What I Learned After I Thought I Knew Everything

So here's the rub.

When I returned home from Living Light, I thought I knew it all.  I reorganised my kitchen and spent a lot of money on equipment and ingredients.  I spent all my time in the kitchen and resolved to impress the family with my healthy food and impressive catalogue of recipes.

One thing I failed to notice myself doing, was that I was focusing on desserts.  Cake, cookies, pie, nut butters, nut dressings, nuts everywhere.  Yes, I was doing healthy main meals and good vegetable dishes, but my main focus was on the cake.

I didn't allow myself to notice that I was homesick, or that I missed my family back in New Zealand, or that I was fairly lonely and felt sharply that I was a stranger in a strange land.

I just made sweet foods.  And then ate them.  Failing to allow myself to see that even though I was eating more healthy, raw foods, that I had fallen into my old trap of comforting myself with sweet, sticky foods, and in large quantities.

So, something I've learned about raw foods is that yes, they are great for your health and well-being.  But an emotional attachment to food is not limited to processed junk.

The live raw food diet is an incredibly clean, light, healthful way of eating.  Absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it.  However - it's becoming a popular myth that you can eat whatever you want and not gain weight, as long as it's raw.  It's just not true.

The raw 'gurus' who truly know what they're talking about will never tell you that - I mean the great educators - people like David Wolfe, Gabriel Cousens, Angela Stokes, Victoria Boutenko, Cherie Soria.  They speak of greens and fruits and nutrients, not huge slices of raw cheesecake every day, with lashings of nuts.

But me, being determined to follow my compulsive eating instincts, ignored common sense, and ate the raw cake.  And the nut creams and ice creams.   Every day, instead of once in a while.

And I also ignored my gradually tightening jeans, along with my feelings.