 1 food at a time. I began to think how strange it was to combine foods when you could just grab a carrot or corn on the cob from the fridge and eat that way. I didn't know that this was a recommendation for this diet.
2. I did overeat fruits, especially in the evening. I wasn't listening for an instinctive "stop" or taste-change at the time. I'm curious as to why this didn't develop because after reading about these phenomenon I instantly was able to notice them. Within a few days my portions are now under control and I don't get so stuffed when I eat at night. Taste-change is a remarkable phenomenon and now I experience it even with the fruits that I tended to overeat.
3. Lack of thirst. It occurred to me quite spontaneously one evening that I hadn't had a drink of water in more than a week. My guess is that I get most of my water from the food itself. Rarely am I drawn to drinking water.
4. This is by far the easiest diet I have ever followed. I found it difficult to make the transition off of the "wrong food" and did so gradually but now it seems like the most natural thing in the world. In fact the last month where I didn't have the opportunity to eat the raw meats and other things I was accustomed to was intensely confusing. I had to resort to using logic to eat and to top it off all of the cooked foods produced psychoactive effects similar to taking drugs. It's hard to imagine sustaining the other diets. I exhibit a lot of distressing mental and physical symptoms when I eat cooked food now.
I noticed that in the absence of experimentation or curiosity about new foods my diet tended to stay within a certain bracket that I was accustomed to. This was probably depriving me of certain nutrients and I'm glad that I'm branching out and trying new foods. I plan to try various shellfish and eggs over the next week or so, as well as new fruits and vegetables that I haven't eaten for a while.
I don't know much about the science of this diet but I do know that it seems to cooperate with my body in a way that no other diet has. Also this forum has provided some invaluable information for me, so thank you.