Vista Lights
We just came back home from a nice night out at Vista Lights. It’s the first one Michael and I have ever attended, and it was a lot of fun. We spent the evening with two of our dearest friends, saw many more friends and enjoyed some holiday cheer. There was food everywhere and I have to share with you that I yielded to temptation. I wasn’t very defiant of dessert tonight!
I broke down and had a few bites of Michael’s Tiramisu and my friend’s peanut butter pie tonight, but it really wasn’t worth it. It’s funny how you lose your taste for some foods you used to love, and start loving foods you used to hate when your taste buds adjust to a living foods lifestyle. I used to hate celery so much that I couldn’t even stand to smell it, and now I like it and try to juice some as much as I can. I have learned to absolutely love avacados, and even like beets as long as they are juiced with a combination of other things or marinated in the Bragg’s marinade.
So, yes, I was weak. I ate some dessert. I feel pretty bad about it, but you know, one little slip doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. I tend to look at foods I used to love and now I view them as poisonous to my body, and they do not appeal to me. Pressure from friends and family is so difficult to overcome, no matter how disciplined and determined you are. People are constantly trying to get me to eat foods that are very damaging to my body, and I am usually steadfast in my belief that eating a food that harms my body is no way to have any kind of true pleasure in my life. But I am human, and the armor cracks occasionally. The important thing if this happens to you is to accept that the food you ate was damaging to your body, forgive yourself, learn an important lesson and move on. I now know that tiramisu isn’t the wonderful thing I remember, and next time it won’t be very hard to say no.
I also know that I can’t ‘learn these lessons’ every week and expect to have optimal health. The trap of ‘well this time won’t hurt’ is a very deep and dangerous one. For example, next week is Thanksgiving. I will have as much temptation and difficulty as everyone else will. My philosophy is that I am going to eat mostly living foods that nourish my body and give thanks that we have these wonderful foods every day. If I decide to have some of my mother’s fabulous cooking that she works so hard to prepare, then I will enjoy every single bite of it, forgive myself, and get right back on my living foods from that time forward. Where people get in trouble is that once they give in to the temptation of cooked and processed foods, they can’t stop and continue eating it the rest of the day, week, month, etc. I can get right back to living foods, and I know I can because I have done it many times before. But you may be different. Know yourself and your limitations.
You will find after you have been eating living foods for a while and your body has shed its toxins, that cooked and processed food will make you feel physically bad, sometimes even very sick. Once that happens, then it’s much easier because you just don’t want those foods at all. I am the type personality that, even though I may love the taste of a certain food, if I know that it is toxic to my body I just can’t bring myself to eat or drink it. A good example is coffee. Oh how I love coffee. The caffeine doesn’t do a thing for me–I am like a spastic squirrel on acid anyway. It’s the flavor, the aroma, and the richness of the taste of the coffee that I love. But after being shown how toxic that caffeine is to my adrenals and how acidic and damaging coffee is, I decided to give it up. It was by far my most difficult challenge, and if you don’t think you are addicted to caffeine, just wait and your headaches alone will let you know what a powerful drug it is when you stop it. Now, even though I want the coffee, especially when I smell it, I just can’t bring myself to drink it. Same with wine and other mixed drinks–knowing what I know, I just can’t enjoy it.
I do have to say that Michael is very supportive. We were going on a trip recently to a town that has my all-time favorite restaurant. Every year we go back, I have one big blow-out ”cheat” meal there, but we haven’t been up there since I have gone raw. A few weeks ago, we were headed up that way, and Michael asked me if we were going to the restaurant and I said yes. He said, ‘are you sure you want to do that, and undo all the good you have been doing?’ I thought about that for a while, and decided he was right. I also knew that I would make myself sick if I ate my normal meal there, and it just didn’t appeal to me like it used to. I am so thankful and blessed to have Michael in my life, for so many reasons, and especially his wisdom and incredible support.
My point is, we all struggle with cravings. The foods that are the worst for us trigger receptors in our brains that bring intense pleasure. Foods like bread, cooked meat and sugar actually activate opiate receptors, and are every bit as addictive as opium and heroin, if not more so. That is why it is so difficult to get off them. Plus food has such an incredibly strong emotional aspect. The smell of certain foods can take us back to childhood, remind us of wonderful times, and comfort us. Why do you think we have so many ‘comfort foods’? But diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. are not comforting at all, and they all start with those ‘comfort’ foods. And knowing how incredibly good I can feel on living foods, free of the bondage of pain and discomfort that I used to accept as just a part of life, far surpasses the transient pleasure of eating damaging foods. We tie food in so strongly to our experiences, when the REAL part of the experience is the love and fellowship with your family and friends. Tonight I was blessed to spend an evening with two of our closest friends, and that is really what counts–not what we ate! Focus on the experience, really be present in the moment, cherish those around you that you love, and just let the food fade into the background as it should be.
So, in the interest of full disclosure, I share this with you all. I feel disappointed in myself and just putting my feelings into written words shows me that giving in to cheap cravings is really not worth it. I feel a litttle ‘icky’, very thirsty, my tummy feels swollen, and I have a slight headache, and so now I really regret having the Tiramisu and peanut butter pie just because my body is reacting negatively to it and saying ‘what have you done to me?’ But on the bright side, I will probably have an easier time getting through Thanksgiving! And that is somethng to be thankful for!
I forgive myself, but I will definitely will be working out very hard tomorrow anyway! I am………
Determined to be more defiant than ever,
Christy
P.S. What’s your worst ‘giving into cravings’ story? Share below!
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