Tuesday, December 22, 2009

End of the year beginnings (001)

It is quite unbelievable how quickly the year has gone by. There has been so many new beginnings all around the world and quite a few here, in my own "backyard!" I'm referring to my recent decision to follow a lifestyle that compliments nature instead of depletes it. I'm talking about becoming a raw food vegan.

I recently made a video on my you tube channel that announced my decision to become a raw food vegan beginning with the coming new year. I have been preparing for this over the past few months with various food and fitness journeys as well as some analytical viewing of my current food habits and why I crave certain foods at certain times.

Prior to beginning my raw vegan quest, I noticed things about my eating habits. A great percentage of the time, I found myself not really paying much attention to food unless I was excited about some good news I received or if I became bored and just felt like crunching/munching something. It seems that those where the times that I gravitated toward cooked foods, processed foods, or basically any non-raw food. I also noticed that my appetite seemed to be non-functional. What I mean is I didn't get hungry. I didn't even know what it felt like to get hungry because I spent a lifetime overeating and not giving my bodily systems what they needed to carry out their daily duties inside me. I had to force myself to learn NOT TO EAT. This doesn't mean that I taught myself how to starve it just means that I had to not eat when I wasn't hungry. I accomplished this by beginning a schedule. On this schedule I would right what time I ate and what food item I ate. When I started this schedule I did it in reverse. I would eat whatever I felt like eating (within reason) then I would write it down along with the time of day and any other dynamic that may have been crucial to know such as did I just workout, just wake up, or was I about to go to sleep, etc.

Once I had this information I would use it for a reference so that when I created a more complete schedule, I would have a realistic view of when and what I ate. This worked very well but if I have to say anything bad about it, I would say that it took some time to become comfortable with writing everything down as soon as you ate it. Once I had a few weeks of my food logs I then began to realize how much easier it was to eat right.