Effects of lethargy

This is my own experience.

Have you ever spent the whole day working hard at something, like some sport, hiking, gardening, etc and felt very hungry at the end of the day?  Most of us have.  Think of a time when you worked really hard (perhaps returned from a day of skiing), and felt like you could eat anything. You could have gulped down the muck from The Matrix and it  would have been the most satisfying meal ever.  Its a good feeling, eating a meal you really earned.  Everything tastes great.

Now also consider a time when you felt really "hungry", but this time you haven't really done anything all day and can't decide what to eat.  Perhaps you had a lot of food in the fridge or pantry, but none of it seemed appealing.  You had a craving for something else... probably something heavy and fatty.  For instance, maybe you had plenty of cheaper/healthier/easier meal options, but instead you went out to get Chinese food or pizza. 

What's the difference between these two scenarios?

I think that a big problem with people nowadays, including myself, is that we spend the average day completely inactive.  We exert so little energy in our daily routine - wake up, go to work/school, come home, watch TV or hang out with some friends, go to sleep.  We spend most of the day in one spot, and if we do go somewhere else, we drive there.  This skews the way our cravings are supposed to develop naturally.

What if you went a whole month without eating candy.  Would that be hard?  If candy isn't your weakness, then try meat, or fried food, or breads, or whatever you might indulge while personally knowing it is nothing but bad news.  I have personally worked myself into many corners where I ended up eating foods that I knew weren't the best (and by the best I mean that ones that would be satisfying long-term).  I am sure you have too.  How come?

My theory is that we are lethargic.  Ideally, every meal would be like the first example I gave - after a good deal of physical activity and our "hunger" sense really turned on.  No one in their right mind really wants to eat McDonald's after running several miles.  However, you might want it after sitting down all day, be it in front of a TV, computer screen, paperwork, in a car, or whatever.

This kind of laziness prevents us from acting naturally.  Our bodies make an unnatural shift.  It's like the lights go out and we don't how do judge what our bodies are telling us anymore.  We need that exercise for more than being "in shape", we need it to regulate our hunger, emotions, and sex drive.

If you are trying to make healthier life choices but it causes you to really struggle all day, do not get discouraged!  If "holding back" seems like too much, there's probably more to it than your self-discipline.

There are many many variables because the full answer is an entire lifestyle, but exercise is a very important factor.  Long story short - that pizza craving might mean its time to hit the gym.  Then, your body might tell you what it really needs.  My personal thinking right now is that treats are ok, its not good to create more stress for yourself by being healthier because then it'll just reverse.  Health should relieve stress.  However, the treats shouldn't be complete garbage, rather perhaps lightly processed but still "good for you" in some ways.  However, if you want something that is really junky, do some exercise and see if you still want it afterwards.  I'm not talking about doing more exercise so that you can indulge more.  I'm talking about doing some exercise so that you can eat and live better.  I'll most likely writing more about this later.  Good luck!

What I miss

Someone asked me if there were any foods that I missed since changing my diet. After some thought...

I don't miss any foods, I miss feelings that I get from some foods. Example: pizza and cheese. I sometimes "crave" pizza, and yeah, I've given in before on quite a few occasions. In a way, giving in delivers a sense of relief. There's some weird psychology going on there. Why do we desire what we know won't fulfill us, or we know will be a letdown? Regardless, I do have a bit of insight based on my personal experiences.

The foods that I miss most don't even taste that good. They certainly don't make me feel "good" physically (or mentally). For instance, during times of stress I could spend all day thinking about the sensation and "reward" of eating a pizza. Something to look forward to after an unenjoyable, forgettable day; an escape through food, comfort eating. Then, when I finally get it at night, it will have no taste.  No special factor. I mean, I don't think to myself "wow, I have really been missing out on this great food." However, I'll sit, downing slice after slice, and sink down into a lesser, more detached, more bearable, state of consciousness - what I really wanted in the first place.

Now, these attachments are more obvious.  A pizza isn't just a pizza, its a step outside of the new diet I've set for myself.  Its an act of weakness, of sickness.  However, I've come to realize that it has always been this way.  Before, when unnatural foods were a regular part of my diet, I just didn't know that any addictions were there.  I was just like everyone else around me.

