Kirk’s Blog

What else can be so ugly yet so so beautiful but procrastination? Although I’ve failed to get much school work done of late and have successfully avoided any confrontation about it, I did manage to make some wonderful raw recipes for the first time and get some great pictures of them.

It’s been a while since I made a post, but I figured I’d deliver a long overdue update. I’ve felt fully adjusted to the raw diet for some time now. The first week was really rough. I might have strangled someone for a bowl of rice. After that, it became considerably easier. During the entire first month, I still craved non-raw foods, but I was able to stuff my belly full of raw foods so I didn’t have to think about it too much. After the first month, I only craved raw foods. After the first two months, I felt fully integrated in the diet. Since then, the only thing I have to do now to maintain the diet is just plan to make sure I have food around when I’ll be hungry. In the beginning it took a lot of focus and planning on what to eat. Now it’s mostly robotic - I pick up stuff at the grocery and make bulk dishes as usual. I also keep plenty of fruits around to munch on throughout the day.

I imagine it’s very similar to what would be required of a transition to polyphasic sleep, and I wonder if the time scale would be the same. After a while, all that would be required to maintain the schedule would be planning, which would become second-nature.

I started the live foods diet over a month ago, and I’m still learning how to to deal with food cravings on a daily basis. I assume that eventually the hunger will subside since I read that it’s normal for this to happen. One theory was that the body craves lots of food because it has been deprived of good nutrient-rich food for so long that it has to over-compensate in the beginning. Whatever the case, food cravings on a raw diet have a unique character that is different from food cravings on a cooked/processed food diet.

The best way I can describe it is like when you eat something light, like maybe a piece of fruit, whether you’re hungry or not. It whets your appetite so that you’re actually more hungry than before you ate it. This is how I feel all the time. It’s great that I don’t feel weighed down after I eat, but for some reason I’m still searching for that satisfying feeling you get when you eat a decent-sized portion of processed/cooked carbohydrates like rice. Eating these types of carbohydrates causes an insulin spike, which in turn stimulates the production of serotonin. The result: you feel peaceful and sleepy. One of my goals is to maintain a consistent energy flow, so while I still crave this relaxed state, it’s ultimately undesirable.

Even with this in mind, I’m still forced to deal with the practical reality of craving cooked/processed foods. So far, this is how I’ve been dealing with it:

• Exercise. I find that when I don’t exercise in the morning (usually jogging for 30 minutes), I tend to be moody and less energetic throughout the day. Mood swings then lead to a desire for comfort foods, and it becomes hard to keep the raw diet.
• Bananas have become my comfort food now. For some reason, they just have that effect without weighing me down. Lately, I’ve been eating up to 5 bananas a day including 2 in the morning with my raw hemp protein shake. My ultimate goal is still to transcend these cravings.
• Raw nuts and dried fruits are the other satisfying comfort foods that I seek when necessary. I stopped eating nuts for a while though because I noticed I would feel slowed down after eating them, which is why I would like to avoid comfort foods altogether. I think eventually I will not feel like I need them anymore. Some say that you should soak the nuts to activate their enzymes before you eat them. Perhaps that would reduce the weighed down feeling.
• Daily rhythms also help me to anticipate when I will be more likely to have cravings. In the morning, I’m feeling stronger and more energetic, and I usually don’t don’t get any cravings. In the evenings, I more frequently get cravings.
• I often just keep my belly full. There are plenty of fruits at work for me to munch on all day, and I make large portions of veggie slaw or something along those lines in the beginning of the week that I can just scoop into a bowl when I’m feeling hungry.

Ultimately, I’m just going to have to get used not feeling the full, satisfying feeling anymore. It’s really great when I think about it. I can eat without feeling like I’ve eaten and always feel optimal. Until that day, I’m going to allow myself to endulge in whatever comfort foods I feel are necessary and gradually ween myself off of the ones that slow me down the most. I’m not sure how long this phase is supposed to last, but I will surely find out.