You see, I don't miss the taste of pizza. I don't miss the texture. I miss the feeling.  The feeling that goes along with those things. I miss buying it, re-experiencing the nostalgia of past pizza-eating endeavors, the greasiness, swallowing it and feeling it in my stomach, having it down there, sitting heavily, and then I especially like being able to make that feeling grow by repeating that process as many more times as I like.  I am disgusted just thinking about it, but that's how I am - that's how a lot of people are, whether they know it or not.  I've just become more aware of my subconscious and maybe they haven't yet; maybe they never will.  Just having food in your belly makes you feel a certain way. When that food is natural (fruits/veggies), there's almost no sedation factor. When that food is unnatural (any processed food), it becomes a gateway for sedation. Its a certain type of sedation that, for some reason or another, is appealing to people (including myself).

I really think that taste has very little to do with giving up certain foods.  Actually, the more I think about it taste has very little to do with eating at all.  Giving up processed foods is about giving up the feelings of eating those things.  Practicing temperance is not about abstaining from what is bad, its about changing your mind altogether to truly desire what is good.

One interesting note is that I miss very few drinks. Almost none. The only drink I really struggled over was coffee, but that's because of caffeine, and caffeine is another long story for another time. But sodas, juice drinks, sports drinks, etc are basically no struggle for me.  I predict that this is because there is little "feeling" from drinks.  By that I mean they don't do much to you after you drink them, besides maybe give you a sugar rush.  Its not like some heavy cooked foods that give you the feeling of sedation, or being "stuffed".

What do I conclude from this?

Its all about wanting the right thing.  With the raw food diet (or at least a natural-food diet), your body is becoming free - its natural state that our Creator designed it to be in.  After years and years of becoming denatured and desensitized to my instincts, this has been very hard.  However, it is a continual journey.  I am learning to love this natural state.  I'm becoming more comfortable with it - always being more alert, in the moment, "aware" of my body and everything around it.  I am finding it easier to fight off the desire to sedate myself or become detached from reality, by any means.  For you, this could also include oversleeping, watching a lot of TV, watching pornography, general laziness, frequent lateness, never exercising, etc.  I am fighting to do away with this desire for sedation altogether, but the most important thing is to know that it exists so that it can be fought at all.

taste is deceptive, part 1

Some background info:

A few fairly popular ideas regarding taste:

• If it tastes good, then its ok to eat.
• If it tastes good but you know its bad for you, then its ok to eat in moderation.
• Food addicts are all fat and overweight.
• If someone is skinny and fit, then they cannot be addicted to food.

Habit: you enjoy doing something, but once you find out it is bad for you, you stop doing it. You "break the habit".

Addiction: you enjoy doing something, and once you find out it is bad for you, you make excuses to keep doing that thing.

Part 1 will address the first bullet point: If it tastes good, then its ok to eat.

Even with natural whole food, this notion is FALSE. Let's look at fruit: its juicy, sweet, and delicious. Does this mean that all fruit is OK to eat, in however many quantities that we want? In the past, I would probably say yes. After all, your body knows what it needs, right? But now I am not so sure.

Haven't you ever thought that food might have an agenda?

Let me explain. Fruit has seeds that are spread by the animals that eat it. Fruit "tries" to be eaten so that its seeds will be carried away by the animal, pass through its digestive system, and then end up somewhere else. Its a nice symbiotic relationship, but it raises an interesting question.

If we crave some fruit, is that because of our own body's survival skills, or the fruit's survival skills? In other words, do we actually need the food or is it just tricking us?

It gets even more complicated once you introduce cooking. The whole concept of cooking is to make food taste better. There is no condition in which cooking food makes it better for us. It might make unedible"food" (i.e. food that we shouldn't eat ever) edible, however the heat by definition destroys most of the good stuff along with the bad stuff. Now we're not just fighting natural deception, we are fighting our own deception. Now, it is almost impossible to tell if we want to eat for the right reasons or not because everything that we eat is designed for us to want to eat more.

I was with a group of friends one time and we were eating so I pulled out an avocado and began to eat it. One of my friends gasped in horror, she seemed genuinely concerned that I was eating it without any salt. Looking back, I can see that she was deceived by salt. When she ate avocados, she put salt on hers to make them taste better, and then who knows she could maybe eat two or three whereas without salt she might not even be able to eat all of one.

This is because once you remove the issue of taste, you will never overeat. Think about water - you will never over-drink water because it has no taste. If you feel thirsty, then you drink until your thirst is quenched and no more.

Its hard to take a definite stand on the issue because to me God designed food for us to enjoy. However, we have been so de-natured from years and years of eating horrible unnatural food that our Creator never intended us to eat, so it has become really hard to enjoy foods the way that he wanted us to.

For me, though, I believe that eating to fulfill nutrient needs, i.e. when I am actually hungry, is the best reason to initiate eating, and during that time is when I can give thanks and enjoy the food. Eating this way is when I am the most satisfied physically and emotionally (if you think emotions aren't involved, read the subsequent Parts)

I have developed a simple test to determine if I am really hungry, or if I just want to eat. I ask myself this question:

If I was eating something else right now instead of what I'm "craving", would I still want to eat?

What I've been learning is that for me most of the time the answer is NO, just like the salted avocados. Does that mean that I am personally always in the right mindset to act accordingly? No, but I think that admitting that we are deceived by taste is the first step towards realizing dietary health. The next step is wanting to do something about it.

Why I am making this blog

I know two big things in life.  Stating them alone like this might seem weird - it is weird to me - because realistically I am a messed up person, and some think that when messed up people talk like we know something, we are just being hypocrites or arrogant.  Well, I can't say that I'm not either of those things but I try not to be.

1) I know God.  My heartfelt claim is that I know the way to heaven, happiness, salvation, etc.  I have been through a few bouts of depression where this concept seemed hopeless but I can honestly say I believe it and live accordingly.

2) I know how to be truly healthy, or at least where to start.  I can easily say that most people are doing it wrong and are foolishly (because of lack of education or unwillingness to react to an education) accepting disease/illness.

These are big claims, I know.  

Everyone sees life through his or her own pair of eyes.  We just can't help it.  When we are exposed to a new concept, it is automatically filtered through what we already think we know.  Having a truely open mind is almost impossible, especially today with sensational news on TV, propaganda, widespread crime, scandals, etc... you almost have to shut the door on new ideas.  That difficulty is also compounded by human weakness and selfishness.

Why am I making this blog?  I have found that my knowledge and beliefs cannot be forced on other people.

If you are thinking "no duh, of course you can't MAKE people believe whatever you want", then either you have never really believed in something or you just don't care about other people.  I always heard this adage growing up and thought I knew what it meant - you know, be accepting of everybody and stuff like that.  Well, its not so simple.  The concept really kicked me in the face when I started actually believing in stuff whole-heartedly.

Imagine you had the cure for AIDS.  Cancer.  Tuberculosis.  Imagine you had a real "magic bullet".  And once you found this magic cure, what would you do?  Of course, you would try to share it with everyone!!  You would publish it wherever you could, talk to everyone about it - you would probably never stop talking about it for a very long while.

Ok, that was easy enough to visualize.  We daydream about stuff like that all the time, or at least I do - being a superhero and whatnot, helping people.  However, in reality no one listens.  We all reject the truth unless it is easy.  Call it craziness.  Refuse that we can change.  Now, if you really believed in the cure and you really cared about the people, then surely you would persists in your attempts to deliver the truth, no matter what.

Its hard knowing so much, or thinking you do - "With great power comes great responsibility", and that goes for knowledge too.  If I see someone who is depressed or downtrodden I want to tell them about God.  If I see someone who is always sick or tired, or who has a disease, I want to tell them about the raw food diet (the diet our Creator designed for us).  I get really excited because I have the answers!!!  It is so hard for me to keep my big mouth shut!  Not only that, but you'd be surprised at how quickly people realize that I am different in those areas - moreso with diet because it’s not every day you see a twenty-something American male downing bananas and salad at a cookout.

So, that's why I've made this blog.  I've come to realize that you can only say so much. Here, I write down my petty thoughts that I unfortunately can't zap into people’s minds, which I suppose is for the better.  This way, those who know me can only endure maybe two or three rants in person, and the rest of it they can read about (if they actually want to).